For me the score in the beginning is what the movie is about, the rolling, muted bass rhythm and the ethereal, surreal atmospherics during the slo-mo sequences. The bass sections in particular are the identity of the film, it's sort of hypnotic, for me almost in that way a Fincher film can be.
Actually flipping through the film now, almost all scenes have some minimalist musical rhythm present that , if you are so inclined, will just lull you into this hypnotic state. I think that might be the key. I could see something as simple as lack of low end in the speakers, or just a low volume in general, bypassing that to a large degree.

From what I remember the FIYH commentary was really good for this one, though I suppose that is a blanket statement for all their episodes...

Hadn't heard anything about this one. Will look into it further, it very well may go on my watchlist.

Also I checked IMDB a day ago and realized just how much I've seen Mark Strong. I always just remember 2-3 movies but I've seen him in close to 9-10.

I think he is the closest to a mancrush I will ever get. There, I said it.

Altitude (2010) - 3/10

A few (I forget how many because I don't even care) young people, most of them obnoxious, one outright racist douchebag jock asshat, all with an inconceivable sense of proportion, fly a tiny plane to some place for some reason. Unfortunately for them, they fly into the twilight zone.

Terrific looking film considering the relatively low budget it appears to have.
Some of the worst scripting and direction I've seen in a film in a long time. Too much to even begin to go into, but at one point not too far in I just started laughing uncontrollably, doubting what I was seeing and hearing. When the characters predictably start meeting their ends I was cheering and laughing (no, really, literally), which I don't think was the intention since the other characters in the film were sad and crying and stuff.

The casual racist character is the single most annoying character I can remember seeing. He also gets a slow motion "fall away from the camera" moment which is played as shocking and sad and all that stuff. An idiot, racist piece of shit asshole dies in the film and the film plays it absolutely, 100% straight. Everyone in this film, save one or possibly two, are absolutely impossible to watch without wanting to punch the wall, and the movie is so stupid it doesn't realize this.
This is the movie where "the annoying character" from 5 other movies are suddenly the heroes. It'll blow your mind.

I would actually recommend this. I saw the whole thing, it is competently made on some levels. But chances are you will be just shaking your head the entire second half of the film. I had a running riff going for the last half of it, where practically everything said and done by anyone is just wrong. Empirically, emotionally, logically. And the movie is constantly enabling them instead of punishing them.

- Flying blind in a storm, have no solid estimate of your bearings or altitude? Why not put the plane into autopilot and have a cry in the back of the plane for 5 minutes instead of avoiding mountains or terrain?

- Did someone just OD on motion sickness pills? Just give them mouth to mouth for 20 seconds, don't make them throw up and try and clear their stomach or anything. They will magically recover from the chemicals surging through their body.

- Did you just say that you were going to die a few minutes earlier? Don't worry, distract yourself by becoming hurt about some small lie your boyfriend was just caught in.

- Terrified that you are going to die in a planecrash? Why not blow off some steam and endager the lives of you and all others by having a fistfight with someone to the point that the PILOT is completely distracted?

This is "Hello!?: The movie". Meaning after every sentence by a person, you want to shout "Hello!? Do you realize where the f*ck you are? I'm sure you can deal with this shit later when you're not possibly dead in 5 seconds".

There is more elements to work with here than classics like "Terror at 20.000 feet", and in the hands of competent screenwriters and director it could have been great. It is not.

Overall, a great time for the whole family.

The grandma scene was pretty sweet I got to say, it was extremely well executed, I love when the filmmakers take care to really make you notice and experience each bullet and making them feel like they have "weight" to them with good sound editing as they impact things. Like a perfect Max Payne bullettime sequence. Though that scene didn't really carry any consequences for any of the characters to be honest, noone sustained an injury that became important later. It was maaaaaybe a bit too contained to be necessary, while still nicely done.
I guess I felt like alot was setup; here are the pieces. But then I had a very hard time engaging myself in any of it. Again since I felt that I didn't really know any of the characters at all. I like subtlety, but I felt like there was nothing at all I could infer things from. There was almost no banter amongst characters about what they did this weekend, "I'm late because my f*cking cat bit me in the balls", those types of things.

Still I didn't find anything to be "objectively" bad and it is well executed, just a matter of how it works individually. Thanks for the tip still. Mark Strong was by far the strongest player I felt, and I've only seen him mainly in Stardust/Kick-Ass/Sunshine before, where he didn't really get to show the softer side.

I'll tiebreak in a few hours...

Yeah, and it's just random chaos, almost nothing establishes character once the movie goes into action scene mode. You could literally go and fry some eggs and come back and not have missed anything of consequence.

I found this from 2012, someone who read the script and tweeted it while he read it. Not sure if this was the shooting script, but it was a couple months before they started shooting I believe:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/13/ … xcitement/

[MILD SPOILERS]

"Here’s how it went down for him. His reactions are often rather vivid.

I tried to read the “Robocop” remake, but 20 pages in my nose started bleeding and I forgot my name. #nobueno #reallynobueno

I will try this again once my blood pressure’s gone down. But, seriously, folks, “Robocop” was already perfect.

I’ll share this one detail. In the film, when Murphy is turned into Robocop 1.0, it’s described “a high-tech version of the ’80s suit.”

Then they show a focus group scene where criminals laugh at the design. “He looks like a toy from the ’80s!”

So they redesign him to look “meaner” as Robocop 2.0, who passes focus group approval.

So they not only make sure to include the original design, they also point out it’s dated and stupid. *facepalm*

Hold onto your sides for more hilarious “Robocop” details. They outsource his construction to China. #seriously

And we meet the ED-209s in the field in Iran, where they’re used to subdue suicide bombers. #ineedallthedrinksnow

Short version: this script makes my stomach hurt very, very badly.

Ahhh… now they just dropped Robocop 3.0 onto an Al Queda training camp to see what he does.

“He should be programmed to incapacitate in all scenarios.” “Agreed. Let’s keep him PG-13, Dr. Norton.” No. No. No. No.

By page 54, they are already onto Robocop 4.0, who looks like a “cop on steroids painted metallic blue.”

Oh, god… oh dear god… Robocop is a Transformer. He goes from “social mode” to “combat mode” and back. Full transformation.

I’m going to go stand in my backyard and scream at the moon for a while. My brain needs a shower.

Write it down. Page 55, the “Robocop” remake beat me. I’m done. I can’t hurt more than this.

Okay… the two “best” lines in the script. First up is at the unveiling ceremony for Robocop in Detroit, from a TV reporter covering it.

“I think it’s safe to say that Alex Murphy is now part man, part machine, ALL COP!” Yes, I too remember the original poster, asshat.

Second, after the traumatic first meeting with his father, Alex’s son retreats to the apartment of Lewis, Murphy’s male partner.

The scene ends with the action line “David sits, catatonic, looks at the TV — MGM REMAKE TBD.”

I feel like one of those little potato people staring directly into The Dark Crystal. And, yet, pages keep turning…

Good god… it just keeps topping itself. It’s like someone wrote a script scientifically fine-tuned to destroy me.

Someone shows Pope, head of the OCP project, some mock-ups for Robocop action figures. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar!”

When this thing hits theaters, people are going to call up Len Wiseman’s “Total Recall” on the phone and apologize for being so mean.

I’ll say this: once the script stops all the winky-winky crap and just starts telling a story, it’s not terrible. But it’s way too late.

If you can get past Robocop The Transformer, there are some interesting action beats. And I’m sure Padilla will direct the hell out of it.

But overall? Ouch. Ouch. Ohpleasedon’t. Ouch. And a big side order of ouch."

I thought about it more, and the best way I can explain it is that while I can agree that alot of what it is doing isn't "right", for lack of a better word, it's instead interesting to me. Sort of like seeing Nicolas Cage go crazy and overact in a movie. On the one hand it might feel very out of place and just weird.
On the other hand, it can be your favourite moment in the entire film, and keeping you coming back to the film again and again. If that makes sense.

By the way, if you haven't seen it, Tom Jane helped make a short film about the Punisher a few years ago since he really liked the character and was bummed the sequel (Warzone) wasn't made by him and Hensleigh. It makes me wish even more we had gotten a sequel with Jane. It's really well-made and I'll link it since it relates to the discussion:

I would probably agree about the shorter format. Condensing it would not hurt it.

The Goonies... I should probably watch that one sometime. For some reason I've never come across it growing up in the 90s. Never on TV here in Sweden, never really heard about it outside of these types of forums etc.

Anyways, a few new films I've seen:

The Bling Ring (2013) - 3/10

Based on a true story about, if the movie is accurate, some retard kids who break into celebrities houses and steal shit, then spend the money they stole doing retarded shit, whilst never once having dialogue deeper than "how does my ass look in these pants?" or "Oh my god, is that Prada".
This movie broke my brain. Sophia Coppola has apparently forgotten how to make a movie since the last time I saw one of her movies, the quite wonderful "Lost In Translation". No one expresses a single genuine emotion in this film, I kid you not.

I would try to describe this further, but you just really need to see it. Only don't. I hated every second of every character on screen. Which might have been the point, but a movie character has to have atleast 1 thing that you can identify with to be engaging. This is just completely devoid of social commentary, depth, meaning... I suppose if you can see it for free, see it. To the movies credit I didn't shut it off, though at minute 19 I officially noted that I hated the film, at minute 45 I was wondering when the 2nd act was going to kick in (it doesn't), and after that I was just making jokes whenever a character opened their stupid mouths.

"Atleast it has Emma Watson looking fine and dandy" was my main excuse for watching it. I hated her too. I'd say it was shot well, but it looks like cheap digital cameras, lots of shadow noise and blown highlights even in daylight scenes. So there isn't even that.

Boogie Nights (1997) - 9/10

Now this is a Movie. 2 hours and 35 minutes just fly by. This is just filled with sympathetic characters, incredible camerawork (some hugely impressive long takes and oners, lots of controlled zooms while also moving the camera), and both drama, comedy, and great dialogue. This could almost be a Tarantino movie at times.
It feels like a celebration of cinema. It feels almost like a celebration of life, friendship, and ambition. Just great. Paul Thomas Anderson is now officially one of my favorite filmmakers after just three movies (I've also seen There Will Be Blood and The Master).

Blow Out (1981) - 7/10

De Palma-movie about a soundguy who happens to record something he shouldn't have recorded. Not seen much of De Palmas catalog. This feels pretty "old" in terms of the fairly simple plot. but it makes up for it with focus on characters and a relaxed atmosphere. Very well made, if the summary of the plot above in any way appeals to you this might be worth a watch.

The Secret In Their Eyes (2009) - 8/10

A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later. Won the Oscar for best foreign language film. I can see why. Lots of personality, deep characters and character relationships, perfect blend of humor and drama. Not a dull moment, and superbly acted. In Spanish, but load those subtitles up and prepare for a great film.

The Objective (2008) - 6/10

The director of "The Blair Witch Project" makes a film about some soldiers who go to a place in the desert of the middle east where things are said to be happening. Then some things happen.
Honestly though, it is alot better than it sounds. Looks to be made on a small budget, but the acting is quite frankly great. This director clearly knows how to get his actors to just seem like real people, it feels like a documentary most of the time, though this doesn't have the conceit of a camera in the world of the movie. Shot very well on film. Some pretty good effects, some less good.

If you are looking for a straightforward thriller in the vein of Blair Witch Project, that does not in any way annoy or insult, this is it. It captures such a great atmosphere in what looks like completely genuine locations.
Not that much here, but what is here is surprisingly successful.

Contagion (2011) - 8/10

Yeah, I love this movie. From the FIYH commentary I recognize the objections Teague raised, but they didn't bother me at all. This might honestly be the fastest movie I've watched. It has such a hypnotic tempo with superb rhythmic music by Cliff Martinez, I barely started the damn thing before it was over. It was also so lovely to watch something so subdued and devoid of emotional drama. We all can picture this movie before we watched it, and to be honest I've seen enough of those for a while. The Mist, War Of The World, etc, etc. I rarely these days feel like I can watch another family encounter the evils of humanity that will slowly tear them down and force them apart.
The brilliance of this movie is that it does just enough to get you invested in the people on the screen, but it also doesn't swamp you with the emotions of the characters. Instead I constantly found myself just soaking in the situations and constantly intellectually thinking about "wow, how do I feel about this, really?", rather than having a more base, reactive emotional "wow, I feel so sorry for that character" response. I don't know, it just managed to engage a different part of my brain than most movies do, and I think it is the same part of the brain that Fincher also reaches at times, which makes the comparisons between Soderberg and him relevant to me, not just because of the look of this film and most Fincher films. Fincher often has this "pulse" aswell, both in editing and music, that makes his movies just so absorbing, also helped by being somewhat clinical and allowing the viewer alot of personal reflection as opposed to overloading you with character emotions.

The New World (Extended) (2005) - 7/10

Perhaps I should have started with the theatrical cut, but the extended cut supposedly helps flesh out alot of character relationships. Unfortunately, as beautiful as this is, it suffers from the same problem as Terrence Malicks recent film "To The Wonder", which is a too meandering style of presentation. What makes "Tree Of Life", and to an even further degree "The Thin Red Line" so great, is that they almost perfectly balance Malicks poetry with actual events and situations.
In "The New World", the poetry takes up just a little too much room for me personally, and particularly some smaller characters, like Bales character in the 2nd half of the film, are unfortunately 2-dimensional.
Still, I'd recommend anyone to watch the first hour of the extended cut, because it is absolutely mesmerizing. It so completely captures the feeling of arriving at the shore of some world you've never seen before, just desolate woods, fields, swamps and nature ahead. The photography by Emmanuel Lubezki  (Tree Of Life, Children Of Men) is stunning with basically only natural light used. Hypnotic does not begin to describe it.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) - 8/10

So I rewatched this a few days ago before the FIYH commentary. I love this movie. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be "Classy". It just has this relaxed aura of "Don't worry, we know what the hell we are doing" surrounding it. The photography is superb, the action sequences are playfully choreographed and the score happily keeps up with them. The actors are having tonnes of fun which shows. The direction has such a steady hand, you can tell from watching the movie that Brad Bird is a guy who is used to thinking through sequences thoroughly, designing them very well both from a plot and from a character point of view. There are so many small moments where characters get to shine. The editing and camera work are world class, again so relaxed, so steady, so classy. The moment where Tom Cruise steps out onto the outside of the Burj Dubai with the camera craning over him and swirling with him as he moves onto the outside of the building... Yep, these guys know what the hell they are doing.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013) - 4/10

Swing and a miss. Remember that girlfriend from the first movie? The kindhearted girl who works at the needle-exchange? Ditched with 2 lines in the beginning, over a misunderstanding that could have been corrected with 1 line. My jaw almost dropped at how lazy the writing was. I actually shut it off at that point, but forced myself to keep watching it so I could atleast give it a score. There is such a problem with tone in this film. The first had an honest and thought-through emotional throughline. This sequel forgets stuff that happened 10 minutes ago and doesn't seem to carry anything from scene to scene. It's like the filmmakers only had the script one scene at a time, and weren't privy to the full score of the characters.
Just really superficial and poorly directed. The first film really seems more and more like lightning in a bottle with great direction and almost perfect casting. Just the fact that the original had (the wonderful) Mark Strong as the charismatic villain, and the sequel has Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the evil driving force should tell you how big of a shift it is.
Remember Terminator 3 and the "talk to the hand" moment? The integrity for the characters feels similarly mistreated here. It may be closer to the comic version, but they really should have followed the original in tone and characterizations.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013) - 3/10

Blair Witch Project made by idiots with no attention to detail whatsoever. 5 stupid americans go to Russia to investigate and document supposedly mysterious location. They film their journey and events a la Cloverfield. We see a character hold an iphone while filming, and when we cut to their camera POV it has the depth of field and look of a HD 35mm digital camera (blurred background, rich shadow detail, etc).
A character places an iphone on the ground to take a self-shot. We then see the resulting shot which clearly has the camera elevated to knee-level.
There is just too much stupidity here to mention. The script itself is retarded, and every scene is just amazingly contrived or cringe-worthy. The fact that someone thought this would be a good idea just makes it uncomfortable to watch, like watching an oblivious person sing karaoke horribly. You just sort of feel bad for everyone involved. From their end they're making something legitimate, but all everyone else is seeing a miserable failure.

The Lords Of Salem (2012) - 6/10

Directed and written by Rob Zombie. More like 5.5, but this type of approach to horror I feel deserves some recognition. Woman (Sherri Moon Zombie) is decentant of guy who burned witches, and is cursed to give birth to satans baby. Overall just weird. But sort of beautiful in a disgusting way. Odd and otherwordly. They really tried to make something different. I was never bored, it's like watching a David Lynch film, even though it's weird and odd, it is surprisingly riveting.