What have you watched lately?

[anarky]

That was Old Testament God. Y'know, before he found Jesus.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

21 Jump Street. The first half of the movie is disproportionately funnier than the second half, but it averages out to be a fairly funny film. And I'm semi-prepared to forgive Channing Tatum for GIJoe.

[Ran]

Night of the Living Dead. First time I've ever seen it.

Dogeball....Is Christine Taylor on that do you want to see nekkid list? And I love Shatner's reaction when Average Joe's win.

[Diabolical]

Fanboys - Despite some bits of eye rolling dialogue this flick always makes me nostalgic for 1999.

Die Hard - First time I've seen it in years. Still good but I wouldn't consider it "one of the best action films ever."

American Wedding - I forgot how bad this one was compared to the first two. Every plot point feels forced (and very sitcom-esque), no explanation of the missing characters (Oz was one of Jim's best friend just a couple of years before - throw in one simple line to explain his absence), and odd versions of some of the rest (especially Stiffler).

Ocean's Twelve - And I thought American Wedding was a mess...

Tropic Thunder - First time since theaters. Already pretty forgettable. Only RDJr makes it worth it.

The Crow - Most of it holds up pretty well, a few parts (mainly the villains), not so much. At times I see a lot of Ledger's Joker in Brandon Lee.

[Giorgio A Tsoukalos]

Men in Black and The Matrix. The boy hadn't seen either one, so I had to educate him. Still trying to get him to watch Aliens.

He should watch aliens whenever possible, Mr. Tomassi. It will help him out in history class. Thomas Jefferson was from Betelgeuse, you know. It's the only explanation. If you take the preamble to the Constitution, "When in the course of human events, yadda yadda," and replace the word "human" with "alien," it proves that the system of government we take for granted is actually the work of extraterrestrial beings! There is no other explanation!

[RoIIo Tomassi]

While flipping channels, I saw about five minutes of Benchwarmers yesterday. It was five minutes more than I needed to see.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

The Last Starfighter was on this morning. I've not seen it since before JJL was born. No lie. It's really held up quite well. I expected it to be hopelessly dated, and, though it shows its age, it's a fun movie with a fairly solid story. I had no idea any movies that old used CG so extensively without looking shitty like Tron. Nor that Grig (the alien) was played by a guy pushing 70 at the time. If it's a cheap DVD, I'll have to get it.

Looks like $10 at amazon.com, so maybe in a $5 bin near me. I'll definitely snag this.

Looks like they also made a musical based on it in 2004. I can only think of three words to describe my reaction to that: "What the FUCK?"

I just watched The Last Starfighter for the first time. I guess I more or less agree - it's pretty goofy, and it seems to be a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on Star Wars, but there are enough fun moments throughout to redeem it.

I think the CGI in Tron is more successful since they're supposed to be in a computer, so it reflects the technology of the time and works in the context of the story. The CGI here just makes it look like a video game (which I suppose you could argue was the point . . . though I don't think it was). It kind of made the battle feel anticlimactic since it was all so exceedingly fake. Still, yeah, it's interesting to see a movie using that much CGI so early on.

[anarky]

I think the CGI in Tron is more successful since they're supposed to be in a computer, so it reflects the technology of the time and works in the context of the story. The CGI here just makes it look like a video game (which I suppose you could argue was the point . . . though I don't think it was). It kind of made the battle feel anticlimactic since it was all so exceedingly fake. Still, yeah, it's interesting to see a movie using that much CGI so early on.

Didn't mean it in a "Tron looks stupid" way. The CG in Tron fits, but it would look hella cheesy if the movie wasn't in a computer.

Last Starfighter is far from ROTS, but it's better than some (particularly low-budget) CG from 10-20 years later, sadly.

[anarky]

Brave.

AKA "Pixar's new masterpiece." It should go in a sort of Holy Pixar Trinity with The Incredibles and Toy Story 2.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I saw Drive this past weekend. I liked it a lot. Now you know.

Brave.

AKA "Pixar's new masterpiece." It should go in a sort of Holy Pixar Trinity with The Incredibles and Toy Story 2.

Why does the Holy Pixar Trinity have the most mediocre of the Toy Story films in it?

[vynsane]

yeah, i have to take issue with placing TS2 above Wall-E or Finding Nemo... The Incredibles i'm on board with, and i've not yet seen Brave.

[anarky]

You mean that the satire of toy collectors doesn't give it a special place in your hearts?

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

You mean that the satire of toy collectors doesn't give it a special place in your hearts?

I don't see it as a satire so much as a fairly accurate portrayal of the collectors who do it for monetary gain. As for a "special place in my heart," that goes to the original since I was 5 or 6 when I first saw it and loved it (the fact that actual-scale Buzz and Woody toys existed blew my little mind). The third one was touching for similar reasons, now being in college like to the Andy character, and probably some of the nostalgia factor. The whole trilogy is amazing and the first two stand up really well, it's just that I prefer the first and third.

I don't know if I could pick a top three from Pixar since they've all been really great (I haven't seen Cars 2 or Brave, though), though the Toy Story movies and WALL-E are my personal favorites from them.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Double post, lick me.

I saw Brave today, and it was just kinda "meh." Not bad, really, but really nothing special. I saw it with my dad and sister, and they felt the same; my mom is visiting my other sister in New York, and they also saw it today and loved it and cried, the whole nine yards. So I dunno, it just felt like something was missing.

Perhaps that had to do with the fact that I saw The Avengers again yesterday. In case you're wondering, yep, it's still fuckin' awesome.

[anarky]

Wow, you have no soul, JJL.