Watched the Movie Today - Makes You Appreciate the Table More

[Richard B]

This is a pretty good film, faithful (at least in plot) to the novel, and spending a good deal of time on the romance angle. Also noticed how Dracula's Bride #1 was played by Monica Bellucci (the hot chick with the annoying French guy in Matrix 2 and 3) in one of her first roles, it introduced Sadie "The Woman That Jude Law Dumped After He Became Famous" Frost, who's character, Lucy, could have made a nice contribution to the table, and Renfield (the "you promised me eternal life" guy in the asylum) was played by country singer Tom Waits, and it's a shame the asylum just gives you 5 million points and repeats the same phrase. Something progressive involving him would have been awesome, and fitting.

 

[Dedpop]

The movie is great.
(Tom Waits is not really a country singer)
posted by an annoying french guy

 

[Eternal21]

Never heard of the movie before. It does have a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.5 on IMDB, so definitely not a stinker I was expecting it to be. May check it out while working towards the 300M Goal. Here's the trailer:

 

[shutyertrap]

Am I just old or am I justifiably shocked you guys haven't seen this movie before? I owned this on Laserdisc! Gleefully violent, Gary Oldman is just awesome, and full of over the top style they just don't allow in big budget movies today, especially if they're rated R. This is one of those movies where Keanu Reeves tries to act, so beware of that. I love the guy in action movies, but not so much dramatic roles. The success of this movie is what got Marie Shelly's Frankenstein made, which was also a big budget R rated movie. The 90's weren't afraid of that rating and what it meant for box office.

 

[switch3flip]

One of my faves growing up. Had it on a VHS I recorded from a movie channel and drew my own cover watched it lots of times.


I like watching movies that pins are based on and adds fun to playing the pin. I watched Congo not too long ago, placing the callouts and stuff from the pin made the movie fun and pin even more awesome. Also watched the Star Trek movies just to make another awesome pin even better. Liked the movies too. Even watched the old black and white Creature from the black lagoon, the pin has lots of stuff from the movie.

Don't miss 'Elvira - mistress of darkness' to get a deeper appreciation of spinning the spider

 

[Citizen]

The 90's weren't afraid of that rating and what it meant for box office.

The early 90s, anyway. By the late 90s the aversion to losing box office on the R had already kicked in.

Personally I think Showgirls had a trickle down effect that destroyed more than just the NC-17 rating.

But yeah, good movie. It's kinda hard to go wrong with Coppola, Hopkins and Oldman doing Stoker. Even in spite of Reeves and Ryder.

 

[Gorgias32]

I like this movie a lot too (although to be fair I have not seen it in probably 15 years). But I remember it being a lot of fun. Surprisingly, I thought it was the most accurate version of Dracula, it actually follows the book fairly closely, certainly in spirit. The novel is a true classic in the best way, it's easy to read and has a great plot.

Has anyone tried watching the movie "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein"? I find both the novel and this version to be insufferably boring. Much prefer the green guy with bolts in his neck. Or even better, Peter Boyle...

 

[Kolchak357]

Saw BSD in the theater when it came out. Enjoyed the movie, but thought Keanu and Winona were awful.

 

[shutyertrap]

Yep, saw it opening weekend. I rewatched it within the last 2 years and was surprised at how well it holds up. There's certain film techniques that are a bit odd to the eye today, and I'm not talking about visual effects. Thankfully this was before CGI had taken over, and we all know how well 90's CGI holds up (it doesn't). I mean about the super imposed images, the scene wipes, certain camera moves. I dig it though. It's also incredibly wonderful to see a true vampire story before that word got taken over by the Twilight crowd. As for Ms. Ryder, you either like her or you don't, same as any other movie she's in. I happen to like her. Keanu is just hilarious to watch in this though.

Now you all got me thinking back to other vampire movies. The same year The Lost Boys came out (how has that one age? Anyone? Scared to destroy my memory!) there was another movie by a young director named Katherine Bigelow (what ever became of her? Hmmmm....) called Near Dark. They never say the word vampire, because they wanted to play by their own mythology rules, yet it wound up writing the rules that Joss Whedon would use for Buffy. It also stars James Cameron's usual band of actors with Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton. If you've never seen, seek it out.

As for Frankenstein, I saw it in the theater and that's it. It has left no lasting impression on me other than that I didn't like the look of the monster at all. He looked like a nuclear waste mutant, moved way too fast, and kinda makes me think of the Brundlefly. Which there's another, have you guys watched The Fly recently? Holy cow do those makeup effects still look amazing!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Yep, saw it opening weekend. I rewatched it within the last 2 years and was surprised at how well it holds up. There's certain film techniques that are a bit odd to the eye today, and I'm not talking about visual effects. Thankfully this was before CGI had taken over, and we all know how well 90's CGI holds up (it doesn't).

I've been re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I didn't think it would hold up all the well, but it's odd, some of it does - the model work (starships etc) really does hold up nicely, I presume because it's "real" and those are some seriously complex models with proper interior lighting and so on. The starship sets also still work. And the gradual downshift of Deanna Troi's neckline.... The guy-in-a-rubber-suit aliens and fake rocks / jungles on planets - eh not so much. And one episode in Season 1 had glaringly awful stop-motion animation (plus some really gory effects that I'm pretty sure were entirely censored from our 6pm timeslot by the BBC in its original run). What is most jarring is the 4:3 aspect ratio. Was all TV really once like this?!

 

[shutyertrap]

What is most jarring is the 4:3 aspect ratio. Was all TV really once like this?!

I was watching Predator the other night and had a hard time accepting it was shot 1.85 cuz epic movies are all 2.35 widescreen, right? But yeah, 4:3 is odd to watch now. I was just working on a Disney kids show 2 seasons ago and while we were shooting 16x9, we had to protect for 4:3. What that means is if we had a group shot of actors, we had to cram them all into the middle of the frame and not have any on the edges as they'd get cut off in 4:3. We asked who is even watching on a 4:3 TV anymore as they haven't been for sale in about a decade? Well part of the answer is people in foreign countries, but even here in the states the East coast feed of Disney channel is 16x9 but the West coast feed is 4:3! Insane. On top of that, you realize quickly that how they shot 4:3 TV back in the day, the choice of lenses, is different from how we do now. In order to fit all that visual information into a square image, how actors and action was framed was different. There were no group shots that framed from the chest up, they shot from the waste up. If you look at ST:TNG you'll see a lot of full body shots when they are on the bridge with everybody, but if you watch something like The Orville (which is about as close to a Trek show as there is today, ignoring Discovery) you'll see the same sort of shot but people are framed from the hips up. That's because they have that extra physical space of the frame to spread people out, meaning they can shoot closer, tighter shots while still getting all the info in.

I know, I'm going deep dive into what I do for a living, but it is fascinating as I never worked on a 4:3 show and needed an old timer camera operator to explain to me how they did it.

 

[Citizen]

Now you all got me thinking back to other vampire movies.

syt always wanted an interview with a vampire.

The same year The Lost Boys came out (how has that one age? Anyone? Scared to destroy my memory!) there was another movie by a young director named Katherine Bigelow (what ever became of her? Hmmmm....) called Near Dark. They never say the word vampire, because they wanted to play by their own mythology rules, yet it wound up writing the rules that Joss Whedon would use for Buffy. It also stars James Cameron's usual band of actors with Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton. If you've never seen, seek it out.

Have you seen Shadow of the Vampire?

 

[shutyertrap]

Interview with a vampire was, uh, odd. Too Victorian for my taste. Shadow of the Vampire, that's that Nic Cage flick, right? No I never saw it.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I've not seen The Lost Boys since the early 90s (my sister was a big Cor(e)y fanatic, and that had all the Cor(e)ys, IIRC, plus Kiefer), but I do have the soundtrack which is awesome. Interview With The Vampire is one I'm scared to see again, because I kinda liked it back when it came out even though now I'm aware that I really shouldn't have liked it all that much?

 

[Citizen]

Shadow of the Vampire, that's that Nic Cage flick, right?

Yes. Thankfully only as producer. It stars Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich.

It's an alternate history of the filming of F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu.

 

[Heretic]

I grew up on old hammer horror stuff, ive always found their vampires etc much creepier than newer stuff, rickety 1 room apartmennt low fire chill on the windows, half eatening eggs and toast on s table. A heroine with imma ulatepy over done make up and hair in a fever dream....then some creepy lanky bastard whips a capeof his head and gives you the wezeal tooth!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I grew up on old hammer horror stuff, ive always found their vampires etc much creepier than newer stuff, rickety 1 room apartmennt low fire chill on the windows, half eatening eggs and toast on s table. A heroine with imma ulatepy over done make up and hair in a fever dream....then some creepy lanky bastard whips a capeof his head and gives you the wezeal tooth!

Okay so that's your normal daily routine, but what about those old vampire movies?

 

[Citizen]

I grew up on old hammer horror stuff

I had you pegged as a Troma man.

 

[Kolchak357]

My favorite version is Nosferatu The Vampyre from 1979. Saw this when I was 12 or so. Scared the crap out of me.

For a more modern twist, Let The Right One In 2008 is really an excellent film.

 

[Gorgias32]

+1 for the Lost Boys soundtrack - it's pretty much the perfect 80s movie soundtrack - INXS, Roger Daltrey, Echo & the Bunnymen covering "People are Strange". Heavy on the DX-7, whammy-bar guitars, and blistering sax solos. So so good.

I'm also afraid to watch the movie again, I can see it not having aged well and I don't want to ruin my memories...