[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac]
Remember the very end of the movie? He did summon rescue shoppers once he found his son.
[/QUOTE]
Those were rescuers for the whole city. They came once the cold stopped being so cold that you had to run away from it, not because he put in a private rescue call for his son.
I agree that that movie is stupid, but I love every second of it anyway.
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
Those were rescuers for the whole city. They came once the cold stopped being so cold that you had to run away from it, not because he put in a private rescue call for his son.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know, I always assumed the choppers came, at least in part, because Dad radioed back to confirm that there were in fact survivors in NYC. You’re right, they probably would have come eventually anyway, but there’s no reason to assume the father had nothing to do with it.
[QUOTE=mr. jp]
What does everyone think is the problem with face/off? The face exchange procedure? I know we cannot do that now, but it’s not unthinkable.
[/QUOTE]
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie but when they made the switch, did they account for any possible differences in height and body build? Granted, in the context of the movie it may not have been a problem because (to the best of my knowledge) Nicholas Cage and John Travolta are about the same height and weight.
Anyway, the face-switching was just a gimmick so Cage and Travolta could show-off by playing both a good guy and a bad guy.
[QUOTE=NDP]
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie but when they made the switch, did they account for any possible differences in height and body build? Granted, in the context of the movie it may not have been a problem because (to the best of my knowledge) Nicholas Cage and John Travolta are about the same height and weight.
[/QUOTE]
I think the big thing was one simple factor: voice.
[QUOTE=mr. jp]
omg, that’s a good one. After a few generations on water there are many people with gills?!
[/QUOTE]
Not only that, but even with every polar cap melted, it doesn’t even close close to submerging all the land except the top of Mt Everest.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
Whjile I will gleefully point at Signs and laugh – and have, frequently on this Board – the premise in Alien Nation was that the aliens were genetically-modified organisms deliberately bred as slaves, and that this vulnerabiluity was a control mechanism.
I find it hard to believe that even a power-hungry alien overlord race would go to such extreme lengths as throwing out a pretty basic and essential building block of organic chemistry as saline and making creatures have a bad reaction to it, but can buy it if I squint real hard.
[/QUOTE]
And don’t forget that with the power of positive thought, the Alien Nation aliens can overcome their vulnerability to salt water and walk in the ocean, shocking their grandsons.
The Man Without a Body has been my favourite since I saw it aged 15 (when it prompted a metaphysical moment).
IMDB user plot summary: A wealthy business man discovers he has a brain tumor and seeks medical help. The business man finds a scientist experimenting with transplanting monkey heads on different monkey bodies. The business man decides to steal the head of Nostradamus from the prophet’s crypt.
…because his body is fit, so he would be better off with some brain, any brain.
[QUOTE=mobo85]
It’s been years since I’ve seen this film, but since it was just released on DVD, I couldn’t help but think of how stupid the premise is, as well as I can remember it: The Wizard. This mentally challenged kid wants to go to California- except “California” to him is this place he went to with his dead parents so he can put their ashes there or something (of course, we don’t find this out until the end of the movie). So these two kids befriend him and take him on the road to California. So it’s a road trip movie, right? Wrong. It turns out that the kid is really good at video games, so when they find out there’s going to be a big video game competition in California, they decide to enter him in it. So it’s a road trip/buddy/competition picture that’s basically a drawn-out advertisement for Nintendo with a plot that barely makes sense.
[/QUOTE]
Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis is in this movie, so it has one saving grace.
Predator Vs. Alien
If you haven’t seen it, and you have an hour and a half of your life just itching to be thrown down the toilet, give it a look. Absolutely no plot, and no redeeming qualities. Just aliens duking it out for no reason in Antarctica. Oops, sorry, I gave it all away.
[QUOTE=mr. jp]
omg, that’s a good one. After a few generations on water there are many people with gills?!
[/QUOTE]
Better yet, on planet covered entirely with water, there’s someone who doesn’t know how to swim?!?
[QUOTE=Miller]
The thing that bothers me about this is the assumption that this would even be possible. If I’m designing a spaceship, I’m going to include lots of stuff to make sure all the air doesn’t get sucked out on accident. I don’t see why I’d bother including anything to suck all the air out on purpose.
[/QUOTE]
You would include all kinds of stuff to avoid losing air by accident. But you would also want a way to evacuate the air if necessary. The most obvious reason is fire. You would have all kinds of firefighting systems and tools, but it might come down to, drop the airtight doors and blow the seals to evacuate the air. An episode of Firefly, Out Of Gas, does a good job of showing just that situation.
[QUOTE=Lemur866]
Why do we call the creatures we see in the movie “aliens”? Yeah, the characters believe they are aliens. But there’s no particular evidence of this.
[/QUOTE]
Except that M Night Shyamalan has stated that they are. Not going to dig up a link right now; there is one in one of the other threads where someone insisted on defending this shitty film.
[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
I don’t think I can agree with that. Admittedly, not venting the air is stupid.
[/QUOTE]
Hey you don’t know if you even CAN vent the air! How would you vent a 747 other than blasting a window open? It’s probably MORE stupid that the Sulako in Aliens allows you to open both the inner and outer airlock door at the same time.
Anyhow, that guy thought Ishtar was a good movie so I wouldn’t take his oppinion seriously
http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/ishtar.htm
Some movies that while entertaining had a blatently stupid premise:
The Rock
Con Air
Gone on 60 Seconds
The One
Face Off
The Last Action Hero
[QUOTE=msmith537]
Some movies that while entertaining had a blatently stupid premise:
The Rock
Con Air
Gone on 60 Seconds
The One
[/quote]
What was stupid, specifically, about these premises?
Come on. That’s like saying the premise of The Never-Ending Story or basically any fantasy movie ever was stupid. It’s deliberately unrealistic.
I think that people are confusing stupid movies with stupid premises. For example, take Plan 9 from Outer Space- terrible movie, famously so- but the premise isn’t all that bad- “aliens reanimate the dead in an attempt to stop human’s violent ways” Its Night of the Living Dead meets The Day the Earth Stood Still; It’s got possibilities. It’s the kind of high-concept that studio executives love. The problem wasn’t the premise- it was the script (and everything else). On the other hand, Snakes on a Plane- Dumb Premise. Nothing can make it smart. Entertaining, maybe, but smart? nope.
[QUOTE=Excalibre]
What I never understand is why people feel so much need to defend this horrible movie’s horrible premise. I don’t get why people enjoy it at all. The “insights” the movie offered up were banal at best, the plot was absolutely unbelievable on its surface, what the hell is there to like about it?
[/QUOTE]
The acting was really good, and the cinematography was amazing. The dialogue was crisp and funny, and the plot worked fine up until the big reveal at the climax. There was enough stuff in this movie that was really, really good that I’m willing to work with the film to get past the one part of the film that was a bit of a clunker. I came up with an explanation that fits the events of the movie well enough that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I’d explain it, but for some reason, the idea that people like this movie seems to really piss some people off.
[QUOTE=Miller]
The acting was really good, and the cinematography was amazing. The dialogue was crisp and funny, and the plot worked fine up until the big reveal at the climax. There was enough stuff in this movie that was really, really good that I’m willing to work with the film to get past the one part of the film that was a bit of a clunker. I came up with an explanation that fits the events of the movie well enough that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I’d explain it, but for some reason, the idea that people like this movie seems to really piss some people off.
[/QUOTE]
Does your explanation rely at all on the hypothesis that the entire movie is really a dream?
I think Signs makes perfect sense if one simply assumes that everything in the movie is actually a virtual reality simulation created by the aliens, to cover up the secret that humanity has already been conquered and placed in suspended animation as living batteries to power the aliens’ dehumidifiers.
However, their control over Mel Gibson’s preacher character fails because a clogged feed line to his hypnopod prevents oxygen from reaching his brain, causing nonsensical hallucinations that his wife’s death was really an encoded secret message from God. The onscreen events of Signs are merely a string of muddled delusions generated by Mel’s oxygen-starved brain, which accounts for their lack of anything resembling logic or plausibility.
Clearly, then, **Signs ** was intended with a sequel or sequels in mind, to more fully explore this premise. It’s fairly obvious that the next movie would have begun with Mel breaking free of virtual reality to discover the true nature of reality. Mel finds himself in the far future, a thousand years after the aliens’ conquest of humanity. They’re here to steal Earth’s water so that it can’t be used to poison them. Enslaving humans is the first logical step, since the human body is 80% water.
Once free of the VR system, Mel is captured by an alien leader, who punishes him for escaping by downloading huge amounts of information directly into his brain. However, Mel manages to escape confinement by stealing the alien leader’s face and using it as a disguise. Fleeing into the wilderness, he stumbles across the only free humans left, who live a Stone Age existence in the only area on Earth humid enough that the aliens can’t survive there-- Florida.
Mel quickly devises a plan to melt Earth’s icecaps, in order to destroy the aliens by flooding the entire planet. He trains the Stone Age humans to pilot the Space Shuttle, which fortunately has remained intact and operable in its hangar for a thousand years. His team travels into space and diverts an asteroid, splitting it with a nuclear bomb to take out both icecaps at once.
Returning to Earth, Mel suddenly realizes that the aliens will retaliate when they learn of the danger. He therefore plots an attack on their main teleport station, which is an Egyptian artifact dating back to when the aliens built the Pyramids. Mel and his team sneak into the compound by disguising themselves with stolen alien faces, intending to send a bus with a nuclear warhead through the portal. However, the plan has one fatal flaw: someone has to drive the bus through the portal, because the bomb will only detonate when someone steps on the brake. Ben Affleck bravely volunteers for the suicide mission; however, at the last minute, Mel switches places with him by knocking him out and stealing his face.
Mel’s noble sacrifice saves Earth as the bus detonates inside the teleporter, which automatically opens all the other teleport gates in the network. The flood waters from the melted icecaps drain through the stargates directly onto the alien planet. Mel is reunited with his dead wife in the afterlife, although she doesn’t recognize him at first because he still has Ben Affleck’s face. God personally apologizes to Mel for killing his wife, but only after Mel beats the bloody crap out of Him for three hours. The End.
Come to think of it, I’ve changed my mind. I like Signs. 
I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
[QUOTE=Lemur866]
OK, another movie with a blatantly stupid premise. Stigmata.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145531/
[/QUOTE]
If you hated this movie, I highly recommend reading Roger Ebert’s review of it in I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie.
[QUOTE=msmith537]
Anyhow, that guy thought Ishtar was a good movie
[/QUOTE]
Then again, so did Gary Larson.