I have watched two movies this weekend. The first one was Oldboy. It is a Korean Thriller and it is surprisingly good. And the other was Cabin in the woods finally. Great movie as well.

What is he going to do this time? Take down an ICBM in flight with his bare hands?

I didn't know what to do during that scene, laugh hysterically or turn off the movie and give up on action movies altogether. I always end up rooting for the bad guys in these movies, just die already stupid unlikable hero that won't adhere to the laws of physics, and somehow never gets hit by anything, or cares one bit about collateral damage.

The neverending story still is a great movie. I was 11 the first time I saw it. It was in school, teachers birthday, big tv in the classroom (well for 1985), curtains closed, to watch the movie with the whole class. Probably the most immersed I have ever been in a movie. Passing the sphynx gate was more scary to watch then Alien.
The movie still looks outstanding today, only the sound quality has aged poorly. Too bad the sequal didn't live up to the first one.
The books were a great read too, very original, and the water theme ride in Warner Brothers movie world Germany was a good tribute to the book too.

Since Prometheus is coming out tomorrow I decided to watch Alien last night.

It's the first time I've watched Alien on blu-ray, I saw it last on Laserdisc 10 years ago. Wow what an incredible transfer, there are so many new details that I never noticed before. The slow pace (perfect for this movie) and steady camera work give you all the time to soak in the details of the masterfully crafted sets. The analog sci-fi tech of the older movies is still my favorite.

The movie isn't perfect, yet all the inconsistencies have their own charm. For example the planetoid landing, the model of the ship gets lowered at a snails pace onto the ground, while the people inside seem to be experiencing a violent high speed crash. Or that 'mother' is the size of a big room with a slow archaic text interface, while they have a humanoid robot among the crew that nobody notices.

The artwork and pacing make it the best in the series, a true classic.


Prometheus will be my 2nd 3D blu-ray, only because it is the same price as the release with the 3D disc. The first was Tangled 3D, same reason. I guess I will be adding to the 3D statistics, although I have no intention of watching them in 3D any time soon.

Prometheus (again).

I tried to watch Nausicaa Valley of the wind this afternoon, but I'm ashamed to say I fell asleep.
I didn't stand much of a chance. After working hard in the backyard I had a baby sleeping on one arm, and a dog sleeping against me on the other side. Nodding off was inevitable. Then the little lies come, if I just switch it to the English soundtrack I can still listen to it with my eyes closed, right :)
The beginning was great, I'll watch the rest some other time.

Recently you wrote in another thread that you grew up in the Netherlands, so there's a high chance that you're one of the few people on VGC  who know who Jean Giraud/Moebius* is.

If so, here's an interesting read, a talk between Miyazaki and Moebius from 2004 (funnily Giraud's famous pen name Moebius is spelled incorrectly in the URL): http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/miyazaki_moebious.html

I post this because, when I first watched the movie, parts of Nausicaä - especially the beginning where she finds the Ohmu shell - strongly reminded me of Moebius' works from the 70s (which I discovered in the early 90s). In the discussion Moebius describes what he thinks about the influence and about people who were reminded of his works when watching the movie:
Miyazaki: "... I directed Nausicaä under Moebius' influence."
Moebius: "It's true that when I saw Nausciaä... It proves that influence doesn't matter much, what matters is that there was a community, a like-mindedness of inspiration that predated the conscious meeting, that, beyond cultures and beyond time and space, lets a person meet another one and feel synchronized with her. I was stricken not by what makes us look alike, but that people could see resemblances while so many things separates us."

(*For me Giraud/Moebius was - he died this March - one of the greatest and most influential comic book artists of the 20th century, but on a UK/US site like this unfortunately all comic-related stuff that's ever discussed is US super heroes and mangas, never Franco-Belgian comics.)

Interesting, I had never heard of Moebius until now. I've never been very much into comics with the exception of Marten Toonder.
After looking him up I should have known of him sooner, he had a big influence on a lot of my favourite sci-fi movies, Alien, 5th Element, The Abyss, Blade runner, and Willow was great too.

The Action movie genre is making its comeback. Fuck you Cloud Atlas fuck you Brockeback Mountain. Those here are real movies for real men with real beards.

Why are you doing this to me? I thought you where an Action movie fan? And i thought you would be happy to see some old school Action. After getting raped by Watchmen and Pirates of the caribean 3

I wanted to watch this movie so bad this sunday, but there was no showing in my local cinema