I just watched...

[Brad]

Another movie with KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN? That'd be cool.

[zourtney]

I watched Wall-E again a few night ago. That movie seems destined to become a classic. I like it a lot...but then again, I like lots of things which are aimed at people ~15-20 years younger than I...

[Nick]

I think wall-e is aimed at everyone. And I have heard others remark on its classicablity too. It does have a nice timeless feel to it (until we have semi-sentient robots are space cruisers that is) nothing to tie it to the year that it was made. And its almost artful with the half hour of almost silent film you get at the beginning.

[zourtney]

Yeah, both times I watched it, there comes a point (about 30min into it) that my brain realizes that there is no dialog except for about 6 sentences said on video screens. It's a funny feeling to realize you don't really need the dialog to explain what's going on.

[Brad]

I was impressed at Pixars ability to have a robot able to display so much emotion with so very little dialog. Definitely one of my favorite Pixar/Disney films.

[Nick]

I just watched Avatar.

Part 1: I like movies
Once I was able to get beyond the revolting individuals who had chosen to sit behind us, I found the movie to be very entertaining and truly captivating. I saw it in 3D. With the ripoff 3D glasses. They over charge for the glasses, ask you to "Please recycle them" when the movie is over and refuse to let you use your own if you happen to have some already. But thats all beside the point.

The virtually present third dimension actually ads to the movie. Unlike with the the trailers preceding the feature, it wasn't at all gimmicky or cheesy. It was the best special effects ever. To this date I cannot say I know of anything that comes close to rivaling it. More then once I found myself trying to focus on floating specks as though they were close to my face. The only complaint about it I might have (aside from the glasses) would be things got a tiny bit weird at the extreme edges of the picture. Not distracting, but noticeable if you are trying to scrutinize the visual experience.

The story was a classic dude gets a blue kitty body, dude meets girl, dude joins their society and saves the world story. I was talking with a fellow movie goer and the consensus was "Fern Gully mixed with dances with wolves with a little halo kicked in for flavor."

If you can, see it in 3D. It will be years before that kind of technology is available in homes. Several more before anyone will be able to afford it. It might create a market for showing movies in smaller theaters, long after they have gone to DVD, just for the little bits of floating dust and the feeling of real depth that draws you into the story. Makes you forget you surrounding and takes you for an adventure.


Part 2.: I hate people. 
We sat in front of 4 drunk idiots. They had snuck (why isn't snuck a word?) beer into the showing. And obviously they had to drop and break a bottle under the backs of my seat and the person's next to me. One particualry stupid (or drunk... maybe both) individual kept making comments about the movie, but they were completely unrelated to what was on screen. And the starved-for-acceptance girl with him kept laughing at them all. Who blurts out "Turtles in a half shell" when there are NO TURTLES. NONE! Just little white floaty thing. Finally he got too drunk and fell asleep, Then all I had to do was put up with snoring, something I can actually tune out.  Errrr. People suck. Annnnd one of their phones went off.  
Grumble cakes, grumble cakes.

[zourtney]

Wow...I must say: Wow. People do indeed suck. I was going to say that I watched the Bourne Identity movie again last night (for like the 5th time) and that it's one of my favorites, but I just can't top your Avatar post. So, maybe I'll sneak out to that movie with Eve if it is indeed worth watching. Then I can say "it's a blue dude!" too, and know what you're talking about. Hopefully I will avoid the drunken people. I saw enough of those Wednesday night anyway, though I got paid for it.

[Nick]

The Bourne movies are good. They make me think of bond movies, but with a better plot and acting Not that I dislike the bond movies, they are just a little slow and dry by today's comparisons. They are still classics.

Defiantly go see Avatar if it interests you. With how much they spent making it they are going to need all the help they can get. I hope that this was like with the matrix, where they spent all the money developing new technology. And from then on it was cheaper to that sort of thing because the ground work as already laid. Then we can hope to see more movies with awesome affects. I really, really hope that movies makers don't go back to their old ways of relying on visual shock-and-awe alone to sell tickets. All the effects in the world can't save your movie if the story line sucks. r

[Cody]

I figure since I went to go see Avatar in 3D the other day that I can make a post too. Not really sure what to say though. Wow. I believe that pretty much sums it up actually. The 3D really added to the movie, I agree with you on that one and that it wasn't horribly done like the previews before the actual movie. However, lucky for me I suppose, I didn't have to put up with any drunk stupid people...as I can imagine that could help ruin a truly amazing movie. Also I didn't happen to notice the weirdness a the edges like you said you saw. Then again perhaps it was there and I was just too mesmerized by the movie to actually notice. And as for the whole glasses thing...yeah, they were really ugly and somewhat annoying especially since I had to wear them over my regular glasses, but they never told me to recycle them. I just stuck them in my pocket at the end of the movie and out the door I went. No idea how much they cost either. The ticket was $10.50 and while that is probably fairly expensive for a 3:45 showing of a movie, I would certainly pay it to see it again.

As for the movie itself, I don't know what to say other than it was a good combination of "hey that's cool!", "aw that's sweet...or something", and "weeeee! EXPLOSIONS!" Yep. Good stuff. Actually probably one of the best movies I ever remember seeing.

[Nick]

Glad you liked it. Its still #1 from what I hear. That means there will be a sequel from what the director was saying. Or maybe it will be a prequel...
The recycling thing I was talking about was a big round bin outside the theater entrance/exit. They add an extra $4 to the ticket price for those glasses so there was no way I am throwing them away. Just keep them until 3d projectors or TV are available to the public (the current ones are not as good I think as they need to be, and they cost 2x what a normal tv does. And I know for sure it does not cost twice as much to make them. But that's capitalism.)

[zourtney]

Eve and I saw it too. I liked it quite a lot. As for the 3D-ness, it was cool and not gimmicky like those older red-n-blue 3D flicks. The movie going experience was really something, but I'm not sure how much of it I can attribute the the effectiveness of 3D vs hype.

But yeah, I liked it.

[zourtney]

I watched that Terminator Salvation movie last week. It wasn't horrible. A blatant ride on an tired horse, so to speak, but it was worth seeing if you just want to see something blow up. As for the preceding Terminator movie, I'm thinking everyone is pretending that 3rd movie just didn't happen...

[Nick]

Seems like a good thing to make believe. I liked the latest installment in that metallic warriors series. Though I have one (real) complaint about it: where were all the robots in the freaking robot factory? They only had to fight two of them? They were in the plant where they were being mass produced!

Other then that I agree with Zourtney, more or less.

[zourtney]

Eve and I just finished watching the first season of Heroes (I like being behind the times). Yatta!

[Brad]

I just watched District 9 last night. I didn't really tell Melissa what the movie was about so when we started watching it she was like "Why are the even letting aliens on earth? They are just going to rise up and kill everybody, we should just kill them all first." By the end of them movie she was like "I'm really sorry I said that stuff about the aliens at the beginning of the movie." So I guess the movie had it's intended affect.

She isn't really a big sci-fi fan, so pretty much all movies she's seen with aliens involve the aliens trying to kill everybody (except for Lilo & Stitch probably). That's sort of the standard Hollywood approach with aliens. Especially ones that don't look very human. Heck even in Star Trek most of the aliens look REALLY human and the ones that don't will probably try to kill and eat you. We've been trained that aliens = evil. District 9 is a movie which makes you think about that. The aliens and that movie don't look human, and the movie doesn't try to make them cute or lovable looking. In fact at the beginning of the movie, they seem like the standard "planning on eating you" aliens.               

The violence was occasionally a little over the top (guns turn people -> soup) and there was a lot of the f-word flying around but it wasn't distracting. Overall I liked it.