1386 replies to this topic

[Burning_Wulf]

Superman/Batman- Apocalypse. 9/10

So far, the best of the Superman/Batman movies. Stays very true to Michel Turner's Supergirl Origin story. I say this is a real must watch for any Dc fan.

[chouzu_tao]

Karate Kid (2010) 8/10: Not gonna lie, as I remember the original, I prefer this new one over the old one. Might need to watch the old one again. I both agree and disagree with them keeping the title what it is. The film's martial arts focus is on Kung Fu not Karate, but the title has notoriety and that's probably why they kept the title. The choreography feels superior ... but little Jaden still needs some time to grow as an actor, but this is his first foray into acting. Miss the swinging drum though.

[Cupcake-chan]

Social Network - 9/10
I think that anyone who has a facebook should watch it. the movie is interesting, but... sometimes it was a bit hard to understand what the guy was saying, but other than that, it's good.

[catsi563]

R.E.D. (Retired Extremely Dangerous) 10/10

A classic action movie with an amazing cast, brillaint plot and story. and just plain hillarious comedic moments. The scene at the end is just priceless. If you enjoyed the expendables at all youll absolutley flip for this movie, and if you ddint youll still enjoy the heck ouf of Willis, Freeman, Mirren, and Malkovich who put on just stellar performances.

In fact almost lost in the bright light of the main characters is Karl Urban playing a great antagonist.

[Vyse]

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

Alice is back yet again, in the fourth (!) movie in the series based on the games from Capcom. In Extinction, Alice learned more about the powers she inhabits after being exposed to the T-virus by Umbrella (eh eh) Corp, and Afterlife starts of with a bang, a couple snikts and a slash. We start out watching Wesker, that cheeky bastard, order his Japanese fodder around. It's almost like watching a really weirdly animated anime when the two snipers in the beginning tries to win a zombie killing-contest against the other. Since they didn't get names, I named them Zoro and Sanji.
Alice found a hangar full of clones of herself in the movie before this, and they start out this movie. A bunch of Alices' Vs the underground base of Umbrella in Japan. I won't spoil anything, but I did find myself annoyed over the recurring shoe-transformation power Alice has developed. They don't even try to hide the disappearing high heel from her boot, as she's suddenly wearing flat shoes to help her running. I bet women across the globe would enjoy those shoes tremendously.
After poop hit the fan, the real (!) Alice shows up to confront Wesker, and he actually removes her Jedi force powers, at the point where I was actually willing to accept them as a cool thing. With a slick grin, Wesker looks at a downed Alice and says "I'm what you were, only better", but we all know that's not true, or the movies wouldn't be fun. They crash, and Alice (now human) survives. She decides to go to Arcadia in Alaska, where Claire took K-Mart and the others in Extinction. That's where the movie really starts, and it's surprisingly good.

I didn't expect much from this movie, since it's been a steady downwards spiral after the first one (which I loved). Alice turning into a lesser version (at first) of Jean Grey's Phoenix Force was annoying, and I was prepared to watch and dislike this one. Turns out I enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought possible. I'm totally in love with Milla Jovovich's character, and she didn't turn less badass from her regression to human. She has enough weapons on her to plow through hordes of Zombies, and her ability to feel fear seems to have been disabled long ago... that, or she just doesn't give a crap anymore. Thing is, Milla Jovovich does a very good job in this movie. She moves well, and her character is awesome. The other human survivors work well to, and in this movie we two pretty damn awesome characters make a formidable team to beat Wesker. Team Redfield lives up to my hopes, and I'm happy to see Claire and Chris played to a point they deserve. The story is pretty good, and this movie takes a slight turn to the first one, and becomes more claustrophobic again, which is great. If some of you have played Resident Evil 5, you might recognize the huge zombie with the hammer/axe from the early parts of the game. Well, he's bloody scary here as well. How can something so big, be so silent? I'm just saying.

The movie lives and breathes because of the 3d gimmick. It didn't need it, but it helps the overall effect of the movie. I'm even less psyched about going to watch Saw 3d now, but you can say what you want about 3d... it's cool. The characters were mostly played pretty well, and the new characters to this movie were good enough for me. The cgi is done well, and the 3d really is cool. Add that to a bunch of well choreographed fights, and an actual story this time around, and you'll sit with the best Resident Evil movie since the first one.

Highly recommended.

7/10.

[CloudMountainJuror]

Red Dragon: 10/10

In few words, it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, short and sweet. I love it! Hopkins simply is the best Lecter!
Compared to Manhunter, this movie isn't even in the same league. Manhunter wasn't nearly as good as this!

[chouzu_tao]

Paranormal Activity 2

Don't. No. Seriously don't... You want an explanation? Fine, okay. --Click here to view--

This movie is a complete waste of money not only from the audience but also by the studio and I'm sure they didn't spend too much on it. I don't understand how this movie has achieved even an average rating. Some critics call it superior to the first. Did they see the same movie? Technically they did. This movie is essentially its predecessor except poorly executed, I swear if I wrote down the "paranormal activities" that happened from the first one and compared them to the second one, they are almost note for note the same ones, in the same order with the exception of one or two added in. Okay, some people will argue that this was done on purpose to parallel the first one's goings on, because this is a prequel with the same demon moving on to haunt a family member. I answer you with two things, one, sequels are supposed to be the same but different and better, warranting it's existence, and two, that makes the antagonistic force a complete bore if it has a checklist of what it does and follows it to the 't' each time it haunts someone new. But we'll get to the neutering of the demon a little later. This one is a paint by the numbers remake of the first one, with a few added characters. You have the skeptical male protagonist, the freaked out female protagonist, the spiritual character whom has some know how as to how to deal with the paranormal situation. They've added two other characters, the daughter, whom ... I don't know why she was added, honestly, the step-mother and the daughter are simply Katie from the first film split into two parts. They also added a baby. And with the addition of the baby they've also added a stupid plot point which makes the demon less menacing and more the cliche everyday variety. Let me explain, in the first film the creature is of pure antagonistic evil, it enjoys toying with the protagonists, there's no rhyme or reason to it and that makes it all the more scary that it had been following one of the protagonists on and off again for several years. The fact that we don't know why adds to the tension in the first movie. In this film they explain too much giving it a cliched back-story in that the main female protagonists from both films (sisters) had a rich great-grandmother and that she probably got rich by making a pact with this demon, and decided not to pay the agreed upon price, so now the creature hunts the first born male child in their family which has not appeared until now in the protagonist's baby. WTH? Why did you feel you needed to explain it? CLICHE CLICHE CLICHE

This film essentially feels like a cheap knock-off the first film, you know the films that come out around the same time a big movie comes out, with the same themes, character or character types, and plot, but they completely miss the points that made the first film so effective.

Too many shots in too short of a time. They switch cameras too often. In the original film there were three main shots throughout the film, the living-room, the kitchen, and the bedroom. In the first film almost all of the terror is experienced from the bed in their bedroom, the safe-haven, eliminating that safe haven. Most of the extra haunting stuff they discover as we follow along via camera and also discover. Because they hear the other stuff going on instead of seeing it that adds to the unknown element, forcing the audience to scare themselves before the protagonists are even able to muster up any courage to check and see what happened. Going along with there being too many shots the dramatic concentration is scattered and we're never able to fully feel for these folks, some conversations are skipped over as if someone decided to pause the recording camera until the end of the conversation, then decided to press record again. I don't know if it was lack of writing talent and lack of faith in writing talent, but why would you show us a conversation you feel is mostly unimportant? If it is important why skip over portions of it? If you don't care, we don't care! The film editing is clippy, and we are aware that the film is edited. The first film, really feels like a guy walking around with a camera or a camera on a tripod, the conversations are invested so we are invested. There's no emotional core to the characters and this is probably because for most of the film we barely see any of the character's faces, we see a lot of the back of the heads and the top of heads, WTH? How are we supposed to connect with people who have no faces? If their faces are so unimportant record a radio-play don't waste money making a film!

Set pieces, waaaaaaaay too busy. In the first film we do play the 'Where's Waldo' game, where we try to figure out what's happening first, is that light going to turn on and off? Is the ouji board piece going to move by itself. So yes tht's part of the formula for the first film but there are only a few set pieces to guess about. The first movie succeeds because it uses the audience's own imagination against them. The bedroom from the first film is simply a bed, and two doors, one that leeds to darkness and one where we can't really see what's happening because it's to the side. Again the element of the unknown playing with the audience's mind. And the beauty of the first film is that many of the scares are like a greek tragedy, you know what's going to happen but it's the waiting and the build up that makes it pay off. In this film there are too many set pieces and set dressing and because of this when the audience tries to predict what will happen they spend too much time wondering what will happen versus panicking about it happening.The purpose utterly defeats itself in this film by being too complicated, by the time we figure it out, it's already happening and it's like, "Oh, that's what's happening", versus "OH, that's what's going to happen! Get out of there, woman! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! You should run now!"

There are some unintentionally funny things. In a horror film, that is suicide. The first paranormal thing that happens, or maybe not even paranormal at all, is that the pool cleaning machine keeps winding up on the side of the pool vs in the pool over night. They put this scare in gray water by having the husband discover that depending on how it works the machine can shoot itself out of the water onto the pool-side, and because the director never has the creature do anything with this machine again to show that indeed it is the creature doing it and not the machine itself it makes that scare not really a scare and again makes the creature a wussy vs the first iteration of it which did everything to let the characters know that it is indeed behind all the scary stuff. The second unintentionally funny thing about the movie, I'm going to spoil it because this film is such crap that there isn't much of a spoiler: The female protagonist from the first film whom is possessed by that film's conclusion, shows up at this house and snaps the husband protagonist's neck, the way it's done looks hilarious. The sequence reminds you of a ninja. Also the ending mimics the first film, but where as the first film has you writhing in your seat psyching yourself out as to what will happen at it's conclusion then completely blind-sides you, this film has the possessed woman walk up to the female protagonist of this film, while she's holding her baby, and then she kicks her into the camera, like it's done for a football game to score the extra point. I'm not kidding. The Field goal kick is good! Another suck-point about the ending to this is that the climax is unclear, the falling action is not a falling action because the climax just kind of ends the build to the climax is piss-water, and then the falling action turns into a pseudo second climax then just ends again on a not scary but hilarious note.

Another disastrous aspect of this film is that not only is it a watered down and filtered version of the first film, it feels like a freshman attempt at horror. They jam-pack this thing with all the items used to irk or act as a foreboding force in other horror films. The baby crying, the baby looking at things not there, the dog barking, the kettle whistling for long amounts of time, a bird flying full on into the window killing itself out of panic, the basement, the creepy child's toy that's supposed to be cute and unnerving (but is not), and the evil baby. Seriously... just because you jam this sucker full of things that have become main-stay horror uses, doesn't mean it'll automatically make your film scary, you have to build to each one of them not just toss them in there.

I almost pity the director, Todd Williams, for having the unenviable task of trying to catch lightning in a bottle a second time with a sequel to a film that needed no sequel, only because a studio hoped to cash in on a cheaply shot film that made millions back, only to use the same formula, add nothing new and manage to cheapen the first and far superior film. But hey, Todd Williams move five spaces and collect a check! So you get no pity. You suck!

1/10

Edited by chouzu_tao, 27 October 2010 - 04:08 AM.

[Dreamer]

Skyline-8

Review @ General Movie Discussion thread

Edited by Dreamer, 14 November 2010 - 05:12 AM.

[Dreamer]

Unstopable-10/10 A master piece, based on real events, i really enjoyed this movie. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine make a great team.

[ShinkuUzumaki]

Scott Pilgrim vs. the world: 10/10 amazing movie!

[Muffins?]

Due Date- 6/10

Good for a few chuckles not much else.

[Pink Cherries]

127 Hours- 9.5/10

A well done movie. I would recommend people to see it.

[catsi563]

Tron Legacy 8/10

A fun fats paced action packed movie with awesome special effects a reasonably decent story with slightly above average action, and some minor rough spots plot wise. But over all effect is a fun action packed roller coaster that makes you want to ride a light cycle.

An easilly recommended and well done sequel to the original.

[No WhereMan]

Resident Evil: Afterlife

5.75/10

They should have stopped after the first one. I swear I didn't like this movie soooooo much.

[Toasty Warrior]

The Expendables 9/10 - It's definitely a must for anyone who's a fan of the old 80s action flicks, everyone who was involved in the movie did an excellent job and the action was quite awesome and the humor was also spot on.

[chouzu_tao]

The Social Network 7/10

Really good performances, but that's only part of the whole, and I feel this movie is good, but is not the amazing thing it's made out to be. I don't understand why this movie is considered great and has made it onto a lot of critics top 10 of 2010. Can someone explain this to me? There's no real point to the movie, the "main" character is an @sshole, not just "trying really hard to be an @sshole" like another character says. The filming seems simple. The dialogue is done well. But I'm confused. What part of the film am I supposed to care about? And if not care about, what am I suppose to take away? Plus the ending just sort of happens. One of the driving questions of the movie is whether or not Mark deserves to be sued and the answer is: yes, yes he does. The ending of the movie and the character that Rashida Jones plays seem to call for sympathy for Mark... but WTF... who would listen to all this and feel sorry for him? Because some girl dumped him he felt the need to prove himself and be the @ss he already was to get ahead? We're not with their relationship long enough to even give a crap. In fact we get a sense that they haven't been together all that long, because he destroys the relationship in a matter of seconds with what seems to be his standard mode of conversation. Wholly forgettable movie in my opinion.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole 7/10

Simple in it's execution, this story is your standard hero's journey tale. There is depth to be found here with Geoffrey Rush's character and Soren's relationship with his quickly twisted brother Kludd, although I gotta say there is a bit of Star Wars prequel sprinkled in here, in terms of how Kludd is sort of like Hayden Christensen's Anakin. There are a few things to like. This film is not afraid to be scary and presents real danger even though it's a family film. Now a days many family films are in a sense neutered. Remember Secret of Nihm? Fieval Goes West?
Another thing I liked is the fact that the address war. They bring up the fact that war is ugly and heroes aren't always what they're cracked up to be. But then they undermine themselves by kind of presenting a romanticized view of war. I dont know if it's the look of the film or how cool and exciting the fighting is... but again, it doesn't work with what they've set up here. That being said, a big regret of mine is not going to see this movie in 3-D. The attention to detail, not just with the feathers but with every drop of rain during a storm is amazing. In short, this film is fun, simple, full of likeable characters (as recognizable and cliche as they may be), and amazing to look at.

Piranha (2010) 6/10

It doesn't quite capture the geniune b-flick feel, but it gets very close, one of the closest things to date. It's fun and is popcorn-y, clips a long, you don't need to think too much, or at all for the most part. Mostly you're just looking for the next kill, but then comes the climax/ending. It slows down way too much and has way too many unbelievable things happening at one time, that all momentum putters out, you spend most of your time shouting at how improbable something is. I know this is a movie about million-years old piranha, but there's something about people surviving being pulled away by a speeding boat between a bunch of jagged and large rocks, and an explosion behind them with not so much a scratch that leaves one cringing. Also, danger and tension are completely gone by the time the climax happens that thee is no pay-off, and then things get really neatly tied upsuddenly and then the crap cliff-hanger ending. Oye. If not for the climax, I would've enjoyed this experience.

[Burning_Wulf]

R.E.D 9/10

I just wanted to watch this movie for Bruce Willis. But after watching it the first time. I had to watch it again. A great movie.

[Zero BD]

Restrepo - 10/10

I may be coming off of this movie a little bias but I really don't care. I love this movie. I love the people in this movie. I love what this movie is saying. If I could give it a oscar I would.

[Tsunade]

Superman/Batman- Apocalypse. 9/10

So far, the best of the Superman/Batman movies. Stays very true to Michel Turner's Supergirl Origin story. I say this is a real must watch for any Dc fan.

Superman/Batman- Apocalypse. 7/10

I wholeheartedly disagree with you Burning_Wulf. They totally changed the ending, which pissed me off so much. Secondly this is Batman/Superman for f@#$ sakes... make it about Batman and damn Superman. All I got out of there was Kara constantly whining about being a teenager. I'm a huge fan of Supergirl and all she did in this movie was annoy me. Thirdly the story is written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Micheal Turner... but I do admit that they did keep his art style unlike in Public Enemies they change the style a little.

Best things about this movie: Batman <3 and Barta and Wonder Woman kicking major ass.

Things they should have changed: The ending, and making Kara not so damn whiny or change her voice.

Edited by Tsunade, 13 February 2011 - 06:33 AM.

[Torxe]

4/10 Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Trader

spoiler --Click here to view--

where's the big battle before the end and it was the last visit for Lucy and Edmund wtf?

Edited by Torxe, 14 February 2011 - 12:50 PM.