New Testingstan

Pre-Hollywood del Toro is pretty great (Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, The Orphanage (yeah I know he was just the producer there, but it has a similar feel))
can anyone recommend any similar films?

Pacific Rim was a pretty solid blockbuster (but it wasn't really horror as such).

Listen we only praise artsy films here buddy.

None of that "fun" crap.

Oxymoron wrote:Spontaneous question:

What horror movies do you know that feature absolutely no paranormal or supernatural elements, where the only enemy of man is man itself?

At a guess, I'm thinking about the SAW series of movies, and other "serial killer" movies.


Because I was wondering about how you could make an horror movie in a completely realistic setting. I was thinking that having everything be realistic to the T could make the experience even more horrific for the viewer...

A lot of older horror movies do this. Wait Until Dark, Psycho, I guess I Walked With A Zombie depending on how you view the events...

Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

New RoboCop is great.

That's what I've been saying. It stands very well on its own.

I finally saw Gravity
Yeah, lots of stuff wrong on the space side, would have been cooler if they'd gotten it 100%
But meh
I totally agree that the film was about emotion, not science

To me, it was all about the parallel journey Stone went through, not only down from orbit but in accepting the death of her daughter
Having the 5 stages of grief woven into the events, as well as the retreat to the womb and rebirth and the end was amazing
They could have called it Catharsis

evilsoup wrote:Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

I am with you on that 50%

Yeah, lots of stuff wrong on the space side, would have been cooler if they'd gotten it 100%

That was the original plan until someone realised they'd spend most of the movie explaining very counter-intuitive orbital mechanics.

evilsoup wrote:Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

Hmmmm, I think that applies more to his Hellboy movies. Blade II was workmanlike action horror (it was better than Blase: Trinity, but that's not a hard thing to do).

Big Orangutan wrote:

evilsoup wrote:Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

Hmmmm, I think that applies more to his Hellboy movies. Blade II was workmanlike action horror (it was better than Blase: Trinity, but that's not a hard thing to do).

Hellboy was more inventive than Pacific Rim Job. A better world was established.

Hellboy was also awful
Hellboy 2 just about managed to claw its way up to 'mediocre'

Bounty wrote:

Yeah, lots of stuff wrong on the space side, would have been cooler if they'd gotten it 100%

That was the original plan until someone realised they'd spend most of the movie explaining very counter-intuitive orbital mechanics.

Yeah, and if they'd just done stuff accurately without explanation, every lay member of the audience would have been wondering why they're not heading towards the thing they want to go to

Frustrating a small minority of the audience is better than confusing the majority

you know i'm not so sure about that because the audience might not care

the minority who notices it is correct say wow to it

and the majority who think it looks weird can put aside their worries and just enjoy the story. reality is unrealistic might break their SoD but i'm just not convinced it would. then again maybe i'm too used to ignoring things that look wrong to me for the sake of the story

True, it's a weird compromise
I think we're all happy to ignore the odd thing for the sake of story and drama

Those who couldn't were the same people who simply couldn't get past "HST to ISS requires >3km/s of delta-v, movie is RUINED!!1!"

My ex that broke my heart in 2009 is still obsessed with Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. How can someone not change in 4 years? Like the first half of her twenties (at least) has been consumed by this movie.

I ain't mad tho, there was a bullet I'm glad I dodged.

From the sounds of it, you'd probably have moved on by now anyways (as you said, how can someone not change after that long? I get the impression stagnation isn't your thing)

random thought: suppose you are attacking someone with a laser and want to minimize the collateral damage

do you think a slow rampup of power would help? start with some flashes bright enough that people want to look away but not so bright it zaps their eyeballs to death. then go ahead and do the full power cutting shot when, hopefully, nobody is looking that direction

hmm maybe it could even do a very quick pair of flashes, the first causes onlookers to blink, then the second does the damage while their eyes are shut. though i don't think eyelids block out enough light to be much help with a weapons grade laser. but still gotta be better than nothing.

Use a visible light targeting laser with an accompanying sound effect to warn people

Oxymoron wrote:That's what I've been saying. It stands very well on its own.

Yeah but it didn't matter until Phant said it.

evilsoup wrote:Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

Stupid, yes. Boring?


I don't know you anymore.

RogueIce wrote:

Oxymoron wrote:That's what I've been saying. It stands very well on its own.

Yeah but it didn't matter until Phant said it.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:

evilsoup wrote:Pacific Rim was that fatal combination of being both stupid and boring at the same time

Stupid, yes. Boring?


I don't know you anymore.

I didn't care about any of the characters, so the action sequences were nothing more than meaningless flashes of light

PR was only good when Idris Elba was onscreen. When he wasn't it sucked.