What have you watched recently?

BopNiblets

Darksaga87 wrote: »

Brendan Butler

Gerard Butler...?

Watched Zombieland again, class.

And finally watched City Of God, excellent film.

WesternNight

Avatar in 3D. Story wouldn't be the strongest, but it's good nonetheless. I didn't notice the three hours pass!

don ramo

Up In The Air, quiet a good story, i was really surprised, i havent seen a 2 hour film move along so consistently in a long time, a solid 5/5

if this and Avatar are the major best picture contenders at the oscars, avatar is gonna loose, best pics are picked on story, not special affects, at least i hope they are,

bnt

Got the urge to watch Falling Down (1993) again, about 4 years since the last time. It's even more powerful today, in this economic climate. Some bits are a little awkward, such as the effort they put in to make it clear that Foster (D-Fens) is an "ordinary guy", not some right-wing vigilante. There's even some humour, such as

the kid teaching him how to use the (real) rocket launcher

.

Much of the dialogue can't be printed here, but everyone remembers this: "I'm the bad guy? How'd that happen?"

TouchingVirus

Watched a number of movies recently

Avatar in 3D - Agree with a lot of people, an all right story but what a movie when you consider the visual effects. It would appear the 14 years or however long Cameron left this one on the backburner was totally worth it!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Brilliant animated movie, I loved it!

9 - I loved the animation in this film. The story was good enough, but the ending left a lot to be desired, almost like it was cut too short or just lost the run of itself and they ran out of time.

Lost in Translation - A great movie. Good story, the love/sexual tension between the two leads was amazing and made the end just that bit better. No fancy effects or any of that, just a great film with no bells & whistles!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Mila Kunis & Kristen Bell ..hawt! Bit too girly if I'm honest though.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Rachel McAdams, holy wow! I thought this would be a sci-fi first and a romance second, but in actual fact it's most definitely the other way around so in that regard I won't be watching it again. Should have done my research beforehand but oh well

Ali - Great performance by Will Smith. The film's timeline was completely offputting, jumping years and from place to place. As somebody who is only basically familiar with Muhummad Ali (as in the fights, not the leadups and definitely not his life) I found I was lost and wondering what was going on/what year it was during a fair part of this film. Other than that, I enjoyed it.

Catch Me If You Can - Never seen it before, but fantastic performance by Leonardo DiCaprio in a very good movie about some guy I'd never heard of. What a crook, almost endeared me to bank fraud

Lesbian Vampire Killers - Awful movie, and only mildly funny in parts. I think the best thing about this movie was the "scenery".

Forrest Gump - I seen this once when I was much younger and unable to appreciate the movie. Now though, I completely agree with people who think this is very good film. The story was fantastic, and who can't help but admire his unwavering love for Jenny

S Darko - Turned it off at 10 minutes. Horrible, unintelligent, confusing, eugh. While it's no sequel to Donnie Darko, at least Donnie Darko was a fantastic film ..this was just ..no!

Fifty Dead Men Walking - Great performances by Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess made this one thoroughly enjoyable. Even friends with no interest in the troubles enjoyed this movie immensely!

se7en - I'd seen this before but completely forgot about everything up to about 20 minutes before the end. I recalled the ending/guessed it correctly and suddenly it wasn't as fun as the first time around when I didn't :P

Trick 'r' Treat - Supposed to be scary, but not really if you ask me. Though that little dude, he had the potential to be frightening as f*ck!

Paranormal Activity - One or two "jump" moments, but nothing like I was lead to believe with all the hype.

Star Trek - From a guy who doesn't like 99% of Star Trek material, this was a great sci-fi action flick!

Zombieland - Well, it's got ZOMBIES! I liked it, Emma Stone was outrageously good looking and well that's all I need to say, I liked it :P

Up - Another awesome animated movie.

The Invention of Lying - I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais but this was a decent enough film. Like Forgetting Sarah Marshall above though, too girly.

beans

Been sick, watched so many movies this weekend...

Delicatessen
Forgot how much I loved this movie, and it's cannibalistic bent reminded me to watch...

Cannibal Ferox
I probably enjoyed this more than Cannibal Holocaust, even though it's lighter and a bit hammier. Very enjoyable (if gory) lesson about violence begetting violence.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space
From the cheesy 80s soundtrack to the curtain-call, great fun and highly recommended if you like ridiculous 80s b-movie horrors.

Troll 2
Pretty poor, very poor indeed. So bad that it was actually kind of enjoyable. Warning - the lead child-actor makes that '6th Sense' kid cuddly and lovable. Ugh.

Shutter (2004)
Thai movie about cameras and ghosts, and guilty consciences. Borrows heavily from Ringu, but if I'd never seen that movie then this would have been a treat... unfortunately, seems a bit derivative. If you like Asian horror, it's worth a watch.

El Topo (1970)
A very symbolism-rich western-ish movie more suited to students of art and religious history than film, I'd suggest. Enjoyed it, but glad it caught me in the right mood. There were quite a few '....eh?' moments.

The Proposition
Didn't enjoy this as much as I had expected, despite great performances from Ray Winstone and a few others. It's still a very good film, though. It was hyped up for me, that's all.

UHF
I think this was Al Yankovic's only movie, it's good craic and definitely worth a shot if you need a laugh.

The Stuff
Great little horror b-movie from the mid 80s, nice satire and comment on the coming wave of consumerism that has devoured us all! Highly recommended.

Vamp
Disappointing 80s vampire movie rescued by Grace Jones.

Manic Moran

TheManWho wrote: »

Just finished watching The Hurt Locker. A very original war film by Kathryn Bigelow. Yep that's right, a Woman!

Anyway, while reading about it online I came across this awesome roundtable discussion. You've got Bigelow, Tarantino, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Jason Reitman and some other guy.

My problem with The Hurt Locker is that it is about as historically realistic as Pearl Harbour. It didn't need to be that diverged from reality, a lot of the underlying psychological points could have been made just as well without going into 'wonderland' for dramatic effect.

I'm not saying I didn't like it, I did, and I found some of it to be quite accurate (The scene in the cereal aisle nailed my return home to a 't'), but if you're going to make a serious war movie, make it a realistic one.

NTM

L31mr0d

Objectified: A film about design. As a purist engineer a lot of it rolled off my back as superfluous. But the aspects regarding design without design where really interesting. I really do hate how obsessed a lot of designers seem to be with chairs though :pac:

Tony EH

'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'

I don't know why I keep doing these things to myself. The movie equivalent of self-harming.

Maybe it's a cry for attention.

Anyway...this "yoke" is about a prehistoric Megalodon (Mega shark, get it?) and a giant octopus (pretty straightforward that one) that were locked in battle 10 million years ago and frozen in ice. They manage to get free (somehow they are still alive!!!) by some US government intereference (grrrrrrr! Those guys, don't get me started!) and they bugger off around the world causing various disasters (the monsters, not the US government). These disasters include some of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever witnessed in a film.

At one point the "mega shark" jumps into the air to attack a jet airliner!!!!! Considering that aircraft lke that usually fly at over 30,000 ft, that has to rank simply stupid. No matter what film it's in. It also bites a chunk out of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Anyway some "scientists" get hijacked by the government (grrrrrrr!) and they have to come up with plan to capture/kill the silly creatures. One of the scientists is Debbie Gibson, teen pop sensation from the 80's! She's accompanied by a stereotypical Japanese guy (sayonara!) and a Dubliner (Jaysis howaya!) So the world is in pretty safe hands.

Unfortunately, explaining the premise of this film is SO much better than having to actually sit through it. The film is just too stupid to be enjoyable. It's knowingly trying to hit that "so bad it's good" vibe, but it fails miserably because it's doing it in a deliberate way. The film makers have completely missed the point that the "so bad it's good" vibe happens by accident, not by design.

The trailer on YouTube has had so many hits, it's unbelievable.

M25

Saw NINE last night in the cinema..

Very disappointing!! Very good cast in it.......

People walked out of it....

I thought the idea and plot was good but it didn't come together well at all!

Darksaga87

BopNiblets wrote: »

Gerard Butler...?

.

JP Liz

I watched Post Grad and Whiteout both crap

andrew90

Midnight Run: with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, Good mixture of action, comedy and drama, great script, the two leads work very well together

deisedude

Brothers:Good if a little prdictable at times. The children are superb. Good contrast of humour and an emotional punch as to be expected from a Jim Sheridan film

Sherlock Holmes: Funny and exciting. I was never a big fan of Robert Downey Jr but he is excellent here. The film definately surpassed my expectations

The Road: Very sad and moving but a quality film.

weiland79

'Confessions of a shopaholic' Now I've been challenged on this forum before when i said that Bruno had no redeeming qualities and after the discussion i had with my fellow poster i had to admit that in fact there were one or two scenes that made me laugh in that film.Also i would like to add that i have and will continue to watch so called chick flicks with my girlfriend and have enjoyed more than one or two of them.But i dare any one of you to try and defend this pile of rubbish.I mean where do they get plaudits for this type of film e.g "Five Stars this movie will have you rolling on the floor with laughter" Serious backhanders me thinks.
PS Even my GF thought it was Sh*te.

irish_bob

end of days with arnold and gabriel byrne as lucifer , stumbled across this turd last night while i was falling asleep on the couch , only seen the last 45 mins but easily ,one of the worst movies ive ever seen

Tristram

The Hurt Locker, very good.

MagicMarker

irish_bob wrote: »

end of days with arnold and gabriel byrne as lucifer , stumbled across this turd last night while i was falling asleep on the couch , only seen the last 45 mins but easily ,one of the worst movies ive ever seen

Banned for having shít taste.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Really rather good.

mudokon

Watched To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time last night, great film.

rednik

Watched Batman Begins followed by The Dark Knight on blu ray. Mr Nolan please make a third and finish the series then.

bnt

Saw Departures last night (IFI). This is a Japanese film about a musician (cello) who moves back to his home town in rural Japan with his wife, and the only job he can find is as a "NK Agent". Not sure what the English word for it is, but they are the first to tend to a person after they have died: washing, dressing, and generally preparing for the coffin.

This traditional duty was previously performed by families, but in modern Japan that skill has been lost, and now "NK Agents" are engaged by family or undertakers do the job. Sounds simple enough, except that it's a formalized ritual, a performance in front of the deceased's family and friends, and it has to be done right every time. Just to make matters worse, there's a stigma attached to death in Japan, so it causes all kinds of social problems, but the pay is good.

So, you can see straight away that this is an interesting topic for a film, and it's handled pretty well, though I thought the story was a bit predictable. For example:

the main character Daigo hates his father, who left his mother when he was six, so you know straight away that his father is going to make an appearance by the end, and Daigo will get involved

. There are also a few clunky arty bits that don't serve the story - like

why is Daigo playing his cello on top of an embankment next to a rice paddy?

Still, the acting is excellent, a good mix of humour and sadness, and it's beautifully directed. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film last year. However, it is not for anyone squeamish about death and dead people, and might be too much for anyone who recently lost a loved one.

Voodu Child

Saw Armored (2009) the other day. Good cast (Laurence Fishbourne, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno), but the film was just a fairly average heist movie. Surprisingly short, and has this kind of 'abrupt' feel to it...not a whole lot happens and then all of a sudden its over.

I thought Jean Reno was a bit of a waste as he didn't really do anything. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't call it a bad film, I was just hoping for a bit more action and a better plot.

fitz0

Persepolis - Animated French film about the Islamic Revolution in Iran. At times funny, at times sad; overall its a very good film. I watched it with low expectations, I didn't think I'd watch it to the end but I'm glad I did.

tman

Tell no one as recommended on this forum a couple of weeks ago...
Quite enjoyable, worth a watch purely to see Dustin Hoffman's long lost brother in action:p

Avatar - visually stunning, but pretty "meh" otherwise.

ScumLord

Extract hadn't heard anything about it before hand and was pleasantly surprised, good comedy.

InKonspikuou2

Voodu Child wrote: »

Saw Armored (2009) the other day. Good cast (Laurence Fishbourne, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno), but the film was just a fairly average heist movie. Surprisingly short, and has this kind of 'abrupt' feel to it...not a whole lot happens and then all of a sudden its over.

I thought Jean Reno was a bit of a waste as he didn't really do anything. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't call it a bad film, I was just hoping for a bit more action and a better plot.

I agree. For me it lacked an intelligent script. It had the potential to be more clever with how the heist panned out but they just went the easy route and didn't get creative at all. And this director is trusted with the Predators film. He better not fúck it up.

bnt

Another film I've never seen before is on TV: Interview with the Vampire. I was getting bored with it after the first hour, but then Claudia (Kirsten Dunst, age 12) stamps her little foot down and all hell breaks loose... :eek:

deisedude

Inglorious Basterds: I wasnt expecting much because i havent liked any Tarantino film since Pulp Fiction but this was excellent if a little unbelievable at times

Let the Right One In: I recently finished reading the book so i decided to watch the film afterwards. I found the film to be a lot tamer than the book which has some more explicit parts, one of the characters from the book is also left out which is a shame because he was quite interesting. That said the film is still top notch but i do think i would have enjoyed it more having not read the book beforehand

kraggy

L31mr0d wrote: »

In the loop: Hilarious. Very well written and acted. Would highly recommend it. Any write up you read will probably only make it sound 10% as good as it is.

Sling Blade: An old Billy Bob film I'd missed on release. Finally got around to watching it. Very well acted and paced. Thornton steals the show though.

Land of the lost: Really "meh" Will Ferrell film. Sounded like it would have so much going for it, but the majority of it falls hopelessly flat on it's face.

What ya mean he Billy Bob steals the show? He's the main character.

Brilliant film.

Tristram

Moon, excellent!