The box office

[Vail_Indigo]

That's what I'm trying to say, yes.

Blair Witch is a good movie because it does so much with so little, much like Paranormal Activity. These are two movies I actually didn't like very much on the first viewing but have come to appreciate a lot. At first the payoff in both of them seems pretty poor but the more I thought about it the more I realized that if they had ended any other way, by showing the entities or something like that, that it would have retroactively ruined the rest of the film, which had nearly perfected a horror atmosphere.

I hate slasher films or Saw movies. Those aren't horror films, they're just gross and unnecessary. They're not scary because they're just too absurd and it's impossible to suspend disbelief. Good horror is all about building tension and showing as little as possible. I always felt the documentary style helped the feeling of realism. There's a movie on Netflix Instant called Lake Mungo which really impressed me. I considered putting that on the list instead but I opted for the better known title.

As for the other movies,

In Bruges is the example of a comedy done right. It's intelligent, witty, and most importantly not just one joke stretched out for two hours. It also manages to have a serious overarching plot thread to keep things relevant. The acting is pretty excellent as well. I'm not a huge fan of Colin Ferrell but he does great. Another comedy that I really enjoy would be Groundhog Day.

Watchmen is a 'superhero' movie that manages to be visually and mentally stimulating, rather than just the former. The plot strays so far from generic hero films and it's such a necessary and refreshing change. The ending is pretty perfect because the villain isn't just some mustache twirling characature, but rather a man with noble goals who just arguably went about accomplishing them the wrong way. Maybe it was the only way, however.

Star Trek The Motion Picture will always be the best Star Trek film because it's pretty much the only one that feels like Star Trek at all. II, IV, VI are all very solid as well, especially VI, but it's only TMP that deals with the investigation of the unknown which is what most appealed to me about Star Trek. The 2009 film was flashy but it wasn't Star Trek at all. It was a special effects display stuffed with pointless callbacks. It was a fun movie but it just ultimately wasn't interesting at all. TMP also has some really great visuals for 1979. Better than the first Star Wars, in my opinion. Also the score is fantastic.

Aliens is just the epitome of action/horror science-fiction. It manages to be suspenseful even on repeat viewings. It has a great atmosphere and monster design and Ripley is a perfect example of a strong female lead. Not oversexualized or defined by her relationship with a male character, though she retains feminine tendencies (motherly bond with Newt) as well so she's not just the 'guy with breasts' character model which is really just a cheap way to make a female character seem tough. Interestingly these are pretty much the same reasons why I like the character Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII (though it helps that she's gorgeous).

There you go.

OK, while I don't agree with you on Trek being a good movie, I do see your point about it being more representative of the TV series. The other movies are, basically, adventure flicks.
I love Blair Witch because it causes you to make your own horror. I know a lot of people who hated it because they didn't like the characters. But if you allowed yourself to buy into the conceit, you didn't have to like the characters because it was a documentary. Paranormal Activity was tremendously disappointing though I appreciate what it was trying to do (and I've heard the sequel is much better).

Aliens...well, this movie almost goes without saying. I just rewatched it a few days ago. I was just reading some blog about the entire series and its examination of women. Aliens also passes the Bechdel test. It also kicks ass, managing to be full of action and horror. I also like how it went off on its own, instead of being the same thing as Alien. Alien is, basically, a haunted house story, Aliens didn't do that, didn't even really build on it, it did its own thing.

 

[ShadowFighter15]

Dead Space and FEAR are a bit too reliant on jump scares for their horror portions. They're good action games but I can't say I felt they were very scary. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the best example of a horror video game I can think of. Silent Hill 1 and 2 as well.

Horror-wise; I've heard nothing but good things about how Amnesia and the first two Silent Hill games handled it (haven't played them myself; never owned a PS1 for Silent Hill and don't have much interest in Amnesia - tried the tech demo of Penumbra and just couldn't get the hang of the controls, which I assume Amnesia re-uses) while Dead Space and FEAR have both been accused of shock-horror; stuff jumping out of air vents or whatever.

FEAR did have points where they built up a lot of tension and didn't use shock-horror, but they were few and far between. Only one that comes to mind was in a tunnel in a water treatment plant in the first game and that scare was in the demo so it didn't have much impact when I played the full game. Made me nervous as hell the first time I played the demo though; was glad to get back to a good, ordinary gunfight.

 

[Ausus_girl13]

Eh...I hated "Blair Witch", but then I was like seventeen or something when I saw it. So I will cop to not fully understanding the conceit of it. However, I will not be watching it again. Horror flicks, well all movies just about, have a way of getting under my skin. So pass. But. My bf, being the horror movie buff that he is, he's mostly an expert on zombie flicks (also a reason I hate scary movies, cause I have to watch them with him) but- check out Reeker, it might be on instant still. Zom loved it. You might also Ahren and Vail.

Ooh scary games... Silent Hill 3 terrified me, but Left 4 dead also has it's moments. Anyone play the additional game content for l4d2? There was a fucking hurricane, and these zombies are coming at you from right and left, and you can't do shit to see them or hear them- which is scary and unfair cause there is a tell whenever there is a special zombie.

I'll explain my faves later. Thanks Ahren.

 

[Veroe]

Watchmen is a 'superhero' movie that manages to be visually and mentally stimulating, rather than just the former. The plot strays so far from generic hero films and it's such a necessary and refreshing change. The ending is pretty perfect because the villain isn't just some mustache twirling characature, but rather a man with noble goals who just arguably went about accomplishing them the wrong way. Maybe it was the only way, however.

Nods head, I see your point, but...maybe I'm just being naive but the fact that Ozymandias got away with it doesn't sit well with me. Yeah, mentally as well visually it was stimulating, but emotionally it left me wanting...wanting justice. Maybe it was becuase I identified with Rorshach too much, but Veidt and Doc Manhattan needed a rather severe reality check in that film.
Millions to die to save billions is not an equitable trade off. One life should weigh just as much as ten billion on those scales of justice or life itself is meaningless, without any value.

I'm not saying it wasn't any good, or wasn't thought provoking because it was both. I'm just saying it wasn't satisfying to me.

 

[Vail_Indigo]

Nods head, I see your point, but...maybe I'm just being naive but the fact that Ozymandias got away with it doesn't sit well with me. Yeah, mentally as well visually it was stimulating, but emotionally it left me wanting...wanting justice. Maybe it was becuase I identified with Rorshach too much, but Veidt and Doc Manhattan needed a rather severe reality check in that film.
Millions to die to save billions is not an equitable trade off. One life should weigh just as much as ten billion on those scales of justice or life itself is meaningless, without any value.

I'm not saying it wasn't any good, or wasn't thought provoking because it was both. I'm just saying it wasn't satisfying to me.

1. the millions vs. billions issue is, y'know, sort of the whole point there.
2. that rorschachs journal is about to be opened at the end implies that he may NOT have gotten away with it.
3. #1 + #2 = possibly an even more horrific result.

 

[Veroe]

1. the millions vs. billions issue is, y'know, sort of the whole point there.
2. that rorschachs journal is about to be opened at the end implies that he may NOT have gotten away with it.
3. #1 + #2 = possibly an even more horrific result.

1. Millions vs. billions issue they got a wrong answer on.
2. That was the reason the writer of the comic book didn't endorse the movie, they added that scene at the end as an half-assed way of making people like me satisfied with the film. Which its a clever way to do it, but it was too little too late.
3. If humanity is destined to self destruct in nuclear war we don't deserve to be saved by people in tights with hero complexes. If the normal people of the world can't be swayed by the better angels of their nature to keep self-inflicted armageddon only a horrific possibility that never is realized. If we need a pompous self-righteous mass murdering idiot to keep us from annihilating ourselves we don't deserve to be kept from going down the road of the dodo.

I think that's the root problem I have with the Watchmen in general.
It has a very dark and fatalistic view on humanity which is just dead wrong IMO.

 

[Vail_Indigo]

1. Millions vs. billions issue they got a wrong answer on.
2. That was the reason the writer of the comic book didn't endorse the movie, they added that scene at the end as an half-assed way of making people like me satisfied with the film. Which its a clever way to do it, but it was too little too late.
3. If humanity is destined to self destruct in nuclear war we don't deserve to be saved by people in tights with hero complexes. If the normal people of the world can't be swayed by the better angels of their nature to keep self-inflicted armageddon only a horrific possibility that never is realized. If we need a pompous self-righteous mass murdering idiot to keep us from annihilating ourselves we don't deserve to be kept from going down the road of the dodo.

I think that's the root problem I have with the Watchmen in general.
It has a very dark and fatalistic view on humanity which is just dead wrong IMO.

1. they don't resolve it at all
2. Moore NEVER endorses these movies. He HATES when they make his work into movies. That scene at the end is straight from the comic book.
3. Again, the whole point. Moore's work is a study in ambiguity and uncertainty. His whole point is that there are few, if any, heroes. You have to also remember when this was written. In the 80s, this, along with Dark Knight, Wolverine, and so on were the first wave of serious deconstructionism in the comic book industry.

 

[Last_Rider]

I think the reason I might side with Veidt on the issue is simply because humanity wouldn't just wipe out itself. The whole planet would be pretty much annhilated and uninhabitable for possibly millions of years. When weighing just human life, either one or the whole billions of us, each one should definitely have value. But the whole living Earth I might view differently. Not mammals, but every living thing on the planet could very conceivably been obliterated.

Yes, the view is dark and fatalistic, but during the Cold War era it was a pretty fatalistic time in general. The legitimate possibility that we could just wipe out each other is kind of a downer, and not just could, but at times it went from a "might" to a "possibly". Since the story was set in an excalated 80's version of the Cold War I think the extended fatalism fits nicely.

I like the circular nature of the story too, and the danger of having superheroes in general, and one as powerful as Manhattan in particular. The better angels of our nature weren't exercised because from a geo-political view you had this force that could neutralize mistakes. What exascerbated the whole thing was that this all powerful being was biased, or at least presented as biased towards America. His existence forced the USSR to become a more bitter version that reality, and gave the government a stable figurehead to point at to increase the Russian bitterness towards the west and help keep the people thinking along their lines. So it was only an unbiased attack by said all powerful being that affected everyone that could even get people talking to each other again.

 

[Vail_Indigo]

As LR said, thats the other thing you have to remember. This was Cold War stuff.
Things were grim, people honestly believed that nuclear war was a real possibility.
I mean...there was a Doomsday Clock that got adjusted

 

[Veroe]

1. they don't resolve it at all
2. Moore NEVER endorses these movies. He HATES when they make his work into movies. That scene at the end is straight from the comic book.
3. Again, the whole point. Moore's work is a study in ambiguity and uncertainty. His whole point is that there are few, if any, heroes. You have to also remember when this was written. In the 80s, this, along with Dark Knight, Wolverine, and so on were the first wave of serious deconstructionism in the comic book industry.

True enough.

Top 5 superhero movies.

1. The Dark knight-the closest iteration of the batman from the comic book i've seen and nailing the crucial adversarial relationship between Joker and Batman.
2. Spiderman II-the best I've seen at showing the strain being a superhero would have on someone's real life.
3. Superman II-Shows both the glory of being superman and the anguish of him. As well as having a near perfect superman fight in the streets of Metropolis.
4. Ironman-excelled at showing both Tony Stark's condemnable and commendable qualities while keeping him true to the character and made the suit believable and managed to be a fun movie as well.
5. X-men-managed to tackle a gargantuan mythology and distill into a form that's approachable in a 2 hour running time to people completely ignorant of what the X-mn were about.

 

[Last_Rider]

Personally the only thing I need to know about how grim the Cold War era was is the fact that a movie like Strings, or made for TV movie, is able to exist. I've heard people legitimately endorse the idea that world leaders who consider nuclear options should be locked in a room together and made to watch that film.

 

[Vail_Indigo]

True enough.

Top 5 superhero movies.

1. The Dark knight-the closest iteration of the batman from the comic book i've seen and nailing the crucial adversarial relationship between Joker and Batman.
2. Spiderman II-the best I've seen at showing the strain being a superhero would have on someone's real life.
3. Superman II-Shows both the glory of being superman and the anguish of him. As well as having a near perfect superman fight in the streets of Metropolis.
4. Ironman-excelled at showing both Tony Stark's condemnable and commendable qualities while keeping him true to the character and made the suit believable and managed to be a fun movie as well.
5. X-men-managed to tackle a gargantuan mythology and distill into a form that's approachable in a 2 hour running time to people completely ignorant of what the X-mn were about.

I absolutely hated the X-Men movies (I know I'm the only one).
I am OK with Superman II, but I hate it as well because it seems that all anyone wants to do anymore is pay homage to Donner's vision. I've heard, btw, that the directors cut is markedly better.

 

[Last_Rider]

I enjoyed the first X-men movie, the others not so much. I felt like 2 tried to do too much, and tossed out several character cameo's for no reason. Plus Halle Berry got way too much screen time for me. And the less said about 3 the better.

I might be the only person in the world who thinks this, but I was totally non-plussed by the Spiderman movies. There were good parts, and 2 did a good job of portraying someone torn between reality and being a superhero. Over the whole trilogy however, the best thing about them all was J.K Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and in the "reboot" they seriously need ot recast him. He was perfect.

 

[Veroe]

I enjoyed the first X-men movie, the others not so much. I felt like 2 tried to do too much, and tossed out several character cameo's for no reason. Plus Halle Berry got way too much screen time for me. And the less said about 3 the better.

I might be the only person in the world who thinks this, but I was totally non-plussed by the Spiderman movies. There were good parts, and 2 did a good job of portraying someone torn between reality and being a superhero. Over the whole trilogy however, the best thing about them all was J.K Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and in the "reboot" they seriously need ot recast him. He was perfect.

JK was great as Jamison, and he's really good on the Closer too.

 

[Last_Rider]

Simmons is one of the more underrated actors around IMO. He's got that quasi fatherly thing going in many of his roles, but is completely believable when he does something else. His Jamison was perfect, but my respect for his talents came after I saw OZ. I'd already seen the first Spiderman, and seeing the guy who was perfect for the editor play a character I really wanted dead kind of opened my eyes to his talent.

 

[dragonrazor]

JK was great as Jamison, and he's really good on the Closer too.

I agree. He looked and SOUNDED the way I thought JJ should have.

 

[sallythescorpian]

My Favourite Movies, not in any particular order.

Slumdog Millionaire:
Love the originality of this story. Hard to watch, in places, but uplifting.

Shawshank Redemption
Love the cleverness of this story.

Misery
Not a fan of horrors, but this, to me is the epitome of horror, because it is credible, and it never fails to have me on the edge of the seat.

The English Patient
Brilliant story, with Ralph Finnes in a super hot (IMO) role

The Usual Suspects
I think this is a very cleaver story, and I get more of it each time I watch it.

Gone with the Wind
I just love this movie!

The Original three Star Wars
I dont know why, but I'm just not as keen on the prequels.

The first three Indiana Jones Movies
Love all of these, with the exception of the most recent which I didn't like.

All the Bond movies, to varying degrees. Not keen on Daniel Craig, who, in my opinion has made great action movies.... they're just not Bond!

Bridget Jones’s Diary
I just loved this!

Rocky
I really like this story, not so keen on the rest of them, but the original, yeah I like it, but then I'm a Boxing Fan!

Catch me if you Can
I liked the story, and I liked how he stayed a step ahead of the FBI.

The Hurt Locker.
I really enjoyed this - I felt it had almost a documentary feel to it.

The Monty Python Movies
Especially The Life of Bryan, which I know almost by heart.

 

[Ahren]

The Dark Knight is a horribly overrated film. If it weren't for Heath Ledger's performance, it would have been the dullest superhero movie of all time. Don't try to make your superhero movie a crime drama. Also good call on barely putting Batman in your Batman movie.

 

[dragonrazor]

The Dark Knight is a horribly overrated film. If it weren't for Heath Ledger's performance, it would have been the dullest superhero movie of all time. Don't try to make you superhero movie a crime drama. Also good call on barely putting Batman in your Batman movie.

I agree there. It did give me one of the most memorable Batman-Joker exchanges I can remember though.

"You see, MADNESS, as I'm sure you realize, is like gravity. All it takes is a little PUSH"

 

[Veroe]

I finally got to see the Eagle.

It was good. I liked it.

 

[fr33ks33k]

So I just saw the trailer for X-men: First Class. It looks like it will be an interesting movie.

I'm also interested in seeing I Am Number Four and Sucker Punch, they look like fun thrill-ride movies.

Thoughts?

 

[Alana_]

My little girl wants me to take her to that new Justin Beeper biopic. Oh sweet lord help me, but I'd rather drink acid.

Thing is I know I'll do it, because there's no one else will, bless her.

 

[Veroe]

My little girl wants me to take her to that new Justin Beeper biopic. Oh sweet lord help me, but I'd rather drink acid.

Thing is I know I'll do it, because there's no one else will, bless her.

Oh the joy of being a mother, right

 

[Alana_]

Oh the joy of being a mother, right

That's it V. yes. And I'll probably get lumbered with a car load of her little friends too.

On to grown up things, I look forward to the new Xmen movie. Love them. Don't know much about the original magazines or cartoon, but the movies I love for what they are.

 

[dragonrazor]

So I just saw the trailer for X-men: First Class. It looks like it will be an interesting movie.

I'm also interested in seeing I Am Number Four and Sucker Punch, they look like fun thrill-ride movies.

Thoughts?

Thor looks good. As does Cap, though most people are misunderstanding Cap. "He doesn't even look like Cap"...actually, that's his costume during WW2....