(2021-03-03, 02:44 PM)Radamant Wrote: No.1: Blade Runner 2049 is a terrible sequel - unnecessary, unworthy of its spectacular predecessor; badly cast, shallow and pretentious misunderstanding of the original, devoid of all subtlety and filled with visual plagiarism that was supposed to mask its incompetence.

Couldn't agree more. Terrible movie and terrible sequel.

"Hold my beer..." ;-)

As a kid, I got to see Highlander 2 before Highlander 1, so part two will always have me hooked with nostalgic glasses.

Here's the problem now thou... I haven't got the faintest idea which cut was available here in Sweden way back then. I've seen so many different versions so I can no longer tell which was the first one. Something something space planet prison strange ish version?

I'm actually due to rewatch both 1 and 2 these days. Just gonna find me the best available BD versions.

I really need to get that Avengers 98 novel. Been wanting to see the original version ever since reading about on the old imdb forums way back in 2002 or so.

My big one is still Batman Forever made all the more infuriating that WB just blew millions on the Snyder cut and actually admitted they don't know if the 170m long cut of Forever they have in the vault will "find and audience"...uh, I've got 700 signatures on my measly petition and have written into you guys for years and even recorded a whole audio commentary around this issue....

Maybe the following statements will be quite unpopular, but they are my own opinions, so get them with a grain of salt!

Godzilla... I liked the idea of a bit, dinosaur-like monster, getting around destroing cities, beating other monsters and so far... BUT... I always hated its Japanese representation. C'mon, a man-in-a-suit that even a six years old could spot, with goofy movement, it was so akward that I can't stand more than few minutes without stop.

Then it came the US version, and almost anybody hated it - in particular fans of the original version; but I liked it a lot. Sure, the movie itself is not a masterpiece, but it's quite good, and the monster is, well, believable - for how much a monster could be believable, I mean. After that, in 2014 they (Americans) remade it, and fans of the original one liked it - at least much more than the previous incarnation.

Albeit I did not dislike it as much as the JP one, it was to me like a glorified CGI version of the original man-in-a-suit; small head, goofy and slow movements blah blah blah. Still thinked that 98 version was better. Then "King of the monsters"; it was faster, many monsters, and so I liked the movie more - the character just a bit more. Then the last "Godzilla Vs Kong" was faster and meaner, still it was not there.

Maybe because it reminded me - more than a bit - Pacific Rim; Hong Kong, dinosaur-like VS an enemy, a mechanic monster "possessed". I liked that movie a lot, second less, still loved all the monsters; they were much more organic and "true" than the latest three US Godzilla.

Long story short: I love 98 'Zilla a lot, I kinda bare latest MonsterVerse Godzilla, I can't stand the Japanese Godzilla!

P.S. for all the JP one lovers, how can you stand watching such kind of scenes?!?

(2021-04-05, 01:07 AM)spoRv Wrote: Maybe the following statements will be quite unpopular, but they are my own opinions, so get them with a grain of salt!

Godzilla... I liked the idea of a bit, dinosaur-like monster, getting around destroing cities, beating other monsters and so far... BUT... I always hated its Japanese representation. C'mon, a man-in-a-suit that even a six years old could spot, with goofy movement, it was so akward that I can't stand more than few minutes without stop.

Then it came the US version, and almost anybody hated it - in particular fans of the original version; but I liked it a lot. Sure, the movie itself is not a masterpiece, but it's quite good, and the monster is, well, believable - for how much a monster could be believable, I mean. After that, in 2014 they (Americans) remade it, and fans of the original one liked it - at least much more than the previous incarnation.

Albeit I did not dislike it as much as the JP one, it was to me like a glorified CGI version of the original man-in-a-suit; small head, goofy and slow movements blah blah blah. Still thinked that 98 version was better. Then "King of the monsters"; it was faster, many monsters, and so I liked the movie more - the character just a bit more. Then the last "Godzilla Vs Kong" was faster and meaner, still it was not there.

Maybe because it reminded me - more than a bit - Pacific Rim; Hong Kong, dinosaur-like VS an enemy, a mechanic monster "possessed". I liked that movie a lot, second less, still loved all the monsters; they were much more organic and "true" than the latest three US Godzilla.

Long story short: I love 98 'Zilla a lot, I kinda bare latest MonsterVerse Godzilla, I can't stand the Japanese Godzilla!

P.S. for all the JP one lovers, how can you stand watching such kind of scenes?!?

Godzilla sold out pretty quickly IMO. Only the first one's worth watching, and it's actually a pretty good film (barring the garbage 1956 American re-cut). I guess I just can't relate to big monsters hitting each other without it being attached something more. By that metric the 1999 Godzilla also comes across as bland to me.

The portrayal of nuclear weaponry as a soulless monster is a good idea, and the characters originally presented support that narrative. The same way Neon Genesis Evangelion eventually became an analogue to child soldiers and even exposed the flaws in its own genre.

Will we ever get another Godzilla movie like that? Probably not, audiences seem to respond more to the focus on action and fans are there for the monsters. And presumably the...character, I guess? of Godzilla. Oh, well.

(2020-06-22, 05:07 PM)BDgeek Wrote: Now to add a HUGE one to the list, it would be Batman & Robin (1997).

It's a universally panned movie, that I very much enjoy. I'll quote some words by user Geof D from another forum, as I could not put it better myself:

"It's as camp as a row of tents with a nice line in sexual innuendo and that's no bad thing IMO, but I dug so much more about it than that.

Arnie is a quip-spouting blast but is also surprisingly sympathetic at times and Thurman vamps it up like a good 'un, even Alicia Silverstone's woke Batgirl is a nice change of pace. (That bit from Bats about her name not being very PC kinda stunned me, it's like the movie was made yesterday and not 22 years ago!) Michael Gough anchors the whole thing of course, he could read the phone book and still make it sound like Shakespeare. Even Clooney does a decent job, he's still playing George Clooney of course but as I'm a major fan of E.R. then I got no complaints.

The look of the movie is amazing as well, I'm not talkin' 'bout the UHD here but the actual production design in general. Forever felt like a step backwards after Returns in that respect, it seemed more hemmed in and the usage of digital wide shots for Gotham come off as a bit cheap, but on B&R they went all-out with some giant sets again as well as loads of miniatures, and some of those shots of the city's goliaths with the camera swooping past are just pure movie magic.

Not that there isn't digital stuff as well, some of which doesn't look great but there's so much stuff that does, the freeze effects still work and I gotta say, I thought the digital doubles looked superb considering that this was made well over two decades ago (and only four years after dinosaurs walked the earth once again). They look way better than other digital doubles of the period i.e. Titanic, and even some modern digital doubling IMO.

This flick's not even a guilty pleasure for me as I thoroughly enjoyed it."

The UHD is just marvelous, one of the best in the format so far.

That's why I'm trying to put together a compilation of original audio to go along with this gread video souce. I already have the BD DTHD 5.1 48kHz/16-bit, the flipper DVD DD 5.1 384kbps and I'm trying to have the LD (PCM and AC-3) ripped (I'll gift the both the US and JP versions of the LD to whoever vouches to have it done).

I feel the same way about the film.  I really really love it.  Just one of the many films I adore that are widely panned (I think it's just bandwagon BS).  
I think it's a wonderful merging of the '60s live-action TV series, the Burton films, and The Animated Series.


Other films I adore that are widely panned: 

Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers (my favorite entry of the original series, next to Halloween III: Season Of The Witch). 

Rob Zombie's Halloween II (Theatrical Version) (my favorite entry in the franchise. Though, I know this one is more a divided audience and less widely panned.) 

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch (maybe my favorite film. I'm the creator/founder of Dark Side Of The Sucker Punch, which was this eerie story of how I discovered it. I'll have to make a thread about that, as it's one of the only things I've created/restored/fan-edited/whatever that I can contribute here). 

I just recently rewatched Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan and it's a newfound love for me.  I'm surprised it's near the top of my favorites in that series, when it was near or at the bottom before.  I last saw it like 20 years ago.  So my opinion has vastly changed. 

Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning 

Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines and Terminator: Genisys are now my favorite entries in that series of movies (they used to be bottom for me). 

Seed Of Chucky  

Freddy Got Fingered (I hated it when I first saw it.  Now, it's something I keep going back to watch. I get the hate, but I see great messages and enjoyment in that film.) 

Ang Lee's HULK (I think it's one of the best superhero/comic-book films.) 

Batman v Superman (though I wouldn't say it's necessarily a favorite of mine, but I really really appreciate it and the mirror to our reality. It's a product of our time and I think a quite important one.) 

Spider-Man 3 
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 
Live Free Or Die Hard (probably my favorite of the series) 
Resident Evil Retribution (my favorite of that series) 

many more I'm not thinking of.

Movie Bob (a mostly cancelled critic) once said if you don't like Sucker Punch, you don't understand it.
I maintain that if you LIKED Sucker Punch, you didn't understand it.
But I'm not judging ANYONE on this thread. To be fair I don't like a single thing that Zach Snyder has done.

Yeah, even JL. Joss may have butchered the original vision, but he did manage to tell nearly the same story in a fraction of the time.

(2021-04-16, 06:11 PM)Doctor M Wrote: Movie Bob (a mostly cancelled critic) once said if you don't like Sucker Punch, you don't understand it.
I maintain that if you LIKED Sucker Punch, you didn't understand it.
But I'm not judging ANYONE on this thread.  To be fair I don't like a single thing that Zach Snyder has done.

Yeah, even JL.  Joss may have butchered the original vision, but he did manage to tell nearly the same story in a fraction of the time.

I'm more of a Snyder liker, but I don't like Sucker Punch either. Too depressing for my taste.

(2021-04-16, 05:20 AM)Xyberfaust Wrote: I feel the same way about the film.  I really really love it.  Just one of the many films I adore that are widely panned (I think it's just bandwagon BS).  
I think it's a wonderful merging of the '60s live-action TV series, the Burton films, and The Animated Series.

I prefer B&R to Forever... primarily because the camp is just really goofy fun, but also because the pairing of Arnold and Uma make for a much more fun contrast in a villainous duo than Tommy Lee Jones trying to out-shrill Jim Carrey.

But in the hindsight of having so many damned batman movies and TV series around that they no longer need to bear the weight of such immense fan-expectations, both movies are strikingly memorable works.

(2020-06-22, 05:07 PM)BDgeek Wrote: Now to add a HUGE one to the list, it would be Batman & Robin (1997).

It's a universally panned movie, that I very much enjoy. I'll quote some words by user Geof D from another forum, as I could not put it better myself:

"It's as camp as a row of tents with a nice line in sexual innuendo and that's no bad thing IMO, but I dug so much more about it than that.

Arnie is a quip-spouting blast but is also surprisingly sympathetic at times and Thurman vamps it up like a good 'un, even Alicia Silverstone's woke Batgirl is a nice change of pace. (That bit from Bats about her name not being very PC kinda stunned me, it's like the movie was made yesterday and not 22 years ago!) Michael Gough anchors the whole thing of course, he could read the phone book and still make it sound like Shakespeare. Even Clooney does a decent job, he's still playing George Clooney of course but as I'm a major fan of E.R. then I got no complaints.

The look of the movie is amazing as well, I'm not talkin' 'bout the UHD here but the actual production design in general. Forever felt like a step backwards after Returns in that respect, it seemed more hemmed in and the usage of digital wide shots for Gotham come off as a bit cheap, but on B&R they went all-out with some giant sets again as well as loads of miniatures, and some of those shots of the city's goliaths with the camera swooping past are just pure movie magic.

Not that there isn't digital stuff as well, some of which doesn't look great but there's so much stuff that does, the freeze effects still work and I gotta say, I thought the digital doubles looked superb considering that this was made well over two decades ago (and only four years after dinosaurs walked the earth once again). They look way better than other digital doubles of the period i.e. Titanic, and even some modern digital doubling IMO.

This flick's not even a guilty pleasure for me as I thoroughly enjoyed it."

The UHD is just marvelous, one of the best in the format so far.

That's why I'm trying to put together a compilation of original audio to go along with this gread video souce. I already have the BD DTHD 5.1 48kHz/16-bit, the flipper DVD DD 5.1 384kbps and I'm trying to have the LD (PCM and AC-3) ripped (I'll gift the both the US and JP versions of the LD to whoever vouches to have it done).

I hated Batman and Robin when I saw it in the theaters. I still don't care that much for it but I can now appreciate what Joel was going for when he directed it and Batman Forever. He stated in an interview that he was going for the Batman of his youth, trying to recreate the Golden Era of superheroes. Campy and tongue in cheek. Knowing that I have a mild respect for the film. Its also fun in a bad movie way.