"Now Showing"
- Thread starter Mark
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nadroJ
CF Legend
Last night I watched a film I've wanted to see in forever, The Secret of NIMH. I adore Don Bluth but wasn't ever shown this film as a child, and it's only recently since watching more Nostalgia Critic that it was brought back to my attention.
So the film is rather strange, it has you thinking you've turned it on half-way through. The story follows Mrs. Brisby, widow of the 'legendary' Jonathan Brisby who helped rescue the rats of NIMH, and died trying to poison a cat of a farm (I know, mental). Anyway, one of the widow's children is sick, so she needs to get medicine for him but the problem is the animals are planning on moving soon because they live on a farm and it'll be farming season again soon and that means tractors and **** everywhere, which will kill them. So you think the focus will be on some sort of adventure undertaken by this mouse to help her child get well again before moving day. Wrong. It then goes off on some other mental story arc about the rats of NIMH, one of them is evil and wants her dead because she's saying they have to move because NIMH is coming back to get them, there's some sort of epic battle scenes, blood, 'big' characters die and it's all very dramatic.
Now, I found this really hard to follow. Like, I enjoyed the fact that I had no idea where the story was going but I felt like it didn't focus on one thing enough for any of it to seem like a big deal? Nothing really seemed like an obstacle, the mouse got to places easily because she has a bird friend to fly her around, the villain(s) seemed really easily defeated and I felt like I didn't really care about anything the story was telling me was important?
What is also quite jarring to me was that the animals seems very 'fairytale' in their stylisation - they fight with swords, wear capes, bow, things like this, and yet, it's set in a modern day world. There's electricity, there are cars, the humans live in a normal modern house and have a telephone and such, it was really difficult to me to understand how these worlds co-existed, it didn't feel right to me.
One massive plus is the animation, it's gorgeous. The way the creatures move, especially the bad ones, it's unbelievable and they all have these terrifying glowing eyes. Also, Mrs. Brisby is really believable, she reacts in the proper way to all the things she comes up against, she gets scared, she gets tired, but she is brave and powers on through it all because she has something worth fighting for, which was awesome.
I really wanted to adore this and I feel like if the two worlds hadn't been so jarring in their differences and if the storyline had focussed on one thing more often then I would have. It wasn't a bad film, but was a bit of a let down, I was expecting to love it.
So the film is rather strange, it has you thinking you've turned it on half-way through. The story follows Mrs. Brisby, widow of the 'legendary' Jonathan Brisby who helped rescue the rats of NIMH, and died trying to poison a cat of a farm (I know, mental). Anyway, one of the widow's children is sick, so she needs to get medicine for him but the problem is the animals are planning on moving soon because they live on a farm and it'll be farming season again soon and that means tractors and **** everywhere, which will kill them. So you think the focus will be on some sort of adventure undertaken by this mouse to help her child get well again before moving day. Wrong. It then goes off on some other mental story arc about the rats of NIMH, one of them is evil and wants her dead because she's saying they have to move because NIMH is coming back to get them, there's some sort of epic battle scenes, blood, 'big' characters die and it's all very dramatic.
Now, I found this really hard to follow. Like, I enjoyed the fact that I had no idea where the story was going but I felt like it didn't focus on one thing enough for any of it to seem like a big deal? Nothing really seemed like an obstacle, the mouse got to places easily because she has a bird friend to fly her around, the villain(s) seemed really easily defeated and I felt like I didn't really care about anything the story was telling me was important?
What is also quite jarring to me was that the animals seems very 'fairytale' in their stylisation - they fight with swords, wear capes, bow, things like this, and yet, it's set in a modern day world. There's electricity, there are cars, the humans live in a normal modern house and have a telephone and such, it was really difficult to me to understand how these worlds co-existed, it didn't feel right to me.
One massive plus is the animation, it's gorgeous. The way the creatures move, especially the bad ones, it's unbelievable and they all have these terrifying glowing eyes. Also, Mrs. Brisby is really believable, she reacts in the proper way to all the things she comes up against, she gets scared, she gets tired, but she is brave and powers on through it all because she has something worth fighting for, which was awesome.
I really wanted to adore this and I feel like if the two worlds hadn't been so jarring in their differences and if the storyline had focussed on one thing more often then I would have. It wasn't a bad film, but was a bit of a let down, I was expecting to love it.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
^ The bad guys were creepy as all hell in that movie. I haven't watched it since I was like, 12, but I remember being creeped out.
nadroJ
CF Legend
The thing that was confusing as well, I forgot to mention, was that the 'bad guys' (ie, the ones who looked creepy as hell) aren't even bad guys! There's the wise owl, who Mrs. Brisby is scared of because 'owls eat mice', who just gives her some advice then **** off and Nicodemus, who is some sort of rat elder who was friends with her husband. What the hell Don?
madhjsp
Giga Poster
Any Given Sunday
Full of male bravado and some select sports-movie cliches, but I enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty interesting look at the less glamorous aspects of professional sports. The dialogue and action were generally more realistic and believable than in many sports movies, and I particularly enjoyed the actual football scenes, which were probably the best-shot and most effective of any football movie that I've seen, moreso even than Friday Night Lights. I also had no idea going in that the cast was so stacked, and I thought Jim Brown & Lawrence Taylor of all people delivered some of the best performances. Just wish there had been more screen time for James Woods, though.
Full of male bravado and some select sports-movie cliches, but I enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty interesting look at the less glamorous aspects of professional sports. The dialogue and action were generally more realistic and believable than in many sports movies, and I particularly enjoyed the actual football scenes, which were probably the best-shot and most effective of any football movie that I've seen, moreso even than Friday Night Lights. I also had no idea going in that the cast was so stacked, and I thought Jim Brown & Lawrence Taylor of all people delivered some of the best performances. Just wish there had been more screen time for James Woods, though.
nadroJ said:
Apparently the original book is really, really good - but the writers mucked about with it and you end up with the mess that is Secret of NIMH. I imagine it was one of those films that was written by committee. There were good intentions initially to make the book into a film, then suddenly fantasy was all the rage and the committee decided that the film needed "magic and mystery to make it more popular, and have the crow as comic relief - oh, and we need some cute animal deaths to bring on the tears like Watership Down!!! Watership Down of the Rings - with rats! Get to it Don, and don't mess it up."
tomahawk
Strata Poster
Iron Man 3
Butchered so badly on some very key points, but very good in others. I HATE that Disney has their hands all over this and I HATE the director change. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully Thor 2 will be better with the Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor at the helm.
Butchered so badly on some very key points, but very good in others. I HATE that Disney has their hands all over this and I HATE the director change. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully Thor 2 will be better with the Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor at the helm.
Disney has their hands all over Iron Man? Love to see ya reasoning for why this makes the film worse? Or how it even makes a slight difference on how the film was made etc? Because I'm pretty certain that all Disney do with the Marvel franchise is distribute the films out to all the cinemas and home entertainment etc. Yeah they reap the profits from the film at the end of the day but they don't even touch the films as far as I can see.
I love the new writers/director, I think it made Iron Man feel fresh again. Maybe it's just because I loved the humour.
I love the new writers/director, I think it made Iron Man feel fresh again. Maybe it's just because I loved the humour.
tomahawk
Strata Poster
Humor was one of the worst parts. While some of it was nice, others was forced, for the same reason people HATE Transformers for its stupid humor, they will love this. It makes zero sense. If you put this exact movie out and just changed the directors name to Michael Bay, everyone would hate it.
What they did for the villain was trash. Spoiler ahead, highlight to read.
What they did for the villain was trash. Spoiler ahead, highlight to read.
Having the Mandarin be a decoy was an absolute mockery and a slap in the face to the entire Iron Man series. They ruined any credibility they had. Mandarin is his arch nemesis and they do that? Please. While I did read something last night that makes it salvageable, they slapped all fans of Iron Man in the face. That's like making Alfred be the Joker. I almost got up and left because it was just so absolutely awful. Also the 42 different suits was just stupid as well. Besides those two major things, I loved it though. You just can't do that to his arch nemesis like that. Having his rings just be nothing as well? Wow. Can't believe Ben Kingsley was wasted for that.
madhjsp
Giga Poster
Drive
Awesome, loved it. I guess it's due to oversaturation & desensitization, but there aren't many movies that really make me feel uncomfortable with their violence. This one does. Part of that is due to it being a bit more graphic than most films, but I think a lot of it is due to this ones deliberately slow pacing & the cool collectedness of the Driver. So when things get violent, it's all the more jarring & unsettling.
That said, I loved how effective it was. There were some great camera shots in there as well.. just overall a very well-crafted film.
Awesome, loved it. I guess it's due to oversaturation & desensitization, but there aren't many movies that really make me feel uncomfortable with their violence. This one does. Part of that is due to it being a bit more graphic than most films, but I think a lot of it is due to this ones deliberately slow pacing & the cool collectedness of the Driver. So when things get violent, it's all the more jarring & unsettling.
That said, I loved how effective it was. There were some great camera shots in there as well.. just overall a very well-crafted film.
I don't hate Transformers for its humour, I hate it because its awful and I have taste?
The Iron Man 3 twist was always going to be decisive, and I'm glad they had the balls to do it. It was clever and it was unique, and it led to a much cooler ending than we would have otherwise had. Iron Man vs Old Man. Woo.
Don't compare the Mandarin to the Joker. He has nowhere near the same cultural penetration.
The Iron Man 3 twist was always going to be decisive, and I'm glad they had the balls to do it. It was clever and it was unique, and it led to a much cooler ending than we would have otherwise had. Iron Man vs Old Man. Woo.
Don't compare the Mandarin to the Joker. He has nowhere near the same cultural penetration.
madhjsp
Giga Poster
One of the few movies I've tried to watch (twice, in fact) but just could not make it through due to its overwhelming terrible-ness. For all the money Dreamworks dropped on visual effects, you'd think they could have spared a few bucks more for even semi-decent writing and an acting coach for Megan Fox, who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.Ben said:
Anyway, I saw Iron Man 3 today, and wasn't disappointed. Very similar to the first two: a popcorn flick with plenty of explosive action, lots of one-liners (some good, some weak), and a heaping amount of suspended disbelief (
Guy Pearce breathes fire? Really? What are we watching Godzilla now?
I guess because I never read the comics, I don't really have a problem with the Mandarin thing that some seem to be complaining about. Thought it was kind of funny actually.
Re: "Now Showing"
Maniac.
It was pretty good. It was filmed interestingly - as a POV from a serial killer - and was gruesomely entertaining, but the actual story was just too simplistic.
It was atmospheric and had a cool soundtrack though.
Yeah, I liked it all in all.
Maniac.
It was pretty good. It was filmed interestingly - as a POV from a serial killer - and was gruesomely entertaining, but the actual story was just too simplistic.
It was atmospheric and had a cool soundtrack though.
Yeah, I liked it all in all.
madhjsp
Giga Poster
The Cabin in the Woods
Funny, surprising, entertaining, pretty cool movie overall. It's a pretty spot-on send-up of the horror/monster genre that doesn't seem to take itself very seriously, and yet also doesn't try too hard to be a spoof. So it's not Scary Movie, but it's not quite a scary movie either. Maybe the best way I can describe it is equal parts Cube, The Mist, and The Truman Show.
Funny, surprising, entertaining, pretty cool movie overall. It's a pretty spot-on send-up of the horror/monster genre that doesn't seem to take itself very seriously, and yet also doesn't try too hard to be a spoof. So it's not Scary Movie, but it's not quite a scary movie either. Maybe the best way I can describe it is equal parts Cube, The Mist, and The Truman Show.
Nemesis of oblivion
Strata Poster
Saw Ironman 3 for a second time. I actually enjoyed it more. I'm still mixed wether I like the twist or not but Trevor was hilarious! Robert was awesome as always and I hope Ben reprises his role in having small cameos throughout the marvel films. Probably won't, but I'd love that. 8/10 Funny, great action and not the best movie but certainly a awesome one.