Empeg dreams

Posted by: tfabris

Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 18:29

Despite what you may assume about me, I don't normally have empeg-related dreams. But last night I had one, it was odd. I was at an empeg meet, and Penn Jilette was there. We talked about Blackjack card counting and John Carmack, and the winnings money he donated to the Free Software Foundation that one time.

Okay, so it's not VERY empeg-related.

Hey, it could have been worse.

I did like the Spider-Man 2 movie, though. Gonna see I, Robot tonight. Good summer for movies.

Posted by: schofiel

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 21:14

Thunderbirds on Friday!!!

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 21:32

Too cool! Gonna have to see that too.

Posted by: ninti

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 21:48

Yeah, that will be fine if you are, like, 12.

The first reviews of Thunderbirds are starting to come in and it looks like it is going to be a bad kid-oriented movie. Not too surprising; if they can screw up a much better starting premise like I Robot like they have, I don't think something like Thunderbirds stands a chance. It's more a surprise when they don't screw up the existing source material like Harry Potter or Spiderman.

Really, with the exception of Bourne Supremecy, which might be decent, I don't see any other good big movies coming out except Jet Li's Hero coming up in mid-August. Oh well.

Posted by: tman

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 22:37

Jet Li movies are good now? In my opinion, all of his recent Hollywood films have been boring mindless action flicks. Romeo Must Die and The One come to mind...

Posted by: ninti

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 22:39

Agreed, but this one has been getting excellent reviews, comparing it very favorably with Crouching Tiger.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1131781-hero/

Posted by: tman

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 22:45

Hmm... Interesting.... Just had a look and it seems "Hero" isn't a Hollywood film at all. It's been out for a few years now according to IMDB. Could be one to go watch. Annoyingly it's in Mandarin.

Posted by: peakmop

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 23:04

I have seen this movie on DVD which was readily available a year ago, at least on e-bay. The same goes for Shaolin Soccer which just recently was shown in limited theaters.
The "Hero" is in Mandarin, but with English subtitles which makes the sound genuine. It is a MUCH MUCH better movie than say "The One". On my scale it rivals to "Kiss Of The Dragon".

Posted by: tman

Re: Empeg dreams - 16/07/2004 23:13

Ah. No. I was complaining it's in Mandarin because I don't speak or understand Mandarin at all. If it was in Cantonese however then it would have been great

I can't stand watching films which have been dubbed as it is really obvious. Even some of the better attempt at lip synching usually have points where you will be reminded that this wasn't the real language recorded. Subtitles are the only solution which are kind of annoying in that you must pay attention to the bottom of the screen all the time.

Posted by: gbeer

I Robot - Movie going accessories - 17/07/2004 00:39

Don't forget to take along your.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 02:07

Ooh, a new Bourne movie? Bourne Identity rocked and I'm a total sucker for Matt Damon. Gee, and Spidey 2 and I Robot. I guess I should actually go to the movies this summer; unlike summers past where all the good movies just blew by me (Matrix 2 and 3, X-Men 2, Hulk, Finding Nemo, Terminator 3, etc, etc). At least I saw Nemo on DVD. I can NEVER miss a Pixar flick.

Posted by: webroach

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 03:55

I've owned "Hero" on DVD for a little over a year, and I've probably watched it about 20 times. It makes "Crouching Tiger" look like a first year film student film, IMO. AMAZING movie, made more interesting by the fact that it's tied into historical facts, in a manner of speaking. HIGHLY recommended!

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 04:30

Quote:
Really, with the exception of Bourne Supremecy, which might be decent, I don't see any other good big movies coming out except Jet Li's Hero coming up in mid-August. Oh well.

Hero will rule, but I also look forward to The Manchurian Candidate (always liked Liev Schreiber, of course Denzel and Glenn Close are pretty good too

), The Village (I'm just a big Shyamalan fan), and Alien vs Predator, which I'm sure will be a bad movie, but I'm looking forward to it anyway, and will most likely enjoy it.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 07:47

Quote:
I did like the Spider-Man 2 movie, though. Gonna see I, Robot tonight. Good summer for movies.

Saw Spider-Man 2 last night. Very enjoyable. Gotta love this "lost scene", though

.

Hopefully, gonna check out Shrek 2 soon, too. And I'd forgotten about the new Bourne Thingummy movie. The Bourne Identity rocked.

Posted by: g_attrill

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 11:40

Quote:
Thunderbirds on Friday!!!

I helped the bloke who sourced the vehicles for the production - they filmed the whole thing in the UK and every car needed to be a Ford Motor Company vehicle. Ford supplied all the European models but couldn't help with American stuff. The vehicle chap didn't seem to have a clue but I gave him a list of phone numbers and I think he managed to get enough for the US scenes.

Watch out for a black and white Ford Crown Vic police car, 'cos it's owned by my mate Rog who knows one of the people I told the bloke to phone.

Gareth

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 15:15

Quote:
if they can screw up a much better starting premise like I Robot like they have

Not sure what you mean there. I, Robot was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Admittedly, I didn't read the Asimov original (I did read one of the sequels), so it could have been completely different from the source material. But as a movie standing on its own, it was exceptional. Similar to Minority Report in a lot of ways, except more realistic and without all the huge plot holes.

Posted by: ninti

Re: Empeg dreams - 17/07/2004 21:02

> Admittedly, I didn't read the Asimov original

It has absolutely nothing to do with them by all accounts, so I am sure it is better that you hadn't. I am glad you liked it, but I am sure that I won't, and not just for the reason of the title.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Empeg dreams - 18/07/2004 16:00

Why is it people get upset and dislike a movie because it didn't follow the source material? Almost every direct book->movie adaptation is horrible. I'd much rather see them start with an idea off a book, then come up with something more appropriate for the movie. A similar example is the SpiderMan critics who complain the movies had no comic counterparts, but used pieces from them, Well, do you want to go to a movie and see new things, and possibly be suprised? Or walk in knowing the basic story by heart?

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Empeg dreams - 18/07/2004 19:36

Quote:
Almost every direct book->movie adaptation is horrible.

Hopefully the one not included in the "almost" is Lord of the Rings. Oh wait, I didn't read the books, so maybe I shouldn't talk. Still an amazing film(s). Oh, and on the flipside, I'll say X-Men (1, haven't seen 2) was decent as compared to the comics (that I used to read 10 years ago).

Now "The Manchurian Candidate", I saw the trailer for that when seeing "Day After Tomorrow" (good premise, by the way, but campy execution). Isn't "The Manchurian Candidate" a book? And what IS going on in that movie? Unlike most other trailers, that one didn't give me the entire plot of the film. So for Denzel's entire life, he's had the exact same dream about "big corporations funding bad science" and it finally comes true. But the bad guys are modifying people so they all look like the presidential candidate? I can't quite see the devious logic in having a bunch of presidential look-alike clones. They can't have more than one out in public at the same time. So what, will one releive the first so that he may go on vacation or something?

Seems like "The Manchurian Candidate" might be a conspiracy film undermined by a plot that's just too weird to grasp.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Empeg dreams - 19/07/2004 01:16

Quote:
Hopefully the one not included in the "almost" is Lord of the Rings. Oh wait, I didn't read the books, so maybe I shouldn't talk.

There were a number of significant changes and/or omissions made in order to make it more film-friendly. But, like Harry Potter, most of the fans of the books thought those films did a very good job of remaining faithful at least in spirit.

Quote:
Isn't "The Manchurian Candidate" a book?

Well, technically, it's a remake of an older film, 1970s I believe.

Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: Empeg dreams - 19/07/2004 01:59

The Manchurian Candidate is a novel written in 1959 by Richard Condon. a movie was made in 1962 that was written by George Axelrod.

Posted by: andym

Re: Empeg dreams - 19/07/2004 07:24

Quote:
The Manchurian Candidate is a novel written in 1959 by Richard Condon. a movie was made in 1962 that was written by George Axelrod.

Thankyou Google!

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Empeg dreams - 19/07/2004 21:54

In my case, I hate movies that didn't follow the source material when and because the script produced is so much worse than the source, the script essentially takes one element from the source and makes a totally different story about it, or, in some particularly egregious cases, actually reverses the theme of the source. Many of them encompass more than one of these reasons. You're right in that in the second case I should just ignore the source and deal with the movie on its own, but the producers have explicitly linked them. It's too bad that the WGA requires certain credits and that studios tend to parlay them.

However, all that said, while I hated (Hated, HATED) Minority Report (for all three of the above reasons), I thought that Spider-Man was passable. I've not seen SM2 yet, but folks tell me that there's even more character development, which is good, since that's mostly what Spider-Man is about.

(On a side note, it's interesting that Kirsten Dunst has suggested that killing off Spider-Man might be a good premise for a movie since the character that her character took the place of in the first movie dies when falling from the bridge. In a rather horrific manner.)

Posted by: Roger

Re: Empeg dreams - 20/07/2004 07:06

Quote:
it's interesting that Kirsten Dunst has suggested that killing off Spider-Man might be a good premise for a movie

Here's Penny Arcade's take on that.