Since when does Mr. Bay have too much caffeine when doing hand held camera work for a drama scene?
We got hand-held camera work, throughout the entirety of The Kingdom. Its just inappropriate and annoying. I can still watch the movie though and try to deal with it, which I did and in the end, I got a satisfying movie.
As for Michael Bay using it more appropriately, remember the hospital scene during the bombing of Pearl Harbor? When Kate Beckinsale helps a patient with a hole in his neck, the camera shakes violently in the point of view of the patient. Now that is when it is appropriate and Michael Bay is knows what he's doing and more importantly why he's filming it that way as opposed to jerking the camera for the sake of jerking the camera around.
Resident Evil: Extinction
Interesting to say the least. Its not what you think it is.
I wasn't aware anything was used appropriately in Pearl Harbor. Bay's fast cuts during the character scenes are what killed Pearl Harbor. Yes, fast cuts can work well, but when you're dealing with characters you need to keep it to a minimum. Look at any of Bay's movies. They all do that.
You're absolutely right. He does it well. And Bay doesn't cut fast during character driven scenes. He does however cut fast enough so that a non action scene can be made looking like an intense action scene.
And yes I agree fast cuts work well, but when you're dealing with characters you need to keep it to a minimum........fine example of this point, since we're discussing it - The Kingdom. Alot of character driven scenes, but just poorly filmed.
I liked Peter Berg's visual style when he did The Rundown. The subject serious subject matter of The Kingdom did not need to be "MTVed" out
ok now moving on back on topic. I just watched Disturbia (again, on DVD) and its definitely gotta be one of my top 5 films of 2007.![]()
Where do you guy get those cool pictuers to put beside your names?![]()
I scanned mine from a book and cropped it in photoshop.
"...my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand..."
I just saw 30 days of night and could only say "bleagh" when the movie was over. I didn't like it. Of course I'm not really big on the gore part of horror and this movie had plenty of it. The other thing was that there was no plot (from what I could see). All you could do was guess...
bleagh.
KT
I knew it was gonna such. I got sucked in (yeah, laugh) when my friend lent me the comics last summer and I really got into it but never thought it would make a good movie. Guess I was right.
Happy Feet
&
Surfs Up
Good movies but not great. Good only if you really like penguins.
Yah, I agree. They were cute but not good. Had an okay plot line but execution was horrible.
That's the same for 30 days of night... Wait. No. Plot AND execution were horrible...yeesh. They didn't even get the vampires right! Aren't vampires supposed to be alluring and devonair? Still can't even begin to comprehend why someone would want to make that movie
*shudders in disgust and pops in Transformers* Ah... much better. Lol.
KT
30 Days of Night was awesome. I saw Gone Baby Gone over the weekend; that was terrific.
Tony Scott's Enemy of the State - the technology was amusingly dated, but the idea of invasion of privacy is eerily reminiscent of what's going on today. Another great Tony Scott action/thriller.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Quirky, but enjoyable. Don't panic.
The Wraith - Only in the 80's. Cheesy, B-movie goodness. Turbo Interceptor, enough said.
Eastern Promises: Fine movie, not as good as some reviews say, but good anyway.
The Orphanage: Again not as good as some reviews say. Too much "i have seen this before" impression. Anyway a good and tense movie, maybe the best spanish horror/thriller movie ever.
Stardust: Magic. It's like seeing "The Princess Bride" again.
Resident Evil: Extinction
Well, this deserves a larger comment.
The fine things
-There's Milla
-There's Milla wearing shorts and baddas girl clotes.
-There's Milla kicking zombie's asses
-There's Milla kicking zombie's asses using her magical powers.
-Is not boring
-Milla rocks
The not so fine things
-No logic, internal consistency or any sense.
-The plot isn't stupid. Being stupid involves existance
-The script isn't stupid. Being stupid involves existance
-Russell Mulcahy is a "not so good action director"
-Is not very spectacular or exciting
Eh.... to each their own. I personally didn't like 30 days of night but then it was basically the gore that got me down.
As for Gone Baby Gone, I agree. It was such a great movie!! Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris. Yah, pretty much a given that it's a good movie.
KT
"Tell Megatron, 'Let's tango.'"
American Gangster
I don't know how I feel about this one. I guess I went in expecting brilliance, but left the theater wanting. The cinematography, to some extent, was kinda flat and cold. I couldn't connect with any characters up on the screen. That is not to say that the acting was bad. Denzel did his king kong bit, and Russell Crowe played it straight. The cast was deep, maybe too deep than it knew what to do with. There was tension, however, leading up to how they were gonna nab Lucas and his operation.
Personally, it felt like it was all about Frank Lucas "getting his" and that's it. They didn't portray him with enough redeeming qualities to justify getting rich off of heroin. They also didn't give enough to Richie Roberts to feel THAT sorry for the guy for being so dedicated. Who knows maybe that was their intention, but it was lost on me.
I wasn't necessarily bored, it just felt like something more was gonna happen throughout the movie, but didn't. Or perhaps that the payoffs come too quickly to enjoy.
The production design was excellent, I felt like I was in the 70's. The cars the clothes, the locations. The music was great!
Anyone else see it? Thoughts?
Yah. I just got back from seeing American Gangster tonight (or rather this morning) and it was an okay movie. Urgh... I hated the needle scenes. They were just cringe worthy. Other than that, the actors, plot, and production design were great but I really thought that there needed to be an "attention grabber" such as more action. Michael Bay is spoiling me!
KT
"Tell Megatron, 'Let's tango.'"
Saw - I was definitely pleasently surprised by this one. I expected some dumb teenage slasher/torture porn flick, but this was in fact a detective story, and quite a thrilling and well-written one. Great twist-ending as well. Not the best acting though hehe.
I started a thread about the film Serenity, and still have to say that i the Best Sci-Fi flick I have seen in ages.
The only thing worse than stupid people are stupid people who bother me...
Bumblebee1983:
I'm da bomb.
xXRavenXx:
I'm Da Bomb... you can be my igniter though **Humms Light My Fire by The Doors** lol
Bumblebee1983:
As for being your igniter.....umm.....okay.
xXRavenXx:
**Thrilled with BB Raven sings afternoon delight from Anchorman**
[REC] 10/10
Spanish ultra-realistic zombie tale. Maybe the most scary movie I have ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/
There will be an US remake titled Quarantined, but i strongly recommend to watch the original. There won't be US release (at least i think so), but i think i should't be hard to find with english subs. If you try it, use a surround system or headphones.
Watching Transformers again.
Damn I love the movie. Soooo much better than the '80s animated version.
Thanks Bay for resurrecting my childhood.
Umm...what else...going to see Beowulf tomorrow. Then, the next movie will be Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp, hell yes!), umm...National Treasure 2, I am Legend...that's basically it for the year.
Gotta rent the Omega Man first just to compare it to the original.
Oh, also saw Disturbia last weekend. It was very good. Of course I'm a Hitchcock fan, so that's why I'd love it! And Shia's in it...I digress. *shakes head*
Got Blades of Glory in Netflix. Haven't watched it yet.
Heard Stardust is very good, added that to the Netflix list. It comes out Dec. 18.
Pirates 3 on DVD Dec. 4. (yess....)
Hitman
Wonderful...the story is fantastic. It keeps you guessing then bam, it all comes together. Best game to movie ever. Its a little slow and drags at times but its entertaining. Surprisingly good acting too. The only thing that bugs me is that a shot in the trailer wasnt in the film. The one where he is holding the Dragunov on the roof as the wind blows flipping his red trademark tie; its cut short before they show him holding it up.
Be warned that if you are a fan of the game dont go in expecting it to be like it and dont trust the synopsis, its a little misleading. Agent 47 is an actual human in this one, not a clone. He is a cold hearted bastard though.
Just watched no country for old men. The Cohen brothers completely dropped the ball. There was a good amount of dialogue that was left out that really brought the book together and made the whole read worth while for me. With it taken out the movie was just a hollow shell. It had no real depth at all. I went to see it in champaign il and there was laughter from the crowd after the final scene. There is a part where chigurah goes in to talk to the guy whose money he was trying to retrieve in the movie he just goes into kill the guy for sending other people after the money. in the book chigurah was a free agent who set all this in motion so he could strike a deal with the guy.
There was a great interaction between chigurah and carla jean at the end of the movie that was cut to the bone and made the whole scene meaningless. the talk they had pretty much makes you think about what happens after that talk. I really wouldn't have been to disappointed with this movie if they had of kept certain dialogue in it. it was probably one of the most faithful book adaptions i have ever seen other than the fact they left out things that gave the movie it's point. However, because of that i have to say it was a bad movie. I will never understand why hollywood chooses to change things that don't need to be changed. Considering this was more of an independent/arthouse film it seems like a few extra minutes of dialouge and cutting out some unnecassary visual scenes with no dialogue would have served the story better.
Last edited by Bumblebee1983; 11-24-2007 at 07:08 PM.
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