Films: Rate and Discuss

Kick Ass: 7.5/10
Really, really enjoyable. Not all that funny, but it's a great balanced mix of a lot of genres.
 
Pandorum - 7/10...

It was entertaining and managed get a few jumps out of me... for the first half hour atleast and then it turned into a sort of Mad Max/I Am Legend-type action flick.
Really not as bad as I was lead to believe it would be.

Anzio - 7/10...
Decent WW2 flick about the military f*ck up in Italy, seemed a bit silly considering the seriousness of the subject matter but it was enjoyable.
Also, Robert Mitchum ftw.

The Caine Mutiny - 8.5/10
Fantastic drama about the events in 1941 that led to the mutiny of Capt. Queeg off of the minesweeper/destroyer ship "Caine".
The sequence in the storm and court room were just so intense coupled with the excellent and entirely believable performance by Humphrey Bogart as the captain, ended up feeling sorry for the guy in the end.
 
Year One - 0/10
Uuuggggggghhhhhh. You guys were on ****ing Arrested Development. What happened to you? :(

Religulous - 4/10
Honestly, I thought this was kind of entertaining, and at a few points even hilarious ("you don't need to pass an IQ test to become a senator!"), but it was frustrating in equal part. It seems throughout most of the proceedings that Maher's main intent is to entertain, but there's an overarching message here which is echoed in his closing statement, one very similar to Dawkins' Root of All Evil doco - that religion, as an establishment, is the enemy of progress and should be cast out for humanity to survive. The difference between this and Dawkins' (obviously more serious) piece is that where he actually attempted to discuss the problem, offer logical arguments against it, and really just shone an ugly light on fanaticism and it's supposedly deadly results, Maher instead bashes his head against the wall of religious belief for an hour and a half with all the efficacy of a ten year old negotiating bedtime with his parents (though certainly not the wit or humour of one), then turns sternly to the camera and says something to the effect of "religion is bad." Okay... and? What do you want us to do about it, go around hassling religious people Borat style? Because that doesn't seem very "progress-y" to me.

tl;dr - as a piece of entertainment it's decent enough, but there's nothing compelling here whatsoever that we haven't seen a dozen times before.

Oh, there is one really choice bit towards the end that gave me a huge grin, though - it's in my sig if anyone's curious. :D
 
Das Boot - 10/10...

This is what a perfect war movie is.
The characters, the acting, the camera work, the depth charge sequences, the hunting, the score, the set pieces... just everything about this movie was brilliant and I urge anyone that has a love for WW2, submarines, or thrillers to check this movie out pronto.
 
Just don't watch the dubbed version - it's almost comically poor and kills the tension!
 
the ghost:

AWESOME movie really, really enjoyed it :)

Pierce brosnan, ewan mcgregor and Olivia Williams were all very good in it and the film was just overall done really cleverly I felt. Also really quite tense in parts :)
 
Clash of Titans (2010) - 5/10
was forced to watch it, I think I liked it. there isn't much to say. it's a simple, action movie.

pros:
good actors
doesn't have bale in the cast

cons:
cheesy dialogue/humour
underground
unneeded scenes
pg-13

next stop: kick-ass
 
Hyping myself for Red Dead Redemption by checking out a bunch of classic westerns (yes I realise it doesn't technically take place in the "old west," shush), also since I've honestly never explored the genre before outside of a couple more recent ones. I don't think these movies were ever really that popular over here since I've never seen any of the older ones on telly, and my regular video store has a pretty slim selection (they're mixed in with the war movies, both of which occupy a single shelf). Oh well, what better place to start than...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 8/10
Cheesy as hell, but lots of fun. The length turned me off a bit at first but it managed to be entertaining throughout. Clint is almost comically stoic, but his aura of badassness never suffers for it. The other two leads are also brilliantly acted - Angel Eyes is your archetypal villain down to a tee, and I can really see Puco's influence on other slimy but comical "just out for a buck" characters that followed, although they don't tend to make them as deadly or proficient as this guy.

Despite the running time, there were a couple things that went unresolved, one of which seems like it could've been interesting. First of all, what exactly happened with Puco and those 3 guys at the start? He kills two, the other shows up later and he kills him too... and that's it. This could have easily been cut to be honest, since we find out about his character from the whole hanging business with Blondie, so it's not needed as an introduction, and it never goes anywhere, so it's useless as a plot point. The other bit was the sickly Union commander in the prison camp. This I felt could've been wrapped up a little better, but to be fair I can't really think of how except for maybe Angel Eyes just killing him, which would've been slightly pointless but certainly demonstrative of what a stone cold bastard he is (like we needed any more proof). So, not really a detriment to the story, just a bit of a loose end.

Just nitpicks anyway, and come to think of it these could've been things leading on from the previous movies or something (which the video store didn't have :().

Next up: the Wild Bunch. :farmer:
 
Without the three bounty hunters, you would miss the awesome intro scene.
 
The Blair Witch Project - 9/10

I hadn't seen this in ages and considering my girlfriend hadn't seen it all, I had to pick up on seeing it HMV. The beauty of it was that I couldn't remember much of it at all, so it was pretty much a new experience for me. The immersion levels are quite ridiculous, and whereas it isn't jumpy (which most Hollywood scare films tend to rely on), the believability and the general creepiness of it all are all spot on. I found myself at times saying 'wow thats ****edddddd'. The acting is also top notch, especially considering it comes from three unknowns:

Notable mentions include when the first guy went missing and that night you could hear his screams off in darkness, which I found highly disturbing. Also the point where they come across all the crazy voodoo doll like models, some small and large, and the build up of the camera work in how they only see a few small ones at first, but then run into larger, more disturbing looking ones, was VERY well done. Also the prospect of hearing children's voices including a screaming baby in the darkness of one of the first few nights was very chilling. Also the house at the end also deserves a mention, especially on seeing the children's handprints all over the walls upstairs, and the very LARGE voodoo structure in the basement.

Overall, one of the scariest films I have seen, and films RARELY scare me. Its mainly due to its innovation and despite being released in 1999 it has definitely stood the test of time, and frankly nothing comes close to it of what I have seen.
 
I love The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly it's such a blast.. As Dan said, the Ugly intro is so... everyone can have their own intro. I found it a little confusing and unnecessary too ("wait, is that the first intro guy in this intro? the hell?").
 
i'll admit that regardless of all the flak the blair witch project gets, i quite enjoyed it. i mean it is just a tedious trawl through a dark woods with shaky cam and screaming teenagers, but that's what puts me on edge about it. i've been in woods, camping and walking, as a kid with my friends and heard strange noises, had friends run off to try and scare others, heard stories, found things placed in the woods by older kids knowing that we hung around there, found shit carved in trees, placed in branches... all that shit ****ed me up when i was young, so i could relate to it somewhat.

i quite like the film.
 
I'll jump on the bandwagon here and say I enjoyed Blair Witch a lot too. It was definitely way scarier than Paranormal Activity... although I couldn't help but laugh at the "It's the same log!" part in Blair Witch. I really liked the ending a lot. At first it seemed like your typical scary-movie abandoned cabin in the woods deal, but I thought the very last few seconds were spot on.
 
Brothers - 8/10

Pretty fine acting by Portman and Maguire. Gyllenhaal wasn't extraordinary but I suppose his role required as much. I like that the story had pretty much nothing to do with sex like the commercials seemed to indicate but war trauma instead.
 
The Invention of Lying - 4/10
Not a horrible film, but the concept was pretty much squandered, and it devolves into an awkward romance plot which feels out of place and kind of boring. The religion subplot is sidelined far too quickly and then never resolved. The ending is cringeworthy when they were probably shooting for sweet. And yet despite all of this I enjoyed it... at least, after I switched off my brain and stopped trying to reconcile the movie's twisted brand of logic. The concept has enough legs on it's own to make the movie entertaining - it's just fun to watch people call eachother on their bullshit without anyone caring. I just wish Jeniffer Garner would stop talking about her ****ing genetic code - like you're so perfect, manjaw.

Also, props for giving Steven Merchant a halfway decent cameo for once, even if he's still in it for less than a minute. Not like he made your career or anything, right Gervais? :rolleyes:

Viperidae said:
I think you mean Tuco. Without that scene, you wouldn't have one of the best meta-film jokes in the action genre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUslGSoEH8I
Click to expand...
Haha, I did mean Tuco. I don't know why I spelled it with a P, I even looked it up because I wasn't sure about it...

Actually yeah I liked that bit, even though he's the last person who should be making that joke. :p
 
Kick Ass - 8/10

I was skeptical if this was going as good as most people said it was but I was pleasantly surprised, I had a great time watching it. The trailer is rather misleading in making seem as a comedy when in fact its actually quite deep and serious at times, you could just say its humorous. Arguably there were a few facepalm moments, and of course they HAD to throw a romantic subplot in but for once I wasn't too bothered by it.

I somehow liked, and disliked at the same time, how it used In a House in a Heartbeat from 28 Days Later AND Surface of the Sun from Sunshine soundtracks in the same scene. The scene itself was superb however and definitely the highlight of the film.

Because of the massive undercurrent of humor all the way through it gives the film access to be silly and unrealistic whenever it wants, and when it does you can't help but laugh like

the when the black security guard steals the bazooka and its used against the kingpin at the end. The jetpack with machine gun attachment also made me lol.

Overall, very good film and worth the time and money to see it. I was pretty ill, and had a bad headache when it finally came to seeing it but it distracted me completely from my initial illness, that has to give it marks.
 
Shift said:
The Blair Witch Project
Notable mentions include when the first guy went missing and that night you could hear his screams off in darkness, which I found highly disturbing. Also the point where they come across all the crazy voodoo doll like models, some small and large, and the build up of the camera work in how they only see a few small ones at first, but then run into larger, more disturbing looking ones, was VERY well done. Also the prospect of hearing children's voices including a screaming baby in the darkness of one of the first few nights was very chilling. Also the house at the end also deserves a mention, especially on seeing the children's handprints all over the walls upstairs, and the very LARGE voodoo structure in the basement.
Click to expand...

That was a large voodoo structure in the basement? I thought that was the guy that went missing. Didn't an old lady they interviewed at the beginning say that the witch would make the children she kidnapped stand in the corner in the basement or something?
I remember watching that with my sister when we were younger in the dark basement when it was late out. We were so freaked out that we had to go up the stairs slowly side by side since neither of us wanted to be left in the basement alone.
 
Boondock Saints 2 7.5/10

not as good as the first, but i feel like the movie didn't even start till like 3/4ths the way through. anyway if there is a sequel i will definitely watch it. i just didn't like the annoying new characters they were in the spotlight too much. i like Julie Benz but i found her really annoying in this movie
 
the cow says moo said:
That was a large voodoo structure in the basement? I thought that was the guy that went missing. Didn't an old lady they interviewed at the beginning say that the witch would make the children she kidnapped stand in the corner in the basement or something?
Click to expand...

Well I'm sure when he first entered the basement there was one just in front of the entrance, look a really big one, either that or it was a random assortment of wood lol. And yeah it could have been the dude who went missing, or the other guy who had the camera after he was possessed by the witch.
 
Moon: 8/10
I didn't find anything not to like about this movie - it was quite good, but the twist didn't freak me out the way a great twist does. Maybe it was the character's calm reaction to it? Also, I've been listening to the credit track by someone called 'Orphans of the Storm'? Good stuff.
 
Adabiviak said:
Moon: 8/10
I didn't find anything not to like about this movie - it was quite good, but the twist didn't freak me out the way a great twist does. Maybe it was the character's calm reaction to it? Also, I've been listening to the credit track by someone called 'Orphans of the Storm'? Good stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've heard good things about Moon, must pick it up and give it a watch.
 
Moon is in my top 5 fav movies ever :D

iron man 2:

good and enjoyable film but not as good as the first. Although it does have a WAY better villain than the fist movie (in fact 2 villains :p) not that that was hard tho.
 
Ponyo - 4/10
Well... I liked it better than Howl's.

That's about the nicest thing I can say about it. :(
 
Iron Man 2: 8/10

Still wouldnt consider it anything more than a fairly typical "action flick" but its very good as one. Pretty funny at times, kind of had an Arrested Development feel to it even, with how subtle and quickly the jokes go. Visuals were fantastic as expected, Whiplash was lame as expected, though surprisingly not a huge part of the movie, which is good.
 
Which one, Ponyo or Howl?

Because they're both kind of bad.
picture.php


Edit: Allow me to clarify pre-emptively: bad for Miyazaki. That 4 was mostly tempered by my disappointment.
 
Howl's Moving Castle is an alright film. It was just a bit slack in places.

Ponyo is just lazy.
 
Speaking of which, I only just got around to watching Up. It was slightly underwhelming and reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle, due to the whole elderly-protagonist-goes-for-adventure-in-outlandish-mobile-home thing.

I won't lie, Up's unrelenting sentimentality made me teary-eyed on occasion, but the pacing felt dodgy and the characters weren't especially appealing. I reached the conclusion that I like H'sMC more, if only because it's a tastier visual feast and it doesn't try to beat me over the head with (sugarcoated) poignancy.
 
Kick Ass - 9/10

Actually nothing like what I was expecting at all. I have only seen the TV adverts that paint it as some kind of American Pie/Superbad type film about the high jinks of kids ****ing about in costumes, what I actually got was probably the best film I've seen this year.
 
The Hurt Locker - 10/10

I loved it. It's actually better than Iron Man 2, or all the other huge-budget-huge-explosions movies that I've recently watched. Makes you really think btw - what things remain that I love to do now?
 
I didn't think Hurt Locker was all that great, namely because I really don't think it said anything about anything (other than, war ****s you up) and the "OH NOW DEFUSING BOMBS IN IRAQ IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS TO ME" which I found a little cliche and forced.

Boondock Saints 2 ...

Oh god. I knew this wasn't going to be good (the original only barely meets that requirement), but Jesus Christ what happened here? I feel like someone forced a disgusting and disfigured offspring out of Crank and a Guy Ritchie movie. This is a... comedy. A parody of the original and action movies in general, except completely unfunny. The only remotely enjoyable parts are Rocko's dream sequence (merely because Rocko is in it and is Rocko, for the most part that scene was just a heavy handed YAY MASCULINITY message) and Dafoe at the end. And even that wasn't very good because he seemed to be forcing a gay southern accent and seemed nothing like his character. Oh, and the saints looking out at the prison yard made me smile. But yeah, what the shit.

2/10
 
Laivasse said:
I won't lie, Up's unrelenting sentimentality made me teary-eyed on occasion, but the pacing felt dodgy and the characters weren't especially appealing. I reached the conclusion that I like H'sMC more, if only because it's a tastier visual feast and it doesn't try to beat me over the head with (sugarcoated) poignancy.
Click to expand...
And the comedy dog doesn't talk and fly a Bi-Plane.

****ing stupid.
 
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