The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[Hep]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Hey, you got it for 50% off, right?

It couldnt decide if it was going to be a full blown character study, or a film focusing on the war. In the end both elements suffered IMO. I'm not trying to rag on it further, just giving you an idea of where I felt it came up short.

Ya I picked it up for cheap (Criterion cheap, not regular cheap). I'm not worried about the coin, just had higher expectations of the movie itself. Still, it has Jewel, so not all is lost, right?

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by Steve46

The people I watched it with loved both.

Everyone is different.

I find humor such as:

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room.

Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?

I couldn't really say. He wasn't circumcised.

Funnier than people getting hit in the groin five times in succession or running into someone's breasts.

Haha I feel u. I like diff kinds of comedy but it just depends on the execution of it and how it is displayed or comes off. Got Em!!

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by CZAR

Haha I feel u. I like diff kinds of comedy but it just depends on the execution of it and how it is displayed or comes off. Got Em!!

Believe me, I wish I could overcome it and enjoy these things rather than hate every second.

But I do like some slapstick such as Naked Gun and Monty Python.

I can't even figure myself out, let alone anybody else.

[AKORIS]

nobody should have to explain comedy--

you either find it funny or you don't.


It's completely subjective and critic/other opinions really don't have a lot of value

[Diesel]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/movies/160...ml#post4140937

[Al_The_Strange]

Speaking of comedies…

Next greatest rental: “Knight and Day.”

Takes a big dash of “Mr and Mrs Smith,” with some light sprinkling of “Charade” or “North By Northwest,” perhaps a pinch of Pearce Brosnan style James Bond, and a generous helping of insanely overblown action and comedy antics like what you’d find in “From Paris With Love”…viola!

“Knight and Day” is an espionage caper of sorts with a fair amount of amusing comedy and a fair amount of cool action scenes. Pacing goes up and down rhythmically, but is never wholly dull. Yep, it met my expectations.

I think the story suffers though. Characters aren’t terribly likable (it’s Tom Cruise, duh! ), but they do have their moments. You will have to suspend a lot of disbelief to get into this film, there were quite a few times where I just went . The story itself is pretty average, even if you do forgive it of its flaws. It’s a nice idea, and is passable as entertainment, but there are better ones out there (like the ones mentioned in the first paragraph).

The film is not bad though. Photography is swell. Acting is as good as one can expect. Production value is decent. Music is good (John Powell is the man).

3.5/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 2.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: Action and espionage thriller fans should rent it.

I’m still not sure if I really want to dump a whole $14 on this. I might pass, and get the soundtrack instead.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Hep

Ya I picked it up for cheap (Criterion cheap, not regular cheap). I'm not worried about the coin, just had higher expectations of the movie itself. Still, it has Jewel, so not all is lost, right?

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Diesel

https://forum.blu-ray.com/movies/160...ml#post4140937

Huh?

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Speaking of comedies…

Next greatest rental: “Knight and Day.”

Takes a big dash of “Mr and Mrs Smith,” with some light sprinkling of “Charade” or “North By Northwest,” perhaps a pinch of Pearce Brosnan style James Bond, and a generous helping of insanely overblown action and comedy antics like what you’d find in “From Paris With Love”…viola!

“Knight and Day” is an espionage caper of sorts with a fair amount of amusing comedy and a fair amount of cool action scenes. Pacing goes up and down rhythmically, but is never wholly dull. Yep, it met my expectations.

I think the story suffers though. Characters aren’t terribly likable (it’s Tom Cruise, duh! ), but they do have their moments. You will have to suspend a lot of disbelief to get into this film, there were quite a few times where I just went . The story itself is pretty average, even if you do forgive it of its flaws. It’s a nice idea, and is passable as entertainment, but there are better ones out there (like the ones mentioned in the first paragraph).

The film is not bad though. Photography is swell. Acting is as good as one can expect. Production value is decent. Music is good (John Powell is the man).

3.5/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 2.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: Action and espionage thriller fans should rent it.

I’m still not sure if I really want to dump a whole $14 on this. I might pass, and get the soundtrack instead.

I got the vibe that the filmmakers intended that. Did it feel that way to you?

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Huh?

I think that is the youtube year in review video. They're usually excellent. I'll have to watch it when I get home.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Huh?

Originally Posted by kpkelley

I think that is the youtube year in review video. They're usually excellent. I'll have to watch it when I get home.

Correct.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

I think that is the youtube year in review video. They're usually excellent. I'll have to watch it when I get home.

Thank you for your clear and concise post.

Originally Posted by Diesel

Correct.

Whatever dude.

[Show spoiler]

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by Steve46

Believe me, I wish I could overcome it and enjoy these things rather than hate every second.

But I do like some slapstick such as Naked Gun and Monty Python.

I can't even figure myself out, let alone anybody else.

Yea I dont really like dry humor or stuff like Seinfeld. Got Em!!

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Thank you for your clear and concise post.



Whatever dude.

[Show spoiler]

I guess you are too evolved to click on links

[Show spoiler]

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I got the vibe that the filmmakers intended that. Did it feel that way to you?

Yeah, and in retrospect there are a bunch of movies I enjoy that are absurd on that level. Just for whatever reason, tonight was a night I got all picky about realism.

I suppose it's no worse than a Roger Moore Bond film.

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I LOVE Jewel. Her concert Blu-ray is fantastic.

That's the only concert blu I own

[Diesel]

Spider-Man

The movie that officially kick started the modern comic book movie phenomenon. Yea, yea, X-Men came first but Spider-Man was the blockbuster that kicked the door down. Pre-Spider-Man we had two good comic book movies (meaning superhero ones, not things like Men In Black): Superman: The Movie and X-Men. That's two good ones in 24 years.

In the 8 years since Spider-Man we've gotten ten movies that range from good to great in my opinion. On top of that there will be at least 7 more released in the next two years.

But, enough about that and how about the actual movie

Pretty simple and straight forward story. Boy is a nerd who likes a girl; boy gets bit by genetically engineered spider and gets super powers. And we go from there.

I'm not the biggest fan of this movie, but I do enjoy it. It isn't a movie that is to be taken too seriously and it doesn't try to be; it just sets out to be a simple and fun movie. From that point, it succeeds. But its not that great of a movie in general. Good, not great. There are things that I'm not a fan of in the movie like the love interest and the choice that is presented to the hero by the villain (

[Show spoiler]Choose the girl or the kids. No! I'll do the politically correct/kid friendly thing and save them both!

). But that's really it; the rest of it just isn't enough to bring it up very high above 'good' since only two things in the movie are very strong instead of solid (more on that later).

Toby Maguire is a good Peter Parker for the movie. He's not really great or anything, just good.

I like the actors they got for Aunt May and Uncle Ben and James Franco as Harry.

I really dislike Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. In fact, I really dislike Kirsten Dunst period
When I first saw the movies soon after they came out (the first and second) she didn't really bother me; but over the years she started to. I really wish they had gotten someone better for the role and better in general.

The movie to me has two stand out performances.
First, J.K. Simmons in the small role of J. Jonah Jameson. He is just spot on for the character and his freaking hilarious. He turned in a perfect performance for Jameson.
Second is the antagonist played by William Dafoe. This guy is full on crazy. And Dafoe is pretty good at playing that He handles the split personalities of Norman and the Goblin quite well. He's probably my 3rd favorite villain of these types of films behinds The Joker (Ledger) and General Zod (Stamp).

I rarely comment on the score of a film, but I really like the Spider-Man theme they used for this movie.

Back to that choice thing. It really does annoy me.

[Show spoiler] If you're just going to make him somehow catch both of them and then get defended from being killed by people throwing garbage (What?!)...just skip the whole situation completely. In the comics the situation is somewhat different (different girl, not kids) and the love interest actually dies. I would have preferred they make him choose the children and try to save the girl but he doesn't get there in time...but of course that wasn't going to happen since they used a different character, were setting this up for sequels and didn't want to make the kids sad So, like I said, if you aren't going to do any of that, just leave the choice out completely.

/rant


Also...when

[Show spoiler]he and Spider-Man are fighting at the end he randomly pulls out some big freaking trident looking thing to stab Spidy...from, where exactly?...then it disappears just as quickly as it showed up.

What the hell?
That always bothers me.


All things considered, a pretty good movie but definitely not on par with something like Batman Begins.


Rating - 4/5

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Spider-Man

[Show spoiler]
The movie that officially kick started the modern comic book movie phenomenon. Yea, yea, X-Men came first but Spider-Man was the blockbuster that kicked the door down. Pre-Spider-Man we had two good comic book movies (meaning superhero ones, not things like Men In Black): Superman: The Movie and X-Men. That's two good ones in 24 years.

In the 8 years since Spider-Man we've gotten ten movies that range from good to great in my opinion. On top of that there will be at least 7 more released in the next two years.

But, enough about that and how about the actual movie

Pretty simple and straight forward story. Boy is a nerd who likes a girl; boy gets bit by genetically engineered spider and gets super powers. And we go from there.

I'm not the biggest fan of this movie, but I do enjoy it. It isn't a movie that is to be taken too seriously and it doesn't try to be; it just sets out to be a simple and fun movie. From that point, it succeeds. But its not that great of a movie in general. Good, not great. There are things that I'm not a fan of in the movie like the love interest and the choice that is presented to the hero by the villain (

[Show spoiler]Choose the girl or the kids. No! I'll do the politically correct/kid friendly thing and save them both!

). But that's really it; the rest of it just isn't enough to bring it up very high above 'good' since only two things in the movie are very strong instead of solid (more on that later).

Toby Maguire is a good Peter Parker for the movie. He's not really great or anything, just good.

I like the actors they got for Aunt May and Uncle Ben and James Franco as Harry.

I really dislike Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. In fact, I really dislike Kirsten Dunst period
When I first saw the movies soon after they came out (the first and second) she didn't really bother me; but over the years she started to. I really wish they had gotten someone better for the role and better in general.

The movie to me has two stand out performances.
First, J.K. Simmons in the small role of J. Jonah Jameson. He is just spot on for the character and his freaking hilarious. He turned in a perfect performance for Jameson.
Second is the antagonist played by William Dafoe. This guy is full on crazy. And Dafoe is pretty good at playing that He handles the split personalities of Norman and the Goblin quite well. He's probably my 3rd favorite villain of these types of films behinds The Joker (Ledger) and General Zod (Stamp).

I rarely comment on the score of a film, but I really like the Spider-Man theme they used for this movie.

Back to that choice thing. It really does annoy me.

[Show spoiler] If you're just going to make him somehow catch both of them and then get defended from being killed by people throwing garbage (What?!)...just skip the whole situation completely. In the comics the situation is somewhat different (different girl, not kids) and the love interest actually dies. I would have preferred they make him choose the children and try to save the girl but he doesn't get there in time...but of course that wasn't going to happen since they used a different character, were setting this up for sequels and didn't want to make the kids sad So, like I said, if you aren't going to do any of that, just leave the choice out completely.

/rant


Also...when

[Show spoiler]he and Spider-Man are fighting at the end he randomly pulls out some big freaking trident looking thing to stab Spidy...from, where exactly?...then it disappears just as quickly as it showed up.

What the hell?
That always bothers me.


All things considered, a pretty good movie but definitely not on par with something like Batman Begins.

Rating - 4/5

Wow, it's been too long since I last saw this, I barely remember any of this stuff!

Originally Posted by Diesel

In the 8 years since Spider-Man we've gotten ten movies that range from good to great in my opinion. On top of that there will be at least 7 more released in the next two years.

Ten...out of, what, 10000?

Originally Posted by Diesel

Also...when

[Show spoiler]he and Spider-Man are fighting at the end he randomly pulls out some big freaking trident looking thing to stab Spidy...from, where exactly?...then it disappears just as quickly as it showed up.

What the hell?
That always bothers me.

We don't want to know where he pulled that thing from...

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Spider-Man


The movie to me has two stand out performances.
First, J.K. Simmons in the small role of J. Jonah Jameson. He is just spot on for the character and his freaking hilarious. He turned in a perfect performance for Jameson.


Rating - 4/5

Every time I see J. K. Simmons, I'm impressed. Give him some major roles.

I loved his portrayal of the CIA boss in Burn After Reading, the fired employee in Up in the Air and the father in Juno.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Spider-Man

The movie that officially kick started the modern comic book movie phenomenon. Yea, yea, X-Men came first but Spider-Man was the blockbuster that kicked the door down. Pre-Spider-Man we had two good comic book movies (meaning superhero ones, not things like Men In Black): Superman: The Movie and X-Men. That's two good ones in 24 years.

]

What about all the Batman movies?