What have you watched recently?

BopNiblets

Went to The Muppets last night, quite enjoyable.

Needed more Big Mean Carl though.

budgemook

BopNiblets wrote: »

Went to The Muppets last night, quite enjoyable.

Needed more Big Mean Carl though.

Went last night myself.

Not as good as some had me believe but good none the less.

Finneen

Overnight - story doc of Troy Duffy who got a major movie deal but was too arrogant and ended up losing most of his acclaim.

Turtyturd

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Really enjoyed it, it lacked a bit of action for a summer release but that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it did a decent job of telling/setting up the Planet of the Apes story line. Some of the scenes between Cesar and Will were genuinely touching as were some of the scenes between Cesar and the other apes. Looking forward to seeing where the sequel goes.

Super Troopers: Thought it was good but felt it was also a bit of a missed opportunity and could have been a lot funnier in some places.

johnny_ultimate

Tiny Furniture - written by, directed by and starring Lena Durham, this is a lovingly crafted study of post-graduation aimlessness. Like a female-focused take on Noah Baumbach's Kicking & Screaming, and bearing some similarities to the likes of Funny Ha Ha. It's very funny at times - a dry satire on New York faux-intellectualism, but most of the characters are well-drawn despite their inherent absurdities. Actually becomes quite emotionally involving in the second half: you'll feel strong frustration about main character Aura's decisions, and it's painful watching her inadvertently pushing people who care about her away.

There's likely not enough 'happening' for a lot of people's tastes, and it's the kind of film that always seems to anger a number of critics and audiences. But I thought it was witty, thoughtful and engaging throughout. A strong directorial debut.

Dermighty

Moneyball - very enjoyable, well worth watching.

Safe House - also well worth watching.

mike65

Capricorn One (1977) Very typical Peter Hymas film and very typical Lew Grade production of the time (lots of quite famous faces, sunny locales, flashy plot with little substance). Can only be watched with brain in neutral. The script emphasises the 20 minute transmission time and then forgets about it as Brukaker and Co chat across 200 million miles just so there can be a plot development (lazy arsed writing was always Hymas weak point). The out of control car scene resorted to speeding up the film oh dear. Why did the unseen baddies not finish off Elliot Goulds character in the old western town? Why was the relationship between the journalist and the NASA guy not established properly before the suspicious behaviour began? and so on. The more I think about it the worse it gets.

GAAman

GAAman wrote: »

Tonight it will be the blu ray of Aliens to see how it looks, "Game over man!!"

I will start by saying I have always, and will always love this film. I have seen it that many times I could act in it. The blu ray looks fantastic in places, but conversely it also showed some of the films flaws too. At least twice because the picture was that good you could see strings holding up the aliens tails, in the scene where the APC crashes you can see as clear as day that they are running away from a screen.

But I still love it

Princess Peach

I watched the Greatest Movie Ever Sold with Morgan Spurlock. He discusses product placement in film and TV in a highly satirical manner by getting companies to fund the entire movie by using product placement. It was really interesting and very funny! He is great at making documentaries that entertain.

stoneill

Princess Peach wrote: »

I watched the Greatest Movie Ever Sold with Morgan Spurlock. He discusses product placement in film and TV in a highly satirical manner by getting companies to fund the entire movie by using product placement. It was really interesting and very funny! He is great at making documentaries that entertain.

Did you watch it online? Can seem to find it anywhere.

Princess Peach

stoneill wrote: »

Did you watch it online? Can seem to find it anywhere.

I live in Canada so have it on Canadian netflix. There are sites to watch free documentaries I use for college, but this one is new and a bit commercial so might not be available yet.

Stormageddon

Drive - Bored me senseless to be honest.
Red State - Moved along fairly quickly, ALOT of surprising plot twists. John Goodman had a much bigger role then I was expecting so I was happy. That man makes everything better.

razorblunt

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - it was decent, thought Gary Oldman coasted in it a bit. Toby Jones is a terrific actor though and Mark Strong was excellent.

X-Men First Class - better than X3 not a patch on the first two though, shoddy graphics too. Liked the McAvoy and Fassbender dynamic and what a cameo!

krudler

anyone seen Red Cliff? worth a watch? the theatrical version is on netflix, one of those movies I always meant to watch but never got round to it, might do later

Mickeroo

krudler wrote: »

anyone seen Red Cliff? worth a watch? the theatrical version is on netflix, one of those movies I always meant to watch but never got round to it, might do later

I've not seen it, but I've heard the theatrical cut is pants, might be better off tracking down the original chinese cut.

Watched John Carpenter's They Live for the first time lastnight. Was great, some cheesey one liners and action masked what wasn't a bad sci-fi satire on modern society.

James T Kirk

Stormageddon wrote: »

Drive - Bored me senseless to be honest.
Red State - Moved along fairly quickly, ALOT of surprising plot twists. John Goodman had a much bigger role then I was expecting so I was happy. That man makes everything better.

Drive comes directly from Bullitt, and lands squarely in Michael Mann territory.

Ryan Gosling is channeling Steve McQueen, and the film riffs off Miami Vice, Heat, Collateral, Grand Theft Auto and, bizarrely, Halloween. In other words, it's "too cool for school".

It's a pretty cool film. As cool as an L.A. breeze, dude.

Stormageddon

I went to L.A. once. Got a heat rash and had to stay indoors.

Was a bit disappointed by Heat too to be honest (I know I know, Pacino and Deniro together, my opinion is now invalid)
I've really liked everything Ryan Goslings been in that I've seen, and I know Drive got rave reviews but I dunno all I can remember now is a snazzy jacket and an interesting soundtrack. Saying that, I was doing other things at the same time so maybe I just wasn't paying close enough attention.

In conclusion, meh. *rolls down pastel sleeves*

craftypaddy

Princess Peach wrote: »

I watched the Greatest Movie Ever Sold with Morgan Spurlock. He discusses product placement in film and TV in a highly satirical manner by getting companies to fund the entire movie by using product placement. It was really interesting and very funny! He is great at making documentaries that entertain.

i watched it a few months back, very interesting film defo worth a watch.

Jax Teller

The Sitter .
Wasn't half as funny as I thought it would be .

Coletrickle88

Coletrickle88 wrote: »

The Sitter .
Wasn't half as funny as I thought it would be .

It's easily one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. Only watched it as I had 80 minutes to kill and was hoping that David Gordon Green would show some of the promise of his early films. It felt far, far longer than it's meager 80 minute run time and there wasn't a hint or wit or originality to be found. I imagine that Jack and Jill would a superior film as that at least has the promise of Al Pacino doing crazy stuff for a pay check.

clappyhappy

Watched Machine Gun Preacher last night, wasn't what I thought it would be about. Very watchable though, Gerard Butler was good in it. Enjoyed it.

Icaras

The way of the gun - saw it years ago and liked it, watched it again and loved it. About Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man
Some fantastic lines, great car chase and fantastic shoot outs.
Highly recommended, especially for the price it can be gotten at these days.

MadYaker

Last night I watched "Bubble Butt Bonanza 9" I found it to be quite informative.

Chuchoter

A Separation which took a while to get started but was really really good.
My Week With Marilyn thought it was pretty crap to be honest. It was like a bad TV movie.
The Woman in Black Had potential but was a bit cliche, nothing to write home about
Insidious really, really good. Thought it was going to be your standard possesion fare but managed to be quite unique!
The Iron Lady Deserved all the hype, Streep is wonderful. Would have liked a little bit more focus on her political career than was given though.
The War Horse. Absolute drivel, simple as.

ReacherCreature

Rambo (2008). Straight up balls to the walls action. Love it.

RoyalMarine

machine gun preacher.

fantastic movie.

Patsy fyre

Just watched Real Steal good flick, like Rocky with robots.

mike65

Kellys Heroes (1970) Brian G Huttons follow up to Where Eagles Dare trades Alpine snow for the sunny fields and villages of Yugoslavia (standing in for western France) in this daft but highly entertaining old school 'shoot 'em up'. Part of the joy is knowing that the fakery is real. No CGI of course, but no models, cutaways or even apparent matt shots in this one - if its blown up, its blown up for real. Nice hardware details (all real tanks and half-tracks) and and when inside the blown/burned buildings it looks completely real one almost wonders if whole villages were simply left to rot after WW2 and so made excellent sets 25 years later.

McGrath5

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy I Found this a bit difficult too follow in parts, but liked it overall. I think this film may benefit from a second viewing.

johnny_ultimate

Merry Christmas, Mr Lawerence - of all the great Japanese filmmakers, I don't think there are any that come close to being as cynical about their homeland as Nagisa Oshima. The man sure likes to deconstruct his society!

I've only seen three of his films to date, but I'd rank this below Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan. Still a largely engaging piece of work though, albeit one that feels somewhat meandering. Some great moments throughout that capture an interesting dynamic between British POWs and their Japanese captors. It's slightly more willing to engage with the culture clash than most films would be, and hits Oshima's favoured themes of repressed sexuality and the casual cruelty of social groups. Some damn good performances too - even though some of the Japanese cast seriously struggle with their English dialogue requirements, there's still some expert interplay between the cast, including David Bowie and Takeshi Kitano. Cool theme tune too, which must have inspired a lot of Joe Hisashi's later work. Also loved how 'blue' nighttime was. An odd thing to pick up on :pac:

It does kind of flop around for short periods - including

two or three repetitive and awkward seppuku scenes, none of which pack any of the force of, say, the 'wooden sword' bit in Kobayashi's superb Hara-kiri

- and it's hard to tell what exactly the tone is meant to be at times. Still, well worth a watch, and Naked Youth and In the Realm of the Senses (the latter of which I've always been meaning to get around to) are due a viewing ASAP.