Movies (recently seen)

[apotheosis]

SPOILER ALERT






SPOILER ALERT







SPOILER ALERT





Stop reading if you haven't seen it.











Still reading?











I warned you.

















I thought DKR was a very solid film, I enjoyed it a lot. However, I had a few major issues with it that I did not have with the Dark Knight. One, Bane was a terrifying and powerful villain, but he did not have nearly as much depth, dimension or fleshing out as The Joker. He just felt flat in comparison. I realize its a very tough at to follow, but Bane, while enjoyable, wasn't even close.

Second, Nolan went for a very ambitious plot, but perhaps too ambitious. Having a six month time frame where an entire city of approximately ten million people is under siege left wayyyy too many massive plot holes. I'm not going to elaborate on any of them because anyone with common sense who has seen the movie should be able to point them out.

Third, this is my biggest issue. The last five or so minutes. I thought the perfect ending was Batman blowing up. He made the ultimate sacrifice to save the city he had sacrificed everything else for. Having him turn out to be alive really compromised this and made his "sacrifice" seem cheap and without meaning. The most important attribute of Nolan's Batman movies that separated them from other Batman films and hero films in general was how dark and provocative they were. Forcing in a happy ending at the end completely ruins this. I realize they probably changed the ending due to focus groups because most mindless morons love happy endings, but I thought Nolan was an artist. See Se7en for an example of a movie not compromising so audiences can feel okay when they leave.


That being said it was an excellent movie and you should all go see it. Just keep in mind it will not reach the high water mark left by The Dark Knight, but it definitely surpasses Batman Begins in my opinion.



END OF SPOILERS








YOU CAN KEEP READING NOW

[apotheosis]

Also End, I really enjoyed Rome as well. Beyond enjoyed, I thought it was amazing. It is a shame it was cut so short.

Rome is tied with The Wire as my favorite TV series of all time.

And Breaking Bad is a close second.

Probably The Shield, Sopranos, Shameless or Angel can have number 3....

[BatCountry]

Dark Knight Rises SPOILERS


Ehh...I have to agree with Dragavan on this one. The Dark Knight Rises, in my opinion was the perfect end to Nolan's Batman trilogy. Was it as good as The Dark Knight? No, it wasn't. But that shouldn't mean it was a terrible movie because it didn't live up to the success of the previous film.

It did introduce a lot of new characters, but I didn't really mind this. I understand why people would have a problem with this though. The only thing I didn't like was what I don't like about all of Nolan's films in that I feel like he cuts too quickly from a scene. The emotional weight of a scene doesn't kick in quite as well when he jumps to another scene so quickly. My only gripe.


I thought Bane and Catwoman were great. Comparing Bane to the Joker is something everyone is doing but its like comparing apples to oranges. They are two completley different villians. Joker has no plans; he is a chaotic madman bent on showing the world how foolish it is to try and maintain order. Gotham is his playground, Batman his eternal nemesis. Bane has a plan, an elaborate scheme to break Batman physically, emotionally, then destroy Gotham. I feel both villians worked well in their respective films. I also liked how Bane was a physical match for Batman as well as a mental match.


The ending was perfect. I really thought they were going to kill off Batman, yet that last scene with Bruce and Selina was perfect and ended this dark series on a happy note. Batman is finally finished doing what he set out to do, now he can live his life without the burden of Batmans cowl on his shoulders. Great end to the trilogy. Best superhero movie trilogy to date.




Also, currently watching Breaking Bad season 4. One of the best shows I've ever seen so far. Really riveting stuff. Hope season 5 is just as good as the rest of the series.

[End Master]

Dungeons & Dragons: Book of Vile Darkness

Despite this being a made for scifi channel movie AND a second sequel to a really REALLY HORRIBLE movie, this one was enjoyable.

Of course it helped that the movie wins for me on the premise alone: They do most of the movie from the focus of an evil party. They aren't trying to save the world, they're actually looking for the +10 artifact that's going to enslave it in darkness forever. Well okay there is the protagonist that's actually a good guy masquerading as an evil guy, but he does some evil stuff to keep up appearances which sort of breaks his wannabe paladin code.

They used some less obvious D&D references this time around. Like not having a dwarf and elf in the party, but instead having a goliath and shadar kai. There was a slaymate (creepy little undead girl monster which sucked on their fingers to test how evil they all were) The protagonist uses a bag of holding creatively while he's doing something evil. Yeah, I caught all the references because I'm a big geek that way.

The best character was the Vermin Mage mainly because he seemed like he really enjoyed being evil for the fun of it and wasn't ultra serious business about it like the rest of the party who were all trying to show how hardcore they were. The big evil mind flayer villain sucked though, he didn't look anything like one. Not sure why they didn't go with what one usually looks like considering how popular Cthulhu is nowadays, I'd think that having a mini-cthulhuesque monster would be desirable as a movie villain.

And I think it would've been a lot better if evil prevailed, but then I pretty much think that with most movies. In fact there was a good stopping point in the movie that I nearly shut off the TV a few moments before the end, because I wanted to pretend that the bad guys won and there was going to be nothing but misery and darkness across the land, the end. But unfortunately I had to finish up the movie because I'm doomed to be a completest.

The protagonist manages to save the day because he had sex with the evil female party member earlier and she liked him just enough that she betrays the major evil dude she's working for and totally ruins his shit. Still, at least she just parts company with the protagonist rather than a total "love conquers all" bullshit ending.

So the moral of the story is the end justifies the means and never underestimate the power of your dick as a force for good.

[dreamshell]

So the moral of the story is the end justifies the means and never underestimate the power of your dick as a force for good.

Everyone (with a penis) should learn this lesson. =P

I saw this movie recently, too, and it was pretty fun. The indulgently evil guy with the weird eye was a ball; I'd watch an entire movie about him. The slaymate thing was great too, very creepy and surprisingly good CG for the shit money the SyFy Channel throws at their movies.

Oh, I also saw TDKR. Probably the day after all the Aurora business. So I got to watch the movie with the irrational but irrepressible concern that some asshole nutcase would start blowing people away in the back of my mind. To top it off, I was right under the AC unit (In my paranoid state, I wanted to be seated in the back row where I was less likely to be a target/more likely to reach the doors and escape), so I was freezing throughout the movie. Oddly enough, the cold and my anxiety made watching the movie a more visceral experience; when Bane took the city hostage and we flash-forward to a lawless Gotham in winter, it was easy to sympathize.

I NEED TO SEE ROME. Been catching up on Spartacus, though, that's pretty entertaining. And oh my god Lucy Lawless oh my god. I wasn't even old enough to get a nerd-boner for her back in her Xena days, but MAAAAAAN.

They've also been re-airing The Sopranos on HBO, so I've started watching that (yes, for the first time; I was probably 11 or 12 when it originally started). I'm seeing why it was so popular, but I still know it all ends lousy.

[donteatpoop]

Watched the 1st two discs of John from Cincinatti, the short lived HBO series.

It's actually a really good story so far. I can see why it didn't catch on; it's far to strange for the average audience, and two of the actors are just rediculously stiff and unnatural. Still though, I'm fairly hooked on it. Disappointed that the next disc I get will have the last few episodes of the series; hoping for some sort of 'ending' at the very least.

[End Master]

Saw the Hobbit.

I guess its been getting blasted by the critics. If you don't compare it to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and especially don't compare it to the book, its a fine movie. If you're really a lover of the book and demand that everything be exactly the same, well you're probably not going to like it.

I'm not sure if it really was necessary to chop this story up into three 3 hour movies. I mean I know why they did it, but that's a lot of damn padding based on a book that was much shorter than Lord of the Rings. Though it seems like they're at least taking a few things from Tolkien's other works to fill in some of the movies.

It does sort of get slow in parts and there are some attempts at humor which probably fall flat to some, but I tried to take into consideration that The Hobbit was originally designed more as a children's story so they probably tried to keep that theme going by having (and adding) some silly stuff in.

It definitely isn't the "Phantom Menace" of the franchise like some are claiming.

[End Master]

If you're into Tarantino movies then I'll recommend Django Unchained.

I was going in kind of skeptical of this one at first, since I figured it might be just some slave revenge movie and not much else, but like Inglorious Basterds proved me wrong before, this one also turned out pretty good.

Probably went on a little too long, but I enjoyed it enough that overtime factor wasn't excessively detrimental to the movie overall.

[Locke]

The only movie I saw this past year that I'll really remember was Samsara. I had to drive three hours each way to see it, because mainstream culture really doesn't like art film. Or music without words.

It played in IMAX in a lot of places, but I live in a kind of cultural sinkhole, which good movies, sporting events, and even rock bands stay well away from. So the best I could do without driving 6-8 hours each way was a dive in a railroad station in Tallahassee (part of which somehow got turned into a theater). The screen was small, the audio wasn't the best, the seats were the cheapest, and refreshments came from a fridge in the back.

It wasn't in the best part of town, there was a security guy on duty outside the whole time, and the door was just a regular glass door with blackout curtains next to the seats, so it was distracting whenever someone opened it.

But this is apparently where culture lives, while films like "Hick" and "This Means War" are always showing at the nearby megaplex with IMAX and stadium seating and all the amenities. A personal low point was the second Fantastic Four movie a few years back, which ran for months at the aforementioned megaplex. They couldn't even spare Samsara one showing on one of their screens (but "Fahrenheit 9/11" and other documentaries - and a Sunday church group, and the occasional business meeting - also the opera, and special "sensory sensitive" showings - they all get slots). It was originally scheduled at a normal theater in Tallahassee, one day only, but someone scrubbed it at the last minute.

It took me an extra hour to find my way to the theater, because a parade happened to be going through the middle of the city, and they were digging up a couple of city blocks nearby so they could put a lake in. There were maybe twenty people there.

For the most part, I do hate our culture, but all my complaining goes to a point: the six hours of driving, the absurdity of the theater itself (inside a railroad station, I remind you), the time off of work, the parade - all of it - the movie was almost good enough to have been worth it.

It would easily have been a great experience if I'd been able to drive fifteen minutes and see it in a legitimate theater. It's eye candy on the order of Avatar, without having to resort to CGI or 3D. It is, in turns, moving, and disturbing. It lacks dialogue, though, and you can't say it has much of a plot, so probably most people will never know it existed.

The director, Fricke, believes that film should be held to the same standard as still photography, so he spent more than five painstaking years filming it, all in 70mm. There's an interview with him on the radio show, Echoes, in about ten minutes, so I'm waiting around for that at the moment. Which more or less prompted this response while I was browsing.

[dreamshell]

Saw some movies I hadn't seen before around Christmastime, two on an arthouse-y type channel I sort of like despite its pretentious name ("Cinemoi");

Nicholas & Alexandra - A 1971 biopic about the end of Czarist Russia and the tragic last days of the Romanovs.

Contempt - A French screenwriter's wife falls out of love with him. Fairly artsy-fartsy, but it was an interesting watch and it had some nice shots of Brigitte Bardot's ass.

Shame - Michael Fassbender as an unstable sex addict. Also has a few ass shots, for you ladies and differently-lifestyled gentlemen (don't worry, there's more traditional T'n'A, too). =P

[End Master]

Has anyone here seen the show Justified? I was wondering if it was any good since I keep going back and forth on whether or not to watch the first season of it.

I wasn't too much of a fan of the first season of American Horror Story (Katie liked it a lot though) but I like the second season of it so far.

[Locke]

Justified is good for the quirky characters and the comedy, which is strong in the first part of season 1 and in a few scattered episodes thereafter. The remainder of the show is entertaining enough, not something I looked forward to watching, but good for passing the time. There's a well-developed antihero whose sequences I ended up enjoying more than the main plot as it progressed, and the dialogue (the style of speaking, anyway) is unique. Worth a try.


"Sherlock" is another one I saw recently, the only TV series I can recommend off the top of my head that you might not have heard of. The writers/directors have creative freedom, and it shows; there are two seasons - 3 episodes, 1.5 hours each. It's (loosely) based on the Sherlock Holmes stuff, set in the modern day, very well written. It's the BBC series, btw; seems like there are a couple of Sherlock-based series going around - and I haven't seen the other one - but this show is a breath of fresh air and probably the better of the two.

[End Master]

Recent movie round up

Chernobyl Diaries- This is basically the Hills Have Eyes set in ex-Soviet Land (Near Chernobyl of course). It's okay, but it doesn't do anything new.

The Divide- This one takes place in an underground shelter after a nuclear strike. They were trying to go for the grimmer reality of an after the bomb scenario, though it does have a section where it seems a bit science fictionish.

The overall feel of the movie reminded me a little of the Road since it all seemed pretty damn hopeless. I liked it.

Iron Sky- I wanted to see this one since I first heard it coming out a year ago. Basic premise is the a large percentage of Nazis escaped in 1945 and went to the moon. They've been building up a military force on the dark side of moon to eventually invade earth ever since.

There's some satire here and it's definitely not a serious movie. Though with a theme like this, going the B-movie route was probably the best way to go. Still, I was expecting a massive invasion force to attack the world (Most of the fighting is in space and they only briefly attack part of the US) and for it to happen a lot sooner.

It was okay though and the events during the credits at least eliminated the typical happy ending.

[donteatpoop]

Iron Sky made me laugh a lot. It reminded me a bit of a science fiction version of Dr. Strangelove.

Turning the black guy white, him being attacked by real black people.... Hilarious. I agree though, I fully expected an invasion attempt much earlier in the film.

[Daesy]

I saw the Hobbit and other than the splitting headache i had for five days afterward, it was totally worth it. Action and Adventure, not to leave out some Comedic points in the movie. Worth the headache.