Tomes and Illusions · Legacy archive
What DVDs/ Video are you watching
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Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#81Dark City was totally wicked, with gimpy Keiffer Sutherland shuffling around like some nightmare addled druggie. The end was certainly weird, but he did 'find' Shell beach.
Avatar is okay, but network TV sucks and I've not caught more than a handful of episodes. -
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#82Well, it makes more sense if you've seen it in order. -
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#83Dark City is AWESOME! -
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#84Neverending story and Neverending story: the next chapter. - no explanation needed,
Underworld - I love the mythology and the characters in the movie. I think it's the only reason I continue to watch it.
Van Helsing - again, mythology and characters. This movie is pretty darn fun too.
Daredevil - yeah so I went on a super hero, macabre binge one day...
Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2. - Quentin Tarintino stole my story about an assassin who becomes pregnant and wants to get out of the life. my version she's tortured on her last mission and loses the baby. I guess that's why I don't make lots of money off of my stories.
Gamora the indestructible - awesome old monster movie. "he's just hungry and misunderstood."
Night of the bloodbeast - another old monster movie. alien impregnation of an astronaut, heads getting chewed off, magnetic interference, all that wonderful goodness. it's all on the same dvd as gamora.
Equilibrium - I love the whole resistance theme.
Stigmata - I think it's an awesome concept of an atheist suddenly having to believe in something and being the messenger of a devout priest. It also shows corruption in the catholic church which is always interesting to watch unfold. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#85Dark City!
Yeah, and Equilibrium had a few nice things, but Dark City! That was GOOD. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#86Haven't seen Gamora/bloodbeast yet and I would disagree with Daredevil, but the rest are fun watches for me!
I have a couple submissions based off of Equilibrium that are still in the "pencil on a scrap paper" stage but just waiting for the creative muse to strike me.
I got in "Pi" tonight, will see what that is all about. -
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#87The Red Violin
Liked it more for it's concentration on the violin than the rest. The sex scenes made it annoying to watch with our 6 year old that does play the violin, but there was good music, pretty decent plot, and overall a good movie.
Flyboys
I liked it, plain and simple. That is my favorite era of acft so I am partial to it in the first place. In air action was lots of fun, was very curious about the shooting down of the blimp which was a fun sequence. I like airplanes. Anybody know a good flight simulator with that era acft? I would love to give it a shot. I have no interest in the jet fighters but enjoy WWII prop acft too. -
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#88V for Vendetta
Hugo's monologs border on brilliant in this somewhat plausible dystopian future. Remember, remember the fifth of November... Good enough that after returning it to the video store I purchased it from the previously viewed movies bin. 5/5 + HOH
Serenity
Another purchase from said bin, a great romp through space with an engaging cast of characters, something that seems to be a Whedon staple. The comglomeration of post Civil war era themes and space cowboys plays out quite nicely. I can very much sympathize for the browncoats and not just because it is the 'cool' thing to do. I was born and grew up in the south, the side that did loose the civil war. I can associate with people living from paycheck to paycheck, and keeping their ship together as best they can. Good movie but about half way through the extras features I realized that despite being a good screenwriter I just want Joss Whedon to shut up. 4.25/5 + HOH
Silent Hill
Hey! Isn't that Boromir looking for his wife? I liked this movie, it wasnt great but I also gave up on the game after about 15 minutes of pointlessly running around in the fog. 3.5/5
The Skulls
Great movie for secret society mischief and mayhem. Secret rules, rites, special laws and such, good stuff. I've seen the sequel and it isn't worth the DVD they print it on. The first is a solid 4/5
Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion
in coherent noises, aping gestures of Eva's in combat with angels, Shinji...little wuss! Asuka...crazy rawr berzerker mode...Central dogma...sync rate is 1.0 and rising!!! N2 Mines deployed, only 50 seconds until full stop.... -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#89John Carpenter's The Thing-That movie is Good! the effects are fantastic, even today... but mainly, the feeling of tension and paranoia you get is what makes this emminantly re-watchable. (although the plot/ plot devices are unbelievable: the wire and blood test...ok, cool, but so unrealistic.)4.75/5
Brick-This indie movie is smashing! incorporates everything you like about noir detective stories in a novel setting, with a decidedly new twist on the genre. The cast is perhaps a bit young to pull off the kind of mood you want in that kind of movie, but their acting is unlikely to be at fault. Great movie, would recommend watching it to anybody (especially for only £4-7$). 4.75/5 -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#90I finally got around to watching a couple of movies on my list of stuff I've been ordered to see.
Halloween - Um. I don't know how I feel about this. I don't mind slasher flicks, and I think the way they did a lot of scenes from Michael's perspective was brilliant. The music was awesome, as well. But I didn't really like any of the characters except Michael; in fact I thought most of them were incredibly stupid and annoying. The reasoning behind what Michael was doing was vague at best. It was an okay movie, but there are a lot of others in the same genre that are so much better. I've seen it once, but I probably won't bother to watch it again.
Fight Club - I'm not sure about this one either. I thought it was a neat concept, and it raised some interesting questions. Plus some of the visuals were really nifty. But it was almost too disjointed, and there were times I felt like they were going for shock factor just to have shock factor. I can't quite decide if I like it or not. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#91I idolize the movie Fight Club.
Number one rule of this site: You don't talk bad about fight club.
The second rule of this site is: You don't talk bad about fight club. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#92Brotherhood of the Wolf
Must say I really liked it. It is a French flick and pretty cool. Starts off as a sort of mystery of people saying a beast is killing off peasants. Moves with clues towards a more human answer to the deaths, skirts the supernatural, you see the beast, finally sort of explains it but not really at the end which is cool. Has religion, cults, kings, a sweet ass Indian from the Americas, blood, battle scenes, nudity, psychics, and an interesting villian. -
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#93...and Monica Bellucci
and yes, the movie ROCKED!!!! -
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#94It was an okay movie, although it is definitely not what one is used to. And I don't know if I liked how it ended. But it wasn't bad. -
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#95Brotherhood of the Wolf wasn't what I expected, to say the least. I didn't care for it much. My impression was that the protagonists seemed determined to find the beast, even if they had to search every brothel in the district. -
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#96As I have stated earlier on this site I love most films in which Belluci/Cassel are starring. The brotherhood of the wolf had its ups and downs, but the novelty of the film was rejuvenating. -
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#97You can't convince me otherwise, I thought it was a sweetass movie. I especially liked the noncomformity and unusualness of it. I seemed to enjoy everything that has been mentioned. Guess my mom is right, I am whacked.
Spartacus
Whip me if you will, but I watched it for the first time from the beginning to end over three days and finally finished it tonight. I have seen many parts over the years but never saw the entire thing. It is AWESOME. My favorite character was the original owner of the gladiator ring that stays with us through the whole movie and took the wife at the end. He fascinated me for some reason. Definitely a keeper! -
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#98Guess my mom is right, I am whacked.
Yes, we knew that. :P
Batman Begins - Oh. My. God. How did I not watch this until now? I'm a huge Batman fan, and I still hadn't watched this yet. It made me very happy, for various and assorted reasons (Ra's al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Fox, etc). Batman movies had gone slightly downhill for the last couple (whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did they cast Clooney as Batman?!), but this one redeems the franchise. And I think I'ma stop talking about it before it turns into a fangirl rant.
The Secret of NIMH - A classic. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't, what's wrong with you?
Dante's Peak - I don't know why I like this movie so much, but I put it on if I feel the need to watch a disaster movie. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#99Batman Begins - Oh. My. God. How did I not watch this until now? I'm a huge Batman fan, and I still hadn't watched this yet. It made me very happy, for various and assorted reasons (Ra's al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Fox, etc). Batman movies had gone slightly downhill for the last couple (whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did they cast Clooney as Batman?!), but this one redeems the franchise. And I think I'ma stop talking about it before it turns into a fangirl rant.
I loved this movie. Why? Because it took the Batman franchise away from the blacklight and schtick-fiasco that the last two Batman movies were. With the exception of Uma Thurmon as Poison Ivy those movies had no redeming features. My demand? I want Harley Quinn to be in the next Batman movie!!!
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Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#100Yah! Harley Quinn! She's about the only one of the Rogue's Gallery they haven't done already, anyway... -
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#101On Batman Begins, the first thing I thought when seeing it was "Yeah!!! No Bat-Nipples!!!" -
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#102Strangely enough, that's exactly what my brother said. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#103Strolen: Not whacked. A connisseur! The movie was a good watch.
Babel: A loooooong movie about people being people no matter where they are. It highlighted intercultural problems and fears and told us that we are all humans and not ravenous Krull or gruesome Borg, as the media in most countries seem to tell us (of course the media has different perspectives as to WHO is the alien monstrosities).
Not a movie to be watched by puritans or deeply religious people I guess, as there are some disturbing elements. Sexuality and sexual frustration is a theme that does not sit well with these groups, and the interpretation of this subject it is at times unsettling indeed. The points made are valid however.
All in all it was a looooooong movie, but it sent my mind spinning. It wasn't very exciting though, rather being one of those intellectual movies. I had no qualms with the subject and I thought the content was insightful and well presented.
Conclusion: The movie was way too long and covered many interesting topics, most of which I didn't even get to mention in here. It had its pros and cons and in my opinion it is a: 3.5/5 sword film. -
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#104Aguirre: The Wrath of God Sort of odd, but it had llamas in it so I had to give it a chance. It is a bit dragging in areas and it is dubbed from German, I think. Story about a small group of conquistadors searching for gold. Physical struggles combined with power struggles that end up with one group declaring their own emperor and pushing a path of death down an amazonian river. Somewhat entrancing in the singlemindedness and brutal self delusion of the leader but overall and underimpressive movie.
Drunken Master Jackie Chan... 'nuff said. -
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#105Indiana Jones - The whole trilogy. I loves these movies, not much else to say about it. Except, of course, that Sean Connery as Indy's dad was the best part of an already awesome series.
Shrek 2 - The neat thing about the Shrek movies is that the sequal was better than the first one, which means if the pattern holds, there will be some serious squee-ing when Shrek 3 hits theatres. I hope Puss in Boots makes it into the next one...
The Prestige - Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod- *slaps self* Lessee, the director who made Batman Begins, Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, and *just* to top it off, David Bowie. Yep. A plot centering on stage magic, obsessive madness, rapid and multiple plot twists, and assorted other things I adore. Oh, and they brought in Nikola Tesla, who does not get nearly enough love, considering what he accomplished. Yep, kickass all around. *resumes fangirling* Eeehehehehe... -
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#106Been on a foreign kick lately.
Z I am unable to describe it myself so "...chronicles the overthrow of the democratic government in Greece. The edge-of-your-seat action closely parallels the real-life assassination of Gregorios Lambrakis, a Greek doctor and humanist whose murder in 1963 led to an abortive public scandal." I will just go with "I didn't like it." Not much of a mystery as you knew what happened. It was interesting to see how the corrupted powers tried to manipulate things, but I just couldn't get into it. (French, I think)
The Seventh Seal A knight coming back from the crusades has stalled the manifestation of death with a chess game and then goes on to do...well...not much. Meets some actors, has some berries and dies. Not really, but there was a lot of dead space to me. Might have been to artsy for me or just too old (1957 Swedish).
Oldboy Now here is a twisted movie. It is the type my wife hates, they only give you a little bit to work on so you have to go on faith through most of the movie. A man is imprisoned in a hotel type room for 15 years for an unknown reason. He is released and he follows clues as to why. Not so much Monte Cristo because it quickly gets warped and the ending is just crazy! Liked it A LOT! (Korean) -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#107Pan's Labyrinth
A fairy tale for grown ups. During the spanish civil war a young girl and her mother leaves the city to live with the mother's new husband, a spanish captain in Franco's army. But not everything is as it seems and soon the young girl encounters the denizens of the underworld. The question remains: Are these creatures real, or does the little girl just conjure them up to escape a cold and hostile reality?
It is a film built with great skill and imagination. A magnus opus, a labour of love. I sat mesmerized for the duration of it, savouring every moment. Where M. Night Shamalyan (or whatever) failed with his "lady in the water", Guillermo Del Toro really, really succeeded.
5/5 swords
3 x Hall of Honour
Golden nomination -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#108Sin City
It was an excellent anthology of three noir stories set in Basin City. It is black and white, with touches of other colors for punctuation. Artifully done, adapting Miller's original graphics. It is perfectly adapted to screen, well like Chandler, Miller writes in a clipped style that translates well to the screen. It is the only comic adaption that actuall does proper justice to the source material.
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Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#109Deja Vu
Yet another terrorist movie. Evil terrorists (tm) threaten and Denzel Washington must set matters right using ultra-advanced US government tech equipment. Einstein-Rosen bridges and purty girls galore. Well executed but I've seen stuff like this a kazillion times before.
3/5 swords
The Departed
Decent mobster movie focusing on rats inside both the mob and the police. Fun to watch.
4/5 swords -
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#110Finally got around to watching
300
Loved it! -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#111Pan's Labyrinth - People have talked about this, so I will restrict my comments to the fact that this movie proves that Guillarmo del Toro cannot help but make an awesome movie.
Hellboy - Watching the above got me on a del Toro kick, and that's the only other one I have. Of course, it's an awesome movie in it's own right, and I like how deadpan Hellboy can be.
CSI Miami (Season 2) - I like the show (moreso than the other CSIs), and it makes for good background noise.
NUMB3RS (Season 1) - Neat idea, also good background noise. I like the concept of the show, and I think David Krumholtz is cute, so it's all good.
Doc Savage - This is such an old movie (recorded off cable sometime back in the eighties), and really it's pretty goofy in concept. Sort of comic book-pulp feel, based on a series of books. It kind of strikes me as "Captain America" meets "James Bond", which is a pretty odd combination. Popcorn flick, nothing really deep about it.
Hopscotch - Also a very old movie (on the same tape as Doc Savage, actually; my tape is dying, which is sad). Walter Matthau, among other people. Funny Cold War pseudo-spy flick; the spy is making various spy organizations look like idiots. Also a pretty decent popcorn flick.
The Goonies - There's not much to say about this, really. If you haven't seen it (although I'm sure everyone has), imagine a very dorky Indiana Jones in grade school. That would be pretty close.
The Hunt for Red October - THE Cold War/sub movie (K19: Widomaker was okay, but this was better). Sean Connery, nuff said. Although I will say that hearing a *very* Scottish actor speaking Russian is... odd.
Hudson Hawk - Do I really have to say anything about this?
Batman Returns - I watch it because I go all fangirl over Batman, but also because I like that version of Catwoman. Michelle Pfeiffer hit the perfect line between righteous fury and complete and utter psychosis. Oh, and watching her stalking Christopher Walken is fun too. The Penguin was just sort of disturbing, but that's okay. -
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#112Power Rangers SPD, volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Okay, it is a kids show. Okay it is the Power Rangers. Put that aside for a moment and put your brain into neutral. (Also remember this is not every episode, just five from each segment of the season).
It is science fiction goodness, police men with super powers (which supers should be inducted into police academies), John Woo inspired action (REd Ranger rocks with double pistols leaping and doing Woo inspired shooting), a heaping helping of Bushido, and giant robots and monsters. WOOT!
For a 30 min action show (remember that most action shows are 1 hour), it has plot, contained story arcs, and character development. It does have anime influences (heroes which start off goofy and get better over time, people who have no business being what they are, a few continuity bleeps that just look good)., but you just go with the flow.
It inspires campaigns... it does. -
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#113Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Old skool versions, before George Lucas went and messed them up. The limited edition release has both the Digitally Remastered (bleck) and Original Theatrical Release versions. The only reason I didn't get Return of the Jedi is they were sold out.
I have nothing else to say about this except :grin: -
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#114The Children of Men - Bleh. What a poor excuse for a dystopian movie! Actually I loved the camera work, especially in the street to street battle, but the plot itself was rather unexiting and bland. I felt strangely unmoved by it all.
The Last King of Scotland - WOW! A must see! -
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#115Die Hard - I got the trilogy on DVD, I like these movies very much. It's just fun to watch Bruce Willis blow stuff up. Not much to say other wise.
Various MST3K episodes that Muro gave me. MST3K is always good.
Some assorted anime-
King of Bandits Jing, which is highly amusing, sort of a steampunk fantasy setting involving the greatest bandit in the world, a kid named Jing.
D.Gray-Man- Victorian gothic horror, pseudo-religious themes. Excorcists are trying to keep a madman from bringing about the end of the world with akuma, the unholy mating of demons and technology (actually, that's pretty accurate, now that I think about it...) Seems to hit somewhere between steampunk and high fantasy (in any other setting, all of the excorcists and the characterized villians would be seen as either mages or supernatural species.) It's very pretty, very creepy.
Princess Tutu- I swear to you, when I first heard of this, I thought it would be wretched. It's a magical girl show, which I loathe on principle. It's a fairy-tale type story which is rarely done well in anime. A major theme is *ballet* of all things, to the extent that even fighting is done as ballet. It really shouldn't work. It does, tho, and is awesome. It's told in the manner of the original classical ballets, and uses a lot of authentic music. I didn't see anything that would be inappropriate for children so this could be watched as a family. So I'm spreading the word.
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Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#116Note about: Doc Savage -
If you haven't read the books, you need to do it. They did an awful job in the movie. Sure they hit all the basic points of the stories in the movie, but it is fairly weak all around. Now once you read a book or four, you will see why someone would want to make a movie of this guy. Just not this movie. Still popcorn for the mind.
In the same vein, I have recently watched...
The Shadow: Truly one I recomend. You can watch it and enjoy it not knowing anything about The Shadow. If you know the series, the movie is a campy blast to watch. It updates the characters some and makes it fairly interesting. It is self contained, so you don't have to know anything about the character to enjoy it. But after you have read a book or seven, you will truly adore the movie.
The Rocketeer: A rolicking goodtime thrill ride. It has good looking characters, lots of actions, some good dialog, and an actual to God PLOT! The dialog is the fun part. The comic book run, which you can get as
graphic novel, is EXACTLY THE SAME as the movie in tone and action, so you will enjoy that as well.
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Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#117No movie is complete without a gunfight on the top of a Nazi zeppelin. ~ the Rocketeer
Blastingly good, and without CGI -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#118Wait wait wait! The Shadow had a series?! Now my life feels incomplete again...
Clearvision Drama Co. (3 dvds with their skits on them)
~Clearvision: Live and Kickin'
~Chronicles of an Angry World
~Humor Me
Clearvision is a Christian drama group, so all of the skits have a spiritual message to them, but they're all amazingly halarious. Well, except for Chronicles. That one has a very serious outlook. Hence the name. If you don't like the sound of screaming, avoid that one. The others have some great skits though.
Oscar
Holy crap. This is one of the original Silvester Stallone movies, where he plays a gangster who is trying to go straight after making a promise to his dying father. Problem is, nobody believes that 'Snaps' Provolone would ever go straight, and it seems like everything goes wrong all at once. The entire movie takes place within the space of the morning hours, save for the very last scene, which is a little while later. Amazing movie. Watch it. Now. -
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#119The Shadow has a series of Books. And some radio dramas that you can get on DVD. Not a series of movies. -
Re: What DVDs/ Video are you watching
#120Wolfhound / Volkodav
Another Russian fantasy movie, this time an epic piece, with a mighty hero out to avenge his family, commit heroic deeds uncounted, and cut his way through even more flunkies of the big bads. It is quite Conan-like, with a pleasant slavic feeling. There's some cool special effects, a neat pet animal, and of course a princess. What else could you want?
(Recommended, but unknown if an English version exists already.)
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Terry Pratchett's Hogfather
If you haven't read some of the Discworld's books, well, too bad for you.
Of course, any movie based on one is going to be just an imperfect copy, but I suffered this and was well entertained. There is the trademark silliness, the small jokes, and a little philosophy to boot. If you liked the books, go see it.
(English two-part movie.)