The "What I watch when I don't watch TV shows" thread

[DJ Doena]

The Island

Ewan McGregor    ...    Lincoln Six Echo / Tom Lincoln
Scarlett Johansson   ...    Jordan Two Delta / Sarah Jordan
Djimon Hounsou   ...    Albert Laurent
Sean Bean   ...    Dr. Merrick
Steve Buscemi   ...    James McCord
Michael Clarke Duncan   ...    Starkweather Two Delta
Ethan Phillips   ...    Jones Three Echo
Brian Stepanek   ...    Gandu Three Echo

Synopsis: Lincoln 6 Echo and Jordan 2 Delta are two of few survivors of an environmental disaster. Now they live in an isolated facility with a few thousand other survivors and their only hope is that they win in the lottery and can leave for The Island, the last place on Earth where people can live directly under the sky. But Lincoln starts to ask questions because he has weird dreams he can't explain and when he finds out the terrible truth, everything changes.

My Opinion: Some people compared this movie to Logan's Run but I can see only a few minor parallels, IMHO not enough to really compare these movies. The movie basically flows by from one chase scene to the next. There's not that much plot in it, but it's enjoyable to watch.

[DJ Doena]

The Day After Tomorrow

Dennis Quaid   ...    Jack Hall
Jake Gyllenhaal   ...    Sam Hall
Emmy Rossum   ...    Laura Chapman
Dash Mihok   ...    Jason Evans
Jay O. Sanders   ...    Frank Harris
Sela Ward   ...    Dr. Lucy Hall
Austin Nichols   ...    J.D.
Arjay Smith   ...    Brian Parks
Tamlyn Tomita   ...    Janet Tokada
Sasha Roiz   ...    Parker
Ian Holm   ...    Terry Rapson

Synopsis: When a huge ice shell the size of Rhode Island breaks off the arcic shelf, Dr. Hall warns the scientific community that a climatic shift is coming. And it actually is but it comes even faster than Dr. Hall had expected it. But nobody believes Hall until it's too late for many people. The north-atlantic current is breaking down and the temperatures in the northern hemisphere are quickly dropping below zero and people start to die by the thousands. And Hall's son is stuck in New York, fighting for survival.

My Opinion: Luckily they haven't translated the title or it would simply be called "Übermorgen" in german. What I liked about this movie is that the catastrophe actually happened. That they didn't invent some astronomical blow-dryer to reheat the Earth. That they actually put the irony in it that the survivors of the so-called first-world countries had to seek refuge in the less developed countries. The one thing I didn't like was that the Vice President survived, he caused so many death due to his ignorance and yet he gets the promotion.

[Tom]

or the german "USS Highlander" movies.

"Captain Norad, bitte auf die Brücke!"
Those were great fan movies (long time before there were countless of those on the internet). Especially the first two (these I transfered them to DVD recently). I even bought them on VHS at the time. Sadly they will not release them on DVD because they do not want to take chances because of copyright issues.

[DJ Doena]

My mother has all five movies on VHS, they were sold in a fan shop in Munich before they withdrew the first three due to said copyright issues. They were wearing TNG uniforms in the first three movies and their rendered version of the USS Highlander looked to much like a Galaxy class starship IIRC.

But luckily Captain Norad blew that up and they got a new one.

Here's the trailer to part 4 of that fan project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdA6m4QVkTg

[Jon]

I love Galaxy Quest! I can watch it anytime. Wonderful.

This is a great little marathon your doing, Karsten. I  remember getting I, Robot and The Day After Tomorrow both from Ebay at the same time and enjoying both of them a great deal more than I expected. Both got a lot of flak, unfairly so. I, Robot did have a lot of hidden advertising, but it was hardly detrimental. Well, I hardly noticed anyway, yet it was a huge sticking point for a lot of people.

[DJ Doena]

War of the Worlds

Tom Cruise    ...    Ray Ferrier
Dakota Fanning   ...    Rachel Ferrier
Miranda Otto   ...    Mary Ann
Justin Chatwin   ...    Robbie
Tim Robbins   ...    Harlan Ogilvy
David Alan Basche   ...    Tim

Synopsis: There are some weird storms and some lightning hits the ground. Shortly after machines come out of the ground, machines that have been there since before the first houses were built there. And these machines, these tripods, destroy everything in their path and kill any human being. Ray, who has both his childs over for the weekend, does anything that's necessary to protect his family and the first thing on that list is: running like hell.

My Opinion: The story War of the Worlds is well known - especially how it ends. And I liked it that they didn't make a hero movie out of it. I think it was a great idea that Ray was neither hero nor anti-hero but just a regular guy who doesn't know what to do just like the rest of mankind. Dakota's character was a bit too annoying for my taste.
This was the first time I watched the DVD after I had seen the movie in the theatre and I enjoyed it again. But what someone else said is also true: If the Ferriers would have had a dog, the dog would have made it to Boston, too.


So that's it. I did watch WotW yesterday evening and as you can see in my signature strip I totally changed genre this morning.

[DJ Doena]

This is a great little marathon your doing, Karsten. I  remember getting I, Robot and The Day After Tomorrow both from Ebay at the same time and enjoying both of them a great deal more than I expected. Both got a lot of flak, unfairly so. I, Robot did have a lot of hidden advertising, but it was hardly detrimental. Well, I hardly noticed anyway, yet it was a huge sticking point for a lot of people.

As I said, it wasn't really intended as marathon, it just happened. That's the reason the reviews are all dropping in today.

Product placement has become a minor annoyance in today's movies, but I didn't find it that bad in I, Robot. I only remember Smith's basketball shoes, but I don't even remember the company (Nike? Rebok?) and of course Audi's concept car.

Apropos product placement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaSLTb7njVE (a better version unfortunately can't be embedded)


So, it's nearly midnite, I am going to bed...

[Jimmy]

Some people compared this movie to Logan's Run but I can see only a few minor parallels, IMHO not enough to really compare these movies.

Wrong movie 

If you want to know what movie this is a ripoff of (I use this word with a very good reason, since it is one) you will have to watch this one made in 1979 :



Somewhere in California is hidden a mysterious industrial complex. Apparently well known to certain privileged members of the inner circles of government, this factory has only one product: human clones...

Raised in a state of blissful ignorance, both about their origins and their ultimate fate, the clones dream of 'America' - where, so their guardians tell them, they will one day be sent. But what happens when one of these farmed clones starts to ask difficult questions... and comes looking for the real America?

An interview with Robert Fiveson the director of Clonus here and more there

Something that I've absolutly no respect for : stealing everything from an old unknown movie and let the public think that it's an original idea.

Dreamworks was prosecuted for this, but it was settled before the trial for an unknown ammount of money.