What is up with all the DUers who hate EVERY movie they see?

I posed this question in another thread, but I need an answer. Has Roger Ebert signed on DU like 38,500 times? Come ON, guys!! What's up?
Duckie

Does that count? :)

I thought Jaime Foxx was great. Can't wait to see him later this year in "Ray". He's playing Ray Charles for those of you who didn't know.

and ultra big budget movies based on comic books or old television shows...

Then, quite frankly, I would be happier about the movies coming out now.

As it is, if I want to see a good film with good writing, characters who seem real and interesting, thought provoking plots, I have to usually go to an art theater or wait for DVD or the Sundance Channel.

I'm sick and damn tired of crap like "Scooby-Doo" polluting the cineplexes of this country, to be honest.

It really was good and satisfying. Seriously. "Bourne Supremacy", "Collateral", etc. were good as well-the summer stuff is mostly crap but if you get a good consensus of reviews, you can find the good Hollywood movies. They really are out there.

It is possible to like the big blockbusters and also like the "art-house" stuff as well. There is room for both. I'm a guy who loved Spiderman, Dawn of the Dead, Eternal Sunshine, and Dogville, Mean Girls. All really different-all really entertaining.

A bad indie movie is so much worse than a bad big budget movie-because at least with some money they put in some special fx eye candy. And indie movies have their cliches and lazy tropes as well. Indie movies have fallen off from their early-mid nineties peak IMO and one can't generalize about them anymore.

Because if so, you look a little like Dennis Quaid.
Duckie

Yeah. That's me.

My wife and I rented Hellboy over the weekend and turned it off after 45 minutes. What a giant, lead-filled turd of a movie.

We turned it off after EIGHT minutes, it was THAT bad.

I loved the dry wit of the main character and the fish guy ( voiced by David Allen Pierce) was neat. Of course having low expectations probably didn't hurt. If you expect a lot of commercial stuff to suck (as opposed to films by Bergman or John Sayles or other great directors) then you are less likely to be disappointed.

We actually didn't think the new Spiderman was too bad, either, (although I have a low tolerance for explosions).

On the other hand, I thought Shrek 2 was terrible compared to the first one.

How hard was that? :shrug:

no I am not saying it.

Hi Al. :hi:

:hi:

;)

I like most movies I see.

I don't go to a lot of movies, so the big movie experience gets me every time. I can make a better judgment about a movie after a day or two.

Plus, I only go to see movies I think I am going to like.

bad.

I don't know where you got that perception from. The only movies most people think are good that he hates are Adam Sandler/Rob Shneider type movies. All of which he hates and is unfair to.

I mean, I thought I, Robot was one of the worst movies I'd ever seen and he gave it like 3 stars or 3 1/2 stars.

Tim Burton and Robert Altman are long established directors who can pretty much make the movies they want. They are well regarded in Hollywood, and have made some good, decent box office winning films.

There are a handful of directors with that kind of clout. Otherwise, you get mind numbing dreck starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

... then it's probably a good (quirky) movie.

-- Allen

Not necessarily great art...but a wonderful movie experience.

Elfman and Burton have had a long collabortive experience. IMO, they were both at their peak with "Pee Wee's Big Adventure". :-)

1983 Forbidden Zone

1986 Pee Wee's Big Adventure/Back to School

1988 Wisdom

1988 Big Top Pee Wee

1988 Midnight Run

1988 Beetlejuice

1989 Batman

1990 Nightbreed

1990 Dick Tracy

1990 Darkman

1990 Edward Scissorhands

1992 Article 99

1992 Batman Returns

1993 Sommersby

1993 Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

1994 Black Beauty

1994 To Die For

1995 Dolores Claiborne

1995 Dolores Claiborne: Composer's Personal Edition

1995 Mission: Impossible

1996 Extreme Measures

1996 The Frighteners

1997 Mars Attacks!

1997 Flubber

1997 Men in Black

1998 Good Will Hunting

1998 Good Will Hunting

1999 A Civil Action

1999 A Simple Plan

1999 Psycho

1999 Instinct

1999 Sleepy Hollow

2000 Proof of Life

2001 The Family Man

2001 Planet of the Apes

2002 Spider-Man

2002 Men in Black II

2002 Red Dragon

2003 Hulk

2003 Big Fish

2004 Spider-Man 2

Black Beauty? The Family Man? What gives, Dan?

at 11 pm last night and I had to go to sleep, but OH NO, they had to show Gosford Park and even though I have the DVD, I had to sit there and watch it until 12:30 so I was nice and bleary-eyed when I got up at 6:30.

I can't resist that movie. I catch things I didn't catch on the previous viewing every time I watch it.

Have you tried watching the DVD with the captioning turned ON? Sometimes they speak so quickly (and simultaneously) that much of the dialog is too blurry to understand.

With the captioning turned on, you're able to understand a lot of what was previously missed.

-- Allen

captioning turned on is about the only way I CAN catch a lot of the dialogue in films like that.

I've turned it on for my Young Ones DVDs, Absolutely Fabulous (there are still a few lines they say too quickly and are usually obscure Londoner references).

Gosford Park made WAY more sense with the captions on! LOL!

and any Altman film is usually good.

That most people I know considered total crap. That movie was "The Blair Witch Project". That was one of the worst movies ever made and certain critics thought it was great. I guess the moral of the story is if it sounds good, like something you may enjoy, see it and don't worry about what others may say. Same thing with music. I like what I like and don't particularly appreciate others telling that maybe I shouldn't.

I liked the idea, just not the product.

I was actually scared shitless and I don't scare easily, but I DO have a vivid imagination.

The next time I tried to watch it (on DVD), the loooooong drawn-out scenes of the kids arguing and fighting and cussing just killed it. I popped it out of the player and gave it away to someone. Ech. It's a one-timer.

:evilgrin:


PS, I never saw it...

I KNEW this would be a fun post. hehe
Duckie

I must have your dog - he is a great looking animal.

I want one too.
Duckie

that's what I did. It was on "On Demand"

DUers suffer from a holier than thou, hating everything complex. So yeah, just like a professional film critic!

(you knew that was coming, didn't yer?)

i think it was wholly appropriate ;-)

I haven't seen a truly outstanding film in a long, long time.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is the best movie I've seen so far in 2004. There are still parts of it that I didn't like.

I also have that journalist in me that can't report or see anything as 100% positive (or 100% negative -- "Matrix Reloaded" was dreadful, awful, putrid. But the fight choreography was good.).

Really, really bad.

regions, so I didn't even bother with Revolutions.

But I did see "American Pie II," and still sat through "American Wedding," so this isn't a hard-and-fast rule.

The rest they acted as if they just wanted to get them over with. And they could have done so many great things with them.
Duckie

I just have pretty high standards.

That being said, I DO sometimes enjoy fluff just for the fact that it's fluff. You aren't going to get anything really deep out of a Valley Girl/Weird Science/Night of the Comet marathon like we did the other night, but it's just damn fun.

"YOU'RE STEWED, BUTTWAD!!"

I could say that over and over and never stop finding it giggle-inducing.

Anywho. I'm just saying, when I pay $8 for a film, they better not throw some damn formulaic thing at me that it seems like the sreenwriter barely bothered, the directer barely bothered and the actors all phoned it in. Know what I mean?

and that's a conservative estimate. Support your local art house cinema.

the one where she and her ex husband were awashed on a deserted island and he makes her his slave before she starts to fall in love with him.

THAT was so bad it was actually quite watchable.

In fact, I actually kind of liked Alien Vs. Predator. What does that say about me?

But I agree with people that say that a majority of what Hollywood puts out is utter garbage. I've said this before and I'd be willing to stake my life on it: give me a 90 million dollar budget, a team of photographic and special effects experts, and some good actors, and I guarantee you that I could produce something that is better than 90% of what Hollywood makes. I'm not saying that to be arrogant but I really think it's true. And I think it's true of a lot of people out there. Hollywood just seems to have a knack for killing creativity.

When Hollywood starts putting out movies THAT good, maybe I'll go see one or two. Until then, spare me the special effects and the various cults of celebrity that pass as cinema in Hollywood; I just can't get paid enough to give a shit about your "Matrixes" and your "Van Helsings" and your "Spidermans" and your "American Pies."

I don't have to step in dogshit to know that it's dogshit.

As ever, your cinematic taste is undoubted, RKZ.

"We're working on a doll that shits itself..."

He is the perfect embodiment of that sinister, fucked dealer archetype.
'I don't advise a hair cut man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.'

Was Richard E. Grant's mount everest, his citizen kane, his fifth symphony, his finest hour.

That movie kicks ass.

:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

and I bet I will have to see it several more times, since my child will insist.

Thought the Oscar the Grouch and all the raspberry smilies gave it away...

Usually, I can tell whether I'm going to be interested in a movie via previews and reviews. So I'm picky about what I see to begin with.

Once there, I figure I have a choice...I can either enjoy the movie or gripe about it. :)

Alfonso Cuaron is a genius.

what else has he done? The only other thing I have seen was Yo Tu Mama Tambien ( pant-pant). :)

There seem to be two kinds of IMDB posters: people who think every movie in the world is the greatest movie in the world--there are people who think I Spit On Your Grave(!) is the greatest movie ever made--and people who think every movie ever made sucks ass.

You'd think those people would give up watching movies because obviously movies do nothing for them. If you don't like movies, take up bowling or something.

And vice versa.

It's not that everything sucks, it's that people are more likely to complain than to praise.

That puritan background we all have lurking in our cultural background.

Pcat