TV/Movies Megathread

[dps]

5th Element is certainly dumb fun. Which is fine I guess, but not a patch on Leon.

The 5th Element is actually pretty under-rated IMO.  It's visually very imaginative, has interesting (if over-the-top) characters, and some good, crisp comic dialogue.  The story itself--well, it's not bad, but you can't take it seriously, though I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to;  if you go into it expecting serious, hard SF, you'd certainly be disappointed.  It's a smartly conceived and produced fun action-comedy romp in a SF setting.  How well it's put together and the performances make it a very good movie IMO. 

OTOH, is it as good as Leon?  No, it's not--Leon is a great movie.

[Ideologue]

Oh, right, reviews and stuff.

Ant-Man (2015).  Delightfully pure adventure cinema is here, and if you ever had your doubts about Ant-Man, consider your dumb doubts dispelled.  Seriously, what was wrong with you?  9/10

And the Terminator series, I'll be getting back around to Genisys this weekend.

The Terminator (1984).  Robots killing humans doesn't get much better than this.  9/10

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).  Robots killing humans only gets better than this when it's in space.  10/10

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).  Piece of crap or unacknowledged classic?  Can it be both?  6/10

Terminator: Salvation (2009).  The nadir of the franchise.  One hopes.  3/10

Did you review Genysis yet?

Nope, seeing it this weekend.  Went with a coworker to see MMXXL its opening weekend, then there was Ant-Man, and I didn't get a chance to catch up till now.  Plus it took a long time to figure out how to deal with T2.  You didn't care for Genisys, iirc.

I'd exchanged the scores for Salvation and T3.  Or at least put them equal.

Nah.  T3 at least manages to be fun, even when it's dumb, and has something interesting to say, and a surprisingly downbeat ending.  It's a huge step down from perfection, however.

***

Airport (1970).  Initially, it's really great, possessed of a good sense of patience and sharp (if ragingly artificial) characterizations.  And it stays great--right up until a surprisingly sedate and prosaic ending, good enough to care about but certainly not impactful enough to rave over.  I doubt any 70s disaster film will hit the same high notes as The Posiedon Adventure, but while Airport may have started the trend, it definitely isn't the best.  (That said, it may be the best sustained use of splitscreen.  That shit is off the wall.) 7/10

[Syt]

Airplane! did it much better.

[celedhring]

Yeah, T3 has some interesting stuff going for it. Good action setpieces, an unexpected ending... certainly not a patch on the first two, but not as terrible as Salvation (I haven't seen Genysis)

[Tonitrus]

Almost surprised we haven't seen some kinda contrived Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator yet.

Predators save humanity from SkyNet by hunting Terminators!

[viper37]

Saw Exodus, Gods and Kings.

There are some very interesting things happening, but then, it's like all the best part were cut during post-production.   The whole piece lacks cohesion, and Christian Bale is totally wooden.

The author starts on a path of atheism, where Moses' vision is "inspired" from an accident and a rock hitting his head, then he moves to full blown theism with God saving the day with his plagues (despite the Egyptian scientist offering rational explanations).

Imho, the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston was better.

[lustindarkness]

I enjoyed Gods and Kings.

[KRonn]

You should review more Schwarzenegger movies in general. Predator and True Lies are a must.

And don't forget THEM!

True Lies is a blast, great Ahnnanold flic.

[Ideologue]

Airplane! did it much better.

Hey, you're peaching to the choir.

Re: Schwarzenegger, I've got a powerful need to watch Commando.

[Syt]

So, it seems that the Star Wars movie Rogue One (about stealing the Death Star plans in prelude to Ep. 4) will feature "a Moff" and the bounty hunter gallery from ESB as villains. With one new edition: Cad Bane from Clone Wars.

[Syt]

Review of the movie Pixels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=11&v=BFD2293oGvA

The reviewer ... didn't like it.

[Malthus]

Review of the movie Pixels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=11&v=BFD2293oGvA

The reviewer ... didn't like it.

That guy should get off the fence and tell us what he really thinks. Does he like it or not? I hate ambivalent critics.

[Valmy]

I see it was as bad as any logical person would have assumed seeing the previews. I mean do we really need 80s stereotypes in 2015 movies?

[Syt]

Whenever I see there's a new Adam Sandler movie that includes parts of his usual entourage (e.g. Kevin James) I expect a turd of the highest caliber. He's to comedy what Uwe Boll is to video game movies.

Speaking of which: how come Boll isn't the director on this?

[Valmy]

Yet Sandler still has fans and his movies still make money. How, dear God, did Jack and Jill make so much money? How?