TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

You guys are crack heads.  Independence Day is Mars Attack! played straight.

I agree, don't get the love.  It befuddles me as much as the attention that Blair Witch gets.

Blair Witch got attention at the time, and in hindsight it did start the whole trend of "shakeycam" and "lost footage" in movies, but does it get any attention whatsoever now except as perhaps being historically important?

I'm not even sure starting the trend of shakeycam is a good thing.

[celedhring]

You guys are crack heads.  Independence Day is Mars Attack! played straight.

Sort of.  That whole 'computer virus for alien computers' was hard to take seriously.

I took it as a homage to War of the Worlds, where a real virus kills the aliens at the end; this is the "modern age version" where a computer virus kills the aliens. The whole film is full with homages/ripoffs to other alien flicks.

[Martinus]

I tend to watch even bad movies if they are gripping, but the Independence Day was so grating, annoying and mindlessly dumb I could not finish it.

I thought it was the worst blockbuster movie of the decade, if not the second half of the 20th century.

[Valmy]

I tend to watch even bad movies if they are gripping, but the Independence Day was so grating, annoying and mindlessly dumb I could not finish it.

I thought it was the worst blockbuster movie of the decade, if not the second half of the 20th century.

LOL ok lets not go insane the other way.

[Sheilbh]

You guys are crack heads.  Independence Day is Mars Attack! played straight.

Sort of.  That whole 'computer virus for alien computers' was hard to take seriously.

I took it as a homage to War of the Worlds, where a real virus kills the aliens at the end; this is the "modern age version" where a computer virus kills the aliens. The whole film is full with homages/ripoffs to other alien flicks.

Yep. And also who cares? It does its job.

That's always my first point in why people who notice plot holes just shouldn't watch films

[frunk]

Blair Witch got attention at the time, and in hindsight it did start the whole trend of "shakeycam" and "lost footage" in movies, but does it get any attention whatsoever now except as perhaps being historically important?

The Dissolve featured it as a Movie of the Week just this past Halloween, and I've seen it on lists of the greatest movies of the 90s.

[Barrister]

Yep. And also who cares? It does its job.

That's always my first point in why people who notice plot holes just shouldn't watch films

Again, I wouldn't go that far.

When there's a flaw in the plot so large it attack's your suspension of disbelief (like the Enterprise "falling" in Into Darkness :mad) it enjoys your ability to enjoy that movie.

I certainly remembered watching at the time going (really - a Mac can hack an alien computer?) , but it was just a comparatively brief plot point.

Apparently there was a deleted scene where the Area 51 scientists described how they'd been studying the alien's computer system for years.  Not a gret answer, but it shows they were kind of aware of the problem.

[viper37]

Sort of.  That whole 'computer virus for alien computers' was hard to take seriously.

Completely.  Every character is a cartoon cutout.  The dialogue is middle school pap.  The 1st lady story is sentimental shmaltz.

it's the over-used clichés that make it good.  And the explosions.  Never understimate the power of explosions in cinema, event the tiny little ones.

[viper37]

I certainly remembered watching at the time going (really - a Mac can hack an alien computer?) , but it was just a comparatively brief plot point.

But it worked for you, you became an Apple fan right after that

[The Brain]

Independence Day was horrible.

[viper37]

1996
Will Smith stars in Independence Day, helping to usher in an era of action movies in which special effects are more important than gratuitous violence/overt homosexuality. Action stars become child-friendly pussies.

[/quote]
How is he a pussy in that, compared to, say, Tom Cruise in Top Gun or Clint Eastwood in that movie where he steals a prototype Mig-31?

[Barrister]

I certainly remembered watching at the time going (really - a Mac can hack an alien computer?) , but it was just a comparatively brief plot point.

But it worked for you, you became an Apple fan right after that

Nah, it was finding this under the tree at Christmas 1984 that made me an Apple fan:

[Admiral Yi]

Mac jack.

[viper37]

It was very well done for what it wanted to be.

Unfortunately what it wanted to be was a good looking movie that insulted the intellect.

more so than a lone guy tackling a Russian tank division by himself on horseback?

[Barrister]

Mac jack.

Apple jack.

That aint no Mac.