I remember back in 1999, waiting in line for hours with my friends from high school to see the Star Wars premiere at midnight. Over twelve years later, Episode I gets a 3-D re-release in theaters, and I had to check it out.
The 3-D stuff was pretty subtle, to the point of being pretty much worthless. Since the film wasn't originally shot in 3-D, it had to be converted, and thankfully, they didn't overdo it to make it in-your-face, like some movies do. But at the same time, it kills the whole purpose of seeing a 3-D movie in the first place if there's nothing jumping out at you.
The movie itself is nearly identical to the original - I noticed a few differences, like an extra unnecessary line of dialogue, and a Three Stooges tribute before the pod race (and coincidentally, the new Three Stooges trailer was on before the feature - and looks pretty decent). There were some extras in the background of various scenes that I didn't recognize, but I don't know if they were new or not.
I remembered about halfway in how terrible this movie was - I hadn't seen it in several years. I had somehow put Jar Jar out of my mind - he couldn't really be THAT annoying, could he? (Yes). And still to this day, I can only understand about 60% of what he says - the percentage is even worse for that Boss Nass guy. Anakin was incredibly annoying, and the accidental blowing up of the ship and accidental shooting of the droids just made me cringe again.
While I was watching, I thought of a few things that would have made the movie a little less bad. If Anakin had been just a bit older - maybe 13 or 14, he would have been less annoying. The love story would have been more believable - a 9 year old falling in love really doesn't work. And he could have been a slightly rebellious teen instead of an innocent little boy. The "he's too old to train as a Jedi" line would have made a little more sense as well.
Another thing I thought about was something in the pod race. At the end of the race, it would have been a great scene if Anakin, in desperation, intentionally damaged Sebulba's pod, causing a fatal crash. It could have been very subtle, so that nobody would have blamed him, not even the audience at first. Everyone watching the movie knew what he was going to turn into eventually, so a character trait that showed just a hint of darkness would have worked well. But of course, since this movie was marketed toward kids, they'd never have allowed this.
I'm sure I could think of a few other things that could have improved the movie, but I'll leave that to the experts - Plinkett's review summed up the craptasticness nicely.
It's summertime, which of course means Hollywood is sending us a dozen or so sequels or remakes, to satisfy the masses of simple-minded movie-watchers. Of course, I'm in that group, so I'm getting ready for a busy season.
Thor comes out on May 6th. Not technically a sequel, but I'll count it because it was introduced in the last Iron Man movie. I don't really know what to expect from this one - I don't know anything at all about the story, but Marvel's got a pretty good track record, so I'd expect this to at least be pretty good.
Next, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, on May 20th. I just finished re-watching the first one, and I'll make time to catch the next two again in the next few weeks. I remember the third one being just a bit too long, so I may consider splitting that one up over two days. The fourth one may turn out to be a sequel that just shouldn't have been made, but I guess we'll find out.
X-Men: First Class will be released on June 3rd. The four movies so far have been good - the first two significantly better than the next two - but I'm hoping this will deliver and bring some interest back in the series so they can keep the story going. I watched the first one again yesterday, and I'm planning on re-watching the rest before First Class is released.
July 1st is Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I enjoyed the first two - plenty of action, comedy, and Megan Fox running in slow motion. No Megan Fox in this one, so I don't know if this one will be as good. But it should deliver plenty of giant robot fights and explosions, so it should be enough.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is coming out on August 5th. When I heard they were making another Apes movie, I assumed it was a sequel to the crapfest they released in 2001, since it ended on a giant cliffhanger. As it turns out, this is a prequel to the original movie series from 1968-1973, of which only Battle for the Planet of the Apes was any good. It's been a long time since I've seen those 5 movies, so I'll have to watch them again before the new one - I'm really not looking forward to that. But who knows about the new one - it may just redeem the series.
Apparently THE Final Destination doesn't mean the last one, since Final Destination 5 is coming out on August 26th. I liked the first four - nothing too complicated, no real story that you need to care about, just a bunch of ludicrous gore. So I'd expect more of the same here.
The Oscars are starting in a few hours, so I should probably get started on this.
Here's a list of the Oscar categories, along with who/what I think should win based on my movie preferences, and who I think will win based on how the academy has the exact opposite taste in movies as me. This year, the only movie that I can agree with the Academy on is Inception - I didn't love the movie, but it did have some nice visuals to it.
I'll come back later and recap how many I get right.
Art Direction My pick: Inception My prediction: Inception Actual winner: Alice in Wonderland - I saw this in the theater in 3-D, and it was definitely not award-worthy.
Documentary Feature My pick: The closest thing I came to watching a documentary this year was an infomercial on Couch Commander. (not nominated) My prediction: Waste Land - I've never heard of any of the nominees, but this one looks like it was made by a bunch of hippies, so it should win. Actual winner: Inside Job
Documentary Short Subject My pick: Another informercial: Snuggie Macarena (not nominated) My prediction: The Warriors of Qiugang - Never heard of any of these nominees either, but if you put some obscure city name in your title, and make it sound exciting when it's really something totally different and boring, you've got a winner. Actual winner: Strangers No More
Foreign Language Film My pick: True Grit With Subtitles (not nominated) My prediction: Biutiful (I've never heard of any of these, but I'm predicting that not knowing how to spell the title of the movie makes this one a winner) Actual winner: In a Better World
Makeup My pick: Kick-Ass (not nominated) My prediction: The Way Back Actual winner: The Wolfman - kind of surprising, since from what I've seen in the 10 seconds of clips they showed, it looks like that was mostly CGI, not makeup.
"It's not just about me and my dream of doing nothing. It's about all of us, together. I don't know what happened to me at that hypnotherapist and, I don't know, maybe it was just shock and it's wearing off now, but when I saw that fat man keel over and die - Michael, we don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements."
Here's a list of my favorite movies of 2010 - not exactly the best year for movies, but there were a few decent releases. My complete movie ranking can be found at http://www.jtenos.com/Movies, where you'll see my lifetime ranking, and my intelligent and thought-provoking commentary on each movie, as demonstrated here. Every once in a while, I actually even write more than one generic sentence.
(1) - The A-Team (#43 overall) This was very entertaining from start to finish. Lots of action, lots of comedy, and lots of fun. As expected, there are a few quick cameos from some of the original actors, and some inside jokes about the series, adding to the fun without being a distraction. Overall an outstanding popcorn flick.
(2) - Kick-Ass (#128 overall) Quite a bit of humor, and plenty of ridiculous "Shoot 'Em Up"-style action and violence. There were a few different comedy styles, from the typical teen movie sex jokes, to the "funny because it's unexpected", to the "making fun of its own genre", to the "that's so ridiculous that it's funny". They all worked well together to produce one pretty funny movie.
(3) - Salt (#147 overall) This stayed exciting and interesting from beginning to end. The story wasn't perfect, but the action was fun, and it kept you on the edge of your seat.
(4) - Hot Tub Time Machine (#154 overall) Consistently funny throughout most of the movie - definitely better than I was expecting. Lots of zany antics and shenanigans, without being too over the top with slapstick.
(5) - Machete (#162 overall) This was exactly what it was supposed to be, and it was very good at it. Plenty of violence, over-stereotyped characters, gratuitous nudity, and more violence. Very entertaining.
(6) - The Expendables (#168 overall) Exactly what you think it's going to be. Lots of explosions, cliches, bad acting, and other awesomeness. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, definitely a can't-miss movie.
(7) - Killers (#203 overall) Lots of decent jokes and gags. The plot was pretty predictable, especially since I've seen this plot several times before, but they had fun with it. The movie started out like a typical sappy romantic comedy, but thankfully the relationship stuff took a backseat to the more straight comedy, combined with car chases and things blowing up.
(8) - MacGruber (#280 overall) Lots of funny scenes, but nothing extraordinarily funny. Worth watching once, but probably something that you could wait to rent.
(9) - Red (#288 overall) This was reasonably entertaining - could have used some more comedy, but it had a decent story, a decent amount of humor, and some action.
(10) - Inception (#291 overall) Pretty good visuals, and a decent story. Definitely had its flaws, but it's probably worth watching.
"We must meet this threat with our courage, our valor, indeed with our very lives to ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always!"
"I challenge you... Strike a blow for motherhood! Strike a blow for the American justice system! Put the 'can' back in American! Put the 'ju' back in jurisprudence! Put the 'con' back in the constitution! And put the 'dom' back in freedom!"
"Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever."
"I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot."
"Crazy? Some people think walking down the street muttering to yourself is crazy. I'll tell you what crazy is. Crazy is walking down the street with half a cantaloupe on your head, saying 'I'm a hamster...I'm a hamster'. Now that's crazy."
"Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance Team America, and then Team America goes out... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money." (Video)
"Protecting the Queen's safety is a task that is gladly accepted by Police Squad. No matter how silly the idea of having a queen might be to us, as Americans, we must be gracious and considerate hosts."
Alice was made in a very similar fashion to the one they did a few years ago, Tin Man, which was the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Both mini-series were very popular, and I believe they were the two top-watched Sci-Fi/Syfy mini-series in the channel's history. The two original stories were similar to begin with, but Alice appears to intentionally mirror Tin Man in story, theme, tone, and style. For example, in Tin Man, the tin man character was just a person, with the nickname "tin man" because of his metal police badge - same here, with characters like the caterpillar and white rabbit being ordinary people with "code names". Both take place in the alternate reality long after the "original" story, with Alice and Dorothy both being drawn in to deal with events following their same-named predecessors long ago.
There were several recognizable faces, including several sci-fi actors, like Colm Meaney (O'Brien from TNG and DS9) as the King of Hearts, Teryl Rothery (Fraiser from SG-1) as Alice's mother, Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta from BSG) as the 9 of Clubs, and Matt Frewer (crazy time-traveler guy from that one episode of TNG) as the White Knight, aka Don Quixote. Kathy Bates (crazy stalker from Misery) played the Queen of Hearts, and there were several other faces I've seen before in various shows and movies through the years. The lead, Caterina Scorsone, hasn't been in anything popular before, but she did a reasonably good job as Alice.
I haven't read the original book, seen the Disney movie, the numerous other movies or musicals, nor the newest Tim Burton remake, so I don't know all the links to the original story, or how much they followed or butchered story items. But overall, I would say that by itself, this was somewhat entertaining, if a little long and drawn out - the 3-hour length is an unfortunate necessity for mini-series, but it probably would have been better as two hours. In my opinion, it's not as good as Tin Man, but better than some of the crap that's been released lately.
This afternoon I watched Avatar in IMAX 3-D. Incredibly impressive work, definitely worth all the hype it's been given for its visual effects.
I'm not sure how much of this was the movie and how much was the IMAX 3-D tech, but like I've read several places, you really can get lost in the action, as if you're really there flying through the forest. There is a lot of movement, not shaky-camera stuff, but still probably enough to make some people a little motionsick. As long as you can handle it, however, if you allow yourself to believe what you're seeing, you'll be amazed at the sensation.
The technology is still not quite perfect - both the 3-D and the CGI are not 100% yet, but they are definitely better than anything I've seen up until now. I don't know all the technical details, but the movie was shot at the standard 24 frames per second, which, combined with the strobing effects of the 3-D, makes movement a little weird at times. From what I've read, they're working on improving this technology, and hopefully for the sequel (of course there will be a sequel), they'll bump it up to 48 or 60 frames per second.
The movie itself was decent - I guess it borrows a lot of story from other movies, and doesn't really provide anything unexpected or brilliant. But Avatar is not about the plot or characters, but rather the effects. With a stunning set of visuals, and a story that does manage to stay reasonably interesting, they've definitely got a winner here.
Frankly the plot was incredibly superficial. The demonization of corportions and the military was almost as transparent as it's canonization of the Native Americans...err...Na'vi.
The acting was as average and unremarkable as you can get. No actor failed to perform, but no one was impressive in any scene. Also, I distinctly remember once scene where Jake Sully forgot to speak with an American accent (the actor is Australian, I think). How does that make through editing of a nine-figure budget?
Still, I feel the ticket price was a bargain for the viewing. I don't require perfection to feel it worth my time and money to go the the movies. I require something spectacular that only a big screen can transmit. On this, Avatar delivered.
2009 has been a pretty big year for celebrity deaths. Here are my reactions to some of the bigger ones, and what I found most memorable about their lives.
(1) Billy Mays [07/20/1958 - 06/28/2009] Billy Mays was the most in-your-face pitchman on TV, and his commercials were always fun to watch. His style definitely worked - it's hard to find anyone who doesn't know what OxiClean or Orange Glo is, all thanks to Mays's unique showmanship.
(2) Michael Jackson [08/29/1958 - 06/25/2009] This was by far the biggest worldwide event of the year, with millions of people tuning into every detail. After his death, people immediately stopped talking about his creepiness or possible terrible indiscretions, and focused on his music and early life. Thriller, Bad, Beat It, and Black or White are my favorites of the Michael Jackson collection.
(3) Gidget Chipperton [c. 1994 - 07/21/2090] The Taco Bell dog was an enormously popular campaign for Taco Bell back in 1997. I remember the first time seeing the commercial - one of the funniest things I'd ever seen in a commercial, just so ridiculous that it totally worked. I even remember having a "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" T-shirt with a picture of the dog on it.
(4) Ricardo Montalban [11/25/1920 - 01/14/2009] Ricard Montalban had a long and successful career in TV and movies. His greatest role was Khan in Star Trek II - the character was just the right amount of evil. Second best was Vincent Ludwig in The Naked Gun - one of the funniest movies ever made, and Montalban's character was hilarious.
(5) Henry Gibson [09/21/1935 - 09/14/2009] Not a hugely popular actor, but he played one of the funniest roles on Boston Legal - Judge Clark Brown. Judge Brown was the namby-pamby judge who still lived with his mother, and was constantly manipulated by the main characters in court.
(6) Ed McMahon [03/06/1923 - 06/23/2009] I barely remember Ed McMahon from The Tonight Show - I remember him more as the American Family Publishers guy, and the guy that hosted Bloopers and Practical Jokes.
(8) Farrah Fawcett [02/02/1947 - 06/25/2009] This picture is actually the only thing I've ever seen her in.
(9) Wayman Tisdale [06/09/1964 - 05/15/2009] Wayman Tisdale had a long and successful career in the NBA, including his last three seasons with the Phoenix Suns. In addition, he was a very talented jazz musician, releasing several popular albums. He was just a great guy, and was taken early after a fight with cancer.
(10) David Carradine [12/08/1936 - 06/03/2009] I never saw Kung Fu or any of the other hundreds of things David Carradine was in, except Kill Bill (both parts), which were absolutely awful movies. The thing I'll remember most about him was the ridiculous circumstances of his death. Depending on who you believe, he likely died in the most embarassing way possible, in a...how do I put this...compromising situation (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just leave it at that - you don't want to know).
Other famous deaths included Patrick Swayze [08/18/1952 - 09/14/2009] (that guy from some crappy movie in the 80's), Ted Kennedy [02/22/1932 - 08/25/2009] (that old guy), Walter Cronkite [11/04/1916 - 07/17/2009] (that guy from the TV news), and Bea Arthur [05/13/1922 - 04/25/2009] (what's-her-name from The Golden Girls). There's also a ridiculously long list (probably a few thousand) of notable 2009 deaths over at Wikipedia.
The new direct-to-DVD movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan was recently released on DVD. This movie is a follow-up to the hugely popular series Battlestar Galactica, the reimagined series of the same name from the late 70's. The new series ran for 4 seasons, and was an excellent addition to the sci-fi genre that has become popular again in recent years. There were some aspects of the show, including the finale, that were a little out there, but for the most part, people have nothing but good things to say about the show.
The series focused on the conflicts between the human survivors and a race of machines called the Cylons. The Cylons are a very complex race, and their story evolved significantly over the four seasons. The Plan is supposed to give you some of the back story of the Cylons from early on, things that you wouldn't have known during the run of the first two seasons.
Like the other BSG follow-up, Caprica (a.k.a. Craprica), The Plan pretty much sucked. It was exactly as described - the first two seasons from the point of view of the Cylons. But there was absolutely nothing interesting about it, except of course for the unnecessary gratuitous nudity (just like Caprica). I'm no prude, but it really looked like they just did it for the "Hey, we're not on TV anymore, so let's throw some naked people in there" factor. The interesting stories that made up the series were set as backdrops for the boring and useless dialogue of the Cylons, with a noticeably missing character of "Number Three" (Lucy Lawless). Watching this movie was like watching two hours of deleted scenes from the show - a little bit of "hmm, that's something new, but not all that interesting", but mostly "this is a bunch of boring crap that I'm glad I didn't have to deal with in the show".
It's just too bad that a great show like BSG has produced such crappy follow-ups.
Recently, a new trend in movies seems to be starting: lazy titles for sequels. You've got movies where the only difference in title is the word "The". In April, we saw Fast & Furious, the third sequel to The Fast and the Furious. Later this month, The Final Destination is coming out, which is the fourth in the Final Destination series.
In addition, we've got titles that sound like they should be the first movie, but technically are not duplicate titles: Star Trek is the eleventh film in the franchise, while the first movie was named Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The latest Rocky sequel is named Rocky Balboa. Rambo was released last year, which technically isn't a duplicate name because the first movie was named First Blood, though commonly referred to simply as "Rambo".
When the trailers for the new Star Trek movie came out, I was skeptical about the quality of the movie. My main concern was with the re-casting of characters that we have come to know over the past 40 years, and how they could not be replaced. In addition, I believed that they were simply going to paint over the craptasticness of the movie with lots of special effects in order to confuse the audience into thinking that it was a good movie.
After watching the movie, I'd have to say that I was only partially right. There were many things that I didn't like about the movie, but overall I'd have to say that I did like the movie in general.
If you haven't seen the movie, then do not read below this paragraph. I'll just leave you with my opinion that while it's not really Star Trek the way we've come to know it, it's still a pretty good movie. I would, however, rank it 8th best in the movie series (6-8-2-3-4-7-5-11-9-10-1).
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
***SPOILER ALERT!!!***
Casting: I knew going in that the characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhuru were tied to the original actors, and it was hard to believe anyone else in those roles. However, since they had to re-cast them anyway, I think they did a pretty good job.
Characters: Separate from the actors portrayals of the characters is the concept of the characters themselves. Much of the dialogue and the actions of the characters goes against what we know of them. This can only partially be attributed to the alternate timeline; the rest is an overwrite of the characters, which has to be expected given a clean reboot of the series, so I can't be overly critical of this.
Time Travel: They've already done it in 3 of the movies (4, 8, and I'm counting 7, even though it was only back a couple hours). When I first heard that they were going to do time travel again, and bring back an older version of Spock, I thought that this was really unnecessary, that they could have done something else better. But it turns out that the introduction of an alternate reality leads to all kinds of possibilities, including sequels where events don't need to unfold the way we remember them, because it's a completely different timeline. I'd say this was an excellent way of avoiding having to conform to the traditional Star Trek story.
Cadets: Maybe I missed something, but when you have a brand new ship that's the flagship of a fleet, you wouldn't assign a bunch of cadets with zero experience to run it. McCoy was a cadet who for some reason was a senior medical officer, second only to the chief. Kirk was a cadet who wasn't even invited on the ship, and became first officer and captain in a matter of hours. I would expect that a ship with hundreds of people on it would have a better chain of command. After all, in a normal day, there have to be a second, third, maybe even fourth shift, which means three or four levels of officers that should be in the chain of command before a cadet even is considered for the job, even if it is someone the captain likes. And being permanently promoted to captain and given command of the flagship, skipping the ranks completely, after a single successful mission, seems ridiculous.
Misc.: I didn't like the 'stick a bug in his head to get him to talk' idea. That was already used once before, and really shouldn't have been done again.
The interior of the ship looked ridiculous - every part of it. What were they smoking when they came up with that design?
How many times do they need to change how the transporter beam looks?
I loved the 'red shirt' that came along for the parachuting ride - great homage to the original show.
A couple days ago the 81st Annual Academy Awards aired. Just like every year, they picked terrible choices to win just about every category. I decided to put together my own movie award list, with winners in most Oscar categories. This list covers all time, not just the past year.
Update: I have updated the entry to show which of these actually won or were nominated in their respective categories. There were a few (Jodie Foster, Tommy Lee Jones, Marisa Tomei, The Dark Knight, and The Matrix), proving that the academy isn't always wrong...
Is it just me, or does the new Star Trek movie look like it's going to be the worst movie ever made? The first time I saw the trailer, I thought it was a joke - it looks absolutely awful. I've been expecting it for awhile now, ever since I heard that they were doing a prequel. There are just some things you shouldn't re-cast. Batman, Superman, James Bond, and other similar remakes worked because the characters weren't tied to the actors. William Shatner is and always will be Kirk - same for Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the cast.
But even aside from the casting, the movie looks awful. They're using crazy gimmicks - Kirk as a child being chased by a robot, a Kirk-Uhuru sex scene, an angry Spock, a monster-like creature attacking them, and a terrible redesign of the ship. It looks like they're trying to fill the movie with action to make up for the stupidity - if nothing else, the movie may have plenty of sci-fi action.
I'll still be there for the opening day Midnight show, but that doesn't mean I'll like it.
I don't know, Joe; it looks like it'll be a pretty cool picture. I liked the trailer. Keep an open mind. Remember, the first three Star Wars movies were prequels.
I haven't seen the trailer but I can guarantee it will not be the worst movie ever. The title of worst movie ever belongs to Alexndar the Great. That's 3 hours of my life I can't get back
Actually, I just watched the trailer and I'm now much more excited about seeing it. Then again, I'm not a die hard trekie so I could be missing some obvious mis-steps that would drive a more dedicated fan crazy.
@Jared: Thanks for the warning - I'll make sure I stay away from Alexander the Great.
The previews do look exciting - lots of action and explosions and stuff like that, but it's just not Star Trek. If they would have made a regular non-Star Trek movie like this, or even a Star Trek with a different cast of characters, it probably would be just fine. My biggest problem is that they're screwing with characters that fans have known and loved for 40 years.
I don't know why I keep watching M. Night Shyamalan's movies. Every time I think that maybe this time will be different. Today I rented The Happening, hoping that maybe it would be good. Instead it was exactly the same as every other one of his movies - terrible overacting, unbelievable dialogue, and not-so-interesting supernatural twists.
The Sixth Sense really wasn't terrible, even with the overacting. After it was over, you can look at it and say "Well, I didn't see that coming. The movie may have sucked, but at least it's different." Unbreakable was terrible, and Signs was pretty bad as well. The Village was a little less bad, but still nothing special. Then top it off with the craptastic Lady In The Water. So I guess I really should have known better than to watch this one.
Next time this guy releases a movie, remind me not to watch it...But I'll probably watch it anyway, then complain about it.
M.Night Shyamalan is currently working on a big screen production of The Last Airbender. Don't forget not to go to it, and don't say I didn't warn you when you do and it sucks too. :)
@Dan: Wow, that really does look bad. Here's the summary I pulled of IMDB:
The story follows the adventures of the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.
I found a fun article called 5 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do (PG - some profanity), from the good folks at Cracked Entertainment, where several movies are called out for being technologically ridiculous. It's a funny look at why these things are ridiculous, along with what would happen in real life.
Just finished watching the 1980 movie Flash Gordon. It's hard to describe just how bad this movie is. Absolutely awful in every possible way - acting, characters, story, special effects, music, dialogue - all were just terrible. But for some reason, I just couldn't turn away.
I didn't have any idea in advance what the movie was about - it just happened to be on my Blockbuster queue - I never even saw a trailer. I thought it was some kind of superhero movie - I've enjoyed a lot of comic book movies lately like the X-Men series, Batman Begins, and the Spider-Man series. But I must have been thinking of the "Flash" - this turned out to be just some regular 80's sci-fi crap.
I normally turn bad movies off after no more than 15 or 20 minutes, but this was just so awesomely bad (to borrow a phrase from VH1), I had to keep watching. It just kept getting stupider and stupider - I felt like I was losing IQ points with every passing minute. I realize they were trying to make a camp style movie, but this was just overkill.
I can't believe nobody called you on this. A quick perusal of your movie ranking list shows that about 25 of your top 100 are movies released prior to 1990, and I'm not even counting the movies that were actually "made" before this date but released later for one stupid reason or another. Two of your top 5 are pre-1990 flicks. A quick scan of the other 566 films reveals that in fact you do like quite a significant number of films that were made prior to 1990. So I officially call bs on this comment. [Language sanitized in deference to your mom]
But when you consider that the 50 or so pre-1990 movies in my 'good' list are only a tiny percentage of the total movie population for that time period, my argument still works.
