mrbasehart's Film Challenge! - COMPLETE

[THE QUEEN!!!]

I hope that means you enjoyed my french jazz operetta. you enjoyed all of mine! I'm goooooooood!

[Tripe]

Fixed

[mrbasehart]

I hope that means you enjoyed my french jazz operetta. you enjoyed all of mine! I'm goooooooood!

Well, I'd already seen the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so I had high hopes for Rochefort.  It didn't disappoint.  And yes, all the films you suggested were great. 

[THE QUEEN!!!]

I hope that means you enjoyed my french jazz operetta. you enjoyed all of mine! I'm goooooooood!

Well, I'd already seen the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so I had high hopes for Rochefort.  It didn't disappoint.  And yes, all the films you suggested were great. 

good thing I didn't suggest the Chipmunk Adventure.....

[Tripe]

I hope that means you enjoyed my french jazz operetta. you enjoyed all of mine! I'm goooooooood!

Well, I'd already seen the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so I had high hopes for Rochefort.  It didn't disappoint.  And yes, all the films you suggested were great. 

[mrbasehart]

The Mighty is a drama about 2 teens with differing problems - one is picked on for being big, the other for being crippled - who become friends and help each other triumph over a certain amount of adversity.  It has good performances from the two kids - Kirean Culkin basically channels his older brother's more precocious roles - and a fair amount of class involved in the production.  However, I couldn't escape the feeling that this was a manipulative con-job designed by the Weinsteins to garner awards.  It follows all the usual cliches of these sorts of "Rocky" movies, and discards characters and sub-plots that seem pretty important, while noted actors in co-starring roles appear for only a few minutes without a whole lot to do.  I'll call it worhy, but use one of those snide and drippy tones that upper-class Englishmen of the 1900s employed.

[mrbasehart]

Arthur 2: On the Rocks: Okay, I suspect I may lose some credibility here.  Arthur 2 is a rather belated sequel to the slightly tiresome Arthur (which I had to watch in preparation for this one) starring Dudley Moore's happy millionaire drunkard and his now-wife played by Liza Minnelli.  Through ridiculous circumstances related to the first movie, they're cut-off from their fortune and are forced to live like normal people.  Minnelli's character takes it in her stride, being used to poverty, but Arthur's attemps at working fall through and it seems only by divorcing his wife can be be re-inherited by his family.  The set-up's lousy, the ending far too overblown and schmaltzy, but...I kinda liked it anyway.  It has the same problems as the first one, with Moore's portrayal being just as annoying as it is funny, and Minnelli not bringing a whole lot to the table as his wife, but it does have some genuinely funny one-liners that help eleviate that.  I recognise that there's a whole lot wrong with the movie, but it just doesn't seem to matter that much.

[mrbasehart]

Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction is a disaster of Showgirls proportions.  Sharon Stone reprises her role as the "sexy", manipulative, and downright dangerous novelist, Catherine Tremmell, and when she gets into a spot of hot bother - killing a well known footballer in an accident because he was masturbating her when they drove into the Thames - a noted psychologist must determine whether or not she's crazy.  That becomes moot when the charges are dropped, but she becomes his patient, and she begins to slowly fuck up his life while making him obsess over her.  Every part of this movie is ridiculous, from the performances, the plot and the ending.  Firstly, Sharon Stone's performance is so incredibly over the top, I wasn't entirely sure if she was actually parodying her role in the first one.  And the fact that she seems to be able to control practically everyone around her is a conceit that's not only unbelievable, but downright funny in places.  The plot is some half-baked rerun of the first movie, substituting San Francisco for London and naked American man-ass for English ones.  And the twist ending is so stupefyingly idiotic, I wonder if anyone had actually read the script beforehand.  It makes absolutely no sense.  That said, I laughed my ass off throughout most of the movie.  In trying to be this sexy, edgy thriller and failing miserably, it actually becomes perhaps the subtlest parody of Basic Instinct 1.  Well done!

[Compound]

Knight Chills is a...horror movie? made in 2001 and is possibly the worst film yet suggested by you guys. 

(Bows) I do my best.

[mrbasehart]

Knight Chills is a...horror movie? made in 2001 and is possibly the worst film yet suggested by you guys. 

(Bows) I do my best.

I'll consider you when I hand out my awards at the end of the challenge. 

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation:  Remember the first Starship Troopers? I was 17 when it first came out and thought it was an odd, but rather kick ass action movie.  When I saw it again years later, I realised how subtle the politics were in the movie and how it could be perceived almost completely differently because of its ambigiuty.  The sequel however, leaves no room for subtlety, smacking you over the head with its irony and bludgeoning the viewer with its message.  It also steals quite a bit from a dozen other movies.  The plot is this: a stranded group of troopers in the midst of battle hole up in an abandoned outpost, not knowing that there's a new bug on the block, one that can burrow into a human's mind and control them.  And though its stolen its set up from The Thing, and a couple of neat and grisly effects shots, it leaves out all the delicious paranoia and tension that so made Carpenter's movie.  It doesn't help that the entire thing is shot in the midst of a sandstorm (I expect to disguise the limited budget) and kept extremely dark, making a whole bunch of the action impossible to tell what's going on.  Richard Burgi's pretty good in it, and has a chin that could probably shame Superman, and Kelly Carlson has a few scenes as a raving nympho with a hidden motive, but stripped from its Starship Troopers license, it's just a below par Science-Fiction movie.

Oh, and I see that Casper Van Dien is in the 3rd.  I'm surprised considering their careers, that Denise Richards or Dina Meyer (she could play a twin sister or something) wouldn't be adverse to appearing in another one.  Bring back Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown and NPH, I say!

[spaceforarent]

Knight Chills is a...horror movie? made in 2001 and is possibly the worst film yet suggested by you guys. 

(Bows) I do my best.

I haven't seen said movie, but it's possible I could out do it with the suggestion of Die Hard Dracula, and whatever the hell was on the opposite side of that disc. Here it is on Netflix
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Power_of_Evil_Die_Hard_Dracula_Girls_Night_Out/70024073?lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=80413899_0_0&strackid=68635d96097126a0_0_srl

[Johnny Unusual]

Hittin' the sequels pretty hard, aren't we?  And not the good ones either.  That's not healthy.

[Compound]

Oh, and I see that Casper Van Dien is in the 3rd.  I'm surprised considering their careers, that Denise Richards or Dina Meyer (she could play a twin sister or something) wouldn't be adverse to appearing in another one.  Bring back Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown and NPH, I say!

Troopers 3 was actually better than it had any right to be. (Which is why I didn't nominate it to be seen.) The F/X were pretty good, the script actually had some unexpected twists and turns and the actors were above the usual DTV levels of acting. Plus, three films in, we actually get to see something that should have been in the first film.

[mrbasehart]

Hittin' the sequels pretty hard, aren't we?  And not the good ones either.  That's not healthy.

I was looking at the list of films left, and I deliberately picked the ones I wasn't keen on watching.  That way, I don't have to put them off until the end and it becomes a slog. 

Troopers 3 was actually better than it had any right to be. (Which is why I didn't nominate it to be seen.) The F/X were pretty good, the script actually had some unexpected twists and turns and the actors were above the usual DTV levels of acting. Plus, three films in, we actually get to see something that should have been in the first film.

I have the third one, so I'll be checking it out shortly.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

fuck... I knew I forgot something...... hold on let me go find that list again