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Watched The Call with Halle Berry last night. Hmm, that sounds like she watched it with me... that'd be awesome, but no. Starring Halle Berry. Decent thriller/revenge movie. 911 operator gets involved in the manhunt of a serial killer, gets too personal, which she shouldn't, breaks "the rules" which she shouldn't. Really fun and a good watch. The villain reminded me of a cross between Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill. Not surprisingly both those characters were inspired by the very real Ed Gein.
 
Robin Hood (2010)

Ridley Scott's take on Robin Hood is an interesting one, at least in the beginning, but after watching it one time as well as several views later I am still left with the feeling of an incomplete film that do not go where it could have gone. I am much more happy with the 1991 Prince of Thieves.
 
I'm yet to watch Scott's Robin Hood, but I heard that trying to ground the legendary character made it for a very boring, political film. People LIKE the fantasy and Prince of Thieves nailed it.

Got around to watching Side Effects starring Jude Law, Chaning Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rooney Mara. I am not going to lie, the main reason I checked it out was because it has one of my teen-age crushes (Zeta-Jones) and one of my current crushes (Mara), but it still was a good movie. My girlfriend didn't mind since she had Law and Tatum to ogle at anyway haha. Law plays a psychiatrist who is treating the depressed Mara. He prescribes a new drug and she improves save an annoying side-effect; sleepwalking. She insists on continuing the medication until in one of her sleepwalking spells she kills her husband. What follows makes for a great mystery/thriller.
 
Scott's Robin Hood was incredibly boring. There was some interesting stuff going on, but overall it was just dull.

Side Effects was pretty good. An enjoyable, well-crafted yarn.
 
Watched Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999) on television last night.

Even though the film in question is not held in high regard by fans, it is probably my favourite in the series. Maybe because I was around when it was released, maybe because it was with it my fascination with Star Wars begun. I only know that I really like the film. Not that I do not see where the criticism comes from, but that is an entirely different matter. Judging the film on a more removed level is something which I, after having grown up with the film, have the rare oppurtunity of ignoring.

I only own a VHS, which I have also recently watched, but the film on television last night was certainly not the same version. Instead of the much more atmospheric puppet-Yoda of the original The Phantom Menace Lucas has inserted the far less convincing computer-animated version of the two sequels. He has made edits in the podrace-sequences, and inserted a scene with Jar-Jar I can't remember having seen before. None of which are to the better. Far from it, actually.

The film does still have the fantastic intro-sequence, one of my favourite villains and the best light-saber duel in the whole series, but somehow I am far more irritated by the changes to this film than by all edits Lucas has made in the original trilogy.
 
Upon attempting to watch the above clip...

This video contains content from Channel 4, who has
blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!!! o_O

I live in the UK, fucking YouTube bastards!!!
 
Maturin said:
I only own a VHS, which I have also recently watched, but the film on television last night was certainly not the same version. Instead of the much more atmospheric puppet-Yoda of the original The Phantom Menace Lucas has inserted the far less convincing computer-animated version of the two sequels.
Click to expand...

It was my understanding Yoda was CGI in all the prequels... And yes, it was a horrid rendition, though watching him jump around like a kid on speed in Episode II was awesome.

The film does still have the fantastic intro-sequence, one of my favourite villains and the best light-saber duel in the whole series, but somehow I am far more irritated by the changes to this film than by all edits Lucas has made in the original trilogy.
Click to expand...

Some of the changes were indeed cool. I specifically like the expanded cloud city. Many complained about seeing the full snow beast on Hoth arguing "less is more" and by seeing the whole creature it destroyed the suspense and fear the scene originally created, I didn't mind. I had bigger issues with change in dialogue like when Luke escapes and Vader says, "Get my shuttle." You can hear and sense the frustration and anger in his voice. for NO REASON it was changed to, "Prepare the ship for my arrival." in this bored monotone. Also when Lucas inserted a scream when Luke WILLINGLY jumps into the pipe after having his hand cut off only to remove it later realizing it was stupid. The biggest beef I have is replacing the original Anakin Ghost for Hayden Christiansen's in Return of the Jedi... Why? He didn't replace Guiness with Ewan McGregor's, Yoda still looks 900 years old... again, NO REASON.
 
I've never really minded Phantom Menace, although the folks I went to see it with thought it was terrible when compared to the original three films. I thought it managed to keep some of the fun, light-hearted elements of SW, Empire and Jedi, while the other two prequels focused pretty much entirely on the 'serious' storyline.
Have to admit, though, I had no idea different versions of Phantom Menace existed - I've only seen the original release.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Upon attempting to watch the above clip...

This video contains content from Channel 4, who has
blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!!! o_O

I live in the UK, fucking YouTube bastards!!!
Click to expand...

HAHAHA. What a bunch of idiots. God forbid you should watch a clip from a UK series in the UK.

Onhell said:
Whether one likes the films or not is subjective. But for a humorous, yet objective, critic as to why the prequels do honest to goodness suck (beyond the wooden acting of EVERYBODY) I suggest viewing the following:

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
Click to expand...

Those red letter vids are awesome.
 
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