What have you watched recently?

juan.kerr

Total Recall with Colin Farrell. Wasn't bad, plenty of arse shots of Kate Beckinsale.

jaykhunter

Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Classic Jim Carrey & Bill Paxton comedy featuring two brainless but kind-hearted best friends who embark on a mission to give a woman her luggage back. That sounds awful by my description but it's a great movie! Watched for free on that legal movie site run by Tesco (called BlinkBox). The joke types range from implausible buffoonery (how they 'eat' ketchup & mustard to cool their mouths) to slapstick to Jim Carrey's trademark zany facial expressions, to groaners to great laughs - and it all works because of the protagonists. Although the type of humour has aged in parts, it's almost entirely family friendly (apart from isolated swearing & one partially nude part). An undeniably charming film. One of the easiest movies to watch and feel good watching.
Definitely recommend. 7.5/10

Se7en (1995)
I couldn't pass this one up either. Tense thriller about a seasoned about-to-retire cop (Morgan Freeman) and newly transferred gung-ho cop (Brad Pitt) track down a serial killer whose victims are the tableau of the Seven Deadly Sins. The cinematography is intentionally gloomy, just crowded streets, dank apartments, oversaturated, constantly raining city; a type of urban hell, very well realised. The SAW franchise definitely took their lead from this film (one victim vanity made her she chose to die than live physically scarred). Although the world-weary w/ buddy young upstart archetypes might seem cliche the writing and actors make them amiable and believable. The film is quite dark & bleak in it's tone and the director (David Fincher) and Pitt had to fight to keep the original ending. Overall a great film, well made, as well as the icy supporting role of the killer.
Some parts are nasty, and it's grim, but I'd definitely recommend watching (again). 8/10

The Dictator (2012)
Sasha Baron Cohen's latest writing, producing and starring gig. How would he fare with a completely new character? Quite good actually! A politically/racially etc insensitive movie but still maintaining an upbeat, easy-going tone. Brutal spoilt dictator Aladeen (Cohen) has been replaced with a body-double and has to work to reclaim his throne and stop his country from becoming Democratic, with also love interest Zoey (Anna Faris - Scary Movie franchise). Most of the jokes are from Cohen's melting-pot of racist stereotypical attitudes, easy jokes (women with hairy armpits etc) and some gross-out humour. I have to admit that the chuckle/laugh ratio to time was actually quite high for me. I won't spoil any of the gags. There's no biting jokes, one big political satire bit, but overall, an easy-going stupidly funny comedy. The music was great as well, I loved it. If you don't find his humour funny, then stay away, there's nothing witty about it. If you loved Borat, definitely give it a watch. Best watched with a group of lads.
I'm sure on repeat viewings it wouldn't be half as funny, but as a disposable comedy one-and-done, it's a really solid 6.75/10.

MiloYossarian

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy I quite enjoyed it. It's fine.

Beginners I loved it. Made me emote like no woman ever will. A quick sidenote, what is it about cute dogs in films? I go all gooey over them. Like if a dog dies in a film I will cry, but I can watch literally thousands of people getting killed and cheer it on. It's gotten so bad that I will actively avoid watching films where I know the dog wil die eg Marley and Me. I have a strong suspicion that the dog dies in the end so I won't go near it.

johnny_ultimate

I'm reading through Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy at the moment, so decided to watch All the Pretty Horses between The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. **** me it's boring. Takes away all the lyricism and thematic concerns of the book in favour of hitting the main plot points bluntly and quickly. The best stuff in the book is often in between 'stuff happening', but stuff just happens here for no apparent reason and devoid of character motivation. The whole journey of the protagonist feels disjointed, and a ludicrously over-emotive score is exhausting. Matt Damon is awfully bland. A poor, dull adaptation of an intelligent and often quite thrilling novel. Some nice landscape shots, I guess.

Curiously, I'm just reading that director Billy Bob Thornton was forced by Harvey Weinstein to remove over a third of his original cut, cuing much bad blood. Perhaps that footage would actually make this feel like something other than a series of shoddily paced incidences.

bullvine

The Eagle - Not bad, fantastic soundtrack, beautiful to look at, a little slow at the start but picks up and I found it enjoyable, its got the fantastic Mark Strong in a small role which is always good.

Battleship - No worse than any of the transformers but sort of ends kinda suddenly, some very nice effects.

White Noise - Interesting idea but last 20 mins are just awful

B.A._Baracus

PhiloCypher wrote: »

Battleship - As by the numbers an alien invasion flick as you'll ever see but whether its due to the novelty of Navel power being the deciding factor over air power of the sheer brass cheek to lift the grid coordinate mechanics straight from the board game I actually kinda enjoyed it , that said John Carter is the far superior Kitsch vehicle and a very underrated film imo.

For a film based on a boardgame it certainly wasn't shy on cribbing sci fi art assets from computer games in the form of Master chief this guy and metroids morph ball .

we can add Blue Stinger to that as well (with the dome thingy)





So I watched this last night. Now, its not the most crappiest of movies because I believe if you have to turn someone off... then thats crap. You can watch Battleship its just not a good movie :P Just switch your brain off and you'll pass 2 hours.


Biggest thing for me wasnt the "what?" head-shaking moments but the fact the movie is a 2 hour advertisement for the US Military. The veterns were real veterns. The black guy with prosthesis legs really is a solider with prosthesis legs. The general theme of the movie. Pretty much everything about it was "Join the Military, baby!" ... If the US Military didnt support the movies budget then they just got multi-million doller advertisment for free :P

budgemook

The Kings Speech
Completely ignored this film when it came out but decided to watch it the other night. I really enjoyed it. Fantastic performance by Colin Firth and some nice bits if history thrown in. I'm sure there were some inaccuracies but every film like this has them. Some nice insights into old vs new stammer treatment and the do's and dont's of royal life.

The Usual Suspects
Haven't watched this one in a long time. Has really held up very well. Surprised to see it's a Bryan Singer film for some reason. What I really liked was that even now it had something new for me. When I saw it years ago I thought the twist was clear but now I think it leaves a lot to be decided by the viewer. Maybe Kaiser Soze didn't exist at all.

Tipsy McSwagger

jaykhunter wrote: »

Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Classic Jim Carrey & Bill Paxton comedy featuring two brainless but kind-hearted best friends who embark on a mission to give a woman her luggage back. That sounds awful by my description but it's a great movie! Watched for free on that legal movie site run by Tesco (called BlinkBox). The joke types range from implausible buffoonery (how they 'eat' ketchup & mustard to cool their mouths) to slapstick to Jim Carrey's trademark zany facial expressions, to groaners to great laughs - and it all works because of the protagonists. Although the type of humour has aged in parts, it's almost entirely family friendly (apart from isolated swearing & one partially nude part). An undeniably charming film. One of the easiest movies to watch and feel good watching.
Definitely recommend. 7.5/10

Se7en (1995)
I couldn't pass this one up either. Tense thriller about a seasoned about-to-retire cop (Morgan Freeman) and newly transferred gung-ho cop (Brad Pitt) track down a serial killer whose victims are the tableau of the Seven Deadly Sins. The cinematography is intentionally gloomy, just crowded streets, dank apartments, oversaturated, constantly raining city; a type of urban hell, very well realised. The SAW franchise definitely took their lead from this film (one victim vanity made her she chose to die than live physically scarred). Although the world-weary w/ buddy young upstart archetypes might seem cliche the writing and actors make them amiable and believable. The film is quite dark & bleak in it's tone and the director (David Fincher) and Pitt had to fight to keep the original ending. Overall a great film, well made, as well as the icy supporting role of the killer.
Some parts are nasty, and it's grim, but I'd definitely recommend watching (again). 8/10

The Dictator (2012)
Sasha Baron Cohen's latest writing, producing and starring gig. How would he fare with a completely new character? Quite good actually! A politically/racially etc insensitive movie but still maintaining an upbeat, easy-going tone. Brutal spoilt dictator Aladeen (Cohen) has been replaced with a body-double and has to work to reclaim his throne and stop his country from becoming Democratic, with also love interest Zoey (Anna Faris - Scary Movie franchise). Most of the jokes are from Cohen's melting-pot of racist stereotypical attitudes, easy jokes (women with hairy armpits etc) and some gross-out humour. I have to admit that the chuckle/laugh ratio to time was actually quite high for me. I won't spoil any of the gags. There's no biting jokes, one big political satire bit, but overall, an easy-going stupidly funny comedy. The music was great as well, I loved it. If you don't find his humour funny, then stay away, there's nothing witty about it. If you loved Borat, definitely give it a watch. Best watched with a group of lads.
I'm sure on repeat viewings it wouldn't be half as funny, but as a disposable comedy one-and-done, it's a really solid 6.75/10.

Jeff Daniels:)

jaykhunter

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Jeff Daniels:)

I'm going to say it was a mixture of watching the newsroom and his character's name is Will! Did u need to quote the whole thing lol

McGrath5

500 Days of Summer Not your average love story film. A well made and original story which I very much enjoyed.

Ted Average enough comedy with a few decent laugh out loud moments, although the Peter Griffin esqu humour wore a little bit thin towards the end for me.

Duggy747

The Dictator

Started out fairly funny but quickly nosedived into juvenile and crap jokes. I was surprised at how awful and drawn-out alot of the jokes were, as if they'd be more at home with a straight-to-bargain-basement-VHS-basket comedy.

Like a cheap comedy you'd expect RTE to show at 2am on a week night, muck.

mrmorgan

Perfect Choice wrote: »

500 Days of Summer Not your average love story film. A well made and original story which I very much enjoyed.

Ted Average enough comedy with a few decent laugh out loud moments, although the Peter Griffin esqu humour wore a little bit thin towards the end for me.

i agree with you here with ted. it got a bit dull towards the end alright. but mila kunis

CecilBlunt

Force of one - early Chuck Norris movie where he trains cops to find a killer in a drugs gang.

briany

Last night I watch Die Welle. It's a German film about a slightly maverick secondary school teacher who is assigned to teach a class about fascism and autocracy during project week. To illustrate the subject more effectively he has his class adopt a uniform and a leader, as well as a name and logo. Even though the kids protest loudly about how they'll never be like the Nazis, they start to get more into the whole thing as the week goes on.

Pretty subtly disturbing film that shows how powerful the feeling of belonging can be and the danger of being swept up by a movement. Recommended.

Mister Jingles

Boogie Nights

For those who have never seen it, its basically a film about porn stars in the 70s and 80's with Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly and more.

First film of its kind I've ever seen. Tells the story about Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler (Wahlberg) a teenager with a ''special gift'' down below who is noticed by porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds) and who goes on to work for him becoming a porn actor and rising to fame and his downfall with help from drugs.

Great performance from all, especially Wahlberg. Apparently this was the film that started his acting career ?

8/10 for me.

mrmorgan

Mister Jingles wrote: »

Boogie Nights

For those who have never seen it, its basically a film about porn stars in the 70s and 80's with Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly and more.

First film of its kind I've ever seen. Tells the story about Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler (Wahlberg) a teenager with a ''special gift'' down below who is noticed by porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds) and who goes on to work for him becoming a porn actor and rising to fame and his downfall with help from drugs.

Great performance from all, especially Wahlberg. Apparently this was the film that started his acting career ?

8/10 for me.

This film played an important part in my life 😉

BopNiblets

The Long Kiss Goodnight, cheesy fun, has a great action movie line in it "Niagara Falls? Operation Honeypot! Bingo." Hahah.

Batman: Under The Red Hood again, great animated Bats movie.

briany

Mister Jingles wrote: »

Boogie Nights

For those who have never seen it, its basically a film about porn stars in the 70s and 80's with Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly and more.

First film of its kind I've ever seen. Tells the story about Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler (Wahlberg) a teenager with a ''special gift'' down below who is noticed by porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds) and who goes on to work for him becoming a porn actor and rising to fame and his downfall with help from drugs.

Great performance from all, especially Wahlberg. Apparently this was the film that started his acting career ?

8/10 for me.

The scene that made that film for me was

the one near the end where the boys are going to scam Alfred Molina's unbalanced drug dealer character by attempting to sell him a kilo of talcum powder posing as cocaine. It's both funny and incredibly tense.

Molina (in bath robe) :

"You know when you buy a tape or somethin' and the songs they're in some fúckin' order like like the band wants you to listen to them in that specific order. I hate that. I fúckin' hate that. I don't like being told what to listen to, when to listen to it or ANYTHING!!!:mad:"

stiffler123

Winters Bone- Absolute snoozefest.

Mister Jingles

briany wrote: »

The scene that made that film for me was

the one near the end where the boys are going to scam Alfred Molina's unbalanced drug dealer character by attempting to sell him a kilo of talcum powder posing as cocaine. It's both funny and incredibly tense.

Molina (in bath robe) :

"You know when you buy a tape or somethin' and the songs they're in some fúckin' order like like the band wants you to listen to them in that specific order. I hate that. I fúckin' hate that. I don't like being told what to listen to, when to listen to it or ANYTHING!!!:mad:"

Two words --> Sister Christian :pac:

briany

Last night I watched A Perfect Getaway, starring Steve Zahn and Mila Jovovich as newlyweds honeymooning in Hawaii. They begin to suspect other couples that they meet may be behind recent murders on the island.

Good popcorn thriller. Not really for those who like to figure out the twists before the opening credits though. If you can switch your brain off and just go along with the story, it's pretty entertaining.

MiloYossarian

F**king Amal I've been trying to watch it for years, really glad I tracked it down. It's a really warm, sweet movie. Of coarse I would love it, because as a male lesbian myself, I could relate to it.

mikemac1

A Knights Tale

Haven't seen it in about 7 years

Realy liked, very funny in parts

And super directing, some excellent camerawork in some of the jousting scences as they track the horses

The actors all did well and the classic rock tunes worked

thumps up

briany

Mocha Joe wrote: »

Watched this recently myself without knowing much about it beforehand. Absolutely loved it.

I think this was (without checking IMDB) directed by the same person who directed The Station Agent. It even had him who played Joe in TSA. Pity, no Peter Dinklage though. I liked this film as well.

There's another good highschool sports dramedy that I suppose must not have gotten much mention recently called The Winning Season starring Sam Rockwell as a bitter, divorced man who is called upon to be the coach of the local junior high girls B-ball team because he had some experience as a pro or semi pro player. Sounds a little bit formulaic but it's not exactly a cheery underdog story and watching Rockwell's character interact with the girls and all their hormonal baggage is quite funny.

johnny_ultimate

High Noon - brilliantly entertaining film. A semi real-time delivery, a memorable soundtrack, great cinematography (love that repeated shot of the train track) and some excellent performances (especially from star Gary Cooper) are what draw you in. But the undercurrent of cynicism is what gives it that extra push towards greatness. John Wayne has called the film one of the most 'unAmerican' films ever made, and that's no bad thing. It makes this one of the great stories of one man vs the world, and I'd rank it up there with Rashomon / Yojimbo as the most endearing of their era. It all culminates in an exciting, tense battle that lives up to the rest of the film's urgency. The finely paced eighty-four minutes fly by. A truly great Western.

WHIP IT!

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

High Noon - brilliantly entertaining film. A semi real-time delivery, a memorable soundtrack, great cinematography (love that repeated shot of the train track) and some excellent performances (especially from star Gary Cooper) are what draw you in. But the undercurrent of cynicism is what gives it that extra push towards greatness. John Wayne has called the film one of the most 'unAmerican' films ever made, and that's no bad thing. It makes this one of the great stories of one man vs the world, and I'd rank it up there with Rashomon / Yojimbo as the most endearing of their era. It all culminates in an exciting, tense battle that lives up to the rest of the film's urgency. The finely paced eighty-four minutes fly by. A truly great Western.

Only watched it myself for first time a week ago. Very enjoyable and would agree with everything you said. Everytime they flashed up that shot of the train tracks I was peering into the distance to see if I could see smoke from an oncoming train...

Just wanted to ask, what did the Duke mean when he labelled the film "unAmerican"? thanks...

Sad Professor

The fact that the entire townsfolk refused to help Cooper, forcing him to go it alone, rubbed a lot of conservatives the wrong way. Rio Bravo and it's numerous remakes was Wayne and Hawkes's response to High Noon. Both films are still politically divisive in the US.

johnny_ultimate

It was also read as an allegory against McCarthyism and Hollywood blacklisting in some quarters - especially since the writer was a victim of the process, and other cast / crew members were vocally opposed to it. Wayne, on the other hand, was as anti-Communist as could be. There was a lot of bad blood at Hollywood in the time which quite violently split opinion. Also, apparently Grace Kelly playing a Quaker was also highly objectionable by the conservative set, don't ask me why. How much of a liberal parable it actually is is certainly up for debate, but it's definitely there if you're looking for it. Not divisive enough to stop it winning Oscars, though.

Still, just love the look of disgust on Cooper's face at the end. Priceless.

KenSwee

I watched Battleship last night.
Utter rubbish sold with the premise that Neeson is the main star yet you get about 10 minutes of him. Total gibberish and with an ending that must have real sailors feeling quite seasick.

But when I thought it couldn't be anything worse, I sat down to watch Columbiana, and found out I was very wrong.
Complete rip off of anything remotely associated with Taken, The Bourne etc.
Basically, it's about a little brat from Columbia who is trained by her drug dealing murdering scumbag uncle to become a murdering scrumbag assassin while plotting to get revenge against the scumbag drug dealing murdering gang that killed her scumbag drug dealing murdering parents.

And the point of this movie is?
Luc Besson has become the John Carpenter of this decade; dishing out total crap to all who will watch. Thankfully it will be my last.
Keep away from the burgers and try making commercials Luc.

livinsane

On a "strange film" mission at the mo. First watched Videodrome first. Great show and plenty weird. The atmosphere reminded me of Naked Lunch all the way through...and I then found out they were both directed by David Cronenberg. James Woods is cool as fk and was amazed to see Debby Harry (never knew she acted) playing a very erotic role.


Then I watched Picnic at Hanging Rock. Deliciously eerie with some of the strangest moments I've seen on film, without the use of special effects. The incredible pan pipe soundtrack was foremost in creating a dreamlike ethereal effect, and apparently the director placed a wedding veil over the camera lens for certain shots. The ending might frustrate some viewers though!