Recently viewed movie thread - Rental Edition (3 Viewers)

[Chaka]

You guys would like Infernal Affairs.

aren't there 3?

Apparently. I've only seen the first one.

Never heard of that one, this is the one I thought about (Richard Gere & Andy Garcia).

 

[Kenny Powers]

You guys would like Infernal Affairs.

aren't there 3?

Apparently. I've only seen the first one.

Never heard of that one, this is the one I thought about (Richard Gere & Andy Garcia).

I was actually thinking that wouldn't have been a bad choice for that 90's forgotten crime movies, although its a notch or 2 below most of that list.

 

[James Daulton]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.

Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

 

[El Floppo]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.

Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Ah... that's it. I did think it was supposed to be Citizen Kane. That's the only possible explanation of why I didn't like it.

 

[Kenny Powers]

I thought Pacific Rim was better than Citizen Kane

 

[El Floppo]

The exchange between Hayden and Sellers where Hayden talks about denying his precious fluids and Sellers realizes he is dealing with an insane person is priceless.

NO FIGHTING IN THE WAR ROOM!

The fact that, when he became president, Reagan asked to see the War Room when there is no War Room speaks volumes about the awesomeness of Dr. Strangelove.One of the top films, ever. Seriously.

Definitely one of the greatest black comedies and nuttiest films on the machinations behind potential nuclear holocaust ever.

Kubrick probably had a great sense of humor, but a lot must have come from screen writer Terry Southern and Sellers ad libs. He rarely laughed again, cinematically, in ruthlessly probing the dark corners of man's soul.

Hayden was also great in Kubrick's first mature work, The Killing. The underrated noir's fractured narrative likely influenced Tarantino movies such as Reservoir Dogs (another caper/heist movie), Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.

LOL at Dr. Strangelove pointing out the doomsday device had no deterrent value if it was a secret, and the Soviet ambassador saying the were saving it for an upcoming birthday party for the Soviet Premier because he liked surprises.

Financing was contingent on Sellers playing four roles. He was also scripted to play Slim Pickens part, but was reluctant due to concerns he would be spread too thin. His role was scrapped when he sprained his ankle and couldn't work in the cramped cockpit set.

Another one of the greatest black comedies was Kind Hearts and Coronets, which also involved an actor doing a tour de force multi-role performance. Dennis Price needs to bump off seven distant relatives to inherit a titled lineage. Alec Guiness played all seven relatives (including one female), receding deeper and deeper into each successive role.

Very cool trivia there.

I've told this story too many times, but I saw Strangelove in Paris in the early 90s. I was literally the only person laughing- at all. And people were glaring at me, making my exgf who had also never seen it, incredibly uncomfortable. I started reading (trying to read) the french subtitles and came away with a totally different movie, where the comedy part of "black comedy" was compeltely erased. turned into a dark, humorless, foreboding exercise in the stupidity of the super-powers, and particularly the Amercians. I still laughed.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Elysium - I want to say that this wasn't completely terrible, and I like Blomkamp's directorial style & vision quite a bit even if this film misses on most levels. While had some solid action moments the story was just too simple and obviously told (pretty sure it was by design). All rich people = bad all the time, yeah we got it. And WTF with Jodie Foster's accent? Seriously what was that supposed to be? It was bad to the point of distraction.

While I don't want to nit-pick an average, at best, film to death...

Spoiler

Uhhhhh...where are the friggin' defenses for the giant space station where all the rich people are? They have to rely on a single unstable psychotic dude to be close to his GD van to grab his rocket launcher and shoot missiles TOWARDS THE PLACE WITH ALL THE RICH PEOPLE to blow up the ships full of illegal immigrants, and hopefully not miss? DOUBLE WTF?!?!?! They better hope no asteroids are headed their way.

Not a bad movie at all - nice premise. But the /filmcast said it well: Jodie Foster's talents were wasted in this movie.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

 

[James Daulton]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.

Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Ah... that's it. I did think it was supposed to be Citizen Kane. That's the only possible explanation of why I didn't like it.

Well, you couldn't have disliked it because the giant robot and monster action sucked. So we must dig deeper into a film that was about as transparently shallow as a movie could be.

 

[James Daulton]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Those effects do hold up remarkably well even today.

 

[hxperson]

Elysium - I want to say that this wasn't completely terrible, and I like Blomkamp's directorial style & vision quite a bit even if this film misses on most levels. While had some solid action moments the story was just too simple and obviously told (pretty sure it was by design). All rich people = bad all the time, yeah we got it. And WTF with Jodie Foster's accent? Seriously what was that supposed to be? It was bad to the point of distraction.

While I don't want to nit-pick an average, at best, film to death...

Spoiler

Uhhhhh...where are the friggin' defenses for the giant space station where all the rich people are? They have to rely on a single unstable psychotic dude to be close to his GD van to grab his rocket launcher and shoot missiles TOWARDS THE PLACE WITH ALL THE RICH PEOPLE to blow up the ships full of illegal immigrants, and hopefully not miss? DOUBLE WTF?!?!?! They better hope no asteroids are headed their way.

Spoiler

Not a bad movie at all - nice premise. But the /filmcast said it well: Jodie Foster's talents were wasted in this movie.

I thought the premise was awful. Why did Elysium waste so many resources to constanly try to keep people from Earth from invading their colony, most of whom just want to use their healing machines? Why not use those resources instead to buy a bunch of those healing machines and ship them down to Earth? They can't be that expensive if every house in Elysium has them. Problem completely solved.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO.

"Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

 

[KarmaPolice]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Ah... that's it. I did think it was supposed to be Citizen Kane. That's the only possible explanation of why I didn't like it.

Well, you couldn't have disliked it because the giant robot and monster action sucked. So we must dig deeper into a film that was about as transparently shallow as a movie could be.

well, if you bothered to read my post, most of my beefs with the movie were how the action looked.

and yes, it was still better than watching citizen kane

Spoiler

and dr. Strangelove

 

[KarmaPolice]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

 

[El Floppo]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.

Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Ah... that's it. I did think it was supposed to be Citizen Kane. That's the only possible explanation of why I didn't like it.

Well, you couldn't have disliked it because the giant robot and monster action sucked. So we must dig deeper into a film that was about as transparently shallow as a movie could be.

I thought pacing and flow sucked. Dialogue too. As I said. And I dont' think the fighting was particularly interesting- didn't suck, but wasn't enough to make me think.. wow, great movie if that's all I'm going to get.

But you guys like it, so enjoy.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Those effects do hold up remarkably well even today.

I love it how when the Terminators first teleport in it burns a perfect circle around them. Very effective.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

as well as Aliens and we've almost rounded out the Top 5

 

[Homer J Simpson]

You guys have spent more time discussing Pacific Rim than the producers or writers did.

 

[Bob Magaw]

You guys would like Infernal Affairs.

Source for Scorcese's The Departed.It is a great movie.

Though my hands down favorite movie like that in Hong Kong action cinema (with an undercover cop but no police department mole counterpart) is John Woo's Hard Boiled. The hospital scene was ridiculous.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

as well as Aliens and we've almost rounded out the Top 5

I vote for Under Siege as honorable mention.

 

[KarmaPolice]

are those 4 action movies another thing the ffa could agree on?

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

as well as Aliens and we've almost rounded out the Top 5

I vote for Under Siege as honorable mention.

Yep. Before Segal got ####### fat and weird

 

[KarmaPolice]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

as well as Aliens and we've almost rounded out the Top 5

I vote for Under Siege as honorable mention.

I think mine would go to true lies.

:Cameronboner:

 

[Copeman]

Can't forget about Indiana Jones.

 

[Chaka]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO.

Hard to argue against that.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Can't forget about Indiana Jones.

I try to.

:ducks:

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Can't forget about Indiana Jones.

Also top-5 for me (Raiders, that is).

But I classify it more as an adventure movie. Slight distinction, I know.

 

[Chaka]

Elysium - I want to say that this wasn't completely terrible, and I like Blomkamp's directorial style & vision quite a bit even if this film misses on most levels. While had some solid action moments the story was just too simple and obviously told (pretty sure it was by design). All rich people = bad all the time, yeah we got it. And WTF with Jodie Foster's accent? Seriously what was that supposed to be? It was bad to the point of distraction.

While I don't want to nit-pick an average, at best, film to death...

Spoiler

Uhhhhh...where are the friggin' defenses for the giant space station where all the rich people are? They have to rely on a single unstable psychotic dude to be close to his GD van to grab his rocket launcher and shoot missiles TOWARDS THE PLACE WITH ALL THE RICH PEOPLE to blow up the ships full of illegal immigrants, and hopefully not miss? DOUBLE WTF?!?!?! They better hope no asteroids are headed their way.

Spoiler

Not a bad movie at all - nice premise. But the /filmcast said it well: Jodie Foster's talents were wasted in this movie.

Not sure I can agree with either statement. It felt like an obvious premise and went in, mostly, obvious directions with that premise.

Foster is an excellent actress but whatever that whole accent thing she was doing was completely distracting and made her performance difficult to watch. I mean, what the hell was that supposed to be?

 

[Chaka]

I thought Pacific Rim was better than Citizen Kane

 

[Chaka]

Elysium - I want to say that this wasn't completely terrible, and I like Blomkamp's directorial style & vision quite a bit even if this film misses on most levels. While had some solid action moments the story was just too simple and obviously told (pretty sure it was by design). All rich people = bad all the time, yeah we got it. And WTF with Jodie Foster's accent? Seriously what was that supposed to be? It was bad to the point of distraction.

While I don't want to nit-pick an average, at best, film to death...

Spoiler

Uhhhhh...where are the friggin' defenses for the giant space station where all the rich people are? They have to rely on a single unstable psychotic dude to be close to his GD van to grab his rocket launcher and shoot missiles TOWARDS THE PLACE WITH ALL THE RICH PEOPLE to blow up the ships full of illegal immigrants, and hopefully not miss? DOUBLE WTF?!?!?! They better hope no asteroids are headed their way.

Spoiler

Not a bad movie at all - nice premise. But the /filmcast said it well: Jodie Foster's talents were wasted in this movie.

Spoiler

I thought the premise was awful. Why did Elysium waste so many resources to constanly try to keep people from Earth from invading their colony, most of whom just want to use their healing machines? Why not use those resources instead to buy a bunch of those healing machines and ship them down to Earth? They can't be that expensive if every house in Elysium has them. Problem completely solved.

PUT SOME MISSILES ON THE SPACE STATION YOU IDIOTS! Without that you are the Defense Minister of #### ALL Ms. Foster!

sorry that omission really bugged me.

 

[Chaka]

You guys would like Infernal Affairs.

Source for Scorcese's The Departed.It is a great movie.

Though my hands down favorite movie like that in Hong Kong action cinema (with an undercover cop but no police department mole counterpart) is John Woo's Hard Boiled. The hospital scene was ridiculous.

And that is #5 on the greatest action films of all time list.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

One of my all-time favorite action flicks. Linda Hamilton kicks ###, Arnold is perfect, and the effects still look cool.

Top 5 all-time and best action movie ever, IMO."Who's the dip#### now you jock ########?"

T2 and Die Hard neck and neck for that title for me.

Add in Predator and I'm there.

as well as Aliens and we've almost rounded out the Top 5

I vote for Under Siege as honorable mention.

Yep. Before Segal got ####### fat and weird

I'm always fascinated by fat movie stars (Segal, Kilmer, etc.) Like, your job is looking good on screen, you have the money to hire a personal trainer. So what up?

 

[Kenny Powers]

are those 4 action movies another thing the ffa could agree on?

Should be....the 5th might be open for debate because I cant think of another movie that is quite up to snuff with T2, Aliens, Die Hard, and Predator at least by a major consensus.

 

[belljr]

are those 4 action movies another thing the ffa could agree on?

Should be....the 5th might be open for debate because I cant think of another movie that is quite up to snuff with T2, Aliens, Die Hard, and Predator at least by a major consensus.

First blood if you consider that action

 

[cstu]

are those 4 action movies another thing the ffa could agree on?

Should be....the 5th might be open for debate because I cant think of another movie that is quite up to snuff with T2, Aliens, Die Hard, and Predator at least by a major consensus.

First blood if you consider that action

Hey. If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place buddy.

 

[Kenny Powers]

As awesome as First Blood is, I dunno...there's not much action/shooting.

 

[Chaka]

As awesome as First Blood is, I dunno...there's not much action/shooting.

If Hard Boiled had been broadly released in America I can't imagine it not being in the conversation for #5. Such an awesome action film.

 

[Mario Kart]

The Book Thief

Great movie. To me it's an inspirational movie. Terrific acting.

The book has to be great, right?

 

[Time Kibitzer]

Saw Reality Bites, and I have to say I don't really get the hate for it. From what I can tell a lot of the criticism seems to be about how the film had 'high aspirations' to be a defining film of a generation or something, and while it certainly contained its fair share of 90s cliches, it wasn't so overt that I was taken out of the viewing experience to bother considering what the ambitions of the producers or whoever was. All things considered I thought it was an above average comedy-drama film. The ending did really suck though.

 

[Daywalker]

Draft Day

One of the worst flicks I've seen in a while. Jaw-dropping at times. Forget about the insane depiction of an NFL GM but nothing else worked either. It was incoherent and awkward throughout. Last good movie Ivan Reitman directed was Dave in 1993. Yikes. This could have been a good movie in the right hands.

0/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Some great action pieces. Very satisfying overall. Mackie's Falcon character was very cool and Sam Jackson was used well too. One of the best comic book movies I've seen.

7.5/10

 

[igbomb]

The Book Thief

Great movie. To me it's an inspirational movie. Terrific acting.

The book has to be great, right?

The book is fantastic.

 

[Brownsfan]

Watched King of New York. Very entertaining though a little dated. Would recommend

 

[KarmaPolice]

Summer is coming, so thought I would watch or revisit some superhero movies:

Iron Man 2:

This movie was a mess, but still a pretty fun mess. Love the first 1/3, really didn't like the middle 1/3, and thought the last was merely OK. I guess that adds up to an OK movie. Where it excels is the acting/characters. LOVE Rockwell and Shandling in their roles. Downey of course is great, and Rourke was good as Whiplash. I can't imagine what these movies would be like without Downey - this is not a superhero or character that I like all that much, but the movies still usually have me grinning and laughing. I think a big problem was that it peaked too early with the Ironman/Whiplash showdown at the track and didn't get back up to that level as far as the action goes.

The Amazing Spider-Man:

After watching this one again, these spidey movies remind me of what I felt after watching the 2 Hulk movies. If you could somehow put the two movies in a blender, you would have a great movie. Just like with the Hulks, I thought one nailed the look and feel I wanted well, and the other got the story and characters down better. The Amazing Spider-Man is the latter. I thought about all the characters were better - liked Garfield a little more as Spidey, Gwen Stacey >>> MJ, his aunt and uncle had a little more life to them, and I like the origins a little better and the hint of more to come with his parents. That said, the worst character was the enemy, and I thought most of the action pieces looked pretty bad. Thought it showed some promise, but at the end of the day it was a really unneeded reboot. Would put it a bit below Spidey 2, a bit above Spidey 3, and neck and neck with the first.

Going to try to get to IM3 this weekend, and will see if I talk myself into giving Thor another go.

Also, I haven't seen either of the Wolverine movies - anything there worth watching??

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

The Armstrong Lie...real good

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Just watched Toy Story 3 with my daughter. Cried like a baby at the end. Me not her. She had a cookie.

 

[belljr]

As awesome as First Blood is, I dunno...there's not much action/shooting.

totally agree. Was just throwing it out there.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.

Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Problem is that a lot of the people that loved Pacific Rim as escapist robot fun hated Transformers because...I dunno...hating those movies is the cool thing to do and liking Del Toro is the cool thing to do.

I'm sorry, but they're the same thing. If anything Pacific Rim had worse dialogue, less funnies, more corny parts, and way more stupid plot oversights (wait, we've had a sword the whole time and you're just telling me now?). It just smells to me like people wanting to cry out "see I can enjoy stupid fun action flicks too!" as long as the director has done something else in the past and they can keep hating on the guy who only does those kind of movies. I'm pretty sure if you flipped the directors around but kept the movies exactly the same their stance on the matter would change 180 degrees.

 

[KarmaPolice]

pacific rim:

I will weigh in a again. sure, I expected monsters and robots fighting. however, with del toros name attached to it, I did expect something more. the dialogue and plot were horrible, but yeah, that's not why we were watching. visually I was disappointed too. too many fights in the dark/rain/ocean and I thought it made it a mild mess to watch. also the scale seemed inconsistent too- sometimes everything was huge and impressive: girl and monster in the street, robot collapsing on the beach. sometimes I felt they looked no bigger than a couple story building.

I get why people had fun with it and I didn't love it, but I still thought it was a slightly better looking transformers movie without the racist stereotypes and body fluid humor.

Now those are some criticisms that I can understand. Del Toro does increase expectations and for the most part I thought he delivered. I had a similar concern when it became apparent that the fights were always taking place at night but I had zero trouble following the action, which is where I thought del Toro did an excellent job. I didn't really note any discrepancies with monster size.Again I don't fault the plot or dialogue, in fact I appreciated that the McGuffin was so simple. For no reason an inter-dimensional hole opens on the bottom of the Pacific and giant monsters start popping out. BAM! Accept it and move on.

The dialogue was weak and a lot of the characters were caricatures of stereotypes, whatever, that is what I expect from a film like that.

I probably could have done without the Charlie Day, Ron Perlman & Burn Gordon sequences but I am a huge fan of It's Always Sunny so perhaps that makes me more forgiving of Day's mostly superfluous role in the film.

And I want to be clear that I don't think this is great cinema but it is an awesome delivery of giant robots fighting giant monsters. It felt like a graphic novel brought to life and it scratched an itch.

Props for the effort, but you're never going to win over the people who critique each movie as if it's supposed to be Citizen Kane. Any script that revolves around Giant Monsters and Robots is going to seem trite to them. I agree with your assessment that this movie definitely delivered on what it promised, escapist fun with giant robots and monsters. Nothing else matters to me.

Problem is that a lot of the people that loved Pacific Rim as escapist robot fun hated Transformers because...I dunno...hating those movies is the cool thing to do and liking Del Toro is the cool thing to do.

I'm sorry, but they're the same thing. If anything Pacific Rim had worse dialogue, less funnies, more corny parts, and way more stupid plot oversights (wait, we've had a sword the whole time and you're just telling me now?). It just smells to me like people wanting to cry out "see I can enjoy stupid fun action flicks too!" as long as the director has done something else in the past and they can keep hating on the guy who only does those kind of movies. I'm pretty sure if you flipped the directors around but kept the movies exactly the same their stance on the matter would change 180 degrees.

I agree to point. Pacific rim's action is a little easier to follow and bay's humor us very juvenile: dogs #######, body fluid humor, etc.. but both are similar. I guess robots vs robots isn't as cool as robots vs monsters.

I was surprised when I looked Transformers has very similar ratings to Pacific rim. I think it is 2nd transformers movie where the critics and others turned on mr. bay more.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Pacific Rim was infinitely better than any of the Transformers movies. Shai was just not a good story line and the fighting was a mess most of the time. They were entertaining and I usually don't turn them off when they are on.

But for me PR is just way better.