Disappointing Movies

I Am A Legend
The Forbidden Kingdom
Horton

It wasn't originally meant to mean anything racial. This is one of the better explanations of its origins. (Read the whole thing.) I won't use the phrase anymore and a few others too because I'm afraid some sensitive student (or his/her parents) who doesn't know what it's supposed to mean will get me fired. I also believe in innocent until proven guilty, no matter how farfetched that sounds nowadays.

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^ I'll say. People will look for political incorrectness anywhere.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Alien 3 was a masterpiece. "Droopy and gloom"? Dark, gothic futuristic horror created by one of the most overlooked directors in history. Hicks dyeing wasent really a shame though i do think newt being alive could have created some fantastic "Charter development" scenes, none of which we didnt get enough of in aliens.

Alien 3 was a fantastic end to one of the greatest franchises out there. Alien rez, thats a whole new story

By the way, i agree about the dog statement which was also implausible and a concept that was revised in the remastered dvd box set were the dog was changed to an oxen

I have to chime in here about Alien II, because I wonder why it gets so much crap. There is actually another cut, called Alien III - The Assembly Cut that is quite different from the theatrical run. It has some rough spots in which the sound is gaffed, and other editing oddities, but the film is fantastic. The narrative flows better and makes more sense, because they actually flesh out story threads instead of starting them and having them vanish mid-film, as in the theater cut.

The alien doesn't come from a dog, as well. The prisoners have Oxen that they haul gear around with at the beginning of the film (you see this during a STELLAR opening sequence that they removed in the theatrical cut, for some foolish reason). Also, the manage to catch and trap the alien mid-film in the Assembly Cut. A VERY cool sequence with some cool intrigue that develops. Also, when one of the prisoners was killed in the theatrical cut, a couple of other inmates are suspected of murdering him at first. This made no sense in the theater, because they had cut most of the subplot surrounding the characters. The Assembly cut contains more of this subplot, so this line of reasoning actually makes sense. I love this cut.

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Totally agree with you on that one Sedai. good call.

it's funny that Alien III is so overlooked even though it is such a great film. I suppose I understand though because it is extremely dark and grimey, not very many redeeming qualities about this film, the target audience is more the hardcore sci-fi/horror crowd whereas the first 2 installments are a little more universal in their themes and a little less severe in terms of the bloodiness/violence.

It's too bad because it is such a great film from a great Director but the theatrical cut is so butchered without the additional scenes you can find on the box set release. some parallel storylines are just dropped like you said mid film which is weird and seems sloppy and I also think the relentless darkness/bleakness of the film hurt it a bit. it's almost a little too extreme, it would have been nice to try and lighten it up a bit with Newt living and together Ripley and her fight the alien. that would have been a nice twist. oh well.

but please don't even get me started on Resurrection. what a waste of time. it's depressing when they **** up a series with a bloated/retarded sequel like that (Terminator 3 anyone???).

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Oh, that other movie! We disagree (in a friendly fashion) on Thin Red Line, Sedai. You see something there that just shoots past me for some reason). But we're in total agreement that Pvt. Ryan wasn't worth saving, despite that one really strong scene of the hand-to-hand knife fight.

By the way, the TV series Mythbusters in one episode tried to recreate that scene of one sniper's bullet going through the telescopic sight and killing an opposing sniper. They tried all sorts of things and never were able to get the bullet to go through the target sight. Even hitting the scope's outside lens was a challenge, but once the bullet got inside the sight, it started deflecting all around and never did come out the other end. Such a shot may have caused some eye damage and scared the crap out of the target sniper, but likely wouldn't kill him.

Could The Happening actually count as a dsapointment if I had low expectations walking into the theater....Maybe it was just me, but I thought the movie was as good as it could have been...Which isnt saying much...

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"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity" -George Carlin (RIP good sir)

Hulk (2003) was the biggest dissapointment i've ever had the misfortune of seeing.... best way to waste $7.50 for the matinee and 2 hours and 18 minutes of my life i'll never get back

Okay, I'm sorry, I just didn't like the phrase


sorry TONGO

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I would say
seeker
Fallen
Doge ball
meet the parents
sings
Mean girl
Gladiator
K pax

Really?? Gladiator is incredible. It even won best picture...too each his own I guess.

I didn't care for Gladiator either. Sat through the whole movie waiting for a story to start. What I saw was Crowe as a high ranking Roman officer fighting in Germany (or whatever part of western Europe that was supposed to be), Crowe betrayed for some never quite clear reason and stripped of his rank and family, Crowe as a gladiator fighting in the arena. Then he dies.

Lots of action scenes but no real drama or story behind it. Didn't care any more for Crowe's character at the end of the film than I did when he first came on screen. Only reason I watched it was because it had won an Oscar, so I thought it might have something going for it.

Besides the basic premise of the film was wrong. One didn't become a high-ranking officer in the Roman army without either buying his commission or work his way up through political intregues and family position. A lot of the Roman generals weren't all that great at fighting, but they sure knew how to play nice with others to advance their careers. The main thing that made Roman generals look good was that the Roman army was a well-trained killing machine that worked as a unit. Roman soldiers were trained so that when they put up that wall of shields, you didn't then kill the pagan who came at you; you killed the guy attacking the other Roman soldier to your right, because you could slip your sword in on his unshielded side as he raises his arm to strike a blow. A gladiator, on the other hand, was trained to fight individually against an opponent armed differently than him. Part of the sport of the games was to see what style of weapons were successful against another trained to fight with different gear. What's more, gladiators usually weren't killed in those fights. After they spent time and money training a gladiator, they weren't about to throw him away when he could come back and fight again. People killed in the arenas were usually criminals, political or war captives, or unruly slaves.

this was such a bad choice of dvd to buy, grrrr!

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The X-Files: I Want to Believe and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull come to mind. So over hyped, and both of them sucked.

As a life long fan of the comic strip, this film ruined my life!!!

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

I need to see this,

Alien 3 left me devastated when I first saw it in the cinema, they killed off Hicks and Newt for gods sake!!! Great characters we'd come to love gone before the movie even started. Plus the film was so bleak, it made Alien look like a teddy bears picnic.

Then we're just getting to know the Charles Dance doctor character, he's interesting, Ripley's into him, but no cigar, he gets whacked. All the convicts have skin heads so we can't tell who the hell's who, thus we don't give a monkeys toss what happens to them. The Alien is some hyper active CGI creation on speed. Brian Glover's warden is good for a laugh ('let the flavor flood out'), but no he gets whacked almost instantly too. Plus the mere thought of Bishop's fate makes me want to cry.

I know this was a troubled production, and all things considered Fincher did a pretty good job stylistically. But my problem with this film was the script, we all wanted to see the Alien on earth, mankind's last stand and all that. But no, we got one of the most miserable, pessimistic, bleak sci-fi films of all time instead. A film that took everything we'd come to love about the franchise, screwed it up, and promptly tossed it into a big pile of dog ****.

Some of the more prominent ones in recent past:


Capote (Miller, 2005)

Too long, too desolate, too pretentious. Philip Hoffman is spot on as Truman, but the real man was so overwhelmingly annoying and self-absorbed that trying to stomach him for almost two hours is nigh impossible. And what should have been the heart of the matter, the two murderers, fails to enchant.


The Fountain (Aronofsky, 2006)

I know Sedai swears by this film, and I really wanted to love it. The imagery is beautiful, and the mood pleasant and alarming all at once. But I don't find any real, believable substance in the film's plot. Maybe it's all metaphorical, or allegorical, or whatever; but it doesn't touch me. I think this is the kind of film that your personal experiences will ultimately dictate how moved you are by it. Sometimes I re-watch it, thinking maybe this time I'll finally crack its closed shell... but I never do.


About Schmidt (Payne, 2002)

I love Payne's Sideways immensely (probably because he also had a hand in writing the adapted screenplay), but About Schmidt fails to impress me. It's alright, that's all I can say. Disappointing, considering the critical acclaim it garnered when it was released. Nicholson and Bates are quite good, and I can sense where all my heartstrings are supposed to be tugged, but the story doesn't resonate. It just feels plain.


Lady in the Water (Shyamalan, 2006)

I really had high hopes for this one. I really did. After seeing the initial trailer, I thought this would be Shyamalan's triumphant crescendo of heartfelt filmmaking. Instead, it was a terribly cartoonish, painfully egocentric Sci-Fi original. Giamatti tries to curtail its downward spiral into camp by injecting passion, and overcompensates. Bryce-Dallas is limp and neutered as the damsel-in-distress. What a shame. The girl's got chops. Some of the tertiary characters are charming, but it doesn't matter: Shyamalan rules all here, and that's the killing blow.


Be Kind Rewind (Gondry, 2008)

I think my expectations slew this film. I'm a considerable fan of Michel Gondry, and at first glance, this goofy little "working man's" flick seemed like it was going to say something immensely profound about filmmaking, about artistic interpretation, and about the regrettably cutthroat nature of copyright protection. What I got was a little bit of that, but mostly a silly, disjointed story and a history lesson on Fats Waller.

I loved Gladiator. I don't know a thing about if it was historically accurate or not, but it was a great hollywood styled swords and sandals epic anyways. Russell Crowe was betrayed and stripped of his rank by the emperor's weak willed, amoral son who was told he wouldn't be next in line for the throne. Killing his father and Crowe would assure that the only two people who knew this fact would not make it back to Rome and he could usurp the power he'd been denied. Crowe uses his popularity as a Gladiator to plan his revenge on him for his family's murders, plus he wants to protect the emperor's daughter and her son who the new emperor has rather diabolical plans for. That's the plot in a nutshell.

(I also agree with the disappointment in The Thin Red Line, not because I don't like the director, I liked the film Badlands a whole lot, but because it barely resembles the novel it's based on, which is one of my favourite books.

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[punches him in the face, grabs him and points his gun right at his throat] I never said anything about the FBI. She's my partner, ese. And if anything happens to her, I will find you and I will kill you. I won't think twice. Come here, look in my eyes. [pushes barrel of the gun into his mouth and cocks it] Look at my face. If anything happens to her, I will kill you. This is between you and me, and nobody sees, nobody knows.