SomTervo Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 (edited) Came back online simply to rant about this movie: Tales from Earthsea Ugh, I really expected more out of a Studo Ghibli film. Supposedly this movie doesn't even follow the book series it was based on, remotely. First off, context! Yep. It's pretty shit, I'd put this in the Terrible pile. Felt like a 'nothing' movie. In concept and execution it's thin as 2% milk. I'm about to rant a little. Re: The novels: The first novel, Wizard of Earthsea is one of my favourite books; and it sets scene impeccably, unlike the movie. It's really great. The context of the whole thing is: 'magic' is simply speaking the 'true name' of something, which commands its true spirit. Practically identical to Skyrim's 'Dragon breath and shouts are actually an ancient language'. In Earthsea, at the start of time everything was called by its true name, and Dragon's spoke the original true language, so could command everything. Over time, with the advent of man, (or something, this is all IIRC) fake names and pseudonyms became prevalent, and the dragons have been killed off, so the magic of truenames, or soulnames dies out. At the later point in history where the stories begin, people only speak in this 'fake name' pseudo-speak, so the true spirit of things aren't affected at all. People don't know things have 'true names' (and everything has a true name). Magic is what Sparrowhawk (who's in Tales of Earthsea, but is the main character of the novels (the eponymous Wizard of Earthsea), and his true name is Ged) learns from the start of the first book, beginning by commanding goats by their true race name etc., and he goes to a distant college etc. It's all great stuff. Captures your mind as a kid. magic is combining the true words for anything; individuals, species, races, elements, forces. The film tells you none of this, and goes on to tell a pretty shit story in a pretty bad way. May make this rant in the 'bad' thread. It's also the first and only Ghibli movie that didn't have Hayao in charge. It had his son, whatever he's call. Big fail imho. That's why it's not good, and your expectations were ruined Atomski! On topic: In Bruges. Sure isn't bad, but it's first half is really poor. I felt it had a really, really weak first half which set up a really, really strong second half. The first half is unfunny, gratuitously crass, and has pretty shit pacing (it's trying to be funny and quirky). The music is also inappropriate all the way through, till the more solemn parts later. Buuuut the second half pushes into quality drama that felt like it should have started sooner, and turns all the over-the-top lame trying-to-be-funny stuff from the first half into genuinely pretty good in-jokes. The music also feels more fitting. Is suddenly pretty great. The plot's also pretty holey, start-to-finish, but most films are much worse. Edited December 28, 2011 by kenshi_ryden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 Hmm, it's been a while since I've seen it but I can't say the first half of In Bruges bothered me. I mean, it conveyed the tone and mood anyway and Brendan Gleeson is always fantastic. It does get a little ridiculous and you can kinda guess how silly the ending is going to be but it's still very entertaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted December 28, 2011 Report Share Posted December 28, 2011 Yeah Gleeson was indeed spot-on. Reading my post back my main issue was with Farrel and the music (in the first half at least). I felt the first half was more ridiculous than the second, or the ending. Farrel would always be cracking some awful disabled or racist joke while some really serious and moody piano music would be playing in the background. And jokes or funny moments always tapered off into the grey-area non-laughs. And a lot of the situations in it seemed painfully contrived; for example the whole love interest with the random girl on the random set of a random movie, who gets no character development at all (or rather, entirely ambiguous and forced character development) really pissed me off. But really, I can't say I disliked it. At first I was nagging my parents to turn that shit off (slipping right back into angsty teenager mode after living away for a good while), but by the halfway mark I couldn't say no to the rest of it. Also the theme of suicide was pretty excellent. It developed well thematically, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Saw this over break. It's wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't terrible either. Directed by Richard Ayoade of the IT Crowd. I did really dig the soundtrack, though, by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. The gloomy nature fit really well with the rest of the film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excel_excel Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 Yeah......it was okay. Fairly inoffensive sports comedy with Seann William Scott playing the nice but dumb main character. Really formulaic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 Gentlemen Broncos. A little-known Jared Hess film (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre). Really, this is right on the edge of bad. It's almost like he made Napoleon Dynamite again but with almost no charm. I mean, I didn't like Napoleon Dynamite that much on my first viewing but something drew me back. The bits with Jemaine Clement and an incredibly silly, posh-sounding English accent are good, and there are some good moments with Jennifer Coolidge and Mike White, but Sam Rockwell pretty much goes to waste. The main character's crappy novel plays out in (purposefully low production value) segments throughout the film but they fail to reach any comedic highs in a way something like Garth Marenghi's Darkplace did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Battle LA Pretty by the numbers film. The fact that at the start of the film we managed to pick up on nearly everyone that would die didn't help. Even a few we even managed to guess how they'd die. Oh that guy, he's nervous, young, he's going to die doing a valiant sacrifice to prove his worth. Ben made a good point that it kinda blew that there was practically zero coverage of civilians, you pretty much follow the army squad from start to finish. Good effects, not exactly a terrible film, just a bit dull and predictable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4: Gritty Reboot Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 Saw the Woman in Black. Not a bad horror flick, but it was still a pretty standard formula and a predictable plot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 Beauty and The Beast I've not seen it for a while, it's good classic Disney n all that, but it is a tad rough. The pacing of the film is way too fast, The Beast pretty much goes from "WHY DID YOU COME HERE!!!" to "I wuv you Belle" within a few scenes. The animation is a tad rusty too, but Disney has never really been of top form in animation, always generally middling between the cheapness of TV cartoons and the top quality of stuff like Ghibli. It does have some classic songs though such as Tale as Old as Time and Kill the Beast n all that. Be nice to see the Disney musicals come back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 That's my joint favourite Disney musical, along with Aladdin. May have to watch it this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4: Gritty Reboot Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 For its time, B&TB was incredible in that it furthered Disney's rise out of mediocrity. As far as current Disney musicals, there was Princess & the Frog a couple years back and Tangled a bit more recently. It is funny though to watch those older ones and note some of the corners they cut in animation, as great as the films were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pirate Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Went and saw Woman in Black. It was okay, but it kinda dragged itself on and the 'scary' parts were just 'BOO!' moments. But otherwise it kept my interest and it was kinda cool to see Daniel Radcliffe doing something other than Harry Potter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Saw Mr. Popper's Penguins last night and I'd like to say that the plot "divorced man gets new job/pet/other thing and reunites family" is getting really really old. It's catching up to the romantic comedy as the most predictable plot of all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Saw Mr. Popper's Penguins last night and I'd like to say that the plot "divorced man gets new job/pet/other thing and reunites family" is getting really really old. It's catching up to the romantic comedy as the most predictable plot of all. http://www.chud.com/57251/proof-that-hollywood-has-stopped-trying/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Whats really sad is that as I recall Mr. Popper's Penguins is a book that actually has a plot that could have easily been a movie but Hollywood decides it'd rather recycle the same movie for the 100th time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 I also watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Now the cast says it should be in Good Movie. And the cast chosen was great, cream of the british crop (though I must say Trigger n Perry threw me a bit, but it worked well). The issue was the fucking story. I tried to follow along, but I hadn't a clue. And suddenly there's dead teachers killing King George VI and I'm like WTF happened in the preceding 2 hours for this to happen? So yes, great cast, terribly told story. The spy names didn't really help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrainHurtBoy...2 Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 And suddenly there's dead teachers killing King George VI and I'm like WTF happened in the preceding 2 hours for this to happen? This made me laugh. Anyway, pssshhhhhh. It was a good movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 I watched Con Air yesterday for the first time. Someone lent it to me after I said I didn't like Nicolas Cage. It was very 90s action movie. I did enjoy it though I don't like Nicolas Cage any more than I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 You pprobably take Nic Cage too seriously. The man is awesome because he's so ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Con Air was one of the first R movies I saw so I remember it with fondness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorgiShinobi Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Same here Yant. I'll never forget Dave Chappelle falling from the plane and landing on that old couple's car. Oh, and "put the bunny down." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 "Why couldn't you put the bunny back in the box?" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4: Gritty Reboot Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Iron Man 2. Bizarre pacing, lots of problems. Stark is still great fun to watch though. He's the "House" of superheroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Yeah Favreau wasn't keen on Iron Man 2, it's when Marvel treid to take the helm in order to tie it into The Avengers. "Too many cooks spoil the broth" n all that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted May 5, 2012 Report Share Posted May 5, 2012 (edited) Watched The Punisher on Netflix last night. I laughed when I saw John Pinette in there. It wasn't horrible and it was pretty funny in a terrible way in a lot of places but the whole thing felt like a B movie. Best part of the movie though: Edited May 5, 2012 by Yantelope V2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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