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Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Terminator 2
When I was a kid this was the holy grail of action movies. Now I see a lot of weaknesses which are present in everything James Cameron makes. He does not respect his audience and he isn't making movies for himself. It is strictly a matter of entertaining you. This inevitably results in overly dumb plotting and cliches, because cliches are cliches for a reason, they always work. Avatar he wasn't even trying to hide it.
Being preoccupied with entertainment he neglects drama because drama is boring. He never developed his craft in that area and the result is boredom. Writing good drama is the hardest thing to do in cinema. He wasn't very good at it then and he isn't very good at it now. This movie is an empty shell propped up by special effects. Admittedly they are still great.
A contrast to Cameron is George Lucas. They both work in the same field, breaking records at the box office with huge action movies and sequels. In a JC movie the best scenes will always be action or special effects oriented, while in a George Lucas movie you can have bare boned drama scenes which are just as good as the action set pieces. Take Luke surrendering himself to his father in Return of the Jedi and that scene is as good as anything else in that movie.
- Randall Flagg
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Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Really, you find the story of Star Wars to not be cliché (take your pick of any of the 6 Lucas driven films), but Cameron's doubly so? I don't disagree that the Terminator franchise was essentially a shell to demonstrate new film technologies, but I think they were made to entertain, which they accomplished. Lucas himself has said that Star Wars is a child's story. And so much of the prequel trilogy was bad CGI Lucas was trying to shoehorn in much like Cameron does (albeit to a much greater success).
Anakin talking about sand is one of the most despised scenes in movie writing history. Whereas T2 has imbedded many of its dialogue into the public conscious.
To each their own. I'm excited for Avatar 2.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
If we are talking about cultural impact I've seen a ton of Star Wars memes but very few from the Terminator. Prequels are even more prominent than the OT in that regard.
Star Wars has cliches. There is nothing wrong with cliches in itself but you do need more than just cliches. Star Wars takes risk which is why you sometimes gets stuff like Jar Jar and Padme/Anakin love scenes. The story to Terminator 2 is almost a carbon copy of Terminator 1. James Cameron doesn't care much about story, he cares about creating new effects and selling a ton of tickets. He's very, very good at that.
Lucas has more to his game.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Lucas hates directing. It happened over Apocalypse Now and how he felt betrayed that Coppola “stole it” from him. He’d been working on it for ten years. He literally had to be dragged into writing and directing the prequels, everyone he asked to do it turned him down. He really wanted to dictate to other people how to write and direct the films like he did on the original series. Not only that, he had to make it with unproven technology that became quickly dated. He’s always said his favorite part of filmmaking is in editing.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
2 Guns - A Denzel and Mark Wahlberg buddy cop movie. I don't think they had very good chemistry and I don't think Denzel works best in this type of film.
There's just something about Wahlberg I don't like. I didn't buy him as being Navy intelligence. The whole plot was ridiculous anyways. This is one of those movies where you need to turn off your brain.
Every Which Way But Loose - Only in the 70s could a movie like this be made. The whole thing is ridiculous. It's not just the ape either...it's all of it. Chasing down Sandra Locke who clearly doesn't give a shit about him wore thin quick.
I can't imagine how this story warranted a sequel. I might watch it tonight.
Nesting Dolls - This movie came awfully close to becoming a movie of the decade contender for me. It's about a group of three sorority girls who go to a vacation house and two of them play a prank on the other and it goes horribly wrong.
I read reviews after watching it and the main problem people had was how they react in the aftermath of the prank. That didn't bother me...people will have all sorts of reactions in a disaster.
What bothered me is how they drag it out and it runs in place too long in the middle of the film. I think it could've also been improved by telling more about the girls before they went on this vacation.
The ending...a bit of a twist...was a cop out...an easy way out of the mess they found themselves in.
I also loved the way the film looks.... especially the scenes out by the water.
I'm calling it now....the actress who played Tori has loads of potential and will move on to much better things. Not in the A list category like Bullock-Roberts but more like another Tilda Swinton or Collette.
Here's the trailer...it's currently on Amazon and Tubi...
New Candyman movie. How can something be good and terrible at the same time?
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Doesn't that describe the original? 
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
I have a new appreciation for the original!
The director is fantastic. The film looks great. The screenplay is horrible and absolutely stupid. Total Jordan Peele film, an overhyped, over complicated comedy that thinks it’s deep and scary. Once you get to the end you’ll say, why did they waste an hour and a half with that bullshit and not use him all along? You’ll know what I mean…
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Blow Out--DePalma's best film, imo. It's well plotted. And very well acted, maybe Travolta's best performance. Plus it's one of those meta films where one of the plots is about the nuts and bolts of making and piecing together a movie. Oh, it's got a great "conspiracy film" vibe too. The ending is one of his better ones as well, full of drama and high stakes.
All the President's Men: Watergate just turned 50 so. Somewhat of a slow burner. Robards is ace as the newspaper editor, Ben Bradlee. I always forget that Meredith Baxter from Family Ties has a small role in this. Obligatory, great look at 70s DC. Kinda inside look at the dying artform of writing for a daily newspaper.
Farewell Friend. Bronson late 60s Euro heist film. Really fun. Goes against convention which I love. Bronson bests the main star Alain Delon here and really comes off as the cooler character here. This is one of the films that turned him into an international star (supposedly) and one can see it. I like watching these films because you can see Bronson act. In the later/ending parts of his career, it seemed like he played nothing but cops/PI's for the most part and phoned it in on some of those performances.
The Grifters--90s con film. Honestly, it's more of a character piece and an examination of a fucked up mom/son relationship. Poor John Cusack character. He's stuck in between two big time shark hustlers while he is a small time guy and has nowhere near their drive or duplicity.
