Movies

[Captain K.]

This topic is for talking about any movies you've seen recently, either at the theater or on DVD/TV.

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Dragon Wars - Very generic story, with very good special effects.  Worth the buck I paid to see it.

[CompmanJX3]

Golden Compass - I think we missed the first 15 minutes, and maybe that mattered a bit, but the movie was pretty terrible.  The script I think borrowed too literally from the book, because it just didn't work on screen at some points.  And the pacing was more or less terrible.  This made for an experience more amusing than anything else, but disappointing, on the whole.

[AndrewRogue]

Sweeny Todd: Just about what you'd expect, given all the parties involved. Nothing amazingly groundbreaking, but has some great moments. Solid movie overall.

[ThePiggyman]

Went on a small War Movie Marathon not long ago, here are the films I saw.

Merry Christmas
Children of Men
Letters From Iwojima
Flags of Our Fathers
Saving Private Ryan

I gotta say, not one of these movies disappointed. All of them were fabulous. My favourite of those was Merry Christmas. Just the fact that it was based on a true story made watching it all the more unbelievable.

[Grefter]

Watch Children of Men.  I fucking told you.

[Shale]

The Bourne Ultimatum: Meh, it was okay. Good enough action, Bourne was cool, but it felt like an epilogue; the things at risk were MacGuffins (Take down the bad guys we've never met before! Expose the new super-secret CIA program of doom!), with nothing I actually cared about at risk. Still fun, just not much to it even as an action movie.

On another note, I haven't watched it yet, but I picked up Blade Runner: The Final Cut yesterday. That I'm looking forward to.

[Grefter]

Why do you mix being so good in with failing so much Shale?  I dunno, I think you are heading towards condemning yourself to a long course of shock treatment to complete your good taste.

[Shale]

It's not like I paid for Bourne.

[Grefter]

I meant it is good that you like Blade Runner.  On the other hand you like Shining Force.

Bourne is alright, it is just fluff at the end of the day.  I paid to watch it out of support for movies with pistol whipping.

[Sierra]

So, what exactly is different about this version of Blade Runner?

[Captain K.]

It costs a lot more.

[Shale]

It's a directors cut actually made by Ridley Scott personally, instead of constructed from his notes. It was also completely remastered, which, from the reviews, makes a lot more difference.

[Veryslightlymad]

Alvin and the Chipmunks:

Watched this because my mom wanted to see it, she's been screwed out of a few movies within the past two years, and god damn it, it's basically Christmas.

It was...... well, I suspected it'd be awful, but for a children's movie, this holds up pretty well. I was worried it'd try to be more than it was, but it didn't. Probably not worth seeing in theaters unless you have children, though.

[NotMiki]

The Golden Compass:  If you made a movie using the Cliff's Notes from a book as a script, this is what it would look like.  Everything is there, but there is just no reason to care.  Still worth watching if you've read the book (which you should!)  but just too rushed and mechanical.  On the other hand, the bear fight was pretty cool.

The Bourne Ultimatum:  Very nice.  Good, satisfying plot for a movie, sufficiently complex to be interesting, but not to the extent that it becomes difficult to follow.  Has one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a long while.  I'm sure the fight choreographer is not hurting for work.  Interesting ending, too, like a watered-down version of The Constant Gardener.

[Grefter]

Doesn't it also come with the original theatrical cut and a making of DVD in the mix Shale?  I know there is a pack going around with that down here in Aus anyway.

[Shale]

Depends on the version you get. There's a two-disc one with the new cut and documentary, a four-disc set with the new cut, documentary, extra disc of bonus stuff and both older versions of the movie, and a five-disc super deluxe version with even more bonus material and a metal case. I got the two-disc one because it was a present and I wasn't about to complain that people weren't spending enough money on me.

Edit: It seems the five-disc release also has the workprint of the move, which could be really damned cool if you're into that sort of thing.

[Sierra]

Is anything regarding the story notably different, is what I'm wondering. Feel free to bombard me with spoilers. I'm unlikely to actually buy it since I already own the (previous) director's cut edition of the movie.

[Shale]

I haven't watched it yet, but there's a Wikipedia summary here.

Most of it seems to be cleaning up errors in editing or continuity - removing all traces of the sixth replicant that was originally in the script, fixing out-of-sync audio, that kind of thing. The biggest story change looks like it's the unicorn dream, which uses a different version of the dream sequence itself but also shows Deckard to be awake when he experiences it (makes it more of a vision than a dream, then?) - definitely more fuel for the "Deckard's a replicant" viewpoint.

[Grefter]

IIRC this is how it went down.

Yeah the director was big on the Deckard is a replicant stuff.  Other people disagree.  The non-replicant camp won out on the editting of the theatrical release, so the original one plays like that.  Director's cut twists it more towards Deckard as replicant side of things.

[Strago]

The Golden Compass.

Worst book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen, easily. Probably not really in the running for worst movie in general, but it still sucked. It sucked hard.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Worst book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen, easily.

Now -that- is damning criticism.

Without spoiling, could you elaborate on how the movie bungled things so badly?

[Dhyerwolf]

Golden Compass- I'll agree that it was okay, but nowhere near the book. My gut reaction was that the book was too non-formulaic to fit easily into a book (unlike say HP), which meant that it took a long time to get the movie going and meant a lot of mehish explanation. Also meant that they didn't have enough time to really make most non-Lyra characters seem all that complete. I do think it started to get decent at the end...and then they ended abruptly. Had issues as a stand-alone movie, so if they do decide to make the second and third, I'd be more interested in those.

[Strago]

Worst book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen, easily.

Now -that- is damning criticism.

Without spoiling, could you elaborate on how the movie bungled things so badly?

A reliance on hamfisted exposition, extremely awkward pacing in the first half, a really awfully written script, and a massively underdeveloped supporting cast are the biggest problems. There's also the big idiotic battle the movie sticks in at the end in an attempt to create a new dramatic climax to replace the actual ending of the book. Which was apparently not testing well because it wasn't happy and cheery enough.

And on a purely subjective note, I didn't like the choice of casting Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek. He's just too old, I think. I always imagined Iorek sounding and seeming much younger.

[NotMiki]

The problem with the Golden Compass adaption, the thing that the movie absolutely lacks compared to the book is good old fashioned intrigue.  Unfortunately, the book is the kind of story that builds intrigue slowly and subtly, organically if you will, with little touches here and there that hint at a dark undercurrent, and that doesn't translate well when you're thoroughly rushing a movie just to fit in all the factual details of the plot.  The movie proceeds at such a breakneck pace that you never are given the chance to sit back and think about the larger iplications of what's going on.

The book approaches things you don't know but are obviously important by leaving oblique hints, little inconsistencies that nag at you as time progresses and you become more comfortable with the narrative world.  This kind of thing is difficult at best to try to accomplish in a short amount of time, and it's a shame but not a big surprise that the movie can't deliver on it.

[Ranmilia]

Well, my brother insisted we watch Bubba Ho-Tep, so we did.  Despite being billed as a Bruce Campbell Evil Dead-ish comedy, it really wasn't very funny.  I correctly pegged it as a short story adaptation while watching it.

So Elvis, living but geriatric, meets JFK, also living, also old, but now black, in his nursing home, and they team up to fight an evil mummy in a cowboy suit.  With a wheelchair-mounted flamethrower.

Okay, the premise is funny.  But all that stuff only happens in the last 20 minutes or so, the bulk of the movie is permeated with a less than subtle message about the state of care for the elderly, or lack thereof, in modern America.  Really quite a downer. 

I'm still trying to decide if it was good or not.  Will probably have to read the story now, at least.