trinityvixen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trinityvixen) wrote2010-03-01 04:16 pm
trinityvixen) wrote2010-03-01 04:16 pm
Entry tags:
Movies: February
I appear to be thwarted in my attempt to talk to the woman I might end up working for today, seeing as her lab has been showing around a prospective post-doc and she's been in meetings and interviewing him all day. It'll have to hold until tomorrow.
Until then! We're done with February and I have a list of movies I've seen. I'm rather disappointed with the rate I'm getting through all of these. I realize a whole week in February was given up to Mass Effect 2, but, really, I need to step up the pace. I've only seen 32 movies so far this year!
Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.
Videodrome: ???
Terminator Salvation: Oh boy. Where do I even begin? This movie left me so uninvolved. I couldn't care less about anybody in the movie. I never, not once, felt like it was a Terminator movie. It was so alien from all the Terminator movies before it, even T3, that I completely missed obvious callbacks to it as being significant. For instance, someone actually said "I'll be back." Five minutes later, while I was being bored by some other random action sequence, I was like, "Oh, it's that line. That Arnie says in movies. Right."
I completely missed I'll be back, you guys. That's how little it felt like a Terminator movie. My reaction can be summed up in one word: apathy. I didn't give a shit. I was not angry enough about what was going on to hate it, even though the story was abusively stupid. I certainly didn't like it, but I felt like I hadn't even seen a movie by the end. It's like I lost time watching this. I could have spaced out for two hours and been no worse for it. It's like watching someone else grind their way through a video game. It was an utter non-entity.
I mean, what else could I add to that to drive home how curiously empty this film felt? The acting? Nonexistent. Christian Bale shouted at things. Sam Worthington slouched around with nary an emotion to be seen. In fact, Sam Worthington was in small what the entire movie was in large: a non-entity. He just slides through the film without affecting the landscape. He's like the person leaving the bank right before the heist begins, except that he was supposed to be the main character. His Big! Heroic! Moment! at the end was not even anti-climactic. It would have to have had tension building up to that moment to be anti-climactic. There was no tension because he just wasn't there. I could have forgiven that of a character playing a robot, but he didn't know that! WTF, McG?
Pathology: Forgettable, if twisted thriller about doctors getting away with murder for fun.
Re-Animator: Oh, Jeffrey Combs! You just always were freaky as shit.
Swamp Thing: Satan is a vegetable superhero and Catwoman is a damsel in distress!
The Wolfman: See my previous laments about this could-have-been-worthy remake.
Let the Right One In: Atmospheric, tender, and subtle--all the things I suspect the American remake won't be.
Ghost Ship: This is worth watching for the credit sequence and the opening five minutes alone, for totally different reasons.
Sands of Oblivion/The Day the Earth Stopped: Eugh.
Night of the Comet: AWESOME! Had to drop a comment on this one because there is something amazing about this schlocky little post-apocalyptic movie. That something is the heroine. When we first meet her, she's currently claiming another spot on the top ten scores of an arcade game. She then proceeds to have sex with a guy she likes--but doesn't love!--joking about how him giving her a cut of his bootlegging deal better not make her a prostitute. 'Cause if it does, she wants to be paid better! ZOMG LOVE HER.
When the apocalypse falls, she doesn't freak out. She goes to get her sister, who also survives, and the two of them continue to be awesome through the whole movie. Their dad was in the army, so they know how to use a variety of weapons. Her sister, the cheerleader, shoots up a car with an automatic weapon and throws a reasonable fit about how she'd prefer to have the less jam-prone Uzi. They're not ninjas, they're just chicks who know guns. IT IS AWESOME.
Mantis in Lace: I believe my Twitter comment was "surprise softcore is surprising!"
Jennifer's Body: Not as grating as I expected, though for every decent line, there were four or five others that just groaned.
Until then! We're done with February and I have a list of movies I've seen. I'm rather disappointed with the rate I'm getting through all of these. I realize a whole week in February was given up to Mass Effect 2, but, really, I need to step up the pace. I've only seen 32 movies so far this year!
Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.
Videodrome: ???
Terminator Salvation: Oh boy. Where do I even begin? This movie left me so uninvolved. I couldn't care less about anybody in the movie. I never, not once, felt like it was a Terminator movie. It was so alien from all the Terminator movies before it, even T3, that I completely missed obvious callbacks to it as being significant. For instance, someone actually said "I'll be back." Five minutes later, while I was being bored by some other random action sequence, I was like, "Oh, it's that line. That Arnie says in movies. Right."
I completely missed I'll be back, you guys. That's how little it felt like a Terminator movie. My reaction can be summed up in one word: apathy. I didn't give a shit. I was not angry enough about what was going on to hate it, even though the story was abusively stupid. I certainly didn't like it, but I felt like I hadn't even seen a movie by the end. It's like I lost time watching this. I could have spaced out for two hours and been no worse for it. It's like watching someone else grind their way through a video game. It was an utter non-entity.
I mean, what else could I add to that to drive home how curiously empty this film felt? The acting? Nonexistent. Christian Bale shouted at things. Sam Worthington slouched around with nary an emotion to be seen. In fact, Sam Worthington was in small what the entire movie was in large: a non-entity. He just slides through the film without affecting the landscape. He's like the person leaving the bank right before the heist begins, except that he was supposed to be the main character. His Big! Heroic! Moment! at the end was not even anti-climactic. It would have to have had tension building up to that moment to be anti-climactic. There was no tension because he just wasn't there. I could have forgiven that of a character playing a robot, but he didn't know that! WTF, McG?
Pathology: Forgettable, if twisted thriller about doctors getting away with murder for fun.
Re-Animator: Oh, Jeffrey Combs! You just always were freaky as shit.
Swamp Thing: Satan is a vegetable superhero and Catwoman is a damsel in distress!
The Wolfman: See my previous laments about this could-have-been-worthy remake.
Let the Right One In: Atmospheric, tender, and subtle--all the things I suspect the American remake won't be.
Ghost Ship: This is worth watching for the credit sequence and the opening five minutes alone, for totally different reasons.
Sands of Oblivion/The Day the Earth Stopped: Eugh.
Night of the Comet: AWESOME! Had to drop a comment on this one because there is something amazing about this schlocky little post-apocalyptic movie. That something is the heroine. When we first meet her, she's currently claiming another spot on the top ten scores of an arcade game. She then proceeds to have sex with a guy she likes--but doesn't love!--joking about how him giving her a cut of his bootlegging deal better not make her a prostitute. 'Cause if it does, she wants to be paid better! ZOMG LOVE HER.
When the apocalypse falls, she doesn't freak out. She goes to get her sister, who also survives, and the two of them continue to be awesome through the whole movie. Their dad was in the army, so they know how to use a variety of weapons. Her sister, the cheerleader, shoots up a car with an automatic weapon and throws a reasonable fit about how she'd prefer to have the less jam-prone Uzi. They're not ninjas, they're just chicks who know guns. IT IS AWESOME.
Mantis in Lace: I believe my Twitter comment was "surprise softcore is surprising!"
Jennifer's Body: Not as grating as I expected, though for every decent line, there were four or five others that just groaned.
no subject
Haha I enjoyed T:Salvation, but I have trouble not enjoying most of the films I watch on some level or another. Christian Bale was the most annoying part of the movie for me. Oh and that one trailer with the NIN song was better that the movie itself.
Re-Animator! God that's such a classic series and Jeffrey Combs is always fantastic. I heard they're a new one coming out and he's going to be in it. Looking forward to that.
Swamp Thing! Wow, speaking of classic. I haven't seen Swamp Thing or Swamp Thing 2 since I was about twelve. I didn't even know Michelle Pfeiffer was in it. And wait -- which Satan? (too lazy to look it up)
Yours is the first review I've heard of Wolfman. Bummer that it fell short, but I still want to see it. I was pissed when I heard they were remaking it until I read that Del Toro was starring. One of my very favorite actors AND he seemed perfect for the role.
Still need to see Let The Right One In. Are they really doing an American remake? o.O
I've never heard of Night of the Comet, but that sounds amazing! Must see asap.
Haha my 13-year-old niece wanted me to take her to see Jennifer's Body in the theater.
Nice list! I should do something like this sometime...
no subject
Agreed! NIN is one of my absolute favorite bands, but I know now that any trailer using one of their songs is to be avoided at all costs. The last two were 300 and Terminator Salvation...
Re-Animator was ridiculously silly fun, Swamp Thing was far too serious and ended up being only just passable as a result. And "Satan" would be Ray Wise, who plays Swamp Thing--he played the Devil in the TV show Reaper
My proper review of The Wolfman, no spoilers, is here. (http://trinityvixen.livejournal.com/696185.html#cutid1) I actually really liked Benecio del Toro in the adaptation, only because he was so believably miserable, long before the movie descended into over-the-top shenanigans to make him even more so. I recommend seeing it, but it's a disappointment all in all.
Let the Right One In is oddly charming, though it won't ever be a favorite. And, yes, they're remaking it. Because Americans can't be arsed to read. No, really. They're remaking Death at a Funeral, a British movie, which is in English because Americans can't possibly tolerate accents. So that would leave subtitles right out.
Max Headroom is coming to DVD, btw, in case you hadn't heard!
no subject
Ray Wise was the first name that crossed my mind, but I couldn't imagine him playing a hero after being so used to him as Satan in Reaper, which a friend and I finished a few months ago, and also as a villain in an episode of Burn Notice. I knew it wasn't Pacino or Gabriel Byrne. Anyway, I'm definitely going to have to watch it again someday just to see for myself. Or maybe I'll just look up a couple scenes on YouTube...
Gah! Death at a Funeral, too? WTF?!
Eeee! Max Headroom on DVD! I had not heard and you just made my morning! I think I may have asked back when I first friended you, but have you watched/do you watch Eureka? Matt Frewer's character in that show is fantastic.
no subject