So what DO you want to see in a movie?

Birdie

Birdie

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
In the last couple of days, I finally got to see Battle for LA and Sucker Punch

One (BFLA) got a lot of love on here and the other a lot of hate.

I thought Battle was utter suck. 60 minutes of anonymous marines running around shouting, shooting at rubble and vapour trails and ten minutes of actual battle with boring, ill-defined aliens. The five minutes of miltary action in Cloverfield was more exciting than this entire movie.

Sucker Punch I kinda dug . For all its repetitive action and confused script, it at least had some interesting ideas going on, was beautiful to look at and had an awesome soundtrack.

What I really don't get is that most of the criticism of SP - lack of plot, bad acting, boring action scenes, no character development, lousy dialogue etc - I found doubly true of BFLA.

So I'm confused. What's up, RPF?
 
truth be told i was kind of dissapointed with machette, it was good but i though that rodregez did not go grindhouse enough. it was too clean in my eyes. hoping hobo with a shotgun does the franchise. and pray edgar right makes "don't!"
 
1) More revenge movies but with the bad guy as a real bad guy instead of like spider man3 and making the entire uncle ben plot being a mistake. 2) More intense scoring so the action is still good: intense score= no overdone action scenes + more suspense. 3) Too much exposisition makes ppl lazy thinkers, its good to make the viewers guessing and let them figure it out on their own, instead of being hand-fed the whole movie explanation as if they need a narrator (george of the jungle haha). 4) new actors, i dont like seeing Bruce Wayne fight terminators and doing so with the same voice. Same with Sam Worthington, Demigod from Clash of the Titans voicing Jake Sully in the same manner. 5) sequels can keep coming as long as they sell in DVD sales instead of basing success on the opening weekend, some opening weekends have lots of hype and turns out a flop once it comes to dvd sales cuz it sucked in theaters. I'll think of more later
 
A movie that is not dumbed down for audiences, full of action and no plot or just a toy commercial to sell stuff to kids.

A movie with characters I care about and can relate to.

A non-reboot, remake or re-imagining.

A movie that doesn't rely on shaky cameras or lens flare.

A movie with a script that hasn't been re-written so many times that it doesn't make any sense or is full of plot holes.

A horror movie that doesn't rely on gore (some gore is fine, but I prefer more implied gore than completely throwing it in my face) and torture (not scary, it just makes me incredibly uncomfortable) or CGI (doesn't scare me and takes me out of the moment).

Comedy that's subtle and doesn't drag a joke on forever that wasn't funny in the first place.

Something that doesn't contain so many characters and subplots that it distracts from the plot of the movie.

A good story and a good soundtrack would be nice.

...and as others have mentioned- Heart... a soul. Something severly lacking in Hollywood these days.
 
Good script
fairly good actors (i've seen some low budget ones that are good)
Camera work that doesn't include high speed moves that make you motion sick.
Michael bay being taken out by his own massive explosions...or his massive ego.
 
This reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where the Itchy and Scratchy producers are doing the market research on the kids:

Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with
real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!
Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting
into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?
Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want!
Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's
completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah,
good.
Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
 
Some great suggestions so far.

I'll add: Natural coloring and cinematography. Every film looks like it's been run through some kind of computer filter from start to finish.
 
jlee562 said:
This reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where the Itchy and Scratchy producers are doing the market research on the kids:

Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with
real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!
Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting
into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?
Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want!
Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's
completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah,
good.
Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
Click to expand...

Roger Myers Jr.: You kids don't know what you want! THAT'S WHY YOU'RE STILL KIDS! 'CAUSE YOU'RE STUPID! Just tell me what's wrong with the freakin' show!
 
A film where it is story and character are first and whatever constitutes a genre as second. For example, for my story Trigger, I see it as a drama first with action film elements second.

Old school effects be used first to the point where it cannot be done, only then be CGI be use.

Three hour movies. Let's face it: If you're wanting to do an epic film, go the whole nine yards and make the length fit the epicness of it.
 
All the above would help. I want good dialogue, but also some GREAT dialogue wouldn't hurt once in a while. I'm talking Glengarry Glen Ross level. OK, that film was based on a stage play. So they should make more stage plays. When was the last one, I wonder?

In the same vein, I'd love to see a return to the perfection of naturalistic tone that characterised the early to mid 70s: Dog Day Afternoon, Five Easy Pieces, The Conversation, The French Connection, Serpico, Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, Mean Streets, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Scarecrow, The Taking of Pelham 123, All the President's Men. Not a single, flash, stylised moment in these films. Just rock-solid depictions of real people and real situations, but which are electrifying.

Pacino on the phone to his wife in Dog Day Afternoon is more thrilling to me than all of the cgi blizzards of the last decade put together.
 
I have seen a few really good movies in the last years, and loads of really bad ones,and I think there are still some good movies made, but there are also a bunch of really bad high budget ones out there. And I guess when a studio bets several hundred millions on a movie, they want the odds on their side, so it usually gets really 'mainstream' to offend as few people as possible, while still having enough 'awesomeness' to attract movie goers. And i hate unneccessary plot driving violence. Sometimes it works OK, like POTC an Transformers, but too often we get turkeys like POTC 2&3, and Transformers 2.
But I think the best movies are the ones were they dare to take chances, when people either love or hate it, that is when classics get made. Even if the opening night income isn't the greatest, and I love movies that confuse and annoy people.
And then there are the really great ones like Inception, Signs, Cloverfield, District 9, Grindhouse (Ok, Death Proof has some too long bits with boring dialogue) Dukes of Hazzard and The dark knight (I admit I have problems with Batman being James Bond, but I love the way the Jokers plans work out so incredibly perfect, despite him always saying he has no plan :p)
And most Charlie Kaufman scripts, somewhere Nicholas Cage can still shine ;)
And I still think there are a lot a good comedies and dramas made that people with two X-chromosomes can enjoy :p
 
Colin Droidmilk said:
All the above would help. I want good dialogue, but also some GREAT dialogue wouldn't hurt once in a while. I'm talking Glengarry Glen Ross level. OK, that film was based on a stage play. So they should make more stage plays. When was the last one, I wonder?

In the same vein, I'd love to see a return to the perfection of naturalistic tone that characterised the early to mid 70s: Dog Day Afternoon, Five Easy Pieces, The Conversation, The French Connection, Serpico, Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, Mean Streets, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Scarecrow, The Taking of Pelham 123, All the President's Men. Not a single, flash, stylised moment in these films. Just rock-solid depictions of real people and real situations, but which are electrifying.

Pacino on the phone to his wife in Dog Day Afternoon is more thrilling to me than all of the cgi blizzards of the last decade put together.
Click to expand...


You know, the situation is perfect for that. It won't happen, but we can dream... right?

"New Hollywood" will live on in my heart.
 
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