Movies of 2010

[Planet-man]

Sorry, your point about Hollywood telling anything other than Christianity, Judaism and Islam to **** off.

It also didn't really seem like the kind of movie that would care about political correctness. I think the makers are just open-minded. Have you seen it, by the way?

 

[Bass]

I've not seen it. I saw the trailers and it looked stupid, and I was responding to Cap'n Canuck's explanation of the final scene.

As for the whole "Hollywood telling other religions to **** off" - okay, so the library is a work in progress. They can't show every text ever. They can only show three. Which three do they pick? The three Abrahamic faiths. You can only pick three, so why not have the Bible, the Kojiki (shinto), and the Yazidi Book of Revelation (a Kurdish holy book)? Because people wouldn't recognise them? Fine. What about a book that said, "The Big Book of Buddihsm"? or "Various Hindu Texts"? The books don't even need a title, a picture of the Laughing Buddha on one book and Vishnu on the other, with the text in a foreign language would easily be identifiable.

No. They show three. And it's the three Abrahamic faiths, and their inclusion is out of a patronising fear of, "Don't you see, they're all the same, so please don't get angry", homogenizing three religions while omitting the rest.

If this movie is supposed to be about the resurrection of every religion, or about how they're all equal, valid, the wonderful salvation of mankind, and we shouldn't fight over them, maybe it shouldn't focus on the exploits of one man trekking the Bible across the world, and maybe it shouldn't focus on how everyone fights over the book and that it's protector kills everyone he meets with guns, swords, grenades, and rocket launchers while dispensing one-liners in slow-motion.

File this under: V FOR VENDETTA. A movie which felt the best way to describe anarchy was to have everyone dress up in the same costume.

 

[Captain Canuck]

there were other books on the shelf, one was a book of hymns, and i don't remember what the other ones were, but the ones that stood out were definitely the Qu'ran and the Torah (or maybe the Talmud? it had Hebrew letters as the title and they didn't show it for long enough for me to try and figure out what it said).

But yeah, my point was that the message that scene was trying to send seemed very out of place in the context of the movie. Like they tacked it on at the end to cover their butts.

 

[Ice]

I don't see a point beyond, "Look, we're creating all religious texts slowly because we want to be fair." and people are taking it out of context, which would be no surprise.

 

[Bass]

Yeah, I probably am taking it out of context.

 

[ProjectX2]

The film wasn't even worth this discussion.

 

[Planet-man]

As for the whole "Hollywood telling other religions to **** off" - okay, so the library is a work in progress. They can't show every text ever. They can only show three. Which three do they pick? The three Abrahamic faiths. You can only pick three, so why not have the Bible, the Kojiki (shinto), and the Yazidi Book of Revelation (a Kurdish holy book)? Because people wouldn't recognise them? Fine. What about a book that said, "The Big Book of Buddihsm"? or "Various Hindu Texts"? The books don't even need a title, a picture of the Laughing Buddha on one book and Vishnu on the other, with the text in a foreign language would easily be identifiable.

I think you might have answered your own gripe about it trying to be too politically correct. I would interpret this as them taking a stance that the Abrahamic religions are the true way, but open-minded enough to include all three big variants.

I think it was even more broad than this anyway(especially since CpnCanuck points out there were even more texts), but still.

No. They show three. And it's the three Abrahamic faiths, and their inclusion is out of a patronising fear of, "Don't you see, they're all the same, so please don't get angry", homogenizing three religions while omitting the rest.

I really don't see what you're trying to accomplish here. At least see the movie yourself before you outright state opinion as fact on it or the filmmakers' feelings and intentions. And even then.... sheesh.

If this movie is supposed to be about the resurrection of every religion, or about how they're all equal, valid, the wonderful salvation of mankind, and we shouldn't fight over them, maybe it shouldn't focus on the exploits of one man trekking the Bible across the world, and maybe it shouldn't focus on how everyone fights over the book and that it's protector kills everyone he meets with guns, swords, grenades, and rocket launchers while dispensing one-liners in slow-motion.

This is probably the movie's biggest obstacle to overcome, but I think it strangely works and made for a good piece of art(especially since the juxtaposition between Eli's beliefs and his ways is actually a theme in the film).

 

[J. Agamemnon]

Oh snap, heated religious debate!

Why is no one speaking of Toy Story?! It was awesome! Karate Kid was badass.

*leaves*

 

[Bass]

I really don't see what you're trying to accomplish here. At least see the movie yourself before you outright state opinion as fact on it or the filmmakers' feelings and intentions. And even then.... sheesh.

Oh snap, heated religious debate!

Why is no one speaking of Toy Story?! It was awesome! Karate Kid was badass.

*leaves*

I think it has its own thread.

Also, because I HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET.

Wait! That shouldn't stop me from making snap decisions!

TOY STORY 3 is the greatest movie ever made because of its ending which is a fabulous allegory for the destabilization of post-Soviet Russia and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction through a highly volatile region entrenched in internecine struggles.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

TOY STORY 3 is the greatest movie ever made because of its ending which is a fabulous allegory for the destabilization of post-Soviet Russia and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction through a highly volatile region entrenched in internecine struggles.

I hate how they only had three western religions in the movie though. The pig is now Jewish, just for a circumcision joke? Please.

 

[J. Agamemnon]

Oh so what? no funny picture? You gotta be all "smart" and whatnot?


I'm a decent human being.

 

[nigma]

its funny, you guys are arguing about religion when you guys live in...... i think the 6th most culturally diverse place in North America (my ranking, to make a point), you cant walk down the street without seeing someone of a different race or creed. and your mad cuz they put a religious book with other religious books? thats one ****ed up point of view.

1. New York, NY
2. Los Angles, CA
3. Washington DC
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Chicago, IL
6. Toronto, ON

and im Sikh, you don't see me getting mad, cuz my religious book isn't there.

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

So, how bout them films comin out in 2010? Eh? Eh??

 

[Random]

its funny, you guys are arguing about religion when you guys live in...... i think the 6th most culturally diverse place in North America (my ranking, to make a point), you cant walk down the street without seeing someone of a different race or creed. and your mad cuz they put a religious book with other religious books? thats one ****ed up point of view.

1. New York, NY
2. Los Angles, CA
3. Washington DC
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Chicago, IL
6. Toronto, ON

and im Sikh, you don't see me getting mad, cuz my religious book isn't there.

I'd like to reiterate I have no problem that there were other books being protected. I think it just lessens the impotence of the trials of this story which the entire premise is "this book is important, the future of mankind blah blah blah, oh by the way there's already 2 others that are safe and protected" Two me it doesn't really matter which text he's protecting, it's just the other 2 lowers the importance of it. But at the same time it does add a good conclusion for Eli's journey in a logical manner. Without the library it would just be "and so on..." kind of ending. And why would a guy already have a protected library without things worthy of protection.

So, how bout them films comin out in 2010? Eh? Eh??

Depends is there anything other than Scott Pilgrim coming out?

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

Dude. C'mon. Inception.

 

[Random]

Dude. C'mon. Inception.

Aww that's right, I keep forgetting

 

[thee great one]

Predators.

 

[ProjectX2]

The Social Network.

 

[nigma]

Avatar: The Last Airbender: 4.3/10 it would have been a 3.2, but the i liked the music. full review here and bashing


Twilight Saga: Eclipse: 7.5/10 Alot like the first two movies in style and everything. they hit all the major plot points, and this time you didn't need to read 200 pages before you got to a plot point. the fight was nicely done, gotta give prop to everyone that put that together. even though it was busy, you could still tell what was going on.
Grown Ups: 7.9/10 a lot of funny one lines and short clips. loved the girl who played Adam Sandlers daughter just a cute little thing. [what do you mean theres no tooth fairy?] and there was a lot of "suggestive humor" if ya know what i mean.
Knight and Day 8.4/10 it was a decent movie, some of the stunts were over the top, but what I really liked was the directing and editing of the movie. like drugging Cameron, and then showing snippets of action but not showing the action at the same time. And doing stunts like that in 70's GTO, reminded me of Bullet w/ Steve McQueen.
Jonah Hex 5.6/10 I don't know what it was, but there was just something about it, that made it suck.....if Robert Rodriguez had done this, it might 'a rocked.
Toy Story 3: 7.2/10 it was O.K., LOVED the ending ending
Killers 6.7/10 enjoyed this ALOT better than Date Night
Green Zone 8.3/10 the street fighting and everything almost felt realist
A-Team: 7.2/10 Stuff goes BooM
Karate Kid 9.3/10 Typical heartwarming story, nice progression. worthy of a sequel.
Date Night 6.1/10 One line funnies.
Shrek 4 3.4/10 its not funny anymore
Prince of Persia 8.7/10

 

[Captain Canuck]

its funny, you guys are arguing about religion when you guys live in...... i think the 6th most culturally diverse place in North America (my ranking, to make a point), you cant walk down the street without seeing someone of a different race or creed. and your mad cuz they put a religious book with other religious books? thats one ****ed up point of view.

1. New York, NY
2. Los Angles, CA
3. Washington DC
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Chicago, IL
6. Toronto, ON

Toronto should be AT LEAST second (probably first, but Americans are never willing to accept that) on that list.

And I'm not mad about anything, I'm just saying in the context of the movie it seemed like an odd symbolic statement to make.



ANYWAY....



====(In Theatres)====
Datenight -- C+
Greenzone -- B
How to Train A Dragon -- A-
Iron Man 2 -- A-
Robin Hood -- B-
Toy Story 3 -- A


Avatar: The Last Airbender -- D+

I'm just going to quote myself from the 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' thread:

I saw it last night. It was terrible.

The effects were underwhelming. the action was cheesy (except the 45 seconds of Aang fighting the fire-nomad army right before he made that huge wall of water). The story intrigued me at first and then went nowhere. The characterization was absent. The actors were terrible (Mr Aziz from Spider-Man 2 isn't a very compelling villain). The guy behind me spilled coke on me. And so on.

To be honest, I went into the theatre expecting mind-blowing special effects and a lack lustre story. If that's what it was, I would have been fine with it. I knew nothing about Avatar: The Last Airbender before last night, so i didn't really care if they ruined it. But after watching it I am sort of ticked off because the story seemed like it could have been cool if they had tried a little harder.

==== (On DVD)====
Edge of Darkness -- C+
The Book of Eli -- B-