Movies: What makes and impact with you?

Chaos Cricket · Post by **Chaos Cricket** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:23 am

Well, we were trying to determine if there was some reason for the car to explode. There wasn't. So we laughed for hours about that one scene...and refused to watch the rest of the movie.

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:23 am

using cardboard and cheap effects is one thing.

When filming Superstarlet AD, the actress playing Rachel quit. So did the replacement. Three actresses play the same character in the movie, cutting back and forth throughout the movie, and a fourth actress re-dubbed some of the lines.

Having a character changing faces/body-types/hairstyles/accents throughout is a whole new level of bad. The director had to give the other lead character a drug problem to explain why the one girl kept changing.

Chaos Cricket · Post by **Chaos Cricket** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:28 am

But that's actually a fairly creative way of dealing with rather adverse circumstances, Okie. I mean, there was no excuse for what I'd seen. The director basically said, "it's the bad guys' car. It should explode." So it did...gratuitously. And I'm all for most explosions, but when it seems grauitous even to me...that's sad.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:58 am

The worst movie I ever actually went to a theater to see has to have been Black Hole.

Which is really too bad, because the book was excellent.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 11:02 am

Hm, I heard that "Ed Wood" is good too. Gonna watch it soon.

I liked "Four weddings and funeral". I actually watchen it, like, seven times, and liked it every time a bit more. There's a lot of things I didn't catch up in first watchings.
But every next film by the same team was horrible. How many times do they think the same formula was gonna work? Ugh.

As for cheap films, I like watching them because those people at least try with what they got. What I hate is high-budget films that relay on that budget only. I mean, I respect poor Ed Wood so much more that any Arnold-Swarceneger-mercenary-from-future film maker. I mean, Titanic, English patient... and what annoys me the most is, at the time they'were filmed it was almost a blasphemy saying that those movies suck. Now, people hardly remember them.

Sippan · Post by **Sippan** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 11:39 am

Chaos Cricket wrote:No, I'm fairly certain the worst movie in existence is an old sci-fi superhero flick called Supersonic Man. I think the thing was filmed in Italy years ago.

As an exampel of just how bad this film is: there's a scene where the heronie is being chased by the bad guys. She's driving down this road, and there's a tractor or something in the road up ahead. Supersonic Man "flies" down (it was obvious he was standing and just bent over in front of the camera for the flying effect), lifts up the tractor, and she drives under. Except in the shot of him lifting the tractor, you can see that it's obviously a cardboard cut out.

But that's not the best part. Supersonic Man sets the tractor back down, so the bad guys have to swerve off the road. They start rolling down a hill, and suddenly one of them says, "oh no!" and the car bursts into flames for no apparent reason. They didn't hit anything, not even a bump. The car just...exploded. Poorly.

We decided to turn the movie off after watching that scene a couple of times. It was just...awful.

Hehe, it's like...um...I don't remember the name, but there's a Bruce Lee movie where he's fighting some guy, and - SUDDENLY! - a BUS pulls up from nowhere, and 20 bad guys with chains and whatnot storm out and join the fight. We never find out who they are or where they came from.

Chaos Cricket · Post by **Chaos Cricket** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 12:17 pm

Hehe, it's like...um...I don't remember the name, but there's a Bruce Lee movie where he's fighting some guy, and - SUDDENLY! - a BUS pulls up from nowhere, and 20 bad guys with chains and whatnot storm out and join the fight. We never find out who they are or where they came from.

See, that I could understand. I mean, kung fu movies are supposed to have all sorts of random baddies for the hero to beat the crap out of. How else would you know he's the hero? What I've never understood about kung fu is how everyone seems to know some fighting style. I mean, we're talking random people walking down the street, the butcher in his stall, the guy sweeping up in front of his hovel. Everyone. Next to that, a busful of guys with weapons who have a vendetta against the protagonist seems downright reasonable.

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 3:11 pm

mcDuffies wrote:As for cheap films, I like watching them because those people at least try with what they got. What I hate is high-budget films that relay on that budget only.

Yeah.
Actually, I often preffer the old F/X "we thought up a way to make it look real"
rather than the new ones "We paid gazilion dollars to the rendering team, and it looks almost real... except the lighting conditions are all off, and everything is ridiculously shiny"
I also like it that old SF directors KNEW their F/X is not that brilliant, so they avoided them, meanwhile todays directors seem to be convinced that the digital effects are flawless- while they are not.

Ie. aliens and predator these are my favourite movies. Maybe the special effects in there are not perfect, but even after all these years, they are not disturbing.
Or the OLD starwars, with model ships- these things look great!

Meanwhile, take any of the recent CG crap- the rendered parts just look like CRAP! (And they are hella expensive CRAP)

Sippan · Post by **Sippan** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 3:42 pm

There are basically these kinds of movies:

* Huge budget, modest movie - for example Requiem for a Dream. They could do whatever they wanted if they felt like it, but they know from the beginning how they want the movie and they don't add any extra stuff just because they can. These are the ones I like best.

* Huge budget, huge movie - for example The Matrix and basically any American action from the past 5 years. Bo-ring.

* Small budget, modest movie - for example Fresh. My second favorite type. They don't have a lot to throw around, but they accept it and make a movie with what they have and they always turn out great even though nobody ever hears about them.

* Small budget, huge movie - for example Grotto and Nightmare City. They don't have any money, but god damn it they ARE going to have advanced special effects!! Even if it means having to use raspberry jam as fake blood and making slow-motion effects by having all the actors move slowly. (Of course, a genius (like Peter Jackson) can pull off making one of these movies that is actually pretty cool. But that's the exception to the rule

)

ZOMBIE USER 18017 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 18017** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 7:06 pm

Has anyone seen The Passion of Christ yet? If it's even out...

A friend who works in a movie theatre told me that if a customer asks how the movie was, he's supposed to say he hasn't seen it yet.

Sippan · Post by **Sippan** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 7:11 pm

How about...

BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS 2: MANIAC NURSES FIND ECSTASY

Judging only by the title, it sounds like an AWESOME movie!

If you look at the cover however, it looks more like a porn flick than a lame underground horror flick =(

Grabmygoblin · Post by **Grabmygoblin** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:10 pm

worst movie ever that you have to see? Steel. Shaq and a metal suit for 90 minutes.

Okie · Post by **Okie** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:14 pm

BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS 2

the original Tod Browning's Freaks is good. Johnny Eck is one of my heroes: Magician, Sharpshooter, Acrobat, Actor, Stuntman, and sort-of train conductor. He was the one balancing on a bed-knob with one hand and holding a pistol in the other. Leonardo Di Caprio was going to play him in a movie, written by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands), but I'm pretty sure that deal fell apart.

I am looking forward to Thompson's next film: The Corpse Bride. "An animated interpretation of a 19th Century Russian folktale, where a man mistakenly weds a corpse"

Most movies with really cool titles just don't live up to the expectation. Astrozombies and Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! are exceptions

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:36 pm

Okie wrote:Most movies with really cool titles just don't live up to the expectation. Astrozombies and Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! are exceptions

"Flatliners" was cool. But I guess the title wasn't that cool.

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:13 pm

Chaos Cricket wrote:No, I'm fairly certain the worst movie in existence is an old sci-fi superhero flick called Supersonic Man. I think the thing was filmed in Italy years ago.

Just like "Puma Man" and "Warrior of the Lost World."

Coincidence? I think not.

"You know, thanks to this movie, I have no respect for pumas now. I now know that if I ever see a puma, I can just push it the hell over!"

DGC · Post by **DGC** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 1:12 am

An example of the FX being completely bloated and taking over the movie: The Mummy Returns. I actually liked the first Stephen Somers version because it was fun. Like they knew it was a cheesy popcorn flick and just had some fun with it. The second one was a big freakin' mess. Billions of CG monsters and all kinds of crap that didn't look real. I'm pretty sure they were swamping the screen with these things because they forgot how to set up a decent shot and thought the audience would be distracted.

My biggest disappointment was at the end when I thought there was gonna be an entertaining throwdown between the the two main characters and the scorpion king, and what comes out? A crappy scorpion with the Rock's face pasted on it! It looked like a mid-90's video game!

Bright spark · Post by **Bright spark** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:27 am

Yes, that scorpian was pretty lame. It looked far more fake than fx done 20 years ago. It's like they were just trying too hard.

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:03 pm

fi13r wrote:
Chaos Cricket wrote:No, I'm fairly certain the worst movie in existence is an old sci-fi superhero flick called Supersonic Man. I think the thing was filmed in Italy years ago.
Just like "Puma Man" and "Warrior of the Lost World."

Coincidence? I think not.

When movie critic Joe Bob Briggs still had a show on TNT, he aired "Warrior of the Lost World" and commented that those Italians really really loved their dynamite, and the explosives expert was probably the most important and revered man on the set.

"How many sticks will you need today, maestro?"

Chrismills · Post by **Chrismills** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 7:29 pm

Back to the original topic (yeah, I'm a latecomer). Dunno if this was mentioned yet, but...

The end of Moulin Rouge, when Satine dies and Christian lets out those horrible, agonizing sobs. I cry like a baby every time.

Brockway · Post by **Brockway** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 7:34 pm

You bastard!!!

I was going to watch that movie later!!

...

Just kidding...