A partner thread to my "Good Movies You Hate" thread.
This one is where everyone gets to talk about movies that should have been terrible, for whatever reason(s), but turned out to be great, for whatever reason(s).
Once again, this is not a thread to post stuff like "Are you KIDDING me?! That movie SUCKED!!!" in response to someone else's post.
It's just a place to bring up those very rare instances when a movie should have failed but somehow managed to pull it off, and then some (in your opinion)!
Please try to mention why the movie should have bombed and also what you feel are the contributing factors for its unexpected awesomeness, if possible.
Let's try to steer away from the "So bad it's good" kind of movies in this thread as those are a different genre all to themselves.
Also the "bad on purpose" kind of awesome movies like "Killer Tomatoes" etc. don't really belong in this thread.
I will start with:
Tremors
A movie about two good-ole-boys whose town is suddenly under attack by giant burrowing creatures from deep underground for no good reason.
The premise of this movie sounds like the absolute worst schlock from a terrible '50s movie made to just feed drive-ins their monster-movie-of-the-week and then be quickly forgotten.
But Tremors was a huge hit when it came out and has stood the test of time, becoming a movie revered by many, and is often mentioned in "Best Movies Of The '80s" compilations.
I remember renting this movie from the local video store on VHS along with a bunch of crap that we quickly forgot as soon as we watched it, but then my flat-mates and I watched Tremors, and it was a life-changing experience. Here was a B-Movie flick that was low budget, had a ridiculous plot, and was set almost completely in one or two locations, but was as captivating a watch as a multi-million-dollar movie like Die Hard.
This movie spawned a slew of sequels (none of which I have seen) and also an avalanche of imitators.
But what made it work so damn well?
For me, it's about a three-way-tie:
(1) The ridiculous premise was treated with complete respect by the film-makers. The audience can quickly understand the rules that the characters must follow to survive against the creatures and these rules are never compromised in any bullshit ways for the sake of the plot needing them to be broken for the movie to continue. The audience knows that when the little girl is bouncing around on the pogo-stick that the creatures will be coming. We understand how clever the characters are when they pole-vault from rock to rock.
(2) The chemistry between the two main characters. We not only believe that they are best friends, but we can feel a depth to their relationship going back years before the story started. This is, of course, because of the great writing and the fact that Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are great actors and perfectly cast. And yes, Michael Gross comes back in the third act to carry the movie with a Rambo-esque performance nobody expected from the dad from Family Ties, granted.
(3) The inventive and varied ways in which the monsters, and other plot points, are used, especially on the low budget. When they lead the "Graboid", as I believe they became known as, into the buried concrete wall it's a moment of great imagination from the writers on how to reveal to the audience what the creatures look like and also what their instincts and weaknesses are. When they uncover the weird rectangular object in the dirt and then clear away more dirt and realize it's a car's headlight, it's an easy, low-budget shot but carries a great weight as the audience "builds" the rest of the car buried under the ground in their minds without them having to actually bury a whole car. And the panning shot of Michael Gross opening fire on the Graboid breaking through his bunker wall with the seamless quick-pan from live on-camera actor to miniature set with an animatronic monster breaking through the wall still looks tons better than most CGI effects I've seen. There are entire film class lectures possible based on just that one shot.
These are the main reasons I would boil down to why the movie worked so well. Lightning in a bottle, as the phrase goes (which is why I've never watched the sequels).
But I also want to talk about the fact that nobody knew about this movie when it came out.
The studio just pushed a little bit of money their way in the hopes of getting a monster movie that would return a reasonable profit and didn't give two shits about it after that.
They made little attempt to advertise it. I never saw a trailer for it even though I was a regular movie-goer and major VHS renter.
Even the movie poster was churned out just before the film was released and just look at it:
(https://i.imgur.com/1kek3GY.jpg)
The studio just told the artist "Ah, whatever. Just have a monster coming up from under the ground. It's just a crappy movie anyway." and the artist just chose a random image of a "scary" monster and pasted it in. It's not even the monsters that appear in the movie FFS!!! And look at how tiny the actors are! They plastered "Kevin Bacon" across the top in the hope that his popularity would be enough. Poor Burt Ward.
I actually love it that such a great and memorable film had such a flop-inducing release and such incredibly bad poster art.
I love everything about this movie.
Anyway... anyone else got one?
Without a doubt I would have picked Tremors for this topic.
I have a long history with this movie! I had just turned 14 and we went to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (march of 1990) on its opening weekend but it was sold out. So we took a chance on a movie we'd barely heard of that was approaching its end-time on the big screen (had been out for a few months I think) and wandered into the smallest screen at the cinema and sat down ready to be disappointed that it wasn't mutant turtles. I was mesmerized by Tremors from the start to the end. I used to have this gauge for how much I enjoyed a movie (in a theater setting) where if I ever looked at my watch or noticed my butt was sore from sitting so long it meant the movie wasn't great. When the ending credits rolled on Tremors I had no idea nearly 2 hours had passed. I wanted more! The movie left theaters almost immediately after that and it was around 6 months (an eternity to a teenager) before I could get it on VHS (I still have my old original copy in my collection, it has long since been unplayable). I have owned the movie on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, HD-DVD, Bluray and digitally (and now it's on Netflix). It's my go-to movie when I need a pick-me-up! About six years ago when my son was born he had a small (we didn't know it was small) infection that was detected and necessitated 15 days in the NICU for treatment. It was horrible! My wife and I spent our days going back and forth from the hospital for every visiting hours period and in between we tried to fill the time and take our minds off our little man we couldn't bring home yet... one of those outlets was Tremors. We watched that movie over and over (seriously I'd wager the only movie I've seen more is Star Wars). So it will always have a very special place in my life.
Another thing I'd mention about it was the editing/continuity. I am an absolute stickler for tight editing and consistency and will pick a movie apart finding all the mistakes (not being critical or insulting, it's just something I enjoy doing). I found only two, very minor, mistakes. Two. That's it. The attention to detail by the cast/crew is mind-blowing when/if you pay attention to it. The scene that stands out the most to me is the first time we see Burt (Michael Gross) and Heather (Reba McEntire) and they're loading up their supplies from Walter's shop. Pay attention to the orientations of the supplies from cut to cut. It's always spot on identical how they're placed on the counter and/or in the box. Whoever was in charge of continuity on that set should have won an Oscar (I've always felt that should be a separate award at the Oscars).
If you haven't seen this movie you should definitely check it out. It's the definition of movie making to me. No politics or agenda nonsense that has ruined Hollywood in modern years. Just an enjoyable good time of a movie that you can tell EVERYbody involved in making really loved working on.
Darth, you had me at "Without a doubt..." an then I read the rest and had a bit of a cry. I'm gonna go rent this movie tomorrow at the good old local video store and force my wife to watch it. She hates monster stuff. But I have a feeling she is gonna get into this movie and surprise herself.
So, I stole someone else's pick.
Anyone got another?
I never saw Tremors, apart from some scenes (isn't this the one where a monster morphs into a pornstar? :D )
And I dislike Kevin Bacon.
Quote from: KyriakosCH on Sun 19/07/2020 16:12:14
(isn't this the one where a monster morphs into a pornstar? :D )
No.
Anyway, anyone else got one?
Quote from: Mandle on Sun 19/07/2020 16:21:41
Quote from: KyriakosCH on Sun 19/07/2020 16:12:14
(isn't this the one where a monster morphs into a pornstar? :D )
No.
Lol. Must have been some other 80s monster movie...
Along very much the same lines, The Core!
One of those movies that is just goofy fun, with nobody taking it particularly seriously.
The plot is so daft that it beggars belief, the characters are two-dimensional, the action is nothing particularly impressive, and the whole thing is both predictable and forgettable. And yet…
To me it feels almost like a live-action episode of DuckTales or something. (Perhaps in part because Don Rosa has a Scrooge McDuck story that is pretty similar.)
Quote from: Snarky on Sun 19/07/2020 16:33:50
Along very much the same lines, The Core!
OMG... such a great example and one I would certainly have picked at some point!
I freaking LOVE that movie. If I start watching it when I catch it on cable I can't stop until it's over.
It should have failed hard because it just seems like another one of those Robert Emerick clones about the end of the world but it has so much charm and whimsy that it becomes something special.
Best line: "What the fuck am I doing?"
Good to know we have another member in the Tremors fan-club :D
Oh boy... The Core. Such an enjoyable mess of a film! Good pick!
A movie I like to recommend to people is Dangerous Beauty (1998). I will, in full disclosure, admit that I only rented it because somebody told me it showed Catherine McCormack, of whom I'd had a big thing for since Braveheart a few years earlier, naked (which it does). The idea of the movie didn't appeal to me at all originally. I was pleasantly surprised at how genuinely good the movie is. I could almost (almost) wish the nudity wasn't in the movie because fickle American audiences tend to be squeamish about boobies and think it cheapens the movie (which, admittedly, can sometimes be the case (Wild Things, Showgirls)) but this movie shines. I can't speak for its historical accuracy as I'm not an expert on 16th century Italy but it is surprisingly enjoyable and the set pieces are breathtaking. It's one of those movies I find interesting that it wasn't more well received (perhaps the nudity made people think less of it?).
Another movie that I loved despite thinking I'd rather dislike was Tristan + Isolde (2007). The setting (England after the Romans left) has always been a fascinating one to me. The production really sunk their teeth into it. Pre-superman Henry Cavil was great. Rufus Sewell (who was also in Dangerous Beauty) owns it. And James Franco and Sophia Miles Romeo and Juliet style chemistry is amazing. It's not a "feel good" movie by any stretch and, spoiler alert, if you're looking for a happy ending to the tale look elsewhere, but still, it's a really good movie. Even though it's anachronistically inaccurate the inclusion of one of my favorite poems of all time, John Donne's "The Good Morrow", works perfectly for the story. I actually had the theme "Love So Alike" play at my wedding rather than the traditional wedding music.
Demolition Man.
On the surface just a stupid action film, but really it's brilliant.
Topical too:
Ahhh...Tremors...I and my friends rented this and loads of follow-ups on VHS back in the day. The Norwegian title translates to "Worm summer", which is incomprehensible unless you know that Jaws was translated into something that means "Shark summer". We must have liked it, or we wouldn't have rented all the other movies in the franchise. The monster bears more than a passing resemblance to the Sandworms of Dune.
And I'll second Demolition Man, too. It shows how much humour has got to say. While many of Stallone's dead serious thrillers are unintentionally funny, the tongue-in-cheek humour of Demolition Man still works.
Quote from: Jack on Sun 19/07/2020 17:08:43
Demolition Man.
Awesome choice!
I'm still waiting for the prequel: "Demolition Man: The Franchise Wars" :-D
Erh, not sure if it aligns with the expectation from this thread, but I have been recently pleasant surprised by a particular one.
Me and my SO have been a bit out of ideas for movies, so from a random conversation we settled on watching Gaslight, a movie from 1944. We expected it to be slow, boring, ... Actually, the movie is well paced, it's pretty interesting and the story is very well constructed. If someone is out of ideas for movies and want to try something old, this is a good one!
People claimed that Curtains, the 80s horror film, was very bad, but imo it was decent (although not great).
It has two very good actresses and a memorable mask.
It's almost cliche to post this, but
The Room really was awesome. My wife and I were in tears because it was so bad/good. Clips from the movie in the below spoiler if anyone wants a walk down memory lane (laugh)
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAwXLVxuZQ
The Overnight was released in 2015 to good/meh reception, but it's so far the best movie I've seen in 2020. If you haven't seen it, don't read anything about it and give it a try. It's unpredictable in ways, which is part of its charm (at least it was for me ~ every five minutes I was like "wait, what?!" (laugh)) IMDB as per usual got it wrong and scored it 6.1.
(https://i.imgur.com/eh8yRXI.jpg)
I wouldn't call it awesome. It is trashy. But maybe it will interest you if you like Tremors 8-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmp4DZs_cx0
Quote from: milkanannan on Mon 20/07/2020 03:23:53
It's almost cliche to post this, but The Room really was awesome. My wife and I were in tears because it was so bad/good. Clips from the movie in the below spoiler if anyone wants a walk down memory lane (laugh)
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAwXLVxuZQ
I've yet to see this and I fear I missed the zeitgeist to fully appreciate the so-bad-it's-goodness of it. Part of the appeal seemed to be groups of friends endlessly quoting it to each other. If I suddenly watch it and start quoting it to my friends who have seen it, it wouldn't be the same.
As for bad films I love? I can't think of an example that I think really matches the title. But the closest thing that comes to mind is Peter Jackson's
Bad Taste. My friend and I watched this over and over again as kids and it remains one of my favourite films of all time. In the hands of anyone else this film would have been utter toilet, but it's just so bloody fun.
But the reason I don't think this film falls quite into the category in the title is that pretty much everyone loves this film. It's not that I like it despite it being bad. It's actually a genuinely good movie. The low budget and questionable acting are features, rather than bugs, of this film.
Cannibalistic Human Underground Dwellers is awesome! I saw that decades ago and still remember having a great time. Will have to rewatch.
I've got a triple Jack Black hand here:
Be Kind, Rewind
Starts out as a stupid comedy with a ridiculous premise and turns into one of the greatest and most heartfelt tributes to modern movies I think I've ever seen.
I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't seen it but, tone-wise, think Cinema Paradiso but as a tribute to the '80s and '90s of cinema history. Wonderful movie!
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
I honestly only watched this to point and laugh at what an absolute trainwreck it had to be. It came out right in the middle of the fad of terrible reboot attempts at beloved movies, either as soulless cash-ins or desperate gambits for the studio to keep the rights to the property.
There was no way on Earth this movie should have worked: An attempt to reboot a beloved smash movie from many people's childhoods AND which starred Robin Williams, the kind of person who only comes along exactly ONCE in human history, AND Robin Williams was already gone.
But, not only did it work... It was freaking awesome! It was the most fun I'd had watching a movie for at least the previous 5 years.
The sequel was pretty damn good too, especially with the surprise ending setting the franchise up for a definite third movie just when it looked like that would be impossible given the way the story goes. No spoilers, but I'm certainly eagerly awaiting part 3.
Tenacious D
This movie suddenly appeared one day. And it appeared just when Jack Black was in that huge slump in his career where everything he touched seemed to turn to shit. He had the Mexican wrestler movie, and the incredibly tasteless and unfunny one where only he didn't know his girlfriend was overweight, and a few other shitty movies that were just so awful I think my mind wiped them from my memory.
And this had all the trappings of being another one of those: a one-concept-one-joke movie, or a terrible rip-off/reboot of Spinal Tap. That's what I imagined it was going to be, at least, and then... and THEN... AND THEN... the sheer gloriousness of this movie happened and I couldn't fucking believe how good and how right and how wonderful it was.
I thought "Welcome back, Jack. All is forgiven!"
Outland
Basically "High Noon" in space, it's a mostly forgotten Sean Connery movie with a great design, good performances (except for one kid actor), and a grimy, claustrophobic world that still feels like a very plausible future to me, all these years later. It really shouldn't work as well as it does, and it's one of the best examples of the "used future" look alongside Blade Runner, if you ask me.
Also, Repo Man. I can't explain why that movies hits all the right chords for me.
Lastly Tremors is awesome. Tremors 2 is also very, very fun. (Avoid CHUD 2 at all costs, however)
Quote from: Ponch on Mon 20/07/2020 04:56:10
Also, Repo Man.
I was tempted to mention Repo Man but decided I would need to rewatch it to do it justice and, living in Japan as I do, I have
never seen a copy of it here. I'm always on the lookout for second-hand copies of it though when I'm at the weekend markets back home in Australia.
(Not to be confused with the black comedy "Repo
Men", the full-length movie version of the live organ donation skit from Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life, which even gets its own tribute scene in the movie. Not a bad flick though.)
Quote from: Stupot on Mon 20/07/2020 04:08:35
Quote from: milkanannan on Mon 20/07/2020 03:23:53
It's almost cliche to post this, but The Room really was awesome. My wife and I were in tears because it was so bad/good. Clips from the movie in the below spoiler if anyone wants a walk down memory lane (laugh)
Spoiler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAwXLVxuZQ
I've yet to see this and I fear I missed the zeitgeist to fully appreciate the so-bad-it's-goodness of it. Part of the appeal seemed to be groups of friends endlessly quoting it to each other. If I suddenly watch it and start quoting it to my friends who have seen it, it wouldn't be the same.
It's honestly so unique in its badness that it has become timeless in ways. Below is the full movie. It's YouTube so the two completely separate lovemaking scenes from the first twenty minutes ((laugh)) are blurred, but the rest of its glory is all there:
The Room gets a pass, because it's The Room, but let's try to steer away from the "So bad it's good" kind of movies in this thread as those are a different genre all to themselves.
Sorry, I meant to mention that in the first post and forgot.
Also the "bad on purpose" kind of awesome movies like "Killer Tomatoes" etc. don't really belong in this thread.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space has a few cool scenes :)
Like the ventriloquist one, or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5GWqOrzQ3g
Ah yes, Tremors was a great movie!
Also: The Mangler' (1995)
(https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7149084_3_5823.jpg)
Thinking to Ennio Morricone The Exorcist II: the Eretic is often disliked by the horror fandom because is not bloody as the prequel, but in my humble opinion the director John Boorman builted a solid and scary movie. Almost it give chills to me.
[imgzoom]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Exorcist2poster.jpg[/imgzoom]
Another bad-criticated movie is Pretty Baby, mainly because an underage Brooke Shields play the prostitute character. I think this movie is a piece of art, the director Louis Malle did a great job.
[imgzoom]http://rarefilm.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Pretty-Baby-1978.jpg[/imgzoom]
What do you think?
_
The Lair Of The White Worm
Thank you Hugh Grant for being in this movie in which an adult woman seduces a boy scout long before you got busted for having sex in a car with a prostitute on the street in broad daylight.
Seriously though, I doubt many people have even heard of this movie, a British horror flick based on a Bram Stoker story that was not "Dracula".
This movie is very low budget, and very well made. Well done, Ken Russel!!!
It gets pretty insane with its sexual imagery towards the end.
I must actually watch this movie again because I only saw it once when I was about 19 years old, but so many scenes are burnt into my brain.
Lovecraft once commented that the actual novel was terribly written, and a waste of a good idea :)
Quote from: Mandle on Sun 19/07/2020 14:35:08
Once again, this is not a thread to post stuff like "Are you KIDDING me?! That movie SUCKED!!!" in response to someone else's post.
To enforce this, any further posts along these lines will be deleted.
Not sure if this qualifies, but so many people hate it and think it's awful. This movie got the following reaction from Roger Ebert:
"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."
Freddy Got Fingered, in my opinion, was a fun movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My wife, like most people I guess, can't stand it.
If nothing else, this clip is awesome, but I'll put it in spoilers in case someone is actually going to venture into watching the film:
Spoiler
Quote from: Mandle on Tue 21/07/2020 16:45:17
Seriously though, I doubt many people have even heard of this movie, a British horror flick based on a Bram Stoker story that was not "Dracula".
Tell that to my blu-ray copy! There's a bunch of Ken Russell films that probably belong in this thread.
Arjon mentioned
The Mangler, a latter-day Tobe Hooper flick (with a great lead performance by Ted Levine), that's much better than it has any right to be. Also directed by Hooper, I'd like to add:
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU4MTMxOTQyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzU1NDk0NA@@._V1_.jpg)
Despite bombing at the box-office, and some scathing reviews, I can't stress how good this film is. A lavish adaptation of a little know novel by British SF author Colin Wilson ("Space Vampires"), it's manages to be visually gorgeous, while also being completely insane. Based on the premise (Armageddon at the hands of intergalactic, energy-stealing, sex vampires!), it
should be terrible, but, by playing it knowingly straight*, and through wonderful design and inventive execution (and great use of color), it becomes an absolute classic. It's on Netflix, so watch it!
Also better than it has any right to be, is
The Sentinel:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Sentinel_movie_poster.jpg)
Despite being directed by Michael Winner (ew!), it manages to be a pretty damn effective supernatural thriller, and much better than it's premise (a possessed fashion model stuck in a Catholic Church-sanctioned halfway house, that sits on the entrance to Hell!) would lead you to believe.
*
As straight as you can play a film that features an extended scene of Patrick Stewart screaming like a little girl, before his blood floats out of his body!
I'm not sure if it is fair to call a movie directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage "should have been bad", but...
It absolutely could have been but wasn't :=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrAz1YLh8nY
On paper, The Tree of Life sounds like the most boring, pretentious movie possible: A totally unremarkable middle-aged man thinking about his relatively unremarkable childhood, with constant voiceovers spouting off about religion and morality, and flashbacks to the creation of the universe. I saw it with three others whose reactions... varied considerably. Personally, I was totally on board, swept up in Terrence Malick's seemingly autobiographically inspired story, the numinous cinematography and the emotional and theological explorations. The creation of great beauty out of ordinariness seemed like a demonstration of its own thesis.
Now I feel bad, because I did find Tree of Life incredibly boring and pretentious.
I'm going to go with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, because it was an absurd production disaster, a huge flop, and remains one of Gilliam's less well-loved films. They weren't allowed to tell anyone that Robin Williams was in it, and I seem to remember hearing that the producer at one point held a reel of exposed film hostage with a gun.
I think it's wonderful, and works incredibly well considering a significant portion of the script was never shot. Also, having watched it endlessly taped off the TV, it's nice to see how great it looks scanned in high definition.
Quote from: Ali on Wed 22/07/2020 00:14:15
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Just rewatched it recently... Hated it when I was young, but now I see the point of it: An old man rambling on about things that may or may not have happened, but the real issue is: Does he have anyone who will care enough to listen?
I watched that film using a VPN.
It was Munchhausen by proxy.
(Mandle has already endured this joke but I couldn’t resist it).
Quote from: Stupot on Wed 22/07/2020 10:43:05
(Mandle has already endured this joke but I couldn’t resist it).
That joke taught me a new term. I didn't get it at first, remember.
Quote from: Mandle on Sun 19/07/2020 14:35:08Tremors
Tremors is awesome! But then again, I even like 1950s monster movies. (laugh)
Quote from: eri0o on Mon 20/07/2020 00:43:18Gaslight, a movie from 1944
Gaslight is a good film. Although I actually prefer the British version from 1940. The film is shorter, with a better atmosphere in my opinion -- plus, I don't much like Ingrid Bergman.
Quote from: Ponch on Mon 20/07/2020 04:56:10Outland
Outland was a well-made film! Solid acting, great set design, some cool scenes (like the space greenhouse).
Quote from: Stupot on Wed 22/07/2020 10:43:05
I watched that film using a VPN.
It was Munchhausen by proxy.
(laugh) (laugh)
That norwegian movie Trollhunter surprised me. I read about it many times and I always thought it sounded so stupid. "Looking for trolls in the norwegian wilderness" but it had a good rating so eventually I watched it and man I was blown away. Such an awesome movie. Found footage movies are not for everyone I know but I can really recommend it. Just try to endure the usual 45 minutes of "nothing happens" :-D
Quote from: Mouth for war on Fri 24/07/2020 15:26:30
That norwegian movie Trollhunter surprised me. I read about it many times and I always thought it sounded so stupid. "Looking for trolls in the norwegian wilderness" but it had a good rating so eventually I watched it and man I was blown away. Such an awesome movie. Found footage movies are not for everyone I know but I can really recommend it. Just try to endure the usual 45 minutes of "nothing happens" :-D
I had exactly the same experience with that movie. What an awesome film!!!
And the "nothing happening" parts are very watchable because the characters and world-building are so interesting, especially the troll-hunter himself, and the whole power station storyline.
Quote from: Mandle on Sat 25/07/2020 21:49:09
Quote from: Mouth for war on Fri 24/07/2020 15:26:30
That norwegian movie Trollhunter surprised me. I read about it many times and I always thought it sounded so stupid. "Looking for trolls in the norwegian wilderness" but it had a good rating so eventually I watched it and man I was blown away. Such an awesome movie. Found footage movies are not for everyone I know but I can really recommend it. Just try to endure the usual 45 minutes of "nothing happens" :-D
I had exactly the same experience with that movie. What an awesome film!!!
And the "nothing happening" parts are very watchable because the characters and world-building are so interesting, especially the troll-hunter himself, and the whole power station storyline.
These are hilarious in-jokes to the Norwegian and perhaps the Scandinavian audience, due to the very real debate about building those power lines through a National Park. I'm always pleasantly surprised to see that this movie apparantly works quite well for an international audience.
Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 25/07/2020 23:04:51
These are hilarious in-jokes to the Norwegian and perhaps the Scandinavian audience, due to the very real debate about building those power lines through a National Park.
I did get that the power-lines story was connected to some real-life news because the film-makers cut in clips of news and documentary footage concerning it, if I remember correctly.
But thanks for clearing up exactly what the issue was.
Mandle wrote in the other thread:
QuoteBut I just can't make it more than 20 minutes into this movie before the dead faces of the main puppet characters drive me up the wall.
Puppet shows where the characters only have their body language to express their feelings are fine for 15 minutes, but not for me for a full length movie.
So with that as criteria, Meet the Feebles should be horrible. But boy is it funny! (laugh) The not-muppets cheat on each other, have Vietnam war flashbacks, produce porn in the basement and do every depraved thing you can think of and a few you didn't.
Ummmmm... this is a hard one...
It's borderline... but...
Ready Or NotJust finished watching this thing and it was a complete mess, but I fell in love with it at some point.
I knew that almost every rule of film-making had been broken, but I still loved it even while hating it a lot of the time...
I think that might have been the goal. I did laugh a LOT!
SPOILERS
Spoiler
Also, I think they wanted to create a female version of Ash from the Evil Dead series... and they did alright...
Yesterday I saw
P2, labeked as the worst horror movie of the last two decades.
For what I can say it's not worse than many other movie about the same theme. It have enough suspense and gore to be enjoyable.
...And as I always thought serial killers loves Elvis Presley! (laugh)
_
After channel hopping, the other night, in a bid to find
viewing that didn't bore me to death, I happened upon
IT CAME FROM THE DESERT on Horror.
Might as well give it a go I thought. I was in a bit of
a gloomy mood, with everything that's going on, and you
know what, by the time it finished I had a big grin on my
face and felt in a much better frame of mind.
I wouldn't really class it as horror, because the way it was
done was actually quite amusing.
Also, I wouldn't say it was awesome, but it hit the right
note shall we say.
Toy Story 4
When I heard they were doing a new movie beyond the complete story arc that 1,2, and 3 achieved pretty much flawlessly, I thought "OMG is Pixar just going for a cash-grab with no respect for the very same movie that started their legacy of "amazing animation meets excellent story-telling"?
Honestly, I racked my brain for months trying to figure out what possible new story could be worth telling beyond the perfect story arc of the first 3 movies.
I couldn't come up with a single thing. And then I watched the movie, expecting it to be horrible.
BUT, "oh ye of little faith", I said to myself after watching it.
There WAS a continuation of the story worth telling and they told it masterfully.
Never doubt Pixar. I'm looking forward to part 5!!!
Yeah 4 was great. I I have to admit I had a little dust in my eye at the end of 3...holding hands as they slide into the fire? 8-0 :~( :~(
A Ghost Story
I was among the majority of people who looked at the concept of this movie and shook their head and laughed.
A ghost that is literally a guy in a sheet with two holes in it.
But I heard so much about it I watched it. I was expecting some arty crap that was "deep" and "profound" and all those other words a lot of people use but actually mean "incomprehensible" and "has no story".
But this movie BLEW ME AWAY!!!
And, while watching it, I realized why they went with the sheet costume. It's so important during the movie that we don't see the expression on the face of the ghost. It wouldn't have worked with an actor just doing an expressionless face the whole time. That would make us think the ghost doesn't feel emotions. Also, the sheet costume has no mouth. It's important that the ghost never speaks. But an actor just keeping their mouth closed wouldn't have worked. We would think that the ghost just has nothing to say.
A shapeless dark cloud wouldn't have worked. A transparent person wouldn't have worked. I'd imagine they went through every possible solution to these problems and then somebody said (probably as a joke) "How about we just use a sheet with two holes?" and a second later everyone realized it was the one way the movie could work.
I love it in movies where they take a concept as far as they can. In a lot of movies you wonder "But what about this?" or "What would happen if...". And A Ghost Story goes to all those extreme places.
I have recommended this movie to tons of friends and nobody ever watched it. They all saw the cover with the sheet-ghost on it and thought the same as I did at first.
Don't be fooled. It's a fantastic film!
Quote from: milkanannan on Sat 15/08/2020 17:28:40
I have to admit I had a little dust in my eye at the end of 3...holding hands as they slide into the fire? 8-0 :~( :~(
That's how good Pixar is. In any other "kid's" film I never feel that the characters are in any real danger. The adult part of my brain just tells me "It's a kid's film. They'll be fine." but Toy Story 3 was so good it turned off the adult part of my brain and I was legit thinking "Oh my God! Are they really gonna end it like this?!"
Shock Treatment
Promoted as the "sequel" or at least the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and what the hell were they gonna do? Were they going to have the aliens come back and check back in on how Brad and Janet were faring? Were Brad and Janet going to follow the aliens to their home world by doing the time warp again?
NOPE! They just made a completely different movie!
And.... it is AMAZING!!!
And, everyone hated it because it wasn't anything like Rocky Horror.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is my most watched movie of all time. I have literally seen it hundreds of times. There is a reason why, but I won't go into that here.
And I can still watch it over and over and enjoy it.
And tonight, for the first time ever, I watched "Shock Treatment". I have always avoided it as I thought it would just be inferior.
But I loved it! It was truly a movie ahead of its time with its predictions of where mental health care was headed and the craze of celebrity-addiction via reality television.
The songs are awesome. Much more American-rock style than Rocky Horror was, but very enjoyable. It was awesome to see the Rocky Horror gang (in part) back together in different roles, with the amazingly talented additions of Rik Mayall and Barry Humphries.
The long tracking shots are incredible and really give the movie a theater-production feel, and the use of bold color and stark settings reminded me of Giallo films like "Suspiria" at times.
I felt like many movies and artists may have been inspired by this movie: David Byrne's "True Stories" comes to mind, as well as "Rubber", "Brain Candy", and even "Little Shop Of Horrors".
The campiness of Rocky Horror is fully intact, and there were moments when I laughed a LOT from the over-the-top performances and lines of dialog.
The titular song and the finale song are both incredible. I'm gonna go watch both of those again now.
(Also, the song about battling with your inner voice "twin" that is trying to bring you down and make you feel worthless is very affecting.)
Quote from: Mandle on Mon 24/08/2020 14:21:24
Shock Treatment
Promoted as the "sequel" or at least the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and what the hell were they gonna do? Were they going to have the aliens come back and check back in on how Brad and Janet were faring? Were Brad and Janet going to follow the aliens to their home world by doing the time warp again?
NOPE! They just made a completely different movie!
And.... it is AMAZING!!!
And, everyone hated it because it wasn't anything like Rocky Horror.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is my most watched movie of all time. I have literally seen it hundreds of times. There is a reason why, but I won't go into that here.
And I can still watch it over and over and enjoy it.
And tonight, for the first time ever, I watched "Shock Treatment". I have always avoided it as I thought it would just be inferior.
But I loved it! It was truly a movie ahead of its time with its predictions of where mental health care was headed and the craze of celebrity-addiction via reality television.
The songs are awesome. Much more American-rock style than Rocky Horror was, but very enjoyable. It was awesome to see the Rocky Horror gang (in part) back together in different roles, with the amazingly talented additions of Rik Mayall and Barry Humphries.
The long tracking shots are incredible and really give the movie a theater-production feel, and the use of bold color and stark settings reminded me of Giallo films like "Suspiria" at times.
I felt like many movies and artists may have been inspired by this movie: David Byrne's "True Stories" comes to mind, as well as "Rubber", "Brain Candy", and even "Little Shop Of Horrors".
The campiness of Rocky Horror is fully intact, and there were moments when I laughed a LOT from the over-the-top performances and lines of dialog.
The titular song and the finale song are both incredible. I'm gonna go watch both of those again now.
(Also, the song about battling with your inner voice "twin" that is trying to bring you down and make you feel worthless is very affecting.)
Really? It is actually good?
I spent two years as a foreign student in Paris. I became a regular at the Studio Galande, a small theatre that played Rocky Horror Picture Show every friday night with amateur performers in the room. It was incredible, one of the craziest things I did in my younger years. 20 years ago already, I wonder if they still do it.
Now I definitely have to see Shock Treatment!
Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Wed 16/09/2020 13:45:44
Really? It is actually good?
I spent two years as a foreign student in Paris. I became a regular at the Studio Galande, a small theatre that played Rocky Horror Picture Show every friday night with amateur performers in the room. It was incredible, one of the craziest things I did in my younger years. 20 years ago already, I wonder if they still do it.
Now I definitely have to see Shock Treatment!
It's amazing... And there is a bit of context to its production in that there was a strike in Hollywood at the time that prevented them from filming any outside locations around their fictional town of "Denton" as they had planned... But I think that would have detracted from the movie actually and was a happy accident.
It gains so much from the claustrophobic feel of just being set inside a TV studio and the final scene really shows off the final mesaage of the movie all the better because of that limitation.
Quote from: Mandle on Wed 16/09/2020 15:52:02
It's amazing... And there is a bit of context to its production in that there was a strike in Hollywood at the time that prevented them from filming any outside locations around their fictional town of "Denton" as they had planned... But I think that would have detracted from the movie actually and was a happy accident.
It gains so much from the claustrophobic feel of just being set inside a TV studio and the final scene really shows off the final mesaage of the movie all the better because of that limitation.
Funny actually when I saw trailers and photographs from Schock Treamtent I always thought it had a Maniac Mansion vibe!