What have you watched recently?

johnny_ultimate

Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers - from Miki Satoshi, who also directed the irreverent Instant Swamp. This is similarly irreverent. Light, quirky and loosely plotted, it follows a despondent 23 year old Suzume who becomes a spy after finding a really really small advertisement. It's nonsense, and barely any plot, but it's endearingly silly. Very funny at times (including some brilliantly timed and surreal visual punchlines), directed with plenty of energy and overall thoroughly enjoyable. Light and throwaway as anything, but well worth a watch.

Also, they should stop localising subtitles. It's just wrong referring to what is clearly a pile of yen as dollars.

adox

Watched Rec last night. Don't know how this one went under the radar for me.

Absolutely loved. Great fun with loads of ott set pieces and great tension throughout.

A perfect Saturday night film.

Paddy Samurai

Went to see Hanna yesterday.Liked it alot,some great fights espechially the one in the underground walkway.Saoirse Ronan was brillant.

irishh_bob

watched the gathering storm with brendan gleeson as churchill last nite , had heard good things but i thought it wasnt a patch on the tv movie a few years previous with albert finney in the role of britains war time leader

MagicMarker

Tron Legacy - absolute horseshít, even Olivia Wilde couldn't keep me watching, turned it off with 30 minutes left.

Waiting for Superman - good documentary on the pitiful American public schooling system.

Unstoppable - Absolutely fantastic tbh.

bnt

Watched The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, and a lot of Chicago Architecture. (I'm into Architecture, so when Christopher Plummer mentions Mies Van Der Rohe and Richard Meier I know what he's on about.) The film makers used some interesting tricks to portray these two having arguments over a gap in time, courtesy of a mailbox that sends letters through time.

I got a bit annoyed at what I thought was a major plot hole ... but it's not a plot hole if you accept the time travel paradox at the end.

Dr. Kate (Bullock) attends to the man who gets hit by a car and dies, and would obviously have recognised it was Alex (Reeves), since they had already met by then - but she doesn't, for some reason. However: at the end, she's able to warn him about the accident before it happens, and so he avoids the accident. If the accident doesn't happen, she doesn't see it, and so that retroactively fills the plot hole. Isn't time travel fabulous? :cool:

The Mad Hatter

I caught Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky in Cineworld this afternoon. It's very odd - it's not the first time I'd seen the film, but it might as well have been. I had totally misremembered it, and almost completely forgotten it. It lacks the charm of Spirited Away and the focus of films like Nausicaa, but in terms of world-creation, it's one of Miyazaki's best. The characters are very strong too, particularly the female lead (how often do you get to say that?), and the old witch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuKh-IeRfpI

tim_holsters

Starsuckers. A documentary about the celebrity obsessed culture we live in and the media saturation that drives it. Some good undercover work here that's quite revealing.

MagicMarker

Rear Window - It was okay, I was expecting better tbh.

ReacherCreature

Days of Glory. It was praised as the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan and received four and five stars. It's just shit.

johnny_ultimate

Memories of Matsuko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5YiO1kSZdQ

On a continuing search for contemporary Japanese films of note, heard about this a bit when director Tetsuya Nakashima's excellent Confessions was released a few months ago. A remarkable film, albeit one I had a few issues with. The art design is just fantastic - influences are wide (dig the retro Hollywood opening credits), the colour palette broad, the effects work pleasantly surreal, and every scene is filled with energy and colour. Then there's the music - again, a varied lot. There's unique takes on everything from Disney style sing alongs (Happy Wednesday will get stuck in your head) to Japanese idol music through a strange pseudo hip-hop song about prison.

It's a purposefully melodramatic film following the life of Matsuko (an excellent Miki Nakatani) and her many ups and downs. There's a brilliant supporting cast, and while some of the subplots work better than others, the mix of styles - there are segments in the style of everything from Japanese family dramas to yakuza dramas through film noir - ultimately creating a very satisfying, if episodic, whole. And the end actually gets pretty emotional - there's a lot played for laughs here, but you're always sucked back into the troubled reality of the situation moments later.

It's a mix of Amelie, Millennium Actress and Forrest Gump, and it's extremely cine-literate throughout. It's the kind of film that, if it wasn't in Japanese, could have achieved significant crossover appeal if it got the release it deserved. It's rambling, epic and a bit shambolic - but it also pulls you into the curious story of one woman, and refuses to look and sound anything less than spectacular throughout.

MagicMarker

Animal Kingdom - Was quite good, I read an article that listed it as one of the best movies of the year, I don't think I'd agree with that though.

WesternNight

Black Swan and The King's Speech.

Would recommend both highly.

MagicMarker

Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - I'm not the biggest fan of the LOTR, I saw this one in the cinema, and thought it was alright. Saw the 2nd one in the cinema and thought it was utter shíte and never bothered with the 3rd. But I think it's time to give them another go, after all I'm 10 years older and my tastes have changed somewhat!

Anyway, 2nd thoughts on this? I thought it was pretty damn good, albeit overly long, but I did watch the extended version. I will check out the 2nd and 3rd installments over the weekend.

Cookie33

Despicable me

loved it, just wanted to watch a non-serious, funny animation and it delivered. It's great to watch if you want a few laughs and just to chill out

Zak Flaps

pikaia wrote: »

Just watched The Troll Hunter,thought it was really good. It is subtitled so maybe its not everyones cup of tea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEo7H9tqSM

Hey, just read about this movie, and saw the trailer online. Looks interesting. Where did you see it? is it available on dvd/blu-ray yet?

The Recliner

Watched Up again last night for the first time since I saw it in the cinema

It is such an emotional and poignant movie

Anyone who wont watch cartoons because they are just for kids should really open their mind more because there is more depth and feeling in Up then most of the drivel churned out these days

amiable

I watched ''The Town''

I really enjoyed it. Nothing flash just a good old fashioned bank robbery movie.

The Mad Hatter

The Recliner wrote: »

Watched Up again last night for the first time since I saw it in the cinema

It is such an emotional and poignant movie

Anyone who wont watch cartoons because they are just for kids should really open their mind more because there is more depth and feeling in Up then most of the drivel churned out these days

I love the idea that masterpieces like Up or Wall•E are "for children" but immature trash like Avatar is a grown-up movie.

adox

amiable wrote: »

I watched ''The Town''

I really enjoyed it. Nothing flash just a good old fashioned bank robbery movie.

Watched it myself last night too and really enjoyed it. As you say an old fashioned yarn and the ending was maybe a little twee, but overall very enjoyable.

amiable

adox wrote: »

Watched it myself last night too and really enjoyed it. As you say an old fashioned yarn and the ending was maybe a little twee, but overall very enjoyable.

Agreed about the ending but i'm kind of getting used to movies not ending as good as the rest of the movie

McChubbin

Saw Water For Elephants last night. It was much better than I thought it would be. (I was dreading it largely because my cousins chose the movie on the basis that it starred Robert "Zomg EDWARD!111" Pattenson in it.)

tim_holsters

ReacherCreature wrote: »

Days of Glory. It was praised as the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan and received four and five stars. It's just shit.

You are wrong. Days of Glory is certainly not sh*t.

It does a decent job of relating the stories of the sacrifices made by the soldiers of France's North African Colonies and the nefarious way in which they were treated for their gallantry.

pikaia

Zak Flaps wrote: »

Hey, just read about this movie, and saw the trailer online. Looks interesting. Where did you see it? is it available on dvd/blu-ray yet?

Hi,

I would say this is available now on blu-ray/Dvd. I don't know about renting it,maybe HMV/Tower records might have it in. I obtained a copy from the internet.



Cheers

pikaia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1YbOMDI59k

Watched this last night,not bad but a poor ending

Really looking forward to this though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FBRATbJoA

SarahBM

Fast and furious 5 or Fast 5.

forgot how much I actually like the first Fast and the furious film, but this one was just as good as the first.

the car chase scenes were brilliant. but I would have enjoyed it alot more if some weirdo didn get up and start walking back and forth and back and forth between all the rows.
going to wait till the 5th one comes out on DVD and get the box set.

bnt

Just back from seeing Le Quattro Volte (The Four Steps) in preview at the IFI. I'm still a little weirded out. It's one of those films in which nothing happens ... except that a lot is happening, and it's just not obvious. It's about as far from a Michael Bay action picture as you can get and still be a movie. I remember thinking that it might help to be stoned to see this film, but from the way I was wandering about afterwards in a daze, it doesn't need any chemical enhancement. :cool:

There are characters, but no dialogue, not unless you include barking, coughing, bleating and crackling. The camera never moves unless it absolutely has to. There are more animals in the film than people, and they are more animated and interesting - especially the goats. (No, no-one stares at them.) And then there's the scenery: it's set in and around a medieval town in Calabria in rural Italy. If you want more details, there's a good review here.

irishmanmick

Just got Hot Tub Time machine ... Was expecting it to be terrible but was actually quite funny ... Probably my expectations were so low for it I ended up enjoying it!

PandyAndy

Just finished Confessions (Japanese with Subs). A teacher plans revenge on two students who murdered her daughter.

I was completely blown away by it. The opening 15-20 mins are quite emotional as it gets the story started. The camera work is very good. Each shot looks as if it was thought out. There's pretty much much a constant soundtrack playing which brilliantly fits with the visuals, there's even a bit of Radiohead. And for young teenagers the acting was very good, even the teacher's 3 year old daughter looked naturally happy in all her scenes...which also makes it all the more sad. Definitely recommend it, especially if you like foreign films.

irishmanmick wrote: »

Just got Hot Tub Time machine ... Was expecting it to be terrible but was actually quite funny ... Probably my expectations were so low for it I ended up enjoying it!

Ha, yea I was the same. It was funnier than I thought it would be.

Nolanger

Cloak and dagger - below average Gary Cooper movie but he says 'I'll be back' in the final scene decades before The terminator!