Movies you've just watched

[GaijinPunch]

The editing is atrocious, too, about on par with the advertising. The bad guy's Louis Vuitton suitcase was only upstaged by the dancing Pepsi can.

The bad guy was Charles Dance, no? He's currently the meanest bastard in the world on Game of Thrones.

The "I want the knife" scene is still classic though. Never gets old.

[drauch]

Hell yes, BIL! Flesh + Blood is troo medieval savagery as it should be. Wish there were more bits of fiction like this. Ambiguous morals amongst the chaos of mercenary plunder! Plague meat catapults! Rape everywhere!

[Casey120]

Watched Gravity last week on my Sony headset .
Not the most action packed film but I really enjoyed the claustrophobic setting and spectacular 3D.

[jonny5]

Man of Tai Chi

Started off great but kind of went to shit half way through and I thought the ending was kind of dumb. Fight scenes were pretty cool. Worth a watch.

Slightly related, I am convinced Keanu Reeves is a vampire, dude has barely aged in 20+ years.

[BitFaced]

Besides The LEGO Movie, over a week I've also seen LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers, Lion King 3 and Doctor Who (1996).

Can you guess which one I liked the least?

[Xyga]

Lately:
The Hobbit 2 - beautiful pictures but you could really watch it without the dialogs.
Gravity - again beautiful, but man what a stupid story.
Thor 2 - this is shit.

[Ixmucane2]

Alex Murphy becomes Robocop because of a bomb placed under his car.

How convenient! None of that messy R-rated "gunned down on the front line" business, then.

Street crime doesn't seem an actual problem or threat in the Robocop remake, but it might be intentional: the enemies to worry about are billionaires (and megacorporations in general) and corrupt politicians and journalists.

[Casey120]

Lately:

Thor 2 - this is shit.

It was terrible, the story is all over the place and makes no sense and the acting was pretty uninspired except for Tom Hiddleston .

[CMoon]

Rewatched Dredd on netflix, and am mostly pissed off how America completely failed to recognize this film. I hope the people involved will consider making a sequel, but with pathetic sales I suppose it is a lost cause. Jesus christ! It is like Blade Runner and Escape from New York's love child. What the fuck do people want?

[boagman]

Rewatched Dredd on netflix, and am mostly pissed off how America completely failed to recognize this film. I hope the people involved will consider making a sequel, but with pathetic sales I suppose it is a lost cause. Jesus christ! It is like Blade Runner and Escape from New York's love child. What the fuck do people want?

Well, to be fair, it's not exactly a major franchise comic book, and the first movie wasn't exactly inspiring, now was it? I mean, seriously: it starred Rob Schneider, for Pete's sake. Rob. Schneider.

As well, I thought the marketing campaign for the movie made it look positively awful. *Nothing* about the ads I saw for it made me even remotely consider watching it, and I really like Karl Urban.

I may end up watching it now. We'll see.

[CMoon]

And yet somehow Dredd ends up being exactly the movie I want to see. I mean, the characters are not merely shallow but complete cardboard cutouts, the action involves Dredd holding a gun in front of him and pulling the trigger, and yes, he walks like a machine. The plot could probably be summed up in one paragraph, but fuck it! Go back and watch Escape from New York or Precinct 13 and it is exactly the same, but I love these movies. Snake Plisken saves the president basically by walking forward for the length of the movie and grumbling every now and then. I think Dredd accomplishes the same thing mostly by frowning non-stop. Am I wrong in thinking that even Road Warrior works in about the same manner--I think Max mostly succeeds by turning the steering wheel a few times.

People will think I'm a bit crazy calling Dredd a small classic, but seriously, all those other films I mentioned started out small until we realized how fucking cool they were. Unfortunately Dredd lacks a villain that lives up to Humongous or the Duke of NY...oh yeah, and this guy:



so I can see knocking it a few points down, but not enough to explain the world collectively not going to see great stilted 80's action somehow transported directly into the future (IE 2012.)

One thing I missed in the theatre. Remember the hacker guy who Mama tortured...always surrounded by those copper wires? In the last scene when Ma-ma is knocked to the ground, there's a little wire animal there next to her head like the oragami unicorn in Blade Runner. Maybe it is just about the revenge being dished up, or maybe something else, but I thought it was a nice touch.

[Acid King]

Unfortunately Dredd lacks a villain that lives up to Humongous or the Duke of NY.

I thought Mama was a pretty great villain, she just didn't have as many interesting underlings to go through. The movie was basically Dredd, Anderson, Mama, and a whole shit load of cannon fodder, and I really don't have many complaints about that.

I saw it once in the theater and I've probably watched it half a dozen times since I got the blu ray, and I agree about it likely becoming a minor classic. They just don't make many flicks like this nowadays. It's old fashioned hard R violence through and through.

[PedroMD]

I recently watched Event Horizon, the movie that supposedly inspired a good deal of the atmosphere and story in Dead Space. And one can see how. The plot is less stupid, though, closer to a Lovecraft story in space or Silent Hill, if Silent Hill were creepy spaceship instead of a creepy town.
A very enjoyable movie, despite some goofy moments (CARTOON PUNCH SOUND EFFECTS) and I really liked the acting all-around, ridiculously exaggerated as it was (or maybe because of it). It's an okay science-fiction/horror movie, but very fun to watch nevertheless.

Fuck this ship!

[drauch]

I'm gonna be oh so audacious here and say fuck anyone who thinks an action or adventure film needs some grandiose plot to run alongside "great" films. Different sorts o' movies here. The element of action! Boo hoo, this guy didn't reload after firing 15 bullets in a 9 shot clip! You can't hide behind a wood bench! Get over it, wimp. Carpenter's early action films, Mad Max: these impress on a different cinematic level, as they are intended.

Plot: intricate shit is going to explode. Cars are going to be chased. Stuns will be done. Your senses will be tantalized! MISSION COMPLETE.

Dredd succeeds on many levels. One, for adapting the comic faithfull; or, at least as faithfully as it's gonna get. Dystopia, action, scumduggery, and perpetual frowns abound! Simple thematically and in content, yet hardly done in such form anymore. To put this level of violence into a film and to have such a protagonist in mainstream cinema is basically unheard of at this point. Dredd is a stoic hardass just like he is in this comic. Doesn't have time to bang the hottie or bleed out or be a baby because he's TOO PISSED OFF and HE IS THE LAW. Civilians even get mowed down with no regard!

Slow motion is still prevalent, but is utilized in such a fashion that it's not cliche, and on the contrary, is quite unique compared to the loads of drivel we're subjected to at this point in our "action" films. It's a fuckin' comic book adaptation, and it comes off like that. It doesn't try to hide behind some facade, appealing to the masses or generation meme.

In that regards, it sadly won't get a sequel. I'd DEBASE MYSELF FOR CREDITS for another, but it's very unlikely.

[Never_Scurred]

Recently Watched:
13 Assassins: Great samurai film from Takashi Miike. Excellent and tense buildup to a very violent and epic third act. Some of the characters could have been fleshed out more to give them more distinction, but they become alive during the battle. My favorite character was the silly forest bandit who joins up with the group of samurai. Pretty gruesome and brutal without being over-the-top (no exaggerated blood sprays). Kinda long and slow-paced, but acting, cinematography, mature storytelling and awesome ending kept me watching. If you are expecting Ichi the Killer/Visitor Q madness, don't bother.

Star Trek- The Undiscovered Country: Nicholas Meyer-enough said. For someone who reportedly gave 0 fucks about the Star Trek universe and franchise, its reassuring knowing his name in the credits will mean a great Trek film. This movie was a major come-up after V (leave Shatner alone, he was doing the best he could despite Paramount's fuckery). I loved that this film made all the original cast-members feel important to the story, especially Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig. Lots of little moments of badassery that could only come from a Meyer-involved Trek flick like Chang's hand signals for torpedo fire, Kirk serving Iman a surprise knuckle sandwich, Sulu: "fly her apart then!", Kirk's hacked torpedo finisher, Spock "I've been dead before"...so many great moments in this movie. Easily on par with The Voyage Home and with all the qualities that made WoK a classic.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Tree of Life
Saw Douglas Trumbull's name in the credits and hoped at the very least to see some great effects sequences interspersed among the pretentious, overly sentimental live action bits.
Not so, this film was far more rewarding than I had expected. I guess a lot of people didn't like the non literal aspect of this. I disagree, this film can be enjoyed like a nice pair of tits - far more rewarding to look and feel than to have someone explain what they are and why they're so great.
I would say it's the goal of all artists to stir an emotion rather than to convey a simple meaning.

Sharknado
Again, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I didn't exactly go in with low expectations, I was at least hoping for some giggles. It's ridiculous, but Sharknado never resorts to annoying "trying too hard" humour.
First half of the film, the sunken city, felt just like a mid 90s survival horror game. They got that "cheesy but played totally straight" resident evil style just right. The boyfriend, who you want to die the second he arrives on screen, does exactly that.
By the time they reach the airstrip and the actual Sharknados show up, the film is starting to drag. The bombing sequence is naff, more evidence of the film's video game like structure, but it's all made up for by the excellent finale. Probably the greatest, most fist-pumpingly "I FUCKING KNEW IT!!" ending since Nighthawks.

[Mischief Maker]

The events of Dredd are simple, but there are some complex themes about the effectiveness of law enforcement lurking underneath.

Judge Dredd is not just the faceless embodiment of the law, he's the faceless embodiment of punishment-based law enforcement. He's a walking death penalty. If you commit a crime, even something as minor as vagrancy, you'll make him angry and he'll be coming for you. Yet Megacity One is still boiling over with crime.

And the slowmo scenes show you exactly why. Most people are living in depressing ugly squalor, but for a few precious seconds this drug makes everything impossibly beautiful. If you're living in a place like Peach Trees, and have no hope for bettering yourself, how long can you resist the ultimate escapism?

Dredd is kind of like a counterargument to The Dark Knight. In TDK you have an addict saying, "No, I'm not buying drugs, I'm scared of Batman!" even though the dealer says you have as much chance of winning the powerball as running into him. In Dredd, everyone knows you have as much chance of winning the powerball as running into one of the thousands of Judges, so they go about their illegal business as usual. "You know how often we get a Judge in Peach Trees?"

Rookie Anderson starts out the movie saying she wants to make a difference in the city by being a Judge. However, after hours and hours of harrowing heroics, she realizes the ultimate futility of what they're doing. When she lets the tech guy go, she observes that it's probably the only difference she's going to make. Once the Judges leave Peach Trees, a brand new bunch of gangs will retake the block, a brand new drug will retake the streets, and ultimately Judge Lex's observation that the city and its laws were functioning as little more than a meat grinder was true. It's not by accident that the big congratulations scene at the end of the movie was so unsatisfying.

[drauch]

Well, to be fair, the ending isn't satisfying in such a regard because Dredd is a stoic hardass who never breaks character (unless in the comics when he gives into to Walter's wacky wobot antics!). She clearly presumes she didn't pass because she fucked up a few times and Dredd is a stickler, and not much else than that. I agree with the rest of what you said, although I don't think the emphasis is as strong as you suggest. It's certainly suggested, being a dystopian environment, but the drug metaphor is a bit out there. They're cannon fodder in the shit world, nothing more. The slow-mo drug is simply an excuse to show extreme violence in stylish slow motion. Everyone shooting up is a villain in the film and gets killed in such a fashion.

[jonny5]

I personally loved Dredd, and it was without a doubt the single best experience I have had in a movie theater in at least 15 years. Imax 3D - oh man. That first scene with Mama in the bathtub and she splashes the water after the slo-mo hit - I almost came.

Only experience that even came close was going to see Pitch Black in theaters on mushrooms. Oh, highschool... you were so long ago

Funny story, my buddy was supposed to see it with me, so I ate my mushrooms on the way; get there and he is ditching me to go hang with his girlfriend, so I went in by myself. I got about 5 minutes in before I was tripping absolute balls

Oddly enough, I actually went to see Dredd by myself too since none of my friends wanted to go see it. Thankfully my good buddy Jack Daniels was free and came along for the ride.

Oh, and screw the haters. I actually enjoyed Judge Dredd too. If you enjoyed Demolition Man or any of Stallone's other 90's flix, how could you not?

[Some-Mist]

rewatched L'ecume des jours (Mood Indigo), and I have to say that it's still one of my favorites - if not favorite - films released in 2013. I originally imported it since I'm a huge fan of the director, Michel Gondry's other work (The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and I've got to say that it's the most odd/creative Gondry film yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNVfBmjiN1k

I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a french romance film (hopefully you're okay with subtitles) by a weird but awesome director.

[CMoon]

In that regards, it sadly won't get a sequel.

There are rumblings, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Glad a lot of you see what I'm seeing in this film. I'm glad I saw it again and might have to pick up a physical copy at some point. Really damn satisfying film.

[Skykid]

I'm satisfied to say I made a minor call on Dredd prior to release! On Arcadeotaku someone posted the trailer and all the proceeding comments were about how lousy it looked. I watched it and was surprised, noting that it could turn out to be quite good.

That was the only reason I bought a ticket and took my dad, too - and we both thoroughly enjoyed.

Alex Garland grew up with and has the same influences as most of us. If you ever read The Beach it's all video games, Die Hard and war movies. In screenwriting terms he has a certain inspiration: the entire new style of zombie inspired by 28 Days a good example.

Dredd was probably amazing for him: being able to screenwrite a movie version of the 2000AD material you used to read in school, and do it justice! Fun times.

[CMoon]

I recently watched Event Horizon, the movie that supposedly inspired a good deal of the atmosphere and story in Dead Space.

Watched this tonight because it was streaming on netflix and it was one of those films that gets mentioned a lot but no one seems to have anything really good to say about it. Now I can join that camp! Really interesting film with lots of potential but lots of really stupid scenes. Very interesting premise but mostly just people hallucinating on a ship. I feel it really isn't all that different than prometheus in that I absolutely want to love what it is doing, but it manages to zig when I wish it would zag. Hell, it is probably a better movie than prometheus for at least making sense.

There are a lot of positives here, especially if you are a fan of Carpenter...I'm thinking of Prince of Darkness with its ever boding 'evil will consume the world'. Yes, absolutely agree on the Lovecraftian horror, yet when all is said and done it feels underdeveloped, promises unfulfilled. How do you create the idea of true, incomprehensible cosmic evil? Not just cut up tortured bodies, certainly. Ultimately, I just don't think Event Horizon did its utmost to play out its themes...which honestly are a little much for any normal director. That said, I'm glad I watched it. Not like there's a bunch of other films of this ilk coming out anytime soon.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

I liked Prometheus and even The Thing 2011 much more the second time round on Netflix. Looking forward to Harbinger Down now, although not expecting that much.

[Vexorg]

The Lego Movie: ****1/2

Definitely the best movie I've seen this year so far, although the list of movies I've seen is admittedly small. Some really funny parts in it, especially the cameos. I've heard a lot of talk about the big plot twist in the last third of the movie, and I do have to say that it's something I wasn't expecting, but in the end it makes perfect sense. Some additional comments in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

I do wonder if this might have ruffled a few feathers in the AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) community. After all, the message of the movie comes across as a big "Take That" to obsessive adult Lego builders, but at the same time those are the same people that are contributing a lot to their sales (after all, I seriously doubt there are kids out there buying the huge $350 sets.) Nonetheless, they do have a point with this; Lego is intended to be used to create things, not to put everything together once and leave it on the shelf forever. I also find it interesting that the makers of "The Kragle" (Krazy Glue) would allow their product to be depicted the way it is in the film as basically a doomsday weapon.

Oh, and they seriously need to bring back some of the old Legoland space sets now. I have to imagine there's all sorts of people out there whose primary experience with Lego was building spaceships all the 80s stuff... I see there is a set coming later this year based on the movie; I might have to pick that up.

[Ixmucane2]

Snowpiercer

A solid entry in the "no, really, it makes sense in context" SF subgenre: revolution sweeps along the train that is home to all that remains of mankind, from bunkbed cars in the back, through special cars and first class, to the engine in the front. Complications ensue.
The story is very coherent (although important issues like energy and food sources are left largely unexplained), but unfortunately the fairly shocking ending makes most of what happened before largely meaningless.

Great action scenes, on the really violent end of the spectrum. Violence itself is an important theme.

[Skykid]

Snowpiercer

A solid entry in the "no, really, it makes sense in context" SF subgenre: revolution sweeps along the train that is home to all that remains of mankind, from bunkbed cars in the back, through special cars and first class, to the engine in the front. Complications ensue.
The story is very coherent (although important issues like energy and food sources are left largely unexplained), but unfortunately the fairly shocking ending makes most of what happened before largely meaningless.

Great action scenes, on the really violent end of the spectrum. Violence itself is an important theme.

Yeah, it's not that good though is it? I saw it Seoul when it was first released in theatres, subsequently becoming hugely successful, even though it's not entirely warranted. Not sure about the coherency of the story, some of it strays right into idiotsville, but here's my take from when I saw it last year:

Snowpiercer

Yeah, odd one. A Korean movie with a Western cast based on a French graphic novel. Liked the concept, but the execution lacked a little. A lot of it felt forced from a dramatic perspective, and ended up distinctly lacking realism. It is purely comic book fare, and to that end it's got plenty of enjoyable aspects, and some badly filmed but fairly engaging action and set-piece ideas. The entire thing on a train is cool, and the casting was good, with good turns from John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell and the token Korean star. The dialogue is mostly trash and the cgi really low budget for such a big movie, leaving a plasticky sheen on things. You could feel the foreign directing in there, which was both to its credit in that it felt quite unique and more entertaining for it, and to its detriment in that there was a lack of actor and script control, and a ton of stupidity in terms of plot holes and people doing dumb things like trying to stop engine gears by using their arms. The ending is a damp squib, too, abrupt and underwhelming.

I enjoyed it, probably more because it didn't have those boring Hollywood characteristics, but it's very disposable nonetheless. Would recommend to sci-fi fans and folk wanting something alternative.

[DEL]

Vexorg wrote;

The Lego Movie: ****1/2

Definitely the best movie I've seen this year so far, although the list of movies I've seen is admittedly small.

I preferred Mr Peabody & Sherman. The Lego Movie goes off like its taken an overdose of Speed. Wore me out. The message in the Lego Movie isn't bad, about a worker piece who's never had an independent thought in his life, hooked on trash reality TV and Boy/Girl manufactured band pop music. "Everything is Awesome!"
There's a lot more in there, but of course I won't bother going into it.
Mr Peabody & Sherman was much more relaxing and entertaining for me.

[spadgy]

Cool World. Which I kind of adored, even though it was kind of crappy.

[Vexorg]

Mr. Peabody and Sherman hasn't been released in the US yet (it looks like it's releasing this Friday) so I can't speak for that one. Based on the trailers it seems just a little overwrought though.