Comments that which don't warrant a thread

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

Death Race features a disclaimer at the end telling people to not try this at home.

 

Thanks, Death Race!

 

Is it actually just a screen saying that, or is it hidden in the credits?

 

I stayed after the credits for Tropic Thunder and toward the end there was a disclaimer about how Dreamworks did not get paid and does not condone tobacco use.

[Nighthawk 0]

That was more directed towards preferring the mini series.

 

It is a great book, but if you find the movie dull, I don't know what to tell you. Art being subjective and all. I can point out that you are very much in the minority in not liking the movie. Hell, the burden of proof is on you.

[Matt Young 0]

I didn't say I didn't like the movie. I just said it didn't hold up as well, and was kind of boring. Too much time with nothing really going on. I still like it.

 

The book is better to me, but then again, I almost always like the book better. It's natural to compare the 2 mediums, but at the same time kind of hard given the storytelling constraints of a movie versus a book.

 

As for the miniseries, I only saw it once when it premiered, so I can't really rank it against the book and movie.

[randomguy 0]

Since someone spoiled it, Matthew McCaughnawhatever getting eaten was the one good scene in Reign of Fire.

 

And Scary Movie 2 is a great movie.

[MFer 0]

#1 movie when I was born...Fatal Attraction.

[Jingus 0]

It is a great book, but if you find the movie dull, I don't know what to tell you. Art being subjective and all. I can point out that you are very much in the minority in not liking the movie. Hell, the burden of proof is on you.

Hawk, so much of my horror movie taste is very similar to yours... but I just couldn't get into The Shining. Maybe I need to go back and rewatch it sometime, but the first run left me feeling very underwhelmed. (Admitting my bias, I'm not sure I really loved anything Kubrick ever did post-Strangelove).

 

And Scary Movie 2 is a great movie.

What.

 

Okay, I know I'm a faggy cinema elitist and always hide under the blanket of subjectivity and everything, but some pieces of shit are just a piece of shit. Scary Movie 2 was a piece of shit. I offer this tale: me and my brother went to the movie theater one day. We played a sadistic game where each of us chose a movie which we thought ourselves would like, but the other one would hate. And we watched 'em both together. I picked Moulin Rouge. He picked Scary Movie 2. We watched both on the same day. Upon our post-watching summing up, he admitted his shameful failure and that my choice was an objectively superior work of art compared to the compost heap he chucked us into.

 

Let me provide a little bit of backstory about my brother. The last time I talked to him, he was calling me on his cell phone while literally sitting on top of a nuclear missle submarine. He's a weapons technician for the navy. He's qualified to both fire the doomsday missle and literally does guard duty with a machine gun to protect said missle. He was an Eagle scout, has a degree in police tactics, and was a hardcore NIN goth back in the day. He owns too many guns and knives to possibly count. He's getting divorced from his first wife. Somehow he accidentally turned her into a submissive bitch, and neither of them like that relationship. She's half Irish and half Puerto Rican, and I saw her tazer a guy once with my own eyes. My borther accidentally turned her into his slave just by being himself. My brother is the most insanely macho man on the planet who still combines hisi testosterone rage with a chilling intellect. This guy will be a president someday. Or the security guard at that one mall you NEVER steal from.

 

Point is, he's a manly guy. And he thinks a gay musical is way, way better than Scary Movie 2. That movie sucked.

[Nighthawk 0]

I almost always like the book better too. It's just that while The Shining, Stephen King's third novel, written back when he had a drinking problem and was a new father (what the story is an allegory for) is indeed a great book, the movie is basically perfect, one of those seminal achievements in film. I guess you don't agree. While I would easily rank The Shining very near the top of a list of my favorite movies, the book is just one great book among many.

JAWS is another example of a movie just being more than a movie, it's a work of art. And that was a pretty good book too (albeit gross and exploitative), but it's just not the same.

 

Re: The Shining miniseries, it's pretty crappy. I mean, we're going to compare Jack Nicholson to fucking Steven Weber? From Wings? C'mon. And even Melvin Van Peebles, who I love, is no Scatman Carothers. And the kid was annoying. That's just the cast, saying nothing of the constraints of television, effects, cinematography... I mean, what about all that steadicam stuff?

 

Anyway... I do own The Shining miniseries dvd. It's worth it for the Stephen King commentary (yeah, it's a full length commentary). As a fan of the guy, it's pretty fascinating.

[Jingus 0]

I almost always like the book better too. It's just that while The Shining, Stephen King's third novel, written back when he had a drinking problem and was a new father (what the story is an allegory for) is indeed a great book, the movie is basically perfect, one of those seminal achievements in film. I guess you don't agree. While I would easily rank The Shining very near the top of a list of my favorite movies, the book is just one great book among many.

JAWS is another example of a movie just being more than a movie, it's a work of art.

Dammit, guess I'll have to go back and rewatch Shining sometime soon.

 

And that was a pretty good book too (albeit gross and exploitative), but it's just not the same.

Generally agree. Although the single creepiest part of the book for me was the hedge animals sequence. I know there's really no way you could possibly do justice to that on the screen, so it's not fair to dislike the movie for changing it, but... yeah.

 

Re: The Shining miniseries, it's pretty crappy. I mean, we're going to compare Jack Nicholson to fucking Steven Weber? From Wings? C'mon. And even Melvin Van Peebles, who I love, is no Scatman Carothers. And the kid was annoying. That's just the cast, saying nothing of the constraints of television, effects, cinematography... I mean, what about all that steadicam stuff?

Irony: I've never seen the miniseries version. Yet I somehow got a copy of it back in college, before they released it on video/dvd, and attempted to sell it on ebay. I think I got one buyer, and she never sent the money. Whore. Never sold anything on Ebay again.

 

And I just saw the miniseries director Mick Garris's Psycho IV for the first time in a while... sucked... hey, he started Masters of Horror too, didn't he? Hmph. Not gonna watch that miniseries anytime soon.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Yeah, Psycho IV took the remaining shreads of quality the series had and threw it in the corner.

[bob_barron 0]

Regarding the disclaimer in Death Race:

 

It's the first thing you see when the credits hit. My friends and I were going to rig up our cars so we could shoot at each other while driving, but if the disclaimer says not to, well I guess I better listen.

 

[Jingus 0]

For no reason, my review of said movie:

 

Psycho IV: The Beginning: 3/10

What is it about horror movies which seem to inspire so many origin story prequels? And they're almost always called "Something Or Other: The Beginning". The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Amityville Horror, and Hannibal Lecter all did this, not to mention various remakes like Rob Zombie's Halloween which revisit the character's origins. The difference between most of those and Psycho IV is that this film actually has some good intentions beyond just making money, and wanted to provide both a prologue and finale for the tale of Norman Bates. Unfortunately, all the good intentions in the world can't overcome shoddy work, since this is just plain and simple a thoroughly bad movie.

 

Anthony Perkins returns for the last time as Norman Bates, but he spends 80% of his time just standing around in his kitchen and talking on a telephone. Norman is apparently getting the old killing urges again, and has called into his favorite radio talk show (with host C.C.H. Pounder, and for some reason the station manager is John Landis) to tell his story. Here's one big problem with the movie: the whole radio call-in thing is just a clumsy excuse to show a whole bunch of flashbacks of young teenager Norman popping his cherry, as it were. In the end, we find out there's no real reason for Norman to have called in, and the radio show is completely dropped and forgotten by the ending. (I'd still like an explanation of exactly why they never told the cops that Norman Frigging Bates had just told them in plain English that he was about to kill more people.) Furthermore, we have to stomach a truly awe-inspiring load of bullshit to even start this plot: allegedly Norman has already been released back into society after the events of Psycho III, a mere four years ago. Seriously, this is a known serial killer who has been caught on at least two separate occasions, having killed multiple people, over the course of many years. HELL muthafuckin' NO he would never see daylight again.

 

Then we've got Olivia Hussey as Norman's flashback mother. Dear lord, even in her middle age, that is an astonishingly beautiful woman. Unfortunately, she's not too great an actress, and here she seems to be suffering under the delusion that she's happened to net a great part. So Olivia wildly chews the scenery in a sometimes embarassing performance, playing every scene as if she's Lady Macbeth scrubbing out that damn spot. The odd choice for young Norman is Henry Thomas, yeah I mean Elliott from E.T., and he's just not any good in the part. The other main character is Donna Mitchell, trying desperately hard to turn in a good performance, but she's cast as Norman's wife, who used to be his psychologist, and the character is written like she's the dumbest woman on the face of the earth.

 

The movie is actually written by the original screenwriter of the first Psycho, Joseph Stefano; maybe that's why it never even seems to refer to the events of parts 2 and 3. Unfortunately, this is where we start to remember how his dialogue even in the old classic did kinda suck, and only Hitchcock's direction and the fine cast managed to save it. And this time, director Mick Garris (he founded the Masters of Horror series) is sure as hell no Hitchcock. His lighting is childishly simplistic, the shot framing is horrible, and the pacing is slower and more awkward than Stephen Hawking on a bicycle. Too much of the time the movie even seems to forget that it's nominally supposed to be a horror flick, with endless scenes of Norman moping on the phone and Ms. Bates being a borderline bitch. There's exactly one moment which carries any real weight or feeling (involves a car trunk), but even that, tellingly, is just a tossed-off isolated incident which has nothing to do with the main story. A limp, self-important, messy, and overall kinda pathetic ending to the Psycho franchise. Well, at least til Gus Van Sant made it even worse.

 

 

You can find me bringing my massive pale forehead of criticism to all kinds of random movies at The Pit, I can do the big puppy-dog begging eyes too.

[Nighthawk 0]

Clearly a joke, Bob.

 

 

 

Happy ending which really aren't.

 

^Good article. Seems like I praise cracked.com a lot on here, but those really are some pretty good points.

[treble 0]

Mr. Mom was #1 the weekend I was born. And was for the next 4 weeks after that, too.

[Cuban Linx 0]

I was born in between Purple Rain and Ghostbusters being #1.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

On the weekend of May 31, 1986, Cobra was at the top of the box office for the second week in a row. Fucking COBRA.

 

"Go ahead. I don't even shop here."

[bob_barron 0]

Clearly a joke, Bob.

 

 

 

Happy ending which really aren't.

 

^Good article. Seems like I praise cracked.com a lot on here, but those really are some pretty good points.

 

I don't know, you think so?

 

Cracked has really good articles, like that site a lot.

[Nighthawk 0]

That's what I thought at first, but then you responded to it as if it was real.

 

That's like someone who just lies and then says "I was being sarcastic!" There's a difference.

[bob_barron 0]

Now I'm confused.

 

Either way, hearing Joan Allen say cocksucker was awesome

[Black Lushus 0]

mmmm Joan Allen

[At Home 0]

My parents saw Dances With Wolves right before I was born.

 

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

My sister was born the same year Alien was released, and I the same year Aliens was released. I always found that somewhat ironic, considering they've been 2 of my favorites since I was 7 or so.

[DarKnight 0]

I think the Shining was a very good horror movie. One of the few that I consider actually scary and disturbing. Come to think of it, has Kubrick done any normal movie? Dr. Strangleove: a dark comedy about how the world ends, 2001: a very bizarre movie about space, and A Clockwork Orange: a movie about an anarchist. Talk about a weird resume!

[King Kamala 0]

Would have been weirder if he had actually came through with his threat to make a full on porno!

[Ravenbomb 0]

I think the Shining was a very good horror movie. One of the few that I consider actually scary and disturbing. Come to think of it, has Kubrick done any normal movie? Dr. Strangleove: a dark comedy about how the world ends, 2001: a very bizarre movie about space, and A Clockwork Orange: a movie about an anarchist. Talk about a weird resume!

 

I didn't think Paths of Glory was that strange.

[Gary Floyd 0]

This just looks too cool for words.

[WukenBloodstar 0]

Saw Death Race and liked it.

 

I feel, dunno, odd..considering I fucking hated Death Race 2000.

[UZI Suicide 0]

I just read a story about how Ice Cube's new movie "The Longshots" is directed by FRED DURST.

 

Yes, that Fred Durst.

 

What the fuck..

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I too was shocked to hear that the lead singer for a band that has been known for making vulgar offensive awesome music had decided to direct a kids movie starring Ice Cube. But hey people change. Who knows? It might be good.

 

Looks like The Condemned with cars.

 

I always wanted Twisted Metal to be made into a movie. This is probably the closest we're going to get.

 

It's funny how playing pretty generic tough guy Leonidas has somehow turned Gerard Butler into so many people's new favorite actor, when that's like the only worthwhile thing on his resume. Does no one else remember how bad he sucked as both Dracula and the Phantom of the Opera? Plus he was in a Lara Croft movie AND that lousy "Matthew McCouneghy fights dragons" flick.

 

But P.S. I Love You was good!

 

By the way, Saving Grace is a terrible show. See Holly Hunter play a drunken, white-trash ho who solves crime between binges as she discusses her life with an angel.

[DarKnight 0]

Yeah, I knew about Butler being in Dracula 2000, Phantom of the Opera, and that Tomb Raider movie, but I had no idea he was in Reign of Fire. I don't think Reign of Fire was as bad as people say it was. I remember it being just sort of a 2 star movie rather than a bomb.

[King Kamala 0]

I just read a story about how Ice Cube's new movie "The Longshots" is directed by FRED DURST.

 

Yes, that Fred Durst.

 

What the fuck..

 

A PG rated, Fred Durst directed inspirational sports movie just doesn't sound right.

 

Though for what it's worth, I hear he's a lot better at directing than he is at making music. Though that wouldn't be incredibly difficult. Anything that keeps Limp Bizkit from putting out another album is A OK in my book. For some weird reason, the local arthouse theater hyped the shit out of his first movie appearing there.