Well its time for the best soundtrack movies post

Pi (1997) (R)

The rough plot is a mathmetician wants to break the code for Wall Street, and find a common formula as to the patterns of the falls and rises of the stock market.  This becomes his most daunting task, and he is teetering on the edge of sanity and insanity as he continues to formulate the theory.

Yikes.  I had horribly low expectations for this film.  I mean it sounds incredibly dull.  But thats what pleasant surprises are for.

This film, filmed entirely in black and white, is an artsy film, putting you right into the mind of this mathmetician.  It is haunting and scary at times.  It may have been a low-budgit film, but whatever they spent on this movie, it was worth every penny.  You sympathized with the mathmetician, even if you did know he was on a trek that was doomed to be a failure. 

Towards the end, it can get confusing.  But thats the way it is supposed to be.  He is nearing insanity, and everything feels blurred and out of reality.  Paranoia and insanity invade his brain, and you can feel it.

The soundtrack is brilliant, using underground haunting techno to be implemented on several scenes.

There is one eerie quotation that is repeated through the film--“When I was six years old, my mother told me not to stare at the sun, so one day when I was six I did. I was terrified, alone in the darkness."  And interpret as you will, thats what this film feels like.

Pi became a pleasant surprise, and it isnt flawless, but it is a 5 out of 5.

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The Wedding Singer (1998) (PG-13)

The rough plot is Adam Sandler plays a wedding singer on the rise, but has failed to capture love himself.  He meets a girl, played by Drew Barrymore, who he falls in love with, the only problem is that shes getting married soon.  However, she doenst exactly love the guy.

Ah, yes, its the typical love triangle and mismatches.  So the plot wont sweep us off our feet.  Adam Sandler is a typical Adam Sandler.  Good for some laughs, albeit somewhat crude at times.

This film has its moments, though.  There are a couple scenes that are almost hilarious, but well worth the laugh.

And the characters are decent enough.  Some scenes are heartwarming, others frustrating... 

Since this film takes place in the 80s, the soundtrack is booming with classic 80s music, and if youre an 80s fan like me, well, you know youre going to like most of the music here.

All and all, the movie was...ok.  Hey, weve got a rating for movies like this.

I give it a 3 out of 5

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If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons

Yeah, I suppose you can see Vol2 without having seen Vol1 but then you wouldn't have seen the Crazy 88s get slaughtered or Go-Go...

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Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!

I saw Van Helsing a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it.  I had been looking forward to this film for some time (since I loved the production art) but early reviews were disparaging.  Fortunately the reviews were wrong (at least for me). 

 

Plot goes as follows: The year is 1888 and Gabriel Van Helsing, a mercenary working for the Vatican to kill or capture monsters, is sent to Transylvania to battle with Count Dracula.  Along the way he encounters Mr. Hyde, Drac's Brides, some werewolves and Frankenstein's Monster.  He is aided in his task by Carl (he’s sort of an  ecclesiastical version of Q from James Bond) and Anna Valerious, whose family has sworn to slay Dracula.  There are a few twists and turns, but that's the gist of it.

 

Van Helsing is silly but great fun, not unlike director Stephen Sommer's first Mummy movie.  Hugh Jackman is cool as ever (playing an amnesiac anti-hero who is a lot older than he looks... Not like Wolverine at all. ), David Wenham is a hoot as Carl the friar and Kate Beckinsale is hot as hell.  Alan Silvestri's music is great, the CGI, while not perfect, is still pretty good and there are some awesome action sequences.  It's not art, but it was a lot of fun, and that's what I look for most in a movie.

 

On a scale of 1-10 on the Kayless-O-meter, Van Helsing rates an 8.5.

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Dungeon Crawl Inc. - It's the most fun you can have without three midgets and a whip!

Oh I was hoping some one would review that movie. The last vampire movie I saw was Underworld and it sucked.

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H-here, b-bunny, bunny, bunny...

Ah, yes.  I didnt really express interest in going to the theatres to see the film, but everyone was either coming out of it really enjoying it, or really finding it worthless.  Im beginning to think those who found it worthless are probably those who look for the more artsy films rather than the films you just go to see for the pure enjoyment of action and whatnot.

Im also glad to see this thread alive again.   I wasnt sure whether people really cared about it

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If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons

Yeah, Underworld disappointed me too.  One thing that bothered me is that they took all the mysticism out of the whole vampire and werewolf thing.   That's a trend I'm seeing a lot lately.  Troy supposedly has removed the Greek gods from the equation while the upcoming King Arthur movie lacks the magic of the legends as well.  I wonder what the thinking is behind this march against mysticism…  It’s not like people go to see vampire movies expecting a realistic down to earth explanation for why people have fangs, are deathly allergic to sunlight and need to feed on the blood of the living to survive. 

 

@Tybs: Yes, let's keep this thread alive. I find this thread quite useful for gauging movies that I'm thinking about seeing.  Many professional reviewers, as you said, are more interested in "artsy" films and often dump on sillier movies (the original Star Wars movies were thrashed by most critics for example).  But just because a movie isn't pretentious doesn't mean it's not worth seeing.  The films I watch over and over again are the shallow fun-filled flicks like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars (and when it comes out on video/DVD you can add Van Helsing to that list).

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Dungeon Crawl Inc. - It's the most fun you can have without three midgets and a whip!

Yes Van Helsing had it's good parts, but it also had it's really bad parts. Call me a shmuck but this one scene really got on my nerves and kinda cast the movie in a bad light for me. I might want to mention that the next section might be considered a spoiler by some because it describes a sceen in the movie... a wholly predictible sceen just like every other one in van Helsing but a sceen non the less. 

The carridge scene; of course they have one it is classic, you just can't have a movie in a period that uses carridges and not have a fight scene on top of one it's the law. However what ruined it for me was the part where they reach a bridge that has fallin in, now it is just a large deep chasm. So they are running from the vampire chicks fighting away and what happens? The horses JUMP the chasm... for those who know nothing about horses they will NOT do such a thing. Even with a rider proding them on with spurs they will not jump out over empty air horses are smarter than that. If anything they would have tried to turn or stop or something simular. It's not a real big part of the movie but it just gets under my skin.

So there are some reality glitches, eh?  I guess the realism of fighting Frankenstein and the Wolfman with a bunch of vampires is sort of lost when the horse doesnt jump over a chasm, eh?

Im just ribbing you though.   I understand, sometimes you want realism and physics even in a fantasy film.

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Well its time for my contravercial review....

The Matrix (1999) (R)

The rough plot is that there are two realities, one of everyday life, and one that lies behind it.  One is a dream, one is the matrix.  Neo desperately seeks knowledge about the Matrix, something he believes has a huge impact on his life. 

Right.  OK.  This film is one I had all kinds of hopes for, as all I could hear was everyone talking about it all the time, so this may be a parenting reason to why I felt this movie fell flat on its face. 

I thought it was just a tremendous bore....it really was.  Look at me odd if you want, I just found it boring.  It was a cliche for all the cool moves you get to see in action movies, only it gives a plot to why these moves must look cool.  I just felt it was rediculous.

Acting?  Errrr....more like action, not acting.  Thats really all this movie presents.  Action and plot with all kinds of money devoted into making it 2 hours of eye candy. 

He can duck bullets....ok....I GET IT.

1 out of 5.

Independence Day (1996) (PG-13)

The rough plot is, everyday life in the world is interrupted when the world encounters a bunch of space aliens that just want to.....blow everything to kingdom come.  The world's metropoli are devastated, and the world must invest its trust into a few gallant warriors to attack the new visitors.

This is a case where there are 2 different climaxes.  The problem is that the first climax is much more interesting than the 2nd, and therefor, supercedes it.  The film is entertaining for about 45 minutes, where the world realizes its on the brink of destruction.  There is all kinds of fear and chaos, and a real struggle to stay alive.  Whoa!  This is kickin'!

Then everyone dies.  Damn, that sucks.  But it was in spectacular fashion, and that was really cool....well not that everyone died, but the way the movie showed it.

The rest of the movie just drags on and on.  Nrrr...It was a nightmare to watch.   You know, watching several movies, you remember certain parts of each movie, there are certain parts that just stick out.  And nowhere in this movie does the last 3/5ths of it stick out in any way.  Argh...it was painful.

I felt they devoted all their time into how the world would get destroyed than what happens after, it felt like they came up with the last 3/5ths of the movie on a ****tail napkin.

Big budgit market films does it again!

1 out of 5

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If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons

I still recomend seeing Van Helsing it isn't that bad, just wait for it to come to video...

The Werewolves, Mr. Hyde, and Carl where great!

Oh and there are some really mouth-wateringly stunning women in that movie.

 

 

 

 

If only he was played by Mel Brooks...

Hey I don't want this thread to die. I do care about it. I just don't get to watch many movies. I am however making plans to see a upcomming movie. Which is unheard of as I never do somehting like that. I can't wait for Dawn of the Dead to open here in Sydney. June 10th here I come.

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H-here, b-bunny, bunny, bunny...

Ah!  Mel Brooks!  A great man indeed   I should review a couple of his movies.

@jwm  Dawn of the Dead here was a sleeper hit, but I never went to see it   And you dont have to review movies youve recently seen.  I mean many of the movies Ive reviewed recently, I havent seen in some time.

EDIT-Box office going into this weekend in America (according to www.rottentomatoes.com ):

This Week	Last Week	Title	Weeks Released	Weekend Gross	Total Gross	Theater  Average	# Of  Theaters
1	new	Shrek 2	1	$108M	$129M	$26k	4163
2	1	Troy	2	$23.9M	$86M	$7k	3411
3	2	Van Helsing	3	$10.6M	$100.5M	$3.1k	3418
4	3	Mean Girls	4	$6.9M	$64.7M	$2.3k	3054
5	4	Man on Fire	5	$3.7M	$69.5M	$1.7k	2104
6	5	Breakin' All the Rules	2	$2.8M	$9.1M	$2.2k	1318
7	6	13 Going on 30	5	$2.5M	$52.1M	$1.2k	2028
8	7	New York Minute	3	$1.3M	$12.6M	$0.6k	2360
9	9	Kill Bill Vol. 2	6	$1.1M	$62.7M	$1.3k	854
10	12	Super Size Me	3	$1M	$2.9M	$6.6k	148
11	8	Laws of Attraction	4	$0.9M	$16.8M	$0.9k	1010
12	10	Envy	4	$0.6M	$12.2M	$1.2k	521
13	15	A Day Without a Mexican	1	$0.6M	$1.4M	$5.4k	103
14	17	Walking Tall	8	$0.5M	$45.1M	$0.7k	689
15	20	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	10	$0.3M	$32.9M	$1.5k	231

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If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons

You're a shmuck.  Okay, the horses jumping over the chasm was pretty silly (though most of the audience I saw it with seemed to like it) and hardly realistic, but it's no worse than Van Helsing's fight with Mr. Hyde (no way a human being could take a hit like the one Hyde lands on him and still be standing, let alone be combat ready) or the Nazi driver in Raiders of the Lost Ark throwing Indiana Jones through the windshield of his truck (it's hard enough to break a windshield with your bare hands, let alone completely shatter one side of it by grabbing the guy in the seat next to you with one hand and hurling him like a brick).  In The Two Towers when Gandalf fell from the Bridge of Khazad Dum he shouldn't have been able to catch his sword Glamdring either (since things fall at the same rate). 

 

You have to check your sense of reality at the door if you're going to enjoy these types of movies. Abandon hope all yea who embrace physics.

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Dungeon Crawl Inc. - It's the most fun you can have without three midgets and a whip!

There are perfectly good explinations for all of the above...

1. Maybe the fur on Hyde's hand (right?  He had fur?) softened the blow
2. Maybe the windshield on the Jeep was manufactured in France, or it was borrowed from a Yugo
3. Maybe the gravity isnt exactly the same in Middle Earth as it is here.

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If at first you dont succeed, dont try skydiving
Both diapers and politicians need to be changed--and usually for the same reasons

"In The Two Towers when Gandalf fell from the Bridge of Khazad Dum he shouldn't have been able to catch Glamdring either (since things fall at the same rate)." --Kayless

Well this can be explained by air resistance. You see with his big wings the Balrog would create a lot of air resistance which would help to slow his fall enough for Gandalf to catch up. Of course this probably doesn't explain how Gandalf caught up with Glamdring. Perhaps Gandalf sort used that same sort of grabbing spell that Saruman used on Gandalf's staff in their fight? 

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Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!

Gandolfs a wizard he can do anything!

Yeah yeah i know, but still it just gets under my skin. And as for the rest of the audience well I doubt they where smart enough to realize something was amiss.