Rate The Last Movie(s) You Watched

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Comrade Pants

How does that make sense? It's not even an atheist thing since The Exorcist implies the existence of a god of some sort in that universe. I never got it.

Does it? I thought it just implied the existence of demons.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by Comrade Pants

How does that make sense? It's not even an atheist thing since The Exorcist implies the existence of a god of some sort in that universe. I never got it.

I was just saying that being Christian doesn't automatically exlude you from the "dying in horror movies" club. Sheesh. Tetchy.

[Rather Dashing]

Originally Posted by Alcoremortis

I was just saying that being Christian doesn't automatically exlude you from the "dying in horror movies" club. Sheesh. Tetchy.

I was going off Chyron's logic, not movie logic.

[Chyron8472]

I wasn't meaning to apply real world logic to the movie, but rather aspects of the movie's story to real life. I was saying that (myself being a Christian) I kept asking myself why, though they had determined that this was a demon stalking her, they didn't turn directly to God for deliverance. I did say that, it being a movie, doing so wouldn't happen as it would have been too easy.

I do understand however that there are real life accounts of demon possession, which I accept as believably accurate since the Bible describes Jesus and his disciples encountering demon possessed people on multiple occasions.

In short, Paranormal Activity freaks me out because it was filmed in such a way that it looks like it really happened, and I am aware that similar occurrences (though perhaps less dramatic) are capable of happening in real life. I am also saying that, had this actually happened in real life, all that they needed to do was to call on God to save and protect them from this being and to put their faith in His power and not theirs and He would be faithful to do so without question. It's not movie logic. It's real life.

On the subject of The Exorcist, from what I've read about the exorcism that the book/movie was based on, the priest involved didn't die from the event.


[EDIT:]By the way, the version of Paranormal Activity that I watched was the director's cut, not the theatrical version. I have since seen all 3 possible endings, and concluded that the ending in the director's cut (with police) is by far the best one.

[Rather Dashing]

Right, and if they prayed to the wrong God(relied on the strength of a fellow that wasn't specifically the Christian one), they'd be fucked and deserve to die.

[Davies]

Originally Posted by StrongBrush1

The Mask (1994): 0/10

Most overrated comic book movie EVER.

The CGI is pointless to the plot, the jokes are EXTREMELY unfunny, half of the characters are perverts, and almost all of them are ASSHOLES as well. It's painful to watch, it makes me sick every time I watch it. Why did I watch it, you ask? Because I wanted to laugh AT it. It couldn't even accomplish THAT for me. Every single wisecrack and sexual joke is like a punch in the gut for me. Why people like this movie is beyond me.

Actually I liked The Mask when I watched it at the age of 12 upon release but having seen it again as an adult, I'd pretty much have to concur with your opinion.

Still, The Mask is a classic piece of art when compared to it's sequel...

Son of the Mask review:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klo9EnJD9Pw
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYI2g...eature=related

[JedExodus]

Originally Posted by StrongBrush1

The Mask (1994): 0/10

Most overrated comic book movie EVER.

The CGI is pointless to the plot, the jokes are EXTREMELY unfunny, half of the characters are perverts, and almost all of them are ASSHOLES as well. It's painful to watch, it makes me sick every time I watch it. Why did I watch it, you ask? Because I wanted to laugh AT it. It couldn't even accomplish THAT for me. Every single wisecrack and sexual joke is like a punch in the gut for me. Why people like this movie is beyond me.

Brian Setzer Orchestra are in that film and you still didn't give it a single solitary point?

Anyhoo, the Mask's good, you're weird.

[Davies]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

Brian Setzer Orchestra are in that film and you still didn't give it a single solitary point?

Anyhoo, the Mask's good, you're weird.

Yeah because having a difference of opinion is weird and deranged.

[JedExodus]

Originally Posted by Davies

Yeah because having a difference of opinion is weird and deranged.

Exactly.

[Rather Dashing]

I hate The Mask as well, though I'd say it's a "okay, not really bad" Jim Carrey movie if you ignore the awesome source material, which you really shouldn't, because The Mask is a great comic.

[StrongBrush1]

@Davies: Ugh, WHY did that movie even get MADE? Did anybody really WANT a sequel to this bullshit?

@Rather Dashing: Wow, I actually got Rather Dashing to agree with me? That's pretty awesome.

By the way, I know that the movie is based off of a comic book, which from what I've read is pretty good, but I mostly hate the movie because there's nothing funny or halfway entertaining about it.

@JedExodus Let me spell it out for you:

bullshit movie + excellent orchestra = bullshit movie with an excellent orchestra.

Symphony orchestra or not, it's still a horrible movie.

[Alex IDV]

Winnie the Pooh (2011) - 8/10

Lovely. I dislike Pooh's new Swedish voice, though. Can't wait for the DVD release, so I can watch it in English.

[RetroVortex]

The Adventures of Tintin: 8/10

Great movie, and I especially loved the shout-out to Braindead in it.
(Whenever Peter Jackson is allowed to have fun, he brings it! XD)

[Secret Fawful]

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

A movie that gets better on repeat viewings

I'll start off by mentioning I don't hate motion capture. I didn't hate it when Zemeckis used it, and I don't hate it now. Why? Because despite the fact that Zemeckis failed miserably, I admire him and everyone since for pushing through failures to achieve something. Something like motion capture will never be perfect at first, and it may even look awful. The Polar Express remains one of the worst instances of animation I've ever seen, but if you look beyond that, you can actually see a great amount of effort and some really beautiful art. I admire people who fight for something even if it doesn't work. Well, motion capture does work. The proof is in Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and The Adventures of Tintin.

Motion capture, or more specifically, performance capture, works best when it's working with something that is only a slight exaggeration of reality. Too far and it steps into ugliness. Performance capture wouldn't work well with Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse, but it works well with King Kong, who is an ape exaggerated in size but not in realism, and with Herge's drawings, which are stylized exaggerations of reality with jokes and slapstick that only slightly exaggerate reality. Now that doesn't always mean performance capture has always succeeded under this law, but that's not due to the law being wrong but due to the technology not being good enough to render the films.

Uncanny valley rarely affects me. It's only affected me in one movie: Perfect Blue, where uncanny valley was intentionally used on the lead villain at the end to make the person extremely unsettling. As far as CGI uncanny valley, I'm so used to seeing bad CGI I can't tell one flaw from another. Needless to say, it doesn't hit me on Tintin either. To me, the CGI looks very very good. I don't notice any strangeness in the mouths or eyes. Maybe some will. I can't. It just doesn't work on me in CGI.

Tintin's story is bare bones, but it's no more bare bones than the comics or Spielberg's other adventure movies. Therefore, it's not a flaw of the film. We've come into an era where story and dialogue heavy movies like The Dark Knight and The Departed take the reigns. Everyone expects this out of their movies now. With this movie, Spielberg is taking a trip back to the action movies of the 80s, and a lot of people aren't going to like that. It's going to be too cheesy or quick for some. I find it fun and thrilling. Tintin is no Raiders, but I would stick it right with the Last Crusade in Spielberg's filmography. It uses a lot of the same tricks and even some similar action sequences. Both films have action sequences on a boat, on a plane, where the character comes a little too close to a spinning propeller, a motorcycle chase where the older lead has to ride in a sidecar, where written clues must be deciphered, and a tank even figures in at one point. The relationship between Tintin and Haddock isn't so much like the relationship between Indy and his father as much as it is two great friends. Haddock, being the older man, has more worldly wisdom, but at times his age shows a type of stupidity too. Tintin doesn't speak to him as a father, but as a man who is his friend but still exasperates him to no end.

Tintin, unlike Indiana Jones in Raiders, isn't superfluous to the most important pieces of the plot. Yes, unlike Indiana Jones. If Indy hadn't have gone after the Ark in Raiders it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the story one bit. He was superfluous. And yet Raiders is still praised as one of the greatest films of all time. And when you bring this up, do you know what most people say? Who cares. It's Indiana Jones. The real star of The Secret of the Unicorn is Captain Haddock. Andy Serkis brings an incredible amount of life, energy, and endearing feel to the character. By the time the film was over, I no longer felt I was looking at animation, so convincing did I find Haddock. He's easily one of my favorite characters of all time. He's easily as enigmatic, as interesting, as funny, and as charming as Jack Sparrow or Indiana Jones or hell, even Sean Connery. If you don't like my Jack Sparrow comparison, as I know many of you won't, shut up. I don't care. The movie is Haddock's story. From the minute he appears on screen, we follow an incredibly engaging portrayal of a man hardened not only by a curse on his family, but by the effects this curse has had on his mind and character. The fear of the curse drove Haddock to become a severe alcoholic, incredibly feeble and depressing and sad one minute, and a roaring, dangerous, frightening visage of drunken rage the next. There are times where I wondered if Haddock was actually physically dangerous to those around him, as he goes out of his head in drunken hallucinations and ramblings over and over without warning. Tintin is a stabilizing character, with a no nonsense attitude and no tolerance for vices or dejected characters, and he acts as a stabilizing force in Haddock's life. Tintin is the catalyst that begins Haddock's transformation into a better, sober, unyielding man in the image of his adventurous and successful ancestors.

The Unicorn is simply a MacGuffin for Haddock to restore his name. A driving force that gives him the strength to beat his addiction and carry on a better family name. I felt incredibly sympathetic for the character, and no movie with no worthwhile story would do that. The villain is more than just, as some have called him, a slightly anger looking professorly gentleman. He's a creature whose entire existence is to destroy, ruin, and kill Haddock. He lives to enact his ancestor's curse on Haddock, and once you've seen the events of the past play out in their ancestor's great duel, the movie becomes so engaging as a scenario of repeating history that it never lets you go. The problem? Slow films have conditioned us to expect things to play out in a lazy fashion for us. The events of the story and the important themes and ideas play out at a pace the current generation is unused to. That's why I say, repeated viewings make the movie better, because the information is given in the details. What comes across as a simple film at first, upon more viewings, becomes increasingly complex, and the true mastery behind it shines through. Spielberg is so good at this genre, that he has literally made a film where his hand in it is nearly invisible. You'll think, oh those are neat techniques, or huh thats kind of a fun action sequence, but you won't realize how well it all works and how well designed it all is the first time. This could be a flaw in the film, I'll admit, but it's a flaw that weeds its way out. This is different for Spielberg's other recent adventure film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, where the annoyances only become more and more annoying on repeat viewings. The movie ends on a natural thematic conclusion which is both thrilling and well created.

Herge was an artistic genius. He was a serious researcher, and had traveled all over the world. What we regard as racist now in his art, may just have been how things looked back then. Watching Back to the Future and Indiana Jones, I'm always seeing things that looked like they popped right out of a Herge comic. This film is a perfect match. It's not without it's flaws, and I do admit it could have used a bit more filler and padding, but overall, the scenes are memorable and well done. If you find the valley dips too low or you, nothing will save this film for you, probably. The valley doesn't affect me, so I'm able to look beyond that. Even so, I didn't see any signs of bad animation in this film, except in one instance. A close up. An EXTREME close up.

The movie is made even better by John William's music. I can't imagine how anyone could listen to the music from this movie and think it was boring, or that it's unmemorable. Sir Francis and the Unicorn is one of the best pieces of film music I've ever heard. The pirate battles in this film blow Pirates 2 and 3 out of the water in both whats on the screen and the music. Pirates 2 and 3 never gave me the impression any of the characters were really that clever or even good pirates, but Tintin makes me believe Red Rackham and Sir Francis Haddock are truly cunning pirates, always with a trick up their sleeves. And it does it in only a few minutes.

Spielberg uses Tintin as an opportunity to explore camera techniques and film transitions he couldn't do in live action. Some will call this too dynamic because it does things live action couldn't and wouldn't and therefore might take some out of the movie. I loved it. I was truly pulled in and impressed by every technique I saw. Moreso than in the Polar Express, where the experimentation went a bit too far and wasn't very visually pleasing. Part of the reason the movie works is BECAUSE the experimenting it does so is natural and flows, and doesn't take up your time by focusing on things like feet moving through dirt...like in Avatar.

Anyway, I give the movie a 9 out of 11. I've already watched it several times, and I plan to buy it and watch it over and over once its out on Blu-Ray.

PS: Joop said the slapstick didn't work. It worked just as much as anything in Home Alone or Indiana Jones did. Then again I liked the atomic refrigerator. Sue me. I've seen bigger stretches of believability in silent comedies.

[Trenchfoot]

Glad to read you liked it so much!

I have to wait to December to watch it, though. And that's weird, because here Tintin's as popular as he's in Europe! No fair

But I'm really looking forward to watching it. I've been listening to the soundtrack non-stop lately. It's awesome!

[Vainamoinen]

Amélie 10/10
(dubbed in German, sorry, my French just sucks)

Once a year, I need that movie so badly, and manly man or not, the tears keep rolling every time. Looking out for a Blu Ray version just 'cos.

[Joop]

Originally Posted by Secret Fawful

"Secret Fawful's review of The Adventures of Tintin"

Though I disagree with you on the story and characters part, the techniques used were indeed breathtaking.
I too, however, liked the refrigerator in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

For the people who haven't checked the other thread, here's my review of the film.

Originally Posted by Joop

Visually stunning, story wise boring.

When going to film school, there was one mistake that I saw a lot of the beginning directors, cameramen, editors and the like make. They were all so focused on the technique behind the film, that they forgot to focus on story and the characters. Watching Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn made me feel like I was in film school again.

From the first shot on, walking into the world of Tintin feels amazing, you see that everything was treated with the greatest care and eye for detail, and even though they still can't quite seem to get eyes right, the whole movie looks absolutely amazing. Strangely enough, you don't get the time to enjoy the beauty of it all, because right after the initial scene you're taken into a roller-coaster ride. It's there where this movie is starting to show it's flaws. There's very little breathing time left for the movie, and because of this, you never really get to feel or care for the characters. They never become lovable, they don't get their moment to shine and they're never genuinely funny.

Watching the whole spectacle, one begins to wonder if Spielberg purposely chose to abandon all basic storytelling rules and just go with it, or if he was distracted the whole technique of motion capture while making it. At least, to me, it feels that way.

As a result of this, the movie falls a bit flat. You have a great introduction sequence, but after this you're sucked into one two hour action sequence which is barely followable because of all the different layers of action going on on screen. Steady camera shots have been replaced by a constantly moving roller-coaster cam, which gives beautiful lenghty shots, but gives so much information that it's barely followable en sometimes even stomach turning.

Another part where the technique doesn't compliment in the storytelling is with the sometimes slapstick humor. Because the characters look so real, except for some facial features, as a viewer, you can't really accept some of the things that happen to them. If a piano falls on a cartoon character, you think it's funny because you accept that he'll just come out of it unharmed except for the fact that the piano keys are (completely playable) sticking out of his mouth. If that same thing happens to a human, we know that he would have broken every bone in his body and, if still alive, would have to be driven to the intensive care immediately. These kind of things feel illogical in the movie and take the viewer away from the viewing experience.

Storywise they took the easy way out. The situations feel forced and uneasy, like they wanted to put as many locations in the film as they could, and the plot, told by action instead of dialogue, is rather laughable. I don't like to compare the source material to the movie in a review, but the way they translated and hollywoodised the story feels out of place and never genuine. This feeling even goes as far as the soundtrack, because even the music by the brilliant John Williams seems flat, uninspired and never truly memorable. We never hear any of the compositions that Williams excels at, the recognizable orchestrated themes introducing plot elements or characters, telling a story of their own. But to be honest, these elements never really get enough screen time to have their own theme.

In a nutshell, it feels like the movie was focused on technique, and while it looks truly beautiful, it lacks in all the other departments. And in a world in which computer graphics get prettier every day, this movie, in a couple of years, will be forgotten with the rest of the for-their-time beautiful, but lacking story wise, computer animated films.

The Adventures of Tintin; Secret of the Unicorn
** out of *****

[KingHorror]

(ils)Them(2007) 8.5-10

Just Watched Thiem (Not to be confused with THEM!(giant ants) or Them (2008) Yesterday on Netflix, This low-budget French Thriller is very short (1hr. 16min.) But very, very good. This film also (Probably) served as the "unofficial" inspiration for The Strangers as well. Some even compare this to High Tension.

The Film is about a school Teacher and her husband who are attacked in their Secluded home by an unseen force (who you don't see until 3/4 of the way though the Movie) This movie works so well Because of the atmosphere and setting which are the real stars of the show IMO (Think the black and white The Haunting) as well The acting and cinematography and camera work. Tension is built through sound effects and music(again, think The Haunting). I deducted 1 1/2 stars due to the lack of Character development (but Let's be honest how much character development could you have in an hour) and the Twist at the end (Yes there's a twist, SHOCKER right) not that it's a bad twist, it's just that You don't expect it to be what it actually is.

Highly Recommended(especially if your in to foreign movies)

[DrRocketGenius]

The Muppets - 10/10

[StrongBrush1]

Originally Posted by DrRocketGenius

The Muppets - 10/10

Looking forward to seeing it on Friday. Today is Thanksgiving, so there aren't really any plans for today other than the usual bidness.