Last movie watched...

[shaolin_monkey]

Doomsday Machine, Galileo Seven, Balance of Terror, City on the Edge of Forever and Devil in the Dark are definitive Trek episodes.

What about 'Amok Time'?!?  That's in my 'definitive' list just for that awesome fight scene/music!

[Frank]

White House Down, which features Channing Tatum filling out a semmit in almost pornographic anatomical detail, being the best daddy in the world, and proving he's more powerful than the most powerful man on Earth. If you have ovaries, I imagine they'd be almost jumping out of your body to be fertilised by his character before the end of the film.

The script feels like it's been written by foreigners who only know about the office of the presidency through movies, and only know about films from other action films like The Rock and Die Hard. The fun largely comes from watching all the POTUS's toys being trashed and marvelling at how even when the film tries to subvert genre clichés it does so in a way which relies on you knowing the films that are being referenced. That means it has the same second hand, ersatz quality as Judge Dredd (1995).

The Tea Party and the military-industrial complex are the bad guys, and Jamie Foxx is Obama, but none of that's important. The film could have been made 10 years ago, with Josh Brolin playing Bush Jr and Bruce Willis fighting Islamic terrorists funded by the liberal media, and the writers would only need to have swapped over the proper nouns.

"Your first act as President is going to be bombing the White House?" - Maggie Gyllenhaal's bleeding heart liberal character

[pictsy]

Are we still listing Romantic Comedies?  I just thought of one.  The Truman Show  I enjoyed that film.  Used it as an example in a university essay on semiotics (as a way of purposefully avoiding The Matrix).

[Hawkmumbler]

Naturaly Dredd has the most romantic scene of all. Such a passionate Glaswegian kiss.

[Goaty]

Never Been Kissed.

Do enjoy the film tonight, with Drew Barrymore, but David Arquette does steal the film as her brother.

Well I do enjoy romantic comedy films till my gf got me into it.

I like many romantic comedy films like Bridget Jones Diary, etc.

[Charlie boy]

Not a romantic comedy but Zulu.
I just really like this film. I think it's partly because, when really young, it was one of the films me and my brothers would laugh at and say "This is one of my Dad's films!" whenever it was starting as if it were an insult (no idea how we came about saying films we automatically assumed were rubbish were films my dad would like tho. Also, turned out he really does like Zulu anyway). I only watched it properly for the first time in my late teens and actually enjoyed it. My mate (who hides her dad's DVD of the film from him because he'd apparently watch it non-stop if permitted) text me to let me know it was on "Again!".
I was grateful for the heads up, even if she thought she was being funny.

[HdE]

Well, the old man decided he wanted to see 'The Last Stand' with that Arnie guy who apparently used to have a political career of some description.

Holy cow... this movie is aggressively awful!

When a movie stars one of the biggest action heroes of the 1980s, plus Peter Stormare, Johnny Knoxville, with a cameo from HARRY DEAN FREAKIN' STANTON... and the best thing about the movie is Knoxville, you KNOW something's wrong.

Remember when movies would finish, and as the end credits rolled, you'd think about all the good stuff that you'd just seen? Well, as this movie was winding down, the only thought in my mind was: WHEN did audiences decide that this sort of garbage was acceptable quality for entertainment?

The writing is awful, cringeworthy stuff. If I was writing comics material this bad, I'd be embarrassed to share it with anyone.

Quite honestly, The Last Stand is an insult to the audience's collective intelligence. Absolute shit.

[Hawkmumbler]

Bought me BD's of Argento's Deep Red and Kevin Connors Motel Hell for £5 and £8 respectively. Lovely jubbly.

[Frank]

Well, the old man decided he wanted to see 'The Last Stand' ... the only thought in my mind was: WHEN did audiences decide that this sort of garbage was acceptable quality for entertainment?

The Last Stand

Budget                           $30,000,000

Worldwide Box Office       $37,183,273

Domestic DVD Sales:        $3,751,068

[Tiplodocus]

Had a choice between BASIC INSTINCT and GREGORY'S GIRL.

Watched GG.

How good is it? Especially when you compare and contrast to just about every single US high school coming of age film.

[Mardroid]

Ender's Game

I groaned inside when I saw the ads on the telly. "We're in danger from an alien race! Only this kid can save us." I mentally put it on my avoidance list.

Then I called a lady friend today and she told she wanted to see it.

While I'll admit, I wasn't keen, I don't mind following my companions lead on these things.

I'll admit, I still found it a but corny, but it certainly wasn't boring and it kept me engaged.[spoiler] And then they dared to subvert things with a couple of twists at the end, which I thought was interesting and thought provoking. Believe me,Flight of the Navigator this ain't. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]The admiral bit at the very end [/spoiler]was super silly though. Even dafter than Kirk [spoiler]leapfrogging straight to captain as a reward at the end of[/spoiler] the Abrams Star Trek movie.

[spoiler]But that couple of twists[/spoiler] kinda made the film for me. Not that I'm fussed to buy the Blu-ray or DVD but I'm glad I saw it. It passed a couple of hours pleasantly.

[Jo-L]

Star Trek 4 was the basic template for the Trek reboot: laugh at old Trek while unashamedly clutching its trouser leg and begging for money, but also started the trend in the films towards being more light-hearted and accessible, which was for the best, I think.

I for one never disliked IV, just never loved it.  in fact, of all of the Trek movies, I think Wrath of Kahn is the only one that really got the tone of TOS right.  III is pretty close.  VI is a very good movie, but not really in the same way as TOS.

Doomsday Machine, Galileo Seven, Balance of Terror, City on the Edge of Forever and Devil in the Dark are definitive Trek episodes, the rest being a mixed bag varying in quality on a downward trajectory the longer it goes on, though some episodes in season 3 are arguably memorably and mesmerisingly terrible to the point they're worth a watch.  For me, though, Arena remains my all-time favorite Trek episode ever, embodying the American imperialist subtext of the show while simultaneously subverting it with a humanist appeal against the cold war sensibilities of the time in which it was made.  I love it so much that even a glimpse of "updated" Gorn designs usually prompts in me a towering fury.  It is utterly ace.

All great episodes, though my top 5 would go:
"Mirror, Mirror"
"The City on the Edge of Forever"
"The Gamesters of Triskelion"
"A Taste of Armageddon"
"The Changeling"

There's really only about 6 or 7 episodes of TOS that rank bad to terrible.  The vast majority of the run is superior to just about anything that is on today (not on AMC).

I really find it interesting how non-US residents look at us as imperialists, and read things like cold war sensibilities as commentaries.  I think you'd be surprised to find out how deadpan a lot of our culture really is when it comes to these things.  I live in the very center of this country, and certain sensibilities are quite prevalent even today.

[Jo-L]

Went to see "Gravity" tonight, and thought it was great.  We saw the 2D version, and it proved to me once again that 3D is a waste of time and money.  I was just as blown away and carried away with the cinematic experience the way it was, because it had a great story to go along with it.  And I didn't have to wear silly plastic goggles.

[Frank]

I really find it interesting how non-US residents look at us as imperialists, and read things like cold war sensibilities as commentaries.  I think you'd be surprised to find out how deadpan a lot of our culture really is when it comes to these things.  I live in the very center of this country, and certain sensibilities are quite prevalent even today.

Yep - US nationals aren't any more prone to chauvinism or credulousness than any other people, there are just a lot more of you. Watching Tea Party rallies, with hundreds or thousands of folk equating universal health care with Nazism, it's easy to forget that there's another 300 million of you who couldn't care less. Any Americans I've met in person have been smart and self aware, and you only have to look at the cultural output of the country to see the same balance of smart and incredibly stupid you find everywhere else.

The Way Back, which I thought would be like Escape From Alcatraz but turned out to be much more like Walkabout or Ice Cold In Alex. Ed Harris is brilliant in it, and it's directed by Peter Weir, who knows how to tell a story about folk in a harsh natural environment going beyond the limits of normal human experience. Even if the ending is as subtle as a brick I still blubbed; then again, I cried at the end of White House Down too.

[Frank]

You all were far too harsh on Iron Man 3, by the way. I was expecting it to be a POS, like the second film, but it was a ton of fun. The narrative's not worth bothering with, of course, but that wasn't what made the first one fun either. I love RDJ as that character, and even his dialogue in the diversion with the irritating kid in Podunk, Tennessee is fantastically mordant. The anxiety and addiction themes are probably going a little too far in the direction of making the star's declaration, I am Iron Man, literally true, but I'm prepared to forgive him that indulgence. What an ending.