The martian was good. Not too thought heavy, but good fun

am i wrong about it totally just being a remake of Apollo 13??

Yeah, quite right. But like Fury Road, it was also just a really nicely styled, high quality production all around.

I actually didn't think the new Mad Max was quite as good as the rest of the world seemed to. I mean... it's great that it received a Best Picture nom, but I'm not sure it totally deserved it. As an adrenaline flick it was great. And the cinematography and effects were exceptional, but I don't think Charlize Theron necessarily deserved a fucking acting nomination for a film where there was so little acting.

I realize that the entire reason the Academy makes an effort to not exclude extremely well made action and sci-fi films is a direct result of the fallout over The Dark Knight not getting a Best Pic. nomination simply because it came it didn't quite get enough votes to make it into the top 6 films of that year. So I appreciate their paying homage to that film's greatness by making sure that #7-10 films have a chance for getting a nod. But honestly, if they wanted to make up for shafting TDK, they should have given Dark Knight Rises a nomination, or better yet Interstellar. I can't believe Interstellar didn't make it. What in the mighty fuck was THAT all about?

In short, while I'm glad more films have a chance to be "Oscar nominees," no amount of after the fact rejiggering can make up for Dark Knight'a snubbing. They'll have to just live with the embarrassment of that, and eat shit over it, until the end of time.

I would have rather seen The Force Awakens get a nod than Mad Max. That was a fun film, but it had no business in the non-editing/effects/sound categories.

Technically yes, as it was quite literally not a remake of Apollo 13.

Also, yes in a bunch of other ways that aren't so technical. The stories do have a similar theme (space, thing is space not working) but apart from that there's not much overlap between the real life story of the 7th Apollo mission and the Andy Weir novel The Martian.

so have you just not seen Apollo 13 in a long time or are you Harry Ellising me?

In both flicks we have a pioneering space mission to a new terrestrial location, an unanticipated disaster, a back and forth between Houston and the astronauts trying to work out solutions, dudes using tape and jerry rigging equipment, the scientists using models back on Earth to develop a strategy, sarcastic banter back and forth between astronauts in space and scientists on Earth, a communication failure that scares everyone, some scenes with scientists all depressed, some scenes with astronauts all depressed, gutsy but risky solution, massive fan fare back on Earth, a triumphant launch scene from mission control, a near failure on the game winning attempt..

dude i felt like i had literally seen it all before then i realized i HAD.. over 20 years ago ;)

Edit: Sorry - I said 13th Apollo mission like a goddamn idiot. Apollo 13 was the 7th in the Apollo Space Program. I remembered this after I wiki'd the movie to remind myself what year it came out. ... And also because I'm such a smartguy ;)

Actually.. I haven't seen the Martian. :( I just read the book.

And the book is a very clean little first person survival story for the most part. Apollo 13 had several perspectives, and was based on a non-fiction book (which I also read, way back when) that wasn't really comparable to Weir's the Martian.

But I also haven't seen Apollo 13 in a long, long time. Not since 1996, the year after its release (thanks Wikipedia!) when I got it on VHS. So I really can't speak to the movies much. You may be and probably are right that they're a lot alike.

Yeah.

TREMORS



terrible and cheesy but mostly funny

Johhny Cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0IEZb9ESzk

I remember this pretty fondly. Used to watch it whenever I was with my dad.

Never saw Tremors 2-10 or whatever but I'm ok with that.

i always missed it when it was on tv through the 90s-- finally saw it complete!

the dvd has a cakeboxed picture! you know-- letterboxed inside a pillarbox, black space all around

now getting ready to watch PIRANHA 3D

have ready beer, peanuts, and of course canned smoked herring-- cuz i gotta eat fish while the fish eat us haaa haaaa haaa

tremors is fantastic

as a comedy (real comedy not involuntary comedy) i give it a thumbs up

kevin bacon and the remo guy are great

--

pirahna 3D was fucking terrible but i screamed in the end haa haaa haaaa -- really good ending

mostly i guess i really resent not having seen it in a big movie screen with the 3d effects

on a regular hdtv it's dark (3d movies are dark) and there are no 3d tits to marvel at, so i kinda missed the whole point of the thing which is Big Floating Tits

too many instances of absurdity to make sense of any of it--but it was fun, yeah, even in its degraded version

i rate it 3 beers

yup, its not quite a funny movie, i don't recall ever actually laughing during it, and it tries to be a horror movie but doesn't ever scare either.

i like it everytime i see it. i think its actually kind of original

Is it the one with Hasselhoff. There's almost nothing but tits in that.

EDIT: No, Piranha 3d, on the boat shooting porn. That one's a bit boring. The sequel's the one.

right-- DD is coming next week!

i hope it's not made for 3D also (though i suppose it was)

i don't have a 3D TV or the stupid glasses... but i'll say today was the first time ever i felt like i needed one. DD might make me feel deprived ha ha ha.

ETA: a funny nod to jaws that richard dreyfuss was there or what??

--

watched the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. roger corman's own.

absurd and terribly made but kinda funny. a lot of goofy "jewish" jokes-- it's like it might have been written by mel brooks!

saw this randomly, i know nothing about it other than that i couldn't stop watchimg it, i even initially thought it aa Coen Bros flick so i guess that is w compliment of sorts since it seems clear that was what they were going for

Oh man, my dad and I used to laugh our asses of at Tremors. Not in a "oh that was so dumb it was funny" way, or in a Watchmen way (so serious it becomes insanely dumb, and therefore funny), but in a genuinely comical way.

I'll try again: we didn't laugh AT the movie, we laughed WITH the movie. We laughed at the characters and the line delivery. I definitely think it was intentionally funny. More self-aware camp gore than actual horror. If it wasn't aiming for fun, it would have been rated R. Pretty sure it was pg-13.

Great movie though. Probably even a classic at this point. There's something really endearing about it basically being "Jaws... in the dirt" that says a lot about where their heads were at. They were happily making a b-movie, and the result was a pretty massive cult hit that people still fall for to this day.

I don't know how it works in the US but my copy of 3D, the one you watched, came on 2 discs. One was the 3d version you need glasses to watch and the other one was the same film but without the 3d processing. I tried to watch the 3D version disc and it was horrible, even with the glasses.

My copy of 3DD is just the regular film with no need for glasses.

oh, rentals dont come in fancy boxes

i ordered piranha (2010) from netflix, but the bluray was busted, so-- instead of waiting for a replacement to arrive i streamed via amazon, which had "piranha 3D"-- i dont know if amazon does actual 3D, i thought it was just a title thing. the movie is advertised as "3D" everywhere outside of netflix. weird.

in any case, watched also THE ISLE



great, beautiful film--not sure it qualifies as "horror" though there are many violent and disturbing scenes, and some apparent animal abuse i did not dig (i read UK versions had them deleted). regardless, beautifully filmed and acted and great story and characters-- so little dialogue that it's virtually a silent movie

Children of the stones

Probably belongs in the TV thread but given previous chat about The Wicker Man, this was a children's TV series from the 70s that has a very similar vibe. Amazing it was aimed at children. Genuinely creepy.

The whole series here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwT0wLnT7Rc

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Made it on to my "Favorite Comedies Ever" list.

GREMLINS

hated it

never saw it before. had a couple of semi-funny moments with the dog but otherwise what a fucking boring piece of shit. watched the last 1/2 hour of it in fast forward because it went on and on with the bullshit and i just wanted to get to the end

only 2 good things about it now that i turned it off:

1) phoebe cates was so pretty

2) audrey from the original little shop of horrors had a small part here, which was a hilarious coincidence (the opening of the movie also is reminiscent)

spielberg has his name all over this as "presenting"-- this is the type of shit that taught me to hate his name before i realized he was actually a great filmmaker.

but fucking gremlins, jeezus, fucking terrible. i want my money back. can't get back the time wasted on it though.

Oh, yeah, this was just fucking fantastic. One of the most all-around enjoyable movie watching experiences of the last few years for me.

Keep an eye out for the sequel, "We're Wolves," which is coming in 2017 I think.

Hmm... I would have thought this one would have held up, kind of like Tremors. I remember really liking it as a kid. But, really, what '80s kid didn't love this movie? It's probably been over 20 years one I last saw it. Maybe I'll revisit.

Don't watch the sequel.. not that you would, just saying. Don't.

I think Spielberg more or less "presented" the entire 1980s. I can't believe he agreed to have his name associated with some of those films. Jesus.

tremors is a grownup movie and the banter between the main characters is hilarious. other characters are appealing as well--walter and the mexican dude and the gun nuts. the annoying kid as comic relief. and the mom/girl while rather nondescript are the "vulnerable" spot that adds drama. the grad student girl didn't do it for me but okay.

this one... maybe appealed to kids through the toy aspect, but it was a rambling mess with too many cartoon characters in only for a brief appearance and then gone

the icing on the shit cake was having the "bad" gremlins as black people cartoons, break-dancing and wearing big hats and in some sort of jazz/blues joint and shit. wtf. i should have known it was coming after the chinese caricatures from the beginning.

but yeah it's not like i turned against this because the racial aspects. it was first and foremost a boring flick made of random parts and way too long

i used to think spielberg was a hack who pandered to the suburban masses, a kind of ideologist of reaganism, which made me skip schindler's list and ryan's privates in their day, but when i finally saw duel, and then empire of the sun, i was like "wait a minute..."

wow you missed out initially. yeah Spielberg is a "pop" movie maker but he is diverse with range and his serious films are as much in the pantheon of film as his blockbusters

I vaguely remember GREMLINS 2 had some pointed social commentary. No?

ha ha ha-- that i'll never now

this one made overt references to that jimmy stewart movie about his savings and loans (i forget the name) and it attempted a criticism of 80s greed but it was pretty fucking weak and went nowhere with it

oh and then the "lesson" that the "wise chinaman" imparts at the end. nature's gifts and you're not ready yet or something. lame.

WHY GREMLINS 2 IS AN ESSENTIAL COMMENTARY ON CONTEMPORARY POP CULTURE

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com...y-pop-culture/

Actually, a search of "Gremlins Social Commentary" came up with more stuff than I imagined.

Xenophobia in Joe Dante’s Gremlins

https://kissmybloodyaxe.wordpress.co...gremlins-1984/

dammit man, now you have me wanting to watch gremlins 2 if only for anthropological reasons.

---

i need picks for next weekend. piranha DD is a shoo-in as "action" (plus tits). need some sex horror (nekromantik is a candidate), and a horror comedy at least. that's the backbone, i might add fillers (really wanna see invasion of the body snatchers). weekdays i can only fit in TV shows so likely true detective 2 plus the end of house of cards 4.

so: what's a good, can't-miss horror comedy?

eta: cabin in the woods? i might get cabin in the woods

Cabin rules. Hilarious and brilliant.

Cabin in the Woods is legitimately brilliant. I know you like Joss Whedon's Avengers, and I think you like Joss Whedon in general (?), but Cabin is a MUCH smarter and more interesting movie. It's, like, "real" Whedon, without the intervention of massive publishers and film studios. It's Whedon's story.

I went into it expecting to see a pretty good, but fairly straight-forward horror film, and ohmagod it's totally not that.

You might think it is, up to about the 30 minute mark, but then shit gets seriously cray-cray. And seriously stupid. Ad genuinely hilarious. And perhaps more amazing than anything else, pretty goddamn scary.

The premise is a little bit Evil Dead, a little bit Monster Squad, a little bit The Office (or Parks and Rec or whatever your poison is), plus a fair amount of Lovercraft > All mythology that made it extra special for me.

Cabin and Serenity are my favorite Whedon films. I strongly recommend it, but only if you see it through. It might feel like an Evil Dead meets Scary Movie kind of thing for the first bit, but push through.

incredibly sayisfying. Whedon is clearly a true film nerd, and he pulls from some obscure places as well as some very obvious ones.

Might be the best "horror" movie of the decade, really.

thanks guys-- yes, i'm a whedon fan since his buffy days

it should be here soon!

also lining up the evil dead which i've never seen

i should try to get the roger corman gothic horrors too if i can-- i used to be an edgar allan poe fan when i was a kid and it would be interesting to see

Can't go wrong with Cabin in the Woods and Evil Dead.

Piranha 3DD probably qualifies as comedy horror but other than that, how about Return of the Living Dead?

Masque of the Red Death would cover your Poe requirements, and it's a great film in its own right.

If you can get hold of Nekromantik then it's worth seeing

Also. how about something that's genuinely scary, like the 1st Paranormal Activity?

I'd also recommend It Follows and House of the Devil if youre interested in recent (and very good) homages to 80s horror movies.

Another good recent horror is The Babadook.

Also reasonably new and with a real good story, and surprisingly scary, is The Woman in Black

If it was me, on Halloween night itself, I'd go for something like

Bride of Frankenstein
Night of the Living Dead
Carnival of Souls
The Funhouse

It really, really is.

The babadook had way too much screaming toddler in it. For me, screaming toddler is the real horror