movies

[cards2468]

No offense, not to be racist, but I sure do hate black people!!! LOL

[Fat_Bulldog]

Enjoyed a recent rewatch of "Rocky", as hackneyed as that sounds.

It is still a solid flick and can see how it won the Academy Award. A couple of scenes that I forgot were so good - the one where Burgess Meredith grovels to become Balboa's manager. And the part where Balboa is trying to cajole Adrian into his apartment - one of the best renditions of the "should I stay or should I go now?" scene.

I have to disagree.

The best Rocky scene's from the Rocky franchise are either:

Rocky III - when Rocky is giving Adrian her anniversary gift early and calls it her "prize" as in "go ahead, open your prize" and then goes on to explain that the watch, a wrap around watch that looks like a snake, doesn't bite - "but don't worry, it won't bite."

OR

Rocky IV - when Rocky gives Paulie his birthday present, the robot and it is saying "Happy Birthday Paulie."

[AdmiralKird]

Hunger Games was really pretty good.

It is now the only non-sequel film in the top ten opening box office weekends at #3. There is predictability but there is also enough openendedness to keep the film fresh.

CGI in a sci-fi world: Very minimal, at least to the point where it serves to tell the story and not distract and look unreal.

The Story: Fairly original. This isn't your standard superhero movie overcoming odds to defeat some bad dude, or a cinematic visual amusement ride with a dull, common story.

There is both blood and enough effective camera work to keep the excessive blood off screen to not give this a Gladiator rating. With most films of this nature targeting young adults, I was fearful the arena would be "Narnia-ized" where characters swing swords and enemies fall down. It uses the shaky cam but its not for stylized fighting, its to allow blood but keep it congested. I think this was done very well, and I applaud the filmmakers for not insulting adult intelligence and removing/minimizing blood.

The acting: Solid.

The Characters: The lead is a female girl, and a different type of hero than we're used to seeing. With most modern big budget (50M+) films the hero is generally a charismatic male, women swooning, handsome type. She is a strong person, introverted and socially aloof, but not to the point where she appears to have no personality like the guy in Driver. Sure, you can look at the breadth of cinema and fine female leads like this, but not so much in the last ten years.

The antagonists are also well written. I don't say villains because they're not, and they don't need to be. Its obvious most of the population of this future country lives in poverty, but we aren't hit over the head with the bad guys giving stereotypical lines so that the audience hates them. Like if you watch Avatar almost every single line of the General is that of a racist douche with no cultural understanding, or if you watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes, where we constantly hear the CEO talk about Profits. All that matters are my profits, dammit! I kept waiting for 'that' scene, where we hear some clunky dialogue thats over the top. It never happens. We know the bad guys just don't give a damn about most of the citizenry, and how they're being used for the benefit of the top %, but its not forced in our faces.

The only thing two things I would have changed would be to give more back story on how the North American governments fell apart and the reason for the games. The film/book is set in 2300 or so, but we're not told exactly how America collapses and how the country of Panem was born. I think that would have helped audiences connect to this world more-so than just saying 'its the future and this is how things are.'

We're also not given a clear reason of how exactly having people fight to the death helps pacify the population. We're just told that's the reason and I don't really see how taking your teenagers to fight to the death helps keep revolts down.

[slide_into_first]

The lead is a female girl

[AdmiralKird]

In my defense, I had the sex of two characters confused for awhile. The first I thought was a cross-dressing male and the second I thought was a boy.

[slide_into_first]

No harm no foul.

It sounds to me like Gladiator meets The Road Warrior with teenagers.

[Hudler]

No harm no foul.

It sounds to me like Gladiator meets The Road Warrior with teenagers.

So it sound a lot like Death Race 2000.

[Vidor]

I just saw The Last Waltz on the big screen. I'd seen 24 Scorsese movies before that... and The Last Waltz wasn't one of them. It was a really cool experience.

Van Morrison had to be drunk or high or both, right?

Saw this from 12 pages ago. "The Last Waltz" is still the best concert film ever made, and Van Morrison's segment is arguably the best part of the movie. He tore that song up. I love how he walks off the stage before the song is even over.

[redbirdjazzz]

I just saw The Last Waltz on the big screen. I'd seen 24 Scorsese movies before that... and The Last Waltz wasn't one of them. It was a really cool experience.

Van Morrison had to be drunk or high or both, right?

Saw this from 12 pages ago. "The Last Waltz" is still the best concert film ever made, and Van Morrison's segment is arguably the best part of the movie. He tore that song up. I love how he walks off the stage before the song is even over.

Morrison's song is great, but my favorite part is when Levon rides the drum crescendo into the last verse of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

[Vidor]

THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD

Ah, The Band.