Last movie watched...

[Jim_Campbell]

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

How will you fix your iPod?

Cheers

Jim

[Tiplodocus]

To be fair to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, it was always intended to be a n "American" war film. And they do show US troops shooting unarmed prisoners and looting.

WHITE HOUSE DOWN even has a little girl saving the day by showing she is a flag waving patriot. Literally... I mean,  totes for real.

[Mabs]

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".

I think it was William Goldman who said that Saving Private Ryan was one big pile of crap. And I agree with him to a certain extent, because as you pointed out Sauchie, the over-sentimentality really smells foul in Private. There were some great moments like the visceral opening interspersed with some shamelessly over-sentimental crap. Even Schindler's List, Spielberg's most harrowing film, for me is ruined by that one scene of Schindler's (Neeson) over- lamentation near the end. A lot of people also cited that scene as a weak point, it was needless. But obviously Spielberg couldn't resist. That's why for me, as great a film director as he is, he is not as daring as someone like Scorsese.

[TordelBack]

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

Best review ever.

As to Saving Private Ryan, it's not a film I actually enjoy much, but I do think reverence and sentimentality have some place in considering the soldiers of D-Day and beyond.

[Ghost MacRoth]

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".

Absolutely, thank you Sauchie, explained it better than I coulda!  It wasn't used as a derogatory term for yanks, more a 'catch all' for the worst, and most common, aspects of piss poor filmmaking from across the pond.

As for Shite House Down, not seen it yet, but I can only assume it's gonna have suffered due to the release of 'Olympus Has Fallen', which seems (in premise at least) to be the same film?  If they where in production at the same time, and OHF made it out first, you can bet they've re-shot a lot of material for WHD in order to distance it from OHF in any places it was too similar. 

And if WHD is 'Die Hard' in the whitehouse, then OHF was 'Under Siege' in the whitehouse. 

Yeah I know.....'Under Seige' was 'Die Hard' on a boat.....

[JudgeE1M1RT]

Watched the X-Files movie on Channel 4 last night. Really enjoyed it, felt just like a longer episode of the show which I liked. Great stuff.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

On the subject of alien invasion movies, it always bugs me that the aliens or their ships always have a crucial weak spot, like they were designed by Capcom for a boss fight.

Last night I watched I Was a Male War Bride, in which Carey Grant plays a Frenchman. It's hard to criticize the authenticity of his French accent, because Carey Grant's normal accent isn't authentic to anywhere. Anyway, the story begins in post-war Germany and the tone starts as a light hearted rom-com, before taking a sinister turn into a Kafkaesque nightmare of oppressive military bureaucracy.

[Professor Bear]

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

You mean Paul Blart: Shite Cop, am I right?

Of the two, Olympus Has Fallen has the edge on White house Down because there are many moments where OHF displays - despite the straight face necessary to sell the material - that it knows what a dumb piece of shit it is and so throws in references here and there to the US being a plutocratic state that spends more on the illusion of democracy than it does on helping the vulnerable, and the destruction of several national monuments is presented as cool "wow" moments despite the fact that if any single one of them happened in the real world they'd be a new 911 and the US would be off to bomb whatever country spawned those responsible.  WHD, on the other hand, just wants you to take it very seriously, even though by the trailer alone you know it is about a rogue cop teaming up with the President to shoot baddies.
Emmerich got away with that kind of thing in ID4 because the presence of aliens helped highlight what a ludicrous fantasy it all was, but something sticks in the craw at seeing it done completely straight.  OHF by contrast has a bit where Leonidas is on a walky-talky to the main villain and has to say a cool line and he says "I am going to stick my knife in your head."  Later, [spoiler]he does.[/spoiler]  This pretty much tells you all you need to know about the film.

[Ghost MacRoth]

and the destruction of several national monuments is presented as cool "wow" moments despite the fact that if any single one of them happened in the real world they'd be a new 911 and the US would be off to bomb whatever country spawned those responsible. 

Yeah, the Washington needle thing, wonder what reference footage they used to make that look 'real'?  Hit  by a large plane, and falls within it's own footprint.....seems awful familiar......

[CheechFU]

I watched Blackfish, a documentary about killer whales in captivity murdering people and people then being surprised that something called a killer whale could be anything other than a fluffy kitten of the sea.
It was entertaining and informative in that it it showed people being retarded or massive jerks

[pictsy]

a fluffy kitten of the sea.

[PsychoGoatee]

I understand criticism of blind patriotism and recruitment video propaganda, sure. Though that's not uniquely American. I just pointed out that I only seem to see American used as a pejorative or negative adjective around here, which comes across as casual bigotry.

I said well hey it's fine to say this bad movie is notably American, as long as you say that about good American movies too. Then he says that this doesn't apply to good American movies since those "travel well", so he's saying bad movies are more "American" than good movies. Which isn't logical.

I'm just saying, I don't see anybody in the Breaking Bad topic saying "what clever American writing", but whenever I do see the word American on here, it's in a negative context. It should be easy to see why that's questionable.

[Ghost MacRoth]

Perhaps I put it poorly.  But the 'american' aspect of the comment is a catch all for all that is stereotypical, and piss poor in films of that nature, just as 'so English it hurts' would cover piss poor stereotypical films like Notting Hill, 4 Weddings and a funeral, or even the dismally depressing Downton Abbey.  If you are still pissed at the comment, well, there ain't a damn thing I can do about that.  Most folk know what I meant, and that's good enough for me.  Moving on.....

Paul.

Just the second half while it was on telly.  Forgot just how many film lines they managed to cram into that film!  It's like 'Where's Waldo' for movie buffs.

[PsychoGoatee]

Of course you don't think you said anything wrong, and of course that's good enough for you. Why am I bothering, I don't know. Your reply to my first post made it about more than just that one patriotic dumb film. You could've just acknowledged that yes, the adjective American can equally be used for good films too, not always a bad thing, but you contested even that. That's not very fair, and for me is worth pointing out.

[Richmond Clements]

I don't see anybody in the Breaking Bad topic saying "what clever American writing",

I see people saying that all the time - I thought it was a commonly held opinion that the USA is pretty much producing the best TV drama in the world at the moment.

I have seen:

Dr No - in the cinema this evening. It was brilliant.

The Prestige - really really liked this. Very cleverly constructed. As it's based around magic and magicians, it is constructed as such, and like all good tricks, employs some great misdirection.
I sussed one of the twists about halfway through, but these is a second one that caught me brilliantly, and more-so because it is, in retrospect, signposted throughout the entire movie.
Plus: David Bowie.