Movies
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WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
spaffe
Geisterglut
Watched Double Indemnity last night and I was surprised at how awesome it actually was, so much that I'd say it's one of the best thriller/crime stories I've ever seen. The acting is flawless, script was really smart and the dialogue simply ace.
An unusually worthy "classic" that I can't recommend enough
An unusually worthy "classic" that I can't recommend enough
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
"Balls of Fury" was friggin hysterical. Obviously, it's one of those "shut your brain off for 90 minutes" kind of comedies. Dan Fogler, is a total crack. Patton Oswald's scene was awesome. And you have to love all the cheesy Def Leppard references. Like I said, not highbrow my any means, but very funny.
Tried to watch "The Kingdom". First off, I hate Jamie Fox. He'll never be forgiven for "Any Given Sunday". I'm not sure if it was the movie, the shaky cam (which I friggin hate... we get it... it's artsy), or the fact that I had just watched 14 hours of football and my brain couldn't absorb any more TV, but I fell asleep 45 minutes in. Do I need to rewatch this?
Zod
Tried to watch "The Kingdom". First off, I hate Jamie Fox. He'll never be forgiven for "Any Given Sunday". I'm not sure if it was the movie, the shaky cam (which I friggin hate... we get it... it's artsy), or the fact that I had just watched 14 hours of football and my brain couldn't absorb any more TV, but I fell asleep 45 minutes in. Do I need to rewatch this?
Zod
Dark One
The Tainted Dogma
Couldn't agree more - I'm so sick and tired of this technique in movies. All it does is make it difficult to tell what the hell's going on in addition to making my head spin. I have no idea why the technique has become so "revolutionary" and "popular". It's simply annoying.
Krilons Resa
Jerry's married?!
dill_the_devil
OneMetal.com Music Editor
I spent part of last night watching 'Hitman', the latest video-game-to-movie adaptation, and probably the best of the bunch so far. Admittedly, though, that's not really saying much. The qualification 'best game-to-movie adaptation' is about as worthy an achievement as 'nicest smelling turd' - although, to be honest, 'Hitman' is entertaining in a fairly forgettable sort of way. Directed by Xavier Gens (the French director who brought us the now second-best console-to-cinema project, 'Silent Hill'), 'Hitman' attempts to strike a balance between modern, crowd-pleasing action sequences, an intricate double-cross-laden plot and a film about the gradual emotional awakening of a man who has been raised from birth to be an unstoppable killing machine. Predictably, it only really succeeds at the first of those aims, the political intrigue and international cat-and-mouse coming across as Bourne-lite and the character-driven moments aiming for 'Le Samourai' and 'Leon', but falling well short of those lofty ambitions.
Part of the blame can be attributed to the film's videogame origins - the Hitman series was never a particularly story-heavy franchise, its popularity arising from the amoral tabula rasa its nameless protagonist presented the gamer with. You imprinted your own personality on Codename 47 (the closest thing to a name your character gets) via the way you decided to play the game - quietly sneaking in the shadows, knocking out civilians with tranquilisers and stealing their clothes so as to get close to your target and make the kill quietly - or, alternatively, steaming in all guns blazing, taking out all and sundry in your path. The film attempts to be faithful to the videogame in several ways - Timothy Oliphant certainly looks the part as the bald, barcode-tattooed, immaculately tailored assassin, and certain moments in the movie evoke the above-and-behind-the-head floating camera viewpoint from the game - but Oliphant is far less convincing when trying to portray 47's dawning desire to protect rather than kill than he is when, say, involved in a three-against-one sword battle on an empty subway car.
However, the film is stylishly shot, the action sequences are bruisingly effective without resorting to the excessively tightly-shot and frenetically edited template seemingly ubiquitous in modern action cinema, and the plot, while not water-tight, generally moves along at a fair clip. It's not a bad movie by any means, and deserves praise for aiming higher than contemporary brethren such as the execrable likes of 'Doom' and the inexplicably resilient 'Resident Evil' series. However, as mentioned above, it's not a patch on 'Leon', a far superior movie in every sense.
Part of the blame can be attributed to the film's videogame origins - the Hitman series was never a particularly story-heavy franchise, its popularity arising from the amoral tabula rasa its nameless protagonist presented the gamer with. You imprinted your own personality on Codename 47 (the closest thing to a name your character gets) via the way you decided to play the game - quietly sneaking in the shadows, knocking out civilians with tranquilisers and stealing their clothes so as to get close to your target and make the kill quietly - or, alternatively, steaming in all guns blazing, taking out all and sundry in your path. The film attempts to be faithful to the videogame in several ways - Timothy Oliphant certainly looks the part as the bald, barcode-tattooed, immaculately tailored assassin, and certain moments in the movie evoke the above-and-behind-the-head floating camera viewpoint from the game - but Oliphant is far less convincing when trying to portray 47's dawning desire to protect rather than kill than he is when, say, involved in a three-against-one sword battle on an empty subway car.
However, the film is stylishly shot, the action sequences are bruisingly effective without resorting to the excessively tightly-shot and frenetically edited template seemingly ubiquitous in modern action cinema, and the plot, while not water-tight, generally moves along at a fair clip. It's not a bad movie by any means, and deserves praise for aiming higher than contemporary brethren such as the execrable likes of 'Doom' and the inexplicably resilient 'Resident Evil' series. However, as mentioned above, it's not a patch on 'Leon', a far superior movie in every sense.
Thanatopsis123
ç½é¬¼
I never played those games. What games do you think would make good movies? I'd heard they were going to make a Max Payne movie and if done right, that would fucking rule. I've also read that a bunch of studios have approached Valve, wanting to do a HL movie but Valve wants a lot of say in it and the studios have never been willing to play ball.
Nico
Onward!
I was looking forward to a Max Payne movie, what with all the great film-noire styling of the games, but then I found out this cunt was playing Max:
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
dill_the_devil
OneMetal.com Music Editor
I think Peter Jackson could have made a damn good run at turning Halo into a a new epic sci-fi franchise, had he but hired good writers and not had the project yanked from him as a result of studio/financial wrangling. The storyline in the Halo games is peppered with surprisingly lyrical touches (The Pillar of Autumn, anyone) and references to classic literature.
I agree Max Payne could make a good movie, but a film influenced by a game influenced by John Woo movies and The Matrix? Could be diluting the sources a little too much, and end up derivative.
Tranquillian
Svartmetallist
Fallout would make the Mad Max movies pale in comparison. The intro to Fallout 2 alone is better than most films...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcJAI6oRYY&feature=related[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcJAI6oRYY&feature=related[/ame]
dorian gray
Returning videotapes
- Apr 8, 2004
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Chromatose
Squid pro quo
Tranquillian
Svartmetallist
Tranquillian
Svartmetallist
dorian gray
Returning videotapes
- Apr 8, 2004
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WhiteBeastofWotan
Apostitutes!
Really not true. Though I mainly play RTS, maybe they are like the first persons. For example, I tried playing Medieval Total War 2 on my last computer (which was about 1 or 2 years old), and it basically shit itself during battles. However, it works wonderfully on my new one, with pretty good stats.
Conspicuously Absent
Linguistically Confused
@Dorian: My dad is still gaming away on a 8 year old dell thats had 512MB more memory added (1GB), and a video card upgrade. Thats it. Before I forked out cash, I was gaming on maren's ancient computer as well. Older than y2k.
It basically depends what you want to play. @wolf, yup... play rome:total war instead, I almost find it a better game anyway, though some of the newer stuff in MTW2 is nice.
I'm building my dad a computer to last him a few years for $1000 canadian. If you want to skimp/already have some shit/can build it yourself/have a geek friend who can build it... watch for sales, you can probably put one together for like $700 total.
And yes, fallout would make a fucking KILLER movie. Problem is, a lot of RPG type games would make crap movies, because htey are too easy to fuck up.
It basically depends what you want to play. @wolf, yup... play rome:total war instead, I almost find it a better game anyway, though some of the newer stuff in MTW2 is nice.
I'm building my dad a computer to last him a few years for $1000 canadian. If you want to skimp/already have some shit/can build it yourself/have a geek friend who can build it... watch for sales, you can probably put one together for like $700 total.
And yes, fallout would make a fucking KILLER movie. Problem is, a lot of RPG type games would make crap movies, because htey are too easy to fuck up.
dorian gray
Returning videotapes
- Apr 8, 2004
- 21,258
- 489
- 83
