TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2014

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version. What a stupid ending with the son. Boo!!!

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

Yeah that was one of the things that left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole thing was cool as a wow spectacle, frustrating as a story. But that's what to expect with a writer like Koepp.

The remakes aren't very good. WOTW has to be one of Spielberg's worst films. It really feels like the movie was never finished and he just edited together what footage he had available. It jumps drastically from the farmhouse sequence directly to the finale and I don't know, it just feels like there should be another sequence in there somewhere. It basically just limps across the finish line.

The remake of Day is actually not quite as horrific but it ventures so far from the story of the original it basically seems like a different story. Jennifer Connelly is the only real character in the film.

The main thing I learned watching the originals and remakes back to back is the originals haven't really dated at all, but both of the remakes already seem old.

Knowing is good, I've seen it a couple times. Some of the symbolism is laid on a little thick in the finale, but up to that point it's a unique little nail-biter. Cage restrains himself just enough to be convincing, the best performance in the film comes courtesy of Rose Byrne. Worth a rental.

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

The 1953 version was awful compared to the book!

S.D. wrote:

I can no longer watch dubbed movies, ever.  If no subtitled edition is available I skip it.

There is a brilliant dubbed version of Nikita where the voice over people have really terrible cockney accents, it completely destroys the film but is pretty hilarious!

"No Code of Conduct" (1998)


While Poison was on hiatus during the mid 90s, Bret Michaels tried his hand at indie film-making for a couple of years. Bret's directorial debut was this vanity project starring his buddy Charlie Sheen (alongside daddy Martin Sheen, who should've known better) as a pair of father-and-son Arizona cops who tangle with a vicious gang of drug smugglers over a massive heroin shipment.

"No Code of Conduct" looks like a made-for-TV flick and the script dutifully includes every cliche of the "buddy cop" shoot-em-up genre but it was a decent time waster in spite of the heavy layer of cheez.

Boris2008 wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

The 1953 version was awful compared to the book!

I saw and loved the film years before I read the novel. The 1953 film is pretty iconic. Sure, thanks to hi-def technology you can now easily see the suspension and control wires on the martian ships, but that doesn't really detract for me since I admire the ingenuity it took to create those effects in 1953. The film uses color brilliantly throughout, the sound effects are so good that some of them can occasionally be heard in current films. The heat ray sound effect is 3 electric guitars, reversed and slowed down. But I think what struck me watching it again last night was how quickly paced it is, it feels contemporary in that aspect. It's not deep science fiction, but it's a damn entertaining and stylish alien attack film.

Now I'm in the mood to watch THEM!...

My actual first experience with this story was this



I don't know if this album was as big in the states as it was here but literally everyone I knew's dad or older brother had this record when I was growing up.

Feeders

S.D. wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

The 1953 version was awful compared to the book!

I saw and loved the film years before I read the novel.  The 1953 film is pretty iconic.  Sure, thanks to hi-def technology you can now easily see the suspension and control wires on the martian ships, but that doesn't really detract for me since I admire the ingenuity it took to create those effects in 1953.  The film uses color brilliantly throughout, the sound effects are so good that some of them can occasionally be heard in current films.  The heat ray sound effect is 3 electric guitars, reversed and slowed down.  But I think what struck me watching it again last night was how quickly paced it is, it feels contemporary in that aspect.  It's not deep science fiction, but it's a damn entertaining and stylish alien attack film.  

Now I'm in the mood to watch THEM!...

I love THEM!  Like WOTW, the FX are pretty spectacular considering the year it was made.

S.D. wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

The 1953 version was awful compared to the book!

I saw and loved the film years before I read the novel.  The 1953 film is pretty iconic.  Sure, thanks to hi-def technology you can now easily see the suspension and control wires on the martian ships, but that doesn't really detract for me since I admire the ingenuity it took to create those effects in 1953.  The film uses color brilliantly throughout, the sound effects are so good that some of them can occasionally be heard in current films.  The heat ray sound effect is 3 electric guitars, reversed and slowed down.  But I think what struck me watching it again last night was how quickly paced it is, it feels contemporary in that aspect.  It's not deep science fiction, but it's a damn entertaining and stylish alien attack film.  

Now I'm in the mood to watch THEM!...

Them! is an excellent film. And like you,I feel the remakes don't hold a candle to the originals

Leatherface wrote:

Feeders

Wow!  I was just reading reviews of this at IMdb.com.  This has FF written all over it!  It sounds like there's definite Hub Page material here.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183072/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

tohostudios wrote:

Leatherface wrote:

Feeders

Wow!  I was just reading reviews of this at IMdb.com.  This has FF written all over it!  It sounds like there's definite Hub Page material here.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183072/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Heard of this one, but have never seen it.

corplhicks wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

The Tom Cruise WOTW is awful compared to the 1953 version.  What a stupid ending with the son.  Boo!!!  

Yeah that was one of the things that left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole thing was cool as a wow spectacle, frustrating as a story. But that's what to expect with a writer like Koepp.

That's just about what to expect from anything churned out by Hollywood these days.

The original WOTW was a staple for me growing up. Like you said, Shawn, the pacing was ahead of its time. Few sci-fi films of the day could pull off that kind of nail-biting tension and lightning-paced storytelling. And it was certainly macabre for a young boy, surely unsettling even for me now. I thought Spielberg would've handled the remake better. It almost feels like a cash grab on his way to Munich. It's rare when he churns out a turkey, but that certainly was one of the few. It pales in comparison--hell, it can't even be compared--to the original. Homage fail.

I also loved Them and Day the Earth Stayed Still as a kid but it's been so long I need to revisit them. I saw WOTW '53 a couple years ago for the first time in ages; it's still just as effective as days past.

"This Means War" (2012)



The partnership between two tightly-knit CIA operatives and best friends (Chris "Star Trek" Pine and Tom "Bane" Hardy) is threatened when they both fall for the same girl (Reese Witherspoon). A Russian mobster seeking vengeance on both of them for the death of his brother complicates things even further.

An entertainingly silly piece of fluff that's equal parts rom-com, slapstick comedy, and shoot'em up action flick, directed by McG of "Charlie's Angels" and "Terminator: Salvation" fame. Disposable, but fun to watch once.

(P.S. I can't say I've ever really taken notice of her before, but... Reese Witherspoon is F'ing hot.)

corplhicks wrote:

The original WOTW was a staple for me growing up. Like you said, Shawn, the pacing was ahead of its time. Few sci-fi films of the day could pull off that kind of nail-biting tension and lightning-paced storytelling. And it was certainly macabre for a young boy, surely unsettling even for me now. I thought Spielberg would've handled the remake better. It almost feels like a cash grab on his way to Munich. It's rare when he churns out a turkey, but that certainly was one of the few. It pales in comparison--hell, it can't even be compared--to the original. Homage fail.

I also loved Them and Day the Earth Stayed Still as a kid but it's been so long I need to revisit them. I saw WOTW '53 a couple years ago for the first time in ages; it's still just as effective as days past.

Another classic from that era is 20 Million Miles To Earth; classic Harryhausen stop-motion animation and a great monster design.

I think I'd much rather watch those flicks from that era (and earlier,especially the old universal pics) than just about anything today (at least in the horror/sci-fi genre).

Very few sci fi films after 1968 have stoked my imagination the way those old flicks have.

20 Mil was a really fun one that I'd love to see again. Other favorites:

Forbidden Planet
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the remakes were great too)
The Thing From Another World (and another enjoyable remake)
It Came From Outer Space
Destination Moon
Invaders From Mars

Dammit, guys; I'm supposed to be watching Christmas movies and now all I want is old sci fi!

I went through my collection of old sci fi movies last year.  Stuff like:

Them!
Valley of Gwangi
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
Brain From Planet Aros
The Black Scorpion
Earth Vs The Spider
The Amazing Colossal Man
War Of The Colossal Beast
It Came From Beneath The Sea
The Giant Behemoth
Reptilicus

tohostudios wrote:

I went through my collection of old sci fi movies last year.  Stuff like:

Them!
Valley of Gwangi
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
Brain From Planet Aros
The Black Scorpion
Earth Vs The Spider
The Amazing Colossal Man
War Of The Colossal Beast
It Came From Beneath The Sea
The Giant Behemoth
Reptilicus

Good ones, I haven't seen several of those (yet!). I adore Brain from Planet Arous. That was a regular VHS rental when I was a kid. Saw it on youtube recently--there's something about it that just works above its own camp.

I like War Of The Colossal Beast a lot; it was a staple of my childhood.  I caught it every time it came on TV.

"Glenn!   Glenn Manning!   Stop!!"  White flash as bomb test goes off.  Cut to Glenn shielding his now hairless head.

Here's the trailer:



This is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man where a normal guy is exposed to radiation and grows to be 60 ft tall.  At the end of that one, he falls off a dam and is presumed dead. The damage from that fall is why he's disfigured in the sequel. 

I like how the trailer makes it sound like he's an alien invader.

I watched a Family Guy episode tonight.

"I Know That Voice!" (2012)



John DiMaggio, best known as"Bender" on "Futurama," produced this entertaining documentary about the people who provide character voices for cartoons and video games, including interviews with cast members from "Spongebob," "Animaniacs," "The Simpsons" and dozens more. You might know their voices but in many cases you've never seen their faces before! Interesting stuff.

Big Bang Theory