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Film Thread.
I thought a trio of themed threads about other entertainment media might be good. If you're not interested, please just ignore the thread and pick some threads that interest you from here: http://celephais.net/board/view_all_threads.php

Anyway, discuss films...
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Kona 
Google the real Lawrence 
 
If that's what the real Lawrence was like, then that makes sense. Even if it was a bit exaggerated. Wikipedia suggests he was possibly asexual and a masochist.

Got 1 minute into Casablanca and decided to play Fallout3 instead, lol. 
H+ 
A digital survival-themed series about a world where everyone has an implanted internet port and suddenly some computer virus kills most of the population. Premise sounds interesting; the episodes are very short.

Started this month on YT, so far six episodes are live. http://www.youtube.com/user/HplusDigitalSeries

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, probably some American Licensing Fuckfest, it's not available in my country without proxy. 
 
Forced my way through Casablanca. Good dialogue throughout, good lead character, but if released today, this would be nothing but a indie film imo.

It was a bit too long and boring for me. I liked the idea of the settings and people trying to get out of Casablanca, but 90% of the movie was filmed in darkly lit rooms and the restaurant, so that entire setting was wasted, visually.

DRIVE, however, was fantastic. Very well directed with the perfect music and lingering camera shots. I'll have to check out more of this directors work. Shame about the unrealistic ending. I'm glad it wasn't a car chase movie as well, which is what I was assuming with the misleading title. They're a small gimmick. 
Drive 
Hmm, I liked it, but then it didn't really work all that well as a GREAT movie. It's just something nice that's fun for two hours and then has no impact on your life whatsoever, which is a bit sad, because it has the potential to be great.

It is also the only movie (ever!) that I totally forgot about and didn't notice immediately when I rewatched it (I only realized half-way in that I already had recognized more scenes than they could ever put into the shittiest movie trailer conceivable) 
Drive 
Oh Fnap! 
 
Pathetic... 
.. I will certainly hate this movie.. :( 
 
Yeah in terms of dialogue, he was the most boring main character in the history of cinema. Even Charlie Chaplin has more to say.

If it were real, she'd tap and gap him. 
 
The Grey
Pretty bad. Ugly CGI. Clichee-ridden. Unrealistic. Nice nature. Won't watch again.

Snow White and the Huntsman
Fantasy Fluff. Has some dark bits and some silly humour. Generic soundtrack, weird illogical story (yes, it is based on fairytales but come on...). If you are a thinker, you probably won't enjoy it too much. Best part was being surprised by Avpx Sebfg, but then in my opinion that dwarfen humour did not do the movie any good. Snow White is some ugly girl with bunny teeth. Thor is the Huntsman. Some super cheap ugly CGI, some very beautiful nature. The movie si extremely cheap and silly at times, but dark and disturbing at others. I would have prefer one XOR the other. Okish popcorn movie overall. Won't watch again nor recommend it to sophisticated monocle wielderse. 
 
In terms of numeric ratings those were a 3/10 and a 4/10 for me. 
Lamers 
CGI, is bullshit. OK, Nolan is getting a bit ridiculous these days but trying to avoid CGI on principle is nothing but admirable. Also, even if your entire movie is computer rendered, please avoid cliches. Or if it's live action just avoid cliches for the love of god. 
Films With Moons In Them 
Found a little bit of downtime in my heavy social calender*, so decided to start watching some films with "Moon" in the title. Two down so far.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
It's only reedeeming quality is that it is a marginal improvement upon the second one. Beyond that, it has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Shia TheBeef's character is an angsty, angry shit - no doubt designed to resonate with the target audience of sexually frustrated male teens and manchildren. Most of the other supporting characters also act as if they've got critical mental faculties missing too. The robot/car thingies are alright I guess. I watched maybe half the film before giving up.

Moon
Ah, that's better. A creepy "serious" sci-fi that as brilliant as it is predictable. So, it's pretty damn brilliant.

( * it's actually about as heavy as a paper doily made of gnat farts) 
Kinn I'm Satlking You 
 
Please Do 
I could do with the company.

Even if it is creepy and avoidant. 
More Stuff 
Ok I'll admit that the only reason I'm watching films right now is because I'm away from work with a bad dose of the ol' bum scrunchies, so without further ado:

The Thing (2011)
There's perhaps 3 minutes worth of half-decent tension in this film, with the rest of the running time taken up by bored acting, cliche "boo" moments, and not-really-scary monsters that are too cartoony and poorly CG'd to be comparable to the awesome 1982 version.
The most annoying thing about this film is that it's not quite shit enough for me to hate it completely; which means I might get confused in the future when trying to recall whether I enjoyed it or not.

The Hurt Locker
This film is marred by a couple of ridiculously goofy hollywood moments (the surreal, "Three Stooges"-inspired portrayal of the British SAS springs to mind, as does the protagonist's ludicrous secret solo-mission to avenge the cruel fate of a local boy). But other than that it's cinematic gold. By far and away the best film set in the Irag conflict that I've ever seen (and I've seen two of them now). 
 
Transformers: Dark of the moon
Yeah I know what you mean about Shia, he was far too hyperactive and angry all the time for my liking. I'm not a transformers fan - never watched it in the 80s. But for a popcorn flick, it's not too bad. The giant robot CGI and the sound effects are all fantastic.

Moon
Yeah that was a good slow paced sci fi. And creepy. A bit like Solaris & Solyaris actually, also good movies.

The Thing
I just watched this about a week ago as well. I thought it was fairly well received and not such a bad remake prior to watching it. But once I got into it and we got the giant spaceship and completely and utterly over the top monsters I realised it wasn't a good remake at all. It was still a pretty good movie in it's own right, but had NONE of the fantastic atmosphere and creepiness of the original. Some good gory stuff though. You just can't go in expecting a proper remake with everything that made the original so good. It's a different movie.

The Hurt Locker
Tried watching this once. Just seemed like a documentary of bomb making scenes. Tried again several months later and got all the way through. I like the lead actor, but I wouldn't watch the movie again. Some tense moments, really good the way it ended, but not really a thought-provoking movie at all with a story that went anywhere. 
Dark Of The Moon 
I got about as far as the megan fox replacement being introduced with the camera pointing up her skirt (about 3 mins) and turned off :/ 
She Wasn't Even Wearing A Skirt 
But yeah, the female element of the film was clearly designed for an audience only really comfortable with women whose surnames end in .jpg 
/me Adds Transformers To His Dl List 
Should I watch Men in Black 3 or The Eagle (2011) tonight? 
 
MIB 3 is even dumber than Transformers 3. Hard to believe, I know... 
Heh 
I'll never forget that in Transformers 1 (ok, when I was a tiny kid I thought Transformers was fun), they claimed that cars, airplanes and etc had been reverse-engineered from Transformers. The fact that I exist in a world where that could be said out loud by an older white gentleman actor who apparently has some degree of credibility, based on a script written and a production created with hundreds of millions of dollars - MAKES ME WISH I DID NOT.

I'm sure many of us here have wondered this, but how can there be such a gap between basic rationality and most of the human race. I don't mean the gap between knowing how best to act and failing to do that, since that entails admitting after the fact that one fucked up (ie, drinking a lot and often, is an illogical behaviour and I know it). I DO mean willful ignorance, ie actively denying common sense (ie evolution etc, or swallowing that 'clever' transformers bullshit).

In conclusion, sorry for the rant, and as long as people are this stupid I'm worried about the future. It's a good reason not to have kids. 
No It's Not 
 
 
MiB 3 was average fun. Nowhere as crap as what I remember about some Transformers movie I once saw.

Also watched The Intouchables. Absolutely fantastic beautiful film I highly recommend. 
ProMEHtheus 
Visually good, but disappointing as a prequel. They could have made that topic a movie on its own, but using the Alien universe as a vessel for it sucks, because it devaluates the original theme, at least the way they pulled it off here.

I get it there's a lot of mythological and symbolic stuff, who created who (or what) and how the circle closes etc, but ultimately it seems incompatible to the Alien theme in the sense that the old ideas and mysteries are being sacrificed in favor of the new ones. Turning the engineer into 'just another' type of human-like creature that designed the aliens (as well as humans presumably) as a weapon which turns on him seems somewhat lame - despite all parallels and implications that arise. It's not the kind of twist I was hoping for, or that made go woo, not least because it has been done many times before. Plus the engineers looked like that Dr. Whatshisname from X-Men. I prefer to regard the aliens as the ultimate parasite that not even advanced life forms from space are unthreatened by.

So in retrospect, I guess the ridicuously large squid must represent the overall fishiness of the movie and its story, re symbolism!
I can't believe they didn't even get the tie-in right, deliberately or not, even though it wouldn't have been a plot-problem at all to have the engineer died on his chair. If this was a movie by Lucas, we could expect the scene in Alien to be editited afterwards... 
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