Hard Boiled and The Killers are two of the greats, but what's more, both actually feature a heart and soul. They're not just a few amazing shoot outs, they're fleshed out stories with well acted characters and a poigant story behind them; a common theme to John Woo's works is the friendship between men, of brotherhood (especially across lines of society).

I recently (and finally) saw Super 8 and it has to be probably my favourite Abram's directed movie. I thought the characters were endearing and the kid actors did a great really job at bringing them to life. I was a bit worried at the beginning, with the totally ridiculous train crash, but it was an interesting story with a few twists and turns along the way.
I especially liked

It's really grown on me over the past week too. This is actually a movie I wish WAYDM would do, because it almost explicitly does the opposite of everything Dorkman usually complains about in these movies. It's the anti-Prometheus.

There's several key decisions made throughout the movie where you think there will be some big melodramatic argument, and instead, the scientists calmly sit down and rationally come up with the best solution. It's also one of the most pro-science movies I've seen in ages, the message isn't "Space is terrifying", it's "Space is amazing and gaining knowledge is worth dying for".

Also, I can't overstate how great the music is. Bear McCreary is amazing

Last edited by bullet3 (2013-11-11 20:02:56)

Watched Rosemary's Baby - just so I could listen to the WAYDM podcast. It was alright. I can see why it made an impact in its time, but today, it's more a historical curiosity. The Devil's Advocate did a similar theme better.

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.

I really like Monsters Vs Aliens, it's great fun. Any animated kid's film that ends with Planet Claire by the B-52s is ok in my book.

Dreamworks has pretty much superceded Pixar at this point.
I'm way more excited for How To Train Your Dragon 2 than I have been for any animated movie in like the last 5 years.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - classic movie about an alien from another civilisation landing in New York and asking to meet all the leaders of the world. I liked this when I saw it years ago and still think it has lots to offer. It does suffer from being a little dated, but that has a charm of its own; there's some unfortunate overcranking of the film though, such that whenever people are running it looks obviously oversped.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) - modern movie about an alien from another civilisation landing in New York and asking to meet all the leaders of the world. Bit of a pointless remake to be honest, with all the whizz bang of current theatrical tastes (lots of destruction and death) and none of the subtlety of the classic (to compare, no-one dies in the original). The trope of 'military bad' is way too obvious and overdone, stemming from a scenario that is much less successful than it was in the original.

THE RETURN OF PINK FIVE - VOLUME 3
Rather spectacular conclusion to a surprisingly epic story of love, loss, growth, and hairdos. Like all great science fiction, it says more about us in our time than it does about any hypothetical future (or distant past).

Stacey's journey is our own: dark, often lonely, colored with embarrassment and confusion, and punctuated by danger, death, and even self-sacrifice.

The effects are top-notch. The gags land. The action builds to a proper climax. Highly recommended.

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.

Oh man, I really enjoyed the Battlefield Earth novel, of which the movie really only covered the first act. (Or I guess it's more accurate to say that the novel is three stories in one.) That movie doesn't need a remake so much as it needs to be burned and a new adaptation needs to be grabbed from the book.

That being said, I first read the book years ago; nowadays I can point out its shortcomings as fiction, as science fiction, and generally as literature. But I think that the story itself, with minimal reworking, could make a great movie, or trilogy, if people can just get the bad taste of the original out of their mouths.

Last edited by Boter (2013-11-22 00:28:34)