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Hunger Games 3 part 2

Jeez, the third book should have really been just one movie. Compared to 1 and 2, the 3/1 and 3/2 were much worse, in my opinion.

 

Cadfael (1994 TV series)
I just finished watching the complete 13 episodes series.
It's a show about a Benedictine monk investigating crimes with focus on the lives of the ordinary people and the monks themselves.
+ nice, low budget sets and costumes
+ the characters are not completely one-dimensional
+ Derek Jacobi is superb and is practically the only reason to watch this show past season 1
+ Cadfael is a great character
+ fun depiction of the medieval period or wtf is it, I have no idea about history
+ nice atmosphere, interesting background with the Benedictine monks
+ pleasantly slow, allows you to take in all the atmosphere

- too fucking slow sometimes
- nothing really happens most of the time
- shit acting from the supporting characters as is usual with these shows, I mean those characters that only appear in 1 episode, the regular cast are pretty good
- especially the later episodes have really stupid plots
- Cadfael too often has nothing to do any or no real process of investigation, only revealing the mystery by accident, it should have been a little more Sherlock Holmes and little less Days of Our Lives, especially past the first season
- everybody is portrayed as a shitcovered hobo dressed in rags
- it's cheesy as shit but you gotta get over that with these shows

I know it's based on books so I guess they weren't all that good.
The show was a little bit disappointing past the first season, a little bit boring and little bit stupid. I would recommend it for the atmosphere and Derek Jacobi, maybe try the first episode. I don't think I'll watch it again, I thought it would be better from what I remembered from the TV when I was a kid.
or maybe because it's kinda unique.

 

Paris, Texas (1984)


Perfect 'slow burner' movie. I was nagged constantly for years about watching this piece, wasn't disappointed.

 

John Wick - below average 2/5

 

Starship Troopers

Good entertainment, but the movie shits on and parodies the book by Robert Heinlein, and the military stuff makes little sense.

The book was the first major work of SF to introduce "Power Armour" (a natural evolution from Waldos perhaps, which Heinlein also invented), and yet in the movie the soldiers are light infantry with low caliber weapons that need several hundred rounds just to kill one bug. At least in the beginning; it looks like when Rico and co gain a few levels each of their bullets do more damage.

It just doesn't make sense on any level.
Earth is one Federation with (apparantly) no in-fighting, so standard issue weapons should have been high caliber weapons designed for killing Bugs, not machine pistols.
Apparantly every planet in the galaxy has the same gravity and atmosphere as Earth, so no need for space suits.
The movie would have been both cooler/more commercially succesful as well as more realistic and true to the book if power armour was used. It looks ridicilous with space troopers in gear that looked old fashioned and obsolete when the movie was made.
Either the planets they attacked were very small or the space ships were in very low orbits, since they were so easily hit by (slow moving) "bug plasma".
In the book there were just over 10,000 Mobile Infantry in all, while in the movie 100,000 men (and women) are killed in a single day. It's like Verhoven is also mocking the very military itself.
I bet Heinlein's widow regretted selling the rights to use the name of the book...

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...of-the-most-misunderstood-movies-ever/281236/

 

First time I saw the movie, before I read the book, I was not sure if this was parody of 1950's American propaganda movies, or if the movie was serious. There's really no way to be absolutely sure without knowing (about) the director beforehand. If the audience can't tell without external evidence, then that is the director's fault.

But why use the name of the book when the message is the opposite of the book?
And even if it's a parody why not make it more internally realistic?

 

“I stopped after two chapters because it was so boring,…It is really quite a bad book. I asked Ed Neumeier to tell me the story because I just couldn’t read the thing. It’s a very right-wing book.” - Paul Verhoeven

 

Fair enough that he didn't like the book or its message, but it seems like a very petty thing to do to use its name, and make a mockery of it. Heinlein seems like the far more admirable person of the two.
When making a parody you don't use the excact same name as that which you parody.

 

The audience couldn't tell and neither could top critics. That was the funny part.

According to the quote he didn't read Heinlein, so he must have been taking the piss out of war propaganda in general.

 

I like Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, but I love Heinlein's.

I hadn't read that quote before, but it doesn't surprise me. There are very few narrative or character similarities between the two, but the acting in the movie (particularly Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Neil Patrick Harris, and, yes, I'll say it, Casper Van Dien) is just a ton of fun. The movie is flawed in that it's about 40 minutes too long, but I think that, if you can dissociate it from the source material, it works as a pretty decent lefty parody of 'Nam war movies.

Clancy Brown yelling "Medic!" or NPH exultantly shrieking "It's afraid!" never fail to crack me up.


But yeah it has pretty much nothing to do with the book at all.

 

Good points.
Also I have a personal issue with the movie.
They cast the delightful Dina Meyer, made her character completely adorable, and then killed her off brutally, like "and now take that, audience!".
My poor heart couldn't go through that again...

 

Fuck you faggots, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is fucking great. It's just right enough over the top, and the action stuff works. I just rewatched it recently and the effects have stood up the time very well, looks IMO better than many of the newer films.

 

Nobody has denied the effects are great (spaceships and planetary background still looks very good), or that it's a good enough movie in itself. But it fails as a parody; even you say "it's right enough over the top", implying you take it seriously. And if taken seriously the military stuff is laughable (which may even have been Terboven's aim).

 

Tracks, 2013

Movie about young woman trekking through the Australian outback, trying to get away from the world. With her dog and three camels. Good shots and atmosphere all around. Not much plot going on, but some good scenes and tensions between her and the people she meets / has to deal with on her way.

7/10

Splendor in the grass, 1961

High school sweethearts end up splitting up after conservative parents mess shit up. Good movie about inter-generational conflicts, and learning to not dwell on what you've lost in life, but focus on the good memories you're left with. Or something like that. Directed by Elia Kazan, featuring some nice acting by Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty. Really resonated with me on a personal level, so I'm biased on the rating.

8/10

The Big Country, 1958

Movie about east coast gentleman in the 19th century moving in the outback to live with his sweetheart's family. Ends up caught in a conflict between two corrupt and violent families about a valuable plot of land. Good scenery shots and some nice tense scenes between the protagonist (Gregory Peck) and the characters he encounters in this environment. The ending and moral message seem heavy-handed and fall flat nowadays, I think.

6/10

 

Friday the 13th

Tried to rewatch the original Friday the 13th last night after first watching it over a decade ago and hating it.

I didn't make it more than 5 minutes in before I minimized the window and went back to surfing the web.

I fucking swear, this has to be the stupidest franchise that floats like a piece of shit and never sinks.

The only Jason installment I ever found tolerable (3/5 stars) was Freddy VS Jason.

 

Hitman something something 7 (2015) -

Bad acting. Bad story.

 

I stopped watching this as soon as Agent 47, for seemingly no reason, starts helping out the woman he previously tried to kill. She makes no acknowledgement of this fact and he doesn't explain himself in the scene that followed after taking her alive. Do they ever explain this? I just lost interest at that point.

 

The man from UNCLE, 2015

Cool action flick with great editing at some points, nice soundtrack, and several plot twists to keep you entertained.

8/10

 

Apparently he didn't really want to kill her because she is his improved "sister" (43 times more retarded).

But the entire premise doesn't make sense and the movie is simply un-watchable.

 

I don't take Starship Troopers seriously because it's not meant to be taken seriously, it's over the top on purpose and Verhoeven himself has (IIRC) said that it's meant to be parody of american war films.

 

I've been curious about this one. I normally hate found footage flicks, but the setting looks awesome.

 

KRUSH GROOVE (1985)

If you don't care about early hip-hop:

If you do care about early hip-hop:


I've been listening to a lot of old school funk and hip-hop lately, and when I came across a reference to this flick, I realized I'd never seen it.

If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a highly fictionalized retelling of the founding of Def Jam records, centering mostly around RUN DMC, the Fat Boys, and Sheila E. (who wasn't even signed to Def Jam but was apparently in the movie because they needed a love interest--like I said, highly fictionalized).

The acting is not great, and neither is the story, but the music... Oh, the music! Watching it, you can't help but wonder how hip-hop went so very wrong. The tunes here are raw, energetic, and fun. And I don't think that the word "niggah" is uttered once.

There are multiple performances, including a short one by a very young LL Cool J (I think he was only 16 years old at the time!).

Speaking of being young, I hadn't realized how young RUN-DMC were. The were only, like, 21 when this movie was made and they had already been around for a few years. It's pretty mindblowing that a couple of guys that young could have such amazing stage presence.

Anyway, as the ratings I gave it indicate, if you like early hip-hop or the 80's in general it's a must see, but it's probably a pass for everyone else.

 

Creed

Same old story but the acting and action are top notch.

 

Lucy
Well, Scarlett is mesmerizing for me but I think the movie suffers for trying to be an action movie and an sci-fi movie at the same time, it just doesn't seem to work very well. Worst part for me was the car chase scene, how many innocent civilians got hurt or killed just because she wanted to get her drugs.. Too bad, it tried to do something original. Next time, don't mix so much. Hoping for a good GitS.