Return to Oz was seriously disturbing.
Oh my God… I forgot about that one. Yeah, I have some vague memories of seeing that at my aunt’s house late one night… made absolutely no sense to me. I just recall monkeys on unicycles.
Movie suggestions?
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If you want a good Star Trek movie aside from the obvious Khan and First Contact, I recommend Galaxy Quest.
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I saw it in the theater, and while long, it was surprisingly good. Not great, just solid. Christoph Waltz should get an Oscar for his performance. And that chick was smoking hot. Not enough Basterds screentime though - that really cracked me up.
Inglorious was a lot of fun and I suspect as time passes will be one of the films that is actually remembered from this year for the right reasons.
spoilers
The bit with everyone who wasn’t who they said they were, with cards on their head saying they were someone else, all the while arguing that they were who they in fact weren’t was great.
The tension created in those exhaustive dialogue scenes really made you squirm.
Spoilers
My favorite scene was the Jew Bear beating the Nazi officer with a bat. Not because I like violence, but because I think rag doll destruction is hilarious because it’s so cheesy. My buddy and I were the only ones in a packed theater that cracked up on the bat beating part, however.
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Well we obviously didn’t see the same movie. JJ Trek was the biggest crap fest of the summer. Would you like me to trash it on a purely cinematic level or on a long time fan of Trek level?
Potential spoiler alert below
Also, I’m a new poster, so all due respect is really intended, I don’t mean to come off as a jerk, but I would like to defend this movie, also no desire to start a big debate, so I will say what I will, and if you feel like you would want to respond that is fine, but I’ll leave it at that in order to not go too far off topic.
Haha, I’m aware a lot of lifelong trek fans were dissappointed but I don’t know why. I love star trek. My favorite series is certainly DS9. I’ve literally have seen every episode that has been aired, all the movies too. (Thanks Spike syndication for the biggest chunk of that! And no thanks for CSI :P ) I’m certainly no fair weather trek fan or newb fan. I am just shy of 23 years old btw, so I wasn’t around for TOS when it first aired, I’m sure that’s important for most die hard trek fans to establish. I’m sorry I am saying all this but as a new poster I thought it was helpful to know who your talking to.
I’m sorry to see you didn’t like the film. I thought it was massively entertaining. It was a very sleek looking movie with a sexy cast (a first for trek really, minus the 1 obligatory hottie per series). It had a good pace, comic relief that wasn’t forced, plenty of nice nods to TOS, an amazing soundtrack, good FX that weren’t overbearing, good acting, and some emotionally stirring scenes as well. Also it had a lot of motion, most trek is largely dialogue driven and has very little movement on the screen, they’re often more like plays than movies, which is great! I love all trek, but its certainly nice to see our beloved characters in more than one light. The cinematography looked good to me. Each shot, all the sets, and the costumes all seem very carefully planned out to put evocative images on the screen.
The plot was something that is clearly subjective, but I must say that I liked it. While they used a pretty cheesy device to set up a semi-alternate trek universe/timeline, that was okay b/c imho it was in fact trekky of them, much of the series episode’s plots were easily as cheesy :P. Also, this film did the grunt work necessary to set up a whole series of films with this cast and setting that is just as legitimate as any other trek series, and borrows the best elements of TOS while also not being saddled down with canon and detail that is half a century old now!
But most importantly, the greatest accomplishment of this film, and the ironically the one reason why I think the real indignation and enmity amongst die hard trek fans exists towards it, is that it made the series accessible for the FIRST time to non trek fans. Someone who doesn’t know what trek is, or hasn’t seen the series can go see it and enjoy it. I don’t think that would be true even of First Contact. It was simultaneously not weighed down with plot that you had to be an “insider” to truly enjoy while still containing plenty of little bits and bobs that only trek fans would even pick up on, and the general audience was none the worse for missing.
Simply put, if you check your geeky baggage at the door when you see this movie, you will likely enjoy it very much and have a great time. That’s what a great movie really is to me.
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I like your name Kaiser!
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I remember liking this but I have not seen it in decades.
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Oh how did I forget
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**I am going to talk freely about JJ Trek. This post will likeley contain spoilers for those who haven’t seen the travesty of cinema realeased in May of 2009.
Simply put, if you check your geeky baggage at the door when you see this movie, you will likely enjoy it very much and have a great time. That’s what a great movie really is to me.
And this is what angers me the most about the ‘gushers’ with regards to this film. That I didn’t like it because of some kind of baggage.
If you are unable to recognize or are willing to excuse the plot holes and contrivances beyond any sort of set-up more power too you. Good for you, I’m glad you enjoyed the movie.
But don’t make your willingness to accept lazy script writing, shallow characterization and shot for TV cinematography along with lots of overdone camera work to create faux action as some sort of high ground by calling my ability to think critically ‘geek baggage.’ I like me some big effects driven popcorn summer movies but filmmakers can’t abuse their ‘It’s a movie card.’ JJ and company did. That is not geek baggage.
This is the geek baggage– they didn’t take any of their knowledge of Trek from actually watching Trek. They took it all from watching Futarama, or Shatner parody himself or other parodies. If these guys had ‘re-imagined’ Casablanca instead of “You played it for her. You can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can stand it. Play it.” Rick would say, “Play it again, Sam.”
I’ve said my piece and am willing to agree to disagree from here on out.
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Galaxy Quest is a classic. Tim the toolman is funny in this one. Ripley (Sigorney Weaver) is also quite good as the “dumb blonde” role.
Phantasm series are dark and funny (in a macabre sort of way), I also enjoyed them when I was younger but have not seen in a long time.
New Star Trek was okay and different. I did enjoy it but found some of the filming a little too cluttered. It had its moments but really does not stack up against the original Kirk and Spock movies or even Pickard for that matter. In my opinion the character interaction was good but not at the level of the others. Also the original Trek films have a lot of humor, this one only a little.
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I’ve said my piece and am willing to agree to disagree from here on out.
Agreed. :-D Also, the “geeky baggage” bit wasn’t directed at you specifically, so I apologize if it came off that way, I mean it for all of us, myself especially included as we’re all pretty geeky imho :-P And the Casablanca metaphor was nice too.
I hope you Live Long and Proser Frimmel (see geeky)
And thanks IL!
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Really funny flick I caught this summer was “The Hangover.” It falls into a nice spot between “Bachelor Party” and “Very Bad Things.” Sort of what happens if you try to actually throw Rick Gassko’s bachelor party.
Has anyone mentioned “District 9?” The thing was made for like 30 million bucks, chump change these days. Really nice little flick.
I say take the 150 million spent on a Transformers 2 or JJ Trek and divide it 5 ways. Find 5 young hungry film-makers and give us a shot at getting 5 “District 9s.” If they all come up empty well we at least got 5 movies out of the 150 mil.
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Speaking of comedies, there is an older movie from 2001 that is actually quite hilarious that I would recommend called Tomcats. :-D
Also one from 1983 Private School. :-D
These are timeless comedies but not for kids.
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Really funny flick I caught this summer was “The Hangover.” It falls into a nice spot between “Bachelor Party” and “Very Bad Things.” Sort of what happens if you try to actually throw Rick Gassko’s bachelor party.
Has anyone mentioned “District 9?” The thing was made for like 30 million bucks, chump change these days. Really nice little flick.
I say take the 150 million spent on a Transformers 2 or JJ Trek and divide it 5 ways. Find 5 young hungry film-makers and give us a shot at getting 5 “District 9s.” If they all come up empty well we at least got 5 movies out of the 150 mil.
District 9 is on my radar. Have not watched it.
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District 9 comes out on DVD on Dec 22nd. Looks like it could be good.
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Was Gamer any good?
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Gamer looks interesting. DVD release date 01-19-10. I will check it out then.
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I just saw that Boondock Saints II is coming out! Sweet!
have you seen it yet?..I watched it…
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I just saw Katyn last night and it was really powerful. I highly recommend it but warn you to steel yourself first. It gives one a real appreciation that we are lucky enough to play with little plastic toys and pretend instead of living through times like those.
Its a Polish movie, so here’s some facts in case you aren’t familiar with it from Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879843/ -
“Avatar” was wonderful. A bit predictable but a wonderful experience.
“Sherlock Holmes” I’m a bit split on. It had some things I really liked but a few things that were either missteps in an objective sense or maybe just not where I would have gone. I liked Downey and Law’s bantering and that they didn’t try to tell some sort of ‘origin’ story despite the very Holmes as superhero riff.
Terrific art direction/set design/cinematography though. I love it when they show England as damp and foggy and generally overcast gray. Also liked that London was dirty and crowded.
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@aequitas:
I just saw that Boondock Saints II is coming out! Sweet!
have you seen it yet?..I watched it…
Is it showing yet?
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