On the ORCA question, I can only assume pre-chomp Bo, no?

Eh, Charlotte was queen of pretentious early 70s films with lots of sex and nudity, and, on several occasions, Nazis. She was in ZARDOZ, for frell's sake, and, like Connery, she managed to move past it. She is the BOMB!

Granted, I get a lot of guilty pleasure out of pretentious early 70's movies with lots of sex and nudity. The Nazis I can take or leave.

But didn't they say? Obviously not clearly.

Well, at the beginning, it wasn't terribly clear that the over the top cheese was on purpose. I distinctly remember, because I couldn't stop laughing at it, and you kept telling me to be quiet. And then once the audience realized that it was really going to be that cheesy all the way through, on purpose, and Richard Roxburgh gets the gold star for making that clear, then everyone in the audience was giggling. Until everyone in the audience was like, wait, what? She's dead? How? When? Did he squish her? What? And then Kate's face was in the clouds, and everyone went back to giggling.

I've alwqays thought Bo Derek had a square, mannish face that I found unattractive. Charlotte Rampling is all woman, baby.

I could not have possibly set my expectations low enough for Van Helsing. Just... No.

Oh sure you could, Sean. I have faith in you.

Heh.

I think you have to watch it, embracing the cheese, and that's when you realize that the cast and crew are embracing the cheese as well. Because it is cheesy. So cheesy it's silly. It's a silly, cheesy, funny movie.

See, I never got this. It felt like the cast and crew were trying to present a relatively serious action movie and failing horribly. If they were embracing the cheese, they were doing a good job of hiding it from me. Perhaps they were brushing a little to close too the cheese while passing it in the hall, occaisionally daring to share a brief touch when alone in a shadowed alcove, but they certainly weren't doing it shamelessly for all to see.

Up next for Somers (Van Helsing director) and his production company - Flash Gordan.

So maybe Van Helsing was a dry run, as without Queen they are in for trouble.

The following review of Alexander, by one kevinsworld25, is an excellent example of why reading the IMDB user comments is so entertaining.

This is the most beautiful film ever! If you enjoyed TROY, this is like a million times better. With much better acting especially from Jolie as Alexander's mother, I was surprised how good this film was after reading the negative reviews. Perhaps some people are just homophobic and hated the movie because of Alexander's sexuality. It was that bad. It was the best film ever. I's a war drama with great fight scenes and acting. I found the acting inspirational and only showed the talent each of the actors/ actress's carried.

Overall, I would say that this is now one of my most favorite films ever seen.

Isn't it encouraging? Don't you just want to see the heck out of this movie now?

It felt like the cast and crew were trying to present a relatively serious action movie and failing horribly.

That's how I felt. Parts of it were enjoyable, but on the whole, I was embarrassed for the movie. We did have fun snarking at it, though.

It felt like the cast and crew were trying to present a relatively serious action movie and failing horribly.

Based on what I knew before the movie started, I knew it wasn't supposed to be serious. I'm not sure precisely where I picked that up. Seeing as I was on the riff-tip already, scenes like the 007-homage fit very neatly into my expectations.

Alibelle, I don't remember shushing you, and I apologise. I was probably just concerned about hearing what was next.