movies

[Darkweasel]

Foxcatcher

Channing Tatum (Woo! I've finally seen a Channing Tatum film!) plays Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz in this latest biopic of somebody I'd never heard about until recently. Recruited by über-rich sports coach, John Du Pont (Brick from Anchorman), Schultz moves to the massive Du Pont family estate, Foxcatcher Farm, and begins training for the World Championships and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Du Pont eventually hires Shultz's elder brother, Dave (Hulk from Avengers Assemble), but things don't work out as planned.

Having watched a lot of footage of the real life John Du Pont, I have to say that Carell's portrayal of him is excellent. The real Du Pont may have been a little taller and a his voice a bit deeper, but Carell gets everything else spot on. Tatum and Ruffalo play their parts very well too, and everything is generally fine and dandy until the last ten minutes when everything suddenly becomes a race to the finish line.
For such a quiet film, moving at its own unhurried pace, it appears to want to end as quickly as possible without covering half of the events that followed. Fair enough, the main story was the Olympic training and the relationship between Du Pont and Schultz, but by including the events in the final scene, there needs to be some kind of proper explanation. The film simply leads you to believe everything happened just a few months later when in fact eight years had passed and Du Pont's character had changed substantially.
A fairly slow moving, but very enjoyable film with great performances. I just wish they'd either expanded on the events in the final scene or not included them at all.

"Ornithologist, Philatelist, Philanthropist"
8/10

[Darkweasel]

Inherent Vice

According to many people, Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice was one of those "unfilmable" novels. Well, the funny thing about unfilmable novels is that eventually they tend to get filmed. Usually with mixed results. David Cronenberg's takes on Willam S Burroughs's The Naked Lunch and Don Delillo's Cosmopolis being two examples which spring immediately to mind. Well, this time it's the turn of Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood) to film the unfilmable. And exactly as predicted, the results are mixed.

After about an hour in, I realised there was actually quite a clever trick to watching it. Don't fixate on silly little details like characters, dialogue, or plot. None of it makes any sense and you'll spend too much time missing the big picture. The big picture here being style and atmosphere. If you want to follow a story arc from A-B then turn around and walk back out the door. This film is not for you. However, if you want an experience smothered in, well... I suppose you'd call it '60s Hippy Noir, then step right up.

The decipherable parts of the plot involve a stoner Private Investigator (Joaquin Phoenix resembling a cross between Wolverine and the Wolfman) being visited by his former girlfriend who informs him of a plot to have her latest boyfriend (Eric Roberts) abducted and committed to an asylum by his wife. The girlfriend goes missing, and while tracking down one of the new boyfriend's nazi bodyguards, Phoenix is knocked out and wakes up lying next to a body, surrounded by police. Cop Josh Brolin tries to get him to become a police informer, Phoenix's not-actually-a-criminal-lawyer lawyer friend (Benicio Del Toro) helps him out, but he is soon approached by a woman who wants him to track down her saxophonist husband (Owen Wilson). After that, we get drug smuggling organisations, stoned dentists and death by trampoline. You know, the usual.

Inherent Vice baffled me, confused me, and at times left me doubting my own sanity, but the funny thing is I actually enjoyed it, even with its two and a half hour running time. In fact, it would have been far less enjoyable if it had actually made sense. Of course, along the way there are parts which do fit together, but you have to find them among the scenes which feature characters you've never heard about before referring to events and/or people you have no idea of but seem to be expected to know all about.
I've read articles on this film where people have likened it to The Big Lebowski, claiming it to be its natural successor. Personally, I see it more as Cheech and Chong do Shakespeare. Sort of Incoherent Vice, really.

7.5/10

[kanet666]

All female Ghostbusters confirmed. It seems so wrong.

[MetalBeast]

All female Ghostbusters confirmed. It seems so wrong.

Yeah, just image all the ectoplasm/bukkake memes it will spawn.

[Turbo]

[Luke_X]

Female Ghostbusters is a bad idea, and the cast they announced are an even more terrible idea.

[Darkweasel]

Just watched The Imitation Game.
No long-winded review. Just going to say it was brilliant and that although I'm confident it won't win Best Picture at The Oscars, I hope Bendysmurf Crumblepatch wins the little shiny man for Best Actor.

9/10

[Applecore]

Female Ghostbusters is a bad idea, and the cast they announced are an even more terrible idea.

I disagree. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are both talented, funny women. I've not seen anything of the other two, so can't comment on them. Paul Feig is also a decent comedy director, and it makes sense that Ivan Reitman dropped out after Harold Ramis passed away.
I've also seen people shitting on the idea of it being a female team, but honestly, does it matter? The only thing that bothers me about it is that so many people think it's solely about feminism, when it's not. We've had all-male Ghostbusters for years, why not shake it up by rebooting with a completely different cast of characters?
I'll reserve judgement until I at least see a trailer.

[Ghost]

The way I see it is they couldn't make a decent sequel to Ghostbusters 25 years ago so they won't now.
Dan Akroyd just wants a pay day.

[AnnihiSlateR]

Just watched Baraka. To say it was good is an understatement. There's not plot or dialogue, but I found it more beautiful and moving that a lot of the films than I've seen in the last year.

[Darkweasel]

Followed up The Imitation Game with The Theory of Everything and didn't get to bed until 3am.
Another brilliant film, although I do think it suffered (very) slightly from playing more like a BBC drama in parts. The performances and, at times, the cinematography put it above anything the Beeb would produce though.
Redmayne was amazing as Hawking, but I do feel Cumberbatch gave the better performance as Turing. I was attacked by a sudden dust allergy right at the end of the TIG, something I didn't get from TTOE.
8/10

[CrappyMike]

All female ghostbusters doesn't bother me, but I find Melissa McCarthy to be not very funny at all, so much so I won't bother with it because she annoys me. I'll probably watch it if it appears on Netflix but I'm in no rush.

[Haldamir319]

Just watched The Guest.
(From IMDb) A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.

A perfect homage to '80s action thrillers, but shot and paced much like a horror movie. Adam Wingard takes a very simple plot and still manages to make an incredibly entertaining movie - much like he did in previous venture, You're Next.
Sure it's predictable in places, but it's a fun movie that doesn't drag at any point. The moody, synth soundtrack is absolutely spot-on, too.
Awesome. Loved it.
9/10

Spot on. Was my film of the year.

[scotlandbanff]

Best movie saw in a long time Whiplash give it 9/10

Also saw Wild yesterday 7.5/10

Cheers Ian(scotlandbanff)

[Turbo]

I am really looking forward to the new Terminator. If its any good, ill get a Cineworld membership for one month and spend all my free time watching it.