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I loved Krull as a kid, and bought it on DVD all these years later, and still loved it. It's not a perfect movie. It's trying a little too hard with its vision or concept or whatever. And some elements seem a little derivative. BUT there really are some fantastic elements in there, genuine moments of brilliance. The Beast is an enigmatic and strange threat, and its fortress is cool and weird and strange, and the way it moves around the world -- making typical assault impossible -- is clever and feels both grounded and hopelessly elusive as a threat. The Beast's silent forces are genuinely creepy, the way they scream piercingly while the... thing... inside them topples out of the suit of armor and falls into (not onto, into) the ground when killed is as unsettling as it is alien. Some of the effects and props are cheesy, but others are super well done and frankly inspired. Everything the heroes do costs them (or others) dearly, the stakes are convincingly high. Come to think of it, Battle Beyond the Stars is a little like this, to me. Kind of derivative in concept, cheap/stilted in places, dialogue in some areas is eeesh, but there really are moments of brilliance in there. The way each of the mercs has a distinct personality and motivation, like the former "I'll take any job" contract killer who retired fantastically wealthy... but can't go anywhere or spend a dime because he's made so many enemies he's literally welcome nowhere and lives bored and alone on the planet/station he owns. The assassination attempt with the severed and re-attached arm is unexpected and harrowing. And the way the sentient ship plans to self-destruct to save everyone, but is damaged & not all there mentally, and as a result can barely manage the countdown... and when it goes silent as it approaches zero, you genuinely don't know whether it'll finish (did it die? Forgot what it was doing? Mind gave out before it could finish? The tension and sadness!) Also I loved The Last Starfighter as a kid, but I haven't had the courage to watch it again and find out if I can handle the truth The Eyes Have It has a new favorite as of 19:07 on Jan 21, 2024 |
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Jan 21, 2024 18:48
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Aw, that's good to know. You know, I think the central concept of "video game is actually a simulator scouting for talent to hire/poach/kidnap for a desperate cause" would play even better today.
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Jan 21, 2024 19:05
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PuttyKnife posted:I think have sort of ascended to enjoying the idea of a movie more so than the movie itself. I never thought of it like this but I think I do better appreciate parts of a movie instead of just judging the movie as a whole these days. My wife on the other hand  If something in a movie rubs her the wrong way, it's on a steep slope to being declared trash. If I think that there's elements I kind of liked despite other shortcomings I better just keep it to myself or talk about it with other people because hoo boy she does not want to hear it
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Jan 22, 2024 04:00
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Because 5000 years ago the ancient spirits of flame blessed the unions of any of pure heart BUT being of noble birth has, through the legacy of Amn-tur, brought only suffering to those who marry more than once and this has since generalized outward thanks to the prophesies of Yann-tahg  I mean this is all covered within the first 100 pages of the extended universe GOD
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Jan 22, 2024 18:29
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I just wanted to say I learned about Kin Dza Dza from this thread, checked it out, and honestly found it weirdly compelling & kept thinking about it afterwards.
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Jan 30, 2024 02:55
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I recently happened to look up The Ninth Gate, a movie in which Johnny Depp plays an unscrupulous rare book dealer who stumbles upon a book reputed to allow one to gain great power. I knew it was never really a hit, but I was a little surprised to learn it has very low reviews and scores. Apparently it's bad. I loved it from beginning to end. He gets pulled along by circumstance as well as his own draw to the mysteries he encounters, and he always seems almost entirely out of his depth. He never has the power in any interaction, and more importantly as he bumps up against the types of people who are after the promises in "the devil's bible" it's very clear he is not actually part of that scene. He's not like them. He's neither a cultist nor a "satanist". And yet... Reviews and critical reception I guess weren't kind, I still loved it though.
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Feb 8, 2024 19:34
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Oh, that makes a ton of sense. Duh
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Feb 8, 2024 21:31
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I liked that one, too! One of those movies that I watched and enjoyed, but even though I don't remember it rocking my world exactly... I nevertheless find myself thinking about it every now and again and admiring some of the ideas. I didn't expect the Hellraiser lore trivia, lol. Speaking of trivia, Clive Barker's original title for Hellraiser apparently was "Sadomasochists From Beyond The Grave"
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Feb 15, 2024 18:50
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Oh yeah, Smart Sharks! I remember the researcher explaining her emotional motivation for Alzheimer's research, sharing the pain of how every day her dad would ask where his wife was, she'd have to tell him she died, and watch his heart break every time, over and over. It seemed very cruel to me to not just say "she's coming home later/tomorrow" instead, but I'm not a genius researcher Some genuinely good scenes though, and smart sharks were a good boogeyman and not nearly as silly as it sounded to be at first.
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Feb 16, 2024 22:15
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Cowslips Warren posted:. *Cheesy electronic 'bow-wow' sound effect emerges from tinny speakers* (Jerks back from keyboard) "It's got watchdogs!"
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Feb 17, 2024 04:51
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^^^ same I'm definitely going to check out The Fall and MirrorMask. Crimes of the Future bombed hard but I loved it anyway. I can see how it maybe tries to pull the rug out from under the viewer a little too... idk what exactly, but instead of multiple factions colliding at & over a looming pivotal point in humanity's history, it might just come across as jumbled and confusing. But it's also highly weird and unsettling and if you manage to groove on its wavelength it's really wild.
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Feb 20, 2024 18:24
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Well, I was just going by review scores I saw online & was surprised to see them low. In retrospect it feels wrong to declare it bombed and I definitely don't consider it "bad"... but it's got low scores, and also I liked it a lot.
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Feb 22, 2024 04:12
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Oh poo poo, Freejack. It did have its moments, didn't it? Two things I remember the 90s having was terrible cyber-movies, and "altered DNA" movies. The Relic was one of the latter but I remember coming out of the theatre with friends saying something like "I expected that to be terrible but I actually enjoyed it" and we all agreed (the ones who did not agree didn't admit it.) It was at that magical intersection of lowered expectations up front leading to a genuinely pleasurable watch.
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Feb 22, 2024 19:17
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Shard posted:I don't know if it's considered a bad movie but I love grave encounters. I love found footage movies I love that it perfectly mocks ghost hunting reality shows and I think it has some of the best portrayals of impossible space in movies I was curious and watched it the other night, I did like the way they handled that. I discovered Amazon Prime video has like, tons of these movies and watched Hunter Prey which had its moments, actually. Just loads of movies with titles like comic books from the 50s: FUTURE FIGHT, ROBOT WARS, DRONE KILLERS, SCIENCE GONE WRONG, or whatever that were probably pretty fun to make. They all have baller, eye-catching cover art of course.
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Feb 24, 2024 18:17
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The Nicolas Cage film Next has really poor ratings but I really enjoyed it. It's about a gambler who has the ability to see the future, but only like two minutes at a time. It goes in unexpected directions. The movie genuinely put work into seriously asking "what if?" Also it wasn't predictable (and not in a "because lolrandom" way) which I always enjoy. I liked it
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Mar 8, 2024 03:50
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Did the film version manage to carry the central theme of Britain's heroes being completely indistinguishable from its monsters? I know I watched it, but I honestly can't remember any of it. I guess it was a while ago.
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Mar 10, 2024 19:18
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The league's invisible man was an absolutely amoral sociopath, which does seem like it could be an extension of Hollow Man's premise of "not having to look at yourself in the mirror" kind of leading to a dissolution of identity and accountability leaving only base impulses, etc (but I think I remember Hollow Man suggested the invisibility formula did something melty to his mind, too)
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Mar 13, 2024 21:57
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I feel like if a plan includes the step "now everyone reads this book" then the plan is gonna fail.
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Mar 15, 2024 18:13
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Shard posted:Another bad movie I love is Dagon of all the b movie adaptations of Lovecraft it's the most competent I think. Nothing bad about it in my book other than it's cheap but that's part of its charm Is this Dagon (2001)? Sounds worth a watch, that's the only one I found on a quick web search but I seem to think there was something more recent. Maybe I'm misremembering.
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Mar 17, 2024 18:25
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Thanks, I'll check it out. Always a sucker for creative Lovecraft adaptations.Rappaport posted:There was a recent adaptation of The Colour Out of Space with Nick Cage I also liked it, partly because it really conveyed a sense of the uncanny; of reality fracturing. There's nothing you can do because the rug is just being pulled out from under you and you have no idea. Tommy Chong's voice delivering the line "It's just a color... but it burns" was really good
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Mar 17, 2024 20:36
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Rockman Reserve posted:Death to Smoochy is a movie that most people I’ve discussed it with hate. More than one of them have complained “who is this movie *for*?”, which is kind of valid, it is tonally a very strange film. Hah, I loved Death to Smoochy for similar reasons, so you're not alone. There's dozens of us! The Eyes Have It has a new favorite as of 22:45 on Mar 19, 2024 |
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Mar 19, 2024 22:43
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I liked the way they did Zaphod's second head, I thought that was a good take on it and probably the least-silly way to give someone a second head (except maybe for Kuato in the 1990 Total Recall except I don't think conjoined-mutant-twin is the right way to go with Zaphod)
The Eyes Have It has a new favorite as of 01:33 on Mar 26, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 22:01
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My favorite old games industry story about Wing Commander is that right about around then (late 90s) Microsoft was making eyes at getting into games, and they paid Roberts a bunch of money to make the next Wing Commander game for them. Wing Commander was a big deal. Roberts had always wanted to be a movie director and make a movie (which is why the Wing Commander games got progressively more and more movie-like) and apparently there was some "confusion" about what the money was for because instead of a new wing commander game for MS he used it to make the Wing Commander movie. That was the common story and idk if it's 100% true, but it's definitely 100% ChrisRoberts.txt
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Apr 9, 2024 23:02
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