What have you watched recently?

Darksaga87 wrote: »

Brendan Butler

Gerard Butler...?

Watched Zombieland again, class.

And finally watched City Of God, excellent film.

Up In The Air, quiet a good story, i was really surprised, i havent seen a 2 hour film move along so consistently in a long time, a solid 5/5

if this and Avatar are the major best picture contenders at the oscars, avatar is gonna loose, best pics are picked on story, not special affects, at least i hope they are,

Watched a number of movies recently

Avatar in 3D - Agree with a lot of people, an all right story but what a movie when you consider the visual effects. It would appear the 14 years or however long Cameron left this one on the backburner was totally worth it!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Brilliant animated movie, I loved it!

9 - I loved the animation in this film. The story was good enough, but the ending left a lot to be desired, almost like it was cut too short or just lost the run of itself and they ran out of time.

Lost in Translation - A great movie. Good story, the love/sexual tension between the two leads was amazing and made the end just that bit better. No fancy effects or any of that, just a great film with no bells & whistles!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Mila Kunis & Kristen Bell ..hawt! Bit too girly if I'm honest though.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Rachel McAdams, holy wow! I thought this would be a sci-fi first and a romance second, but in actual fact it's most definitely the other way around so in that regard I won't be watching it again. Should have done my research beforehand but oh well

Ali - Great performance by Will Smith. The film's timeline was completely offputting, jumping years and from place to place. As somebody who is only basically familiar with Muhummad Ali (as in the fights, not the leadups and definitely not his life) I found I was lost and wondering what was going on/what year it was during a fair part of this film. Other than that, I enjoyed it.

Catch Me If You Can - Never seen it before, but fantastic performance by Leonardo DiCaprio in a very good movie about some guy I'd never heard of. What a crook, almost endeared me to bank fraud

Lesbian Vampire Killers - Awful movie, and only mildly funny in parts. I think the best thing about this movie was the "scenery".

Forrest Gump - I seen this once when I was much younger and unable to appreciate the movie. Now though, I completely agree with people who think this is very good film. The story was fantastic, and who can't help but admire his unwavering love for Jenny

S Darko - Turned it off at 10 minutes. Horrible, unintelligent, confusing, eugh. While it's no sequel to Donnie Darko, at least Donnie Darko was a fantastic film ..this was just ..no!

Fifty Dead Men Walking - Great performances by Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess made this one thoroughly enjoyable. Even friends with no interest in the troubles enjoyed this movie immensely!

se7en - I'd seen this before but completely forgot about everything up to about 20 minutes before the end. I recalled the ending/guessed it correctly and suddenly it wasn't as fun as the first time around when I didn't :P

Trick 'r' Treat - Supposed to be scary, but not really if you ask me. Though that little dude, he had the potential to be frightening as f*ck!

Paranormal Activity - One or two "jump" moments, but nothing like I was lead to believe with all the hype.

Star Trek - From a guy who doesn't like 99% of Star Trek material, this was a great sci-fi action flick!

Zombieland - Well, it's got ZOMBIES! I liked it, Emma Stone was outrageously good looking and well that's all I need to say, I liked it :P

Up - Another awesome animated movie.

The Invention of Lying - I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais but this was a decent enough film. Like Forgetting Sarah Marshall above though, too girly.

'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'

I don't know why I keep doing these things to myself. The movie equivalent of self-harming.

Maybe it's a cry for attention.

Anyway...this "yoke" is about a prehistoric Megalodon (Mega shark, get it?) and a giant octopus (pretty straightforward that one) that were locked in battle 10 million years ago and frozen in ice. They manage to get free (somehow they are still alive!!!) by some US government intereference (grrrrrrr! Those guys, don't get me started!) and they bugger off around the world causing various disasters (the monsters, not the US government). These disasters include some of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever witnessed in a film.

Anyway some "scientists" get hijacked by the government (grrrrrrr!) and they have to come up with plan to capture/kill the silly creatures. One of the scientists is Debbie Gibson, teen pop sensation from the 80's! She's accompanied by a stereotypical Japanese guy (sayonara!) and a Dubliner (Jaysis howaya!) So the world is in pretty safe hands.

Unfortunately, explaining the premise of this film is SO much better than having to actually sit through it. The film is just too stupid to be enjoyable. It's knowingly trying to hit that "so bad it's good" vibe, but it fails miserably because it's doing it in a deliberate way. The film makers have completely missed the point that the "so bad it's good" vibe happens by accident, not by design.

The trailer on YouTube has had so many hits, it's unbelievable.

BopNiblets wrote: »

Gerard Butler...?

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Midnight Run: with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, Good mixture of action, comedy and drama, great script, the two leads work very well together

The Hurt Locker, very good.

Saw Departures last night (IFI). This is a Japanese film about a musician (cello) who moves back to his home town in rural Japan with his wife, and the only job he can find is as a "NK Agent". Not sure what the English word for it is, but they are the first to tend to a person after they have died: washing, dressing, and generally preparing for the coffin.

This traditional duty was previously performed by families, but in modern Japan that skill has been lost, and now "NK Agents" are engaged by family or undertakers do the job. Sounds simple enough, except that it's a formalized ritual, a performance in front of the deceased's family and friends, and it has to be done right every time. Just to make matters worse, there's a stigma attached to death in Japan, so it causes all kinds of social problems, but the pay is good.

So, you can see straight away that this is an interesting topic for a film, and it's handled pretty well, though I thought the story was a bit predictable. For example: . There are also a few clunky arty bits that don't serve the story - like
Still, the acting is excellent, a good mix of humour and sadness, and it's beautifully directed. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film last year. However, it is not for anyone squeamish about death and dead people, and might be too much for anyone who recently lost a loved one.

Extract hadn't heard anything about it before hand and was pleasantly surprised, good comedy.

Another film I've never seen before is on TV: Interview with the Vampire. I was getting bored with it after the first hour, but then Claudia (Kirsten Dunst, age 12) stamps her little foot down and all hell breaks loose... :eek: