Last movie watched...

[Hawkmumbler]

Well, I enjoyed it enough to buy the recent BD double feature with the vastly superior Terrorvision.

Oh, did Video Dead get a DVD release at last? Hurrah! To Amazon!

A Blu Ray/DVD duel format edition yes. Region A locked by Shout! Factory i'm afraid though, but you can get it fairly cheaply if you have a multi region player.

[Greg M.]

Excellent - cheers for that info. Had an interest in 'The Video Dead' ever since Jamie Russell declared his fondness for it in his 'Book of the Dead' zombie movie guide. And he was right about 'Burial Ground' being an unsung gem. (Mind you, he was wrong about 'The Dead Pit' not being any good though.)

[pictsy]

Page 400!

There are no party emoticons so I guess we have to imagine the streamers, party hats, conga lines, cake and obligatory alcohol.

Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you.

Sickle
a.k.a
The Slaughterhouse Massacre

I implore you not to watch it though.  It is truly terrible.  It is truly the worst film I have seen.  Watch it at your own peril!

[pictsy]

Predators

Just finished watching it.  It's not that bad.

If I was going to gripe, it would be about the [spoiler]serial killer doctor[/spoiler] first and foremost.

How the death row prisoner was abducted bothered me no less than how soldiers in combat were abducted.  I felt it was a mystery that was clearly meant to remain a mystery.  Predators are enigmatic and I am satisfied that such little questions aren't answered.

I don't get the problem with this so-called "super Predator".  According to the credits there is no super Predator and the film explains there are two clans or tribes in a blood feud.  I prefer the Classic Predator (as credited) design, but still appreciate the variations.  I would in no way compare the "super Predator" to the Predalien.

Laurence Fishburne.  OK, he is a bit chunky for the character he is playing... maybe.  Not a big issue.  [spoiler]Why did he try to kill them in the giant drill?  He is mentally unstable and that was an action of his instability.  He hadn't originally intended to kill them.  This is made clear in his dialogue to himself when he is choking them with smoke.[/spoiler]

Is this better than the AvP films?  Oh yes.  Very much yes.  A hundred times yes.

Is this better than the original two Predator films.  No.  I find it a welcome addition to the franchise, but it is just not as entertaining as the originals.  It lacks their charm and doesn't make up for it in other areas.  I think the performances were better in Predators... marginally.  The story wasn't badly plotted, but the twist was unnecessary.  The run time was too long.  I was getting a little bored towards the end... but that's mostly because they felt the need to shove in the rubbish twist.

I am also not a big fan of Adrian Brody.  You ever watch that Splice rubbish he was in?  Oh lord that film went from bad to worse to god awful.  Yeah, I think Predators is better than Splice as well.

So there we have, I am a descenting voice.





I have a foreboding feeling as if I were approaching a firing squad.....

[HdE]

I just watched 'The Wolverine'. And I loved it!

Really appreciated how it felt like a more measured film than movies in the X franchise it was riffing on. Seriously - The Last Stand is so godawful, no movie should ever have to deal with it's events.

Also, kind of intrigued to see how it works as set up for Days Of Future Past.

[Theblazeuk]

Predators

Just finished watching it.  It's not that bad....

So there we have, I am a descenting voice.

It is a descent into madness

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Just watched The extended Hobbit (1 of 3 obv). Not a great deal at all was added - leaving the whole thing looking even more like an extended marketing ploy with the three hour film on two discs with one commentary (Not to mention another two discs for a four hour documentary and another disc for giggles and to make it look more expansive than it actually is). I always like to compare things like that to how much the one-disc Shaun of the Dead DVD managed to fit on. Sigh, marketing.

Anyways, before you go "WHY BUY IT THEN YOU CYNICAL TOAD OF A MAN" Geoffery bought it, being a Tolkienfiend. What was actually added? Not much - about twenty minutes mainly of largely superfluous scene-stuffery. What was cut out? In my mind in the months since release they would have looked at the whole ludicrously tacked-on side-quest with Azog (inspired by a single line) as well as the outrageously campy Radaghast and gone "you know what, it doesn't need this."

But no, the brilliant riddles in the dark, the amazing introduction of the dwarfs to Bag End, the moderate silliness of the trolls - still leads to this big, ugly, finale which feels ridiculously out of place. Oh and spoiler Azog looks to chase them all the way through the next film as well - and they team up with a sassy made-up elf woman. Hurrah prof Tolkien's legacy lives on to squeeze money into the NZ tourist industry and the film industry!

Anyway - off to watch twenty billion hours of special features where Jackson pretends he came back to it out of a sense of artistic duty rather than facing up to the searing inevitability that the visionary director of Bad Taste/Brain Dead is just a washed-up hack who can only do overblown adaptations of books/older films.

YOU CYNICAL TOAD OF A MAN

[pictsy]

Anyway - off to watch twenty billion hours of special features where Jackson pretends he came back to it out of a sense of artistic duty rather than facing up to the searing inevitability that the visionary director of Bad Taste/Brain Dead is just a washed-up hack who can only do overblown adaptations of books/older films.

And the best Muppets parody ever.

[TordelBack]

In my mind in the months since release they would have looked at the whole ludicrously tacked-on side-quest with Azog (inspired by a single line) as well as the outrageously campy Radaghast and gone "you know what, it doesn't need this."

The Azog idea isn't that bad in theory, merging him with Bolg and building on Thorin's family history as it does, and the main point is to presumably give a recognisable face to the goblin army in the third film (and I suspect to create links to Sauron), and thus for some sense of resolution to be associated with [spoiler]Thorin's death[/spoiler].  That said, the execution has not been good at all at all, with a wholly unconvincing design for Azog himself and that ridiculous final fight in Unexpected Journey, built up into a seen-it-all-before 'climax' as an attempt to find a natural break point when two films became three.

However, McCoy's Radagast is pure gold, and along with Humphrey's Great Goblin and Stott's Balin, the best thing in the film.

[radiator]

Got to admit, despite having very little interest in rewatching the film or owning it on any format - especially an expanded version of it - I'm actually a little tempted to buy The Extended UJ on iTunes purely for the 'Appendices'. I have such a huge amount of affection and nostalgia for the wonderful Appendices on the LotR discs (best DVD extras ever hands down imo) - which I've probably watched through as many times as the films themselves. Who knows, it might even improve my opinion of the actual film to see all of the work that went into it.

Despite pretty much knowing I'm going to be disappointed again I'm also planning to see Smaug at the cinema. Again, it's that nostalgic thrill of the prospect of having a Middle Earth film to see at Christmas that outweighs the cynicism. I think I'm over the disappointment enough to just accept that I'll see these films in the cinema each time, and enjoy them for what they are - a bit of disposable fun.

In my mind in the months since release they would have looked at the whole ludicrously tacked-on side-quest with Azog (inspired by a single line) as well as the outrageously campy Radaghast and gone "you know what, it doesn't need this."

As much as I understand the rationale behind including all of that stuff, at the end of the day I feel like they lost the simplicity of the story in the process, and with the artificially amplified stakes the atmosphere of this exciting journey is utterly lost. This should be Bilbo's film - he should be in almost every scene, and we should see all of these events through his eyes.... and yet, he ultimately feels like just one of an ensemble cast, which is unforgivable.

And yeah, that ending just flat-out sucked. So needlessly over the top.

[TordelBack]

As much as I understand the rationale behind including all of that stuff, at the end of the day I feel like they lost the simplicity of the story in the process, and with the artificially amplified stakes the atmosphere of this exciting journey is utterly lost. This should be Bilbo's film - he should be in almost every scene, and we should see all of these events through his eyes.... and yet, he ultimately feels like just one of an ensemble cast, which is unforgivable.

Some good points there, although repeated re-watchings have increased my appreciation of what we actually got.  I enjoy most of the additional stuff (since the rest is always available in the book), but watching the latest video blog, which was mainly shooting pick-ups for 2 and 3, I got the distinct feeling that padding is yet-again going to come in the form of over-extended fight scenes and video-game levels.  More of that I do not need.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I do love Sylvester McCoy. But if I didn't... Radaghast would be a monstrosity.

Also - yes, the barrel-riding sequence is now no longer a lone Bilbo - but a full action setpiece. The dwarves out of their barrels, shooting at Azog's orc pursuing hoard from steep rapids - with Legolas and Tauriel helping alongside.

My Geoffery has a theory [spoiler]that Tauriel will snuff it defeating Azog - and Jackson will slow-motion milk the balls off of it[/spoiler]. Also.... why does Bard the bowman have simpering children now? [spoiler]SO THAT THEY CAN DIE IN SLOW MOTION PROBABLY[/spoiler]

The features have so far been quite endearing - but the film is still the film is still the film and nine million hours of charming kiwis won't change that.

[radiator]

Said it before, but I'm really excited to see what the ineviatble fan edits are going to do with this once all three Extended Editions are finally out.

I think it's highly probably that we'll see a single 2.5 hour film at the end, with a renewed focus on Bilbo and the quest and all of the padding - Radagast, Azog, overblown and wholly unnecessary prologue(s)*, superfluous and distracting cameos form LotR alums, and all those silly cgi overload fight scenes - stripped away. Even the Gollum/Riddles in the Dark scene felt really overegged to me in the theatrical cut and could do with some judicious cutting.

* Honestly, all they needed to do was have Ian Holm's voice reciting the opening "In a hole in a ground there lived a Hobbit" few lines of the book over a montage of Bilbo and Hobbition. That's the start of your Hobbit film right there. Literally no need for anything else.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

EXACTLY. Geoffery really likes the intro but I think it should just begin simply - just Freeman and his pipe. Doesn't necessarily even need Holm or Elijah. Also, I didn't realise until last night but did you realise Holm's face had been altered digitally? It's weird.

[TordelBack]

EXACTLY. Geoffery really likes the intro but I think it should just begin simply - just Freeman and his pipe.

Agreed. The intro isn't so bad at home when you can make the tea, but in the cinema I thought it was entirely unnecessary and overlong - even in the context of the 'expanded' story the Erebor stuff stood perfectly well on its own.  I'm also at a loss as to why Freeman's Bilbo doesn't invite Gandalf to tea out of sheer inbuilt politeness - isn't that the whole point of the scene in the book?

There may, I suppose, eventually be some payoff to the Wood/Holm bit if we get Bilbo returning in the middle of the auction, complete with the Sackville-Bagginses making off with the spoons.