What movies are you watching these days?

Scout · Post by **Scout** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:57 pm

Bought Chronicles of Narnia last week- and loved the cgi and storyline. I was impressed with how close it stayed to the book.

Also went to go see a movie this morning with my mom called :Failure to Launch" and I didn't care much for it. It's about a fella who lives with his folks- 35 years old, good job, Porsche-looking car, and won't leave home. Without spoilers, his parents try to find a way to get him to move out on his own. The plot was amusing imo, but it wasn't quite good enough to merit its length.

I know "Memoirs of a Geisha" was brought up recently, but anyone else see any movies that they'd recommend or not recommend?

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:40 am

I write reviews for http://www.filmsy.com so pretty much every movie I see recently gets posted there.

I've seen a number of movies lately, but here's one for Stay Alive

Stay Alive

A more appropriate title should have been “Stay Away”.

A potentially interesting concept, though shamefully stolen from films like The Ring, a group of trendy gamers who buy all their clothing from Hot Topic accidentally happen upon a cursed Playstation 2 survival horror game called “Stay Alive”. The game is based on the murderous Elizabeth Batherly and the players have to uncover the mystery of her killing-spree and “Stay Alive”. But all these kids totally suck and can’t manage to “Stay Alive” for crap. So however they are killed within the game, they are killed the same way in real life. That may sound entertaining, but the PG-13 rating sucks all the gore and suspense right out of it.

Just about the only satisfying portion of the movie, and the only segment that can be considered even remotely “scary”, is the first five minutes where you assume the first person perspective of one of the in-game characters, and wander through the darkly lit corridors of the haunted house, being chased by zombie children hanging off the walls.

However, that’s only the first 5 minutes. The remaining 75 are nothing but the standard cardboard cut-out characters (the bitchy goth chick, the loud-mouthed jackass, the stoic hero, the quiet girl, the hyper active youngster) being bumped-off in all manner of wholesome PG-13 ways while they make all the wrong choices and have you either sleeping, groaning or demanding your money back.

There are no real twists or turns, and characters seem to just “know” certain key bits of information by reading an ancient text for five minutes (the goth chick is the most annoying in this department). All while this is going on, the characters name-drop various video games and related accessories to make the undersexed 1337 gamers of the world squeal because “OMG I get that reference!” This movie is basically what would happen if G4/Tech TV had their own Hollywood production studio.

I can also sum up in two words the major contributing factor which made this movie so irritating: “Frankie Muniz”. His character is one of those annoying hyper-active know-it-all gamers you probably have crawling all over your high school, and you just want to deck him in the face. As a matter of fact, you’ll want to slug most of the cast in the jaw or eye-socket, even the women, because it’s just the typical human reaction to torture.

So on the “Relative Grading Scale of Scary Video Games”, a GOOD movie would rate as a “Silent Hill” or there-abouts. However, this was not just a BAD movie, but a VERY BAD movie, so it can rate no higher than “Dig Dug”.

StoneCold Skywarp · Post by **StoneCold Skywarp** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:57 am

Ice Age 2 rocked the show, despite being a whole lot more kiddified than the original Ice Age.

Recently, I've been going back to films like Kill Bill, Natural Born Killers and just last night; The Godfather. I've more of a passion for older classics at the moment than any modern stuff.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:24 pm

Saw The Ringer recently, an ok film, was funny at the time but I wouldnt go out of my way to see it again, watched King Kong yday aswell, very good film, CGI poor in a number of areas, but fantastic on Kong

CloudStrifer · Post by **CloudStrifer** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:55 pm

Recently? I watched King Kong in a Theater. Thats the last movie I saw in a theater in a long time. Otherwise most movies I have watched are from DVD's such as Kingdom of Heaven, Walk the Line (Which was pretty good), Flightplan, Five Star Stories (Anime Movie, good as well), Doom, Transporter 2 and Constantine.

I watched Kung Fu Hustle last night, it was amazing. I must get the DvD's for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well as Iron Monkey. Simply Amazing and funny to boot too.

Scout · Post by **Scout** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:34 pm

I really enjoyed Ice Age very much- I'd like to go see the sequel as it sounds very good. If I recall correctly, Queen Latipha (sp?) does the new wooly mammoth in there, and she's usually got a very good sense of humour. Love the squirrel-thing too.

Along that same sort of all-animated film concept, I watched "Valiant" last night, and it's very well done. Made by the folks who did Shrek, I was quite impressed. It puts a big focus on the historical English role against Germany in a fun way, but moreover, the animation coloration techniques in the film are really incredible.

Walk the line and King Kong I did get to see in the cinema. King Kong was fun and the cgi was amazing, but just a tiny bit too long in the jungle scenes. Was impressed too with Walk the Line. Hear all the time about how hard it is on musicians to travel, perform and still balance a family; but the show did a really good job of portraying the likeness.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:15 pm

I just got a copy of the orginal version of The Producers it's very funny.

I also got a copy of The Trial it's a very weird movie to say the least.

dai-atlas2000 · Post by **dai-atlas2000** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:26 pm

Movies at the moment. The last film i saw at the cinema was "V for Vendetta" and I think I liked it. It was one of those films which kept you hooked throughout and was trying to be more clever than it actually was...I think. Aside from that I really enjoyed "Walk The Line" - which made me want to go and check out more Johnny Cash music - it was very very good. "Eight Below" was very heart-warming. "Hoodwinked" was hilarious.

I watch movies on a weekly basis with 2 friends who are very into their films, actors and genres - they've introducted me to a lot of new and exciting genres, movie styles and international films. I've developed quite an appreciation for epics, classics and Asian films

I like intriguing films where you must watch everything and then piece it together to get the conclusion at the end - these sort of films stimulate and encourage the imagination. Films where you have no clue as to what is going on until you start to work it out are very enjoyable. I saw the film "Donnie Darko" a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it as it was so very complex.

There are plenty of animated flicks that I'm eagerly awaiting to see this year - "Cars" for one. There's another one about animals in a street neighbourhood that i forget the tile of - it looks good too.

I find people's reactions to movies to be interesting, some people are content to watch and be entertained, others watch, are entertained and then want to discuss in depth what they watched afterwards. I watch movies with different people - I love to watch animated films and adventure/action films with my fiance because we both have a great love for these sorts of movies and have similar tastes as regards what we enjoy. However, if I watch a film with my film buddies, we're likely to have a 20 minute - an hour long in-depth discussion/debate about the merits of the film afterwards - discussing actors, ideas and thoughts about the movie - possible angles for sequels, ideas for future roles, etc.

Sassy · Post by **Sassy** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:52 pm

I haven't been to the movies much lately. Nothing has come out that's caught my interest.

Generally I watch movies that feature preformers that I like to wach. I love Hillary Duff's Movies. I'll watch anything that she is in. I'm also a big fan of Jennifer Lopez. So basically I go for comedys, dramas, that sort of thing.

The only type of movie that I particularly wont want to go see are Horrors, I've seen a few while on dates but they really aren't my thing.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:43 pm

There was a DVD sale on in the town hall this week and I picked up the original Planet of the Apes boxset and the Star War trilogy dirt cheap. "You damn dirty apes!".

Wildfire Herald · Post by **Wildfire Herald** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:22 pm

Originally posted by DrSpengler
I write reviews for http://www.filmsy.com so pretty much every movie I see recently gets posted there.

I've seen a number of movies lately, but here's one for Stay Alive

C'mon Spengs, you know that's just unfair. Dig Dug was a great game and doesn't deserve to be associated with this crappy movie.

Scout · Post by **Scout** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:05 pm

Dig Dug was a great game, but Pacman > Dig Dug.

Monkey Island, Frogger and Burgertime were also really good.

And on another note- that Cars movie looks awesome. It's on the 'must see opening night' list.