What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

SirDelboy18

The Wolverine

Man I wish Aronofsky had made this movie.

Not to say that it's bad, it isn't. And compared to the Marvel productions, it actually holds up decently. I'll also wager, that were the playing fields not so saturated with these conveyor belt like films, I might be more open to this one. But there's a great movie in there somewhere and we haven't got it here, which means that the overriding feeling that I have is disappointment.

That being said it was probably better to me than Man Of Steel, and at least it tries to focus on characters, so props for that. It just feels lacking a bit. Maybe if it wasn't for the Viper, who really was one of the worst characters with the worst dialogue and delivery I have come across in a very long time, then I might have liked it more. I still felt the third act was kind of a complete bust though - I'll summarise it by saying too much Viper and some sort of robot samurai.

Still probably worth watching if you're into that kind of thing.

IvaBigWun

bellinter wrote: »

The Internship

Okay I'm going to say it... It's not that bad!

Terrible film!

I had to switch it off after half an hour

MJ23

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Terrible film!

I had to switch it off after half an hour

Anything with eejit with the weird massive hooter is usually brutal.

lazza14

Pacific Rim Great Fun!!!!


I actually thought it would be a boring "look what else we can do with FX" but
it's actually really enjoyable, the fight scenes are great, slow strong punches that show power, rather then ridiculous moves you'd see in other movies.

Leave your brain in the kitchen before watching tho...

ButtersSuki

This Is The End, I had very little expectations around this but found it surprisingly good. Late to the party on this one as I've had bad luck with my comedy selections recently and I didn't like Pineapple Express (same production team and a lot of the same players involved), but I'd give this a solid 7/10.

The Great Hip Hop Hoax recorded from BBC4 recently is a fascinating documentary about 2 white Scottish lads who briefly fooled the world into believing they were the next big hip hop thing from California. Also serves as a very clever look at the superficiality and utter fakeness of the music business. Though the energy dies a little at the end it is an engaging watch, esp. if you have any interest in the music business or hip hop/rapping. 7.5/10

Judgement Day

"Tristan & Isolde" (2006) on DVD.
After a heavy weekend of rugby some escapism was called for and this turned out to be a good call. James Franco, Sophia Myles and Rufus Sewell star in this tale of doomed love set in the Dark Ages following the Romans withdrawal from Britain. The country is ruled by various squabbling tribal kingdoms but across the Irish sea Ireland is thriving having avoided the Roman occupation. The Irish King, Donnchadh (David O'Hara) seeks to keep the British tribes from uniting into a single entity which would be a threat to his power...Filmed in County Galway (Renvyle) and in the Czech Republic. 8/10. Worth watching if you like the genre.

Sleepy

Good Vibrations - I really enjoyed this. It really seems to do a good job of capturing the despair that most would feel at seventies Northern Ireland and how the punk ethos was so attractive to the kids growing up in it. Would I be right in guessing that it's a little generous to Terri Hooley in it's portrayal of him? Couldn't help but feel

sorry for his wife and daughter

.

Sleepy

I have to admit I remember quite enjoying that too Judgement Day. Far from perfect but very enjoyable.

Gamayun

The Daisy Chain (2008)
Mediocre, uninspired horror set in rural Ireland. Great locations and cinematography though.

Neds (2010)
Loosely based on director Peter Mullins experience growing up in '70s Glasgow. Great.

DazMarz

All The President's Men 1976

For those not aware, this is the story chronicling the original "-gate" scandal. Arguably the greatest political scandal in history, the Watergate Scandal. Ever since then, any scandal that erupts in any walk of life can usually have the suffix of "-gate" added to it (see: Squidygate, Monicagate, Grannygate, Nipplegate, Bloodgate, etc.).

The basics of the Watergate Scandal were that in 1972 five men were arrested breaking into the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C., which then housed the Headquarters of the Democratic Party National Committee. In the aftermath, it was revealed that the men had connections to some of the highest echelons of the Nixon Administration. Nixon was personally implicated in the scandal and was forced to resign the Presidency as a result (lest he be impeached or convicted). He was subsequently given an official pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford.

The scandal really destroyed the faith a lot of American people had in politics and had incredibly far reaching implications. It also brought to light "dirty tricks" that were being used by Nixon and his eponymous men (the so-called "White House Plumbers") to gain any and all advantage they could.

The central story is that of the two Washington Post reporters who unravelled the whole sordid affair and painstakingly pieced together any information they could to reveal the entire picture. Cloak and dagger meeting with informants in the dead of night, interviewing people that don't want to talk because "they" might see and struggling to get the whole story as most of what they had is just hearsay.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman lead the cast and are superb in their roles as the two determined reporters. Hal Holbrook has a small role as the high-ranking informant code-named "Deep Throat" who gave the world the phrase: "Follow The Money".

Excellent political mystery film and well worth a look.

kryogen

Finally got around to watching Session 9 last night, got to say it impressed me, none of the shock horror crap and cheap jumps you see in so many films these days. I haven't properly digested it yet but I would certainly recommend and will be forcing friends to watch it now.

I don't wanna go into it too much as it will spoil it for anyone whp hasn't seen it, but if you like films that make you do a little bit more work with the grey matter rather then just try to make you jump with shock tactics, if you like something a little deeper then your average horror, if you have an interest in psychology in fact, check this film out.

Call Me Jimmy

kryogen wrote: »

Finally got around to watching Session 9 last night, got to say it impressed me, none of the shock horror crap and cheap jumps you see in so many films these days. I haven't properly digested it yet but I would certainly recommend and will be forcing friends to watch it now.

I don't wanna go into it too much as it will spoil it for anyone whp hasn't seen it, but if you like films that make you do a little bit more work with the grey matter rather then just try to make you jump with shock tactics, if you like something a little deeper then your average horror, if you have an interest in psychology in fact, check this film out.

Great to hear, a friend recommended it to me but I never got round to it. I'll be watching it this week then!

johnny_ultimate

Saving Mr. Banks - Disney propaganda, but charmingly so on occasion. It very much is the studio's love letter to themselves, and the whole thing is about as subtle as a brick to the face (gratuitous use of flashbacks ). But the performances / characters are good, the laughs well earned, a rich sense of period detail (the film benefits from a Disney supported budget, no doubt) and there's something welcome about seeing Jason Schwartzman blare out a draft version of A Spoonful of Sugar. About as offensive as a mild episode of Dora the Explorer, but pleasant nonetheless.

bnt

I've got Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps on my watch-list, so I'm watching the original Wall Street again. It's a good story, but about the only thing about that has aged well is Charlie Sheen. Gordon Gekko is now a movie legend. mostly thanks to Michael Douglas's Oscar-winning performance.

The movie's financial wheeling-and-dealing is laughably naive, viewed through the lens of the last financial crisis (see e.g. Inside Job), which kind-of justifies the idea of a sequel. I hope it does the job ...

PS: I don't think I've heard a recent major studio film with a worse sound mix. Backgrounds keep changing volume, room tone comes and goes, sound quality of dialogue changes mid-sentence as some lines are ADR-ed ...

FortuneChip

bnt wrote: »

I've got Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps on my watch-list, so I'm watching the original Wall Street again. It's a good story, but about the only thing about that has aged well is Charlie Sheen. Gordon Gekko is now a movie legend. mostly thanks to Michael Douglas's Oscar-winning performance.

Eh, has Charlie Sheen really aged well???

Absolutely loved the original, the second was just a poor attempt to cash in. It seems that just because greed is good, doesn't mean a sequel will be!

Liam McPoyle

Tenement : Game of Survival
Low budget 80s exploitation / sleaze fest. Its a home invasion type movie, gang of miscreants terrorise the residents of a Bronx slum over the course of a night. Its got all the cliches, the interracial gang of thugs, the reluctant hero, the terrible soundtrack and garish looking blood. I have to say though, for all that, I kind of enjoyed it. Some nice nasty scenes in it, it zips along at a grand pace and I found myself hoping a couple of the annoying "goodies" got wasted.

If you are looking for a masterclass in film making then avoid like the plague, if you want something crappy and fun then grab a couple of beers and a pizza and get stuck into this.

bnt

FortuneChip wrote: »

Eh, has Charlie Sheen really aged well???

Absolutely loved the original, the second was just a poor attempt to cash in. It seems that just because greed is good, doesn't mean a sequel will be!

Don't you know he's got Tiger Blood? :cool: I watched the sequel last night, and he pops up to say Hi to Gordon Gekko at one point.

The 2nd film was ...weird. Sheen was only one of the cameos / stunt castings that jarred. Eli Wallach was another. Oliver Stone himself popped up as before. Though Shia buys a house from his mom (Susan Sarandon), he later sells it to the same realtor from the first film (Sylvia Miles). Carey Mulligan's character is just wet.

I can understand some of the story choices that had to be made, with major characters going all Basil Exposition on us, and they still only touched on the complexities of the recent financial crisis.

I didn't see the point of the futuristic technology that Shia was pushing all the way through the film. If you get nuclear fusion working, you liberate more energy than you put in, so who cares where you get the initial energy? No need to create a complex OTEC system for that, just to make it look even more "green".

kryogen

Wall Street 2 sucked big donkey dick, don't think there are many that would disagree with that, shameless cashing in on a classic (of its time) which seems to be the way of the industry these days, everything is either getting re made or a sequel is made

The lack of originality is disappointing but cash is king at the end of the day

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Kill List

What a load of balls. Either it went completely over my head or it was genuinely a load of balls.

I think some folk on here were discussing it a while back and I skipped over their posts because it was on my watch list. Must go back and find them to see if their posts can shed any light on it.

briany

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Kill List

What a load of balls. Either it went completely over my head or it was genuinely a load of balls.

I think some folk on here were discussing it a while back and I skipped over their posts because it was on my watch list. Must go back and find them to see if their posts can shed any light on it.

Not to be contrary, but I enjoyed Kill List. Like, say, Inland Empire or The Possession, it could be construed as arty boll*x but I thought, like those two films, it created a mood that got under my skin. A real dark, foreboding menace. That's the only kind of scare that does much for me. Slashers and the like bore me, I have to say. True, it could have done without

the whole cult angle

as films that go down that route rarely seem to pull it off effectively and it usually feels tacked on. Overall I thought it was a taut and creepy little British thriller. Better than most of what's coming out of the big American studios, though that doesn't seem to hard to accomplish at the moment.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ I've read through the thread on Kill List on here and I have to say it does clear a few things up for me but overall I just didn't get anything from it.

I wasn't appalled at the violence, in fact I barely noticed it, probably says more about me than the film I didn't find their "banter" all that funny, in fact at times it was hard to make out what Jay was saying.

I think, having read other people's theories that

everyone was in on it except Jay. That's why when Jay asked Gal if he'd told his wife about the job he said he may have mentioned it in passing. It's why when Jay went round to Gal's the next day your woman wasn't there anymore. They weren't really a couple. It's why Gal and Jay's wife were so close and why they both seemed so upset/worried when Jay was starting to go off the list. They needed him to stick to it so they'd be in the woods at the right time.

I also read someone's post where they say that the targets are all pillars of society, religion, education, politics and family, and that the whole film is a dark look at where society is going and yeah, that sounds like a really interesting explanation but still, I just didn't get anything from it

I will admit that the tunnel scene was genuinely tense and scary, but it just made me wish that they'd made a full on horror instead of whatever this was.

Baked.noodle

Apt Pupil (1998)

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Didn't blow me away or anything but worth a watch nevertheless. 6/10

briany

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Apt Pupil (1998)

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Didn't blow me away or anything but worth a watch nevertheless. 6/10

Spoiler GIF :

Ian McKellen stylin' and profilin'

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z429/crimsonpunk/apt.gif

Liam McPoyle

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Apt Pupil (1998)

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Didn't blow me away or anything but worth a watch nevertheless. 6/10

The book is fantastic, much much darker than the movie which was a big missed opportunity IMO.

MagicMarker

I'm 1 hour into The Wolverine and it's bloody awful.

FortuneChip

MagicMarker wrote: »

I'm 1 hour into The Wolverine and it's bloody awful.

If you don't like it now, you won't like it later, I actually thought it regressed as it went on

upstairs for coffee

A Royal Affair (starring Mads Mikkelsen)

It's an historical drama, a genre that I wouldn't normally delve into. In saying that I found the movie thoroughly enjoyable.

My visceral reaction was to empathise with Mads Mikkelsen character but on reflection, his character is not as redeemable as I initially thought.

6.5/10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Royal_Affair

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_9?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=a%20royal%20affair&sprefix=a+royal+a%2Caps%2C366

catallus

BerberianSoundStudio: I like Toby Jones. It was interesting watching him in this. The film had a few interesting ideas but never really gets past the idea of conveying mood. Weird stuff for the sake of being weird, really.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

upstairs for coffee wrote: »

A Royal Affair (starring Mads Mikkelsen)

It's an historical drama, a genre that I wouldn't normally delve into. In saying that I found the movie thoroughly enjoyable.

My visceral reaction was to empathise with Mads Mikkelsen character but on reflection, his character is not as redeemable as I initially thought.

6.5/10

I thought he was kind of redeemable as what he was trying to do was for the good of everyone, he wasn't just looking for personal power. I felt most sympathy for King Christian though. He was just a pawn for everyone else to use as they pleased, even Mads ended up manipulating and using him.

jcsoulinger

Only God Forgives.

I was a bit apprehensive about watching this, because it got panned by the critics, but I loved Drive so I decided to ignore them.

Two big reasons to watch it are, its visually stunning, every shot seems to be saturated in colour with darker edges that kind of makes the colours more intense. Its also very violent which ticks a box for me.

The dialogue is sparse to say the least and you need to piece together allot of what's going on yourself but if your prepared to put in the effort its definitely worth it.

Over all its allot better than the critics say but It definitely won't be to everyone's taste.

7.5/10