06/22/2004 Archived Entry: "Some Recent Movies"

Troy
Not as good as I was expecting, the movie focused on the wrong character. Hector should have been the main character for the first half of the film instead of Achilles, but since Brad Pitt's the bigger star...

The movie's so star filled, everyone reminded me of some other character they played. There was The Hulk, Sabertooth, Legolas, Boromir, Colonel Stryker, and Tyler Durden off the top of my head.

The battles were all amazing, but especially the Achilles VS Hector fight; probably the best sword fight ever. I really loved Achilles fighting style.

Riddick
Somewhat dissapointing, but worth watching because there isn't anywhere near enough large scale sci-fi movies. The second act (on the the prison planet) seems very out of place since it doesn't deal with the real threat until the end of it.

The FX were fantastic (like they are in most movies now) but the best part were the designs of the various cities, ships, and costumes.

The movie is sort of a mix between Dune, Trek, Mortal Kombat, and Conan. The character of Riddick is basically a space age Conan. In fact, the ending is pretty much the ending to Conan The Barbarian. I'd really like to see a sequel to this movie to see where the story goes, as there is a pretty big turn of events but things aren't looking good financially for this one.

Why isn't there more sci-fi out there?

Mean Girls
Yeah, I liked it. Besides the fact that Tina Fey takes her shirt off, the humour is really witty and the girls are hot. It kinda gets sappy at the end. Dunno what else to say, it was smart and funny, which is a lot more than most movies like this can even hope to be.

Stepford Wives
The opening led me to think that the movie would have some good satire and wit, and it does, but somewhat sparingly. By the end though, the movie sorta loses its brains by and goes for shock value; it raises a lot of social and moral issues but ends up casting them aside for some laughs instead. A bit dissapointing, that.

Day After Tomorrow
Very VERY U.S.-Centric, and amazing scenes of destruction, as expected. The tornadoes riping apart L.A. were my favorite part. The characters running away from the cold (!!) was the most ridiculous and my least favorite part, the movie would have been infathomly better without that sequence. An sequel to this would be awesome, the socio-political structure of the world has been turned completely upside down, it'd be interesting to see how society works after that.

Replies: 12 comments

no shrek? no hp? i'm sorely disappointed.

hehehe

Posted by melpie @ 06/23/2004 04:09 PM EST

Shrek 2 was great!! If you liked the first one you'll definitly like this sequel. Altho i've heard mix views about which is better/funnier, all enjoyed it. Personally i thought 2 was better :D

Posted by Anonymous @ 06/23/2004 05:16 PM EST

Shrek 2 rocked!!!...there's my contribution, I didn't see any of the movies Thai listed...:P

Oh, Van Helsing was surprisingly good...even though it really annoyed me that there were so many "lets delay killing the protagonist" sequences.

Posted by dAN @ 06/23/2004 06:46 PM EST

i agree with the one who leaves no name ... i liked this shrek better than the last one ... there's still two more to come too! although, i'm a little scared that now my expectations will be too high and i won't like them

hp was ... disappointing ... i think it's b/c the book that it is based on isn't easily translateable into a movie ... the cuts were rather choppy and there were many allusions to plot points that only ppl who have read the books would have gotten ... plus, some things aren't developed as needed for future movies ... but i guess you don't need to do that if you're just trying to make a stand-alone movie ... the actors are definitely improving and i prefer gambon's interpretation of dumbledore as opposed to harris's

i still think i prefer the first one the most b/c it actually captured the book so well, but it was also the most simplistic book ... i think the fourth is movie-workable, so i guess we'll see whath appens next

Posted by melpie @ 06/24/2004 09:52 AM EST

Watched Dodgeball last night. Pretty funny movie. Altho some parts of it seemed a little corny. I'd recommend it to people who are wondering what movie to watch :D

Posted by Anonymous @ 06/24/2004 01:48 PM EST

Shrek and HP...I suppose I'll get to them eventually, but this IS a school term and I only have so much time.

Funny thing about Shrek, I really loved the first movie when I saw it in theaters, so I bought the DVD, but then never watched it.

dAN: You liked Van Helsing? C'mon, your standards are higher than that... =P

Posted by Rayne @ 06/25/2004 07:11 AM EST

Don't forget Super Size Me,
McDonald'S anyone?

Posted by Neoceia @ 06/25/2004 11:39 AM EST

Yeah, yeah...my standards are higher than Van Helsing...but I went into it expecting it to suck...:P

Then again, I have a weakness for the Kate Beckinsale "effect"...maybe she had something to do with me not minding the film...;)

Posted by dAN @ 06/25/2004 02:20 PM EST

Yeah, Beckingsale would have make most movies a lot better. I wouldn't mind if she replaced Thandie Newton in Riddick, she's terrible.

Posted by Rayne @ 06/26/2004 07:10 PM EST

Troy was dissapointing as it focused on the battle between the Greeks and Troy. I would have liked to see more background story of Achilles. It would have been better if the movie was character driven then action scene driven. Like Gladiator it was really Hollywood.

Now I see they made a movie of Alexander of Macedonia (The Great). I wonder how they'll butcher this one?

The movie I want to see next are either Spiderman 2 or Fahrenheit 9/11.

Posted by djkimothy @ 06/28/2004 10:27 AM EST

They butchered it by making Collin Farrel Alexander! I don't think he looks "great" enough, whatever that means.

Spider-man 2 is the best movie I've seen this year. Though I'd need to see it a second time to have a more objective opinion, I disliked Spider-Man 1 on my second viewing.

HP3 was by far the best of the bunch. Hippogriff!!

Posted by Rayne @ 07/09/2004 12:53 PM EST

Shrek 2 was good. Definately on par with the first one. Jennifer Saunders was awesome as the fairy godmother, not to mention her fabulous rendition of Holding Out For A Hero. The donkey + dragon mutants are very disturbing.

King Arthur was pretty good, not as bad as rottentomatoes makes it out to be. Keira is a goddess, as usual.

I, Robot: Alex Proyas' style and skill defeat Will Smith and Akiva Goldsman. Good movie overall, some cheese but that's to be expected from The Fresh Prince.

Posted by Rayne @ 07/17/2004 03:12 PM EST