The old movie thread: ratings and discussion' or some shiz

I saw the original crazies a few months ago, good movie. more of an action/thriller movie than a horror.

 

You should probably check out the new one too. Although I never saw the original I've read a review that claimed the new one was the rare case of it being better and I don't doubt that is true.

 

The Karate Kid
Remake of an 80's icon. Not as bad as I thought it will be, but still inferior to the original, which by the way was not a great movie either. Jaden Smith plays Dre Parker, an american 12 year old from Detroit who moves to China with his mom. What mom's job is that requires such move is never fully disclosed (strike one). In China Dre gets beaten up regularly by other preteens chinese boys who know kung fu. He is helped by his building maintenance guy,Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) who hurts the preteen bullies while defending Dre (strike two). Then...what the heck? you know the rest! Jackie Chan does a decent acting job, but can't hold a candle to Pat Morita's Academy Award nominated performance as Mr. Miyagi. The wax on, wax off sequence is replaced by a stupid 'shirt on, shirt down' mimickery that doesn't fly at all (strike three). But while Jaden Smith demostrates having some martial arts knowledge to look a little bit more credible in that department than Ralph Macchio, the truth is that Will Smith's son got the lead role based mostly on who his dad is (the movie producer) than on any acting ability (which he lacks awfully). There were scenes where I literally wanted to cover my eyes while watching Jaden's total lack of emotion in scenes where it required emotion (the 'can-you-fix-my-leg-please? comes to mind). The kung fu fights are okay, if you can accept the idea that preteens were allowed of beating each other with UFC brutality in a prestigious tournament. The film's coproduction company is from China and the film feels like a beautiful postcard with big letters of "TOUR CHINA's EXOTIC LOCATIONS!" Most of the audience attending the film (children & teens who probably have never watched the original) seemed to enjoy this film a lot. I wish I had too. Not bad. Not memorable. So-so. 7/10

 

You actually went to watch the "remake". 0/10 for you.

 

and he gives a "so-so" movie a 7/10 rating?

 

I was dragged by my children. I had no choice.:bangh:

 

7 is so-so in my book. Not bad, not good. It should have been a 5 or 6, but the great China Tourist attractions (The Forbidden City! The Great Wall! The Famous Mountains! The Monasteries!) cinematography was just plain beautiful to knock it down too hard.

 

it has Gemma Arterton which immediately knocks it up to 7/10.

 

Revolver - 8 Out Of 10



Not going to go too much into what this film is about. I hadn't heard anything about it when I first watched it and I think that was a good thing. This film wasn't well received at all and was panned by the critics.

I'm not going to say why I think that is. What I will say is that this is a brilliant film that deals with an engrossing subject. I watched this the first time with a good friend and we both immediately loved it. I have watched it again since and that opinion has not changed.

Go into it without prejudice or expectation and you will be rewarded.

 

Ratings are subjective but I agree with your sentiment. I won't rate anything I wouldn't buy more than a 6. Reading his review, I'd have expected a lot lower score.

 

I remember I watched 7 Pounds that way, without knowing what it was about and came away thinking it was one of my favorite movies. I'm going to give your suggestion a try.

 

Watchmen 9/10----I just rewatched it and it was even better the 2nd time. I had read the graphic novel before watching and originally thought that they did a very good job. I take that back. They did a great job. I thought it would do much better at the box office than it did but I guess it was too cerebral for the masses.
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I think Watchmen suffered from people assuming it was going to be a Spiderman type film. Once word got out that is was actually a serious drama, people stopped going in droves.

 

I loved it. Love superhero movies and love dramas so mixing the two works well for me. I agree with Jokings score of 9/10.

 

I liked it too. I think I gave it an 8.

 

Did you really mean to call Avatar original? It's one of the most derivative plots ever produced! Dances With Wolves, Fern Gully, Pocahontas...this film did more than merely borrow, or pay homage.

 

I wasn't too hot on The Abyss. Ed Harris is a fine actor, & I have only the fondest of memories of Michael Biehn, due to his memorable Corporal Hicks in the iconic Aliens, but the film borrowed suspiciously heavily from Michael Chrichton's Sphere, & was a little cheesy with it's ending & final message.

Still, it was at times quite tense (the scene with Harris' character sneaking up on Biehn's in the hangar was outstanding) & well-shot. I don't know where you're from, but around these parts, The Abyss is remembered as one of Cameron's crowning achievements. I think it's a little over-rated, myself, though I enjoyed it for the most part.

 

Nothing wrong with a little borrowing, especially when you have better dialogue, character development, and an overall much better story. That definitely wasn't the case with Avatar but it was with the Abyss.

 

Have you read Sphere?

 

Actually no, but you don't have to tell me.
Let's just say my point still stands regarding the movie version.

 

I thought The Abyss probably stole from it. To me, I thought the idea of the storyline was much, much more intriguing than The Abyss. That was well-shot & interesting to observe, but the whole peace for humanity angle was a little shmaltzy for my taste.

What made Sphere (the novel) so much more compelling to me was its exploration of the human mind, & the alien construct's interaction with its deepest recesses & thought-patterns. I could hardly put it down.

The tagline really surmised the novel brilliantly...

"A thousand feet beneath the sea, the blackest holes are in the mind."

^^^Foreboding & tense.

 

I've read Sphere (which borrowed heavily from Solaris), although it's probably been 15 years since I've done so. Excellent book, don't remember how it translated compared to the Abyss.

Doesn't really matter to me. One is a screenplay and one a novel. I think Sphere was much more psychological in nature.

I do remember the movie version of Sphere and thought it was better then the flack it got when it came out.

 

Cameron is not original but he makes a bunch of money. I despise the turd.

 

Agree with a lot of that. The movie translation of Sphere was better than the criticism it attracted.

 

GREEN ZONE - 7/10

GENRE: ACTION/DRAMA

PREMISE: Matt Damon plays an Army Chief in Iraq during the period just before Bush gave his infamous "mission acomplished" speech. Damon's job is to find the WMD's but he keeps getting sent on wild goose chases and running into a lot of red tape. Eventually he makes some improvisional moves that lead him on the trail of a government conspiracy and cover up.

CRITIQUE: This movie leans more to the drama side than the action side, but it isn't slow at all. There are a few gun fights but not a lot of blood and violence. Damon does a pretty good and convincing job as the Army Chief and he plays the part of the guy who just wants to do the right thing well. I thought the chase scene towards the end was a bit long but it didn't ruin the movie and the ending wasn't bad either. All in all a pretty decent movie.

RECOMMENDATION: Worth a rental for sure. If I saw it at the movies I wouldn't have been disappointed.

 

REVOLVER

SCORE: 4/10

GENRE: ACTION

PREMISE: Let's see uhh...guy gets out of jail, has a beef with some big big time drug dealer he knew. He later gets recruited by a couple of mysterious riddle talking mofo's and then it kind of just loses me. I can't really tell you what this movie is about because it tries to be more clever than is humanly possible.

CRITIQUE - This movie actually started out pretty interestingly. It was your typical Guy Ritchie movie, flashy music video style with narration cool talking and cool scenes. For a while there I was pretty entertained, but the movie's premise seemed to be too complicated for it's own ability to explain and the conversations started to just get ridiculous and annoying. With about 20 minutes left til the twist ending they'd apparently been building to, I couldn't take it anymore and turned it off. I actually thought that was dumb, turned it back on, looked for a second then turned it back off again for good. There was some good killing and action scenes and you also had Ray Liotta and Jason Statham as the main stars. Andre 3000 wasn't too bad in his role as the main mysterious talking mofo but he was every bit as annoying as this movie was.

 

:: Can't argue with that. It's one of those films you either love or hate with no middle ground.

 

City of God---7.5/10--Powerful story about the circle of life in Brazilian favelas. It was based on a true story as well. It's subtitled but still conveys the message/story well.