What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Lord Dalek]

Dick Tracy. God its cheesy as hell.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I haven't seen that in ages... I should get on that.

[Avaitor]

Just came back from seeing Limitless with a few friends. It was a wholly interesting idea for a film, but not so much a great one. The concept itself lead to a good idea and I especially like how it turned out. I don't want to spoil it, so I'm not going to say what I mean there for now.

I think my major problem with it is that there were some pretty good ideas that were beginning to be explored in the film, but they never really went far with a lot of them. And Bradley Cooper was very ineffective emotionally throughout.

And I also got to watch Witness for the Prosecution. Now that is a good movie. Especially that ending. Oh man, that ending.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I watched Source Code with my friends last Friday. I honestly don't get how this movie got reception as good as it did. It took a good idea and riddled with cliches, and badly done romance sub-plot that didn't work in the least and really made no sense, and the characters themselves made a lot of dumb mistakes that just seemed so obvious to have avoided. Worst of all this movie was completely predictable, which automatically killed any potential entertainment value in it for me, since a movie of this short should definitely avoid being predictable above all else. The performances themselves by the cast were also pretty bland. The nicest thing that I can think to say about this film is that at times it reminded me of Inception, except then I just realized how superior that film was (and believe me, I'm certainly not one of those people who found Inception to be perfect, and I had my problems with that movie as well, as good as it was), and then I only got further disappointed by this film.

Basically, this is a film that has a good concept but completely lacked the writing, acting, and directing talent to execute it properly, and overall I found the final product to be a rather bland film. Its not even really bad or terrible, but its certainly not good either (at least IMO). Its one of those movies that's sort of just, there.

At any rate, perhaps you shouldn't take my word for it, since to my surprise I seem to be in the minority, being that a lot of people have given this movie surprisingly positive reviews. Honestly, though, I think 90% of the reviews that I check out from critics and random users are crap, especially when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes (I absolutely hate it when people try to use RT to argue the quality of a movie, as to whether its good or bad).

[Angus]

Is Source Code one of those movies that's intended to be somewhat intelligent or is it mindless action crap that rides mostly on special effects and not much else?

[Superboy5000]

Saw Insidious last week. It's from the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity so I already assumed it would have a twist ending. Also, the directors for this film are Saw's Leigh Whannell and James Wan and this movie did decent in the box office. The last non-Saw movie they worked on was Dead Silence, which was a good, fresh supernatural flick, but did terrible in the box office. So it's nice to see a non-Saw horror movie do well. One other thing to mention, this movie is PG-13 and looking at other modern PG-13 movies....they weren't good. Insidious, however, took it to a whole other level and used the rating to it's advantage.

I loved how the movie transitioned from being all happy to just intense. Insidious wasn't predictable(like other horror films), therefore I had plenty of jump scares during the ride. The ending was crazy...if you want a horror movie with a twist ending and not just a "happily ever after" ending, this is for you. All in all, I loved it and will purchase it whenever it comes to DVD.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just re-watched Alien. This is easily one of my favorite horror movies from the 70's (yeah, I know everyone thinks of it primarily as a sci-fi film, but its a hybrid in terms of being both sci-fi and horror, and I do count it as a horror film when taking them into consideration). Its basically your typical monster movie type of plot on the outset, with certain elements of the slasher genre mixed in, mainly regarding the whole characters splitting up and getting killed off one-by-one. However, this movie executes it all so well that it feels like its own unique story in many ways. I think what Ridley Scott succeeded in with this film was the element of build-up. Most moviegoers these days may find it too slow, but I like how the film takes time to build up an atmosphere and when things do finally start happening it feels all the more interesting for it.

Now, of course I much prefer the 2nd film which admittedly drops the horror aspect for the most part and orients itself to be more like an action film in many regards, but I would attribute that to James Cameron's own talents as a director, and in all fairness it also takes the time and care to build up an atmosphere and also rackets up the tension without feeling as slow-paced as the first film (though, also to be fair to that film, it was meant to be played out much slower for the type of story that it was telling).

Overall, though, I really love both films. Its a shame that it was actually continued beyond Aliens, though. Aliens had a great ending that left the series off at a perfect spot, but then the 3rd movie was made and it killed everything that the 2nd movie got right (and I mean, literally....it killed off all of the main characters that people actually came to care about....yeah, don't know which dumb-ass writer came up with that idea....), and don't even get me started on the atrocity that was Resurrection.

[Avaitor]

I really need to rewatch Alien. I've given Aliens a few viewings and love it to death, but it doesn't have the atmosphere that the original did. They're both great films, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

David Fincher is responsible for letting that shitfest 3 out. As far as I'm concerned there are only two movies, one from Ridley Scott that is one of the best horror movies ever made and one from James Cameron that is one of the best action movies ever made. That's it.

Its the same problem I have with Terminator 3, in that it makes no sense in the context of the previous films and were written by some dickhead that doesn't understand why these movies resonated with people.

Yes, I actually hate 3 more than Resurrection, because Resurrection is at least standalone and doesn't shit all over someone's work like they know so much better than them. Resurrection is just another shitty revival, Alien 3 killed the fucking franchise and turned it into a joke.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

David Fincher is responsible for letting that shitfest 3 out. As far as I'm concerned there are only two movies, one from Ridley Scott that is one of the best horror movies ever made and one from James Cameron that is one of the best action movies ever made. That's it.

This statement is truth. That is all.

Yes, I actually hate 3 more than Resurrection, because Resurrection is at least standalone and doesn't shit all over someone's work like they know so much better than them. Resurrection is just another shitty revival, Alien 3 killed the fucking franchise and turned it into a joke.

You pretty much nailed mine (and EVERYONE else's) problem with 3. Remember how the 2nd film really went all out building up the characters and making you care about them, and even though a few survived they went through hell to stay alive, and also how Ripley put her life at great risk for a large chunk of the end of the movie to rescue Newt? Yeah, literally within the first minute of Alien 3 it says fuck that and everyone except for Ripley gets killed off and apparently an Alien snuck on board their ship without ANYONE fucking noticing it. I mean, it was plausible in the first film to have an Alien roaming around without anyone knowing where it was because it was more like a giant fucking station, but nobody could notice it on a small escape pod ship (not that it was ever even there to begin with, because some half-assed writer thought it would be OK to just add it in there).

Just like Desensitized, as far as I'm concerned, Aliens was the 2nd and last part of the films. It was a direct sequel to the first part while also being a stand-alone story of its own, and its ending brought a satisfactory conclusion that simply left no room for a sequel. Just because some dumb-ass decided to make one after that doesn't mean that anyone has to consider it canon, and I certainly don't.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I saw Predators a few days ago, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It got the Predator feeling down perfectly, while also using an expanded cast of characters that actually do see to develop as it goes on. So yeah, there is a bit of Alien > Aliens influence here, but it stays firmly in the Predator mold.

The acting was really good, the action was well defined, and the plot was original enough from the first.

If you guys liked the original or the first two Alien movies, check this one out. Something tells me it's going to be forgotten about in a few years.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I heard very mixed opinions on this film and decided not to spend a whole lot of money to see it when it was in theaters. However now that its out on DVD I can probably either rent it off of Netflix if I can convince my brother to get it, or I can just pick it up from a Red Box for a dollar, so I'll check it out when I get a chance to.

As for me, I just saw The Town. Its better than I expected given how much I hate Ben Affleck, but I still don't get all the hype and praise that this movie got. It was an alright movie, and a hell of a lot better than that piece of shit "Gone, Baby, Gone" as well as almost anything else that Affleck has been involved with, but overall it wasn't much more than an OK film, IMO.

[Pharass]

Blood Simple

The Cohen Brothers' debut is an excellent neo-noir (I believe that's the term), featuring great atmosphere and some really tense moments, especially towards the end. M. Emmet Walsh delivers an outstanding performance as the movie's villain: A sleazy private-detective named Loren Visser. Highly recommended.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watching The Apartment right now. Haven't been able to get myself into any of Billy Wilder's films, so I hope this'll be an exception.

[Avaitor]

And what did you think of it?