Susano Posted December 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've deleted BC Jr. off of my Amazon wish list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Edit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? So much potential... wasted.how is that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted December 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? how is that Watched Zu Warriors last night. Also known as Legend of Zu (or Shu shan zheng zhuan). It seems to be a re-imagined, high-budget remake of Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, which is a wuxia classic, and one of the first HK films to use big budget SFX. Zu Warriors goes crazy with the CGI, allowing for some really neat SFX and power displays... but that's really all it has. The story is... okay (and not to hard to follow if you watch the HK subbed version), but suffers from too many characters. The film starts by showing us King Sky, then introduces Red and White Eyebrows (played by Sammo Hung, who played the same character in the original). So far so good, as White Eyebrows directs King Sky and Red to defeat Insomnia (or Amnesia) from devouring all of the power of the Zu mountains. The problems start when Tsui Hark starts introducing secondary characters (such as Zhang Ziyi as a female soldier) whose talents are wasted due to lack of character development or screen time. Then there's a whole secondary plot dealing with Enigma and Thunder attempting to merge their powers to form an unstoppable energy force and.... Okay, I'm not going to go any further. Don't watch Zu Warriors for the plot (then again, who watches these sorts of films for the plot?). Don't watch for the martial arts scenes (there are precious few). Watch it to see what a full-blown Chinese fantasy film looks like. Characters fly about, hurling energy blasts, or wield energy swords hundreds of feet long, or wear wings made from swords that can be used to hurl clouds of blades. This is why you want to watch Zu Warriors. To see what supernatural martial arts should look like. Visually, Zu Warriors is beautiful. Great scenery, decent (if low-end) CGI, neat ideas for locations and powers, and so on. Roughly 105 minutes, it makes for a nice distraction, but doesn't have the staying power of other, equally recent, big-budget martial arts epics. Hero, for example, is a much better film. While it doesn't have the super SFX and incredible powers, it does have a better plot (and a more coherent one), as well as better fight sequences. To sum up, Zu Warriors is something to get if you're like me, a completist. But if you're more of an action junkie, go find Shadowless Sword. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The 1977 animated version of The Hobbit. While nicely done for the most part' date=' it suffers from A) being a TV movie, being animated on a TV movie budget, C) being rated G, and D) 90 minutes in length.[/quote'] This isn't from The Hobbit, but I still love it. It's actually from the Return of The King show by the same company. I used to sing this song out loud when I was a kid. God, what a weird little geek I was. Too bad Bakshi did the first two books of Lord of the Rings and couldn't finish. That meant that Rankin-Bass had to pick around the edges of the story. It might have been nice to see what either of them could have one with all of the material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Or, if you prefer an updated version: Just good fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? the marine 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've deleted BC Jr. off of my Amazon wish list. Heh. Yeah it is definitely not worth owning. It had potential, it could have been a great Weird West if they had an actual historical researcher on board to steer them to Just Ahead Of Their Time inventions or Weird West/Steampunk (and yeah, Steampunk had been a literary genre for several years by that point) inventions. Instead it was "let's take very modern stuff and shoehorn it in." Ah well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Conan the Destroyer and Warriors of Virtue. Another night of bizarrely entertaining dreams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? a recordind of maiami vs wisconsin college football Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched part of Birth of Civilization, recorded off National Geographic Television. Pretty good and a fortuitous find, given that I recently started a thread about how to do Stone Age Hero. I'll watch the rest tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Tales of Tomorrow vol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? My final movie of 23009 was class of the titans chaos 101 the movie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Doctor Who: The End of Time part 1 - controvertial, but that's to be expected. I loved it, but worry about what happens in part 2. New Moon - better than I expected, but I've never had lower expectations of any movie, except possibly the D&D one. The D&D movie met its expectations. I couldn't help but think of the YouTube video of - which is still actually better than this movie. Sherlock Holmes - different than I expected - it was actually closer to Sherlock Holmes traditional stories. I was expecting more action/pulp and very lame retconning for the deductions - but the reasons for things actually are well placed and thought of. There was less rubber science than I thought there wouild be. I highly recommend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. MID-Nite Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Kolchak The Night Stalker- watched the first 3 episodes. Very ambitious considering the time it was made and the budget. Quite good...and definitely the inspiration for the X-files...no doubt. Shaolin Soccer- Hilarious....in the vein of Kung Fu Hustle, but without the R rating. Shaolin monks use their "super" martial arts to compete in a soccer tournament. The Call of Cthluhu- A retro take on the old story(done as a silent film). Not bad and done with much affection for the Lovecraft style, but the budget is very small. Still...more positive than negative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? batman thebrave andthe bold rise of the reach first time i saw an PENING TEASER thats "to be continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The Fifth Element - An outrageous movie, but very entertaining. Bruce Willis makes a great straight man for Chris Tucker's wackiness. Season one of Better Off Ted - I find this show hilarious, with good writing and likable characters (no Michael Scotts here). The casting is wonderful, and the characters (and actors) have great chemistry. Oh, and mixed in with the Dilbertesque business practices of the featured megacorporation, there's also occasionally Mad Science. We stumbled upon this show by accident and have loved it ever since. I can't recommend it enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? the sugar bowl [pre recorded] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Several episodes of Twilight Zone (they were having a marathon on the SyFy channel). Plus I watched half of 10,000 BC (I'll watch the rest of it tonight). Did I say I had weird but entertaining dreams? Let's just assume that anytime I post, it's pretty much a given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Spun - I watched it in memory of Brittany Murphy Lovely Bones The Pilot Episode of the 2000 series called "The Others" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahuna's bro Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? part of dragon tiger gate thanks susano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Cinematic Titanic: East Meets Watts. This was actually a fair 70s Fusploitation film, and worked well with the MST3k / Cinematic Titanic treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Dexter Season 4. I can only say that, for the first time since the show started, I am not really looking forward to the next season. So much progress wasted with about 90 seconds of film. The titular character is still my hero, but the persons of questionable heritage that made some of the creative decisions need to be tasered repeatedly. Why in the name of Magoomba did they feel the need to kill off Rita. She was the perfect foil for Dexter's "dark passenger" and made for some potentially cool conflict within the series. Sure they spent too much time dwelling on the whole trust issue/counseling thing, but with a good writer, Rita would have shined. On a positive note, Deb's discovery of Dexter's true identity makes for some potential. The actress can really turn on the hysterics when she wants to. I was pretty impressed with the episode where she is dealing with Lundy's death. Not looking forward to the resolution with the kids. I heard from a friend that Rita's mother is going to seek custody, thereby creating one of the sub-plots of the next season. I truly hope not. Either start the season with Cody and Astor in the mother-in-laws custody or just don't go there. Personally I think the challenge of not feeling empathy and trying to raise the kids might be the only hope this show has left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Doctor Who: The End of Time (David Tennant's final episode.) I don't recognize the new actor portraying the regenerated Doctor. DT Did a great job. Hopefully the new guy can fill his shoes. Demons: Apparently this is BBC's take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a male protagonist. The New Adventures of Superman: I remember watching this when I was a kid. In one episode, one of the monsters is a giant lobster. Superman: Great Suns, it's a giant lobster! Me, watching the show: Damn! There's never a giant pot of boiling water handy when you need one! Good times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Dexter Season 4. I can only say that, for the first time since the show started, I am not really looking forward to the next season. So much progress wasted with about 90 seconds of film. The titular character is still my hero, but the persons of questionable heritage that made some of the creative decisions need to be tasered repeatedly. Why in the name of Magoomba did they feel the need to kill off Rita. She was the perfect foil for Dexter's "dark passenger" and made for some potentially cool conflict within the series. Sure they spent too much time dwelling on the whole trust issue/counseling thing, but with a good writer, Rita would have shined. On a positive note, Deb's discovery of Dexter's true identity makes for some potential. The actress can really turn on the hysterics when she wants to. I was pretty impressed with the episode where she is dealing with Lundy's death. Not looking forward to the resolution with the kids. I heard from a friend that Rita's mother is going to seek custody, thereby creating one of the sub-plots of the next season. I truly hope not. Either start the season with Cody and Astor in the mother-in-laws custody or just don't go there. Personally I think the challenge of not feeling empathy and trying to raise the kids might be the only hope this show has left. I have seen S4 yet, by the time I do I'll have likely forgotten this spoiler ... but I think it's interesting to note that in the first few books Dexter sees his own nature in both Rita's kids and starts them down the same path his dad put him on. Imagine those two when they grow up. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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