I saw the first Men In Black. I was like 13 at the time, and I thought it was okay with some good moments at the time. In retrospect it was really stupid.
This is the sort of movie that might pass off as pure dumb entertaining kitsch. If it gets a 70 or higher on metacritic I’ll consider it. But I think in terms of entertainment films coming up there are several others higher priority (Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Dictator, Amazing Spiderman, etc).
I will admit I am excited to see Men In Black as I really liked the first one. What I’m worried about is how much Tommy Lee Jones will be in the movie, as it looks like they’ve basically replaced him with Josh Brolin.
actually fairly excited for Chernobyl Diaries. I’ve always been fascinated with that disaster and I’m sure I’ll see this one even if I think it’ll probably suck. I’m also reading Roadside Picnic right now so I’m in the mood.
I saw the commercial for Chernobyl Diaries literally fifteen seconds after finishing Underworld by Don DeLillo and thinking to myself, “Huh, why hasn’t someone made a The Hills Have Eyes style movie about Chernobyl?” BAM! Crazy synchronicities.
Anyway, I read in Entertainment that MIB III is an absolute mess. Unfinished script before production, time travel logistics got out of hand, bad drama on set, Sonnenfeld breaking into tears at points…. Might actually be painful to watch, unless you’re one of those ‘I enjoy a good trainwreck’ folks.
MIB I and Independence Day make good double feature for 90s sci fi feat. Will Smith, admittedly. I think Wild Wild West killed that trend right quick, which is actually kind of sad in the sense that Wild Wild West is actually one of the very few Steampunk movies out there, but didn’t bother to be Steampunk until well after it had lost its audience.
—PolarisDiB
This is a comment was sent to me at my FB page https://www.facebook.com/BoycottingChernobylDiaries from an Ukrainian friend. It pretty much represents what many are complaining agents the bad idea of Chernobyl Diaries. Here is for you to read.
Hello,
A couple of days ago I saw a trailer for Chernobyl Diaries and was very sickened. I want to put a stop to this movie so I e-mailed the Ukrainian Cultural Center (YKO) Los Angelesand they directed me to your petition. I am from Ukraine and was living in Kiev in 1986. After the Chernobyl tragedy we temporarily relocated to Belarus to get away from the radiation. During the summers we went to camp in Northern Belarus and were joined by numerous children from Chernobyl. Those poor kids were bald and had a green tint to them. I think that this movie is absolutely appalling. Thousands of people died as a result of this disaster and many more were affected by it. This is not a laughing matter and I believe that this movie makes a mockery out of the lives lost. Let me know how to access your petition so that I can sign it and forward it on.
by ndubrovi on Wed May 16 2012 16:19:25.
at IMDb Chernobyl Diaries Forum.
these look like shit and the only time I’m going to be in a movie theater this year is for Prometheus. Agree 100 percent with the sentiment on Chernobyl Diaries.
Men In Black always seemed.better in theory than in practice. First film was passaMust admitble, nothing special. The sequel was an absolute load of shit.
Must admit that when i first saw the trailer for Wild Wild West i thought it was a theme park ride. The movie was terrible but at least the concept was good. Gotta laugh that Asia Argento turned down the role that eventually went to Hayek. presumably on the grounds that it was Hollywood trash? She made enough crap films with her father let alone others
I have heard the same arguments over and over of people, mainly the youngest generation, to defend this movie. Arguments like “what about Titanic?” “so no war movies would ever be made” “a movie is just a movie” or my favorite one “is a Fiction work”
I found very scare the alienation of people toward certain issues, and that fact that they are not moral or ethical boundaries in what the studios are creating and what people consider Entertainment. There is a huge lack of Critical Thinking and Common Sense that makes me wonder if these kids are the ones ruling our nations in 25 years.
Chernobyl Diaries is in its entirety offensive and makes a mockery not just of the Collective Memory of the Tragedy, but also profanes the victims in a way never seen. I always make a comparison if a film like this one is create but instead of being at Chernobyl, is made in a Concentration Camp. What people would say… “oh, a movie is a movie!” well, I don’t think so.
The trailers for CD make it look like utter garbage. It looks like a series of startle scares resulting in people being dragged backwards into the darkness.
But, y’know, it’s just stupid pulp entertainment, is something that stupid and cliche really worth getting appalled over? Is making a stupid horror movie about a historical tragedy more appalling because it’s your tragedy this time?
I can see getting mad if it’s a documentary or something meant to be taken seriously. This is a dumb startle-scare horror flick that people will forget about a week after it comes out.
JIRIN That’s the point Chernobyl is not stupid, should never be put at the level of pulp culture, and worst, is should never be an entertainment element. If a movie is made about what happened at Chernobyl, it should be respectful and solemn. By being quiet about a silly movie like this one, is to allow in the future to let profanity to grow.
So is Gojira a mockery of the very real victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima?
—PolarisDiB
Yagolayza – I see your point, but I also see the opposition’s points, so I feel pretty neutral about this. But I’m interested in what your opinion is about Titanic and war movies.
I know some people thought Life Is Beautiful was making fun of the holocaust.
Sucks for them. That movie is great.
Zero interest for “Men in Black III.” No ambition to seek out the first two either. I’ll probably catch “Chernobyl Diaries” on Saturday if I get the time. Shocked it’s marketing campaign has been rather subtle (maybe I have just been watching less TV) and that it doesn’t even have its own page on here.
And here goes.
Anyway, many critical texts on horror genre point out the monster as an elaboration of our own fears of very real things, even to the point of exaggeration. Chernobyl Diaries is a calculated commercial product to be sure but it makes sense coming out soon after Fukushima and the resurgence of atomic anxiety re: Iran, whathaveyou.
Radiation scares people. Chernobyl Diaries really is a ‘found-footage’ remake of The Hills Have Eyes.
I don’t know what a petition could be capable of doing. Possibly stopping distribution in the Ukraine at most, or even the Ukraine itself won’t want it distributed there. But this movie’s already made so petitioning the producers isn’t going to do anything and most of the rest of the world probably doesn’t care, unfortunately. Probably the best use of the petition would be as an awareness campaign to direct attention to the real effects of Chernobyl, especially after all these years. My opinion, most dialog out there about nuclear related anything is a real mess, though.
—PolarisDiB
One week ago, I was discussing with some friends what summer movie of the yar could be worse than Battleship, since it looked like such an easy target there must be something worse.
Both Men in Black III and Chernobyl Diaries seem to fit that description now that I think of it.
Just go play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl instead; much more interesting.
“Probably the best use of the petition would be as an awareness campaign to direct attention to the real effects of Chernobyl, especially after all these years.”
The only thing a petition would do is bring more attention to the film. Which makes me think Warners is behind it.
Chernobyl Diaries does look pretty cheesy. Going to Chernobyl in real life might be a cool experience, but turning it into a hokey horror film sounds awful. And all from the creator of Paranormal Activity—hardly setting the bar high.
Probably won’t go see Men in Black 3 either. The first one was fun when I was a kid, but even making a second film was a bad idea, let alone a third.
Gojira (Godzilla) was never directed to the Nuclear Attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That’s the difference. We are talking of more than 60 years of nuclear Zombies-Mosters tradition. Even HULK is a Nuclear Being. But all those fictional character are not link to the actual cities.
Titanic and War Movies are a total different animals.
Titanic is more a Chronicle of what happened with a very poor and ridiculous dialogs. Weak characters and silly story line. But, it pretty much represents what happened and at the end, when old Rose dies, the director honors the victims that perished at the disaster.
War Moves are as a vast as the war itself. you have all kind of approaches to it, but you would never see a Paranormal Activity kind of movie being made at any concentration camp or places where mass murder or mass deaths have happened. The same thing should go for Chernobyl.
you would never see a Paranormal Activity kind of movie being made at any concentration camp or places where mass murder or mass deaths have happened
To be honest, that sounds kind of gloriously distasteful. But I do see what you’re saying. I would be none-too-happy if they made it about 9/11, something I actually lived through…
POLARISDIB that’s exactly the point. AWARENESS. SANTINO I would agree with you with another movie, but the horrors of Chernobyl are so raw, real and heartbreaking that and Awareness campaign against Chernobyl Diaries will really damage their reputation. May be it increase in viewers, but the reputation will be on the floor.
^ United 93? World Trade Center?
—DiB
DRUNKEN FATHER FIGURE OF OLD exactly. you lived it. In the Chernobyl case, many still being born with defects and the lives of millions still being rule by the amount of radiation at their backyard. And not only in the Exclusion Zone as the movie says,.
^ Yeah I had kind of a problem with both of those movies, although I didn’t see either of them. I thought it was distasteful to have a big-budget drama about it so soon after the event. And yeah, I do have the same problem with Holocaust movies.
I’m just trying to imagine a found-footage horror movie about 9/11. I think being a dumb horror movie makes it better because it’s not supposed to be taken seriously, which is precisely the problem I had with World Trade Center. I can just imagine big sweeping orchestral music as Nick Cage gets crushed under debris and it’s just so sick and fake.
POLARISDIB d you see any ghost-zombie-monster haunting poor ignorants teenager all over those movies???? PLEASE!!! we need more Critical Thinking here.
I don’t know… I can’t imagine how I would feel if they made a 9/11 horror film. I just… can’t imagine it.
I suppose I fundamentally disagree that nothing dark should ever be made light of. I disagree that joking about a tragedy is an insult to the victims of that tragedy.
I don’t want to defend this movie too much because it looks like utter garbage, but if there were a much better movie made that made light of Chernobyl, I would staunchly defend that one. :)
So my final argument would be ‘If you don’t like it don’t watch it’. You may be appalled but other people have a different perspective on the film and it’s important to tolerate differences of opinion. It’s the same as all the people who complain about sex in movies. You don’t have to like it, but don’t forget you’re the one with the remote control in your hand.
JIRIN The Battle of Chernobyl. You can see it at Youtube. It’s a documentary made for the Discovery Channel on the 20th Anniversary of the Disaster.
Dennis Brian
I have never seen a Men in Black film (have a real aversion to Will Smith). Josh Brolin looks like he is having fun.
Shot in Serbia and Hungary, The Chernobyl Diaries is an Oren Pell produced horror flick. I will wait for his Area 51 film (his sophmore directing effort).
Not much to say about either release, seems they both have sci fi leanings and will likely not touch Avengers which also has sci fi leanings (as does Battleship for that matter)