I'll go ahead and apologize for this poll to those it offends, just hit that back button, but after reading reviews of Poseidon and Scooby-Doo I actually went as far as to check out the prices on Amazon before I stopped myself. They reportedly look fantastic, but I KNOW I'll hate them.. but still want to see them in HD.. just not $22 want :) I've seen Poseidon and was disappointed.

I didn't spend a great deal of time making up these poll options, sorry if other bombs are not listed or you consider some of these to be good movies. Don't vote for them :)

FWIW, I actually didn't hate the Hulk, but put it here so others can vote for it because I know it has its fare share of critics. Also Corpse Bride is a movie that I know I'll hate (not a Burton fan at all) but I know it's supposed to look great.

I think your idea of "eye candy" is different to mine, out of the list there's only Tomb Raider that contains "eye candy" ;)

Other. Chronicles of Riddick. Man did that suck.

Although I'm something of a guilty fan, I probably should have put Van Helsing on the list, its' got a dismal 5.3 IMDB rating.

Probably King Kong or Swordfish.
KK was a disappointment at the theaters and the more I thought about it afterwards, the more I came to dislike it.

I told myself I was buying solely with the intention of just re-watching a few scenes I actually liked (like the ESB end), but temptation was there to re-watch more of it thinking my attitude may have been the result of posing and trying to be a contrarian too much- but no, I actually honestly dis-liked it and regretted spending the $20 ( on sale).

The one good thing about it was that it prevented me from repeating the experience with Superman Returns- even though I would love to see the airplane rescue again.

FWIW, I love the Hulk, and greatly enjoyed Tomb Raider, Van Helsing, and didn't dislike Aeon Flux.
Haven't seen Riddick or some of the others because I have too much else to watch that I actually want to, to even be enticed into squandering 2 precious hours on something I most likely don't expect to (on the other hand, I didn't expect to enjoy Van Helsing much at all- go figure)

Tokyo Drift I knew I thought sucked ass, but I bought because people said it looked so good. Personally I don't think it did.

Why has the poll left off one of THE best PQ films so far??

Aeon FLux its a real stinker!!!!!!!!!!!

Great PQ but impossible to watch all the way through. Maybe no one is stupid enough to buy it?

Yeah sorry guys Aeon Flux and Tokyo Drift should both be on the list.. should I re-start the thread? How do I delete a thread, anyway?

I'll second 'Tokyo Drift'. Was both a pleasure (PQ) & a pain (movie itself) to watch :).

You can try editing the thread & seeing if you can add poll items; don't know. To delete the thread, also click the 'Edit' button & you (as the thread starter) will see an option to delete the thread.

Other - Riddick

I've bought some other low caliber movies on HD DVD, but Riddick was the only one I bought because it looked great.

Other - Riddick as well.

I saw this in the theater and knew that I didn't want to own it on DVD, but I kept reading here that the director's cut "transformed" the movie into something less craptacular. I was deceived, but I've held on to the Riddick HD-DVD for the eye candy alone...

Aeon Flux

The movie wasn't great but something about the colors and the set just made me buy it. Must be subliminal messages embedded.

Slither.. Great picture.. terrible movie.. :D

I've got you all beat... Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow! :cool: :o

Need to add Aeon Flux to the list. Great looking but aweful film. :D

This is such a subjective thread that it really comes down to personal preference. For example, while I don't feel Riddick to be Oscar-worthy, I don't find it as insipid as others here have pointed out. It's a guilty-pleasure, groin scratching while grunting guy movie. :D

That being said, I'd have to currently say King Kong. I'd never seen it before the purchase, but flat-out, the movie was just too damn long. Lop off about a 30 minute stretch in the middle (dinosaurs/giant bugs), and it would be a much better film.

It'll all be irrelevant by this weekend, as the wife and I will purchase Scooby Doo to watch with the kids....Now that's a horrible movie.... :D

Ok I'm gonna re-start this, sorry early voters.

Argh even in 'edit' I can't delete the thread. Edit gives me a delete message option (but not on the first thread) but not the whole thread.

Please vote on the new thread as hopefully that'll be the last one I do.. sorry guys.

Argh even in 'edit' I can't delete the thread. Edit gives me a delete message option (but not on the first thread) but not the whole thread.

Please vote on the new thread as hopefully that'll be the last one I do.. sorry guys.

You can always Report your own initial post and ask for closure or deletion.

King Kong

Tokyo Drift. Worst movie I've seen in ages and it looked soft and unimpressive to me.

Doom for me worst movie ever

KK=snorefest.

but it looks gooood :)

I'd pick Van Helsing. The first 5 minutes are awesome and the rest is pretty crappy. The movie really falls apart the last 25-30 minutes or so.

There are a few titles on that list that I don't think are "bad" such as Corpse Bride or Troy.

Riddick.
Someone gave me Aeon Flux so I really can't vote for that one.

Sky Captain and the world of Tommorow

Sky Captain and the world of Tommorow
Same here. I think that this movie is highly overrated; but it sure looks good.

Definitely King Kong. Ultimately, the problem is that Peter Jackson thinks he has the talent to stretch an hour-ish movie into a 3-4 (depending on if you watch the extended cut) hour event and he failed.

I think it's the worst because it's the longest. So the pain goes on for longer with it than the rest of the candidates. Now, to be fair, I chose not to buy The Hulk, given that it was a terrible movie the two times I've seen it before on DVD.

But King Kong was a real disappointment, so I think it deserves the title. Peter Jackson should have stuck with hobbits. ;)

Aeon Flux... but Charlize is a freakin' lollipop...

The Searchers, I really tried to convince myself that watching an old western
in HD was really cool but after it is all said and done. I have to say that movie
blows :eek:

I was most dissapointed in Van Helsing not for the movie but FOR the eye candy. I thought it was one of the worst HD-DVDs that I have.

Hulk, what a piece of trash.

Kong. I hadn't seen it before I bought it.

I had seen Van Helsing, Scorpion King, and The Hulk though. And as much as I want to support my format, I can't buy these, I just can't.

How can you put an awesome movie like Troy on there and not have Aeon Flux?

CoR

just curious what about the Hulk does everyone hate. Its not the best movie i have seen but its nowhere near as bad as other comic book movies such as Daredevil, or Elektra. Eric Bana is a good actor and Jennifer Connely is great eye candy (not a single imperfection on her face-- too bad she got the breast reduction).

For me it was charlie and the chocolate factory.

I said King Kong ... hate that movie, so even the PQ couldn't keep me watching.

LOL - it's funny how our opinions differ. I loved Aeon Flux ... both the MQ and PQ ! So far, it's my favorite HD movie (non-animated, that is - also liked The Ant Bully).

Hulk. I'm still shaking my head over that purchase.

The Searchers, I really tried to convince myself that watching an old western
in HD was really cool but after it is all said and done. I have to say that movie
blows :eek:

Let me guess, you're under 25.

I got suckered very early on and got DOOM! :eek:

Tokyo Drift I liked, although it was clearly car porn.
Aeon Flux was bad sci-fi, but eye candy

I would say of the two, AF is the worst movie, yet I'd still buy it again for the PQ!

Definatelty Corpse Bride for me.

CoR was a blind buy but I was pleasantly surprised. The acting is pretty bad sometimes, but the movie is very entertaining in my eyes.

Other....

Scorpion King

Sahara....some pretty bad acting but a fun film if you leave brain at the cash register. Terrific looking HD-DVD though. :)

I can't bring myself to buy crap just for the PQ. Saying that, thanks to MS I got the pleasure of the garbage that is KK for "free". The movie is horrid from the point KK enters the picture, but the PQ and color vibrancy is astounding.

Definatelty Corpse Bride for me.

CoR was a blind buy but I was pleasantly surprised. The acting is pretty bad sometimes, but the movie is very entertaining in my eyes.

Yeah, Corpse Bride is just bad, and I loved Nightmare.

Riddick I love, it's just entertaining; Vin Diesel is perfect for the role. imo much better than Pitch Black, although I enjoyed that also.

Hulk, what a piece of trash.


*GASP* I liked Hulk :(

Riddick. I'm usually into this kind of stuff, but it was so boring I couldn't finish it. But I'm still keeping because of the great PQ.

Sahara, Tomb Raider, Tokyo Drift - I like all those. Even Aeon Flux goes, barely.

Corpse Bride. I know that some people absolutely loved it, but I thought it was pretty Average.

The video transfer is millimeters away from perfection though, and that's not a term I throw around loosely.

Hulk was simply awful. I gave the disc to my father to watch and don't care...

Riddick I love, it's just entertaining; Vin Diesel is perfect for the role. imo much better than Pitch Black, although I enjoyed that also.

Agreed.

I think King Kong is very good. But I would definetly reccommend it to anyone looking for amazing PQ

I liked Kong, I dont know what all this trash talk is. Whats so bad about it guys?

I liked Kong, I dont know what all this trash talk is. Whats so bad about it guys?

I asked (a few posts above this one) the same thing about the hulk but nobody wants to respond to specifics. Its easier just to say a movie is terrible without having to explain themselves.

Well I thought Hulk sucked, plot was bad and slow moving, not enough Hulk for me, plus it felt low budget (to me).

Hulk

What a stupid movie IMO but, it looks amazing.

I recognize the subjective nature of this thread, but I wonder why Corpse Bride is listed among those choices. Doom and Scooby-Doo, I understand... but CB was a well-animated and imaginative flick, and certainly didn't get panned by the critics when it was released to theaters.

Let me guess, you're under 25.I'm 38, and I loathed The Searchers. Don't get me wrong... I'm a great fan of Westerns, I enjoy John Ford (loved Red River) and certain John Wayne (aforementioned Red River, and Liberty Valance). But Searchers just rubbed me in all the wrong ways. I think there are much better Westerns to be had in high-def formats.

so, i first chose hulk but then i rewatched poseidon today and yea...terrible...but looked great!

I voted other: Swordfish. Ugh.

I recognize the subjective nature of this thread, but I wonder why Corpse Bride is listed among those choices. Doom and Scooby-Doo, I understand... but CB was a well-animated and imaginative flick, and certainly didn't get panned by the critics when it was released to theaters.

This version of the thread is supposed to be closed but somehow both are living on and I don't know how to delete redundant threads. Anyway I didn't include CB in the revised version because I thought I was alone in my lack of appreciation of Tim Burton, but to my surprise 7 people have voted for it so far so I guess I wasn't that far off. I know that I'd hate that movie (haven't even seen it but I've seen enough of the previews and Tim Burton to know) but I was tempted to buy it because of the PQ raves, looks like I wasn't alone.

Other... CoR.

and ear candy.. PhatomOTOpera...

What a horrible movie!

Easily Serenity for me. Nothing inherently good about it. It blew. I place this one worse than all three of my "Fast & Furious" titles. They were all pretty bad but nowhere near Serenity. Dunno, with all the very positive feedback, ie IMDB, I simply expected more, much more.

my2cent.

Careful edved1, you'll be subject to death threats, Serenity/Firefly has a pretty rabid following :)

Careful edved1, you'll be subject to death threats, Serenity/Firefly has a pretty rabid following :)

Really! Well, they'd have a long way to go, as I'm currently working in the Middle East . Since I live in the ME, I never got to see Firefly. Like I said, both my girlfriend and I watched Serenity with great expectations, but were both greatly disappointed with what we saw.

I call them as I see them. Some of my colleagues at work did enjoy Serenity however. I simply didn't see what the deal was about. Bad acting, skimpy plot and no eye candy to boot!

Thanks for the heads up though!

Why isn't Phantom Of The Opera one of the choices?

I never could get all the way thru the movie. Tried a few times. Just couldn't force myself. Actually all I ever did was skip thru it. Finally dumped it on ebay.

I actually bought it for the TrueHD sound since I don't buy for picture. Maybe if I had a better TV that would change.

I call them as I see them. Some of my colleagues at work did enjoy Serenity however. I simply didn't see what the deal was about. Bad acting, skimpy plot and no eye candy to boot!
Blasphemy...

Don't need to apologize for putting KK on the list - it was a truly loathsome movie and tremendous waste of talent.

Aeon Flux for me, definatly.

Corpses Bride looks nice but I can't stand it.

you should be flogged for putting KK on that list.....THE NERVE!!!!

J/K

I'm surprised you didn't list Ultraviolet.

The Searchers, I really tried to convince myself that watching an old western
in HD was really cool but after it is all said and done. I have to say that movie
blows :eek:


The Searchers? Are you kidding? Widely regarded as John Ford's best western. Considered one of the top films of all time by many critics. I mean, you could say, it wasn't for you, but doesn't deserve to be listed amongst the worst movies.

I honestly don't understand videophiles who don't appreciate the art of filmmaking. . .

Here are some critics who disagree that The Searchs "blows"

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/searchers/

By process of elimination, that would leave King Kong. I got it with the 360 add-on, and haven't even opened it. Saw the movie in theater, don't care to watch it again.

Riddick, I knew it was lame, but after I watched Pitch Black again, I realized how much more lame Riddick really was.

If you vote "Troy" for the category of "eye candy", are you obligated to also own "Brokeback Mountain"? :confused:

I voted "Superman Returns" in the "other" category, by the way. If I buy a movie about a man running around in tights, it had better have a better story than that load of cr*p did. :mad: One other thing, could someone for the love of everything Holy please feed Kate Bosworth??? What happened to the hot version of her from "Blue Crush"? She and Michelle Rodriguez actually made that movie almost bearable.

Easily Serenity for me. Nothing inherently good about it. It blew. I place this one worse than all three of my "Fast & Furious" titles. They were all pretty bad but nowhere near Serenity. Dunno, with all the very positive feedback, ie IMDB, I simply expected more, much more.

my2cent.

Tonight.... YOU.

I have a few things to say.

Kong isn't that bad, though certainly not good. PQ was amazing. (free with 360 HD-DVD)

I like the Hulk. (haven't bought it, can't find it)

All Joss Wheadon properties are without merit.

Surprised so many people hate Superman Returns, thought Bryan Singer did a great job. Kevin Spacey was a great Lex Luthor. Didn't think Kate Bosworth looked all that thin, and Michelle Rodriguez looks to me like she fell out of the ugly tree, hit every branch on the way down, after which the ugly tree fell on her (though that has nothing do do with Superman Returns).

I bought Troy because I like the movie, but the PQ is no good. The indoor and night scenes look great, but the outdoor daylight scenes are washed out and indiscernible from DVD.

Anyway, I chose Kong.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Why did they even make that movie?

Maybe liking Michelle Rodriguez is a native Texan thing.

I rented King Kong way before I bought my HD-A1. I'll take the Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin version over this one anyday of the week. I fell asleep before the end of the new one and never even watched the end before I returned it. It was TERRIBLE! I won't be seeing it in HD.

While we're on the subject (and we are), "Phantom of the Opera" was slightly less painful than removing my molars...all of them...by myself...with channel locks. I made the mistake of renting it. If it weren't for Emmy Rossum, I wouldn't have been able to fast forward through that movie only stopping on scenes that she was in before I finally couldn't take anymore (about 1 hour into it). Did it sound good, yeah. I bet the Sirens also sounded good right before the sailor's ships used to ram into them and kill them all.

Why has the poll left off one of THE best PQ films so far??

Aeon FLux its a real stinker!!!!!!!!!!!

Great PQ but impossible to watch all the way through. Maybe no one is stupid enough to buy it?

Interesting, that's one I find grows on me :). No problem at ALL watching it through!

I've got you all beat... Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow! :cool: :o

Ah, yes! Love it! :)

Easily Serenity for me. Nothing inherently good about it. It blew. I place this one worse than all three of my "Fast & Furious" titles. They were all pretty bad but nowhere near Serenity. Dunno, with all the very positive feedback, ie IMDB, I simply expected more, much more.

my2cent.
Careful edved1, you'll be subject to death threats, Serenity/Firefly has a pretty rabid following :)

True, but it didn't do well at the box office simply because it was only appreciated by that rabid, though narrow, audience. I was unsure of it from reading reviews, but it turned out just fine -- I typically like the quirky films. It even prompted me to buy the TV series. :)

Absolutely LOVE that first "The Fast And The Furious" film though! (Avoided the two folow-ups :).)

The Searchers? Are you kidding? Widely regarded as John Ford's best western. Considered one of the top films of all time by many critics. I mean, you could say, it wasn't for you, but doesn't deserve to be listed amongst the worst movies.

I honestly don't understand videophiles who don't appreciate the art of filmmaking. . .

Here are some critics who disagree that The Searchs "blows"

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/searchers/

I'm really uncomfortable with that film too, but that's specifically due to the blatant and vicious racism, makes me really squirm. However, that's part of the story and it was surely a real attitude of the time. No question it's a very well done film -- just not one I would care to see very often.

Michelle Rodriguez looks to me like she fell out of the ugly tree, hit every branch on the way down, after which the ugly tree fell on her (though that has nothing do do with Superman Returns).

Whew! Sure glad you added that clarification in parentheses at the end -- I was about ready to buy the movie because Michelle was in it :). She and Milla are my favorite tough gals. She was great in "Girl Fight" and "Resident Evil".

Her flat belly and butt-kicking single handedly saved "Lost" season 2.

I had to jump back in to defend the person that listed "The Searchers". I love Westerns (have even read almost every Louis L'Amour book ever written). One Spring break I made it my mission to watch every Clint Eastwood Western ever made (I think I only missed "Joe Kidd").

With that said, I can't stand Marion Morrison (aka John Wayne). What a sissy! My wife could have kicked his *ss. And that walk? What happened, did he drop the soap in the shower at Chino?

Cinematography, excellent! Story, doo doo. Acting, made me want to gouge my own eyes out with my thumbs.

Any movie that requires you to watch the entire list of extras just to make you feel like you didn't just waste 2 hours is not a "film to be treasured".

From a film-makers standpoint, did Ford do some innovative things? Sure, I guess. Is the scenery amazing? Yep. Does he deal some uncomfortable subjects in a unique manner? I'll certainly give him that. I rate this as a film that you have to see (if you're a film/movie buff), but that doesn't mean that I think you're going to like it or enjoy it. Just my $0.02. :)

Mine is also Aeon Flux. I was going to say Syriana. I ordered it from Buy.com but cancelled my order b4 it shipped, after renting it and trying to watch it twice. It kept putting me to sleep. :(.

Need to add Aeon Flux to the list. Great looking but aweful film. :D

I'm glad it wasn't just me...Aeon Flux was the first HD-DVD I fell asleep while watching. Didn't bother watching again...just returned it to Netflix.

I decided early on, as a rule, not to buy on HD DVD any movie I did not like. I saw KK when it was released last winter and simply hated the movie. But I bought the HD DVD and KK became the first, and so far only exception to my rule. I must add that I have recently bought a PS3 and that, considering the titles available so far on Blu Ray, it quickly became practically impossible to extend my HD DVD rule to BD!

Quite a few actually. While I wouldn't say all the films below are "bad", they certainly are not the type of films I would buy usually, and if they were just on DVD, there's no way I would get them.

1. Chicken Little
2. The Wild
3. Happy Feet
4. Transporter 2
5. World Trade Center
6. Serenity
7. Poseiden

There are two films I'm tempted to get each time I'm at the store against my best instincts, basically because I know they have great PQ. They are Crank and Aeon Flux, two movies that I'm sure are pieces of sh*t. I'm proud that I haven't succumbed yet, but if there's nothing else to get the next time I'm at the store, who knows what could happen?

Corpse Bride is awesome. I've been wanting it forever, but specifically waited until I could get it in HD. I'm very, very happy I have it on HD DVD.

King Kong is OK. I wouldn't have bought it since I already had the DVD, but I got it free with my Xbox 360 drive. I don't consider it a bad movie, just not a great one.

I specifically wanted Chronicles of Riddick, because it's been one of my guilty pleasures. Yes it's a bad movie, but I have seen it several times and would still watch it again, cuz it's a bad movie I just happen to like a lot. :) It's another movie I've been waiting to buy for a long time, specifically for HD. I agree Pitch Black is better though, but in truth, Pitch Black is also kind of a bad movie too... but one I like very much.

I did buy The Searchers, but haven't watched it yet. We'll see about that one. I can't say I bought it for eye candy though. I bought it based on the reviews (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/searchers/).

Happy Feet. It was a blind buy. I heard good things about the PQ and movie, and I tend to like kids movies anyways, but in the end I just didn't do anything for me.

I saw Happy Feet in the theatre. I was dragged there by my GF.

I had very low expectations, but it was better than I thought it would be. I wouldn't buy the disk, but think it's worth the rental, especially if you have kids or like kids' movies.

P.S. I'm glad I did not buy the Discovery Atlas series. Had they come out earlier I would have bought them. However, by the time they did come out I had seen 3 of them on Discovery HD. They were pretty good, but definitely not a must buy if you've already seen them.

Aeon Flux, king kong shouldnt be on here, one of the best movies I ever seen

I was able to enjoy Aeon Flux... but I couldn't enjoy Ultra Violet - made it 45 minutes into the movie and had to stop. What's worse is that I would hardly describe it as eye candy.

Personally I thought both The Hulk and KK were pretty good movies. Doom was my choice , Aeon Flux I've ended up watching portions of on 3 occassions, otherwise it would have beeen AF :)

Aeon Flux.

Tokyo Drift is mine . I can only stand to watch one scene enough to put it on for demo.

I thought that Aeon Flux, Sky Captain, Corpse Bride have many redeeming qualities although not great film they are watchable.Serenity is a good film and great demo material.

Art

What is Aeon Flux not doing on a Worst film poll?

What is Aeon Flux not doing on a Worst film poll?

Charlize Theron in HD DVD glory, but the film was pretty poor. It has my vote in this poll.

Kong (thought it would never end), followed by Superman Returns (couldn't wait for it to end).

I do use the T-rex fight in KK as a demo clip though.

What is Aeon Flux not doing on a Worst film poll?

I agree not great but enough things to make it not be a worst film by any means IMO.

Art

Yeah, all our tastes are different. I thought Serenity was a renter at best. I preferred Kong over Serenity actually, but wouldn't go out of my way to buy either of them.

Aeon Flux. Beautiful PQ bad movie.

To put an end to all the "King kong was bad" ********.

It got 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. So 195 out of 232 reviews were positive.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_kong

This does not mean that someone cannot think it's a bad movie but it does not belong on this list. Same goes for Corpse Bride.

Other - Riddick as well.

I saw this in the theater and knew that I didn't want to own it on DVD, but I kept reading here that the director's cut "transformed" the movie into something less craptacular. I was deceived, but I've held on to the Riddick HD-DVD for the eye candy alone...
This was actually the rare case of the video game kicking mucho ass, while the movie sucked. It's almost unheard of for a movie-based game to not suck, but it actually won some awards and what not. It's short, only 10 hours or so, but it's fun. Just make sure you get "the director's cut", which includes a couple of extra levels. Bizzarely enough, there's a "commentary" mode available after you unlock it in the game by picking up packs of cigarrettes.

I bought the Polar Express because it got a good review for PQ plus my son luvs that movie

Hulk :(
King Kong
CoR

Happy Feet BD :(
Corpse Bride BD
Ice Age BD
Gridiron Gang BD
BHD BD

A couple aren't too bad but I wouldn't have purchased them if it wasn't for the PQ reviews. Hulk and Happy Feet are the worst.

I bought Pulse, just because I was dying for a movie I didn't know much about or hadn't already seen, very rare on the new formats. Turns out, the movie is complete dog crap. Luckily I got it on Best Buy's "B2G1" deal a couple of months back. Same goes for Constantine, I liked it a bit, but not enough to warrent purchasing it. Worst part is, neither has great PQ to overcome the blech-ness of watching them.

To put an end to all the "King kong was bad" ********.

It got 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. So 195 out of 232 reviews were positive.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_kong

This does not mean that someone cannot think it's a bad movie but it does not belong on this list. Same goes for Corpse Bride.
Personally, I think many who deem it "bad" are either looking at it comparatively to the original 1933 classic or Jackson's prior work. I look at it both ways. Jackson's Kong tends to strip away the wonder of the original but showing seemingly everything that was assumed in the 1933 film with an enormous amount of cash and the most cutting edge of resources. It's a case of too many cooks in the kitchen with the head chef (who seems to have unchecked sway and power) barely maintaining control over it all.

Comparing it to his prior work, Kong (and the LOTR series) IMO don't feel directed by the same man who helmed Bad Taste, Braindead, Meet the Feebles, Forgotten Silver, Heavenly Creatures, and The Frighteners. I would say his first feature, Bad Taste, is superior to Kong and LOTR collectively. The conditions and struggles that the Peter Jackson of then underwent to make that goofy little film would probably make the Peter Jackson of today break down and pound his fists bloody against the nearest wall while sobbing in defeat.

Personally, I think many who deem it "bad" are either looking at it comparatively to the original 1933 classic or Jackson's prior work. I look at it both ways. Jackson's Kong tends to strip away the wonder of the original but showing seemingly everything that was assumed in the 1933 film with an enormous amount of cash and the most cutting edge of resources. It's a case of too many cooks in the kitchen with the head chef (who seems to have unchecked sway and power) barely maintaining control over it all.
I've never seen the original; I just thought it was too long and too boring. I didn't really dig all the gratuitous CGI monster fighting, and they should have either cut most of that out to shorten the movie or replaced the footage with more character development.

I've never seen the original; I just thought it was too long and too boring. I didn't really dig all the gratuitous CGI monster fighting, and they should have either cut most of that out to shorten the movie or replaced the footage with more character development.

I agree ! Thios is where the film fell down IMO. Each of the fights could have been trimmed and it would have been a lot better movie.

Art

To put an end to all the "King kong was bad" ********....
This does not mean that someone cannot think it's a bad movie but it does not belong on this list. Same goes for Corpse Bride.

Hate to break it to you pal (and it does seem you feel weirdly strong about this) but at least 26% of voters disagree with you.

I will freely grant (and I think I've already posted this a month or two ago in this thread somewhere) that Aeon Flux should probably replace Corpse Bride on this list, no option to edit it. I haven't bought either but I KNOW I'll hate Corpse Bride based on the 3-5 minutes of it I've seen and my general lack of appreciation of the Tim Burton stylization... and I didn't hate Aeon Flux.

Without Dune, your thread is invalid.

Use the 'other' option!

king kong; not a bad flick really i liked it but when i got it, it was only b/c of the reputed visual quality. glad i thought it was ok.

Other............Aeon FLux

I would say his first feature, Bad Taste, is superior to Kong and LOTR collectively.

Bad Taste needs a remake. Not a 3 hour one though.

Oddly enough, I am easily satisfied as a movie viewer and the movies on that list that I did purchase I enjoyed. That said there are quite a few movies on their that I if I owned them it would be only for eye candy.

I guess you could include Pirates for me but thats two kinds of eye candy there.

worst HD DVD for me was PULSE. Total crap,not even decent eye candy, didn't know why it was even needed on HD. Most of the movie was shot in the dark (prob real low budget so to hide everything). One of the worst movies on HD or even SD DVD that I purchased in the last few years, waste of money and the 90+ or so min's of my life I will never get back.

Army of darkness sucked ass BAD.

I sold mine

Except for the animations (which don't count because they are a piece of cake to produce in high quality) the overall level of PQ in the releases of REAL films in HD DVD over the past several months has been a big disappointment. The don't look much better than the SD versions.

I didn't buy King Kong, but I haven't purchased an HD DVD that has been worth it visually since Mission Impossible III, Aeon Flux, and Phantom of the Opera. I think the industry just isn't making the effort any more, and they are acting like they are doing us a favor just keeping the format. Go back and look at those films again and see for yourself.

John

I answered Hulk, no idea how anyone can get through that drivel, even just for the picture.
Kong isn't great, but it's amazing for the pic + CGI stuff, and still what I demo with if someone wants to see what HD DVD and an AE900 can do.
I bought Happy Feet really just for the pic, but wound up enjoying the movie. The more I look at it, the more certain scenes rival Kong for beauty/PQ (especially the birds and elephant seals) .

Hulk is just awful. The last 20-30 minutes or so, when he finally escapes and takes off into the desert/city is ok, but then you have the godawful ending, not to mention the UNENDING BOREDOM of the rest of the movie prior.

Kong isn't that great either, but Kong is freakin' Casablanca compared to Hulk.

Since when is Corpse Bride a bad movie?

I voted Doom. I still can't believe I own that disc. I was actually just thinking of selling it. Such an awful, AWFUL film that urinates all over it's groundbreaking gaming origins.

Army of darkness sucked ass BAD.

I sold mine

One of my faves. :-)

I voted Doom. I still can't believe I own that disc. I was actually just thinking of selling it. Such an awful, AWFUL film that urinates all over it's groundbreaking gaming origins.

I did not think Doom was that bad. It is what it is, a movie based on a shoot em- up PC game. What did you expect...... Gone with the Wind ?

Now you want a film that "urinates all over its groundbreaking gaming origins"? Take a look at WING COMMANDER.....That was AWFUL :o

Without Dune, your thread is invalid.
Another movie I like. It does have its faults, but I knew that going in, and enjoy watching the movie again on HD DVD.


Army of darkness sucked ass BAD.

I sold mine
That's another movie I like A LOT. I didn't buy the HD DVD though since I have the DVD and have seen it several times.


Since when is Corpse Bride a bad movie?
That is one of my most prized HD DVDs.


:D

I did not think Doom was that bad. It is what it is, a movie based on a shoot em- up PC game. What did you expect...... Gone with the Wind ?
I expected it to be like Doom. Instead it was a straight-to-video Aliens clone restricted to tiny little corridors and featuring 2 monsters and a quick cameo of a third.

Doom has always been about a variety of demons from Hell in and around a Mars facility.

Hell was completely abandoned so we could get YET ANOTHER stupid genetic engineering BS plot.

You can tell that Mars was a last minute addition to appease the fans. They continually refer to "Odilvai" or whatever. Clearly they are referring to the name of a planet, but they throw in a quick mention that it is the name of the research facility on Mars. Total garbage.

But the creme-de-la-creme was the virus that decides whether you should be a monster or a superhero, that was pretty much the worst idea ever conceived in any medium.

In all of the games, a gateway to Hell was discovered while experimenting with teleportation. If you're making an R rated movie, why ditch that? It makes no sense at all.

I understand the need to make it a team instead of one guy, but do they have to be clones of characters from Aliens and Predator?

Such a completely wasted opportunity. Doom was in development as a feature since shortly after the first film launched and this is the best they could come up with?

Now you want a film that "urinates all over its groundbreaking gaming origins"? Take a look at WING COMMANDER.....That was AWFUL :o
Could not agree more. Hopefully this film will fade from all our memories and never be referenced again.

I've somehow managed to enjoy Doom twice on SD DVD and own it in HD, haven't gotten to it yet. Fett you analyze this one a tad much me thinks. I don't disagree with any of your criticisms, but even if it's an Aliens/Predator rip off, at least it's a genre I enjoy, both the thoughtful and mindless renditions.

Oh and I'm not going to defend my (poor) decision to put Corpse Bride on the list any more, I've already explained it 2-3 times in this thread.

Van Helsing gets my vote.
Another blind buy mistake that I will not let happen again :eek:
I cant imagine anyone over 13 actualy liking this movie :confused:

Voted other,
Happy feet almost made me vomit. :eek:

Easily Serenity for me. Nothing inherently good about it. It blew. I place this one worse than all three of my "Fast & Furious" titles. They were all pretty bad but nowhere near Serenity. Dunno, with all the very positive feedback, ie IMDB, I simply expected more, much more.

my2cent.

I'll back these comments. What a lame movie.

I must be the only one who really liked Swordfish.

COR did suck as a movie but had reference quality video. I got it free with my Toshiba, otherwise I would not have it. I walked out of Pitch Black in the theater so I really had no interest in seeing this but heard the PQ was top notch.

Hulk sucked as others have mentioned.

I'll give a nod to Van Helsing as well.

Greg

I liked Kong, I dont know what all this trash talk is. Whats so bad about it guys?

"I’m not one to complain about long movies, I love long movies. But there has to be a damn good REASON why they need to be long. Boat goes to island, monkey takes girl, guy retrieves girl, monkey rampages in New York. That story doesn’t need 3 hours to tell.

First off, there’s no opening credit sequence. I like opening credit sequences. It apeals to the graphic designer in me I guess. But that’s no big deal. The opening “life sucks” montage is kind of awkward mostly because we’re not sure what we’re being shown or why. You can keep on wondering because it doesn’t really have anything to do with the movie. I’m sorry but a giant ape does not need to be put into historical context.

Cut to Anne Darrow doing a Charlie Chaplin routine. Not kidding. They actually do try to work this into the plot later on but like so much of this film, it’s really forced. Apparently we need some kind of motivation for every character to be on that boat. They’re going to a mysterious island to make a movie, what further motivation do you need? So we spend an hour with that crap.

Most of it works ok, but once we get to the island you can throw it all away because none of it has anything to do with the rest of the movie. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention the acid-cam. What the hell was Peter Jackson smoking when he decided to employ drug-trip acid trails into random shots? I don’t understand what I was supposed to get out of that. It was annoying, but somehow I don’t think that’s what he was going for. 5 letters: S-K-U-L-L! It won't make any more sense when you see the film.

By the way, if you had an entire ship to bed down on, even if the cabins were full and no one thought to share one, would you sleep in a cargo hold full of camel crap? Yeah, me neither. And what was with that scene with Hayes talking about Jimmy’s “origin”? I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous! All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Hayes wanders off like he’s caught in a Nam flashback. I’ll try to reconstruct it here: “It all happened right over there in that cage. It was a dark and stormy night when the kid emerged from it, all sweaty and dirty, his muscles glimmering in the moonlight......he never even told me where he came from....” What was that doing in the movie? Does it pay off somewhere down the line? Nope. Hayes and Jimmy’s little “relationship” should have been left on the cutting room floor.

And speaking of characters I could give a rat’s tit about, how about Andy Sirkis’ demented Popeye act? My God was that painful! At least he had a really cool death. Just talking about that first hour is boring so let’s move on shall we?

So they’re sailing into the fog smooth as glass. But once they get to the island, there’s waves crashing all over the place and they’re smashing on the rocks. Sure there’s bound to be currents, but this was ridiculous! First of all, the ship is gliding into a rock face and the Captain yells out “kill the engines!” Umm, excuse me, I’m no expert, but don’t you mean REVERSE ENGINES!?!?” So guess what happens? Yep, they glide right into the rock face. Physics are a bitch. And that’s one sturdy hull. If Titanic was made out of whatever this little tug is, nobody would know who the hell Leonardo DiCaprio is.

So with all this thrashing and smashing, they decide that the best course of action is to get into a much smaller, more fragile boat. The scene with Anne doing the fake Hollywood scream on the beach isn't in the movie by the way, not that it’s missed.

Meet the natives. I think Tookie Williams started these people up because they are the evilest bastards around. And they somehow possess the ability to roll their eyes into the backs of their heads. Jackson spends lots of time making sure we understand these people are completely psychotic, murderous heathens, though I don’t understand why. But never fear because whitey shows up with a gun and starts blowing them all away. Whew, we sure could have used him in the LA riots eh? Yeah it was pretty bizzare. I’d say it’s just this side of out and out racism.

Now unlike the other films, there is never any interest by the natives in Anne. This is made all the more puzzling when the Kong Island Olympic Pole Vaulting team comes over to the ship, which is strangely about 20 yards away from shore, to steal her. So Jack finds the native necklace on the deck, then looks up and says “ANNE!” Yes, clearly they have come aboard and stolen Anne. Obviously, because there’s a necklace on deck. In the other movies it works because there’s a long bartering scene with the natives trying to buy her then getting pissed when they can’t and there’s sort of a battle as our heroes barely make it off the island. Since that doesn’t happen in this version, it doesn’t make much sense why Jack leaps to that conclusion.

So the natives have this elaborate rig to transport Anne over to the little alter thingee. I guess I don’t have a real problem with that, it just seems a little overly complex. When Kong shows up, he rips Anne off the thing. Her hands were tied to the posts with ropes so I’m surprised it didn’t rip her arms right off. I’m a little unlcear how the door to the gate works because it’s not a normal door either. It looks like sort of half a door with a bunch of spikes in front of it. Not a big deal, but it's annoying when things that should be easily conveyed aren't.

Jack and the gang are off to save the girl. Enter Demented Popeye with a stupid abominable snowman joke. And it’s on to another puzzling sequence. Again, it seems really forced. They happen across sort of a valley filled with grazing Brontosauruses. Unfortunately at that exact time, a couple of raptor-type dinos attack the herd, which promptly chases our characters down a ravine. I can’t help but wonder what the raptors plan was because they immediately start zipping around between the Bronto’s feet. Maybe this is a sort of game for them. “Hey Paco” “What do ya want Pancho” “Let’s start a bronto stampede and run around between their feet!” “AGAIN?.....Alright fine, but I’m getting a foot rub out of this.” It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But whatever. So now the people are all scrambling around between the Bronto feet AND dodging snapping raptors. But then one of the Brontos trips and there’s this huge pile-up. See what I mean about forced? It just doesn’t feel natural at all. The composite of the characters dodging the feet doesn’t look too convincing either.

So we cut back to the girl and the monkey to see him shaking her around like a rag doll. This would break her neck of course, but nevermind that. He’s taken her to some sort of killing ground. We can tell this because it’s filled with human skeletons. That opens up a whole new can of worms. In the first two films, it is never outright stated that Kong intends to kill Anne, or anyone else for that matter. She is to be his “bride”, take from that what you will. This is a ritual that has been repeated several times we assume because it is interrupted by the group when Anne or Dwan is desired as a replacement. Since there is no such ritual in this version, we’re not really sure why the natives give her to Kong in the first place. But be that as it may, we now have proof that Kong is killing people. He’s not eating them, he’s just killing them. By the way he’s tossing Anne around, we can assume that he simply hates people and likes beating them till they die, like a cat with a mouse. That's not necessarily a bad element to add, but it does beg the question why he doesn't just kill kill them at the alter.

This is when Anne repeats her Charlie Chaplin routine. It works ok because of the context. She’s not trying to entertain kong, she’s trying to distract him from killing her. So I’m alright with it, although doing back-flips wouldn't probably be the first thing to spring to my mind when about to be killed by a giant ape. I also think Kong’s reactions are a bit too human. She stops the act (again it seems odd since it's the only thing keeping her alive), he throws a fit and swings away. Anne takes off back towards the ship.

The spider pit scene is fantastic. I really loved that part, but again, things get weird. The bugs come out to investigate right away and Jack throws a flare at them which sends them back into the rock face. Now is it just me or would you immediately start trying to get the **** out of there? Jack decides this is a perfect time to lament the dead. Yeah, let's all gather round and hold hands! The attack itself is absolutely fantastic though, until one character who is a self-described coward suddenly swings into frame like Tarzan and starts shooting all the bugs! Talk about out of left field! And It also just felt like a cop-out that 2 guys show up with guns and those hundreds of bugs just dissapear.

We catch back up with Anne as she encounters some crocodile-like dinos, some big centipedes and the infamous V-Rex (although PJ refers to them as T-Rex’s in the Production Diaries. Has Spielberg trademarked the name T-Rex or something?).

The following battle is spectacular, if again, forced. Why are vines stretched 50 yards across a cravasse? They must be made of titanium too.

But now this is where the movie really started to lose me. Kong kills the last dino and sits next to Anne with his nose in the air as if they had a lover’s spat. That’s just nuts. He gets up and walks away and, hold onto your butts, Anne chases after him yelling “WAIT!”. Without missing a beat he swings her up onto his shoulder, as if he knew she would follow him all along. PJ could have made this more plausible if Anne looked around in the jungle and maybe saw a tree move or something. But she’s not scared of that place, she just wants to be with Kong cuz she’s crushin’ on him. It plays really weird.

Back at the cave, Anne teaches Kong sign language as if he’s Bobo the friggin’ chimp and they stare off at a sunset together like love-struck teenagers. The movie doesn’t bother to explain how Jack finds her, but when he does, Anne is dozing comfortably in Kong’s open hand. They are the picture of domesticity as Kong snores in the background. But into their tidy love-nest comes barging this guy, who she was just making out with not long ago, who has this crazy idea of breaking up her new marriage in Dino-and-giant-bug-world. The GALL of the bastard! In fact, she looks almost HORRIFIED at the prospect of leaving her new groom, but she does. This time instead of pteradactles attacking, it’s giant bat-creatures. And yes, Jack and Anne fly away on one, but not like Gandalf on an eagle. They grab onto one’s foot and it limps away towards the ground below so I don’t have a big problem with that.

The capture sequence works well, but Jackson just can’t help swelling that music up and squeezing it (ergo stretching it out) for all it’s worth. It’s really sappy and over-dramatic, but like I said, as a whole it works.

It does strike me as odd that the ‘76 remake showed how Kong was transported but Jackson’s 3 hour opus couldn’t shimmy it in there. Not a huge deal, but it’s a bit of an abrupt cut. Yes I realize the ‘33 one did that too, but then it was half this length wasn’t it?

This time Anne has opted to do A Chorus Line instead of stay with Kong. And we spend precious minutes watching Jack's eyes glaze over at a play. I'll just say that by this point, I know how he felt. Why are we made to endure this? Anyway, soon enough Kong breaks loose and starts bustin’ heads. This part is fairly cool I guess, but by this time I’m really just wanting the film to be over.

Then he takes the bitch ice skating and it’s eye-rolling. How in God’s holy hell would a gorilla from the tropics get the idea to do a belly-slide the first time he sees ice? How is that ice even holding him up? PJ is trying to play this scene like Lady and the Tramp meets Bambi and it’s just crazy.

The end of the movie just doesn’t pack a punch hardly at all. If PJ cut out all the longing stares between Kong and Anne, this film would be about 10 minutes shorter. The ‘33 film had the ending pretty short. The ‘76 film managed to find lots of different things, both dramatic and action-oriented, on top of the WTC along with reactions on the ground. This movie just doesn’t do that. It’s "battle of the teary close-ups". I wanted Anne to SAY something so at least there’s some reason for them to keep staring at each other. Oh yeah, and then they jump through the time vortex and go from 7:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. just so they can forcedly witness the sunrise together and Bobo can mimick back his newly learned sign language. It’s all so stupid. Just the way PJ worked it out dilutes the whole thing. You just have to watch it to see what I mean. To top it all off, when Kong falls we’ve got that high-pitched female singing from LOTR and it feels really out of place.

“Gee Fett, it actually sounds like you prefer the ‘76 version to this one!” Don’t get me wrong, there’s bad stuff in the ‘76 version, but it flows much better than this one. Everything makes sense and you genuinely feel for Kong. It’s just too hard to do so in this one. There’s too much sappy crap. So much so that the Kong/Anne relationship actually gets annoying. When the credits rolled, they should have blasted “My Monkey Love”.

It’s an ok movie. The special effects are fantastic, but the movie is way too damn long, not because it’s a “feast” but because it’s overloaded with needless exposition and side tangents that have little or nothing to do with the main story. I think you guys have over-estimated this films take. It will be lucky to make it past $275M domestic. Oh it’ll have a monster weekend, but it’s tough to reccomend this film to people and condemn them to 3 hours of overbloated sentimentality. This film is beautiful at times, exciting at others, but mostly it just sits there and weeps quietly. That’s simply not enough for me.

C+"
As I originally posted here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=452595

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I hate this movie. Blind buy which I regret. I enjoy Constantine more that KKBB (and that says a lot.)

Easily Serenity for me. Nothing inherently good about it. It blew. I place this one worse than all three of my "Fast & Furious" titles. They were all pretty bad but nowhere near Serenity. Dunno, with all the very positive feedback, ie IMDB, I simply expected more, much more.

my2cent.

My Serenity review:

"I’ve walked out on 3 movies in my life: Evolution, The Core and now Serenity. Wow. This movie really sucked. I haven’t seen anything this bad in a long, long time. At least Catwoman was pretty to look at. The Cave had its moments. Venom was universally horrible, but even it was more tolerable that this steaming pile.

The film opens with a very interesting overview of the universe the characters live in. Right away I’m thinking “Wow, that’s a cool idea”. Then it has a surprise opening and I’m thinking “Those guys on RT were right. I am SO buying this box set when the film gets out”, and that was the last positive thought I had.

We have two guys trying to get after the “golden child” from Elektra. There’s a black guy who is some sort of black ops guy, and her brother. They both just kind of show up and exposition is hurtled at us regarding who the golden child is, what her powers are and why they are trying to reprogram her.

The ops guy gets ruthless and that’s a little cool, but really over the top. The brother gets the girl out just as they decide to turn the security system on. This girl is supposedly the highest priority in the universe, yet anyone can walk right in to see her or fly a ship right up to the building. Did I mention that the girl is really ugly? She pretty much looks like a grown up Samara.

So now we’re aboard the “Serenity”. I thought their ship was the “Firefly”. Anyway, it looks like a giant metal chicken. Laughably stupid. Why are they on this ship? They don’t bother to explain. Is the golden child and the brother members of the crew? That’s not really clear. Where are they going? No idea. Where did they come from? Don’t ask me.

Apparently the ship is crashing. Why? I guess something broke. Don’t look for any sort of explanation for pretty much anything in this film. So they land the giant chicken and rob a bank. Just like that. No explanation, no reason. At the time, I’m not clear if they are there for money or for some other purpose. In fact, they never even show us the money, but they mention it later. That’s the only reason I even know that’s what they were doing there. As they are making their escape, “The Reavers” show up. Who are they? Apparently they are space cannibals. Why are they cannibals? They actually make a half-hearted attempt to explain this. They were “out in space too long” WHAT? Whatever. At this point they re-enact a scene from First Contact. Then the Reaver ship that’s chasing them somehow hits a boulder. At least I think that’s what happened, it isn’t really clear. Then they re-enact a scene from Star Trek: Nemesis.

So now we’re back on the ship and, like the bulk of this films running time, there’s plenty of ascerbic banter. This brings me to something that really annoyed me, every character’s dialogue is exactly the same. Every character is Han Solo. You can take any piece of dialogue and give it to any character you want because they all talk exactly alike. None of it is particularly funny. Unfortunately the fanboy mentality was alive and well in the theater and forced laughter echoed around after every couple of lines.

So now they arrive on another planet. I thought the ship was about to explode, what happened with that? Apparently it’s all fine and dandy now. Where are we? No idea. Why are we here? No clue. They go into a bar and the golden child watches an anime cartoon and inexplicably starts beating up everyone in the bar! So they use the secret code word (like on Wolverine in X2) and she falls asleep. They then take her back to the ship, and we’re off again. I’m starting to feel like a toddler in the back of my mom’s car. I have no idea where we are going and I just have to wait until we get there to find out.

They have a video call with some guy. No idea who he is or how he pertains to the story. He is constantly wise-cracking about marrying his robo-slut. He analyzes the security footage of the bar. No idea how he got it, but whatever. Then the brother asks the golden child about a word she said on the tape, and she doesn’t know what it means. She pretty much just speaks in tongues and cries for the entirety of the scene so nothing is accomplished. Talk about begging for the cutting room floor!

Now we’re camping with an old man on yet another planet. Who is he? Beats me. Why are we here? Eventually the captain says we’re there to hide out. Great. Thanks for clueing me in. I had enough by that point so I got up and left.

Joss Whedon is a total hack. He can’t write, and now we know for sure that he can’t direct either. Everything is either a 2-shot or a master, VERY TV. The only shots with any movement in them at all are special effects shots, and even they are pretty languid. The effects look cheap as hell by the way.

The acting in the whole thing is your run of the mill soap opera calibur. For some odd reason, the characters start sporadically speaking in another language. I guess I’m somehow supposed to know why.

The production design is cheap, the scenes are poorly lit and the costumes are generic. My biggest problem is that Whedon doesn’t seem to know what he wants us to get out of this experience. What’s he trying to SAY? This story doesn’t seem to have any point at all. It’s just “The random adventures of a backwater Star Trek”. I don’t know who these characters are, where they are going or why. I don’t know what they want, who or what they care about. Movies aren’t like TV where you can stretch things out indefinitely. You have to have a point and you have to get to it quickly. This movie commited the ultimate sin, it wasted my time.

(whining) “But Fett, it’s at 80% on the T-meter!”

I don’t give a crap if it’s at 200%, it’s a bad, bad movie."

As originally posted here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=439736

But then I bought the HD DVD for PQ and ended up liking it. It still has all the faults I mention above but since I knew they were coming and people in that initial thread had explained what was going on, they didn't bother me as much.

My Serenity review:

"I’ve walked out on 3 movies in my life: Evolution, The Core and now Serenity. Wow. This movie really sucked.

Serenity sucks? :eek: .........................Blasphemer

Serenity sucks? :eek: .........................Blasphemer
We haven't exactly been buds lately, but I have to agree with Fett. :rolleyes:

I have 2 regrets, 12 monkeys, and Children of Men. I just finished watching COM after I replaced my first defective disc. It was very slow and boring. I paid 40 bucks for it, and wished I would have rented it first. I have decided to never Blind buy again just for the HD experience.

Hulk for Eye Candy. OK movie but not worth the purchase

But then I bought the HD DVD for PQ and ended up liking it. It still has all the faults I mention above but since I knew they were coming and people in that initial thread had explained what was going on, they didn't bother me as much.

Wow, that's just funny. A review of your own opinion which I can respect, but to make a turn around and actually use the words "ended up liking it" doesn't make much sense after reading your whole review. Yes yes, you went into it expecting the faults but still. Eh, each is own.. I don't know.

As for me, I love Serenity and put it in my top ten Sci-Fi flicks. I watched it without ever watching Firefly, but it made me go back and watch the series. There is nothing I can say that would make you like Serenity more, it's just one of those if you liked it you liked it.

With that said, I'm glad after hating on Serenity so much you at least like it for its faults! Well done! :)

^ I've been trying to warn peoples about that. And that goes for any title. You just can't belive the hype...but now you know, and knowing is half the battle.........

I bought the BD version of Employee of the Month sight unseen just because the misses wanted to see it, I refused to watch it unless it was BD, and it was very long wait at Netflix.

Please go ahead and laugh. :)

Why has the poll left off one of THE best PQ films so far??

Aeon FLux its a real stinker!!!!!!!!!!!

Great PQ but impossible to watch all the way through. Maybe no one is stupid enough to buy it?

I agree it should be in the poll, but it's not quite a stink bomb for me, just weak. However seeing Charleze Theron in tights and the great Berlin arquitecture made it worth it for me.

Hey Fett...tell me what you really think ;).

Actually I agree with you 100%. If it wasn't for the T-Rex scene, I would sell KK in an instant. Serenity...am I glad it was a rental. What a load of crap.

"Which of the following is the Worst Movie that you bought anyway for the Eye Candy?"

None.

I have done this with DVDs. I learn from my mistakes. ;)

Even though King Kong could qualify - but I did not buy it, it was part of the xbox bundle. Even though I planned to sell it, I cannot sell it. Naomi Watts is simply to beautiful in the light of the sunset... :)

BTW Corpse Bride and Serenity are both awesome movies. O.k. to enjoy Serenity you have to watch the Firefly series before the movie, because all the character development is part of the series and not of the movie. In combination with the Firefly series Serenity is the best science fiction fantasy since the original Star Wars trilogy.

"
BTW In combination with the Firefly series Serenity is the best science fiction fantasy since the original Star Wars trilogy.

Ahhhh, Sanity has returned to this thread :)

Ahhhh, Sanity has returned to this thread :)


Damn right Jones07. This place was turning into The Twilight Zone for a bit...crazy crazy stuff coming outta peoples mouths!

I must say, when I first started watching Serenity (saw it before Firefly, which I've watched and enjoyed since) I think I even paused the movie to observe to my wife, 'So let me get this straight, there's this lanky shaggy brunette captain of a run-down smuggling spacecraft in a totalitarian space empire who wears boots and has freaking stripes down the side of his pants and has smartass quips about the trustworthiness of his ship and is always on the run of the law? That's the concept here? Hmm, at least they stole from the best!' and then I went on to enjoy the movie. I bet George Lucas feels he should have made some merchandising money from Serenity, since apparently he was the primary creative consultant.

"Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando. The movie PQ was okay but Brando's effeminate accent was a bad joke... the British Navy would never have such an officer on it's ships. :p

I voted for Hulk, but if Aeon Flux were there, I might have voted for it.

Nah, the Hulk was just plain silly. I wish they had a Mystery Science Theatre ep for the Hulk...I can only imagine the fun they would have had with the whole killer French poodle.

I didn't buy it....but Doom is a far worse movie than anything else listed here.
I've been pretty careful with the ones I buy...but if I had to choose one, I'd say Corpse Bride. It's not even a bad movie, but that just speaks to how selective I've been with the 28 HD DVDs that I own.

I've like everything I've seen from Joss Wheydon. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I liked Buffy and Angel as well. I just find the dialog he writes hilarious.

Regarding HD-DVDs though and I forgot before I voted, but I can't believe that nobody thought that Terminator 3: RotM was a stinker. The only reason I bought it were for visuals and the big booms.

"I’m not one to complain about long movies, I love long movies. But there has to be a damn good REASON why they need to be long. Boat goes to island, monkey takes girl, guy retrieves girl, monkey rampages in New York. That story doesn’t need 3 hours to tell.

First off, there’s no opening credit sequence. I like opening credit sequences. It apeals to the graphic designer in me I guess. But that’s no big deal. The opening “life sucks” montage is kind of awkward mostly because we’re not sure what we’re being shown or why. You can keep on wondering because it doesn’t really have anything to do with the movie. I’m sorry but a giant ape does not need to be put into historical context.

Cut to Anne Darrow doing a Charlie Chaplin routine. Not kidding. They actually do try to work this into the plot later on but like so much of this film, it’s really forced. Apparently we need some kind of motivation for every character to be on that boat. They’re going to a mysterious island to make a movie, what further motivation do you need? So we spend an hour with that crap.

Most of it works ok, but once we get to the island you can throw it all away because none of it has anything to do with the rest of the movie. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention the acid-cam. What the hell was Peter Jackson smoking when he decided to employ drug-trip acid trails into random shots? I don’t understand what I was supposed to get out of that. It was annoying, but somehow I don’t think that’s what he was going for. 5 letters: S-K-U-L-L! It won't make any more sense when you see the film.

By the way, if you had an entire ship to bed down on, even if the cabins were full and no one thought to share one, would you sleep in a cargo hold full of camel crap? Yeah, me neither. And what was with that scene with Hayes talking about Jimmy’s “origin”? I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous! All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Hayes wanders off like he’s caught in a Nam flashback. I’ll try to reconstruct it here: “It all happened right over there in that cage. It was a dark and stormy night when the kid emerged from it, all sweaty and dirty, his muscles glimmering in the moonlight......he never even told me where he came from....” What was that doing in the movie? Does it pay off somewhere down the line? Nope. Hayes and Jimmy’s little “relationship” should have been left on the cutting room floor.

And speaking of characters I could give a rat’s tit about, how about Andy Sirkis’ demented Popeye act? My God was that painful! At least he had a really cool death. Just talking about that first hour is boring so let’s move on shall we?

So they’re sailing into the fog smooth as glass. But once they get to the island, there’s waves crashing all over the place and they’re smashing on the rocks. Sure there’s bound to be currents, but this was ridiculous! First of all, the ship is gliding into a rock face and the Captain yells out “kill the engines!” Umm, excuse me, I’m no expert, but don’t you mean REVERSE ENGINES!?!?” So guess what happens? Yep, they glide right into the rock face. Physics are a bitch. And that’s one sturdy hull. If Titanic was made out of whatever this little tug is, nobody would know who the hell Leonardo DiCaprio is.

So with all this thrashing and smashing, they decide that the best course of action is to get into a much smaller, more fragile boat. The scene with Anne doing the fake Hollywood scream on the beach isn't in the movie by the way, not that it’s missed.

Meet the natives. I think Tookie Williams started these people up because they are the evilest bastards around. And they somehow possess the ability to roll their eyes into the backs of their heads. Jackson spends lots of time making sure we understand these people are completely psychotic, murderous heathens, though I don’t understand why. But never fear because whitey shows up with a gun and starts blowing them all away. Whew, we sure could have used him in the LA riots eh? Yeah it was pretty bizzare. I’d say it’s just this side of out and out racism.

Now unlike the other films, there is never any interest by the natives in Anne. This is made all the more puzzling when the Kong Island Olympic Pole Vaulting team comes over to the ship, which is strangely about 20 yards away from shore, to steal her. So Jack finds the native necklace on the deck, then looks up and says “ANNE!” Yes, clearly they have come aboard and stolen Anne. Obviously, because there’s a necklace on deck. In the other movies it works because there’s a long bartering scene with the natives trying to buy her then getting pissed when they can’t and there’s sort of a battle as our heroes barely make it off the island. Since that doesn’t happen in this version, it doesn’t make much sense why Jack leaps to that conclusion.

So the natives have this elaborate rig to transport Anne over to the little alter thingee. I guess I don’t have a real problem with that, it just seems a little overly complex. When Kong shows up, he rips Anne off the thing. Her hands were tied to the posts with ropes so I’m surprised it didn’t rip her arms right off. I’m a little unlcear how the door to the gate works because it’s not a normal door either. It looks like sort of half a door with a bunch of spikes in front of it. Not a big deal, but it's annoying when things that should be easily conveyed aren't.

Jack and the gang are off to save the girl. Enter Demented Popeye with a stupid abominable snowman joke. And it’s on to another puzzling sequence. Again, it seems really forced. They happen across sort of a valley filled with grazing Brontosauruses. Unfortunately at that exact time, a couple of raptor-type dinos attack the herd, which promptly chases our characters down a ravine. I can’t help but wonder what the raptors plan was because they immediately start zipping around between the Bronto’s feet. Maybe this is a sort of game for them. “Hey Paco” “What do ya want Pancho” “Let’s start a bronto stampede and run around between their feet!” “AGAIN?.....Alright fine, but I’m getting a foot rub out of this.” It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But whatever. So now the people are all scrambling around between the Bronto feet AND dodging snapping raptors. But then one of the Brontos trips and there’s this huge pile-up. See what I mean about forced? It just doesn’t feel natural at all. The composite of the characters dodging the feet doesn’t look too convincing either.

So we cut back to the girl and the monkey to see him shaking her around like a rag doll. This would break her neck of course, but nevermind that. He’s taken her to some sort of killing ground. We can tell this because it’s filled with human skeletons. That opens up a whole new can of worms. In the first two films, it is never outright stated that Kong intends to kill Anne, or anyone else for that matter. She is to be his “bride”, take from that what you will. This is a ritual that has been repeated several times we assume because it is interrupted by the group when Anne or Dwan is desired as a replacement. Since there is no such ritual in this version, we’re not really sure why the natives give her to Kong in the first place. But be that as it may, we now have proof that Kong is killing people. He’s not eating them, he’s just killing them. By the way he’s tossing Anne around, we can assume that he simply hates people and likes beating them till they die, like a cat with a mouse. That's not necessarily a bad element to add, but it does beg the question why he doesn't just kill kill them at the alter.

This is when Anne repeats her Charlie Chaplin routine. It works ok because of the context. She’s not trying to entertain kong, she’s trying to distract him from killing her. So I’m alright with it, although doing back-flips wouldn't probably be the first thing to spring to my mind when about to be killed by a giant ape. I also think Kong’s reactions are a bit too human. She stops the act (again it seems odd since it's the only thing keeping her alive), he throws a fit and swings away. Anne takes off back towards the ship.

The spider pit scene is fantastic. I really loved that part, but again, things get weird. The bugs come out to investigate right away and Jack throws a flare at them which sends them back into the rock face. Now is it just me or would you immediately start trying to get the **** out of there? Jack decides this is a perfect time to lament the dead. Yeah, let's all gather round and hold hands! The attack itself is absolutely fantastic though, until one character who is a self-described coward suddenly swings into frame like Tarzan and starts shooting all the bugs! Talk about out of left field! And It also just felt like a cop-out that 2 guys show up with guns and those hundreds of bugs just dissapear.

We catch back up with Anne as she encounters some crocodile-like dinos, some big centipedes and the infamous V-Rex (although PJ refers to them as T-Rex’s in the Production Diaries. Has Spielberg trademarked the name T-Rex or something?).

The following battle is spectacular, if again, forced. Why are vines stretched 50 yards across a cravasse? They must be made of titanium too.

But now this is where the movie really started to lose me. Kong kills the last dino and sits next to Anne with his nose in the air as if they had a lover’s spat. That’s just nuts. He gets up and walks away and, hold onto your butts, Anne chases after him yelling “WAIT!”. Without missing a beat he swings her up onto his shoulder, as if he knew she would follow him all along. PJ could have made this more plausible if Anne looked around in the jungle and maybe saw a tree move or something. But she’s not scared of that place, she just wants to be with Kong cuz she’s crushin’ on him. It plays really weird.

Back at the cave, Anne teaches Kong sign language as if he’s Bobo the friggin’ chimp and they stare off at a sunset together like love-struck teenagers. The movie doesn’t bother to explain how Jack finds her, but when he does, Anne is dozing comfortably in Kong’s open hand. They are the picture of domesticity as Kong snores in the background. But into their tidy love-nest comes barging this guy, who she was just making out with not long ago, who has this crazy idea of breaking up her new marriage in Dino-and-giant-bug-world. The GALL of the bastard! In fact, she looks almost HORRIFIED at the prospect of leaving her new groom, but she does. This time instead of pteradactles attacking, it’s giant bat-creatures. And yes, Jack and Anne fly away on one, but not like Gandalf on an eagle. They grab onto one’s foot and it limps away towards the ground below so I don’t have a big problem with that.

The capture sequence works well, but Jackson just can’t help swelling that music up and squeezing it (ergo stretching it out) for all it’s worth. It’s really sappy and over-dramatic, but like I said, as a whole it works.

It does strike me as odd that the ‘76 remake showed how Kong was transported but Jackson’s 3 hour opus couldn’t shimmy it in there. Not a huge deal, but it’s a bit of an abrupt cut. Yes I realize the ‘33 one did that too, but then it was half this length wasn’t it?

This time Anne has opted to do A Chorus Line instead of stay with Kong. And we spend precious minutes watching Jack's eyes glaze over at a play. I'll just say that by this point, I know how he felt. Why are we made to endure this? Anyway, soon enough Kong breaks loose and starts bustin’ heads. This part is fairly cool I guess, but by this time I’m really just wanting the film to be over.

Then he takes the bitch ice skating and it’s eye-rolling. How in God’s holy hell would a gorilla from the tropics get the idea to do a belly-slide the first time he sees ice? How is that ice even holding him up? PJ is trying to play this scene like Lady and the Tramp meets Bambi and it’s just crazy.

The end of the movie just doesn’t pack a punch hardly at all. If PJ cut out all the longing stares between Kong and Anne, this film would be about 10 minutes shorter. The ‘33 film had the ending pretty short. The ‘76 film managed to find lots of different things, both dramatic and action-oriented, on top of the WTC along with reactions on the ground. This movie just doesn’t do that. It’s "battle of the teary close-ups". I wanted Anne to SAY something so at least there’s some reason for them to keep staring at each other. Oh yeah, and then they jump through the time vortex and go from 7:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. just so they can forcedly witness the sunrise together and Bobo can mimick back his newly learned sign language. It’s all so stupid. Just the way PJ worked it out dilutes the whole thing. You just have to watch it to see what I mean. To top it all off, when Kong falls we’ve got that high-pitched female singing from LOTR and it feels really out of place.

“Gee Fett, it actually sounds like you prefer the ‘76 version to this one!” Don’t get me wrong, there’s bad stuff in the ‘76 version, but it flows much better than this one. Everything makes sense and you genuinely feel for Kong. It’s just too hard to do so in this one. There’s too much sappy crap. So much so that the Kong/Anne relationship actually gets annoying. When the credits rolled, they should have blasted “My Monkey Love”.

It’s an ok movie. The special effects are fantastic, but the movie is way too damn long, not because it’s a “feast” but because it’s overloaded with needless exposition and side tangents that have little or nothing to do with the main story. I think you guys have over-estimated this films take. It will be lucky to make it past $275M domestic. Oh it’ll have a monster weekend, but it’s tough to reccomend this film to people and condemn them to 3 hours of overbloated sentimentality. This film is beautiful at times, exciting at others, but mostly it just sits there and weeps quietly. That’s simply not enough for me.

C+"
As I originally posted here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=452595

Nice post and not all that's wrong with the film. :D

Art

I regret very few HD purchases. Somewhere between one and three out of my almost 40 HD movies. I'm a relatively careful buyer. The only one I definitely regret buying is The War Within, which was not a PQ buy but rather a story/writing/directing blind buy. However, my least favorite of any of my PQ buys is Black Hawk Down. While it is a very well conceived, acted, and directed movie, it's just miserable to watch. Two hours of solid military failure. I just hated watching it all the way through.

KING KONG

"I’m not one to complain about long movies, I love long movies. But there has to be a damn good REASON why they need to be long. Boat goes to island, monkey takes girl, guy retrieves girl, monkey rampages in New York. That story doesn’t need 3 hours to tell.

First off, there’s no opening credit sequence. I like opening credit sequences. It apeals to the graphic designer in me I guess. But that’s no big deal. The opening “life sucks” montage is kind of awkward mostly because we’re not sure what we’re being shown or why. You can keep on wondering because it doesn’t really have anything to do with the movie. I’m sorry but a giant ape does not need to be put into historical context.

Cut to Anne Darrow doing a Charlie Chaplin routine. Not kidding. They actually do try to work this into the plot later on but like so much of this film, it’s really forced. Apparently we need some kind of motivation for every character to be on that boat. They’re going to a mysterious island to make a movie, what further motivation do you need? So we spend an hour with that crap.

Most of it works ok, but once we get to the island you can throw it all away because none of it has anything to do with the rest of the movie. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention the acid-cam. What the hell was Peter Jackson smoking when he decided to employ drug-trip acid trails into random shots? I don’t understand what I was supposed to get out of that. It was annoying, but somehow I don’t think that’s what he was going for. 5 letters: S-K-U-L-L! It won't make any more sense when you see the film.

By the way, if you had an entire ship to bed down on, even if the cabins were full and no one thought to share one, would you sleep in a cargo hold full of camel crap? Yeah, me neither. And what was with that scene with Hayes talking about Jimmy’s “origin”? I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous! All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Hayes wanders off like he’s caught in a Nam flashback. I’ll try to reconstruct it here: “It all happened right over there in that cage. It was a dark and stormy night when the kid emerged from it, all sweaty and dirty, his muscles glimmering in the moonlight......he never even told me where he came from....” What was that doing in the movie? Does it pay off somewhere down the line? Nope. Hayes and Jimmy’s little “relationship” should have been left on the cutting room floor.

And speaking of characters I could give a rat’s tit about, how about Andy Sirkis’ demented Popeye act? My God was that painful! At least he had a really cool death. Just talking about that first hour is boring so let’s move on shall we?

So they’re sailing into the fog smooth as glass. But once they get to the island, there’s waves crashing all over the place and they’re smashing on the rocks. Sure there’s bound to be currents, but this was ridiculous! First of all, the ship is gliding into a rock face and the Captain yells out “kill the engines!” Umm, excuse me, I’m no expert, but don’t you mean REVERSE ENGINES!?!?” So guess what happens? Yep, they glide right into the rock face. Physics are a bitch. And that’s one sturdy hull. If Titanic was made out of whatever this little tug is, nobody would know who the hell Leonardo DiCaprio is.

So with all this thrashing and smashing, they decide that the best course of action is to get into a much smaller, more fragile boat. The scene with Anne doing the fake Hollywood scream on the beach isn't in the movie by the way, not that it’s missed.

Meet the natives. I think Tookie Williams started these people up because they are the evilest bastards around. And they somehow possess the ability to roll their eyes into the backs of their heads. Jackson spends lots of time making sure we understand these people are completely psychotic, murderous heathens, though I don’t understand why. But never fear because whitey shows up with a gun and starts blowing them all away. Whew, we sure could have used him in the LA riots eh? Yeah it was pretty bizzare. I’d say it’s just this side of out and out racism.

Now unlike the other films, there is never any interest by the natives in Anne. This is made all the more puzzling when the Kong Island Olympic Pole Vaulting team comes over to the ship, which is strangely about 20 yards away from shore, to steal her. So Jack finds the native necklace on the deck, then looks up and says “ANNE!” Yes, clearly they have come aboard and stolen Anne. Obviously, because there’s a necklace on deck. In the other movies it works because there’s a long bartering scene with the natives trying to buy her then getting pissed when they can’t and there’s sort of a battle as our heroes barely make it off the island. Since that doesn’t happen in this version, it doesn’t make much sense why Jack leaps to that conclusion.

So the natives have this elaborate rig to transport Anne over to the little alter thingee. I guess I don’t have a real problem with that, it just seems a little overly complex. When Kong shows up, he rips Anne off the thing. Her hands were tied to the posts with ropes so I’m surprised it didn’t rip her arms right off. I’m a little unlcear how the door to the gate works because it’s not a normal door either. It looks like sort of half a door with a bunch of spikes in front of it. Not a big deal, but it's annoying when things that should be easily conveyed aren't.

Jack and the gang are off to save the girl. Enter Demented Popeye with a stupid abominable snowman joke. And it’s on to another puzzling sequence. Again, it seems really forced. They happen across sort of a valley filled with grazing Brontosauruses. Unfortunately at that exact time, a couple of raptor-type dinos attack the herd, which promptly chases our characters down a ravine. I can’t help but wonder what the raptors plan was because they immediately start zipping around between the Bronto’s feet. Maybe this is a sort of game for them. “Hey Paco” “What do ya want Pancho” “Let’s start a bronto stampede and run around between their feet!” “AGAIN?.....Alright fine, but I’m getting a foot rub out of this.” It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But whatever. So now the people are all scrambling around between the Bronto feet AND dodging snapping raptors. But then one of the Brontos trips and there’s this huge pile-up. See what I mean about forced? It just doesn’t feel natural at all. The composite of the characters dodging the feet doesn’t look too convincing either.

So we cut back to the girl and the monkey to see him shaking her around like a rag doll. This would break her neck of course, but nevermind that. He’s taken her to some sort of killing ground. We can tell this because it’s filled with human skeletons. That opens up a whole new can of worms. In the first two films, it is never outright stated that Kong intends to kill Anne, or anyone else for that matter. She is to be his “bride”, take from that what you will. This is a ritual that has been repeated several times we assume because it is interrupted by the group when Anne or Dwan is desired as a replacement. Since there is no such ritual in this version, we’re not really sure why the natives give her to Kong in the first place. But be that as it may, we now have proof that Kong is killing people. He’s not eating them, he’s just killing them. By the way he’s tossing Anne around, we can assume that he simply hates people and likes beating them till they die, like a cat with a mouse. That's not necessarily a bad element to add, but it does beg the question why he doesn't just kill kill them at the alter.

This is when Anne repeats her Charlie Chaplin routine. It works ok because of the context. She’s not trying to entertain kong, she’s trying to distract him from killing her. So I’m alright with it, although doing back-flips wouldn't probably be the first thing to spring to my mind when about to be killed by a giant ape. I also think Kong’s reactions are a bit too human. She stops the act (again it seems odd since it's the only thing keeping her alive), he throws a fit and swings away. Anne takes off back towards the ship.

The spider pit scene is fantastic. I really loved that part, but again, things get weird. The bugs come out to investigate right away and Jack throws a flare at them which sends them back into the rock face. Now is it just me or would you immediately start trying to get the **** out of there? Jack decides this is a perfect time to lament the dead. Yeah, let's all gather round and hold hands! The attack itself is absolutely fantastic though, until one character who is a self-described coward suddenly swings into frame like Tarzan and starts shooting all the bugs! Talk about out of left field! And It also just felt like a cop-out that 2 guys show up with guns and those hundreds of bugs just dissapear.

We catch back up with Anne as she encounters some crocodile-like dinos, some big centipedes and the infamous V-Rex (although PJ refers to them as T-Rex’s in the Production Diaries. Has Spielberg trademarked the name T-Rex or something?).

The following battle is spectacular, if again, forced. Why are vines stretched 50 yards across a cravasse? They must be made of titanium too.

But now this is where the movie really started to lose me. Kong kills the last dino and sits next to Anne with his nose in the air as if they had a lover’s spat. That’s just nuts. He gets up and walks away and, hold onto your butts, Anne chases after him yelling “WAIT!”. Without missing a beat he swings her up onto his shoulder, as if he knew she would follow him all along. PJ could have made this more plausible if Anne looked around in the jungle and maybe saw a tree move or something. But she’s not scared of that place, she just wants to be with Kong cuz she’s crushin’ on him. It plays really weird.

Back at the cave, Anne teaches Kong sign language as if he’s Bobo the friggin’ chimp and they stare off at a sunset together like love-struck teenagers. The movie doesn’t bother to explain how Jack finds her, but when he does, Anne is dozing comfortably in Kong’s open hand. They are the picture of domesticity as Kong snores in the background. But into their tidy love-nest comes barging this guy, who she was just making out with not long ago, who has this crazy idea of breaking up her new marriage in Dino-and-giant-bug-world. The GALL of the bastard! In fact, she looks almost HORRIFIED at the prospect of leaving her new groom, but she does. This time instead of pteradactles attacking, it’s giant bat-creatures. And yes, Jack and Anne fly away on one, but not like Gandalf on an eagle. They grab onto one’s foot and it limps away towards the ground below so I don’t have a big problem with that.

The capture sequence works well, but Jackson just can’t help swelling that music up and squeezing it (ergo stretching it out) for all it’s worth. It’s really sappy and over-dramatic, but like I said, as a whole it works.

It does strike me as odd that the ‘76 remake showed how Kong was transported but Jackson’s 3 hour opus couldn’t shimmy it in there. Not a huge deal, but it’s a bit of an abrupt cut. Yes I realize the ‘33 one did that too, but then it was half this length wasn’t it?

This time Anne has opted to do A Chorus Line instead of stay with Kong. And we spend precious minutes watching Jack's eyes glaze over at a play. I'll just say that by this point, I know how he felt. Why are we made to endure this? Anyway, soon enough Kong breaks loose and starts bustin’ heads. This part is fairly cool I guess, but by this time I’m really just wanting the film to be over.

Then he takes the bitch ice skating and it’s eye-rolling. How in God’s holy hell would a gorilla from the tropics get the idea to do a belly-slide the first time he sees ice? How is that ice even holding him up? PJ is trying to play this scene like Lady and the Tramp meets Bambi and it’s just crazy.

The end of the movie just doesn’t pack a punch hardly at all. If PJ cut out all the longing stares between Kong and Anne, this film would be about 10 minutes shorter. The ‘33 film had the ending pretty short. The ‘76 film managed to find lots of different things, both dramatic and action-oriented, on top of the WTC along with reactions on the ground. This movie just doesn’t do that. It’s "battle of the teary close-ups". I wanted Anne to SAY something so at least there’s some reason for them to keep staring at each other. Oh yeah, and then they jump through the time vortex and go from 7:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. just so they can forcedly witness the sunrise together and Bobo can mimick back his newly learned sign language. It’s all so stupid. Just the way PJ worked it out dilutes the whole thing. You just have to watch it to see what I mean. To top it all off, when Kong falls we’ve got that high-pitched female singing from LOTR and it feels really out of place.

“Gee Fett, it actually sounds like you prefer the ‘76 version to this one!” Don’t get me wrong, there’s bad stuff in the ‘76 version, but it flows much better than this one. Everything makes sense and you genuinely feel for Kong. It’s just too hard to do so in this one. There’s too much sappy crap. So much so that the Kong/Anne relationship actually gets annoying. When the credits rolled, they should have blasted “My Monkey Love”.

It’s an ok movie. The special effects are fantastic, but the movie is way too damn long, not because it’s a “feast” but because it’s overloaded with needless exposition and side tangents that have little or nothing to do with the main story. I think you guys have over-estimated this films take. It will be lucky to make it past $275M domestic. Oh it’ll have a monster weekend, but it’s tough to reccomend this film to people and condemn them to 3 hours of overbloated sentimentality. This film is beautiful at times, exciting at others, but mostly it just sits there and weeps quietly. That’s simply not enough for me.

C+"
As I originally posted here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=452595

Thank you.

This is why we walked out of the theater half way through this awful film. The goo goo eyes the ape was making at the girl were beyond ridiculous as well.

I would have to have rocks in my head to spend money AGAIN on it.

John

You'll never see this thread in the Blu Ray forum. Answer = all titles
(well, exclusives anyway)

I think Riddick should get points for "Spiritual realm with stupidest name". Loyalty 'til Underverse come!

THe 3 fast and furious movies what a total waste of money! :eek:

The Ant Bully has to be one of the worst animted/CGI movies EVER!!!!

I went with "other." My go-to disc to show off my system is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The movie's a total crapfest, but it looks great, and the title sequence is a great demo for a 5.1 system, with great use of the surrounds, and an LFE track that will rattle your windows. Apologies for this being a standard DVD release mentioned in an HD-DVD forum...

I voted other for Happy Feet.

Movie totally sucked, but had beautiful eye candy.

Phantom Of The Opera! I just can't stand that hack Gerard Butler with his neauseating voice. :mad:

Phantom Of The Opera! I just can't stand that hack Gerard Butler with his neauseating voice. :mad:

Unfortunately, that was really the only thing that could have been better about the movie version - casting a better Phantom (age wize and vocally). The rest of it was faithful to the stage production, beautiful costumes, wonderful lighting, excellent choreography, and the best PQ in an HD DVD to date (in the opinion of my fifteen regulars as well as myself). Too bad the industry chose to cut corners on all but the animations of late (which don't really count anyway).

John

Phantom Of The Opera! I just can't stand that hack Gerard Butler with his neauseating voice. :mad:You bought POTO for 'Eye Candy'?

You bought POTO for 'Eye Candy'?

I bought POTO because I absolutely loved the stage production and this was an excellent representation of it. The eye candy was a welcome bonus. Now after 30+ discs all fifteen of my "reviewers" to my HT with it's 120 inch screen agree.
If you don't think so, you are in the minority (from a visual standpoint). Try reading the HD DVD reviews:

http://movies.hometheaterblog.com/2006/06/hddvd_review_the_phantom_of_th.html

http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Opera-Special-HD-DVD/dp/B000E5KJD4

http://www.dvdreview.com/reviews/pages/2254.shtml

http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/phantomoftheoperathe/3612

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/hidefreviews001.html

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5975

I could go on

John

Aeon Flux should be on the list. Man what a stinker, but Charlize...! Drool! What a candy!

Aeon Flux should be on the list. Man what a stinker, but Charlize...! Drool! What a candy!

Agreed :D

The Ant Bully has to be one of the worst animted/CGI movies EVER!!!!

+1
really BAD...I though it would be at least good...but really boring and terible story

Great posts guys very fun to read. Made me laugh.

Since I just started my collection I don't have too many to pick from. I enjoy them all though I must admit for the most part I will only watch kong from the island on. The rest is just uugh.

But some of the movies mentioned I won't even consider buying like Hulk- Corpse Bride- and Happy Feet. I want movies to entertain me not put me to sleep.