quote: Buck Wilson

---

Sam, I looked up that theater and it sounds really really neat! Do you have any idea when it is closing?

---

quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens

---

Again, Cineplex ran a Dolby Atmos trailer right before the movie (I am starting to suspect that Dolby Corporate is instructing theatres to run the ad regardless of the feature) or perhaps I saw the movie in Dolby Atmos?

---

quote: Sam Graham

---

PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Washed out picture, unbelievably selfish bitch two seats over who Facebooked on her phone through the entire freaking movie

---

I wouldn't have been shy - I would have told her off... wow, why bother paying for a ticket and then NOT watch the movie. Folk like that I want to hit over the head with a folding chair.
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-15-2014, 04:24 PM:
 
Thing is, you can get shot that way.

I wish somebody could invent a rogue app called "Theater Smackdown." The app, which would have a nearly all-black screen, would enable you to point your phone at the offending phone, zero in on its signal, and automatically send that phone a message via whatever method available saying "You are bugging people around you with your phone, you idiot. Turn it off." And then if the phone wasn't shut off, the app would make it vibrate continuously until its battery was dead.

Come on, software designers. If it's possible for teenagers to hack into encrypted databases and steal identities, something like this ought to be a piece of cake.

And of course an app like this should be able to run in the background while your own phone was shut off.
 

---

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-15-2014, 04:56 PM:
 
Who needs an app? Just walk in and tell the offender to shut his phone off.

I really don't see what's so difficult here. I did just that earlier this afternoon when a guy whipped his phone out to start texting as soon as the feature started. Told him to turn his phone off or go to the lobby. He turned it off. Problem solved.

On the subject of the Lego movie, I don't understand what all of you folks (and the audiences here) see in it. The animation is (deliberately) jerky, the story is nothing special, and Everything Is Awesome is right up there with the tunes that drive me nuts.

Good crowds, though, so it's well worth it from that point of view.
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-15-2014, 07:36 PM:
 
Well you can't always see a phone from the usual "walk around" spots. It's not really a HUGE problem here but it can happen....I've had times where I've wandered around quite often, never catching any phones, and then have somebody tell me afterward that somebody was texting during the movie.

Back to the movie...I am usually pretty good at calling a hit but I didn't think this one had the goods, mainly due to the kind of animation is. I didn't think the kidz would buy it. But they are...and the reviews are good on top of it. Wishing we had played it on the break now.
 

---

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 03-07-2014, 04:42 PM:
 
^ you could animate two tongue depressors and kids wouldn't care - a long as it's a good story and is kinetic as this was - you're good to go.

sequel is already in the works.
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-07-2014, 06:33 PM:
 
We saw this last night, finally. It was amazing to watch, with the attention to detail and considering all the animation compromises they must have had to make considering they were dealing with non-shape-changing plastic blocks.

The action was a little too frantic for my tastes but it was an enjoyable movie. I can sure see why they kids are bananas over it.

My rating: 3 out of 5.
 

---

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 03-19-2014, 05:21 AM:
 
It took some convincing before the local theater decided to play the original, non-dubbed version too: Guess what, the room filled up with kids of all ages!

Nobody wanted to pull their old LEGO boxes from the attic after seeing this? Or what did you play with when you were young?
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-19-2014, 07:50 PM:
 
I had Legos, but nothing like the amazing sets they have today. I think besides the bricks, the only thing I had was a couple of windows.

If you're ever near one, a visit to a Lego store is quite the eye opening experience. It's amazing what they have been able to license.
 

---

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 03-24-2014, 06:13 PM:
 
Yeah, I've been to several of those stores, brings the little kid back to me every time.

Still, as a kid, I always wanted to go to some kind of Walmart-sized store where you could buy every brick in every color they ever made by the ounce .

Actually, Warner Bros. and LEGO distributed some great promotional material to many cinemas around here, like huge Lego statues and some rather sophisticated interactive miniature sets. I was wondering if they did the same in the States too.
 

---

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 04-12-2014, 07:31 PM:
 
So this is the film everybody is going ga-ga about? A whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes (as I write this)? Has the world succumbed voluntarily to some nefarious form of kiddie mass hysteria?

Apparently so!

Well I'm calling it: The LEGO™ Movie is a sugary sweet vacuous pop hit; it's a cinematic Macarena and that irritating "Everything Is Awesome" tune is it's Ketchup Song; it's a Wannabe Toy Story, but a Toy Story it ain't!

The film relies on over-stimulation and rapid fire cheap jokes to keep the instant gratification generation from slitting their wrists out of boredom - a process which usually takes all of about 5 minutes. I will concede that there is at least one "LOL" joke in it - that being the double-decker couch - but the bulk of the jokes are too cheap, too shallow and too disposable to be truly funny. LEGO™ is laughing, however - all the way to the bank!

There's enough LEGO™ geekisms to keep the fanbois masturbating throughout with floating virtual part numbers and legacy playsets and figurines littering the proceedings. And the producers have gone to some trouble to legitimise the solidity of the LEGO™ parts by adopting a "stop motion" animation style; which is to say that it's par for the course CG animation with 2 out of every 3 frames removed to make it jerky.

When it comes down to it, The LEGO™ Movie is not a bad movie but neither is everything awesome, it's just ordinary. In the cold, hard light of day, after the sugar rush has subsided (a detox process which may number many months admittedly), people will surely wonder why they thought this tasted so good.

5 out of 10
 

---

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 04-17-2014, 03:59 AM:
 
Se here, a non-believer! You must be one of the one of the Playmobil gang, raining on our LEGO® parade...

quote: Stu Jamieson

---

So this is the film everybody is going ga-ga about? A whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes (as I write this)? Has the world succumbed voluntarily to some nefarious form of kiddie mass hysteria?

---

I would call it some nefarious form of kiddie mass nostalgia.

You know it's LEGO® and not LEGO™! But rest assured, the LEGO® Army of Lawyers™ will find you, even down under, especially after that bad review of yours! And what they're going to do with you will definitely be R-rated.

Now repeat after me: Everything is Awesome™!
 

---

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 04-17-2014, 02:13 PM:
 

quote:

---

You know it's LEGO® and not LEGO™!

---

quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens

---

Does it really matter to you that much that you feel you have to correct Stu?

---

Yeah Terry, you know, every time somebody writes LEGO™ instead of LEGO®, God kills an innocent kitten somewhere in this cruel world.



See what you did? Another innocent cute little furry ball just had to die, because you forced me to do this...
 

---

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 04-17-2014, 05:10 PM:
 
Haha, and they say there's no humour in the Nether regions!

Somebody replied to my review citing my own review of Free Birds (which I liked a lot). I replied that at least Free Birds didn't have an irritating theme tune and had actual jokes in it.
 

---

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 04-17-2014, 09:37 PM:
 

quote: Stu Jamieson

---

Free Birds didn't have an irritating theme tune and had actual jokes in it.

---

quote: Mike Blakesley

---

I wish somebody could invent a rogue app called "Theater Smackdown." The app, which would have a nearly all-black screen, would enable you to point your phone at the offending phone, zero in on its signal, and automatically send that phone a message via whatever method available saying "You are bugging people around you with your phone, you idiot. Turn it off."

---