What you watchin' tonight?

I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that those two films I like the best (Man on Fire, Unstoppable) both star Denzel Washington?

Good ol' Denzel. Is it just me or was he constantly shoehorned into the Angry Black Black Man Bent Vengeance (ABMBOV) lol? Okay, so that's not entirely true.

Tony's death was tragic, and he was heavy influence in the industry, so he absolutely deserves respect. There's a few of his newer films I need to check out; you have me curious now.

"Unstoppable" was a great movie!

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Unstoppable" was a great movie!

I keep meaning to watch that!

The kids made me sit thru "The Animal" w/Rob Schneider (ugh) on Netflix tonite. It was dumb as hell but dammit, I actually laughed a few times...

theJOKERiv wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Unstoppable" was a great movie!

I keep meaning to watch that!

It's excellent, definitely worth your time. Tony went out on a high note.

S.D. wrote:

theJOKERiv wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Unstoppable" was a great movie!

I keep meaning to watch that!

It's excellent, definitely worth your time.  Tony went out on a high note.  

I'll watch it one of these days soon! I;ve have American Hustle on Blu Ray from Netflix for the past week... need to watch that first!

Got all excited because I found Unstoppable on Netflix Instant--fuck, it's just that Kirk Cameron shit. Boo.

Think I'll pay for the rental this weekend (work is kicking my ass this week so no movies until then).

UNSTOPPABLE -- I do love trains, so this was a fun ride. Surprised to learn that it was based on a real incident as well. Last film of Tony Scott before his death; all due respect to an industry legend, but the visuals here still drive me batty. The camera never stops moving while the editing is jarring with an average shot length of perhaps two seconds. Adding insult to injury is the choked focal length with a complete disregard for creative depth of field (this was a problem I had with World War Z, which had the same DOP). Nevertheless, I enjoyed the dynamic between Washington and Pine (the latter should really be a hot commodity these days with the talent he has), and the mechanics and tech of it all is enthralling. It just never gets very gripping due to the unstable photography.

I did forget about one other movie of his that I enjoyed, Crimson Tide. It's been a while but I remember being pleasantly surprised when I first saw it. And Last Boy Scout had a hilarious script that made me laugh hysterically but suffered the same aesthetic setbacks. Otherwise, his films never seem to get past passable.

Hey Shay - are you actually able to just enjoy a movie without being critical about the flick these days? Not trying to be a dick, but it's a real question. If it was me, being that critical would ruin my enjoyment of a film. Just curious.

Also, I do like most of Tony Scott's film and still need to see Unstoppable. Crimson Tide was fun and I tend to watch Last Boy Scout when it comes on (actually saw that one in the theater!) always a good time waster. True Romance is another Tony Scott film I really like.

I do like Top Gun, but I can see why SD doesn't - add more explosions and a huge end of movie F16 dog fight (hundreds of planes, several carriers) with the ruskies and you have a Michael Bay film before his film debut.

theJOKERiv wrote:

Hey Shay - are you actually able to just enjoy a movie without being critical about the flick these days? Not trying to be a dick, but it's a real question. If it was me, being that critical would ruin my enjoyment of a film. Just curious.

Also, I do like most of Tony Scott's film and still need to see Unstoppable. Crimson Tide was fun and I tend to watch Last Boy Scout when it comes on (actually saw that one in the theater!) always a good time waster. True Romance is another Tony Scott film I really like.

I do like Top Gun, but I can see why SD doesn't - add more explosions and a huge end of movie F16 dog fight (hundreds of planes, several carriers) with the ruskies and you have a Michael Bay film before his film debut.

I actually get that question a lot haha. Well I did say I enjoyed the film; it's not often that a movie is so bad that I have a hard time enjoying it (like Transformers). It's just my obsession with cinematic craft and and a general interest in deconstructionist criticism. It's fun to both watch movies and dissect them, including their flaws. Blame Roger Ebert for influencing me in this direction when I was younger.

Here's the way it usually works for me:

Example A: I start a movie and I'm enjoying it, I am able to mostly turn off my "critical filter" and just go with the flow. If it's a movie I really love I might go back and watch it a second time just to more thoroughly evaluate what made it so good.

Example B: I start a movie and I'm hating it, or it does something to really annoy me, then my "critical filter" gets turned on and from that point forward I'm both watching and dissecting at the same time.

Joker nailed it with Top Gun, I hadn't even thought of it that way, but yes, that film is a precursor to the whole Michael Bay/Roland Emmerich school which drives me so batty.

Yeah Top Gun was the all-brawn-no-brains type of flick. I booed it on my very first viewing as a kid. And the romance between the two leads is the least romantic thing I've ever seen. But I do appreciate Tarantino's take on it (NSFW):

That Shay.

SD - not surprised that you tend to do that!

I tend to keep the critical filter off - I had to watch tons of movies when I took screenwriting for film in college and it prevented me for really enjoying a film for a bit - I started breakdown the structure of a script in my head with every flick I watched for about six months, until I learned how to turn it off..... I tend to keep it off now - lol!

I liked Top Gun, but then again I do like the big, dumb movies that I can turn my brain off and watch... Most of Bay's stuff I like (yeah, shoot me - LOL! big, dumb and fun usually), Emmerich I haven't enjoyed a single film of his since Independence Day.

But then I also like indie flicks to - still need to watch American Hustle! Hope to do that this weekend.

theJOKERiv wrote:

That Shay.

SD - not surprised that you tend to do that!

I tend to keep the critical filter off - I had to watch tons of movies when I took screenwriting for film in college and it prevented me for really enjoying a film for a bit - I started breakdown the structure of a script in my head with every flick I watched for about six months, until I learned how to turn it off..... I tend to keep it off now - lol!

I liked Top Gun, but then again I do like the big, dumb movies that I can turn my brain off and watch... Most of Bay's stuff I like (yeah, shoot me - LOL! big, dumb and fun usually), Emmerich I haven't enjoyed a single film of his since Independence Day.

But then I also like indie flicks to - still need to watch American Hustle! Hope to do that this weekend.

You've got a good point with the crit filter there--one downside to my obsession is that I had gotten to the point where my immediate vision extended beyond the frame. In other words, when watching a movie, I can't just see what's going on; my mind fills in the camera, lighting, booms, crew, rigging, etc etc, surrounding the set/location. Thus I lose that "immersive" experience. I've tried to tone it down some these past few years to where I can a) be more forgiving and b) enjoy the movie at face value and thus digest what's immediately presented. For example, I think that's why a movie like Mission Impossible II is suddenly so awesome to me all of a sudden.

The only movies that I can think of where this overextended vision doesn't happen are Star Wars and 2001.

I do like a good deal of big dumb movies if they're done creatively--that Renny Harlin shark movie comes to mind where everyone dies unexpectedly. Also the remake of The Blob, Chronicles of Riddick, 300, Speed, Blown Away--there's more, I just can't think of them right now. I should make a list.

I recently learned that since my new TV is Net enabled, I can watch YouTube videos on it. . This is cause for much rejoicing because there are tons of full length cult/B movies on YT. The other night my 11 year old and I watched a hilarious 70s made for TV horror called "Killdozer" and this morning I watched the Dario Argento oldy "Phenomena," which was a first. I have a cheapass DVD of the heavily edited American cut "Creepers," which I've watched a couple of times, but I'd never seen the uncut version before.

The "Phenomena" version honestly doesn't make much more sense than the American cut but it's still a weird, atmospheric flick.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I recently learned that since my new TV is Net enabled, I can watch YouTube videos on it. . This is cause for much rejoicing because there are tons of full length cult/B movies on YT. The other night my 11 year old and I watched a hilarious 70s made for TV horror called "Killdozer" and this morning I watched the Dario Argento oldy "Phenomena," which was a first. I have a cheapass DVD of the heavily edited American cut "Creepers," which I've watched a couple of times, but I'd never seen the uncut version before.

The "Phenomena" version honestly doesn't make much more sense than the American cut but it's still a weird, atmospheric flick.

Oh, you're going to have fun. We have the YT app on our Xbox and I love watching all sorts of OOP and made-for-TV crap on the big screen. YT even has The BRAT Patrol!

Sadly, the low quality (related to the movie, not YT) shows up hard on bigger TVs.

Here's how they filmed that "swarm of flies" sequence in Phenomena.

They built a small glass stage with a water tank and put a fake boat in it. They then put hundreds of pounds of meat into the room, closed the door and turned on the heat. Soon the room was full of maggots...they waited until they turned into flies...then they shoved the actor into the glass room, closed the door and started filming.

FUCK THAT! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH PAY FOR THAT!

^^ Dang. Betcha that smelled purrrrr-ty! Haha. Barf!

The Addams Family Season 1 & The Addams Family Broadway Musical (youtube).

Really enjoyed "42," the recent bio pic on Jackie Robinson. I love a good baseball movie.

I watched Snowpiercer and it was really bad. I liked a couple of the directors previous films, but nothing about this really worked. It was like somebody had 5 different ideas that they couldn't figure out which one to develop so they just shoved them all into the same incoherent script.

Started "Pacific Rim" this morning. Giant robots beating up giant monsters? Oh hell yes, please. If I were eleven years old this would be like porn for me. Haha.

S.D. wrote:

I watched Snowpiercer and it was really bad.  I liked a couple of the directors previous films, but nothing about this really worked.  It was like somebody had 5 different ideas that they couldn't figure out which one to develop so they just shoved them all into the same incoherent script.  

That's too bad; I had just read about this and it seemed like an intriguing concept. I'll still check it out but I always have a hard time with incoherence in a movie.

Without Warning -- here's an interesting little gem for War of the Worlds and mockumentary fans. Aired on Halloween night on 1994, Without Warning begins as what seems to be a serial killer made-for-TV flick and is sharply interrupted by a news bulletin for the rest of the remaining time detailing an "ongoing" alien invasion. Like the broadcast it was inspired by, apparently a good number of folks thought this was genuine and flooded the network with calls (though you would've had to be extremely naive to think this, especially considering only ONE network was carrying the story). I really enjoyed this as it was pretty convincing for the most part with authentic broadcast news motifs and the use of some real reporters (actors as well, however). Sometimes the acting would get borderline hammy but for the most part this feels like the real deal. The final scene is effective and chilling, and honestly stayed with me for the night. Available in full on youtube below.

I gotta say, I love end of the world movies, and it seems like the TV ones (ie Day After) were the best.