Well they've done studies, you know: 60% of the time, it works every time.

This weekend I watched Westworld and The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070077/) was chosen as a result of the rear flap's use of the descriptor "Seedy Boston Underground", and after having recently rewatched The Departed was quite impressed with this piece of Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle awesomeness.  The filming on location in Boston added a true sense of charm to the background scenery, and the soundtrack was also a quiet gem in this flick: not being overly obtrusive when required to but being quality at points where it could be enjoyed and noticed.

Westworld (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909) was what it was, though my real surprise was the appearance of Richard Benjamin, whom I had only ever seen in Catch-22 (www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528) as the primary protagonist.  Yule Brynner's "Infrared Scan" eyes are attrocious toward the end of the flick, but the lead up to the havoc wrecked later carries an interesting flip on the old Agrajag theory (How many times can you be killed by Arthur Dent and not notice it happening?).

Besides these flicks, I watched the complete 1st Season of The Borgias, which was quite entertaining for effectively being the between seasons morphine to my Game of Thrones fix.  Sneaky guest appearance award went to Nicholas Rowe (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746583/) whom I most fondly remember from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (www.imdb.com/title/tt0120735).

On my list this week: Skyfall (Because I don't want to get angry at No Country for Old Men again), Cowboy Bebop complete series (I'm overdue for a relapse fix), and something classic that I should have watched ages ago and haven't pondered yet until I mosey through the collection.  Happy Viewing!

Last edited by ThrowbackSoul (2013-07-29 23:50:34)

6 (The Undiscovered Country) and 8 (First Contact) are also interesting. 8 is widely considered the best TNG movie.

All the odd numbered ones are flawed.

1 (The Motion Picture) is a bit slow, it's the 2001: A Space Odyssey of the ST universe (if you like Kubrick's 2001, you'll probably appreciate the visuals and concepts of The Motion Picture).

Most people seem to like 3 (The Search For Spock) and hate 5 (The Final Frontier). The story of 3 feels a little thin. 5 is very campy and the visual effects are really bad for 1989 (they couldn't hire ILM for this one).

7 (Generations) is just mediocre and unremarkable. IMO the ST-TNG series finale that preceeds it is a much better story.

9 (Insurrection) is a weird one... There's some moral ambiguity, many viewers tend to agree with the villains.

I wouldn't say  the TNG movies are bad but only first contact is great

So did Harry S. Plinkett.

When Generations came out, I enjoyed it, because I didn't know any better (even the presence of a creepy smiler in the theater didn't bother me). Now it feels like a rather bad two-part episode to me.

First Contact can be enjoyable if you ignore certain inconsistencies. It reminds me of the Abramsverse movies (Brannon Braga could be called the original continuity's Damon Lindelof).

I read the novelization of Insurrection (it's a hardcover in Poland ) before seeing the movie. It didn't help. The plot is still clunky.

Nemesis tries to rip off one of the previous movies way too hard. In FIYH terminology, it's a "cargo cult movie" - it reuses plot points without a deeper understanding of them.

Last edited by MartyJ (2013-08-01 00:21:22)

There are elements of Generations that are pretty good, but I'd argue it's main failing derives from its third act. It never quite gets over what to do with the Nexus, and how to convincingly have Picard decide to get out, and then descends into a simple punch-up involving 3 old men. That they have Guinan announce that the heroes can return to any time they wish only makes Picard look awful, since returning to much earlier in the movie/story (as RedLetterMedia points out) would have saved lots of suffering and the destruction of the Enterprise.

A few months ago, I would have said that the movie marks a turning point in the way that Trek movies were made; in the sense that consistency with the show is thrown out in favour of explosions and whatever the story requires (film Picard is different to TV Picard for instance). But having seen about 30 episodes or so of the TOS, it seems that none of the movies really capture the exact feeling and are consistent with the characters as they appear on the TV shows. I can understand the move to cinema changing the style of the filmmaking, and the story becoming grander in scale/scope, but it seems that the characters are rewritten to fit that grander story rather than the story being written to fit the characters.

Good choices all, PorridgeGun.

I liked Dragnet a lot when I saw it in the theater back in nineteen dickety-two. The movie is just about justified solely by Hanks' delivery of "Thank God, it's Friday!"

I agree about Buckaroo Banzai. I liked this a lot as a kid, and revisiting it recently was fun, yet somehow it isn't quite fully realized.

I watched The Battleship Potemkin the other night. It had great cinematography, but the story was very silly communist propaganda. The pacing is quite good, especially as the tension ramps up at the climax, yet the storytelling is often clumsy in that it's not always very clear why something is happening. It's hard to believe that a lot of people in the 1950s (in the West, even) thought this was the greatest movie ever.

God, I love Buckaroo Banzai.  It hit me just at the right moment I guess.  It came out when I was like 14, and I went to see it at a 9.30 show, so I was already kinda tired, and I came out going "I have no idea what the fuck just happened, but that was the most awesome thing I've ever seen!" 

It does indeed have some slight tone issues, and the universe has a chaotic "everything but the kitchen sink" quality, but so much of it is so great.  John Lithgow is great.  Enough quotable lines for at least five cult movies.  I'm still mad that we didn't get Buckaroo Banzai Against The World Crime League like the closing credits promised.

I ried watching BB once, I got about halfway through and nothing had actually happened, and I turned it off to take care of something or other, and have never had any drive to go back and finish it. Although everyone keeps saying how weird and messed up it is, but I got like halfway in and didn't see any of that, so I'm a little confused.

I've been wanting to check that one out for forever. Thanks for the reminder!

I should probably see "Good Bye Lenin" for Yann Tiersens score alone (composer of, among others, "Amelie"):

Last edited by TechNoir (2013-08-02 22:03:17)