What have you watched recently?

TommyTippee

Donnie Darko

Started brilliantluy, thought it was going to be one of my all-time favourites, as it was right up my alley.

However the pace slowed down half-way through and the end was just....average.

Bit disappointed with it, to be honest, but worth a look.

5/10

Duggy747

For no reason whatsoever I decided to watch Galaxy Quest again. It's alright, has some decent jokes in it with Alan Rickman getting the best lines (or maybe just delivering them the best :pac:).

Tropic Thunder - Another film I watched out of boredom. Extremely "meh" movie with RDJ and Tom Cruise being the most entertaining. Considering the genre of movie (especially in regards to Apoc Now!) it was taking the piss out of it felt more like a wasted oppertunity. The trailers at the start were practically the only things that got any sort smile out of me.

krudler

Duggy747 wrote: »

For no reason whatsoever I decided to watch Galaxy Quest again. It's alright, has some decent jokes in it with Alan Rickman getting the best lines (or maybe just delivering them the best :pac:).

I love Galaxy Quest

"by Grabthar's hammer!"

The Mad Hatter

krudler wrote: »

I love Galaxy Quest

"by Grabthar's hammer!"

It's rare I'll turn off a film part way through watching it, but I just found Galaxy Quest excruciating. Don't think I even made it to the thirty minute mark. It was when the hilarious aliens showed up at Tim Allen's house that I had enough.

Anyways, last night I watched Legend. And oh dear, where to begin? I assume I saw this at some stage when I was a kid, but I have absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. Hardly surprising. It's hard to believe that it was made by the same Ridley Scott who made two of my favourite films of all time - Alien and Blade Runner. The film is gorgeous, no doubt about that, but that's where the list of positives stops. The screenplay is messy - at no point are the main characters established in any way as characters, and their personalities switch on a dime. The plot makes very little sense, and at any moment of difficulty we're given a new expository line to tell us what the villain wants or why unicorns are important. The dialogue is extremely ropey - at one point Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness just tells us how he can be defeated, for no apparent reason other than that the main characters are listening from the shadows. The plot generally seems to be based on a dozen half-read fairytales and a few games of D&D.

Admittedly, the actors do pretty well with what they're given, and at least they seems wide-eyedly convinced of what's going on around them. And the cinematography and make-up/costumes are both superb (even revolutionary). But the film is a lot of style and no substance at all.

The trailer's pretty entertaining, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxViR7eCuM

krudler

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

It's rare I'll turn off a film part way through watching it, but I just found Galaxy Quest excruciating. Don't think I even made it to the thirty minute mark. It was when the hilarious aliens showed up at Tim Allen's house that I had enough.

Anyways, last night I watched Legend. And oh dear, where to begin? I assume I saw this at some stage when I was a kid, but I have absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. Hardly surprising. It's hard to believe that it was made by the same Ridley Scott who made two of my favourite films of all time - Alien and Blade Runner. The film is gorgeous, no doubt about that, but that's where the list of positives stops. The screenplay is messy - at no point are the main characters established in any way as characters, and their personalities switch on a dime. The plot makes very little sense, and at any moment of difficulty we're given a new expository line to tell us what the villain wants or why unicorns are important. The dialogue is extremely ropey - at one point Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness just tells us how he can be defeated, for no apparent reason other than that the main characters are listening from the shadows. The plot generally seems to be based on a dozen half-read fairytales and a few games of D&D.

Admittedly, the actors do pretty well with what they're given, and at least they seems wide-eyedly convinced of what's going on around them. And the cinematography and make-up/costumes are both superb (even revolutionary). But the film is a lot of style and no substance at all.

The trailer's pretty entertaining, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxViR7eCuM

was it the UK version or the US directors cut? the original version is a mess editing wise its all over the place, the directors cut makes a lot more sense. Its been ages since I've seen the original so I probably couldnt tell you the differences by now, its probably all on wiki or imdb.

the makeup on Curry is still incredible though, hard to believe thats him buried under there, and Robert Picardo is Meg Mucklebones

naughto

watched dawn of the dead last nigh for the 1st time

its a great movie there is every thing in it

The Mad Hatter

krudler wrote: »

was it the UK version or the US directors cut? the original version is a mess editing wise its all over the place, the directors cut makes a lot more sense. Its been ages since I've seen the original so I probably couldnt tell you the differences by now, its probably all on wiki or imdb.

the makeup on Curry is still incredible though, hard to believe thats him buried under there, and Robert Picardo is Meg Mucklebones

Hm, the original cut, apparently. And agreed - the make-up is amazing throughout.

Goldstein

Finally got around to Enter the Void. Had high hopes after that stunning trailer. If you're seen the trailer though, you've pretty much seen 90% of the movie. It did look absolutely amazing and I found myself more than once wondering how they had executed certain scenes or what exactly I was looking at. Definitely could have been at least one hour shorter though as it got a bit repetitive in parts - I don't know why Noe had so much trouble cutting it to the length it was to squeeze in opening credits. Parting thoughts were that it was a fairly unique and enjoyable visual experience that ultimately probably thought it was cleverer than it really was. Although to be fair I think I needed to be on more drugs to appreciate its full spectrum as the film is basically a 2 hour 41 minute trip.

Source Code. More idiot box-office sci-fi. Reminded me of Paycheck in that regard. The time loop can be one of the most interesting and fun genre tropes when written correcty (E.G. Timecrimes/Primer/TNG Cause & Effect). In Source Code the various iterations / plot advancements etc were actually ok but the justification / explanation / "science" was just so lazy, illogical and inept it pulled you right out of it, horrendous writing.

Fermat's Room. Now this was more like it. Gripping Spanish thriller similar in theme to Exam and Cube. Some minor plot quibbles but a very enjoyable puzzle/mystery nonetheless. Four gifted strangers are invited to attend an exclusive and mysterious mathematics meet-up in a remote location on the promise of resolving a famous maths conjecture. However their host, known merely as Fermat, isn't telling them everything.

StonedParadoX

gnomeo and juliet.. good kids movie but thats it

im...LOST

Run Lola Run.

tim_holsters

Watched Never Let Me Go earlier.

It was a good movie but I found it profoundly sad

I'll be thinking about it for the rest of the evening.

toodleytoo

The Adjustment Bureau. It was enjoyable enough, the main reason I liked it was because Matt Damon does a fantastic job in it. He's such a good actor imo.

seraphimvc

watch Exam (2009), a short but excellent thriller. movie industry needs more writer like that. the actings are fine, and the whole movie only happens in 1 room. smart writing there. enjoyed it very much. every minutes of it are interesting. wish more people know about this little gem!!(:( i just knew it myself...)

Duggy747

krudler wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxViR7eCuM

If you pause at 1:00 and 1:02 it's Christian Bale............not really, but it looks like him :pac:

Tauriel

Watched The A-Team last night and wow was it brillant

mike65

naughto wrote: »

watched dawn of the dead last nigh for the 1st time

its a great movie there is every thing in it

Which version, slow or fast zombies?

bnt

I watched Confessions of a Dangerous Mind last night on TV. One of those films you admire more than love, I guess. Sam Rockwell was on top form, Drew Barrymore shone in a subtle supporting role, and George Clooney is solid as actor and director. The whole 70s game show vibe is very well handled - Clooney's father was in the business and George saw behind the scenes himself.

The major flaw in the whole thing, however is the character of Chuck Barris himself. He's weird for the sake of being weird, it seemed to me. Self-obsessed, narcissistic ... up his own ass, basically. I'm reading about the torturous path the film followed from book to production, with half of Hollywood involved at some point; Charlie Kaufman wrote the script, but Clooney went back to Barris himself. So it's truer to the book - and that might not have been the best course to take with this character, I suspect.

Mister Jingles

Unforgiven

Only saw it for the first time yesterday and didn't think much of it tbh. It was an easy film to follow but I just didn't see the point in it though. Clint Eastwood as ever was brilliant especially near the end but Gene Hackman wasn't all that good and I fail to see how he got an Oscar for it. The fella who was the wanna be gun fighter but almost blind was annoying as f**k.

I also don't see how Richard Harris role was significant for his name to be even mentioned on the front cover of the DVD case.

johnny_ultimate

A Separation

Wonderful Iranian... well I wouldn't go as far as thriller, so we'll say drama. It's main narrative - primarily concerning a recently separated couple and their daughter and another religiously devout family they hire to look after the husband's senile father - is very simple. However, it's the way the characters interact so credibly, the deep and engaging motivations of each and every one of them as well as the way the director pulls each of them to very different levels of desperation that makes it so compelling. It's a film about religious law, family values, the conflict between modernity and traditional values and many other themes, but director Asghar Farhadi simply presents these ideas and lets the audience make up their own mind. At the core, though, each character is fundamentally decent (literally, in some cases!) and that's what makes the unfortunate situation they find themselves in all the more heartbreaking. A stunning film.

krudler

Once Were Warriors and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? great films, the sequel isnt as good but Temuera Morrison gives an immense performance as Jake "the Muss" Heke. Hes a complete cock but one with a huge amount of charisma. Violent and not an easy watch, particularly the wifebeating scenes but still well worth a look if you've never seen them.

jefreywithonef

Just watched Awakenings. Woah, what a film, a real tearjerker. There was a time when I thought I was a really cold film viewer but I was actually batting back the tears quite a few times tonight. Goes right up into my all time favourites list. Robin Williams is great but De Niro was amazing, thought I had seen all his great performances - this was just exceptional.

Paddy Samurai

Well worth a watch ....but nothing special. Not as good as Taken.
I will watch neeson in anything.Top Actor IMO.

The Black Oil

Requeim for a Dream. Finally got around to watching this. Was slightly wary as it seems to have a 'it's very depressing' reputation. Thought it was good, preferred the second half of it, really.

don ramo

just watched The Adjustment Bureau, great show, was very reluctant to watch it with the whole bourne meets inception tagline, which after watching is just a retarded way of explaining the show, anyone avoiding it on that basis should watch it, i liked bourne and inception, this is something different altogether,

Phony Scott

A Wes Craven double bill of 'Deadly Friend' and 'Shocker'. The former was the better of the two but ran out of steam towards the last half hour whereas the latter only really became fun in the last half hour, especially a surreal montage were the hero and villain literally go channel hopping.

kearneybobs

Just saw Transformers 3 there tonight. I wasn't a bad film, but quite enjoyable. Gotta say, this film really benefited from the use of 3D which helped to decipher the usually cryptic fight/action scenes of the previous two films. It was quite effective the whole way through. It really really worked here.
The acting from the Megan Fox stand in was terrible. You've gotta wonder who in the hell cast her, and did he/she get fired for it.
It's really more of the same, pretty much like the other two films. Tuturo was great, and underused. Tyreese's character was even more annoying than in the second film, and LeBeouf was...well...Shia LeBeouf.

StonedParadoX

Die hard with a vengeance.. classic movie

in MY opinion its the only die hard worth a damn, all the rest are ****e

Duggy747

Finally got around to The Town.

I am no fan of Ben as an actor, but as a director he has a future.

I enjoyed this film..........when it got working. Renner and Hamm were very good in it.

I was watching the extended cut which apparently slapped on plenty of extra scenes of Doug & Claire talking about nothing except their past. During these moments the movie really stalled for me.

Plenty of great scenes in it like the heist dressed as nuns but I kept feeling like I should be watching Heat. Funnily enough, I think the scene with Doug watching TV briefly shows a scene from Heat where DeNiro & Kilmer meet guys at an abandoned drive-in.

The movie was also cliched to the balls.

Anybody could see him leaving money for the youth center that "gets no funding" a mile off

and

the final gunfight between himself and the florist was sloppily edited and pulled off it just looked like the 2 of them were just standing there shooting blanks at each other

.

A good movie and a step in a right direction for Ben Affleck career but I didn't find it particulary great. It just felt like I'd seen it all before.

Das Kitty

Terminator 2
Still good fun and decent CGI after all these years. It is way cheesier than I remember though.

Midnight Cowboy
Didn't know very much about it apart from the Oscar and who was in it. It's pretty bleak but I did enjoy it.

The Adjustment Bureau
As stated by someone else the tag line is rubbish. It's a decent stand alone film, I really enjoyed it up until it spelled out its "message", yeah I got that thanks, no need to spoonfeed me!

abouttobebanned

StonedParadoX wrote: »

Die hard with a vengeance.. classic movie

in MY opinion its the only die hard worth a damn, all the rest are ****e

And it was never actually meant to be a die hard movie.