Movies in General

Sorry for the length.

My son and I, went and saw Lone Survivor yesterday. It is the true story about a small US Navy SEAL team of four members who were performing recon for a operation in Afghanistan. They were compromised, ambushed by a much larger Taliban force, and only one survived. In trying to come to their aid, a Chinook CH-47 special operations helicopter was shot down resulting in the loss of all aboard.

This movie is riveting. It is graphic and there is language, which is why it got the "R" rating. However, it is not gratuitous and is accurate in terms of what actually happened, which is why I went to see it.

IMHO, every American adult should see this movie and see first hand what American soldiers are going through and suffering to fight enemies who would like nothing more than to enslave or kill us and our allies.

There are some dramatic inaccuracies. The entire final battle at the village never occurred...however, for the vast majority of the story is accurate in its essentials, and it is about the men involved in the mission and attempted rescue.

Bravo Zulu all four of you SEALS; Lieutenant Michael Murphy, Petty Officer Danny Dietz, Petty Officer Matthew Axelson, and Corpsman Second Class Marcus Luttrell, who was the lone survivor. The same to the brave 16 SEALS and Marines who lost their lives coming to their aid. God rest those departed souls and continue to comfort their families and loved ones. God bless you Marcus Lutrell for being true to your brothers and getting their story out as an eyewitness to the events.

Lone Survivor was brutal, the audience was grunting and wincing with pain. One left the theatre limping.
I also saw monument men, much more kid friendly although it had some blood, I highly recommend both.

Robocop tried to browbeat, over played the political, and tried to lecture. It had action, had drama but it should be a Robocop movie not a hour of MSNBC. At times it seemed like the makers were having to much fun

Equation said:

Ok he looked much better than the previous one.

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I believe he has a better agent now.

Jeff Head said:

I took my grandsons to see "Frozen," on December 28th here in Emmett, Idaho. What a GREAT movie. Even though it opened over a month ago, it was sold out here.

Wholesome, fun, and a great story line. Shows that a decent movie can be made and that people will come and see it. I then took Gail for our family night last night and we both enjoyed it a lot...me for the 2nd time, and sold out again!

I encourage everyone who has kids, or grandkids, or wants a fun date with the "better half," to go and see this movie.

[video=youtube;TbQm5doF_Uc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbQm5doF_Uc[/video]
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I took my boys to see it (six and four) and they loved it. I loved it to.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Lone Survivor was brutal, the audience was grunting and wincing with pain. One left the theatre limping.
I also saw monument men, much more kid friendly although it had some blood, I highly recommend both.

Robocop tried to browbeat, over played the political, and tried to lecture. It had action, had drama but it should be a Robocop movie not a hour of MSNBC. At times it seemed like the makers were having to much fun

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We really liked Lone Survivor. I intend to see Monument Men this weekend.

I have had several friends who were disgusted by Robocop for the same reasons as you cite...so I will not go and see it.

Looking forward to the Winter Soldier and Noah.

Jeff Head said:

We really liked Lone Survivor. I intend to see Monument Men this weekend.

I have had several friends who were disgusted by Robocop for the same reasons as you cite...so I will not go and see it.

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Yeah That night in fact I had a late dinner at the Arizona Pizza next to the Cinimark, A nice couple came in complaining the same about Robocop.
They had the production value, they had some ideas but they kept playing the political. even to the point of insult. I mean there was a large portion of the Movie set in China, So what do you see? A massive factory in a single sequence, a huge Rice paddy, ED209's and a lab. 90% of the time in "China" is spent in the lab. that's it. the people are either peasants picking rice or Technicians assembling Military machines. The impression you get is Omni Corp (representing America) has dominated the world and everyone has grudgingly accepted the only nation with a choice on using the product? The USA. No Drones on US soil. Even China and Iran are using or under the thumb of the US military and ED209's talons.
The Worst though was Samuel L Jackson. Normally I enjoy him in a movie. In this one though He was Annoying, Doing a Bill O'Reilly Parody. He has nothing to do with the movie yet you sit though Half an hour of him.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Storyline excepting, what did you think of the way they presented the Robocop character?

The First Robocop movies played Murphy as a Tragic character, a lonely sole with only his sense of Duty and Mechanisms keeping him alive. desperately clinging to some sense of humanity. A humanity that OCP wanted stripped from him. RoboCop being the branding of OCP.

In this Reboot. Murphy is not stripped of his identity, At least not intentionally. He is not totally severed from his Identity, has contact with his wife and son. The moniker Robocop is a press Headline.the Character is treated more like a individual with a prosthetic. in some ways an analog would be a returning soldier. the Character is a "detective" although in his metal skin he's not going to be doing much in the way of low profile. He's got more of a Attitude then The original Robocop.

I think the recent trend in neutering R-rated classics from the early 90s and late 80s (Robocop, Total Recall, etc.) stems from a need of film studios to capitalize on the greatest marketshare ever. By lowering the ratings to PG-13, the film studios essentially make them accessible to market segments of 10-13 year olds, making it possible for whole families to watch the film on lucidous Friday evenings and weekends. Even if the critics pan those films, they still expect to make back their production costs, and maybe then some with international release to gullible foreign markets eager to gob up insipid films with flashy special effects.

American action movies have always done well abroad, It's not about gullibility it's about translation. Go any where and Violence is universal, Love stories are hard to cross cultures. the Ideas of Romance or Comedy in American culture don't always translate even across nations with the same language. Recently I was listening to BBC Documentry on a Cultural event.
Someone hash tagged Victorian Facebook, The replies were pretty funny but one of them was something like "Raunchy Brass Heels in your area wish to flash you their Ankles!" The humor being the view that Victorians were uptight about sex.
The history however is that this stiff collar view was infact how the English Victorians Viewed American Victorians.
American Views on Romance tend to be more conservative then European but a lot more liberal then say Islamic. A childrens movie that would work in the US would not work in Asia.
and Vis Versa, A coming of Age movie that would sell well in the US would be burned in Iran. a Bollywood movie that plays well in india would bomb in the US. A Japanese Movie that does well in Japan would be X rated in the US. A chinese movie that breaks records in China would be protested in the US.
but action and Scifi translates better. Everyone can understand a western, In Fact Some were translated into Japanese Samurai movies. Everyone can get a Tragedy.

Part of the PG13 movie spread is the fact that we have gotten used to the violence and the Gore. movies like Hostel and Saw got us used to Gore. Once upon a time The movie Scareface nearly got a NC17 because of the Chainsaw sceen, but in the whole sequence you never see the Chainsaw touch flesh. all you see it the guy, the chainsaw the sound of the saw and a splash of blood. no contact of saw and flesh.
Psycho one of the creepiest of the classics and one with a remake about to be released. watch the movie. You see the knife you see the blood go down the drain and see the curtin rip.
Compare that to Robocop (2014) where you see Brain surgery!!