The Silver Screen

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 4:55 pm

I watched "The Pyramid" this weekend with my friend Hunter. I actually bought a copy. Its not a particularly good film but it was at least interesting. The real tragedy of this film is that it could have really been something. Perhaps if Alexandre Aja had directed it instead of just acting as the film's producer. I still love his film "High Tension" and it would be nice to see him do a film that was not a remake for once. Also they tried to make it a found footage film but it seems they quickly abandoned that idea when they realized that some of the shots they needed could not be done in that style. What starts out as a found footage film turns into a hybrid of found footage and traditional narrative style. If it had been a traditional narrative it would have fared far better.

Its about the discovery of a huge 3 sided pyramid (a tetrahedron) completely buried in the desert 250 miles/402km south of Cairo. Unlike the other pyramids, this one had a series of chambers and tunnels in it and is not meant to be a tomb. For the dead anyway. Under the gun to leave because of the Arab Spring protests in Cairo, the archaeological team decides to go in anyway. The find mutant sphinx cats, death traps and the angry god Anubis. Now unlike "The Mummy Returns" in which Anubis is presented as an evil god of darkness (that would be Apep), his rampage and uncharacteristic malevolent behavior is justified. Anubis has been corrupted by being trapped in a decaying corporeal body and need to find a pure heart in order to pass to Duat to be with his father Osiris. Unfortunately, he does this by ripping the hearts out of his human victims. Which is why he was trapped in the pyramid and buried for 5000 years. Rather than a loving protector of the dead and opener of the ways, he has turned into a merciless god of death.

The directing was a bit weak, the dialogue and acting needed some work, and CGI could have been better and ending could have been trimmed back a little. But, at least it was shorter than the unnecessary "extended ending" from the special features.

I see this easily becoming a cult film. Its bad but still very entertaining and never dull. Especially if you are into Ancient Egyptian stuff like me. It makes an ideal double feature with Farouk Agrama's mummy splatter film "Dawn of the Mummy". Gory, cheesy fun.

Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:38 am

Saw Inside Out today. After the going into the theater to find an R rated movie showing before it and not almost over by 10 minutes before showtime, and having to change to a different showtime due to projection issues (earning us 3 vouchers for free movie tickets).

It was pretty good. Not amazing but good enough that I'd see it again and reccomend it to anyone.

Penwrite · Post by **Penwrite** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:16 pm

So, this trailer is great.

http://thisisinfamous.com/official-cree ... ping-ring/

A spin-off of the Rocky series where Rocky trains Apollo Creed's son in boxing? Yes please!

Punchy · Post by **Punchy** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:32 am

Recently watched Dead Man, it's a "Psychedelic Western"...
Directed by Jim Jamusch and starring Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop and Robert Mitchum (his final role) were also in it.
I really enjoyed this film and the soundtrack by Neil Young.

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:39 pm

I just got the new Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of "Dog Soldiers" and I am a little disappointed. The picture is really grainy and I think they made a mistake with the transfer. The scene where Sgt. Wells is looking for Bruce looks like regular day footage as apposed to the blue tinted night on the other releases that I own. But still, it has all kinds of extra features that I live for. I just wished that they carried over some from the old Artisan DVD release. Unfortunately I gave that one away to my friend Hunter the day the combo pack arrived. It won't be hard to replace but live and learn.

So, I hear Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is going to produce and star in a remake of "Big Trouble in Little China". Being a fan of the original he says that he wants John Carpenter to be involved in some capacity.

Whozjama · Post by **Whozjama** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 11:12 pm

I watched on and off the first 3 rebuild of Evangelion films over the span of a week, and my goodness what modern cgi does for such a franchise is amazing. You get a sense of urgency, that the entirety of humanity is fighting instead of a single protagonist. The fights are very worth your time, but the protagonist is extremely depressing. Like Wikipedia says, it's definitely not your run of the mill mecha film I expected.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:36 am

So I finally saw V/H/S, which a friend recommended last summer, and it was awesome. I think short horror is really hard to pull off but every vignette was at least watchable and a few of them really stuck with me, though obviously the quality varied. I thought the frame story was kind of weak but the vignettes are the important part of the movie so I let it slide. I like found footage and am cautiously optimistic when I hear about new entries in the sun genre. This one did not disappoint

Punchy · Post by **Punchy** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 3:54 am

Watched a film called Slacker a while ago. It's an independent film from the early 90's.
The film follows various characters over the course of a single day in Austin, Texas.
Some very interesting and odd characters.
Great film.

Penwrite · Post by **Penwrite** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:40 pm

Saw Ant-Man last night. First Marvel movie I've ever been disappointed by.

Jacey · Post by **Jacey** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:11 pm

Penwrite wrote:Saw Ant-Man last night. First Marvel movie I've ever been disappointed by.

What was in it that disappointed you? It disappointed you more than iron man 2? Shocker (eh, half kidding there.)
I saw it last night. I was going in expecting it to be Marvels greatest failure (much like guardians of the galaxy.)
So my expectations were low. I thought it had a slow start, a few good funny bits done by background characters and a few my the protagonist. But I also was confused with the start and what was going on and wanting more. I felt it was the same old stuff that we have seen.
This wasn't a character they were going to do well with. Ant-man has a tainted past and has always been rather terrible.

Now, I would have done the story differently, having it tie into the recent scavengers movie much more than the one sentence reference. Anyway, the show for me: had some good laughs, but nothing like guardians, the actor who played Pym did well and it was a joy to see him and Paul Rudd work together. But I was overall bored, though not so bored like I was during Jurassic world to look at my phones clock to see when it ends.

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:05 pm

I have not had much time to go to the theaters to see any movies with my impending move, but I have had time to see some films online. No piracy was involved. But Troma Entertainment, the words longest running independent film studio has put their entire library of films on youtube and netflix. I finally saw some of their early comedies like "First Turn-On" which was the first screen appearance of Vincent D'Onofrio as a crazy handyman named Lobotomy.

I have also been re-watching my Troma films on DVD. My favorites are the "Class of Nuke 'Em High" series. The sequels are insane. There is always something going on in the background and I can only describe it as cinematic chaos. Things just happen for no rhyme or reason.

I also re-watched Trey Parker's "Cannibal the Musical" which is a musical comedy based on the true story of Alfred Packer who lead an ill fated expedition through the Colorado Rockies and they had to eat each other to survive. you'd think that you could not make a musical comedy from that but you would be surprised.

I still need to watch "The Babadook" and "Late Phases". I have heard nothing but good things about them and they are just sitting on my shelf.

I have heard of another war epic coming from Russia called "Battle for Sevastopol" which is the story of not only the battle but of Ludmilla Pavlichenko. I hope it gets a North American release soon.

I have not seen "Jurassic World" yet but hopefully I can see it in a second run theater when I get moved. It has made me want to watch the "Carnosaur" films again. The novel "Carnosaur" was published a few years before the novel "Jurassic Park" but had a similar theme of genetically engineered dinosaurs. Producer Roger Corman got the rights to it and rushed a dinosaur gore film into theaters a few weeks before the original "Jurassic Park" premiered. Its a poor man's version but its still impressive for a film shot for less than a million dollars.

WeirdGamer · Post by **WeirdGamer** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:58 pm

Autumn_Red_Panda wrote:
Penwrite wrote:Saw Ant-Man last night. First Marvel movie I've ever been disappointed by.
What was in it that disappointed you? It disappointed you more than iron man 2? Shocker (eh, half kidding there.)
I saw it last night. I was going in expecting it to be Marvels greatest failure (much like guardians of the galaxy.)
So my expectations were low. I thought it had a slow start, a few good funny bits done by background characters and a few my the protagonist. But I also was confused with the start and what was going on and wanting more. I felt it was the same old stuff that we have seen.
This wasn't a character they were going to do well with. Ant-man has a tainted past and has always been rather terrible.

Now, I would have done the story differently, having it tie into the recent scavengers movie much more than the one sentence reference. Anyway, the show for me: had some good laughs, but nothing like guardians, the actor who played Pym did well and it was a joy to see him and Paul Rudd work together. But I was overall bored, though not so bored like I was during Jurassic world to look at my phones clock to see when it ends.

I have to respectfully disagree with both of you, i thought Ant-Man was easily in my top Marvel movies. It's really funny because in some ways it was a movie with a lot of flaws, but I think the fact it was a dramedy with a heavy emphasis on the comedy really helped it, along with its two main leads. Both Ant-Men were great as were the criminal gang. It's kind of funny of how just a few good performances can really make a movie. The size changing was always really cool to watch.

That being said there are some flaws. I would have liked more emphasis on the heist part since it made it stand out more. Also Hope was a little weak as a lead and the villain was like Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor, just a generic made scientist. But liek I said, the two main leads really saved it.

But hey each to their own. I can easily understand why other people wouldn't be as big on this movie as I was.

JonnyNova · Post by **JonnyNova** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:26 am

Saw Paper Towns yesterday with my friend and, as a huge John Green fan and a big fan of the book, I must say I was impressed. Most film adaptations don't completely stick to the source material and this was no exception, but it stuck to the book where it mattered and in the end, managed to leave the same message and the same impact that the book did. That's something that you very rarely hear. Also it was incredibly "real". I was a bit put off by the acting at first, but I realized partway through that the way the actors behaved was exactly how those characters would behave: Not like characters in a summer dramedy, but like real people. Every imperfection was there for a reason. So, yeah, great movie.

Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:07 pm

JonnyNova wrote:Most film adaptations don't completely stick to the source material and this was no exception, but it stuck to the book where it mattered and in the end, managed to leave the same message and the same impact that the book did.

Well, John was actually on the set quite often, so he made sure they stayed true to the message of the book.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:42 am

I finally got a copy of tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it was so gritty and cool. I'm in love with that movie and it was well worth the wait. I love the weird family dynamics going on in it and how disturbing it managed to be on a low budget and without great actors.

I also finally saw north by northwest and it was a really polished example of Hitchcock's style. I really like popping in an older movie now and then and his are always well written and full of some bold stylistic choices.

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 11:03 am

Seth wrote:I finally got a copy of tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it was so gritty and cool. I'm in love with that movie and it was well worth the wait. I love the weird family dynamics going on in it and how disturbing it managed to be on a low budget and without great actors.

I also finally saw north by northwest and it was a really polished example of Hitchcock's style. I really like popping in an older movie now and then and his are always well written and full of some bold stylistic choices.

"LOOK WHAT YOUR BROTHER DID TO THE DOOR!"

I finally saw "Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters" and it was an alright pop corn movie. I watched it because I found out it was directed by Tommy Wirkola, who directed "Dead Snow" and "Dead Snow 2".

Saturn381 · Post by **Saturn381** » Sat Aug 01, 2015 4:39 pm

While I was on vacation, I manage to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, and both were great!

Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:52 am

Mamoru Hosada is a great director.
If you haven't yet, watch Summer Wars. If you have, watch it again

I can;t wait to see his next movie, The Boy and the Beast

Punchy · Post by **Punchy** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:01 am

Watched Blue Velvet, this is the first David Lynch film I've seen.

deepskycyan · Post by **deepskycyan** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 12:42 pm

Did I just watch Jurassic World or a Mercedes commercial.

Jacey · Post by **Jacey** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:52 pm

deepskycyan wrote:Did I just watch Jurassic World or a Mercedes commercial.

I'm of the opinion that it's a (I forgot the right word). Metaphor /analogy/commentary that is attempting to bring in a point of how the world in the movie is, they aren't just making dinosaurs for fun, but to make money now.
The dream is corrupted, it's all commercialized.
Kind of like many movies are like now.

Saturn381 · Post by **Saturn381** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:58 pm

Just came back from seeing Pixels, and it was pretty funny.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:08 pm

deepskycyan wrote:Did I just watch Jurassic World or a Mercedes commercial.

The only correct answer is yes.

JeffCvt · Post by **JeffCvt** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:56 pm

I just saw Big Hero 6 and I have to say it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Not that I thought it would be bad, but it seemed to... make more sense that I thought it would? That's the best way I can put it. Awesome movie.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:39 am

Saw nightcrawler yesterday and Jake gylenhal was so good! I liked seeing how low light urban settings were used and I loved the story and how weird the characters were ( both in terms of good writing and great acting ) the fact that the movie deals with exploiting tragedy for news footage brings to mind a lot of the cool theory I've read about film and voyeurism and probably contributed to NY enjoying of it.

GreatKitsune · Post by **GreatKitsune** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 10:08 pm

You know you're too excited about the new Shippuden movie when you're convinced your ceiling fan sounds like chidori.

Penwrite · Post by **Penwrite** » Mon Aug 10, 2015 10:46 pm

I think I'm the only one excited about Lionsgate making a live-action Naruto adaptation.

Recently watched Brian De Palma's Blow Out, and my goodness that is an amazing movie. Absolutely devastating ending.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:35 pm

So I saw "Jurassic World" with my grandmother and mother in Arizona. It was a nice movie and I'm surprised because I thought it would be EXTREMELY gory. The only thing I didn't like though was The assistant who did NOTHING wrong and tried to look after her boss's ungrateful nephews was eaten

Oh yeah, and I recognized B.D. Wong from Law and Order: SVU

Roarin · Post by **Roarin** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:19 am

Just saw "A Man from U.N.C.L.E." today! It's a pretty good movie though some of the montages were long! It wasn't until after that someone told me that it was based off a TV series too?!

Punchy · Post by **Punchy** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 4:37 am

Roarin wrote:Just saw "A Man from U.N.C.L.E." today! It's a pretty good movie though some of the montages were long! It wasn't until after that someone told me that it was based off a TV series too?!

I didn't know that there's a movie, somehow missed that.
But, yeah, it was a TV series from 1964-1968.
It's alright, saw about 10 or 15 episodes some years ago when a tv channel played it (don't remember which one).

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:51 am

I finally sat down and watched some movies. A local close-out store was selling some good ones for $2 each.

"Hypothermia" is a monster movie about a prehistoric fish-man hybrid living under a frozen lake. It stars Michael Rooker and he gives a stand out performance as always but the film is a bit weak. The ending could have been better.

"Almost Human" combines the slasher genre with the alien abduction genre. A man is abducted by aliens and returns 2 years later turned into a monstrous killer. Its plot borrows heavily from the British horror film "Xtro". It was alright but the acting was a bit uneven and it was not that scary.

I also picked up copies of "Frankenstein's Army" for a friend of mine, its a great movie, and a copy of "Stake Land" for myself. Another good film that I needed to get a replacement copy of.

"Death Tunnel" was just awful. The Booth Brothers are two halves of an Ed Wood.

Deske · Post by **Deske** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:10 am

Watched Fant4stic. As much as I like new movies, this one was super weak to the point of being a waste of time. 1/3rd of the movie is backstory, which I get, but it just reiterated, "Another world" so much that it got tiresome. It felt incredibly sectioned to me. Very hard cut lines between... I had an entire paragraph written here full of snarky comments but maybe too much spoiler... Anyways, "Prologue" "Rising Action" "Conflict" "More Rising Action" "Climax" "The Wind Down" "End."

Spoilers

The battle between the main villain everyone knows about, Doctor Doom, was stupid. It was a waste of time and built up to be absolutely nothing. It was basically a children's movie where they defeated him with the power of friendship. "We can't beat him." "But together we can." We get it. The actual fight was ~Not really long enough to make me care. It was just 1/2 everyone else trying to defeat the guy 1v1. Then Mr Fantastic comes in and slingshots himself at Doom breaking his control. Then they proceed to obliterate him with a disintegration field. Can I get more fighting and a little less hugging next time?

Wouldn't say I hated it, I didn't buy it and I got to spend time with a friend. It just wasn't something I would ever spend money on myself.

WeirdGamer · Post by **WeirdGamer** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:29 pm

Deske wrote:Watched Fant4stic. As much as I like new movies, this one was super weak to the point of being a waste of time. 1/3rd of the movie is backstory, which I get, but it just reiterated, "Another world" so much that it got tiresome. It felt incredibly sectioned to me. Very hard cut lines between... I had an entire paragraph written here full of snarky comments but maybe too much spoiler... Anyways, "Prologue" "Rising Action" "Conflict" "More Rising Action" "Climax" "The Wind Down" "End."

Spoilers

The battle between the main villain everyone knows about, Doctor Doom, was stupid. It was a waste of time and built up to be absolutely nothing. It was basically a children's movie where they defeated him with the power of friendship. "We can't beat him." "But together we can." We get it. The actual fight was ~Not really long enough to make me care. It was just 1/2 everyone else trying to defeat the guy 1v1. Then Mr Fantastic comes in and slingshots himself at Doom breaking his control. Then they proceed to obliterate him with a disintegration field. Can I get more fighting and a little less hugging next time?

Wouldn't say I hated it, I didn't buy it and I got to spend time with a friend. It just wasn't something I would ever spend money on myself.

Apparently the film had a super (excuse the pun) troubled production and a lot of it was cut, reshot, and edited, making the final product a total mess compared to what it was supposed to be. I'm a huge super hero fan, and this is the first superhero film I've skipped in awhile. I even saw that awful Green Lantern film. The last superhero movie I skipped was the Second Ghost Rider.

On a lighter note, I saw Mr. Holmes last night and that was a good movie. A great performance by Ian McKellen.

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:31 pm

Deske wrote:Watched Fant4stic. As much as I like new movies, this one was super weak to the point of being a waste of time. 1/3rd of the movie is backstory, which I get, but it just reiterated, "Another world" so much that it got tiresome. It felt incredibly sectioned to me. Very hard cut lines between... I had an entire paragraph written here full of snarky comments but maybe too much spoiler... Anyways, "Prologue" "Rising Action" "Conflict" "More Rising Action" "Climax" "The Wind Down" "End."

Spoilers

The battle between the main villain everyone knows about, Doctor Doom, was stupid. It was a waste of time and built up to be absolutely nothing. It was basically a children's movie where they defeated him with the power of friendship. "We can't beat him." "But together we can." We get it. The actual fight was ~Not really long enough to make me care. It was just 1/2 everyone else trying to defeat the guy 1v1. Then Mr Fantastic comes in and slingshots himself at Doom breaking his control. Then they proceed to obliterate him with a disintegration field. Can I get more fighting and a little less hugging next time?

Wouldn't say I hated it, I didn't buy it and I got to spend time with a friend. It just wasn't something I would ever spend money on myself.

What happened with the new Fantastic Four film is a case of history repeating itself. Fox had to make a something, anything, to retain the rights to Fantastic Four or they would revert back to Disney. The same thing happened in the early 1990s with Roger Corman. In order to retain the rights to Fantastic Four which he bought from Marvel, he rushed a film into production with no intent to release it. He spent about $250,000 to produce a film that he was never going to release to avoid paying for the rights again. The film began to circulate in bootleg editions.

So once again, a studio just cobbled something together for legal reasons. There is a documentary called "Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's 'The Fantastic Four'" that details the making of the film and its demise.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 5:16 pm

And yet, '94 FF is both more faithful to the comics than the three others and has more charm.

Radio Blue Heart · Post by **Radio Blue Heart** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 12:35 pm

I just re-watched "Come and See/Иди и смотри" and that film still has an impact on me. Its one of the most frightening non-horror films that I have ever seen.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:35 pm

I rewatched the Babadook with a couple friends and it still terrified me, even a second time through. Also my interpretation of the ending changed again. Still working on that.

Jacey · Post by **Jacey** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:49 am

I saw fantastic 4 on Monday.
I thought it was alright, my dad of course loved it (he does this thing where if he hears someone say its bad, he won't believe it and then will say it was good. but he also loves superhero movies).
I was trying to give it a chance but I really couldn't enjoy Ben Grimm getting his "It's clobberin' time". From his abusive brother. though my dad said something about it being close to Ben's origin or something in the comics so...that was close to the source then?. It felt like they were going down a check list of things they needed to justify calling it "Fantastic Four". I also was bummed that In the original script was said to have had Mole man AND Galactus in the movie. Which would have been fun.
I felt like if I didn't know anything about the fantastic four, that I would have thought it was just a science fiction movie. I was just confused as to what I saw I guess.

CosmicCoyote · Post by **CosmicCoyote** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:08 pm

New Star Wars teaser. Doesn't show too much, but what it does...

https://instagram.com/p/65PhxOs_RH/?taken-by=starwars

Penwrite · Post by **Penwrite** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:18 pm

Today we lost a film great. Farewell, Wes Craven. Thanks for such classics as A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream.