What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Janszoon]

I'm talking explicitly about exploring mind-blowing, complex concepts and taking them unexpected, philosophical places. Maybe Watchmen come close, with the whole Dr. Manhattan thing.

The Watchmen comic is great, but I didn't like the movie.

[grindy]

The Watchmen comic is great, but I didn't like the movie.

Never read the comic but thought the movie was great. What didn't you like?

[Janszoon]

Never read the comic but thought the movie was great. What didn't you like?

Like most Zack Snyder movies, it felt like all surface and no substance. He spent so much time slavishly recreating the look of the comic that he lost the complexity of everything and the distinctness of the characters.

[grindy]

Like most Zack Snyder movies, it felt like all surface and no substance. He spent so much time slavishly recreating the look of the comic that he lost the complexity of everything and the distinctness of the characters.

I suppose it makes a better impression without having the comparison to the source material.

[Janszoon]

I suppose it makes a better impression without having the comparison to the source material.

I think that's true of a lot of movies. I also think Zack Snyder just doesn't make good movies. I've never read the 300 comic, but I thought the movie was pretty bad.

[grindy]

I think that's true of a lot of movies. I also think Zack Snyder just doesn't make good movies. I've never read the 300 comic, but I thought the movie was pretty bad.

I've also never been a fan. I did really  enjoy Watchmen, the rest ranges from okay to bad.

[Guybrush]

I'd read the comic, but still liked the Watchmen movie.. despite the absence of space octopus.

Other Zack Snyder films not so much. I find his dark style kinda dour overall.

[DJChameleon]

I like Zack Synder's style over substance directing.

The Synder cut of Justice League that got released was so good.

[Lexi Darling]

I like Zack Synder's style over substance directing.

The Synder cut of Justice League that got released was so good.

Like two years ago or so Aaron had me and a couple of his friends over one weekend to watch all of that. I tried to get into it, but I just didn't really understand much of the context for what was going on. It didn't help that his friends were basically commentating the movie and making references to even more lore I didn't get.

I do remember liking Watchmen, though.

[Psy-Fi]

The Big Caper (1957)

Crime thriller about a broke con man who pitches the idea of a small town bank heist to his well-to-do partner in crime. His partner takes him up on his idea and goes to work putting together a motley crew of dysfunctional criminals to join in and help them pull off the heist. The film ends with a sappy whimper that made me groan in disbelief but up until the last couple of minutes, it was cooking.

[Psy-Fi]

The Bunker (1981)





Anthony Hopkins delivers a top-notch performance as Adolf Hitler living out his final days in his bunker at the closing days of WWII. This was a movie made for TV, so there wasn't a poster made to promote it. The cast seemed to be British and American for the most part and their accents threw me off at first but the story and performances were good enough that it didn't matter much after a few minutes. The movie was a bit longer than usual but the 150 minute running time ended up seeming just about right. 

[Psy-Fi]

Hot Cars (1956)

A married man with a sick child, gets fired from his job as a used car salesman because his boss thinks he's too honest. Another used car dealer quickly offers him a job which ends up testing his honesty to the breaking point. 

[Guybrush]

Hot Cars (1956)

A married man with a sick child, gets fired from his job as a used car salesman because his boss thinks he's too honest. Another used car dealer quickly offers him a job which ends up testing his honesty to the breaking point. 

Kinda reminds me of a friend I have who worked in telemarketing way back. He found that if he adopted this kinda mentally challenged personae and voice, he sold more junk, due to the added sympathy or pity-factor.

So, uh, that telemarketing gig tested his honesty to the breaking point.

[Psy-Fi]

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

B&W sci-fi/horror/comedy about a spaceship that lands in a wooded area of a small American town. Martians leave the ship and one of them is accidentally run down by a teenage couple driving down a back road. Disbelief, confusion, and comedy ensue. The special effects were mediocre and crudely done for the most part but the acting and directing was good and the writing was entertaining enough to make me laugh out loud a few times.

[Trollheart]

Cell. Oh my god it was bad. Based on a Stephen King book, it had some pretty decent potential, but they went for the lowest common denominator. The idea is that for some reason (never, in typical King fashion, explained) a signal comes through every cell phone which turns anyone who hears it into a screaming, murdering, homicidal maniac. Perhaps, as Vivienne once observed similarly in The Young Ones, it's actually a cure for not being a screaming, murdering, homicidal maniac. Anyhoo, our hero (played, if you can call it that, by John Cusack, of all people, who decides to literally phone it in, making the biggest pun of the movie) has been lucky enough that his phone battery died, so he didn't, and now he's on the run from most of the population of Boston, I think though don't care, teaming up for some reason with Samuel L. Jackson, who surely expected this was going to be better than he was promised? Anyway it all goes into 28 Days Later or fill in your favourite zombie movie territory, and ends as badly as you might expect.

I'll give it this: the opening scene in the airport when the cell signal is sent is bitchin', but after that you quickly cease to care, and are in danger of being transformed yourself into a less screaming, murdering, homicidal version of the main zombie (called "phoners", how long did that take to come up with?) cast, just wishing someone would eat your brain so you wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Oh yeah: they don't eat brains, or at least, I didn't see any doing so.

Given that King helped write the screenplay, I don't see how he can be absolved of any blame, unlike the complete half-inching of his story "The Lawnmower Man" for that movie, which could not have been further from the original, and I think over which he sued. This time there's nowhere to hide: he wrote it, he allowed it to come to life and did  NOT, when he saw what he had created, stamp on it till it was dead. For shame, Mr. K! Avoid at all costs.