What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Nathan]

Desolation of Smaug is Jackson doing an 80s sword and sorcery flick (in a good way). Minus the tits and gore.

Does not compute.

[IggytheBorg]

Right there with you on DoS. I think it crushes the first HOBBIT film and is, in actuality, one of the best entries of the entire LOTR saga so far.

It just doesn't have the epic scope of the 1st 3 LOTR films. Hard as they're trying to capture that. Nor should it. The Hobbit (book) is a smaller tale. Just as good, but smaller in scale and length. The film should have been the same. One of the things I loved most about LOTR was how those movies captured the FEEL of the books. The spirit of fun and adventure that was the Hallmark of the Hobbit (the book) is almost totally lost amid the plodding pace of the films.

[Abraham Smashington]

Middle Earth needs to take a dirt nap.

indeed.

[Ari]

I recently watched The Ultimate Warrior Ultimate Collection and it was great. I was more than happy to take that hot blast of nostalgia right to the face. Warrior was a fucking presence. I did notice that he's quite mum on why he actually left the WWE several times, including leaving a week before him and Macho Man were supposed to wrestle Flair & Mr Perfect.

[Abraham Smashington]

I just watched most of this, about 20 mins left and no idea how long this will stay up. It's Breaking Bad in a 2 hour condensed version. It works pretty well actually.

[IggytheBorg]

Watched The Hunger Games the other night. I've never read the book, but I was curious wgat all the hullabaloo - positive & negative - was all about. I kind of liked this. It was like The Running Man meets 12 Monkeys, what with those absurd, surrealistic costumes the city people wore. As many of you will recall from my time as resident horror curmudgeon at CHUD, One of my earliest threads was about violence against children being the last taboo in horror cinema. It was an old saw I'd come back to again and again, wondering why, in this ever increasing age of escalation in the horror film, we hadn't seen anyone dare to tackle this. The fact that THIS was the first film I can recall utilizing this device in this direct a way earns it some points for sheer balls, IMO. And don't give me that "Battle Royale did it first". No, it didn't. Those kids were all teens, at least. The kids killed in HG were KIDS. I'm sure this was done more to engender sympathy and outrage than horror, but the more you contemplate what you've seen, and contemplate the fact that in the culture depicted in the film it's been going on for nearly 50 years, the more horrifying it is. As deftly handled as child murder can be, I guess. Woody Harrelson was pretty good, too. While it surely wasn't an academy award winner in any category, I didn't feel it had any truly glaring flaws as some have stated. But then, I'm no film scholar.

[B_Metal]

Watched The Hunger Games the other night. I've never read the book, but I was curious wgat all the hullabaloo - positive & negative - was all about. I kind of liked this. It was like The Running Man meets 12 Monkeys, what with those absurd, surrealistic costumes the city people wore. As many of you will recall from my time as resident horror curmudgeon at CHUD, One of my earliest threads was about violence against children being the last taboo in horror cinema. It was an old saw I'd come back to again and again, wondering why, in this ever increasing age of escalation in the horror film, we hadn't seen anyone dare to tackle this. The fact that THIS was the first film I can recall utilizing this device in this direct a way earns it some points for sheer balls, IMO. And don't give me that "Battle Royale did it first". No, it didn't. Those kids were all teens, at least. The kids killed in HG were KIDS. I'm sure this was done more to engender sympathy and outrage than horror, but the more you contemplate what you've seen, and contemplate the fact that in the culture depicted in the film it's been going on for nearly 50 years, the more horrifying it is. As deftly handled as child murder can be, I guess. Woody Harrelson was pretty good, too. While it surely wasn't an academy award winner in any category, I didn't feel it had any truly glaring flaws as some have stated. But then, I'm no film scholar.

The only issue I really had with the first film was that A SHIT TON of the book was internal monologueing by Katniss and a lot of the thoughts/feelings she had in the book didn't get conveyed in any way in the movie. Had I not read the book I probably wouldn't have noticed/cared. Second movie is pretty good imo

[BillyG]

VHS

Some good ideas, but overall just kind of sloppy or lazy execution. I hated every single person in it. They were all inconsiderate assholes. Even the road trip couple, the husband started off OK, then turned into a passive aggressive dick when the money went missing. I have NO fucking clue what was going on with the "Emily" and her boyfriend over Face Time story, so if someone wants to explain that one, please do.

[Abraham Smashington]

I loved' that segment, but I could't explain it right now if my life depended on it.

Go watch part 2. Zombie Go Pro, Culty McGoatman, and ALIEN SLUMBER PARTY is fucking THE SHIT.

Watched Alien director's cut on blu last night. Still amazing.

Currently watching Paul, and this movie would be AMAZING if Edger Wright would have directed it because it's basically Edger-lite but not without merit. Seth does a great job as Paul, Wiig is perfect, and Pegg and Frost are always a pleasure.

[Captain Russ]

Paul is Fanboys with a better cast. Pandering as fuck.

[gravedigger]

VHS

Some good ideas, but overall just kind of sloppy or lazy execution. I hated every single person in it. They were all inconsiderate assholes. Even the road trip couple, the husband started off OK, then turned into a passive aggressive dick when the money went missing. I have NO fucking clue what was going on with the "Emily" and her boyfriend over Face Time story, so if someone wants to explain that one, please do.

FaceTime segment was about a guy running a con on multiple women where he grooms them via dating to be test subjects for aliens. Super creepy. I thought VHS was great but, yes, every single person is detestable human garbage. I thought maybe that was part of the point. The second one is pretty good, too.

[Timothy225]

The Hobbit 2: Smaug Gets In Your Eyes

I enjoyed it, and agree with Jamie's take that it's a throwback to 80's sword & sorcery films. Also agree with Iggy - like the first film, it's unnecessarily padded. It's been a LONG time since I read the Hobbit, but I honestly don't think all that shit happening with Smaug and Thorin's crew ever happened in the book. This could've been, and should've been, a two-film story easily. And they could have jettisoned Legolas and Tauriel's stuff.

That being said, I did enjoy this, probably moreso than the first Hobbit. The action scenes are fantastic to look at, loved how it ends with multiple cliffhangers, and it doesn't plod along like the first one did (which wasn't too, too bad in hindsight - Tolkien's stories can get filled with lots of sidetrack shit that doesn't really go anywhere, much like Frank Herbert and his Dune stuff). I'll break down and get the Extended Versions when the get around to releasing a boxed set of all three Hobbit films, much like I did with the superior LOTR. Mostly, to be a completist, but also I'm relishing doing a marathon of the whole shebang in the future.

OTHER STUFF I WATCHED:

Stealth

Winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Performance by Jessica Biel in a Bikini, this was obviously a "I need a paycheck" flick for Foxx. Entertaining as a one-off popcorn movie, but SO cliche-ridden that it would benefit from a MST3K/RiffTrax treatment.

Haute Tension/High Tension

Now we're talking. Saw this awhile back, but had an opportunity for a rewatch. Suspense filled, though it seems to play out like a regular slasher film (has some shades of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in it), at least until you get to the big reveal, which was kind of brilliant. Gruesome kills, too. Definitely a must watch.

[Abraham Smashington]

I loved High Tension until the reveal personally. But it's been awhile.

[BillyG]

FaceTime segment was about a guy running a con on multiple women where he grooms them via dating to be test subjects for aliens. Super creepy. I thought VHS was great but, yes, every single person is detestable human garbage. I thought maybe that was part of the point. The second one is pretty good, too.

So they were aliens? They did an absolute shit job explaining that.

And I like Paul. It's a fine minor comedy from those guys.

[IggytheBorg]

I loved High Tension until the reveal personally. But it's been awhile.

^Dat.