Stallone apparently has a longer cut of THE EXPENDABLES coming up with more character development -- I'm sure that'll help the film (which I liked as well Michael) much in the same way the expanded RAMBO added to the already entertaining original.

AndyDursin wrote:Goldblum's "mulato" daughter (a separate issue requiring a suspension of disbelief) doing Power Rangers moves on the raptors was totally embarrassing, Michael you are spot on. That scene drew laughter when I saw the movie and I know it's been the subject of ridicule amongst fans -- there's no scene in JP3 anywhere near that awkward.

Beyond that, I have a lot of friends who are part African (or "mulato" -- are we allowed to use that word?) and the girl in The Lost World is much too dark-skinned to be Jeff Goldblum's daughter (even if Goldblum himself is somewhat dark).

I am not sure The Lost World is Spielberg's worst. I agree with Jedbu that Crystal Skull is a serious contender, though my least-favorite would have to be The Color Purple.

I am not sure The Lost World is Spielberg's worst. I agree with Jedbu that Crystal Skull is a serious contender, though my least-favorite would have to be The Color Purple.

Worse than AI??

Celie!!! lol.

AndyDursin wrote:Worse than AI??

Celie!!! lol.

I actually forgot A.I. Andy! I guess it was so awful I blotted it from memory. Yeah, A.I. is without question his worst!

Paul MacLean wrote:

AndyDursin wrote:Worse than AI??

Celie!!! lol.

I actually forgot A.I. Andy! I guess it was so awful I blotted it from memory. Yeah, A.I. is without question his worst!

I think it's for the best that it's blotted from memory. I will likewise pretend that it doesn't exist...oh the horror!!!!

BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT - rewatched both films this past wekeend, and I still really enjoy both of them. I still really hate the Batman voice...hope they tone that down. Otherwise I still feel that these films are a breath of fresh air into the Batman film corpus, engaging, and thought-provoking. If Nolan can find a decent balance between humor and "dark" I would be fine with that; I just don't want to see the next film become something like Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. I guess I enjoy Nolan's emotionless world-of-despair type of stories, even though I personally am happy and in a good place. Both films get 9/10.

How To Train Your Dragon. A terrific, fun adventure, half-fantasy and half-misunderstood animal story, with lots of thrills and genuinely touching moments. Beautifully rendered as well (Roger Deakins was "Visual Consultant"). John Powell's score was also good, though not great (James Horner could have added so much more to the film).

Paul MacLean wrote: (James Horner could have added so much more to the film).

Yeah, like the Danger Motif and Moaning Woman.

Best Gerard Butler film since........PHANTOM?

Jedbu wrote:Best Gerard Butler film since........PHANTOM?

I'd rate it as the only good Gerard Butler movie I've seen!

Paul MacLean wrote:How To Train Your Dragon. A terrific, fun adventure, half-fantasy and half-misunderstood animal story, with lots of thrills and genuinely touching moments. Beautifully rendered as well (Roger Deakins was "Visual Consultant"). John Powell's score was also good, though not great (James Horner could have added so much more to the film).

Yep.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (Blu-Ray) - 10/10. This film plus Blazing Saddles represent Mel Brooks at his best (honorable mentions go to High Anxiety and Spaceballs). Great acting and performances, great timing with the jokes, great John Morris score, and great humor.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (2010) - 6/10. Of all the post-2000 films he's written and directed, I think this may be one of Woody Allen's better products. While I thought Anthony Hopkins was a bit boring and unconvincing, thematically speaking I thought this was one of Allen's better films in recent years. I didn't exactly find it funny (the jokes are very predictable and dull), but I was pleased by how Allen wove the themes of delusion and reality throughout the film. Overall the acting was okay but I thought this was one of Allen's more thought-provoking films in a long time, and the ending I thought was a good book-end to the opening moments of the film. It isn't the masterpiece I have been holding out hope for, but the film seemed "complete" by the end and I was thus pleasantly surprised.

I'm watching with a mixture of fascination and incredulity what IMO is the most bizarre idea ever concocted for an extended "documentary" series, the History Channel's 2009 "Life After People."

I mean never mind the absurdity of the premise, it just boggles my mind that you could produce an extended multi-part series that basically amounts to five thousand different ways to say, "things rust and decay over time if left unattended." DUH!

So why am I watching? It's actually interesting when it focuses on real life examples of things that have been abandoned for many decades and shows the effects of what's happened there. A Japanese industrial city on an off-shore island. The decay of whole sections of Gary, Indiana. And you do in a strange sense get some insight into what's necessary to maintain important historical sites and buildings that can make one better informed on what has to be done in our present say and age. It's just too bad that good info has to be imparted in something that's basically a way of giving us Emmerich-Devlin type FX sequences without a bad plot of a movie underlying them (which I'll admit makes it more watchable than any Devlin-Emmerich movie ever will be for me!)

8/10-TANGLED-one of the best Disney animated titles in a long time. Steals a bit from SNOW WHITE, BEAUTY & THE BEAST, ALADDIN and SLEEPING BEAUTY, but if you are going to steal-steal from the best. The best thing Menkin has done in quite a long time, good voice work, love the song by the tough guys (nice little re-run from BATB but still funny) and kind of a gruesome end for one of the bad guys. This and THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE are my favorite Disney animated features since the "Golden Age" of the early 90's, and while not as close to perfect as the TOY STORY trilogy, UP or WALL-E, they still show that the House that a Mouse built has still got "it."

10/10-THE TEN COMMANDMENTS-sheer unadulterated hokum but oh, so beautifully made, DeMille's final triumph is still one of the most entertaining epics ever made, and the new Blu-Ray set is eye-popping. Brynner is still my favorite performance in the film, but Robinson's Dathan has to be one of the slimiest characters ever put on film, yet he does it with little in the way of histrionics and keeps his performance so subtle that one cannot take your eyes off him when he is onscreen. The next time you watch, notice how he seems to ooze into the frame in such a way that he looks like he just suddenly appeared, and along with Bernstein's musical cues in the string bass, he is one of the great villains of the movies. I get a kick out of the juxtaposition of one of Hollywood's most powerful conservatives and one of its most erudite lefties working together (from what I hear, Robinson was ever grateful for DeMille hiring him after a fallow period of "grey-listing" in the early 50s) and creating such a fascinating character. Bernstein's score is still my favorite of his, and his not being nominated for the film joins the list of stupid Oscar omissions along with Elfman for BATMAN and Linda Fiorentino for THE LAST SEDUCTION-they just look better as time goes on.

Eight Below (2006): 7.5/10

Highly enjoyable (if rather formulaic) Disney film about a group of sled dogs left behind in Antarctica and how thay managed to survive on their own for nearly six months before being rescued. While the human characters range from bland (Paul "Poor-Man's Keanu Reeves" Walker) to annoying (Jason Biggs), the canine leads are natural scene-stealers, and the film boats magnificent photography by Don Burgess and one of Mark Isham's very best scores (a shame there was no actual CD release).