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This is going to sound strange, but Last Action Hero is my fav Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

Pokes fun at action movie cliches whilst still being a good action flick. Arnie is charismatic, the kid is actually quite good, and it has one of my all-time fav bad guys, played by the incomparable Charles Dance.

Plus it gave us this wonderful scene:

Last Action Hero is a legitimately good movie. I don’t understand how so many critics didn’t “get” it.

Ohhh, I absolutely LOVE Last Action Hero. I've turned a few people onto its genius.
"Hello? I said I just shot a man, I did it on purpose!!" Charles Dance is incredible.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Last Action Hero is a legitimately good movie. I don’t understand how so many critics didn’t “get” it.

Ahead of its time I guess?

Had it waited a few years, and followed say, Scream? Peeps might’ve got it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hellraiser - Bloodline

A near perfect example of a Straight to Video sequel.

It doesn’t simply rehash what came before, but instead has a game stab at providing greater background to what it’s all about etc.

Entirely entertaining in its own right, but doesn’t contain anything a casual viewer of the series needs to know.

The first Underworld and Resident Evil episodes are actually pretty solid action movies. Last Action Hero is a classic.

I adore JJ's Star Trek trilogy, I think they're all awesome. I know lots of people dislike them, if not flat out hate them, but I'm the opposite of the typical trekker fan as I can't stand anything related to that franchise other than the aforementioned trilogy. I probably like those three movies that much because they're so different than other Star Trek works.

And I also have a thing for Terminator Salvation.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Last Action Hero is a legitimately good movie. I don’t understand how so many critics didn’t “get” it.

I suspect it's the usual being sniffy donks if the critics deem a film 'beneath' them and don't bothered actually watching it, Siskel and Ebert were prime culprits

And whilst it's a bit patchy it's one of Arnulds better ones

With regards to the Last Action Hero it came at the tail end of a string of amazing Schwarzenegger films. So everyone was basically expecting another Terminator 2. While I also enjoy The Last Action Hero, I wouldn't put it on the same level as his other films of that period.

Now THIS was amusing...

Decided to check out A million different ways to die in the west one morning, booked the ticket and made my way to the relevent screen...which instead was showing "Postman Pat: The movie". Went straight back to the lobby and it turns out the showing times were wrong, and was instead due to show much later in the day...

So I asked "okay, thats not happening...what else you got?" So in a nutshell I ended up watching 22 JUMP STREET instead.

Didn't expect it to be much cop and was bummed out to not be enjoying Seth's latest offering...and OMG the stars must have been in alignment! I love a good comedy and lost my breath with the Killer Rabbit from Holy Grail, and crumbled at the Prince of Theives "Chicken" scene in Hot Shots Part Duex...

...but I suffered a chest burster when Jenko( Channing Tatum ) "connected the dots" in the Chief's office!

Water world. There is no middle ground. People either hate or love this movie. I LOVE this movie.

There seemed to be a trend of critics not getting movies. Last Action Hero, Starship Troopers, Big Trouble in Little China, Hudson Hawk, all these films got trashed by reviewers despite being obvious satire/parody.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
There seemed to be a trend of critics not getting movies. Last Action Hero, Starship Troopers, Big Trouble in Little China, Hudson Hawk, all these films got trashed by reviewers despite being obvious satire/parody.

People can be the same. Heck if you gave me almost any sports computer game to play I'd likely rate it low because I really don't enjoy them nor sports. It just wouldn't be an interest to me in the least. I wouldn't "get it". Yet my brother buys and plays Football Manager every year almost.


Sometimes its just that the niche isn't a niche that the big name reviewers are into. Also I think some films grow on you; I wasn't a big fan of the second Riddick film, it was good but its plot/pacing issues annoyed me. A few years on and I like the film more, even with its faults. So sometimes time and a film growing on you can change your perception. This can also explain why a film might flop at the cinema, but then go on to develop a cult status or even have a second surge of popularity.


Heck sometimes a new generation appreciates something a previous generation didn't or vis versa. I'd wager a good few major reviewers are likely to be older; having held the position for some time; so they might miss a film that younger generations will engage with far more so.


In the end reviewers are not perfect and sometimes you've got to learn to read between the lines a little. Heck I do the same with steam reveiws; if someone says a game is repetitive and boring but has 2K hours chances are they are bored in the now, but for most of those 2K hours they were happily playing the game.

 Lance845 wrote:
Water world. There is no middle ground. People either hate or love this movie. I LOVE this movie.

Really? I can't think of anyone that met that movie with more than an indifferent shrug.
It was Yet Another Kevin Costner film in an insane blur of Kevin Costner films, all of them vaguely the same, all of them fairly bland.

People remember Dances with Wolves, generally frown or laugh at the horrid Robin Hood (or swoon at the music, sadly), and the rest are left as a forgotten morass.

My best friend LOVED Waterworld. Fans of that movie are not a myth!

I'm a real live example of a fan of Waterworld!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Is that on Tubi? Where did you even find that movie?

Apparently it's a public domain movie, the makers went under and no one considered it worth keeping a copyright on. it's on youtube several times, and there's a 'indy" dvd of it combined with "war of the planets", a truly awful italian sci fi flick. I'd say it's likely PD now.

If you youtube it try to find the better quality copy, honestly most times i've seen it on tv the quality was abysmal, washed out, pale, faded, etc. Also the full uncut version starts with an intro the discusses the evolution of robots, featuring some really laughable ones that appeared on the ancient "Adventures of superman" series .



Another 'robot" in the intro was a leftover alien from "Earth vs. the flying saucers"



If you don't see an intro featuring these and stock footage of atomic bomb tests you're not seeing the whole thing.

If you can, pop for the dvd, this movie deserves some respect. I know with the covid crisis money can be tight but if you can shell out for the dvd try to, if not watch it on youtube because, despite everything, including a leading man who was clearly picked for his jawline and chin instead of his acting ability plus a 'twist' most rutabagas would see coming this movie deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Someone working on this really had some intelligent ideas that were nearly eons ahead of their time.

So yeah, as easy and tempting as it is to laugh and jeer at it at least try to listen to the dialog despite it's usually overdone tones and give this one a little respect.

Starship Troopers is certainly enjoyable, but it failed hard on two accounts; its a dreadful adaptation of the original book and Cameron had already done a far better and respectful job a decade earlier with ALIENS, despite lacking the advantage of CGI.

But even so, its still a fun slice of sci-fi pie. It fits naturally into a triple-bill with Robocop and Total Recall. After a series of horrible events in my life in 1997, this single scene changed it for the better...

It’s not meant to be an adaptation of the book. It’s pretty much a repudiation or the philosophy of the book. Aliens also isn’t even remotely an adaptation of Starship Troopers. They both satirize the kind of culture and decision makers that the book lionized, to various extents.

I was personally surprised at how good Pandorum was. Especially Dennis Quaid.

I would say 2007's 'Surfs Up' is the film that spring to mind.

Just another derivative animated film perhaps, but I happened to watch it during a relaxed Sunday on the settee... the central message and characters really got to me!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Is that on Tubi? Where did you even find that movie?

I think it is.....I feel like I have seen it, and it was while having Tubi running in the background while I was doing housework...... but I am not 100% sure.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
It’s not meant to be an adaptation of the book. It’s pretty much a repudiation or the philosophy of the book. Aliens also isn’t even remotely an adaptation of Starship Troopers. They both satirize the kind of culture and decision makers that the book lionized, to various extents.

Definitely wrong on the first account, but something to be said for the second.

Its got "Starship Troopers" in the title and like Dune'84 is going to be compared to it's source material regardless of its intent. If they really wanted to do their own thing then they should have done a name change such as The Thing from Another World, or Blade Runner, which are loose adaptations of Who Goes There and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep respectively. As Dune was twisted into a product to challenge Star Wars, Starship Troopers was twisted into a sci-fi-satire in the vein of Robocop.

ALIENS, at its core is a sequel to Alien( no big surprise there ), an 80's remake of THEM! and a blatantly obvious attempt to sneak Starship Troopers on to the big screen. Theres a bit of IT! The Terror From Beyond Space in there, but lets keep on track with the Starship Troopers connection. While not an official adaptation of Starship Troopers, Cameron does borrow a lot from Heinlein's novel. I rememeber Verhoven said in an interview that he didn't even finish reading the novel, whereas Cameron had his the cast read it for inspiration. Without writing a long, drawn out essay, Verhoven drifts away from Heinlein's novel but Cameron is attracted to it. With Verhoven's Starship Troopers we scream "fascists!" at the Federation and its troopers and laugh when one gets ripped apart in cartoon style nor care for any civilian victims, but with the Colonal Marines and colonists of Hadley's Hope we feel genuine sadness for their tragedy.

While the novel is critized for certain things; right to vote and all that jazz, its written with an appreciation for the common solider who directly faces danger and the idea that a military lifestyle can be beneficial. ALIENS clearly has no exploration of the political and propaganda side of Heinlein's novel but at least has the respect for the soldiers who are doing their job of keeping colonists safe. In civilian life there are so many forces at work trying to take advantage of us which is represented by Weyland Yutani - the "company". But in military life we can be trained to push past our percieved limits and even tackle our worst fears head on, and accomplish a great deal. The colonial marines allow Ripley an opportuntity to face those fears...

...but I still think she was daft to trust the company again!

If Cameron was trying to capture the themes or Sci fi elements of that book, he failed. Thankfully.

Yeah I never noticed even an inkling of SST in Aliens.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah I never noticed even an inkling of SST in Aliens.

I suspect it might be a sort of confusion of influences. The Mobile Infantry as depicted in the movie took some direction from the Colonial Marines in Aliens, but that's just an example for how the movie didn't really derive as much from the book as one might expect.

Aliens is related to starship troopers? Man, some people are stretching more than reed richards!

Military unit vs bug like aliens is starship troopers? I guess cloverfield was too. Hell, if military vs big bugs is a ripoff of starship troopers I guess sst was a ripoff of "Them!" (and hey, heinlein wrote it 5 years after "them!" so who's to say the germ of the idea wasn't planted in his skull while watching Them! in a theater?)

On to another surprisingly good movie, I'll say this: The words "intelligent" and "Godzilla movie" don't get used in the same sentence much but I found "Godzilla vs bioolante" was a fairly intelligent godzilla movie and the most intelligent one until "shin godzilla" came along.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fairly intelligent and plausible premise: If we accept the existence of godzilla, how would people in the real world react to it?

Obviously by trying to kill it, of course, but beyond that there would be a massive drive to study it and find out how the hell it could possibly exist and what we could learn from it. And that was the key plot of godzilla vs biolante: An international race to acquire, analyze, utilize and ultimately weaponize Godzilla's DNA.

Despite some stuff about a human soul being trapped in biolante (Bio-lahn-tay is how is how it seems to be pronounced) and a girl with psychic powers the plot of GVB was one I could accept without much problem. If godzilla existed then hell yes people would want to study its DNA and find uses for it. It was time for a movie like that to be made and GVB was a good one.

Really? Wow, then I guess Independence Day bares absolutely no similiarities whatsoever to War of the Worlds and if any are just completely coincidental!

Guys, thank you all for showing me the light. I can now appreciate ALIENS and ID4 as the true masterpieces of originality that they obviously are. Its a huge weight off not only my shoulders but also the larger community of film critics as well.

I don't know how you could you read Starship Troopers, watch Aliens, and then proceed to conclude that Aliens is somehow an attempt to get Starship Troopers on the big screen.

 trexmeyer wrote:
I don't know how you could you read Starship Troopers, watch Aliens, and then proceed to conclude that Aliens is somehow an attempt to get Starship Troopers on the big screen.

It's probably going down to boiling the story down to very simplistic elements of influence - eg marines vs aliens level of analysis. It's in the same category of analysis such as "there's only 9 stories in the world" or somesuch value. Basically when a story is rendered down in a specific way to basically summarise the entire story in a sentence or two. At which point a lot of stories, when pulled apart like that, will be "basically the same story".

 Overread wrote:

 trexmeyer wrote:
I don't know how you could you read Starship Troopers, watch Aliens, and then proceed to conclude that Aliens is somehow an attempt to get Starship Troopers on the big screen.

It's probably going down to boiling the story down to very simplistic elements of influence - eg marines vs aliens level of analysis. It's in the same category of analysis such as "there's only 9 stories in the world" or somesuch value. Basically when a story is rendered down in a specific way to basically summarise the entire story in a sentence or two. At which point a lot of stories, when pulled apart like that, will be "basically the same story".

But even a comparison that superficial doesn't work. The focus of Starship Troopers isn't even necessarily on the combat, it's on the training, military/social history, and the philosophy behind why they fight and why the Mobile Infantry exists. The actual combat is a secondary element. To go even farther with that argument, the aliens almost don't even matter to the story of Starship Troopers. The novel is basically an explanation (and justification) for infantry followed by an analysis of officers and the role of a platoon commander and senior NCOs.

 Lance845 wrote:
Water world. There is no middle ground. People either hate or love this movie. I LOVE this movie.

I thought it was not bad - but not great ......