Movies

[Anthony Edward Stark]

And I quote: "The hat is like a switch, it's like I'm a machine and it's my switch that turns me on, so when I turn my hat on it's like I'm an arm-wrestling machine."

[NotMiki]

That makes too much sense.

[Captain K.]

Harry Potter and the Plot Thingies We Never Mentioned Before Book Seven, Part I:  Was pretty good!  Most notably, Ron is not a whiny bitch, which is a marked improvement over the book.  Also, Harry and Hermione have sex.  I am not making that up.  o_O

[Cmdr_King]

I wouldn't call it sex, at least not what happened on camera.

[superaielman]

Army of Darkness: Lived up to the hype.

[Hunter Sopko]

Harry Potter and the Plot Thingies We Never Mentioned Before Book Seven, Part I:  Was pretty good!  Most notably, Ron is not a whiny bitch, which is a marked improvement over the book.  Also, Harry and Hermione have sex.  I am not making that up.  o_O

So they pull a Kai Allard-Liao and Dierdre Lear eh?

[Idun]

I wish they would have flipped the last two Dobby (sp?) and Lord Voldemort scenes. I prefer rising and then falling for a negative climax.

[metroid composite]

Harry Potter 7 part 1:

Pretty good; I cried at three points in the movie.  Several people around the office didn't like it much, though--usually people who hadn't read the books or didn't remember them well.  So...avoid this movie if you're not familiar with the books, I guess?

Minor BOOK SPOILERS from here on out

Absences that make me angry:

Harry doesn't call Lupin a coward.  Seriously--best scene in the whole damn book, and so much potential given Lupin's actor.
Kreacher.  Like...he does the plot-essential, but doesn't get any of his character development, which I actually rather like.

absences that don't bother me at all really:

Dumbledore.  Like...they make vague references to it that nobody who hasn't read the book would understand.  I'm assuming they're saving this all for part 2, which is why I'm not upset (put it in one movie so that people don't lose track makes sense).  If it's not in part 2, they get crucified, of course.
Stealth.  Constantly wearing the invisibility cloak would be bad for cinema.  (Although the fact that the cloak isn't mentioned at all is...what?  It's a Deathly Hallow, and should have been noted for that reason).
Wormtail's death.  It was dumb in the books.  Felt like "well, guess I said that in book 3, so I'd better tie up that plot thread."

Additions:
More doby.  why would you add more Dobby?
Hedwig's death...is much improved.
Improv dancing in the woods.  Actually, I kinda liked these; very ambiguous confused emotions.  Probably wouldn't like it if I hadn't read the books as much as I have, and thus was speculating all the mixed feelings going through every character's head at that moment.

[Sierra]

More doby.  why would you add more Dobby?

This.

Had some concerns going in account the movie being split into two. Expected bloat and pacing woes, but I think they mostly avoided that. Ron angst wasn't real convincing, but decent enough a movie overall. Probably wouldn't put it up with 3 or 5, but likely better than the rest. Have to say that I was very impressed with the Deathly Hallows storytelling sequence. Very stylish, kudos to whoever did the animation there.

[NotMiki]

Meesa Jar Jar Binks!

[Cmdr_King]

Personally my favorite change was putting the mention of Hermoine's parents in the intro.  It's really just remembering they're making a movie rather than making actors read the book aloud, but some other bits of the franchise fail that so.

I though the Kreecher scenes were after they get away from the Malfoy's?  If it was earlier, then yeah, shame they cut it and hope they give it a scene in the second half.

[Grefter]

Harry Brown - Holy shit this is a rough movie.  Michael Cain is brilliant as always and plays an amazingly hard man.  Movie has about as much subtlety as Killdozer but all the better for it.

Good movie, you should all check it out.  No on will bother though because it is good.

[SnowFire]

Tron: Objectively, not a good movie, but watchable enough.  The graphics aren't actually what feels dated; it's more the plotting.  Modern movies would never assume audiences are as patient as they have to be for this movie - thirty minutes of it would have ended up on the cutting room floor.  The character of Yori also kind of had nothing to do - Ram the actuarial program gets a lot more screentime and lines.

TRON: Legacy was, shockingly, good.  Really.  Go see it, preferably with IMAX / 3D.  It's fun!  Art style is unique and cool.  And it has a really good Daft Punk soundtrack ( http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodrecords/music/songs/tron-legacy-soundtrack-preview-77189122?ap=1 )  I mean, it's absolutely nitpickable, but it definitely tries harder to be a coherent movie and artfully not talking too much about some of the more ridiculous assumptions that needs be made for the concept to work. 

It also took its sequel status more seriously than I expected.  I knew they brought back the same actors (wow The Dude and Commander Sheridan are old these days) but they have the Arcade from the original looking exactly like before, even with a sofa in the same place in the office.  Some of the transport videos are taken from the evil letter Ms of the original.  And obviously the clothing for the programs was inspired by the original (but actually looking decent rather than mental patient-y).  The plot feels less like a video game as well (it's not "defeat the guardian of the crazed final boss then use the special artifact to attack past the gaps in his wall") which is probably a good thing.  Lots of cute hacker references too that actually vaguely make sense - as in, they're using real Unix commands like kill -9 and grep in the real world rather than usual MovieOS.

If I did have to nitpick, the two parts of the film that I'd most want to redo: Okay the whole Zeus / (Jam?  The random hot chick from the weapons room) plotline goes basically nowhere and is an excuse for a fight on a dance floor with Daft Punk DJing it up.  The movie also builds Zeus up to be this master manipulator / shadow dealer who is supercool and up to something, then has him dancing like an idiot during the fighting (more shots of fighting please, less of crazed dancing) and then getting punked by Clu uselessly.  They needed to either chop like 10 minutes off, make Zeus a side character, and have him just killed near-immediately by Clu to prove he's an effective bastard, or, if they wanted to keep Zeus in the game, figure out some kind of more interesting plot for there to be between him & Clu then "begs for his life for 2 minutes then gets blowed up."

Secondly.  They blew Tron himself.  First half of the movie was well-done, though I guessed what was up - nearly silent helmeted badass, presence points, formidable opponent, good.  Then The Dude suddenly yells "Tron!" for no reason when Cora is captured, which is basically a half-reveal right there.  But they wait until the fighter plane battle to finish the reveal, and it's not done very stylishly - "Tron, what have they done to you?!"  Then for no apparent reason Tron remembers his original programming!  And...  does something!  Not shoot them down, I guess.  And no dropping away of the mask to show Commander Sheridan!  Come on.  Masked characters must have a dramatic reveal of their face, just like Clu got earlier.  They needed to do the Tron showdown in mano-a-mano laser frisbee combat where you can see faces and make the fight very clear.  Plus they even could have used the "reprogramming" excuse like Flynn pulled on the guard as for why Tron would be back, rather then him just shifting for no reason.  It'd also give pro-User Tron some time to do something epic, even if it was just to quickly heroically sacrifice himself - as it stands non-brainwashed Tron doesn't really get to do anything at all.

Also.  So I lied, three things, I'll mention this one just because fixing it would have been so easy.  Why does Clu spare Cora when she's captured?  Didn't he want to eliminate the isos?  They just kinda totally skim this.  Give Clu one creepy line about how "Good news!  I've decided to hold you for...  analysis, so that your bugs don't infest the rest of the system ever again.  We will be taking you apart piece by piece." and problem solved.

But overall, thumbs up.  Even if you hate the plot it's a visual treat, so good times.

[metroid composite]

The Trotsky

17-year-old kid is convinced that he's the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.  Hillarity ensues.

Very well-done movie.  Required viewing for Grefters, of course, but it may be hard to get as it's a Canadian independent film.

[Cmdr_King]

Solution, mail him a copy (or hold onto one until DL Con for him)
Sounds completely awesome in any case.

[Grefter]

I would be very interested, did it just come out in cinema or is this on DVD Met?

[Shale]

9: Eh, it was okay. Very pretty, and the quest story was entertaining enough. Ridiculously short though. Glad I waited to Netflix it.

[metroid composite]

I would be very interested, did it just come out in cinema or is this on DVD Met?

DVD (saw it on a rental from my local video store in Vancouver--they actually had a couple copies because it's a Canadina film that won several film festival awards).

[Captain K.]

Tangled:  Fairly good if predictable Disney fare.  Songs weren't very good though.

[metroid composite]

Outsourced: So...this guy's department gets outsourced and he has to go to India to train his replacement.  Very well-made commedy--it's rare that I stand up and notice cinematography, particularly my first time through a movie, but it was quite well-done.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Harry Potter and the Plot Thingies We Never Mentioned Before Book Seven, Part I:  Was pretty good!  Most notably, Ron is not a whiny bitch, which is a marked improvement over the book.  Also, Harry and Hermione have sex.  I am not making that up.  o_O

So they pull a Kai Allard-Liao and Dierdre Lear eh?

Have you reread that lately? It's the worst dialogue Stackpole maybe EVER did.

[Shale]

The Kids Are All Right: A well-told story, but not one I was especially interested in. Good acting.

National Treasure 2: Extremely silly. Which was not exactly a shock, so I enjoyed it.

[Lady Door]

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Interesting. It's a fabulous bucket of meta-analysis on street art and its culture and place in society. It's one of those uncomfortable documentaries where you're sure they're laughing at you - all the way to the bank. Except then you see what happens in the movie and you double back around again to wondering what the hell they're doing, and what is this 'art' thing anyway.

Worth a watch if you can stomach counterculture and all that goes with it.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Tron: Objectively, not a good movie, but watchable enough.  The graphics aren't actually what feels dated; it's more the plotting.  Modern movies would never assume audiences are as patient as they have to be for this movie - thirty minutes of it would have ended up on the cutting room floor.  The character of Yori also kind of had nothing to do - Ram the actuarial program gets a lot more screentime and lines.

TRON: Legacy was, shockingly, good.  Really.  Go see it, preferably with IMAX / 3D.  It's fun!  Art style is unique and cool.  And it has a really good Daft Punk soundtrack ( http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodrecords/music/songs/tron-legacy-soundtrack-preview-77189122?ap=1 )  I mean, it's absolutely nitpickable, but it definitely tries harder to be a coherent movie and artfully not talking too much about some of the more ridiculous assumptions that needs be made for the concept to work. 

It also took its sequel status more seriously than I expected.  I knew they brought back the same actors (wow The Dude and Commander Sheridan are old these days) but they have the Arcade from the original looking exactly like before, even with a sofa in the same place in the office.  Some of the transport videos are taken from the evil letter Ms of the original.  And obviously the clothing for the programs was inspired by the original (but actually looking decent rather than mental patient-y).  The plot feels less like a video game as well (it's not "defeat the guardian of the crazed final boss then use the special artifact to attack past the gaps in his wall") which is probably a good thing.  Lots of cute hacker references too that actually vaguely make sense - as in, they're using real Unix commands like kill -9 and grep in the real world rather than usual MovieOS.

If I did have to nitpick, the two parts of the film that I'd most want to redo: Okay the whole Zeus / (Jam?  The random hot chick from the weapons room) plotline goes basically nowhere and is an excuse for a fight on a dance floor with Daft Punk DJing it up.  The movie also builds Zeus up to be this master manipulator / shadow dealer who is supercool and up to something, then has him dancing like an idiot during the fighting (more shots of fighting please, less of crazed dancing) and then getting punked by Clu uselessly.  They needed to either chop like 10 minutes off, make Zeus a side character, and have him just killed near-immediately by Clu to prove he's an effective bastard, or, if they wanted to keep Zeus in the game, figure out some kind of more interesting plot for there to be between him & Clu then "begs for his life for 2 minutes then gets blowed up."

Secondly.  They blew Tron himself.  First half of the movie was well-done, though I guessed what was up - nearly silent helmeted badass, presence points, formidable opponent, good.  Then The Dude suddenly yells "Tron!" for no reason when Cora is captured, which is basically a half-reveal right there.  But they wait until the fighter plane battle to finish the reveal, and it's not done very stylishly - "Tron, what have they done to you?!"  Then for no apparent reason Tron remembers his original programming!  And...  does something!  Not shoot them down, I guess.  And no dropping away of the mask to show Commander Sheridan!  Come on.  Masked characters must have a dramatic reveal of their face, just like Clu got earlier.  They needed to do the Tron showdown in mano-a-mano laser frisbee combat where you can see faces and make the fight very clear.  Plus they even could have used the "reprogramming" excuse like Flynn pulled on the guard as for why Tron would be back, rather then him just shifting for no reason.  It'd also give pro-User Tron some time to do something epic, even if it was just to quickly heroically sacrifice himself - as it stands non-brainwashed Tron doesn't really get to do anything at all.

Also.  So I lied, three things, I'll mention this one just because fixing it would have been so easy.  Why does Clu spare Cora when she's captured?  Didn't he want to eliminate the isos?  They just kinda totally skim this.  Give Clu one creepy line about how "Good news!  I've decided to hold you for...  analysis, so that your bugs don't infest the rest of the system ever again.  We will be taking you apart piece by piece." and problem solved.

But overall, thumbs up.  Even if you hate the plot it's a visual treat, so good times.

Give me your nerd card so I can tear it up. Sheridan was a Captain; Sinclair and Ivanova were Commanders.

[SnowFire]

Commander Sinclair was more awesome than Mr. Sheridan anyway.  Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it.