HDNet Sneak Peak Movies - Discussion

[Deadset]

I've started to watch HDNet more over the past few months and realized they show select movies before they hit theaters. Anyone else subscribe to this channel and watch them? Anyone found any of the previous movies in the list below worth watching? I'd like to hear the forums thoughts on these and which movies they recommend.

Here is the site.

Surveillance
The first one I caught was Surveillance. Overall a good whodunit movie, about 3 stories of a murder and Bill Pullman is the detective who must track down the killer. It was an OK movie, good for a one time view.

Answer Man
My second film I caught was Answer Man - aired July 22nd. It's about a well known author who wrote a book about Me & God - which has answers about life. The author (Jeff Daniels) is not a nice man, nor is he very Godly. He eventually meets Lauren Graham who helps him during a pivotal point in his life.

Overall the movie was a good romantic comedy which is about life, attitude and relationships.

Schedule of upcoming Sneak Peaks:



The Extra Man - July 30th at 8:00 PM ET

Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), is a penniless, wildly eccentric but brilliant playwright. When Henry's not dancing alone or singing operettas, he's performing - with great panache - the duties of an “extra man", a social escort for the wealthy widows of Manhattan high society. These two men, separated in age by more than forty years, develop a volatile mentor/apprentice relationship. Through a series of urban adventures, Louis and Henry form a memorable bond that bridges their differences.

The Oxford Murders - August 4th at 8:00 PM ET

An old lady is murdered in Oxford. Her body is discovered by two men who meet for the first time at that moment: Arthur Seldom (John Hurt), a prestigious professor of logic, and Martin (Elijah Wood), a young graduate student who has just arrived at the university hoping to study with Seldom. It quickly becomes clear that this is the first in a series of murders, all of which are announced by the murderer with strange symbols. Professor and student join forces to try and crack the code and thus begins an elaborate puzzle, in which nothing is at it seems, and the truth is elusive. As Martin gets closer to the facts, he feels increasingly insecure with his grasp on the world around him.

Centurion - August 25th at 8:00 PM ET

Centurion is set during the war between Roman soldiers and Pict tribesmen during the 2nd century Roman conquest of Britain. Michael Fassbender stars as Quintus Dias, Roman centurion and son of a legendary gladiator who leads a group of soldiers on a raid of a Pict camp to rescue a captured general (Dominic West). The son of the Pict leader is murdered during the raid, and the Romans find themselves hunted by a seemingly unstoppable group of the Pict’s most vicious and skilled warriors, led by a beautiful and deadly tracker (Olga Kurylenko), and hell bent on revenge.

Previous Movies:


Rec 2
Ondine
Survival of the Dead 1/5
Serious Moonlight 3/5
Red Cliff 4/5
The House of the Devil 5/5
Ong Bak 2 - missed it!
The Burning Plain - 3/5
World's Greatest Dad - 4/5
Answer Man - 3.5/5
Surveillance - 3/5
The Girlfriend Experience
Mutant Chronicles
The Great Buck Howard
Two Lovers
Yonkers Joe
Special
Splinter
Humboldt County
Mister Foe
Red
Finding Amanda
Quid Pro Quo
Surfwise
Flawless
Romulus, My Father
Shrooms
Outlaw
Redacted
Weirdsville
Closing Escrow
Cashback
Broken English
Fay Grim
Diggers

[PH3AR]

Yes i love this channel and i love the sneak peaks, you forgot Shrooms and Mutant Chronicles, those are the only two sneak peaks i watched on there

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by PH3AR

Yes i love this channel and i love the sneak peaks, you forgot Shrooms and Mutant Chronicles, those are the only two sneak peaks i watched on there

Looks like it's just you and me who watch these!

I'm looking forward to Ong Bak 2 more than the other 2. Though, the film World's Greatest Dad has me intrigued too, anything with Robin Williams I'll give it a shot. I think he's a great actor.

I remember seeing previews for the Girlfriend Experience....looked......educational?

[PH3AR]

Originally Posted by Deads3t

Looks like it's just you and me who watch these!

I'm looking forward to Ong Bak 2 more than the other 2. Though, the film World's Greatest Dad has me intrigued too, anything with Robin Williams I'll give it a shot. I think he's a great actor.

I remember seeing previews for the Girlfriend Experience....looked......educational?

i will check out most of the sneak peaks, just wish this channel got more love its probally the best looking HD channel and yes i remember girlfriend experience, looks like a classy movie

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by PH3AR

i will check out most of the sneak peaks, just wish this channel got more love its probally the best looking HD channel and yes i remember girlfriend experience, looks like a classy movie

True, it doesn't get the attention other HD channels do - it also looks fantastic, I appreciate their movies and love their little intro every month which previews their movies that they will show. I'm looking forward to Escape from Alcatraz and Baadasssss! in HD.

[fatediesel]

I watched The Answer Man on my DVR and thought it was alright, but not great, and I thought the ending sucked. Don't regret watching it but won't ever watch it again.

I watched The Girlfriend Experience a couple months back and kind of felt the same way. I didn't like how it jumped around from past to present, and I didn't really like any of the characters. Thought Sasha Gray did a decent job in her first mainstream role.

I like HD NET a lot though. They do a great job of remastering movies and I enjoy The Ultimate Trailer Show. It's the only reason I didn't cancel my premium HD Package this summer.

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

I watched The Answer Man on my DVR and thought it was alright, but not great, and I thought the ending sucked. Don't regret watching it but won't ever watch it again.

I watched The Girlfriend Experience a couple months back and kind of felt the same way. I didn't like how it jumped around from past to present, and I didn't really like any of the characters. Thought Sasha Gray did a decent job in her first mainstream role.

I like HD NET a lot though. They do a great job of remastering movies and I enjoy The Ultimate Trailer Show. It's the only reason I didn't cancel my premium HD Package this summer.

I think it's a great way for me to see movies I probably would never ever see, because I live in a part of the country that only gets Wide Releases.

Ultimate Trailer show is one of few shows I DVR. Lots of stuff coming down the pipeline that I have found out about from Robert. The one I'm most looking forward to is 9, followed by Surrogates, Moon, Pandorum.

[Iron-Blu-123]

I got HDNet channel and like there Sneak Peak Movies.

[iori]

I used to have it, I may have to add it again. Didn't realize they did that.

[FRAK]

My wife and I have seen a few of these, and have a few recorded on the DVR, yet to watch. We've seen Broken English (cool), Closing Escrow (hilarious), Red (depressing as hell, but good) Mutant Chronicles (90 minutes of my life I'll never get back), Splinter (very cool), and have a couple recorded: Two Lovers and Great Buck Howard.

To be honest, we'd probably try more but we keep forgetting they do this.

[Deadset]

Don't forget, World's Greatest Dad premiers in 2 days! I've got my DVR set to record as I'll be gone that night. Looking forward to this movie, it looks like it's going to be good.

[Deadset]

Finally got around to watching World's Greatest Dad.

The movie is about a Dad (Robin Williams) who is a teacher at a school where his son attends as well. His son walks all over him and he really seems to be a lonely guy. Robin is also a failed writer and feels like he is a failed dad and socially inept. He feels like he's loosing a grip on his life, girlfriend and son. The story really picks up about mid way through the movie.

I don't want to give away too much, but overall the movie is dark, funny, and sad (parts). 4/5 I thought the ending could have been better...

Last night, I recorded The Burning Plain...looking forward to viewing it this weekend.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by Deads3t

Finally got around to watching World's Greatest Dad.

The movie is about a Dad (Robin Williams) who is a teacher at a school where his son attends as well. His son walks all over him and he really seems to be a lonely guy. Robin is also a failed writer and feels like he is a failed dad and socially inept. He feels like he's loosing a grip on his life, girlfriend and son. The story really picks up about mid way through the movie.

I don't want to give away too much, but overall the movie is dark, funny, and sad (parts). 4/5 I thought the ending could have been better...

Last night, I recorded The Burning Plain...looking forward to viewing it this weekend.

I saw this too and kind of wanted

[Show spoiler]Williams character to go all the way through with it.

[Bluray_ne1]

I caught "Splinter", which I enjoyed. It was well done and unique. Most of the other movies they have shown seem to be more or less "indie" types that didn't hold any interest for me.

My guess is they're previewing movies that they don't expect to do substantial business at the box office, in the hopes that those who see them for free on TV will serve as word-of-mouth advertising to those who don't have HDNet. I'm sure they're fine films. But like I said, they just didn't seem interesting to me personally.

[SapGoblin]

Yeah- I saw Splinter on their too...was pretty decent!

I'm looking fwd. to Ong Bak 2. Haven't seen the 1st one yet, but as I've read pt. 2 is a prequel...so I guess I'll more or less see the stories in their intended orders!

[RIPSeanTaylor21]

Ong Bak 2 looks interesting

[steve_dave]

I wonder if Ong Bak 2 was altered like Ong Bak for the western market. I have the Thai DVD and I just got around to watchingit after it sitting on my shelf for a couple of months.

I was disappointed...severely disappointed.

Tony Jaa co-directs the film but it feels disjointed with a really poor plot and dare I say, boring fight scenes.

Not to give away the entire film but its a horrible hodgepodge mess of worldwide fighting styles from all over the world. Its not very seamless in transitioning from one fighting style to the next. In fact, some fight scenes stop momentarily so that the style can change. Literally, you will see Thien (Jaa) using a sword then bad guy comes in, he stares at bad guy, then fight resumes without sword & with fists.

The reason Ong Bak, Tom Young Goong, and Chocolate were so well received was the incredible display of modified Muay Thai which is kept on the backburner for Ong Bak 2. Thien uses non traditional Thai weapons like chainsticks, the aforementioned sword, bo, and explosives more often then he does using tradtional Thai techniques.

Its like Jaa (who also helped write the story) wanted to make a film that appealed to everyone but just couldn't find its focus.

[Clark Kent]

Surveillance has definitely been the best of these movies so far. A real surprise at how good it was. Two Lovers was also worth a viewing. Most of them have been nothing special and not worth seeing more than once.

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by mikejet

I saw this too and kind of wanted

[Show spoiler]Williams character to go all the way through with it.

Same here! I was kinda ticked when he made that speech at the end. I think if the movie wanted to be a dark comedy it should have kept with Williams continuing to do the same thing.

Updated first post with the next 3 movies.

[Deadset]

Originally Posted by Bluray_ne1

My guess is they're previewing movies that they don't expect to do substantial business at the box office, in the hopes that those who see them for free on TV will serve as word-of-mouth advertising to those who don't have HDNet. I'm sure they're fine films. But like I said, they just didn't seem interesting to me personally.

I really look at these movies as a way to see something I normally wouldn't watch. I don't live in an area where they screen limited run movies, so it's a nice addition to the channel. I'm always open to watch something that is beyond mainstream.