Cloud Atlas 2012 4 out of 10 A Bloated Mess

Cloud Atlas 2012 4 out of 10

I get what Cloud Atlas was trying to accomplish, but for me it failed miserably.  A bunch of  different stories with a connected theme that take place over numerous decades and time periods from the past and future.  The description sounds like an interesting concept and with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry it has a quality cast.  

Unfortunately the film was maybe too ambitious in its concept and ends up in my opinion a bloated mess.  I believe the failure of the movie is in the editing.  The stories don't flow nicely together at all and some stories are completely dull and flat taking away from the more interesting pieces.  Even the stories that seem interesting --you are pulled away from and by the time the film returns to them I found myself no longer interested in what happened to the characters.   Unlike a conventional movie that follows a characters journey from beginning to end so that you really care about the characters by films end,  this films editing style made me completely disinterested in all the characters fates.  Love Actually is one of the best examples of a movie telling many stories that all climax around the same time at the end.  Every story in that movie is interesting and it is edited extremely well.  This movie just jumps for one story to the next in such a disconnected way that you start to lose interest in even the most interesting story lines.

The two best story lines in my opinion were the futuristic Japanese style (not to subtle unnecessarily foreshadowed by another storyline) Soylent Green storyline.  This storyline could have been an entire movie.  Instead it gets buried in with a bunch of dull stories about a composer struggling for recognition as he basically writes for an established composer and gets no credit. Another completely random  story about journalist in the 1970's trying to do an expose is just boring.   Instead of trying to weave all of this different stories the director should have either run fully with the sci-fi storyline or even the wacky old folks breaking away from the old folks home.  I would probably give this movie a better rating if it hadn't been so over bloated and tediously long.   The could story lines got lost in a bunch of filler and when you look down at your watch about an hour and a half in and say to yourself  "UGHHH there is still another 40 minutes of this?"   that is never a good thing.

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The Super, Fantastic, Terrific Podcast #13 In this Podcast we discuss The Entity and what other movies make our Scariest Movie list

In our latest podcast.... (That was recorded a couple of months ago after Halloween---but that was delayed due to technical issues)   We discuss the film The Entity as well as what movies really scare us.   Have a listen and see if you agree or disagree?  Tell us what movies scare you.    There are a couple of odd choices and some stories of working at Blockbuster back in the day.

Here is the link to the Podcast.

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The Super, Fantastic, Terrific Podcast #12 In this Podcast we discuss Bad Movie Endings

Our Latest Podcast is now online:   We discuss bad movie ending and their are some "Controversial picks" ......  The format was really loose in this discussion.... We each had our on interpretations of the theme and It makes for an interesting listen.

Find out what things bothered us and see if you agree?
And leave us comments about which movies we forgot

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The Super, Fantastic, Terrific Podcast #11 Star Wars The Force Awakens ( A SPOILER FILLED Discussion)

   Our Latest Podcast is now online:  

 We finally talk The Force Awakens

(SPOILER TIME)

Listen here

http://www.superfantasticterrific.com/super-fantastic-terrific-11-star-wars-spoiler-episode/

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50 Shades of Dull (Grey) 2015 4 out of 10 Quick thoughts

50 Shades of Grey  2015 4 out of 10

I call it 50 Shades of Dull.    I just don't get what the big deal was about this.  The book soared and every women in American ran out to read it.  If the book is anything like the movie that is hard to understand why.  The dialogue was terrible--I mean truly cheesy and bad.  You could watch any Skin-o-Max movie from the late night TV and get the same thing out of it.  Both characters were just dull and the movie wasn't sexy in anyway.  It was just boring.  Just rent any random episode of Red Shoe Diaries and you can skip this movie.  The plot just seemed pointless to me and the ending was stupid. 

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Vacation 1983 Vs Vacation 2015

I was really excited when they announced a new Vacation movie. The original Vacation and Christmas Vacation are two of my favorite films.  I was glad to hear that it is wasn’t going to be a reboot –but instead a sequel featuring Rusty the son from the original movie taking his own family on an adventure.  The original Vacation movie is an absolute classic.  Christmas Vacation is a must see Holiday gem.  Even Vegas Vacation has grown on me as an entertaining watch.  (European Vacation NOT SO MUCH)
So I can’t help but look at the new one as a comparison to the original.


The new version of Vacation stars Ed Helms as Rusty Griswald and Christina Applegate as his wife . Both actors did a solid job and Chevy Chase was onboard in a small role. 

Vacation 2015   7 out of 10

The problem for me is that I do love the original so much.  The original from 1983 is basically on a comedy movie pedestal for me along with movies like the Holy Grail and Airplane as one of my favorite comedies ever.   So although I enjoyed the new movie there really weren’t any scenes that were truly memorable like in the original.   When the original comes on TV I find myself watching pretty much quoting every scene.  I can’t imagine doing that with this movie.  

 Vacation  1983   10 out of 10

The 1983 National Lampoon’s Vacation starring Chevy Chase and Beverly DeAngelo is the perfect family road trip gone wrong. Chevy was at his absolute best as Clark Griswald and it is one of those movies where I smile during every scene while watching it.   There are so many classic moments.  The visit to Cousin Eddie’s……The dog behind the car…….Aunt Edna dying and putting her on the roof.  The “This is a quest for Fun” speech.  And of course the iconic  Christie Brinkley in the pool scene (she still looks amazing today). 

All of these obstacles in the way of a father’s quest to give his family a Vacation they will remember.    Anyone who has had a wacky family vacation knows exactly what this film taps into.The original Vacation has inspired many movies over the years. The only movie that really came close in capturing  was We’re the Millers which I thought was a clever twist on the Vacation movies with a fake family pretending to be a Griswald type family.  

The current Vacation tried to be edgy and adult and just didn’t really capture the magic of the original. It had some fun scenes like the dip in Griswald Springs and the Chris Hemsworth scene.  I still found it an enjoyable film and I’m probably just being too hard on it when comparing it to the original . This movie just had  a lot to live up to.  It seemed like the best scenes in this new version were either already in the trailers.

Here are the Trailers

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Ex Machina 2015 9 out of 10

Ex Machina 2015  9 out of 10

Ex Machina is an interesting Sci-Fi movie that takes a look at the subject of Artificial Intelligence.  The movie basically features 3 characters and has the feel of a stage play.  It stars 2 of the actors currently in the new Star Wars movies  Oscar Issacs and Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander as the AI….   The cast is excellent especially Alicia whose movements and speech have a graceful elegance.

The plot:  A computer programmer working for a Bill Gates type owner wins a corporate contest to spend the week at his Alaskan hideaway.   Of course there is a catch.  He is actually brought up there to be a part of an experiment in testing the new AI robot the founder has created.  The movie follows his week of questioning and creating a bond with the AI while being questioned by the Bill Gates type character about it.

Artificial Intelligence is an interesting subject matter and a good sci fi that tackles it always makes me think about and want to watch other AI type movies.  Watching this film made me want to dive back into Blade Runner (especially in the scenes  where he is questioning the AI to see how human like she was.   I found this extremely intriguing.   It reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes and the books of Issac Asimov were running through my mind as I watched it.  Great Sci-Fi makes you want to watch other great sci-fi I thought of Spielberg’s  A.I. while watching it.  I thought about George Lucas’s classic  THX-1138.   AS soon as the movie was over I dug into the DVD extras (always a sign that you really enjoyed a movie)

Without giving anything away about what happens in the film –I’d definitely say it is a must watch for any fans of hard Sci-fi.  The characters feel like they are in a jail in a sense that the setting is claustrophobic while they are inside the house .  Just outside the house is a beautiful wilderness that includes a stream and a giant waterfall.  It is a great contrast to the room with it's glass walls where the interviews take place.   Definitely check this movie out.

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