Shipbucket

Regarding Hornblower. As an undergraduate, one of the invited lecturers was a gentleman who specialised in building seagoing replicas of sailing ships. Before the Meridian produced TV series, the BBC considered producing a lavish series, covering most of the books, and involving the construction of multiple seagoing replicas of several different vessels - he was to oversee this (I think it the construction was to take place in Russia, for some reason). It could have been one of the BBCs' "spectaculars", but alas, was not proceeded with and the task fell to Meridian, who had no-where near the budget, but I think did quite well with that much they produced.

RP1

bezobrazov wrote:Master and Commander? That piece of not-so subtle French bashing trash!

The original book had us Yanks as the bad guys and the ship they were pursuing was a thinly disguised version of Constitution (a vestige of this remains in the film when they bring in one of Aubrey's crew who says he witnessed the ship's construction in Boston), so I prefer the alternative


As for Battleship:

Personally I don't think there's nothing wrong with light entertainment fluff (and apparently you guys have forgotten that this is based on a board game). Yes, I liked the first two Transformers movies (the third one was insulting trash, though) because I appreciated them for what they are: mindless entertainment. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long as you have your suspension of disbelief filters on (and I'd be worried if you can't for a movie this blatant).

There is an interest in historical films though, like Master & Commander, Flags of our Fathers etc. Just wait for them to get made.

Well, as a dedicated SciFi fan, suspension of disbelief kinda comes natural to me. Shoot, I enjoyed the heck out of 'Cowboys & Aliens' for example. Light entertainment isn't a bad thing.

But anybody who tries to tell me that "Pearl Harbor" compares in any way to "Tora, Tora, Tora" or "From Here to Eternity" can expect major raspberries from me. Maybe a rotten tomato or two even And I kinda put this movie in the "Pearl Harbor" category.

Rhade wrote:EDIT: one more thing ... ACDC RULES !!!

Hell yeah it does! Its the some of the best music for any action movie! On a side note, reading everything hear, I will definitely have my suspension of disbelief filters on when I go see this tomorrow. However, any movie with an Iowa in it can't be that bad!
EDIT: Everybody loves a little mindless entertainment once in a while!

Yes but there are too many mindless movies these days...

Zephyr wrote: But anybody who tries to tell me that "Pearl Harbor" compares in any way to "Tora, Tora, Tora" or "From Here to Eternity" can expect major raspberries from me. Maybe a rotten tomato or two even And I kinda put this movie in the "Pearl Harbor" category.

Oh yeah, Pearl Harbor was awful. I don't think that's disputable

I have no idea what he was trying to do with that movie other than just falling back on what he does. There are a number of scenes where his directorial skills actually shine through (fun fact: he made a name for himself directing Victoria's Secret commercials ) but he simply doesn't know how to direct the bigger picture of a historical war film. His most cerebral, and at least as far as narrative goes best film is The Island - and it tries so very, very hard but falls short of the mark where it really counts (including coming up with a truly interesting setting and idea - but hey it's got Scarlett Johansen so I'm satisfied ). And it's also notable that especially for a Bay film there aren't a lot of action scenes in it.

P.S. Avengers had way too little Scarlett Johansen in it.

Colosseum wrote:Yes but there are too many mindless movies these days...

Well that's why I like The Dark Knight series - it takes a franchise that in many people's mind was still associated with the Adam West camp (and of course the then-most recent Batman movie) and actually turns it into a "thinking man's movie." Or at least it required you to pay attention to the plot and narrative.

klagldsf wrote: Well that's why I like The Dark Knight series - it takes a franchise that in many people's mind was still associated with the Adam West camp (and of course the then-most recent Batman movie) and actually turns it into a "thinking man's movie." Or at least it required you to pay attention to the plot and narrative.

Can't even come close to agreeing.
It was more of "The Batman story isn't cool enough, so we're going to add NINJAS! Oh, yeah... and let's make it so that the Boss Ninja *are you ready for this* is IMMORTAL!!! Yeah, aren't we smart; that's a fricking awesome idea! And just to one-up ourselves, we'll make it so Batman is his STUDENT!!!111 Yeah, man... this is good stuff- Bruce Wayne, like, went to Asia to find some inner peace or something and learn how to fight from Ninjas- cause Ninjas are always cool- and in the process he learns karate from a bad guy that he doesn't know is bad so he can fight bad guys! OH THE IRONY!!!"

Sorry... they tried to fix something that wasn't broken.

Star Trek... yeah, the crews of the NCC-1701, A, B, C and bloody D had good runs... the E is debatable. However, they all kind of got 'done to death.' Like my Mom used to say about Black Sheep Squadron: "They were good actors, but there's only so many ways you can shoot down a Zero." It was time to try something new with Star Trek.

Batman, though... well, the story is kind of timeless. If you just look at what's there and let the actor play the part- it's good enough. The problem with the Adam West version of Batman is that his character bore no more resemblance to Batman than a puckup truck bears to the space shuttle!

Yes, that is a smoking .45 ACP in the hands of the Batman... those were standard equipment for him for a L-O-N-G time. Batman wasn't a goody-two shoes. He was a true sociopath; he felt no guilt, no remorse, for his actions... only satisfaction that his own twisted version of justice had been done. IF that meant that he killed a few (dozen) people- hey, they were bad guys, bad guys kill good people, and so the world is better off without them.

THAT is the Batman I want to see.
I want to see the Batman as he originally was... one bad day from being just like Heath Ledger's version of the Joker.

Colosseum wrote:Could have had a cool movie about modern navies but of course we have to bring in aliens and stupid special effects.

I agree with that statement 100%.

Today Batman sounds like Clint Eastwood

klagldsf wrote: As for Battleship:

Personally I don't think there's nothing wrong with light entertainment fluff (and apparently you guys have forgotten that this is based on a board game). Yes, I liked the first two Transformers movies (the third one was insulting trash, though) because I appreciated them for what they are: mindless entertainment. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long as you have your suspension of disbelief filters on (and I'd be worried if you can't for a movie this blatant).

^what he said.

Saw the movie last night at the Kenosha Drive in,(12 bucks total admission for me, Mrs. NB85 and the kids) as part of a double feature with Men in Black 3. As entertainment, it was okay. I thought some of the dialogue left something to be desired. Not gonna come down too hard on the guy who played "Mick" for his lines...as Dr. McCoy might say, "damnit man he's a soldier, not an actor!"