The "Name The Last Movie You Watched" Game

[cowboyhater]

Title: Detour
Rating: 3 logos
Review: This film noir effort from the early 40s was on a $1 DVD. There is a character in the movie that makes Nurse Ratched, Cruella DeVille, and that crazy lady in "Rebecca" seem like absolute pussy cats. Very grim, especially for the time. Not for the kiddies, but gripping and well worth watching.

Title: My Father's Glory
Rating: 1 1/2 logos
Review: This was reputed to be one of the greatest French movies of all time, and was rated G. My wife is French-Canadian, so I am always looking for something to help the children along with the French. Surprise! Not only is the father in question spouing off in blasphemous ways about the Catholic Faith, but there were two brief instances of prepubescent male frontal nudity. On top of that, the story suffered from the existentialist ennui that European film, and French film in particular, is known for. A mediocre character study with some really nice on location footage. Nothing special, and NOT for the youngsters.

[cowboyhater]

Originally Posted by AvengerRam

Actually, in the comic book, Bruce Wayne has never learned the identity of his parents' killer. It definitely was not the Joker in the comics.

Hey, I read comic books before I played video games, and I thought that it was understood that Joe Chill killed Wayne's parents. I believe the Nicholson movie gave the Joker that name before he got deformed.

[psycho9985]

Nick.Have to agree with you on the Island,this movie kept me on the edge of my seat to the end.I give it 3-1/2 stars.Loved it, so I bought it for my collection.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by cowboyhater

Hey, I read comic books before I played video games, and I thought that it was understood that Joe Chill killed Wayne's parents. I believe the Nicholson movie gave the Joker that name before he got deformed.

You're correct in that Batman/Bruce Wayne did learn the identity of his parents' killer. The actual killer being Chill was established in the comic's Golden and Silver Ages back in the '40s. Chill, originally a crime boss, did not gain his name until Batman #47 in the summer of 1948. In the mid '50s, the story fleshed out to reveal that Chill was actually a hitman hired by a Mafia boss named Lou Moxon who had vowed revenge against Thomas Wayne after Wayne testified against him in court. All this according to Wikipedia.

Nicholson's character's name in Burton's Batman was Jack Napier before he became the Joker, not Joe Chill. However, in the more recent incarnation of Batman's story, Batman Begins, Chill actually does appear as a decent role and is credited as a character by name, played by Richard Brake.

[AvengerRam]

Originally Posted by NickSeiler

You're correct in that Batman/Bruce Wayne did learn the identity of his parents' killer. The actual killer being Chill was established in the comic's Golden and Silver Ages back in the '40s. Chill, originally a crime boss, did not gain his name until Batman #47 in the summer of 1948. In the mid '50s, the story fleshed out to reveal that Chill was actually a hitman hired by a Mafia boss named Lou Moxon who had vowed revenge against Thomas Wayne after Wayne testified against him in court. All this according to Wikipedia.

Nicholson's character's name in Burton's Batman was Jack Napier before he became the Joker, not Joe Chill. However, in the more recent incarnation of Batman's story, Batman Begins, Chill actually does appear as a decent role and is credited as a character by name, played by Richard Brake.

I guess I should not have spoken in absolutes given that, in comic books, there are none. I believe in the current "continuity," Batman's parents' killers remain a mystery. Often, stories are "retconned" out of continuity.

In any event, the notion of the future Joker killing Bruce's parents was a creation of the Burton movie.

[cowboyhater]

<i> I guess I should not have spoken in absolutes given that, in comic books, there are none.</i>
<br><br>
Well, according to DC cosmology, there is complete continuity. They have maintained for decades that there are an infinite number of universes. Therefore all of their stories took place somewhere. Now, the 1940's Batman was obviuously an Earth-2 entity, while the 1970's Batman took Earth-1 (a sign of the "Me" generation). We sit around here in Earth Prime and have to settle for movie actors PLAYING Batman. Heck, by their philosophy, somewhere AvengerRam is QBing the Ocala Rams to their ninth straight NFL Super Bowl! (Maybe on Earth 19.4243547E+23)
<br><br>
Trivia Question: What does DC stand for?
<br><br>

[AvengerRam]

Detective Comics.

[cowboyhater]

Very good, and what was ground-breaking about Detective Comics even before bATMAN WAS INTRODUCED IN #27 IN 1939?

[AvengerRam]

Well, I'm not certain what you are referring to, but Superman was introduced before Batman, created by Siegel and Shuster.

If you haven't already done so, you should read "The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay," a fictional account of the infancy of the comics industry.

[cowboyhater]

Detective Comics was considered to be the first true all-new comic book. Up until that time comic books were largely reprints of features (Mutt & Jeff, etc.) that had already appeared in the funny papers. Detective Comics featured all new stories, and was therefore regarded by some as the first true comic book, picking up where thge pulp magazines left off.

[Nick]

American Dreamz
Starring: Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe, Chris Klein
Plot: Supposedly fictional, a war-time reelected Texas president (Quaid) wakes up to find his approval numbers falling, and he and his chief of staff (Dafoe) decide the best way to get them up again is to be a guest judge on the movie's Amercian Idol reality show. The show's host (Grant) begins to fall for one of the contestants (Moore) as the season progresses, despite the efforts of the ex-boyfriend's (Kline) persistence in trying to win back his lady.
Comments: Having been coerced into seeing this by my girlfriend, it was actually better than I thought it would be. I like seeing Mandy Moore on screen, not just for obvious reasons, and both Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid were surprisingly decent. More laughs than I thought, but not enough to make up for a general lack of depth and a weak ending. Then again, what did I expect? It'd be nice to see Mandy Moore in a movie where she doesn't milk her voice for all it's worth, but then again she may have already done that and I don't know about it, since my Mandy Moore movie experiences add up to two, including this movie.
Rating: out of


The Sentinel
Starring: Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger
Plot: Douglas plays a Secret Service agent who is being framed for an assassination plot against the President. Sutherland and Longoria are investigating officers, and like any good political action drama, the main character/suspect decides to go on the run to clear his name rather than do it the old fashioned way and actually just talk to people. Of course, it's hard to have an alibi when you're sleeping with the First Lady (Basinger).
Comments: Sutherland does a good job keeping this government-agent character dissimilar from his 24 alter ego in that his movie persona is much more straight laced, though there's enough of that Jack edginess to make you enjoy it. Douglas is decent, probably better than I remember. The women serve their purpose but are pretty forgettable; Basinger really doesn't do much of anything except one small task at the very end of the movie that helps our protagonists while Longoria is nothing more of a sidekick. Still, good plot plus good acting from the leads equals good summer popcorn flick.
Rating: out of

[KentuckyHawk]

Thumbsucker, it's an indie-esque film with a lot of cameos. It's about a 17 year old boy who still sucks his thumb. Sounds bizarre, but it's pretty good.

[Bruce=GOAT]

Title: Just Friends
Rating: 3 out of 4 Rams helmets
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Farris
Plot:
Reynolds character is an overweight, high school geek in the beginning and obsessed with Smart's character but he is trapped in "the dreaded friend zone" At a high school graduation party he is humiliated after coming out with his feelings for her. The movie fast forwards several years to the present when Reynolds character is a thin, successful music exec. He and his high school fantasys lives cross paths and hilarity ensues.

Comments: A light-hearted, funny movie that was enjoyable to watch. The two hot females didn't hurt either.

[RamsFan16]

Boyz N' The Hood

Its a movie that includes Ice Cube and Cuba Gooding Jr. Cuba grew up in the hood in this movie and moves away. He then comes back for a family gathering for a week and a day before he leaves his cousin gets shot. His cousin had a scholorship to go play football at USC. Its a pretty good movie.

3 out of 4

[Nick]

Troy
Starring: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Diane Kruger, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox
Plot: Based on Homer's "The Iliad," two emerging nations begin to clash after Paris (Bloom), the Trojan Prince, convinces Helen (Kruger), Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemmnom (Cox) to help him get her back. Agamemmnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles (Pitt), the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans. But they're stopped short by Hector (Bana), Prince of Troy.
Comments: Pretty good. Had a bit of Gladiator and Braveheart feel to it (maybe the Braveheart feel came from having two of the supporting actors from Braveheart in it), but didn't quite live up to either of them. The entire movie, Brad Pitt had this Zoolander-like look on his face that was kind of distracting. But the cinematography was excellent, fight scenes were good, acting was fairly good. Script could have used some work, but it's worth the watch for the Pitt/Bana fight scene alone.
Rating: out of