[denizen]

You didn't like Ben Hur?!

[MacGyverGod]

Nope. It was one of the classics I didn't like.

[denizen]

Okay. Each to ourselves.

Maybe you will like the reboot.

Here's the trailer

[KiwiTek]

Last weekend I watched this movie based on a true story.

It was a bit heavy going in places but still a really good movie.

[MacGyverGod]

Last night I saw The Nice Guys at the movies starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling by Shane Black. I got to admit. I was not convinced by its trailer. I thought it looked appalling. Then after I found out Shane Black wrote and directed it, I got interested. I like Black's early work: Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout and that's what this movie was. A big fat nod to those two movies. A mismatched duo, a dead pornstar, a tough/bratty kid but a little less foul-mouthed than the girl in The Last Boy Scout and few funny but menacing bad guys. Because the bad guys had this oddball touch to their characters the movie sort of leans to the black comedy genre a bit but other than that this is a great movie in a genre I have sorely missed the past years.

[MacGyverGod]

Jungle Book.

[denizen]

Well i wouldn't go so far as to call this movie great. Daddy's Home (2015) starring Will Ferrell plays a step father to 2 kids and tries to be the best possible dad he can be. That is of course till real dad, Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) comes home to visit the kids.

From there a battle to win their affection as the favorite dad begins. The movie plays out as your usual run of the mill comedy with a few humorous moments that are in line with the duo's comedic past. A fun movie to watch with a few laughs along the way. 3 stars from me.

[denizen]

Second to Daddy's Home, I decided to watch the old John Carpenter classic, "They Live" again on Friday night. For those that have never seen it, the story centers around a wanderer played by Roddy Piper who, while walking down an alley, discovers a mysterious box containing a pair of sunglasses capable of showing the world the way it truly is.

As he walks the streets of Los Angeles, he notices that both the media and the government are comprised of subliminal messages meant to keep the population under a creepy subdued control, and that most of the general population are skull-faced aliens bent on world domination. With this shocking discovery, Nada fights to free humanity from the mind-controlling aliens.

Its Carpenter at his best and I give it 4 stars.

[Joe SAKic]

Let's go back to 1964 and a Disney classic - The Moon-Spinners.
It was Walt Disney's penultimate (live-action) film for which he was credited as producer while still alive.
More importantly, he schmoozed Pola Negri out of retirement and into what would turn out to be her final
film. She is good, very, very good. I like most early Disney, but the Crete setting, excellent cinematography, and perfect mood setting score by Ron Grainer is what makes this one stand out a little more. Better on VHS or DVD but it is (at the moment) available on da tube :

[MacGyverGod]

Out Of Time with Denzel Washington and Eva Mendes. Denzel got himself into major trouble in this one. While divorcing his wife, he's having an affaire with the wife of his best but very jealous friend. She however has cancer and he offers her money to go to a hospital in Switzerland. By giving her over 450.000 dollars in drug money, he tries to help her out. When she doesn't show up he looks her up at her house but no one is there. The next day, the house is burned down, the money is gone and she and her boyfriend are both dead everything points in Denzel's direction as the prime suspect. Plus there is a witness who has seen him. To make matters worse the DEA calls him telling they would be collecting the money later that day. While the noose tightens around his neck, his soon-to-be ex-wife takes on the case. He has to work together with his ex-wife but tries to keep her and the DEA on a distance in order to clear his name but when nothing appears what it seems the case takes an unexpected turn.

[Jediferret]

Kung Fury anyone???



Added bonus, David Hasselhoff got involved, which just made it more awesome. XD

[denizen]

That looks so funny.

[Joe SAKic]

[MacGyverGod]

Also starring Joe Santos, Bruce McGill and Dick Butkus in a cameo.

Perhaps an ultra violent version of Squeeze Play.

[denizen]

Finally managed to see X-Men Apocalypse on Friday and although it was not the best in the series, there were elements that make it work. This is the 3rd and final film in the prequel series and includes a host of mutants we nevr thought would get their big screen treatment such as Psylocke played by Olivia Munn.

This time round, the ancient mutant known as Apocalypse recruits Magneto in a battle to take over the world and its up to Professor X and his band of mutants to put an end to the tyranny.

The effects are great as usual and i quite liked the humor including a rather amusing scene with Cyclops, Professor X and that tree. Even seeing Lucas Till as Havoc was quite cool.

It is a better attempt from Bryan Singer but i generally have my doubts when it comes to him as he seems to carry a vision as a director and when it all falls apart, he hides in his little corner. (X-men the Last stand; Superman Returns). They are apparently planning on rebooting the X-Men franchise and with titles such as Deadpool 2 it begs the question how they plan on tackling this as Deadpool resides in the original timeline. And werent they going to make a Gambit movie? It's all very confusing but for now Apocalypse makes for an adequate addition to the series. 3 stars from me.

[MacGyverGod]

I think after trying for years they finally manage to make good comic book movies. The Last Stand was supposed to be directed by Singer but he opted to do Superman Returns instead and switched projects with Brett Ratner.

This one wasn't adequate, it was better. Usually I'm not so much into comic book movies and I think X-Men is one of the very few I actually like. That's how I got to know and like Hugh Jackman and it's mostly thanks to him. I still need to see The First Class though and watch all the others again to get fully into it because most I have just seen once.

[denizen]

I apologise for not clarifying the issue. I meant that Singer did Superman instead of X-Men. I just put the names there under the humble assumption that everyone knew of the swop-around. I should have added that Singer directed Days of Future Past and it made no sense whatsoever having characters who were dead suddenly emerge back to life again despite lack of explanation.

X-Men First Class is a good movie and opens up a lot of explanation to the origin saga for those who have never read the comic books.

But Apocalypse did not fuel me the way X2 - X-Men United, First Class or even the first Wolverine movies did. It lacked a something to it and despite it's new ensemble, felt like something was gone. It certainly wasnt the worst. But it was not the best either.

[MacGyverGod]

Speed and True Romance.

[denizen]

Decided to watch One Fine Day again on the weekend and i have to say that it is regarded as one of my favorite Romantic Comedy's/Drama's. Released back in 1996 and starring George Clooney & the amazing Michelle Pfeiffer (Who also co-produced the movie) who play single parents that meet by chance while taking care of their kids after both mis their school trip on an impossibly crazy career driven day and are forced to depend on each other by taking turns to babysit. It has a great plot, dialogue and the acting is witty. It's a rare treat in this genre. 4 stars from me!

[MacGyverGod]

Last one I have seen was Black Rain, I think. I really like these old gritty and violent movies from the 80's. It's also a bit forgotten. Michael Douglas plays Nick, a cop who's being investigated by internal affairs for taking money and while having lunch at a restaurant he and his partner Charlie played by Andy Garcia witness an assassination at the restaurant with Japanese Yakuza killing the Italian Mob. They manage to apprehend the suspect and are ordered to deliver him back to the Japanese authorities. On arrival Sato manages to escape because his men pose as cops. Now both Nick and Charlie are supposed to work together with the Japanese police who have different ways of working than the American police. They have to learn to work together and honor both cultures and codes to bring Sato to justice.

Little back on Speed now, now that I think about it. I think Speed could've been a great Mac-adventure as well. Well actually we call it Countdown. But I can definitely see a first season Mac in this movie. Keanu Reeves kinda plays a Mac-ish character, only with a buzzcut. He's the smart, polite officer who tries to maintain control in the situation and make sure no one gets harmed in a cross-fire. Besides there is also a nice moment when he tries to take out the bomb himself.

I'll keep an eye out on that movie you've seen, Denizen. It looks real interesting.

[denizen]

If you enjoy the occasional Romantic cpmedy, One Fine Day is one in the high class. Very good indeed!

Black Rain & Speed were awesome. Loved both movies. Speed is a classic. I even have a guilty pleasure of watching Speed 2. I know it was nowhere near the caliber of the first but as a movie on its own, it still was a fun watch. Mancina returned to score the movie in a great soundtrack, De Bont returned as director, Bullock. It wasn't that bad.

[MacGyverGod]

As long it's not the too cheesy kind, I can watch it. I'm more of the romantic drama stuff like The Notebook or The Fault In Our Stars.

I like Speed 2 as well. But it kinda blew up in De Bont's face because he wanted to press through his own ideas. But there are also good things to it. Bullock is actually even hotter than in the first one with the long hair and the score is indeed even bigger and better. Mark Mancina did a lot of good work in the 90's: Speed, Bad Boys, Fair Game, Twister, Assassins, Con Air (in collaboration with Trevor Rabin) and also assisted Hans Zimmer with True Romance and The Lion King. Shame he sort of left the business doing mostly animation stuff. But he's action scores are real great. Especially Bad Boys and Speed 2 sound like the orchestra's were pretty big. Speed 2 is one of those bad movies that are lifted to a higher level because of the score.

[denizen]

I agree. But at the end of the day, it will always be seen as the movie that killed De Bont's career and the franchise.

One Fine Day is definitely NOT cheesy. Very intelligent. Very funny. Very touching. Its very good.

[MiracleMac]

Dumb & Dumber (1994) Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels

[Barry Rowland]

This is a classic in its own right!!

[denizen]

A bit premature to assume anything at this stage but will be making my way to a theater on Saturday for this little number.

[MacGyverGod]

Well, yeah! The Belgian release here is July 20th. A day before our independence day.

[denizen]

Oh darn! That is quite a wait!

Funny how some movies get a worldwide release on the same day and others get delayed in some countries. We were lucky i guess. Mainly because South Africa have no independence day

We just have fights and arguments and endless trials.

Well, i might be giving a spoiler free review soon so don't panic about me revealing anything to those who plan on watching it much later. Scouts honor! (Yes, i used to be a scout!)

[MacGyverGod]

When it's a worldwide release I always heard they did that because they're expecting a flop. Sometimes there are indeed a few weeks in between releases and years ago that was even months.

As far as I heard most actors came back (Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and even Dr. Okun) and what I've seen on the trailer, the destructions will be even more massive than before. That's just Emmerich.

I even heard David Arnold was going to do the score but I think there was a schedule conflict and had to leave. He just made the main theme and Harald Kloser is going to do the movie.

We've got our independence day since 1830 due to the Belgian Revolution. Belgium was under Dutch control at the time because the French, the British and the Germans wanted to create a buffer zone and appointed Belgium to the Netherlands without consulting this with the people. A revolution occured in which the Dutch got pushed back behind their borders and Belgian became independent. A year later Belgium became a monarchy when Leopold I became King.

[denizen]

Great Belgian history indeed!

David Arnold sadly was not asked to return. He has openly said that he would have done it had they asked him. Sadly they never did.

The last time Emmerich & Arnold worked together was on the Patriot but his score was rejected and Emmerich turned to Williams instead. From there the duo have gone their separate ways.

Arnold also confirmed that despite him writing the score for ID4, Fox owns the rights to the themes. So even if Kloser was to use them or not, Arnold would not have any choice.

As for Kloser's score, i have heard it and i am rather disappointed. The caliber of depth compared to its predecessor is no match. Kloser keeps on using a rip off of a small patriotic theme followed by dark "Alien" style move. It's weak at times.