The "What was the Last Movie You Watched?" Thread

TRANSFORMERS: After twenty-five minutes I took it out of my DVD player. I'm taking it back to Blockbusters tomorrow. Why? Because even after only a mere twenty-five minutes and a quick review of the Scene Selections, it was clear to me that the Transformers/Cube plotline was not enough to carry the movie by itself, and that the script had been padded with an "Earthlings in danger" story arc featuring brain-dead humans and feeble adolescent humor. The Cube idea was so unoriginal that it didn't make me care at all; it looked like a recycled Borg ship from "Star Trek: First Contact", which it more than likely was. Sorry, but they can keep their Camaros -- and this film. I will not rent it again. And I sincerely hope that the upcoming ThunderCats movie won't be this awful.:

I know some of you will say that I should have watched the whole thing instead of bailing after only 25 minutes. My answer is this: If 25 minutes was more than I could take of "Transformers", there was no reason for me to endure two more hours of what I sensed to be obvious crap. And all the dazzling special effects in the world would not make a bad movie better; it would only prove how much time and money were wasted in a clearly desperate attempt to hide its flaws.

If any good came out of the film, it was Peter Cullen's fan base enabling him to again be Optimus Prime. I can only imagine how the man must feel about that, and the thought is deeply moving.


ELEKTRA: I can sum up this film in one word: Enjoyable! I didn't see "DareDevil" before this, but I plan to in the not-too-distant future. "Elektra" might not be great filmmaking, but then neither were "X-Men", "Fantastic Four", and "Ghost Rider", and I thoroughly enjoyed them as well. If Stan Lee and his crew have taught me anything about their comic book characters, it's that they are not cardboard cut-outs; they all have backstories, emotions, and worldviews. Elektra Natchios is the same, but she's also unusual because of the personal journey she has to take. Never mind that she's your proverbial superheroine. The ghosts Elektra has to put to rest, the villians she has to face down and destroy, and the young girl Abby who she has to protect from these evildoers are an interesting parallel to her life as a hired assassin who's also a human being that's walled herself off from the rest of the world. The action sequences are great as are the special effects, and, of course, there's Jennifer Garner's kick-ass costume in which she literally kicks ass. The story could have used a bit more humor, and there are a few plot glitches (how did Stick get hold of Elektra's body so he could bring her back to life; how did Abby slip away from the martial arts camp; how did Abby find Elektra's childhood home when nobody told her where it was), but the interplay between Elektra and those who come into her orbit, both good and bad, make for a fun action film and, at times, a touching one at that.veryhappy:


DAY WATCH: A swirling fever-dream of a movie like its NIGHT WATCH predecessor. Both based on the sci-fi trilogy by Russian author Sergei Lukyankenko, the story, largely set in modern-day Moscow, tells of the powers of Light and Dark struggling for dominance and of the Truce they agree to when their war threatens to destroy the world. Two organizations, Day Watch and Night Watch, are formed to keep the Truce from being broken. But that Truce is broken when when just one drop of Dark One blood is spilled, and literally all hell breaks loose and once again threatens to consume the planet. It takes a senior member of Day Watch and the Chalk of Destiny to put things to right. DAY WATCH has things in its favor: A fast-paced script, witty dialogue, more humor, and mind-blowing special effects. But no movie is without its glitches and DAY WATCH is no different: A troup of vampires appear in a subway sequence and then are never seen again, there's no explanation as to what "The Second Level of Gloom" is other than it's what a powerful Dark One can ascend to, and medieval warriors of Good and Evil popping up at a 21st century birthday party to slug it out makes you think a historical re-enactment group went berserk and crashed the wrong gig. Still, DAY WATCH is a film that kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing about what would happen next.

 

Ok, so I've finally watched Star Dust, a family I'd heard good and bad things about.

Well my opinion is that it's a great film, funny, charming and at times rather 'epic'. Good cast, good plot, a good indication that fantasy films are making a come back and I don't have to fear another Krull incident.

 

Last few films I watched were St. Trinians, The Golden Compass and the aforementioned Stardust. From what I wrote on Flixster:

St Trinians: I wasn't too sure about this one, firstly because it features Russell Brand, whose popularity continues to amaze me. Secondly, it looked completely vapid from the trailer, stuffed with various actors who are there because they look good rather than have any talent. However, I have to admit I did kind of enjoy it (even Brand wasn't as annoying as I'd expected) - I think this appealed to the side of me that loved reading The Beano and Malory Towers when I was younger (I've always been a sucker for children's literature, though St Trinians was the polar opposite of Enid Blyton's vision of school).

There is a long history behind St Trinians, dating back to the cartoonist Ronald Searle. Aside from his original St Trinians illustration, the majority of the early ones were done when he was a POW during WWII, meaning they were buried in the jungle and the like, which makes for interesting source material. Those were followed by books of fiction and finally films, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s (and one, randomly, in the 1980s) - the big screen versions steadily moved away from Searle's originals. This new version does keep to tradition by casting a man as the headmistress, and the general demeanour of the pupils (criminal fourth years, sexually mature sixth formers) is also par for the course. So as an update, this isn't all bad, but the plot is fairly ridiculous and the acting - aside from Rupert Everett and Colin Firth - not especially impressive.

If you ever enjoyed characters like Minnie the Minx, or the original St Trinians films, or indeed like me had a penchant for the books which St Trinians parodied, then you may get something out of this. I enjoyed it while fully expecting to find it an ordeal. Bizarrely, this got lottery funding, which was a bit of surprise to see in the credits.

The Golden Compass: This film reminded me how good the LOTR adaptations were, or even some of the later Harry Potter. Despite great source material, the writers dropped the ball on this one. The film jumps from plot point to plot point without bothering to spend much time developing the narrative, and no time at all developing the characters. If you hadn't read the book, you'd most likely be pretty confused by the end. Its a shame, as plenty of positive signs: good acting by Kidman and Craig (even Dakota Blue Richards wasn't quite as annoying as I'd expected), excellent special effects and plenty of star power (though I thought Sir Ian was badly miscast). Hopefully things will improve with the next installment, and they'll be a little less cowardly about the strong polemic against organised religion present in the books.

Stardust: I went to see this purely because its based on a Gaiman story, and that proved to be a good basis for recommendation. Its got the trademark Gaiman mixture of magic, myth and humour, with a strong performance from Pfeiffer. I wasn't too impressed by the rest of the cast, De Niro in particular failing to convince me of this character, but in the end that didn't matter. The plot, despite a few holes (like going from a klutz to a master swordsman in record time, or the old 'I could totally kill you now but for some reason I'm going to let you go then try again'), was top notch fantasy escapism. Its no Princess Bride, but still well worth seeing. Also reminds me to read the source text, which I'd completely forgotten about until just after the credits rolled: pretty sure I've got it lying around somewhere. [Having now read it, I can see the film differs in several major ways: there is no Captain Shakespeare in the book for a start. Other changes would be spoilers, so I'll keep them to myself]

 

Hitman As far as action films go... it's ok. As far as video games to films go, it's the greatest film of all time.

 

Best computer game to film I've seen is the anime Streetfighter 2. At least the first one was good: the follow up is awful. 'Pyscho power' every other minute, with looooong drawn out shots of hadokens. The live action with Van Damme was even worse - as I think people said at the time, how the hell did they manage to make a boring film out of a computer game where the plot is, basically, an extended series of superpowered fighters beating eachother up?

I remember the Fatal Fury anime being pretty good too, with that whole thing about the Armour of Mars. Been a fair while since I last saw it, though. Tekken was a real disappointment, as that should have been brilliant, but again the scriptwriters somehow made it dull.

 

When I made the point about Hitman, I was exclusivly talking about films of the live action variety, it's not fair to compare anime/cg films to live action ones that are based off of games.

 

Heh - yeah, that's probably true. Anime certainly lends itself better to computer game imagery than live action, probably because the mediums are closer, and obviously CG is the same medium.

Super Mario Brothers and Tomb Raider are the only two game to live action adaptations I can remember having been able to sit through, the latter probably superior to the former (though neither are exactly high quality). I'll have to look out for Hitman, though I never played it (the bald guy, right? Seen adverts, but thats it).

Uwe Boll seems to be the main culprit when it comes to the computer game adaptations terrible reputation, as he's been happily pumping out awful attempts for some time (and challenging people to boxing matches when they pan his films: seem to remember Lowtax didn't do too well, but then Boll used to be a decent boxer back in the day, IIRC).

 

yeah it's the bald guy with the bar code on the back of his head. The film dosn't particularly take any of the story elements from the game, just the concept of the perfect assasin, a man who plans everything three steps ahead.

I used to hate Uwe Boll with a passion, thinking that he was some director who just like to steal franchises because he was too lazy to be original. However by what i've heard that's not the case, it's more he's a gamer who is quite passionate about games. Unfortunatly as you may have already guessed, therein lies the problem, he's a gamer not a director and so his films suck royally.

As for the boxing thing. The story's are far exagerrated, especially that he cheated or fixed matches. The biggest culprit of this was some moron from the 'Something Awful forums' one of their lead admins was one of the people who got challenged. He lost his match and then went back to the forums saying that he was told it was a publicity stunt and not that a proper boxing match was going to happen. However he was proven a sore loser when one of his friends came onto the forum and said "no, you never thought that, you trained with me for 2 months prior to the match".

 

Captive: a very unbelievable movie about a girl being held hostage seemed like another Hostel or Saw
Just Plain Bad

28 weeks later: Just BAD one of those movies that makes you angry cause the characters in the movie are just plain idiots

 

I watched I AM LEGEND last month...it was pretty good. I know some people didn't like it though.

I rented Hairspray and I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed, but I LOVED it. Not a fan of that High School Musical guy, but it was a great remake of the original movie.

 

Lets Go To Prison...It was funny, hahaa. :D

 

I just got incredibly lucky and managed to watch the Dark Crystal on the big screen. A local cinema of mine got their hands on the copy and ran a very small showing. Absolutly amasing.

 

Just got done watching "once upon a time in the west" i love sergio leonnes'" films especially the spaghetti westerns. Thumbs up if ur a fan of westerns.

 

Just finished watching "Meet the Robinsons." It was actually really good. I had no expectations and it blew me away!

Next up, King of Kong...I've heard a lot of great reviews for this...hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy it.

 

I just got fiinshed watching Rambo First Blood on Blu-Ray, as well as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Halloween.

Its amazing what hi definition is doing for some of these older movies. Halloween looks the best Ive seen it and Close Encounters was beautiful. Im glad now I can enjoy HD to the fullest with the almost dead HD DVD format and Blu-Ray

 

Yeah it looks like Blu Ray will come out on top. Even Toshiba is rumored to drop the HD format soon.

 

Blu-ray has won...Toshiba is expected to make an announcement of HD DVD's death as early as tomorrow.

 

Well i'm not in total agreement that blu-ray has won, I think there's still developments to come in this battle.

 

Hope they both tank. Nowt wrong with DVD as it is.

 

Press release is out, HD DVD is officially dead.

DVD to me is sub-standard now, its a world of difference watching movies in hi-def