What movies have you watched and what rating would you give them? [Archive] - Page 3

Oolon Colluphid

23 Aug 2011, 03:07 PM

Aye, The Mist - agree with everything you say there. The ending is just tragic, when the father's realisation of what he's done is presented to him within seconds of his final act.

The ending of The Mist really bothered me, mostly because it's such a departure from the story. King left us with a little hope in the story after everything has gone bad, the movie just takes a dump on characters you're supposed to care about.

IMO, it's a terrible flaw. A movie is supposed to bring you into caring about the characters and what happens to them, which engages you in the film. What they did in The Mist just makes the entire film you've just watched seem superfluous ... why even bother getting interested in any of them when that's what happens?

I like unhappy endings sometimes (like in Seven) but I despise what they did in The Mist.
But it's not an unhappy ending, it's a horrific ending. Mere monsters? Pah. In fact, off the top of my head, it's one of the most truly horrifying film endings I can think of.

And in a horror film, yet! Heaven forfend!

I suppose you despise what they did in Night of the Living Dead too? All that emotional investment and bam, "Good shot! Okay, he's dead, let's go get 'im."

Or The Wicker Man. Or The Descent. Or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And as for something like Wolf Creek…

Sorry, but why even bother getting interested in most of the characters in the vast majority of horror films? Look what happens to them?

And you may as well forget something like Dance with a Stranger or Dancer in the Dark, or any film about Anne Boleyn. You get all involved with the characters, and they go an' hang 'em or lop their head off.

The horror of The Mist's ending is the horror of realising what you've done, and you can trace that strand back to at least Frankenstein -- no, at least to Othello. I can't see how it negates anything or is a flaw or makes what came before superfluous. It is actually rather like the ending of An American Werewold in London: minus the guilt, both have character(s) you've cared about dead and the one survivor in anguish. Would The Mist have felt better if the credits had rolled to the Marcels' doo-wop rendition of 'Blue Moon'?

People who don't like being horrified shouldn't watch horror films, I guess. I look forward to your glowing review of Care Bears - The Movie. :p :D

Interesting thought, though: how related are horror and irony? Tragedy, as Aristotle said, is a good man brought low by his flaws. But what happens when we see a good person doing something that turns out to be terrible -- their only flaw being a lack of precognition? Can't think of a specific film example, but situations like, oh, riddling a cupboard with bullets because you think the Unstoppable Killer is in it, only for the door to swing open and the character's loved one fall out.

Hmm, a matter for another thread though, if anyone's interested.

Goodchild

23 Aug 2011, 07:59 PM

Damn, what got up your ass Oolon? lol.

Look, I don't like it. It's just that simple. Maybe if he'd have killed them all and then the film at least implied a duration of time before the military rolls by him while he struggles with the idea of killing himself it wouldn't have been so bad. But no, it's blam blam blam, puts the gun to himself and oh look, there's the Army. It feels forced. It rams it's point at you so hamhandedly that, to me, it negates the impact of what they may have been trying to do with that scene. Yes, it's a horror film and omg characters (even main characters) are going to die ... but you have to care about their deaths for it to have impact, and the speedy 'look look, see what we did hahaha' ending just cheapens their deaths rather than giving them impact.

It's IMO and you can disagree of course, but that's just how I feel about it. I vastly prefer the book ending where they think they may have heard a radio transmission from survivors but they're still in a dire situation with no clue what to do. It's an ambiguous ending (I'm sure Mattshizzle would hate it) and depressing but offers a small glimmer of hope for the characters. You're free to decide that they were eaten minutes later or made it to safety or found other survivors but no appreciable improvement in the situation.

And for the record I've not seen any of the movies you listed, so meh.

Try the ending I mentioned, the one in Seven. It's unhappy and yes, horrific. But it's fucking powerful. It's set up throughout the movie and it's the payoff to everything that's happened up to that point. Fuck, The Mist just throws the horrific ending at you when, up to that very point, they've done everything they possibly could just to survive. And then, to add insult to injury, they show us the people that have been the villains throughout the film merrily riding along with the military.

Yeah, it's depressing, but it just makes the whole story feel so damned pointless. And that's my IMO, and it's not gonna change ... at least not without a better argument that doesn't attack me personally.

MattShizzle

23 Aug 2011, 08:06 PM

Yeah, I hated the ending of the short story but also hated then ending of the movie.

Ozymandias

23 Aug 2011, 10:19 PM

I have never seen the movie, but it seems like a good ending to me. I hate those hopelessly optimistic, saved-in-the-nick-of-time endings.

Oolon Colluphid

24 Aug 2011, 11:31 AM

Damn, what got up your ass Oolon? lol.
Heh, nowt much, this is one of my specialised subjects, tis all :D
Look, I don't like it. It's just that simple.
Nuff said then. No law against disagreeing.

Long aside as a ferinstance… My bro-in-law writes reviews of horror etc films, partly for work but mainly freelance (ie he almost never gets paid for it :D); he's a significant contributor to the DVD Delirium series of review books ("The International Guide to Weird & Wonderful Films on DVD"); he's probably the world expert on the movies of the obscure Spanish vampire-sexploitation director José Ramón Larraz (having written both the book on and the novelisation of Vampyres (1975).

Yet while the kinds of films we like is similar and we've probably seen nearly as many as he has, my wife and I now joke that if he's recommended something, we'll probably think it's crap, and vice versa -- eg he's been very dismissive of the work of one of our favourite directors, Larry Fessenden and things like The Upstairs Neighbor, while (somehow) finding good things to say about Scooby Doo and The Incredible Hulk. We tend to align with Kim Newman's opinions far more often.

So even experts and ersatz-experts can disagree. It's all just opinions, and all that matters is whether they can be justified. I can't change how you react to something.

What undermined the whole thing for you, made it, for me, all the more horrifying. It seemed an even bigger "oh no!" when salvation was just moments away than if there'd been some time between; not just "oh no... but I suppose he did what seemed right at the time", but "oh no oh no oh fucking hell no, if only he'd held off just a minute longer!"

Your "Maybe if […] the film at least implied a duration of time […] it wouldn't have been so bad" -- that's entirely the point. Doing what turns out to be the wrong thing just moments before its wrongness is revealed makes it more powerful, more dramatic. Like, a hero only just failing to save someone* is more dramatic than if he turned up hours later; it's the 'only just' element that hits home harder. When the 'what might have been' really really might have been.

Stretch the timeframe the other way. Suppose the military had turned up weeks or months later. Sure, there'd be horror that the family might have survived too, but that goes for all the characters who didn't make it: the main feeling would be relief that at least he did. It's the tight proximity of terrible deed to the salvation that'd have made it unnecessary that is so horrifying.

* I'm thinking for instance of the opening sequence in the Stallone film Cliffhanger.

IMO, of course. :)

And the baddies on the bus just rubs salt into it, life's not merely unfair but really really sucks.

Normally, someone surviving makes for a (somewhat) upbeat ending -- Shaun of the Dead, Texas Chain Saw Massacre etc. Relief comes, too late for some but at least not for all. To turn that ending on its head into a moment of abject horror is quite an achievement and is why I rate the film relatively highly.
And for the record I've not seen any of the movies you listed, so meh.
Fair enough. There's no set syllabus! (Though, I'm surprised that you've not seen Night of the Living Dead, Wicker Man and American Werewolf at least, as they're sort of the Citizen Kane, Godfather and Apocalypse Now of horror films. Maybe no set syllabus, but certainly core repertoire, as it were. Kind of how it'd be surprising for someone liking classical music to not have heard Beethoven's 5th and the Rach 2 concerto, or a jazz fan not knowing Kind of Blue. But hey, each to their own and everyone has lacunae in their viewing / listening / reading etc.)
And that's my IMO, and it's not gonna change ... at least not without a better argument
Nah. If that's how it made you feel, if that's how you reacted to it, then fine. The best disagree-ers might hope for is reassessment: it's made me want to see it again.
that doesn't attack me personally.
There was nothing personal intended beyond a bit of teasing, sorry if it seemed otherwise :(

Goodchild

24 Aug 2011, 12:17 PM

Fair enough. There's no set syllabus! (Though, I'm surprised that you've not seen Night of the Living Dead, Wicker Man and American Werewolf at least, as they're sort of the Citizen Kane, Godfather and Apocalypse Now of horror films. Maybe no set syllabus, but certainly core repertoire, as it were. Kind of how it'd be surprising for someone liking classical music to not have heard Beethoven's 5th and the Rach 2 concerto, or a jazz fan not knowing Kind of Blue. But hey, each to their own and everyone has lacunae in their viewing / listening / reading etc.)

Well, I have seen American Werewolf in London. It's just been an incredibly long time since I watched it that I can't really say I remember enough about it to properly say anything about it. I'm just not a big fan of horror films. I do think The Mist was a very good movie, it's just the ending that bugs me.

that doesn't attack me personally.
There was nothing personal intended beyond a bit of teasing, sorry if it seemed otherwise :(

It's all good :) I thought it mighta been a 'drunk-Oolon' post lol, but if it was all intended as just fun teasing then that's how I'll take it. It's easy to get wound up when someone doesn't see the obvious greatness/shityness of a movie or scene you love/loathe. I went through a heated 11-year argument with a very good friend trying to show him why the Star Wars prequels were absolute shit and nothing I said got through to him ... then he finally caught the Plinkett reviews of those movies and suddenly got it :D

Oolon Colluphid

24 Aug 2011, 12:36 PM

but if it was all intended as just fun teasing then that's how I'll take it.
"Care Bears - The Movie"? :D :eek: :D

So your friend thought Jar Jar was acceptable? From Spaced:

Bilbo Bagshot: The Phantom Menace was 18 months ago, Tim!

Tim: I know, Bilbo, OK? It just... it still hurts! That kid wanted a Jar Jar doll!

Bilbo Bagshot: Kids like Jar Jar!

Tim: Why?

Bilbo Bagshot: What about the Ewoks? They were rubbish! You don't complain about them!

Tim: Yeah, but Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like... fucking Shaft!

Goodchild

24 Aug 2011, 01:25 PM

"Care Bears - The Movie"? :D :eek: :D

Hey, I'm a big MMO player. When someone brings the Care Bears into it ... shit just got real :D :D

So your friend thought Jar Jar was acceptable?

He was always gassing on about how it was the Star Wars for his generation blah blah blah. And yeah, somehow he even managed to excuse Jar Jar. He got me to watch the Plinkett reviews eventually and after watching them I was like "yeah, that's what I've been trying to get across for 11 fucking years" :D

btw, the IMDB forum on The Mist has some interesting discussions about the ending. I noticed that one poster, debunkerboy, in particular really hits on a lot of why I feel the end is so flawed. But there's good opinions both ways on it.

Goodchild

24 Aug 2011, 01:36 PM

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken 7/10

It's a Don Knotts film, so if you can handle the older production values you know you're going to at least get some giggles out of it and you'll feel sympathy/empathy for his character. Don was a brilliant actor and you get your moneys worth here.

The resolution to the film bugged me, as the audience was not given near enough information through the course of the film to even guess at what's really going on. Literally 10 minutes from the end of the movie you still have no clue how it's going to resolve with things being ok for Luther Heggs.

One scene in particular also was jarring for me. Luther is stumbling around the 'haunted' mansion holding a flashlight and the beam of light is clearly being shone from a camera off-screen. This would be ok (for that time) except the circle of light that is supposed to represent the light from his flashlight many times clearly does not follow the movement of the flashlight. And it's really noticeable.

But you'll love the haunted organ music, you'll never forget "attaboy Luther!" or "Bon Ami" after watching the film. Good fun and it's streaming on Netflix.

cnorman18

24 Aug 2011, 03:57 PM

The flashlight issue reminded me of a movie I saw on the Late Show many years ago. In some ways, it was the worst movie I ever saw. The title was The Zombies of Mora Tau. No idea if it's available on DVD, video, or anywhere -- I think it was one of those pieces of crap that TV stations used to put on at 3 AM just to fill the time gap.

A few scenes come to mind:

A guy supposedly walking around on the bottom of the sea in an old-fashioned diving suit with the helmet and all -- and it's obvious he's just standing behind a huge aquarium. No bubbles, and when he drops something it's clearly dropping in air, not in water.

Third scene; On the boat, cranking the winch to pull the diver back to the surface. The boss or whoever asks the bit player cranking the winch, "Everything all right?"

The guy replies -- exactly as punctuated here -- "He seems to be coming up unless."

Full stop. Unambiguous end of sentence. A beat later, the first guy says, "Unless what?"

A third-grader would have understood that the script called for that last line to interrupt the one before. I've never seen anything quite that bad, even on a junior-high-school stage.

A long scene of people climbing into or out of a boat on the beach, which shows only their legs and feet dealing with the mud. At first I thought it was an intentionally artistic effect, but the dialogue soon made it clear that teh viewer was supposed to be seeing something that wasn't visible onscreen. The camera was just pointed at the wrong place. I really -- really -- think that this movie was never edited at all.

Someday I'll tell you about the worst BOOK I ever read -- also apparently unedited, with plot and continuity errors in every chapter. Bizarre. I think it must have been published because the author was someone's son-in-law.

Edit; it IS available on DVD. Here's a review. (http://exclamationmark.wordpress.com/2007/12/01/zombies-of-mora-tau-1957/) I am truly shocked to discover that this movie was actually made by professional filmmakers. The way I remember it, it wouldn't have merited a C+ for a high-school film project.

MattShizzle

24 Aug 2011, 04:54 PM

Barefoot Bree

24 Aug 2011, 08:47 PM

I read a collection af Alternative History stories that was pretty bad - not only the stories themselves but there were spelling errors on every page - and places where the wrong word was used, sentence fragments, etc. If it was edited at all the editor was either drunk or barely knew English.
Read much fan fiction? :rolleyes:

The good ones - those without grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage errors - are uncommon enough. The great ones - without all those AND with a decent plot, decent writing, accurate portrayals of known characters, etc - those are truly diamonds.

(YMMV. Some sites are better than others. Fanfiction.net has no standards.)

Laton

24 Aug 2011, 11:57 PM

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Probably the worst of the Pirates movies. A shame as some of the casting was good (Ian Mcshane as Blackbeard - awesome!) but the cast was wasted on a meandering, boring script with too many extra characters and meaningless interludes.

While 2 & 3 may have been overwrought messes at times at least they didn't verge on tedium.

4.5/10

Monad

25 Aug 2011, 11:21 AM

Avanti! One of Billy Wilder's subtler and cleverest comedies. Great performances by Jack Lemmon (who is always great) and Juliet Mills - I rate this as one of my favourite comedy films 10/10

Wizofoz

25 Aug 2011, 04:59 PM

I watched "Kill Bill part 1" a few years ago and thought it total schlock, and as such never saw part 2.

I watched it yesterday and actually REALLY enjoyed it- 8/10.

I intend to watch Trainspotting with my kids as they approach Adolensence. Ironically, I think it the best anti-addiction film ever. There's no point trying to bullshit them- show them a truthful, insightlful story about the reality of the situation.

GREAT Film-10

neilstone40

25 Aug 2011, 07:46 PM

I watched "Kill Bill part 1" a few years ago and thought it total schlock, and as such never saw part 2.

I watched it yesterday and actually REALLY enjoyed it- 8/10.

Great films, much respect for QT's work - the guy is utterly amazing (the presence of Uma Thurman helped too)

I intend to watch Trainspotting with my kids as they approach Adolensence. Ironically, I think it the best anti-addiction film ever. There's no point trying to bullshit them- show them a truthful, insightlful story about the reality of the situation.

GREAT Film-10

I've been holding off showing my kids Trainspotting although they've been nagging me for a few years. I had always intended to let them see it but just waiting for the right level of maturity/comprehension. There's enough insight into utter horror of addiction and a couple of scenes in particular that will get the point across better than any lecture. I think they're old enough to see it now and will probably look out the DVD soon.

I was lucky enough to bump into Ewan McGregor while he was just finished filming Trainspotting. He was a guest at my friend's wedding and sat at the same table as myself and my then partner. When I asked him what he did for a living he mentioned he was an actor and had a film coming out soon. He didn't say too much about the film but, from what he did say, I wasn't sure it was going to be worth watching if anything it actually sounded pretty crap. :D

Full Tilt Boogie

26 Aug 2011, 05:01 PM

I watched all Martin Scorsese's films, and, whilst invariably all good, my favourite is The Gangs of New York

9 out of 10.

Full Tilt Boogie

28 Aug 2011, 04:25 PM

Seven Days in May - top drawer film and one which should be, IMO, shown in all US civics lessons.

9 out of 10.

toker

28 Aug 2011, 05:03 PM

Gnomio and Juliet (http://www.gnomeoandjuliet.com/). Ha! Forget the real world for a while, and enjoy a better ending than the Bard came up with!

Barefoot Bree

29 Aug 2011, 04:22 AM

Silly Sausage

29 Aug 2011, 09:20 AM

Glorious 39 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319694/) More of an old-style dramatic thriller than anything, it was chilling in its depiction of a self-absorbed family with a very warped definition of "love". 10/10.

I watched that too, 'twas very enjoyable. Romola Garai was great, she was fab in 'The Crimson Petal and the White' too.

Silly Sausage

29 Aug 2011, 09:23 AM

Oolon Colluphid

29 Aug 2011, 09:44 PM

Fright Night (the new version).
Eh? Is it out yet? It had a preview screening at FrightFest... were you there then?

Oolon Colluphid

29 Aug 2011, 09:59 PM

Saw three films at FrightFest, which average out at very very good.

The Holding -- very well acted and directed, but nowt special plot-wise. Worth seeing though. Sort of a Peak District Sommersby, ish. With more mud and cows. And blood ;)

Urban Explorers -- aptly described as Creep meets The Descent. Apparently has much black humour that will elude you if, like me, your Deutsche ist sehr Scheiße or the subtitles aren't working. Effective fun.

And so... The Glass Man. Andy Nyman would be in the running for an Oscar if the Academy ever watched off-beat indie films. If you ever watch off-beat indie films however, it is a real treat, the best damned film I've seen for quite a while. Trailer here:

UapJJ7MX3x0

Monad

29 Aug 2011, 10:13 PM

Just watched Cousins - a sort of US 4 Weddings and a Funeral (except it came first I think) - a light but charming romcom with some great dialogue and feel good factor. Isabella Rossellini is great in it and has never looked so lovely. 9/10

Last night saw "The Devil's Advocate" for the first time - pretty good too for a film with Keanu Reeves in - 7/10

Silly Sausage

30 Aug 2011, 02:04 AM

Fright Night (the new version).
Eh? Is it out yet? It had a preview screening at FrightFest... were you there then?

Erm, well, I had an advanced showing, helped by a fellow with a peg-leg and an eye-patch.

Oolon Colluphid

30 Aug 2011, 08:44 AM

Thank the FSM!

Ray Moscow

30 Aug 2011, 09:06 AM

I saw Tron Legacy on DVD. Meh -- good special effects of course, and decent actors, but still a dumb plot, like the original. 5/10.

Ray Moscow

30 Aug 2011, 09:07 AM

Full Tilt Boogie

30 Aug 2011, 02:05 PM

Fright Night (the new version).

It was cheesy and silly, but fun. Colin Farrell was rather dishy as the vamp next door, the boy was a little annoying but it wasn't difficult to skip past that, and of course David Tennant was great as always (but I am biased).

6.5 out of 10.

I loved the original one.

Ditto - my wife introduced me to it and it's become something of a favourite in our house. From reading the press reviews of the new one/remake, it's apparently "as good", but "doesn't better the original". Read into that what you will.

Silly Sausage

30 Aug 2011, 02:43 PM

I really liked the original too, its one of the first horror films I ever saw (I think I was 8 or 9). I remember having a crush on the original Jerry too, and I remember thinking it was funny that the girl in the original went on to be the annoying neighbour in 'Married With Children' just a couple of years later.

I think I might have a look for the original, I'd quite happily sit through it again.

cnorman18

30 Aug 2011, 03:04 PM

Guilty pleasure: One of my favorite movies was the original 1982 Conan the Barbarian. Haven't seen the new one yet, its reviews say it sucks.

The original, with production design by Ron Cobb, really caught the spirit of the books and the comics (of which I was a fan long before the movie). The second, Conan the Destroyer, was pretty run-of-the-mill.

It was Arnold's first real movie -- his first was Pumping Iron, about his life as a bodybuilder -- and he was, predictably, terrible; but as he himself said, "People say I am not an actor; perhaps this is true. But I don't think Al Pacino could have played this part." Someone observed at the time that Arnold would never win an Oscar, but he would make a lot of money. Prediction seems to have come true. I don't recall anyone predicting that he would become Governor of California (I heard that in the Kennedy family, into which he was married, he was known as "Conan the Republican.")

The movie was actually pretty good. It had some heavyweights in the cast -- James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, and Mako, one of my favorite character actors. Just dumb fun, but it IS fun. 9/10.

Ray Moscow

30 Aug 2011, 05:11 PM

Oh, the original Conan was excellent, if you like the books (as I did). The sequel was pretty bad, and as you say the reviews on the new one are not good.

Goodchild

30 Aug 2011, 07:22 PM

I'm planning on waiting for DVD and buying the new Conan. I hate that I can't really afford to support it at the theater, despite the bad reviews, but it'll definitely find a place on my shelf with the older Conan movies.

And as bad as the second Conan movie was as a Conan story, it's still a guilty pleasure. Kinda fun and silly, and what young boy at the time didn't have a crush on the princess?

Best bit from the original is when Conan and Subotai play dueling deities :D

Oolon Colluphid

30 Aug 2011, 09:30 PM

Ref the original Fright Night... my first indoor date (ie not at a social venue) with my future wife was a video double bill. I picked a couple of fun scaries, with the naive idea of getting a scared cuddle from frightening the prospective girlfriend silly. So I emerged from the pre-Blockbuster video store with Fright Night and Night of the Living Dead.

Little did I know that, as mentioned above, her brother was a horror specialist and had first frightened his little sister when she was ten with Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and she'd seen more classic horrors than I had and had already seen them...

Laton

30 Aug 2011, 09:36 PM

The original Conan has just been released here on Blu-ray. I know what I'm getting this weekend :)

cnorman18

30 Aug 2011, 09:38 PM

Ozymandias

30 Aug 2011, 10:56 PM

I haven't seen the new Conan, but I thought the ones with Arnie in them were shit.

cnorman18

30 Aug 2011, 10:58 PM

I haven't seen the new Conan, but I thought the ones with Arnie in them were shit.

Why would you think differently about Arnold's movies?

Ray Moscow

03 Sep 2011, 08:33 PM

We saw the new Fright Night. It was fun. 8/10

rog

11 Sep 2011, 05:56 PM

Red State directed by Kevin Smith of Dogma & Silent Bob fame.

"Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda."

But it really doesn't go how you might think; imho it's about thinking for yourself and not blindly following authority - possibly why the ending is a bit meh.

4/5

Silly Sausage

11 Sep 2011, 09:00 PM

Vantage Point.

'twas alright, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for both Forest Whittaker and Dennis Quaid for some reason, so I'll give it 7/10.

Silly Sausage

11 Sep 2011, 09:02 PM

Lars And The Real Girl

Although its not a very conventional film, I really enjoyed it. Ryan Gosling was fab as the shy and sensitive Lars, and the supporting cast were very good too. Its the tale of a withdrawn man who orders a 'love-doll' online and pretends that its a real girl. He's had some issues in his life, and the local shrink suggests his family go along with it in order to help him work through his problems. Its a very sweet film, and I'd give it a 7.5/10.

Silly Sausage

11 Sep 2011, 09:10 PM

The Believer.

A film about a neo-Nazi, who is also Jewish. After a falling out with a teacher at a young age over the nature of God, Danny (the lead character) becomes bitter and resentful towards Judaism and eventually becomes a neo-Nazi. He attacks a man in the street just for being Jewish, and he befriends some rather dodgy people who want to encourage him to spread his anti-Semitic views to the wealthy in order to fund a fascist group they are starting up. He gets into a fight with a Jewish restaurant worker and ends up being sent to 'sensitivity' classes and is told a story by a Jewish holocaust survivor that sticks with him and begins to eat away at him. He struggles to juggle his neo-nazi views with what he was taught to believe as a child.
Ryan Gosling is amazing as Danny, comparable to Edward Norton in American History X. I've watched a couple of Ryan Gosling films lately as I think he is a really good up and coming actor.
8/10

Silly Sausage

13 Sep 2011, 01:31 PM

Banraku (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181795/)

This was an odd film, but really quite enjoyable IMO.
Its set in the future, and guns have been banned so the people that do carry weapons carry knives or swords. Two men arrive in town, seperately, one seeking revenge and one seeking a family heirloom that was stolen. They find that they are actually looking for the same person and team up to take on a small army of killers who are protecting the head-honcho.
Its an odd mix of fantasy, action, western, samurai, done in a kind of graphic novel/comic-book/papier-mache style.

7/10 (I think)

Ray Moscow

13 Sep 2011, 01:39 PM

Barefoot Bree

13 Sep 2011, 02:42 PM

I'm a little late to that particular party, but my daughter's S.O. finally talked me into watching Inglorious Basterds. Meh. I guess I'm just not Quentin Tarantino's target audience. I find it hard to understand what's going on, the pieces don't seem to mesh well, the long set pieces are boring as hell, the violence too graphic and gratuitous - I just can't get into it. They're utterly unenjoyable. Not even Brad Pitt - with that horrible makeup and grating accent - could drag a single star out of me.

Politesse

13 Sep 2011, 04:52 PM

Yeah, for really good martial arts film action, you somehow have to write guns out of the story. The other weapons are no good against a gun (except up close, perhaps).

Sometimes they make the hero have amazing powers that not even guns can overcome, but then it's basically a superhero story.

That was my biggest problem with Kill Bill. Either your world has guns in it or it doesn't; you can't have both and then not offer an explanation for why someone doesn't just shoot your protagonist. Somehow I'm thinking the 88 Baddies or whatever would have been a bit more successful if they had glocks instead of short swords.

DanB

13 Sep 2011, 06:10 PM

Saw "Super" recently. Went into it thinking it would be an irreverent comedy. Not, so. Actually a good, thoughtful, movie with an absurd premise.

Silly Sausage

13 Sep 2011, 06:28 PM

Saw "Super" recently. Went into it thinking it would be an irreverent comedy. Not, so. Actually a good, thoughtful, movie with an absurd premise.

Yeah, I think I'd agree with that too.

Ozymandias

18 Sep 2011, 12:36 AM

Watched Eat Pray Love. It was utter shit. 1/10

rog

18 Sep 2011, 12:40 AM

Watched Eat Pray Love. It was utter shit. 1/10

I'm surprised that you wasted your time.

Ozymandias

18 Sep 2011, 12:45 AM

Watched Eat Pray Love. It was utter shit. 1/10

I'm surprised that you wasted your time.

Yeah, but I'm a sucker for feel good movies.

rog

18 Sep 2011, 12:52 AM

Watched Eat Pray Love. It was utter shit. 1/10

I'm surprised that you wasted your time.

Yeah, but I'm a sucker for feel good movies.

i always imagined it to be so.

neilstone40

18 Sep 2011, 02:02 PM

Watched Red State, had fairly high hopes for it after enjoying other Kevin Smith films such as Dogma.

It started off like the prelude to a standard teen slasher flick, turned into a 'stuck in a rut' action film (it seemed to simply lose direction for a while).

The basic premise was good, some decent enough acting (although one actor in particular was borderline unintelligible for a lot of the movie).

An interesting twist near the end that sadly wasn't exploited nearly enough as it had the potential to be a very interesting switch.

Reasonable movie which could have been really good. It simply got a bit lost and couldn't quite figure out what genre it was aiming to be and lacking the slick 'genre switching' that dear old Quentin T has made his own.

6/10

Oolon Colluphid

19 Sep 2011, 11:53 AM

Scream 4.

From the reviews I'd seen, I had pretty low hopes, and it didn't disappoint. There's a limit to being self-aware of being self-aware of being self-aware... the changes are rung as if at a campanologists' convention, but for no point other than to ring them, making it all rather tiresome: one's only interest is in whether something's a twist or a twist on a twist, and the characters -- such as they were -- were just there to be manoeuvred for the next twist/non-twist.

If you like that kind of thing (and Mr & Mrs Colluphid do), it's worth seeing the once.

4/10, because it's not bad (it's Wes Craven after all), just not very good.

Pendaric

19 Sep 2011, 12:08 PM

I have a rule of thumb that I will watch the first one or two in any series, and after that the clamour for it has to be overwhelmingly positive to get me to go.

Oolon Colluphid

19 Sep 2011, 12:14 PM

I have a rule of thumb that I will watch the first one or two in any series, and after that the clamour for it has to be overwhelmingly positive to get me to go.
It's a good rule of thumb, but only that. The most obvious exception being the Halloween series, where the second was dire but 3 was a lot of fun but nothing to do with the first one (it was originally a Nigel Kneale script), a couple of the others were mindless fun, and H20 was really rather good.

neilstone40

19 Sep 2011, 02:06 PM

Watched The Ledge (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535970/) - not a bad film, reasonably engaging although nothing much in it that makes you either identify with or warm to the characters.

It had a Christian/atheist sub plot (which has been the subject of some media hype) which although it seemed to be part of the narrative, tended to look like it has been inserted as a half-chewed plot vehicle.

The film felt a bit contrived in places and was neither face paced enough to be an action movie or have enough depth to be particularly thought provoking.

In saying that, it's better than most movies I've watched recently so I'll give it a 7/10

Barefoot Bree

19 Sep 2011, 02:32 PM

^^ Yeah, I was wondering about that whole atheist/Christian theme in The Ledge - but not enough to go see it. The hype reminded me of several other movies that people on various forums got their panties into a twist about, but when I finally saw them, the connections being made were so tenuous and flimsy they were laughable. I'm thinking largely about I Am Legend, Will Smith's apocalyptic Lone Doctor. So many people on the old forum were so up in arms about it being a "thinly-veiled Christian allegory" that when I saw it, I laughed. You reeeeeeally had to be stretching and jumping at shadows to work that one in. Same with the Narnia Chronicles - jumping at shadows. (I don't like the Narnia books because I think they're badly written and boring, not due to any alleged Xtian themes.)

MattShizzle

19 Sep 2011, 02:54 PM

Saw it a few weeks ago. It was a bit dragged out.

Pendaric

19 Sep 2011, 03:28 PM

The one relatively recent movie where the Christian theme really grated on me was the Superman movie released 2 or 3 years ago, Superman Returns I think it was called.

Politesse

19 Sep 2011, 04:33 PM

alien billie

19 Sep 2011, 04:37 PM

neilstone40

19 Sep 2011, 04:44 PM

Don't get to watch many movies, so I was pleased to have chosen Four Lions recently. Pitch black humour, and who but Chris Morris could so successfully humanise a bunch of bigotted, murderous suicide bombers?

The kind of film you catch yourself thinking about for several days afterwards. 9/10 at least.

Utterly stunning film...

Hilariously funny, delightfully dark but, as you say, manages to put a very human face on the bombers.

The moment when one of the bombers visited his wife at work (deliberately not giving too much away here) was very touching and actually brought a lump to my throat.

If anyone hasn't seen it yet, why the hell not?

MattShizzle

19 Sep 2011, 06:09 PM

That Golden Compass movie was terrible. Made no sense whatsoever.

Barefoot Bree

19 Sep 2011, 10:26 PM

That Golden Compass movie was terrible. Made no sense whatsoever.
It made sense to me - but that may have been because I watched it several times. But I confess I dislike Lyra intensely. I don't know whether it was the character or the actress, but I couldn't figure out what made her such a heroine - she was mostly along for the ride. Everybody else was doing the action. I didn't bother deciphering any religious themes.

MattShizzle

19 Sep 2011, 11:46 PM

I heard some people said you had to have read the book for the movie to make sense and I never read it.

Politesse

20 Sep 2011, 12:03 AM

Reading the book sort of makes the book make sense, but I don't think it could make the piece of shit movie make sense.

MattShizzle

20 Sep 2011, 12:55 AM

I'd have been very mad if I had paid to watch that movie rather than having pirated it.

neilstone40

20 Sep 2011, 07:57 AM

I heard some people said you had to have read the book for the movie to make sense and I never read it.

I tried that before I watched The Passion of the Christ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335345/) and The Ten Commandments (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049833/) but they still didn't make any sense...:evil:

headley

20 Sep 2011, 10:05 AM

hi friend !
I have seen hindi movie Body Gaurd. it's really good movie. I liked that movie very much. I will give five number to this movie.
thank u for the posting

Silly Sausage

24 Sep 2011, 06:37 PM

I saw 'Drive (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/)' last night. I thought it was brilliant. It has this cool 80's vibe to it, but the good 80's, like Scarface or Manhunter.
Its hard to say what I liked without gushing really, the understated performances, the aching silences where so much is said through the body language of the characters or the look in their eyes, the awesome soundtrack etc. I completely forgot I was in the cinema while I was watching it, it completely sucked me in.
Its very slick, with very brief moments of quite brutal violence that shock you back into the reality of the situation that 'The Driver' is in. Just writing about it makes me want to watch it again.
I think I'd give it a 9 out of 10, or very close to that at least.

Laton

01 Oct 2011, 08:20 PM

Tucker & Dale vs Evil. Two hillbillys (the title characters) just want to spend a week at their holiday cabin drinking beer and fishing. All this gets interupted when a group of college kids arrive and belive that T & D are Deliverance style killers. Much hilarity, misunderstandings and bloody deaths ensue.

Acting is not bad (Wash from Firefly makes a great hillbilly) and a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments "This vacation sucks.".

For me a solid 7/10

neilstone40

02 Oct 2011, 08:14 PM

Thanks for the heads up on that film Laton - just finished watching it and the whole family loved it. An interesting inversion of the usual type of inbred hillbilly film.

7/10 from all of us too..

Goodchild

02 Oct 2011, 09:21 PM

Me and my son checked out the trailer after your review Laton, and we plan on renting that movie as soon as we can now. Looks like great fun!

Laton

04 Oct 2011, 11:52 PM

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Really, how hard does a director have to work to make a movie about giant robots fighting each other boring?

It does have a few nice effects and action sequences but otherwise it’s a pretty disjointed and tedious flick. Not as bad as the 2nd Transformers movie but it still has the same flaws: characters no one can care about, really lame and badly misplaced attempts at humour (the kids parents make a showing again :barfwar: ).

3/10 and I hope that’s the end of the franchise.

Green Lantern
Surprisingly entertaining. I'd read a few less-than-glowing reviews and wasn't expecting that much going in but turned out to be pretty good.

I’ve never been an avid comic follower and only knew a little about the whole Green Lantern story so I can’t critique accuracy in that field but it was fun, if suffering from a few slow points and a bit heavy with exposition, as you’d expect from a superhero origin flick (it needed another good action sequence about ½ way through)

I think I enjoyed it more than Thor. While Thor is probably a better move I found Green Lantern more enjoyable to watch.

6/10

Glad you enjoyed Tucker & Dale. I hope they bring the characters back for another outing.

neilstone40

05 Oct 2011, 12:10 AM

Johnny English Reborn (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1634122/)

Awful, awful, awful...

...did I mention it's awful?

The first one was OK-ish with a few amusing moments. This one has very few remotely amusing moments and it's a real shame to see Rowan Atkinson trundle through this nonsense. He's a truly funny guy and a very talented and natural visual comedian but something went really, really wrong here...

I was watching some of Atkinson's old comedy routines on TV a couple of nights ago and remembered how wonderfully funny he was. You will see nothing of that in this film.

Goodchild

05 Oct 2011, 12:42 AM

The only film where I've ever found Rowan Atkinson actually funny was in Rat Race (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250687/). Otherwise, he's always seemed just a bit stupid to me.

Politesse

05 Oct 2011, 12:51 AM

Just saw an older film, Sin Noticias de Dios. I liked it, pretty much. Good acting from both of its female co-stars, suprisingly in the case of Cruz, and a rather different role for Victoria Abril who I already liked. The comedy was funny without detracting from the philosophical core of the thing; there were a lot of references to the poetry of Cavafy, which I love, especially at the conclusion of the film. In a reversal of the norm, its portrayal of heaven and hell makes the former seem more compelling and desirable, all the more so given that both were clearly constructed on a minimal special effects budget. The only problem with the movie is that it's plot revolves around the salvation or damnation of a character so bloody boring and unlikeable that one is really hard-pressed to care about which side wins, even once exposition tries to dump rather vaguely explained extra importance on the event. It would have worked better if the object of the angelic contest had been a genuinely compelling but morally ambiguous individual with real decisions to make, rather than a washed-out boxer who no-one would otherwise feel compelled to worry about one way or the other. Oh, and there was no musical score to speak of.

7/10

Politesse

05 Oct 2011, 01:06 AM

The only film where I've ever found Rowan Atkinson actually funny was in Rat Race (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250687/). Otherwise, he's always seemed just a bit stupid to me.

I rather liked "Keeping Mum", in which he played a vicar not dissimilar to the one he uses in his stand-up, to good effect. Though he's actually kind of the straight man in that one, which is probably a good thing. The problem with Atkinson is that he is capable of admirable subtlety, but mostly does slapstick which wastes his talents IMO.

Silly Sausage

05 Oct 2011, 12:42 PM

I have to agree with the 7/10 for Dale and Tucker vs Evil. Really funny, with some proper laugh out loud moments.

Goodchild

07 Oct 2011, 02:15 AM

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I really have to give this movie two ratings.

If you can turn your brain off, ignore terrible filmmaking, horrible acting, a meandering plot that makes little sense, pointless characters that you don't care about (half as much as you do some of the robots even) and just enjoy this for what it is ... a movie about giant sentient robots blowing shit up, then this is a 7/10

If you can't turn your brain off and ignore those things and want a good, satisfying movie then this is absolute dreck. 3/10 and I give it those 3 points simply because it still has giant sentient robots blowing shit up.

DMB

07 Oct 2011, 11:45 AM

I just watched Black Swan on DVD. I thought that because of the hype and awards it might be worthwhile, but I found it simply tedious. A lot of money was obviously spent to make it visually OK. The heroine is a fruitcake. What more is there to say?

MattShizzle

11 Oct 2011, 11:36 PM

The Forgotten. -5.0 X 10 to the 90th power out of 10. Made no sense whatsoever. Truly awful. I pirate downloaded it and still want my money back.

Barefoot Bree

12 Oct 2011, 03:22 AM

IMDB has at least six movies in the last twenty years with that title, Matt. Which one are you wanting to forget?

MattShizzle

12 Oct 2011, 02:53 PM

The one where the woman had a son who died and nobody else could remember him - then the government starts trying to catch her. From 2004.

Barefoot Bree

12 Oct 2011, 08:27 PM

The one with Julianne Moore? Never saw it. I'll take your rating for granted and not bother to, either.

MattShizzle

12 Oct 2011, 08:38 PM

Yeah she was in it. My mom didn't think much of it either and from a quick Google search it was panned by critics and on rotten tomatoes, etc. The ending was just complete "WTF????"

Politesse

12 Oct 2011, 08:46 PM

Ohhh, I remember that one. I went on a disastrous "date" to go see it when I was in theatres. I was a bit distracted at the time, but I remember thinking that it was about on par with a mediocre X-Files episode, and that the Ms. Moore's admittedly fine acting talents simply could not save a dumb script.

stealthsparx

12 Oct 2011, 09:08 PM

I love epic war movies like Troy, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Braveheart, and 300..Either one of these movies I can watch over and over again..

Rie

13 Oct 2011, 11:00 PM

I choose films according to the cast and director... so anything starring Charlize Theron. However there's a thread on my satellite channel called 'Film Classics' and recently I saw a black and white movie starring Kirk Douglas called "A Town Without Pity" set in 1960s Germany and it was brilliant. 10/10

Silly Sausage

14 Oct 2011, 06:29 AM

I watched Blitz (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1297919/)last night.

I thought it was alright really, suitably gritty for a crime thriller, and Jason Statham didn't play his usual kung-fu fighting self. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

7/10

Ozymandias

14 Oct 2011, 09:52 AM

Jason Statham is great. I will watch anything with him in it. I especially like Crank (even though, or perhaps because, it is completely ridiculous and over the top).

neilstone40

14 Oct 2011, 10:42 AM

Jason Statham is great. I will watch anything with him in it. I especially like Crank (even though, or perhaps because, it is completely ridiculous and over the top).

I have the 'crank' ringtone on my mobile - the one that sounds as if the battery is dying... It really, really confuses (and often irritates) people - they keep asking if my "phone is OK?".:D

The crank movies were fun. Simple entertainment, well choreographed fight routines, car chases and explosions.

Same with the Transporter series which also had the great combination of Luc Besson and Corey Yuen behind the scenes which guarantees a good action movie.

neilstone40

14 Oct 2011, 11:52 AM

My kids have asked if the can watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail tonight - sounds like a good plan. They'll already watched The Life of Brian a few times and absolutely love it.

When they mentioned The Holy Grail though, this scene immediately came to mind...

2eMkth8FWno

The_Spiritual_Occultist

14 Oct 2011, 07:00 PM

Home Alone - 8/10

Home Alone 2 - 8/10

Fantastic family Christmas movies! I love seeing the burglars get what they deserve!

MattShizzle

14 Oct 2011, 07:41 PM

Guess a sequel with the same actors would be silly - Culkin in his 30s and the burglars middle aged at least.

The_Spiritual_Occultist

14 Oct 2011, 10:28 PM

Guess a sequel with the same actors would be silly - Culkin in his 30s and the burglars middle aged at least.

Joe Pesci must be close to 70 by now and Daniel Stern is no spring chicken either. I make a point of watching them every Christmas and throughout the rest of the year too; I was born in 1988 so I grew up with the Home Alone films.

MattShizzle

14 Oct 2011, 11:44 PM

I was in my mid to late teens when they came out from what I remember (born Jan 1974)

MattShizzle

08 Nov 2011, 11:51 PM

Just watched the classic psychological thriller "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" From 1962, not as old as you think. Also a story of a bitter former child star more than 20 years before such stories made the news regularly.

DanB

09 Nov 2011, 12:42 AM

"Attack The Block". Not bad for a low budget film.

Silly Sausage

09 Nov 2011, 11:10 AM

Watched 'Hot Tub Time Machine' again last night. I can't help but like it. Its funny and good-natured, and I like that they didn't bother with the science of time-travel.

7/10

Laton

09 Nov 2011, 11:21 PM

Super 8

Meh, not a bad movie but not a great one either certainly not one that lived up to the hype around it.

It had lots of good going for it, the sets and production values were great, the actors who played the kids did a fine job but in the end the story and script really let it down (also the director really needs to stop adding lens-flare in post production). There were a few moments when it felt like the story was on the edge of going somewhere intersting but never made the jump.

5/10

Goodchild

10 Nov 2011, 01:03 AM

Watched 'Hot Tub Time Machine' again last night. I can't help but like it. Its funny and good-natured, and I like that they didn't bother with the science of time-travel.

7/10

I watched that on Netflix recently, and I'd agree with the 7/10. Definitely an enjoyable, silly film.

Ozymandias

10 Nov 2011, 01:07 AM

I recorded it a few weeks ago. I have been trying to persuade the wife to watch it with me, but she doesn't seem to want to (she says she is too busy). Maybe I will give up and watch it on my own.

MattShizzle

10 Nov 2011, 01:46 AM

I saw it a few months ago and thought it was a bit stupid and would say 3/10. Not as bad as some though.

MattShizzle

10 Nov 2011, 01:48 AM

Why is it most movies made before like 1970 are so good and most movies made after like 1980 are so bad? And even worse are ovies 2000+ and better are those pre-1950?
I think I'm channeling the recently late Andy Rooney...

Road Warrior

10 Nov 2011, 02:38 AM

MattShizzle

10 Nov 2011, 02:39 AM

Unforgiven and SPR definitely were great.

Road Warrior

10 Nov 2011, 02:49 AM

Not strictly movies, but there are several great mini-series too such as "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers".

MattShizzle

10 Nov 2011, 02:56 AM

Yeah, but too much stupid shit like "the hangover" and TV is mostly reality garbage.

Road Warrior

10 Nov 2011, 03:06 AM

Yeah, but too much stupid shit like "the hangover" and TV is mostly reality garbage.

Same goes with plays, books and movies of all generations; only about 10% of them are worth a shit.

That said, "The Hangover" was funny. Not exactly Shakespeare, but a fun way to spend two hours. With the cost of movies these days, I rarely go. Preferring to wait for them to come out on Netflix or Red Box.

Silly Sausage

10 Nov 2011, 09:31 AM

Not strictly movies, but there are several great mini-series too such as "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers".

Oh, I think I would give Band of Brothers 9.5/10. It was utterly fantastic. Well acted, well scripted, brilliant.

Laton

10 Nov 2011, 09:49 AM

Road Warrior

10 Nov 2011, 10:51 AM

Oh, I think I would give Band of Brothers 9.5/10. It was utterly fantastic. Well acted, well scripted, brilliant.

+1

Band of Brothers was excellent, unfortunately I don't think The Pacific ever reached the same level.

I liked The Pacific but the utter brutality of the Pacific campaign left little to enjoy. The little moments of humor interlaced in Band of Brothers are completely missing in The Pacific. I'd read the book by E.B. Sledge "With the Old Breed" on which the series was partly based. War has a terrible toll on any person, but the Pacific campaign was especially brutal.

Laton

13 Nov 2011, 08:58 PM

Conan the Barbarian The 2011 version.

6/10 Not bad, but not great. Not a patch on the original Arnold version :)

As with a lot of films these days it could have done with another run through by the editors to tighten the story and chop about 20 minutes of running time. A few instances of spotty special effects and a few really obvious CGI backdrops tended to spoil some otherwise entertaining action sequences.

The demise of the big bad:

Really? After hunting this guy for 20 years or so he gets dropped down a chasm? This is Conan dammit, he needed to disembowl & behead the bastard.

Richard46

13 Nov 2011, 09:18 PM

Lots of good movies after 1980. A few of my favorites are Saving Private Ryan, The Unforgiven (and several of Clint Eastwood's directorial works), Rango, Tangled and the Shrek movies (especially the first two).

Unforgiven is in my top ten of all time. Almost all my favourite films are about redemption and forgiveness; or the lack of it.

I made a list a while back of some of my most watched old movies; I rarely see anything new that I like, getting old I guess.

Witness Harrison Ford

The Verdict Paul Newman

Blade Runner

Twelve Angry Men Sidney Lumet version obviously

Crash

Good the Bad and the Ugly

The Unforgiven

As Good as it gets

Casablanca

The Searchers

Ulzana’s Raid

Valdez is Coming

Sweet Smell of Success

Runaway Train

Rie

13 Nov 2011, 09:31 PM

"The English Patient"... timeless and 10/10. Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Scott thomas... chemistry and fine acting.

Gooch's Dad

13 Nov 2011, 09:35 PM

Pirated "Cowboys and Aliens" and finished watching it last night. It was mostly panned by critics, but I liked it for the most part. It's true, as many critics said, that the aliens are just like monsters in a video game, you shoot at them and that's about it.

The main actors do a pretty decent job overall, though.

I'm going through "This is Spinal Tap" today for the umpteenth time, and I never noticed before how many big-time actors are in it. Dana Carvey even has a part as a mime. I never noticed that before.

Road Warrior

14 Nov 2011, 12:45 AM

Watching "Bridesmaids" now. Pretty funny.

Road Warrior

14 Nov 2011, 12:52 AM

All great movies. Thanks for the list. I put several of them on my Netflix list.

Unforgiven is in my top ten of all time. Almost all my favourite films are about redemption and forgiveness; or the lack of it.

I made a list a while back of some of my most watched old movies; I rarely see anything new that I like, getting old I guess.

Witness Harrison Ford

The Verdict Paul Newman

Blade Runner

Twelve Angry Men Sidney Lumet version obviously

Crash

Good the Bad and the Ugly

The Unforgiven

As Good as it gets

Casablanca

The Searchers

Ulzana’s Raid

Valdez is Coming

Sweet Smell of Success

Runaway Train

MattShizzle

14 Nov 2011, 01:42 AM

Tonight I watched Forrest Gump. The signifigance is that's the last movie I saw in a theater.

Road Warrior

14 Nov 2011, 03:11 AM

That's a while back. The last one in a theater was Avatar. Before that Up.

The only time I go to the movies is to see a spectacle or something very special. Most movies are viewed better at home in a quiet, controlled environment for a twentieth of the price.

Rie

14 Nov 2011, 11:03 PM

Blade Runner as with all Ridley Scott as director is a movie for all men and all time. Evocative moody and the musical score is beautiful. 10/10+

mood2

15 Nov 2011, 08:15 PM

the final part of the girl with the dragon tat triology.

better than the overblown second one I thought, but still disappointing compared to the original. she was a great character, I wish they'd had the confidence to do less explaining and leave her more ambiguous

Goodchild

24 Nov 2011, 02:14 AM

Horrible Bosses 8/10

We just watched this and were laughing practically throughout the entire movie. Totally hilarious and well worth the rental and 2 hours of your life :)

Silly Sausage

24 Nov 2011, 09:51 PM

Goodchild

25 Nov 2011, 12:56 AM

Horrible Bosses 8/10

We just watched this and were laughing practically throughout the entire movie. Totally hilarious and well worth the rental and 2 hours of your life :)

Agreed, a genuinely funny film, and I wasn't expecting it to be all that good.

Same here, I was so worried that it was just going to be typical Hollywood crap passing for comedy ... and was surprisingly well-entertained for two hours :D

Silly Sausage

25 Nov 2011, 10:06 AM

I watched a film called Forever Strong (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840322/)on Wednesday.
Its alright, a tiny bit on the cheesy side, but quite enjoyable. It was the first time I've seen an American film about rugby. Its the story of a slightly wayward young rugby player who gets sent to a juvenile detention centre, and whilst there, is allowed out to play rugby for his old arch rivals. Its a 'personal journey' kinda film, but its not too soggy and has some good performances.

I'd say 6.5/10.

kennyc

26 Nov 2011, 11:56 AM

as per the separate thread I just watched "Serenity" the concluding movie from the Firefly TV series. Very well done and stand-alone as well. I'd give it a 4/5 stars!

Silly Sausage

26 Nov 2011, 01:29 PM

I just watched Rudy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108002/).
I remember seeing it about 10 years ago, and something I saw recently reminded me of it so I thought I'd give it another watch.
Its such a nice film, and Sean Astin is fantastic as Daniel Ruettiger, who never gives up on his dream of playing for the Notre Dame American Football team. I'm not ashamed to say that I blubbed at the ending.

8.5/10

Road Warrior

26 Nov 2011, 04:20 PM

Rudy, like Saving Private Ryan, is one of the few movies that can make guys tear up.

kennyc

26 Nov 2011, 04:23 PM

Rudy, like Saving Private Ryan, is one of the few movies that can make guys tear up.

Oh I dunno....I cry pretty easy ... even at the awesomeness of the universe sometimes.....course I'm one of those emotional poets....

:D

Silly Sausage

26 Nov 2011, 07:04 PM

'tis ok, I'm a bit of a crier too, although I do try to cover it up when I can. Just a minor de-rail, this is what I saw to remind me of Rudy:

ngzyhnkT_jY

Barefoot Bree

26 Nov 2011, 10:29 PM

Just watched Doctor Zhivago (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324937/) - the 2002 movie version with Keira Knightley and Sam MacLintock - and Sam Neill, one of my favorites. Now, I've never seen any other version, nor read the book, so I can't compare this one to them, but I thought it was very good, very well done. Teary, but not unremittingly dreary.

Of course the ending is sad! It's Russian!

Now I need a happy movie to go after it, dammit! *sniffle*

Laton

27 Nov 2011, 11:33 PM

Cowboys & Aliens.
Pretty good but, given the concept and the cast could have been a lot better. It certainly started out strongly but slowed down about an 45 min/hour in

when they meet Craigs' old gang

but then picks up for an entertaining ending.

Overall an entertaining distraction for a night in but could have been so much more.
6.5 -7

(- a few points for a weak script but + several points for Harrison Ford wielding a Colt revolver, his speech to the kid about how he got his knife and some cool looking aliens).

Laton

02 Dec 2011, 10:04 AM

Red Dog

Australian film based on the true story of The Pilbara Wanderer. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dog_%28Pilbara%29)

Great, funny movie with some sad moments woven through the narrative. Very dry Aussie humor as well. My father worked in the Pilbara region of Western Australia as a geologist and from some of his old photo's I'd say they have got the look of the characters down brilliantly.

If you like dogs catch this film.

8/10

Ozymandias

02 Dec 2011, 01:47 PM

Rudy, like Saving Private Ryan, is one of the few movies that can make guys tear up.

I haven't seen Rudy, but there is nothing to cry about in Saving Private Ryan. It is a war movie!

JSpades

02 Dec 2011, 02:37 PM

I watched Scarface yesterday. I felt it bounced from boring to awesome to boring, to culminating in a streak of train-wreck interesting scenes after one of the cheesiest montages ever. The good parts? The chainsaw scene. The tension created by Tony falling for his bosses girl, and Tony's over-protectiveness of his sister. And the aforementioned train-wreck of Tony's life after he gets "the world". Oh, and that damn final shot. Man, that shot.

The bad bits? Even the good bits often come off as suspension-of-disbelief ruining hammy. That can work, but Scarface doesn't sell it right. The film seems to say, "I'm a totally realistic depiction of what some actual criminal lifestyles are actually like," and then we watch a guy eat a dozen bullets while walking around and taunting people. I want to say I'm alright with that if the film is alright with that, but I don't know that it's on board.

So I'll give it 7 out of 10 lines of coke. It's worth seeing for flashes of brilliance and some great scenes, but it's a pretty cheesy ride.

Road Warrior

04 Dec 2011, 12:00 AM

Road Warrior

04 Dec 2011, 04:07 AM

Just watched both "Horrible Bosses" and "Crazy Stupid Love". Both are great and well worth watching, but I'd give the lead to "Crazy Stupid Love" as both funnier and more heart-warming.

Silly Sausage

04 Dec 2011, 01:33 PM

Oh, I loved Crazy, Stupid Love. I fully admit it that I initially watched it because Ryan Gosling was in it, but thought it was really good. I really liked Steve Carrell's character, and although there was some cheesy parts - like the speech at the end, it was indeed kinda heart-warming. I also think Emma Stone is a great up and coming actress. The teenage son was a bit of a scene-stealer too, with his floppy hair and doe eyes, obsessing over his babysitter. He was very sweet, and I kinda want them to make a film in about 6 years when he's old enough for her.

Spoiler alert:
I totally didn't get that the 'nanna' that Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore were talking about during the film was 'Hannah', and it was great when all the storylines collided at the end with the garden fight scene.
Ryan Gosling is a total babe though.

Politesse

08 Dec 2011, 05:58 AM

Moulin Rouge.

I missed this one when it came out but remember everyone raving about how amazing and artistic it was. So watching it I was a bit.... confused. What, exactly, is there to like? The acting is overdone, the music is recycled, the plot is even more recycled, and the cinematographer was apparently on crack. The Roxanne sequence, to be fair, was very, very good. And to be sure, both Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman are very pretty. But one good scene and a pair of lovely lips can't save a whole movie.

2/10

Silly Sausage

16 Dec 2011, 11:06 PM

I just got back from watching the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and I absolutely loved it.
It was funny and smart, and Robert Downey Jr was still as charming as ever as our eponymous hero. Jude Law was great as the ever suffering Watson, and Jared Harris, who played Moriarty did so perfectly, very understated but still cooly evil.

8.5/9 out of 10.

Barefoot Bree

18 Dec 2011, 05:21 AM

Racing Daylight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840363/) Ummmmm. I'm really going to have to watch that again. That was one quirky, weird movie. But I liked it.

Goodchild

22 Dec 2011, 07:41 PM

So, I've watched all the Twilight movies and basically enjoyed them even though tbh they aren't really all that great of stories. But they're at least somewhat enjoyable and have some degree of action.

Today my daughter got me to come watch Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 1 with her, and it is honestly my least favorite of the series. The pacing is very plodding, there's approximately 3 minutes of actual action (which isn't very good action at that), the characters are quite schizophrenic in their attitudes and actions ... it's not that good, even for a Twilight movie.

So, 6/10. It's gotta get some points for continuing a best-selling story and not being terrible, and Robert Pattinson actually shows a smidgeon of emotion in this film.

Goodchild

30 Dec 2011, 03:05 AM

Just watched a quite odd movie, The Ten (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811106/). It's pretty weird, but very humorous at points and just a damned interesting flick. Some parts are groan-worthy, but on the whole it's a quirky film worth watching. I enjoyed it a lot more than the newest Twilight film, that's for certain.

7.5/10

Lanakila

30 Dec 2011, 05:01 PM

Jason Statham is great. I will watch anything with him in it. I especially like Crank (even though, or perhaps because, it is completely ridiculous and over the top).I agree, plus he's hot as hell and I love watching him in just about everything.

Lanakila

30 Dec 2011, 05:04 PM

Lanakila

30 Dec 2011, 05:05 PM

Watching "Bridesmaids" now. Pretty funny.
It failed at being a female version of: The Hangover and the puking and shitting scene almost had me vomiting in the theater. No way I'll watch again. 3/10

Lanakila

30 Dec 2011, 05:07 PM

Gooch's Dad

30 Dec 2011, 05:12 PM

I streamed "The Shawshank Redemption" from Amazon last night. I think this is the 2nd time I've watched the movie. It's pretty good, though not the best movie of all time, which many seem to think. All the characters are very formulaic, which is not surprising for a Stephen King work.

Lanakila

30 Dec 2011, 05:15 PM

I just got a new blueray player and soundbar so I've been watching/buying/renting a few movies. I bought: Cowboys and Aliens, Dogma, Serenity, Analyze This and That on one disk, Sherlock Holmes in blueray and some others that it doesn't matter what they are in like Up In Smoke, The Whole Nine Yards, my son got The HangoverII for xmas.

We rented: Hall Pass, and The Green Lantern (which I surprisingly liked)

praxis

30 Dec 2011, 06:14 PM

Very funny.

neilstone40

30 Dec 2011, 06:16 PM

Just watched A Lonely Place to Die (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1422136/). It was a watcheable enough film and a reasonable thriller although the ending seemed a bit unresolved... The best element though was the scenery, a lot of the main filming locations I've been lucky enough to visit a few times.
7/10

The Inbetweeners Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716772/) was good fun. Rude and crude without being too explicit. I enjoy the TV series and this was just good fun and entertaining. Not going to win any prizes but a funny film.
7/10

Road Warrior

01 Jan 2012, 02:30 AM

My GF and I watched "Tree of Life". The movie is visually stunning, but hard to follow. When a moving seems too long, it usually is.

MattShizzle

01 Jan 2012, 03:04 AM

I watched "Another Earth" tonight. It was weird, boring and rather stupid.

rog

01 Jan 2012, 03:07 AM

I watched "Another Earth" tonight. It was weird, boring and rather stupid.

I was waiting for it for months, I assumed it would be a bit more scifi, but was disappointed on that front; I still thought it was OK though.

Rie

07 Jan 2012, 10:44 PM

Kristen Stewart (of 'Twilight" fame ) has quietly been making some really good indie films. I came across one on satellite and she can really act. Can't remember the name... still they're worth checking out. I give the one I saw 10/10... yep , that good. I'll do some googling and see if something comes up. She's a smart girl as well as a fine actress.'Twilight' is a quite stupid film to tie your cart to if you truly want to be an actor.:D

Road Warrior

08 Jan 2012, 01:44 AM

Any of these ring a bell? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0829576/

BWE

08 Jan 2012, 02:09 AM

Just saw tintin. It was pretty good.

mood2

09 Jan 2012, 01:15 PM

Barefoot Bree

10 Jan 2012, 02:16 AM

Watched Ned Kelly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277941/) last night with Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom. Ledger was always a fine actor throughout his career, but Bloom has had to overcome those elf ears - and I think he's largely been able to, afaic. Very good movie, very emotional. Sad, sad fucking ending, thought - had to pull out an old favorite comedy so I didn't go to bed sobbing in my pillow. All in all, 9/10 - doesn't get a 10/10 because only movies with happy endings get those from me. Sue me.

Rome

10 Jan 2012, 03:35 AM

I recently saw the Sherlock Holmes movie. It was fucking brilliant.

Ozymandias

10 Jan 2012, 10:51 AM

I have decided not to go to the cinema any more. It is such a fucking rip-off.

Rodney Dobson

10 Jan 2012, 11:29 AM

I have decided not to go to the cinema any more. It is such a fucking rip-off.

I wish it were not so but I agree. High prices especially if there are several of you and the sound systems are acceptable if and only if you have ear muffs or the like. Granted that external visual effects can be overwhelming if being overwhelmed is what you want: which, personally it isn't.

All of which would matter less if the story was worthwhile. I can't remember the actual words of Is there life on Mars but roughly:

But the film is a <something> bore
'Cos she's seen it ten times or more..

and what does it matter whether it's Rudolf Valentino, Clark Gable or last week's heart-throb? It's the same film - it's rather like the devoted game-playing type who will spend eye-watering amounts of money to play an admittedly visually stunning version of "space invaders" from 50 years ago.

Or perhaps it's just that Ozy and I are getting old as well as cynical!

Barefoot Bree

10 Jan 2012, 12:26 PM

I go see a movie at the theater about once or twice a year, usually only for something I've been waiting for, and am willing to put up with the suckage in order to get the visual effects of the big screen. But I'm less and less willing these days - between uncomfortable seats, high prices, and way-too-high sound levels, there's not much worth all that. I'll wait till it comes out on video, and I can control all those other details to my satisfaction.

I do still find movies entertaining, though. Not usually particularly groundbreaking - as Rodney says, there's no such thing as a truly original plot any more; it's all been said and done a thousand times. What's new is the details, and the particular eye candy mouthing the lines.

MattShizzle

10 Jan 2012, 02:32 PM

Last time I saw a movie in the thaeater was Forrest Gump in 1994. Too expensive, too crowded and can't pause to go to the bathroom.

Rie

10 Jan 2012, 09:25 PM

"The English Patient" is an alltime great movie. I can watch it over and over. 10/10

Ozymandias

10 Jan 2012, 10:27 PM

I found the English Patient irredeemably dull.

MattShizzle

10 Jan 2012, 11:40 PM

Just watched Apollo 18. Pretty good, but one weird and creepy-ass movie.

crazyfingers

11 Jan 2012, 02:01 AM

Goodchild

11 Jan 2012, 02:07 AM

I am not watching any movies. Over the last few years I've bought the DVDs of Star Trek. All TNGs, all DS9, all Voyager, all Enterprise. I go through them 3, episodes a night, every night, in order from beginning to end. I've been through them 3 times now. I'm on the second to last disc of the last season of DS9 tonight. I expect that two nights from now I'll be starting on Voyager again. I have all the TOS episodes also but I have seen them all too often to go through them at this point.

However, my 8 and 9 year old boys love TOS the best. So they see a few of them each week.

I've been watching Trek on Netflix since they got it, but I'm going slowly ... only on season 4 of Next Gen.

And I do the same thing you mention but with South Park. Every night before bed I queue up about 6 episodes on my computer and fall asleep watching it, usually by the second episode or such. I've been through the entire series now about 10 times and it never gets tiring.

Lanakila

13 Jan 2012, 01:42 PM

Watched on Showtime recently: The Ledge 8/10 it was good and suspenseful plus had the atheist and the fundy pretty well down. Fair Game 10/10. It's a true story about the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent by the Bush Administration and it wasn't the movie that pissed me off but having the facts laid out in the order that they happened by the principals involved just made me screaming mad once again at the Bush administration.

Politesse

18 Jan 2012, 10:14 PM

Watched La Haine (1995)

Very good film; I could give it a full analysis, but suffice it to say, it gets its point across, and the camera creeps through the intensity of the plot with a grim fascination, letting us see the visual and social landscape of Paris from multiple points of view. Even though one of the films themes is the boredom that underscores the scenes of action and violence, the intensity of the presentation is well maintained, the viewer doesn't get a breath until after the credits roll. This is Mean Streets, moved to the Parisian Banlieu and invested with more believable characters. The antagonists become exaggerated toward the end of the film, opening up the movie to some criticism, where the police are concerned. But that, and the utter inadequacy of the English subtitles to capture the pathos and creativity of the French street talk, are the only weak points.

9 stars out of 10

Goodchild

19 Jan 2012, 12:36 AM

This feels like the best thread to talk about something related to movies and reviews in :) A slight mini-rant

A friend and I were discussing movies and particularly talking about things like plotholes, pacing and such and basically deconstructing movies we enjoy. Then I confessed that I used to just like movies that I got a kick out of until I started paying attention to online reviewers with a comedic twist like Half in the Bag and Plinkett Reviews at RedLetterMedia (http://redlettermedia.com/) or many of the various movie-related articles at Cracked (http://www.cracked.com/) or even just reviews based on bad movie physics (http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/). Because these reviews were done humorously I paid attention to them just for that reason at first but as time went on I found that I was actually learning things about movies, story structure, character development and all the little things that go into making a movie actually good and engaging. I always knew I disliked the Star Wars Prequels, but now I saw someone putting into words exactly what I knew had been going on in my mind but I didn't understand well enough to express ... I could actually say why I disliked them now.

I'm glad of this, I appreciate well-crafted movies so much more now. But on the flip side, movies I would like to enjoy sometimes just fall absolutely flat for me now because I can recognize bad filmmaking when I see it now :) I was really looking forward to the new Twilight movie, for example, and ever since seeing it I just can't wash my brain of how awful it really was. I wanted to turn my brain off and just enjoy Transformers 3 but the handling of John Malkovich's character was so terrible (and the endless barrage of robot CGI for that matter) that I can't suspend my disbelief even after having watched it enough to buy it as anything more than an advertisement for GM vehicles.

This wouldn't seem such a terrible trade-off, except more and more it seems Hollywood is going to feed us terribly produced shit that's been shown to make money off the brain-dead masses rather than give us well-crafted films that stimulate and entertain us. I'm afraid that more and more I'll find less and less worth watching.

/minirant

Road Warrior

19 Jan 2012, 03:09 PM

Cool links! Thanks for the references.

For fun and entertainment, we can one day go for a roller coaster ride and another day go to a city's Museums of Science, History or Art. Same goes for movies. Some are sad, but tell an important story like Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan while other's are just fun like Avatar or Star Wars. Nothing wrong with that and the world would be a lot less fun if we didn't have them as options.

Politesse

19 Jan 2012, 03:35 PM

Arpie

19 Jan 2012, 05:47 PM

A bad movie is a bad movie, though. It's a bit harder to enjoy lazy writing and cinematography and so forth if you know anything about the craft. Avatar was an abominable movie. It's not about being from Hollywood, or having celebrities in it, or being popular- it was just plain badly made. It needed an editor. And a screenwriter.

I know nothing about the craft but sure agree about Avatar, though it was so awful I didn't watch but maybe a third of it if that. IMO about 90% of all movies are really bad, and it's the good ones that stand out.

Found a really good Brit TV movie online yesterday, and thought I'd pass it on. Page Eight is the title, and the acting alone makes it well worth watching. The King's Speech was another masterpiece, and As It Is In Heaven, a Swedish film, was perhaps the one I enjoyed most from the last decade. But what really saddens me is just how many horrible movies get made. It seems such an obvious harbinger of devolution in action. I sure would like to see a movie about that. Concrete Galapagos?

Ozymandias

19 Jan 2012, 05:51 PM

I found The Kings Speech really boring.

mood2

19 Jan 2012, 08:26 PM

bad production values don't bug me so much as crap writing. all I want from a film is an interesting story and characters I care about. I'd settle for either actually. You'd think with the gazillions of dollars that go into making a film that wouldn't be so hard.

Politesse

19 Jan 2012, 08:29 PM

The problem being that getting script to film in Hollywood requires more influence than talent, and there's a heavy potential for executive meddling along the way.

mood2

19 Jan 2012, 08:59 PM

I think all those gazillions of dollars are a big part of the problem, they're all shit-scared of not being popular enough, so the temptation is to always play safe, appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Pendaric

19 Jan 2012, 09:04 PM

I'm sure most people would class it as a bad movie, but I just watched and enjoyed the original 80s version of 'The Punisher', with Dolph Lundgren in the title role.

Not a complicated movie. Lots of shooting, blood and gore. Just what I wanted, and one of my favourite Marvel characters at that.

I am the lowest common denominator.

7/10.

Arpie

19 Jan 2012, 10:10 PM

Say it ain't so, Pen. You like Lundgren movies? Are you into Segal and Bronzon also? You really surprised me here. Would have never guessed it.

I agree with Mood2 wrt the cause of the downward trend. And obviously that bottom tier is becoming larger. That's what I was referring to in my devolution comment. And it's probably why Page Eight, like Tinker Tailor, aired as a BBC show. Nobody gets shot, punched, or fucked, so the appeal is quite limited. :(

mood2

19 Jan 2012, 10:21 PM

the good thing about the BBC is it's funded by a licence fee, so every individual programme doesn't need to be populist. they can sometimes cater to minority tastes, take risks, nurture talent. gawd bless em.

Arpie

19 Jan 2012, 11:23 PM

Boy do I second that mood2. Canada's CBC is similar, and also has some good news shows. Besides Tinker Tailor, which I consider by far the best show ever, my second choice would be The Last Place On Earth, another BBC production on the race between Scott and Amundson to the south pole. Then there was Upstairs Downstairs and Fawlty Towers. If we had something equivalent in the US I would actually buy a TV. :)

crazyfingers

19 Jan 2012, 11:31 PM

One of the last things I watched on TV before I stopped watching TV (as opposed to my DVDs) was Are you being Served? We liked that show. It's been a long time since I liked a TV show.

Arpie

20 Jan 2012, 02:01 AM

Forget DVD's. Doubt they'll be around much longer. Can't remember last time I watched one. It's all live streaming now, and there are far more movies available for free than Netflix has and with much better hosting software. They use MS silvergate and it is SO inferior I can't believe anyone uses NF.

If you want to watch AYBS here's one of many links to where you can do so. http://www.ovguide.com/tv/are_you_being_served.htm And thanks for the tip. Not sure if I've seen this one, and if I have it was long ago. Oh, and Yes Minister and later Yes Prime Minister were also great shows.

I've seen some pretty good PBS productions, the best being NOW with Bill Moyer, but their best stuff was from the BBC. Praying Mantis was another classic. Sorry for going OT here though. :o

Pendaric

20 Jan 2012, 08:50 AM

Say it ain't so, Pen. You like Lundgren movies? Are you into Segal and Bronzon also? You really surprised me here. Would have never guessed it.

:D

I am a child of the 80's. I like a good Schwarzenegger/Stallone/Lundgren action flick.

Although 'The Punisher' was more because of my liking for Marvel comics.

Road Warrior

20 Jan 2012, 10:33 AM

A bad movie is a bad movie, though. It's a bit harder to enjoy lazy writing and cinematography and so forth if you know anything about the craft. Avatar was an abominable movie. It's not about being from Hollywood, or having celebrities in it, or being popular- it was just plain badly made. It needed an editor. And a screenwriter.

I enjoyed it, but some agree it needed a little editing because some parts dragged. Overall it was a visual joyride and I had fun watching it.

Part of the problem some critics had with it was that several parts of it were cliches/had been done many times before. The big difference being the 3D animation which as the main focus. It's a popcorn movie, not Hamlet.

Several of my associates at work are in their mid to late 20s and movie buffs. When talking action flicks, I bring up "The Wild Bunch" which many haven't seen, so I'll loan them my DVD. Watching it one can spot many "cliches", but that isn't correct because "The Wild Bunch" was the movie all the other's imitated. It was the first. It was also the movie that John Wayne criticized by saying it "destroyed the myth of the Old West". (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000078/bio)

Road Warrior

20 Jan 2012, 10:50 AM

http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/wild-bunch-the.php
Filmed in 1969 and directed by Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch is the tale of a group of on-the-run bank robbers fleeing across the border to Mexico after a robbery gone terribly wrong. To describe it simply as a caper film, however, is to do the film a great injustice. The Wild Bunch is also a tale of an age coming to an end. Set around the time of the Mexican Revolution, it tells the story of a world that is changing, and what happens to those who cannot cope with that change. It’s famous for its extreme violence, but it is one of the few films where the violence serves a very specific purpose. In a way, the violence is the message in The Wild Bunch. And that message is: No matter how hard you fight, you can’t stop change.

This movie has my top ratings and is highly recommended to all who haven't seen it.

Barefoot Bree

20 Jan 2012, 02:44 PM

I've decided that I don't want to become a knowledgeable connoisseur of movies. I'd rather be able to plug in some mindless piece of entertainment and enjoy - or not - it based on my own idiosyncracies. I'm afraid that if I learn too much and come to be able to spot bad moviemaking such as you guys are talking about, it would ruin too many movies for me. Not that I watch that many anyway, so I don't want to add another layer of critique that would ruin many of the few that I do watch.

Silly Sausage

20 Jan 2012, 06:36 PM

I am a child of the 80's. I like a good Schwarzenegger/Stallone/Lundgren action flick.

Hell yeah! When I first heard about The Expendables, I was so excited.

And Dolph rules. He may be a pretty bad actor, but when he has the lead role you can always rely on him for a high body count, lots of explosions and some fantastically cheesy lines.

And there's something to be said for a 6ft 5, muscular man with a high IQ and a rather tasty smile :o

http://www.celebrityring.info/images/pictures/Dolph-Lundgren-2.jpg

Arpie

20 Jan 2012, 10:48 PM

I truly envy those here that are so easily entertained. Dolf, Steve, Arnold, Charles, Sylvester and their ilk just don't work for me at all. Never really been into camp unless it is intentional as in Rocky Horror Film Show. I mean, how many ridiculous fight scenes and shoot-outs can you watch before it becomes boring? I can enjoy a good action flick, like The Departed, and Arnold has been in a couple I found ok like The Terminator. But I've never seen one movie by any of the others above that I would watch again or even once in most cases. :dunno:

As for The Wild Bunch, while I did like it years ago, I started to watch it again online about a year back and like so many oldies it had lost most of it's luster. Still way beyond the John Wayne knock-offs I just trashed mind you. I just don't think it really broke new ground as RW does. (Was that before or after The Magnificent Seven? I thought that was a slightly better movie.)

For me High Noon, billed as the first adult-read realistic-western, was a far more seminal production. I was 10 when it came out and must have seen it 10 times. Of course even that one doesn't hold up against some more modern classics like The Unforgiven, Dances With Wolves, or Hombre. But I think it helped create the demand for such later movies. All I can see that The Wild Bunch spawned was the spaghetti westerns and say a few like Silverado.

All this is totally subjective natch, and may have more to do with age than any objective evaluation of these films/actors. Most here hadn't been born when HN was released. Like all kids I once loved cartoons, but all animations were of no interest for me as an adult. Now I have to ask myself why in the hell I would think anyone cares about anything I have written here. Sorry. :o :(

mood2

22 Jan 2012, 06:48 PM

Carnage (2011)

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos.

Director:
Roman Polanski

Writers:
Yasmina Reza (based on the play by: "Le Dieu du carnage"), Yasmina Reza (screenplay), and 1 more credit »

Stars:
Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz

disappointing. great cast and one of the best paedo directors around, but it never really took off. It's a set piece 4 hander and very obviously based on a play, relying totally on performances and script. A sorta modern comedy of middle class manners I spose, but didn't draw me in and felt dated.

Goodchild

24 Jan 2012, 12:54 PM

Just thought I'd mention the 2012 Academy Awards nominations (http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/oscars/2012-oscar-nominees-list-215122612.html) have been released. I'm sad to have to admit that I haven't seen a single film or any of the performances in any of the nominations listed so far (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Actress)

Politesse

24 Jan 2012, 05:25 PM

Says something about the film world this year, haha. The only one of those I saw and would actually recommend is Rango; it was actually quite good. 7.5 out of 10 let's say?

Ozymandias

24 Jan 2012, 11:23 PM

Just watched The Adjustment Bureau. It was an unrepentant woo-fest. Utter shite. 1/10.

Road Warrior

24 Jan 2012, 11:26 PM

That's why I always read reviews before paying good money to see a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/

That one is rated 7.1/10

MattShizzle

24 Jan 2012, 11:36 PM

I've noticed for AT LEAST the last decade, I had never heard of half the movies when they are nominated for an award.

Pendaric

25 Jan 2012, 10:49 AM

Rewatched Blade Runner again last night. It's rightly a classic, although I did think it was a bit dated looking having not seen it in about 10 years.

8/10.

DanB

25 Jan 2012, 12:03 PM

Shogun Assassin (1980). Saw it for the first time yesterday. Good movie.

Road Warrior

25 Jan 2012, 12:04 PM

Rewatched Blade Runner again last night. It's rightly a classic, although I did think it was a bit dated looking having not seen it in about 10 years.

8/10.

Which version?

The "Tears in the Rain" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_saUN4j7Gw) scene is awesome!

Goodchild

25 Jan 2012, 12:31 PM

Shogun Assassin (1980). Saw it for the first time yesterday. Good movie.

I loved that movie since the first time I ever saw it as a 12-year old! Granted the most indelible image of the movie in my mind is a man being chopped in half vertically with a fountain of blood spraying out ... but it was some fantastic storytelling despite the gruesomeness of some scenes.

I've always wanted to read the manga it's based on, Lone Wolf and Cub (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_wolf_and_cub), but have never gotten around to it.

Arpie

26 Jan 2012, 05:32 AM

Watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a couple days back. 8/10, based mostly on the performance by the gal-forget name-that played the lead role. Incredible. Sure hope she wins best actress.

Today I saw the rest of Hugo, actually favored for Best Pic at Oscars. I just don't see it. 3/10 if that. Really boring imo.

Road Warrior

26 Jan 2012, 01:06 PM

From what I've read, "The Artist" is the film to beat at the Oscars with Clooney the actor to beat for his role in "The Descendants".

As always, Oscar offers surprises (http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/columnists/chris-vognar/20120124-as-always-oscar-offers-surprises.ece)
Handicappers will tell you the way to winnow the nine down to five is by looking at the best director bracket. Want to narrow it down further? Look at the film editing category. There are three movies with picture/directing/editing nominations: The Artist, Hugo and The Descendents. Those are your true contenders, probably in that order.

What surprise me was the snub of the Harry Potter movies. The entire series is very good and very popular. I haven't seen the last two, but from what I've read, it should have been nominated.

Silly Sausage

26 Jan 2012, 01:30 PM

I have to say that I'm kinda disappointed with the Oscars this year (not much of a surprise really).
They've missed out some great films, Drive, We Need To Talk About Kevin etc.
I have to say that all the hype surrounding the Artist has really put me off watching it. When I hear things described as 'Nothing short of a triumph", it makes me want to retch. I might watch it at some point, although not any time soon.

I'm not that surprised to see the Harry Potter films miss out, they weren't that great, and popular doesn't always mean good, just as good doesn't always mean popular.

I'm kinda interested in this 'Hugo' film though. 11 Oscar nods and I know nothing about it. I might give it a go if it sounds interesting. Anyone fancy a just-for-fun SC sweepstake as to who can guess which nominees will win the big awards on the night?

Goodchild

26 Jan 2012, 02:20 PM

The nominations committee obviously never watched Tucker & Dale vs Evil. It's a travesty that it's not up for Best Picture :(

Politesse

26 Jan 2012, 03:01 PM

Road Warrior

30 Jan 2012, 12:48 AM

"50/50" Great movie! My girlfriend cried through a quarter of it.

Laton

30 Jan 2012, 01:44 AM

Immortals

I must say I wasn't expecting a huge amount from this, having heard it was a cross between 300 and Clash of the Titans but damn if I wan't entertained.

Visually spectacular, I loved the look & feel of the film (don't expect anything at all resembling the real world for the most part) but if you're going to do Greek myths & gods then this is the way to do it. Once the gods get involved the action is violent, fast and bloody. The first time Ares shows up and starts swinging a mace around things get crazy real fast.

Great? - no. Story? - huh? Fun? - yes and a fine way to waste a Friday night.

Road Warrior

30 Jan 2012, 01:49 AM

I like fun!

Thanks for the review.

Silly Sausage

30 Jan 2012, 12:45 PM

I'd have to agree with Laton here, I went to see it recently with my other half, and it was indeed a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

I'm gonna lower the tone a touch here.

Girls, if you're not a big action fan, but enjoy eye candy, there's plenty in this film:

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/Henry%20Cavill%20Immortals%20newpic3.jpg http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/26000000/Henry-Cavill-Shirtless-Immortals-Stills-henry-cavill-26025362-938-1222.jpg http://0.tqn.com/d/movies/1/0/z/G/Y/immortals-stephen-dorff-henry-cavill.jpg

MattShizzle

31 Jan 2012, 11:43 PM

Unthinkable - the movie that was the subject of a thread here a few months back.
Jesus.

Goodchild

07 Feb 2012, 12:40 AM

Well, the movie's not out yet but I'm going to give a 9/10 for the just released extended trailer for the Avengers movie. I can't wait!

Loki - "I have an army"
Stark - "We have a Hulk"

rE09rUdpB94

Road Warrior

07 Feb 2012, 10:23 AM

Due to the Battle of the Actresses thread, I watched Jodie Foster's "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" (1976) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074806/) with Martin Sheen on streaming Netflix. The movie is of the horror genre, but is mostly mystery and only one minor scene showing blood. Martin Sheen's character is a real sleaze bag. I rated it 7/10.

Silly Sausage

08 Feb 2012, 11:26 PM

Well, the movie's not out yet but I'm going to give a 9/10 for the just released extended trailer for the Avengers movie. I can't wait!

Loki - "I have an army"
Stark - "We have a Hulk"

rE09rUdpB94

I totally had a geek-gasm there :D

Marquez

09 Feb 2012, 12:58 AM

I'm an avid moviegoer. My favorite movie of the year was Crazy, Stupid Love (8/10), but I also liked Hugo (7/10). I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but Chronicle (6/10) greatly exceeded my expectations, which were low.

Silly Sausage

09 Feb 2012, 04:21 AM

Hachi: A Dog's Tale.

I thought it was going to be a cute, happy dog movie (I should have read the blurb).

All I can say is have your tissues handy for the last 30 mins or so.

7/10

neilstone40

09 Feb 2012, 07:15 AM

All I can say is have your tissues handy for the last 30 mins or so.

What kind of movie is this...?:evil:

Laton

09 Feb 2012, 08:16 AM

I totally had a geek-gasm there :D

Looks good, but I'm waiting for this:

:D

Py_IndUbcxc

Dofgnid

09 Feb 2012, 08:25 AM

Most recent movie watched in a theater: The Descendants. It was a touching complicated tale of a family facing the death of a loved one and the disposition of Hawaiian property held in a family trust. If you were fairly recently involved in pulling the plug on a loved one that was in a coma, don't see it, it will tear your guts out. It's been almost four years since my mother died after being removed from life support, which was her wish, and it still made me cry. George Clooney put in the best acting performance he's ever accomplished. Actually, everyone did.

I give it 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

Dofgnid

09 Feb 2012, 08:30 AM

Most recent movie watched on Netflix: Shootout, starring Gregory Peck as a parolee seeking his back-shooting partner in crime. I remember seeing this movie in the theater in 1969 or 1970. That was an era where Westerns were turning toward gritty realism. This one is no exception, the bad guy is sadistic and cruel. The good guy is a bad guy bent on revenge, but with a code of ethics the baddies lack.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Goodchild

09 Feb 2012, 04:37 PM

I totally had a geek-gasm there :D

Looks good, but I'm waiting for this:

:D

Py_IndUbcxc

omg, that looks so freaking awesome! It's now on my must-watch list :)

Silly Sausage

09 Feb 2012, 04:52 PM

:confused:

I don't even know what to say after watching that trailer!

Silly Sausage

09 Feb 2012, 04:53 PM

All I can say is have your tissues handy for the last 30 mins or so.

What kind of movie is this...?:evil:

Oh noes, you've discovered my dog porn fetish!!! :eek:

You dirty sod, lol.

Road Warrior

09 Feb 2012, 04:57 PM

I totally had a geek-gasm there :D

Looks good, but I'm waiting for this:

:D

Py_IndUbcxc Let's hope it's as funny as that trailer was awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sky

Laton

09 Feb 2012, 10:36 PM

I'll intersted to see how it goes: a Finnish/German/Australian collaboration made outside the big studio system could be all kinds of awesome of fail badly - so long as people realise this is a total piss-take I think it will be well recived by its target audience.

Goodchild

10 Feb 2012, 01:46 AM

Just watched the new Conan the Barbarian (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816462/). I think this film has gotten some undeserved bad press and/or reviews, it was an absolutely fun and enjoyable Conan romp. Yes, there were a few "too convenient" moments to move plot along that take you out of the film a bit and there were two instances of shoddy green-screen work ... but other than that you get exactly what you should expect from a Conan story IMO.

I mean, the new Clash of the Titans is rated higher on IMDb and I totally can't understand that ... Clash was unbearably boring and dragged out with no coherent plot. This movie is far, far better.

7/10 Definitely worth a rental IMO. I'll have to think it over though before I buy it and let it join the older Conan flicks on my shelf, I keep a very small selection of movies.

MattShizzle

11 Feb 2012, 11:48 PM

Shelter. Stupid and weird. 1/10.

Road Warrior

12 Feb 2012, 01:33 AM

Rewatched the Cosmos series on Netflix streaming. I hadn't seen it since it first played on PBS back in the 80s. Still awesome even though a bit dated. 9/10

Silly Sausage

18 Feb 2012, 02:18 PM

Bridge to Terabithia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398808/)

A nice film with rather an unexpected ending.

7/10

Lanakila

18 Feb 2012, 03:02 PM

Horrible Bosses. Was pretty funny in the Hangover kind of way.

Silly Sausage

18 Feb 2012, 05:03 PM

Country Strong (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1555064/).

I had it on in the background while I was doing my housework. Phew-y, sure was stinky (the film, not the housework).

3/10, and that's only because the guy playing the singer was hot, and because Neal Casal was in it.

Goodchild

26 Feb 2012, 02:58 AM

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1268799/)

If you liked the first two you'll like this one. It brings the laughs, though the idea of a toddler getting high on cocaine might be a little upsetting for some. And, of course, the Neil Patrick Harris part is absolutely freaking brilliant! I mean, you honestly get to see Neil and his fiance, David Burtka, kiss! And then pretend to be heteros who are pretending to be homosexual :D

8/10

Ozymandias

26 Feb 2012, 03:06 AM

Just watched Battle for Los Angeles. That is two hours of my life I won't get back. :(

Goodchild

26 Feb 2012, 03:20 AM

There's an interesting story of redemption in that movie Ozy, it's just covered up with a flimsy alien invasion story and some pointlessly over-long action scenes.

eta Found a nice review of it with a good bit I thought I'd share:

Battle: Los Angeles also suffers from being a bit overlong, and it's relentless, action oriented approach means that a lot of similar scenes play out over and over again: Marines trapped in combat, things don't look good, a character makes a choice or sacrifice, they manage to subdue their attackers, and then the film moves to the next scene in this same format. There is also little or no development of the alien menace. Snippets of television coverage featuring scientific experts fills in a little of the backstory to them, but it is mostly incidental. However, Battle: Los Angeles is not created in that style, it is about the action going on with the marines in the thick of it, and stays in that mode.

Goodchild

29 Feb 2012, 03:10 AM

The Thing (2011) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905372/)

Been really looking forward to this coming out on rental today, my son was also really excited about it after I got him to watch John Carpenter's The Thing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/) and he loved it.

IMO, we weren't disappointed at all. It's somewhat different from the original (it's a prequel) but it's still a good scary story of paranoia and helplessness. It tells a story that we mostly already know the final answer to but it's interesting seeing how it gets there. And the end ties it in very neatly with the 1982 film.

If you liked Carpenter's, I very much recommend this one. You even get to see more of The Thing's, which makes sense because as viewers who've seen the original there's no point in keeping it as hidden as possible. There's also internal logic that explains why we would see it more this time.

8/10

Laton

06 Mar 2012, 08:30 PM

The Adventures of Tin Tin

Pleasantly suprised by this one. I fondly remember reading some Tin Tin books when I was a kid but everything I had seen about the film had left me unintersted. From what I'd seen of the trailers the graphics were kind of off-putting but in an actual film I found them OK.

Some fine action sequences (one - the motorbike chase - had a very old-school Indianna Jones feel to it), a few genuine laughs and a good adventure story. The voice acting was pretty good, Andy Serkis as Haddock was the stand-out of the show.

My only complaint was that it felt just a little over-long toward the end.

7/10

Goodchild

11 Mar 2012, 03:22 AM

Apollo 18 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772240/) 6/10

A 'found footage' style movie. There's some decent tension in the film but it feels like it starts quite slow and takes quite awhile to build up to the drama. Once it gets there it snowballs pretty quickly and the last 10 minutes are frenetic.

Not great, but enjoyable enough. Worth watching once but I couldn't see re-watching it really.

One funny bit, we suspected the rocks early on and my son blurted out "Rock Lobster!" ... and as it turned out he was totally right :)

Road Warrior

11 Mar 2012, 03:31 AM

I've got Apollo 18 on DVD from Netflix but haven't watched it yet. Your review coincides with what I've read in the newspapers; a fun diversion but not worth repeating.

Goodchild

11 Mar 2012, 03:41 AM

I've got Apollo 18 on DVD from Netflix but haven't watched it yet. Your review coincides with what I've read in the newspapers; a fun diversion but not worth repeating.

One nice aspect to it is that they seem to get the feel of an Apollo mission down pretty well, with the lingo and such. So from a geeky point of view that's a bit of a plus :)

Road Warrior

12 Mar 2012, 12:35 PM

We watched "Centurion" last night on Netflix streaming. Lots of action, blood and guts, but deserving of the 6.4/10 score given on imdb.com. However, I really enjoyed watching hottie Olga Kurylenko's character, the deadly female Pict warrior Etain.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OuKIMUeA20M/TGTqZv1xLTI/AAAAAAAADnA/yvGPwoad2AY/s1600/olga-kurylenko-as-etain.jpg

Oolon Colluphid

15 Mar 2012, 11:59 AM

Kill List (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1788391/) 8 / 10

A weird, disturbing horror film. A Mike Leigh film that turns into a spiralling descent into a heart of darkness, maybe -- or perhaps not -- with Wicker Man overtones. Will need watching at least twice to figure out what was really going on -- as opposed to what seemed to be going on, which was merely a retired hitman doing one last job (list of jobs) and going off the rails.

Since I've not yet done that second viewing, I'm not too sure what was going on myself. Why do his victims thank him before he kills them? Odd, shocking in places (some excellent editing, cutting away unexpectedly or in one memorable place, not doing so), and memorable.

Very highly recommended to horror fans, highly recommended to everyone else though approach with some caution, as its 18 cert is deserved.

And one of the main actors is Tyres from Spaced. Very good he is too.