[MacGyverGod]

I wouldn't mind an R-rating on MacGyver, if it means a little harder language or violence but don't go into teen comedy area. That's why you have American Pie for. I don't know maybe that's where they went wrong with the Baywatch movie. I never really followed the show, but if you have a show with Pamela Anderson running in a tight bathing suit, don't you think, you could've expected something like this in the movie where they can do more than what's allowed on television?

That's what I would think. And yes, I would've taken my kids to this movie if I had them, or at least allow them to watch it on dvd. Maybe not my 6 or 7 year old but maybe my 11 year old. I had seen Jurassic Park, Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Independence Day, Titanic. All movies with violence, language, blood, gore, nudity, I've seen before I reached the age of 12. Not that I understood them all but they're all movies with people that are eaten, killed, sacrificed, an alien that gets dissected and a woman that is drawn naked. At the time though there was no internet to spoil everything so we never knew what to expect either but once you say kids can't or shouldn't watch it, they'll do it anyway. If it's not behind your back, it's somewhere else. Whatever is forbidding is often tempting. Done it so many times myself and often there was nothing worry about.

If you like Wolfgang Petersen you should try Das Boot.

[denizen]

Coincidentally Pamela only joined Baywatch from season 3 and even then was relatively unknown. She only developed her infamous reputation over time. So when you say "if you have a show with Pamela Anderson running in a tight bathing suit, don't you think, you could've expected something like this in the movie where they can do more than what's allowed on television?" I say no. Not once were the female characters exposed in such a way, if you recall. Females were used in the same manner that they did in the show. They only use sexual humor to embarrass the male cast. But the unnecessary use of vulgar language put it to another level.

As for films you have seen growing up, they do not compare to the films of today.

Even comedies that are advertised can become downright shocking. More to their age restrictions which are questionable at best.

Trailers that are freely available as you say only make it more difficult as a parent to control what your child sees. But for this very reason, you have to draw the line.

Over time it is your judgment call to know what films you feel they are ready for.


This is an article from Common Sense Media describing how movies and access as you mentioned has impacted kids.

Have movies become more violent over the years?
They certainly have. A 2013 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that violence in films has more than doubled since 1950, and gun violence in PG-13-rated films has more than tripled since 1985. The Harvard School of Public Health warned that "ratings creep" has allowed more violent and sexually explicit content into films. Even the standards for movie trailers has become more lenient, letting studios market R-rated films to PG-13 audiences.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) claims its ratings have simply evolved to accommodate changing audience and cultural standards. And, in fairness, it did release a more detailed ratings system called Check the Box designed to help parents make more informed movie choices for their kids.

Kids also have more access to violent movie clips and trailers than ever. "Red-band" trailers -- with the graphic scenes edited out of the general-audience trailers -- are easily available online with easy-to-beat age restrictions.

Bottom line? You'll need to dig deeper to find out how much violence a film contains. When your kids ask to see a movie, check out Common Sense's age ratings as well as our detailed information on the amount and type of violence it has. Read what other parents have to say too. If you're on the fence, watch the movie with your kid and talk about it afterward.

As for Das Boot, that is another classic i totally forgot about.

[MacGyverGod]

After Earth... euhm... Ouch, ouch, ouch. Visually the movie was decent, great landscapes but storywise... For starters, Will Smith (yes, the Fresh Prince himself) as an emotionless unloving father who talks to his son as if he is his commanding officer on the battlefield and at home just doesn't work. This must be like his worst movie he ever did. Of course at the time there was a lot to read about Smith wanting to get his son into his stardom and failed at it too. It's painful to review this movie, actually. Bad script, bad acting from both Smiths. Don't waste your time on this.

[denizen]

Triple dose of disappointment.

Death Note (Netflix Movie Version)


Basic plot. Light, a high school student discovers a supernatural notebook that has a disturbing power. Anyone's name inscribed in its pages can die. Soon Light uses the book on those he feels are unworthy of life but he soon becomes intoxicated with its power.

This is based on the anime series of the same name. I saw the original series back in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it however this new incarnation takes so much away from the series and lacks proper direction or a decent budget to make it slightly acceptable. It is disappointing to watch and if you want to experience this story, stick to the original. Far superior. This attempt gets 2 stars from me.

Next up: The Hitman's Bodyguard


When world renowned bodyguard Michael Bryce Reynolds) is called in to protect his mortal enemy, a hit-man called Darius Kincaid (Jackson) the 2 are thrown into an unexpected hell-fire between themselves and those who want them dead. Although this is a fun movie to see it doesn't really offer anything new. Between both stars throwing in their famous comedic ways and the movie's pace one might have expected this movie to be a little more exciting but it was not. At least not for me. Felt more like a retread of a dozen others. I give it 2 & a half stars.

Lastly, Rough Night


Jess, a struggling politician is about to get married and her friends decide to throw her the ultimate bachelorette party and all goes well (In their crazy night) till a male stripper they hire dies at their beach house. From there the craziness begins and never seems to end.

If you think you have heard this one before, its because its basically a female version of Very Bad Things. It's a chick flick and if you're into these movies you might very well enjoy it if you don't take it seriously. Not that you could ever take it seriously.

I give it 2 and a half stars.

[MacGyverGod]

I saw The Hitman's Bodyguard too. Not originally at all but far from bad either. Exactly what I needed yesterday.

[denizen]

Strangely i actually preferred Rough Night to Hitman's Bodyguard.

[MacGyverGod]

Blood Diamond. One I have been looking for, for a long time on Blu-Ray. Finally found it. Also one I saw first time during it's release. Not knowing anything about the movie but at the time I never expected such an action spectacle. Of course there is more to it than just action as Djimon Hounsou plays a dad looking for his son who has been taken by the RUF to become indoctrinated with the rebels as a child soldier. During his own captivity by the RUF he found a blood diamond, which everyone wants for their own reasons. Great movie.

[MacGyverGod]

Bangkok Dangerous. The remake of the original Thai version directed by the same directors. It was not so bad. Again a movie destroyed by the critics and of course it starred Nicolas Cage but it really wasn't that bad.

[MacGyverGod]

Last Life in the Universe. Kenji, a suicidal Japanese man lives in Bangkok. Always at the verge of killing himself but only gets interrupted by others. Noi is a Thai party girl grieving over her sister's death. Their paths cross and in some way forms a bond despite their language barrier. This is a slow psychological romantic drama. You really got to be in the mood for this one but it is a good one.

[Jediferret]

I've actually been wanting to see Hitman's Bodyguard. I guess it's one of those movies where all the best scenes are in the trailer? XD

Bought White Fang on Amazon today, and watched that. I've forgotten how much I love that movie. One of my all time favorites too! Amazing scenery and music; got me right in the feels. Makes me want to get Lost of the Mochicans now. lol

[MacGyverGod]

Yesterday I saw a Thai movie without knowing it's title. It was one of those dvd's my brother once brought when he was in Thailand but everything on the cover was written in Thai. Now, I just found out the movie is called Demonic Beauty. The movie is set in Thailand in the 18th century. A princess who has been taken by a warlord is caught in the arms of another man and there for burnt at the stake, but before she dies, she manages to conjure up a curse as her soul finds another body in the village nearby of a woman who looks exactly like her, but before she manages to take the body, the body dies from black magic. She takes the body and everyone believes the woman came back from the dead. During the day she lives a rather normal life but during the night, her head and intestines are looking for animal and human flesh. The movie was rather dull, this was supposed to be a horror movie mixed with romance, fantasy and a bit of comedy in but it's all mediocre. Also the flying head was too much CGI and they even ripped off elements of the Predator score. Not good, not great but in all the Thai women cast were actually really beautiful.

[denizen]

Sounds interesting.

Jedi, Havent seen White Fang in ages! Read the book ages ago too.

This weekend i saw, "My blue Heaven"

When Vinnie Antonelli (Martin) trades the mob for the witness protection program and moves to a small suburb in California, his watcher and FBI agent (Moranis) soon realizes his old ways die hard. Keeping a low profile is anything he sticks to when he starts doing his own questionable tricks around the town.

I last saw this back in the 90's and was a pleasant experience to see it again. A funny classic with a few surprise stars including Joan Cusack, Daniel Stern & even Goldie Hawn producing! I give this 3 stars.



Then I saw 47 Meters Down (Also known as In The Deep)
When sisters Lisa & Kate get invited to a cage diving in Mexico's shark infested waters while on vacation, their worst nightmares become real when the cable holding them submerged below snaps and they drop to the ocean floor. Struggling to make contact with the boat above and trying to stay alive in more ways than one soon become their only means of survival as time slowly starts to run out.

For a genre that is infested with too many clones and bad attempts this was an okay shot for a low budget movie but the directing is often flawed as trying to make out what is happening soon becomes a challenge as this movie takes place mostly underwater. However a few surprises save it from becoming a total disaster and for that reason i give it 2 & a half stars.

Lastly I saw Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Men Tell No Tales

MacGyverGod already reviewed this movie so i wont go into too much of the plot. So. The 5th Pirates movie. Wow. Still it has a great opening sequence, synonymous with all of them and a few surprises including the return of Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann. Don't be forgetting Paul McCartney either (Loved it!). Is it as bad as the critics make it? Certainly not. Knightley's rather brief appearance was as dry as good cider goes only proving she did not really want to return to the role and probably had her arm twisted. However I liked the story regarding the quest for Poseidon's Trident and Salazar as the new villain. There were a few more surprises too which i wont spoil you with and dont be forgetting that post credit scene! Is it the end? Bruckheimer says otherwise. I give it 3 & a half stars.

[MacGyverGod]

Believe me it wasn't. And with this I suddenly remember seeing also another Asian movie about two sisters or friends that appears to be killers or something. I don't know the title anymore but I remember they also used bits and pieces of the score of Signs. Actually that sort of made me turn away from Asian cinema for a while. Relying on the uses of big Hollywood scores in their own mediocre stuff to make it cool and in order to make a buck... I don't know. I actually really doubt it if Hollywood knows their scores are being used in other movies. Asian movies that mostly don't find their way into the West, agreed but still, shouldn't there be like copyrights to be paid or something? It is an older movie as the CGI points out, this movies was like 2002.

[denizen]

There are some good ones if you can find them. Korean mostly but try to get the ones with English subs or dubs.

Im looking for one called Real which looks pretty good.
The animated Your Name - highly praised movie
Returner - An old sci-fi classic i loved
Mermaid - Very funny
The Thieves - Great heist movie - I have the collectors edition of this
Oldboy - Thrilling but edgy

[MacGyverGod]

Oh, I got the title I was looking for. That movie was called Koma or in it's original Chinese name: Jiu Ming.

I only know Old Boy from that list. Korean movies are mostly revenge thrillers, or at least the ones that got through. Try A Bittersweet Life or I Saw The Devil.

I remember the times my brother bought/downloaded all those movies when I was in high school and on schoolnights we would watch what we thought were the most terrifying or violent movies. Good times.

[denizen]

I know both those titles but Oldboy is the only "Revenge" title on that list. All the others are surprisingly fresh.

[MacGyverGod]

Last seen...

It... is only the best horror film of the year. It lives up to the hype and it's expectations and is waaaaaay better than The Dark Tower. I think I really want to read the book now. This is what a horrorfilm, even any movie should be like great story, well acted especially by child actors, effective scary moments. This is how you make a horror movie. 4 stars, I strongly recommend to go see it.

The day after I saw It the miniseries. It was shot in Vancouver British Columbia and is infested with Mac-actors. Though usually in very small roles but keep an eye out for...

Mrs. Winterbarger in the first scene. Apparently the actress also shows up in 2012 as the German chancellor. (Think housekeeper/maid.)

Ben Hanscom's mother. (Think doctor, female henchman, pianist and travel agent.)

Eddie Kaspbrak's mother. (Listen to her voice!)

The coach. (You'd recognise him immediately.)

Beverly Marsh's father. (Think man of God, one of two brothers and villain in a western.)

The male and female cab driver. (Think military and gunsrunner and sick mother.) Unfortunately the male cab driver has one scene cut where he actually talks.

I wonder if you would recognise them all. I would just recommend watching it to pick out the Mac-actors, sometimes my mouth just fell wide open. For a moment there I even thought Georgie was played by Tommy Giordano.

Also keep an eye out for Tim Reid, the dad from Sister Sister and a young Seth Green. If you want to know even more... the first victim in the movie: the girl on the bike, Mrs. Winterbarger's daughter appears in Final Destination 3 in the best death scene of them all.

And another interesting bit of trivia. When young Beverly Marsh and Ben Hanscom meet, they are pushed aside by two girls. One of them is a young Laura Harris who plays Marybeth in The Faculty.

For it's release the tv-version holds up pretty well, even now. Tim Curry is delightful as Pennywise but so was his follow-up Bill Skarsgard, yet played it so differently but effective.

[denizen]

I suspected the new IT was good. IT looked good from the start and judging from the trailers and the production, IT looked like they took their time with IT.

I saw Baby Driver!

Baby is a great driver. Fueled with his love for music. But not the kind of music you'd expect a kid to like. And such a good driver that he is in the clutches of crime boss Doc who plans the ultimate heists using different perpetrators each time except for his "Baby". When Baby meets the girl of his dreams he tries to abandon his lifestyle but it doesn't come without a price.

For a heist film this movie delivers and has enough fuel to keep it interesting. I give it 4 stars.

Then I finally got around to watching Transformers The Last Knight.

By now many people have grown tired of this franchise however The Last Knight in my opinion is a much needed injection of freshness. Taking place after the events of the last movie, Optimus Prime is gone and mysteriously returns back to Cybertron with a few surprises. But back on Earth things are anything but good for the Transformers who are at war with humans. And in the midst of all the chaos a special key from our past might be everyone's only hope all with the alliance of Cade, Bumblebee and a professor from Oxford...

The visual effects for this film are astounding but it is a loooong movie. Pulling in at around 2H34M. You have to be patient and it might just impress you. I give it 3 & a half stars.

[MacGyverGod]

The Patriot with Mel Gibson. Funny enough directed by Roland Emmerich and a score by John Williams.

Casino Royale. Actually the best Bond-movie I've ever seen. This was my first real Bond-movie during it's release and I was blown away. People can say whatever they want: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan... to me Daniel Craig is Bond... James Bond. He's not this stiff, dusted off Englishman like all the others. Gone are the gadgets and there is more room for raw action. Bond actually or should I say bleeds whenever he crashes through something. I've seen several Bond films but I don't think I would ever see or buy any of the other Bond films besides those with Daniel Craig again. Except maybe Moonraker or Octopussy. Those are the ones that stuck but Casino Royale did more than just renewing the franchise, it made it better. Great score by David Arnold as well. 4 stars.

[MacGyverGod]

Yesterday it was Classics Nights at the theatre. Since last month every third Monday of the month for the rest of the year they will do a one time showing of a classic movie. Last month it was E.T., this month it was Titanic, next month it will be a Flemish movie called Daens, the month after Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and in December a double feature for Christmas: Home Alone and Die Hard.

Anyway last night I went to see Titanic only for the 5th time. I saw it twice during it's original release, I saw it twice during the 3D release in 2012 and now for the fifth time. This actually marks Titanic again as the most watched movie I've seen in the theatre.

To my surprise: that theatre was nearly sold out. Twenty years after this movies original release, it still gets a full theatre. Again great as usual. This is one of those instant classics. Everything was correct in every detail, the sets, the clothes, the script, the acting, the directing, the drama, the effects. It's epic, romantic, there is action, drama and reeled in the 11 Oscars since Ben-Hur.

Also keep an eye out for Rachel Bradley, Professor Wycliff and Victoria James. Rachel is the easiest to recognise, she's the Irish mother with two children. She's tells her kids to go left when Jack and Fabrizio are looking for their cabin, later she explains her children that they have to wait to go to the lifeboats and her final appearance is when she's telling her children a story right before they go to bed during the sinking.

You'd be surprised who Wycliff was in the movie but he seems to be going down dressed as a gentleman and have a brandy along the way.

I didn't find Victoria James. She's simply credited as 'woman' on the end credits. She starred in Cameron's Pirahna II but no idea who she was in Titanic.

[MacGyverGod]

[Jediferret]

Just got home from seeing It with my sister. I'm rather picky about my horror movies. This one was definitely scarier then the original, though it really wasn't all that scary... well, not to me anyway. I'm starting to think I'm getting desensitized. lol However, if you like horror movies and you liked the original It, give this one a go. My sister and I weren't disappointed.

Also, for the hell of it, decided to watch the first Resident Evil CGI movie, Degeneration. I've been in a Resident Evil kick lately... not sure why either. *shrugs* It's the best out of all of them because Leon and Claire are voiced by Paul Mercier and Alyson Court before they were replaced (I'm still not happy about that).

[Barry Rowland]

I'd love to see that Jedi....hoping to make it when it gets this way. I've always been a big Tombraider fan!! For Throwback Thursday, we watched Thor. All kinds of fun

The Classics Night is a great idea! There are a ton of movies I'd love to (re)see in the theater!

[MacGyverGod]

Yeah, so do I. I'll try to go to every release of an old movie. Two years ago they re-released Back To The Future part I&II because of 2015 hype and I also saw Blade Runner once and Alien. I missed the Jurassic Park 3D release because they don't show it in my theatre, unfortunately.

[DashboardOnFire]

They never do that stuff in Switzerland, sadly.

But a friend of mine in Germany works in a cinema, and they had this event in 2015 when they showed all "Back to the Future" movies back-to-back in the non-dubbed version. She had the option to reserve tickets early on and invited me to stay at her place.

That was pretty great and a fun experience; some people even dressed up as Marty McFly.

[Barry Rowland]

I just saw a Delorean tricked out in complete BTTF trim... I'd love to have one that worked!! That sounds like a great time Dash!

[MacGyverGod]

The Broken Circle Breakdown. A Flemish movie which was the entry for the Oscars a few years back. Based on an earlier play written by the same guy who plays the lead in the movie. Didier is a Belgian cowboy with an great love for American culture and music. He plays in a country band and falls in love with Elise, a young woman who owns a tattooshop and becomes the lead singer of the band. They marry and eventually get a child and a six years pass when their love for each other and everything they stand for is being put the ultimate test when their child dies of cancer. It's quite a depressing movie.

[Barry Rowland]

Thanks for the info MacGod. Sounds like an interesting movie, but I can use all the positive themes I can get

[MacGyverGod]

Not exactly a positive film. It's about how everything can fall apart, but in all it's just a romantic drama.

Last night I have seen Das Experiment. The original German movie based on the Stanford prison experiment. A psychological thriller that raises the stakes quite a lot. 20 people participate in an experiment and will be paid 4000 marks if they complete the two-week experiment. 12 prisoners and 8 prison guards is the final outcome before it takes place. The rules are quite simple. As long no violence is used, everything else is allowed, but where is the line and when and how will it be crossed? Of course it hardly takes a few days before things slowly get out of hand.

This was actually quite a promising movie for director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who later directed Der Untergang. Unfortunately Das Experiment was shamelessly remade in The Experiment, the movie with Adrien Brody and Forrest Whitaker and later again as The Stanford Prison Experiment. While The Experiment was a clear remake of Das Experiment I hope the 2015 version is more than just a rip-off.

I do recommend this movie if you're up to something German.

[MacGyverGod]

The Passion of the Christ. Though I'm not religious at all, I was usually around the more controversial stuff last decade. At that time probably the most disturbing if not most violent film I had ever seen. I remember my mother was not too happy about me seeing the film let alone that I bought the dvd even though I was old enough. It has been years since I have seen this one, so I figured why not.