[quote]i_am_ketosis wrote:
Finally got around to seeing Cabin in the Woods. The concept was very original, but they could have done so much more with it in my opinion. Great idea, poor execution. [/quote]
Agreed. I understand it is a “love letter” to horror movies, but they didn’t even touch on some major horror influences and they completely missed the mark at making it a horror movie itself. Slasher horror flicks always kill off the black guy. Exceptions to that are like only one or two movies (two if you count Event Horizon).
Honestly, given most crap out of Hollywood, I give them credit for making it “entertaining”. I have watched it twice. I also fault them for not taking it to another level.
[quote]i_am_ketosis wrote:
Finally got around to seeing Cabin in the Woods. The concept was very original, but they could have done so much more with it in my opinion. Great idea, poor execution.
The Dictator - With the exception of a handful of funny moments, I was very disappointed. [/quote]
Outside of the music, The Dictator was horrible. Not funny at all. Since Borat, each of his movies have gotten progressively worse.
Taken 2 - a near disaster saved only by Liam Neeson’s performance, which should go down in history as one of the most committed performances of all time. He’s a true pro, never once letting on that he knows how thin the story is.
Lesser actors would sleepwalk through the movie. Not Neeson: he sells it for all it’s worth.
It was always going to be a pointless cash-in : a grieving father comes to avenge the deaths of the sons righteously killed by Bryan Mills in the original. “You killed them… like so many nothings” he wails …yeah, didn’t Mills give them the chance to give his daughter back in that now iconic phone call of his? Why complain. Your son was scum. Deal with it.
Still, I thought the movie would be buoyed by the same quality of action in Taken. No such luck: the violence was surprisingly tame (the Albanians coax Mills’ location out of the corrupt French cop from the first movie by threatening him with a teddy bear) and there were seven teenage girls seated in the row in front of me, more in the row behind, and no, they didn’t have to sneak in. Even worse, they chatted throughout and I didn’t care enough about what was happening on screen to tell them to button it.
Looking forward to Taken 3: Takener where Mills gets pursued by more irate Albanian family members who look like they’ve walked out of Borat (shell suits and leather jackets seem to be their unofficial uniform). This time Mills will have to deal with the grandmothers.
Mr. Besson, if you’re reading, I have a message for you and Olivier Megaton:
“If you give me my ticket money back now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
[quote]roybot wrote:
Taken 2 - a near disaster saved only by Liam Neeson’s performance, which should go down in history as one of the most committed performances of all time. He’s a true pro, never once letting on that he knows how thin the story is.
Lesser actors would sleepwalk through the movie. Not Neeson: he sells it for all it’s worth.
It was always going to be a pointless cash-in : a grieving father comes to avenge the deaths of the sons righteously killed by Bryan Mills in the original. “You killed them… like so many nothings” he wails …yeah, didn’t Mills give them the chance to give his daughter back in that now iconic phone call of his? Why complain. Your son was scum. Deal with it.
Still, I thought the movie would be buoyed by the same quality of action in Taken. No such luck: the violence was surprisingly tame (the Albanians coax Mills’ location out of the corrupt French cop from the first movie by threatening him with a teddy bear) and there were seven teenage girls seated in the row in front of me, more in the row behind, and no, they didn’t have to sneak in. Even worse, they chatted throughout and I didn’t care enough about what was happening on screen to tell them to button it.
Looking forward to Taken 3: Takener where Mills gets pursued by more irate Albanian family members who look like they’ve walked out of Borat (shell suits and leather jackets seem to be their unofficial uniform). This time Mills will have to deal with the grandmothers.
Mr. Besson, if you’re reading, I have a message for you and Olivier Megaton:
“If you give me my ticket money back now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and [i]I will kill you.”
[/quote]
Ha ha! That last bit was great!
I was considering seeing this but since you’ve said this I’ll just wait till it’s on TV.
[quote]roybot wrote:
Taken 2 - a near disaster saved only by Liam Neeson’s performance, which should go down in history as one of the most committed performances of all time. He’s a true pro, never once letting on that he knows how thin the story is.
Lesser actors would sleepwalk through the movie. Not Neeson: he sells it for all it’s worth.
It was always going to be a pointless cash-in : a grieving father comes to avenge the deaths of the sons righteously killed by Bryan Mills in the original. “You killed them… like so many nothings” he wails …yeah, didn’t Mills give them the chance to give his daughter back in that now iconic phone call of his? Why complain. Your son was scum. Deal with it.
Still, I thought the movie would be buoyed by the same quality of action in Taken. No such luck: the violence was surprisingly tame (the Albanians coax Mills’ location out of the corrupt French cop from the first movie by threatening him with a teddy bear) and there were seven teenage girls seated in the row in front of me, more in the row behind, and no, they didn’t have to sneak in. Even worse, they chatted throughout and I didn’t care enough about what was happening on screen to tell them to button it.
Looking forward to Taken 3: Takener where Mills gets pursued by more irate Albanian family members who look like they’ve walked out of Borat (shell suits and leather jackets seem to be their unofficial uniform). This time Mills will have to deal with the grandmothers.
Mr. Besson, if you’re reading, I have a message for you and Olivier Megaton:
“If you give me my ticket money back now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
[/quote] http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/taken-3-in-the-works
[quote]roybot wrote:
Taken 2 - a near disaster saved only by Liam Neeson’s performance, which should go down in history as one of the most committed performances of all time. He’s a true pro, never once letting on that he knows how thin the story is.
Lesser actors would sleepwalk through the movie. Not Neeson: he sells it for all it’s worth.
It was always going to be a pointless cash-in : a grieving father comes to avenge the deaths of the sons righteously killed by Bryan Mills in the original. “You killed them… like so many nothings” he wails …yeah, didn’t Mills give them the chance to give his daughter back in that now iconic phone call of his? Why complain. Your son was scum. Deal with it.
Still, I thought the movie would be buoyed by the same quality of action in Taken. No such luck: the violence was surprisingly tame (the Albanians coax Mills’ location out of the corrupt French cop from the first movie by threatening him with a teddy bear) and there were seven teenage girls seated in the row in front of me, more in the row behind, and no, they didn’t have to sneak in. Even worse, they chatted throughout and I didn’t care enough about what was happening on screen to tell them to button it.
Looking forward to Taken 3: Takener where Mills gets pursued by more irate Albanian family members who look like they’ve walked out of Borat (shell suits and leather jackets seem to be their unofficial uniform). This time Mills will have to deal with the grandmothers.
Mr. Besson, if you’re reading, I have a message for you and Olivier Megaton:
“If you give me my ticket money back now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
[/quote] http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/taken-3-in-the-works
Here you go Roy[/quote]
I’m suing if they use my plot idea and sequeltastic title. Just sayin’.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Thor.
Seriously. They had good actors and the casting was damn near perfect (especially that one wise ass office worker/control person)…but I think the real problem wasn’t the writers or director. After listening to the director’s and writer’s commentary, it sounds like they had to really fight just to get that much on the screen.
Mind you, now that Avengers has been seen…I seriously doubt they will be held back too many more times in Hollywood.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Here’s why:
spoiler
After perusing that thread I’d have to go with whoever said the fun part about the movie was the control guys and the mystery behind the whole organization, and what the entire point was for what they were doing. But I agree with X that it should have been so much better. The first 45 minutes were crap, aside from some funny parts with the controllers and the dude who’s always high.
Another thing that I just thought of, and I hate when they do this in movies. Remember towards the beginning when it’s showing all the monitors in the control room, and one of the screens showed the five kids’ heart rates? Did they not look at that when they assumed the stoner was killed? Little things like that just piss me off in movies.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Here’s why:
spoiler
After perusing that thread I’d have to go with whoever said the fun part about the movie was the control guys and the mystery behind the whole organization, and what the entire point was for what they were doing. But I agree with X that it should have been so much better. The first 45 minutes were crap, aside from some funny parts with the controllers and the dude who’s always high.
Another thing that I just thought of, and I hate when they do this in movies. Remember towards the beginning when it’s showing all the monitors in the control room, and one of the screens showed the five kids’ heart rates? Did they not look at that when they assumed the stoner was killed? Little things like that just piss me off in movies.[/quote]
The whole point was to show how a fantastical situation could become banal. They take a traditionally scary situation and poke holes in it. The main plot is one of many attempts to appease the ancient ones, who are willing to watch and re-watch the same characters almost ritualistically. Not unlike your average movie audience…
Absolutely no redeeming qualities as a horror movie. The trailer built it up to a point where I thought it would be a genre classic, but no. The story had tons of potential, and it seemed like they abandoned plenty of feasible arcs. There was one noteworthy “scare/jump” moment during the whole film, the rest was cringe worthy.
Several people got up and left roughly half way through and I don’t think I’ve ever saw so many phones being checked during the screening of a film ever.
Download it when it becomes available if you’re curious, but move forward with extremely low expectations.
Absolutely no redeeming qualities as a horror movie. The trailer built it up to a point where I thought it would be a genre classic, but no. The story had tons of potential, and it seemed like they abandoned plenty of feasible arcs. There was one noteworthy “scare/jump” moment during the whole film, the rest was cringe worthy.
Several people got up and left roughly half way through and I don’t think I’ve ever saw so many phones being checked during the screening of a film ever.
Download it when it becomes available if you’re curious, but move forward with extremely low expectations.[/quote]
I took my kid to see it and thought it was ok. I’d give it a 6.5/10.
I thought there were several “scare/jump” moments, though some of them were pretty cheap.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Here’s why:
spoiler
After perusing that thread I’d have to go with whoever said the fun part about the movie was the control guys and the mystery behind the whole organization, and what the entire point was for what they were doing. But I agree with X that it should have been so much better. The first 45 minutes were crap, aside from some funny parts with the controllers and the dude who’s always high.
Another thing that I just thought of, and I hate when they do this in movies. Remember towards the beginning when it’s showing all the monitors in the control room, and one of the screens showed the five kids’ heart rates? Did they not look at that when they assumed the stoner was killed? Little things like that just piss me off in movies.[/quote]
The whole point was to show how a fantastical situation could become banal. They take a traditionally scary situation and poke holes in it. The main plot is one of many attempts to appease the ancient ones, who are willing to watch and re-watch the same characters almost ritualistically. Not unlike your average movie audience…[/quote]
I completely understand that. I also know the studio wanted them to cut some scenes that were critical to them accomplishing what they wanted (like the Asian school girl horror scene). I would like to see a “director’s cut”. The entire Moose-make out scene was supposed to be called “truth dare or lecture” where they talked deeper about the theme of the movie.
I think they did well with what they were allowed to get out…but would LOVE to see that movie made after Avengers. I am sure we would have gotten something completely different.
Was really bored with it until the last half of the movie, for obvious reasons. Then it was just pure entertainment. It was also pretty funny throughout. I also went into this movie with no clue of what was going to happen, which is a must for this one.
edit: but I really don’t know why it got such a great score on Rotten Tomatoes. [/quote]
Here’s why:
spoiler
After perusing that thread I’d have to go with whoever said the fun part about the movie was the control guys and the mystery behind the whole organization, and what the entire point was for what they were doing. But I agree with X that it should have been so much better. The first 45 minutes were crap, aside from some funny parts with the controllers and the dude who’s always high.
Another thing that I just thought of, and I hate when they do this in movies. Remember towards the beginning when it’s showing all the monitors in the control room, and one of the screens showed the five kids’ heart rates? Did they not look at that when they assumed the stoner was killed? Little things like that just piss me off in movies.[/quote]
The whole point was to show how a fantastical situation could become banal. They take a traditionally scary situation and poke holes in it. The main plot is one of many attempts to appease the ancient ones, who are willing to watch and re-watch the same characters almost ritualistically. Not unlike your average movie audience…[/quote]
I completely understand that. I also know the studio wanted them to cut some scenes that were critical to them accomplishing what they wanted (like the Asian school girl horror scene). I would like to see a “director’s cut”. The entire Moose-make out scene was supposed to be called “truth dare or lecture” where they talked deeper about the theme of the movie.
I think they did well with what they were allowed to get out…but would LOVE to see that movie made after Avengers. I am sure we would have gotten something completely different.[/quote]
Cabin was actually shelved for two years (along with the Red Dawn remake) while MGM struggled with bankruptcy. The fact that it was still fresh and relevant after all that time shows just how ahead of the curve Whedon and Goddard were when somebody could’ve easily stolen their thunder in the meantime.
The only horror sub-genre that was conpicuously absent was the wave of Paranormal Activity-type movies, and that can be chalked up to Cabin being made before PA, but released later.
Like I said in the Cabin in the Woods review thread, we will see just how good this is when the Evil Dead remake is released. It’s not going to prevent sloppy horror being produced, but it’s going to light a creative fire under the ass of whoever is writing the ED reboot and push them to give something new.
Otherwise Cabin is going to make a presumably serious effort look comical and lazy just by existing.