Movies you have seen lately

[Hurlshort]

...and how it went down were good to me.

 

Well, to say the least, they took some liberties with history.

 

Would you like to give some examples? I watched the documentary, the only thing that was clearly made up was the necklace storyline.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Would you like to give some examples?

 

Well, I am no expert in regards to the film, so I am sure there are things I overlooked, but here are some things that I believe are correct. I will see if I can find the sinking portion of the film on-line later and compare it to the half-dozen books I have on the subject - although I will also make sure there hasn't been any new discoveries since Robert "Bob" Ballard wrote Return to the Titanic, a book that has the most up-to-date version of the sinking that I know of, in 2004. so, without further ado, here is some of the errors. Firstly, the "Titanic" found within the film is about 10% too small. Representatives of First Officer William McMaster Murdoch won a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for deformation of character - he was portrayed as taking bribes, killing passengers and finally committing suicide, while he, in fact, has a memorial to his heroism in his home town of Dalbeattie. In the film the third

[wesley2]

...and how it went down were good to me.

 

Well, to say the least, they took some liberties with history.

 

Would you like to give some examples? I watched the documentary, the only thing that was clearly made up was the necklace storyline.

I thought there actually was a bit of real work that was put in. Bill Paxton's investigation closely mirrored the real one by Robert Ballard.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Yeah, well, they evidently forgot to stay true to fact in several places.

[LadyCrimson]

@ babydol - I saw the ads for the new Mummy movie and it's not one I'm going to go see in the theater. I loved the first two movies too and even bought them on DVD. They had flaws but were great light adventure entertainment w/a fun sense of humor.

 

I agree with your "Let's just drop the whole "Mummy" franchise, and call this something new, why don't we?" assessment. I mean, I can see wanting to have a new bad guy because how many times can you "kill" Vosloo's mummy, but the rest....meh.

[alanschu]

I hope I am not the only person that isn't surprised that The Titanic was not a historical depiction of the actual event.

[Hurlshort]

I hope I am not the only person that isn't surprised that The Titanic was not a historical depiction of the actual event.

 

Oh, that's safe to say. I just don't think they butchered the history like JFK or that Alexander movie a few years ago (thank you Oliver Stone.) I'm not saying it's historical fiction, either, but they did take some lengthy steps to recreate the sinking as accurately as possible.

[Walsingham]

I finally watched

 

Southland Tales

 

And can report that it is fantastic.* Watch the movie.

 

 

*But probably just for me, and , like, 10 other people. I loved it. Much better than Donnie Darko. And taking into account that the acting is appalling in parts, everyone is also paradoxically superb at other times.

[Rosbjerg]

I finally watched

 

Southland Tales

 

And can report that it is fantastic.* Watch the movie.

 

 

*But probably just for me, and , like, 10 other people. I loved it. Much better than Donnie Darko. And taking into account that the acting is appalling in parts, everyone is also paradoxically superb at other times.

 

I kinda thought that was the point (the bad acting), since The Rock is playing a bad actor.. which he does suprisingly well.. heh

 

but yeah - I saw it in India with alot of people and me and my friend were the only one who stayed to see it.. I don't blame the others, it is quite wierd.

 

Fantastic film, but I still think Donnie Darko was better.

[samm]

Yesterday: Birthday Girl.

Considering that just before that I've seen a documentary about trading female sex slaves in Eastern Europe, it was pretty weird. That documentary again made clear that however ridiculous I find mankind, it is even worse. I mean, married women taken away from their men in the Ucraine and sold in Turkey?! Wtfh is going on? They're drugged and raped and used by pimps to make some money before they (the women, not the pimps) die. I hate humans.

Anyway, back to Birthday Girl. I was surprised by Ben Chaplin who played very good, and by the ending that was too happy for my taste. But it was such a relief after the documentary. Also, it's funny seeing French guys and an American woman play Russians.

 

Today: LA Crash.

Wow. It's totally Hollywood with great feelings and all, but what intense feelings those are, and totally American with the take on enthnicities and the resolution with that song around the word "free" in the end. Got me quite emotional really, and the "free" song is actually about problems and by a Welsh band. The cast acts great without exception. What did bug me was that the whole film was convoluted with problems. While they were all realistic if taken one by one, they felt overblown when taken together. Nonetheless, a must see in my opinion.

Edited August 7, 2008 by samm

[Pope]

Today: LA Crash.

Wow. It's totally Hollywood with great feelings and all, but what intense feelings those are, and totally American with the take on enthnicities and the resolution with that song around the word "free" in the end. Got me quite emotional really, and the "free" song is actually about problems and by a Welsh band. The cast acts great without exception. What did bug me was that the whole film was convoluted with problems. While they were all realistic if taken one by one, they felt overblown when taken together. Nonetheless, a must see in my opinion.

I saw Babel today, and it reminded me of Crash.

 

I think I still prefer Crash though.

 

Btw, whenever I see bearded Brad Pitt I am reminded of how uncanningly he resembles bearded Benicio Del Toro. They should play brothers in some film (I'm thinking Tarantino).

[taks]

I just don't think they butchered the history like JFK or that Alexander movie a few years ago (thank you Oliver Stone.)

or 300... exactly the examples of "artistic license" i was thinking of. of course, stone was trying to make a statement with JFK since it is relevant to our times (oddly, still relevant 45 years later).

 

taks

[babydol]

@ babydol - I saw the ads for the new Mummy movie and it's not one I'm going to go see in the theater. I loved the first two movies too and even bought them on DVD. They had flaws but were great light adventure entertainment w/a fun sense of humor.

 

I agree with your "Let's just drop the whole "Mummy" franchise, and call this something new, why don't we?" assessment. I mean, I can see wanting to have a new bad guy because how many times can you "kill" Vosloo's mummy, but the rest....meh.

 

Yay!!! someone agrees! I was gonna make my review a bit more imformative, but I really did run outta time while I was typing. Let's just say it was pretty weak, and in no way does it belong next to the other Mummy movies.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

The Bank Job

 

Surprisingly good after they actually rob the bank. Oops, an obvious spoiler. I hope I didn't ruin anything for the not-so-clever.

[Walsingham]

Yesterday: Birthday Girl.

Considering that just before that I've seen a documentary about trading female sex slaves in Eastern Europe, it was pretty weird. That documentary again made clear that however ridiculous I find mankind, it is even worse. I mean, married women taken away from their men in the Ucraine and sold in Turkey?! Wtfh is going on? They're drugged and raped and used by pimps to make some money before they (the women, not the pimps) die. I hate humans.

 

Wouldn't it be more efficient to just hate slave trafficking pimps?

[SirPetrakus]

I watched the Mist and I could probably name 10 reasons why that movie sucked. I need to make clear that most things that count in a movie were good. The Punisher was good at his role, Roast Chick on a Ladder from Silent Hill was also appealing and even the rest of the cast was pretty good at what they did, especially the deranged religious fanatic lady, I really hated her. Direction was good, atmosphere was ok, I would have expected something more claustrophobic but still good. There were some things however that really made you think that there's something wrong here.

 

1)First of all, the only people who decide to leave the Super Market are 10 black people, which is the whole cast of black people in the film, and 1 old white guy. Last time I checked racism was a bad thing because I noticed I don't have a KKK hood in my closet but whoever thought of killing ALL the black guys in one scene deserves an Oscar for convincing all the black actors to get out of his movie that fast. Priceless.

 

2)When the Military screwed up and left their Camp they would have issued SOME warning to the town's citizens, like "aliens are coming, please pack your bags and GTFO, NAO!" but no, they just strolled through like they were going on a merry little picnic. What a load of bull!

 

3)Deranged fanatic religious lady says that someone is gonna die, some guy burns himself with a mop when the aliens attack and suddenly she is the Messiah. If the guy managed to burn himself with a mop, trust me, he had it coming! He did mankind a favor.

 

4)HOW CAN YOU BURN YOURSELF WITH A MOP????!!!!! I can't get over this. It's like the skiing documentary I saw the other day where a skier made a jump, landed with his face in the snow and caught fire. This defies physics, logic and everything I've known my entire life!

 

5)The only black guy not to have left the Mall is in the store next door AND HE'S ALREADY DEAD! Ok, you hate black guys, WE GET IT ALREADY!

 

6)Darth Vader's secret apprentice gets offed because he was the guy on guard duty at the main gate of the army camp so it's all his fault that aliens are attacking. Makes sense they would think that. This movie just ruined TFU for me. Screw you, Stephen King!

 

7)When 2 people say there's something in the Mist and it's killing people you don't go right into the Mist until you asses the danger. One lady got lucky, doesn't mean you will too.

 

8)You'd think 4 armored tank divisions would have made SOME kind of noise? Last time I checked mists aren't soundproof.

 

9)The end reminded me of Monty Pythons so much I expected their theme to play and the stomping foot crushing everyone, such a disappointment when it didn't happen

 

Damn it! I'm one short of a perfect 10 Oh wait, there's another one!

 

 

10) Will Laurie Holden ever survive in a film? Every time I see her in a movie since "The Majestic" it's like she's got this big X or KO over her head. Jeez lady, aren't you tired of red sauce?

 

 

So, there it is, 10 reasons to hate this film plotwise. It had great potential but it got really ****ed up at one point.

 

No, I haven't read the book.

[Xard]

No, I haven't read the book.

 

And it shows lol

 

Anyway, I on the other hand have not seen the movie

 

1)First of all, the only people who decide to leave the Super Market are 10 black people, which is the whole cast of black people in the film, and 1 old white guy. Last time I checked racism was a bad thing because I noticed I don't have a KKK hood in my closet but whoever thought of killing ALL the black guys in one scene deserves an Oscar for convincing all the black actors to get out of his movie that fast. Priceless.

 

Sounds fun. Considered the possibility this is reversing the tired Hollywood tropes like black guy always survives and second lead character is wise crackin' black? Considering the movie's ending (which is different from the book) I'd bet this is just another case of turning cliches upside down, not part of some KKK paranoia conspiracy

 

2)When the Military screwed up and left their Camp they would have issued SOME warning to the town's citizens, like "aliens are coming, please pack your bags and GTFO, NAO!" but no, they just strolled through like they were going on a merry little picnic. What a load of bull!

 

They can't be the soldiers from the military base, because military base was utterly ****ed up. They're National Guard from somewhere else nearby.

 

3)Deranged fanatic religious lady says that someone is gonna die, some guy burns himself with a mop when the aliens attack and suddenly she is the Messiah. If the guy managed to burn himself with a mop, trust me, he had it coming! He did mankind a favor.

 

burned himself...with a mop?

 

Anyway, that's the way deranged fanatics are

 

4)HOW CAN YOU BURN YOURSELF WITH A MOP????!!!!! I can't get over this. It's like the skiing documentary I saw the other day where a skier made a jump, landed with his face in the snow and caught fire. This defies physics, logic and everything I've known my entire life!

 

Having not seen the movie I can't comment on burning yourself with a mop, but apparently if you saw something like that in skiing documentary it isn't over the laws of physics

 

5)The only black guy not to have left the Mall is in the store next door AND HE'S ALREADY DEAD! Ok, you hate black guys, WE GET IT ALREADY!

 

lol paranoid

 

6)Darth Vader's secret apprentice gets offed because he was the guy on guard duty at the main gate of the army camp so it's all his fault that aliens are attacking. Makes sense they would think that. This movie just ruined TFU for me. Screw you, Stephen King!

 

umm what? btw, they're not aliens at all

 

 

7)When 2 people say there's something in the Mist and it's killing people you don't go right into the Mist until you asses the danger. One lady got lucky, doesn't mean you will too.

 

People are good at blinding themselves when some weird **** happens contrary to their worldviews. Self deception ftw

8)You'd think 4 armored tank divisions would have made SOME kind of noise? Last time I checked mists aren't soundproof.

 

Well, apparently they do block (all or nearly all, depending on truth value of certain phares in novella) radio waves etc. so who knows

 

Then again this is propably blurp due to changed ending. Original ending was very different.

 

9)The end reminded me of Monty Pythons so much I expected their theme to play and the stomping foot crushing everyone, such a disappointment when it didn't happen

 

Movies ending is great

 

As for 10th... eheheh

Edited August 8, 2008 by Xard

[Gfted1]

Jumpers

 

It was alright-ish. Cool special effects and that would be a rockin power to have. Lead actor is about as interesting as watching a fence post. No range of emotion, no expression. I thought it was kinda funny when SLJ

went to kill that jumper in the jungle, carefully unwraps his special stabbing knife, and its just a regular old military knife! With all the lame "paladin" backstory and preferential treatment of the knife I was expecting some kind of relic or special religous dagger.

 

[SirPetrakus]

Well, Xard, keep in mind that usually the book is better than the movie. Because it was adapted to a two hour film, some things might not be like you remember them in the book. So ...

 

1) I just think that killing ALL the black guys in one scene isn't right. Give them a chance, man! Also, black guy dying is the most beaten down cliche there is! Where have you been living? Or is it that you just never noticed it? Seriously, ask anyone.

 

2) In the movie they actually are from the base and they speculate they are just leaving on a field op.

 

3) You're right about that, but why is everyone so fast to become a believer? She's a nutjob and it's obvious from the very first scene, would would she change to God's Avatar within a day?

 

4) I get your point, it's not physics but chemistry. It isn't any less outrageous though.

 

5) Like I said, don't go off killing ALL the black people like that! It's overused and it's plain bad taste. Also I'm overreacting.

 

6) The guy playing that soldier does the voice over for Darth Vader's secret apprentice in TFU. I was hoping he'd force choke that bitch. He DID bring down an imperial battle cruiser! Also, monsters from another dimension = not of this earth = aliens. Not as the Aliens from the Alien franchise, but still aliens.

 

7) Good point there. Accepted.

 

In the whole film there is no reason to believe that the Mist is blocking frequencies or being soundproof. Still the synchronized vibrations caused by the tanks' movements would cause a tremor similar to an earthquake. Even if they hadn't heard them, they would have felt them.

 

9) It just seemed so ironical that it looked like a Monty Python joke. Call me cynical and cold hearted but it's true.

 

10) lol

 

I'm not saying the book was bad cause: a) I haven't read it and b) If anybody had written a book like that it wouldn't have been published, it would have just been given as a movie script.

 

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, I've only seen the Jack Nicholson movie of "The Shinning", the mini-series of "The Fort" and the "In the Mouth of Madness" movie for the sake of John Carpenter and David Warner. The Shinning was awesome, great performance by Jack, John Houston who directed it had a vision for that film, The Fort was ok, but nothing grand and "In the Mouth of Madness" is heavily influenced by Lovecraft novels and featured plenty of John Carpenter goodness.

 

I think I'm not being entirely fair to Stephen King here because I am not that much of a fan of modern literature, I am much more inclined towards the classics and sci-fi or horror weren't an issue for most of them.

I'm not saying he is bad, just that he isn't that much to my taste, nor that The Mist is a bad book, just that I found the movie to be a bad adaptation. It's not really that bad, it's just that it has some flaws that I can't look past. It's a bad movie for my tastes but most of my friends liked it. The only other friend of mine that didn't like it is a guy who thinks Rambo 4 was a great movie and Funny Games the best movie of this decade. He's got no taste at all.

[Walsingham]

Actually mists do have a massive effect on sound, because you're talking about the sound transmission medium being saturated with water droplets. Except being from a country with nice weather you've clearly not had to struggle through the Edwardian pea-soupers we have here.

[Pope]

http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/41391/tr...der_040708.html

 

Awesome trailer. Robert Downey Jr. ftw!

[Jediphile]

Saw the classic war movie Battle of Britain on dvd today. It has actors like Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier and Christopher Plummer in it. A little biased perhaps, but I like it a lot, and I must say that given that the movie is from 1969, the footage of dogfights they managed to get in there is very impressive. The drama on the ground is moderate, but the desperation of the facing Hitler's Luftwaffe with the significantly outnumbered Royal Air Force does come across, so I'm not complaining.

[SirPetrakus]

Actually mists do have a massive effect on sound, because you're talking about the sound transmission medium being saturated with water droplets. Except being from a country with nice weather you've clearly not had to struggle through the Edwardian pea-soupers we have here.

 

Well, I AM Greek! I've had very little contact with mist in my life and none in the past 10 years, so your assumption is accurate.

[GreasyDogMeat]

I'm somewhere between SirPetrakus & Xard as far as The Mist goes. There were elements I really liked and things I really disliked.

 

1 & 5) The black people leaving the Super Market. Oh please. You could make a more convincing argument that the movie is racist towards white people as everyone who blindly follows crazy lady is white. Not to mention the crazy lady is white.

 

2) Military folks leaving their camp. I'm not sure about this one. They may have left the base before the preverbial **** hit the fan and only realized about the outbreak when they were in town.

 

3 & 4) Agree. I thought the whole side story of crazy lady was completly unnesessary. Isn't the whole plot about aliens from another dimension hiding in the mist cool enough without the lame and cliched HUMANS ARE JUST AS BAD moral lesson?

 

6) The military guy who gets the blame. First, whats TFU? Second, agreed. Ties in with 3 & 4 and the whole people whipped into a hysteria by the ridiculous crazy lady.

 

7) One thing I think the movie did do well was the initial reactions to the situation. You may think it odd that some people would go out into the mist, but I'd be pretty sketpical of it to. Then again I've watched enough sci-fi movies that I'd voice my criticism, but wouldn't be the first volunteer to go out.

 

8 & 9) I actually laughed at the ending... partially because I actually predicted it. I was watching the movie with the group, right after I realized what he had done in the car I said aloud: "Watch, he's going to get out walk 10 feet and find the end of the mist". Well, I was half wrong. He did get out and then the mist blew away. I had lost a lot of the care I had for the group because of some of the ridiculous turns with the crazy lady. The ending may have been, different, but that didn't make it special. Its basically what happens too often in reality where a guy ends up freezing to death a half mile from an aid station or something. Just cause it happens in reality doesn't make it a good ending.

 

10) I remember Laurie Holden as Maurita Covaruvias (sp?) from the X-Files and I think she died in that.

 

While I do agree with a lot of your complaints, I do think the movie did some very cool creatures and had some excellent suspense moments so I was willing to overlook most of the flaws.

Edited August 10, 2008 by GreasyDogMeat

[Hurlshort]

8 & 9) I actually laughed at the ending... partially because I actually predicted it. I was watching the movie with the group, right after I realized what he had done in the car I said aloud: "Watch, he's going to get out walk 10 feet and find the end of the mist". Well, I was half wrong. He did get out and then the mist blew away. I had lost a lot of the care I had for the group because of some of the ridiculous turns with the crazy lady. The ending may have been, different, but that didn't make it special. Its basically what happens too often in reality where a guy ends up freezing to death a half mile from an aid station or something. Just cause it happens in reality doesn't make it a good ending.

 

I don't think there was anything remotely realistic about the ending. If they were in immediate danger, I MIGHT see him taking the action that he did. But they were just sitting there peacefully. It would have to take someone very far removed from their right mind to go through with that action, and that wasn't how Thomas Jane was portrayed at all throughout the movie. So it completely went against common sense and the character that had been created. It was lame.