What movies have you watched...part 3...

We've had this twice on the old Hulk boards, so what the hell, lets make one here. Simple if you aren't from the old boards, if you watch a movie either in the theater, dvd, blu ray, tv, doesn't matter, post about it here. Here's a few I've watched recently...

Gamer - Ughhh...ok this isn't as bad as lets say, Transformers 2 or G.I. Joe, but then again the only thing that could be as bad as those gems would be getting to third base with Jennifer Love Hewitt and finding a package bigger then yours.
The action at times is good, and that's about it. The movie had potential to be something more then just a big dumb action flick but the director(s) had no idea what to do with it. We also have a dance number that's almost as out of place and awkward as the one in Spidey 3...almost. Overall, just avoid this, Gerald Butler seems to be on the same track as Jason Statham, made a splash with a couple of movies and now is just picking any role that comes his way for the paycheck. 4/10



Terminator: Salvation - Why why why why why...why would they go from having a director like James Cameron for the first two movies to putting Mc-f^cking-G at the helm?!? It makes no sense.
First, this isn't as bad as T3. Ok ok we're off to a good start, but then after the initial flash of all the pretty special effects wears off (which will happen quickly) you realize, it's just another dumb action movie, and not that so dumb it's fun stuff. So many plot holes, so many IN YOUR FACE "hey look we just referenced the two good Terminator movies" moments, to many poorly designed robots (really, robot snakes or worms or whatever they are?). It does have one hell of a cool scene with a certain all CGI special guest, which is some of the best CGI I've seen to date. Otherwise if you happened to miss this, don't worry you didn't miss much. 5/10

Inglourious Bastards - Finally, a movie that I actually really enjoyed. I really don't have much to say other then go watch this movie. The acting is great, you have Germans that ACTUALLY speak German in the movie and have German accents (unlike Cruise in Valkyrie), it's interesting and brutal at times. What's not to like? Ok I have on complaint, I thought that some of the characters needed some background, something, we just know nothing about them. Otherwise, great movie. 8/10

So my Miss CJ tells me there’s a theater in Naperville that only cost $3.00. So Saturday I fired up the ever trusty Blue Mule and off we went. Sherlock Holmes was playing at 4 pm. Gota say this theater brought me back to the 70's. No frills except for the decorations. If you can picture what an old theater looked like with the columns and decorative wall coverings. Instead of a wide theater with a lot of seating this is a narrow, long theater, sloping down and coming back up in the front, with a lot of seating. If you sit in the back, like I like to do, you better have a pair of binoculars. We sat about in the middle. The bonus is that you can refill your popcorn and soda for free. Yes free refills on popcorn with extra butter flavored oil. Oh the humanity.

People with cell phones. I think this is one of the reasons I without question hate people who can not put the damn things down for a few hours. The guy in the row in front of us thought it necessary to check his text four times during the movie. Nothing like a bright light off to your left to take you out of the movie. I leaned forward and asked if it was necessary to ruin my movie experience by doing that. He took his phone to the lobby after that but acted as if I did something wrong. Sheesh!

Ok Sherlock Holmes staring Robert (great name isn’t it) Downey Jr had me worried going into it. You see, im a big fan of the Basil Rathbone Holmes and the witty banter of those movies. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. This movie starts off at a dead run and, for the most part, keeps on running. This Holmes is closer to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes than Basil Rathbone’s. I have to say the RDJ was pretty damn good as Holmes. And I got use to Jude Law as Watson. In the end, they play off each other very well. Or should I say "Good Show." I love a good mystery and this one was pretty good. About 3/4 the way through you get the idea of what’s up but to hear Holmes explain all the ins and outs was worth the three bucks. Don’t be fooled, this is a popcorn movie. It has no deep meaning or moments and it has some goofs throughout the movie but is a fun ride leaving off with the hope of a sequel. I for one hope there is one. I enjoyed the movie a lot, I’d say a 7.5 on the Jack-O-Meter. Elementary Watson.

Cracker Jack wrote:So my Miss CJ tells me there’s a theater in Naperville that only cost $3.00. So Saturday I fired up the ever trusty Blue Mule and off we went. Sherlock Holmes was playing at 4 pm. Gota say this theater brought me back to the 70's. No frills except for the decorations. If you can picture what an old theater looked like with the columns and decorative wall coverings. Instead of a wide theater with a lot of seating this is a narrow, long theater, sloping down and coming back up in the front, with a lot of seating. If you sit in the back, like I like to do, you better have a pair of binoculars. We sat about in the middle. The bonus is that you can refill your popcorn and soda for free. Yes free refills on popcorn with extra butter flavored oil. Oh the humanity.

People with cell phones. I think this is one of the reasons I without question hate people who can not put the damn things down for a few hours. The guy in the row in front of us thought it necessary to check his text four times during the movie. Nothing like a bright light off to your left to take you out of the movie. I leaned forward and asked if it was necessary to ruin my movie experience by doing that. He took his phone to the lobby after that but acted as if I did something wrong. Sheesh!

Ok Sherlock Holmes staring Robert (great name isn’t it) Downey Jr had me worried going into it. You see, im a big fan of the Basil Rathbone Holmes and the witty banter of those movies. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. This movie starts off at a dead run and, for the most part, keeps on running. This Holmes is closer to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes than Basil Rathbone’s. I have to say the RDJ was pretty damn good as Holmes. And I got use to Jude Law as Watson. In the end, they play off each other very well. Or should I say "Good Show." I love a good mystery and this one was pretty good. About 3/4 the way through you get the idea of what’s up but to hear Holmes explain all the ins and outs was worth the three bucks. Don’t be fooled, this is a popcorn movie. It has no deep meaning or moments and it has some goofs throughout the movie but is a fun ride leaving off with the hope of a sequel. I for one hope there is one. I enjoyed the movie a lot, I’d say a 7.5 on the Jack-O-Meter. Elementary Watson.

man, do I hear where you're coming from on the cell phone thing....God forbid someone would miss a tweet...

Yeah I don't want to derail my own thread, but I HATE cell phones. Never owned one, never will. I can't fathom how people need them so badly anymore. And I'm not talking about the guy/gal who has a job that they actually need one, I'm talking about the person who has to update their facebook every ten minutes thinking people give a f^ck what they just ate, or the ones that text crap every few seconds..."OMG U DID WUT"? I just want to punch people in the face and take their phone, turn it sideways, and shove it so far up their ass that their kidney is going to have to do the texting from now on. Ok, that's enough of my rant, back to movies.

Now that's the Fear I remember and love. in a manly way. *cough cough*

FearTheGreen wrote:We've had this twice on the old Hulk boards, so what the hell, lets make one here. Simple if you aren't from the old boards, if you watch a movie either in the theater, dvd, blu ray, tv, doesn't matter, post about it here. Here's a few I've watched recently...

Finally! I was waiting for you to launch this. If you don't mind, I'd like to change the name to "What Are You Watching?" or something similar to reflect the other categories you referenced.

Man, I have to ask: how do you get along w/o a cell? I held out for as long as I could be caved in 2004. Now I can't live without mine, though I acknowledge everything you and CJ (kudos to CJ for actually saying something to someone in the theater, by the way) mentioned piss me off just as much about them. But they're the default communication tool for me and my wife. Even when we're just in different rooms.


Green Lantern: First Flight and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (Blu): Probably not widely viewed by the hard-core Marvel-ites here, but both of these are pretty darn good.

GL is kind of a hybrid origin story/space-cop adventure (and a nice starting point for those who want to get familiar quickly with the character before the movie). Lots of Green Lantern Corps action--Sinestro in particular is really well done.

Crisis features the Crime Syndicate, the Justice League's evil alt-reality doppelgangers, in a bid to take over Earth Prime (having dominated their own Earth for some time). Leading the way are Owlman (Batman), Ultraman (Superman), Johnny Quick (Flash) and Superwoman (traditionally Wonder Woman's opposite but here she is Mary Marvel's opposite).

The cool touch in this rendition is that Crime Syndicate operates much like a super-powered mafia, with the above characters serving as the heads of each "family". The families are a heirarchical structure of super-villains, each controlling one section of the globe, with the Tony Soprano-esque Ultraman bullying the President while Owlman plots something bigger than even the rest of the Syndicate knows about.

This movie has probably the best superhero team vs. team action I've ever seen in animated form. Some really great, fierce fight choreography, and characters like Superwoman really get to shine (her confrontation with Batman is a highlight). Unfortunately, the ending does not hold up, as it resolves in a very bizarre, illogical manner-- but well worth watching to that point.

Also on the blu-ray is an awesome animated short for The Spectre (see a clip here). Beautifully and creepily rendered in a pseudo-70's noir kind of style. A couple of Justice League Unlimited eps (also featuring the Crime Syndicate) and the Wonder Woman and Aquaman pilots. Haven't watched the Aquaman pilot yet but the Wonder Woman is in HD (!), looks great and holds up surprisingly well! They approached it a lot more seriously than I remembered. Overall: DC guys will want to buy, but I would recommend even renting for anyone who likes a lot of superhero action.

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Enemy at the Gates - Just a damn fine movie. Not sure what else to say other then watch it if you haven't seen it. While it's not IMO as good as Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down, it's close. From the acting to the sets, clothing, special effects, it's got it all and it's all good. 9/10

Clash of the Titans (remake) - So, another remake of a movie that really didn't need a remake, and by a director that is VERY hit or miss (mostly miss though), my initial thoughts were that this was going to turn out like a greek themed G.I. Joe flick. I'm here to say, it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not going to win any awards and it's not going to become some cult favorite, but if you need a decent popcorn flick with lots of creatures getting killed to get you through the day, you could do much much worse. I still prefer the original over this, and it does have it's over the top cheesy moments, but overall I didn't want to punch myself in the balls for watching it, and not once did I feel the need to do a spinning back kick on any nearby retarded teenagers texting on their cellphones because the movie was that bad I needed to break somebody else's bones. 6/10

Universal Soldier: Regeneration- Gotta admit I have a soft spot for the original US movie, Jean-Claude and Dolph kicking each others ass for 2 hours, good times. And then bam...some of the worst sequels to ever grace a tv set, so my hopes weren't high for this DTV (direct to video) flick. And then I tossed it in the dvd player, hit play and was blown away that I enjoyed it more then a lot of the huge summer blockbusters that I've watched recently, yes Terminator Salvation I'm talking to you.
Don't get me wrong, it's not some great movie that was overlooked at all the award shows, but it is a damn entertaining romp with some good looking cinematography, a homage to the 80's action flicks with little talking but lots of action, this like Rambo is just a movie to sit back, drink a few beers and elbow your buddy and say "damn that kill was awesome". 7/10

Ninja Assassin - The names kinda generic but hey, after hearing that the movie was filled with a ninja slicing body parts off left and right I had to give it a chance. Well one things for sure, a ninja does go around slicing and dicing body parts off and there's tons of CGI blood flying everywhere, and after that wears off you're left wtih, you guessed it a generic movie. Hell, even right down to the lame ninja outfits this movie just screams DTV yet somehow found a way to sneak into movie theaters.
The first 10 minutes are good, the last 20 minutes are awesome, and the rest of the movie is just to hold you over and really pretty worthless. It's like they put most of their money and time on the last 20 minutes, better special effects, much better cinematography, great fights, if the entire movie could have been like this we would have had a movie much like the last Rambo, just balls to the wall awesome, but instead we get a lame movie with a few awesome moments. 5/10

Avatar - So this is the movie that broke almost all box office records huh? Really?
First let me get one of my biggest complaints out of the way...the design of the Navi. I HATE their design, their waist are way to small and just make the entire creature look off and weird, and other then that they're just big human like cats. Oh look that one navi is growling again just like a mad cat, awesome. I was just waiting for them to start purring and maybe shit in a litter box or something.
Next, the world of Pandora. Some of it looked amazing (and honestly a lot like Skull Island but I'll get to that later), and some of it looked like a forest that Boy George would want to take George Michaels on some dreamy romantic picnic. Hey Cameron, did we really need every neon color that littered the 80's thrown into you movie? Oh hey look another neon glowing plant, oh goody an optic fiber tree, oh wow grass that glows when you step on it, yeah. He must have been having some bad 80's induced LSD flashbacks. This is a prime example of how NOT to do fantasy.
Now onto the story and characters...ughhh...you couldn't get any more paper thin and unoriginal. Oh no, evil army guy with scars (although I will admit they looked cool) who wants to fight just cause he wants to fight, native Navi are perfectly in tune with nature and do nothing wrong, we killed our world (once again, this might be the biggest movie cliche this generation) and need this mineral or rock because it's worth a lot of money. To be completely honest a lot of it just doesn't make any sense. James it seems just wanted to throw as many easy to read cliches in this movie as possible so it was very clear to the audiance who to like, dislike, etc. It's honestly worse then Titanic in this sense. I also love how we can spend 10 minutes just showing scenery or a flying scene, but actual story moments that should have some time spent on them are just glossed over. Hey in the whole history of the Navi only 5 have gotten a big red dragon creature to be their flying buddy cause it's almost impossible to mount one, hey we'll do it in 5 seconds and not even show it. We get crap like this all throughout the movie, and it's lame.
You can tell Cameron was WAY more interested in the technology here then he was in making an actual movie, but I guess that paid off cause he's the one laughing right now. This is really just a 2 hour and 40 minute tech demo for his new 3d tech and it's painfully obvious when watching it. I will say one good thing, Weta learned a LOT since King Kong, the blending of actual actors and CGI is a lot lot better this time around, no more of that pasted on look that King Kong had. But at well over $300 million price tag there are still a lot of scenes that look overally fake, and the crappy looking designed Navi doesn't help that one bit.
I'll say I didn't hate the movie and probably only because of the eye candy and watching big mechs battle hammerhead shark rhino's is pretty cool, but at the same time I wasn't impressed one bit with this movie and really can't understand how or why it broke so many records or why it was even nominated for picture of the year. 5/10

I had pretty much the same impressions--particularly about the story--that you did about about the film, with one major difference: I saw it in 3d in a theater, where Avatar was really meant to be seen. As a result, I found the world of Pandora a much more engaging place than I think I would have otherwise. Particularly things like the bio-luminescence, which wa wonderful in 3d but may look gimmicky on the home screen in SD. In fact, I was just saying to my wife the other day when watching an ad that I didn't see much reason to watch the movie at home at all (except for research/admiring the tech demo aspect purposes).

Jonah Hex -- Saw this at a sneak preview Sunday. If you check out AICN there's several negative reviews. The three people I saw it with didn't like it, either. Here's mine: I saw and acknowledge the flaws. But I still thought the film itself was pretty well done.

What it isn't is a true Jonah Hex story, but more of a superhero/superspy story which happens to take place during the Old West. Hex's origin has been changed (from the original, less-PC version), there's a lot of fancy technology that I don't remember the character utilizing, and he has one mystical ability that I don't remember at all from the few stories I read.

The film is very, very by-the-numbers good guy vs. bad guy tale, with many scenes largely lifted from other movies--Raiders, Batman Begins, various westerns, etc. It kind of seems a bit like a patchwork in that respect. I have seen comparisons to the megabomb Wild Wild West, and I understand why, but this film is nowhere near that.

The good stuff: Josh Brolin, even though he's a bit heavier than Jonah Hex with dark hair instead of strawberry blonde, is really, really good. Very intense with a bit of charm. Dude was born to play these kinds of roles. Megan Fox isn't horrible, surprisingly, but don't pay too much attention to her accent. John Malkovich is pretty much sleepwalking through the villain's role but he has absolutely nothing to work with, and frankly, mediocre John M. is still leagues better than what we usually get in these types of films. And it's technically very good--really well photographed with some good action scenes. This is the director who should have shot Ghost Rider.

The biggest failing here: the studio was afraid to make a hardcore western. But I'd still give this a high recommendation for home viewing, especially if you have nothing vested in the character as he is traditionally known.

The Road - Very dark gritty look at a post nuclear world. Right off the bat, this isn't some action flick, it's a depressing look at a father and his son trying to survive something horrible. Overall I liked it though, Viggo is great in this movie, and the kid they used could actually show emotion unlike a lot of child actors out there. It did have a few "why the hell did he do that" moments, but overall it's worth a watch. 8/10

Legion - Interesting idea that I've seen once or twice before, but just like those other movies they just couldn't pull it off. I liked what they wanted to do, but either budget restraints or just a director who wasn't up to par (or both) just turned a cool idea into another ho hum action flick. The special effects are passable, but the action itself is far between and when we actually do get an action scene it's usually very clumsy boring. I mean I should have realized this wasn't going to be much good seeing it had Dennis Quad in it, not that I don't like the guy but he's has about the same track record as Nic Cage does in recent years...aka...their movies suck. If their name is attached to a movie you know it's going to be crap, and this is just proof of that. 4/10

That's too bad about LEGION, which had a cool trailer. Will definitely check out THE ROAD based on your review, though.

Do you still not have a cell? If not, how is this possible?

Well my backis out again so over the weekend I rented two movies.

Batman: Under the Red Hood was pretty damn good. I was suprised with the way it started, The death of Jason Todd. The reason I was suprised was it was around that time in the comics (when the Joker killed Jason) that I stopped collecting so I lost track after that. I had no idea why they showed Jasons death, how that played into the story. It your not familiar with Jason Todds story it all gets explained in the movie. If you are, well then you know what happens. I have to ask, is this what happened after Jasons death in the comic?

I pretty much completely enjoyed this movie and would give it a 4 or of 5 on the Jak-O-Meter


The other movie I rented was Clash of the Titans. I turned it off after 5 minutes in. Yeah, to me it was that bad.

According to Wiki, the story in the film is an adaptation of the 2005 tale.

2012: I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of this film, which I avoided like the plague in the theater due to chronic Emmerich-itis. But this movie should have been titled THE DAY AFTER THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, since I believe that's when Emmerich decided he needed to repent and release a good disaster movie.

It's still got all the Emmerich touches: fetishistic shots of falling monuments, uncomfortable comedic elements shoehorned in where they don't belong, etc. But it also has the most balls-out crazy-ass destruction simulations ever, and unlike most of his films including TDAT, much of the best stuff was not in the trailers.

Helping things greatly (by rising above their cookie-cutter roles) is Emmerich's best cast since ID4: John Cusack as Everyman On the Street, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Idealistic Hero, Thandie Newton as Hot Chick I'd Like to Relaunch Civilization With, Danny Glover as The President Who Makes Foolish But Honorable Decisions and Oliver Platt as Uptight Cockblocking Beauracrat.

It's really a testament to Platt (and not the writing) that his character actually comes off as multi-layered. Woody Harrelson has an awkward-but-mildly-amusing turn as Hippie Who Won't Leave The Land.

Amanda Peet is just plain terrible, though.

Don't look for sound science in this one. Cusack gets into a footrace with a fissure, a limo makes it across a collapsing L.A. in 1/10th of the time it takes me to get a few blocks (when the buildings are still standing), and real-world geography doesn't seem to have been much of a concern. But this isn't the thinking-person's disaster-flick--that's DEEP IMPACT. This is THE TOWERING INFERNO, except everything's collapsing in flames, and it succeeds in that role.

Finally watched the new Star Trek, it was my first blu-ray. (I picked up Ang Lee's Hulk the next day, so it was a good week for Eric Bana.) It was pretty good except for the whole "All those Trek episodes you spent all that time watching are now written out of continuity" thing.

There are two JJ Abrams.

One produces some of the most fun original content around. Some of my favorite recent stuff: LOST, CLOVERFIELD, MI:3, FRINGE.

The other wrote this awful Superman script (pre the even-worse SUPERMAN RETURNS).

STAR TREK, to me, came from the mind of the second Abrams.

By the way, what did you think of 2003 HULK on Blu-Ray?