Comments that which don't warrant a thread

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Oh man Alien Vs Predator...now that was a sack of shit. I love Alien (well the first two anyways) and I love The Predator so I figured it couldn't be too bad but man was I wrong. I was (still sort of am) mildly tempted to see the sequel but fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

The reason I finally got around to seeing the movies was because of AVP:R. When it premiered on "Super Channel" here, they did an Predator / Aliens marathon (on their HD channel to boot) so I just DVR'd the whole thing.

 

I would almost say I enjoyed Resurrection over 3, solely because of Ron Perlman's performance.

 

I read somewhere (probably wikipedia) that Ridley Scott consider the original AVP the 3rd best movie in the series.

I'd actually consider AVP:R to be the 3rd best in the series, if only because of all of the little nods to both the comics and the first two movies that it made. The Predator wasn't a complete puss (like 2 of the 3 in the first AVP were), and the Aliens were BRUTAL. Plus, the Predalien from the AVP comics was involved in it, although not as good as it was presented in the books.

 

Resurrection could've been so much better had Whedon's script (IIRC, he's the one who wrote it) been a little more...adult-oriented. If you take out the cursing? It's a PG-13/TV-14 teen sci-fi/action drama. I'll agree with you, Venk, that Perlman is awesome in it, and I'd even go so far as to say the cast itself almost makes the movie worth watching. Michael Wincott's always been very underrated (so sad that his most prominent role was as Top Dollar in The Crow), Perlman is great, Weaver is already great, Brad Dourif is a horror genre fave, and Ryder still had some appeal at the time. But...Whedon's script...gah. And the movie just looks...almost too pretty. Say what you will about Alien 3, but it at least looked like an Alien movie, with everything very gritty and industrial in appearance, very confined. But Resurrection was very colorful. Nobody can top Cameron or Scott, though. Cameron understood how to increase the action and the drama while still maintaining a solid horror element, and Scott was perfect at the dark and claustrophobic feel. I really wish A3 and A:R were better, because then AVP wouldn't have been made for a little while longer, preferably until Anderson was no longer around to do it.

 

But yeah: Verheiden should've written Alien 3. Or maybe use that original draft of the script that didn't involve Ripley until near the end. I forget where I read it, but it added something new to the Alien mythos, one where a facehugger, if dead, could release a spore that would turn anybody who breathed it in into an Alien. Maybe a studio will pick that script up, do a re-write, and make it into its own flick, because THAT is a great idea.

[The Niggardly King 0]

 

Anyone here seen this movie?

 

I love revenge flicks, and there's a few actors I'll check out anything that they're in... Liam is one of 'em.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I am hyped about the possibility that my Real Ghostbusters box set could arrive any day now (it shipped on Friday with "2 day shipping" and it is now Wednesday). What a nerd I am.

[muzz 0]

I usually feel the same about the Mystery Science Theater box sets, since I order them from overseas.

 

Amazon have never let me down when it comes to overseas shipping.

[Black Lushus 0]

I am hyped about the possibility that my Real Ghostbusters box set could arrive any day now (it shipped on Friday with "2 day shipping" and it is now Wednesday). What a nerd I am.

 

I was hyped when I brought home my first two Transformers Generation One box sets...only to realize that the show has aged horribly. Outside of Starscream's antics, I can't understand why I liked the show so damn much when I was a kid.

[Maztinho 0]

Boy, having only one channel sucks...especially when you can't sleep at 3 A.M. on a Tuesday. I'm left watching some weird ass court show with Kato Kaelin as the reporter. Dammit! Shouldn't World News Now be on? Why is Kato Kaelin still working anyways? Didn't his fifteen minutes pass about twelve years ago?

 

Eye for an Eye? It's like Court Show Meets Double Dare, it's awesome~!

[Jingus 0]

...yeah...I'm a fanboy...

I see your fanboyishness, and match it. I've still got volumes 2 and 3 of the Aliens comic wrapped up in plastic somewhere around here, and the first series of AvP too come to think of it. I think the early Aliens books suffered more than anything else from some really bad artwork. The first volume was really drab black & white which is just a chore to look at, and the third volume is this ludicrously awful pastel shit which literally looked like some kid's watercolor paintings. Which makes it even worse compared to the absolutely gorgeous airbrushed artwork from Dennis Beauvis in Volume 2, which pointed out how great this stuff could look, and sadly never would ever again. Volume 3 was indeed hurt by a retarded anticlimax, which was also illogical as hell (if Ripley wanted the alien superqueen to gather all the aliens on earth, why the fuck did she shoot it dead?). BTW, if you haven't read them, I'd recommend Steve Perry's novelizations of those Aliens comics. He adds a bit of psychological depth to the characters, which is worth putting up with his constant yammering about guns. (Seriously, in the movie novelization of the Jim Carrey flick The Mask, he took a full page to describe the villain's firearm and ammunition. What the hell is wrong with this guy.)

 

I've got one of the old scripts for Alien 3, the one I think you're referring to with the airborne alien spores. It kinda comes off as one of the comics being copied into screenplay form. Interesting idea, but cardboard characters and not a terribly unique setting or plot. I wouldn't even say that it's much superior to what David Fincher ended up filming. And oh yeah, I don't really see how the "Director's Cut" of that film is supposed to be any better than the theatrical version, it was mostly some fairly insignificant plot points which got changed or cut.

 

Joss Whedon's original script for Resurrection was much longer and more complicated. It had several long action scenes which weren't filmed, including a much longer and far superior finale with a constantly-evolving boss alien which was unfortunately dumbed down into the shitty-looking puppet we got at the end of that movie. However, despite being as much of a Whedon fanboy as you'll find around these parts, I'd argue that he was simply not the right choice to write an Alien flick. Whedon's work is witty, funny, twisty, and poignant, but it's never scary, and the primary goal of any Alien movie should be to scare the shit out of the audience. Jean-Pierre Jeunet was a terrible choice for a director, too; while I'm a pretty huge fan of City of Lost Children and Amelie, this comedic dude should never have been let anywhere near the very serious Alien series.

 

Ridley Scott claimed that the first AvP was the 3rd-best in the series? Really? Well, he's also the guy who made Legend and Black Rain, so it's not like he's never had a brainfart before.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I said the wrong name, it was James Cameron that said it.

 

In a 2002 interview, Scott's concept for a story was "to go back to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created", however he has not shown interest in pursuing the project.[33] On learning that Fox intended to pursue Alien vs. Predator, Cameron believed the film would "kill the validity of the franchise" and ceased work on his story, "To me, that was Frankenstein Meets Werewolf. It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other...Milking it."[34] After viewing Alien vs. Predator, however, Cameron remarked that "it was actually pretty good. I think of the five Alien films, I'd rate it third. I actually liked it. I actually liked it a lot."[34]

[Black Lushus 0]

There's nothing wrong with Black Rain, you hack reviewer!

[haws bah gawd 0]

Anyone watch the Macy's Parade? RICK ASTLEY made a surprise appearance on the "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" float:

 

[2GOLD 0]

 

So Cartoon Network and Foster's Home rick rolled Thanksgiving? Great Job

[King Kamala 0]

Oh man, Fox Movie Channel is running The Planet of The Apes series all weekend long (Channel of The Apes!) and is running some old school featurettes and wacky commercials with the apes running over Twentieth Century Fox studio. Best Thanksgiving ever!

[Gary Floyd 0]

So Cartoon Network and Foster's Home rick rolled Thanksgiving? Great Job

 

Ignoring the whole "rick roll" thing, I do loves me some Fosters.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It's Australian for beer.

[King Kamala 0]

Boy Beneath The Planet of The Apes is really dragged down by those annoying mutants. As a kid, I never released that the movie was just a giant allegory for the Vietnam War. Things get pretty good though when Heston finally shows up at the end and they start kicking some mutant and ape ass.

 

Incidentally, another film series of my youth with five installments (yeah I know there are six now but they were only rerunning the first five), the Rocky series was being played on Versus. Amusingly enough, my brother and I agreed that we'd rank the installments of both series' in the same order;

1. The first obviously

2. III and Escape

3. IV and Conquest

4. II and Beneath

5. V and Battle

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I rank IV above III (I really enjoy that movie) and would probably shoehorn Balboa in the middle somewhere.

[Blade2kxx 0]

I rank IV above III (I really enjoy that movie) and would probably shoehorn Balboa in the middle somewhere.

 

Well, if we wanted to do that, even though there are only 5 Rocky films, we could throw the Apes remake into the mix.

 

Apes Films

1. Planet

2. Conquest

3. Escape

4. Planet (2001) I've never really minded the Apes remake. It's got a shitty, shitty ending though.

5. Beneath

6. Battle

Rocky Films

1. Rocky

2. Balboa

3. III

4. II

5. IV

6. There are only 5 Rocky films. Rocky I, II, III, IV, and Balboa. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!

[King Kamala 0]

Yeah I'd put Rocky Balboa above II (which is really just a retread of the first one) and V but below I, III, and IV. Though quality-wise, it's probably the second best behind the original.

 

And I give III the slight edge over IV because he manages to beat Mr. T and Hulk Hogan. And it contains possibly the most hilariously homoerotic scene in cinema history.

[Youth N Asia 0]

1. Rocky

2. Rocky III

3. Rocky II

4. Rocky IV

5. Rocky Balboa

6. Rocky V

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Which makes it even worse compared to the absolutely gorgeous airbrushed artwork from Dennis Beauvis in Volume 2, which pointed out how great this stuff could look, and sadly never would ever again.

Has Beauvais done anything else? I loved his airbrushing. The aliens looked so much more evil, and everything just was made to look so perfectly surreal, which fit the story (which has since been re-titled "Nightmare Asylum" by Dark Horse). Everything I've drawn since I read those books when I was 8 or 9 has been based off of the "cartoonish yet realistic" approach.

Volume 3 was indeed hurt by a retarded anticlimax, which was also illogical as hell (if Ripley wanted the alien superqueen to gather all the aliens on earth, why the fuck did she shoot it dead?). BTW, if you haven't read them, I'd recommend Steve Perry's novelizations of those Aliens comics.

Yeah, they're not that bad. I do like how he refuses to say "M41-A Pulse Rifle" and just calls every gun a carbine. It's so annoying it's funny. He did a damned decent job, too, especially with the backstory he did for Spears in Nightmare Asylum.

Whedon's work is witty, funny, twisty, and poignant, but it's never scary, and the primary goal of any Alien movie should be to scare the shit out of the audience. Jean-Pierre Jeunet was a terrible choice for a director, too; while I'm a pretty huge fan of City of Lost Children and Amelie, this comedic dude should never have been let anywhere near the very serious Alien series.

Exactly. I'm not a Whedon fan and never have been, but somebody who manages to grab a fanbase by using wit and long story arcs writing a 2-hour movie about beasts from space that rip you apart upon birth and then hunt down others so that more can rip them apart upon birth? Doesn't lend itself to much comedy, especially considering every other entry in the series may have had a few quips here and there, but those were meant to just show the madness setting in amongst those involved.

 

And Cameron preverring AVP over Alien 3 and Resurrection doesn't surprise me. It's an easier flick to get into, and I think overall better than both because while it's never amazing, it's never downright 100% fucking awful. It's mediocre MTV pop bullshit, but it's not disappointing considering how lame the last three movies of both series were. AVP:R really deserved another half hour of running time, maybe even another hour, because the overall script, if left to the final hands of a worthy writer that could take the work of the Brothers Strauss and morph it into something better, wasn't that bad at all. Any news on the alleged third one, even if direct-to-DVD?

[Gary Floyd 0]

When Ebert is awesome, he's fucking awesome.

[King Kamala 0]

Am I the only guy who enjoys Predator 2? Yeah it isn't nearly as good as the original and Danny Glover essentially plays Murtagh again and setting it in 1997 was really a dumb idea (Did they think we'd advance that much in the 5-6 years after they made that movie?) but it's got wacky Busey attacks and The Predator kicking ass and taking names!

 

Somebody made fun of me last time I mentioned liking it . Make fun of me for liking Bubble Boy or Pootie Tang but not Predator 2

[Nighthawk 0]

I like it too. The original is really pretty goofy in its own right, viewed with the right perspective.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Make fun of me for liking Bubble Boy or Pootie Tang but not Predator 2

 

Pootie Tang rules; don't let anybody ever try to tell you different.

[Guest Smues]

1. The original

2. Escape

3. Beneath (I liked it a lot more as a kid as well before I grew up and got sick of war protesters. STOP STOP, STOP THE WAR! In fact I'd say when I was a kid this was my favorite of the five. But even with the hippy crap it's still an enjoyable flick.)

4. Conquest

5. Battle (Still a good movie, except for it's one fatal flaw: APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE, APE HAS KILLED APE)

 

Ahem

 

6. Anything else

 

7. Tim Burton's movie of the same title that is NOT the Planet of the Apes. Seriously, it's not even a good movie if it's not a re-make of a really good film, and as a remake it's just trash. I don't like Burton anyway, but I really wish he'd stick to his own stuff and quit with the 'making other people's films in his image' crap. Everyone seems to love his original works, so stick to that. (He's working on Alice in Wonderland right now? Uck)

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

When Ebert is awesome, he's fucking awesome.

 

And for this Also Awesome

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I like it too. The original is really pretty goofy in its own right, viewed with the right perspective.

 

 

Good thing Arnold was 10 feet away before hand.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Rocky Series

Rocky - Greatest boxing movie of all time.

Rocky IV - I LOVE this film, (mainly due to it throwing believability right out the window) but it's really more of a 90-Minute music video. I bought the soundtrack in 2001, and still have it around here somewhere.

Rocky II - A highly respectable follow-up to the original.

Rocky Balboa - The perfect way to end the series. Rocky has his dignity, and goes back to his normal life.

Rocky III - A bit homoerotic at times, but an OK movie nonetheless.

Rocky V - We don't like to talk about this one.

 

The first Predator film is pretty good. I enjoyed the stalker aspect, and how helpless the rescue team was. The second one is just OK, but there's really nothing more I can say about it. It was the first Predator film I ever saw, but it hasn't aged well. We won't talk about the turd on a stick that was AVP. Still haven't watched the sequel.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Somebody made fun of me last time I mentioned liking it . Make fun of me for liking Bubble Boy or Pootie Tang but not Predator 2

 

Bubble Boy is funny as hell. Love that movie

[Gary Floyd 0]

(NWS) I must see this movie. Also, Check out the second video.

 

Lushus, you are going to love this.