What have you watched recently?

Bassboxxx · 01-12-2011 12:28am

Just near about soiled my undies watching The Orphanage:eek:

Horror is not my normal bag but I thought I'd give it a go. The hairs were actually standing up on the back of my neck.

Kids are scary as fook!!!!

Duggy747 · 01-12-2011 12:47am

Warrior - Fairly cliched, few dollops of cheese, sporting montage, etc........but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it :P

the_monkey · 01-12-2011 12:54am

The Hangover Part II Probably one of the worst "comedies" I've ever seen .... Garbage ...

johnny_ultimate · 01-12-2011 2:54am

Savage

Certainly at least one head and shoulder above the latest wave of Irish cinema. An intense, well-performed (Darren Healy portrays one hell of a conflicted individual) drama about one man's descent into, well, hell really. After a random assault leaves his sense of identity in tatters, his photojournalist shifts violently between bloodlust and a debilitating fear/paranoia of the outside world. A highlight is the aggressive, unsettling sound design throughout which adds a wonderful sense of dread and momentum.

There was a tendency towards overly blatant foreshadowing and thematic exposition, though, not helped by some odd minor performances. A poorly delivered cameo from Ian O'Doherty - of all people - is particularly on-the-nose and ineffective (I'm reading an interview with the director hear where he calls that scene sarcastic, and while that may be, it still seems like a mood-breaking distraction). And there were a few times when I began to wonder if the film makers were basically just riffing on a single idea for the whole time. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but given the foreshadowing, there's little doubt how this is going to end up. Luckily, the conclusion pretty much pummels you into submission.

Mostly an interesting, offbeat and tense film, although even at a lean 80 minutes it sometimes seems as if we're slowly chugging towards the inevitable.

LighterGuy · 01-12-2011 3:06am

the_monkey wrote: »

The Hangover Part II Probably one of the worst "comedies" I've ever seen .... Garbage ...

Yeah a lot can be said about the hangover 2 illregardless of weather someone enoyed it or not because its just the same movie as the first.
It was obvious they were going to rehash the concept. But to rehash everything from the first?!!? .. Stupid.

JohnK · 01-12-2011 9:55am

Watched Dirty Harry last night. First time seeing it and while it was grand it was nothing to write home about.

Giruilla · 01-12-2011 10:07am

I also watched Warrior recently. Wouldn't have thought it was a film for me but after reading so many good reviews checked it out. Highly enjoyable film, brilliantly acted, great fight scenes, perfect ending.

bluefinger · 01-12-2011 10:43am

Been off sick recently so there's a few here. I know everyone's taste is different but I've written them as recommendations/warnings to give people a steer when looking for something new to watch.

The hangover 2, I thought the first one was amusing and would give it a 5 out of 10. This was not as good, and really suffered due to it being so similar to the first one. Some funny moments though. 4 out of 10.

Drive, i liked this movie and somehow missed all of the hype around it, therefore i came to it with no expectations. It felt like I was watching no county for old men. Very good, 7 out of 10.

Midnight in Paris. Haven't watched a Woody Allen movie in a few years. By most accounts he seems to have lost his edge. This was a decent romantic comedy though. If you have a literary bent you'll enjoy many of the in jokes scattered throughout too. Very Good 7 out of 10.

Moneyball. Good sports movie. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are great in this true story about the Oakland A's baseball teams greatest season. Whilst many sports movies are concerned with the individual sacrifice/determination of sportsmen or women, this one concentrate on the behind the scenes goings on. It explores how (as many people believe) Billy Beane and Peter Brand changed the face of Baseball by pioneering a statistics driven and economically motivated transfer strategy. Turns out as a great underdog story. Essential viewing for sports fans and especially Liverpool football fans.
7.5 out of 10.

Renn · 01-12-2011 10:49am

Midnight in Paris. Haven't watched a Woody Allen movie in a few years. By most accounts he seems to have lost his edge. This was a decent romantic comedy though. If you have a literary bent you'll enjoy many of the in jokes scattered throughout too. Very Good 7 out of 10.

I liked this but I couldn't help think that all the references used were a bit 'meh'. Like I knew about 90% of the people mentioned - when they mentioned Luis Buñuel and started talking about The Exterminating Angel I knew all about this but beyond that it was sort of empty, no? Maybe I'm missing something...

D'Agger · 01-12-2011 11:04am

Watched Drive for a second time last night to see whether my initial theory that it was a poor movie was somehow incorrect.

Upgraded from a 6/10 to 7.5/10 - it's a good movie but the silences are awful...

Must say though one of the best openings to a movie I've seen in a good while - the cat and mouse at the start was intense!!

Renn · 01-12-2011 11:29am

What do you mean by the silences?

bluefinger · 01-12-2011 12:21pm

Renn wrote: »

I liked this but I couldn't help think that all the references used were a bit 'meh'. Like I knew about 90% of the people mentioned - when they mentioned Luis Buñuel and started talking about The Exterminating Angel I knew all about this but beyond that it was sort of empty, no? Maybe I'm missing something...

I know what you mean, I did think the cameos from many of the writers and artists were very hollow, (caricatures almost), Hemmingway was really funny though.

Now that you raise it though, might that have been intentional? with the morale of the movie in my opinion being something about not romanticising the past and the fact that Owen Wilson was drawing on his memory to provide details about each person it would make sense that they're deliberately one dimensional. just a thought

johnny_ultimate · 01-12-2011 12:35pm

I think Midnight in Paris got by on sheer charm - I didn't know the 'gimmick' when I was going in and was pleasantly surprised. It was played tongue-in-cheek throughout and while some characters certainly seemed better fleshed out then others - can't hate on Dali, yo - it easily breezed by IMO.

Although I do suspect it might of caused some nostalgic fondness for Purple Rose of Cairo in some part of my brain.

Mickeroo · 01-12-2011 5:12pm

Renn wrote: »

What do you mean by the silences?

Probably the bits where no-one speaks and just look an each other and that.

Renn · 01-12-2011 5:16pm

Mickeroo wrote: »

Probably the bits where no-one speaks and just look an each other and that.

Thanks but I was hoping he'd answer as he mentioned how he loved the opening scene - which had nearly zero dialogue in it.

Mickeroo · 01-12-2011 5:20pm

Renn wrote: »

Thanks but I was hoping he'd answer as he mentioned how he loved the opening scene - which had nearly zero dialogue in it.

Not trying to talk for them or anything, but the opening scene is quite a tense action scene, I would think they're referring to scenes where people are sitting around talking and then they stop talking for long stretches. I think it happened with the family at the dinner scene iirc. I had no problem with these scenes though so I'll shut up now and let the poster reply to your question

Judgement Day · 01-12-2011 7:10pm

JohnK wrote: »

Watched Dirty Harry last night. First time seeing it and while it was grand it was nothing to write home about.

You're only joking right? One of the classic cop movies of all time.

'I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking "did he fire six shots or only five?" Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?'

The only weak movie of the five 'Dirty Harry' movies is the "Dead Pool" which I don't recommend to anyone but Clint Eastwood diehards.

craftypaddy · 01-12-2011 10:26pm

rampart, superb, woody harleson is going to get an oscar for this id say.
a must watch for all

JohnK · 01-12-2011 11:54pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

You're only joking right? One of the classic cop movies of all time.

'I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking "did he fire six shots or only five?" Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?'

The only weak movie of the five 'Dirty Harry' movies is the "Dead Pool" which I don't recommend to anyone but Clint Eastwood diehards.

Sure there was that nicely quotable line and maybe I've just overdosed on Clint Eastwood recently after watching The "Dollars"/"Man With No Name" Trilogy but Dirty Harry just seemed like any one of countless westerns just in a more modern setting.

bnt · 02-12-2011 10:31am

JohnK wrote: »

Sure there was that nicely quotable line and maybe I've just overdosed on Clint Eastwood recently after watching The "Dollars"/"Man With No Name" Trilogy but Dirty Harry just seemed like any one of countless westerns just in a more modern setting.

I thought the baddie ("Scorpio") had a lot to do with why Dirty Harry is so memorable. He's completely out there: amoral, torturing and killing people, then trying to justify it retroactively. There's a running theme of how the San Francisco police are completely unable to deal with someone like that, and so they have to allow the Neanderthal to do his thing. Just the thought that someone like Dirty Harry is necessary is a scary one for all concerned (and the audience), I thought.

JohnK · 02-12-2011 11:33am

Well yeah thats true but look at any western and what you have is a bad guy or group of them who'll steal, rape & kill with impunity while the law is unable to deal with them which is where the hero, in many cases Clint Eastwood, steps in and brings the bad guys to justice or kills them. So the only thing that Dirty Harry really brings to the table is its in a more modern setting.

02-12-2011 12:00pm

JohnK wrote: »

Well yeah thats true but look at any western and what you have is a bad guy or group of them who'll steal, rape & kill with impunity while the law is unable to deal with them which is where the hero, in many cases Clint Eastwood, steps in and brings the bad guys to justice or kills them. So the only thing that Dirty Harry really brings to the table is its in a more modern setting.

By that thinking you could call pretty much any cop drama or contempory Arnie/Sly/Willis action film to be nothing more than a rehash of any number of westerns.

To say that all westerns follow the plot you described is ridicolous, the great westerns examine themes relevant to their time. Take the Searchers, to say its a film about a good guy hunting down the baddies is overtly simplistic. It was a very well handled and intelligent examination of a changing world where racist attitudes which had long been accepted were no longer the social norm.

krudler · 02-12-2011 1:32pm

Drive- thought it was awesome, best soundtrack in ages as well.

Tony EH · 02-12-2011 1:51pm

Considering the fact that the western was THE Hollywood staple for decades before 1971, it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to make a drama like 'Dirty Harry' and not cross over into that particular genre every now and then.

As for "Dirty Harry' itself, it was and remains a great film. But, perhaps to younger audiences, it may seem dated.

The sequels, however, get progressively worse, leading up to the utterly wretched 'The Dead Pool'.

The first two are probably the most entertaining, you can forget the rest.

That_Guy · 02-12-2011 2:04pm

Invictus: I liked Morgan Freeman as Mandela. A role he was born to play in my opinion but I think I'd have preferred a film based on Mandela... Not Mandela and rugby.

It's uplifting yes but it seemed very cliched.

Terrible sports team in miraculously turning things around in their favour shocker.

There was some nice shots towards the end of the film with empty streets as everybody was glued to the TV to watch their country in the final.

duckysauce · 02-12-2011 6:38pm

Watched "Red Dog" last night a few posters here recommended it .

It was excellent, good simple film, good for the soul, made me laugh and cry.

True story as well which makes it even better.:)

Thanks to the people who recommended it.

rednik · 02-12-2011 6:44pm

Saving Priavte Ryan, haven't watched in a while. What a magnificently horrific film. Great performances all round and brilliant direction from Spielberg.

GAAman · 02-12-2011 6:51pm

Watched Easy Rider last night in full for the first time. Had caught bits and pieces of it before always meaning to watch it and forgetting. A great film but by Jesus

that ending is a total bast*rd!!

Nolanger · 02-12-2011 7:09pm

Buck privates - Abbot and Costello, Lindy hop dance, and the Andrews sisters.

Bassboxxx · 02-12-2011 11:49pm

Catch 44

Meh...trying to be something and gets 3/4 of the way there, just doesn't have the legs for the final kick..:(

it's only 1.5 hours so prob worth a watch anyway.

Judgement Day · 02-12-2011 11:57pm

rednik wrote: »

Saving Priavte Ryan, haven't watched in a while. What a magnificently horrific film. Great performances all round and brilliant direction from Spielberg.

Still find the landing beach scene too much to watch - the graphic horror of real warfare, not like the nonsense portrayed on video games or during paint ball bonding exercises.

Mickeroo · 03-12-2011 12:18am

Watched Tucker & Dale VS Evil again. Funny funny film, crying shame it isn't more well known. Watch it folks! But for the love of god avoid the spoilery trailer.

Duggy747 · 03-12-2011 1:10am

The Thing Prequel (remake)

How do you improve or enhance on the Carpenter version?................not with awful, awful CGI that's for sure. 30 years of advancements in animatronics and prosthetics and the best that could be mustered up was just above TV show quality.

I watched it with an open mind knowing it wouldn't match the original but with giant plotholes, next to zero originality, nothing but "BOO!!" moments, and far too much of the alien revealed it just became so medicore and a bit bizzare towards the end. It just made me want to watch the original again so I guess I can give it 1 point for that :P

The gf thought it was boring as hell and she's a sucker for scary bits in films. We ended up talking about Carpenter's version more during it and looked up all the best bits from it afterwards.

This one scene alone was better than the whole prequel (remake) and still sent shudders down our spines :pac: :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjIXwkX1e48

Robotnic · 03-12-2011 3:16am

Old pacino stuff. donnie brasco and carlitos way both gr8 shows carlitos way slightly better imo because of al's character

ScrubsfanChris · 03-12-2011 3:59am

TT - Closer to the Edge

Good doc, very funny in lots of places.
For someone who doesn't care much for motorbikes, it was still very entertaining.

James T Kirk · 03-12-2011 5:05am

GAAman wrote: »

Watched Easy Rider last night in full for the first time. Had caught bits and pieces of it before always meaning to watch it and forgetting. A great film but by Jesus
that ending is a total bast*rd!!

Sure was. Now watch Electra Glide in Blue, where the opposite happens.

GAAman · 03-12-2011 3:46pm

Duggy747 wrote: »

It just made me want to watch the original again so I guess I can give it 1 point for that :P

Could not agree more, only difference with me is I actually watched the original after it to cleanse my brain of that crap!

James T Kirk wrote: »

Sure was. Now watch Electra Glide in Blue, where the opposite happens.

Cool, will check it out and report back

Mike Litoris · 03-12-2011 6:43pm

Duggy747 wrote: »

The Thing Prequel (remake)

I actually thought the 1st 15 mins or so were actually good, then it was a disaster. It was almost like it was a different director etc. After that everything fell embarrassingly apart.

LighterGuy · 04-12-2011 12:38am

In Time

I didnt really enjoy it. That's not to say I thought it was a bad movie. Could perfectly understand someone liking it. Its just while watching it, it kinda felt like it was made for the teenage audience a little too much.

Tindie · 04-12-2011 10:14am

Eight below(2006)
Really good movies, but really moving movie as-well and really sad movies as well.
8/10

I just heard it was remake of Nankyoku Monogatari.(1983), which i will see later

jaykhunter · 04-12-2011 1:15pm

50/50
Drama/comedy/romance starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy from 3rd Rock from the Sun, Inception) as a normal guy, 27, who finds out he has cancer, with a 50% 5-year survival rate following surgery.

It's treated completely straight, and does an excellent job portraying the mental and physical changes he undergoes as he battles cancer. Keeping it light/his mood up is his best buddy Seth Rogan, who does a great job, whose small story arc relative to Tommy is great and makes sense. The film touches on how it affects his family, his love life (his new girlfriend's relationship wasn't that solid to begin with) and his way through treatment (councelling, chemo etc). I think it was important to the overall structure that it has equal parts drama and comedy and romance, because this cancer affects every part of his life as he knows it, and would be missing without all 3. They work very well.

I don't wanna give too much away, but I think anyone could watch and enjoy this film. Definitely recommend giving it a watch.

==========================================

Take Shelter
Slow-moving drama about Curtis (Michael Shannon - he looks like Ray Liotta) who has intermittent strange hallucinations (or are they?) about a terrible storm/being attacked and deals with it by making a storm shelter. This film is about 2 hours long and is incredibly slow. I'm used to a films like this being the first act of an action film. Whilst the "is this happening or is it all in his head" is an intriguing plot, I'm afraid the substance of the film is far too thin to justify the time spent and where the film ends. I didn't particularly care about anyone besides him, but that said, that could be the boring of the film seeping in. His refusal to talk to anyone about it gets grating after a while (i'm sure it's realistic, but it doesn't make for a good film) and the end of the film doesn't satisfy me at all. This film could've been told in half an hour.

I'd recommend staying away. Waste of time.

johnny_ultimate · 04-12-2011 1:24pm

jaykhunter wrote: »

Take Shelter
Slow-moving drama about Curtis (Michael Shannon - he looks like Ray Liotta) who has intermittent strange hallucinations (or are they?) about a terrible storm/being attacked and deals with it by making a storm shelter. This film is about 2 hours long and is incredibly slow. I'm used to a films like this being the first act of an action film. Whilst the "is this happening or is it all in his head" is an intriguing plot, I'm afraid the substance of the film is far too thin to justify the time spent and where the film ends. I didn't particularly care about anyone besides him, but that said, that could be the boring of the film seeping in. His refusal to talk to anyone about it gets grating after a while (i'm sure it's realistic, but it doesn't make for a good film) and the end of the film doesn't satisfy me at all. This film could've been told in half an hour.

I'd recommend staying away. Waste of time.

Sounds like you watched a very different film than I did. While its a flawed work, there's enough dread and atmosphere to keep everything ticking over nicely. And Shannon's performance is simply astonishing - the climactic 'shelter' scene is a heartbreaking, beautifully realised moment. Sure, there's stuff to criticise - the ending, notably - but far from a waste of time.

jaykhunter · 04-12-2011 2:05pm

tbh we're probably just different people, i saw that there were heartbreaking emotional scenes - but I absolutely didn't care. From my perspective I wasn't given enough to make me care, especially with anyone outside Shannon. I guess they're just normal people, but I gotta like you before I care about what you're going through. Sure you're crying, but you're a still stranger to me...maybe I'm just dead inside! I thought 50/50 gave me tons to work with, in terms of forming a bond with the characters to get invested, but Take Shelter gave me a pittence.

johnny_ultimate · 04-12-2011 2:14pm

Hmm, personally I thought they crafted Shannon's character remarkably well! Earlier scenes definitely established an everyman - not the most original of backgrounds, granted, but it worked given the material. I think the fact they showed pretty much everything from his perspective got us completely on his side, and little bits and pieces -

giving his dog away, seeing him trying to cover up after wetting the bed

- were very emotionally packed sequences. Just a normal guy stuck in an a confused, helpless situation and that made it powerful, despite some scenes certainly resorting to cliches. Shannon's performance is simply a masterclass IMO!

As for the others, yeah maybe they aren't all well drawn, but is the film about them at the end of the day? I did think Chastain did a good job in a fairly thankless role (how do you play second fiddle to a powerhouse like Shannon?) and you could really feel her frustration as her husband descended deeper into a pretty much indescribable nightmare.

Again, not a perfect film, but IMO they really did get to the core of the main characters, and that made some of the emotional and dramatic climaxes rather astonishing.

GAAman · 04-12-2011 7:56pm

James T Kirk wrote: »

Sure was. Now watch Electra Glide in Blue, where the opposite happens.

Fantastic call!

Just watched it really enjoyed it, reminded me of the ending of a tom hanks film I wont say which one because it will spoil it for others

That_Guy · 04-12-2011 8:36pm

Hugo: Visually amazing but I much preferred the latter part of the film rather than the first part.

It was essentially a film based on film history. I enjoyed it but the build up to the main plot was all over the place imo. As I say, visually amazing but I really don't think that Sacha Baron Cohen's character added anything to the film whatsoever. Him trying to talk to the florist seemed quite pointless to me.

Bassboxxx · 05-12-2011 12:11am

Snowtown..after hearing it mentioned here a few times.

I don't think I've ever seen a more menacing character than John....he put the sh1ts right into me:eek:

Amazing film!!!

Just read that most of the cast were actual locals in Snowtown...make the performances even more outstanding.

Duggy747 · 05-12-2011 10:52am

50/50

I enjoyed this for the most part and would recommend it. Wasn't as syrupy as I thought it would be given the subject matter and I thought it dealt with it quite nicely. GF was a mess by the end of it but I couldn't blame her considering the way it maturely dealt with certain aspects.

Only thing I thought that brought this movie down was

the relationship between JGL and his therapist. It was so goddamn corny and borderline fantasy & unrealistic given the realism they went with in regards to everything else like Rogen's character putting up his brash exterior to help his buddy through the whole thing. The significance of the hand touching the arm was obvious as to where it would be mentioned again in it's eventual conclusion (touching him on the bed) and JGL saying "I think you'd make a pretty good girlfriend" in the car nearly had me vomiting all over the place.

Besides that, a refreshing take on cancer which isn't preachy and has plenty of laughs to lighten, but not detract from, the load of it's heavy subject.

Mike Litoris · 05-12-2011 6:37pm

Tindie wrote: »

Eight below(2006)
Really good movies, but really moving movie as-well and really sad movies as well.

Watched this yesterday, pretty good and sad and happy. The dogs were the stars.

The following bit fightened the ballix out of me like no horror has done since I was a kid

When the dog finds the dead whale and the Sea Lion?? thing jumps out at it

. Considereing it was kind of a kids movie it was completely unexpected. I roared with the fright.:p

craftypaddy · 05-12-2011 6:56pm

in time
meh its ok nothing special

What have you watched recently?

Comments