movie recommendations

[Art Blade]

Fiach, lol, that was one of the best critics I've read which made me grin: involving two flicks, a summary, names of lead characters and a rating, 51 and 43 words = less than 100 words.  ;D :-X

And there comes Red, as I'm writing, and slips in a critic just as crisp, LOL  ^+-+

[Fiach]

Cheers Art :)

The Tron game is getting bad reviews here, so maybe if you tried a demo or read some reviews before committing to it mate, I was tempted, but took a pass on it and got Star Wars TFU2, its short but sweet. :)

[Fiach]

Went to Tron, its very good, especially if you are a fan :)

It looks great too, although the 3D effects were disappointing, they are nowhere near the same league as Avatar.

The storyline is well presented and all the Tron icons are there, the discs and bikes are very well done, with top notch special effects.

Jeff Bridges is very good but quite restrained and the main character (his son) looks uncannily like him in some scenes.

The evil Jeff looks like a young Jeff Bridges, due of course to CGI, but in all fairness, I was expecting something like Polar Express imagery, its not like that at all, its very natural looking.

This movie will be a must buy as a Blue Ray disc  :-X

[RedRaven]

Cheers for the review Fiach. Good to hear its not a complete lemon.


The only 3D movie I have seen is Despicable Me, and that was great but I have heard mixed reports about 3D films that are not cartoons.


Its good that both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner are back for the new film. Really want to go see it now, it was due out on 26th December but seems its out early.

[Fiach]

I f you can get to see Avatar in 3D grab the opportunity mate, its the first 3D film I saw and it was stunning! :)

[RedRaven]

Watched a bit of Avatar but it didn't grab me so turned it off. Reckon I'll get round to watching it all at some point. Too much hype around it when it came out put me off.

[Fiach]

Well I imagine that when you say you turned it off, you weren't in a 3D cinema, it uses 3D in a really awesome way.  :)

[RedRaven]

Lol.


No, a borrowed DVD copy. When in the cinema I do have a tendency to fall asleep and snore if a film is not to my liking. Doesn't happen often, tends to annoy people for some reason?  ????

[Fiach]

:)

Well the film is 3 hours long iirc, maybe you could have a wee nap before the movie? :)

[mandru]

I personally liked Avatar as I commented earlier this thread (right before I got thrashed for saying that  ;D ).

I can't help but see plot improvements and play "What comes next in my head" when I get new concepts to kick around.

Beyond the fact that this next bit is concealed in a Spoiler button, some core concepts are hidden here and if you might go on to see the movie I'd suggest leaving it alone.  I don't want to "Spoil" someone else's first time viewing perception of the film by tainting the actual movie as intended with my twist on how I saw it.

Spoiler

If nothing else the flights of imagination and pondering potential Avatar afforded me by introducing the new concept of a worldwide eco-system (including the Planet its self ) all connected by something akin to USB-4^∞, carried a lot of personal entertainment value.

For instance, when the girl's battle cat is killed five more of them should have burst snarling out of the forest for a seriously tense moment at a point where the storyline is already edge of the seat (these buggers are genuinely BadA$$) and then each of them to show submission and that the planetary eco-truce was still in effect they peacefully lower their heads close to the ground and extend their connection stalk as if to say "Pick Me!"

[Fiach]

Mandru, have you played the Avatar game?

I quite liked it, you get to use the horses and panther type things as mounts in the game, also the bird things.

If you play the soldier campaign, you get to use jeeps boats and choppers to get around, its a great looking game too. It is also 3D if you have a 3D TV.

The flying does take some getting used to, but other than that its a good shooter, probably cheap as chips now.

I like how they used the jungle too, you aren't just ground based, you can take to the tree tops as well. giving a nice sense of verticality thats missing in most games.

As you can play as Navi and Human, you have two different weapon sets as well.

[mandru]

It's funny you would mention the Avatar game Fiach.  Well maybe not since mention of the film is still warm on this thread.   :)

FC2 was the first game I'd played in several years and now after about 3 years of playing that exclusively I cracked open a copy of Assassin's Creed 2 just two days ago.  It was there in the "Extras" section of the menu that pops up when the AC2 disc is loaded that last night I first even heard that there was an Avatar game and watched the included trailer.

It looks interesting as most trailers tend to pump the connected product do.   ;)

I might have to check it out eventually after thoroughly wearing out AC2.  My graphics card is able to drive 3D glasses through a USB connection so the game Avatar is a possible strong contender if nothing else with more compelling 3D comes up down the road.   :-X

[Art Blade]

earlier this thread (right before I got thrashed for saying that  ;D ).

^+-+

By the way, I just bought Inception and that new Karate Kid. Going to watch them soon, right now I hope to save them for around xmas. :)

[Fiach]

I might have to check it out eventually after thoroughly wearing out AC2.  My graphics card is able to drive 3D glasses through a USB connection so the game Avatar is a possible strong contender if nothing else with more compelling 3D comes up down the road.   :-X

I think there was an armour code in each game, for the other game, if you catch my drift, a code for Avatar armour in the AC box and vice versa.

Call of Duty Black Ops is a fine game that supports 3D, it may be worth a looksee for ya :)

Hope you like Inception Art, I watched it three times (in different states of sobriety lol :)) and thoroughly enjoyed it :)

[Art Blade]

different states of sobriety.. hehehe.. reminds me of the Chronicles of Riddick. Watched it in England with some mates when it was just released and I was so st..ed and pi..ed at that time that when I got home all I knew was that I had thoroughly enjoyed the flick. I then bought it on DVD and what shall I say, it was completely new and surprising -- hadn't remembered a thing -- and again I thought what a nice film it was and that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it  :-()

[RedRaven]

@Art - that sounds like a familiar state of being, even happens with games sometimes. Still, its always fun ;D

[Art Blade]

Doesn't usually happen to me.. but back then, it was quite a surprising experience. :)

[Art Blade]

Also watched remake of Karate kid and really enjoyed that too, much better and a whole lot less cheesy than the original.

Just finished watching it -- great  :-X

Basically the same elements as the original, this film is interesting, entertaining and at times emotional. All a good film needs. Jackie Chan as the teacher, nice.. and what I found particularly interesting was that "Karate Kid" apparently is Will Smith's son  ??? :-X Best line of the film (maybe not an exact quote): "you taught me a great lesson. Life can knock you down, but it is your decision whether or not you want to get back up again."


Oh, almost forgot, Inception was also interesting and entertaining.  :-X

[JRD]

Oh, almost forgot, Inception was also interesting and entertaining.  :-X

First time I saw Inception it was mind blowing, second time around I felt it could be so much better. Some loose ends and some simplifications to make it a blockbuster action movie could be avoided resulting in a much better movie.

But the story overall is excelent!

Spoiler

The ending when you don't know if the pivot will or will not fall (but it flinched) was great!!! :-X

[Art Blade]

My thoughts exactly, including the spoiler :)

Only watched it once and already realised that.. that's why I wasn't exceedingly praising the film. They kind of got trapped and wedged in the story-making just like the characters in different layers of dreams/unconsciousness.

[JRD]

If you are a Beatles fan like me you probably saw this one (I haven`t till yesterday  :-[ )

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

A wonderful production featuring some of the greatest songs from the boys from Liverpool!

If you are not a fan, well, I`m sure you are familiar with their w@&k and I seriously suggest you watch this movie... I`m so glad I did it!!

[mandru]

I came across The Lathe of Heaven, an old favorite in Veoh's listings (a site I use to search for anime).

I'm not sure if this will play for every one straight out of the box as I have an account with the site and have downloaded a Veoh player to be able to view high def content but here's the link though the image quality is fairly low:

The Lathe of Heaven

It was very time significant to the 70's which shows in a lot of the dialog.

The movie was based on Ursula k. Le Guin's science fiction novel of the same title and was produced by a public television station so it's pretty much going to come across with about the same special effects quality as an old Dr Who episode.   ::)

What if the world ended and all that's left is a dream.

The Lathe of Heaven is about the dreamer and the psychiatrist who can't resist tampering with the Dream in his lust for power thinly veiled under the veneer of "in the name of science and for the good of mankind". 

Yeah it's pretty lame but I love it.  :-D

There was a remake produced by the A&E Network in 2002 that I've not seen so I'm not able to comment on its production quality of adherence to the original story.

[Art Blade]

hehe, so the 70s, eh?   :) "Portland, Oregon, the near future"   ??? ^-^

[Art Blade]

This evening I felt like watching a sci-fi flick again called Equilibrium (check IMDb) starring Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Emily Watson.

In a Fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

A nice mixture of "Matrix 1", George Orwell's novel (and film) "1984" and Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World" ( ->"where totalitarian government manipulates people's lives by eliminating individual freedom, family, art, literature, religions and cultural diversity. Totalitarian government controls humans from their conception and regulates assisted reproduction, as well, as education, indoctrination, and also enforces the medical drug use for pacification."  )

I liked it when I first watched it and watching it again was just as nice  :) :-X

[PZ]

John Voight plays a great role in the movie Runaway Train, in which he is a convict escaping a prison in Alaska.  He ends up on a runaway train (conductor dies of a heart attack) which continues to pick up speed as it races through the Alaskan wilderness.

I just saw the preview of a very similar movie - Unstoppable, which promises to be just as much a thrill-packed adventure.

Two other railroad-based movies I'm particularly fond of are The Train with Burt Lancaster, and Emperor of the North with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

I've always had a fondness for anything rails, from HO scale model railroads to movies.  ;)