Battlefield Earth

The image sort of demonstrates a lot of what is wrong with the movie, specifically the over the top acting and strange design of the aliens. This movie starts off really badly, with a confusing jumble of imagery and exposition and when the aliens turn up it's a test of 'really, movie?', including a totally bizarre slow-motion sequence in which a shot person runs through a series of glass windows (now where have I seen that before?).

And then... it sort of gets better. I enjoyed the climax at least. There are some great ideas (at least on paper) in there, but the execution of them is really poor. Barry Pepper tries valiantly, but doesn't seem strong enough to be the lead, but perhaps more significantly, he appears to be in a different movie than Travolta, who's so hammy it threatens the entire endeavour. The alien side of the movie doesn't seem to take itself seriously at all and is the B plot (taking up quite a bit of screen time too); an otherwise neat concept of a naturally devious and deceptive race, along with the battle of wills and wits between human and alien, is buried under borderline farce.

If any movie needed a remake it would be this one. I think the general premise is good. Just replace all the actors and redesign everything, and you'd have a good basis for an exciting, thrilling and tense story.

I believe the Despecialised Editions are the best currently out there, and I would highly recommend them to most people (especially over the awful official versions that LFL put out a few years back as an 'extra').

Regarding the special, I could only bare to watch the first few minutes before running for the hills. One might think that the prequels are the worst thing to happen to Star Wars but... the Holiday Special really is that bad.

I agree, the first one is still the best. It wasn't just Tom Cruise being an invincible superhero, it had the best story, one of the most often referenced scenes (hanging from ceiling), and had an interesting bunch of characters (the original team, then the new team) and antagonists.

The trailer for II was amazing, but the film itself is a little indulgent (at one point it becomes a montage of Cruise taking out hapless henchmen guarding tunnels) and suffers because the story just isn't that great. There's a few great moments though.

I don't really remember anything from III, other than it again recycles the traitor aspect (this organisation is worst than the Los Angeles CTU!) and has Seymour Hoffman playing a scary man. Quite forgettable.

I confess to being surprised at how well received this one was with the crew. Its major flaw is the non-entity that is the antagonist, who's barely in it and doesn't really seem to do anything. So I remember it feeling very much a vehicle for Tom Cruise to do cool shit rather than a story about something (especially compared to the first, with its NOC list). Even the disavowed angle is weak, since it's not like he's a fugitive or stuck in captivity (and they still get nice toys).

Yes, that did make it refreshing. Just plain old real adversity.

The one major inaccuracy that I've not seen anyone talk about? All EMUs have SAFERs attached to them, even when attached to the arm. These Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue packs are a little propulsive unit that fits onto the main backpack and are designed specifically to allow astronauts to move around and return in case of trouble. So Stone should have been able to stabilise and return to the shuttle on her own. I looked, she's not wearing one.

Now one could have made the argument that this was before these were introduced, back when the bigger MMU was being tested - that famous picture of Bruce McCandless doing the first untethered EVA looks remarkably like what Clooney is doing (and he says he is testing it) - in the 80s I think it was and following a typical old Hubble repair mission profile, except the film is much more likely to be set in the future with the Tiangong station completed, the ISS completed, and shuttle missions at STS-157 (we ended at 135).

Also, the station tends to have railings and handles all over it, ideally an astronaut can move across most of its surface without ever untethering (in actual fact, astronauts always remain tethered), so I was quite surprised to see Stone take numerous risks leaping from one rail to the next. Considering that she was always missing things, I would have thought that she'd be clinging on for dear life. Granted she was in a bit of a hurry.

And airlock doors wouldn't fly open like that, that would have smashed an astronaut's helmet or sent him/her flying away.

Finally, I'm pretty sure the Soyuz flight suit has to have an external power source etc. and whilst when she's detaching the parachute she has the umbilical, she doesn't later have it when she's transfering to the Tiangong. In fact, technically, she'd be wearing the Sokol suit, which isn't designed for EVA at all. However, maybe in this near future they are?

Yep, I wish I hadn't spend the last 2-3 years or so researching about this stuff for my own story, I wouldn't have noticed stuff like this.

Edit - conversely, I buy that Kowalski decides to detach himself, since Stone doesn't have an adequate anchor to pull him in. The act of pulling on the tether would have exerted force on the ropes around her leg and at the other end, which would likely have come loose as a result. You know, for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction?

Probably because of the insane wait between books?

What a steal! I should probably track this down as I was waiting for this edition and I loved the extras overload on the LOTR discs.

Now that was a game I always wanted to play. But my parents never bought me a Nintendo so grumble grumble...
(I'm kidding and love my folks of course, they had got me a Sega Megadrive [Genesis to you Americans], and  this was when system exclusives were the norm).

Back then we also had these things called computer games magazines, and these would have screenshots of various new games. The pictures of this side scrolling semi-platform ESB looked great.

Was it any good? Didn't they have a ROTJ game as well?

That was the way I saw it as well.

So... perfECT!

Typical, like buses in London, we get hardly any hard sci-fi movies and then all of a sudden there's a rush of them.

I think this looks intriguing, but it has a Sunshine-we-didn't-really-know-where-this-was-going-hey-look-monsters! vibe to it, which makes me wary.

Just saw it today and wow, is this the best movie of all time ever in the history of the universe or what?

Sure you can quibble and nitpick (I did on a couple of things) but what a spectacular, beautiful, tense movie. I literally cannot remember the last time I was so enthralled by a story and in sheer awe of what I was seeing. That I saw it at the IMAX in 3D was the cherry on the proverbial icing.

Loved all the details and most of all how it trusted the audience to understand what was going on. There seemed very little pandering to idiots. I would bet that in any other movie, Stone would have commented to herself on how she was feeling the effects of gravity as she lay on that beach trying to get up.

To borrow a phrase; Gravity is a perfect movie and if you don't agree then you're Hitler.

LOL... the Guyver is pretty awesome. The first one was called "Mutranonics" in some markets (who knows why!) and that it stars Mark Hamill is one of those bizarre bonuses. As you say, Dark Hero is much, much better!

If it has peaked your interest at all, I recommend checking out the anime. There are actually two series, one that ran in the early 90s I think which is pretty neat.

Here's the Western version of the opening:

Seems a fair few episodes are on youtube in their entirety.

And a remake of sorts that came out during the 2000s. I have actually yet to see this version but as one might expect it's less dated.

Both are based on the manga.