Badmovies.org Forum

None of these are B-Movies, but here's what we watched so far (minor plot hints, though not true spoilers):

For the Kids:

Shark Tales

Oh man, Dreamworks hit it big on Shrek, then cannot follow-up.  I am clearly biased toward Pixar, who (imo) kills Dreamworks on story.  One problem I had with Shark Tales was that I never forgot Will Smith's character was Will Smith doing voice acting.  It was like every other character he plays...the same mannerisms, the same dialect, etc.  Contrast that with Hanks or Allen in Toy Story, Goodman in Monsters, Inc, etc.  Pixar manages to use famous voices and find a voice for the character; Shark Tales was about Will Smith being Will Smith, period.

Score: eh, take it or leave it, really.  A few laugh lines, but honestly, I cannot even remember any of them now.

Racing Stripes

This was a pleasant surprise.  Very predictable in story, but kinda cute, too.  A zebra thinks he's a racehorse, and trains to run his little heart out (not literally, that would be a different kind of movie).  All in all, a watchable film.

Score: Worth a look, if you have kids or just like the talking animal genre.

White Noise

Not bad, not really bad, but I had a hard time staying awake.  I thought the build-up to those evil monsters might pay-off somehow, but nothing really happened other than using them (as shadows) to drive the plot a little.  Throughout the movie, I was a bit distracted by the fact that none of the deaths at which Michael Keaton's character was located were investigated with HIM as a murder suspect.

In the end, I found the plot devices added-on and unresolved.  The advice to  Michael Keaton to STOP listening for the EVP was never really used again, except obliquely.

Score: Could have been done better, but not the worst thing put on film.

In Good Company

This is a movie that never figured out what it wanted to be when it grew up, just like Topher Grace's character.  Throughout the movie, I got the impression Grace never figured out what to do with the character: was he a good guy in a bad situation, a bad guy trying to become good, just a nerdy guy trying to make his way, etc.  The flick starts with Grace becoming Dennis Quaid's boss, but not feeling comfortable with the position of leadership; then never went anywhere.

My wife and I both absolutely HATED the sudden 180 degree turn they did in Scarlett Johansson's character; this was totally unbelievable, and pretty much killed the movie for us.  I think in the drive to have a sexual undertone in the movie (to help justify it's PG-13 rating, and therefore make HS students want to see it), the director (Paul Weitz, of American Pie, so that explains a LOT) crammed his head up his butt and said, "characters CAN completely change personality at least twice in one movie, it is ARTISTIC."

In the words of my wife: "this was neither a romance, nor a comedy."  In Good Company was just a story, and not a very interesting one.

I will say I kinda liked the ending, with it's lack of neat, cutesy Hollywood tie-up.

Score: 3 out of 10, for a couple of laughs but it just makes you say "so what?"

National Treasure

The high point of our movie watching weekend.  I am SOO glad this did not turn into a guns blazing, bombs exploding action-fest (which I feared) and stayed sorta true to it's original premise: IS there a treasure or ISN'T there?  The clues and elaborate staging was probably not feasible in the late 18th century, but so what?  This was a fun one to suspend a little disbelief and just enjoy the ride.

Score:  Definitely worth seeing; you probably won't want to write home about it, but who cares?  It's a fun flick that has enough intrigue and not just all-out action.

Rented but not watched yet:

Final Cut (2004) directed by Omar Naim and starring Robin Williams.  I'm looking forward to this one, since I was in the mood for a sci fi  (I wanted something Total Recall esque or really, really bad 50's-70's sci fi, but this one looked interesting).

Will post more after I watch it.  ;)

I liked In Good Company and the change in personality is not that strange for a teenager. Plenty of my kids friends made absolute 180's once they were away from home. One of my daughters friends (a National Merit Finalist and Governer's Distinguished Scholar) went berserk at college. She started drinking, smoking, sleeping around ,dropped out of school and is now pregnant and working at Taco Bell.  It happens.


National Treasure is great 'popcorn movie' that doesn't try to be anything else but a good time.

OUt of those flicks, I've seen all of them except for National Treasure and In Good Company.

Shark Tale - Meh.  Not a big fan of Smith, but the animation was good.  My two year old daughter enjoyed it but for me it wasn't that great.

Racing Stripes - Same thing with this one.  My daughter seemed to like it, but I didn't care for it much at all.  I don't think that Frankie Muniz (sp?) fit the character quite right.

White Noise - Completely hated it.  It was a complete rape of EVP and the practice thereof.  I've done a bit of amateur paranormal investigation in the past, and it's nothing as fantastical as White Noise.  By the end of the flick, I wanted to break the DVD....too bad that Keaton had to make a come back with this flick.

Final Cut - Watch this one, it's fantastic.  My wife and I rented it a while back on a whim and I was quite surprised by it.  Great SF flick, with little special effects and all story.  It's what real SF should be.  I have a review here:

http://keeptheticket.com/reviews.php?searchrid=44

Out of all of them I've only seen In Good Company, which I enjoyed at the time, but now that I see it mentioned again, I couldn't really say that it has moved me or changed me in any way, so I guess it sort of evens out.

I also only really have an interest in Final Cut, and on the outside, Shark Tale.  The rest aren't really what I'm looking to watch anytime soon unless my girlfriend decides to 'force' me to watch another girly film.

Might see NATIONAL TREASURE this month with my Blockbuster coupon.

Funnily enough, this reminds me.

My brother was watching National Treasure at the cinemas, when the power went out at the cinema.  After a bit, he went outside to ask them what was going on before being told the cinema was flooding from the very big storm that had formed outside [it was a lot of rain in a short period of time] and had to be evacuated.

Since it was a free ticket he wasn't too annoyed at the inconveniance, but borrowed it recently to finally watch the ending.  He said he enjoyed it, but I didn't get the chance to see it, despite renting it myself the next week.

trek_geezer wrote:

>  went berserk at college. She started
> drinking, smoking, sleeping around ,dropped out of school and
> is now pregnant and working at Taco Bell.  It happens.
>

Don't tell me this...I have a small daughter!  ;)

My problem with it in the movie was that it was just tooooo sudden; no hint of change before, or after, that one scene in the middle of the movie.  Had she been a bit flirtatious or something (when her Dad was not around perhaps), I think I'd buy it a bit more.

Oh well, to each his own.

Not trying to scare Ulthar, the girl I mentioned was raised very strictly and I think the freedom really overwhelmed her.

My kids are very open and always tell us what is going on in their lives. My son (22)  just graduated college and picked up a very good job. My daughter (20) is in Japan now going to school for two semesters. Both are great kids (a fact that I give my wife most ot the credit for).

You're daughter will be fine, just always remember to treat your kids like people. By that I mean respect the fact that they have opinions and deserve to be heard when something bothers them.  If they know what they think matters to you, you'll be way ahead of the game and they will be more forthcoming about what's going on with them.

The only one I've seen is "National Treasure." Something of a surprise hit. It was hated by the critics, but loved by audiences, who kept it the #1 film for two or three weeks.