Apollo 18

The next "Moon"? IMDB says 5 mil budget, and an interesting topic.
Came out of nowhere, releases in a couple of weeks, 9/2.

Unlike "Moon" though this seems to be a scifi horror film with less of an intellectual aspect. I'll wait for the reviews first before I decide to see it in the theatre.

I am sure the professional and amateur nit pickers will find plenty to complain about, but it looks like a fun movie.

I just meant in terms of being low budget but actually hearing about it and finding it interesting. Honestly, I wouldn't have seen Moon in the theater either, but then I rarely get to see anything in the theater these days. LOL
Movies like this get more leeway than big budget Skyline movies.

I guess "big budget" is a relative term since according to boxofficemojo, the budget for "Skyline" was 10 million which is very modest for a theatrical release.

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=skyline.htm

If this is as good as Skyline for half the money.....no, it would still suck I guess.

Nitpicking like "there is no way a Saturn 5 could've launched an entire Apollo CM/SM/lander combo to the Moon in secret"?

Get past that and I suppose it might be an ok film.



The Jedi Master

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/found_mol_spacesuits.html

Yes, that is nit picking.

Of course a Sat V could never have been launched in secret. But just as unlikely to me is the idea of a bar filled with freakish looking aliens from all over the universe drinking, talking, playing music together. But I liked Star Wars anyway.

But you didn't like the twist in "Unknown" so there must be some nitpicking that you accept.

I'm looking forward to it. Sounds like a fun movie and interesting storyline. And any moon-based movie with today's special effects I'm all in for. And it has an fictional Apollo angle taboot!

I've never seen "Unknown" (had to Google it to figure out what it was) so I have no idea what you're talking about.

My apologies, my memory is going - I thought you had made a comment about it, but now see that I was mistaken. Again, sorry for the confusion.

LOL This nitpicking debate reminds me about a comment Peter Jackson made during the commentary for Fellowship of the Ring. He mentioned that some hardcore LOTR fans complained about the mentioning of tomatoes in the film because the tomato was a food that only existed in the New World and thus could not have existed in the Old World which LOTR was based on. So they have a problem accepting that but no problem at all accepting hobbits, wizards, magic, orcs, etc.

LOL!
Remember Battlezone? Pretty cool game set around the time of the moon landing. Alternate timeline etc. If it's in a game it must be possible, right?

Believe it or not there was some dumba*s whinging in the UK by tree-hugging fluffy liberal colonial-guilt ridden do-gooders who were complaining that Hobbiton was, well, a little too white. And that there were no black, wheelchair-bound or transgendered Hobbits.

You have to wonder about some people.

Oh my, just Googled it and it's still ongoing with The Hobbit. Sigh. Seriously.

Hobbits-of-color

The difference is Star Wars doesn't take place in our world. Apollo 18 supposedly does.

The thing with any fantasy is there's no reality to base it on, and despite some claims to the contrary, SW is fantasy, not SF. There's no scientific basis for the Force, lightsabers, laser "bolts", any of it. Star Trek is the one that made the effort to be possible (if not actually real), SW never bothered because it's a fantasy.

So if I see a film with elves, dwarves, and hobbits and it has a dragon in it, I'm fine with that. If I see a film about the US space program and then there's a dragon attacking the Cape prior to a launch, I'm NOT fine with that. It's the context, not absolutes. If you stick with absolutes, well, pretty much no film is worthwhile because even those based on real events, like Apollo 13, have a lot of fictionalized events and dialogue as filler.


The Jedi Master

Conceivably though (not knowing the story of the movie in advance) it's perfectly possibly that it won't be suggested "no-one noticed the rocket".

It could have been explained away as a test of a new unmanned module, a heavy satellite launch using the Saturn-V, any number of feasible constructs.

While in some cases that would work, the truth is the Saturn 5 was such a high-profile rocket that everyone ever built has been accounted for, as seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V#Saturn_V_vehicles_and_launches



The Jedi Master

whoa! Looks like it could be an entertaining film! thanks for sharing.

Blair Witch in Space....

Tough crowd in here! LOL

Still waiting to see a facehugger pop up.

I at least plan on watching it when it comes out on dvd.

Me too, I don't want the crapola scared out of me in a dark theatre.


Wheels

I can't recall the last time I saw a horror film in the theater. Most of those I saw could be called hybrids at best.

Not that I watch many horror films. I got tired of them.



The Jedi Master

I can and I want my 2 hours of my life back for that ultra-craptastic "Paranormal Activity".

I have to go back to the "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre"


Wheels

I hear ya.
Worse: we saw the sequel. Both here at home, but still. Damn.
Have you seen Insidious? Kind of makes up for it, similar movie. Creepy!

I just saw it today. I don't go to movies too often and never alone so it was fun. Only a handfull of viewers for a Tuesday at 3:25.(Good time to go I guess)

I liked it. It was a fun creepy movie. Not in your face gross or terrifying but fun and fun to look at. I liked seeing all of the Apollo gear and equiptment. Though chaotic at times, I thought it was filmed well. They tried to film it like it was taken from movie clips so most of the movie had black side bars on it as though it were taken from old film tape. And they left the unkown threat just ambiguous enough to let you see enough and not feel frustrated at the end of the movie because they didn't show you enough.

I'll probably buy it on dvd when it comes out no question.

A friend of mine saw it, and since I didn't plan on seeing it, we agreed he could tell me all about it. He said he expected worse, and combining that with going with some friends and having a good time with them, he felt it wasn't a terrible waste of time.

He did bring up one question he wondered about, though:

I think it was very good. Just an old fashioned creepy story with a unique setting. It was fun to look at and watch. They created some very good claustraphobic scenes. Well worth my 5$ ticket and the twenty I'll probably spend buying it when it comes to DVD.

I just though of something else about your question about how they got the footage:

I didn't see the movie, so I don't know all the details on what may have been possible, that was just something he wasn't sure about.

The only thing I can think of that makes any kind of since is that they eventually sent another crew with the intention to recover the astronauts cameras and any other intelligence and then allowed them to come back where upon the film was classified and hid away.

I actually didn't mind paranormal activity....

Though the one thing that did piss me off about it is.... When your G/f is doing strange things, you see foot prints on the floor, sh1t moving around the house and a wiji (spelt phoenetically) board bursting into flames.... Well don't you think its about time to get the FOOk out of there ?




Hmm, Well i flew a light plane aver hobiton... SO that makes it reality flying over fantasy... How does that fall into the above category.

How could you fly a plane over a place that doesn't exist?



The Jedi Master

Ohh but it does.

It was the film set in new zealand where they built the hobiton vilage.

Then you flew over a set, you did not fly over Hobbiton. Therefore, you didn't fly over a fantasy, you flew over a location used by a film crew...one of the most banal things there is.



The Jedi Master

I can't believe you say such things. Its real I tells you .... My precious !!

How can you say such a thing..... Its real I tells you.....mw precioussss.

http://www.hobbitontours.com/

It's a real location that was used as a set, yes. However, as NZ is not, and never was, in Middle Earth...



The Jedi Master

Are you sure about that. The kiwis are pretty synonomous to the missing link, maybe they predate middle earth.......

Finally saw this the other night. Great rental IMO! I like the style, they pull it off far far better than Paranormal blah blah blah. They don't get carried away with it and it makes more sense in this movie too. Enjoyable flick!

I bought it just like I said I would months ago in this thread Haven't watched it again yet though.

I prefered "Moon"... much deeper in its concept.

TBH few horror films have a "deep" concept. The Thing and Alien being the only ones I can actually think of!

Moon wasn't a horror film, perhaps suspense would fit better. Pandorum was a horror film, and its concept was similarly shallow, although I thought it fairly well done.



The Jedi Master

Horror relies much more on visuals, pacing and tension than it does on any kind of dialogue or plot so I think that's why you really don't see that many horror films with a complex plot. "The Shining" is about as complex as it gets with horror.

Too complex and you're thinking and not cringing. LOL
Moon was a drama, like a one man stage show. The situation was important, but the character study was the main thing.

It was a good pick getting Rockwell. Of course, it could never be a play because you can't do split-stage acting.



The Jedi Master

Sure you could, it's all in the lighting. And mirrors. Maybe some mannequins.

Generally speaking, their acting isn't so good!



The Jedi Master

++

- Nearly unknown actors: it re-enforces the non-fiction mockumentary concept.
- interesting Concept: even if it follows the same trend begun with the first Blairwitch movie.
- a nice "clin d'oeil" to Outland with the crawling beast in the suit scene

--

- Easily forgotten lapse of time (a bit like "Monsters", concept is nice but it lacks deeper development/meaning)
- the shaky/blurry type of filming is very tiring after a moment...
- The end is like in most of these "original concept" low budget movie...disappointing.

Event Horizon was pretty deep in my opinion.

Really? "Ship meant to travel faster than light instead inexplicably goes to hell and corrupts its crew horribly before coming back."

I don't know what exactly you're referring to, but like most horror films it can be explained in a single sentence. Frankly, I thought the start of the film was brilliant but it went to, well, hell at the end and just got silly.



The Jedi Master

Well i can understand the hell thing to an extent with Event Hoizon as that was using (as far as i can tell) a form of folding space and in that they flew to either another dimension or a distant universe where chaotic things permeate.

But, as jedi said. It did get a little common in the plot towards the end. I enjoyed the movie though as it came at a time when i think a lot of spacey themes were not common at the movies or TV.

Is anyone else interested in structures on the moon? I find reports and stories of such things fascinating. But I'm also fascinated with other mysteries such as ancient mysteries and cryptozoology.

The oldest one is from the late 1960's, so not that old.