The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

Avatar (first viewing)

Film: 3/5
-good, not great. mildly entertaining, but oftentimes the plot/story was redundant/worn out, and it was blatantly obvious that the film relied on effects rather than plot/dialogue to entertain. Unfortunately, that doesn't coincide with my priority list (1. plot/themes, 2. dialogue/performance/emotion....and far down the list: 16. special effects). yes, special effects are more important for an action film than a drama, but they're still nowhere near #1 for me. For a majority of the film (0:45-2:20), it just seemed like the plot was stuck in a kind of limbo that didn't move much. Of course, that may have been due to me, and the fact that I wasn't as engaged as some.

PQ and AQ were 5/5, outstanding
-

You sir, are a generous man.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

You sir, are a generous man.

3=liked it
2=didn't like it

I guess I was more 2.5

[Show spoiler]desperately trying to save face

[LordoftheRings]

Film: 4/5
Picture: 4.25/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Extras: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

* Last comment: Highly Recommended. ...A quasi Masterpiece. (On Blu-ray)

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

I think you should get Zhivago for a few reasons:


Ahh, Gattaca. .

Thanks! Great list on Zhivago. I'll definitely give it another rental, at a minimum. The digibook sounds great!

Gattaca sounds great too. Great summary, especially with the realistic-futuristic point. Can't wait till it arrives!

[Chaotic]

Toy Story 3

11/10

its that good

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

3=liked it
2=didn't like it

I guess I was more 2.5

[Show spoiler]desperately trying to save face

I think I gave it a 3 as well.

[Show spoiler]I felt a little dirty afterward.

Hey, Diesel had a couple comments and a cool observation in the Triangle thread. I couldnt help him, maybe you could take a peek.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

Toy Story 3

11/10

its that good

Yippeeee!

[iam1bearcat]

Event Horizon

i actually didn't hate this movie as much as i did on my first viewing. it's still far from perfect, but as far as "ghost story in space that's a horror film" i don't think i can judge Event Horizon against anything else.

so originality counts, right?

although far from having everything be original. as i catch up on older sci-fi films i'm trying to figure out which film started the whole "ship A gets lost in space, ship B gets sent out to find them / Ship B continues mission of Ship A and happens to find / hear distress call of ship A, ship B tries to rescue ship A, and everything goes to hell" story line. 2001: ASO, Sunshine, and Alien instantly come to mind with that story line and i'm sure there many others. but, as much as i somewhat know what is going to happen, it's still usually a fun journey.

Event Horizon details the journey of a rescue ship that's searching for... the Event Horizon... which apparently cost all sorts of money to build / make and a lot of people are gonna be pissed if it can't be found, especially since it has some wacky time portal / folding gizmo aboard

there are a lot of horror elements here and some solid sci-fi elements as well. the movie does feel a bit dated with cheesy dialogue and some of the effects are really brought out terribly with blu-ray. but aside from the flaws, which there are a plenty, it's still pretty enjoyable, but only after repeated viewings.

2.5/5

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

Toy Story 3

11/10

its that good

Wouldn't doubt it since it still hasn't gotten a negative review yet. Actually, the whole series hasn't gotten one negative review yet. Crazy...

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by killowertz

Wouldn't doubt it since it still hasn't gotten a negative review yet. Actually, the whole series hasn't gotten one negative review yet. Crazy...

*knock on wood* PIXAR as a WHOLE hasn't received any negative reviews yet! read the article on metacritic about Pixar vs Dreamworks and you'll see what i mean. the lowest rated Pixar film is Cars which sits at a 73. pretty damn impressive to have 10 (and now 11) films and have them always be well received. and Pixar only has 2 films in the 70's! the rest are 80's and 90's!

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

*knock on wood* PIXAR as a WHOLE hasn't received any negative reviews yet! read the article on metacritic about Pixar vs Dreamworks and you'll see what i mean. the lowest rated Pixar film is Cars which sits at a 73. pretty damn impressive to have 10 (and now 11) films and have them always be well received. and Pixar only has 2 films in the 70's! the rest are 80's and 90's!

Actually, that's not true. All of them have been well received, yes, but all three Toy Story movies are their only ones to get 100%. Impressive either way, but my point still stands.

[tbizzle]

The Blind Side - 3.5/5

Decent movie, I enjoyed it. Sandra was definitely good, but I don't feel at all like I just watched an Oscar winning performance. I haven't seen any of the other nominees' films, but I'm sure all of them, if not just Meryl Streep and Hellen Mirren, were better than her. Anyways, not a bad movie at all but I'm definitely surprised that it was nominated for Best Picture. Actually there are a lot of things I don't understand about this year's academy awards

Btw, Sandra was hot as always, but looks pretty good as a blonde

[Marcus Wright]

Toy Story 3.

4.5/5

[nathanp]

Originally Posted by killowertz

Wouldn't doubt it since it still hasn't gotten a negative review yet. Actually, the whole series hasn't gotten one negative review yet. Crazy...

Actually Armond White just saw it. 99% on RT

[rkolinski]

The Dam Busters

I had to own this BD not only because I liked the documentary style used but also because of the films historical influence on Star Wars Episode IV, which I was already aware. One would think with that film influence there would have been a supplement dealing with this on the disc but there wasn't one. The film has fine film grain but there are scratches and hairs which indicate there was no restoration of the film. The audio is LPCM 2.0 and there is a nice historical documentary included as a supplement. This is a Region B locked film.

Movie: 4/5 PQ: 3.5/5 AQ: 3/5

[iam1bearcat]

Planet of the Apes (2001)

i've only seen the original once. and then i watched the remake (even though no one calls it that). i didn't think too much of the original as i thought they missed many opportunities to make it a faster paced, and imo better, film. but after watching Tim Burton's "re-imagining" (not 'remake') i have a whole new level of respect for what the original did.

POTA (2001) just doesn't feel like a movie. it doesn't seem like anyone wanted to make this or had any fun making it. sometimes, i don't know how, you can just kind of tell when a film lacks heart. to me, this is one of those cases. Mark Wahlberg - i like most of his performances - seems out of place here and he doesn't seem to know what his character should be doing / what emotions should be shown or how to change his vocal delivery. the only person that seemed to contribute any heart was Helena Bonham Carter. and she just creeped me out every time she was on screen because i couldn't tell if her ape makeup was so wickedly awesome or just really badly disturbing

very disappointed with the final product here. will definitely watch the original and think of that film much more than this "re-imagining" whenever 'Planet of the Apes' is mentioned.

1.5/5

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by tbizzle

The Blind Side - 3.5/5

Decent movie, I enjoyed it. Sandra was definitely good, but I don't feel at all like I just watched an Oscar winning performance. I haven't seen any of the other nominees' films, but I'm sure all of them, if not just Meryl Streep and Hellen Mirren, were better than her. Anyways, not a bad movie at all but I'm definitely surprised that it was nominated for Best Picture. Actually there are a lot of things I don't understand about this year's academy awards

Btw, Sandra was hot as always, but looks pretty good as a blonde

She was the best of the nominees, I kid you not.

[Marcus Wright]

Karate Kid 3.5/5

Good movie for young children, especially boys, but not so good for adults. (nothing really special or interesting)

[jwoodwar]

Toy Story 3


20/5

Love that damn movie!!!!

[surfdude12]

The Shawshank Redemption

Film: 4.5/5
-great film, and very rewatchable (my 5th viewing, and 3rd of this Blu)
-Freeman continues to amaze me with each viewing, both acting and narration. His narration just plays my emotions like a harmonica. I retract my previous (looney) idea this week about Dutton matching Freeman...yes I was smoking something Dutton would have been good, but he's no Freeman
-great themes of

[Show spoiler]institutionalization. At first viewing, I hated this theme, as I falsely read it as painting the criminals as victims. But this was shortsighted of me, as I failed to recognize that the only reason they are insitutionalized is that they have served 40+ years! Hence, by definition, being institutionalized requires having paid your punishment! I think "institutionalized" isn't exclusive to prisoners in jails, although that just happens to be the example we're shown. People can be prisoners to their mind, which can be even more confining than a physical prison wall. They become so dependent on their own ideas about everything, that when those ideas no longer work and they have to separate from those thoughts/ideas and take on new thoughts/ideas (i.e., like Red/Brooks had to separate from jail and take on world outside jail), they can't or aren't willing to even consider new thoughts/ideas, so self-destruct. For example, the guy who went bankrupt is unwilling to accept that his spending addiction is not a good idea, and be open-minded to a new approach. THe alternative is hope/faith that trying something new can be okay. Andy taught that to Red. Great story.

PQ: 4/5

AQ: 3.5/5

Transfer is good enough, but could definitely use a bump.