Movies You've Watched Recently

I'm glad you liked it man, it's one of my favorite movies.

I'm trying, over the phone, to teach my mother how to use Prime one her first smart phone. Fucking kill me.

Watched the second Hunger Games film. I wouldn't call myself a fan of the series but I am interested in the next one. The characters were well realized, there was a weight to killing which a lot of action movies lack, the twist in the end fixed some of the logical flaws I had with a few of the things earlier in the film. Overall...not bad.

I hope they make some changes to the next HG film, the book was hard to follow, especially for a series like this, and the only good thing about the ending was that it helped mitigate how bad the Mass Effect 3 one really was. But I'm in agreement with the movies. They're not great, but they do everything they need to stay entertaining.

You guys know that Running Man is on Netflix, correct?

pspiddy wrote:You guys know that Running Man is on Netflix, correct?

Nope. Haven't seen that one in many years. I'll have to check it out.

Saw Divergent. I really liked the book and the movie was okay. It didn't do anything incredible, but I still had fun watching it even if it could drag on

Few days ago I finally watched Brave, even though I bought it a year and a half ago. Good movie, but not Pixar's best. I was expecting a real shitter of a movie from some of the things I saw people say about it. It felt like Pixar was really trying to feel like a Disney movie with this one, whereas all of the other Pixar movies don't really feel like a Disney movie other than the fact that they're for kids. Like always, really beautiful animation.

Brave is a graphical wonder. Bought the wife the lunchbox edition.

I'm marathoning the OG trilogy of Star Wars. What character do yo guys identify with most? I call artoo or Piet.

Probably Han Solo, but there's no real SW character I identify with that much. Unless we're talking the prequels, then it's Obi-Wan all the way. How he's always annoyed and irritated with everyone and everything that's going on, it's exactly how I feel when watching those movies.

Any character that Darth Vader chokes.

Nah, you're my Threepio if I'm artoo.

I forget that not everyone here follows me on Twitter so I thought I'd let you know: Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a fucking good time. 2nd best Marvel film and one of the best action films I've seen.

Until The Raid 2: Berandal opens this weekend....

I think I'm seeing Caps this weekend. Really excited, looks like a change of pace from the other Marvel movies with being less of a superhero movie and more of a regular action movie, which is pretty cool.

volvocrusher wrote:Saw Divergent. I really liked the book and the movie was okay. It didn't do anything incredible, but I still had fun watching it even if it could drag on

How did you like the rest of the series? I'm thinking about what to read next and I'm not ready to commit yet.

I haven't read the other two, just the first. I'll get to them eventually.

Watching The Desolation of Smaug. The best scene in this movie is when Bilbo almost loses the ring in the Mirkwood, and goes crazy on a spider. When he finally gets the precious the classic Lord of the Rings theme plays and we see just how much of a sickness the ring is. It's beautiful.

For those of you who haven't seen the excellent South Korean film The Chaser...see it now. For those of you who want yet another awesome film by the same director, check out The Yellow Sea. Films aren't related, so you can see them in either order, but I mentioned The Chaser because it is god damn awesome.

For a rookie director this guy is quickly climbing my ladder of currently-working writer/directors and it PAINS me he hasn't been working on anything new.

@Bret: I used to listen to the vinyl and watched the cartoon as a kid so I really dig the live action stuff. Very different from what I remember though. Such is age and imagination. Graphics are pretty damned spiffy.

@T-wolf: I will have to investigate this.

Anyways, I think George Lucas sucks. Watching RotJ and the extra crap is, well, crap. Robert Rodriguez can do Spy Kids and keep it separate from his early stuff and grittier stuff. Why the hell can't Lucas? I'd go into it more but it is more of a conversation thing.

God that musical number in Jabba's base is just awful. I fast forward through it every time, it's just so unnecessary and unpleasant and full of bad CG. For all the shit that scene with Han and Greedo gets from the change, I still say that bit is the worst change to the originals. And I wear a "Han Shot First" shirt all the time.

Greenie speaks the truth. That's honestly the moment that set me off and why I posted.

And that's how bad it is. You don't even need to mention the moment, just the movie and I know exactly what you're talking about.

That or the burping frog. It's like adding stupid shit to the already burping sarlaac wasn't enough, throw in an extra scene with burps. Because funny, amirite?! Foreshadowing for Binks, I suppose. Ugggh...

Lucas and Spielberg are obsessed with this idea of "if I had x, y and z THEN I would have done this" but you didn't...so you didn't...so leave it.

Compared to Ridley Scott when he released the Alien director's cut and said "Look, we made the best of what we had at the time, and I stand by that. All the extra stuff is jsut for the fan's enjoyment but the theatrical is still the definitive cut" (paraphrasing). That, ladies and gents, is a man who has balls...and artistic integrity.

No shit. No one can revisit any form of art and improve it. It's the same as Kay was saying in the FF thread about less is more. The integrity thing is penultimate; You got my best shit, here's a bonus. Donner cut of Superman II notwithstanding.

Well, the cases like Blade Runner or Superman II or Dawn of the Dead's ending where the director got fucked out of their vision by studios forcing changes...by all means, do what you can to restore those but using original footage or get out.

I mean, it's like when they restore these old castles in Japan right? They don't go around building them up with steel and concrete, they use the same methods that would have been used back then. So if George wanted to add a scene but used models and guys in rubber suits...well, that would have rubbed me SLIGHTLY less sorely than the bullshit he pulled.

Long story short, we are in agreement there buddy.

This conversation makes me appreciate 28 Days Later that much more. Grab a few XL2s and retrofit some lenses to film some great narrative. What is it about apacolyptic movies that brings out the best in filmmakers?

volvocrusher wrote:God that musical number in Jabba's base is just awful. I fast forward through it every time, it's just so unnecessary and unpleasant and full of bad CG. For all the shit that scene with Han and Greedo gets from the change, I still say that bit is the worst change to the originals. And I wear a "Han Shot First" shirt all the time.

I'm not saying the original musical number in the theatrical cut is quality but its better than the song that was used for the special edition cuts. It had a groovy, disco vibe to it.

Now, the one change in ROTJ Special Edition that I can support is the removal of the Yub Yub song at the end. Ewoks can't sing.

Avid, you know damn well -being from the same generation as me- you love those shitty Ewoks as much as I do. You would've sang the hell out of that song with me on my Ewok playset while thumbing the "walk" button with the AT ST. Don't deny it. You probably even broke the strings on the elevator singing the song. Sinner.

I don't hate the Ewoks, just that song. It has always sucked. The SE instrumental tune sounds more festive and peaceful.