Mao's fucking lemon list of 2007 (thus far)

[UncleMao]

Feel free to add your own. By lemon I don't mean money it's made. We all know Pirates topped the moneypile list this year.

1) Pirates 3
2) Premonition
3) Reaping
4) Shooter
5) Ghost Rider
6) Norbit
7) Messengers
8) Smoking Aces
9) Epic Movie
10) Number 23
11) Are we done yet
12) Hostel 2

[smash]

I'm sorry, I can't resist.

If you, or anyone, thought that "The Number 23" was going to be ANYTHING except a total laughable dud...

[eamon angelface]

I don't think lemon applies to the list...I mean Norbit? You were expecrting Norbit to be good? You SAW Norbit? Epic Movie was supposed to be good? Are We Done Yet?

[Zorak]

I'd add Transformers

[exelis]

I dunno. I rented Ghost Rider with low (I mean abysmally low) expectations, but found myself enjoying it.

'course, I was dead tired and didn't overanalyze, but it could have been alot worse.

[AngelBaby]

First, thanks to Mao for jumping on all those hand grenades, if he indeed saw all those movies.

Second, I didn't think Shooter was all that horrible. It reminded me of some of the old "one-man-against-all-odds" movies like Commando, Cobra, etc. Good, cheesy fun.

Third, Hostel 2 also wasn't that bad. I knew going in what I was in for.

4th, I'm still gonna see Smokin Aces at some point.

[Umgawa]

I dunno. I rented Ghost Rider with low (I mean abysmally low) expectations, but found myself enjoying it.

'course, I was dead tired and didn't overanalyze, but it could have been alot worse.

Agreed. As superhero movies go, I rank it somewhere around Daredevil (for which I also had terribly low expectations) or Punisher (which I was disappointed to find wasn't even decent); considerably lower than the surprisingly good Constantine. Again, though, I kind of knew it wasn't going to be that good, since I bought a DVD-ROM containing every issue of Ghost Rider ever printed and found it to be historically a pretty lame comic, though I'm sure I'd probably end up blaming the Comics Code Authority for that one. It's a two star movie.

Beyond that, I haven't seen any of these. I've been pretty lucky this year, having seen Grindhouse (loved the Rodriguez half, unlike most people), Die Hard 4, Transformers, and Sicko, all of which I'd give right around three stars out of four.

[smash]

I'll defend Transformers. And I despise Michael Bay.

I thought the plot held together well, and the CGI was decent. Shia LeBouf's acting was top notch. The 'leaders' of the military (John Voight, et all) was pretty hackneyed...but... still solid enough.

[Mike]

I'll defend Transformers. And I despise Michael Bay.

I thought the plot held together well, and the CGI was decent. Shia LeBouf's acting was top notch. The 'leaders' of the military (John Voight, et all) was pretty hackneyed...but... still solid enough.

It seemed like there was no chemistry between the main characters, and definitely not enough Transformers... I liked it, but it could have been so much better.

[Umgawa]

I'll defend Transformers. And I despise Michael Bay.

I thought the plot held together well, and the CGI was decent. Shia LeBouf's acting was top notch. The 'leaders' of the military (John Voight, et all) was pretty hackneyed...but... still solid enough.

It seemed like there was no chemistry between the main characters, and definitely not enough Transformers... I liked it, but it could have been so much better.

I actually thought the humans were the best part. Had Michael Bay entirely eschewed Transformers from the movie and merely had them taking place in the background, I thought it still would have been a good (and cheap, by Hollywood standards) movie, rather than the totally anticlimactic three-star movie that it was. Okay, anything involving Jon Voight or the government should have been cut out, because Shia LeBoeuf basically carried the movie, but I don't feel that my childhood was really in any way insulted by the movie, other than Jazz being turned into a Pontiac Solstice, which is a pretty sexy car in black, but it's no Scatman Crothers-voiced Porsche 935.

My only real complaint is that the Transformers were too funny. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Spike (okay, "Sam" as we're calling him in this century where you can't have a PG-13 movie about a teenager named Spike) can have all the funny lines he wants, and Shia LeBoeuf can pull it off, but Optimus Prime does not get to use the words, "My bad." Not, not, not. Again, I'd have preferred it if theyd' just left Transformers out of it, or at least made it so that it was pretty much a Spike and Bumblebee story, as I pretty much sat back for the last twenty or so minutes of the movie and went, "Yeah, yeah... just finish the movie already, because the thrill is gone."

Personally, I think it's Michael Bay's best work since The Rock, though that isn't much of a compliment. and, I could be totally wrong, having spent most of the movie ogling Megan Fox.

[smash]

Personally, I think it's Michael Bay's best work since The Rock, though that isn't much of a compliment. and, I could be totally wrong, having spent most of the movie ogling Megan Fox.

I concur. With the best work part. And the ogling Megan Fox. But I couldn't get past that she looks too old and weathered to be a teenager. Which is ironic considering she's only 21.

[UncleMao]

Eragon
PoTC:AWE
Underdog
Evan Almighty
Hot Rod