Venneh Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 Downton Abbey - WHY DOES NETFLIX NOT HAVE S2 YET? Oh wait, it's all streaming on PBS, nevermind. Also, ALL HAIL THE DOWAGER COUNTESS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 I was just hanging out at Jonathan's house, where we watched every episode so far aired of The Aquabats! Super Show! Holy. Fucking. SHIT. This is like "What if the producers of the Adam West Batman show and the producers of The Monkees said "fuck it" and combined them into one show. With cartoons. And kaiju. I've been a fan of the Aquabats for ages, but this is the most fun I've had watching anything for as long as I can remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM7OjHhxvm0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 That looks amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stavros Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Being Elmo- A Puppeteer's Journey. Loved it. Kevin Clash is an absolute magician, and every time he brings Elmo to life I smiled. They do a great job maintaining the tone of the film, letting some stuff go unsaid but implied so as not to go into some stuff that's too personal. Mostly what this is about is an immensely talented man who's greatest creation personifies the love and innocence that is at the heart of Sesame Street. Loved the insight into him getting his chances at breaking into puppeteering, and the clear love for Jim Henson as well. Fantastic documentary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Silver Surfer - The only 90s Marvel cartoon that I did not watch as a kid. I am not a fan of the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. However, this was decent. The Surfer is a bit whiney (a la 90s cartoon Peter Parker). But, it is nice to see characters I barely know (Adam Warlock, Beta Ray Bill, Thanos) in a cartoon. Not anything special, but decent enough. Witchblade (Anime) - I really enjoyed this. For something that I thought would be pure cheesecake, it has a huge amount of heart and surprisingly little cheesecake. Granted, it is there, but it is limited. What is also limited is the action, but getting fully formed characters makes the action better. My only complaint is the ending is incredibly rushed. The last episode should have been two. But it is one and is lacking true epic-ness. Still a good watch. The Tick (Live-Action) - I love this show. Being only 9 episodes I should be left wanting more. However, as much as I love this show, I can see how it could have gone downhill fast. Also, Batmanuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 The Tick (Live-Action) - I love this show. Being only 9 episodes I should be left wanting more. However, as much as I love this show, I can see how it could have gone downhill fast. Also, Batmanuel. There is no possible universe where this show lasted for any length of time and remained any good. Its shelf life was EXTREMELY limited. However, the episodes we got were fairly amazing. I covered it for the site a few years ago, though I don't see it in the reviews section offhand. Awesome show, though. Warburton was BORN to play the Tick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFetch Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Silver Surfer - The only 90s Marvel cartoon that I did not watch as a kid. I am not a fan of the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. However, this was decent. The Surfer is a bit whiney (a la 90s cartoon Peter Parker). But, it is nice to see characters I barely know (Adam Warlock, Beta Ray Bill, Thanos) in a cartoon. Not anything special, but decent enough. I thought it was a terrible cartoon, and confusing as hell for kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Being Elmo- A Puppeteer's Journey. Loved it. Kevin Clash is an absolute magician, and every time he brings Elmo to life I smiled. They do a great job maintaining the tone of the film, letting some stuff go unsaid but implied so as not to go into some stuff that's too personal. Mostly what this is about is an immensely talented man who's greatest creation personifies the love and innocence that is at the heart of Sesame Street. Loved the insight into him getting his chances at breaking into puppeteering, and the clear love for Jim Henson as well. Fantastic documentary. Agreed. I teared up when they got to Henson's passing, and smiled greatly when he was mentoring the child at the end. My only issues with it were Whoopi Goldberg's narration (but there was very little of it), and the way they digitized the photographs (but that's a trend in modern documentaries). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stavros Posted March 30, 2012 Report Share Posted March 30, 2012 Being Elmo- A Puppeteer's Journey. Loved it. Kevin Clash is an absolute magician, and every time he brings Elmo to life I smiled. They do a great job maintaining the tone of the film, letting some stuff go unsaid but implied so as not to go into some stuff that's too personal. Mostly what this is about is an immensely talented man who's greatest creation personifies the love and innocence that is at the heart of Sesame Street. Loved the insight into him getting his chances at breaking into puppeteering, and the clear love for Jim Henson as well. Fantastic documentary. Agreed. I teared up when they got to Henson's passing, and smiled greatly when he was mentoring the child at the end. My only issues with it were Whoopi Goldberg's narration (but there was very little of it), and the way they digitized the photographs (but that's a trend in modern documentaries). As someone who's been involved in trying to help people make photo-heavy documentaries visually interesting I totally get why they use that stuff to lend a sense of space and motion, even if it wouldn't be my first choice. I look at it like an artistic diagram more than a literal image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightWing Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 I'm watching Robocop for the first time. Holy god this is amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 I think RoboCop doesn't get the respect it deserves from the mainstream, because they see it as a gore-heavy action film. Which it is. However, when you look at the sociopolitical aspects of the movie -- especially as they relate to the rise in power of corporations and the destruction of the economy -- Paul Verhoeven can be seen as a visionary. In a lot of ways I hold it up there with Network, in terms of being way ahead of its time and oddly prophetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 I think RoboCop doesn't get the respect it deserves from the mainstream, because they see it as a gore-heavy action film. Which it is. However, when you look at the sociopolitical aspects of the movie -- especially as they relate to the rise in power of corporations and the destruction of the economy -- Paul Verhoeven can be seen as a visionary. In a lot of ways I hold it up there with Network, in terms of being way ahead of its time and oddly prophetic. I will most certainly buy THAT ^ for a dollar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightWing Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 Yeah, I really loved it. I can't wait to add Robocop to the list of references I constantly use that no one else my age gets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFetch Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 It's a shame the remake is going to do the same thing to RoboCop that the Transformers remake did to the originals. They are making the faceplate see-through so you can see his eyes. That changes a whole plot-line when everyone knows he is Murphy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stavros Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 Robocop is totally underrated, mostly because it became a franchise where all the subsequent editions just became what Robocop was a parody of, they completely missed the point. Most people now think of it as a straight action thing when that wasn't it at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightWing Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 It's a shame the remake is going to do the same thing to RoboCop that the Transformers remake did to the originals. They are making the faceplate see-through so you can see his eyes. That changes a whole plot-line when everyone knows he is Murphy. I don't know that I mind that so much. I mean, if he doesn't have a secret identity I don't know that it matters. They'd just need to keep the character depth and the man/machine duality intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Robinson Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 The Raid is honestly the best action movie I've watched in years. Put me right back into the feeling I got from watching Hong Kong action movies as a teenager. Yeah, I know it's Indonesian and directed by a Welsh guy, youknowwhatImean. But yeah, really well choreographed fights. Lots' of brutal moves with just the right amount of gore. Just really well done all round. Definitely not for everyone, but it ticked all the boxes in AJR's "awesome action movie checklist". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted April 1, 2012 Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 Waking Sleeping Beauty is a fairly fascinating, warts-and-all documentary about the rebirth of the Walt Disney Company's animation division in the late 80s and early 90s under Eisner and Katzenberg. At no point are either gentlemen set up as creative geniuses, while at the same time making the very valid point that Disney had sucked pretty hard for a loooooooong time, culminating in The Black Cauldron almost destroying the studio. Doubly fascinating for me as I was old enough to be aware of how bad Disney had gotten, and how amazing it was when they turned things around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 Teenage Mutant Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze: Found this in its entirety on youTube. Slightly lighter than its predecessor, even if it's difficult to call that film "dark", it works fine as a sequel. It launches right in to the established characters and looks into their mutation origin, whilst also introducing the Rocksteady & Bebop stand-ins of Tokka & Razor as variations on a theme. That's MUTATION, Michael Bey, MUTATION. The film suffers from featuring Vanilla Ice, the kid from Surf Ninjas and a frankly ridiculous way of writing out the Shredder, but it's not exactly a bad film. Turtles III on the other hand.... Mallrats: This is a weird follow-up to Clerks. It has its moments, but I can't get over the fact that the protagonists are dicks. It's only by virtue of the fact that each is given a more unlikeable antagonist that they wind up as the de facto good guys. And this makes their love interests seem weak as a result. And surely Stan Lee got stinkpalmed, but the film forgets the joke - like selling a leg injury during a wrestling match and then skipping up the ramp after its over. Meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 Turtles II also has Kevin Nash as Super Shredder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxPower Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 Mallrats: This is a weird follow-up to Clerks. It has its moments, but I can't get over the fact that the protagonists are dicks. It's only by virtue of the fact that each is given a more unlikeable antagonist that they wind up as the de facto good guys. And this makes their love interests seem weak as a result. And surely Stan Lee got stinkpalmed, but the film forgets the joke - like selling a leg injury during a wrestling match and then skipping up the ramp after its over. Meh. This was my first KS movie that I saw, so I'll always have a soft spot for it. I think he said once that he wanted to make an utterly stupid movie as his follow up to Clerks, so that there were no expectations, or something like that. Willam calling Shannon Doherty Brenda is amazing though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 The other thing to keep in mind is that Mallrats is Smith's first, and really only if we count films he wrote, studio film. All the others were financed either by himself or Miramax/The Wienstein Company. As such, the studio had a ton of editing that they forced down on it, namely deleting a subplot that caused it to be a whole 20 minutes before they got to the mall. Sometimes studios do good things. I enjoy Mallrats. It stays funny throughout but one should never expect anything deep from it. Also, it probably has my favorite soundtrack of any Kevin Smith film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted April 3, 2012 Report Share Posted April 3, 2012 It's true that the studio made Smith yank the original beginning of the movie (which basically was the only thing Jeremy London actually DID in that movie), but have you seen it? It's atrocious. PAINFULLY unfunny. I hate studio meddling as much as the next guy, but in that case they weren't wrong. Agreed on the soundtrack. Very very good CD. Overall, though, this is easily my least favorite of all the Smith movies I've seen (no interest in Cop-Out). There are some good things here, but overall it's a very weak film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Caught The Change-Up, mostly for Jason Bateman. Nothing groundbreaking, of course, but mostly harmless. Bateman is a guy I really enjoy, despite the fact that he's not actually a very good actor. However, he's pretty clearly phoning it in here. Ryan Reynolds, on the other hand, generally bores me. I was actually impressed with the sincerity he brought here. Plus, Leslie Mann gets naked, which is pleasant, if not a little weird. I wouldn't highly recomend it, but there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Yeah, I saw that and didn't hate it. It wasn't wonderful but it wasn't horrible either. Bateman is kind of pigeonholed now as the uptight center of an insane universe (something he generally does pretty well) and when he was playing the uptight guy, he did fine, though when it came time for him to be the smarmy guy he flailed a little (ironic, because pre-Arrested Development that's generally what he always played). And I think Reynolds has some acting chops in him that he doesn't get to exercise all that often, so I think he did fine. And yeah, naked Leslie Mann. So, there's that. (Although she spends, like, five solid minutes shitting, which, while painting a not-toally-inaccurate picture of "hey, sometimes marriage isn't all that glamourous'... yeah.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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