Testy Area 51 (1 Viewer)

[Steve Christou]

Hello Cogerson and welcome to the Testy Zone. Cogerson aka Bruce is a friend from Hubpages. Bruce you should have seen this place 8 or 9 years ago, there was singing, there was laughter, there was gaiety and even a few tears. Many of the original testy droogs have left the forum but a few have stuck around. Mike Frezon is our moderator and one of the first droogs here. The forum has a Movie area, Blu-ray area, TV area, After Hours, Video Gaming, Polls area (aah memories the Polls area was once one of the forums most popular venues, what happened?) and more.

I saw Tower Heist. I wasn't impressed. It should have been better. It was good to see Eddie Murphy playing a foul mouthed crook, reminded me of 48hrs. But it just wasn't that funny or interesting. Maybe others liked it more?

I did see The Woman in Black at the weekend, some good old fashioned scares without the need for gore. It's good to see Hammer studios back on form and still making horror movies.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Cogerson /t/81187/testy-area-51/28170#post_3903998
So Tower Heist is not any good? I just told my brother I wanted that for my upcoming birthday.

Not having seen it, Bruce...I'd say it's gonna depend on what kind of movies you like. There's an awful lot of talent in Tower Heist. Personally, I like "caper" type movies (such as The Italian Job)...but I like 'em to be more in the serious mode.

And...Welcome to the HTF!

Steve has been running this "Little Thread of Horrors" for a very, very long time (Ack! Coming up on ten years this summer! Must hire a party planner!). Hope you like bananas, oranges and mangos.

 

[Ruz-El]

Nice to see you liked "Woman In Black" Steve, I enjoyed it too. Tin Tin not so much, seemed to go on way too long and I'm still not a fan of that creepy photo-realistic animation. Not a terrible film like I suspect "War Horse" to be.

Off to see John Carter [SIZE= 8px]of Mars [/SIZE] This weekend if everything works out. Hope it's good, I like the books.

 

[Steve Christou]

Yeah Tintin looked impressive but the characters still had that dead eye look, but if in the future they make them too real they might as well use the actual actors, no? With Tintin they should have done a Sky Captain and filmed real actors in front of green screened stylised CG sets. It wasn't a huge hit, Peter Jackson is supposed to make his Tintin after the Hobbit films, will he bother now I wonder?

Russ I still haven't watched War Horse, it might be really good for all we know, it's Spielberg so mushiness, tearful looks and glowing sunsets will be expected (and maybe the occasional shooting star in the background?).

John Carter has had mixed reviews, Variety didn't like it but the Hollywood Reporter did enjoy it. I will see it next week and make up my own mind.

 

[Ruz-El]

They really should of done that Steve. They filmed the actors in the studio and then rotoscoped them Bakshi style in the computer I think. Just makes for stiff animation. But as you said, the dog was cute!

Speaking of which, I rewatched Rise Of The Apes a couple of nights ago. It and X-Men: First Class really should of been nominated for best picture. and one of them should of won.

Also revisited Clint Eastwood's bizarre Star Wars ripoff Firefox over the weekend. Ugh, not a good movie. The sneaking around stuff in the first half wasn't too bad, the actual flying around bit though was terrible. Movie didn't really make any sense, and when Eastwood practically hears an Obi Wan like voice telling him to "Think Russian" to fire some missiles..Wooof!

Stare at this picture for 130 minutes. You've just watched Firefox.

 

[Steve Christou]

"You must think in Russian... think in Russian" It's been a while since I last watched Firefox and the effects date it now but I consider it a guilty pleasure Eastwood film. I'll bet Clint hasn't watched it since it's original release.

So Russ are you saying if Rise of the Apes was silent and in black and white and included a dance number it may have had a chance at Oscar glory? [bites fist]

 

[Elizabeth S]

I plan to see Taylor Kitsch this weekend. I'm also eager to see the long-awaited La Separation.
I got a free trial to Blockbuster by mail, so I've been doing catch-up on some arthouse films. I saw "Cortex" which really was too slow-paced, though it was nice to see Marthe Keller after several decades. She has been acting steadily, but I just hadn't seen anything of hers that long. I also saw "A Call Girl" which was interesting but more a "slice of life" type of narrative than something with a satisfying ending. And I saw the Korean "The Housemaid" which was quite interesting then took a rather bizarre turn at the end.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Okay. The creature on the left is John. The creature on the right is Carter.

Who is the guy in the middle (with the chain/rock)?

 

[Walter Kittel]

And I saw the Korean "The Housemaid" which was quite interesting then took a rather bizarre turn at the end.

I seem to recall seeing a review of The Housemaid on Ebert Presents At The Movies in the fall and it looked interesting. The visual design of the film caught my attention in terms of the sets and the cinematography.
After March Madness I will probably start trying to watch more of the Academy nominated films that I have not viewed; but it isn't a big priority for me this year.
- Walter.

 

[Steve Christou]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon /t/81187/testy-area-51/28170#post_3904243

Okay. The creature on the left is John. The creature on the right is Carter.

Who is the guy in the middle (with the chain/rock)?

That's Bob their handler, Mike. He went missing one day after forgetting to feed them.

 

[Ruz-El]

So Russ are you saying if Rise of the Apes was silent and in black and white and included a dance number it may have had a chance at Oscar glory? [bites fist]

No, I'm saying Sci Fi gets ripped off at the Oscars

I'll probably like The Artist, I'll see it one day along with the War Horses and The Helpers and The Moneyballers and whatever else was nommed.

Did I mention I watched Midnight In Paris? It wasn't bad. Not as good as Rise Of The Apes though!

 

[Walter Kittel]

No, I'm saying Sci Fi gets ripped off at the Oscars

With the exception of Return of the King, which IMHO was an award for the entire series, genre films always suffer at the Oscars when compared to more mainstream cinema when it comes to the Best Picture Award.
1965 - Dr. Strangelove - Nominated and loses to My Fair Lady
1969 - Planet of the Apes - Not nominated for Best Picture
1969 - 2001 A Space Odyssey - Not nominated for Best Picture
1972 - A Clockwork Orange - Nominated and loses to The French Connection.
1978 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Not nominated.
1978 - Star Wars - Nominated and loses to Annie Hall
1980 - Alien - Not Nominated for Best Picture
1983 - E.T. The Extraterrestrial - Nominated and loses to Gandhi.
2010 - Avatar nominated in a field of 10 films - loses to The Hurt Locker
2011 - Inception nominated in a field of 10 films - lose to The King's Speech.
I''m sure I've missed a few but these all readily come to mind. I am not suggesting that all of these should have been locks for Best Picture nor am I saying that the winners were bad films; but the trend is very recognizable.
- Walter.

 

[Ruz-El]

That's a crazy list. I would of went with the Sci fi on most of those. Especially with Inception. Kings Speech was alright but pretty forgettable. E.T. was the first Oscars I remember watching. I remember Gandhi winning and thinking "Oh, it must be amazing!" Then I saw it on VHS and it bored me to tears, I never watched it a second time.

 

[Steve Christou]

Yep no love for sci-fi at the Oscars.

But there was a breakthrough at the Golden Globes in 1983 when E.T. the Extraterrestrial won Best Drama and Gandhi wasn't even nominated! No, not even in the comedy / musical category. Attenborough was nominated though and must have been scratching his head at the omission and seeing An Officer and a Gentleman one of the nominated films with no nomination for director. Ben Kingsley won Best Actor which makes it more mistifying why Gandhi was snubbed. Tootsie won comedy / musical.

And Avatar won Best Drama at the GGs in 2010. Looks like there are more sci-fi fans at the Globes.

 

[Ruz-El]

The Globes are the foreign press right? So it makes sense they go for popular films. They're their own type of crazy though, like "The Tourist" being nominated for best musical/comedy. It was neither of these things, nor very good (from what I hear, I never did see it) but needed to get nommed for something so as to get Depp and Jolie to show up.

Ridiculous!

I haven't seen E.T. in years, whens the Blu out? I never did buy it on DVD. I have a love/hate relationship with Spielberg that I'm dealing with.

 

[Steve Christou]

Russ, whenever I have doubts about Senor Spielbergo I put on Jaws, Close Encounters or Raiders of the Lost Ark and feel better again.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Steve Christou /t/81187/testy-area-51/28200#post_3904327
Russ, whenever I have doubts about Senor Spielbergo I put on Jaws, Close Encounters or Raiders of the Lost Ark and feel better again.

No argument from me on those three! Problem is I keep thinking "I should get all of Spielberg's films in Blu since I never did get many in DVD." Then I remember Always and some of his other sappy ones and ugh!

So I'll be selectively getting them in blu I guess!

 

[Mike Frezon]

I don't know if you intrepid folks care to read reviews before hitting the cinema...but here's one from the NY Post's Lou Leminick (a reviewer I happen to like--along with Ebert) on John Carter.

I won't give away his position...but he sums up his thoughts rather succinctly in the closing line of the review...

 

[RickER]

Thanks for the link Mike. Looks like more than a few disagree with him.
I will see this movie, once it comes out on disc.
I have Hugo sitting here to watch. See what the fuss is about, this weekend.
I have not wanted to see a best picture nom or winner since Lord of the Rings. My taste is not the same as the Academy.

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm still gonna go to Carter! There's not much else on that interests me.