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2Nite DMR goes to the Movies!

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Decker

Administrator
Staff member
Tonight on DMR, we take a look at the movies of 2012! Were they any good, did they excite, bore or "piss you off?" I am joined by my buddy Mark Center, the biggest movie going guy I know! Only on CyberstationUSA. Starting at 10:00 PM Pacific until the Witching Hour! Only on www.dqrm.com

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Well Don, dunno if it's quite your thing but 2012 includes 'The Hobbit' and I am looking forward to seeing it, having read Tolkien since about the age of 11. Also, 'The Possession' - not the greatest movie but interesting cos I loved the real story and had followed it for years!
 
Well Don, dunno if it's quite your thing but 2012 includes 'The Hobbit' and I am looking forward to seeing it, having read Tolkien since about the age of 11. Also, 'The Possession' - not the greatest movie but interesting cos I loved the real story and had followed it for years!

Well Goggs, I am a huge Tolkien fan myself. Matter of fact in my bookcase in the living room I have displayed my Lords of the Ring 3 book series.

Also, my guest tonight, Mark Center, was going to see the 3D version of The Hobbit at noon so he could talk about it tonight. Small world, huh?

Decker
 
Yay! Now that makes me a judgemental idiot. For some reason, and for absolutely no good reason at all, I had you pictured as someone who may be ambivalent about Tolkien at best!

Shame on me eh! Think I'll go catch it tomorrow. Very small bit of trivia, way back in the late 80's I had a friend who went on to move to Australia and he was a model-maker type of guy. Early on in the process his company was approached by Peter Jackson to make stuff for the upcoming filming of LOTR. They ended up making the armour for the orcs.
To me at the time (and living a million miles for Hollywood, unlike your good self), this was indeed pretty cool and I have to say that along with everyone else involved in those films, they did an astonishingly good job.

To date, Jackson's LOTR are the only movies made from books which for me, turned out exactly as I had pictured. I mean when I saw the first film, it was almost like I was re-living how I used to imagine Middle Earth when I was reading Tolkien. Now THAT was a good job!
 
Well, way back when I was still in the Army, in Okinawa, I made it a point to try to read (again) the whole LOTR series. That and Conan-The Barbarian by Howard kept me *sane! Loved that stuff.

Oh yeah, I have the LOTR series from the BBC (complete set) on audio tape. One of these days I intend to put the whole thing digital. Now that is a project.

Decker
 
Don - you mean the BBC Radio LOTR? That was fantastic and as another piece of trivia, starred Ian Holm as Frodo (who was Bilbo in LOTR movies). I used to lie on the couch in my flat, eyes closed and imagine myself in the Mines of Moria or in Mordor etc! I wonder how many younger people these days would have the patience to listen to 20hrs worth of radio Tolkien.

Lance - I agree about the 3D - I know that Jackson doing 'The Hobbit' is well enough interesting for me to love the movie in 2D and 3D might be a distraction - but on the other hand, I loved the 3D in 'Avatar' so I will reserve judgement.

A lot of movies (esp the later Star Wars travesties) I find cater a bit too much to the young, in an effort to make a family movie that more people will go and see, but I suppose we just have to accept that it is aimed at being a movie all can watch - even though the themes can be quite adult at times (but very appealing to a young me, mind you, I've loved all horror movies since I was tiny and could never understand why I was supposed to wait til I was 18 to watch things like 'Friday the 13th')
 
The Raid was a great film if you cant get it off iTunes, great martial arts extravaganza without relying on special effects. directed by welshman Gareth Jones who whilst in Indonesia saw a bunch of dudes doing Silat and thus created a script and story around this martial art.
Judge Dredd was a great sci fi film on a budget which again utilised bullet time and cgi to spectacular effect within reason, and Life of PI is a brilliant film that uses cgi poetically well woth seeing in 3d if you are a cinephile(Ward!).
Total Recall was a waste . Bourne Legacy , meh. Dark Knight competent round up of a great trilogy.
Would agree with you guys about SKYFALL. However i know a lot of bond fans who hated the film because it wasnt a a flash gadget Brosnan international car advert. Dench is rightly tipped for a bafta for this film which is unheard of; people liking a bond film for the acting. Sean Connery cam back to make Diamonds are forever and Never say never again which he financed and produced himself and came out the same year as Octopussy, Roger Moore starred in Live and Let Die,"its going to be a beaaauuuutiful day, Yes a beauuutiful day. ahh ah ahha ahha ahh".
Argo was a pastiche a bit like Tarantino's Grindhouse so some people might not like it, however it has the amazing Brian Cranston in it from Breaking Bad (an excellent tv show). I liked Lawless and recomend it if people missed that, again a bit of a Levis pastiche of a movie but an entertaining glimpse into the moon shine running mythology.

For me I like B movies so was a big fan of Cowboys vs Aliens and MIB3 and would also put Jon Carter in there too which was a big waste of money but enjoyable with an amazing miss-cast bunch of the best actors in the world going round in circles!.
 
Quick reactions to 2012 films:

Total Recall was non-stop action, but little characterization and dialog. Both female co-stars were of a similar type, and I had to look twice to see who was who. Still prefer the Arnold version with Sharon Stone.

Bourne Legacy was decent, though forgettable.

MIB 3 was better than I expected.

Amazing Spider-man reboot was a little premature, but Arnold Garfield seems a better fit than Toby McGuire.

The Dark Knight Rises was sequentially illogical but well executed. Anne Hathaway is amazing and it's even more amazing to see her as a supremely talented musical star in those Les Miserables previews.

As an aging super hero/action hero buff, I am looking forward to Man of Streel next year, and ditto for Star Trek Into Darkness. I'm on the fence about The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp's eccentric Tonto makeup. And I do wonder whether Armie Hammer's portrayal can match Clayton Moore, the "real" Lone Ranger.
 
Argo and The Hobbit were my faves. Skyfall was a great bond too. Just been listening to the new Don Ecker episode of the Paracast and there is some great movie talk there.

Oh and Breaking Bad is indeed excellent. Brian Cranston is everywhere now- I imagine cos of that show - I am one of the few people who just did not laugh at Malcolm in the Middle. I mean it was ok for a TV show but I know people who laugh out loud at it and it just does not do that for me at all.

In fact, and I may get some hate-posts for this but I find a lot of American TV comedy is just not very funny. I don't know if it's cos I just see comedy differently, that I was brought up on different comedy but things like 'Two and a Half Men' - well I just don't get the laughs. Perhaps one problem is the institutional use of canned laughter. I like to decide when to laugh and just cannot abide some director of a naff show trying to make a show funny by using those very tired recordings of audience laughter.

But please don't think for a minute that I don't rate any American comedy cos that is just not true. US cartoon comedy such as The Simpsons, Family guy or Southpark constantly amaze me with just how good they are. I mean they are just unbeatable for that type of show. I can't think of much more off the top of my head but some other classics would be Cheers, Taxi, Frasier etc.
Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh cos I don't think too many people do actually laugh out loud to things like Two and a Half Men? Anyone disagree about this type of American TV comedy?
 
I think the current USA-based sitcoms are just plain awful and usually unwatchable. I often find more to laugh about in some of the so-called serious shows.

I agree. What's up with "Modern Family"? I couldn't take 5 mins of that show and it wins Emmy awards.

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By the way Gene, no love for the Avengers? C'mon, how 'bout some love for Stan Lee, he just turned 90!
 
  • I'm with Gene on MIB3. We just bought it in 3D on Blu-Ray.
  • The ones that we went to the theatre for were The Avengers, Skyfall & Cloud Atlas.
  • Prometheus was a worthy Aliens prequel.
 
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