movies

[Ghost]

I enjoyed it, not a classic but I don't understand the hate. It was humourless but that made a nice change from the wisecracking marvel films. I like all superhero films and I'd say I enjoyed this more than dark night rises. Probably even more than age of ultron which really was just a cgi fest.

[Soze]

I largely agree with Darkweasel's review. Spoilers here...

I'd have cut out all the dream sequences (particularly the Clark Kent one which was uber boring), the Batman origin story (does anyone not know this by now?!), the trailers for the other DC Warner films, Wonder Woman (I thought Gadot was great but the character was utterly pointless. Remove her and the plot does not alter in the slightest) and Luthor's Doomsday scheme (why does he conspire to get Bats and Supes to fight at all? Just unleash this fuck off big radiation monster and be done with it?). In fact, I'd get rid of Luthor too.

This would leave time to make the characters more interesting, to develop the Clark/Lois relationship, show these people enjoying themselves and build up their relationships so that the fight emotionally involves us. Just let the Batman/Superman fight develop naturally from their dislike of each others ideologies (rather than hint at this and then have the reason they fight be because Luthor forces their hand).

I really want to see Superman look like he's enjoying being Superman. Even when he saves people it looks like a chore to him. Smile for god's sake!

Despite all my criticisms though...and the fact I did get a bit fidgety in the first hour...I did enjoy it on a superficial level. It looked nice, Affleck's Batman was good, Gadot has me very interested in a solo Wonder Woman film and I'm enough of a geek to have enjoyed the finale smack down (I never really understand the criticism that superhero films end on a big CGI fight. It would be an incredibly brave movie maker who did otherwise, I can 't really see what other path there is to follow?). Killing Supes was daft though. No-one believes he's dead so it carries no weight.

[NeglectedField]

Finally watched Rush. Good stuff. One of the best cast films I've seen in a while.

One detail they omitted though was that Hunt used to take his dog out to posh restaurants

[NeglectedField]

Big Fish.

First Tim Burton film I've seen that wasn't all 3spooky5you. Not really any feels for me as you could see them coming. Was expecting the story line to be a little more clever. Enjoyable enough I guess.

[WorMzy]

Watched The Good Dinosaur. It's an animated film about an alternate reality where dinosaurs didn't get wiped out, and one young dinosaur gets lost and has to find his way home. it was pretty good. Quite dark for a Pixar film though.

Watched Song of the Sea too, that was very pretty. It's another animated film, and is about a young brother and sister who live in a lighthouse on an island with their dad. The girl discovers that she transform into a seal, but she and her brother get dragged away to live in the city with their grandma because the island is too dangerous for kids. They run away and try to find their way back, and have an adventure.

[Darkweasel]

SPOILER FREE REVIEW:


Captain America: Civil War

It's fucking ace.
Better than Age of Ultron and a billion times better than that Batman vs Superman shambles.

9/10

[bloodfiend]

Captain America: Civil War

OMG what a fucking film! Best Marvel film so far, absolutely destroys the last Avengers film. Despite only having small roles Spidey and Ant Man manage to steal the show. Won't say anymore, just go watch it.

10/10

[Darkweasel]

10 Cloverfield Lane

Mary Elizabeth Winstead wakes up chained up in John Goodman's fallout shelter and is told that there's been "an attack" and will have to stay there with him for the next two years.

First 90mins.





Last 15mins.

[Jobdone]

I've also got to give props to that movie for the trailer.

It admittedly made want to watch it, but I kind of assumed it spoiled the bigger scenes. Instead they fucked around with the timeline and barely showed your anything of the best bits while still making me want to see it.

Take a lesson other shit tier trailer makers.

[Darkweasel]

Indeed. The trailer for Batman vs Superman leaps immediately to mind.
The entire film in two minutes flat.

[someone else]

Compare and Contrast: Point Break (1992) and Point Break (2015). Emerging to little fanfare before Christmas, the remake of Point Break sneaks out on Blu Ray. To summarise: everything that made the original fun has been removed - it was a high water mark of action films before they became over CGI'd, from an era before John McClane lept onto the back of a plane and when studios would still revel in 18-rated flicks instead of 12A rated blandness. It seems like someone had some good ideas for stunts, but could only get the budget if attached to half arsed remake. In truth, the big stunt scenes are superb, particulary the flying suits, and contrasts with hideous CGI in a number of other sequences.

The rest is awful: memorable characters, energy and salty script have been replaced with vapid no-marks - the original had two big stars almost taking the piss of their typical personas, this has a couple of no-marks sleepwalking through it, Ray Winstone as Angelo Pappas looks like he's wandered in from another film and Delroy Lindo just bangs the desk and cries 'my ass is on the line here' in the John C McGinley role - no 'Young Dumb and full of cum..' or 'I was taking bullets in Khe Sahn when you were shitting in your hands and rubbing it in your face' - barely any memorable lines of any kind, just cod spiritual bollocks that clog up facebook memes. Instead of infiltrating a loopy Manson family like cult, here Utah looks like he's wandered onto the set of a Go Pro advert or a hip-hop video, but he does get to shoot his gun into air shouting 'Arrggh'.

[Haldamir319]

Finally saw Room the other day. Simply, excellent. Some of the best child acting for years, and Brie Larsen is fantastic too.

Also watched Victoria. For those who haven't come across it, it's a film recorded in one shot (on the third or fourth take apparently) - ie it is two and a quarter hours without a single cut. It must be noted that this isn't like Hitckcock's Rope either, where some trickery was used to make it seem cutless. This genuinely is.

Anyways, it follows a young Spanish woman who is on a night out in Berlin. As she leaves a club, she is approached by a small group of young men who offer to show her the 'real' Berlin. Being the adventurous type, she actually agrees (>_>).

The first hour is character build, with her and the main guy Sonne getting to know each other while walking through the street of Berlin with his mates while they lark around a bit. It's a bit Linklaterish. About an hour in, the tone changes to something closer to a thriller. I won't go into it too much, as part of the charm would be to watch the events unfold.

Apart from some contrivances (a scene in an underground carpark sticks out), and the thriller aspect of the plot not making a whole heap of sense, it was a very enjoyable, if exhausting film. Exhausting because, with there being no cuts, there's no real point for your brain to take a break and refresh. There are only two moments where it is possible is where the camera continues to roll where a scene would naturally end and some non-diegetic music is played over the top to set the mood of the scene. This happens twice in over two hours.

The lead actors are very good, particularly the chap playing Sonne, and the cinematography is fantastic. In a rare move, the cinematographer is given top billing over the director in the credits. It is easy to see why.

Anywho, thought it might be one for the film buffs on here to check out. Empire 5 starred it and Guardian gave it 4s and 5s depending on the reviewer. I think it is a 'good' 4.

[Darkweasel]

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE

No big spoilers that you wouldn't have already seen on the trailers

Set twenty years after the events of ID4 (and that fact gets repeated a lot), it seems that the world managed to put away all of its petty differences to live together in peace and harmony, using alien technology taken from derelict spaceships to create a beautiful and harmonious Earth where everyone works hand in hand to savagely murder every last alien left at large on the planet.

When the aliens kept in the prison cells at Area 51 suddenly wake up, and all the lights on the spaceship which crashed in Africa at the end of the original suddenly go on, an ageing Jeff Goldblum gets straight back on the case along with a host of new characters, old characters, very old characters, and the sons and daughters of people from the first film. Among the new characters, we have Chris Hemsworth's less famous brother, a friendly African warlord, a new military leader, a sexy Chinese pilot, a woman scientist/love interest for Oldblum, a nerdy guy, a useless nerdy guy, a pointlessly English nerdy guy, and a conveniently timed female president. These are aided by the daughter of former President Bill Pullman and the son of the-not-appearing-in-this-film Will Smith (Maika Monroe and somebody else).

Everything is bigger, bigger,bigger all the way here. Bigger spaceships, bigger aliens, bigger guns, bigger battles, and bigger gaps in logic, sense and credibility. One of ID4's strengths was relaying the terror of an alien invasion brilliantly. Yes, it was completely ludicrous with its escaping dogs, heroic alcoholics, and fire that didn't turn corners, but there was a real sense of panic during the initial arrival and then the attack on New York. Characters you had already been drawn to were already on the chopping block and it wasn't a particularly nice feeling.

There's absolutely none of that here. After spending FAR too long trying to build suspense, there's simply no sense of humanity or drama whatsoever. Nothing but bigger and bigger CGI explosions.
Oh, there's another dog, I suppose. So there's that.
No. ID:R is just one action set piece after another, one badly written line after another, one desperate reference to 1996 after another, and one "witty" pun after another. Not Will Smith's stripper mother is now a well respected doctor, Goldblum's Super-jewish father is still the same but a bit grumpier, Bill Pullman is now bearded and a bit mental, and Dr Okun (presumed dead after the first film) is now back among the land of the living after twenty years in a coma, with magic legs that still miraculously work after all this time. Robert Loggia (General "Tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down!" Grey) died shortly after making this but I'm not entirely sure he hadn't already kicked the proverbial bucket when they filmed his five whole seconds of screen time.

There's not just one motivational and emotional speech this time, there's two. And neither of them are anywhere remotely close to the original. There's loads of macho "LET'S DO IT!" "GO FOR IT!", "DO IT!" type dialogue, and we get a numbingly tedious "we-used-to-hate-each-other-but-then-he-hit-me-in-the-face-and-now-we-totally-respect-each-other" storyline for Not Will Smith and Not Thor. To his credit though, Not Will Smith tries his best to not be Will Smith for lots of the film, but it all gets too much for him and by the end when he says "get ready for a close encounter!" you just want him to shut up or die. Or both.

I've mentioned convenience already, but it's really worth repeating as ID:R is absolutely peppered with the stuff. Convenient things happen everywhere. Not just with sons/daughters/mothers/friends of people from the original turning up or disappearing when the plot needs them to, but with rescues and the way people wriggle out of seemingly inescapable danger. Boats, tidal waves, spaceships, aliens, vehicles, explosions, and buildings all keep coming to a standstill inches from where a main character is standing, leaving them to deal with nothing more than a bit of dust in the hair and having to think up an appropriate quip.

ID:R is not the worst film ever made. It's not even the worst film released this year. However, it's also nothing more than an expensive-looking but ultimately adequate sci-fi movie which sticks far too rigidly to The Big Book Of Hollywood Tropes and Cliches. The CGI and green screen work ranges from dreadful to outstanding, there are some seriously shonky looking space vehicles, and the ending (which all but features a huge "TO BE CONTINUED...") is a major anti-climax.


5/10

[Ensorcelled]

Is it natural progression to take horror franchises into space at some point? Jason, pinhead.. why does it seem like a good idea?!

[NeglectedField]

Fancy the look of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Is there any connection to the Cloverfield film there, or would that spoil it?