Movies that pleasantly surprised you.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I personally can't stand Omega Man, mostly because it looks like a 90 minute NRA commercial.

I don't know about that, but I thought it was a cool flick, especially that opening sequence. It would be cool if they used that sequence in the next remake of the story. (I Am Legend has been filmed five times now - including a Spanish short film, the upcoming Will Smith version and an Asylum-produced direct-to-video version titled I Am Omega. Don't think that they're not going to film it again - they're going to make this film a zillion times until it actually happens for real.)

[Petey Wheatstraw]

No, I haven't.

[gbeenie]

(Albright gives the North Korean leader a basketball and the country some help and they don't build rockets.

LIE. North Korea's nuclear program has been around since at least Jimmy Carter's unauthorized (by the Clinton administration, BTW) "diplomatic" visit in the 90s.

Bush calls them part of an "Axis of Evil" and invades a country that never attacked us

Germany never attacked us, either. DAMN that FDR and his "warmongering!"

and Korea starts arming themselves.

The fact that you, with a straight face, are advancing the ridiculous notion that Kim Jong Il's nuclear ambitions (as a significant portion of his country's population starves to death) are not the crazed machinations of a demented megalomaniac, but, rather, constitute a legitimate defensive posture,  serves as stark evidence of your complete and finalized divorce from any sort of observable reality (I hope Reality got custody of the kids!).

p.s. I would never block your posts, even if I could. You are FAR too much fun.

[gbeenie]

I can only be myself.


p.s. I've also never sent anyone nasty PMs because I was getting my ass kicked in a public discussion, only to block PMs from the recipient, so I wouldn't have to deal with their responses.

[gbeenie]

I can only be myself.

Fair enough. But perhaps we can avoid ad hominem attacks? I admit that my comment was very much one, and I apologize. You are, I'm sure, a fine person. You just weren't really behaving like one.

I don't disagree; but I will say in my defense that my statements were to someone who has consistently said ugly things to and about me her entire time  on this forum.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Germany declared war on the United States first, so there is a difference.

[gbeenie]

Germany declared war on the United States first

9/28/1940: Japan, Italy and Germany sign the Tripartite Pact, an agreement which states that any attack on any one of the three Axis nations (by a nation not already involved in the war) would result in the attacked nation being assisted by the other two (excluding the Soviet Union). This is viewed primarily as a warning to the United States to remain neutral.

12/8/1941: Knowing of this agreement, Roosevelt signs the Declaration of War against Japan, putting the U.S. at war with all three Axis powers.

12/11/1941: Germany issues a formal Declaration of War against the United States; later the same day, The U.S. responded in kind.

Your point is a semantic one, at best.

so there is a difference.

Yes, there is. Post WWI Germany complied with the cease-fire agreement it signed; Saddam Hussein NEVER did, and for twelve years, continually flaunted the U.N. resolutions to which he agreed as part of the Gulf War cease-fire.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

I don't disagree; but I will say in my defense that my statements were to someone who has consistently said ugly things to and about me her entire time  on this forum.

All of which you deserved.   

[Petey Wheatstraw]

It is NEVER a good idea to defend the war in Iraq, one of the most ill-conceived and poorly-executed, loss of innocent lives since Vietnam. Iraq is a shining example of Bush's supreme incompetence: This IDIOT looks at Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, says "Huh. Interesting." And then goes out and tells the world that "We must go after Saddam." WHAT?!?

The moral of this story, kids, is "don't elect a presidential candidate WHO CAN'T PRONOUNCE THE FUCKING WORD 'NUCLEAR'!"

[bettertomorrowamy]

Germany declared war on the United States first

9/28/1940: Japan, Italy and Germany sign the Tripartite Pact, an agreement which states that any attack on any one of the three Axis nations (by a nation not already involved in the war) would result in the attacked nation being assisted by the other two (excluding the Soviet Union). This is viewed primarily as a warning to the United States to remain neutral.

12/8/1941: Knowing of this agreement, Roosevelt signs the Declaration of War against Japan, putting the U.S. at war with all three Axis powers.

12/11/1941: Germany issues a formal Declaration of War against the United States; later the same day, The U.S. responded in kind.

Your point is a semantic one, at best.

so there is a difference.

Yes, there is. Post WWI Germany complied with the cease-fire agreement it signed; Saddam Hussein NEVER did, and for twelve years, continually flaunted the U.N. resolutions to which he agreed as part of the Gulf War cease-fire.

OK, crazy lady.  All I said was Germany declared war on us first.  Did I say Saddam Hussein should have been a character on Sesame Street?
Yeah, it was a semantic point I was making.  Why does the GOP seem to think that whether or not Saddam had WMD's is a semantic point now as well?  They told us the reason to invade and oust Saddam was because he might create another 9/11 in America with his WMD.  That was a lie, but after no WMD were found they came up with other reasons why we invaded.  So WMD's were semantics?

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

OK, crazy lady.....

Don't bother.  She's busy watching Bill O'Reilly...."culture warrior" and defender of Christmas....who just the other night said that the Book of Revelation was written 5000 years ago....



Revelation, which was written by one of Jesus' apostles, John....you know, Jesus whose date of birth is reflected in the calender year....which, last time I looked was only just past the 2000's.

More of that good, through Republican fact-checking that got us into this current mess.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

She's not a Republican, though. She's a libertarian.

[Dim of the Yard]

Goddamn politics, making me go cross-eyed.

ANYWAY, in order to stir up more controversy, I'm going to say this: Scary Movie 3 was also a pleasant surprise for me and is probably my favorite Scary Movie... erm... movie of the whole damn series.  I actually rank it better than the first one (if only because I dislike raunchy humor, and Scary Movie had more than enough of its share of raunchy humor).  I can't watch the second or the fourth one at all.

[Lady Kitsch]

A couple of zombie movies, a genre which I love but have no illusions about concerning their general quality, surprised me recently:
1.  Resident Evil: Apocalypse - The second Resident Evil film was total crap and I always hope that it will be a Rifftrax film someday.  But RE:A actually had a somewhat interesting story, decent scares/gore, and (best of all) zombie birds!
2.  Flight of the Living Dead - This film is a weird blend of the zombie genre and Snakes on a Plane.  I wouldn't call it great, but it had better pacing than almost any straight to video film I've seen and made good use of the airplane setting.

[GalvaTRION]

Assault on Precinct 13 (remake), 16 Blocks (add some F-bombs and it would have been the perfect ending to the Die Hard series... as it is, it's still better than Live Free or Die Hard), Children of Men (I had heard that it was a sloppy BJ to illegal immigrants, so I decided I could wait to rent it. Thankfully, it's a great movie, politics aside), Ratatouillie (absolutely nothing in the commercials made me want to see it, but I went on faith since it was a Pixar/Brad Bird joint. I was greeted with cinematic excellence), Dawn of the Dead remake (don't like zombies, don't care for horror movies, didn't want to watch a remake of a classic- ended up being a hell of a lot of fun).

Goddamn politics, making me go cross-eyed.

I don't know about you, but I could read page after page of political bickering and grandstanding! I mean, it's not like I don't read about it in newspapers, magazines, and blogs, watch it on the news, and listen to it from the goobers at the college I go to every damn day! I say an internet forum used to discuss movies, with a topic about pleasant film surprises is the PERFECT venue! I need the pointless contention in EVERY FACET OF MY DAILY LIFE.