40Cent @ the movies

[Airborne Rifles]

'Ground Hog Day' experience, leading to the culmination of the film.  Sounds weak, but I enjoyed it.

Actually.....it isn't Ground Hog Day, it is movie version of Lieutenant Backsight Forethought during the Boer War. Doesn't really sound weak, Defense of Duffer's Drift is on the Commandant's Reading List. If you peel the onion back a little more.......this concept is why we use simulations.

Do you think it would be okay for Tomas?

Hard to say, as I've never met Tomas. There were large and loud battle scenes. No sex, and I can't recall if there was any swearing.

Just saw it tonight. Lots of fun, almost no swearing, very clean.

[JasonPratt]

Actually, Edge of Tomorrow is based directly on a manga called All You Need Is Kill. Don't know whether the Japanese author knew about Duffer's Drift, but Groundhog Day and 12:01 (the latter a science-fiction comedy-thriller, co-starring Helen Slater -- vastly much better than it had any right to be) don't seem to have anything to do with Duffer's Drift either. (And GD has practically nothing to do with 12:01.)

In 12:01, the purely average (but non-assholish) hero wakes back up at the start of the end of the world every time he dies (or goes to sleep, or even just lives 24 hours) and has to figure out what's going on and how to stop it. It was probably the direct inspiration for at least one, maybe two ST:TNG eps.

[JasonPratt]

Saw the latest Transformers movie. It was too long. Great effects. If you're looking for more of the same, then this won't disappoint. Be warned parents, the f-bomb is dropped, once. Not sure why they decided to do that in a movie that is used to market toys to children.

25/40

Saw it last night; woke up with stomach flu this morning. I am not drawing any inferential connections. ;) Better than the first two, arguably better than #3. Still has some of Bay's terrible humor. (He can direct comedy quite well but depends strongly on his writing team.) Not as bad as Bricken's infamous "Transformer FAQ" series (now over at i09) makes it out to be -- he just flat missed some plot points that he complained about, though in his defense the movie isn't overly clear about one of them namely where the dinobots come from. I strongly suspect there are some missing scenes leaving out a few pieces in that regard.

Just to minimize confusion later (and not much spoilers since a lot of this information opens the film): aliens carpet-bomb the earth with something that kills the dinosaurs by converting their organic bodies into the kind of unstable-molecule metal Transformers are made from. They harvested the vast majority of this metal but a few fossils remained by accident (plus some rare indistinguishable chunks). Immediately after this prologue one of the secondary heroines finds a metal-fossil T-Rex in what's now somewhere-in-the-Arctic. (The local guard is wearing a hat that says "Grimlock" by the way -- the dinobots are never addressed by name in the film and don't talk. But this isn't just an Easter Egg, it's confirmation this skeleton will be Grimlock.)

The company who is looking for this metal and who finds the skeleton, is in cahoots with someone who is himself secretly in cahoots with a Transformer bounty-hunter named Lockdown (one of the two robotic villains of the movie, though he has some honor unlike Megatron), and this is where the movie appears to be missing some scenes: Lockdown's ship is seen in the Arctic once, and he captured a group of ancient criminals (or rebel warriors or something) for the creators of the Transformers, one of which can be seen fused with the T-Rex's metal fossil and who becomes Grimlock for the final fight sequence -- other dinobots have the same origin. Swoop is a two-headed dragon because he got fused with the fossil of two pterodactyls hit by the seed bomb.

What's missing from the film is any scene clearly showing (or even clearly mentioning) that Lockdown is picking up spare Transformium skeletons left behind 65 million years ago (probably being fed their location through his contacts back to the technology company); and any scene explaining (or even clearly showing or mentioning) that Lockdown, or some other (now?)-unseen robot on his ship, is experimenting with fusing those skeletons to the four captive rebels.

[mirth]

The iO9 thing is pretty damn funny!

http://io9.com/transformers-age-of-extinction-the-spoiler-faq-1598579492

[BanzaiCat]

So how does Transformers: Age of Extinction begin?

It begins 65 million years ago, as an armada of snail-shaped spaceships drop mysterious bombs on the dinosaurs, turning them into metal!

Oh, wow! So that's where the Dinobots come from?

Nope. Not at all.

What? But... they're metal dinosaurs.

I know, but they literally have nothing to do with the Dinobots. They're just metal fossils.

But—

You're about to ask if the spaceships suck up some dinosaurs to study them or something, but the answer is no. These ships bomb the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs turn to metal, end of scene, case closed. Any Dinobots that come later are completely coincidental.

Uh...

LOL

[Martok]

Just saw Transformers: Age of Extinction this afternoon.  I liked it well enough, although not as much as the 1st and 3rd films. 

Its main problems were its needless length and (what felt to me like) a lack of focus.  Character development and interaction were surprisingly strong, however -- by the standards of a Michael Bay film -- with the notable exception of the relationship between the main character (Mark Whalberg) and his daughter & her boyfriend (which felt cliched to the point of absurdity).  You could tell John Goodman and Ken Watanabe had a good time hamming it up playing a boisterous-bruiser and samurai Autobot, respectively. 

Better than the first two

Dude, saying a movie is better than the second Transformers film means nothing.  That's like saying someone is taller than Gus.  :P 

[BanzaiCat]

I plan on seeing it, maybe this weekend, even though it is clearly a trainwreck of epic proportions. Just because it is a trainwreck, I will brave the stupid commercials that I cannot stand in order to check it out.

[JasonPratt]

So how does Transformers: Age of Extinction begin?

It begins 65 million years ago, as an armada of snail-shaped spaceships drop mysterious bombs on the dinosaurs, turning them into metal!

Oh, wow! So that's where the Dinobots come from?

Nope. Not at all.

What? But... they're metal dinosaurs.

I know, but they literally have nothing to do with the Dinobots. They're just metal fossils.

But—

You're about to ask if the spaceships suck up some dinosaurs to study them or something, but the answer is no. These ships bomb the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs turn to metal, end of scene, case closed. Any Dinobots that come later are completely coincidental.

Uh...

LOL

As noted above, that part of his review is technically incorrect, but not quite his fault -- the movie doesn't put it together AT ALL well.

Its main problems were its needless length and (what felt to me like) a lack of focus.  Character development and interaction were surprisingly strong, however -- by the standards of a Michael Bay film -- with the notable exception of the relationship between the main character (Mark Whalberg) and his daughter & her boyfriend (which felt cliched to the point of absurdity).  You could tell John Goodman and Ken Watanabe had a good time hamming it up playing a boisterous-bruiser and samurai Autobot, respectively.

Was John Goodman playing Hound? Or was he playing the Aussie-sounding one with the green longjacket? Because I spent the whole movie being distracted by what sounded like Peter Cullen playing Hound as well as Prime. {checking IMDB} Well, damn...

Holy crap, Cullen has been playing Eeyore for since ever!! (And he was Monterey Jack on the Rescue Rangers.) I was checking to see if he had also voiced Hound in the G1 cartoon and that was why I kept thinking he was the same voice in the movie. Apparently he and Goodman just sound a lot alike.  :-\

Agreed about lack of focus. Thus also agreed about the overlong length, which would have been better with more focus.

The Dad and Daughter/Boyfriend relationship unfortunately comprises most of the characterization in the movie. It wouldn't be so bad if Mark's part had been written as though he was sane, and if the Boyfriend had any characterization other than Hot Irish Boyfriend. The girl playing the daughter basically carries 70% of the movie, and she doesn't get to actively contribute much, which is a damn shame.

The villains (except for the weird role of Stanley Tucci which seems to have been written as comedy relief) are sympathetically interesting, except that they've long-since passed the moral event horizon so it's hard to put their legitimate grievances into context.

As usual in these films, several of the secondary support characters should have been the main characters. At least the Autobots themselves (and Lockdown, but practically none of the 'Cons and certainly none of the Dinos) got some workable characterization this time.

[Martok]

As usual in these films, several of the secondary support characters should have been the main characters. At least the Autobots themselves (and Lockdown, but practically none of the 'Cons and certainly none of the Dinos) got some workable characterization this time.

In fairness to the Dinobots, they didn't really *need* characterization (this time, at least) due to the sheer level of FREAKING AWESOME!!! they brought to the film's last twenty minutes.  (Seriously, what's not to love about Prime getting a Big Damn Heroes moment while riding to the rescue on a giant robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex??)  ;D 

Otherwise, though, I concur. 

[BanzaiCat]

Just got back from seeing Transformers. I agree with most of what's been already discussed, but overall, I'm quite happy with the experience. I went ahead and sprung for the XD/3D experience and holy hell, I feel like I'm going deaf, like I was just at a metal concert. (People had toddlers in there, and I heard one during the previews say "Mommy, that's too loud!" LOL).

The product placements were a bit too much; that kind of crap is like a slap to the face to me. And the whole Hong Kong final battle was obviously pandering to the Pacific Rim market, but oh well, that's the New Horrywood for you. It was still a fun movie overall.

30/40

[JasonPratt]

Didn't the next Apes film open this weekend? All the reviews I've seen say better than great ('great' being the standard of the previous one)!

[JasonPratt]

(Seriously, what's not to love about Prime getting a Big Damn Heroes moment while riding to the rescue on a giant robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex??)  ;D

After punching it so hard he breaks its jaw!

That being said, their final stand on the bridge against... something or other... seems to have been axed in post-production. They take up a defensive position and the next time we see them they're being waved off by Prime to wander the countryside unmolested and free which considering that they were troublemaking criminals seems LIKE IT MIGHT CAUSE SOME PROBLEMS SOON FOR THE SQUISHY HUMANS!

Still, if the next film was mainly about them wandering the countryside getting into trouble while picking up some (Chinese!) human pets and learning we aren't all pointless meatbags, that would be boss. Extra points for them getting involved in a cavalry charge later to solve an Autobot vs Galvatron problem which was developing mainly offscreen (so we don't have to deal with more goofy plot antics.) Ninety minutes, saves money, maximizes the awesome, while not wearing out the welcome.

[Centurion40]

The Mrs & I saw Sex Tape last night; not expecting much but hoping for at least a couple of good yucks.  It was worse than expected, with fewer laughs than hoped.

The one good thing that I'll say is that Cameron Diaz, or her body double, has a really nice posterior.

16 out of 40

[Windigo]

Didn't the next Apes film open this weekend? All the reviews I've seen say better than great ('great' being the standard of the previous one)!

Saw it this last w/e.

Solid script, storyline and directing, acting better than average... by far

8.5 bananas out of 10

[BanzaiCat]

The Mrs & I saw Sex Tape last night; not expecting much but hoping for at least a couple of good yucks.  It was worse than expected, with fewer laughs than hoped.

The one good thing that I'll say is that Cameron Diaz, or her body double, has a really nice posterior.

16 out of 40

My wife wants to see this. I pointed out it had a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. She didn't ask about it this past weekend, thank God. :)