1056 replies to this topic

[Bakuda]

I agree with kef that I get alergic reactions to Dreamworks films. I just can't stand the animation. The only one I liked was Dragon...and it took tons of people telling me how good it was before I'd even consider going (it's dreamworks...it couldn't be that good). Yeah...there were some cliche'd elements but I really liked that movie.

[furrykef]

In truth, I don't really despise DreamWorks, they just don't make many things I'd want to watch. The original Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon are two Dreamworks films I'd consider seeing, but not many others. Flushed Away was alright... it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. (Maybe 'cause that one wasn't entirely DreamWorks. ) Bee Movie? No thanks. If I want Jerry Seinfeld, I'll watch Seinfeld. That's the sort of movie you don't even need to watch to know you won't like it. I was always kind of sad when I saw Jerry Seinfeld talking about it everywhere, really hyping it up before its release -- it was clear that he really believed in this and he'd fought hard for this thing -- blissfully unaware that the idea was fundamentally flawed.

A lot of people bash on DreamWorks and praise Pixar, but, honestly, I'm not a big fan of Pixar either. Their CG style still doesn't grab me, and their stories are too sentimental. I did want to see WALL-E, though (and still do) -- which might seem odd since it's probably about as sentimental as a movie can get, but I think it's easier to take when it's in a film that's more dramatic than comedic in premise.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I did want to see WALL-E, though (and still do) -- which might seem odd since it's probably about as sentimental as a movie can get, but I think it's easier to take when it's in a film that's more dramatic than comedic in premise.

It also helps that WALL-E doesn't have that much dialogue in it. If sentimental stuff doesn't really strike you, then dialogue has the potential to make it feel straight-up sappy. The minimalism in WALL-E really pays off.

[BigWigRah]

Don't think it's too fair to bash Dreamworks too heavily. They've had so many hits and misses over the years. Didn't they do Balto? Loved that one

I only saw the first Shrek, and I did enjoy it, but never got around to seeing the sequels. I don't know if it was because the original world didn't pull me in enough, or because I'm a cynic with no faith in sequels anymore. I didn't really see how they could even make a sequel given the resolution of the first film. Should I even bother renting them?

anyway, moving on

In terms of "Last Movie," I was looking through the attic and found boxes chock full of ol' Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar VHS tapes. We practically have a library in there. Everything from Dumbo to Aladdin to Toy Story 1. I was looking through them to see if there were any movies I would bother to watch again, and it really hurt when I realized there weren't very many. It really sucks, because a lot of these movies were HUGE when they came out (Lion king, Beauty and the Beast, etc). You guys might still find value in these (and tell me why if you do). But I really couldn't bring myself to put the tape in.

The one movie in the collection that I still absolutely LOVE is "The Great Mouse Detective." The thing that gets me the most is the style of it as being "a world beneath London." There were all these introductory shots where they would show Sherlock Holmes in his apartment, or Queen Victoria in Buckingham palace, and then pan down to a mouse hole or back passageway, and show the mouse equivalent of each character. What a kick ass concept! I'd love to see more films like this. Imagine seeing Commodus strangled in his bathtub in 193 AD, and then zooming into the assassination of the "cat emperor of Rome" Sold

I might have said this before somewhere, but I'm not crazy about musical numbers in disney/animated films. It reminds me a little too much of Bollywood, and it feels too much like a divertisement taking away from the story. Great Mouse detective is one of the exception, firstly because the song is awesome, and secondly, closet furry...

great film, steeped in Sherlock Holmes and xenofiction = a victory.

[furrykef]

Didn't they do Balto? Loved that one

Well, it was the studio that became DreamWorks. But, basically, when I say "DreamWorks", anything before Shrek doesn't count.

[BigWigRah]

you're right. Forgot about Amblimation.

[TheSonicZfan]

any one here like the matrix by any chance?

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I liked the first Matrix film. I didn't know that much about it going into the movie at first, so I had NO idea that Anderson was in a make-believe world or anything like that. That was a complete, pull-the-rug-out twist for me when I first saw it. And the introduction of the "Bullet Time" show was pretty epic. The editing and mise-en-scene (A.K.A., what's in the shot) is very precise. If you pay attention in the shoot-out scene in the lobby, the blasts on the wall actually go off to the beat of the music when Neo summer-salts for the gun.

All this, though, kinda distracts from the fact that there isn't anything going on character-wise. Most of it is very plot oriented, and much of the character progression seems contrived. But you really don't notice how contrived they are until the second time you watch it because you're so involved in that whole friggin' plot-twist of "Omigosh! Nothing's real!" And since Matrix Reloaded had no plot twist until the very very end of the movie, I think audiences noticed the contrived characters more quickly, leading to people saying "It's not as good as the first." (Which they're right.) And Matrix Revolutions was simply very contrived with nothing to distract from that.

EDIT: How come there are no spoiler tags? And why am I not noticing this until now? Or am I just blind to them?

[furrykef]

Spoiler

Sure there are spoiler tags.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Spoiler

I guess there aren't any buttons for it? 'Cos I can't find it.

[TheSonicZfan]

well i agree the second one wasn't as good as the first matrix film but it had better action scenes in my opinion like who can forget the awesome chase scene from the second movie, or when neo fights at least 15 people in that chateau. I also think the third one was just...well crap

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

That chase scene in Reloaded was amazing to watch. And Neo fighting the 20+ other Agent Smiths would have been awesome of they would have carried that over to Revolutions, or better yet just save that fight scene for that movie. We all wanted to see that fight scene at the end of movie 3 rather than seeing everyone just watching two dudes fight.

[Shadow]

I'm one of the few people who loved Revolutions. The war with Zion and the machines was brutal but great. Also Neo and Smith's final battle was deliciously anime. Great stuff.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

The war with the machines was cool to watch, but I think a lot of people felt like they didn't feel like the rest of the Matrix trilogy. And, just watching two dudes fighting was sorta anti-climactic compared to Neo fighting 20 or so agents, I don't care how "anime" it feels. If they wanted that ending, they should have built up to a showdown between two people properly, because the fight, when viewed alone, is fun to watch. But instead the filmmakers introduced the idea of a 6 billion to one knock-down-drag-out war, then failed to deliver it.

[Shadow]

I've heard talk of a Matrix 4. One char. from the third I really liked that I'd like to see return is Trainman. That he could school Neo that Smith was unable to do shows that dirty bum could put up one hell of a fight.
With the whole monsters= rogue programs they could do some cool shit.

[John Roberts]

The only part of that final battle I enjoyed was Hugo Weaving's perdormace "why mr anderson, why". The rest was all CGI noise. And the less said about that CGI mess-of-a-fight between the two in Reloaded the better. It just looked and felt terrible, no weight to it compared to the subway fight in the first movie.

[BigWigRah]

Finally saw "Gangs of New York" since everyone and their mothers told me to see it.

3 hour movie? come the hell on. A revenge story of this level could easily be told in 1:45. Honestly I hated almost every bit of this film. When I saw the opening scene, I thought they were about to pull the rug out from under me, explaining how the fight was some kind of "historical reinactment." Unfortunately, that's the scene. The dialogue in the beginning (and most other action scenes) is just so goofy that it was hard to take seriously.

Most importantly, I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters or gangs. In fact, I downright hated both the protagonist and the antagonist. On one side you had the "Natives" who used the government to rule with brute force, and the other, the "foreign gangsters" who lived as parasites and murderers. I'm pretty sure the movie was trying to get across the message of both sides being evil in the end, but it's not always clear. Antagonist vs. Antagonist stories have no appeal to me, and it only made the 3 hour length all the more painful. Gotta wash the taste of that out of my mouth with something good next.

[Shadow]

The only part of that final battle I enjoyed was Hugo Weaving's perdormace "why mr anderson, why". The rest was all CGI noise. And the less said about that CGI mess-of-a-fight between the two in Reloaded the better. It just looked and felt terrible, no weight to it compared to the subway fight in the first movie.

The first Matrix was mostly CGI too. You can tell by the soundtrack it really hasn't aged well.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I don't mind much of the CGI in The Matrix because it all kinda takes place inside a computer anyway. In fact, there some old-fashioned rear-projection/cityscape-photos-printed-on-walls techniques used in the making of the helicopter scene of the first film that subtly underscored how the characters were fighting in a world that was all make-believe. (Seriously, most of those shots took place in a studio with a cityscape blown up on the wall behind the helicopter. It wasn't evn green-screened but rather printed on the wall itself for the camera lens to pick up.) So the more noticeable CGI elements only helped to underscore that as well, even if they did attempt to make the CGI effects look more realistic than the old-fashioned techniques used in the first film. I do agree that there needed to be more "weight" behind the punches in Reloaded, though.

I'm not sure what to think of a Matrix 4 yet. I guess they did open the trilogy up to sequels, what with the whole "We did this 6 times before" and "How long do you think this peace can last?" ending. But I'm afraid it might become redundant after a while.

[John Roberts]

The first Matrix was mostly CGI too. You can tell by the soundtrack it really hasn't aged well.

I realise that. What I meant was the fight in the subway was good ol' fashioned stunt and wire fighting, with CGI used for the effects. For its time, an even by today's standards, it looks and feels like a heluva fight.

The fight between Neo and the gazillion Smiths in Reloaded looked more like a cartoon than an action sequence.