Movies to dread

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Last Airbender is quickly gaining transcendentally bad pop culture reputation, via twitter:

Michael Ian Black (comedian/actor): "The only thing "The Last Airbender" seems to have going for it is that M. Night Shyamalan didn't cast Mel Gibson again."

Bill Simmons (sportwriter): "Stephen A. Smith reports that M. Night Shyamalan and David Kahn are joining forces to create the worst basketball movie ever."

BTW, check this out:

http://lastairbenderfilm.com/category/budget/ said:
Paramount Gambles Big With Airbender
June 25, 2010

A recent LA Times Business article has revealed that not only has Paramount invested $150 million into the production of The Last Airbender, but also a gargantuan $130 million into the marketing campaign, making The Last Airbender more than twice as expensive as any of M. Night’s previous films! Paramount Chief Executive Brady Grey doesn’t seem worried.

“Like every filmmaker, Night has had his hits and misses, but I believed in his vision and that he could execute it,” Grey said, adding “It’s a bold step because he had to create a potential new family franchise.”

With an unprecedented cross-promotional marketing campaign between Viacom owned networks Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Spike TV, and CMT, one can hardly fault him for his optimism. However, Airbender does face stiff competition in the third entry in the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, opening a day earlier.

“I’m hoping after they see ‘Eclipse,’ they’ll come see our movie,” Shyamalan said.

http://lastairbenderfilm.com/2009/04/21/budget-confirmed-250-million/ said:
Budget Confirmed: $250 Million
By nextairbender

Frank Marshall confirmed today that the budget for the planned The Last Airbender trilogy is $250 million, and that they will be spending more on the first film “to create the world.”

Holy shit, this could be epic! They already spent $280 MILLION on this turkey, it's opening against arguably the biggest movie of the year, and if the the word of mouth is any indication of how it will do at the box office... Wow, shortly after one Avatar becomes the highest grossing movie ever, this one might become the biggest failure!

The twist at the end is that M. Night's career was already dead. :ganishka:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
osment.jpg
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/last-airbender-opens-to-3m-midnights/

Looks like it wasn't meant to be, my biggest fear was the lowest common denominator that is international market, but it looks like it won't bomb domestically either. Man, it seems like every movie that comes out purporting to be a big movie makes 60 million dollars it's first week, no matter how big a piece of shit it is. Combine that with jacked up 3D prices, and you wonder how studios even lose money these days. Besides making Jonah Hex.

Fuck it, I'm still holding out hope, maybe those estimates won't come to be, interest will drop sharply in a week, and the international audiences will shun it for not even casting an Asian kid in the part, then it can it's rightful place on the glorious list below! :guts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biggest_box_office_bombs

Some of these movies I forgot existed, like THIS: Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic:_Ecks_vs._Sever said:
The film was universally panned by critics, who generally regarded it as having no redeeming features, not even the comedic value normally associated with bad films. It is often listed among the worst movies ever made. In March 2007, the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film #1 among "The Worst of the Worst" movie list, with 107 "rotten" reviews and no "fresh" ones. Financially, the film was also a box office failure, recouping just over $19.9 million of its $70 million budget.
Or, if it wasn't clear that time...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic:_Ecks_vs._Sever said:
The film was a massive box office failure, grossing less than 30% of its budget at the box office. It also received mostly negative reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes ranked Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever number 1 on its "The 100 Worst Reviewed Films of All Time" list. All of the 107 available reviews gave the film negative ratings, which resulted in a 0% fresh rating. The film was ranked number one worst movie of the decade.

Ok, but what did Deci and dwarfkicker think? :carcus:

Just kidding fellas. :slan: But seriously, as impressive as all those stats are, it still doesn't live up to the awfulness promised by the title. :ganishka:
 
Ok, but what did Deci and dwarfkicker think?

I can honestly say Grif, that this is the first time I think I'll be listening to the critics. Waaaaay too many negative reviews for my taste. My fiance and a few of my buddies want to see it. But I'm gonna pass. The cartoon was entertaining.

I'll go see a movie even if the reveiws are split, or in favor of the negative spectrum (Transformers 2 which I enjoyed). But when just about every review is dogging a movie, then clearly it's not a good movie.

So....pass :guts:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
グリフィス said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biggest_box_office_bombs

Haha, 13th Warrior is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Casting Antonio Banderas as an Arab? Genius. :troll:
 
X

Xem

Guest
Yea we opted not to see it also, like dwarfkicker said, the amount of negative reviews are overwhelming. The reason I'd normally ignore them is because of films like The Village and Lady in the Water, which we enjoyed yet both got bad reviews. But Avatar... erm, I mean The Last Airbender, I feel confidently is surpassing the threshold of misguided bad reviews into just being a bad movie.

I'm casually thinking of seeing Knight and Day, because initially it looked like I might get more funny Cruise (see: Tropic Thunder), but now I'm realizing it's probably just another romantic comedy trying to pass off as an action movie... or the other way around. Either way, interest is waning there as well.

When's the next Harry Potter movie come out? :???: :troll:
 
My fiance wants to see Eclipse and unfortunately there's no getting out of this one for me :judo: Thankfully she wants to wait about a week or two so we aren't crammed into a theater with a bunch of whacko twi-hards....doesn't make me feel any better.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/interviews/a238478/adrien-brody-predators.html

Interview with Adrien Brody about Predators. If someone can sit through this, let me know what's said, because about a quarter of the way in I was too bored with it to continue. Sounded like he was trying to say all the right things, anyway.
 
Airbender= horrible acting, decent cg, and a decent hole in the plot. Avoid at all costs, well maybe not a dollar at the redbox when it hits dvd. Totally not worth seeing in the theater.
 
Predators officially belongs in this thread. Spoilers ahead, so be warned.

What worked:
Some decent performances here and there.
Some expansion on Predator mythology. (Like how there's a blood feud between different Predator races. They hunt in parties of 3 while on the preserve. The yakuza guy finds a sword and notes it's very old. Think the gun from 1715 in Predator 2.)
The Predator Dogs were possibly the coolest alien in this movie. Yup.
The music brought back pleasant memories.

What didn't work...at all.

Too many characters. The Surgeon and the Death Row Inmate should've been rolled into one. As could the Russian and the African.
The Russian with the mini gun was there only for morons to go, "Look a mini gun! Like part 1. WOW." There was an African fellow who fell much too soon and had potential to shine.
The rehash of Billy taking off his gear to fight the Predator, only this time it's the Yakuza. The sword fight that follows is awful as the guy in the Predator suit just moved so damn awkward. He clearly couldn't see shit. (People clapping at the end of this scene should be smacked...hard.)
There are 3 rogue Predators, none with a unique personality so to speak. It's a major problem when you could've replaced the Predators with Werewolves and the movie would still work. 2 of the 3 Rogue Predators get taken out so quick it's shameful. There absolutely should've been one Rogue.
There's no new Predator weaponry. That's a major no-no. Pred 2 introduced the Net Gun, the disc, the spear, the darts. Hell, PROPS to AvP and AvP:R for trying to be bold and add things for the Preds to play with. There's a mechanical(?) bird that's in this movie for literally 9 seconds. Waste.
Adrien Brody does a decent job. But towards the end he literally says, "I'm here. Come on. Kill me. I'm here." Just...so...wrong.
There's another quasi Pred-Human team up. Yay! Wait, boo.

Oh yeah and Morpeheus turns out to be a doosh bag.


All in all, it's bad. It's not AvP:R bad, but still bad. More doesn't equal better. :farnese:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Proj2501 said:
Predators officially belongs in this thread. Spoilers ahead, so be warned.

Unfortunate but predictable. I was shaking my head at some of your spoilered feedback. For all its faults, Predator 2 did a few things right, and they couldn't even build on them. The lack of talent in Hollywood these days really is tragic. Isn't there anyone out there denouncing it? Why isn't Ebert fighting the good fight instead of buffooning about video games?
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Good review, I enjoyed your detailed report, Proj. Too bad the news couldn't be better.

Aazealh said:
Isn't there anyone out there denouncing it? Why isn't Ebert fighting the good fight instead of buffooning about video games?

Ebert can barely keep the facts straight of the movies he reviews, his goofs are a staple at this point. Here's his rambling take on Predators, which I noted he simply called "Predator" in a link he provided to the review. Can't even keep the title straight! =)

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100707/REVIEWS/100709982

Anyway, he doesn't like it much either, the review is mostly made up of a few tangents about various things that don't make sense to him in these movies, and it has a few amusing lines at the film's expense.
 
Three and a half stars ign:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1104627p1.html

I'm still optimistic. Seeing it tonight. If anything it'll get out the foul taste that Eclipse left in my mouth :mozgus:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
dwarfkicker said:
Three and a half stars ign:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1104627p1.html

The rundown of the cast of characters reads like a list of cliches dumb people would think are cool. Half of them don't even sound suitable for the premise. Anyway, from that article, it still sounds like it's "the best Predator movie since the original" only by default. Still, after the details of it and Proj's review, I'm actually more intrigued than before (granted, I really wasn't giving them any credit at all, to the point that Proj's negative review was relatively positive compared to my expectations of what he'd say about it =). Unfortunately, I get the feeling that most of the intriguing stuff is more promising in my imagination than it will turn out to be in reality, as Proj can attest.

dwarfkicker said:
I'm still optimistic.

Can't you just lower your expectations and then be pleasantly surprised when you like it? You should be a Cleveland fan, they could use optimism now. =)

dwarfkicker said:
Seeing it tonight. If anything it'll get out the foul taste that Eclipse left in my mouth :mozgus:

Now that's a sound strategy, because after that anything is an upgrade, and a movie with predators is practically salvation.
 
Now that's a sound strategy, because after that anything is an upgrade, and a movie with predators is practically salvation.

Haha, I couldn't agree more :guts:

It's doing well on Rotten Tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012256-predators/

71% fresh rating.

I'm willing to bet what it's going to come down to is how highly anyone regards the previous films.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
dwarfkicker said:
I'm willing to bet what it's going to come down to is how highly anyone regards the previous films.

Generally speaking, one doesn't have to love the original to think a new incarnation sucks in its own right. Anyway, sounds like code for downgrading a better film to raise up a worse one. Or, grading everything pass/no pass, even if one's an A+ and the other is a C-.
 
Back. What threw me off prior to seeing the film was checking Rotten Tomatoes first. The score was surprisingly high there (70's). Then I scoped out Meta Critic, there it scored very, very low (40's). That made me uneasy.

Well, here's more that's come to mind of what didn't work.

Morpheus cannot be taken seriously partly due to how FAT he is. For someone marooned on an alien game preserve he's sure packing on the pounds. I guess he eats people after he smokes the to death. Fat Fuck. He also has this 'imaginary friend', think Gollum. His entire 6 minutes in the movie could be a deleted scene on the DVD. No joke. Ugh.

Here's something major that pisses me the fuck off. The scene from the trailer where Brody is covered is 15+ Predator laser sights...
predators-adrien-brody.jpg

...NEVER FUCKING HAPPENS. Purely bullshit to puff up the trailer.

A guy's spine and skull is ripped out. As soon as the Predator heaves up, the dude's face apparently melts off as all we see in the next shot is a bloody skull with no eyes, skin or hair. :azan:

The Classic Predator's inner jaw doesn't move. Just remains open. Small gripe but the fucking original's and P2's fucking moved.

Morpheus' death scene is lame. Whenever a Predator shoots someone with his shoulder cannon, they DON'T LIQUIFY! Morpheus' mushy body does just that. SPLASH!

Troublemaker didn't even do the Predator's blood right.

There's an Alien Creature introduced then promptly gunned down for seemingly no reason other than to introduce Morpheus. Here's a moment we could've shown [shock] a new brand of alien that serves as some purpose. Maybe he tries to communicate with or help or kill the humans, (think District 9). Nope, it just chases Topher Grace and gets blown away. Instead of the 8-9 mediocre human characters we had to put up with (yakuzas...ugh) we should've lost half of them and had the humans forge an alliance out of necessity with the 'New Alien'. Fuck Morpheus. His acting sucked. Give me an Alien who communicates with hands, and noises and draws pictures in the dirt. That would've been better.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Proj2501 said:
Here's something major that pisses me the fuck off. The scene from the trailer where Brody is covered is 15+ Predator laser sights...
http://www.fancast.com/blogs/files/2010/03/predators-adrien-brody.jpg
...NEVER FUCKING HAPPENS. Purely bullshit to puff up the trailer.

Then again, there's something inherently retarded with that scene. Why are some Predators aiming at his shoulders, arms, ribs? Why aren't they all pointing at his head or heart? It's obvious no one gave this any thought beyond the "COVERED IN RED DOTS" aspect.
 
Really, it's makes me mad. I keep remembering Rodriguez smugly stating since he didn't have to direct it, he just threw SO much in the script. Ugh. Yeah, don't direct PREDATORS to do MACHETE, which will revolutionize the underground, hipster, 'B-Movie on purpose' scene.

*Middle finger way up*.

Nimrod Antal. I don't know how much I should hate or not hate this guy. There was moments were the film did shine and upon recalling statements from him, he was really trying to beat the clock with regards to his allotted time to complete production. I'm iffy. Since Rodriguez hogged the PR spotlight since Day 1, I'm going to say he's more at fault here.

This movie lacked a soul of it's own. Predator 2 went to the city and built on the Predator itself. This film tries to invoke what made part 1 awesome. It leaves you thinking how Predator (1) did everything better.

If Troublemaker Studios is it's own little studio free from the Hollywood bullshit as Rodriguez makes it out to be, what the fuck was the rush?

Even more of what sucked:

The Classic Predator's masked was too huge. I'm convinced we'll never see the slender design grace the screen again.

Topher Grace is able to identify an ALIEN PLANT and discern how poisonous it is. Um...HOW THE FUCK DOES HE DO THAT?!

A claymore blows up and the strange liquid fire chases the characters as they flee the explosion. Sloppy effects there.

Again, 1 claymore is enough to end a Predator but 8 hand grenades sends a Predator flying 10 feet. :???

Apparently, 5 O'clock is bitch raping time. :schierke:

Last but not least the line STOLEN from ALIENS: "If it comes to that, I'll do us both."

Aazealh said:
Then again, there's something inherently retarded with that scene. Why are some Predators aiming at his shoulders, arms, ribs? Why aren't they all pointing at his head or heart? It's obvious no one gave this any thought beyond the "COVERED IN RED DOTS" aspect.

Intimidation baby.

dwarfkicker said:
I'm still optimistic. Seeing it tonight. If anything it'll get out the foul taste that Eclipse left in my mouth :mozgus:

Really? I'll never ever watch any of those emo-bullshit movies. But I guess PREDATORS will seem amazing after that fag-fest.


Well, all that's left is for Ridley to get around to ruining the Alien series even more. :mozgus: :mozgus: :mozgus:
 
Really? I'll never ever watch any of those emo-bullshit movies. But I guess PREDATORS will seem amazing after that fag-fest.

In love there's this little thing called compromise, thus I've had to sit through all three of these Twilight movies with my fiance. Shiny diamond vamps, where the hell's Blade at?!
 
dwarfkicker said:
In love there's this little thing called compromise, thus I've had to sit through all three of these Twilight movies with my fiance.

Well, if she loved you, she wouldn't have you go through torture like that, right? Just kidding, man. Love is beautiful. :rakshas:
 
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