Is there anything good to be said about the film Dungeons and Dragons?
Might as well add in the odd numbered Star Trek movies.
I hated Powder. I kept waiting for the Fly to eat him, but he never did. 
They didn’t make a sequel?
I guess I disagree: I usually enjoy it when a director makes me ask such questions. It builds my anticipation. Of course, if the director never answers the questions, then I’m really disappointed. But making me ask them is not a bad thing to do.
Daniel
This is really harsh and unnecessary. You know about the Pit, right? You want to pit him, please do it there and don’t use this thread to be so vicious.
Daniel
:smack:
Ummm, you aren’t required by law to own a copy?
I thought you mean t me personally, and I was like, Hey, I’m not THAT much of a dork!
But yeah, you’re right: that’s something good about the movie.
Daniel
A me too here. Whenever I see a satellite image of a storm on tv now, I say, “It’s drawing air directly from the troposphere.”
I saw that on TV this weekend. It was very limp.
Umm…Thora Birch is adorable in a chainmail outfit?
-Joe
::: Moderator pounds gavel for attention::: > WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!! <
This is NOT the forum for personal attacks against members. I’m not sure exactly who started it, but it’s stopping NOW. If you feel that someone else has made a personal attack, do NOT respond in kind, but instead report their post to the Moderator.
I don’t want to hijack this thread, so I don’t want to get all into it and shit, but for the benefit of any lurkers who are reading this thread I wanted to present one quiet voice of defense for what I think is a brilliant movie.
While I respect Doors’s opinion, you’ll find if you look further afield that it does not necessarily represent the universal consensus regarding this film. Many serious people have found a great deal of value in Starship Troopers as political satire; perhaps one of the nastiest and most compelling satire of fascism and warmongering that’s ever been made. It’s up there with* Dr. Strangelove*, for me, as satire of the modern war machine. It was inspired by WWII propaganda films–German as well as American–and its central theme is that “war makes fascists of us all.”
It does depart, thematically, from Heinlein’s novel, which for many people is a bone of great contention. Personally, I think it’s a rare achievement: a film that satirizes its source material while remaining pretty true to the original, albeit mostly in superficial ways. In any case it’s certainly not very reverent of Heinlein’s novel; one of its satirical targets is the kind of super-patriotic, military-infused SF of the cold war era, of which Heinlein’s Starship Troopers is a shining example.
See it and decide for yourself, if you haven’t.
Your experience of *ST *is likely to be deepened by a passing familiarity with the propaganda films that Leni Riefenstahl made for Adolf Hitler, and such gungho wartime American films as The Story of G.I. Joe and The Battle of Midway. But once you’re willing to accept the premise that it’s a satire (vet in a wheelchair, missing both legs and an arm, enthusiastically, to incoming recruits: “The military made me the man I am today!”), such knowledge of previous films is unnecessary.
But as Doors’ post indicates, it’s a movie that hits different people in different ways.
I was 50/50 on Starship Troopers. I loved the propaganda aspect (the kids stomping bugs) but other bigs bothered me like the love triangle bit.
From one of my lifetime top ten movies, Sullivan’s Travels:
Policeman at Beverly Hills station: How does the girl fit into the story?
John L. Sullivan: There’s always a girl in the story. What’s the matter, don’t you go to the movies?
I remember when I saw ST, I loved it until about halfway through, when it felt as though it had forgotten that it was a satire and started seriously icking me out. Maybe it didn’t forget, though: maybe it just went too wholeheartedly into satire mode for my tastes. I’ll see it again one day.
In any case, it had some pretty huge plausibility holes in it, IIRC, which are difficult to explain as satire. On the other hand, the book ST was one of the worst books I’ve ever read (Asimov’s The Stars, Like Dust ties for first place), so I considered the movie a marked improvement over the source :).
Naturally, de gustibus and all.
Daniel
It made those who saw it realise just how bad LotR could have been. And I guess it kept Jeremy Irons in gin and tonics for a while.
I love Starship Troopers through and through, but I can’t see how even if you hate it you’d think it belongs on the list of stupid stupid movies. OK, it’s a bit strange that “rebuilding” casualties (like they do to Rico) is routine and at the same time he is reported dead and Ibanez is surprised when he turns up again, but apart from that, what is there?
Starship Troopers isn’t a good movie or a bad movie IMHO. I appreciate the satire aspects of the film, and while I’m not up to speed on Heinlen’s book, it certainly got the message across. It also was a fun and somewhat exciting action/SFX bonanza. However one simply must accept the undeniable facts that Dina Meyers, Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards and Doogie Hauser have leading roles on this film. That fact alone makes it impossible to be a “good” movie, though with the combination of politics with popcorn-flick action it does have redeeming qualities.
Now, if you want to talk about a really stupid, stupid movie lets consider Shark Tale. Now, this isn’t a hopeless movie with a hopeless cast, it’s has a very famous voice cast and was done by the Dreamworks people who typically are competent.
The script for this movie must seem retarded even to it’s pre-adolecent audience. The cliches come at warp speed, and it doesn’t so much parody other crappy mob movies just weakly imitates them with practically the same dialogue. The “sit down” scene was a direct rip off of Analyze This scene right down to the actors. Of course there are the typical love interest cliches including a Jessica Rabbit knock-off voiced by Angelina Jolie. The faux-hip hop slang is excrisiating to listen to, and the coup de grace is the finale in which these mob sharks get the rapper treatment and are shown in a stupid dance/rap montage wearing gold chains and what not. Think about that, Robert DeNiro, Jack Black, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore and Peter Falk rapping…
Worst Movie Ever, I don’t care that it’s a animated film for kids, it makes Finding Nemo look like Goodfellas and Lion King look like Citizen Kane
Michael Ironside also has a leading role in it, which gives it a powerful push upward. I don’t think Dina Meyer is a bad actress either, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s just about the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.
Let’s not forget that they never look like they’re underwater! And they all look like they have scoliosis! Gawd, I hated this movie - and I live for animated mivies!