Last movie you watched & your rating

[Sharecrow]

, they were singing out ALL dialogue, just for the sake of it.

What the heck?

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?

Why did you do that to me, Kiwi?!?!?!

[Claytone]

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy a few hours ago, as many of the rest of you already had. I also enjoyed it like the rest of you. Good movie.

[Kong Wen]

Over the weekend, I put some movies on while I chilled at my parents' place.

I mentioned Ender's Game already. The next night, I caught The Expendables 2 and Snow White and the Huntsman. The former was as predictable and uninspiring as you'd predict, and the latter was actually quite bad—even worse than I thought it would be. Kristen Stewart certainly lived up to her reputation in this one...

[kawaiipikachu]

Mrs Doubtfire
Robin Williams was a great actor, comedian & Humanitarian.
In some one he touch many of us as proven via social media & such a tragic loss

R.I.P. Robbin Williams.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Ok, I plan to go on a lengthy quest.
The quest to (re-)watch every movie in my +2000 DVD collection (plus whatever comes up in between).
This should keep me occupied for quite a while and it will keep this thread moving.

Today I re-watched:

White Dog (1982) by Sam Fuller

Plot: An Actress accidentally hits a white German Shepard with her car and takes it in until the owner can be found. It turns out he is an attack dog, trained to go for African Americans. An animal trainer attempts to cure him.

Good to see that the movie has lost none of its impact on second viewing. It is still pretty darn awesome with a strong message and one of the most powerful endings I've ever seen. Watch it if you get the chance.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

#2

The Lord of the Rings (1978) by Ralph Bakshi

This movie owns a special place in my heart. I saw it for the first time in my early teens and it is due to this movie that I bought the books, or better the entire thing in one large book (a particulary fancy edition the bookstore had in stock) which still sits in my shelf next to me after 20+ years.

The reason why I wanted the book is fairly simple, I watched the movie on a rainy sunday afternoon and absolutly loved it's atmosphere and simply wanted to know how the story continues, since Bakshi didn't have enough funding for more than one movie (and I really wish he had gotten the chance to pull of a trilogy).

As a child, I found the used Rotoscoping technique quite odd, though it resulted in some nice fluid motions. But especially sidecharacters that weren't fully drawn out seemed oddly out-of-place to me, like e.g. the orks (who have a black filter on them, with red eyes and white teeth painted on). Nowadays I feel different about it, since from a stylistic perspective it can be pretty darn effective. The Ringwraiths as an example look more like formless shades than physical beings due to this technique, which actually works out pretty well.

In general there are several scenes which I really like in this movie. The best example would be the bar scene in Bree incl. the Nazgul assault, which feels much more threatening than it does in Peter Jacksons version of the trilogy. However it is not all well, since the movie starts dropping off in the second half quite a bit. The plains of Rohan are not particulary pleasant to look at and the cinematography is just less interesting. The fact that we need to establish this new part of the scenario at this point, which kinda ruins the arc of suspense, doesn't help either. Up till Lothlorien, I still enjoy this movie.

There are other weaknesses like somewhat mixed voice acting qualities, exposition dumps or wrong pronounciations however the soundtrack is pretty darn awesome. The main theme and it's variations are particulary good and fit the mood. I also like that this version actually contains singing, which is certainly part of the books and largely absent in Jacksons version.

Due to what I've written in the first few paragraphs, you should realize that I tend to look at this movie through somewhat rose-tinted glasses, but I am certainly not ashamed to like it.

[SkyPikachu]

Aladdin

Damn it's a great movie. Ending predictable but the story was great and is nothing like I've seen before. The characters were funny and original.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

#3

Lifeforce (1985) by Tobe Hooper

Halley's Comet passes by and the crew of a shuttle locates an alien craft in it's trail. Onboard they find three humans in stasis. Back on Earth they awaken and turn out to be soul-sucking space vampires.

The movie was based on a novel called The Space Vampires and the lines are about as cheesy as you would assume from such a title. What makes this movie are the SFX though, there are lots of fancy light effects (remind me a lot of Poltergeist, also directed by Hooper) and some really good practical effects in here, sadly though you will most likely not care much for the plot though.
I have to assume that the author of the novel, Colin Wilson, or the scriptwriters (incl. Dan O'Bannon who also wrote Alien and Total Recall) were aware of the Quatermass-Trilogy by the British Hammer Studios, since Lifeforce uses the same premise as The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and the finale seems very similar to Quatermass and the Pit (1967).

While I can't really recommend this movie, it is still somewhat worthwhile just for the effect..... and the main theme is awesome.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

#4

Key Largo (1948) by John Huston

War veteran Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) travels to a remote Hotel in Key Largo to to visit the family of a friend who died in war. However a bunch of gangster take over the hotel as a hurricane approaches.

Key Largo builds a nice tension and has a couple of pretty good twists along the way, however there are also quite a lot of common gangster stereotypes around, especially in the parts of Harry Lewis and Claire Trevor. I wouldn't consider Key Largo to be anything special, however I have a soft spot for these types of hostage situation movies and everyone involved delivers a good performance.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Short rundown of recently seen movies:

Immortals (2011) and Mirror, Mirror (2012) by Tarsem Singh

Immortals is basically a stylish slaughterfest based on Greek mythology. As it is with movies by Tarsem Singh, the cinematography is kinda awesome and the entire movie is pretty to look at. That said however, it is also rather dull with the villain being more interesting than the entire rest of the cast , which sadly doesn't mean a lot. It is better than e.g. 300, especially in the story department but I can't recommend it.
Mirror, Mirror is his first attempt of creating a fantasy-comedy and, while less impressive in looks than his other works, is somewhat successful. As you might guess, it is based on Snow White and at first it seems like Julia Roberts as Evil Stepmom will take center stage, but frankly the dwarfs and Nathan Lane as butler are more interesting and entertaining than her. The sense of humor is also kinda hit-or-miss, blending fun ideas (marionette scene, combat dwarfs-on-stilts etc) with some really annoying sequences (puppy love potion). All in all I liked this one more than Immortals, while annoying at times it at least isn't dull.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) by Joe Johnston
Most of you have probably seen it already so I will keep it very brief: I kinda liked it simply because it hit the sweet spot between seriousness and Golden Age-Comic goofiness. It's biggest flaw is it's general predictability since the opening of the movie basically already spoils the ending, taking any gravity from the climax.