NOW CLOSED ; List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[Ns1]

I've heard this is decent, though at times I've heard it stretches believabality. Still want to see it though.

Honestly I thought it was fake until 15 minutes in.

 

[SMOGZINN]

In Time - 6.283/10
I found it a entertaining move, It started out good, but I feel it lost it's way in the end.
I'm afraid the rest of my review will be very spoilery:

Spoiler

I thought that the time as money idea was interesting, it highlights the real link for most people between money and time, and having the rich be practically immortal was a good scifi hook to show just how unequal the classes were. Then they introduce the idea the competing ideas of 'for some to live forever, many must die' and 'there is enough time for everyone', which is a direct metaphor for capitalism and socialism, and sets us up for an interesting resolution. But then the show becomes Bonnie and Clyde, and focuses on action over the idea's. In the end they wave a magic wand and somehow there is a revolution with no reason given other then 'the timelines are ruined' or some such. Overall, a very unsatisfying end.

 

[Cerb]

Ecstasy of Order:

That was something else. Cool people, too...if you're sufficiently geeky, yourself, I guess . Surprising and fascinating, even having read all the reviews here so far.

Out of practice, I can just break 70 lines. Of course I was mostly listening by the time the championship itself was under way, and was paying more attention to that next piece window...

P.S. don't they have more commercials they can rotate? Seeing the same ones over and over and over was really annoying.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Rock Of Ages - 1/10

My wife and her best friend are fans of 80s hair bands so even though they both heard how much this movie sucked they still felt an obligation to watch it. I pray to the FSM that they never find out there is an extended version available.

 

[Printer Bandit]

Ecstasy of Order:

That was something else. Cool people, too...if you're sufficiently geeky, yourself, I guess . Surprising and fascinating, even having read all the reviews here so far.

Out of practice, I can just break 70 lines. Of course I was mostly listening by the time the championship itself was under way, and was paying more attention to that next piece window...

P.S. don't they have more commercials they can rotate? Seeing the same ones over and over and over was really annoying.

i ended up renting it off of itunes for $4.99 just to avoid the commercials.

 

[RossMAN]

Ecstasy of Order:

That was something else. Cool people, too...if you're sufficiently geeky, yourself, I guess . Surprising and fascinating, even having read all the reviews here so far.

Out of practice, I can just break 70 lines. Of course I was mostly listening by the time the championship itself was under way, and was paying more attention to that next piece window...

P.S. don't they have more commercials they can rotate? Seeing the same ones over and over and over was really annoying.

i ended up renting it off of itunes for $4.99 just to avoid the commercials.

After reading your posts and seeing the official trailer in 1080p - I have to watch this.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Life after porn - wow. Actually well done and entertsining while educational. Interesting documentary. ./Basiaclly takes a handful of ex porn stars and cronicles their post porn life. 8/10. .... nudity exists along with other things you might expect but it is not the focus...be warned

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Bones brigade. ... forget movie title... interwsting documentary about skateboarding in the early 80s. Learned alot of new stuff like the history and significance of the ollie. 9/10

 

[SMOGZINN]

Life after porn - wow. Actually well done and entertsining while educational. Interesting documentary. ./Basiaclly takes a handful of ex porn stars and cronicles their post porn life. 8/10. .... nudity exists along with other things you might expect but it is not the focus...be warned

Is this on netflix?

 

[Cerb]

Is this on netflix?

Yes. Just added, apparently. Surprisingly, they're adding enough that the front-page onslaught of Disney has already faded.

 

[Arkaign]

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters - 9/10: When I was a little kid I destroyed my left thumb playing Tetris for hours on my friends Gameboy. About ten minutes into Ecstasy of Order I saw Harry Hong playing with a t-shirt wrapped around his thumb and realized these guys, and gals, were way out of my league.

So of course the natural reaction is to compare this to King of Kong, since it follows a similar story (the quest for the best player of an old game in a tournament) and while there is no Billy Mitchell here, I mean there really is only one Billy Mitchell, it is an awesome documentary on a game that pretty much everyone between the ages of twenty and fifty has played.

The doc. mainly follows a small group of very good players who have the highest scores possible and have accomplished things in the game that most of us never even thought possible. We meet them all as they lead up to the and also get the history of competitive Tetris, including a 14 year-old wunderkind named Thor who had won the Nintendo Tetris championships way back in the day. He becomes the elusive, shadowy figure hanging over the competition throughout the film and his story is very interesting when you finally get to hear it.

I loved this documentary because it has everything I look for in this type of film; fun, drama, competition, and nostalgia. I was riveted for the duration.

There are a few negatives; the production quality is a bit lower than some other, similar documentaries, plus I was not a big fan of the narration; the guy's voice was not right for it at all. I also could have used a bit more of the actual tournament stuff, but that may just be me; I could watch people play that game for hours. Something about seeing people at the absolute peak of what they are doing is quite fascinating and satisfying to watch.

Now I just need someone to do a documentary on Street Fighter II. Maybe I could even be in it.

KT

Ah, fantastic! I'm happy you got a chance to see it and enjoyed it

I agree on the narration, that was actually the director Adam Cornelius filling that role. I think it was envisioned that someone would be found to do a pro voiceover for it, but it never really came to fruition, and budget/time issues I think forced the hand to just go with the existing cut.

There is a Street Fighter-centric documentary out there, I'm not entirely sure if it's done yet, but I don't think it focuses on SF2 sadly (my favorite still, haha). SF2 Turbo on SNES was maybe the best arcade to console translation of the entire 8 and 16 bit era imho (as far as taking a major popular arcade title and making a great home translation).

 

[shortylickens]

Yes. Just added, apparently. Surprisingly, they're adding enough that the front-page onslaught of Disney has already faded.

Yeah I saw that too. Porn documentaries right next to classic disney flicks.




As for me:

Dilbert the TV show isnt nearly as good as Dilbert the comic. But it does entertain.

 

[CZroe]

Ah, fantastic! I'm happy you got a chance to see it and enjoyed it

I agree on the narration, that was actually the director Adam Cornelius filling that role. I think it was envisioned that someone would be found to do a pro voiceover for it, but it never really came to fruition, and budget/time issues I think forced the hand to just go with the existing cut.

There is a Street Fighter-centric documentary out there, I'm not entirely sure if it's done yet, but I don't think it focuses on SF2 sadly (my favorite still, haha). SF2 Turbo on SNES was maybe the best arcade to console translation of the entire 8 and 16 bit era imho (as far as taking a major popular arcade title and making a great home translation).

Killer Instinct?

 

[Ns1]

^^ mortal kombat also translated great.

90's = greatest era for fighting games

 

[GTaudiophile]

Zero Dark Thirty - 8.0/10.0

Just saw a screening here in DC. A solid, entertaining movie. If you've kept up with the news and read books like "No Easy Day" then there will be few if any surprises; the movie simply puts on screen what you've imagined all along. Sound effects are impressive, especially towards the end. You'll wish you could meet the real "Maya" character. The movie doesn't make much of a political statement about torture.

Otherwise, I think that both "Hurt Locker" and "Act of Valor" are more entertaining movies on the whole. "Zero" does not make it into my list of TOP 5 films for 2012.

 

[Arkaign]

Killer Instinct?

Ah, that's another good one, though I think that was much harder for the SNES to really match up to due to more of a gap between 16-bit console abilities to translate a more powerful arcade title. Much later on, the N64 version was fairly close though (though the N64 controller was meh for fighting games imho).

^^ mortal kombat also translated great.

90's = greatest era for fighting games

MK was a tough one, the SNES version had no blood but was much more responsive and fluid, along with better colors. The Genesis version was a washed out laggy mess, but had the full fatalities and such. I forget, did MK2/MK3 on Snes more or less stay faithful to the arcades? I remember them being pretty decent, though it seems that weirdly MK1 was the most 'realistic' MK, they went cartoonish starting with 2 onward (perhaps due to the controversy surrounding the first one, maybe they thought that by making it much more obviously fake/fantasy they could escape some of the political heat?)

Ah, found the Street Fighter documentary I was thinking of :

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/po...t-street-fighter-champion-mike-ross-g4-films/

Unfortunately, but I suppose realistically, it's focused on Street Fighter 4.

In real life, Chris Tang from Ecstasy of Order (and a NWC 1990 finalist as well as the Sega World Champion) is the best SF2 player I've ever met. Simply astonishingly good. Granted I haven't met any other pro-level SF2 players out there, but he is a beast to watch in person. I remember back in the early 90s, after a few weeks there was nobody in DFW that could beat me in SF2. I could go to the mall at 10AM, start playing, and have people play me until 5-6PM, then I would be too tired/hungry to continue, walk off and eat and watch a movie, then come back and play on one credit until the mall closed. I really didn't develop much past that, as I found much better competition later on a trip to LA. There was a SF2 tournament at UCLA that had something like 6,000 entrants. I made it to the finals, but simply was outclassed by the elite players there. I don't know whether or not I would have been good enough even if I had been able to practice with that caliber of player on a constant basis or not, but I definitely was 2nd-tier compared to the top 4 or 5 guys, they were just in a different league entirely. Fun times!

 

[CZroe]

Ah, that's another good one, though I think that was much harder for the SNES to really match up to due to more of a gap between 16-bit console abilities to translate a more powerful arcade title. Much later on, the N64 version was fairly close though (though the N64 controller was meh for fighting games imho).

I was really referring more to the "as far as taking a major popular arcade title and making a great home translation" part. The only thing missing was one Danger Move (Glacius' amoeba). Bad glitches including infinite combos were fixed and the good glitches like Air Ultras were retained with little touches like reflections added in Riptor's stage. The visual gulf had more to do with cartridge size than anything, because it could have had all the FMV, fluid animation, and FMV arenas if it weren't for that. The loss of polygonal arenas is equivalent to loss of FMV arenas in KI 2/KI Gold (same limitation) and the 2D sprites didn't really work right when the camera would fly up in the air anyway. There was a preview kiosk at Toys R Us that let you see videos from different games at the push of a button and they showed a fluidly animated beta version that I always wish I could find leaked online.

KI Gold similarly lost KI2's FMV (arenas, characters select, etc) and a move (Jago's resurrection), but the main problem was that there was never an online service to test your metal against the best of the best (KI on SNES X-BAND).

As for the N64 controller for fighting games: It was the only standard mainstream controller ever with a true six-button arcade layout! The D-pad was a little stiff until you broke it in (KI Gold half-circle then across motions were tough), but the actual part was identical to the SNES and it was absolutely perfect after breaking it in. No complaints about playing the original 5-button Mortal Kombat on a three+one button Genesis pad?! The giant monstrosity "Duke" XBOX controller (original one that was quickly discontinued) was the only thing to come close since then and yet the six face buttons were almost vertical and the D-pad was atrocious.

For Killer Instinct and Street Fighter on SNES I liked the Super Capcom Pad with its left grip and six-button platform or the Asciiware FighterStick SN. Capcom also made theirs for 3DO, Genesis/MegaDrive, etc. It was just AWESOME. The FighterStick SN could've used concave buttons and a slender bad-style American stick (I hate those round Pac-Man style "ball" ones!) but that remains a problem even with the best sticks today (the ones with replaceable tops have tapered ones that are every bit as large/fat as the ball!). There was also a fighting pad from Asciiware but their D-pads wouldn't track accurately when vibrating fast (something you should be wary of ). For example, Tetris Attack required rapid coordination to alternate between flipping the panels and and moving the cursor left and right to move a particular panel space by space across the screen in a fluid motion (people were amazed to see it . Their AsciiPad would routinely cause my cursor to end up a row ore two above or below with the tile I wanted left behind. If it weren't for that then I'd have no idea that there parts were any different from Nintendo's parts (they look the same and it is official/authorized; plug end had no Nintendo logo though).

MK was a tough one, the SNES version had no blood but was much more responsive and fluid, along with better colors. The Genesis version was a washed out laggy mess, but had the full fatalities and such. I forget, did MK2/MK3 on Snes more or less stay faithful to the arcades? I remember them being pretty decent, though it seems that weirdly MK1 was the most 'realistic' MK, they went cartoonish starting with 2 onward (perhaps due to the controversy surrounding the first one, maybe they thought that by making it much more obviously fake/fantasy they could escape some of the political heat?)

Lots of minor stuff. MK2 on SNES had character-shaped shadows while MK2 on Genesis just had circles onthe ground. SNES had "[Character name], wins]" while Genesis just said "you" or "player" or something. Of course, nothing could overcome the Genesis having bad colors/sound. There were different cheats and easter eggs too. Holding L+R when powering up to see Kintaro smash the logo is one I remember being only on SNES.

 

[sdifox]

Rock of Ages 7/10 I enjoyed this. It is meant to be cheesy and it delivered. Good job from the cast. Cruise was spot on.

 

[mcurphy]

The Bay - 3/10: Terrible movie. Awful acting, ridiculously predictable plot, and annoying "found footage" shaky cam. Would not recommend--don't waste your time.

Ice Age: Continental Drift - 8/10 Great addition to the franchise. Awesome characters and voice actors. The plot was decent and funny and overall a fun experience for kids and adults.

 

[Muse]

Temple Grandin 8/10

I love the theme, it's hit and miss. The subject matter is awesome, and fact is that some autistic people are among the most amazing people on the planet. Grandin is in that class. The treatment was way too Hollywood for my blood (HBO). Grandin was on set and contributed off camera, evidently a lot. I looked up the movie and Grandin and found a video that I liked a lot more than the movie, it's around 20 minutes, a presentation that Grandin herself did at an autism conference... watched it this morning:

http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html

Also check out Jake Barnett, the child prodigy autistic kid who's said to have an IQ higher than Einstein. There are lots of Google hits on Barnett, videos too, the one I saw was the fantastic 60 Minutes piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g91IQsS2spA

Grandin, in that video linked said that today, Einstein and Edison would be considered autistics. She's a professor at University of Colorado.

 

[Muse]

Bones brigade. ... forget movie title... interwsting documentary about skateboarding in the early 80s. Learned alot of new stuff like the history and significance of the ollie. 9/10

Dogtown and Z-Boys 8/10 easily.

Another skateboard movie, also a documentary, on the skateboarding scene in Venice, CA. My notes from the 2nd time I saw it around 6 years ago:

Watched 2nd time last night. Very impressive, really infinite kind of thing with a lot going on. It wasn't perfect and I think it dragged toward the end and maybe it just had to with the sweep it attempted. Started out in the early days and followed the progression and tried to tell a whole lot, including what happened to those guys by and by, so it just had to slow down. In any case, it was great and the cinematic qualities were great. Peralta, one of the original Z-Boys was the filmmaker and he obviously tried really hard to put together the best movie he could, and he was really good at it. Great music, tremendous photography that went into fantastic fast cut photo-video montages. Tried hard to get across what really happened. Lots of interviews, footage, still shots, imagination. Cusswords, everything. They only blipped out enough of the "fuck"s so you had to fill in the blanks, was my real impression on that one.

 

[KeithTalent]

I love skateboarding docs. You guys should see Stoked if you haven't already: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271211/

KT

 

[smitbret]

Lay the Favorite 3.5/10 - Needed another 30 minutes for character and plot development. Also needed a different lead actress, she was awful. Vince Vaughan's character was terribly underdeveloped and he was wasted in this movie. Bruce Willis held it together the best he could but this show was a meandering mess.

Little Fockers 4/10 - Same movie as Meet the Fockers with mercifully less Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand. Ruined Owen Wilson's character and Robert DeNiro's over intense, ex-CIA schtick is tired. If you took all of the laughs from Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers then it would still be half as funny as the original Meet the Parents.

 

[coloumb]

Finally got around to watching Prometheus - 8/10.

I really enjoyed the movie as I saw Alien in the theaters when I was too young to see it [My parents took me]. Alas - with a LOST writer at the helm - I can see why people complained about certain things in the film. But ya know - I was just along for the ride and it was a lot of fun.

 

[notty22]

K-Pax, Another Kevin Spacey gem.

If you missed it or forgot about it, watch it again.