Movies I've seen lately

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 4:05 pm

I saw the video of Harry Potter the other night. I know everyone else has already seen this movie, but I don't get out much, so I have to get the videos of everything...

I liked it more than I thought I would. I was disappointed that it wasn't shown in at least letterbox format - I think all videos should go to this format. What's the use of a director using the wide-screen theater format to film his movie only to have it cut down to fill a TV screen?

I would never watch Lawrence of Arabia on TV!

Harry Potter was a good adaptation of the book, which I found surprising. Child acting usually bothers me (except Jodi Foster, whom I had a crush on when I was 10 years old!), but not so much in this. I especially liked the kid who played Ron. He had the perfect expression for the part!

I thought the CGI of the troll and broomstick flying was very convincing, while the CGI of the centaur lacked something. I've never seen a convincing centaur in the movies. I wonder why?

Any way, I felt like mentioning that I have finally seen it.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 10:14 pm

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
I liked it more than I thought I would. I was disappointed that it wasn't shown in at least letterbox format - I think all videos should go to this format. What's the use of a director using the wide-screen theater format to film his movie only to have it cut down to fill a TV screen? I would never watch Lawrence of Arabia on TV!

Normaly I don't care too much about the format, but you've picked the on instance in which I really do. My favorite scene in Lawrence of Arabia, and What I believe is the most impressive scene in any movie, at least from a cinematic stand point is the capture of Aqueba- that should be viewed as wide as possible.
I was just so blown back by the scene, even though I only saw the movie recently, the one huge shot of hundreds of Tribes men riding from the desert, throu the city, all the way to the beach is something that has never been even vaguly recreated.
I mean, there have been many, many movie with wide shots of a lot of enemies, but they were, for the most part, CGI, plus they didn't move, following the targets around.
Pure brilliance.

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
(except Jodi Foster, whom I had a crush on when I was 10 years old

Well, I'm sure EMINEM will come by saying he had a crush on Natalie Portman in 'Leon'.

(Check the Star Wars thread if you need clarification).

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
I thought the CGI of the troll and broomstick flying was very convincing, while the CGI of the centaur lacked something. I've never seen a convincing centaur in the movies. I wonder why?

Well, I though the troll and centaur were as convincing as they could be, but he still had a lot of that cartoonish style that all CGI big creatures have, except of course for the dinasaurs in Jurrasic Park.

I thought everything else was done very well. The brooms seemed very real, as did all the flying objects (candles and such).
As I said earlier in this thread, I wish the DVD would be more sirious, enough to have a behind the scenes of the special effects, since it's really mystifying to me how they gotso many shots of so many kids on so many brooms, at once.

Krynus · Post by **Krynus** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 10:45 pm

In the past week, I have seen.... 5 movies... yah, I've got lots of free time

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
This one isn't actually included in the 5, since I saw it over the Victoria Day weekend (the Canadian May long weekend). Let me just preface everything with the fact that my friends say that I like every single movie that I see.....

Okay, Episode 2... I thought that it was pretty damn good. Surprisingly, even though I saw it on the fourth day of release, the theatre wasn't packed when I saw it, so I missed out on some of the audience reaction that everyone aludes too, though when the familiar "A long, long time ago..." started, the theatre became quite loud with cheering

I personally thought that the movie was well done: it was entertaining, the funny parts were pretty funny, I didn't think that the romance element was that bad. All in all, a worthwhile movie to see, IMHO.

Behind Enemy Lines
This was the first time I saw this movie. I watched it on DVD in our nice home theatre

. I thought it was pretty good, and lived up to its hype. If you don't know, it's about a F18 navigator whose plane is shot down while doing a recon mission, and his pilot executed. He is left to try to escape to a safe spot to be picked up. I tend to enjoy action flicks, and this fit the bill to a 'T'. If you haven't seen it (or even if you have, i'd classify this as a re-watcher), I'd recommend it.

Spy Game
I watched this one on DVD too, also for the first time. I came into the movie expecting that it was similar to Behind Enemy Lines, for some reason. It turns out that I was mistaken. Spy Game is about a CIA operative who is captured, and his ex-partner is called to give CIA bosses info about him. I found the first part of the movie to be a bit slow, probably because of watching it the day after seeing Behind Enemy Lines. However, it was a pretty good movie.

Ocean's Eleven
Great star-studded movie about a 3 casino heist. I originally saw this in the theatres -- the person I saw it with is probably the worst person to go to a movie with, he sat there for like the whole movie reading a magazine

-- and I liked it a lot. I decided I would watch it again while on the treadmill (no, I wasn't on the treadmill for 2hrs...

but I did finish the movie). It is a great addition to those other heist movies, the names of which I can't recall right now

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
I saw this in the theatre originally too, after having reading all the books out so far. I thought it was a good movie, and the CGI was pretty good, (I agree with Gwali on his centaur critique). Chris Columbus did a good job of "translating" the book to the silver screen.

Spiderman
I'm surprised I hadn't seen this yet

I thought it was a great movie, acted well, and a good extension/redo of the marvel comics story. The Special Effects were good, the actors were good, the story was pretty good

Well, I guess I DO like every movie I see

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 12:26 am

Originally posted by Krynus
Behind Enemy Lines
This was the first time I saw this movie. I watched it on DVD in our nice home theatre. I thought it was pretty good, and lived up to its hype. If you don't know, it's about a F18 navigator whose plane is shot down while doing a recon mission, and his pilot executed. He is left to try to escape to a safe spot to be picked up. I tend to enjoy action flicks, and this fit the bill to a 'T'. If you haven't seen it (or even if you have, i'd classify this as a re-watcher), I'd recommend it.[/b]

Hype? It had hype? Because all I've heard about it was that it was total trash

In fact a friend of mine was lamenting just how awful it was only yesterday

Krynus · Post by **Krynus** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 12:46 am

Well, I thought it had hype...

Perhaps not, I was 3/4 asleep when I wrote that, and now I'm 7/8 asleep

I apologize for my fake, made up hype.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 1:49 am

Originally posted by Georgi

Hype? It had hype? Because all I've heard about it was that it was total trash In fact a friend of mine was lamenting just how awful it was only yesterday

Well, I did finish it and it didn't get any better. It's one of the movies where bad guys can't hit, and the good guy has exactly the right amount of strength, so he colapses only after that minutes fight.
It'd one of those movies that its utter stupidity makes you laugh. For example: Our hero manages to escape his captors by putting on their uniform and as ski mask. I'm thinking, 'maybe there is that basic level of cleverness after all'. Nope. The second he gets away, off with the mask, plus he turns around to face them, just to make sure they notice his blond hair.
The movie has no inteligence whatsoever.

So.... except fo that, me and Krynus are in total agreement!

I would recomend that you never see this horrible movie. Thats' what K ment to say!

Krynus · Post by **Krynus** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 6:48 am

Originally posted by Morlock
I would recomend that you never see this horrible movie. Thats' what K ment to say!

Uh, yah! That's exactly what I meant! Stupid fingers typed something else

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 11:48 am

Originally posted by Krynus
Spiderman
<SNIP>The Special Effects were good, the actors were good, the story was pretty good

IMO the transition between special effect and reality a bit rough. you catually can feel a tiny pause during the transition if you watch the movie about 3 times as I do

Krynus · Post by **Krynus** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 12:04 pm

I guess I missed that, having seen the movie only once

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 9:12 pm

LOL @Morlock

I saw, umm, LotR again tonight... it's still great

And "Let's hunt some orc" is still the worst line in the world

And it had the Two Towers preview on it, hooray!

Can't wait...

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 9:23 pm

Originally posted by Georgi
CE we actually seem to have a consensus!

Thanks everybody, I have voted for "Brother where art thou". Now, let's hope my friends also wants to see it.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Tue Jun 04, 2002 6:01 am

A friend of mine saw the Spiderman movie on DVD and said it sucked, even when you're "ticking Anton-time" (quote from Idle Hands).

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 6:33 pm

Anyone seen the Harry Potter DVD, because thats suppose to be really ground breaking for some reason that I'm not even aware of.

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 6:36 pm

Originally posted by Tamerlane
Anyone seen the Harry Potter DVD, because thats suppose to be really ground breaking for some reason that I'm not even aware of.

I'm sure it's too much effort for you to read the posts further up the page that mentioned it...

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 7:40 pm

Well Gwally was discussing the video format. I heard that the DVD has an interactive theme to it. You don't expect me to read the whole thread do you.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 1:18 am

The DVD has nothing ground braking on it whatsoever.
It has a trailer, teaser, short and uninformative behind the scenes, and a lot of games. It's only for kids, in the interviews you see several men trying to use as simple terms as possible.

Ode to a Grasshopper · Wed Jun 05, 2002 1:28 am

Originally posted by Tamerlane
Well Gwally was discussing the video format. I heard that the DVD has an interactive theme to it. You don't expect me to read the whole thread do you.

Women.

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 3:04 am

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
Women.

Exactly

Got to stop spending time with Fas, becoming a bad influence

@ Morlock.

I knew I couldn't trust newspaper reviews. I guess the games could be ground breaking but that won't make me rush out to buy it.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 3:36 am

Originally posted by Georgi
I saw, umm, LotR again tonight... it's still great

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 5:22 am

Originally posted by Tamerlane
Well Gwally was discussing the video format. I heard that the DVD has an interactive theme to it. You don't expect me to read the whole thread do you.

Yes, but Morlock was discussing the DVD

@Morlock maybe there's some groundbreaking secret feature you didn't find?

@Sleepy

Day 37: still not king...