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Author	Topic: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
kahli Title: QLD FF Banner Mistress Registered: Dec '00	Date Posted: 10/18/07 4:44am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	like itunes? -----signature----- I came here to eat bananas and kick butt, and I'm all outta bananas... - DON'T POKE THE BEAR
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morgan-aleghieri Title: Queen of redundant updates (event manager) Registered: Mar '06	Date Posted: 10/18/07 5:33am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	Allergic. I was kind of hoping for something more in the form of one of those deeveedee whotchamagiggers. -----signature----- "L'il Rorscach’s Journal, March 21: Fwuffy bunny squeezed out candy wainbows on sidewalk. This city fears me, for I have seen its twue face." "My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."
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Magnus_Darcrider Registered: Nov '05	Date Posted: 10/18/07 5:37am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	Each Pixar Film DVD release has had at least one short film as an extra so far. The one in front of Ratatouille was the perfect warm-up act for the main feature. Anyway, time for MD's Review Backlog: Stardust When did I promise to review this? No idea. But multiple viewings have affirmed its status as a favourite, and one I'll be grabbing on DVD the day it's released. The story is well known by now, so need for a rehash. Lets go straight to the substance of the film. I'll look at the negatives of the film and discuss a debate I had about which is the better film between this and Princess Bride before I get onto what i liked. So, negatives: Admittedly, the First Act is kinda dull and slow. Tristan's girl problems are kinda painful to watch, and the dialogue doesn't really sparkle. Ricky Gervais adds nothing to the film with his performance as Fergy. It's just Ricky Gervais doing Ricky Gervais, which is distracting if you like his style and annoying if you don't. That's all, moving on. Now, I got into a debate with a young friend who thought Stardust was a superior film to The Princess Bride, and argued that the nostalgia intertwined with the earlier film is what maintains it popularity, especially with those who saw it at the right age. True, nostalgia is certainly part of it. However once you divorce yourself from that and look at the film objectively (which admittedly is difficult for me, The Princess Bride was a life changing film) The Princess Bride is still the superior for the following reasons; Pacing; there aren't any lulls in the film, while as I said with Stardust, the first act does drag a bit. Writing and dialogue; Oddly for Neil Gaiman, Stardust isn't a quotable film really. When you're quoting The Princess Bride dialogue whilst watching Stardust to accurately capture stuff on screen, you know what's winning out. Finally, characters; Stardust has got Captain Shakespeare and, at a stretch, Septimus (his scenes in the finale really take the character in another direction). The Princess Bride has, well, pretty much most of the parts with more than three lines. But that's more than enough negativity or even perceived negativity, what's great? One thing that Stardust does better than The Princess Bride is romance. The older film just got it out of the way and took it as written, and that was a narrative choice as the story was being told by an elderly man to his grandson who didn't want to hear the mushy parts. Still, the romantic in me feels that the film suffers from that as it doesn't help portray Westley and Buttercup's love as Epic as it should be. Stardust nails it, right from where Yvaine is thanking Tristan for saving her whilst they're tied up in the hold of Captain Shakespeare's ship ("murdered by pirates is good!" ). The two leads really do exemplify the problem with Rule # 98 of "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord" List: 98. If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution. The moment that really sold it for me was when hiding from a wagon moving up the road, Tristan pushes Yvaine into the scrub. As they lie there, Yvaine asks Tristan "Aren't you tempted..?" and glows just a little bit brighter immediately after she says it. It’s wonderful and romantic and sexy all at once. Anyway, while things start slow, they improve substantially from the Second Act onwards, basically when we cut to Peter O'Toole's homicidal dying King of Stormhold and his wacky sons. Rupert Everett's entrance as Secundus, obviously the coolest guy in Stormhold, is great. His unceremonious gakking and the King's chortling about 90 seconds later are even better. The peanut gallery of Dead Princes of Stormhold works well, acting as the audience's thoughts throughout the course of the movie. Also liked that Primus bled blue. Nobility, and all Septimus's actions in the finale were great, and really turned the character around from villain to misunderstood protagonist; hardly surprising given his nutter father though! I also liked, what can only be described as a zombie sword fight The crowning glory of the film though has to be Robert DeNiro's fabulous turn as Captain Shakespeare; missing from the original story, his inclusion is wonderful, and the performance is excellent. I love the idea behind the character, and lets face it, sky pirates are just awesome. I'm kind of enamoured with the idea that Tristan travelled with Captain Shakespeare and his crew during a down time in ruling Stormhold, as there are plenty of further opportunities for stories there. Pirate Captains are obviously also the greatest sword masters ever; the Dread Pirate Roberts and crew of Revenge taught Westley well enough in 2 - 3 years that he could take on the last Great Wizard of Fencing and defeat him. Here Captain Shakespeare teaches Tristan Thorn, a young man who's had some small amount of training (but is obviously bad at it) and in the space of 3 - 4 days makes a good swordsman out of him. Pirates cannot, however, teach stars to dance. Speaking of that montage though, I'm very glad they came up with satisfactory explanations as to why, in the space of a week, young Tristan Thorn went from a gawky short-haired kid to a long haired devilishly handsome man and skilled swordsmen. The trailers obviously didn't show the transition, just the before and after, and from a narrative standpoint it bothered me. Some final notes: Charlie Cox was great; let's hope he gets more roles. Claire Danes, an actress who typically annoys me, was lovely in this; being everything the role needed her to be. And Michelle Pfeiffer was terrific as the villain Lamia. Ultimately, what this film means is greater opportunities for Neil Gaiman in Hollywood. With the success of Stardust we should see more projects based on his work; I'm hoping for a Good Omens film (starring Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom as the Demon Crowley and the Angel Aziraphale respectively), a Death film (starring Christina Ricci, just so she can say "peachy keen!") and a Sandman project (hopefully animated, so the fangirls will shut up about not having Johnny Depp cast as Dream). Highly recommended. DVD will apparently become available just prior to Christmas. Right...what next? Ah, from the "Make Family Friendly Films and Families Will Stay At Home" File: Rocketeer A 30s nostalgia piece recapturing the feel of those old Republic Serials that people my age bring up a lot but have never really seen, this is one of those great films most people didn't see at the cinema and only discovered on home video. I was lucky enough to actually catch this in the cinema with my dad when I was 11; it was about a guy flying around with a freakin' rocket pack a cool helmet! Why wouldn't we go see it?? In hindsight, this is probably what really kicked off my love for pulp adventure (sorry, Dr. Jones) and barnstormin' pilots , but anyway. A young pilot, down on his luck, discovers a rocket pack that allows a man to fly as free as a bird and wants to use it to make some money at airshows to get back on his feet. Instead he finds himself having to save the world and rescue his girl while dodging Nazi spies and Federal agents. I love, love, love this film, and had a desire to pull the DVD out again and watch it. it always puzzles me why this film didn't do well, but anyway. Bill Campbell (no relation) as Cliff Secord pulls off the look and demeanour of the heroes from "simpler times". I've always been surprised that his career didn't do better things. Jennifer Connelly is lovely; kinda hard to imagine she was the kinda scrawny little brat from Labyrinth a few years earlier. Evoking the notorious Betty Paige in look and style, she works well as a not-quite-damsel in distress (she concusses the villain and throws a Nazi out of a Zeppelin; she can hold her own), looks good in an evening gown and shows she can act; I love the little look of realisation on her face when she realises that Cliff's worked out the villain is a Nazi Agent. QFF Favourite Timothy Dalton is Neville Sinclair, Hollywood's Number 3 Box Office Star, rocket enthusiast and Nazi Agent. He chews the scenery and does his best Errol Flynn impersonation here. Alan Arkin's take on Peevy, long suffering friend to Cliff and genius mechanic is also good. He plays it dry and world weary, but he's the best sort of friend you could want in the situations Cliff finds himself in. My favourite performance though is Terry O'Quinn (better known nowadays as Locke on Lost) as Howard Hughes; aviator, engineering genius and designer of the Cirrus X-3 Rocket pack. This is the definitive pulp take on Howard Hughes, one of those figures in history you can easily insert into an alternative history setting and it not seem strange. O'Quinn's performance for me was so definitive it actually hurt my appreciation of Leonardo DiCaprio's fine performance in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. Incidentally, for another interesting take on Hughes, check out Dark Skies. The reason Hughes was such a recluse in the end? He knew the aliens were coming Aside from the period ambience, the cool visuals and the stirring score (kudos James Horner), this film also cements the fact that fighting Nazis is a Unifying Force for the World. Near the climax, Cliff tells the hired gangster Eddie Valentine that his boss Sinclair is actually a Nazi. With the line "I may not make an honest buck, but I'm a hundred percent American!", Eddie goes from villain to patriot, and seconds later is gunning down Nazi commandos side by side with Federal Agents; the irony of which is not lost on either party. If it has a flaw, it’s that the first action sequence of the film where Cliff uses the rocket pack for the first time to save a friend is never trumped in the finale truly. But it's a minor quibble; I actually do like the Zeppelin fight If for some reason you still haven't seen this, rent a copy and check it out. Also highly recommended. But don't take my word for it! Here's an article archived fro before the film's release back in '91, and a great retrospective on the comic and the film here. Finally: Ratatouille Remy, a rat, discovers he has an incredible gift of smell and taste. Initially used by his father to protect the colony from food laced with rat poison, Remy eventually discovers human food, and is inspired by the figment of his imagination/spirit guide Gusteau, a once great chef, to follow through with his gift for preparing amazing food. In the course of his culinary journey, Remy meets Linguini, a human also down on his luck and trying to make it in Paris, and it's their partnership that drives the film forward. This is Brad Bird's third major film, and he's now three for three with this, The Incredibles (anyone else catch The Incredibles sight gag?) and The Iron Giant (one of the few films its permissible for a man to cry in ). This is a very different beast from those other two, which were nostalgia trips coupled with superhero stories. This is a much more straight forward family film with cute animals, fun characters and comically evil villains. Pixar's policy of hiring not quite recognisible voice actors works really well here; as opposed to Dreamworks' Celebrity Overload Policy; making the more recognisible cameo of Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego even better. Ego is the main villain here really, but the scene where we flash back to his childhood turns the character on his head, and it is such a great little directorial flourish; seemed somewhat unusual to see it in an animated film. The animation, is unsurprisingly, gorgeous. The Paris vistas are spectacular, and fluidity of motion continues to get better. This is a fun family film, and continues Pixar's and Brad Bird's hot streak. And I'm spent... Be seeing you, Magnus Darcrider -----signature----- Killin’ ‘em all and takin’ their stuff since 1987. Pugnantes Malos, No Hos Pugnetis Zombie-Chick Magnet http://steamcommunity.com/id/darcrider http://twitter.com/Darcrider
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BigBossNass1138 Registered: Mar '02	Date Posted: 10/18/07 5:46pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	I need to borrow The Rocketeer from you, Magnus, I haven't seen it in forever and you've made me really want to. -----signature----- "A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." -Burt Bacharach http://steamcommunity.com/id/mrneutron http://twitter.com/timbo1138
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Magnus_Darcrider Registered: Nov '05	Date Posted: 10/30/07 11:04am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	Had a bit of an emergency the other night; my dad, my nanna and I were settling back to watch Casablanca (my copy's been on loan for the better part of a year, and I only recently got it back) and as the Lauren Bacall introduction came on we started discussing Bogey's other films. African Queen was my nanna and mum's favourite, and while Casablanca's mine, I mentioned a fondness for The Maltese Falcon, which is my dad's favourite. My nanna stated piped up here, saying that she'd never seen it. "WHAT?" was the general consensus of the male population of House Darcrider. Ms. Bacall's introduction hadn't ended yet, so we stopped the DVD and instead put on one of the greatest film noir pieces ever made... The Maltese Falcon A mysterious woman comes into the offices of private detectives Sam Spade and Miles Archer, wanting protection from a thug she knows. Smelling a lie, but taking the job for the money, they agree that Miles should meet with the lady that evening, and he ends up getting shot for his trouble. Spade now has to find the woman and work out who killed his partner while avoiding the police and the enigmatic Fat Man, all the while trying to hunt down a strange object, a statue of a black bird - "the stuff that dreams are made of." You know that this film was made three times? This version was the last, and easily the best and most successful. Humphrey Bogart is in fine form in a role he seems to have been born to play. He plays it calm and cool; the reason they coined the term "Playing it Bogart", and his snap fire delivery of lines is great. My favourite moment though is just before he beats up the diminutive Joel Cairo, played by the great Peter Lorre. Bogart has this smile on his face, like a wolf about to eat, before he lays the guy out with a single punch. Mary Astor is an incredible femme fatale, and Lee Patrick is probably the best secretary a guy could want My favourite character is still Sydney Greenstreet's amiable but dangerous Kasper Gutman, I love the character's inflection and delivery. I could wax lyrical about this film, but I'll save you all that. If for some reason you haven't seen it, go and do so as soon as possible. Be seeing you, Magnus Darcrider -----signature----- Killin’ ‘em all and takin’ their stuff since 1987. Pugnantes Malos, No Hos Pugnetis Zombie-Chick Magnet http://steamcommunity.com/id/darcrider http://twitter.com/Darcrider
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NeecH Registered: Feb '03	Date Posted: 11/4/07 2:07am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	I got to see Stardust yesterday... I'm not going to go into too much detail because I think MD's review says most everything I could say anyway. I will say these few things though: - I couldn't stop smiling. Not since The Fellowship of the Ring have I had such a good time at a movie and felt like a kid again. - For the first time in a long time, I was actually concerned about the characters and what might happen to them... even some of the 'not so good' people. - I want a 'Billy' of my own to attack people that piss me off. - Though Ricky Gervais was just being Ricky Gervais, I loved his dialogue with Captain Shakespeare. - Great performances all round... especially DeNiro's brave portrayal of Shakespeare. - Michelle Pfiefer's getting on in her days but I'll be damned before I kick that woman out of bed! -----signature----- I'm what Willis was talkin' 'bout! http://pepperedgnome.blogspot.com/
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Magnus_Darcrider Registered: Nov '05	Date Posted: 11/10/07 7:58am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	In reference to a movie I was trying to remember the title of for BBN earlier this evening. Though I can't actually remember how I got onto the topic of this film... What Dreams May Come. I originally didn't want to put this here and use the DVD thread instead, as its been nearly ten years since I've seen this film, and I didn't think I could review the film in good conscience from just my memory. However I can remember the impact the visuals had on me, and how emotional this film was; I spent much of my time viewing it drying my eyes, so I can recommend it on that basis. Chris and Annie are two American tourists holidaying in Switzerland and Meet Cute. They fall in love, get married, and have two wonderful children, Ian and Marie. They're very happy. Then Ian and Marie die in a car accident. Annie breaks down, and Chris helps her though it with art and therapy. Their lives are sad, but they get back on track. Then Chris dies in a car accident. And the film follows him to Heaven. As Chris adjusts to the afterlife with the help of Albert, a spirit guide, Annie left alone on Earth gives into her despair, and commits suicide. She goes to Hell. Chris in Heaven feels it, and despite good advice, he journeys to Hell to save his soul mate. Visually stunning; the idea here is that Heaven and Hell are made in your image, and for Chris, his idea of Heaven is living in one of his wife's paintings. Perfectly cast; Robin Williams as Chris and Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Albert give it their all, and it is beautifully performed. A sad movie, but not a depressing movie, which is a big difference. Its certainly not perfect, but it is amazing and higly underrated. Just be aware you will need to keep tissues on hand. Now to find a copy so I can watch it again; there's no real Australian release sadly, so I'll have to hunt elsewhere. In any case, don't take my word for it; the original Roger Ebert review. Be seeing you, Magnus Darcrider -----signature----- Killin’ ‘em all and takin’ their stuff since 1987. Pugnantes Malos, No Hos Pugnetis Zombie-Chick Magnet http://steamcommunity.com/id/darcrider http://twitter.com/Darcrider
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morgan-aleghieri Title: Queen of redundant updates (event manager) Registered: Mar '06	Date Posted: 11/10/07 8:42pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	Holy good gravy I remember that movie! Last time I saw it was probably when it was showing as a midday movie about 10 odd years ago... -----signature----- "L'il Rorscach’s Journal, March 21: Fwuffy bunny squeezed out candy wainbows on sidewalk. This city fears me, for I have seen its twue face." "My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."
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BigBossNass1138 Registered: Mar '02	Date Posted: 11/12/07 4:37pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	Potential Star Trek plot spoilers. These come from an apparently proven source, and seem to lend a great deal of credence to the Romulan time travel story that's been doing the rounds. Now, I'm on record as thinking that's a bad idea, but this writeup actually makes it sound surprisingly good, provided it's done right. It sounds much more like it's actually striking an intriguing balance: It's got the minutiae that Trekkies will love (Kobiashi Maru!), a solid break with the past by having history be altered and giving us a fresh start, and a good point of entry for new viewers. If it were up to me, I'd forget about screwing around with this crap, and just go for a soft reboot without any kind of pandering to the past, but if it were up to me I'd be wealthier and more influential than I am, so I guess it's a moot point. Regardless, I'm now much more interested in this storyline. -----signature----- "A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." -Burt Bacharach http://steamcommunity.com/id/mrneutron http://twitter.com/timbo1138
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Lozza Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 11/12/07 5:04pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	o__O posted: Alan Ruck as brilliant in FBDO. And he pulled the part off very well, considering he was 30 years old at the time, playing a teenager! Battlefield Earth - finally saw this, wanted to know what exactly it was about it that was so terrible. Maybe I was hoping on some level that it wasn't TAHT bad. Well it was. It was terrible The script - was very poor. Dialogue was cheesy, unoriginal, and generally was out of place for the given characters, and relied so heavily on bad cliches and colloquielsims that did not belong there. The use of Harrier jets is a common criticism of this movie since it's set 1000 years in the future, and these harriers are still workijg perfectly after so long, which is funny since they only kast about 30 years or so and require daily maintenance by skilled engineers! The acting was terrible...Travolta was a joke in this. In all fairness the terrible script didn't help here. Slow motion shots were way overused. Swiping transition shot like in Star Wars was an insult to a film series that we all love. The special effects were below average. Some shots of post-apocalyptic Earth were ok I guess. There were numerous other bad things about this film, but my memory can only hold so many bad memories. I hope L Ron Hubbard gets "probed" by Xenu for the rest of eternity for taking away the last 2 hours of my life Only just realised that someone actually reviewed this. All I can say is read the book. The movie is barely half of it. I salute the movie for trying to be faithful to the storyline. Other than that - it is a bad bad film. -----signature----- Currently suffering from: Keyboard in mouse disease Remember kids, click responsibly. Cheers, Lozza
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Murder_Sandwhich Registered: Apr '04	Date Posted: 12/6/07 6:31am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	I saw Hitman today. I didn't really want to, but my friend wanted to and I had nothing better to do. I'm a huge fan of the Hitman games, so I thought there could have been some fun to be had in the movie. Unfortunatly, I think Yahtzee said it best - SPUNK FLAVOURED LOLLYPOP Horrid Horrid Horrid movie. Take every action movie cliche', add a barcode on the hero and you've got Hitman. -----signature----- "BOMB IS FRIEND - COME VISIT FRIEND" - The Heavy "WHAT'S THAT SANDWICH? KILL ALL OF THE TINY COWARDS?" - The Heavy http://steamcommunity.com/id/murdersandwich http://twitter.com/Murdersandwich
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SithLord-Mixo Title: Chapter Rep Victoria FanForce Registered: Apr '02	Date Posted: 12/6/07 7:56pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	lol as soon as i saw the promo for Hitman I knew to avoid it -----signature----- The Honourable Grant Meredith http://www.innersense.com.au/mif/meredith.html "We fight MONO to MONO" Mixo Joe http://www.sickindividual.com lol !!! PCs rule !!! lo! !!!!!
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NeecH Registered: Feb '03	Date Posted: 12/7/07 12:53am Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	How can these people continually ***k-up video game tie-ins?!! It seriously can't be that difficult to do - the story's already there for you, same with the characters... Oh no, we wanted to go with a different approach and make something completely unrecognizable from the original source material. -----signature----- I'm what Willis was talkin' 'bout! http://pepperedgnome.blogspot.com/
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Magnus_Darcrider Registered: Nov '05	Date Posted: 12/7/07 12:40pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	How do they keep messing it up? Cos it's so damn easy. Be seeing you, Magnus Darcrider -----signature----- Killin’ ‘em all and takin’ their stuff since 1987. Pugnantes Malos, No Hos Pugnetis Zombie-Chick Magnet http://steamcommunity.com/id/darcrider http://twitter.com/Darcrider
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Last_Chael Registered: Feb '06	Date Posted: 12/8/07 2:47pm Subject: RE: At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings
	morgan-aleghieri posted: I can't express how much I love their short films... Is there any commercially available source with all of their short films? Actually it seems there is! I was reading some kind of junk mail yesterday and noticed that there is now a dvd containing all their short films. Was selling for about $30 I think. Can't remember where, but jsut keep your eye out! -----signature----- "Those three words, are said too much, They're not enough. All that I am, all that I ever was, Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see" My Costuming Live Journal: http://last-chael.livejournal.com/
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