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Made in es
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

To add an SF flick to the mix, I thought that Imposter was pretty cool, from 2001, but I have a (semi-soft)spot for Madeline Stowe and always liked Gary Sinise… Rotten Tomatoes only 41% audience score, 24% critics. I think that it deserves better than that!

   
Made in au
Regular Dakkanaut



Tallarook, Victoria, Australia

The original Mad Max was THE BEST MAD MAX. Quality of MM films subsequently dropped becoming more and more cartoony. MM2 Road warrior was good but not as good as the first film. Fury road IS absolute non narrative trash. At least beyond thunderdome had Tina Turner, and actual story, despite its shortcomings.

The original Terminator is far better than T2 Judgement day.

LEXX was the most hardcore cult scifi series and way ahead of its time. Far more interesting than its style-over-substance and pander-to-the-mainstream imitator, Farscape.


Blade Runner is a boring and disappointing style-over-substance film, with its only redeeming part being Rutger Hauer's inspired performance in particular, the "tears in the rain" monologue which was a complete improvisation. Furthermore, the film just ponders on its own tangents and has little to nothing to do with the emotional depth of Phillip K Dick's brilliant novel

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/09/21 12:49:40


 
   
Made in it
Waaagh! Ork Warboss




Italy

Fury Road is my favorite movie, along with La La Land and Inglorious Basterds, among those that have been released in the last 20 years, lol. I always wish the Marvel/Disney blockbusters had a fraction of that quality, and I always get disappointed . First Mad Max is close to terrible IMHO, just another typical and stereothyped violent revenge movie from the 70s.

But I agree about Terminator, also in my opionion is far better than the sequel (which I admit, I've always considered it good but very overrated).

I second Annihilation! Loved it as any other movie/tv series directed or just written by Alex Garland.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/21 12:58:33


 
   
Made in us
Courageous Questing Knight





Texas

 Polonius wrote:
A movie that everybody I know who has watched it loved it, but sports a 12% Rotten Tomatos score is the Kelsey Grammar submarine comedy Down Periscope.

If you approach Down Periscope as either a gag a minute comedy or a tense submarine movie, you'll probably be disappointed. If you approach it as a perfectly good submarine move about goofy, but not strictly cartoonish, group of rejects, it holds up. In a bizarre bit of foreshadowing, Kelsey Grammar plays an almost washed up submarine officer, denied promotion due to some personal and professional mishaps. He's given the role of captain in a wargame meant to see how well a rogue diesel submarine could perform against the nuclear navy. His crew, picked by an admiral so openly villainous he could be from Star Fleet, are the sorts of colorful but secretly talented characters that 90s movies loved. In practice, that basically meant giving a slate of talented dudes a job and a quirk, and letting them riff on it. If you like material that, even if not improved, seems like it is, you'll enjoy big chunks of this flick.

Outside of the protagonists, you have a murderers row of talent: rip Torn, Bruce Dern, and William H Macy.

One final note: my friends who have served on submarines LOVE this movie, as they always say that comedies match the day to day experience in most militaries more than action or war movies. So, take that with a grain of salt.


Being a former Navy fellow, yeah, anything to do with that stuff ranks high with me and 'Down Periscope' was very enjoyable. But, it makes me think of another that has stellar performances just about by all (if you are not bothered by Harvey Keitel's drama): U-571

My Novella Collection is available on Amazon - Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi - https://www.amazon.com/Three-Roads-Dreamt-Michael-Leonard/dp/1505716993/

 
   
Made in au
Regular Dakkanaut



Tallarook, Victoria, Australia

 Blackie wrote:
Fury Road is my favorite movie,





   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba






 GoldenHorde wrote:
 Blackie wrote:
Fury Road is my favorite movie,





Yeah, I can't imagine why a macho dictator strongman warlord type character like that would be portrayed as anything except for a brilliant genius, like all the historical examples of people like that have turned out to be - Mussolini, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler et all are almost always looked back on as incredibly smart and competent military commanders and they basically never turn out to be self-sabotaging idiots who die in ignominous pathetic ways.

"Got you, Yugi! Your Rubric Marines can't fall back because I have declared the tertiary kaptaris ka'tah stance two, after the secondary dacatarai ka'tah last turn!"

"So you think, Kaiba! I declared my Thousand Sons the cult of Duplicity, which means all my psykers have access to the Sorcerous Facade power! Furthermore I will spend 8 Cabal Points to invoke Cabbalistic Focus, causing the rubrics to appear behind your custodes! The Vengeance for the Wronged and Sorcerous Fullisade stratagems along with the Malefic Maelstrom infernal pact evoked earlier in the command phase allows me to double their firepower, letting me wound on 2s and 3s!"

"you think it is you who has gotten me, yugi, but it is I who have gotten you! I declare the ever-vigilant stratagem to attack your rubrics with my custodes' ranged weapons, which with the new codex are now DAMAGE 2!!"

"...which leads you straight into my trap, Kaiba, you see I now declare the stratagem Implacable Automata, reducing all damage from your attacks by 1 and triggering my All is Dust special rule!"  
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






 Overread wrote:
My take away from this thread is that I really need to go see Dark City


Your take away should be that EVERYONE really needs to go see Dark City.

I saw it in the theater in 1998 and loved it. When The Matrix came out in 1999 I was like, "This is great, but didn't anyone else see Dark City last year?! Does no one else see the similarities?"

Okay, for everyone else who has seen Dark City, I've only seen the original, not the director's cut. Which do you recommend or does it not make a big difference to you? Let's keep spoilers in the spoiler tag for those who haven't witnessed it's glory yet.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/21 15:29:15


 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity and Insidious film series.

I love them. They’re hokey nonsense and all kinda samey, but compared to horror movies the era before, they’re immensely satisfying all the same.

   
Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

 the_scotsman wrote:
 GoldenHorde wrote:
 Blackie wrote:
Fury Road is my favorite movie,





Yeah, I can't imagine why a macho dictator strongman warlord type character like that would be portrayed as anything except for a brilliant genius, like all the historical examples of people like that have turned out to be - Mussolini, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler et all are almost always looked back on as incredibly smart and competent military commanders and they basically never turn out to be self-sabotaging idiots who die in ignominous pathetic ways.


The self-sabotaging is actually part of the Fascism!

Per Ecco:


The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”



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Made in gb
Executing Exarch





 bbb wrote:
 Overread wrote:
My take away from this thread is that I really need to go see Dark City


Your take away should be that EVERYONE really needs to go see Dark City.

I saw it in the theater in 1998 and loved it. When The Matrix came out in 1999 I was like, "This is great, but didn't anyone else see Dark City last year?! Does no one else see the similarities?"

Okay, for everyone else who has seen Dark City, I've only seen the original, not the director's cut. Which do you recommend or does it not make a big difference to you? Let's keep spoilers in the spoiler tag for those who haven't witnessed it's glory yet.


Moar Jenny C is always betterer

"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED." 
   
Made in ca
Preacher of the Emperor






A lot of these movies are well regarded classics (cult or otherwise!) but I'll stand up and say I loved Battle: LA, with just a little irony.

I've mentioned Pontypool but I feel it bears repeating, since it's brilliantly weird and less people have seen it than have seen, read, and been confused by its poster appearing in the background of one of the twilight movies.

Dark City deserves all the love that it gets (though I warn anybody who does watch it to keep in mind that it came out before the Matrix.)

Speaking of, I can't say the Matrix sequels are good, but I enjoyed the action pieces and had fun thinking about their philosophical arguments back in high school when they came out.

Gosh, there's a bunch of movies I give a pass from my childhood but can come back to and still love: Ninja Turtles, Neverending Story, Homeward Bound, Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Return of the Jedi.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 bbb wrote:
Okay, for everyone else who has seen Dark City, I've only seen the original, not the director's cut. Which do you recommend or does it not make a big difference to you? Let's keep spoilers in the spoiler tag for those who haven't witnessed it's glory yet.


I would recommend the director's cut enthusiastically.

Spoiler:
It doesn't have the opening narration that gives away the plot.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/21 16:08:17


   
Made in gb
Dakka Veteran



South East London

I forgot to mention Iron Sky in my last post.

I love this movie, hate the sequel but the first is still a classic.

"Dig in and wait for Winter" 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

StraightSilver wrote:
I forgot to mention Iron Sky in my last post.

I love this movie, hate the sequel but the first is still a classic.


Iron Sky is fantastic!

And yeah the Sequel started out ok but the whole "cult of apple" stuff just became annoying. Backward thinking Nazi's who'd been isolated on the moon for a very very long time made sense. Modern people suddenly blowing each other up over apple apps and such - eh - it would have made more sense if it was set 1000s of years in the future for the setting but not a few decades.

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

 bbb wrote:
 Overread wrote:
My take away from this thread is that I really need to go see Dark City


Your take away should be that EVERYONE really needs to go see Dark City.

I saw it in the theater in 1998 and loved it. When The Matrix came out in 1999 I was like, "This is great, but didn't anyone else see Dark City last year?! Does no one else see the similarities?"

Okay, for everyone else who has seen Dark City, I've only seen the original, not the director's cut. Which do you recommend or does it not make a big difference to you? Let's keep spoilers in the spoiler tag for those who haven't witnessed it's glory yet.


Not only Dark City, but The 13th Floor was a pretty good Matrix-before-The-Matrix movie.

I believe I’ve seen both versions of Dark City, but I honestly don’t remember much of a difference. One viewing was when the movie came out and the other was about a decade later when the Blu Ray (?) came out.

I also want to give a huge second to The Last Dragon. While I don’t think liking that film counts as picking a hill to die on because it is so well beloved, it seems to have been more or less forgotten by modern movie audiences.

Cabin Boy is a must for anyone who loved comedy in the 90’s. Almost every cast member in the movie is a “that guy” you’ll recognize and love. This movie single-handed my changed the way I listen to Alley Cat.

The Terminator is a better film than Terminator 2, yes, but perhaps not as fun.

Fury Road is fantastic, but if your hill is hating it that’s fine.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut



London

 Easy E wrote:
David Lynch's Dune

Any version of a Mortal Kombat movie..... any of them!


Off topic as its films, but I loved the weird live action TV series. Terrible tripe but I bought the DVDs!



 bbb wrote:
Your take away should be that EVERYONE really needs to go see Dark City.


Showed it to my daughter 2 weekends back, she was bored and critical. I have failed as a father.

And hating Fury Road? I didn't say it because I thought it was a well regarded success. But for me its the best societal insanity I have ever seen committed to celluloid! (Or whatever we put it on now.) I saw it 6 times at the cinema (to be fair I was in Tanzania and there was nothing else to do). I was just showing it to one bemused native after another.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/21 17:05:46


 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






The_Real_Chris wrote:
 bbb wrote:
Your take away should be that EVERYONE really needs to go see Dark City.


Showed it to my daughter 2 weekends back, she was bored and critical. I have failed as a father.


The only movie my wife ever walked out of was Dark City (we didn't know each other at the time and she still doesn't like it), but I married her anyway and we're still going strong after 17 years. It's possible to love extremely flawed people. Stay strong.
   
Made in us
Pragmatic Primus Commanding Cult Forces






Southeastern PA, USA

Dark City was interesting, although it wasn't a wholly original concept. I was always hopeful for a big-screen adaptation of Matt Wagner's Mage comics -- and at one point there were scripts kicking around in Hollywood -- but Dark City and the Matrix beat it to the punch with the hero's journey + world-behind-the-world concept even if the particulars were quite different.

And on a very similar note, I saw HBMC mentioned Sucker Punch. I did think it was a lot better -- purely in terms of entertainment value -- than the critics had led me to believe. They really savaged it, and I think that was when Zack Snyder really got on some critics' gak lists. But wow, only Snyder could create something so divisive. Is it feminist...or something terribly misogynistic? Is it in some *weird* way...both? I'm sure there were scholarly papers written about that one, as insane as that sounds. The one thing I do find interesting about it is how many people didn't get it. I don't mean the message -- again, that was confusing as heck -- but instead what was going on with the story and its three levels of reality and all their implications.

I agree that John Carter deserved better from the critics. It's always interesting to me how critics pile on certain movies and not others (JC was more of a mixed response, but still). It was at least as good of a dumb fun adventure film as most Marvel movies from the same studio that rack up RT scores 30 points higher. I don't get it.

Oblivion isn't a hill I'd die on, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. Was super stylish with great production design, photography, and soundtrack from M83. I found it easy to just soak all that stuff in and willingly overlook some aspects of the story.


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Made in ca
Preacher of the Emperor






Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?

   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






No. It’s never safe

   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle





In My Lab

 Captain Joystick wrote:
Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?
Is that considered bad? Niche, maybe, but in its niche, I thought it was pretty well-liked.

I enjoy it too.

Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne! 
   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





 Captain Joystick wrote:
Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?


only if you follow it up with "but Babydriver was even better" wherein Mr Wright totally melvins QT and runs off giggling, your mileage may vary depending on one's tolerance for Baron Greenback

I'll second Pontypool mind, splendid creepy film

"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED." 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





 Captain Joystick wrote:
Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?


I love it, but I am deeply disappointed it was done before the comic and didn't adapt the ending. Ramona being the one to defeat Gideon feels really important to making them work as a couple and as much as I like what Nega-Scott represents, I don't feel like the movie adequately built up Scott's delusion to make him a satisfying wrap up to Scott's arc. Basically, I got left feeling like the two main characters got their most significant moments of development cut.
   
Made in us
Navigator





Sweden

 Pyroalchi wrote:
As a teenager I watched conan the barbarian once or twice every year and found it quite hilarious and enjoyable. It's been quite a while... maybe it's time again


I would go so far as to say that Conan The Barbarian is the best fantasy movie ever made. Better than Excalibur, The LOTR Trilogy, The Harry Potter movies, The Neverending Story, Willow, Narnia, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Jason And The Argonauts or any other movie you can think of.

It's not a better MOVIE than all of the above (or perhaps any of the above), just a better FANTASY movie. My love for this movie stems from my love for old eighties and nineties fantasy RPGs like D&D, AD&D and the swedish Drakar & Demoner. Conan The Barbarian is a like an old RPG adventure in movie form.

It is a perfect movie representation of my own fantasy ideal of dusty deserts, thiefs, evil cults, magic, gods, anti-heroes and adventure. It will never be surpassed because the fantasy genre has moved on and matured. But it will remain the gold standard of fantasy against which all present and future movies of the genre will be measured.
   
Made in us
Pragmatic Primus Commanding Cult Forces






Southeastern PA, USA

 JNAProductions wrote:
 Captain Joystick wrote:
Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?
Is that considered bad? Niche, maybe, but in its niche, I thought it was pretty well-liked.

I enjoy it too.


It's 82% fresh on RT. So it doesn't really fit the thread, although we crossed that Rubicon a while ago with movies like Fury Road (97% fresh) and either of the first Terminator films.

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To be honest, Fury Road came up when someone entirely missed the point of this thread.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut





Oxfordshire

 Captain Joystick wrote:
Is it safe to say I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World yet?

I wasn't aware that anyone didn't think it was good. It's got its problems (the target girl is an empty shell and the movie should have never ended the way it did), but I thought it was a well regarded movie.

Other stuff I like that doesn't get much love:
Iron Man 3, Real Steel, Rampage, Mean Machine (Adam Sandler version)
   
Made in au
Regular Dakkanaut



Tallarook, Victoria, Australia

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
To be honest, Fury Road came up when someone entirely missed the point of this thread.


oh noes, comparing franchise films in a controversial way


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 the_scotsman wrote:
 GoldenHorde wrote:
 Blackie wrote:
Fury Road is my favorite movie,





Yeah, I can't imagine why a macho dictator strongman warlord type character like that would be portrayed as anything except for a brilliant genius, like all the historical examples of people like that have turned out to be - Mussolini, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler et all are almost always looked back on as incredibly smart and competent military commanders and they basically never turn out to be self-sabotaging idiots who die in ignominous pathetic ways.


That's neither here nor there and shows your trope like grasp of history falls way short of anything even approaching the reasonable. They could have based him off of the greatest 'macho dictator strongman warlord type character' of all time Cengiz Han who also happened to be the greatest conqueror of all time. Or Alexander the great, or Napoleon, or ...

Fury road is dumb and uninspiring. It's basically a saturday morning cartoon version of mad max. Actually its dumber than that


To show how idiotic and universe breaking the character is we could just compare to in-universe characters

Put cartoon Joe up against Lord Humungus or Aunty entity. You know villians with actual leadership qualities ....He wouldn't stand a chance against either.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/21 21:43:47


 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Savage Minotaur




Baltimore, Maryland

The hills that I will die on :

The Snyder Cut beats the brakes off of all but 2, maybe 3 of the entire MCU films.

Ang Lee’s Hulk doesn’t get the respect it deserves.










"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

Well, if we’re going to get spicy…

Batman The Movie (Adam West) is better than any Batman movie except The Dark Knight and Lego Batman.

Meteor Man is a better superhero movie than Batman Begins.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/22 01:10:56


   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

I also feel like Ang Lee's Hulk (the one before it too I think, Lee's was the second one right?) wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. They weren't great but they did what they set out to do and were about as good as I think can be expected. Hulk as a character just doesn't work so well solo anymore imo. The character's best as part of an ensemble and that's been the case for a long time.



I don't think that's a fair comparison.

For being product placement, Lego Batman had no real right to be nearly as good as it ultimately was. It was clever, heartfelt, and the most original take on Batman since HISHE

   
 
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