What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Nareed

Aside from the plot hole I pointed out, it misses the opportunity to discuss a fascinating ethical problem. Granted, finding out someone will commit murder is rare, there are many criminal cases of people caught conspiring to commit some other types of crime. Then, too, there's the whole matter of pre-emptive war against an enemy state.

In the movie we see one man stopped from murdering someone. he's tried and convicted before he even knows he's going to kill anyone. I had major, major issues with that. But the movie was focused on a plot hole...

But did Tom Cruise's character actually do the crime because he was told he was going to do the crime? I don't think so. Please give this film another look.

I don't know if the plot hole was that big. The fact that folks were being tried and convicted prior to the crime actually occuring was the whole point of the movie, so I suppose viewers having a problem with it is a good thing from the writer's point of view.

Quote: Ayecarumba

But did Tom Cruise's character actually do the crime because he was told he was going to do the crime? I don't think so. Please give this film another look.

Hell, yes.

He gets the notice from the McGuffins floating in the tubs (another sore point left unaddressed), and that sets him on a path to find out who this guy is he's supposed to kill. Absent the "precognition," there would have been no point to the movie. Tom Cruise would have kept working at his job like usual.

Quote:

I don't know if the plot hole was that big.

It was bigger than the diameter of the Solar System.

Quote:

The fact that folks were being tried and convicted prior to the crime actually occuring was the whole point of the movie, so I suppose viewers having a problem with it is a good thing from the writer's point of view.

Yes and yes. But the movie completely ignores this tiny, little detail.

Now, granted ethical issues are not exactly easy to deal with in an action movie, then why make it an action movie? ;)

More seriously, there are all these grand ideas in SF wasted on movies like Minority Report (action), Species (terror), Prometheus (more terror), Artificial Intelligence (maudlin sentimentality and retelling a bad story; what if the movie had focused on Monica after she abandons her son?)

Quote: Nareed

More seriously, there are all these grand ideas in SF wasted on movies like Minority Report (action), Species (terror), Prometheus (more terror), Artificial Intelligence (maudlin sentimentality and retelling a bad story; what if the movie had focused on Monica after she abandons her son?)

The problem with SF movies is that the grand ideas appeal to thinking people, but the big profits are made from movies that focus on mindless entertainment. The less plot, the better, because then it is easy to sell the movie worldwide.

Thinking movies can work with a small budget since they don't need to get a huge audience to break even. Unfortunately, science fiction usually comes with an expectation that we will see wonders of the future, which means a big budget. To help pay back the big budget the producers feel the need to dumb down the product.

One SF movie of the last few years that I found to be fairly effective was "Moon." Not a real deep thinking one but not just mindless entertainment either.

Quote: jml24

Thinking movies can work with a small budget since they don't need to get a huge audience to break even. Unfortunately, science fiction usually comes with an expectation that we will see wonders of the future, which means a big budget.

Babylon 5 managed with a modest budget by extensive use of CGI. granted that was on TV, and granted the effects look dated now, but it can be done.

Speaking of which, that's why I prefer TV for science fiction over the movies. With so many episodes per season, there are bound to be some very good ones. This includes "thinking" episodes which can hash out ethical problems. Even Star Trek did this. Actually trek did it pretty well. I forget the title of the ep where Data undergoes a legal hearing to determine whether he's sentient. Great episode.

Quote: Nareed

Hell, yes.

He gets the notice from the McGuffins floating in the tubs (another sore point left unaddressed), and that sets him on a path to find out who this guy is he's supposed to kill. Absent the "precognition," there would have been no point to the movie. Tom Cruise would have kept working at his job like usual.

My response

Domestic - Worldwide (if different)
*Minority Report [2002] $132.1m - $358.4m ($102 million production budget
*Dark City [1998] $14.4m - $27.2m
*Miller's Crossing [1990] $5.1m
*Gattaca [1997] $12.5m
*Strange Days [1995] $7.96m ($42 million production budget)

I think partly you have to judge a movie by what it was trying to do. Minority Report was a big budget action movie. Like a lot of Tom Cruise movies the plot is incoherent and is secondary to the action.

Strange Days was a little bit of a stretch. James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow (who were together then) could afford to take some wild chances with a movie. It suffered from being difficult to follow, and was essentially a failure. But I think it deserves kudos for taking chances.

The other three were all excellent small budget films. Very clear in their objectives and very emotionally moving.

Quote: Ayecarumba

My response

I did notice that.

But the point remains without the advance notice that he would kill someone, Tom Cruise would have spent the rest of the movie waiting to prevent another murder.

Sold for scrap at 1 penny.

The Ranger was in movies and television shows, including "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Flight of the Intruder" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" where it stood in for the USS Enterprise carrier. The Ranger’s most famous role was in the 1980’s Tom Cruise "Top Gun"

Quote: rxwine

Sold for scrap at 1 penny.

The Ranger was in movies and television shows, including "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Flight of the Intruder" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" where it stood in for the USS Enterprise carrier. The Ranger’s most famous role was in the 1980’s Tom Cruise "Top Gun"

There was a movie some time ago about an aircraft carrier that goes through a time warp and has a chance to stop the attack on Pearl Harbor... I can't recall the name of the film, but was the Ranger in that 80's movie too?

Here
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/

Not sure if the same ship. Not much of a ship expert.