What have you watched recently?

Ironman 2 - woeful. Wasn't expecting it to be brilliant but I didn't think it would be *that* bad.

'The Game'

Michael Douglas is a stuffy, cold and isolated individual wrapped up in his job in finance. He's rich, but unhappy and just not a very good person. His brother (Sean Penn) gets him a present for his 48th birthday. It's from a company called Consumer Recreation Services and involves some sort of role playing venture, or so it seems. Once Douglas gets involved in the game, events take on a more sinister form.

Overall, this is a pretty tight thriller from David Fincher that ties the viewer up in a shroud of mystery. It offers up a load of questions and seems to answer them, but it's only at the end we get the true answer. Unfortunately, 'The Game' doesn't have the ending it should have and the viewer is left feeling that the whole plot is incredibly far-fetched and convoluted. The viewer is asked to blindly accept a LOT of what's gone on in the film with cheap explanations. Pity, because for 95% of it's running time, it's a very good thriller.

Watched Daybreakers earlier tonight. Turned out to be better than I expected it would be. An interesting take on the vampire tale, . It did rip off an awful lot of ideas from other films, in quite a blatant manner at times, but ticked along nicely.

Would have loved to have seen it expand on a few things that were briefly mentioned or shown, which hinted at the vampire virus being able to effect anything living, but considering the budget was small in modern terms, I suppose it was not plausible or cost effective.

'Waterloo'

A 1970 Russian/Italian production about the famous final battle of Napoleon in 1815. Starring Rod Steiger in a scenery chewing role as France's greatest military leader and Christopher Plummer as Lord Wellington. Some of the acting is way over the top at times, but strangely seems to suit the whole film. Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, the film at times has a really odd quality about it that's hard to explain. Parts of the first hour feel like some bloated stage play. Bondarchuk, who was never a truly great director, does well enough in the project as a whole. But, where he really succeeds and it's what makes the film worth watching, is in the spectacular battle scenes during the second hour (as he did with his previous film 'War and Peace'). The producers managed to gather 20,000 Russian troops for filming, decked them out in the uniforms of France, Britain and Prussia and threw them into a field in the Ukraine full of explosions, smoke and horses. Shot in the days before CGI, everything you see on screen was shot for real and when you think about the work that must have gone into filming those scenes, it's truly amazing. The battle of Waterloo pounds with cannons, muskets and charging cavalry and for the most part, the film sticks to the history quite well. Although at times, parts of the battle can seem quite leisurely (especially during the attack on Hougoumont), on the whole it's difficult to downplay. It does help to be a little familiar with the battle, but 10 minutes on the web will sort that out. Special mention must go to the costumes and sets which are incredible and go a long way to capturing the feel of the period. 'Waterloo' certainly isn't the best film you'll ever see, but it is one of the best films about the Napoleonic Wars you'll ever see.

JohnK wrote: »

Just watched The Road. Now maybe its just me but surely this is one of the most overrated movies ever?! Granted the performances were good but the movie itself did absolutely nothing for me. Certainly doesn't strike me as something I'll be watching again.

I thought it was one of the most moving films I've ever seen - almost brought me to tears and that's saying something believe me. Do you have kids John? Maybe that makes a difference for how it resonates with different people.

The Book of Eli
Lovely desaturated art style like Terminator Salvation. Unfortunately the film is really, really boring. Even though I thought The Road was really depressing, the road was far more interesting. Great to see Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson of ROME fame) getting work.

The Road
Depressingly bleak outlook set in a post-apocalyptic world. The pace is swift; showing how terrible humanity could/would be in this given scenario. The only problem (besides the film being so depressing) is the course of action taken by Viggo. For his character I guess it's all about aimlessly prolonging life, and not quality of it. Very well made film, but it's the most depressing film I've seen in a long time.

The Wolf (2010)
I love horror films, but this period slasher wasn't particularly entertaining. The cast are a rather unlikeable lot. Benicio del Toro's the main character, and really is just 'there'; nothing special or endearing about him. Hugo Weaving gives his best ole-timey 'Agent Smith' impression, while Anthony Hopkins' performance doesn't really match his dialogue. He was cold and emotionless, which was a little bizarre. It's an odd case of no-one endearing themselves to the audience. It wasn't that interesting either; the historical significance, or 'rules of being a werewolf' aren't explored, which was a shame. Wouldn't recommend.

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Interesting film, which continually went downhill, bottoming out when Alice changed into shiny armour, and Johnny Depp did an awful jig to some truly awful pseudo dance music. I find the use of real people against completely CG backgrounds really unappealing. It was more 'hey, wasn't the original film great, when you were last here' than a movie that could stand on it's own. I guess it had too much to live up to (comparing it to the excellent 1951 animated film) ...and Tim Burton was really out of ideas. There is zero creativity on display.

Johnny Depp really missed the mark with his performance/portrayal of the Mad Hatter, I thought he would've been excellent....and Helena Bonnam-Carter picks up another paycheck. I wish she was as deliciously charmingly evil as other wicked queens before her, but alas it was a poor effort as well.

I have other gripes with the film, but overall I was disappointed, and wouldn't recommend. I had low expectations but ultimately found it was a waste of time.

The Twilight Samurai, really great samurai drama, it's not really an action movie, there's only two short fights in it, but it's superb.

Just after watching Solomon Kane, enjoyable enough film. Far more hits than misses with a hefty slice of hammy dialogue. I've never read the comics and know zilch about the character but I liked it.

Purefoy was pretty good as SK, it was fairly refreshing to see an action hero have that bit more of a range of personality rather than just a miserable sulking bastard. I couldn't help thinking he sounded like a farmer but I prefered it to the typical out-of-place American accent or well-spoken English accent for a grizzled character.

The usual swords 'n sorcery clìches are here ("These a dark times we live in" What sorcery film doesn't have that line? :pac:)

The feel of a medieval film was captured perfectly with the locations, costumes and all that mullarkey. The let-downs were some relatively unusual editing to the rest of the film in parts and
Overall, not a bad film. It's the 1st of a proposed trilogy so if they keep it level for the 2nd film I'll probably keep with it.