Let me get this straight-- Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey strut around barechested and act gay.
Everyone’s wives want to go see this flick because they’re “big B-movie fans”. It has nothing to do with aforementioned barechested heartthrobs acting gay in a macho way.
No mention of any women being in the movie.
And dragons have taken over the world, but Apache helicopters and F-16 with radar guided missiles are useless againts their fire breath. (Do they have BVR fire breath?)
Prediction: Elves save everyone at the last minute. Everyone lives happily ever after in gay elf-land (aka post apocalyptic London).
Despite my best efforts to persuade my friends to see an open-air showing of ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’ at the local art museum, it looks like I’m going to be roped into seeing this (probably terrible) movie this evening.
At least we’re going to the bar first-maybe having just enough firewater in me will make it bearable. Emphasis on the maybe.
N.B.-I’m a big fan of cheesy science fiction and fantasy movies as well, but only when that science fiction and fantasy don’t carry the pretension that they’re anything more than cheesy science-fiction and fantasy. Much like people, movies that take themselves more seriously than they really are truly are unbearable to watch.
Let me get this straight-- Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey strut around barechested and act gay.
Everyone’s wives want to go see this flick because they’re “big B-movie fans”. It has nothing to do with aforementioned barechested heartthrobs acting gay in a macho way.
Dean, I think you nailed it. My wife did admit that the only reason she wanted to see “Red Planet” (and forced me to suffer through it) was Val Kilmer.
Yup! And there’s that “Eight Legged Freaks” giant-spider movie coming, too. It’s a big year for big monsters.
As for Reign of Fire, ech. Setting your film in a post-apocalyptic world may save you money on sets and extras, but the joy of monster movies is knocking down stuff. Good stuff. Knocking down abandoned ruins in a city where only a few dozen people still live? Add in Matthew McConaughey and it’s a recipe for a delicious Sparky Ain’t Seein’ That No Way No How Casserole, with a crisp and flaky Ritz Cracker crust. Serves six.
Caught a 4 PM matinee showing today of Reign of Fire. Interesting premise, BIIIIIIG dragons, some semi-eerie little touches in the movie - a Time magazine cover showing a blasted city with the headline, “The End?” sparks memories of 9/11, as well as flashes of newspaper clippings lamenting how the dragons overwhelmed the firepower of humanity.
SOME HINTED SPOILERS FOLLOW**********
A lot of logic holes, but if you can ignore those, a fun action flick. The dragons are pretty menacing, although there aren’t enough of them shown, and the movie has some nice touches in its portrayal of post-dragon-apocalyptic life. Isabella Scorupco seems slightly too “fresh” for the gritty movie world, but acceptable eye-candy. A bit disappointing in the “expendable-ness” of the supporting cast, though.
>a Time magazine cover showing a blasted city with the headline, “The End?” sparks memories of 9/11, as well as flashes of newspaper clippings lamenting how the dragons overwhelmed the firepower of humanity
That Time magazine cover was easily the best thing about the movie.
Yep, it’s a terrible movie, but features some good CG dragons (and some bad CG effects as well), and the first mathew M. performance I’ve ever liked, because it’s so over the top crazy. That axe scene (also in the trailer) is laugh-out-loud funny, mainly in a good way. Because there should be more movies with big monsters eating things, everyone should see it.
Way more entertaining than Minority Report, blech.
I really enjoyed it. Matthew McConaughey’s character is cool. In fact, all the characters are cool. McConaughey’s performance is great. As noted above, there’s a few holes in the plot, but they’re not enough to take away the fun. It was $7.50 well spent.
The final “blast” was very well executed. In fact, the CG overall is some of the best I’ve seen IMO. My wife noted on the way out that it’s one of the few movies she’s seen where you really can’t tell. There’s some good cinematography too. Lots of great closeups of the actors. Once again, that’s a big strength for McConaughey who is barely recognizable with the shaved head and goatee. Most of the time, the film is deadly serious but there’s a couple great nods to the over the top nature of it all.
This is one movie I’d say will look much better on the big screen than on DVD. If you wait, it’s going to lose a lot of the excitement because huge dragons are better than letterboxed dragons.
>In fact, the CG overall is some of the best I’ve seen IMO
I agree - I was surprised at how amazing some of the CG looked – the dragons looked “gritty”, had weight, fit in with their environment, etc. There’s some less polished scenes, but the better stuff is at least as good as anything in the Jurassic Park series.
Just saw it about an hour ago. For a B-movie, I’d give it a hearty 4/5 stars.
I didn’t really understand the whole “they eat ash” ecosystem there, but whatever works, eh?
Also, I see plenty of potential for a sequel if they’d want to do one… considering that the female dragons probably don’t just give birth to other females exclusively. I’d think that they also birth males, but Mr. Daddy Dragon makes sure to eat them when they hatch out. Of course, he couldn’t scour the whole globe looking, so I’d be certain a male survived somewhere.
I was also stunned - happily - that they didn’t end the movie with our hero patting the very pregnant belly of his new wife or whatever. I was so expecting that scene and was happy when it wasn’t delivered.
I thought they also could literally “eat ash”. It would explain their penchant for toasting things to ashy smudges so quickly, rather than taking the time to eat the whole bodies.
A little late on posting my opinions on the flick, hehe.
I really enjoyed the film. Caught the 5:20 showing with my wife, so we managed to only spend $18 including tickets and refreshments. Well worth the price.
It was classic B-movie goodness combined with amazing CG. There was a surprising amount of effort put into making you sympathize with the main characters, especially considering hte B-movie roots.
There were many holes, of course, like how did the Americans flying a single 2 engine plane manage to bring over a whole column of armor? But if you don’t ask those kidns of questions, it’s a really fun movie and easy to get into.
*** Spoilers ***
As to the comment earlier about “So F-16s with guided missiles can’t stop them”, the reason is because there were literally millions of them. As they say in the prolgue, you kill 1 and 30 took their place. As long as they have food, they churn out eggs, which is why Christian Bale’s character has the bright idea to dig in and let them die off and go back into hibernation now that they had exhausted their food source.
What I really wanted to see is a successful Archangel attack on a dragon. We saw a failed attempt at it, but no clue as to what a proper one is like.
What I really wanted to see is a successful Archangel attack on a dragon. We saw a failed attempt at it, but no clue as to what a proper one is like.
During this scene I was actually expecting them to be successful just to fail at a critical point later on, which is typically how it’s done in movies these days.
I really enjoyed the CG but thought the movie didn’t take full advantage of it’s premise. I would have preferred it if they would have shown the battle between our civilization and the dragons and how that played out instead of what they focused on.
I would have preferred it if they would have shown the battle between our civilization and the dragons and how that played out instead of what they focused on.
If they had tried to do that, we probably never would have seen this movie. That would have put the budget in the stratosphere. I’m glad it got made and I really enjoyed it. I can’t say it’s “forgotten” since I went on Friday. The note about the Archangels failing was just one plot point I thought was handled well. Everytime I thought I had it figured out as to how they’d confront the big baddie, they threw in a twist.
As I said in my first post… the final big bang was really well done too. That was the icing on a pretty tasty cake.
I’m a sucker for survival movies though. I love films that pit man against beast with man on the verge of extinction. BTW…I’m surprised no one mentioned the Star Wars scene… that was pretty clever.
