Recent Viewings

[Mr_Vindictive]

War Of The Worlds (2005) - I had been looking forward to this film since the hype started around it earlier this year.  Like most of the movies that I was looking forward to seeing this summer, I missed this one at the theater.  Thank God for Netflix.

Tom Cruise plays Ray, a teenage-like divorced father of two.  It's his weekend to watch his two kids when huge alien robots begin to take over the world.  It's up to him to keep his children safe, and to make the journey to find his divorced wife.

I recently hooked up a 1000watt Pioneer surround sound system, with a new Pioneer DVD player.  This was the main reason why I enjoyed War Of The Worlds so damned much.  Hearing the demolition of the cities, and the explosions and such was absolutely amazing.  The scene near the end with the tripod falling through the building sounded so damned good that I actually got chills.

WOTW was great.  I read the book many years ago, and was highly impressed by it, and I feel that Spielberg has done the best adaptation so far.  The only thing that bugged me about the film was that the robots came from underground.  I am extremely glad that they kept the ending of the book.

9/10


Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - See, now unlike some of you on the board, I enjoyed Goblet.  It's certainly the most adult of the Harry Potter films.  It's dark, more mature, and overall was a lot of fun for me.  Keep in mind though that I've never read any of the books, and am only going by the previous films, which I loved.

There are only two problems that I had with the film.  The first is that we didn't get to see the World Quiddich(sp?) Cup.  It builds it up, and then skips ahead.  The other problem was "He Who Must Not Be Named".  Voldemort wasn't that scary, and seemed a bit effeminate.  I love Ralph Finnes as an actor, but he just wasn't good as Voldemort.  

It's not the best of the Potter films, in fact it's probably the worst.  But, it's still a fun time at the movies.

7/10



Masters Of Horror: Homecoming - Did anyone else catch Joe Dante's entry into The Masters Of Horror?  I only got a chance to see it since Showtime was free this weekend on DirectTV.

The episode was about a PR guy for a Republican president, who sounded very much like W.  He wishes on TV for his brother, who died in Vietnam, to come back so he can tell the American people to quit whining about the Iraq war.  So, a few days later, all of the soldiers who have died in Iraq come back to life.  They all want just one thing, to vote out the current president.  

This episode wasn't really horrific in any way, more of a political satire.  It was fun, witty, but a little over the top with the conservative bashing.  Every 30 seconds there was a joke at the expense of the Republicans.  Although I might agree with some of them, it was a bit of overkill.  

Atleast it's good to see Joe Dante working again.

7/10

[trekgeezer]

WotW was pretty good. I liked the tripods and they included some things from the book that were left out of the 1953 version. The red weed (they were terraforming), and the scene where the protaginist has to kill the wacked out guy before he gives them away.

Spielberg still knows what buttons to punch and Cruise's annoying acting actually fit the a***ole character he was portraying. Dakota Fanning seems to be great in whatever she does.

The main thing they did right was keeping  the story a personal one like the book intended.

[odinn7]

I just saw WOTW a few nights ago despite my intense hatred for Tommy. The movie was fantastic. It held my attention throughout the whole thing and not once did I find myself wondering when it will end (which I do with many movies I suffer through). The only 2 things I didn't like was that the ships were buried as that opens too many questions about them and I really didn't like the ending with the family. The world was being destroyed but they were all safe in their Boston apartment building and the son somehow managed to avoid that huge fireball he ran into and then make it to Boston on his own. Other than that, I really enjoyed the movie.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Odinn7,

Yeah, I'm with you about the family surviving.  Didn't fit the rest of the movie, especially when you consider one of the final shots of the film, which is Boston with no buildings standing.  

Like you said, it's an attention holder.

[Scott]

WAR OF THE WORLD is one that I liked. Some parts I really liked a lot, but some of it was distracting for me. Parts of it was almost like one of those pre-movie commericals at the theater. I expected Cruise to pull out a can of Coke a Cola and drink it or something. Over all a good remake though

[Ash]

I bought the 2-disc War of the Worlds on DVD without ever having seen it.
I got my money's worth.

The scenes when the first tripod bursts through the ground and Cruise & Co. see it for the first time were the best.

Haven't watched the second disc yet.

[ThadC]

I thought it was a pretty good movie. A few points bothered me though. An EM pulse would have fried all the electrical system in a newer car like the van they boosted. They would have had to change out more that the batery, and a few small parts like they did in the movie. The vans computer would have had to been changed, and half the ignition system. The older cars would have been easier to get running again. I dont like Cruise either, and I agree about the ending. How did the boy survive the fire ball?

[BoyScoutKevin]

If you like Joe Dante, then he has a new film coming out next year. It's a horror anthology called "Trapped Ashes." He does the wraparound segments and the episode called "The Horror House." Other directors involved include "Sean S. Cunningham," who does "Jibaku," Monte Hellman, who does "Kubrick's Girlfriend," and John Gaeta, who does "My Twin the Worm." But for me. the best news is that director Ken Russell (you can see a review of his "Lair of the White Worm" at this site) is involved. He's doing "The Girl with the Golden Breasts."

The information at www.imdb.com is out of date. Tobe Hooper was originally involved with the film, but has since dropped out.