What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

the_monkey

The Hobbit
I was pleasantly surprised by this, I really liked the "filling out" story points, I presume they are from works like the Silmillarion and other smaller works.

I watched the regular 24p version, I didn't want the 80's movie effect from the HFR...

krudler

the_monkey wrote: »

The Hobbit
I was pleasantly surprised by this, I really liked the "filling out" story points, I presume they are from works like the Silmillarion and other smaller works.

I watched the regular 24p version, I didn't want the 80's movie effect from the HFR...

I actuually enjoyed the HFR more when I saw it, I saw it in 2D then 3D HFR and thought it looked much better, the 2D version has some godawful blurring in some of the panning shots.

firestarter51

Stitches
Very funny comedy/ horror film had me in stitches !!!!!

Naraka

Over the past week I've watched The Book of Eli, Skyfall, The Hobbit and FaceOff. All enjoyable movies except FaceOff which was terrible.

krudler

Naraka wrote: »

Over the past week I've watched The Book of Eli, Skyfall, The Hobbit and FaceOff. All enjoyable movies except FaceOff which was terrible.

Face/Off is great! supreme slice of 90's action silliness. some great sequences in that. best viewed in a triple bill with The Rock and Con Air :pac:

Technocentral

Corkfeen wrote: »

The Boys from Brazil: I used to love this film when I was younger so I decided to check it out again. It's not half as enjoyable watching it the second time because overall it's an extremely simple plot that is deeply flawed. However there are elements that still stand up. Gregory Peck's performance as Mengele is excellent and possibly even deserved an Oscar. However I was even thinking while watching him that it would be far more interesting to have watched Peck playing Mengele in a more plausible story that could be equally as horrific.

Extremely dated and a load of bollox to be honest, hadn't seen it since I was a teenager so stuck it on Netflix a few weeks ago and turned it off after 20 minutes.

Technocentral

DazMarz wrote: »

As Good As It Gets (1997)

Jack Nicholson and Holly Hunter rightly won Oscars for their roles in this beauty. A superb supporting turn from Greg Kinnear was nominated for an Oscar as well.

Jolly Jack is superb as Melvin Udall, a misanthrope suffering from OCD that makes him completely unpalatable to absolutely everyone. The only person who can bear him (and even then, just barely) is waitress Carole (Hunter) who serves him every day in the only restaurant in New York that will still serve him (even then, just barely; no other waitress will deal with him and the owner wants to bar him).

Melvin's caustic barbs that are slung at everyone are my personal favourites. But Nicholson's facial expressions and subtle movements of the OCD-ridden Melvin are absolutely classic. The word "tact" means nothing here. Melvin tells it as it is and regularly flies off the handle (especially at his gay artist neighbour Simon; played with wonderfully understated brilliance by Kinnear).

The film does have a sentimental edge, but I think it is handled wonderfully and I think that it does have a sweet but not gag-inducing message and ending.

There are also classic one liners. My personal favourite being Melvin trying to "console" Simon (who is in a wheelchair temporarily): "Don't worry, you'll be back on your knees in no time."

Brilliant if only for the acting that is on show.

Along with "Groundhog Day" its about the only truly decent mainstream Hollywood comedy of the last 20 years, love it.

Wichita Lineman

'The Postman Always Rings Twice' (1946) Excellent film noir starring John Garfield and femme fatale Lana Turner. Turner plays a woman who married for convenience but falls for a guy who was 'travelling through' (Garfield). They plot to murder her husband... but can they get away with it??????
DVD version I have also has an really good documentary on John Garfield.

budgemook

firestarter51 wrote: »

king of the travellers, worth a watch not great
welcome to the punch, not worth a watch poor film
sightseers, this is one strange film, didnt know wether to laugh or cry

Where did you see king of the travellers? Is it on DVD? I was writing a screenplay for a TV series based on same idea so was gutted when I saw the trailer for this.

budgemook

firestarter51 wrote:

king of the travellers, worth a watch not great
welcome to the punch, not worth a watch poor film
sightseers, this is one strange film, didnt know wether to laugh or cry

Where did you see king of the travellers? Is it on DVD? I was writing a screenplay for a TV series based on same idea so was gutted when I saw the trailer for this.

MiloYossarian

DazMarz wrote: »

As Good As It Gets (1997)

Jack Nicholson and Holly Hunter...

Helen Hunt (he says pushing his glasses further up his nose with the index finger of his right hand and doing his most patronising he, he, he, he laugh)

Such a superb film. I remember watching it with my sister, who is much older than me, one night. We laughed at the same parts, felt sad at the same parts and for two hours we were close. Then the titles rolled and I went right back to hating that bítch.

Looper007

AFTER THE WEDDING (2006)

Danish director Susanne Bier has signed the Dogme pledge of purity in film-making and here she sticks to the rules, intermittently anyway. The camera-work is just about all hand-held and the lighting "natural" which means most of the interior shots are suffuced in a yellow glow. She also has a liking for very close-up shots of people's faces at random moments which can be disorientating, but overall this is not an excessively dogmatic Dogme film.

The story is really a bit of mainstream soap, with an improbable plot, characters who are more caricatures, reliance on co-incidence and plenty of sentimentality. However the understated and powerful acting by all the principals makes what is rather a silly story work. The story might be silly but there is not a wasted moment in the film. The scenes in the Mumbai orphanage are meant to contrast with the high life in Copenhagen, and they do – Bier is anxious we get the point. The co-incidences seem over the top at first but then we suspect their may be more to it. Jacob the protagonist seems heroic and selfless to begin with, but later it seems he is somewhat of an under-achiever as a hero. The caricatures become more characters than we thought.

Mads Mikkelsen is a superb actor who would be my choice to play Jacob, the orphanage manager and supplicant for funds, he does everything right here, transcending the material. He gets good support from Rolf Lassgard as Jørgen the putative philanthropist – a full-throated performance, and from Sidse Babette Knudsen as Helene, Jorgen's wife and old flame of Jacob.

IN A BETTER WORLD (2010)

In a Better World is an uncompromising but effective study of grief, heroism, and friendship, in a league where everyone faces revenge and no one responds the same as anyone else. In other words this is a challenging study of human nature stretched but resilient. The acting is first-rate, the story simple but surprising, and the awards--Oscar and Golden Globe--are well deserved.

While Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) and Marianne (Trine Dyrholm) are divorcing, their son, Elias (Markus Rygaard) is bullied at school and missing his father away in Kenya as a type of doctor without borders. Elias befriends Christian (William Johnk Nielsen), who is despondent over the loss of his mother to cancer. Neither is without reason to be even mildly agitated, but Christian and Elias are involved in a series of confrontations that lead to serious consequences.

Woven into the intricate plot is Anton's willingness literally to turn his other cheek with his own bully in front of the boys, who demand revenge. They seem unaware of Anton's heroics in Kenya, where death stalks the tent hospital, and he is called on daily to face down both death and his revenge thoughts about a murderous tribal lord. The film's strength is its ability to attach the major players to the themes of friendship (the boys), heroism (an occasional occurrence) and revenge (everyone must face it).

Director Susanne Bier has guided her actors to underplay while allowing the harrowing circumstances to do the heavy emotional lifting. Be it in Denmark or Kenya, faith in the goodness of mankind is ever-present, but so is despair.

johnny_ultimate

I hated In A Better World. Felt it was a film absolutely devoid of subtlety or insight. Narratively it was as predictable as any Hollywood blockbuster, and all the themes of one family's response to varying levels of violence and revenge were simplistic to the extreme (Bier even uses lazy excuses such as video games to implicate one character's descent into a world of casual cruelty, if I recall correctly). The religious subtexts were equally shallow and unconvincing. A melodramatic soap opera in an arthouse film costume.

In a year or genuinely brave, provocative films like Dogtooth or Confessions, In A Better World's success was particularly undeserved

McGrath5

What to expect, when you're expecting

A cliched parent to be comedy that had me counting down the minutes till the credits rolled.
Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez are equally annoying for the entire run time.
Avoid this one at all costs.

2/10

Hondo75

On sky at the moment.. really enjoyed this.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/win_win_2011/

Sir Gallagher

Technocentral wrote: »

Extremely dated and a load of bollox to be honest, hadn't seen it since I was a teenager so stuck it on Netflix a few weeks ago and turned it off after 20 minutes.

I enjoyed it because it was so mental and cheesy in parts. This part in particular gave me a chuckle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_HKCzQ3rg

Turtyturd

Just back from Olympus has Fallen: It's like someone played Modern Warfare 2 and decided to take sections of it and turn it into a movie. Ridiculously OTT but watchable.

Judgement Day

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

I enjoyed it because it was so mental and cheesy in parts. This part in particular gave me a chuckle.

I still enjoy this movie - Nazi wackos and a sinister conspiracy - how could you go wrong?

kryogen

Don't Look Up

Still (somehow) watching this as I type

Pretty freakin terrible. Acting is ****e, script is laughable, at certain parts the cinematography isnt bad I suppose, but mother of God this is insanely bad. How do these films get the green light?

johanna86

I have planned to watch on this weekend.>>Lava Storm

Judgement Day wrote: »

For anyone not watching it - "Lava Storm" (2008) is on RTE.2. at the moment and as one of the reviews on Imdb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183727/reviews put it , 'it's like a car crash, it is so terrible that you just can't look away'.....awful script, direction, acting.....:D

cherryghost

Watched Shame last night

Fassbender was amazing in the film. Not overly fond of all the sex scenes but I suppose it's needed in light of the story plot.

humanji

I watched The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec yesterday on Film Four (I think). I'd never heard of it before, but was sucked in straight away by it. It's a Luc Besson film based on a French comic series that I think was best described as Amélie meets Indiana Jones. It's completely absurd and fun, never really taking itself too seriously. Well worth a gander if you get a chance.

Technocentral

"Good Vibrations", was really looking forward to this but was disappointed, it has some good parts but by and large is very average, I think the main problem is its weak directing which was shared between two people, its just isn't that cohesive and you don't really get the sense of Belfast at the time or how important Hooley and Punk were, I also thought the main actor was poor, 2/5.

Looper007

cherryghost wrote: »

Watched Shame last night

Fassbender was amazing in the film. Not overly fond of all the sex scenes but I suppose it's needed in light of the story plot.

Well it's about a Sex Addict so there's going to be a lot of sex scenes Cherryghost plus i think Mcqueen wanted to show dull his life has become.

anyway I still think Fassbender performance should have won him the Oscar that year (he wasn't nommed but sure its too risky so no surprise) its nowhere near Hunger for sheer power but still a good film.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Adam and Paul

Watched it this morning. If you don't know it, it's basically the story of 2 junkies and their attempts to score played out over the space of about 24 hours. It's a weird film in that it's really really funny at times and you kind of have to remind yourself that they're basically dirty scumbags. There's a scene about half way through which does a pretty good job of reminding you of this fact.
After that it becomes quite a sad film. Worth a watch.

Aidric

cherryghost wrote: »

Watched Shame last night

Fassbender was amazing in the film. Not overly fond of all the sex scenes but I suppose it's needed in light of the story plot.

Sorry but that's a profoundly stupid comment. He was playing the part of a sex addict. Did you expect little or no sex scenes?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

cherryghost wrote: »

Watched Shame last night

Fassbender was amazing in the film. Not overly fond of all the sex scenes but I suppose it's needed in light of the story plot.

Aidric wrote: »

Sorry but that's a profoundly stupid comment. He was playing the part of a sex addict. Did you expect little or no sex scenes?

He/she does acknowledge that the scenes were necessary to the story. Doesn't mean he/she has to enjoy them.

I wasn't overly fond of the scenes of abuse in Tyrannosaur however necessary they were. Doesn't mean I didn't like the film.

bnt

Watched To Kill A Mockingbird today. The award-winning & career-defining performance from Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is the stuff of movie legend, so I don't need to say much about that, but I do have to say it didn't quite gel for me. Some side stories appear heavy-handed e.g the scene with the rabid dog. I thought the use of the kids' perspective on events important, but it's done inconsistently in the film. I think I need to read the book.

Hootanany

See no evil hear no evil
Haven't seen it in donkeys years still brilliant, I don't think that type of film would be allowed in these PC times

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bnt wrote: »

Watched To Kill A Mockingbird today. The award-winning & career-defining performance from Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is the stuff of movie legend, so I don't need to say much about that, but I do have to say it didn't quite gel for me. Some side stories appear heavy-handed e.g the scene with the rabid dog. I thought the use of the kids' perspective on events important, but it's done inconsistently in the film. I think I need to read the book.

I read the book a few years back and absolutely loved it. Then I watched the film and it didn't work for me. It is pretty much a literal translation of the book though. I know people sometimes complain when things are cut or changed in adaptations but, for me anyway, this was a case where some things could have been cut. It's been a while now so I can't say what specifically but I do remember thinking that the film was very long and could have done with some streamlining.

Definitely worth reading the book though.