Discussion
Halb said:
Watched this, thought the bits on the predator were hilarious, MIke reckons that Black & Decker tried to make the worst film possible for a bet. Also, the original ending is brought up, where good guy predators helps th soldiers and are driving tanks are things....sounds like the sort of story I'd have made with my star wars and action force dolls. 
RedLetterMedia, Published on 20 Sep 2018
Pretty damning. Half in the Bag Episode 153: Mandy and The Predator
https://youtu.be/rTwXQR9ku5cRedLetterMedia, Published on 20 Sep 2018
frisbee said:
The rise of the fanboys is quite amusing. No remake or extension of a franchise will ever live up to their insanely high and insanely rise tinted expectations.
Asking for a well written, well acted and well directed film isn't asking for too much considering the budget and franchise appeal yet this film fails on all three for me so "rose tinted glasses" aren't necessary.frisbee said:
The rise of the fanboys is quite amusing. No remake or extension of a franchise will ever live up to their insanely high and insanely rise tinted expectations.
I don't think the complaints are due to fanboyism, the film has clearly been pieced together with reshoots, quite badly at that. I still enjoyed a fair bit of it but realistically thought it was a terrible film. When a film gets away from the studio I really don't see the point in spending a fortune bodging it, there are literally scenes and story threads that make no sense.Saw the movie last night. No classic, but fairly enjoyable and the two hours passed quickly by. I think people need to get out of the mindset where a sequel decades later is compared to, and judged by, the impact the first movie in a franchise made decades earlier. What's new and first always makes a greater impact on memory and when we're younger we're much more impressionable. See also Jaws, Alien, The Thing etc
popeyewhite said:
Saw the movie last night. No classic, but fairly enjoyable and the two hours passed quickly by. I think people need to get out of the mindset where a sequel decades later is compared to, and judged by, the impact the first movie in a franchise made decades earlier. What's new and first always makes a greater impact on memory and when we're younger we're much more impressionable. See also Jaws, Alien, The Thing etc
All classics and great cinema. I've seen The THing on the big screen this summer and Predator on the big screen last year, it was really good to watch on the silver screen. Not impressionable now, they're good because they're good, cinema at it's best with pace, plot, editing etc. Can't think of any reboot/remake etc of the classics from pre-2000 that can compete with those old ones. No one has tried with Jaws, but Jaws derivatives, though I do enjoy films that are a riff on that but completely different, like Open Water, the Reef, Deep Blue Sea, but then that's generic shark, the others are specific IPs. Halb said:
All classics and great cinema. I've seen The THing on the big screen this summer and Predator on the big screen last year, it was really good to watch on the silver screen. Not impressionable now, they're good because they're good, cinema at it's best with pace, plot, editing etc. Can't think of any reboot/remake etc of the classics from pre-2000 that can compete with those old ones. No one has tried with Jaws, but Jaws derivatives, though I do enjoy films that are a riff on that but completely different, like Open Water, the Reef, Deep Blue Sea, but then that's generic shark, the others are specific IPs.
Sure, and when they're good you're witnessing great Directors at their peak. As evidenced by Prometheus though, great directors also have their sell by date.
popeyewhite said:
Sure, and when they're good you're witnessing great Directors at their peak. As evidenced by Prometheus though, great directors also have their sell by date.
Ridley popped into my head the other day, I think over the years I've realised he isn't a great director, but a great cinematographer (a la Lucas), but also, Steve SPielberg, he's made a few turkeys too.YOu mean Prometheus isn't great....
IanH755 said:
frisbee said:
The rise of the fanboys is quite amusing. No remake or extension of a franchise will ever live up to their insanely high and insanely rise tinted expectations.
Asking for a well written, well acted and well directed film isn't asking for too much considering the budget and franchise appeal yet this film fails on all three for me so "rose tinted glasses" aren't necessary.The Predator wasn't a good film by any standard, either measured against the original or Shane Black's other films.
It was still pretty much what I expected though.
Although I did really appreciate that they used the original music and didn't get Fallout Boy, Adele etc. to redo it.
t. It makes the Species sequels look like high art.Went to see this tonight. Utter nonsense as you'd expect but enjoyable nonsense nonetheless with a few nods to films past and humour to help with the gore.
I did start to get really annoyed with the alien helmet early on as you could clearly see the poor paint job with fish eyes and foreign bits in the finish. The props department need dots in the shape of a triangle aimed their way.
But that was soon forgiven when the cry went out to escape from the bus by swiping the motorcycles.
"Get to the Choppers." I may have snorted a bit.
I did start to get really annoyed with the alien helmet early on as you could clearly see the poor paint job with fish eyes and foreign bits in the finish. The props department need dots in the shape of a triangle aimed their way.
But that was soon forgiven when the cry went out to escape from the bus by swiping the motorcycles.
"Get to the Choppers." I may have snorted a bit.
Besides the original Predator I think Predators, the one with Adrien Brody was the best attempt at a proper "sequel" to the franchise.
Speaking of sequels, I thought the newest Jurassic Park/World sucked so bad. They all sucked in my opinion. The original was by far the best and IMO still has the better CGI. How is that possible?
Nevertheless, it seems that where sequels are concerned, no matter what franchise; see all the Jurassic Park films, Predators, Alien etc the characters are ever more brain dead and find themselves doing the dumbest and least rational things. Especially cringeworthy is the newest Aliens movie. Prometheus had some very stupid character moves in it, only to be outdone by the latest Alien movie... Wait, what was the title again?
Speaking of sequels, I thought the newest Jurassic Park/World sucked so bad. They all sucked in my opinion. The original was by far the best and IMO still has the better CGI. How is that possible?
Nevertheless, it seems that where sequels are concerned, no matter what franchise; see all the Jurassic Park films, Predators, Alien etc the characters are ever more brain dead and find themselves doing the dumbest and least rational things. Especially cringeworthy is the newest Aliens movie. Prometheus had some very stupid character moves in it, only to be outdone by the latest Alien movie... Wait, what was the title again?
Jurassic Park is pretty much a one time idea, as it happens executed near perfectly. Of course Hollywood doesn't work like that, hence at least 5 sequels, each time requiring plots that have to jump through ever more elaborately stupid hoops to justify their own existence.
Ditto Alien, two concepts (one Alien, lots of Aliens) nailed by teams at the absolute top of their game.
Predator doesn't reach the heights of either but it's still a concept executed really well. Again the sequels are trying to force square pegs in round holes to justify their existence, trading off the name/nostalgia rather than being an original idea that has to work to find an audience.
Ditto Alien, two concepts (one Alien, lots of Aliens) nailed by teams at the absolute top of their game.
Predator doesn't reach the heights of either but it's still a concept executed really well. Again the sequels are trying to force square pegs in round holes to justify their existence, trading off the name/nostalgia rather than being an original idea that has to work to find an audience.
Was OK. Thought it was going very downhill until the Shane Black effect kicked in with the "witty banter" that just about saved it as an ok night out.
Plot, CGI, etc was useless (as you'd expect) and just showed the power of the original that took 95% of the film before we saw the alien (Jaws, styleeeee) Clearly they couldn't do that as we know what it looks like - hence the opening scene doesn't even bother with a cool reveal. No excuse on some of the plot stuff though, just lazy.
Main disappointment for me was the lack of call backs to the original. Given Black tried to get Arnold involved he was obviously not against referencing the 87 film. Odd they didn't do much with it - and the "choopers" line was done badly (IMO) although the other half liked it. It was too obvious to be subtle and too subtle to be significant. Not sure how I'd have done it - probably gone with something more "knowing" like - "get the bike" "thats not a bike.....it's a chopppaaaa"
But whatever - and the ending was lame with the transformers thing!
Oh, and in the "me tooooo" times we live in - was surprised at the autism stuff. Aside from the dumb cliches (surprised no one took the kid to the casino) I can't imagine many parents of autism affected kids like the "his kid is retarded" gag.
Plot, CGI, etc was useless (as you'd expect) and just showed the power of the original that took 95% of the film before we saw the alien (Jaws, styleeeee) Clearly they couldn't do that as we know what it looks like - hence the opening scene doesn't even bother with a cool reveal. No excuse on some of the plot stuff though, just lazy.
Main disappointment for me was the lack of call backs to the original. Given Black tried to get Arnold involved he was obviously not against referencing the 87 film. Odd they didn't do much with it - and the "choopers" line was done badly (IMO) although the other half liked it. It was too obvious to be subtle and too subtle to be significant. Not sure how I'd have done it - probably gone with something more "knowing" like - "get the bike" "thats not a bike.....it's a chopppaaaa"
But whatever - and the ending was lame with the transformers thing!
Oh, and in the "me tooooo" times we live in - was surprised at the autism stuff. Aside from the dumb cliches (surprised no one took the kid to the casino) I can't imagine many parents of autism affected kids like the "his kid is retarded" gag.
Going back to the original, I found this video last night about Dillon's death scene
https://youtu.be/stg13-GQQ1U
In the dozens of times I've watched that film, I never noticed that the Predator is actually visible in the panning shot, the position of the trees or that Dillon panics and turns the wrong way. Just shows what a brilliantly crafted film it is.
https://youtu.be/stg13-GQQ1U
In the dozens of times I've watched that film, I never noticed that the Predator is actually visible in the panning shot, the position of the trees or that Dillon panics and turns the wrong way. Just shows what a brilliantly crafted film it is.
Nice vid, I'll look at his other stuff. McTeirnan was a master.
Jurassic Park is the same, it's a small story. But JW has made lots of money, so they'll be another, but I reckon the slide in profit will continue, JW fooled many people, JW2 fooled less, JW3 will fool still less.
Same slide happened with Prometheus and ALien:Covenant
funny talking about brainn dead, it's like the brains gets blended up with each new film and what's left gets mushier and mushier. We'll probably see dinos using guns in jw3
ESOG said:
Besides the original Predator I think Predators, the one with Adrien Brody was the best attempt at a proper "sequel" to the franchise.
Speaking of sequels, I thought the newest Jurassic Park/World sucked so bad. They all sucked in my opinion. The original was by far the best and IMO still has the better CGI. How is that possible?
Nevertheless, it seems that where sequels are concerned, no matter what franchise; see all the Jurassic Park films, Predators, Alien etc the characters are ever more brain dead and find themselves doing the dumbest and least rational things. Especially cringeworthy is the newest Aliens movie. Prometheus had some very stupid character moves in it, only to be outdone by the latest Alien movie... Wait, what was the title again?
I liked Predators, it was a bit lazy and derivative, but what else can they do? The new one sounds like it doesn't understand whhy people like the old one, and lazy callbacks like mentioning chopper won't help.Speaking of sequels, I thought the newest Jurassic Park/World sucked so bad. They all sucked in my opinion. The original was by far the best and IMO still has the better CGI. How is that possible?
Nevertheless, it seems that where sequels are concerned, no matter what franchise; see all the Jurassic Park films, Predators, Alien etc the characters are ever more brain dead and find themselves doing the dumbest and least rational things. Especially cringeworthy is the newest Aliens movie. Prometheus had some very stupid character moves in it, only to be outdone by the latest Alien movie... Wait, what was the title again?
Jurassic Park is the same, it's a small story. But JW has made lots of money, so they'll be another, but I reckon the slide in profit will continue, JW fooled many people, JW2 fooled less, JW3 will fool still less.
Same slide happened with Prometheus and ALien:Covenant
funny talking about brainn dead, it's like the brains gets blended up with each new film and what's left gets mushier and mushier. We'll probably see dinos using guns in jw3
I was describing the film to a colleague today and came up with a fitting conclusion....
He was asking if the film was enjoyable, despite the fact that much if it was annoying and crapily made. It was.
So to describe it, I suggested it was like one of those budget rip off films that’s rushed out when a summer blockbuster is coming out, which has a very similar name to the real one, and a very similar story line. Made by an alternative studio, on a fraction of the cost budget, with a couple of washed up ‘stars’ and a script with no subtlety. Some of those rip off films are actually quite entertaining.
So I’m looking forward to the real film coming along in a couple of months.... The Predator Returns or whatever it will be called.
I. Might have to wait a while.....
He was asking if the film was enjoyable, despite the fact that much if it was annoying and crapily made. It was.
So to describe it, I suggested it was like one of those budget rip off films that’s rushed out when a summer blockbuster is coming out, which has a very similar name to the real one, and a very similar story line. Made by an alternative studio, on a fraction of the cost budget, with a couple of washed up ‘stars’ and a script with no subtlety. Some of those rip off films are actually quite entertaining.
So I’m looking forward to the real film coming along in a couple of months.... The Predator Returns or whatever it will be called.
I. Might have to wait a while.....
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