I caught MONSTERS UNIVERSITY today. Very good, almost just as good as MONSTERS, INC. in my book. I can't say beforehand I had an appetite for an origin story with that film, but I'm impressed by how well Pixar takes a relationship evolution between 2 characters from rivals to grudging respect to genuine friendship.

I love Squishy's Mom.

ERCBoxOffice:



Interesting notes on WWZ: Biggest opening of Brad Pitt's career and in fact 51% of the WWZ audience this weekend was female. Which is odd for a disaster/action/horror blockbuster like this.

If any of you are fans of the Big Bang Theory, has Sheldon's brother Robert ever appeared on the show? Also, the only reference to his brother that I've heard on the show was during the 2009 season.

I never knew he had a brother. I remember an episode with his sister and, of course, his mom is hilarious.

I caught WORLD WAR Z today, and I kinda liked it. It's more a blockbuster disaster film than a horror picture, but it's decent. Almost reminds me of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES from a few years back, a fine disposable entertainment backed by cool ideas and inspired FX/action set-pieces. (I'm surprised nobody before had thought of putting zombies on an airplane.)

(WARM BODIES is still the best zombie movie of '13, but WWZ is a solid #2.)

RR,

Probably cause I'm a Walking Dead fan, but I wanna see that movie too. Is it true though that the Zombies run???? Who ever heard of a zombie running? LOL

Anyway, I'm trying to get my daughters to find a time so we can have a girls' day out to dinner & movie, and we all wanna see that one.


TIS

The zombie run in Dawn Of the Dead.

Thanks Camarel. Tho I do like horror films, for some reason zombie movies weren't on the top of my list, UNTIL the Walking Dead. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it and likes that kind of show.

I did see the original(black & white) Night of The Living Dead when it was released because it was so popular and it was a fun movie to see at the drive-in (if you remember those)

Walking Dead refers to zombies as "Walkers" cause that's how they get around.


TIS

The Dawn of the Dead in that trailer i posted is a remake of the sequel to Night of the living dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead

I have only watched the First Season of the Walking dead so far, but i have the 2nd i just haven't gotten around to it yet, i've also read the first three graphic novels.

Camarel, don't also forget RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Braaaaains!

Well at age 61, Liam Neeson is now officially A-list in Hollywood: He's getting $20 million for TAKEN 3.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/liam-nee...-3/#more-528587

I still haven't seen Taken 2.

Btw, for those interested, Stephen King's "Under The Dome" starts tonight at 10:00. TV guide lists it as a pilot, but I think it's a mini-series, tho I don't know how many episodes are in the series. Anyway, I thought the previews looked pretty good and hope to watch it tonight after I catch up with Mad Men & The Killing that I missed last night.


TIS

Used one of my movies passes to catch NOW YOU SEE ME with Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harleson, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, etc. This has been out for awhile, but this has had good legs at the box-office, quietly inching its way to $100 million mainly based off good audience word of mouth.

I can see why. This is a good fun heist film, if not necessarily a memorable or remarkable one. I'm reminded of THE ITALIAN JOB remake with Mark Wahlberg that it excites you in the moment but afterwards the power fades away, but still solid matinee escapism.

The Tom & Jerry antics with FBI Ruffalo trying to stop (and fallng quite short) this team of magicians committing robberies during their stage shows certainly gave me a smile and gave me a fond reminder of Lupin III (specifically THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO) where the fun isn't being an accomplice to a crime and get away with it, but watching to see how exactly the thieves will outwit and escape the authorities while humiliating them.

Of course like most heist films, you have to accept some logical jumps and character decisions and maybe one or two plot elements (at least) don't quite make sense in reflection but that's pretty much a given.

This actually looks decent. Points to casting Jesus Christ as the villain.

"You don't look that smart."
"Neither do you."

Have any of you seen the new Fiat commercial? It's pretty good. It starts out with a Paul Revere dressed character in a village yelling the British are coming. Then he looks down the road again and sees that it's several Fiats. He then exclaims The Italians are coming and all of the village girls leave their chores behind and saunter over to the Fiats. Anyway, look for it.

I have seen it Oli. I like those Fiat commercials.

On a random topic, anyone else NOT like how short some of the cable and/or HBO tv show seasons are? I watch quite a few (Walking Dead, Mad Men, The Killing, Bates Hotel, Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, etc).

For crying out loud there's 6 months between seasons AND in some cases a "mid-season" break. I think this is gonna be the "new" TV schedule.

Thanks, I wanted to bitch. Plus, I can't wait til October to watch the "Walking Dead." Season ended April (7th I think) and won't be back til October.


TIS

White House Down (2013) - *** out of 5

If you've already seen OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (the other big budget, well-casted DIE HARD at the White House movie released this year) then you have no immediate need to watch this. I just saved you 8 bucks this weekend.

I expected some inevitable similarities, but how much of this became an exact replay is pretty ridiculous. Here too we have an outsider with tenuous Secret Service connections who's luckily at the White House when bad guys (with help of a traitorous Secret Service agent) take over. He's also estranged from his wife. He's got a personal connection with the head of the Secret Service. We have the villains break into the emergency bunker. We have them hack into NORAD and threaten the President's life to try to access the nuclear arsenal. We have a Speaker of the House character forced to become Acting President and reluctantly launches an airstrike against the White House. We have a kid character in peril. We have the 1814 burning of the White House brought up for plot points. We have (in DIE HARD clone tradition) the obligatory "shocking" plot twists. We have scenes where the same government officer gets shot in the 3rd act. We have a similar happy epilogue.

Hell we almost have the exact same sequence with the hero trying to stop the bad guys from firing their anti-aircraft missiles at the Navy Seals helicopters and then brawl with one of the terrorists on the rooftop. I can't wait for somebody on YouTube to do a scene-by-scene comparison.

And just like OLYMPUS, this is perfectly watchable but disposable. Some laughs, some thrills, wait for Redbox. So what's different about the WHITE HOUSE DOWN version? Well most notably, the movie is really a buddy actioneer with rejected Secret Service applicant Magic Mike and President Django. In retrospect I do think they missed an opportunity by playing up more the laughs with such a gimmick which would've really differentiated itself from DOWN, hell maybe make for a better picture? Most buddy films the humor does come from the clash of heavy personality contrasts during a crisis. Remember UNDER SIEGE (king of the DIE HARD clones) where Navy Seal Steven Seagal has to team up with the stripper? Or even IRON MAN 3 from earlier this summer? I mean you have Jamie Foxx playing the Obama surrogate trying to establish peace in the Middle East and Channing Tatum the ex-Marine that the movie implied to be a Republican. You could've had great fun with that. Still them driving around in a Presidential limo shooting rockets at their pursuers was amusing.

Anyway I was skeptical at the idea of Tatum being an action hero, but he's fine in the Keanu Reeves SPEED mold (i.e. have better actors with actual personalities surround him.) In fact considering his female fanbase, I'm surprised the movie didn't have him be shirtless as much as I would've assumed. Remember when many 80s actioneers did that? I did find it amusingly obnoxious this movie tried to make you feel bad for the guy when the Secret Service rejects him as if he's the victim, but considering his record and whineyness, I think they made the right call at the time. I'm surprised we didn't a scene at the end where he's a smug dick and make a sarcastic quip about "refiling my application" or "getting another interview" or something lame like that.

OLYMPUS has one thing over this film, its villains had a clear-cut goal and motivation (even if nobody takes North Korea seriously.) In DOWN, it's very muddled. Something about the military-industrial complex and wanting to stopping Iran's nuclear program...honestly I'm not really sure what these guys were hoping to accomplish. I think the problem was that originally the bad guys were ultra-right wing Americans and/or fundamentalist Christian terrorists, but then the studio got afraid of offending red state audiences. Which is silly. At the movies we've had evil Germans, Russians, Arabs, Brits, etc. Sure Glenn Beck will whine but outside of him, most folks won't give a shit because it's a movie. Also how the leader gets outwitted, he should be ashamed of himself for being so sloppy. He deserved to lose.

So what else did I like? I liked that random scene when terrorist Jason Clarke shoots several guards, then shoots a George Washington portrait, right in the head. Then latter while fighting Tatum he screams with heavy cheese "I'll carve my name on your chest!!!" I kinda related to Tatum's kid who's all enamored with American history (especially the White House) and being unintentionally annoying by enthusiastically sharing factoids. (That was me as a kid.) I did dig her taping the terrorists with her smartphone and uploading that to her YouTube channel. About time the DIE HARD formula caught up to modern technology. I liked the tech geek terrorist bailing out on his teammates and trying to sneak off. I even laughed at that scene with the White House tour guide hostage politely asking the terrorists to not destroy the priceless antiques. (You can probably guess the inevitable pay off.)

I also laughed at the INDEPENDENCE DAY reference. Not funny in itself, but only on a meta-level if you're aware that this and that picture shared the same director.

You know what RR? Now I have the two mixed up. I had posted I wanted to see Olympus Has Fallen, but now I think it's White House Down. Ha ha ha!! So which is best of the two? I better do some research.



TIS

I think he has gone the way of Chuck of Happy Days. Remember him?The characters they have are funny enough. I hope they bring back his sister.

Looking back at my OHF review, I gave that film the same rating I gave WHD so it's a draw. WHD has the bigger budget and much more "mayhem porn" if you will (bye bye U.S. Capitol building.)

I suppose if I had to pick one over the other, maybe OLYMPUS simply because the terrorist take over sequence was probably better executed. Plus as I said in my review, the villains' motivations are pretty clear cut and not so muddled. North Koreans want to get the American military out of South Korea so they could invade it.

Or maybe I'm biased because I saw that before WHD? Again in the long scheme of things, they're both watchable (but pretty disposable) entertainments.

Thanks RR. They both sound good to me. Maybe I'll see one at the movies and wait for the other to hit tv/HBO.


Trivia (SB you listening) Which movie am I watching? Hint:


"Tiiiiiiime is on my side."



TIS

That one about the mailbox.

Mailbox? Hmmmmmm Nope!!


TIS

The lake house with keanu reeves?

Oh, is that the one Oli referred to? I know that movie but no that's not it either. Geez, didn't expect this to be a real game.

This movie was released in 1998 and the reason why I mentioned SB is because we've talked about this before.


TIS

Lol oh ok

Doesn't mean you can't guess. Another hint: It was kind of a supernatural thriller movie. Very creepy!!



TIS

Haha alright, pratical magic?

Fallen?

LOL No, but since this isn't really a game thread, I'll tell you. It's "Fallen" with Denzel Washington. Good and very creepy movie. It's one of those I always watch at least part of every time it's on.




TIS