Topic: The Movie Thread

I love the original Star Wars. One of my all-time favorite films. Although, if I'm being honest, I've never quite cared for any of the others as much. The Empire Strikes Back, for example, doesn't have the same sort of elegant flow to it. It has some great set-pieces, but I can feel the time pass when I watch it. Return of the Jedi is fine, except it's a bit padded, and it made the mistake of bringing back the threat of the Death Star. We'll not mention the terrible prequels and Disney films, of course.

By the way, if anyone hasn't seen "Her"... I recommend it. It's up there with Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival as one of the twenty-first century's best speculative fiction movies.

@LN78 Interstellar was a bit pretentious and cringe-inducing in spots (love transcends time and space, apparently), but I like it for being a big budget sci-fi movie that attempts to be somewhat rigorous with how stuff would actually operate in space, and for trying to be a 'big idea' film that inspires awe and wonderment in the viewer.

Not quite the new age 2001: A Space Odyssey the creators seemed to want it to be, but not everyone is Kubrick, and even that film suffers from an excess of pretentiousness at times.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I've actually never seen the other BttF films, so there's the possibility I might enjoy them.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy yes Edge of Tomorrow is brill, and I’ll give you the Mummy haha.

Cruise was brilliant in Rain Man. Off the top of my head I'm struggling to think of a time he's matched that.

I actually quite enjoyed 2005 War of the Worlds, but I think that's just me being a bit weird.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy The author of the novella that Arrival was adapted from, Ted Chiang, is actually a really superb author of short-form science fiction, and I recommend his first story collection, Stories of Your Life and Others. There's a lot of range to his work. For example, one of the stories is about a mathematician having a sort of mental and spiritual breakdown after discovering that her work has extremely disturbing implications for the field of mathematics as a whole.

I imagine Her is probably less surprising in an age where A.I. waifus are seemingly integrated into all of our devices, but I really appreciated the way it mixed elements of social dystopias (you know things aren't well when romantic letter ghost-writing is apparently a bustling business), romantic comedies, and science-fiction thrillers into one unique and cohesive narrative.

@Gremio108 Good shout on Rain Man. Nothing wrong with War of the Worlds either, that young girl who’s name escapes me is very good in it. Doesn’t it have Andy Dufresne too?

A Few Good Men. Awesome film.

Jerry Maguire. Guilty pleasure.

Valkyrie. Nothing bad to say about it.

Toms great 😂

_{Let's stick to movies here instead of derailing the thread. If you wish to discuss what you were there is the Chit-chat thread. -Tasuki-}

I need to get around to seeing 2005 War of the Worlds eventually. Have it, just haven’t bothered with it. I’ve seen the 1953 version which is pretty good, although the remake has vastly superior special effects so I imagine it’s better for that reason alone. I enjoyed Oblivion as well, although I’ll admit I haven’t seen it since it came out on DVD years ago.

Yeah, Oblivion is a movie I really enjoy when it's on, tell myself I'm going to buy it next time I want to see it, then forget it even exists until I catch it on TV again and the process starts over.

@cheetahman91 I didn't know it at the time but they didn't use much CG for War of the World's. In fact I saw one of the sets when I went to Universal Studios a month ago and it was just amazing. One set they actually used a real 747 which they bought from a plane graveyard but still, it was quite amazing.

@Tasuki Cool. Nothing against CGI, but nothing beats really good practical effects. I do imagine that the remake still has vastly superior practical effects (though in all fairness the original has some of the best effects for a ‘50’s sci-fi movie).

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @Ralizah I simply can’t stand by as The Princess Bride gets so unceremoniously swept under the rug! That movie is pure gold! One of the most quotable scripts of all time.

For me, I don’t care for Mad Max (the first one) or Men in Black (any of them). The former I found boring and latter was too absurd.

@Gremio108 @kyleforrester87 I loved Rain Man that is my favorite Cruise movie of all time. The chemistry between him and Dustin Hoffman was absolutely perfect.
Other good Cruise movies are

Top Gun
Risky Business
Days of Thunder
A Few Good Men
Last Samurai
Interview with the Vampire

I like Tom Cruise as an actor. Here are some of my favourite Tom Cruise movies:

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Mission Impossible: Fallout
The Last Samurai
War of the Worlds
Collateral
Jack Reacher
Jerry Maguire
Minority Report

I also liked his performance in Rock of Ages as well as Tropic Thunder.lol

Not to mention this scene here from Knight and Day:

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Did you watch Bumblebee? It's actually quite good.

Transformers 1 is decent, but the quality falls off a cliff with the second one, and, based on what I've heard, the films don't get any better after that. Transformers 2 is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, which is saying something, as I usually have a very high tolerance for trash.

I just saw The Fly. What a movie, 10/10. Absolute banger. Brundlefly ftw.

Also watched Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2 which were very enjoyable.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy yep! And Bumblebee is absolutely worth your time

@kyleforrester87 Ever seen The Fly II? It's not amazing, but it also has pretty great practical effects. There's one face-melting scene, in particular, that's just terrific. I love the gore and body horror in these films.

GitS1 is an absolute classic (the original, that is; not GitS 2.0 with its horrible, garish CG sequences). I saw GitS2 in a theater when it first came out, but I left hugely disappointed. The script was awful. Who makes 50% of a film's dialogue quotations from famous people?!

If you haven't seen it, the TV show adaptation Stand Alone Complex is absolutely worth watching.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Bumblebee is incredibly charming and full of 80's nostalgia (which seems to be the 'in' thing right now, I've noticed). It feels like it was made by people who actually like Transformers.

@Ralizah yeah absolutely loved the awesome body horror in The Fly. I have heard bad things about number 2. Maybe I’ll watch it one day. Videodrome next, I think!

I was looking into Stand Alone Complex earlier, I think I’m going to try and pick that up next week. Think I saw it in HMV.

I'd have to say the Back to the Future & Jurassic Park films are undoubtedly my favorite sci-fi francheses, but I'll admit nostalgia plays a large part in that. I have an older brother, and since those were the movies he liked as a kid, that's what I grew up watching. I do know I watched the Star Wars films as a kid (in fact I remember going out with my dad renting them at Blockbuster, and he even took us to the theater to see the Phantom Menace), and while I like them well enough, they're just not all that special to me for whatever reason.

Also, it's interesting to see all the negativity surrounding Avatar, as my brother is the equivalent of a "Trekkie" for that movie. As far as he's concerned it's the greatest sci-fi film to ever grace the screen, and even has yearly meetups with other fans (a couple years ago they went to Disney's Avatar themed park when it opened up). Not sure where the love comes from. I don't hate the film by any means, but it has no connection to our childhoods so it was very much a sudden, adult-borne love for it he has.

@Frigate I watched part of the first one over my lunch break. God I love that movie. One of my favorites. Judgement Day is one of my favorites too, but I have to give the edge to the original. Haven’t seen the others. I’m a huge sci-fi fan too. My favorite film genre. Been watching a ton of ‘80’s sci-fi the last couple of days. Probably going to watch Tron or The Fly next.