Watch this before or after you watch Lone Survivor. It's the life story of Lt. Michael Murphy.
Like Lone Survivor, this is one of the most important movies you can watch all year. No made up hollywood production will ever be more important than this.
<3
(special <3 to Kill Cliff & Indigogo for helping make this DVD possible)
No words of mine will do it justice. No made-up hollywood story will EVER compared to the TRUE sacrifices these men made for each other and for our country.
Worth watching in the theatre, worth buying when it's available. And worth buying the book too
No spoilers here but... it wasn't what I expected. It was amazing! Hell I even ended up liking Billie Piper returning and I've never been a Rose Fan. (not really a spoiler there cos it's been talked about so much).
Giraffe verdict: ... I see why people have been watching it multiple times.
Oh and the mini-special after the credits was well worth watching too.
Worth watching in the theatre & buying when it comes out. Screw renting it; you'll only want to buy it anyway so might as well just pay for it once. :-D
I just finished rereading the book a few days ago.
I have to say, my view on the movie still stands as highly positive. I understand the changes they made and why.
Spoilers:
First off, Ender's age was changed. In the book he started at 6 and never got to command school until he was 10. They could have never realistically used the same actor for both ages.
This therefore explains why the timeline of events was more advanced and why some of the smaller events and battle-games were removed.
Second: Peter & Valentine's politlcal careers were removed. This also makes sense for two reasons... Not only was it not really necessary for the main story, it also wasn't that weird of a concept anymore. In the story, P & V both adopted alternate personalities to promote political ideas to alter politics. At the time the book was published - 1985 - the internet was still in infancy so the notion of having alternate personalities online (or on 'the net') was something very new. These days it's common, so including it in the movie would have taken too much explanation and therefore would have drawn attention away from the main story.
I do rather wish they'd have kept Alai instead of merging him with Bean, but both had similar attributes so I can understand, even if I don't exactly like it.
Bernard is an interesting change though. IIRC he was in the final "battle group" in the simulations. But I suppose that illustrates that some childhood disputes can be put aside for bigger issues, or if they learn to work together. Perhaps he's the movie version of "Carn Carby" who treated Ender with respect after losing to Dragon Army in the book... his temperament and ability to learn from his mistakes especially, landed him in the final simulation. (Thus I suppose is what they tried to show with moving Bernard there instead).
My only true regret with the movie was not really understanding what they meant when they kept saying, "The enemy's gate is down." I kept thinking "Ok the gate's down so it's not closed."
The book explained it better of course - that there is no such thing as orientation in the low-gravity setting. Just reorient yourself with the idea that the enemy's gate is down - as in below you. And of course, the enemy has a hard time targeting your feet, so if you go at them feet-first they're already at a disadvantage.
The only other thing I dislike is ... actually it's a dislike for both the movie and the book. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ZERO GRAVITY. Technically it's not even "low gravity". It just feels like low / zero grav because you're falling, but you have enough momentum that you don't actually completely fall.
For more on this check out Veritasium for the explanation.
but other than that, even after reading the book my views on the movie still stay the same.
I kinda remember Thor 1 a little, having watched the rental of it earlier this year.
However to be honest, it wasn't as good as I'd expected. I knew one of the spoilers going in, which was fine cos I didn't know the *whole* spoilers on it, but...
To be honest I don't like Jane much. I mean I don't hate her but I kinda see her as useless. She's suppose to be some kind of super-smart scientist but most of the movie she spent letting everyone else run around her.
She didn't really DO anything until the end battle.
Frankly in my opinion she's only in the movie to make the audience feel included, kinda like a nod to fangirls so they can imagine themselves being swept up by a over-muscled hero.
Frankly I'm starting to be disappointed that they didn't pair Thor with his canon partner Lady Sif. I liked her. Thor might be stronger, but she sure works her butt off in battle. I like that more than someone who just stands on the sidelines for most of a movie. :-p
Actually I pretty much liked everyone else better, from Darcy Lewis (Two Broke Girls! great snark!), to Erik Selvig - Stellan Skarsgård's a riot! even the intern's intern. Just not Jane. *shrug*
Oh and Loki was OK. The scene I was hoping to see wasn't in the movie though, so that was a bit disappointing. I did like his snark though.
Giraffe Verdict: meh. Watch it if you want, but aim for a matinee showing. I guess it's worth renting though when it comes out.
Then again I'm probably biased cos I'd just seen Ender's Game the week prior... and I couldn't help but think, "Dang, EG was so much better than this!"
It's been a couple of decades since I read the book but... I remember it being a little bit - ok a LOT - darker.
The first kid he had a fight with in school... he killed. Actually that's about all I really remember from the book. Like I said it's been 20 years or so.
But that being said, I understand why they made it "less dark". I suspect they wanted to target a younger audience.
I won't get into too many details because I don't want to drop spoilers but...I can sum it up (spoiler free) with: "This is what Starship Troopers SHOULD have been."
Both Ender's Game and Starship Troopers are books recommended in the military for leadership training. In ST they pretty much completely ignored the philosophy aspect and turned it into a bug-fighting travesty.
In EG however they had excellent action without sacrificing the philosophical core of the story.
Giraffe Verdict: worth watching in the theatre. (and a pre-emptive "worth renting / buying" for when it comes out to dvd)
Also worth reading of course too. i just picked up a copy to reread it.
Well I have to be honest, the real reason I watched this movie was because I recognized the voice of GladOS - or rather Ellen McLain - in the preview. :-D
However that being said... this wasn't bad, but wasn't exactly what I expected either.
Some Cons: I feel like they really cut this story short, or rather they cut the beginning short. They rushed through the prologue, where they could have done a lot more with it. They could have put more detail into how the Jaeger's worked - that surely would have been interesting! Or perhaps more detail into how it interacted with people's minds etc.
Instead though, they rushed through all of that. They even rushed through what happened to the main character & how he felt.
Perhaps that's the key word - rushed. Because what I liked the least about it is how fast Raleigh went from being reluctant to "drift" with someone else again, to "OMG I want to Drift with you Mako!" in what seemed a matter of minutes. Ok he didn't exactly say it like that but, that's how it felt.
Positive: But other than that... it wasn't bad. The action was interesting, and once the plot got moving at the right pace - not too slow, yet not rushed - it really worked.
I especially liked the science geeks - Hey it's Owen from Torchwood! - and what they did. And Ron Perlman is always fun of course.
And I liked the solution too - kinda reminded me of the BSG reboot.
Giraffe Verdict: worth renting. Even if it's just to hear GladOS Ellen McLain. (ok could have used more computer voice though)
Sarcastic plot: dramatization of the mentality that the rich get rich off of the backs of the poor.
Non-sarcastic plot: At the age of 25 everyone's set to only live one year more unless they acquire more time. They can work for it, steal it, borrow, gift it etc.
One man turns "Robin Hood" and steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Good points: I find no fault in the execution of the movie so to speak. They did a lot of backstory, explained WHY this is the way it is for those who cared to learn more. They even showed how this kind of society affects all walks of life, from the poor to the top echelons of the government.
I also rather liked how they used habits to show where people came from. For example, people from the slums running vs going slowly.
I even noted Cillian Murphy's character as a character who never changed; something we had to study way back when in English class.
Bad points: No the fault isn't in the execution of the plot. The fault is in the misguided politics and glossed over truths.
They proclaimed that the "rich lived off the backs of the poor" and got time from sacrificing them. Well where did the poor get their time from then? O wait, it still came from sacrificing other people.
Hey hinted at it with Will's best friend's family. The wife commented that they wished they could take their baby's allotted 1 year already vs waiting for the child to turn 25. So... if they'd gotten their wish their child would be dead on it's 25 birthday.
THIS is where all currency came from.
The real difference between the rich and the poor?
A rich man might get a million years from the death of a million people
While million poor would get one year each from the death of a million people
NO ONE lived without sacrificing someone else. Anyone who truly lived without sacrificing someone else would have spent their allotted year without ever taking time from anything or anyone.
Heck even the children were guilty of this. They still had to pay with time. Time that came from other people's deaths.
The bottom line: no one was innocent. Everyone was guilty of scarfing others for time.
Giraffe verdict: Despite the serious faults in the politics of the plot, it's worth watching (rent or buy), also worth watching the extras.
And old man travels around in time and space with his grand...wait, it's man with dark hair who likes to play the recorder travels around in time and space... Well no, now he's suave with white hair and travels in time and spac... No, dark hair again and, wozers check out those chompers on him, traveling through space and time,... and no, now he's got blond hair and some celery... no wait, he's a ginger now with really weird clothes... and oh they "dropped a bridge on him" and now he's got greying dark hair again... Oh! now he's in America!... O wait, he's back to England with almost no hair and leathers and really likes bananas... well no, now it's stickyuppy hair and he's apparently forgotten he was a ginger already, still likes bananas and space and time, and geronimo... now he's even skinnier with some really floppy black hair and still doesn't remember that he was already a ginger... and traveling through space and time.
Giraffe Verdict: wibblywobblytimeywimey, but don't worry if it doesn't make sense. The blue box will get you where you need to be. :-D
Simple enough plot - former POTUS head of security launches a one-man rescue operation at the White House.
I pretty much had to tape my "I believe" button down on this one. There's so many holes throughout the entire movie that i wouldn't know where to start.
But the action was good, the plot at least made sense even if unrealistic, and it has Leonidas kicking butt. Worth renting.
I saw this last night and... I'm a bit mixed on it.
I felt there wasn't really a cohesive theme to the movie. it's pretty much just an hour of setup and drama building with about 30 minutes of shoot-em-up action. It's a bit like "in time" where they tried to push a theme where the rich are safe while the poor are targets for violence... but unlike "in time" they never examined the real SOURCE of their own situation.
It would have been more interesting if the movie examined WHY it was happening, and who was really behind this kind of society.
Plus quite frankly they darn near broke my "I believe" button. I mean sure I can pretend they have a society where they allow 12 hours a year for murder & mayhem.
What I can't believe however is that a so-called security salesman / expert is such an imbecile when it comes to home security. Seriously, not even ONE real med kit? No disaster plans? Yeah that's where my "I believe" button started breaking.
Worth renting. Just fortify your "I believe" button.
O yeah! This one was the comedy about a man who kept beating up on his ex girlfriend because she broke up with him! He throws her around and shows her who the boss is...
Wait, you mean that's not funny?
Well that's the point. It's not funny to see a man physically abuse a woman because she left him. So why is it funny to see a woman abuse a man for the same?
O right, cos society promotes male-bashing. Well this this Giraffe doesn't. Equal rights, equal treatment.
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