Seen any good films lately?

Has anyone seen the film Soylent Green with Charlton Heston? Its a 70s scifi classic. I saw it when I was a kid and never forgot it.

I've been watching a few '80s movies with my family recently for the purposes of nostalgia (for my mom) and broadening my cultural horizons. Last night we saw Ghostbusters which I've heard a lot of great things about. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was pretty terrible. I think I was fair in letting most of the dated elements slide but I just didn't think it was that funny. For what it's worth, my mom said she wasn't sure why she enjoyed it so much back in the '80s.

That said, the theme song is a great tune and I love it.

I absolutely love that film, and I love the title song, but it's worth pointing out that it's pretty much lifted from this song!

Here to help!

Huh. Yeah, that's pretty blatant. I like both songs though.

Woah slow down hun I wasn't judging you!

My apologies if I offended you in any way.

I believe Dredd has opened in the UK now. Did you get a chance to see it yet Petty? It's getting much better reviews than I expected so I'm intrigued. Still have a few weeks to wait until it opens in the US though.

anyone seen the Kon Tiki movie?

Did you get a chance to see it yet Petty?- Eldo

No its not made it as far as my local cinema yet- from what I can tell its basically the plot of the raid- but Karl makes a good Dredd and the helmet stays on- still miffed about the crappy uniforms though.
I am slightly worried it appears to lack all the comics wit and social satire however.
Still if it does well we might get more with a closer comic world and a budget big enough to do a Dark Judges story (doing a Dredd film without Judge Death and co is a bit like making Batman films and not mentioning the Joker).

Yeah, the trailer looked really similar to The Raid. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing because while The Raid is my favorite action movie in the past few years I don't want to be constantly comparing it to Dredd while I'm watching the latter.

I'm also a little worried that the violence will be too much for me, TBH. The little I've heard/seen so far sounds ... excessive. The BBFC's description was quite a bit, but on the other hand, the blood in the trailers looked pretty fake. Either way, I hope that they'll make some sort of point with those scenes instead of just throwing them in for the hell of it.

The comics are pretty violent and bloody too at times but its point there is its part of the satire of current US culture and media and its love of guns and violence. Take away the satire and you'd just be the very thing is supposed to be lampooning. Thats a tricky balance it will be interesting to see if the film manages it.

I think I get what you mean. That's how I felt about the violence and satire in GTA. I watched a promotional video for Dredd where they described him as a hero and a good guy though, so I'm a bit worried. I'd like to think that they were just taking satire to an additional meta level but that might be wishful thinking.

He's definetly not either a good guy or a bad guy in the comics- he is the living embodiement of the law- faceless (hence the helmet) and unmovable. No pleading, no mercy, nothing will help you if you've broken the law.

Speaking of the helmet, was it confirmed one way or another if he takes it off at all in the new movie? That was one of the complaints about the Stallone movie that I didn't really understand until I read up a bit more on the character but I see now why it's important.

No it stays firmly on throughout this time- they at least realised that mistake from the Stallone version. Its crucial to how Dredd works you never see his expressions- he has none- his nickname among judges is 'ole stony-face'- all you ever see is the mouth and the jaw- and he doesnt do small talk or getting know people, his mouth is just there to dispense judgement with before he takes action.
Makes him a hard character to do in a film, he cant have releationships, or go on a character discovering story (both mistakes Stallon made)- he is just the law.

I watched 3 films in the last couple days- two new(ish) ones and one older film (early 80's)- guess which one I thought was best!

Anyway first up was Prometheus which I can sum up in two words- completely pointless- and I mean everything about it- the plot, the characters, everything that happens- completely pointless.

Next was Men in Black 3- which was about half as much fun as I had been hoping and felt oddly stretched, to little plot butter spread out over to much effects bread!
Again there was a hint of pointlessness- such as Emma Thompsons character who seemed to be being built up for some pivotal role in the past and then mysteriously barely appeared at all and was in no way invovled in the plot. Still it was better than Promtheus- but I assume like Prometheus this was made for 3D as a lot of the effects stuff looks shot that way and frankly looked a bit odd in 2d and forced.

And thirdly was the Alan Parker directed The Wall- based on Pink Floyds album of the same name. Like the album it is dark, indulgent, and its many themes are open to personal interpretation.
But at its heart it is a film about alienation. That it draws on many real life incidents- the main charcater Pink for example shaves off all his body hair at one point, just as Syd Barret once did, adds to the sense that all those involved in the film have some personal experiences of mental illness to bring to the screen.
This is particularly true of Bob Geldof who plays Pink and almost seems to be reliving parts of it.
Its also in my view a beautifully shot film, from the hotel corridors to the WW2 beaches it looks stunningly bleak.
And the use of Scarfes illustrations as animations works well as they are not overly used and Scarfes style so uniquely his own they are always a pleasure to see and they seem to fit perfectly the tortured music of the album.
And the really good news is some patient person has uploaded the entire film in HD to youtube!

I was pretty disappointed in Prometheus too, as was Chris if I recall correctly. Really a big let-down after all the anticipation for Ridley Scott's grand return to sci-fi. I thought MIB3 was a lot of fun though. It was nothing more than a popcorn blockbuster and it can't touch the first one but it was miles ahead of MIB2 which was more than I was expecting.

Wasn't sure where to put this, here or in games- but I think here is more suitable.
To promote the forthcoming Halo 4 game they have made a miniseries/film- its in 5, 20 minute parts- the first of which is out now.
Its not bad actually and I'm no Halo fan.

Man, I haven't played Halo in ages. I always played with my brother and once he became less interested in shooters I just didn't have a reason to keep playing. Halo has a tradition of good short films/trailers though so I'll take a look to see what they did with something longer.

Going back a few pages, the screenings of Lawrence of Arabia were yesterday. I went to the 7:00 PM screening, although the first 45 minutes or so were previews of the documentary features that will be included on the Blu-ray. Someone thought that it would be a good idea to include the discussion of the ending of the movie in the previews BEFORE the film, so I got spoiled pretty badly. Still, once the movie began...

Wow. I still have trouble saying anything more specific than that. Simply an amazing film and I was blown away. Probably the best theatre-going experience I've had, although I was left totally drained at the end (near midnight). A fantastic experience and I'm really glad I was able to see it on the big screen in such high resolution for my first time.

Edit: Also, this is the first time I've seen a film with an intermission at a theatre instead of at home.

Watched 2001 A space od again the other day for the tenth time. Such a slow dull film, but compelled to watch it every time its on. Still don't get the ending ? Is it the rebirth of man or the continuation of man or something else entirely ?

Its been a long time since I saw it but is the black obelisk thing not do something? Like it causes inspiration- or a burst in evolution-when it appears to the ape men at the start one of them gets 'inspired' to invent weaponry, murder and warfare and so accelerate our development.
But I could be wrong.

The second part of the Hallo 'movie' is out-

I watched Fire Walk With Me last night- the prequal film to the tv series Twin Peaks.
It is still one of the darkest most disturbing films I have ever seen without ever being explicitly onscreen violent.
One of the many reasons I like Lynch as a film maker so much is his ability to create moods and atmospheres out of seemingly nothing. Ive been analysing his style for years and I still dont really know how he does it. Its something to do with space and sound, music, he is not afraid to let the camera linger leaving the viewer space to react how they want to it and he has a genuinely original take on everything- Lynch's worlds are places of many levels and layers but he never makes the mistake of telling you what they are or pointing you to them- they are there and how you react to them is your own business, not enforced by him.
Its for this reason I would love to have seen him have a go at Tolkien- what Tolkien aimed for in writing, applicability, Lynch provides in his films in spade fulls.

Heres a few of scenes from Fire Walk With Me that I think illustrate this-










Here the movie itself- warning contains disturbing scenes as well as some nudity, bad language and sexual violence.

If you have not seen the tv series it does assume some preknowledge-

Spoiler:

Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day, very nice on the big screen

Twin Peaks!