My local movies theater plays some classic cinema, which is great! Really fun movies, sometimes silent with live accompaniment.... but also recent movies.

I was looking at what's playing, and I loved Transformers as a kid.  Well... I think Michael Bay has officially killed the franchise. Even for a Bay film, having a 17% rating on rotten tomatoes is bad.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transfo … xtinction/

A review I read said the movie was

"butt-numbingly long and padded with hilariously obvious product placement to appeal to the widest possible international audience"

Joy. Another childhood favorite destroyed by Hollywood. Not to mention that I read that Hollywood is indeed going the international route these days. Apparently trying hard to appeal to Asian audiences (China, Vietnam, etc). Anyway... any recommendations for something not butt-numbingly long nor painful?

I really do hate when people complain that their childhood favourite has been destroyed by some modern remake/reboot, the old stuff is still there to enjoy, even if it's Star Wars (and even with that series, there's only one scene that I myself really do hate and don't understand why Lucas put it, that bloody singing part on Jabba's palace on episode six, wtf Lucas?).

And I'm kinda interested to see this, probably will be as bad as earlier ones, but perhaps Marky Mark will show me some quality acting like he did in The Happening or whatever that M. Night Shyamalan movie was.

Avatar, might you have a particular favorite genre? I'm very passionate about horror and science fiction; I know very little about any other genre.

Here are some short reviews of some of my favorite films.  Not all of them mind you, just the ones I've gotten around to reviewing.

I'm not as anti-Hollywood as you, avatar, but maybe there'll be something in there you won't feel insulted by watching.

http://altpop.com/ac/highest-rated-films/

I wouldn't say Hollywood destroyed the Smurfs, but they came awful close. Those 3D models are butt ugly.

And I was never the biggest Transformers fan, but Michael Bay can incinerate in hell for the new TMNT movie.

I'm actually on a Batman kick right now. I've probably watched the 1989 flick about 5 times in the last month. And Draft Day really satisfied the football nerd in me (non-football fans need not apply). I'm hard pressed to think of anything I didn't like from Kevin Costner, although I have yet to see Waterworld.

You can apply the "butt-ugly 3D models" part to TMNT also as far as I'm concerned.  Seriously their faces just look... ugly.

A lot of people (not you necessarily) don't seem to realize that it's not actually Michael Bay directing, but yeah you can see his unseemly stamp all over that movie even as producer.

Waterworld had some novel concepts.  Overall I remember it being not awful but not great either.

The score is fantastic though.  One of James Newton Howard's finest.

Some of my old favorites (English language, non-foreign):

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1980s version with Dennis Hopper)
Hellraiser
Hellraiser 2
Phantasm 2
Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Of recent releases:

District 9
Moon
Pandorum

Those 3 are impressive because they don't bring to mind any of the science fiction I've read, which is vast (easily more than 1,000 short stories and 350 novels).

And for the other side, here are some high profile movies I do not like:

Avatar
Prometheus

At first I liked Avatar, but I had started a literal tour of Harlan Ellison's works and that led me to discover what James Cameron did to him when he released The Terminator in 1984. I eventually discovered and verified for myself that Avatar, like The Terminator, is based (without proper credit) on previously released material. If you're curious, Avatar is based on "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson. The similarities are too extreme for it to be any other way, especially when Cameron's past behavior is taken into consideration.

Prometheus, along with the rip-off that was Alien (1979), made me lose all interest in anything by Ridley Scott. (The only original aspect of Alien was the artwork and creature design by H.R. Giger.)

Some of my faves, in no particular order:

Fight Club
The Notebook
Jurassic Park
X-Files: Fight the Future
Independence Day
He's Just Not That Into You
Event Horizon
Spinal Tap
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Ten Things I Hate About You

Razakin: I don't think nor claim that my childhood was destroyed nor altered by Bay's horrible films. My childhood is safe and sound forever in my nostalgia Rather, I think Bay destroyed what was a decent chance to produce some interesting science fiction. I'm not saying Transformers will be in the same plane as 2001. However, if you look at Transformers Prime, it really shows that there is potential for more than just giant robot fighting giant robot.

Idolores: I don't think I actually have a favorite genre. A good film is a good film, and I'm happy to watch most anything that's well done.

Adam: I've seen a number of those, although certainly not all. I do have to say that the remade True Grit is one of the best films I've seen out of Hollywood in recent years.

Jodo: Very interesting! I did not know that Avatar was stolen material. Somehow I'm not shocked. What's the story behind Ellison and The Terminator?

Zane: I tell you, once this gets in your head, it's hard to get it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shf8Evt4SKU

Transformers never could produce interesting scifi in my books. But it could produce a good action movie if it would be given to someone who just doesn't do EXPLOSIONS IN EXPLOSIONS OF EXPLOSIONS. But then Michael Bay did direct the Rock, so guess he had some skills in his past. And I did enjoy the Island too, but it has ScarJo, so.

And I'm currently in process of starting to watch movies from Terry Gilliams I've missed, which consist of Time Bandits, Brazil  (only seen parts of it), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, The Brothers Grimm (I think I've seen this, but gotta rewatch anyways for Damon/Ledger) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Barnassus.

Also I really should watch Alien-movies as Jodo mentioned them, and finally watch Prometheus for the first time.

This a million times. Fight Club is simply amazing, especially considering how messy the book is. The movie is pure magic and basically removed everything I disliked about the book. Of course, I saw the movie first... but in the end I don't think reading the book first would have saved it.

As for my recommendation for a movie...? Goodfellas. I'm not even a mob movie fan but that movie... damn! Additionally, unlike Fight Club, the book Goodfellas is based on (Wiseguys) is worth reading.

I completely agree. The book was "meh" at best (coming from a long-time Chuck fan), but the movie is everything the book should have been and more. I've probably seen this movie 50 times by this point.

My favorite is still Inception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwyyJ3D3g1E

I don't really have favorites at all so ill comment on the ones in this thread and add some at the end:

Transformers franchise: I enjoy them as good action movies. I don't go see them for the story and if don't get offended when they change things from canon/childhood.

Canon/Remake controversy: I don't mind it really. It's hard to get super upset over someone telling a different version of a fictional story.

Kevin Costner/Waterworld: I actually really enjoy Waterworld, it's a good film. It's not great but it gets undue credit for being the "worst movie of all time" when really it should only be credited for "most over budget film of all time". It was and still is famous for that but behind that, it's actually in interesting story and something I enjoyed. Also a big fan of The Postman.

Horror in general: no. Just doesn't do it for me. Psychological horror I do enjoy (movies like Saw, The Cube, Shutter Island) because I feel like they maintain a grasp on reality that regular horror doesn't. Ghosts, zombies and paranormal anything is just meh.

Avatar: was alright. Overhyped because of 3D but watchable at least.

Prometheus: I really enjoyed this. It was a good sci-fi flick and thought it played out nicely. I haven't seen original aliens or anything so I don't really have anything against them for sortofbutnotreally trying to make a prequel.

Fight Club I really didn't find that compelling, interesting or worth the cult following it's garnered to date. Guess I'm in the minority for the most part.

Jurassic Park and ID4 were fantastic movies for their time and still hold up well with age.

I'm a sucker for RomComs/chick flicks, He's Just Not That Into You is awesome. Also a huge fan of 13 Going on 30 and Bridesmaids.

Inception was very, very well done. Loved it.

Some things I thought of while typing responses:

I absolutely love the Riddick series. All of them are fantastic although the second one gets some negative criticism but I like that it tried to create a universe to give the story more depth. The first one is a fantastic, fantastic film that was poorly marketed at the time as a horror/scare film and I feel it would have done much much better just marketed as a sci-fi film. I'm super excited that Vin Diesel owns the franchise now because he's very passionate about it and I love that about him.

Speaking of Vin, I'm an absolute sucker for anything he's in. Fast and Furious movies are my guilty pleasure and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Of late, Gravity was an absolutely breathtaking film and a spectacle to see in theaters. Sure, there were some inaccuracies and such but i was blown away by it the whole time

I love a lot of 80s classics too. Tom Cruise's films at the time are legendary. Top Gun, Cocktail (Coughlins Laws are laws to live by!). Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club.

Also, absolutely anything with John Cusack.

Before anyone else mentions it, too, I'm gonna stir the pot a little and say that Quentin Tarantino and every movie his ever done are steaming piles of shit. I hate him with a passion and him and his movies are overrated in my opinion. They are nothing more than shock films that follow the same basic, repetitive bs every time. Pulp Fiction was fine but after that every movie he's done has been the same thing with a new theme. He is the most unoriginal director of all time and an asshole on top of it. /rant.

Can't say I particularly care for nor have I seen many of his films. However, I would like to know what evidence is there that he's an asshole?

I wish I could find the article but he is notorious for shutting down people interviewing him at the drop of a hat, has made numerous racist comments. I remember one interview he blew up on some guy asking about what he thinks about violence in his movies and the "link" to real life violence like school shootings and stuff. Granted it was a bait question and I'm pretty sure he was just tired of answering the same thing but his answers are essentially just "f--- off I don't have to tell you shit" and that just rubs me the wrong way. He's cocky, way too cocky for his actual status as a film director (whatever that may be).

Really should rewatch Waterworld, can't remember much anything about it, but The Postman? That I still remember being bad. But Costner really should do more westerns, he's really good at them. Especially Hatfields & McCoys tv-miniseries was damn good (even if Costner only produced and starred on that). 

And talking about Costner, people should watch Mr. Brooks, if they enjoy psychological trillers.

Also, Fast & Furious movies are enjoyable action movies, so no need to even consider them as guilty pleasures in my books.

About Tarantino's movies, I think for me his works after Jackie Brown has felt Tarantino doing Tarantino-impressions, except for Deathproof which is brilliant except for the ending. Could be that I've grown to know what to except from Tarantino and he doesn't seem to surprise me anymore or something.

Finally, to talk about good classic movies, have to recommend John Carpenter's The Thing. Such a brilliant scifi-horror.

Not really a Tarantino fan myself but... Inglourious Basterds really has some great scenes. Really, I could care less about Brad Pitt (unless it's Fight Club) because Christoph Waltz stole that whole freaking movie.

However I'll tell you what really annoys me about that movie. They covered up the "Basterds" part of the title on the poster at my local theater... which means someone was dumb enough to complain about it. WTF...?

The Postman is another fantastic James Newton Howard score, btw.  He had a string there of composing really good soundtracks for not-so-successful films.

  The one thing I did like about Prometheus is that there was finally some resolution about who/what that giant alien was in the crashed ship in the original Alien. In hindsight, the original Alien was vague and so was Prometheus. A lot of information is thrown at you and not explained. This type of vagueness is not in any way Lynchian (like a David Lynch movie) because at least there is some hope of resolution.

Why do people always want to see everything resolved? I thought the giant alien creature/corpse you first encounter in the original "Alien" really added a frightening and mysterious air that would not be there if we knew where this creature came from. Perhaps it's Hollywood to always have everything resolved, but personally I prefer more ambiguity which lends itself to the imagination.

   I've always wanted to know what that alien was in the chair. As picture quality improved and screens increased in size, I noticed that the alien had a hole in its chest. I began to postulate that perhaps an alien had burst from its chest. It's important to understand I first experienced Alien as a recording on VHS (not the official release) and watched it on a 18" tube set. Once I watched Alien on DVD, I felt pretty certain that an alien had burst from its chest and wondered where the adult form was.

The mystery of the Space Jockey pales in comparison with the mystery behind just about every action taken by every human character in Prometheus. I thought it was one of the dumbest movies I've seen in years, made all the more heartbreaking by the fact that it was also one of the most visually stunning movies I've seen in years.

There are a ton of really godawful movies and I have never bought into the 'popcorn movie' excuse for terrible writing (if you're spending 100 million plus on a movie, write a decent script) but there are loads mentioned in this thread already that I like. Love the Riddick movies except for the uncomfortable misogyny in the last one. I love the Fast and Furious series in varying ways, with each one at least having something fun to offer and I think the fifth one is excellent. I'm enjoying most of the Marvel movies and really liked the recent Captain America.

And there is much more to cinema than the blockbusters. I just saw Boyhood, for example. It's a remarkable movie with some really great moments. I saw Frank a while back and loved that - a celebration (kind of) of creativity and well worth seeing. There are great movies out there.

I gotta weigh in on Prometheus here. It was really good when I first watched it, but the more I thought about it, the less impressed I was. It had a lot to do with explaining away the enigmatic existence of the Xenomorphs, one of the most enduring mysteries in science fiction.

Now the movie just strikes me as deeply unnecessary, and without any of the heart that made Alien and Aliens so bloody amazing.

Just like games I am extremely cynical when someone says a movie that came out nowadays is amazing. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a 3/5 to me. It has two scenes in it that have great emotional impact, but it just ends up feeling like a sentimental movie due to the lack of death and pitiable villains. Worth watching. Way better than the overhyped superhero movies like X-Men: First Class - a movie that went to crap as soon it became about "me too" scenes with the mutants. I really don't care for aerial battles in movies. So boring. Avatar is everything average to me except the use of teh 3D graphics.

Yes, Hollywood is mostly about destroying old movies now or trying to ripoff older movies to be seen as new (i.e. Hunger Games). As soon as I see a PG-13 rating my eyes roll over. Bay should make all the character in Transformers mute and remove the humans. I saw True Grit with my family and didn't think that highly of it.

There are a couple of movies mentioned that are 4/5 that need slight edits: Inception (snow scene is poopy), I Am Legend (stop the movie ahead of time to avoid crap ending). The Cabin in the Woods is an enjoyable movie (3/5). Would love to see big budget horror movies show some creature diversity. The Dark Knight was excellent.

Not too keen on seeing Promotheus because it gets all nasty with some abortion scene (maybe not as disturbing as Enter the Void's). If I want to look at people squirm while their insides are spilling out I'd become a doctor. Repo Men was a good movie that had that gross-out gore porn scene in it too. I think the new Evil Dead has some nasty scene in it too with a character carving their arm up with a knife or something. Comedies keep putting in gross-out gags that are really distasteful (period blood in Superbad actor -> d---o shoved in same actor's mouth in Get Em To The Greek). "You're desensitized to this, huh? Well what about this?" I think nasty stuff can be used well in movies (i.e. Hostel), but I'm just not into watching what is essentially plastic surgery operations broadcasts thrown-in halfway into a movie. Like Resident Evil 4 is violent, but Dead Space is just disgusting gore-porn / x-treme violent (eye death scene).

Ummm here are my faves you shou...could watch:

1. Cul-de-Sac
2. Repulsion
3. Jacob's Ladder
4. The Matrix 
5. First Blood
6. Training Day
7. ScarFace
8. The Defiant Ones
9. Mulholland Drive
10. Final Destination

Those are my favorites right now since I don't want to think about updating the list right now (my IMdb has plenty of possible replacement movies). Mulholland Drive is a movie I keep debating on whether I rank it as a whole movie or only the best scenes (Adam Kesher scenes). Final Destination 1 has the best structure of the FD series -- probably replace it for Night of the Living Dead. The concept is top-notch and I think Final Destination 3 with a proper director would have been an excellent top 10 movie.

BTW, it doesn't seem like you can go wrong on NetFlix selecting Asian films: The Spirit of Jeet Kune Do, Battle Royale, The Man From Nowhere, I Saw The Devil, The Machine Girl, etc.

Why do you rate Hellraiser 2? I thought it was drastically worse than the original. It had the long unnecessary intro where the movie recaps the first and it humanized the villains making them less evil & scary... I really have to struggle to think back to it, but I think the whole exploratory theme is what contributed to me not liking it.

Great movie.

These look good. The latter just for the continuation of the weapon shot effects from D9.

You complain about all the other stuff and of all things you think Hostel somehow doesn't cross the line?????

Correct. It's a pretty complicated subject.

1. I think the display of violence in Hostel is essential to advancing the plot whereas in those other movies I don't.
2. There is a different impact from quick brutal violence and prolonged close-up shots of torture. (It's not like the gore-porn scene in Repo Men felt thrown in; it comes right after a very violent fight scene.)
3. Drill violence and slash violence are less invasive (less nauseating) than scooping around in a body.
4. I don't view ankle violence as extremely painful.
5. Type of damage to vulnerable spots - Drill violence done to the eye (most vulnerable and smallest precious spot) is the most painful form of violence to watch (Hostel from what I remember does not use the drill that way -- it does have a lower form of eye violence.). Showing genital mutilation would be more painful to watch than that, but thankfully never is due to X-ratings. Stabbing around down there with various instruments is terrible and is near impossible to be built-up to to avoid being used as pure shock value. Although movie scenes don't show (or keep it very obscured) genitals, abortion scenes still register as falling under the most disgusting form of human violation possible.]

Hostel also benefits from being a better movie than all the movies I listed in that paragraph.

Anyhow, I think that's a decent explanation. Further discussion would probably be suitable for another thread (i.e. 'good/proper use of violence in movies'); I myself have avoided commenting on originality in movies, stc's overall taste, etc. as I thought they would cut the focus from listing good movies. The explanation from persons on what makes up good movies isn't exactly off-topic though...

You know, I know this topic is kinda dead, but the more I think about it the more I dislike Inglourious Basterds. I'll admit that I think there are some great scenes (e.g. anything with Christoph Waltz) but beyond that...? I'm on the fence to keep my copy of the DVD or not.

It's not really looking good...

Hellraiser 2 was just as good as the first in the series and connects well. Part 3 didn't connect very well, thought it was amusing, and I haven't seen any of the others.

Yeah, I gave this to my friend who hadn't seen it yet. He was a big fan of Django Unchained which he made watch and... yeah... Christoph Waltz stole that movie as well.

Where did they find this guy!?

Speaking of which:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/14/showbiz/d … index.html

I would say that falls under the "I'm a celebrity, the rules don't apply to me" notion.

Read the article and yeah, I'd say that's a more than fair approximation.