I watched it too, but I just couldn't find my way into the story or actually care about the main characters. Visually, it’s striking—the fight scenes are solid and feel grounded—but throughout the entire runtime, I never felt any real tension or emotional depth, unlike something like >. The premise itself—them needing to return to Korea while facing off against the Mingovacs at a fortress they have to defend—sounds like a great setup for this genre, but the execution just didn't land for me. I had the exact same issue with > >. I generally love movies with this kind of theme, but I suppose those filmmakers from East Asia just approach storytelling in a way that I can't quite connect with...
Look, the Catholic Church is just a human organization. As such, it suffers from the same flaws and struggles as any other institution, performing both good and bad deeds just like people do in general. Perhaps Jesus intended for the church to be nothing more than a communal gathering of believers—a way for people to come together, socialize, and strengthen their faith collectively—rather than a centralized hierarchy that dictates every rule and focuses on maximizing its revenue. That said, I don't think we should entirely dismiss its beneficial role; if the people within it were better, the institution would be more effective at carrying out its positive mission.
As for the movie... Byrne is excellent. He was just as impactful here as he was in End of Days, playing the angel of darkness.👍
And then there’s Patricia Arquette. She plays this hardened atheist who spends her nights drinking and running with the wrong crowd, until she meets the two of them. They probably cast her because they saw how much life she had in her during True Romance when she was going at it with James Gandolfini.😁
All things considered, it’s a pretty good film. I wouldn't say its message is strictly anti-Church, but rather anti-modern religious bureaucracy. After all, the men who uncovered the gospel were priests themselves, and they remained priests throughout the story. It provides plenty of food for thought regarding these issues, which is precisely why it remains one of my favorites. Plus, the plot is engaging enough to present everything quite effectively.
Honestly, wouldn't it be much simpler to just find the trailer online? 😕
On a different note, I’d personally pay the admission fee at a movie theater just to see a trailer if it were, say, for alien vs predator 6 starring Sigourney Weaver and Schwarzenegger, directed by Ridley Scott and James Cameron working together. That would have to be an absolute masterpiece, but if it were, I’d go solely for the preview (though I suppose I’d stay until the credits rolled too, provided it wasn't some tedious romantic comedy). 😬
Jose Chase2 said:Missy Pyle shows up in Bringing Down the House too—she plays that blonde who gets into it with Queen Latifah—and honestly, she is stunning.
By the way, Galaxy Quest is an absolute classic, and Sigourney Weaver proved that even in her 50s, she has more presence and grit than most twenty-year-olds out there today.
Go Sigourney! 👍 👍 👍
Exactly. On a side note, she’s easily my favorite actress. 😍
I would happily sit through a movie of her at sixty-five with gray hair, wielding a minigun and tearing through Aliens on LV-426 in some sixth or seventh installment.😎 😁
It’s honestly hilarious watching Dr. Lazarus attempt those kung-fu moves in the hallway to fight off the Aliens, especially when you see strands of hair poking out from under that ridiculous half-Klingon, half-Hydrogen mask of his! 😁
Or take the scene where the Captain is frantically diving from one rock to another on the planet while everyone else just follows behind him, staring as if they're wondering if he's actually lost his mind 😁 He is nothing more than a carbon copy of Kirk! 😁
Did anyone catch this yesterday? The movie was a parody of Star Trek, but done with genuine affection rather than just mocking it... I was dying laughing the entire time, even watching it solo. It’s honestly incredible how they managed to take all those series clichés and present them in such an engaging, hilarious, and imaginative way. The absolute highlight for me had to be when they needed to shut down the neutron reactor and ended up calling Star Trek geeks back on Earth via communicator just to explain how to reconfigure the tritium matrix through the solar plasma connectors 😁 . And of course, that whole bit about the "universal alien lookalike" trope... I lost it at those squishy little octopus things. They did a phenomenal job explaining why every single alien in Star Trek looks like a human with just one weird thing on their forehead. 😁 As for Alan Rickman, he was easily my favorite; he played it so deadpan and sour, carrying that exact vibe of "I feel like a total idiot with this stupid crap on my head and it's already getting on my nerves" 😁 . All in all, it's a fantastic film—from the plot and the comedy to the stellar music and effects—I'm giving it a solid 10/10!👍
P.s. I had no idea Sigourney Weaver was so well endowed!!! 😁
By the Grakhtar's hammer, you shall be avenged!!! 🙏 🙏 😁
Look, personally, I found the movie to be perfectly fine... I understand why it didn't land for many people, and I see the reasoning, but I have this particular ability to overlook the flaws and maximize my enjoyment of the strengths when a film presents a solid concept that just happens to be slightly under-realized in certain spots...
For what it's worth, the visual aesthetic of the film is excellent; those greyish-blue tones, starting from that initial shot of the frozen blue Warner Bros. logo all the way through to those stunning snowy landscapes—especially those sweeping bird's-eye views over the forest... truly great stuff. 🙂
Also, for the first half, it genuinely felt like a top-tier, high-tension horror flick... specifically that bathroom scene with the alien snake; I was on the edge of my seat. While the plot does drag a bit toward the end, the way the guy handles that final snake with the MP5—that moment where he misses and it leaps at him 😁—really saved the whole experience (it almost felt like that moment in Aliens when they're trying to get into the APC 😁). Watching that, I actually shouted, "Ye MADAFAKA!!!" 😁 Those few intense action sequences drastically improved my overall impression.
As for the special effects... the snake effects are flawless. I watched the behind-the-scenes features, and the director mentioned he specifically wanted to blend practical animatronics with CGI so seamlessly that no one would notice, and honestly, he pulled it off. They look incredibly realistic; sometimes you can't even tell if you're looking at CGI or a physical prop...
Regarding the helicopter sequences, they were quite impactful overall, though I'm not a fan of how some films handle them—where the choppers fly so close to the lens that the camera shakes violently from the wind; it makes the digital fabrication far too obvious. It doesn't hold a candle to something like Black Hawk Down, where they used actual helicopters.
My only gripe is that they left Duddits' origins somewhat vague... I had imagined him as one of the aliens who is also fighting against the Grays, which is why they help the humans... but whatever, I can live with that. If the execution had been a bit sharper, this could have been a truly legendary sci-fi horror Thriller. Even so, I enjoyed it enough to give it a positive rating.
I recall reading somewhere that during the filming of Evil Dead by Raimi, Sam Raimi actually crashed a motorcycle into Bruce Campbell and broke his jaw 😁
For me, nothing beats that shot where the red tube sprays raspberry juice everywhere after Ash blasts that thing through the door with a shotgun 😁
Look, he was talented, but I'm convinced the shifting magnetic fields of the Earth combined with the positioning of Mars and Jupiter completely unraveled him; now he’s just stuck acting in bottom-tier movies. Personally, I found Beowulf so spectacularly terrible that it actually became enjoyable... and honestly, his best work comes from the music by Juno Reactor (who, let's be real, just sells their damn tracks to any movie they can to line their pockets 😁), while everyone else is out partying... I mean, when I see sword fights set to techno, how am I supposed to hate the movie? 😁 😁
On another note, Highlander is a fantastic film and his performance there was solid. Plus, that Queen soundtrack is absolutely legendary 🙏
When it comes down to the music, there are a handful of composers who have crafted scores that truly resonate with me.
Eric Serra—he possesses such a distinct, signature style with those dark, atmospheric textures you hear in Nikita or Leon, and then again in The Fifth Element, where his imagination was just on another level... he’s easily one of my all-time favorites.
Basil Poledouris - Conan 🙏
Jerry Goldsmith—sure, some might say he churns out music for everything, but I absolutely love that high-octane opening theme from Star Trek: First Contact - Jerry Goldsmith.
James Horner—did an incredible job with the score for Aliens.
Hans Zimmer - Blade Runner is simply essential.
Alan Silvestri - Predator. It's just too good! 🙏
Juno Reactor and that intense chase sequence in The Matrix Reloaded.
And of course, Doldinger and Das Boot...
I also really dig the sequence in 007: Tomorrow Never Dies when they're cruising in the BMW... I believe it's called Backseat Driver. It's a brilliant fusion of that classic James Bond sound modernized with electronic elements, though I can't quite recall the composer.
What really irritates me is how often we're subjected to these uninspired, completely recycled soundtracks that all follow the exact same tired formula.
If you’re looking for a hero who remains absolutely unshakable in pretty much every single film—the kind of icon nobody can mess with—you're looking at Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, or Sean Connery. But since I was forced to pick just one, 🙂
Perhaps the sheer scale of the universe is such that a species can only be located by another that has spent countless millennia evolving toward the specific technological threshold required for rapid interstellar travel. If such a civilization has endured for that long without succumbing to self-destruction, one must assume they have achieved a level of stability and pacifism; they likely wouldn't even bother making contact with younger, more bellicose races. 🙂
I first watched this movie back when I was just a kid and thought it was great; last year, I decided to borrow it again just for kicks, and much to my surprise, the film still feels incredibly fresh—it’s fun, the humor lands, the action holds up, and it certainly didn't feel half as stupid as I feared it might now that I'm older. By the way, if I recall correctly, this was one of the very first films to utilize that "morphing" computer animation during the early days of CGI, specifically during the sorceress's transformation scene. And those glacier chase sequences? Still absolutely unmatched. 🙂 In short, for anyone who doesn't have an issue with solid fantasy, consider this my recommendation as well! 👍
Another fantastic watch is "The Salton Sea"... it's as if someone fused Pulp Fiction, Red Rock West, and Trainspotting into one single experience. It’s a drug story, a film noir, and a crime thriller all rolled into one, and it does it brilliantly... definitely worth a look. 👍
I'm not going to sit here and list everything else because there's no point in recommending garbage; take these two from me and enjoy yourselves. 😁
I’d highly recommend anyone check out "The Arrival" starring Charlie Sheen. It follows a radio astronomer who discovers that aliens have already infiltrated the highest levels of government and are planning a slow-motion takeover of the planet (it basically implies Bush is an alien himself! 😁). It's a fantastic film; when I first sat down to watch it, I was expecting something along the lines of a standard episode of "X-Files," but after the first thirty minutes, things take such an incredible turn. The special effects are unexpectedly high-quality and deliver some truly mind-bending imagery, shifting the movie into a realm of top-tier action and mystery. I was completely hooked and kept on edge until the very end. Plus, Sheen is excellent in this—he plays a man who is pitted against everyone and has zero credibility, yet he remains determined to fight to the bitter end despite having almost no chance. He portrays that sweaty, exhausted, disheveled, paranoid, and terrified man standing alone against the world with such grit; he really nailed it.
Quote : Originally posted by driftingowl27 John Carpenter actually intended this to be his medium-length thesis project, but he ended up stretching it out into this passionate parody—it’s a legendary piece of cinema that even used to air on NBC. 😁
I agree; I feel like I've already seen the film too many times to call it fresh... though I watched it in German quite a while ago, so I wouldn't mind revisiting it. 😁
For me, the standout entries have always been 1, 4, 6, and 8... though I haven't revisited the third one in quite a while, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. Honestly, I don't get why some people trash Star Trek: First Contact; I found it incredibly gripping. It delivers plenty of action, which is always a welcome change for Star Trek films, and Alice Krige is absolutely phenomenal as the Borg Queen... plus, that opening score is just stunning! 😉 ktome, I’ve never been the type to completely bash a weaker installment of my favorite film franchise. Instead, I try to be less critical and find the silver lining in whatever they put out... So, I’m hoping to enjoy watching Nemesis, even if I am holding out hope that it's actually decent! Can't wait... 🙂
By the way, has anyone here actually ordered DVDs online before? What was the total damage to your wallet, and how long did shipping actually take to arrive?
(Also, it’s a real joke that the movie is in German while most of these sites have it dubbed in English... I mean, give me a break, as if the SS is going to tell us what Americans want to hear 🙄 Looks like getting my hands on this is going to be quite the ordeal. 😁)