The Film Corner

[Unorthodox]

Let me do a cut of Independence Day - without changing anything, I'll make it look like the dog didn't make it, and take over a half hour out -the eternal before-final-battle sequence, mostly- and make it tighter and better and a lot more fun - (except for for dog fanciers, but they'll be a lot more into seeing the nasty ETs die die die, which was the whole point, storywise, of the attack-and-'splosions sequence).  The pacing went into the toilet right before the end, which largely ruined a serviceable, if uninspired, by-the-numbers bestseller of a 'splosions flick for me.  Too long bored before the final pew-pew and swelling music...

If you're getting to recut ANYTHING, it's got to be King Kong.  A proper edit of that movie and it could be epic. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Which version - the Peter Jackson?  Haven't seen it.

[Unorthodox]

Which version - the Peter Jackson?  Haven't seen it.

Just picture him full of himself in the wake of LOTR, but before he got his claws into The Hobbit. 

He actually did a good job of expanding the characters, but made every action sequence way too overblown and ended up with a movie 3ish hours that should have been a max of 2, and likely under 2. 

[Buster's Uncle]

-That's sorta my opinion of his middle-earth stuff, in a nutshell; aside from some New Zealand visuals, he cut Middle Earth out of the pictures as completely as could be done, and it, not Frodo, was the actual star in the books.  Left me cold, stone cold, and I haven't seen a minute of blowing up The Hobbit into a trilogy, which sounds like every kind of bad idea except financially.

I do not understand the tastes of the majority, sometimes.

[Unorthodox]

The Hobbit it nigh unwatchable.  Kyle was REALLY into LOTR when the first Hobbit hit, and stuck for the 2nd.  He had no desire to watch the 3rd.

[Spacy]

He missed nothing in the 3rd.

[Buster's Uncle]

Buster's actually read half the Silmarillion -enough there for a movie every ten pages or so, you know, mostly the First Age- and loves it.

[Spacy]

I like reading the silmarillion.  I can see some good movies out of the stories, but the lack of context would make them non-blockbusters so I doubt they will ever happen.

[Buster's Uncle]

I understand Jackson's got a rights problem, there - those rights weren't sold off a long time ago, the Tolkien estate -I assume that means Christopher- doesn't like the movies as much as I do -which isn't much- and Jackson's never going near the First Age...

[Bearu]

I enjoy the following films (The movies have an English closed captioning for the people that do not understand Russian):

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0yO6Q9NQyg" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0yO6Q9NQyg</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cOMy9k-6s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cOMy9k-6s</a>

No Major Spoilers:
The first movie recounts the fictional story of a boy named Ivan during the events of World War 2 on the front against Germany.

The second movie recounts the story of a Russian woman during the events in World War 2.

[Unorthodox]

Catching up from my break: 

Kubo and the Two Strings:  Great movie. 
Probably the "Best" Laika movie yet.  (the guys who make all the stop motion pics lately).  I liked Coraline better myself, but this is superior from a non-biased perspective. 

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Mrs Peregrines Home for whatever. 

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Talia's really wanted to see this one, so we headed to the dollar theater on new years eve. 

This is what happens when you ask Time Burton to make a kids movie with some exceptionally dark source material.  I'd be interested to see a straight up horror version level dark. 

It wasn't marketed as a kids movie, but it is.  Purposely hammy acting along the lines of spy kids to balance the themes and some of the images.  The lead is a little spotty in his performance.   

[Spacy]

Ya, I heard (haven't read them) that the books were real dark, but all the adds for the movie looks tween friendly... and Tim Burton, so wondering if it had at least some cool twists to make it interesting.  Was thinking of hitting it up at the dollar theater tomorrow, but decided it is just best not to.

[Unorthodox]

Redboxs with the kids:

Secret life of pets:

Bleh.  That was a phone it in money grab. 

Storks:

Talia enjoyed, otherwise awful. 

Suicide Squad:

Better than expected, especially if you can get past the awful Joker. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Weird interpretation, that.  He was playing a repugnant serial killer -yuck- until he'd say something in a perfect vocal impression of Mark Hamill's cartoon Joker.  That didn't make up for anything; it just sucked.

[Unorthodox]

Random Netflix.


Tales of Halloween

Horror anthology that is essentially a short movie marathon.  8-10 short films packed into a 'movie' supposedly all happening in this one town. 

Wildly uneven from story to story.  Effects wise, it's colored karo syrup and expanding foam mask level.  Most the stories go for the characters getting what they deserve type of 'scare', with a whole lot of humor mixed in, it's rather horror light most of it, with language too salty to fit that level, unfortunately.  Would have worked better as a PG 13 fest kids could enjoy, or at least a soft R, keeping the 'blood' but removing the language. 

Favorite story is neighbors starting up a rivalry over Halloween decorations.  With a very traditional graveyard and cobwebs on one side of the street, and over the top blood and guts on the other.  Both getting self righteous about how theirs is the REAL Halloween.  I see this conversation every year, so it was comedy gold for me.  Well over the top acted and meant to be humorous