What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[gravedigger]

THE LEGO MOVIE- I'm glad we live in a time where "kid" movies offer enough entertainment to make them fun for adults also. I think if I went back to a lot of the junk I watched when I was little I'd find it to be total garbage. This one is great.

[IggytheBorg]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I liked it, I didn't love it. Felt a bit rushed at times. I liked the editorials by the narrator coinciding with the asides from the book. The effects were cool, for the most part, but something just felt off about the appearance of some of them. It didn't look as seamless as one would expect, and that tended to take me out of it a bit. I also recall Ford Prefect being a more important character in the books. Don't think I'll ever need to see this again. BUT, I didn't panic. SO there's that.

[Captain Russ]

Oh, I agree it was trying very hard. I guess I didn't find Johansson compelling enough to care about each scenario as presented. But I suppose her detached nature was part of the point. I think one of the things that really got under my skin, pardon the pun, was the soundtrack. It was absolutely in service of the film but, man, did it make my skin crawl. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the turn Johansson's character makes. but I would've been more interested in seeing what happened if her partner caught up with her rather than humanity taking its revenge.

The score definitely pushed the tension into overdrive, especially during the hunting scenes.

And I totally agree on the ending being flubbed. The book is a bit of a mess but I feel it told a more complete story for the main character, where the end is oddly hopeful even though

  Spoiler: the end 

she still meets her end in immolation. The final few passages describe her death as less an act of vengeance and more as a final release from servitude to her race as a hunter of human cattle and the isolation of being trapped in a body that is not her own. She dies in a car wreck on a snowy embankment, burning away into atoms, finally a part of the universe she never connected with.

[gravedigger]

You're right, that ending plays much better. It's not really necessary but does the book delve into what exactly they're doing and why?

[Captain Russ]

You're right, that ending plays much better. It's not really necessary but does the book delve into what exactly they're doing and why?

Oh yeah, it goes into detail of the operation from jump street.

  Spoiler: Stuff explained 

The operation she is a part of (more of an indentured servitude than anything else) is in the business of humans as a food source for the upper crust of their world. People are cattle and they are not precious about who they take (There is one moment involving the harvest of an infant that was absolutely chilling that would never make it into an adaptation. Speaking of the harvest scenes, they are much more gratuitous and not anywhere near as cool as what they did in the film.).

[Captain Russ]

Typed out and read, I think the amount of restraint and excision of the more clichéd story beats helped make it more interesting as its own beast, as flawed as it turned out to be.

[Abraham Smashington]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I liked it, I didn't love it. Felt a bit rushed at times. I liked the editorials by the narrator coinciding with the asides from the book. The effects were cool, for the most part, but something just felt off about the appearance of some of them. It didn't look as seamless as one would expect, and that tended to take me out of it a bit. I also recall Ford Prefect being a more important character in the books. Don't think I'll ever need to see this again. BUT, I didn't panic. SO there's that.

I still really enjoy this flick. What they got right, they got right (the book, Marvin, Zaphod, the Vogans) and the rest was just sorta ehhhh.

[BillyG]

I really love Hitchhiker's. The casting is all pitch fucking perfect. I wish those guys directed a lot more since then, other than Son of Rambow (also great).

[Timothy225]

I still really enjoy this flick. What they got right, they got right (the book, Marvin, Zaphod, the Vogans) and the rest was just sorta ehhhh.

Pretty much this. Lots to love in this movie (big fan of Stephen Fry, who was a good friend of Douglas Adams, and having him narrate was a great idea), but there were some "ehh" moments as well. Would've liked to have seen the crew do Restaurant at the End of the Universe and so on.

Saw a LOT of flicks over my Christmas Vacation:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Better than the first ASM by a country mile, and there were some moments that captured the Marvel movie feel, but still pales in comparison to the Raimi films. Gotta admit, liked Garfield as Spidey as he starts to click when he's under the mask (captures Spidey's wise-ass personality to a T). His Peter Parker however - he's a great actor, no question, but he seems off when the mask is removed. Don't know what it is, if it's his look or his demeanor, but just not relating to him without the costume on. Also, very glad to see Spidey in threads much closer to the comics as opposed to that Voit basketball outfit from the first film.

Dane Dehaan as Harry/Goblin was great as well, but Foxx's Electro needed a lot of work. Can't lay the blame totally on him as that has to go to the writers. Between both ASM movies, the writing flat out sucks and hurts both films tremendously. So hoping Sony sells the franchise back to Marvel this year so we can get Webhead back on track.

VHS: Really liked this, and am planning on catching both sequels OnDemand soon. Like Hitchhikers, when the film works, it works, though there are some moments where I was scratching my head as to how the stories progressed. Nice kills here and there, some genuinely creepy moments, and the film had some decent story beats here and there. Props to Rob and CJ for cluing me in on this series via the podcast.

Cabin in the Woods: Second go-round with this, still love it. Something original (more or less) in the horror genre with some great ideas that I'd love to see explored more fully in a sequel (since this is an international conspiracy, I'd love to see 'cabins' outside of the US). Nice character beats, nice story flow - definitely a must see if you're a horror junkie.

Thanks to my Best Buy gift card (thanks, sister-in-law!) I've got Sin City: A Dame To Kill For on deck sometime this weekend, because Eva Green, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy, because AWESOME.

[B_Metal]

Bad Neighbors - ......... Well Dave Franco and The Efron were pretty great but Rogen and Byrne had like zero chemistry and were caricatures at best, and bad ones to boot. Rogen and Efron were pretty good in the scenes they shared but meh.

[Martin]

TMNT (2014)

Rob was right. It's not an abortion. It's actually better than the originals. Despite their faces looking like creepy green babies. Go figure. I kinda liked it.

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings

First time in like 7-8 years. Still fresh, still great. Will most likely double dip it in Blu ray when they release it as a package with The Hobbit trilogy.

[BillyG]

Hunger Games: Second Serving

Seriously, you put them back into another tournament? Ugh. The ending was good though, and actually made me interested in the third.

[IggytheBorg]

P
VHS: Really liked this, and am planning on catching both sequels OnDemand soon. Like Hitchhikers, when the film works, it works, though there are some moments where I was scratching my head as to how the stories progressed. Nice kills here and there, some genuinely creepy moments, and the film had some decent story beats here and there. Props to Rob and CJ for cluing me in on this series via the podcast.

MISOGYNISTIC FUCK!!!

Seriously: since Beardboy Texass and his film school educated brethren made such a big deal out of this issue - a pet peeve of mine - I am curious as to what you thought of this question, now that you've seen this films.

And Part 2 is possibly better than the 1st. Just sayin'.

[gravedigger]

I guess I still don't see how that movie was particularly misogynistic. I mean, literally EVERYONE is an asshole in that movie.

[Timothy225]

Misogyny in VHS? Uh, let's see...

  Spoiler: Just in case I'm not the only one late to the game here, and it is recommended by our own Rerb and CJ, so get on this, fool! 

First tale/wraparound: OK, I can see it, since there's a shot of the criminals flashing a girl's chest and taping it for online use, thus degrading her. These guys get slaughtered by a zombie and some creature thingy, which was alright by me, as they were dicks.

Second tale: Yes, for one instance of almost date rape, yet justifiable payback comes in the form of her friend, a female demon with cray-cray eyes. Asshole frat bro/dude guys get dispatched as well they should.

Third tale: This one had me scratching my head, plotwise. This time, the guy is clearly the victim here as he's done in (very graphic kill) by the lesbian lover of his wife. She could've just gotten a divorce and wound up with everything plus her girlfriend, so why kill the guy?

Fourth tale: This was a pretty neat tale as another wacky girl brings her friends to hang out in Evil Voodoo Creepy Gloomy Woods Where Folks Got Killed But They Never Did Catch The Killer, off the Beltway, next to Graveidgger's Country Fried Chicken & Waffles (you make good eats, Grave!).

Liked this tale as Cray-Cray Girl (who I kind of liked) used her friends as bait, even though she wound up getting her ass handed to her by The Glitch. Again, justifiable reward to someone who'd betray their friends, though they were kind of annoying.

Fifth tale: Yeah, misogyny runs wild, as we discover the male doctor (in league with aliens) is conducting experiments on his supposed girlfriends without their knowledge. Fucking cruel bastard.

Final tale: This one's another head scratcher - 4 dude/bro/dudes go to a supposed Halloween party at a swanky house they've never been to before, missing obvious clues that there's no party going on (lack of cars parked out front, loud music and partying sounds, lack of people, Halloween decorations, etc.). Five seconds in they should've realized "Oops, wrong place", but horror films need idiot victims, so...

Oh, sure, they THOUGHT they were noble, rescuing chained up girl, who turned out to be Evil Demon Ghost Woman, tricking them into becoming one with the universe via Amtrak, but joke was on them wasn't it?

Considering most of the victims were guys in all but one of the stories (as in the case with many, many horror films), and the killers mostly female, I can't scream "misogyny" too, too loudly with this film. Yes, there ARE instances here and there, but I've seen far, far worse in other films. If the sexes of all the characters were reversed in this film, OK, you've got a solid case. I like to think of it as more of an equal opportunity film - SO many killers in horror films are male, so it's refreshing to see the ladies step up their game here.

I now want to see both sequels to see if they're more female centric when it comes to killers as this film was.

Really would like Iggy to weigh in on this one, as he lives for these discussions!