Last movie watched...

[HOO-HAA]

To be honest wayne, the only one that MUST be avoided is the fourth film- 'the next generation,' with renee zellwegger and matthew mcconaughy. That really is the most dire piece of cinematic garbage you can imagine. 2 is, as i say, glorious. 3 is written by david j schow and direced by the guy who did The Stepfather and stars ken foree. It was new line's attempt to start a new franchise, and is possibly one of the weaker ones but still a lot of fun. I love the remake, the sequel is dull but competent and the upcoming TX3D is one of my 'exciting things of the year'.

But yeah, definitely watch 2, 3 and the remake.

SBT

Seen the remake and quite enjoyed it. I'll have to pick up the others, then. On an old-school horror binge these days. Cheers, bud! 

[Professor Bear]

There's also a lake placid 3, and john schneider is in snow beast as well...

SBT

If you think I don't have both sequels to Lake Placid in my living room already, you're only fooling yourself, SBT, as it's not a question of if I will ever watch lousy movies, it's a question of when.
As in "do I watch Lake Placid 3 before or after Dinocroc versus Supergator?"  This is an actual dilemma for me.

[Gonk]

"The Color Purple" adapted by Steven Spielberg from a novel by Alice Walker. It's the story of someone graduallly being able to tell their story. Celie is that part of Southtern State American society of the 1900's to the 1930's that had no voice. Not just politically, socially, financially, but sexually and in the home. She represents the subjugated of the subjugated. Being a Speilberg film there is a sentimental happy ending with Celie gaining her independence, family and fortune in much the way "Jane Eyre" does in Charlotte Bronte's classic. Given the performance of Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey this is an eminently watchable adaption of Walker's novel.

                                             

[SmallBlueThing]

CURSED from the Scream team of wes craven and kevin williamson. Saw this years ago, but the uk '15' version, which is the us 'PG13' cut- and ive wanted to see the unrated one ever since. Last year sometime my wife brought the dvd back from her north american tour, and we finally sat down and watched it tonight.

To be honest, i didnt notice any differences at all. But again, i enjoyed it. Jesse Eisenberg is always good value, as is Christina Ricci, and the early werewolf attacks are well done. The story- siblings bitten by a werewolf have to work out who the baddie is before they too wolf-out- is thin, and manages to reference just about every wolfy pic you can mention, from the wolf man to teen wolf (as youd expect from williamson), but it all falls apart in the second half, when it gets crap and stupid and goes for laffs rather than scares. The wolf itself is overreliant on cgi, but retains some of the appeal of rick baker's classic snaggletoothed 'london' design.
It's craven, so manipulative jump (cont)

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) scenes are only ever five minutes away, and while a reasonable critique could be made that his technique never evolved past what was acceptable in 1986 (as evidenced by a slly elm street dream sequence partway through) craven knows this material well, and youre in safe, if pedestrian hands.

SBT

[SmallBlueThing]

One thing i forgot to mention- there's an example of one of my pet hates in Cursed. Well, two if you count the sequence where a main character goes to a fancy dress party and is confronted by extras wearing costumes pertaining to the theme of the movie- a theme unknown to anyone except the audience. But the one that particularly annoys is when a character leafs through a comic (here about werewolves, natch) and there are absolutely no speech bubbles. Page after page of crap, mocked-up artwork, yet no dialogue. I think in return all comic creators, instead of using their projects as a pathetic begging bowl to hollywood, should ensure that each and every time a character in a comic goes to see, or even mentions, a film, it should be made explicitly clear that they thought it shit and not as good as reading comics.

That'll learn em.

SBT

[Professor Bear]

Nothing will learn 'em, SBT.  They're making a sequel to Superman Returns.

John Carter - a little overlong and not as hectic as might be expected, possibly these two things are not unrelated.  It moves away quickly from being what looks like a new Star Wars to instead be the new Stargate and don't get me wrong, I like the Stargate movie probably just as much as I like any of the Star Wars movies - likely a little more - but it's not something you can bung on over and over again and wonder at the extent of the world building on display in the same way you can with Star Wars or Star Trek.  I enjoyed JC a good bit, but wonder how many times I could watch it again - once, maybe.  Liked it, though, and definitely recommend it.  If you worry about such things, there's little in the way of gore, no nudity, and no swearing, so it's safe for kids to view.

Lake Placid 2.  No.

[HOO-HAA]

CURSED...

I think this one passed my by at the time, although I vaguely remember it. Might look it up, then. Always enjoy a good wolfie flick.

Me? Last night I ordered Aussie horror, IF A TREE FALLS. Looking forward to seeing it.

[Radbacker]

The Loved Ones, grim Aussie horror movie.  Starts out like ususal tortureporn (god i hate that terminology) but changes to something quite Cravenesque (as in Wes) towards the end [spoiler](think people Under the Stairs)[/spoiler]. The main baddie is quite a piece of work and it got a bit of a cheer when they got their comeuppence.
Also watched most of Real Steel, nice light entertainment, very solid FX work on display.  Sure it was nearly a direct rip of Rocky but it has boxing robots so thumbs up from me (really think they missed atrick but not calling it Rock em Sock em Robots.

Cu Radbacker

[Evil Pants]

Reviews of John Carter, and Wim Wenders' latest film. Originals can be found here: http://fourcoloursandthetruth.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/movie-reviews-john-carter-and-pina/


John Carter directed by Andrew Stanton

When discussing the most anticipated geek-friendly films of 2012, there's some pretty obvious talking points: Dark Knight Rises, Avengers, Spidey, Prometheus, etc. And while I'm definitely excited about all of those, there's one more on the list that I've been looking forward to as much, if not more, than the rest: John Carter.

Why? Because in a lot of ways, a strong case could be argued that without Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom books, those other films might not even exist. While H.G. Wells and Mary Shelley preceded Burrough's novels by decades,  the influence of A Princess Of Mars is still keenly obvious in modern works like works like Avatar, or Star Wars. In a lot of ways, Princess (written in 1912) was the first science fiction epic.

And now, a century later, its a gazillion dollar movie made by the guy that directed Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Anticipation high, yes?

John Carter (played by B.C. actor Taylor Kitsch, who I had never heard of before but have been informed by my wife that he starred in Friday Night Lights, which apparently is a TV show about football that isn't as horrible as it sounds like it would be) is a retired Civil War infantryman, just trying to make his fortune. The guy from Breaking Bad tries to get him back into the Confederate army, but Carter isn't having any of it. He escapes, ends up in the desert, finds a magic amulet, gets transported to Mars, and discovers that while he's there that he has gained the super power of being able to magically repel clothing from his body, since he spends the rest of the movie half-naked. He also has super strength and can jump pretty high.

He then gets kidnapped by Ewoks (in this movie Ewoks are green, 9 feet tall, and have 4 arms. But they're Ewoks nonetheless), and then stumbles into the middle of a huge Martian civil war;  and by stumbles I mean he lets his dick lead him around for the rest of the film in as he chases after a Martian princess who seems to be as clothing-averse as he is, and who gets kidnapped a lot.

There's a lot to recommend about this movie, but I can't say that it's the fantasy masterpiece that Stanton was obviously going for. It's fun, with a solid script, and a decent cast. It's got some great special effects, and the CGI is relatively clean. It's also quite clunky, and tries to cram about 4 hours of plot into half that time. As a result, the film feels extremely rushed, and we never really get to learn much about any of the characters other than: Bad Guy or Good Guy. Now, that's in keeping with the tone of the original novel. Not a lot of character subtlety going on there. But because we're not given a lot of background on these Martians, it's hard for us to figure out why John Carter ends up caring so much about them (other than the obvious answer that he really wants to plow the Martian crap out of one of them.)

But it's entertaining as hell, with some amazing action scenes, and an easily accessible story. It's a fun space fantasy a la Avatar, but it a) doesn't take itself as nearly as that film did, and as a result, b) ends up being twice as fun.

Rating: B+


Pina directed by Wim Wenders

I know as much about modern dance as Republican women seem to know about trans-vaginal ultrasounds. But just like their ignorance about the basics of the human body doesn't get in the way of their trying to regulate what medical procedures be done in the name of religion, my lack of knowledge about the intricacies of the world of modern dance didn't get in the way of me enjoying this captivating tribute to the works of the famed choreographer and dancer, Pina Bausch.

Usually one's interest in a documentary rests and falls on one's passion for the thing that movie is about. It's a rare documentary that transcends its subject matter, and that makes you care deeply about something you barely knew existed 5 minutes before the movie began. Pina is one such documentary. And that's probably because it's not really a documentary at all.

It's a collection of dance pieces, planned well ahead of Bauch's untimely death in 2009. The film cuts between said pieces, and the recollections of her dancers, reminiscing about their years with her troupe. These interviews aren't so much about imparting information as they are about imparting emotional response, and those that are looking for a Behind The Music-style dish session should look elsewhere. This isn't gossip, it's creators missing a collaborator.

But it's the dance pieces themselves that are the real story here, and Wenders manages to one-up Werner Hertzog's beautiful Cave Of Forgotten Dreams with how effortlessly he uses 3D to capture the dancers performance. He's not filming a dance performance here; this is a fully realized film, and his camera use and judicious editing manage to create something new out of already beautiful pieces of work.

If it sounds like I'm gushing a bit, it's because I am. Pina is a truly beautiful movie, and one that must be watched by anyone interested in where 3D technology is taking film. But it's also a loving tribute to a true artist, one that left her medium a better place than than when she found it.

Rating: A

[Tiplodocus]

THE MUPPETS

I grinned long and hard from beginning to end, laughed out loud on more than one occassion and tapped my feet to all the musical numbers. I felt like standing up and applauding at the end. Great. Fun.

[JamesC]

John Carter

I absolutely loved it!
It reminded me a bit of Flash Gordon and a bit of classic old adventure films like Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

It's one of those times when I just can't accept negative reviews without thinking that the reviewer just doesn't get it.

[Gonk]

Mythology becomes actual fact in this Ken Russell adaption of Bram Stoker's "The Lair of the White Worm". I love this sort of film because you get a story within a story, Russell's version of Stoker's version of the famous Lambton Worm myth; then in the film you get Jim Capaldi as the young archaeologist who pieces together the legend through his excavations in the area of the River Wear round the Lambton Estate. There is also the usual connotations of the serpent and original sin coming into the world, as the ending is a bit like "Fearless Vampire Killers" where the hunters become contaminted and spread the vampirism. A good cast of actors make this film an enjoyable watch.

                                              

[HOO-HAA]

Hot looking 80s lady there, Fonky! 

Watched Kevin Smith's RED STATE last night. 

Not normally A Smith fan (loved CHASING AMY, hate pretty much everything else he's done) but this shoot-out/ siege/ hostage movie is good. Of course, I come from a time/ part of the world where the madness of religion is all too palatable, and I think that made this story particularly vivid.

Some fantastic performances, including a po-faced John Goodman (who oddly seems not to have aged much from the 90s, but has definitely lost a pie or two). All in all, highly recommended, albeit slightly marred by Smith's need to introduce some ill-timed slapstick humour that frankly doesn't work. And Smith's political agenda for the movie seems a bit forced at times. But if you can stomach all that, you're in for a gorey good time with this one. 

[Spikes]

Mythology becomes actual fact in this Ken Russell adaption of Bram Stoker's "The Lair of the White Worm". I love this sort of film because you get a story within a story, Russell's version of Stoker's version of the famous Lambton Worm myth; then in the film you get Jim Capaldi as the young archaeologist who pieces together the legend through his excavations in the area of the River Wear round the Lambton Estate. There is also the usual connotations of the serpent and original sin coming into the world, as the ending is a bit like "Fearless Vampire Killers" where the hunters become contaminted and spread the vampirism. A good cast of actors make this film an enjoyable watch.

                                             

Ah, only watched this the other week, Not the biggest Ken Russell fan but Amanda Donohoe is something else in this, thats for sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK61O6H3E9s