Movies you've just watched

[system11]

Saw Dredd at the cinema last night.

They did the character justice, not a bad film at all. Not truly great, but if it could be the start of a franchise I'd be a happy man. They nailed the cast for Dredd and Anderson, lets see if Lionsgate are inspired by the box office takings (first 18 rated film to hit number 1 in the UK for 2 years).

[Skykid]

Saw Dredd at the cinema last night.

They did the character justice, not a bad film at all. Not truly great, but if it could be the start of a franchise I'd be a happy man. They nailed the cast for Dredd and Anderson, lets see if Lionsgate are inspired by the box office takings (first 18 rated film to hit number 1 in the UK for 2 years).

On the back of the first I'd certainly go and see another if they maintain the cast, director and get Garland to write again. I mean, it's not high art, but it is Judge Dredd, and that's all I wanted.

Tonights delicacy:

Lockout



I don't understand this ongoing Luc Besson trend of putting his name on straight to DVD movies and total bullshit (like The Transporter), but never getting back in the directors chair.

That said, this was fairly enjoyable, despite having a shit heap of terribleness, which is some kind of achievement.

The bad:

- The first 20 minutes are pretty awful.
- Remember that girl from Taken, Neeson's daughter, the one that was unwatchably bad, who spent all her screen time being a grown woman acting like a 12 year old? Well she's in this, and she's admittedly less annoying but only slightly less shit. She's still irritating and can't act for toffee, but at least she blends in a bit better.
- The scripting is often beyond belief. The recurring tautology of "I saw it with my own eyes" gets a bit trying after you hear it five times. There's also a scene where a guy swipes a firearm and shoots two people, and then someone says "he's got a gun!" Nice.
- The CG is terribad. Some real budget stuff.
- The action cutting is far too quick, so there's not much payoff from folk getting burned.
- The Science in the sci-fi is cripplingly stupid. Jet planes in space, and an atmospheric re-entry from deep space that takes twenty seconds to touchdown on a freeway, amongst other things.
- There's an English black guy in it with a crap American accent (is this a theme these days?) who also can't act.
- It's got that Eastern European dude with the goatee that turned up in loads of Bruckheimer productions and he's fucking awful.
- Get ready for the worst actor ever to play the President of the US of A. His reaction to finding out his daughter has been captured by 500 convicts in a space prison is priceless. I actually think he was smiling.
- The plot. Well the convict in space thing is fine, but the other espionage stuff about a briefcase is totally tacked on, difficult to follow, and sloppily resolved.
- Not enough gratuitous deaths. Not enough bad guys get the barrel of a shotgun.
- There's a weird pacing to the film. A lot happens, and in quick succession, yet it all feels very short and suddenly over quite quickly, like not much really went down.
It's odd, because it follows a sort of Die Hard style theme, but it feels like Die Hard does 100 times more into its run time than this. Strange how all that quick cutting doesn't amount to much in the end.


The Good:

- Guy Pearce, and Guy Pearce's dialogue. That's really it. In-fact, you can just watch the film for Guy Pearce, because he, his character, and his scripting, make it worthwhile. Even enjoyable! Basically, it's like he's in a different film to everyone else when he's on-screen, which is a bit odd, but it's not an undesirable contrast.

Essentially, he nailed his character really well, and proved that you can have an action hero made of pure old-school who has nothing except one liners in his vocabulary, right until the credits. Now that's awesome. How they couldn't find old Bruce a single decent line in Live Free or Cry Hard, yet this DVD movie has them coming out of its ass, I really don't know. Can't find the staff these days.

Watch this if you like an action movie where the main character is stereotypically blasé, kills people with the same compassion as turning off a light switch, and has to mutter one-liners as if his life depends on it. I really enjoyed the character, and Pearce gave a good performance. I've been waiting for a good cliche action character to turn up for about twenty-years, and until this I was convinced they had completely lost the art. Just a shame the movie wasn't a bit better really, Pearce would have made it worth a revisit.

Everything else is bad to average, but if you can switch your brain off there's a little fun to be had.

[WKL]

Two-Lane Blacktop.

Made me reminisce about the early 90s when I used to go out with my brother in his Honda CRX VTEC at night-time looking for competition.

Escort XR3i boy racers were never up to scratch. Golf GTI drivers rarely fared better.

Great times.

[xbl0x180]

Hahaha. We just finished watching Vanishing Point, another Existentialist road movie from the 70s in the same form as Two-Lane Blacktop and Electra Glide In Blue. It is a most excellent choice film for those who were underwhelmed by the flashy, yet empty, Drive

[drauch]

Executioners, the sequel to the amazing The Heroic Trio. Not as good, but still quite fun. Very melancholy and melodramatic like a lot of HK flicks, with a number of exploding bodies, arm dismemberment and martial arts. Damn shame they didn't make a third.

[GaijinPunch]

On da plane back to Japansas:

Mean Streets (1973). Got this back when I was on a 70's kick, and never got around to watching it. Good flick -- more of a drama than anything though, which is rare for the Italian gangster genre. Nice to see the young Harvey Keitel whom I enjoyed more than DeNiro. This movie out dates me by 2 years, so it's weird seeing nudity from this era.

Arrietty no Karigurashi, as per the anime/manga thread. Enjoyable, definitely worth a watch. The "humans' suck" theme was expected and a bit dramatic for about 5 minutes, but didn't ruin anything. I watched it without subtitles (although I turned them on for a few parts to see how they translated something). Seems the subtitles are based on the dub, which doesn't always work. I've only studied Japanese for 20 fucking years now. If I can't watch a movie w/o subtitles I might as well give up. Anyway, glad I watched it.

[drauch]

Tonight:

Nowhere to Run - Van Damme sorta serious flick. Plays an average joe out of prison. Not a whole lot of action, but some pretty good camera blocking and Rosanna Arquette's boobies make it worthy viewing.

Cabin in the Woods - Starts off fairly bland for the first half and then kicks it into overdrive. Hilarious, bloody and fun. Nice to see this was actually in theaters!

It's Alive! III: Island of the Alive - Larry Cohen lost his mind. Part Most Dangerous Game, part ridiculous melodrama, part arbitrary nonsense. The babies get huge and drive a boat to Florida. I don't know how I feel.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hahaha. We just finished watching Vanishing Point, another Existentialist road movie from the 70s in the same form as Two-Lane Blacktop and Electra Glide In Blue. It is a most excellent choice film for those who were underwhelmed by the flashy, yet empty, Drive

Gotta recommend that classic all-out speed flick of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. With the pedal slammed straight to the floor, some of those high-speed chase scenes were filmed on two-lane country roads amongst them agricultural orchards (looks like it could be within the Central Valley of California quite easily). Crazy shit if you were to ask me barrelling through them four-way stop sign sections. With an overall two million dollar budget, the DM,CL flick was easily quite an expensive indie flim endeavor without any major film studio backing whatsoever (when it finally made it's debut on the big screen in May of 1973).

Ever noticed that there aren't any train crossing lights nor any train crossing gates present when the final anti-climatic car vs. train crash scene occurs? WTF!?

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry film Factoid time: The notable Save Mart grocery store robbery scene featured in it, is still in business to this very day. Is based out of Sonora, CA. This little known factoid gem was never mentioned in the ending credits (as no mention of filming locations is listed period). Nor is it mentioned on Wikipedia either (albeit a very vague reference as to the filming location but no mention of the actual Save Mart grocery store name-wise). In the film, the generic grocery store scene could easily be taken/construed as an indy grocery store (but in reality, it was part of a independently-owned small grocery chain spread throughout the Golden State of California back in those days). Gearheads sure do know all about those cool 1970s all-out speed films like with Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, the original Gone in Sixty Seconds, etc.

There was supposed to be a proper Gone In Sixty Seconds II sequel slated for general release in 1976 but the main actor, H.B. "Toby" Halicki, died trying to perform a dangerous high-speed stunt scene during the film shooting. And thus so, the film was cancelled out of in tribute to the fallen actor whom perished. The film crew hadn't anticipated that he was going to die during that intial film shoot though (considering that he was an experienced stunt driver in real life). It was regarded as one of those surreal and strange events that occured. The idea of trying to top the high-speed scenes shown in the original GiSS flick was the premise for the GiSS II sequel. The 2000 remake of GiSS with Nick Cage really doesn't count in my book.

As for Lockout, it did get a proper big screen release stateside, albeit running for a two to three week stretch at best. It did quite poorly at the U.S. box office ticket sales-wise...that's a given.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[GaijinPunch]

There was supposed to be a proper Gone In Sixty Seconds II sequel slated for general release in 1976 but the main actor, H.B. "Toby" Halicki, died trying to perform a dangerous high-speed stunt scene during the film shooting. And thus so, the film was cancelled out of in tribute to the fallen actor whom perished.

That generally fucks the movie up. ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There was supposed to be a proper Gone In Sixty Seconds II sequel slated for general release in 1976 but the main actor, H.B. "Toby" Halicki, died trying to perform a dangerous high-speed stunt scene during the film shooting. And thus so, the film was cancelled out of in tribute to the fallen actor whom perished.

That generally fucks the movie up. ^_~

I was surprised/shocked that when Brandon Lee died during a film shoot, if the film studio was still going finish filming "The Crow" and release it. Of course, they had to utilize an actor double to finish filming some certain scenes and managed to do so. It was quite something to view The Crow on the big screen when it made it's proper debut.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[GaijinPunch]

I believe they had to bring in voice-doubles to do some lines for Heath Ledger after he passed.

[njiska]

Cabin in the Woods - Starts off fairly bland for the first half and then kicks it into overdrive. Hilarious, bloody and fun. Nice to see this was actually in theaters!

Loved Cabin. I was one of the lucky few to go in without having even seen the trailers and I tend to think my experience was a thousand times better because of it. I got to spend the first half wondering what the hell was going on so I wasn't bored. The last half I spent trying to get all the references, including that awesome parody of Pinhead. I was wondering if he was to show up as soon as I saw the sphere that's clearly a cenobite puzzle box. Going to grab the Blu-Ray when it's out tomorrow.

Last night we watched, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. I personally love the film. The plot is simple and cartoonish, as it should be; Bob Hoskins is completely over-the-top in his portrayal of a drunken detective scarred by toons and the animation itself is just beautifully integrated into the live action scenes.

[drauch]

Last night I watched:

Time Stalker - Great anime film from the same director of Leda: The Fantastic Adventures of Yohko and Windaria. Probably my least favorite of the ones mentioned, but still great stuff. Nice to see a female protagonist modestly drawn in mid-80s anime. Not that I'm complaining, certainly.

On Deadly Ground - Seagal's directorial debut. Michael Caine in the most evil role of his career. Plus random cameos from John C. McGinnely, R. Lee Ermey and Billy Bob Thornton. Seagal is as brutal as ever in this environmental conscience action film.

The Peacekeeper- Kind of a lost Dolph Lundgren classic, really. Thought it was going to be really bland so I put it on while I dicked around on the computer. Starts off slow but kicks into gear at about 10 minutes with a rooftop car chase, followed by a good chunk of action. Definitely worth watching.

[njiska]

Just rewatching Cabin in the Woods now. Love it just as much as I did the first time. The "Fool" may be one of my all time favourite characters in any horror film, simply because he is a representation of us, the viewers. He gets to say all of the logical, well thought out things that we wish other characters would notice.

[lilmanjs]

Detective Dee and The Mystery of The Phantom Flame. Great action movie, but what got me was it was a great mystery movie as well. Highly recommended.

[Mischief Maker]

Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain"



A definite love it or hate it movie, I'm in the "love it" camp.

It's just as emotionally harrowing to watch as "Requiem for a Dream," but instead of ending on the most dire downer note imaginable, it turns things around in the end and leaves me feeling emotionally purged for having survived the whole experience.

Who knew Hugh Jackman could act??? He gives an amazing 3-character performance. Honestly I don't see how Brad Pitt, the original casting choice for the film, could have pulled it off.

Also great is the almost non-presence of CGI in this science fiction movie. All the space effects are slow motion chemical reactions green screened into the background. There is no way the "flowers" scene would have the same impact with CGI.

[drauch]

Trying to remember what I watched yesterday. Too tired to sum up:

In the Line of Duty 2: Yes, Madam!
Tiger Cage 2
Dream Lovers
The Frightners
Out For Justice <---Perfect Seagal movie.

[emphatic]

Detective Dee and The Mystery of The Phantom Flame. Great action movie, but what got me was it was a great mystery movie as well. Highly recommended.

Yeah, it's like a better, Asian Sherlock Holmes.

[lilmanjs]

Detective Dee and The Mystery of The Phantom Flame. Great action movie, but what got me was it was a great mystery movie as well. Highly recommended.

Yeah, it's like a better, Asian Sherlock Holmes.

That is very true! I quite liked it better than the first Sherlock Holmes movie(not the last one that came out, but the one before it). Going to have to buy this movie at some point!

[BIL]

Compliance (2012). This film is being passed around the UK media at the moment, billed as "most shocking movie evar." If you're familiar with the case it's based on, and more importantly, if you're aware a percentage of humanity is not very bright and liable to become spineless shitheels when faced with authority figures, it will not shock that much, but it's hard to not feel a little depressed all the same. An excellent dramatisation - very convincing acting and discomforting production, does justice to the subject matter.

edit: oh god, people really are shit.

[chempop]

Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain"
A definite love it or hate it movie, I'm in the "love it" camp.

One of my all time favorites. I think it was too heavy for most viewers, plus the triple-story structure threw most viewers off.

I recently watched Sunshine, a rather interesting sci-fi drama about astronauts going on a mission to nuke the sun in hopes of prolonging human existence. I enjoyed it.

Also finally saw No Country For Old Men... holy moly was that awesome! Anton Sugur was by far my favorite character, easily one of the best Cohen Bros. What others are of this calibur? I'm a huge Raising Arizona fan.

[BIL]

Fargo is excellent - kind of a black comedy No Country. Definitely see that one if you haven't. Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing are two more great, sinuous crime flicks from them.

[Vurpa]

Star Wars 1-6. Not only is 1-3 somehow even worse than I remembered but happily oblivious until now this was the first time watching the added effects versions. The effects and added scenes were annoying enough on their own but the addition of Gayden Christensen smirking alongside Alec Guiness in RotJ resulted in squeezing the remote so hard the batterycover cracked and flew off the bottom .

Now to go through this thread and find something to wash that memory away...happy thoughts.

[GaijinPunch]

Also finally saw No Country For Old Men... holy moly was that awesome! Anton Sugur was by far my favorite character, easily one of the best Cohen Bros. What others are of this calibur? I'm a huge Raising Arizona fan.

Dude -- we should get stoned together sometime! Anton Chigurh might be the best on screen villain ever. As evil as The Emperor, and as mysterious as John Doe in Se7en. Huge Raising Arizona fan here. So many quotable lines. I throw them out even now, and of course, most people don't get them (you hayseed!).

The only one I can think of that is in the same vein as, and of similar caliber as No Country is Fargo. It's a bit different in terms of pacing, but nonetheless super awesome. Very few will disagree here, but some will debate which is the better film. (IMDB has them equal at 8.2). The bad guys in it are nothing like Chigurh, of course, so you don't have that going for you. True Grit was not disappointing, but is a different style to No Country. Definitely worth watching.

On their comedy side I thought Burn After Reading was great, but it seems to get mixed reviews. Watched it on a plane... laughed out loud a few times. Brad Pitt was great, and Malkovich (as usual) was phenomenal. I think what it has in common w/ Raising Arizona is that the first 5 minutes set the tone of the film.

Now to go through this thread and find something to wash that memory away...happy thoughts.

I watched Blade Runner last night. That would be a good start.

[njiska]

Watching Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What's with all the fucking lens flares? Seriously, I can take the aliens and the ridiculous cartoonishness of Cate Blanchett's character, but the visual look of this film is driving me off the deep end.

[BPzeBanshee]

Watched the second part of '20th Century Boys' last night on SBS. What a weird film.

[drauch]

Hard to Kill - Awesome Seagal. Skinny Seagal, at that, before he let himself go. You can kinda see the pudge starting. Plus he has a beard for awhile!

Police Story - Jackie Chan starring/directed. Starts off fantastically with an amazing downhill car chase/pile up. Ends in a well choreographed mall scene with some impressive stunts.

Rope - Excellent Hitchcock with some pretty daring "intellectual" morbid themes. Shot in about 10 takes or so, yet edited to look like it was one continuous shot. Groovy.

[Skykid]

Police Story - Jackie Chan starring/directed. Starts off fantastically with an amazing downhill car chase/pile up. Ends in a well choreographed mall scene with some impressive stunts.

Car scene was stolen for Bad Boys II. ^_~

'Well choreographed' mall scene is an understatement, it's a thing of beauty!

[njiska]

Police Story - Jackie Chan starring/directed. Starts off fantastically with an amazing downhill car chase/pile up. Ends in a well choreographed mall scene with some impressive stunts.

Car scene was stolen for Bad Boys II. ^_~

Please stop reminding me of this fact. Such a bad, blatant, shameful shot rip off.

[lilmanjs]

Police Story 2. Not as good as the first, but I always will say that playground fight is not worth missing. Though not as good as the first still holds up way better than the last 2 that got made.