Cinematic Confabulation v2

[TSR]

Hobbit Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0k3kHtyoqc

[dayraven]

yup, that gave me some hobbit oak, if you get my meaning.

[PrfktTear]

So what was the best and worst of 2011?

I liked The Adjustment Bureau. Pirates 4 was just "meh". X-Men First Class really surprised me. Capt. America was a fun romp and a nice mix of The Rocketeer and Indiana Jones. Thor wasn't that bad... it captivated me for an hour and a half and thats all it was supposed to do.

Still haven't seen Sherlock Holmes 2 yet, though I heard it wasn't that great.

[manekochan]

Haven't seen much in the way of movies this year. Not at the theater at least.
Best movie overall: The King's Speech-- the choice of music in this one stuck with me. Oh. And it was flat-out great.
Best Surprise: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil-- I had no expectations for this film. All I knew was that the title was something I would probably enjoy and it had the guys from Reeper and Firefly in it so it couldn't be all that bad, right? I had never seen the trailer or anything so this thing was like a ball of awesome fell from the sky and landed at my feet. Based only on a title did I watch this movie and lo, I beheld greatness.
Best movie that has stuck with me: The Muppets-- everything it should have been and more. And damn it if the songs weren't catchy. "Am I man or am I muppet" is still continually stuck in my head and Vault always has the first song stuck in his head. This movie had me on the verge of tears for almost the entire thing. A small feat, yes, but it doesn't happen as often as it used to. I have a soft spot for forgotten inanimate objects that come to life. I suppose it's because of the Velveteen Rabbit (one of my first books as a child) but the Muppets ding that same place in me and the whole thing is bittersweet. It is a great movie, it works but it's futile and I think that's why it gets to me. Not because I particularly missed the muppets but because they were real and they've been waiting, stagnating this whole time (like the Velveteen Rabbit waiting in his toy box and hoping that he would be noticed again) and, despite a movie, no matter how well it does, no matter how popular they become again, it will happen again and they will all lie forgotten. They were dead to the world for a long time and the world went on without them.They don't care, though. They'll try again in 20 years or 50 years. The point of the muppets is their indomitable spirit, their hope. I don't have that anymore, if I ever had it to begin with, and I think I grieve for it when I see it in other things even imaginary ones. And mangosteen Rainbow Connection. That song gets me every time. It is very clear that I'm not a muppet because I've always taken it the wrong way. "Somebody thought of that and someone believed it. Look what it's done so far." I've always taken that to mean, "Look what you've done by giving everyone false hope! Everyone is wishing for things that they will never see. How sad is that?". It's only in the past few freaking DAYS-- yes, DAYS-- that I've finally realized the thing that made that song depressing was ME because I can't see hope. Even as a kid that song struck the complete wrong chord with me. I saw it as an exercise in futility! What the hell is wrong with me?
The Rom/Com that went somewhere weird (not necessarily in a bad way): No Strings Attached-- I'm not saying this movie was great, only that I enjoyed it and was surprised that they turned it from a silly cookie-cutter into something with a little more weight to it and I think that helped make it the best Romantic Comedy of the year for me. You know. Unless you could Bridesmaids as a rom/com. Which I don't. But I could.
Best Terrible 3D Movie: Drive Angry-- this is what terrible 3D movies should be-- fun, stupid, and full of Nicholas Cage. Whom I dislike greatly.

Most disappointing: Red Riding Hood; Dylan Dog; Priest-- Take your pick. RRH was dull and boring with terrible male actors and a story that was more focused on being the next Twilight Team BS (wolf or human? Which side?!?) than actual story. The visuals were beautiful. Particularly the trailer...
Dylan Dog, oh you poor sad comic movie. Why did you have to be so suck? It did pick up eventually and there was still some fun to be had in it, but this movie was a large disappointment.
Priest-- I guess it wasn't so much disappointing as just bad. I had low expectations for it and they were not exceeded by any means. Again, though, some very nice visuals. Too bad you could give two starfruit about the characters and therefore didn't care a whit about the movie.
Worst Rom/Com: Something Borrowed-- I have seen a lot of terrible romantic comedies in my day, but this one takes the terrible cake. Everything else up here has something of merit to it. Even Priest had pretty things to look at and retarded-ass moments you could laugh at. I can't think of a good thing to say about this movie except maybe that it ended. I guess I could applaud the director's choice to go with something as unpalatable as a friend sleeping with her best friend's fiance and make that the premise of the film. It takes some doing to make that work and still make the main characters likable. It didn't work here, but you tried. I guess. The shoe-horning in of John Krasinski stuck out like a sore thumb and provided nothing but a reminder that I could be watching the much funnier Office tv series, not to mention that he's a much better, nicer, cuter guy than the philandering asshat our heroine is pining over, but, hey, he's what got me to watch the movie so, job done, I guess.

[manekochan]

So Vault and I watched "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" last night. I kept seeing the little critters whenever I closed my eyes. Ended up having to sleep with my back to Vault so I could be facing the closet rather than have my back to it. The whole movie was like one long litany of, "I would SO not do that. I never would have done that," kind of stuff. That kid. I don't know how she wasn't freaked out sooner. Things whispering my name and calling me to the basement of all places? So never would have happened. Not to this neurotic and easily scared child. Nu-uh. Plus the scene with the thing in the bed? I'd have freaked the hell out and run for the door not gone exploring the covers to see what it was. Granted, if you're not sure of what things are it's a lot easier to make yourself believe it's just something benign but holy hell she took a long time to figure out those things were malevolent.
This one's ending didn't have me shaking like, "The New Daughter"'s ending did (and I really can't explain why that one affected me so much. It wasn't that good of a movie.) but I think it was consistently scary with only a few glaringly stupid moments in it. The dvd we rented didn't come with any extras so there may have been some extended scenes that explained some things a little better--like how someone magically got out of a garage...
And, okay Mr. Semi-lucid, drugged up guy. You're going to specifically remember a number at the library for her to go look up? And it wasn't terribly obvious that everyone captured turns into one of those things until the very last lines of dialogue. There was a bare hint that the old guy (Bloodmore or whatever) had become a fairy thing but that was all. In the original movie (from what I've read) it was straight up said-- "We want to make you one of us" rather than the less obvious "Come play with us" and "there are children here just like you". Even the very obvious, "We want you!" line could still be construed as they want to eat her or something. In the end it is unclear what their intentions actually are for the children they capture. We can assume one or the other but it's really all speculation. The adults, however, get transformed.
I'm also curious about when the whatsis... the truce with the pope or whatever fell through. Cuz it obviously did...
Anybody else have thoughts on this?
They refer to Machen in the movie and his stuff is public domain so I've found some free ebooks of it. I thought I might read some. I'm curious about it.
Damn, the whole thing just creeps me the hell out.

[PrfktTear]

This weekend I viewed Underworld and Underworld: Evolution for the first time. I had never seen any of the Underworld films before and upon mentioning them to a friend of mine I immediately had all three films in the trilogy thrust upon me. I thought it was some oduerve to goth BDSM and vampires, and in some aspects that aspect was correct, but it was a pretty cool story about vampires and werewolves. There were a lot of painful shots and effects that screamed "MAAAAAAATRIX" but I guess you can't fault it for having been made in the early '00s when every film was ripping off the Bullit-cam shots. Suffice to say I enjoyed Underworld enough to trudge on through Evolution and while it lacked solid story, IMO, it felt like more of a cohesive film, an element which the first one seemed to lack. I still have yet to watch Rise of the Lycans, but I look forward to it.

[manekochan]

Watched "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" again with a friend of mine. After a second viewing, I'm still of the opinion that they eat the children. On a much better sound system, you could hear them saying"child's teeth"a LOT more than I remembered from my first viewing. I'm rereading my post and I guess it wasn't obvious that that was my opinion.I do think the fairies eat the kids-- when they are at the library, the guy tells her that "it was said they ate the teeth and the bones of small children". They obviously want the teeth. Vault and I have argued extensively on this point. If they don't eat the kids, then the tooth stuff is a red herring and not necessary for the movie at all. I think they eat the kids and bring a parent or so back with them to transform because some of them are inevitably squished during the attacks.
Also, my friend was of the opinion that the ending came out of nowhere and it was not an obvious seed at all so it wasn't just Vault and I being silly and not paying attention. It just was not obvious.

[PrfktTear]

I re-watched Virtuosity this weekend. For a movie that’s 17+ years old it holds up remarkably well. Even though some of the CG, while somewhat dated was done in such a way you could say it was simply stylized and not archaic.

Virtuosity was one of our first exposures to Russell Crowe and I remember as a thirteen year old thinking how cool he was in this film. Along with The Quick and the Dead it was a nice glimpse into his talent prior to him really getting big with L.A. Confidential, The Insider, and Gladiator.

Re-watched Captain America. Still good, but it was just too fresh in my mind since I saw it in theatres. I guess its just not one of those movies that I can watch multiple times within the span of say a year. I'd like to see Thor again though and I only recently saw it.

[dayraven]

we just watched captain america this weekend, and i can't help but feel like it was the weakest of the marvel movies thusfar. some of the greenscreen FX were terribly done, i didn't like that cap had the cap voice before he had the body to support those vocal chords, the skull wasn't sufficiently menacing... and really, chris evans. i stand by my earlier assertation that john cena had the physique to better fill out the suit, and they essentially treated chris evans like a cardboard cut out to stand the suit on, so john could easily have handled the "acting" (though i really hesitate to call it that.) just my 2 cents though. cap was the hardest character for them to sell, from my POV, and i don't think they pulled it off. i liked the movie less than i like the comics, but the other marvel movies, i thought, have done a great job of crafting their own version of those characters that stands separate from the comics.

[PrfktTear]

I agree, easily the weakest of all the Marvel flicks. I'm not counting Fantastic Four or any of the others, just the Avengers flicks. I saw it in theatres and enjoyed it, and I still stand by saying its "good" but that just means "it is not starfruit" but also "it is not great". In my book it about a B. I'm really quite liberal with my ratings most of the tiem, but if I think something sucks I won't softsoap it.

I went into the flick originally knowing zilch about Capt, and I was sufficiently introduced to him and his world. It does seem like they did underplay Red Skull though, I mean Hugo Weaving in Skeletor makeup... how can you let that go to waste?