What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)

[nightscape94 965]

Oh god, no!

[Jay 37,355]

 

Oldboy

 

I had seen and love the original Oldboy, and was always a bit curious about the Spike Lee-directed American remake. I finally got around to checking it out and......... its not bad.

 

It's not as good as the original, but it has its own unique charms. Primarily being the leads - both Josh Brolin and especially Elizabeth Olsen are good. That girl's a really good actor, I'd watch anything she's in. Sharlto Copley is good as the villain too, Sam Jackson is a bit wasted as the runner of the prison, and Michael Imperioli shows up as a bartender. There's some good sequences and the brief action is handled well. The story is more or less the same as the original; They changed numerous details but the core is the same.

A big problem with the movie was that it felt rushed. There is really no mystery built because the movie doesn't take its time to lay out clues and different possibilities of whats going on... Brolin just kind of goes A to B to C to D quickly and directly. I read later that the studio cut THIRTY FIVE MINUTES of Lee's original cut out, and that totally makes sense, you can tell by watching that's the case. I'd watch his director's cut if it ever comes out.

 

Another small problem is that Brolin is supposed to be in his 20s in the first part of the movie and then his actual age in the rest, and they make NO EFFORT at all to portray this! He looks the same throughout the entire movie even though he's supposed to age 20 years. WTF?

 

So, not a bad 105 minutes, but not super great either. Only watch if you've seen the original first though, since the original handles the twist MUCH better.

[Quintus 5,399]

On 02/09/2015 at 2:38 AM, Mr Big said:

Shia LeBeorf is a misfire. The rest is a failure.

 

Spielberg had a great big turd and whilst it was dangling from his arsehole David Koepp etched onto it a script using a thin red drinking straw clutched between his fingers before the extended shit snapped off and landed in Lucas' greasy palms ready for digital polishing.

That's literally how it happened.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

How is the score? I completely forgot about this film until your post and realized I never checked it out.

[Jay 37,355]

Oldboy's score? I noticed a few cool moments during the film, actually! I have not yet listened to it on its own (I think its on Spotify).

So far, the biggest impression the film made on me is Elizabeth Olsen. I've seen her now in 4 films: Martha Marcy May Marlene, Godzilla, Avengers 2, and Oldboy. And I want to see more.

[Wojo 2,453]

She's like a hot normal version of the Olsen twins.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

She was wasted in Godzilla. Like the rest of the cast.

[Wojo 2,453]

What kind of drugs was she on?

[Jay 37,355]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Drug abuse is no laughing matter Jason!

[nightscape94 965]

What kind of drugs was she on?

LSD

Legitimate Script Deficiency.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Unlike the second film this starts out with a genuine story and plot.

I liked the opening where we learn the NASA moonlandings and the space race were all set up to find some Transformer's technology on the far side of the moon.

It's all told in the typical hyperactive Michael Bay style, which means everyone is acting over the top even in scenes that don't require is, edited to within an inch of it's life with no regards to dialogue pacing or anything.

But it's entertaining in a shallow, dumb way (the short scene where Optimus meets Buzz Aldrin is especially fun).

So for the first 90 minutes or so this isnt half bad at all, and a definite improvement over Revenge Of The Fallen. But the film still has an hour to go, and at that point the story just....stops.

We know what's at stake, we know the objectives of the heroes and villains, and the film spends the next hour trying to achieve that amidst action which is often impressive on a shot-to shot basis, but which barely has any kind of cohesion whatsoever. Characters engage in long CGI robot battles, only to disappear for long stretches, then to suddenly appear again. Action moment followed by action moment followed by more action moments, all of them for their own sake.

The first Transformers film had an over-long final half hour which could have been condensed to 12 minutes. On the third one, you could remove an hour of footage without substantially changing the film. It makes even the final part of Man Of Steel look like a work of sober restraint.

I love eye candy big battles, but this just went on for too long. And already I can barely remember any of it.

Shia is better as Sam as he was in the previous one. Megan Fox was traded in for another hot chick, who does much the same, but with a British accent. (do these films need hot chicks?)

Many of the cast returns, going to the usual motions. John Malkovich has a fun, but completely pointless role. Frances McDormand is strong in a role that peters out as the action final hour begins.

So not as bad as the second, but other then box-office, no point of making this at all.

[DreamTheater 131]

A case of bad copy paste?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[A24 4,331]

Steef has been Americanized ...

[publicist 4,643]

Idiotized!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Steef has been Americanized ...

I've always loved the Transformers. I was possible the first person to have Optimus Prime in The Netherlands, when my aunt who lives in the USA brought me one as a present in 85 or 86

[A24 4,331]

DreamTheater? Is that you?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[DreamTheater 131]

DreamTheater? Is that you?

I'm here, but why do you confuse me with that toy-loving dutchman?

I think I have more in common with a 70 year old midget from Azerbaijan than with that dude.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

So far, the biggest impression the film made on me is Elizabeth Olsen. I've seen her now in 4 films: Martha Marcy May Marlene, Godzilla, Avengers 2, and Oldboy. And I want to see more.

You should check Liberal Arts. She's radiant in it.

[Jay 37,355]

Noted!

Wait, Josh Radnor, nooooooooooo!

Of course he wrote/directed a film where he bangs a hot 19 year old.....

[nightscape94 965]

Oh my....

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hubba hubba...

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I'll be in my bunk.

[A24 4,331]

I guess she's not my type.

[nightscape94 965]

Beautiful women?

[A24 4,331]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[nightscape94 965]

Bummer, sorry to hear about your degenerative eye disorder.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

If I can get past her obvious resemblance to her annoying sisters...

[Sweeping Strings 2,358]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen.

Saw the first one about 2 weeks ago and enjoyed it a lot up until the final act, when it stopped telling any kind of story and was just all out action without much coherence

This second one doesnt bother opening with any kind of story, plot or interesting set up. It begins with indecipherable action, follows that up with more action, lot's of people shouting, Shia's character acting like a dumb-ass, more action. There really isnt anything resembling a plot until 90 minutes in, when suddenly the film shoves 10 minutes of exposition through ones throat in 5...

After that there's more action. Lots of new Transformers. None of them interesting, most of them in-distinctive. (this coming from a huge Transformers fan when I was a kid). Action...a sacrifice or two, more action, and suddenly it's all over...

It must take more work to write a script that's this incoherent, this devoid of any direction, this empty?

Michael Bay is excellent when it comes to composing shots, and this film has some breathtaking ones. But he can no longer assemble a series of shots, and make them have any semblance of meaning. There is no build up to any of the action. It begins, some heavy CGI shot happens, and then it stops.

The human characters sorta worked in the first one. But not here. Sam Witwicky is a butthole now. Megan Fox is nothing but eye candy (Bay shots her with the leering persistence of a pornographer.) There;'s a new character who's so annoying that even Johnny Knoxville seems restraint. Only John Turturro rises above this mess with his dignity intact (he's quite funny at times)

Of the Transformers only Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime makes any lasting impression. Optimus was always my favourite. A paragon of everything that is good and right.

This is an awful, pointless and ultimately boring film. I was gonna go through the whole series. I'm not so sure now. I can't imagine the other 2 being worse though.

P.S. Steve Jablonsky's score is actually quite effective. Over the top and swollen with faux heroism, but it actually works.

Agreed, it's absolute shite. Came out of it feeling like I'd been screamed at by angry domestic appliances for 150 minutes whilst they also continually slapped me round the head.

Horrible, horrible fim.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Transformers: The Movie

Or...The Killing Fields of my childhood. The movie that traumatized me more in the 80's then my daddy's alcoholism of the divorce of my parents. Because they killed Optimus Prime, they killed Ironhide, and so many of my favourites. Nothing was ever the same after that. I knew about pain, I knew about loss and anger, unspeakable anger....

Seen today the film is about as 1980's as can be, up there with Rocky 4 as a signifier of a decade.

It's of course a big toy commercial, that ruthlessly wipes out the 1985/85 toyline and introduces it's newest range of products. None of which I ever really warmed too.

The story, such as it is is Star Wars. From the Hero's Journey to a massive planet that destroys other planets. It even uses some of Star Wars' sound effects.

No symphonic score though. The very 80's mixture of synth underscore and heavy metal songs.

The animation ranges from good to incredibly sloppy. The characters are mostly flat an unappealing, and the "all star cast" (Judd Nelson, Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy, Orson Welles etc) don't do much to bring life into the material.

Yet it feels more like Transformers then the Michael Bay films. The characters are more distinctive. I can actually tell them apart. The story is cut and pasted from other films, but it does actually go somewhere.

This isnt a good film, but it's slightly better then it's reputation.

Still harrowing to see Optimus die though....

[Quintus 5,399]

Funnily enough the dvd of that was playing on tv this week. It was a terrible print and made the animation seem even more crude than it already is, but the four kids didn't seem to be bothered.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I watched a Blu-ray rip, so the quality was better. But still nothing to write home about. Fairly typical 80's Manga inspired stuff.

[Matt C 454]

Avatar

The more I see it, the less I like it. VFX are still groundbreaking, but the script suffers from Dumb Movie Syndrome and the fact it runs too long. Making a movie about environmentalism is fine, but like Happy Feet, it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The "Ferngully" meets "Dances With Wolves" meets "Pocahontas" comparisons become even more apparent.

I doubt Fox's three sequels will be as successful.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

It's awful. Cameron reuniting with Silvestri for the sequels is the only way something good will come from them.

[A24 4,331]

It took you a long time to realize that, Matt C.

[Quintus 5,399]

It's awful. Cameron reuniting with Silvestri for the sequels is the only way something good will come from them.

Hmm, hadn't thought of that. Silvestri needs to come in from the cold. It's fucking freezing in Shitsville.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Where the third film was an improvement over the second, the fourth is an improvement over the third, If only in it's details.

The entire human cast gets an overhaul, with Mark Wahlberg now as the human hero, a down on his luck inventor with a hot daughter, who's dating a guy who he objects too. (replicating the Armageddon situation)

Wahlberg is actually rather good in this, considering how little the script give him. The girl playing is daughter is the films hot chick, but isn't ogled by the camera as much as Megan Fox was.

The best human parts of for the baddies though. Stanley Tucci is good as the mad inventor and Kelsey Grammar is positively oily as the films CIA man.

As for the Transformers. A major issue I had thus far is that apart from Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, I could barely tell them apart. They looks very messy and ungainly from a design point of few, very hard to latch on to distinctive characteristics, especially with Bay's ADHD shooting style.

This time I had less trouble. The designs are still messy, but more varied. Especially the Autobots.

This is once again a film very very heavy on action, especially in it's last hour. There seemed to have been more variety, slightly more of a through line this time though. And as usual with a Bay action film, it has some really breathtaking shots (but again at time the editing makes no sense. There's a shot of missiles passing under a bridge, with no shots showing who had fired them, or none following to show what happens to them.)

I wonder if it all makes sense in the mind of Michael Bay....

At 2 hours and 45 minutes this is the longest film, and once again there's no need for such length. You could tell this meagre story, and still have loads of action by keeping it under two hours.

Yet this is the best one since the first Transformers. I can't really explain why. It doesnt really do anything different then the other two. It doesnt have any more depth, balance or meaning.

Yet it is clearly better.

Weird.

Still not a good film though. It's a bad sight when 1 hour and 45 minutes in it feels like the final climactic stuff is coming, and you still have an hour left.

[nightscape94 965]

2 hour and 45 minutes Transformers film? Yeesh. Glad I ducked out after the second one.

[Quintus 5,399]

That's what I mean about movies being too long these days, particularly dumb ones. In no universe should a movie about fighting robots be nearly 3 hours long. It's lunacy and everything wrong with modern Hollywood all rolled into one movie.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I agree. You could do these films in 2 hours, easily.

Would be a lot cheaper too!

[Romão 2,274]

I really, for the life of me, understand such a long running time in this sort of movie. The movie becomes worse, more boring, more expensive and with less showings. There are absolutely no advantages

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

But it's more epic.

[publicist 4,643]

A bit like letting your demented brother stuttering bad jokes without punchlines for 2,5 hours at a family gathering.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I've never heard one positive word said about the Tranformers films and yet they keep making a billion dollars a flick?

[publicist 4,643]

A world of masochists.

[A24 4,331]

I've never heard one positive word said about the Tranformers films and yet they keep making a billion dollars a flick?

Have you tried the local kindergarten?

[DreamTheater 131]

I've never heard one positive word said about the Tranformers films and yet they keep making a billion dollars a flick?

Hey I like them, but I feel no need for defending them, as they seem to succeed on their own without my help.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

A world of masochists.

I've never seen them....