Recent movies: Pirates, A Scanner Darkly, The Matador...

[Moosferatu]

Anyone seen it? Does it suck, as I suspect it might? How is it with regards to Monkey Island?

I'll probably see it one of these days, but I'm by no means going to run out to see it thus contributing to the sinful amounts of money it's currently pulling in. I had actually hoped to see A Scanner Darkly this weekend, but it was released in like ten theaters nation wide. Oh well, I'll be able to see it on the 14th in Ann Arbor at least, and I can't wait. A Scanner Darkly, Snakes on a Plane, and Little Miss Sunshine are the only summer movies that really interest me.

[MrHoatzin]

These people were having fun making the film.

The Shack seems to be full of people who think there hasn't been enough character development and whatnot, but I felt there was plenty. I mean, most of these characters were already defined in the previous movie, this time around they were defined just a little bit more. They were defined enough, very subtly, somewhat slyly. Usually I feel spoon-fed character development by Hollywood, this time around it was shown through some action without much elaboration, I thought. This is me talking here, Intellecto McFascist, Literature Snob PhD.

BUT you may want to take that with a grain of salt. I was horribly sleep-deprived, kinda under-fed and generally loopy when I saw it.

Between the voodoo lady, the random...

return of characters who are supposed to be dead, and ridiculous plot holes that are winked at and taken in stride

...it reminded me of Monkey Island moreso than the first installment.

The evil pirates were a little much, methinks. Barnacles would've been enough, the squid was kinda cool, but the shark- and urchin-looking fellas were retahded.

[miffy495]

A Scanner Darkly doesn't open in my city until Friday, and only in one theater. Luckily, I work for said theater and get to go to a press screening tomorrow morning. I'll report back with how awesome/shit it is. Although keep in mind, I love rotoscoping so it'll have to really be terrible for me to not at least KINDA like it.

[brkl]

I wonder if we'll see that movie in Finland at all I desperately want to see it, I love PKD and I loved Waking Life.

[loonyboi]

I thought this was going to be a thread about Sid Meier's Pirates!.

Damn you all.

[Jake]

I thought this was going to be a thread about Sid Meier's Pirates!.

Damn you all.

Idle Banter != Games

[miffy495]

So today I went to see the press screening of A Scanner Darkly. Afterwards, the friend that came along with me ("Free movie? Sure!") suggested that as it was only 11:45, we grab lunch and then catch a matinee of Pirates. Here are my impressions of both.

A Scanner Darkly:

Good, but even at an hour and a half, it feels a bit long. The story is interesting and everything, but they spend way too much time beating about the bush. Also, Keanu Reeves' constant wandering off into soliloquies can get pretty tiresome. Luckily, Robert Downey Jr.'s preformance is fantastic and makes up for many of the film's shortcomings. The rest of the shortcomings are made up for by the beauty of the rotoscoping and the effects that that creates. A very elegant and beautiful movie with a couple of really good preformances that unfortunately ends up feeling just a bit disappointing compared to what it could have been. Overall though, it was worth seeing, and I'm definitely going to hold onto the swag they were giving out for press stuff.

Pirates:

Vapid. Pretty. Fun as all hell. I didn't expect much in terms of plot, and was duly rewarded. It's actually got a bit more going on upstairs than I assumed it would have going in, so I was pleasantly surprised. Some really creative action sequences

(the waterwheel fight kicked ass)

and crazy effects made the whole thing a joy to watch. As expected, a lot was borrowed from Monkey Island, but nothing wrong with that, really. Felt almost like a nice homage. Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt and (unlike Scanner) seems to come way too quickly, despite the movie being over 2 hours. I know they were filming this and its sequel simultaneously, but did they really have to make it feel like such a middle chapter? Even the Empire Strikes Back resovled SOME of its plotlines. This one just leaves you hanging on all counts. With a year to go before the next installment, that's quite the irritant. Aside from the ending though, really fun movie. Fantastic when you just want to blow a couple of hours being mindlessly entertained. Oh, and one last thing:

Kracken FTW.

That'll do it. 2 of the summer's big 3 in one day. I feel some bizzare sense of accomplishment.

[MrHoatzin]

Oh, and one last thing:

Kracken FTW.

As this guy I know would say, although not specifically in this context:

Kracken is the shits.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

There were a few good monkey island ref's.

My favorite was:

The two guys that look very similar to the ones that find LeChucks clothes in MI3 finding the hat.

Also, there is a review at http://askaninja.com that is funny as hell. It reviews the movie very poorly, but it's tounge in cheek.

[Kolzig]

Man, that was one good sequel. I just came from the Finnish premiere and that was over 2 hours of solid good fun.

Johnny Depp owns, again. I love that.

[Moosferatu]

First 24 minutes of A Scanner Darkly

[brkl]

Watched about 10 minutes of that. Looks really sweet. Robert Downey Jr. is wonderful.

[Moosferatu]

I just got back from A Scanner Darkly. It's worth seeing if only for Robert Downey Jr and the amazing visuals. Surprisingly enough, Keanu Reeves doesn't even detract from it as he's usually prone to doing. I was a bit disappointed by the screenplay though. There were some good scenes, usually involving Robert Downey Jr, but on the whole it could have been a lot better. I wonder if the original Kaufman script was any better.

[miffy495]

Luckily, Robert Downey Jr.'s preformance is fantastic and makes up for many of the film's shortcomings.

*bow* thank you, thank you.

[Moosferatu]

This is completely unrelated to anything, but has anyone here seen The Matador? I got it from Netflix yesterday, and it is absolutely hilarious. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good laugh.

[Marek]

I have such trouble getting over A Scanner Darkly's visual style. The bits in the trailer look really good but when you actually view those first 24 minutes on IGN there's all these scenes in which large parts appear to have just been vectorized instead of traced by hand. It actually looks a bit cheap sometimes and makes me feel like I'm watching an FMV or photo collage adventure game.

[toblix]

What the Hell was up with The Matador? Did I miss something, or was there no ending?

[Marek]

I don't remember the ending, but I don't remember missing an ending either. What was it again?

What really bugged me about the movie were the giant size Arial primary color title graphics each time they went to a new city. They gave me kind of a Sasha Nein reaction.

I'm sorry my two movie comments so far have only been about the visuals.

[Moosferatu]

What the Hell was up with The Matador? Did I miss something, or was there no ending?

Yes, the ending certainly was abrupt. I was expecting it to go on for at least 10 more minutes. I wouldn't say that there was no ending, but what was there certainly wasn't traditional.

[toblix]

What I mean is, I may have been sleeping or something, but weren't they just at the stadium, failing to kill that guy, and then they're on the plane and they've killed him and everything's fixed the end?

[Jake]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It was a pretty shady movie all around, poorly edited, too much going on yadda yadda yadda but man it was really fun. Also the third film is clearly going to be a Monkey Island festival.

[elmuerte]

What I mean is, I may have been sleeping or something, but weren't they just at the stadium, failing to kill that guy, and then they're on the plane and they've killed him and everything's fixed the end?

It wasn't about the guy that needed to be killed. It was about Julian who was at the end of his career and life. And by killing that guy he could go on with his life, or start a new one.

[Tommy Gun]

Well to clarify, the very last "twist" in Matador was that

the guy he killed wasn't a "job," it was his boss, therefore he was out.

[Spaff]

The Matador was awesome infact, i really loved that movie, which was totally unexpected as i first saw it on a plane, choosing it from a selection of utter shite.

[elmuerte]

I liked the first part, it was quite funny. Specially the pool and shark part.

The 2nd half wasn't that great, a bit too dramatic