Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[Alex]

Yeah, quality CGI has taken the wonder out of action movies. The new Mission Impossible is a sign of this. Tom Cruise's stunts on that building in Dubai would have generated a ton of buzz 20 years ago but even though he really was hanging off the side of that building I think most watchers just assume green screen.

[Moonliner]

Let's talk about Star Wars: Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back.

Specifically, Luke and the Cave. Leave your weapons here you will not need them.....

That scene always seemed weird and out of place to me. It had no real connection with anything else. Why was that place strong with the dark side? How common are such places? Is that the entire reason Yoda is on Dagobah? What was Luke facing? What does his failure mean? and more to the point why did Lucus even put that scene in the movie? I expected to have some light shed in movies 1,2,3 but it never happened.

Then last night, Headliner explained to me why it HAD to be in the movie. simple and concise. I was schooled in Star Wars by my little girl. I was both humbled and proud at the same time.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Alex

Yeah, quality CGI has taken the wonder out of action movies. The new Mission Impossible is a sign of this. Tom Cruise's stunts on that building in Dubai would have generated a ton of buzz 20 years ago but even though he really was hanging off the side of that building I think most watchers just assume green screen.

The sad thing is, and I may be wrong - but I've been led to believe a lot of that was NOT green screen and was really Tom Cruise himself, and not a stuntman, hanging off the side of a building (though not 103 stories in the air). Too bad no stunt work or action sequence is going to cut it as "authentic" anymore. (I believe the Bond series still insists on real stunt work, tho).

That all said, I loved Mission Impossible 4. It was great fun, and very much like a good Bond film. I haven't seen any of the other MI sequels, but went to this one because it was directed by Brad Bird. Did not disappoint. It was, imo, better than the original. I think I'll rent the 3rd one. I hear that's pretty good, but have been advised to skip MI2.


Carnage was good, but basically just an actor's studio type piece with no real point that I could discern and it storta just ends abruptly at a seemingly random point. Still, the actors were uniformly great, and the bickering conflict among the four of them pure fun and enjoyment.


The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo seeming a little too bland to me. Perhaps I'm too familiar with the material, having read the book and seen the previous movie - which this remake is a tad too similar to. Mara Rooney is spell-binding at Lizbeth, though. She's great and you can't take your eyes off her. Still ... I think Noomi Rapace in the original was even more captivating. Daniel Craig's a big improvement though (not too difficult, and his character's still rather dull). I expected something a little more stylish from David Fincher, I guess. And I was disappointed that where the book just starts to get creepy, this movie just cuts to the finale stuff ... after spending a long time getting to that point. Oh well. If you haven't seen the other movie, this one will be suitably entertaining.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

The sad thing is, and I may be wrong - but I've been led to believe a lot of that was NOT green screen and was really Tom Cruise himself,

I didn't write that as clearly as I should ahve. Yes, it really was Tom Cruise hanging off the building (and really high up there). I saw YouTube video at the time from people who got to watch from one of the observation decks (they didn't close the building). Obviously a lot of CGI was used to remove all the safety equipment but Cruise really did hang out there, swing around and run around on the side of the building.