You know they make a good movie, Die Hard, its a success so lets do it again, and again, and again, and soon all of them start looking bad. I was done after the second one, but the third one was OK, like the Star Trek movies, even number good, odd number bad, in this case its the other way around.

Your right, not one of his best attempts.

River

It's fun to watch but it doesn't linger. Too redundant.

To be fair... it may well be the best Die Hard movie since the first. I admit though, that's not a high bar to cross.

This movie was truly awful. Perhaps we need movie reviews in separate threads here to save us all the pain of bad movies? hehehe

I like it, for old movies and new.

River

Paolo wrote: Mon May 31, 2010 7:19 am This movie was truly awful. Perhaps we need movie reviews in separate threads here to save us all the pain of bad movies? hehehe

I think that is a BRILLIANT idea! There have been MANY times that I "got burned" by going to see a BAD movie, and I only wish I could have been warned or at least been able to warn my friend to not go and see...

I would value the movie critiques of some of our members here.

So, in that vein, I can come up with TWO REALLY SUCK FEST BAD MOVIES THAT I WASTED MY MONEY ON...

The FIRST MOVIE that I feel should have resulted in summary execution for the producer, director, and anyone associated with it is.... (drum roll please)...

"300" -

( http://www.amazon.com/300-Widescreen-Ge ... 709&sr=1-1 )

A total WASTE of my money to go and see. And also a gravely humiliating event for me because I had thought the movie would contribute to my son's education.... (I KNOW, now that sounds so so so increadibly stupid and naieve on my part, but give me a little bit of a brake here.) You see, a LONG LONG time ago, there was a movie called "The 300 Spartans"

( http://www.amazon.com/300-Spartans-Rich ... 639&sr=1-1 )

and that move was actually pretty damn good considering it was made back in the early 1960's. My son and I watched that move and he really liked it, I loved the fact that it was actually filmed ON LOCATION there at Thermopylae where the real battle occured. I told my son of how increadible that place was, that I had myself actually been there and visited the monument, that place has real magic there.

Well, needless to say, my son and I were both pretty keen on any information and facts surrounding key bits of history. So, one day when I was in Laughlin Nevada and I saw the movie poster for "300" I STUPIDLY AND GULLIBLY thought "great, the boy and I can watch this while his mother wastes a fortune gambling!" (She likes to play the slots, I myself cannot think of anything to stupid and wasteful, so the boy and I go and do what ever we can to keep occupied while she plays.)

LIKE A SCHMUCK, I paid, two tickets, popcorn, sodas.... DAMN the movies are EXPENSIVE now-a-days.... And then the movie started... OMG! It was like the result of some LSD tripping hippie got into the editing room and made the WORST MOVIE EVER! My son and I both hated that movie, it was a total WASTE of our time, not informative, not educational, not even remotely entertaining, just a long collection of STUPID, ugly images.

I chanted a curse in my mind - "May all persons responsible for this '300' movie spend the rest of their days in HELL!"

The SECOND MOVIE that I seriously believe should have resulted in criminal prosecution and civil suits against the producer and director...

Ulli Lommel's version of "The Black Dahlia" which was released at exactly the same time as a pretty good movie... also called "The Black Dahlia." That's right, there are TWO MOVIES released at the same time, with the same title, allegedly about the same story...

IF you should go to buy or rent the DVD... the GOOD version of "The Black Dahlia" has a picture of a young woman's face in profile, laying back and looking upwards, with a drop of blood oozing backward from the corner of her mouth. Rent that movie, and you get a reasonably good movie, about two LA Policemen who try to track down the evil and mysterious killer. I actually LIKED that version, it is a "film noir," sort of like "Mulholland Falls," or "The Two Jakes."

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-Wide ... 468&sr=8-1

Then there is Uli Lomell's SUCK-FEST version under the very same title. Don't be fooled like I was, when I rented that version, thinking I was getting the other version. Ulli Lommell's version has a picture of a young woman's face looking at you, and it seems clear to me that his version was intended to be confused with the other version.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-Chri ... 468&sr=8-7

I didn't day a person couldn't enjoy DIE HARD #4. It's all action, nonstop action, nonstop John McClain (the character) snide remarks. The problem is, it's all old stuff repeated over and over again. It is forgetable. But if you need a good all action flick, it won't dissapoint.

There are movies I have bad reactions to... Like THE HANGOVER. But Die Hard #4 isn't one of them.

19 June 2010--

A couple or three or four movies to talk about. No crap today, sorry:

1) Invictus:

It would be an exciting sports film if I knew anything about Rugby. I liked the movie and I liked the portrayals of Mandela and Pienaar. The former realized the challenge that lay before him and the latter, the captain of the despised Springboks team, who at some point realizes the simple life of a rugby player can be more than what it seems. The film is honest. Mandela is not an angel or a redeemer nor are the rugby players mere drunken louts. My only problem - what the hell are they doing on that field?

That was the second South African film in recent months. The first was DISTRICT 9 and it was heavier handed with apartheid than INVICTUS. I enjoyed District 9 because it was excellent sci-fi, fresh and new. However, it was so heavy handed on the message side. Invictus isn't.

2) THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy:

Can this man write a joyous moment and preserve it in book or film? I've read "Blood Meridian" seem "All the Pretty Horses" and "No Country For Old Men" and wondered if McCarthy was on the pay of the people who create happy pills to treat depression.

This is an excellent film but from the first image it is nothing but bleak, desolate and hopeless. This world feels nihilistic and life seems like death and death is not ponly expected but embraced... Even the ending is bereft (big word meaning deprived) of hope and joy. All the viewer sees is hardship ahead, slightly different hardship but hardship nonetheless. Viggo Mortenson, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron are fantastic as the doomed trio.

3) Road, Movie, starring Abhay Deol and Tannishtha Chatterjee:

It's a road movie and it's not bad for pushing the wrong selection on the video remote but it's longer than it should be and a bit boring. It's not trashy but it does drag. Cute and humorous at spots but only as satisfying as cotton candy at a bazaar in the desert. If you want an Indian film to see Bollywood, this isn't it. It's just cute in spots.

I guess y'all only like me when I give a movie a bad review.

I enjoyed Invictus, but it suffered, I felt, from painting too flattering a picture of Mandela. We see that his wife and daughter dislike him, which only makes us feel sorry for him. Otherwise, he's shown as admirable in every way, a great man. This may well be true, but in a movie, it makes for a one dimensional character. I felt a bit manipulated by a movie which seemed always to be prompting me to be in awe of Mandela. Again, he may really be that great a man, but characters in a story need more complication.

Road, Movie and The Road I'm sorry not to have seen.

I just today watched the last episode of Treme. It's a ten-part show by David Simon, director of The Wire, about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It's a deeply felt appreciation of New Orleans culture - its music above all, but also its food, "Indian Tribes," "Second Line" parades, and special atmosphere. It interweaves the stories of several people - black and white, musician and socialite, lawyers and cops, etc. A wistful look at a great city in crisis, full of pain and tragedy, but also the joy of its rich traditions.