Last movie watched...

[Ghost MacRoth]

It's absolute shite, Colin. Not even a matter of "it's so crap it's great/ funny" (as is the case with Sharknado and others).

Edit: sincere apologies. I got it muddled up with Skyline (which all the above applies to)  . Haven't watched Battlefield so go ahead by all means.

No you're quite right anyway, as Sauchie pointed out, it's so 'American' it hurts.

[Colin YNWA]

Well I finally did it, well am doing it as I type. I've had 'The Spirit' on my rental list for an age as much as I worry about what I've read and I'm not fussed with comics becoming films any more, I was curious about all the fuss surrounding this one. BUT jesus it really is as bad as people suggest. As a massive fan of Will Eisner's work I've tried to put that aside and see if it stood up as a film and it simply doesn't.

I do wonder if Frank Miller was trying to create a new visual style for cinema in the way Will Eisner did for comics. He (I think) was trying to be as bold and innovative as Eisner, just in a different medium. He was taking no prisoners and wasn't afraid to do anything to crash the boundaries. He just failed to do it in a way that had any soul or heart, that conveyed character, held a story together or engaged an audience (well this audience). The fact that he did it with a 'property' as significant as The Spirit is testament of an arrogance I now perceive in the man.

Oh course Frank Miller spent a lot more time with Will Eisner than many and from what I've read of Eisner I suspect he'd have been far more forgiving of the innovations that Miller tried here. So I try to put aside what I see as an affront to a genuinely important and magnificent part of comics history. I'm entirely happy to settle with what most of the films audience, those that have no clue about Eisner's genius, had seen and that's a man completely over stretching this talent and ability as a film maker and in doing so turning any attempt to innovate and be creative into utter farce.

Not the funny kind either.

What a shit film.

[Richmond Clements]

 

Is Battlefield Los Angelas any good. It looks like a bit of dumb fun and might be just what I'm after tonight when its on telly?

Watching it at the minute, but only because a DVD would require standing up and walking across the room.
It really wants to be Black Hawk Down with aliens, but is, so far, much too po-faced and every line in a cliche. But I see Michelle Rodriguez has just popped up, so I shall continue watching... 

[Professor Bear]

If the aliens' Achilles heel is being mown down by a drunk driver, I think I know how that film ends.

[Colin YNWA]

Is Battlefield Los Angelas any good. It looks like a bit of dumb fun and might be just what I'm after tonight when its on telly?

Watching it at the minute, but only because a DVD would require standing up and walking across the room.
It really wants to be Black Hawk Down with aliens, but is, so far, much too po-faced and every line in a cliche. But I see Michelle Rodriguez has just popped up, so I shall continue watching...

Yeah I'm watching it, but suspect I'll be off to bed in a wee bit. Its not very interesting, or even that much fun is it.

[Goaty]

Battle Los Angeles was good!

But I sneak to see Epic Movie after 5 mins I was pick up my jaw from the floor... what a shittest worst film ever!

Are those producers/writers pick those plots from trailers of films???

[Richmond Clements]

Battle Los Angeles was good!

No, it's a load of shit. I really wish I was drunk watching this. The aliens have come for liquid water because nowhere else in the UNIVERSE has it..? If ONLY there were some means of melting the frozen form of it...

[TordelBack]

The aliens have come for liquid water because nowhere else in the UNIVERSE has it..? If ONLY there were some means of melting the frozen form of it...

I'll never understand how alien invasion movies get made without anyone coming up with a vaguely sensible motivation.  It's always water, or gold, or worse 'lifeforce' or some such crap: you can travel across interstellar space in vast numbers, but the basic ingredients of the cosmos elude you.  You have a single 'high concept' idea: alien invasion.  Give it some thought, please!  Even the most basic of SF novels can usually muster some actual cause, even if it's only being a cosmic jerk and/or space elephant.

[PsychoGoatee]

No you're quite right anyway, as Sauchie pointed out, it's so 'American' it hurts.

As long as you say that about our good movies too. 

[Ghost MacRoth]

No, the good ones cross borders quite happily.  The overly sentimental gung ho Americana crap like Battle LA, don't.  It done well in the states I believe, cause that's what they go for, but over here, well,  to borrow a phrase from the southern states....'That dawg don't hunt!'.

[PsychoGoatee]

I'd assume plenty of things that are notably "American" can cross borders happily. Just sayin', only using that to associate with something negative is well misguided, know what I mean?

[Professor Bear]

I'll never understand how alien invasion movies get made without anyone coming up with a vaguely sensible motivation.  It's always water, or gold, or worse 'lifeforce'

Surely "life force" is a bulletproof motivation?  It's basically magic, so it has a built-in rationale for being unique in all the universe to the point someone has to come and take it from here rather than just mining it from inert planets they find.

My favorite has to be the motivation for the aliens in Falling Skies, though: quite early in the series we see them looting people's abandoned homes for toasters and aluminum siding and whatnot, with a troop of soldiers and their slaves eventually making off with a haul of about a half ton of landfill.

[Tiplodocus]

White House Down.

More like shite house down.

Ridiculous, overblown and naive?

It looks like it was written by the 13 year old child of liberal yet patriotic parents, who has just seen Die Hard, been on a tour of the White House and googled "military industrial complex".

And as a vegan, I am meant to have given up on cheese.

Obviously it was never going to be as good as Die Hard but I expected it to be better than Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

[Frank]

I'd assume plenty of things that are notably "American" can cross borders happily. Just sayin', only using that to associate with something negative is well misguided, know what I mean?

Anyone who has seen Battle: Los Angeles will know exactly what Ghost means when he uses the term American as a kind of shorthand. I mentioned Saving Private Ryan earlier, and Battle: Los Angeles trades in a similar blend of sentimentality, patriotism and reverence for the military. Every marine's a lovable big lug who saves kids, respects women, and just wants to kick some green alien butt.

I'm certain the producers made the same deal as Top Gun, whereby they received the cooperation of the military and access to their hardware in exchange for depicting them in a flattering light, because the cumulative picture presented of The Corps is that it will help you lose your virginity, give you a free education, find you a wholesome wife, and allow you free access to and use of high end weapons technology.

It's practically a recruitment film for the USMC. My favourite bit is when Aaron Eckhart's grizzled old last-day-on-the-job platoon Sergeant looks into the eyes of a frightened eight year old who has just seen his Dad killed by the alien invaders and tells him "I need you to be my little marine".
 

[Hawkmumbler]

Prity much everything I want to say about American Patriotism in war films has already been covered, so ill just add more wood to the fire. Independence Day. Fucking Emmerich.