movies

[mikeftw]

The Hobbit

Beyond anything I could have hoped for. Utterly brilliant. 11/10 (maybe even 12/10).

Off to watch it again tomorrow

[Aaaarrrrgggghhhh]

The Hobbit

Beyond anything I could have hoped for. Utterly brilliant. 11/10 (maybe even 12/10).

Off to watch it again tomorrow

I've gone a bit mad. 4th time tomorrow, going to try HFR.

[thehairyone]

Pacific Rim. Now with added GLaDoS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vKz7WnU83E

[bloodfiend]

Statham does have a lot of interesting films, but id recommend Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Crank 1&2, Transporter 1&2 (i didnt like the 3rd one), Safe, The Expendables 1&2, Death Race and The Mechanic. With Crank 3 and the inevitable Expendables 3 on the way, its worth brushing up on those.

They've said Crank 3 is coming out, but no release date yet, hope its soon - I absolutely love the first two.

The Transporter 2 is great, but the first one's dull and the 3rd is rubbish imo, wasn't keen on Death Race either - too much of a brainless "Mad Max meets Mario Kart" kinda thing. Safe was very good though, and is one of his best.

[Applecore]

I'm fast finding myself becoming a massive Jason Statham fan, I have seen 3 of his films this week, all bloomin good action films, and the guy can seriously fight

Seen Blitz? Typical Statham but in a good way.

[Jobdone]

Bank Job is really good too. Not an action movie, but Stathams good in it.

[Moonburp]

Bank Job is really good too. Not an action movie, but Stathams good in it.

Second.

Lock, Stock and Snatch obviously deserve a mention too.

[skull-wart]

Are you ready for this...?

THE HOBBIT

MOVIE SPOILERS

Just got back from watching Peter Jackson's return to Middle Earth, and I must say, as impressed as I was, its faults were all too obvious and it's not as good as any of the LOTR films from ten years ago.
Now, before I hear "Oh, it's unfair to compare them" - no it isn't. We're in the same universe with many of the same characters and locations, but instead of having the playful, whimsical tone of the book (of which I admit I haven't read, but then again I'd never read LOTR before the films either), The Hobbit feels exactly the same as LOTR. From my limited knowledge of the book and from what I've been told by different people on numerous occasions, the tone of The Hobbit is fun and childlike with some dark moments here and there, but instead, the film was full of impending darkness, malevolence and doom with occasional lapses into bouncy frivolity. Even the first song was depressing and dark.

It takes an eternity to get going and Frodo's inclusion is completely unnecessary. The arrival of the dwarves takes too long and the comedy in that section is laboured and occasionally totally misses the mark. The dwarves are likeable enough but they were all much of a muchness - an obvious character quirk or beard style to tell them apart - but there was only one instance of dissent in the ranks during the whole thing. Apart from when criticisms were aimed at Bilbo, of course.

The whole thing felt dangerously uneven at times, shifting between scenes without flair, creativity, or even using naturally created segues. For example, during the scene with the Orc King (I like Barry Humphries as much as the next man but his voice was a total casting mismatch) we flash excitedly from there to the film's highlight featuring Bilbo and Gollum, only to jump straight back like Jackson had suddenly remembered where he'd put his car keys.

And that was the main problem. Too much, too much, too much. What is essentially a small children's book has become a behemoth using references that were only briefly mentioned in the LOTR appendices. Now, that's fine, but instead of just using a handful of ideas, it seems Jackson's become obsessed with not leaving anything out, whether it be a character, a back story, a location, or even a weapon.
None of which has helped his self-editing skills. He turned King Kong into a three week long dullfest, and although The Lovely Bones was kept nice and tight, he's completely forgotten how to use his editing scissors again. The fanboys might have yelped with delight at the stone giants but they served no real purpose, other than to show off even more CGI effects.

Azog was another disappointment. Instead of thinking "fuck, this guy's massive" like I did with Lurtz in Fellowship of the Ring, all I found myself thinking was that the CGI was shonky because they still can't figure out how to do humanoid movements properly.

In its favour though, and even taking my previous comments into consideration, the film does actually get better as it goes along, although yet again, Jackson does his best to scupper himself. I don't know, but the male bonding scene between Thorin and Bilbo may very well be in the book, but it just felt like a cheap re-enactment of Aragorn's speech at the end of Return of the King.

Even Howard Shore's music score was disappointing, simply drawing on his use of leitmotif to utilise the same themes for returning characters and only adding one or two new ones along the way. As nice and familiar as it was to hear the original theme, a bold new one should have been a requirement for the title card, not the exact same score as before.

Still, believe it or not, I did actually enjoy it! As much as I may appear to have dwelt on the film's bad points, there were of course many, many highlights which outweighed the negatives so much that it would have added a further ten thousand words to all of this. Peter Jackson may not know when enough is enough, but I do.
Sort of.
So, even with its slow start and overall asymmetry, it does rocket along at an ungodly rate. Sylvester McCoy is excellent as Radagast, Martin Freeman does a brilliant Ian Holm impression, Ian Holm does a brilliant impression of Martin Freeman doing a brilliant impression of Ian Holm, the eagles are magnificent, the scenery (both real and imagined) is immense, the acting is first rate, and as mentioned, Andy Serkis is beyond awesome.
Good enough to buy on DVD? Absolutely.
Good enough to watch again at the cinema? Not for me.

8/10

I'm not sure I see the point in critiquing a film, I didn't think any of the downfalls mentioned played a part for me. Nicely written though.

[Andrewhall28]

I'm fast finding myself becoming a massive Jason Statham fan, I have seen 3 of his films this week, all bloomin good action films, and the guy can seriously fight

Seen Blitz? Typical Statham but in a good way.

I didn't enjoy that one, but Safe is awesome as is The Mechanic

[Luke_X]

I thought Blitz was ok, but after 20 minutes you can work out how it will end. The Mechanic was very entertaining and It's actually getting a sequel. I can see it being very similar to The Transporter films. As for Crank 3, I know they want Idris Elba in it. He could be very interesting as a villain for Chev Chelios. You do have to wonder what will keep him alive this time, but i said that about the second film and they did it really well.

[Applecore]

I'm fast finding myself becoming a massive Jason Statham fan, I have seen 3 of his films this week, all bloomin good action films, and the guy can seriously fight

Seen Blitz? Typical Statham but in a good way.

I didn't enjoy that one, but Safe is awesome as is The Mechanic

I liked the fight scenes in Safe but found myself struggling to pay attention to the story.
Haven't seen The Mechanic, will have to look that up.

[Andy Hall]

Mechanic is really well done, I also thought War was brilliant, Jet Li is fantastic in it as usual and it is a very good story

I also love Death Race, part 3 is out in January, trailer looked good too

[Luke_X]

Jackie Chan has confirmed he will be a part of Expendables 3 with a large role (so not a 2 second cameo). My guess would be as the villain but he may replace Jet Li.

[mikeftw]

Just seen it again, even better the second time because I could pick up all the extra bits I missed at first.

This, even noticed a Wilhelm scream too

[Andy Hall]

Jackie Chan has confirmed he will be a part of Expendables 3 with a large role (so not a 2 second cameo). My guess would be as the villain but he may replace Jet Li.

There are rumours that there will be an Asian cinema version aswell