lisadoris

Watched Sharknado last night and I couldn't really tell you why. I have no words for how ridiculous that movie is. Didn't they do a MST3K for this film? I bet that was hilarious. I can and I can't believe it's getting a sequel.

pacaway

Yes, they did a RiffTrax Live event with it on July 10th. Believe me, it was MUCH better given the MST3K treatment!

ntnon

...hope you enjoy(ed) it.

shadokitty

Thanks. It plays Thursday night, at the Fly In Theater on the grounds.

ntnon

Ha! We're working our way through them, too.

Interestingly, while I mostly agree (and we're only 30m in) with your Forever comments - dire script, terrible (over-)acting, etc. - I suspect I disagree slightly with the assessment of the first two. Watching Batman and Returns for the first time in a while, I'm revising my opinion of both downwards quite a bit. Nevermind the repeated Batman-kills-people moments, and the tortured love interests* but...

Michael Keaton spends large parts of both films just sitting staring pensively at TV screens or out of windows!

Batman was less dark and Burton-y than I remembered; Returns was much more Burton-y. And neither was particularly Batman-y. Plus the suit made fighting look utterly ludicrous. Alfred was good, Nicholson and Pfeiffer were pretty good in character, but fairly useless as 'civilians'. Commissioner Gordon is very miscast, and I'm not sure why there was a need for Alexander Knox at all... he served no purpose other than to not let Vicki Vale be a reporter on her own... And Max Schrek is a stupid character.

Is there anything to be read into the large numbers of severe-injury/death-by-falling, I wonder? Joker into acid and Graysons from their trapeze are from the comics, but Catwoman (window, roof, umbrella), Joker (clock tower), Nigma's first victim, various goons and probably more that I'm forgetting: all injured/died by falling.



*How did they manage to make Kim Basinger, Nicole Kidman and Uma Thurman into boring love interests? There are only a handful of more attractive decent actresses they could have picked.

ntnon

I actually enjoyed it a few months ago. Am I the only one!?

shadokitty

I enjoyed it too, but then, I'm a sucker for shark movies.

shadokitty

Feeling under the weather tonight, so I think I might take a break from the challenge and just watch what I want, and not worry about it counting for the challenge.

LJG765

Watched "The Labyrinth" with my nieces tonight. It was their first time watching and both seemed to like it, though no raves. I have to say that tonight was the first time it seemed dated to me. The effects just were very rough. I'm not sure if it's because it's the first time I've watched it on a HD tv or not...kind of sad, though, as this was a favorite as a kid and it just didn't have the same hold on me tonight.

shadokitty

Interesting that you should mention "The Labyrinth", as just this morning I was thinking of that movie.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

There's some theory out there that the non-Burton Batman films are Batman films made within the Burton universe and that's why they don't really fit in with the first two.

shadokitty

I'm leaving tomorrow for my vacation. Will be back Friday. Won't be completely stopping the challenge though, as I put Netflix on my IPod.

BobO'Link

I worked on both my unopened pile *and* the checklist yesterday. A few quick thoughts:

X-Men: First Class (2011): Not bad and a fairly good "origin" type story. For a minute I thought I'd gotten the wrong disc as it starts exactly like 2000s X-Men. I thought it could have been better without the tie-in to actual history but they did it so... I'm not a Marvel comic reader so the origin of Magneto's helmet was interesting. I also liked the cameo scene where Logan rather colorfully tells them to "get lost" when they attempt to recruit him.

The Incredible Hulk (2008): Meh... I'm not much of a fan of the Hulk. To me he's rather one dimensional - "Hulk Smash!" I read that it is/was better than Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) but I've not seen that one to have a basis for comparison. After the setup sequences, which were rather good, it devolved into one long action sequence which quickly became tiring. I get it... "Hulk Smash" - how many times do we really need to see him destroy something? It also felt like it *needed* the origin told rather than just alluded to at times. From what I've read I think I may need to watch the Ang Lee version. It sounds like a film I might enjoy more.

Sphere (1998): I've not seen this one in several years, and for pretty good reason. I got it as part of a 4 film set ($5 at BL so...) with Lost In Space (1998), Red Planet (2000), and Contact (1997). This is a rather poor version/interpretation of "Solaris", by Stanislaw Lem. It also suffers by being written by Michael Crichton, a writer of novels and films who I feel writes about as generic as you can get. The kind of stuff people who *think* they like SF read. To me all his material reads and feels pretty much the same - like the pulp fiction where you change the names and locations and *bam* you have a new book/story. There *was* some potential in the film but it was squandered. I enjoy Lost In Space more than this one and that's saying a lot.

Lost in Space (1998): Yeah... I wasted time on this one too. Like Sphere it's been years since I've seen it and, like Sphere, it's for good reason. It's just not that good. It tries very hard but just falls flat. I'd rather watch the Giant Carrot Man (aka "Great Vegetable Rebellion") episode from S3 of the TV series.

So... I keep asking myself "Why *did* you purchase that 4 film set?" because I'm not truly a fan of any of the films it contains. It really comes down to the simple fact that it was 4 SF films for a low price and I'd watch them again for that price. My favorite of the 4 is Contact, but is "wins" simply by being better than the other 3 films. In spite of the pedigree I didn't much care for Contact when I first saw it, but part of that is due to Jodie Foster, a actor I've never much cared for. That could change as the next viewing will be the first time I've seen the film since it came out. That viewing should be sometime in the next couple of days.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I didn't like that one but I did win a third place prize in the Sunny D contest for that movie. A contest for Hulk had a third place prize of an action/adventure DVD . I could have thought of a better DVD for a Hulk movie contest.

Dimension X

I saw it earlier this month and thought it was hilarious. The commentary track with the director and a few cast members was pretty good too.

Gobear

I just picked up Noah today, so I'm going to crack it open tonight. Safeway has an odd tactic of bundling new releases with free treats, so I also have some Hawaiian Punch, Oreos, and Wheat Chex to munch on.

BobO'Link

I recently purchased a copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Cut which arrived yesterday. I had to watch it last night...

I enjoyed the film, again, but couldn't tell you just what was added as it's been too long since I saw the theatrical cut. One thing that *did* stand out was just how much of the CGI looks like a video game - especially the opening segment. It just doesn't look as well done and polished as in LOTR. I also got distracted at just how much of the film has a amber glow - as if it was filmed (er.... videoed) at sunrise and/or sunset. It, too, seemed to add to the "fake" look of many scenes. I kept thinking how much better the LOTR films look in comparison. Still... I enjoyed the story and am looking forward to eventually watching The Desolation of Smaug (once the price drops to ~$5).

LJG765

Watched "Alien" today to finish up the director part of the checklist. Not a favorite, but I'm not a fan of that kind of movie anyway. I also watched "Zokkomon" an Indian film that is being distributed by Disney. It's not as good as "Once Upon a Warrior" but a fun watch. I love the dance numbers and the colors. The story faltered a little, it was pretty well done already, (basically an orphan is brought into his uncle's house where they don't want him and get rid of him. Orphan comes out on top in the end) but I'd say a pretty accessible film for someone wanting to introduce Bollywood type films to kids or people afraid of foreign films.

I also watched "Star Trek: Generations" with Travis (who I don't think is doing the challenge this month unfortunately) for the first time in a long while. I enjoyed it, but there are definitely a few plot holes but I like the combining of the two eras of Trek and the "hand off" from TOS to TNG.

Still want to watch "Pacific Rim" in the next couple days, but I've been focusing on finishing off the checklist as much as I can. Just need one more sub-genre and then I think I can watch it.

shadokitty

I wanted to watch Pacific Rim again this month, but I guess it wasn't in the cards, as I won't be back from vacation till the first and only have Netflix to choose from while I'm gone.

davidh777

Same reaction to the extended cut--it had been too long, and I admit I wasn't paying full attention either. I was a big fan of the LOTR extensions and I'd heard reports that these weren't as significant so I guess I wasn't expecting much.

LJG765

Well, you could always watch it when you get back. It won't count, but you could still watch it!

Hope you have fun at the air show!

shadokitty

Good point. And thanks.

LJG765

Grr. Watching "Wolverine" right now and it has something that is one of my biggest pet peeves. I'd say about a quarter of the movie is in Japanese. No biggie, there's subtitles. Except when there is not. I'm sure most of it is swearing or exclamations (no! stop! come here!) but it drives me nuts when they don't translate them. What, they couldn't spare the money to finish the translations? Really? It'd break the budget, ruin their time line or something? I just don't understand!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Wouldn't the cgi robot thing count as animation? I haven't seen it, I'm just basing it off the cover.

Speaking of Pacific Rim, the mega set is a deal of the day at Amazon today, along with Predator, and the 2 disc blu-ray set is only $9.99 there and also at Best Buy.

BobO'Link

^You know... I could have waited on The Hobbit and watched it for the Animation Challenge because of all the CGI. Oh well...

If you're not up for the custom case, 3D, and BR versions Amazon has the 2 disc DVD for ~$8. I think the price will go lower by Christmas and am waiting for that - just like for ...Smaug....

Last night I watched Siegfried, the first film of Lang's Die Nibelungen. It was pretty good but because I'd watched Dragon Kingdom: The Dragon King it was very familiar and also interesting to see just how much of the legend was kept for Dragon Kingdom, a film I watched earlier this month. I was surprised to find they'd kept quite a bit, at least compared to Siegfried. A odd side-effect was I noticed some events in Siegfried I'd either missed or were not present/made as obvious in Dragon Kingdom that explained a few significant occurrences. Lang used some very impressive sets!

My grandson came in during the film and asked why people spoke on camera if it's a silent film. It never occurred to me that they *wouldn't* since it makes it more natural. I need to find a shorter silent film to watch with him and see if he's ready for them.

I'm going to try and watch Kriemhild's Revenge tonight.