Random Thoughts by the forum members (formerly 20 random thoughts)

[Ezen Baklattan]

1. I have not seen Maleficent or Trans4mers yet. I plan to keep it that way for a while.2. I have a sinking feeling that GotG is going to surprise at the box office. I really think it's avoiding the mistakes that other seemingly niche films made. I'm not sold on $200m, but it could get pretty close.3. Speaking of which, there's no way that Baumer doesn't see GotG in theaters. I'll bet anyone that he sees it opening week. (Then again, he may see it on the 8th just to spite me.)4. The Giver kind of pisses me off from the marketing in that they're trying to totally spin this classic novel into what seems like a generic teen thriller. I'm very skeptical of the project. Also, Harvey, there are other fonts you can use for the cast in your movies. God.5. My experience with CAYOM and my general enjoyment of writing has kind of inspired me to do more with my creativity. That's one of the reasons I'm taking on BOF Les Mis.6. I really wish Jupiter Ascending were coming out next week, just because this summer doesn't have much else for me on the horizon. If it were coming out, I'd love to see what the state of buzz for the film would be.7. To adress Mulder's point, Gravity is not easily comparable to any of those movies. The film is more focused on creating tension in ways that dialogue cannot describe, and the film gives an emotional journey to just one character. Gravity was always going to have a thin script, as it's the direction and acting of the script that really shines. It's also, like, an hour shorter than the other two.

[AniNate]

 

3. A movie can be loved to the point where it's annoying. I'm feeling this way about the LEGO movie and to a much lesser extent Edge of Tomorrow.

 

Perhaps, but surely you concede that it's not nearly as bad as Frozen's.

[Mulder]

Perhaps, but surely you concede that it's not nearly as bad as Frozen's.

Yeah Frozenites. 

[Dementeleus]

1. SNOWPIERCER2. Tilda Swinton3. Joon-Ho Bong4. Chris Evans5. Various things you would and would not eat (except you probably would if you had to)

[baumer]

I won't see GOTG, definitely not first week.

[Ezen Baklattan]

I won't see GOTG, definitely not first week.

You saw Movie 43 in theaters. I remain very skeptical.

[Blankments]

1. Netflix is amazing. Holy crap. I'm really upset I'm losing it next week though, and the only season of TV I've finished is Firefly

 

2. Guardians of the Galaxy needed to be out yesterday. Seriously, it's the only movie this summer with really good marketing besides Godzilla, at least to me. Well, also 22 Jump Street, but that movie just had good marketing for what it is.

 

3. Speaking of Jump Street, count me surprised that Sony hasn't announced a third movie yet. Hopefully they're waiting for Lord Miller to sign on before moving forward. No way there isn't a third one though.

 

4. I'm kinda annoyed I have to drive out to Chicago to see Boyhood this weekend, but I'm also excited, because I've always wanted to do that for an independent movie, but I've always gone "Eh, I'll just wait for it to hit over here."

 

5. Earlier today in the numbers thread, I commented that I don't like sports for their lack of narrative. That doesn't mean I don't like sports movies. In fact, when sometimes big sports news breaks out and grabs my attention, I will often comment "That'd make a good movie." A good example of this is last year when I imagined (and almost wrote for CAYOM) a David Fincher take on the Manti Te'o story.

 

6. Christopher Walken is in Peter Pan LIVE. That is gonna be glorious.

 

7. I've said it before, but I really can't stand the elitist attitude from what I call this site's "originites." They're the worst of the fanbases, and the fact is that deriding quality movies such as DOFP, Dragon 2, or 22 Jump Street, as rehashes just because they're sequels are obnoxious. Even worse if said Originites are cheering for movies like Maleficent or Edge of Tomorrow, which, regardless of the differing quality of film, are both based off pre-existing properties.

 

8. Even though this summer has been good on quality and has quite a few movies still releasing that I'm interested in seeing before I leave for college, the last movie I had the desire to see on opening weekend was 22 Jump Street. The only ones left like that this entire year are Guardians of the Galaxy and Interstellar (I'll see Mockingjay second weekend with my family for Thanksgiving break.) This is very, very unusual for me. Especially since the rest of the year looks to be great for movies too.

 

9. Recently, I skipped the Exodus trailer and Unbroken trailer simply because I clicked on their threads later than expected. I've recently come to the conclusion that unless I'm really anticipating the movie (such as Gone Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Mockingjay), I'm thinking I'm gonna start skipping trailers until seeing them in theaters.

 

10. Speaking of that, I'm seeing Snowpiercer this week. I'm proud to say I haven't seen any footage of it beforehand, and all I know about it is it's an R-rated action sci-fi set on a train in a futuristic ice age that deals with class struggles starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton. Well, that, and the BTS drama, but that's irrelevant. I'm excited to see a movie, especially one so critically acclaimed, almost completely blind. It'll be a new, fun experience

[Michael Gary Scott]

Sports are the greatest narrative there is

[Blankments]

Fuck it; have ten more

 

1. One of the Netflix movies I saw and loved was Safety Not Guaranteed. Very charming film, but I'm like in love with Aubrey Plaza after it. She's cute and funny, and her character seemed like my type of girl.

 

2. Another movie I watched was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film is almost perfect... until Spielberg completely blows the ending. The entire movie I was waiting for Roy to prove to his family that there were aliens out there, and that never came. Then Roy picks to go up with the aliens and abandon his family? What kind of ending is that? I got the impression that Roy's obsession with aliens was partly like brainwashing, and after seeing the aliens, he'd snap out of it, and pick his family over the aliens. NOPE! If I ever watch the movie again, I'll turn it off once they arrive at the mountain.

 

3. If I ever achieve my dream of becoming a comedy star in Hollywood, the only movie I'd ever really want to produce for myself would be a reboot of Firefly with me as Wash. #ImANerd

 

4. I need to watch more R-rated comedies for sure. That said, the American sensibility of comedies doesn't do much for me. The Jump Street movies are the only movies that make consistently laugh. Horrible Bosses was funny, but not great, and pretty much every other American R-rated comedy I've seen has had good laughs, but not many laughs for me. This is probably due to something I'm gonna address as my next thought.

 

5. Growing up in a conservative household has unfortunately ruined my mindset on a lot of movies. By this I mean that I was not allowed to watch R-rated movies period until age 17, and when they first came out, I wasn't allowed to watch "hard PG-13s" like The Dark Knight, The Social Network, or The Other Guys. Now, I love watching R-rated movies, but I'm a bit of a prude. The breastfeeding joke in Neighbors made me feel really awkward rather than laughing at it. With more mature movies in theme, there were points of HER and 12 Years a Slave where I just felt uncomfortable because of the sexuality, and that makes me feel sad. I love the art of cinema, and being a prude kinda ruins some great movies for me.

 

6. Going back to point 4, there are some other American comedies I like: the surrealist ones made by Ferrell. Mostly, I'm referring to like the Anchorman movies and The Other Guys. I love love love Zoolander though, such a hilarious comedy, and short too!

 

7. I was worried when I bought Gravity on Blu-ray, it'd ruin my memory of the perfect opening weekend show in IMAX 3D. It didn't. Gravity holds up surprisingly well in 2D on a flatscreen. It obviously isn't the amazing experience it was in theaters, but the movie is still incredibly tense, has fantastic shots, and includes Sandra Bullock's best performance. Best of 2013 easily.

 

8. One of the joys of sharing new Netflix with the family is that I'm actually rewatching quite a few movies I've already seen to show off to the family. I'm gonna talk about two rewatches in particular. First off, on my birthday, I rewatched Jack Reacher for the first time since theaters. It actually is probably the best Tom Cruise original in recent years, and yes, I'm including Edge of Tomorrow in there. It's funny at points, pretty tense, and has awesome action. It's also a good PG-13 crime drama, even if it does where its source material on its sleeve too much. The other rewatch was the first time I've seen The Hunger Games since theaters. Thank God Gary Ross wasn't invited back for Catching Fire. I mean, I understand his other films are great, but the first Hunger Games has a bizarre idea on how shaky cam should work, but it doesn't. At all. Catching Fire schools the first Hunger Games movie in other ways too: character, action, story, etc.

 

9. One of the oddest experiences I've had with Netflix is that my brother and my mother both watched Valkyrie a few weeks after I showed them Inglourious Basterds. For some bizarre reason, they liked Valkyrie more. Valkyrie bored me when I first saw it, and since it was the only Singer movie I'd seen all the way through, I was never interested in the X-Men franchise. Now that I've seen Days of Future Past, I want to catch up on Netflix, but that's besides the point. I honestly find Inglourious to be the best Tarantino movie I've seen, and before anyone challenges me, yes, I've seen Pulp Fiction. In fact, I think Pulp Fiction is the worst of the four Tarantinos I've seen.

 

10. I was on the AVClub earlier today, and I found they did a tribute to Phillip Seymour Hoffman back when he passed away. Reading this made me immediately want to go out and marathon his best movies, but another part of me doesn't want to, since if I marathoned all of his movies, there wouldn't be anymore Phillip Seymour Hoffman movies to watch, and that's a sad reality I don't want to face.

 

Bonus #1: Bonuses are for unrelated to movies thoughts. Yesterday I went to Six Flags, and my brother kept his Galaxy S4 in his pocket for a roller coaster. As soon as he gets off the ride, he checks his phone and somehow the screen had broken from the inside. I feel bad for him, but in all honesty, he was kinda stupid. I didn't bring my phone into the park at all because I worried about losing it on the rides.

 

Bonus #2: Everyone here who complains about me giving out too many likes needs to get over themselves. Did you join Box Office Forums just for "meaningful likes"? I doubt it. Likes ultimately mean nothing as long as you're having fun posting here. That said, I understand people like likes, so I go through threads liking everything to prove a point. The like count is a waste of a way to judge a member. Same with post count. I mean, Gopher is one of the most profilic posters here,and he still isn't in the 10,000 post club. I also like to like everything because honestly, this last year has been pretty shitty for me, but I always get a slight pick-me-up when I log on and see the notification bell. I really don't wish anything bad on anyone here, even Noctis or BKB; so I like to imagine that by giving out likes, I'm making people's days brighter. One last note on likes, but I love Spaghetti for making me the main character in his Les Miserables parody. I smiled the whole time while reading it (by singing it out loud lol). Spaghetti's always been one of my best friends on the site, and being the main character means a lot to me.

 

K, now I'm done

Edited July 14, 2014 by Blankments

[AniNate]

 

Bonus #1: Bonuses are for unrelated to movies thoughts. Yesterday I went to Six Flags, and my brother kept his Galaxy S4 in his pocket for a roller coaster. As soon as he gets off the ride, he checks his phone and somehow the screen had broken from the inside. I feel bad for him, but in all honesty, he was kinda stupid. I didn't bring my phone into the park at all because I worried about losing it on the rides.

 

I had a similar experience when I went to Cedar Point. Fortunately it just froze for a few hours and started working again once I got home. But my freedom to explore the park at will is contingent upon being able to meet up again with my group/family at any moment, so I have to bring it. Probably should buy a fanny pack or something, though.

[Dementeleus]

Funnily enough, I just saw JACK REACHER too, but I didn't like it as much as you. I did like VALKYRIE, though.

[Blankments]

I had a similar experience when I went to Cedar Point. Fortunately it just froze for a few hours and started working again once I got home. But my freedom to explore the park at will is contingent upon being able to meet up again with my group/family at any moment, so I have to bring it. Probably should buy a fanny pack or something, though.

Well yeah. Definitely in situations like that. But with my family, it's literally my brothers and I going on rides while my mom and aunt wait outside of them. We don't need phones there.

 

Funnily enough, I just saw JACK REACHER too, but I didn't like it as much as you. I did like VALKYRIE, though.

 

Ugh, Valkyrie is just dull to me :/

[BK007]

1. Why do some of the films in RTM forum not have the year next to the title?

2. Why is there talk of a yeti in the Weekend thread?

3. There are people who believe in yetis?

4. Mojoguy should be topic banned from Dragon threads.

5. Some people in life will never appreciate you despite how much you do for them. You have to move on and know that it is their loss.

[Mulder]

1. Guardians of the Galaxy has the potential to break-out and I think it's being somewhat underestimated here. 

 

2. I feel like Godzilla's the Man of Steel of 2014 and I don't feel like that's going to change any time soon.

 

3. Godzilla and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes have the same exact problems and that's, that they both have somewhat underwhelming humans parts, but while Godzilla at least has the Cranston stuff plus the giant monster parts, Dawn has the Apes stuff. For some reason the Apes stuff is more valid? IDK ((And yes I know the Cranston stuff isn't resolved but I feel that, that was to add to the themes of the film concerning natural disasters.))

 

4. Jurassic World has such huge potential box office-wise and quality wise. I really hope that Trevorrow can pull through and do it well.

 

5. Every movie/company skipping out on Comic Con this year is making a huge mistake.

 

6. I wish I could see Snowpiercer and Boyhood locally. I might not get to see either because it's a bit of a drive to both and this makes me sad.

[Jessie]

I'm liking for that #10. I'm happy for you Baumer.

 

1. I feel like people are just hating AoE because of RoTF and DoTM. It's very similar to Transformers 1 and I honestly liked quite a bit of the human story.

 

2. If a character isn't onscreen for a good hour or so, people will complain that they weren't in it enough. I saw this about Winter Soldier, Godzilla, and hell initial reactions to Days of Future Past said that Future-Magneto wasn't in it enough. 

 

3. A movie can be loved to the point where it's annoying. I'm feeling this way about the LEGO movie and to a much lesser extent Edge of Tomorrow.

 

4. Speaking of Edge of Tomorrow, I wonder if it's so loved because it didn't seem like anything special. If it was marketed better would people love it as much?

 

5. I really hope JJ Abrams stays on for SW8 and SW9. With Disney not confirming the Rian Johnson rumors weeks after it's safe to say that it's not happening/was a misunderstanding of some kind/is still in talks. But besides that I feel that JJ is one of the few people experienced enough to be able to pull off a SW film and I feel that many other people just aren't the right fit for SW.

 

6. I feel that people who love Gravity shouldn't be shitting on Transformers 1 and Avatar. All three are good films whose greatest downfalls are to an extent, their scripts. Gravity's script is paper thin IMHO.

 

This is so true, Gravity had a terrible unbelievable script yet people follow the sheep and act like it was an all round perfect movie.

[Jessie]

1. I have not seen Maleficent or Trans4mers yet. I plan to keep it that way for a while.2. I have a sinking feeling that GotG is going to surprise at the box office. I really think it's avoiding the mistakes that other seemingly niche films made. I'm not sold on $200m, but it could get pretty close.3. Speaking of which, there's no way that Baumer doesn't see GotG in theaters. I'll bet anyone that he sees it opening week. (Then again, he may see it on the 8th just to spite me.)4. The Giver kind of pisses me off from the marketing in that they're trying to totally spin this classic novel into what seems like a generic teen thriller. I'm very skeptical of the project. Also, Harvey, there are other fonts you can use for the cast in your movies. God.5. My experience with CAYOM and my general enjoyment of writing has kind of inspired me to do more with my creativity. That's one of the reasons I'm taking on BOF Les Mis.6. I really wish Jupiter Ascending were coming out next week, just because this summer doesn't have much else for me on the horizon. If it were coming out, I'd love to see what the state of buzz for the film would be.7. To adress Mulder's point, Gravity is not easily comparable to any of those movies. The film is more focused on creating tension in ways that dialogue cannot describe, and the film gives an emotional journey to just one character. Gravity was always going to have a thin script, as it's the direction and acting of the script that really shines. It's also, like, an hour shorter than the other two.

 

 

yeah but still, that doesn't give it the excuse to have a 'bad' script. Im sorry but the satellite shrapnel rotated across the earth 3 times destroying every satellite Sandra Bullock happened to be at for the sake of the plot. Why wasn't all 3 satellites destroyed on the first cycle?? It has such a simple plot yet still couldn't avoid the massive flaws. It was a directing showcase and that's it, lets not pretend like it was anything more.

[baumer]

1. Why do some of the films in RTM forum not have the year next to the title?

2. Why is there talk of a yeti in the Weekend thread?

3. There are people who believe in yetis?

4. Mojoguy should be topic banned from Dragon threads.

5. Some people in life will never appreciate you despite how much you do for them. You have to move on and know that it is their loss.

 

We only started putting the year next to the title a short while ago.  It was not done in the first year or so of the forums.

[dashrendar44]

yeah but still, that doesn't give it the excuse to have a 'bad' script. Im sorry but the satellite shrapnel rotated across the earth 3 times destroying every satellite Sandra Bullock happened to be at for the sake of the plot. Why wasn't all 3 satellites destroyed on the first cycle?? It has such a simple plot yet still couldn't avoid the massive flaws. It was a directing showcase and that's it, lets not pretend like it was anything more.

 

Maybe because they're not on the same orbital path, are they?   And the debris are on a descending orbital path just like Bullock so she conveniently ends up on the same path as they're both falling (#Dramatization #"Fatality vs Willpower to survive" thematics)  because of Earth's gravitation force?

Edited July 14, 2014 by dashrendar44

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Time to get some stuff off my chest

 

 

 

10) I'm loving my new job.  Very thankful to be working again.

This alone wants me to give million likes

[rukaio101]

1. I really need to stop watching HTTYD1. Seriously, I have a huge backlog of DVDs I should get through but all I can seem to get the motivations to watch is HTTYD1 (and any film I have a Rifftrax of). Speaking of, it feels weird to think HTTYD2 has only come out this weekend in the UK. I've already seen it 4 times thanks to preview screenings and I've not had a chance to go to the cinema again since I arrived home two weeks ago.

 

2. Frozenites are officially more obnoxious than Nolanites. 

 

3. There's only one movie I'm interested in seeing this July (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and, just my luck, on the day it comes out, I've got to wait at home for a package. At least I'm probably going to have time on Sunday to double screen it with the live Monty Python show my nearest cinema is doing.

 

4. On the other hand, there are tons of movies in August I'm interested in seeing. GOTG, TMNT (albeit only because I really liked the last trailer), Expendables 3 and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (and a new series of Doctor Who on top of that). And, guess what, I'm on holiday to Japan during August. At least I'll get to see GOTG before I go....

 

5. Speaking of, I need to learn how to speak some basic Japanese. You'd think half a lifetime of anime/manga would leave me knowledgable about this stuff, but most of the words I remember are insults. (I do know how to count to 5 though. So if I need to educate a kindergartner or something, I'm all set. Outside of that I'm screwed.)  I especially need to learn how to read Japanese. When you visit a European country, you've got a pretty good chance of recognising a word here and there since it's (usually) the same alphabet. With Japan, you get jack shit. The signs might as well be blank for a tourist.

 

6. It's weird but, since the Avengers, every Marvel movie has had one big twist which has genuinely taken me by surprise. With IM3, it was the Mandarin. With Thor2, it was Loki's appearance at the end (although it was obvious he'd survived). And with Cap2, it was HYDRA. Considering how Genre Savvy I usually am (hell, I guessed HTTYD2's big twist from the soundtrack) it's actually pretty impressive. 

 

7. On a related note, looking through my top 100, that I've just posted on the BoxOffice top 100 films thread, I'm kinda surprised by how few Superhero films I have on there considering how large a fan I am of them. Seriously, it's just Avengers, Dark Knight and I think I have Batman Begins in there somewhere. 

 

8. Why is Beauty and the Beast so ridiculously hard to find on DVD? Seriously, it's one of my favourites and one of the best known, but even in the most packed DVD stores, like HMV, you're lucky if you can find one and it's always about £13. Heck, Disney have recently done a new DVD release of most of their films with villain covers and I've yet to find a single one with Gaston's marvelous mug. And yeah, I know DVDs are becoming outdated nowadays, but I collect them. Speaking of, I just found out my favourite DVD store shut while I was at Uni, which is a major disappointment. I swear I bought half my DVD collection from them.

 

9. Despite only having learnt his name about 2 months ago, Hiroyuki Sawano has very quickly become one of my favourite composers for his work on shows like Gundam Unicorn, Attack on Titan and, very recently, Aldnoah.Zero. I really hope he starts doing more film scores as well as anime.

 

10. Since seeing both Baumer and CJohn change their minds on TDKR and Pacific Rim after a rewatch, I'm kinda tempted to rewatch MoS to see if my opinion on that changes.