What have you watched recently?

Marty McFly

Raoul wrote: »

Yeah I know what you mean. I watched Fanboys the other night aswell. Much the same as the goon in terms of what you get. Its lowbrow type stuff. And I watched the darjeeling limited which tries to be the opposite. While I realise the second is actually a far better movie than the first, I enjoyed the first more cos I could just switch off.

I actually really enjoyed Fanboys, it was simple yes but had a bit more of a story and heart to it than Goon and the comedy bit seemed to fit the film, but it was easy viewing all the same. Darjeeling Limited I havent seen so cant say

paddy kerins

Watched Spawn the other night due to some good feelings I had towards it since I was younger... What an atrocious film. My god, the effects are some of the worst I've ever seen, especially when you consider what came out around the same time, Armageddon, Men In Black and the like. That said John Leguizamo is somewhat enjoyable as the Clown.

Bobby Baccala

Reservoir Dogs, a cinematic masterpiece. Amazing how a film primarily based in a warehouse can be so god damn good.

mikemac1

On a Shakespeare blitz

I liked English in school, just one of those things

Few do period dramas better then the BBC and they produced The Hollow Crown

It's three plays adaptations

Richard II
Henry IV
Henry V

Lots of famous actors, Jeremy Irons is one

Just watched the first one, the production, acting and direction is top class.
Take a bow BBC

Joshua J

Watched Law Abiding Citizen on Film 4 last night. This film didn't make a lick of sense. Not sure if that was deliberate or not. Decent watch but if you dislike plot holes avoid.

toodleytoo

Watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight again to refresh my memory before I watched TDKR. Ledger was really something else in TDK. I found this clip on youtube after. I'd say Ledger definitely drew heavily on this for inspiration.

Duggy747

Blade

Myself and the GF were scrolling through the list and spotted this, she never saw it and I've haven't seen it in probably 10 years.

Aged far better than I would have expected, the 3rd movie had left a sour taste in my mouth and probably tarnished my memory of how good this film was.

A good ol' violent superhero movie with some clever pieces, sooooo 90's as well :pac:

Only thing I hated out of it was Stephen Dorff, rubbish acting.

KenSwee

Watched Outcast this week.
James Nesbitt and other unknowns.
Absolute rubbish.
Terrible acting, dire casting, Super-Valu special effects and disastrous storyline with no back story and rubbish direction. You end wishing they were all dead.

The only two decent people in the film get killed.

Nesbitt is a fool. I always hated his smug ugly head and this film enhances that image.

Tony EH

'The Dark Knight Rises'

At the risk of giving away spoilers, I won't go too far into it, but suffice to say it's a great finish to a pretty good trilogy. It's not without its problems, like all of the films in the trilogy, but it's set a new standard for these type of superhero films.

The "batvoice" is still bloody stupid though. Speaking of voices, Banes voice sounds a bit weird too, like it's overloading or something. Maybe his volume "goes up to 11". But after a while, I just went with it. In the end I liked it.

Anne Hathaway is excellent as Catwoman and overall, her treatment and Bane's is carried off in as adult a way as possible. Which is a bit of a relief, as she's really only appeared in the most insipid type of rubbish up til now.

Like 'The Dark Knight' it's possibly a little over-long, but it doesn't really interfere too much.

Anyway, that's all I say on it. If you liked the first two, then it rounds off the whole thing nicely. But at the end it's a bit of a shame that it'll be just a trilogy and no more will be heard of Nolan's take on the caped crusader.

'The Avengers'

Joss Whedon's incredibly well received take on Marvel's flagship superhero crew won much acclaim from a lot of different quarters, but this viewer was left a bit cold with the whole affair. Not being a "Marvell fan" or an "Avengers fan" is probably a large handicap, but I think that the major problem lies with the Avengers themselves. Besides Ironman, they're an odd bunch. The Hulk, I have always felt was one of the stupidest superheroes ever, Captain America may have worked as a jingoistic load of propaganda nonsense in the 40's, but today he's just ridiculous and Thor is the most campy piece of gay iconography since the 'Village People'. The SHIELD members, while not being "odd", are quite a boring bunch though and while Samuel L. Jackson is fine as Nick Fury, he's just not interesting.

Neither is the story and that's the worst sin of 'The Avengers'. Concerning itself with a yarn about extraterrestrial being called the Chitauri who offer themselves up as an army to help Thor's brother Loki (ahem...adopted) conquer the world in return for an item called the Tesseract, which is an extreme source of power. Mick Fury gathers the superheroes together under the "Avengers Initiative" and they get in the way of Loki's plan.

The visuals are fine and the fight at the end works well enough, but there's just not enough in 'The Avengers' to qualify it as a great superhero film, like Nolan's Batman trilogy, or the Ironman films. Perhaps it's because besides Ironman, the actual superheroes are a bit silly. Or maybe it's just Marvell's general approach. Maybe it's just Joss Whedon, whose work...I'll be honest...I cannot stand.

The acting is fine enough, with Robert Downey Jr. getting the top honours in his great reprisal as Tony Stark/Ironman, followed by Mark Ruffalo as David Banner/The Hulk. The direction is ho-hum, but it's a well produced film, that'll probably appeal to Marvel fans more than anyone else, despite a generally popular theatre run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hPpG4s3-O4

Bassboxxx

Le Donk And Scor.zay.zee

Shane Meadows film. I dunno if this is a mockumentary or a film about a documentary... Doesn't really matter in the end. While not side splitting funny there was some great humour. Very warm and honest film with a great performance from Paddy Considine...

Well worth a watch.

tunguska

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

COMING HOME

A wonderful anti war film with the legendary
Jane Fonda.

An excellent statement.

9/10

Jon Voight is brilliant in this aswell. Amazing acting at the end where he gives a speech to the highschool kids.

briany

Cell 211 (2009) (Spanish) : A young man named Juan Olivera, about to begin a career as a prison guard, is being given an informal tour of the facilities in which he will be working the day before he is due to start. Things start to go awry when a riot breaks out in one of the cell blocks and Juan becomes separated from the other guards and instead must brave the other prisoners and the riot itself.

Brilliant film. Had me on edge from beginning to end and it's rare that a film really does that for me but this one was so well acted and tightly scripted that it's runtime of nearly two hours flew by. The Spanish have a real knack for taut satisfying thrillers and a really great actor in Luis Tosar as well who could be the next Bardem in my opinion.

A

the_syco

Saw The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! recently - really enjoyed it, and it had a good few laughs in it.

It's about a merry crew of pirates that are in the middle of a dry spell, getting nothing but ghost ships, leper ships, and a class of children. They meet a scientist, who promises them riches, and off they go.

It's a stop motion film, and thus lots of odd crew mates of all shapes and sizes.

OldeCinemaSoz

THE DEVIL INSIDE

what was going on with the sales thru
in tesco?

18.99 for the stand alone disc?

:eek:

i wouldn't pay this for a SE of a favorite. :rolleyes:

mikhail

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

THE DEVIL INSIDE

what was going on with the sales thru
in tesco?

18.99 for the stand alone disc?

:eek:

i wouldn't pay this for a SE of a favorite. :rolleyes:

Tesco is very predictable in their pricing. Anything just out (along with Pixar's back catelogue) is way overpriced. Films that have just slipped out of fashion (depending on the film, anywhere from 1-4 years old) are about €10. Older movies again are variously around €5-8.

Cantona's Collars

Saw Ted & Pirates! An Adventure With Scientists,two funny movies at the opposite end of the spectrum.One with a talking teddy that's definitely not for kids & the other an enjoyable kids movie with some humour for adults.

nicklauski

Harry Browne

I keep passing it on Netflix and say I'll watch it tomorrow. Well tomorrow finally came. Watched it last night.

I was expecting something along the lines of a British Gran Torino. Old man has enough of people being bullied and takes revenge on the gangs terrorising the neighbourhood. But it's a lot darker, grittier and even more violent.

Michale Caine was brilliant. Couple of Game of Thrones regulars popping up, Ian Glenn, Liam Cunningham and old Walder Frey from Season 1. Jack O Connell (skins) shows up, as well as Plan B aka Ben Drew, who was surprisingly alright. Although calling someone a Fackin Slag in his best cockney accent shouldn't be too hard for him

Really enjoyed it, Solid 7/10

nicklauski

Harry Browne

I keep passing it on Netflix and say I'll watch it tomorrow. Well tomorrow finally came. Watched it last night.

I was expecting something along the lines of a British Gran Torino. Old man has enough of people being bullied and takes revenge on the gangs terrorising the neighbourhood. But it's a lot darker, grittier and even more violent.

Michale Caine was brilliant. Couple of Game of Thrones regulars popping up, Ian Glenn, Liam Cunningham and old Walder Frey from Season 1. Jack O Connell (skins) shows up, as well as Plan B aka Ben Drew, who was surprisingly alright. Although calling someone a Fackin Slag in his best cockney accent shouldn't be too hard for him

Really enjoyed it, Solid 7/10

Potential-Monke

Decided to get this as i remember wanting to see it when it came out, but never got round to it. So...

Horribly disappointed with it. It had great action scenes, an some very cool aliens, but the whole thing was let down by the fact that

the gang of thugs who are the main characters are glorified in the end. Throughout the whole film they were nothing more than bottom feeders and i was rooting for the aliens to kill every single one of them.

The odd funny moment, and a brilliant line in referral to violent crimes and the perceptions of what caused them, and some good CGI at times, but other than that it was ruined by my point above.

3/10

johnny_ultimate

Red Desert - Michelangelo Antonioni film currently showing in the IFI. A film well worth seeing on the big screen for its eerily beautiful visual design. The camera curiously flirts with focus throughout, and the colours are bold and hypnotic. Antonioni makes wonderful use out of modern architecture, technology and nature throughout.

The film concerns a woman struggling to adapt to the demands of modern living. Reminded me of Through a Glass Darkly at parts. There's some fantastic sequences throughout - an extended mid-sequence 'party' of sorts, a hypnotic beachside fable and various haunting scenes set in factories or fog-covered docklands. There's also a cool robot thing! The core story does have a tendency to repeat itself, and while the the film is mostly ambiguous in its themes, the last fifteen-twenty minutes or so tends to over-verbalise some of the characters' concerns. Still, it's an engaging and challenging (in a good way) watch. While Antonioni went on record saying it isn't wholly a critique of technology run amuck, it's hard to watch it today without thinking it was ahead of its time in terms of environmental concerns.

BopNiblets

I also watched The Pirates! pretty good, made me laugh a few times.
Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the best Aardman film though, everyone needs to go watch it right now if they haven't seen it, it's genius...
Doooo it!

Bassboxxx

Somers Town

Another Shane Meadows film. Great little film, looking at a relationship between two young lads over a few days. Warm and at times funny.

Tony EH

'Scarface'

Brian De Palma's overblown, bombastic, noisy, foulmouthed "remake" of the 1932 classic drew some heated flak from audiences and critics alike when it first "graced" the screens in 1980. The Italian director’s epic tale of coke-fuelled murderous excess was deemed to be over the top in both its use of violence and the "F word", that it simply turned many people off. In addition the Cuban and latin American communities of America despised the film. In later years, however, many people have come to see the film in a different light and it's gained a considerable fanbase.

The rise and fall of Al Pacino's, scenery-chewing, Tony Montana wasn't as beloved as his previous gangster, Michael Corlione and his performance was the key point for a lot of debate. But, like the film itself, Pacino's performance has won more admirers than detractors over the years.

The story is a basic "rags-to-riches-to-rags" scenario showcasing Cuban criminal, Montana and his friends Manny (Steven Bauer), Angel (Pepe Serna) and Chi-Chi (Angel Salazar) as they are exiled (supposedly) from Castro's Cuba. Once in the States, they immediately embark on a life of crime, starting off with an assassination of a former Cuban official (in return for a green card) and then moving on up the ranks within a local crimelord’s drug cartel. Montana eventually becomes a powerful mob boss himself, but finds that when he is at the top, he is still unsatisfied with life and his actions destroy everything he has built up.

'Scarface' is quite a bleak and miserable film, despite its focus on excess and apparent success. Nobody is content with their lot (with the exception, perhaps, of Manny and Tony's sister Gina) and the fake notion of the "American Dream" achieved through crime is displayed clearly. But nothing ends well for anyone in Oliver Stones script.

I have to confess, I'm a recent convert to 'Scarface', having previously disliked the film. I never rated it that highly before despite seeing it several times and it's only in the last few viewings that I really enjoyed it. Pacino's performance I always considered good, if a little hammy, but the film overall I felt was lacking something. Also, not being a fan of Brian De Palma wasn't going to help either. Perhaps it was the 80's tastic nature of the film too that put me off. Either way, it's now a film that I can enjoy for some reason.

It also boasts a few outstanding scenes, like an infamous section of a drug deal gone wrong near the beginning of the film and the "you need people like me" scene. Of course, the ending is also the stuff of cinematic legend.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pQQHnqBa2E

briany

Last night, I saw City Island. It's a comedy drama about an Italian American family from the titular area, a small island near the Bronx in NY. Each member of the family has their own vices or ambitions that they keep secret from one another but that gets harder for all during the course of the film.

I thought that this was gonna be a try hard indie comedy that didn't really go anywhere but it ended up being a very enjoyable film with a good message, it just takes the plot about 20 mins to get moving in a definite direction.

livinsane

Just watched The Insider. Loved it. Is there anything that Russell Crowe cannot pull off? You'd barely recognise him. Heartbreaking story played with such dignity and restraint by Crowe. Soundtrack was awesome too.

Judgement Day

BopNiblets wrote: »

I also watched The Pirates! pretty good, made me laugh a few times.
Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the best Aardman film though, everyone needs to go watch it right now if they haven't seen it, it's genius...
Doooo it!

Funny, I found it to be by far the weakest of their productions and I'm a big fan of Aardman. I found the humour forced and many of the gags poor reworkings of ones from the original superb Wallace and Gromit movies. "Chicken Run" and "A Matter of Loaf and Death" are far better but each to their own.

Jimmy Iovine

s8n wrote: »

Goon - Quite possibly the worst film I have ever seen (even worse than Hollow Man and I still know what you did last summer)

Cant fathom why this good reasonably good reviews earlier this year !!!

I will not hear a bad word said about that film. I have fond memories of watching it in a friend's house back when we were 10/11. It was the first time that I'd seen a naked breast in a film/television show (we didn't have the channels back then but I'd seen plenty of pictures).

We watched Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 2 that night as well. 1 was good but 2 was pretty bad. Saw another film about Christmas that night as well.

None of them were as good as the tits scene in Hollow Man :P.

krudler

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

I will not hear a bad word said about that film. I have fond memories of watching it in a friend's house back when we were 10/11. It was the first time that I'd seen a naked breast in a film/television show (we didn't have the channels back then but I'd seen plenty of pictures).

We watched Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 2 that night as well. 1 was good but 2 was pretty bad. Saw another film about Christmas that night as well.

None of them were as good as the tits scene in Hollow Man :P.

I feel so very fcuking old right now.

castletownman

Just got around to watching The Help. Now I never read the original novel so I don't know how it translates onto the big screen, but I thought it was an excellent, often moving, account of the plight of the African Americans in the 1960's deep south. It's target audience was probably geared more towards women than fellahs but nonetheless it was one of the more enjoyable films I've seen in a while. Some touching scenes, particularly near the end (Abiliene and Constantine in particular ), solid acting throughout, accurate soundtrack etc. Only slight downfall was the running time of 135 mins or so dragged a bit around the middle. For me the sign of a good film is one that makes me shed the odd tear, and in that regards it certainely was successful! Definitely worth a watch. 7.5/10

nkay1985

Just back from seeing Ted. It's ok but nothing special. A few decent gags but MacFarlane needs to learn that Family Guy has had its day and doesn't need to be worked into a movie like this. He shouldn't have done the bear's voice because it's just Peter Griffin and shouldn't have cast some other Family Guy regulars when there was no need.

Wahlberg is decent in it. I love Mila Kunis so I'm biased but I thought she was fine.

Some very poor dialogue and predictable turns.

Wouldn't recommend that people go to the cinema to watch it but it's probably worth a DVD rental or certainly a download.

Maybe 6/10, maybe 5/10.