What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching? ARCHIVE

Black Barney wrote:

Grudunza wrote: The Thing on cable... The gore/alien FX range from being decent to kind of laughable, so in that sense this is overdue for a remake. But the setting and paranoia and writing/acting still hold up really well.

Are you talking about the recent remake or the remake from the 80s with Russell?

The recent one is decent but not nearly as good the one from Carpenter. But the recent one has a really cute lead female

I mean the Carpenter/Russell one from, I think 1982. There was a newer remake? How did I miss that? Well, it would be hard to equal the Carpenter one, other than the effects. But if the newer one isn't as good, then it goes to show that the direction and writing and suspense are more important.

Technically it's a prequel, as it shows what happens at the Norwegian camp that they visit at the beginning of Carpenter's movie. The new one is not very good. There's no paranoia and it's just a straight up monster movie with the thing rampaging around.

Grud, I think you should see the newer remake especially cuz you were mentionning the special effects of the previous one. This one is all CGI all the time so see what you think. I found the special effects in the Carpenter one superior and scarier. Faces cracking just doesn't do it for me.

Yeah, you have to watch almost anything that's horror/monster related, pre-Jurassic Park, with some forgiveness. Watching the movie last night, I really loved it, and *some* of the effects were great examples of creature design and practical fx gore, but there were a few times when it did look pretty cheesy. It's hard not to see it that way, anymore. And I'm sure when I saw it originally in the mid-80's, that it seemed fantastic. But still, I'd much rather have a great movie with a few cheesy-ish special effects, than something with astounding visuals that isn't a compelling movie. It was the same thing when I rewatched Alien last year, but just for the one scene where the alien runs away after breaking out of the guy's stomach. That actually made me laugh to see. And I hate that, because I know it was probably the best that could be done at the time, and the movie still holds up really well, otherwise.

I just looked up the newer version, from 2011. Doesn't ring a bell, at all. Was that straight to video or something? I have no recollection of ever seeing trailers or ads for it. I'll look for it to watch sometime, though.

Watched Chappie last night and it was decent, but in a world with Fury Road everything else is just a little bit dimmer.

Grudunza wrote: I just looked up the newer version, from 2011. Doesn't ring a bell, at all. Was that straight to video or something? I have no recollection of ever seeing trailers or ads for it. I'll look for it to watch sometime, though.

Nope, just one of those remakes that for some reason need to be done and then are done and then nobody ever thinks about again, yet for some reason never indicate that maybe these remakes are unnecessary. Remember when they re-did Total Recall?

The sad part about "The Thing" prequel from a few years ago, was that the filmmakers originally hired a studio to do TONS of practical effects for the film. You can actually find some of the almost finished work on youtube. It would have been a mixture of practical with CGI and probably would have been really awesome. Apparently the studio jumped in and canned all that shit. The rest is history. The film bombed and now most people don't even know it exists. Fans of the Carpenter film WANTED practical effects. Rob Bottin's effects are still mind-blowing awesome today. Sure some of it is a tiny bit dated, but I'll take that over even Avengers level CGI any day. I'm not a fan of CGI effects at all. My eyes immediately tell me what I'm looking at is bullshit and it rips me out of the film.

And I agree with Charlest....most action movies seem like shit after Fury Road. I went back and watched Neil Marshall's Doomsday the other night. Now, I like Marshall and always found Doomsday to be an enjoyable albeit incredibly flawed film. Damn, I was so fucking bored watching it. I was crazy disappointed. So yeah, Mad Max is fucking awesome. However, it's gonna make all other action movies you see suck asshole and choke on dingle-berries.

Yeah, I also prefer practical over CGI. Sometimes CGI is done perfectly like Jurassic Park and the Lord of the Rings trilogy but sometimes it's just terrible and ruins suspension of disbelief. Star Wars is always the perfect example. In A New Hope (before they added CGI), I actually felt like those x-wings were real and that this Death Star raid was actually happening. When I watch the space battle in Phantom Menace with those sleek Naboo starfighters, I feel like i'm watching a movie.

Man, I wish I could forget that Total Recall remake. That was the worst movie of that year. So insanely bad, I can't believe it

Charlest, I want to see Chappie SO BAD. Love that director.

Black Barney wrote: Charlest, I want to see Chappie SO BAD. Love that director.

It's pretty good and definitely feels like a Neill Blomkamp film so you'll dig it. District 9 was much better in my opinion though. I'm not really sure how I feel about Die Antwoord's inclusion and Hugh Jackman's mullet kept distracting me. It was a bit surreal which I did find enticing.

I saw Tomorrowland. I thought it was decent. My 10-year old niece seemed to enjoy it.

Tomorrowland was basically Rapture.

Another weekend and time wasted.

Elysium - The weakest Blomkamp film I've seen, but still enjoyed bits of his style atmosphere peeking through.

Interstellar - not as good on the small screen as in a theater but still love this one.

Got to check out Mad Max: Fury Road for a second time last night and loved it more. It's simple, in your face action and I loved every minute even more than the first showing. Max, Furiosa, Nux, the slave girls, and the Vulvani mothers are fascinating characters and I can't help but pull for them.

Gone Girl - I don't put many movies on my active hate list but this one is going on there. Nothing to this unless you like over the top drama and plot points that stretch credulity. I want those two plus hours of my life back.

TRON was my favourite movie when I was a kid but I'm not upset at all that they've axed Tron 3. I was super disappointed with the last one and this sounded like more of the same.

Saw Ultron. Pretty solid film, but too long. Not even close to Fury Road. The action, in particular, was agonzingly long at times and I was bored. How many identical humanoid robots do I have to watch destroyed? I was numb by the end to the CGI and robot destruction.

Only some of the good character moments propelled the movie out of mediocrity

Kingsman: The Secret Service - This has some very clever action/fight sequences, and a fun spoofy homage to spy films spirit to it. I especially laughed in sick appreciation of a certain fireworks scene near the end. Wasn't quite fully enamored with the main character/actor, but Colin Firth and Sam Jackson are terrific, and that lady with the razor legs... whoa. Let's just say that the first time you meet her is quite unexpected and memorable. There's also an extended fight scene in a church that is so over-the-top, but brilliantly shot.

Tomorrowland - I was very iffy about seeing this after reading some lukewarm reviews, but I really liked it. A Spielbergian family adventure story with a lot of cool techie stuff and sort of a Men in Black vibe. Gets a little heavy-handed toward the end and perhaps doesn't quite pay off its concept, but still, it's a great one that I think will gain more appreciation on home viewing.

Escape from NY - One of my favorite films growing up, so this had some real nostalgia appeal. Holds up pretty well, but Russell pours it on a little thick with Snake Pliskin's detached cool, and overall I now think that The Thing is the better Carpenter/Russell flick.