Summer Movies 2008 Options

[+Ed+]

Too bad. I am going soon anyway.

[Live inside]

..me too, sunday actually.

[SJN1279]

I saw Indy last night and thought it was beyond awful. Way too much boring dialogue, and the majority of action sequences were not the least bit believable. There was no sense of danger throughout the finale and there seemed to be no point in making this film.

Shia Lebouf is no Sean Connery.

[Wambangalang]

ive been thinking about it because the movies are such a large part of my childhood and i want to see it again now that my expectations are not distorted. If you recall, temple of doom was hated by almost everyone when it came out and is still regarded as a pretty bad movie by fans. I dont think you can realistically satisfy ninteen years of collective anticipation in two hours of screen time. So i will give it another shot

[Voodoo-Lady]

Spoiler Alert - Iron Man & Indiana Jones


Double feature at the drive-in. Good times.

Iron Man was damn good - I'm not familiar with the comics version, so dunno how authentic it is to the original concept - did Iron Man spawn from the circumstances of captivity, contending with that...implant modification, and escaping via his armored devices under the guise that he was making their..."Jerusalum"(?)(ultimate weapon) for his captors/our war enemies, as occurred in the movie? Just wondering. It seemed they/the filmmakers may have taken creative license, since the plot is so relevant to our current war situation. Good that it was established from opening sequences that Tony Stark is both a prodigy and a protege. The inherited wealth/rich boy bit is reminiscent of Bruce Wayne to me, not that Peter Parker's poor boy plight and manifestation necessarily elicits a superior humility or empathy. They all have their crosses to bear. Its all relative to the requirements of the character I suppose, and a spidey-suit is not as elaborate and expensive as the cool toys Batman and Iron Man employ in their pursuits. Anyhoo the brief background chronology enabled more plausibility to the whole plot - he had the genius aptitude and the technological means. Still it evolved as far-fetched as you'd want in a superhero. The sequel has great potential.

Looking forward this next Marvel, Ed Norton as The Incredible Hulk, looks to be sensational as all hell.

I wasn't wholly disappointed by Indy, because honestly my expectations were minimal, I'm so over it. We have the collectors edition DVD set because my man-child is a fan, but he didn't like this one so unfortunately for me there will likely be no added variety to the tired marathon. There was no appeal in the obvious aim of rekindling nostalgic endearment - with the reunion and revelation and all. Harrison Ford is still the shit and that's good to know, I'd almost succumbed that Calista Flockhart was the only skeleton he could tackle anymore. My impression of the film was effectively summed by a quote from the Dean to Indy in an early scene. Something to the effect of: "We've reached the age where life no longer gives us things, and [rather] begins taking them away"

I'll be seeing Sex & The City this weekend...its a requisite chick thing. I loved the series, though I never got the whole Mr. Big appeal, or the fashionista thing. More often than not I thought Carrie's getups were ridiculous. Sarah Jessica pulls off a credibly haughty strut no matter how silly ass her attire - like the inspiring innocence of my daughter when she was 4 years old blissfully clueless dressing herself in outlandishly mismatched outfits and traipsing out like lil' miss thang.

[SJN1279]

I saw Get Smart last night and thought it was great! It starts out a bit slow, but once it gets going its a ton of fun. The movie was cast perfectly, I especially thought that Alan Arkin was great as the Chief.

For me, it was the most enjoyable movie of the summer thus far. My only complaint is that they waste a Bill Murray cameo, otherwise enjoy!

[Pokey]

I didn't mind Get Smart, but I couldn't see it as Get Smart, it was just a comedy-action-spy movie with little nods to Get Smart to me ... I like Steve Carrell but it can only be Don Adams in that role, I think everyone did the best they could and it wasn't anyone's fault that they couldn't recapture the magic, just the way it was. There were things I certainly enjoyed about it, loved Bill Murray's brief cameo haha also agreed that Alan Arkin did a great job, pretty much stole any scene he was in.


Now to more important things, new Dark Knight clips:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4w96uPYrkAE

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lo578I-HIA

The first clip is amazing ... so many subtlties about it ... Joker grabbing the glass of champaign and spilling it all yet still taking a sip from the empty glass anyways .. the way he rolls his eyes up into his head for a brief second with this look of "god I am going to kill every mother fucker in this room" but then someone coughs and he snaps out of it with his eyes shooting off to where the noise came from. Also cool that Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont turns up again, he had a cameo in Batman and Robin and also in Batman the animated series, goes to show what a huge fan he is. Ledger is incredible though, it's so hard to believe that this is the same guy that was in "Two Hands" ("Nah Pando's a good bloke, mate"). It's almost not like watching an actor but just a character going about his business ... there is another clip on youtube with spliced film of Ledger's Joker and Nicholson's, and with Jack I'm just so aware that it's him in make up.

Booked my tickets for the advanced screening, Wednesday 16th Gold Class, can't wait!

This post has been edited by Pokey: Jul 5 2008, 10:50 pm

[Liveman94]

I didn't mind Get Smart, but I couldn't see it as Get Smart, it was just a comedy-action-spy movie with little nods to Get Smart to me ... I like Steve Carrell but it can only be Don Adams in that role, I think everyone did the best they could and it wasn't anyone's fault that they couldn't recapture the magic, just the way it was. There were things I certainly enjoyed about it, loved Bill Murray's brief cameo haha also agreed that Alan Arkin did a great job, pretty much stole any scene he was in.
Now to more important things, new Dark Knight clips:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4w96uPYrkAE

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lo578I-HIA

The first clip is amazing ... so many subtlties about it ... Joker grabbing the glass of champaign and spilling it all yet still taking a sip from the empty glass anyways .. the way he rolls his eyes up into his head for a brief second with this look of "god I am going to kill every mother fucker in this room" but then someone coughs and he snaps out of it with his eyes shooting off to where the noise came from. Also cool that Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont turns up again, he had a cameo in Batman and Robin and also in Batman the animated series, goes to show what a huge fan he is. Ledger is incredible though, it's so hard to believe that this is the same guy that was in "Two Hands" ("Nah Pando's a good bloke, mate"). It's almost not like watching an actor but just a character going about his business ... there is another clip on youtube with spliced film of Ledger's Joker and Nicholson's, and with Jack I'm just so aware that it's him in make up.

Booked my tickets for the advanced screening, Wednesday 16th Gold Class, can't wait!

quoted for agreement - you stole my brain

[Wambangalang]

Just saw dark knight, very impressive. Completely different to any other comic book adaptatin, and a deep exploration of some uncharted territory for this genre make this a superhero movie that you can watch with the same focus and intensity as the godfather series.

All the characters are explored well and no scene is redundant, but heath ledger steals the show as the joker. I particularly liked (SPOILER) the way he keeps lying about how he got the scars on his face.

[Pokey]

Absolutely amazing movie, but not without fault .. if anyone hasn't seen it don't read on cos I'm gonna mention a heap of spoilers.


The Sonar thing was just... well, you heard the term jumping the shark, which has now moved on to Nuking the fridge (indiana jones 4 anyone?)
But apart from that it was supurb, the acting was top notch ... a shame they killed off two face, im willing to bet had they known ledger was going to die they would have kept two face alive. He had so much more to offer as a character in another movie, bit of a waste.
Also the end with the two boats ... that wouldn't have played out that way for real, with more than 500 people on each ship and given that ultimatum then SOMEONE would have just stepped up and pressed the button to destroy the other ship.
Ledger was incredible, the perfect blend of crazy humour and psychotic tendencies. His magic disappearing pencil trick was hilariously awesome!
I love that they treated him more like an urban terrorist then just a super villain ... they really did something with this movie, you no longer have to add "for a comic book movie" to the end of the sentence "this movie was great". It was more just a normal action/crime drama with a twist.
Ledger stole the show though, the cinema audience would just go so quiet when he was on screen, no hushed whispers, no chocolate wrappers being crumped ... he captivated everyone, you could hear a pin drop .. his performance incited laughs as well as gasps. He just stole every scene he was in.
It's just so sad we'll never get to see him reprise the role, but I must thank him deeply for finally giving me a screen version of the joker i've wanted for so long.

Some of the scenes were amazing and I can't wait to get it on dvd, the interogation scene between Batman and Joker was just intense. Joker's Meeting with the mob, harvey's transformation into two face and his reveal. Joker and Two Face in the hospital. The classic roof top meeting between Batman/Gordon/Dent. A fantastic car chase scene. Overall it was just brilliantly done, but as I say, not without fault.

[SJN1279]

I have to say that overall I did not like the film. The last 40 minutes were dull and expendable. A climax where Batman mainly talks to villains with minimal action? What was that about? Also Christian Bale is not a good Batman. The Clint Eastwood voice is laughable not intimidating.

Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine were excellent, but basically play the same role. I feel both were underused. Maggie was a step up from Katie Holmes,but the Harvey Dent/two-Face character was not needed and took some emphasis off of the Joker. Heath was good in that role, but not as amazing as people are giving him credit for.

Just an okay movie, that would have better better if it had a two hour run time.

Just my opinion.

[Pokey]

I have to say that overall I did not like the film. The last 40 minutes were dull and expendable. A climax where Batman mainly talks to villains with minimal action? What was that about? Also Christian Bale is not a good Batman. The Clint Eastwood voice is laughable not intimidating.

Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine were excellent, but basically play the same role. I feel both were underused. Maggie was a step up from Katie Holmes,but the Harvey Dent/two-Face character was not needed and took some emphasis off of the Joker. Heath was good in that role, but not as amazing as people are giving him credit for.

Just an okay movie, that would have better better if it had a two hour run time.

Just my opinion.

This movie took strong elements from 3 different batman comics, one of them being the killing joke in which it ends with Joker telling Batman a joke and both of them holding each other up as they laugh until the police arrive to arrest the Joker. I don't know what you were expecting, he had the Joker in a position where he wasn't going anywhere and he can't kill people so ..
I think Bale looks the part, but yeah the voice was a bit overdone, I understand it needs to be different to disguise who he is, but most of the time it sounded like he needed a strepsil for his sore throat. Although I found it more funny than anything. But some of it was intimidating, the "I'm counting on it" line before dropping maroni off the building was pretty sweet.

Caine was a little underused for such a good talent, but then again what more could he do? In a movie that had so much in it there was little space for them to do more.

You missed the point of the movie a bit though, this movie was more about Harvey Dent/Two Face than it was The Joker .. they tied in perfectly, Dent was The Joker's pet project, he was part of The Joker's storyline. I think Eckhart did an amazing job (even for someone with a bum on his chin). Two Face was brutal and should have survived to be in the next movie.
Joker didn't need too much emphasis, the point of him is that he just IS. He doesn't have a story arc or anything, he is more like a force of nature that rips through the film where as with Dent it was different, they had to build him up in order to knock him down so that you felt for his character .. a movie souly based around that with no Joker wouldnt work .. you needed someone like the Joker to push him to the extreme and then break him.
Joker was there forshadowing what was to come, his talk of him being "ahead of the curve" meant he knows that by his actions more will follow suit ... the days of the mob are over and it's time for the freaks and "rogue gallary" villains to step up ... his pleasure is knowing he can create this along with Batman.

I think the pairing of Joker and Two Face was immense and it's just a shame both wont be in the next movie for their seperate reasons.
I envisioned the next movie to have Two Face rounding up some freaks, maybe Riddler, Catwoman, Killer Croc or even Bane and waging war on the mob with Batman stuck in between with another storyline of Joker in arkham and Harley Quinn falling for him and eventually busting him out of jail. I think this movie really should have ended along the lines of Empire Strikes Back where by the villains "win" and things are looking all but fucked for Batman and Gordon leading up to the 3rd movie.

In a way Joker still won, he did get Batman to break his one rule which was not to kill. He killed Two Face. Joker created Two Face and then set him off on his way on a course he knew would lead to Batman having to kill him.

So yeah, I think besides the Sonar, Bat-voice and probably that whole matching fingerprints from bullet shards thing, it was just a top movie.

I'm still reeling over Ledger as The Joker though, I just can't see how you could nail that character any more perfectly. I got chills when he would switch between happy-go-lucky and the down right psychotic "WHY.SO.SERIOUS?". The scene with him circling Rachel was creepy, his bogus story about his wife was incredible.
He was so much funnier than anything Jack Nicholson could do too ... Ledger's Joker was funny just in his delivery ... when he visits Dent in hospital and sits down next to him still in the nurses wig and just goes "Hiiiiii" in that kinda "ok so you're probably mad at me" type voice, that killed me haha or the "I just want my phone call" part.

I'm just wondering where they go from here ... Two Face is probably the most brutal villain in Batman's world and Joker is the most chaotic and they're both gone ... while there are more good villains, it seems nothing within this Nolan made universe of realisim could quite match these two in terms of a threat. Sure there is Bane who in the comics breaks Batman's back and ends his crime fighting career, the Riddler who is the smartest criminal Batman faces, or Penguin who plays the political game very well and with Batman now technically public enemy number 1 it could mean Penguin could exploit this .. it all just doesn't seem to live up to this.

[Wambangalang]

anyone seen tropic thunder yet? I thought it was f****n hilarious and Tom Cruise stole the show.

I actually like tom cruise now

[Existentialist]

yeah tropic thunder was hilarious. best movie of the summer.

[SJN1279]

I actually like tom cruise now

Agreed Tom Cruise was good in the movie, but let's not go nuts! If nothing else, Summer 2008 made me a hardcore fan of Robert Downey Jr. I never knew the guy was that talented!