[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

I should of taken up Sachu's review more seriously.   Despite the bargain matinee deal at the local theater, "The Hunger Games" receives 4/10.  I can't believe the amount of publicity that was behind to promote this movie.  The elitist costumes is taken straight out of "Blade Runner".  If you want to see pretty much the same thing but better all around, go rent or stream "Battle Royale", but not with your children.
 
The whole movie rating is all screwed up.  PG-13 to watch children killing children.  Granted, most of the brutality was done within 10 minutes time frame in the movie, but from there on out it's children hunting children to kill, with a sliver of hollywoodized love and hope.  Judging from the past promotion conferences around the country, it's obvious the teenage crowd is the target audience, which I find a little sickening.
 
Yeah, you can probably tell I'm a parent. 

Brutality, killing children, children hunting children, thats all OK.  Its Janet Jacksons nipple that really boils the moral veneer of society...

 

 

[PLUSSOUND]

After watching The Hunger Games, I had to re-watch Battle Royale. Much better.

 

[noxa]

Just watched A Serbia Film, pretty shocking to say the least.

 

[Kirosia]

Mission Impossible Quadrilogy - Not bad. It's all a matter if you like the fun-loving compassionate psychopath Tom Cruise plays in practically every movie he's in.

 

[sachu]

^..yeah that movie was soo damn bad.. it was shot like an OK B rated movie. 

 

[rhythmdevils]

Both decently reviewed movies out on DVD this week had the same rather unusual problem. 
 
War Horse - 1/10
 
A kids movie about war?  What??!!  Spielberg should be smacked for this.  The parts of the movie for kids were bad even judged as kids movies.  Sappy, easy, and just stupid.  The parts that depicted war were simplified, sentimental and equally idiotic.  The whole first 30 minutes with the horse was like a commercial for a horse ranch or something.  I was just like What.  The rest of the story was muddled and lacked development.
 
Only reason it doesn't get a 0 is for the locations and sets, most of which were awesome. 
 
I have no idea why it got such good reviews. I thought it was disturbing seeing something so horrific turned into a children's movie.
 
We Bought a Zoo 5/10
 
Same problem of taking a story that should have been more complex, writing it as a (bad) kids movie but then winding up with something that wouldn't really appeal to kids.  So many super easy, cheezy choices here.  Did they really need hot girls for both the dad and the son?  It was rather creepy to be honest watching a 12 year old "falling in love".  At the end the credits say the zoo won numerous awards and set a precedent for a new kind of zoo.  Why didn't they show us any of those things?  They took a really unique and interesting story, and instead of using or developing any of that interesting material, they just used it as a backdrop for predictable cheezy cliche melodrama between characters that we've all seen a million times.    I still enjoyed it much more than War Horse though. 
 
edited to make it shorter...

 

[Windsor]

I saw Hunger Games recently and quite enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit like a cross between a glam-rock-styles 'Dark City' and 'Battle Royale.' I definitely recommend watching it.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

Both decently reviewed movies out on DVD this week had the same rather unusual problem. 
 
War Horse - 1/10
 
A kids movie about war?  What??!!  Spielberg should be smacked for this.  The parts of the movie for kids were bad even judged as kids movies.  Sappy, easy, and just stupid.  The parts that depicted war were simplified, sentimental and equally idiotic.  The whole first 30 minutes with the horse was like a commercial for a horse ranch or something.  I was just like What.  The rest of the story was muddled and lacked development.
 
Only reason it doesn't get a 0 is for the locations and sets, most of which were awesome. 
 
I have no idea why it got such good reviews. I thought it was disturbing seeing something so horrific turned into a children's movie.

Spot on.  I didn't get it either.  Only 2 scenes really stood out for me, the Charge and No Man's land w/ the wire.  Most of the rest was Facepalm. 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Contagion 4/10   I went as high as a 4 because I dug the soundtrack.   

 

[Staal]

Death Kappa 7/10 - Went to a local exploitation/grindhouse/gore cinema that showed this one. It's from the same guy who was behind Tokyo Gore Police which I really enjoyed and I had a great time with Death Kappa as well. A wonderful and hilarious homage to the whole Godzilla/big-bad-monster wave of Asian movies. I couldn't stop laughing most of the time either due to the horrible effects or the absurd dialogue. Definitely one I'd recommend if you're into this sort of thing.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Spot on.  I didn't get it either.  Only 2 scenes really stood out for me, the Charge and No Man's land w/ the wire.  Most of the rest was Facepalm. 

Yeah when the movie ended I thought of your post about the movie and laughed.  I edited out a lot of my previous post because it sounded like a rant.  But I just read a bunch of review snippets on rottentomatoes and I find it pretty strange.  Everyone's talking about the cinematography being some of his best, and some of the scenes were beautiful like the ones you mentioned and the one with the horse running through the battle (the preview shot).  But a lot of the lighting was sentimental, cheezy and overlit, I could plainly see the lighting in many of the shots like cheap TV where instead of filling in shadows they're actually creating a new light source.  I think they were trying too hard to make the horse "glisten". 
 
But parts of the production were really great, those sets must have cost a fortune.  It's strange when you see movies like this, where there was a whole team of really talented people and part of the movie is really well done, but there's obvious problems with the whole premise and script.  It's like building a beautiful home on a crappy foundation or something...

 

[snapple10]

just got home from watching Hunger Games 4/10. Really did not enjoy it. I want a refund
 
last weekend- Mirror Mirror 7/10
 
 

 

[grokit]

So in a follow-up to The (excellent) Fountainhead, I gave the more contemporary Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1 a viewing. It wasn't as entertaining as The Fountainhead, but it wasn't terrible by any means. More of a B-movie, it didn't have a big budget or the starpower of the 1949 classic. And the 1200-page magnum opus book is probably much harder to adapt for the silver screen than The Fountainhead was, especially without Ms. Rand around to write the screenplay. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was, and that is the first part of a trilogy. Meaning that I found it engaging throughout, and immediately wanted to see Part 2 when it was over. I thought that the main characters were well-cast, but evidently they have all been replaced for Part 2 which is somewhat disappointing. 7.5/10

 

[OJNeg]

The Prestige --- 9/10
 
My mind was blown wide open on multiple occasions. It's one of those movies where you know the twist is coming, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Acting is superb, Christopher Nolan is superb. I know I'm late to the party, but if you haven't seen this one, do so.

 

[tyrael]

Mission impossible: ghost protocol 5/10
Typical action movie with plenty of, well, action. But that's all