What have you watched recently?

Schism

Watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy again tonight for the first time since it was in the cinema. Still loved it!

Sad Professor

The Limits of Control

A mysterious, taciturn stranger, who hates mobile phones, doesn't speak Spanish and enjoys drinking two espressos in separate cups, travels to Madrid where he sits in cafes, visits art galleries and has bizarre encounters with the various eccentric characters that make up the film's superb supporting cast, with whom he exchanges matchboxes before moving on. What's it all about? I haven't the foggiest. It's repetitive and indulgent and yes, a little bit like watching paint dry, but it's also extremely atmospheric, stylish and sensuous - and maybe the director should have made it as a short film instead.

johnny_ultimate

Carnival of Souls - horror oddity from the Midwestern US of A. Reviewers have called it a lost / extended Twilight Zone episode, and it's not too far of the mark. There's probably around 30 minutes of plot padded over 76 minutes. The acting shifts between engagingly strange and outright hammy.

Yet for all its B-Movie qualities, it's actually worth a watch. The organ-based soundtrack is atmospheric. The black & white photography is actually really crisp and well composed. And, despite being the general plot being desperately buffed with all sorts of nonsense, there are a few visual scares that are genuinely creepy.

Not to oversell it - this is low-budget, B-Movie territory, no doubt about it. And it's rare you see a 76 minute film that could probably have done with around twenty minutes shaved off the running time. But there's enough interesting bits to make it just about acceptable.

Ridley

Paycheck - Meh. Interesting enough idea with the various tat used to piece together the 'correct' future so you don't get yourself killed but I didn't think there was enough there to allow the possibility of failure.

Nice of that one guy to see his death on that very spot and hang around for it.

Avengers Assemble - Liked it as did most people it would seem. Prefer Iron Man myself although I didn't realise I wanted a comic relief Hulk.

The Avengers coming together under Coulson's death and Hulk realizing he can change at will (blech)

wasn't particularly convincing but whatever. Gotta laugh at those who called Whedon sexist for the

"mewling quim"

remark. Yeah he's a well known misogynist alright. Wish Cap had kept 1940's suit, mind.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Rewatch. Loses something on the second viewing, however my opinion of it is mostly unchanged.

Man on Fire - A dang sight better than Taken which MoF was bundled with for that kidnapping-themed DVD set. Ending was bit too clean for my tastes (

sure Creasy dies but he does it on his own terms

) but it seems the ending of the book might have been worse for me.

12 Angry Men - Good film, putting it mildly. Trailer sucks; poster sucks. Both trying to make a film about nameless people and their flaws look like a thriller.

The Bourne Ultimatum - More of the same for the Bourne series which is fine by me. Nice touch that They stuck with Moby for the theme throughout.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian - Pleasant surprise after the first movie. Hank Azaria's villain is pretty lame but the CGI is done well and there appears to have been a conscious effort to make a better film. Ending kinda undoes the film and writes Them into a corner for a third movie though.

Superman - Rewatch. Nope, still don't like Superman. It was important for the superhero movie genre an' all but there are a fair few flaws such as the unnecessary setting up of the sequel for Zod and co, and that time travel business. Still, at least They didn't think the character needed to be 'gritty' and that stupid green rock actually weakens the guy.

21 - Meh. Kid gambles, kid loses, kid gets revenge on Kevin Spacey, kid gets to go to Harvard after all. Good for him.

Ong-Bak - Fine for what it was, I guess. Tony Jaa's moveset got repetative. Not that I could do any of that stuff but I don't expect people to pay to see me jumping through small gaps several times either.

Ip Man - Unashamed Chinese propaganda and faux-history against the Japanese while somehow at the same time making the Japanese Imperial Army general appear intimidating by having his subordinate be a sadistic Smithers/Toht hybrid. Still, good to watch Donnie Yen's martial arts.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon -Well it wasn't as dull as the second movie and I thought the whole Chicago sequence was very impressive. You have to sit through a lot to get to that point but at least I didn't get bored this time.

Zorro Rides Again - Totally stupid cheesefest of a serial but there's entertainment value. It's really hard to hate a Zorro who sings his own theme tune! It's even harder to hate a fat villain (that can wield a whip better than the hero) whose dastardly plot to disguise himself Zorro comes undone by saying his horse is dead. "But you said legends can never die!" Or a cliffhanger where Zorro can fall backwards off a building but still cling to the side in the next chapter. Plus how many movies can you say which

end with the hero's horse independently choosing to knock over the villain and trample him to death

? And man does Zorro love that stunt of dropping from a height onto his horse. Getting progressively higher each time but never quite topping the time he does a u-turn to run up some steps to make the jump. Take that Transformers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGzYo2qb0Tc

L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat - ...

Fred Ott's Sneeze - Much prefer it by the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze title.



Night Mail - Dislike it alot. Supposed to be a documentary but it's too fake. And that poem is awful.

Men in Black 3 - Better than the second film at least. Josh Brolin is a young Tommy Lee Jones but I didn't find the movie particularly funny.

I Am Legend - Nature having retook New York was nicely done. Bit of a let down toward the end, it was far more interesting when it was just

Will Smith (w/ dog) as the only survivor.

Tangled - Trailers did the film no justice at all. For a Disney movie the villainy is complex and it's funny. Goes a long way to redeeming the mess that was Chicken Little.

Merantau - 'Twas fine. Watched it as a precursor to when The Raid's on DVD due to the reviews. Why are the white English speakers always seemingly lousy at delivery in Asian cinema? Even with a Welsh director. Vinnie Jones manages to be worse in Survive Style 5+. I get there might be a need for exaggerated performance but still, it's not like the English isn't going to be subtitled.

Salt - Found it pointless. No reason to root for Jolie/Salt since she doesn't have a clear motive by movie's end.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Another one which the trailers misrepresented. Apart from

Caesar playing with the Statue of Liberty

I felt the reference to the original movie distracting and John Lithgow doesn't get enough to do. However, the film was enjoyable enough and with a story that isn't really about an army of apes. Some nice work from WETA too which again makes the shoddy effects in Gulliver's Travels disappointing.

Help! I'm a Fish - Hate the clunky tagline: "A potion put them in the ocean." Love the logo which was sadly one of the incentives for me to actually want to see the film.



Along with the title, it being a 2D picture and Danish. Sister gets turned into starfish after drinking a potion designed to help humanity survive when the icecaps melt... by turning them into fish (erm...). Brother changes as well to go after her because there's of course a time limit on drinking the antidote to turn back into people. However, at the same time the antidote has the reverse effect on fish and has begun turning a pilot fish into evil Alan Rickman. Film's nothing too special but it's a distraction at least.

Strangers on a Train - At last, I'll stop confusing the title with The Lady Vanishes. Enjoyed it.

North by Northwest - Didn't like the ending. Preferred SoaT.

The Last Airbender - Offal. Don't know how anybody could look at a season's worth of stories and try to make that one film. Fairly faithful to the cartoon in that regard at least. Sokka has had his personality removed for the film and it's understandable that fans of the series wouldn't be happy that the three protagonists are all white when Caucasians are apparently absent from the Avatar: The Last Airbender world.

Prometheus - No idea why I liked it when the movie has certain implications for the xenomorph which I've never wanted to happen, the story is a mess, and the characters aren't convincing ('cept Fassbender) along with other problems.

"Please kill yourselves, it's important, honest!" "Okay!" *asplode*

Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace - Rewatches. Still think CR is one of the best of the Bond series if not the best. Meanwhile Quantum of Solace, despite being a direct sequel, starts slipping back into the territory of the original twenty. Love the fight for a gun on the scaffold but the decision to add in jokes to the film like the old lady dropping her wares is just baffling to me.

13 Assassins - Simple enough plot of stopping Lord Naritsugu before he becomes untouchable though I found it odd that

his samurai stuck by him when he found out that Naritsugu was willing to take his bloodlust into another war.

And geez, that little kid just standing there...

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure - Think the Ewoks cartoon was my introduction to Star Wars so it makes sense for me to get to the movies eventually. Liked it for the most part. Child actors fairly weak despite some Luke-isms shining through at times and some things happening 'just because'. Interesting that the Towani mother says "Oh God" in the Star Wars universe and the effects work to give the Gorax height was impressive (although I don't know what, if anything, has changed for the DVD). Distance, not so much.

Basq

The Grey - not really great. Started off well but by 45 minutes in, I couldn't give a crap as to what happened the cast of characters.

Couldn't help but think of the superior (in my opinion.. but judging from IMDB, I'm in the minority) horror movie 'Frozen' throughout. And then on the aftermath of the plane crash, I couldn't help but think of the superior 'Alive'.


What was really distracting was Dermot Mulroney doing his best Steven Spielberg impression:

Sleepy

District 9
Ashamed that it took me so long to watch this. Fantastic movie and great to see something so original.

Tony EH

Fookin Praawn...

Cokeistan

Watched RocknRolla last night. Very similar to Lock Stock and Snatch, which is fine by me! Thought it was a great movie that hopefully has a sequel

D'Agger

Cokeistan wrote: »

Watched RocknRolla last night. Very similar to Lock Stock and Snatch, which is fine by me! Thought it was a great movie that hopefully has a sequel

Love that movie - good cast in it imo

FishBowel

Maitresse - French movie from the 1970s. The only one I've seen where a woman hammers nails into a man's sac.

Bobby Baccala

trainspotting - just watched it for the first time, excellent film, ewan mcgregor gives a brilliant performance, soundtrack is really great too, plenty of trance.

BUBBLE WRAP

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

trainspotting - just watched it for the first time, excellent film, ewan mcgregor gives a brilliant performance, soundtrack is really great too, plenty of trance.

1+

Great film.

kryogen

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

trainspotting - just watched it for the first time, excellent film, ewan mcgregor gives a brilliant performance, soundtrack is really great too, plenty of trance.

How did you manage that!? :eek:

Thought it was a right of passage to see that in your teenage years

Watched Disclosure tonight on the box

Still a decent watch, Moore is brilliant in her character of slut/bitch and Douglas plays himself, only a better version of himself

dyer

watched this last night.. 'Transfer' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270120/

its german (subbed) but worth the effort if you liked the black mirror series that aired recently (at least imo).

was a bit bored so threw this on after.. 'Womb' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216520/

quite a slow burning movie but equally bizarre, not sure why exactly but i enjoyed it (deals with issues of cloning.. specifically giving birth to a recently deceased loved one) .. some people might not be able to watch this!

mikemac1

12 Angry Men
Was hearing about this a long time, liked it a lot
Very interesting
Tis a long time since I saw a play but if they ever ran this as a play in Ireland I'd make an effort to attend


The Inbetweeners
Meh, just ok
The whole franchise is getting a bit tired, no more then average
There were the odd good jokes but wouldn't recommend


Bull Durham
Like baseball, like Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner but I didn't like this film
Yet reading around it's hyped as one of the best baseball films out there
Not imo
Found it long and not particularly interesting


Valkyrie
Loved it, I saw it a few years ago when it was in the cinema and gave it another watch
So many good things about this film, thumps up

don ramo

havent watched a film in a week or two, so i gave Star Trek (2009) a whirl last night for the 4th or 5th time, still awesome, that opening sequence is unbelievable, and sets up the rest of the film perfectly, looking forward to part 2 next year

sulu heading into warp

Sulu: i dunno whats wrong sir
Pyke: is the parking break on
(Sulu laughs and looks for whats wrong)
Spock: have you disabled the external inertial dampeners
(Sulu fidgets and disables the dampeners)
Sulu: ready:D

FishBowel

Muppet movie- the first one. Lots of cameos from big names in the 1970s.

grohlisagod

The Birds.

Excellent as always from Hitchcock. Starts slowly but I suppose that's the point. The ending is simply fantastic.

fitz0

don ramo wrote: »

havent watched a film in a week or two, so i gave Star Trek (2009) a whirl last night for the 4th or 5th time, still awesome, that opening sequence is unbelievable, and sets up the rest of the film perfectly, looking forward to part 2 next year

sulu heading into warp

Sulu: i dunno whats wrong sir
Pyke: is the parking break on
(Sulu laughs and looks for whats wrong)
Spock: have you disabled the external inertial dampeners
(Sulu fidgets and disables the dampeners)
Sulu: ready:D

I think Star Trek is the only reboot I've seen in the past few years that's actually better than the original. High hopes for the second one.

briany

Following (1998): A black and white film about a greasy young man and would be writer who, after a spell of people watching/following, becomes an accomplice to a gentleman thief.

Christopher Nolan fits a lot into 69 minutes into this, his first feature film. It has a very noirish quality with deceit, more deceit and a femme fatale but I do wish the film had focused more on the thief/writer escapades. Oh well. 6/10

grohlisagod

briany wrote: »

Following (1998): A black and white film about a greasy young man and would be writer who, after a spell of people watching/following, becomes an accomplice to a gentleman thief.

Christopher Nolan fits a lot into 69 minutes into this, his first feature film. It has a very noirish quality with deceit, more deceit and a femme fatale but I do wish the film had focused more on the thief/writer escapades. Oh well. 6/10

Only one of his films I haven't seen. Been meaning to check it out for a while. Sounds decent.

FishBowel

Pollyanna - with Hayley Mills, Hollywood's ugliest child actress.

Birneybau

FishBowel wrote: »

Pollyanna - with Hayley Mills, Hollywood's ugliest child actress.

I prefer sexy kids too : )

BopNiblets

^ Haha.

I caught the majority of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid this afternoon, it was ok, some chuckles from Steve Martin as a spoof noir detective with scenes from older noir films cut in.

Fishooks12

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Really liked this. Not perfect by and stretch but it's very watchable and full of great characters. Brilliant soundtrack from Micheal Andrews too.

Prompted me to check out more of the Duplass brothers anyway after I was put off with the forgettable Cyrus

johnny_ultimate

I really couldn't warm to Jeff... which is weird because a) I am a Duplass fan and b) everyone else seemed to love it.

First half was amiable enough, but the second was too mawkish for me and the overall thing just felt so very slight. Which is the same for all their films too, I guess, but just didn't work for me personally this time around.

Anyway, Puffy Chair and Baghead are much better. Check 'em out.

Fishooks12

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I really couldn't warm to Jeff... which is weird because a) I am a Duplass fan and b) everyone else seemed to love it.

First half was amiable enough, but the second was too mawkish for me and the overall thing just felt so very slight. Which is the same for all their films too, I guess, but just didn't work for me personally this time around.

Anyway, Puffy Chair and Baghead are much better. Check 'em out.

I actually felt the same way towards Cyrus. The overly sweet indie hallmarks kind of kept me at a distance, and while they were present in Jeff to I found the characters much easier to warm to

Will definitely check out those now though

don ramo

just watched blue valentine been meaning to watch it for a while now, it was a good film but i thought it would be better, really shows how easily and fast a rut two people can grow into, having such a young daughter and barely being able to look each other in the eye,

although TBF all cindy wanted was someone that would

fcuk her six ways from sunday, and goslings character being the little b1tch he was couldn't give her what she wanted:D

mikemac1

Mongol
I liked it a lot
Has the look of a high budget film, some realy spectacular scenes and beautiful backgrounds
Showed his rise to power
They realy need to follow up a do a sequel, might even get a triology out if it


Enigma
Great sountrack, I'll mention that first
Didn't like the film though, no more then average

I thought Jeremy Northam was the best actor.
Wasn't a fan of him in The Tudors but I've liked most of his other work a lot

Tony EH

FishBowel wrote: »

Pollyanna - with Hayley Mills, Hollywood's ugliest child actress.

Wait....what?