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I respect classic movies, but if a movie takes something from a classic and refines or does it better I'll give more praise to that one. Just because a movie did something first doesn't mean its better than anything now. Also I don't hate all classics, its just that some aren't as great as people say imo.

Regarding Aliens - I think it deserves the praise it receives because it logically incorporated the more action-y stuff that makes up the film.

With Alien, everything was a surprise. The crew of the Nostromo didn't know what was on the planet, they didn't know how the Aliens acted, etc. They spent the whole movie reacting, never able to take the initiative because the Alien was so unstoppable.

With Aliens, you have at least a slim knowledge base to start from. You know you're going to a planet with dangerous Aliens, you know that something has happened because the comms have stopped, and you have someone with firsthand knowledge of what dealing with the Aliens is like. It makes perfect sense to send space marines and thus, their presence and actions in the movie, works great (for me).

I like Aliens a lot too.

Alien is one of my favorite horror movies (admittedly not one of my favorite genres) and Aliens is one of my favorite action movies. I have no problems calling it action-horror as there are still scary scenes in it IMO--like the Aliens crawling through the ceiling etc.

Just got back from The Hobbit. It was a lot better than I expected. Love LotR but I was hesitant about them making this into 3 movies. Only went because my sister needed someone to watch the kids. Martin Freeman is very charming as Bilbo. I am now excited for the rest. Peter Jackson is really a directing genius.

Judge Dredd was...interesting. Not a bad movie at all and wasn't an authoritarian love story, which was nice. It was nice to see a more diverse cast in the movie.

Total Recall was ok too. Lot's of callbacks to the original. Three boob lady really felt out of place though. Found it kinda odd that most of the people in the background were Asian, but gotta give the film credit for having a diverse cast like Dredd too.

Total Recall. It was ok. Had some issues with audio drop outs and getting out of sync. Seems too be a widespread issue with the Bluray as several reviews and forum posts mention it. Just a word of caution to any thinking of buying rather than renting. Had issues on both my Sony BDPS590 and my PS3.

Django Unchained - Really good. I loved the over the top violence. It's pretty amazing that Tarantino always gets the best performances out of the actors he puts in his movies.

Originally Posted by moon_knight Also I don't agree with the for its time argument, we shouldn't give a movie more praise based on when it came out.

I really don't agree with this because when you look at a movie like "The Wizard of OZ" and consider it came out in 1939. That's pretty amazing. I think some movies deserve that extra amount of awe.

^Its okay to when talking about the movie itself, but when comparing movies or talking about them as a whole, they shouldn't be sealed off in a little bubble of how they were at the time. I respect a movie like The Exorcist, but I wouldn't put it in my top horror movies, because it wasn't scary to me no matter how scared people were back 1973.

Originally Posted by dohdough It pretty much created the "space marine" genre...literally...as in they were literally space marines.

Wait, what? Isn't that more Heinlein territory?

Originally Posted by moon_knight ^Its okay to when talking about the movie itself, but when comparing movies or talking about them as a whole, they shouldn't be sealed off in a little bubble of how they were at the time. I respect a movie like The Exorcist, but I wouldn't put it in my top horror movies, because it wasn't scary to me no matter how scared people were back 1973.

You're way oversimplifying it.

There is a difference between a movie that hasn't aged well (like Tron) and a classic - like the aforementioned Wizard of OZ.

There are all sorts of reasons why WOZ is a classic - for example the reason the movie went from black-and-white to color in the beginning is because in 1939 black-and-white was still commonplace, so the audience was tricked into thinking the movie would be in black-and-white. When the audience was then blasted with color during the dream sequence it really packed a punch.

If you don't know that you are missing a part of the movie, you are not understanding the full impact and emotion of that scene where Dorothy opens the door. It was basically the Matrix bullet time camera shots or Avatar 3D effects of it's time.

And if you don't appreciate WOZ then you will miss all sorts of references in later movies, references to ruby slippers, flying monkeys, and the iconic melting scene will go right over your head.

IMO it really is somewhat boorish to ignore the timeperiod in which a movie is made, you go right into the same category as mouth-breathing Michael Bay fanboys.

Originally Posted by The Crotch Wait, what? Isn't that more Heinlein territory?

Maybe as far as books are concerned, but Starship Troopers came out years after Aliens.

I'm not ignoring timeperiods, I'm just not using them to dictate how I feel about a movie.

Originally Posted by The Crotch Wait, what? Isn't that more Heinlein territory?

Maybe "popularized it" is a better way of putting it...kinda like the iphone!

Saw Demolition Man today, since it was on during a Three Stooges Marathon. Saw the parts I forgot about since childhood. Needed more Denis Leary. Holy crap this movie is 20 years old this year.

They kept in the "Jeffrey Dahmer" line. I heard they took it out when they showed on TV years ago.

Looper - Saw it in theaters, just watched it on blu ray. It's pretty cool to watch it a second time to catch little things that show similarities between Joe and the kid that you wouldn't have noticed until seeing it for a first time.

I've had basically a movie marathon going since last night (minus sleep last night...). In order starting last night:

Casablanca
Sphere (turned it off about 1/2 way through, how did I ever like this movie when I was a teenager?!?!)
There Will Be Blood
The Prestige
Aliens
Terminator 2

Not sure where I want to go after Terminator 2 is over. Perhaps I'll dabble into Star Wars tomorrow? I dunno, but aside from that dreadful Sphere mistake, these are all some of my favorite movies. I think I might try to round out my top 10 over the next couple days of my vacation.

1. Casablanca
2. Aliens
3-10 (in no particular order)
Godfather Pt. 2
Office space
Lion King
Inception
Dark Knight
Sunshine
The Departed
Heat

Prometheus- I didn't hate it but I thought there lacked something. Not to say that it needed to have tons of horror/action because it didn't, but then again I felt like while it basically set up the alien movies, it felt to me that's all it did. I felt like I wasn't watching it for a movie but more so to get the story behind Alien or defiantly in the first hour it felt like.

Since RvB posted a top 10, I'm going to list 10 of some of the worst movies I've ever seen.

In no particular order:
Mortal Kombat 2
GI Joe
Fantastic Four
FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Attack of the Clones
Wolverine
X-Men: Last Stand
Brink!
Star Trek: Generations
Conan: The Destroyer

Some of my top movie orchestral scores in no particular order:
Dune
Dark City
Conan: The Barbarian
Batman Begins
Robocop
Superman: The Movie
Tron: Legacy
Star Trek(2009)
Back to the Future
Versus
Jubei Ninpucho
3:10 to Yuma(2007)

Originally Posted by dohdough Since RvB posted a top 10, I'm going to list 10 of some of the worst movies I've ever seen. In no particular order: Mortal Kombat 2 GI Joe Fantastic Four FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer Attack of the Clones Wolverine X-Men: Last Stand Brink! Star Trek: Generations Conan: The Destroyer

Hey some of those movies are in my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

Originally Posted by RedvsBlue 1. Casablanca 2. Aliens 3-10 (in no particular order) Godfather Pt. 2 Office space Lion King Inception Dark Knight Sunshine The Departed Heat

Don't usually see some of those in top 10 lists.