Personally I've never been a huge fan of Don Bluth. While he occasionally touched upon some fairly dark and interesting ideas, it seems to me that he could never quite escape from his origins as a Disney animator, and more often than not he wanted it both ways. I think as a result his films often came out horribly messy and confused, like they'd been overstretched in both directions. The cute stuff had a tendency to be insufferably so, and the darker material gave his films a dreary, sometimes even quite morbid tone that never really managed to be entrancing. For me it just never gelled, and there's something about his work that I find unappealling. But again, that's just me. The best thing to come out of Don Bluth's repertoire, in my opinion, was "Journey to the Past" from Anastasia. It's quite a nice little song.

The last film I watched was the distinctly dreary Alien 3. In the past I've often joked that I refuse to watch any films in the Alien series after Aliens, because Jonesy the cat (the real star of the original film, and that's no joke) isn't in them, though really it's the bad word of mouth that's been detering me up until now. I can't say I regret finally biting the bullet and watching the third installment, but I didn't really like it either. In theory, I quite like the idea of a movie saga in which each individual film is helmed by a different director, each juxtaposing their own unique directing styles into the franchise, but it's easy to see why so many viewers became disenchanted with the series by Alien 3. A couple of slickly-directed set-pieces don't quite make up for the fact that this is a lot of gritty darkness with very little substance or originality. I'm certainly not in much of a hurry right now to watch Alien Ressurection.

Don't watch AR. Horrible movie, I'm never going to watch A3. They kill off Newt, Hicks, Bishop & Ripley? Nice slap in the face to Cameron & the wonderful 'Aliens'.

You made some very excellent and dead on points with Bluth there Jekyll. But I think the fact he actually took the chance to include dark elements in his films he DID escape his Disney "past life" if you will. Nearly all of his films involved something very serious or something very dark that toons normally don't have.

All Dogs go to Heaven easily is the biggest one dealing death, angels, demons and going to Heaven AND Hell (in both movies I might add). Bluth's animation work though I felt was flawless like with Rock-a-doodle. As I said the movie was pretty silly, but the animation on even the smallest detail was amazing.

They had these toad bodyguards for the rooster character Chanteclaire (no clue how to spell his name), and they had warts and tiny hairs and wrinkles on their skin I mean it was just a great art job. Bluth's films aside from the silly ones though had some of most original story lines then most Disney films.

I mean Titan A.E., All dogs go to Heaven, even An American Tail taking the whole subject of immigration and putting a toon perspective on it I thought was a genius and very original idea. "Fievel Goes West" by the way was my favorite Bluth film, even though I didn't care too much for the first one.

Also the last movie I watched was Mystery Men...

I was really upset when this movie didn't get a sequel because it so easily could have worked, and I thought this was a great and comical interpretation of super heroes. The costumes, the city, even the restaurants, it all had this unique look to it and I LOVED Greg Kinnear and Hank Azaira in here best.

Most people dislike Ben Stiller movies but I enjoy his work, I don't love it as much recently but I still like to watch him and this is one of my favorite roles of his.

I've still never seen Alien 3. But I plan to. It's David Fincher's first film. However it seems to be a tradition that the last 2 Alien films were directed by such great directors but were mediocre films at best. Though Alien Resurrection is infinitely more watchable than Alien VS Predator. If only to see the proto-Serenity crew that Joss Wheon created for the movie.

No way. AvP is way better than AR.
Mainly because of Predator, which I prefer a zillion times above Alien. (Both species & series)

I enjoy Don Bluth's movies too, it's just that sometimes they feel as if he didn't know where he was going with them. Like The Land Before Time, it's a great movie that you grew up with (though very slow, each scene is memorable) but it's his shortest movie ever. Why? Someone thought the scenes with the T-Rex were WAY too scary, so they had to cut out like a whole whoopin' 20 minutes of material

I think it wasn't until Titan A.E and Anastacia that it felt as though he had an idea of what audience he wanted to reach out to, but, those were not his best movies. I will still always favor those that had messages and myseries such as An American Tail, Ferngully, All Dogs Go to Heaven and ESPECIALLY my favorite Don Bluth movie The Secret of NIMH

I liked Ferngully, but I felt it was a bit too one sided in its perspective. Obviously, the theme is protecting the environment and cutting down trees is bad and all. However I felt the movie seriously went a bit too far totally degrading the human race and everything involved or connected to them.

Now I'm not condoning the fact deforestation is a terrible thing but everything in this movie just basically said: HUMANS SUCK! Every human character in here is associated with negative aspirations and personality traits, everything that is related to them makes things noisy, ugly, and just makes the world a crappier place.

The fairies world of course is beautiful and godforbid they can't have ANY evil existing in their world, it has to come from man. Mankind has done some lousy things to Mother Nature but frankly, I'm getting tired of seeing humanity be the center of all that is evil and blaming us for everything we do.

Hexxus was a tremendously cool villain and I thought Batty was a riot but I felt this movie's music seriously lacked anything specials (sans the dream song by Sheena Easton) and the whole "humans bad, fairies good" angle was apparent in almost every scene. Zack got treated like crap and it became a running joke no matter what part of the movie it reached.

Sorry if this sounds like I hate the movie, I don't, I just can't stand it when a movie goes out of its way to paint an ugly message about something or something and doesn't bother presenting the other side of the argument. Michael Moore's documentaries are a prime example of this, and I kinda feel Ferngully did it too.

Their message was a very positive one, but I felt it could have still been effective without human stomping 101. Btw since were still on Bluth films, I want to say I prefer Charlie Sheen to Charlie's voice in Dogs/heaven 2 rather then Burt Renolyds in the original. I just think it fit better.

I love it when follow-ups change the voices... into something BETTER. Not many a case, sadly. But I thought J.P Manoux did a (and DOES, it's not over yet) FANTASTIC job as Kuzco in the tv-series The Emperor's New School rather than David Spade from the movies. J.P just made Kuzco a lot funnier and quirkier :3

Thank you. :)

I've always felt that An American Tail might have worked marginally better if they hadn't insisted on making it a musical. It's kind of hard to explain, but it didn't seem like the songs really fit all that smoothly into the narrative, and the transition from regular narrative into most musical numbers struck me as somewhat forced and jarring in that film. I don't remember too much about the sequel, but if I recall correctly it did at least contain a rather slick tribute to the theme from "Rawhide".

Also, I think that the way in which the cats and the mice are each portrayed within the original film are pretty good examples of the highly polarised nature of Mr. Bluth's work...the mice were generally a little too cutesy and twee for my tastes, while the cats were frequently depicted as so scary and monstrous that for much of the time they ceased to even look like cats. For me it's not a happy mixture. :macwor:

Incidentally, was Ferngully: the Last Rainforest even a Don Bluth film? I thought it was made by 20th Century Fox in the early 90s, before Bluth joined their ranks.

Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

Ingenius, ingenius horror film. Incredibly violent and bizarre, but great fun film.

Oh man, that's my absolute favorite all time movies. Bruce Campbell is a master mind of physical comedy and horror...and chin having. The budget was so low, the effects so well done, it defines how wacky horrors should be done.

Last movie I saw: Brick.
Dark modern Noir set in high school. The dialog was ingenious and was only supported by an amazing cast of young actors. Twists that made sense and make you want to watch it a second time.
Let me say, you WISH you were as cool as the main character when the movie's over.

The last movie I saw was The Jazz Singer. You ain't head nothin' yet! Although it was innovative in that it was the first "Talkie" movie, the actual movie itself wasn't the greatest.

The Patriot



Best. Movie. Ever

I agree with you PartyMember, I love The Patriot. That was just on TV today, wasn't it? I missed it. :sadbendy:

I caught the end of The Last of the Mohicans yesterday, another enjoyable one, set around the same time.

As for the last movie I watched in the whole, it was The Pursuit of Happiness which I watched Saturday night. Intense, kind of depressing, but good movie. That's the movie to watch when you feel down and and in the dumps. It'll remind you that things can be worse, you could have even less money, more responsibilities, and higher expectations put on you. If Chris could get out of that, so can you. Good movie. And Lil' Smith did a great job. :up:

Freddy Vs. Jason

The Great Yokai War

Best crossover movie ever seen, handled perfectly for both legions of fans and funny as hell. Yokai was a very weird but very cool Japanese movie, made by the same guy who directed the awesome "One Missed Call".

I think there's more amazing fantasy creatures in this movie then even Howl's moving Castle or Spirited Away.

Freddy - Hey, arsehole!

*CRACK* 8D

Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

Not a HP fan but I liked this book for it's cruelty... however in the movie they removed my favorite cruel scene of Umbridge :[ it sucked. the movie itself wasn't very great at all. I'm glad they removed the looong beginning until they get to Hogwarts but there were so many things missing and the CGI really stank and the actors themselves seemd way too cocky :jk:

Highlander

So much silliness, so much fun. :oops:

There's probably not much else that can be said, other than that Sean Connery looks ace in that feather hat. He should've worn one more often.

cars

movie was ok, not my favorite. but the ending was great.

Has to have been Evan Almighty for me.

That was definitly a funny as movie to watch.

30 Days of Night

Excellent, movie, such a freaking blast. I had been getting hyped up for this movie ever since I heard about it years ago, reading bit by little bit as the movie progressed and I am happy to say i was not disappointed. This movie is very creepy, it keeps you scared, intense, and chilled nearly all the time.

The vampires in here are truly freaky, almost like wild animals. It's bloody as hell and the music is super weird but super good. Forget beating a dead horse and seeing Saw IV this Halloween, THIS is the scary film to check out.

I'm hoping to see 30 Days of Night soon, as I'm a big fan of the original comic (at least, the original miniseries; I haven't read any of the following stories). Hopefully, it'll live up to expectations and prove a faithful adaptation, as it's looked like it would.

Last film I saw was Troll 2. Any people here who've heard about it, and heard how bad it is and not believed it...believe what you've heard. It truly is terrible. Hilariously terrible, but still terrible. :bloosmirk:

Zodiac

The second David Fincher film I've seen this week...I gave my opinion on Alien 3 a couple of pages back and, well, this one was MUCH more like it. As thoroughly unsettling as you'd expect from a movie about a true-life string of serial killings - those of the notorious San Francisco "Zodiac" killer, whose true identity eludes confirmation to this day - but thankfully not excessively gory, this felt very tense and taut, despite clocking in at over two and a half hours long. Overall, not a pretty film, but an intriguing and troubling dip into a mystery to which there'll probably never be a definite answer, just a heap of speculation.

and...

Ratatouille

I saw this during my trip across the Atlantic in the summer, and loved it so much that I knew I'd have to see it again when it finally hit our shores, which it did last week. I don't have a Top 10 list of films as such, just a small selection of elite films which, for whatever reason, I revere above all others. This one's already in there. ;D

Just hired out 28 Weeks Later on DVD.

A pretter good movie actually, rather interesting indeed, can't wait for the sequel to that to come out.

Just watched Total Recall on DVD and I still like it. I gotta say, those scenes where the villain Cohaagen dies at the end after sufficating in the toxic atmosphere of Mars and his eyes popped out and head expanded still kinda gross me out though.:P

Highschool Musical 2

Been avoiding this movie since it came on disney chan, but, my oldest niece (14 years old) finally forced me to watch it. I sort of enjoy Corbin's vocals but I simply can not stand the flashy moves and that Zac Efron... he looks... creepy... D: At least I got my niece to watch some Foster's! :bloogrin:

LOL @ Total Recall 8D That scene (and the multiple boobed hooker) rules!

Full Metal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala. Not the "greatest conclusion an anime has ever received" like I was told it was by the commercials, but it was still a great movie.
I loved the real world history they used in it. The post WWI Germany that it takes place in was a great setting for a story like FMA.

Singing? in the Rain

Not the light-hearted, upbeat, whimsical musical that people make it out to be, but rather a dark, chilling and dispiriting expose of the superficial and manipulative world of show business. A feel-bad movie through and through.

Erm, don?t mind me. It's just that I know and love so many of the songs from this thing and have been wanting to see the film itself for the longest, but now that I have I can't help but feel disappointed (that I've repeatedly heard it referred to as one of the "Greatest Movies of All Time" doesn't help). The musical numbers remained perfectly charming, and many of them were splendidly choreographed, but it seemed to me that there was something quite intuitively wrong with the storyline...am the only person who - shock shock horror horror - felt kinda bad for the Lina character? True, she has an utterly ear-bleeding set of vocals (though she can hardly be blamed for that much), she shows a vindictive side at one point and there is very arguably something of :berry: in her attitude toward Gene Kelly, but the story quite happily ignores the fact that the studio has essentially used her, and the smug contempt with which the other characters all felt the need to treat her from beginning to end kind of got to me.

I was particularly irked when they started preaching from their pulpit to her about her (self-defensive) efforts to stifle Debbie Reynolds? acting career, considering that they had all been poised to send her own career down the tubes, with the added clause that they also intended to publicly humiliate her (Lina?s solution to the problem would at least have kept everyone concerned in employment, if not the spotlight)?oh, the hypocrisy. For all her faults, Lina generally seemed so stupid and pathetic - seeing her shoved hard and flat upon her face was not something I particularly enjoyed. :(

I'm guessing that it's good reputation is based more upon the songs and the asthetics than anything else. There were a couple of good laughs to be had from the plot, but it ultimately felt hollow and unsatisfying. I'll get over it I'm sure, but right now I can't get beyond the feeling that something or other has been ruined. I won't be able to hum the titular track for quite some time without rekindling that little pang of irritation... >:(

Still, never mind, eh? The student cinema has Hairspray on later this week - hopefully that will cheer me up.

I watched the Santa Claus last night. I realise that it's still too early for christmas films, but that's exactly WHY I watched it. I've been feeling a little down lately, school just being annoying and miserable and I have nothing to look forward to, so I felt I needed something to make me feel excited about something. So, what better than a christmas film to brighten one's mood and get one in the spirit a little too early.

I sing christmas carols in the summer anyway, so, for me, it's not particularly strange.

I hope to watch Muppet's Christmas Carol at some point soon, too. I grew up with that movie...

You may be the first person I've heard of who felt a little bitter after watching SITR, jj. I personally think it's a monumental movie and a feel-good one at that. To this day it never fails to put a smile on my face. Jean Hagen does give an oustanding performance as Lina Lamont, but I don't see her as the scene-stealer that many fans make her out to be.

I can understand how an antagonist who isn't an all out terrible person getting such a brutal comeuppance doesn't work well today. However in the context of the film and the time it was released I think it works quite well. But you know jj, I think because of your interpretation the next time I view this movie I can view it as a black comedy. Something that I'd never anticipate from a musical from '52. I'm always open to looking at films in new ways, and to that I sincerely thank you.

Funny you should mention that film, Vampyre, since only this morning I was watching a small selection of its musical numbers on You Tube, my favourite being "Marley and Marley" performed by Statler and Waldorf (I take my hat off to those two old hecklers). There's a firm place in my heart for that movie too, I also plan to watch it in full nearer the appropriate time.

You're welcome, and I do hope I didn't come across as too miserable in that last post. I take your point about films always needing to be viewed within the context of their time, but even so the way in which Lina was generally treated throughout left me with a fairly nasty aftertaste...in the end, I think she was just too easy prey. I guess I'll always have that advert for Golf (the car) they did a couple of years ago in which Gene Kelly, via the power of digital manipulation, turns his iconic rain strut into a surprisingly impressive techno-dance number(!) Anything that awesome is beyond ruination. ;D

That movie is a family tradition for me. Me and my family ALWAYS watch the Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas eve, just before we go to annual Christmas church service so I totally know what you mean.

We actually watch a bunch of Christmas movies over the month of December, like a "holiday theme" thing.

With my family that's almost mandatory!8D Fortunately, I enjoy Christmas specials. My faves being the Muppet Family Christmas, Olive the other Reindeer, the Simpson's Christmas special, Nightmare Before Christmas, and many more.
Another Christmas special of mine is playing Final Fantasy IX in December. I find some games only feel right to play during a certain time of year and FFIX in December is my biggest stickler. But December is an important month for me anyway since it's my birth month.:D

The last third of the Ghostbusters movie. Man I really need to pick this one up on DVD.

Spongebob The Movie

Seen it SO many times, but after showing my 14 year old niece that Foster's is better in English, I had to show her the deal about the brilliant voice acting in Spongebob, in English. Needless to say, she loved it (maybe not as much as I love this film, but enough to satisfy me)

For a roadtrip movie it's hilarious, colorful and brilliant (david hasselhoff, man...) 8D

Third Ghostbuster??? can you elaborate I never knew there was a third installment. or was it just forgetable.


My last movie was the 1960 version of Little shop of Horror (B/W)
it was good, no musical, but if you like those earlie 60 films it was fun.

Also I watched "Very merry muppet cristmas" with my two year old on Sunday. -one of my favorites.

Monty :-[

I believe he meant the last third of the original movie, not that there's a third GB flick.

Well, there soon will be. But that's beside the point.

I heard the new GB movie would be CGI :(

Sorry for the confusion. Cassini got it right, though. And is there really a new on coming out? I thought Bill Maury wasn't going to let that happen.