2014 MOVIE OMNIBUS THREAD

[Victator]

Turtles was actually good.

it worked as an amalgamation of the old comics, the cartoon and first movie. Shredder was actually Japanese and pretty bad ass. The fights were well done. Will Arnett was perfect as Vernon. Megan Fox was likable enough, though I could not buy her as a reporter. 

Only problems were

Foot Clan using guns and tasers.

The designs of the Turtles and Splinter. 

I'm not sure why they did not call William Fichtner's character "Baxter Stockman." Since that was basically who he was. 

The armor Shredder looked a lot like Metal Head from the old TV show/toys. I do think they added a human Oroko Saki after the fact, but it worked well.

I think it is the third best Turtles movie behind 1990 and 2007 animated.

[Jingus]

I assume this is English-language comics only? Or, at least, not including manga? Cuz that opens the floodgates to so many other arguments...

I'd say that The Crow, Fritz the Cat, The Mask, Men in Black, Sin City, Scott Pilgrim VS. The World and Turtles Forever should all at least be mentioned. But until I see something better, I maintain the answer to this eternal nerdy battle royale is X-Men 2. And if they'd ever done a movie version of The Tick, I might vote for it automatically.

Will Arnett was perfect as Vernon.

Huh, I hadn't heard of that casting choice before just right now. And you're right, it's PERFECT.

[Victator]

I think the best comics movie is the 1990 TMNT. But I rarely find support for that view.

The 89 Batman is pretty underrated at this point. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

It's very good. I have to go back and watch the Burton's again soon. I love the atmosphere of Gotham.

[Craig H]

Hmm...Would American Splendor count?

[cwoy2j]

I saw American Hustle a couple of nights ago. I was underwhelmed. I thought they tried to beat you over the head with the fact that it was set in the 70's.

[Tabe]

First Netflix movie in a long awhile after binge watching Law & Order and The Big Bang Theory:

 

Downloaded - Documentary covering the history of Napster.  Pretty good look at all the aspects of the rise & crash of Napster and includes interviews with both Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker.  Lots of good information to be found here.  Not gonna lie, I was an early adoptee on Napster though I didn't like it very much.  Funny that Fanning created it because "mp3 downloads were so unreliable" - which is exactly the problem I had with it.  I was much more of an Audio Galaxy guy.  Anyway, good doc and worth checking out.  7.5/10.

[S.K.o.S.]

As an aside, Downloaded was directed by Alex Winter, aka Bill of Bill & Ted fame.

 

I had a bit of "they're doing a documentary on Napster and mp3s now?" reaction when I heard about it, but then you realize that probably a lot of us on the board are exactly the right age to have been right in the thick of things when it was going on, and there's still a big chunk of the population who aren't in that demographic and aren't really up on the early days of mp3s.

 

And yeah, I remember Audiogalaxy getting shut down too!  That was a much bigger deal for me than when they shut down Napster.

[nate]

Audiogalaxy ... was my shit.

[SovietShooter]

I was in college, had just bought my first PC, and discovered the wonders of an Ethernet cable when Napster came on the scene. Sounds like this doc would be right up my alley....

[CSC]

As an aside, Downloaded was directed by Alex Winter, aka Bill of Bill & Ted fame.

 

I had a bit of "they're doing a documentary on Napster and mp3s now?" reaction when I heard about it, but then you realize that probably a lot of us on the board are exactly the right age to have been right in the thick of things when it was going on, and there's still a big chunk of the population who aren't in that demographic and aren't really up on the early days of mp3s.

 

And yeah, I remember Audiogalaxy getting shut down too!  That was a much bigger deal for me than when they shut down Napster.

 

Were people really even using Napster by the time it was actually shut down?  Because I remember it existing far after it actually being useful to me.

[Chaos]

 

As an aside, Downloaded was directed by Alex Winter, aka Bill of Bill & Ted fame.

 

I had a bit of "they're doing a documentary on Napster and mp3s now?" reaction when I heard about it, but then you realize that probably a lot of us on the board are exactly the right age to have been right in the thick of things when it was going on, and there's still a big chunk of the population who aren't in that demographic and aren't really up on the early days of mp3s.

 

And yeah, I remember Audiogalaxy getting shut down too!  That was a much bigger deal for me than when they shut down Napster.

 

Were people really even using Napster by the time it was actually shut down?  Because I remember it existing far after it actually being useful to me.

 

 

Napster was kind of a non-factor by the time I had "high-speed" internet.

 

I was on Kazaa, Limewire, and whatever else was popular at the time.

[Tabe]

A couple more movies for you:

 

Guardians of the Galaxy - I'm goin' all anarchist up in here and refusing to put this mini-review in the Marvel thread.  DEAL WITH IT.  Anyway, saw this yesterday with a couple guys from work.  I'm not a comics guy, knew nothing about this franchise until a month ago.  Saw the Imax 3D version, spending $29 on ticket/pop/popcorn by the time I was done.  Thank god for the $25 gift certificate I had.  Anyway, fun movie.  Enjoyed it a lot.  A nice balance of humor and action without being completely silly.  I thought "Rocket" stole the show.  Unimpressed with Zoe Saldana as Gamora - thought she looked...old.  Definitely liked Karen Gillan as Nebula, would have loved to have seen a lot more of her.  As for the Imax and 3D aspects, can't say they were worth the extra money.  The 3D was nice but not particularly necessary.  I was MUCH more impressed with the 3D in the trailer for the new Hobbit movie.  Anyway, a fun time.  8/10.

 

Undefeated - Documentary covering the 2009 season for the Manassas (Tenn.) High School football team.  Bill Courtney is the volunteer head coach entering his 6th season after taking over a program that had gone 5-95 in the 10 seasons prior to his arrival.  He has built up a respectable program and is obviously very dedicated to the kids and to the team.  This is a fantastic documentary, wonderfully capturing the highs and lows of the season.  The movie focuses on three players in particular - the superstar lineman (OC Brown), the returning felon (Chavis), and the undersized smart kid (Money).  Their stories are well-told and you root for all of them.  Anyway, I'm a sucker for good sports documentaries, especially football, and this one is no exception.  Netflix told me going in they thought I'd give this a 9/10 and they were right.  9/10.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

 

As an aside, Downloaded was directed by Alex Winter, aka Bill of Bill & Ted fame.

 

I had a bit of "they're doing a documentary on Napster and mp3s now?" reaction when I heard about it, but then you realize that probably a lot of us on the board are exactly the right age to have been right in the thick of things when it was going on, and there's still a big chunk of the population who aren't in that demographic and aren't really up on the early days of mp3s.

 

And yeah, I remember Audiogalaxy getting shut down too!  That was a much bigger deal for me than when they shut down Napster.

 

Were people really even using Napster by the time it was actually shut down?  Because I remember it existing far after it actually being useful to me.

 

 

Napster was kind of a non-factor by the time I had "high-speed" internet.

 

I was on Kazaa, Limewire, and whatever else was popular at the time.

 

 

MORPHEUS AND BEARSHARE!

 

If you wanna talk about programs that slowed down your computer dramatically, those two had so much adware and spyware.

[piranesi]

I was late getting to Napster, but for me it hit at the same time that internet radio became a thing and it was probably the first (and maybe most) really intense few months of new music discovery of my life.

 

It was just amazing to browse people's collections and check out whatever weird thing I'd never heard of an then suddenly have a bunch of it to listen to.  Just looking at some of my old mp3s, it's how I first heard Theo Bickel, Calexico, Joe Glazer, Bulat Odudshava, Edith Piaf, Rasputina, Seo Taiji, and probably a dozen other amazing people that would never have filtered into my life in any other way before that.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I might have been a little young for the whole Napster thing. When I got internet it was all about these little offshoot shits like "SongSpy"

[The Nature Boy]

My first exposure to music pirating was something called Morpheus.  I also distinctly remember Limewire. 

[Curt McGirt]

Since I'm watching Tony Bourdain in Hong Kong, I realized that I've still never seen The Untold Story. Come recommended by anyone? How about the sequels? I might be down to take a dip back into foreign splatter territory as long as it's not some straight-up All Night Long shit.

[muhammedboehm]

The thing that gets me about download was how they gloss over the Laris reason for being anti-Napster. 'So and so came to me and told me 31 radio stations where playing a song we hadn't finished...'

But for that song to get onto Napster someone from there camp would have had to share it!

[Brisco]

I saw The Expendables 3 with my teenager and it was a lot of fun. Going in I was looking for billet riddled death and destruction with explosions galore, and was not disappointed. My one critique is that the middle dragged at a snails pace to the point I was hoping I wouldn't fall asleep. Rated it an 8 but will need to adjust my rating system because I have been trending very high and even though I loved this film it shouldn't have the same rating as Guardians of the Galaxy. If action movies are your thing this certainly gets a recommendation.

[MarcosLoura]

Guardians of the Galaxy was awesome! SPACE ADVENTURES FUCK YEAH!

 

That's all really.

[J.T.]

Jewish friends rule.  I had no idea that the song playing during the scene in The Kentucky Fried Movie as Big Jim Slade takes that dude's woman away is Hevenu Shalom Aleichem; an Israeli folk tune.

 

Why does it sound like the fight song for some midwestern college football team?

[Tabe]

The great Netflix Instant Queue Purge of 2014 continues:

 

The Real Rocky - Another entry in ESPN's incredible 30 For 30 series of documentaries, this one focuses on boxer Chuck Wepner and his role as the inspiration for the Rocky Balboa character.  The movie also covers the rest of his Wepner's career and his post-fight life.  Wepner has a pretty strong case as the inspiration for Rocky but he's also delusional in some ways, still claiming to have scored a knockdown on Muhammad Ali, for example (he actually stepped on Ali's foot and Ali tripped).  The film also rearranges the timeline a bit, making it seem as if the Wepner/Andre match from Shea came after Rocky when it actually came before.  This is not the best in the series by any means but it's still very good.  I'll go with right at the Tabedoza Line: 7/10.

 

Interview With the Assassin - Fake documentary about a news cameraman whose neighbor comes to him and asks him to film a confession.  The neighbor confesses to having been the second shooter in the JFK assassination.  From there, the two visit Dealey Plaza and try to track down other principles in the case.  This movie is so terrible that I can't believe I made it all the way through.  Good grief.  1/10.

[Chaos]

 

 

 

As an aside, Downloaded was directed by Alex Winter, aka Bill of Bill & Ted fame.

 

I had a bit of "they're doing a documentary on Napster and mp3s now?" reaction when I heard about it, but then you realize that probably a lot of us on the board are exactly the right age to have been right in the thick of things when it was going on, and there's still a big chunk of the population who aren't in that demographic and aren't really up on the early days of mp3s.

 

And yeah, I remember Audiogalaxy getting shut down too!  That was a much bigger deal for me than when they shut down Napster.

 

Were people really even using Napster by the time it was actually shut down?  Because I remember it existing far after it actually being useful to me.

 

 

Napster was kind of a non-factor by the time I had "high-speed" internet.

 

I was on Kazaa, Limewire, and whatever else was popular at the time.

 

 

MORPHEUS AND BEARSHARE!

 

If you wanna talk about programs that slowed down your computer dramatically, those two had so much adware and spyware.

 

I think Morpheus might have been my first one too.

 

I sadly used all of them:

 

Morpheus

Bearshare

Soulseek(was that the name of it?)

DC++

mIRC

Kazaa

Limewire

I actually used Audiogalaxy a couple of times on a 56k machine (45 minutes for a 3 MB song FTW!)

[Curt McGirt]

Soulseek is still A #1 and the Best.