1056 replies to this topic

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Alice in Wonderland: C+

There's some real potential here, but the Movie just goes through its paces too fast to make 'em count. The visuals and musical score are nice, though.

A lot of Burton's films have come off that way, I think. He seems to be pulling the same punches in every film he makes nowadays (Jonney Depp + over-blown designs). I feel that his best days are behind him.

[Gojira007]

The Secret of Kells: A+
Absolutely fantastic. Visually gorgeous, with a superb grasp of visual storytelling and an intimate understanding of Mythological storytelling that perfectly hits all the targets it aims for. If it's playing in your area, go see it.

[E-Master]

Battlefield Earth - 2/10

For a long time I was told how awful it was, but I had to rent it off of my PS3 just to believe it. And everyone was right about it, truely the worst Sci-Fi movie from the past decade. Not only did it had a collection of goofs and errors, but the aliens looked poorly done. It makes the aliens in Phantom Menace look cooler. Battlefield will surely never become a classic during this or the next lifetime.

Pluto Nash - 3/10

I was glad I never saw it in theaters, cause I only chuckled during like 3 parts and that was it. So it's truely a bad comedy if I wasn't able to get a good laugh at any of the parts it threw in. I expected the new body shop to be funnier that how it was portrayed in the trailer. The plot had a good idea to it, but the problem was the writers weren't creative with the jokes. Not even the supporting actors saved the film. The androids were more annoying than the humans in the movie. So in short, definately the home winner for the least money making movie of the decade.

[Chaosmaster8753]

How to Train Your Dragon: B

[Ratty Randnums]

Alice in Wonderland: C+

There's some real potential here, but the Movie just goes through its paces too fast to make 'em count. The visuals and musical score are nice, though.

A lot of Burton's films have come off that way, I think. He seems to be pulling the same punches in every film he makes nowadays (Jonney Depp + over-blown designs). I feel that his best days are behind him.

[Gojira007]

How To Train Your Dragon: A-
Some pacing troubles here and there, but otherwise easily the best film Dreamworks Animation has ever done and the first one to even approach Pixar's penchant for placing emotions and connection at the heart of their story. The 3D is pretty bitchin' too.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Haha! "Um, let see. Stripes, swirls, take things that aren't black and paint them black?"
So very true!

[The Man]

Chronicles of Riddick.

C+.

Typical Sci-Fi action movie. I know it's hard work but the plot has been done before and the secondary characters we couldn't care about.

Str: Basically a better version of Street Fighter.

Weak: Typical hero always wins scenario.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Men At Work: A-. Still hilarious, despite being old enough that the characters don't know what a tazer is... But it would've worked better without the romance... Still, it's well worth fishing out of the bargain bin.

[Speedy_25]

Clash of the Titans: A+

I've seen the original, and this, and the remake i like alot better, TRUST me.

[The Man]

Lord of the Rings: RotK

Someone had it on T.V. yesterday during easter at the party. I saw the last half. I'll give it a B+ but it's unlike it needs to be rated since it's well-known.

[Ratty Randnums]

Sweet Home -

I have long been interested in this film because it and it's 8bit adaptation are so important to the history of video games.
Released in 1989 on Nintendo's Famicom (NES) to coincide with the movie, the "Sweet Home" game was a revolutionary RPG/the first true "survival horror" video game.
It had a huge and very visible influence on later Capcom titles. There would be no Resident Evil without "Sweet Home", simple as that.

Nonetheless I was expecting pure 1980s Japanese gore-schlockycheese when I started watching this movie. I had seen a clip of one of the deaths in the film some years ago and that's exactly what it looked like.
I was in for a very pleasant surprise. The movie is masterfully paced, building suspense and slowly unraveling the mystery of Mamiya Mansion's horrible past. All while letting us get to know characters who feel and act like real people we come to care about, making it that much more wince-inducing as they take each step toward raising demonic wrath.
And it doesn't let up in the horror department when said wrath comes either. Somehow "Sweet Home" makes a monster who really is both understandable and a bit sympathetic but nonetheless monstrous/horrible. We still pull for the heroes in this one, as I said it's not a Freddy Kruger or Jason kill-annoying-teenagers movie.
The special effects are used well and I'd say are about average for an 80s horror film in quality. The movie isn't flawless of course. There are some of those "classic mistakes to make in a horror movie" moments, but the film draws you in so well you're actually bothered more that the characters are putting themselves in danger doing these things than you are annoyed by the use of the cliches in and of themselves, so it's effective. And there's definitely some cheese in here as well, but I just found this added to the charm of the movie.

It's so good I don't want to give away any of the mystery or plot, but just to give warning about the subject matter -which I know many will find so off-putting they wouldn't enjoy the film- I will say it involves dead babies and explores the nature of parental love and relationships.

If you have any interest in Japanese horror films or the history of video games I absolutely recommend tracking this one down. It's just a shame that neither the film or game have ever been given an official English translation and release. Though fans have done that for both.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Another big-o movie haul.

Paprika
9.5/10

I love mind-bending stories. And Satoshi Kon has a good filmography. So when I learned of this movie, I just had to watch it.

The film follows a cop and a psychiatrist as they uncover who stole the Mini DC technology, a device hat allows people to access dreams.

The first five minutes alone got me hooked. All sorts of confusing and incongruous styles are throw at the viewer in a very exciting fashion. And yet, it felt just about as oddly congruent as many of my dreams are.

And the movie was only starting. The film continues to explore crazy ideas and mind-twisting feelings. And of course, the characters would be slowly revealed for who they really were as their subconscious was explored and, at sometimes, raped.

And despite the excessive use of auto-tuning in the film's soundtrack, I really liked the effect the musical score created. Even to the extent that I really, REALLY enjoy the soundtrack.

A very imaginative piece. Go see it.

Appleseed
6.5/10

A lot of times, a movie will push the limits of technology just for the sake of pushing limits. People who fancy themselves as "filmmakers" will sit behind a guy at a computer and point at the screen, with absolutely no attention to the script's quality. Or anything else for that matter. Then these "filmmakers" turn around and call their exploits in the digital world their "masterpiece in film". They might even make a billion dollars from it if they release their movie when there's no competition from other filmmakers; who knows.

That really can't be said about Appleseed. Whereas it could have been told without the fancy CGI (and already has**), the use of computer graphics were handled in a way that supported the story, rather than simply becoming a play thing for the director.

Appleseed takes place after a bitter WWIII that wiped out most of the known world. In her quest to winning out each battle that remains from the World War, a solder named Deunan discovers a city named Olympus where war had ceased for sometime.

The animation is impressive. It was perhaps the first time cel-shaded CGI was explored so successfully (though I'm no expert in animation). And the character designs certainly seemed to work their best within that environment. And the soundtrack provided by Boom Boom Satellites glorified every fight scene to it's highest potential. And even within the action packed film, there some very nice touches of character development among old lovers that wasn't merely glossed over with shallow sensuality.

The pacing was off at times, though. Some of that is probably just the nature of manga-based anime (if twelve guys enter a room with loaded guns, they're gonna talk for at least ten minutes; THEN they shoot at each other), but it still puts me off to a movie.

And the action went down a direction that was, for me at least, not as exciting as much as it was all spectacle. I'm sorry, but furious fight scenes are more visually exciting than piloting stiff, heavy robotic armor. But again, that's probably just a trait that most anime features seem to share.

Overall, it was a solid and entertaining movie. And the visuality alone was very cool.

**Footnote. I had only recently learned that there was a traditionally animated 1988 version of Appleseed directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama.

Appleseed Ex Machina
7/10

Sequels, in general, are made to exploit those who've enjoyed the first movie by showing them something they've already seen. And since it doesn't NEED to be as good in order to pull profits, many studios won't even put fourth the effort.

To some degree, Ex Machina is the exception to that rule. In it, someone tries to brain-hack everyone into committing acts of violence.

It started off seeming like it was only going to exploit (re-introducing preforming their star moves in the opening), but it took time after the opening fight to actually advance the characters from where the first movie left them (rather than keeping the development "same" in the face of otherwise life-changing situations). No, within those character developments, there wasn't anything special or different. But they were there and interesting enough to keep my interest.

The pacing is ironed out as well. Exposition was handled more smoothly this time around, explaining things when it felt right, and let the characters develop when that felt more appropriate.

Even the action build-up felt more natural, rather than the sudden whiplash from fighting to flying stiff robots.

The only complaint I have with this movie is that more detail is put into the lighting within the cel-shade renderings. Most of the time this actually enhanced the visuals, but at times the added light touches made the characters look like plastic dolls. But seeing as how I only pick that up in two shots, it really doesn't bother me that much.

Astro-Boy
5/10

Western adaptions of Japanese animation often results in mediocre work that is forgotten quickly, The ones that aren't only seem to be remembered as the worse thing out of Hollywood that year.

Astro Boy wasn't able to break away from this vicious cycle. Based off of the first Japanese TV anime ever, the movie tries to weave a tragic tale about a boy named Toby who dies in a scientific experiment, and resurrected as a robot, later named Astro Boy.

Even for its young target audience, this movie is awkwardly paced. A slightly amusing opening is followed by a series of Astro Boy realizing his powers and fighting bad-guys, only then to be dropped in about 45-minutes of some of the most boring turn of events witnessed by a child. Most of the movie leaves viewers thinking "Hey, I thought Astro Boy was supposed to be a superhero!" The movie tries to save itself by fighting a giant robot at the end, but by that time any fighting seemed out of place compared to the 45-minute lull.

And speaking of things out of place, Astro Boy's character design stayed mostly true to the original 60's design. What would have been better is that if all of the new characters didn't look so painfully modern in comparison. Any character original to Osamu Tezuka stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the myriad of modern, Disney/DreamWorks-esque character designs that permeated the screen.

That's not to say there wasn't some enjoyable moments in the film. Even in the 45-minute lull there was some things that kept some interest. But it wasn't anything that would make this movie worth a second viewing.

And, as a side note, I've had it with that monkey-fighting Jackson in these Monday-though-Friday films! I couldn't even tell that was him until I read the credits.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Shoot 'Em Up. B+. While it's a very interesting and entertaining movie, the romance part doesn't fit. At least they subverted the sex scene a bit by having the badguys catch up to them before it could go too far. The romance and attempted sex scene and implied oral sex drop this into B+ territory, for me. The movie would be A+ material if not for those.

[Chaosmaster8753]

Inglorius Basterds: Not sure what to rate it

[Vlad Yvhv]

Inglorius Basterds: Not sure what to rate it

It depends on how well you like it... The ratings are all subjective. My own scale ranges from A+ To Z- and is biased toward action and horror movies and against more "arthouse style" movies and anything older than the 80's.

[The Man]

Shoot 'Em Up. B+. While it's a very interesting and entertaining movie, the romance part doesn't fit. At least they subverted the sex scene a bit by having the badguys catch up to them before it could go too far. The romance and attempted sex scene and implied oral sex drop this into B+ territory, for me. The movie would be A+ material if not for those.

-Avoiding your typical set-up.

I could only imagine people giving it an F without it. I think the diverse rating base in this topic overall shows how hard it is to create a masterpiece.

Some people I knew didn't like the love story in Titanic but the chase scenes provided visuals of inside the ship?

Judging all this is probably hell for the academy awards if they do it objectively.

[furrykef]

Vlad lives on a planet where people don't fuck.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Eff.

[ALIENwolve]

Boondock Saints - Watch

Boondock Saints 2 - Watch, but turn off your brain.

Movies that deserve to be classics in the mind. Good pacing and fluent action.