Movie review thread...
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[quote name='SouthernMan' timestamp='1334576276' post='281094']<br />
Watched We need to talk about Kevin a few days ago.<br />
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I saw it, but didn't feel the impulse to write about it. I give it 6.5/10. IMO the plot is full of holes and asks more questions than it answers. I really like John C. Reilly as an actor, but reckon he was horribly miscast here, then again, the script didn't give him much, he was like a MacGuffin with very little character or motivation, a blank slate nuthin'. The character of the son was also very shallow. Okay, he's a sociopath. Got it. I will say the movie got a big discussion from my friends after we saw it about what some of those motivations might have been and how this could have been a much better movie, so I suppose if the filmmaker wanted a discussion, then it's a success.<br />
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I also saw Hunger Games the day after, and it was only slightly better, 7/10. It's too long, but somehow the attention-deficit teenagers surprisingly liked it that way, so what do I know? Seemed like a cross between Handmaid's Tale and Running Man (and possibly Logan's Run), but for my money not as engaging or entertaining as those.<br />
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Been on a bit of a John Wayne bender recently... The Big Trail, Fort Apache, Angel & the Badman... and I am really surprised those films aren't as least well known as some of his more famous flicks. All Good Stuff. -
Finally saw the remake of Fright Night and have to say I was surprisingly impressed. Ok, so I was probably more impressed with Imogen Poots but being a fan of the original I was expecting an exact copy of the 1985 version which wasn't the case. Follows some common vampire storylines but a fun movie to watch.<br />
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Could have found a better actor to play the vampire instead of Colin Farrell.<br />
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7/10 -
Sherlock Holmes; A game of shadows<br />
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Robert Downey Jnr back as the irrepressable Sherlock Holmes (or should that be the irrepressble Downey Jnr as Sherlock?) wasnt as good as the first IMO, but still a decent watch (any scene with Rachel McAdams is a great one!!)<br />
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[spoiler]The ending had shades of the new TV series finale too....[/spoiler] -
[quote name='Sneakdefreak' timestamp='1334652965' post='281285']<br />
Finally saw the remake of Fright Night and have to say I was surprisingly impressed. Ok, so I was probably more impressed with Imogen Poots but being a fan of the original I was expecting an exact copy of the 1985 version which wasn't the case. Follows some common vampire storylines but a fun movie to watch.<br />
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Could have found a better actor to play the vampire instead of Colin Farrell.<br />
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7/10<br />
[/quote]Colin Farrell has to be the most over-rated actor I have ever seen . I was a bit of a fan of the origional Fright Night myself and wasn't going to watch the new one after seeing other dissappionting remakes like True Grit , Conan and The Three Musketeers lately but if you reckon it was actually quite good I may give it a shot . -
[quote name='Scorz' timestamp='1335145932' post='282171']<br />
I watched The Grey and want my 2hrs back.<br />
Endings are required!<br />
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haha, indeed, not to mention the fact that Bear Grylls woulda died in half those scenes!<br />
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I thought Fright Night was ok (certainly seen worse films) didnt really try to be much like the first aside form the fact that he suspected a vampire lived next door... -
I thought the story of The War Horse wasn't too bad , the movie just seemed to be about an hour longer than it needed to be .
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watched Chronicle last night...I liked it, but hard to say why, not original, no big names, alot of 'handycam' type footage....just a pretty decent film about 3 teens who stumble onto a mysterious object that gives them powers...
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[quote name='taniwharugby' timestamp='1335668147' post='283321']<br />
watched Chronicle last night...I liked it, but hard to say why, not original, no big names, alot of 'handycam' type footage....just a pretty decent film about 3 teens who stumble onto a mysterious object that gives them powers...<br />
[/quote]Watched it too. Liked it as well. It is one of the better "found footage" type films I have seen in a while. -
Finally got around to seeing Children of Men last night. Not usually a fan of Clive Owen's monotone acting, but he was made for this film. It's a gritty sci film, in a similar vein to Bladerunner, District 9 and 28 Days later. Set in England in 2027, in a world where every woman is infertile and immigrants are vilified and forced into prison ghettos, Owen has to help protect a pregnant immigrant girl. Never mind the story though, because the action and cinematography are jaw dropping. One single-shot action scene towards the end is absolutely amazing. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Can't believe I missed it when it came out in cinemas.
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[quote name='Munter' timestamp='1335715092' post='283477']<br />
Finally got around to seeing Children of Men last night. Not usually a fan of Clive Owen's monotone acting, but he was made for this film. It's a gritty sci film, in a similar vein to Bladerunner, District 9 and 28 Days later. Set in England in 2027, in a world where every woman is infertile and immigrants are vilified and forced into prison ghettos, Owen has to help protect a pregnant immigrant girl. Never mind the story though, because the action and cinematography are jaw dropping. One single-shot action scene towards the end is absolutely amazing. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Can't believe I missed it when it came out in cinemas.<br />
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I saw it a couple times on the big screen - the 2nd time to analyze that enormously complicated single-take. I really liked it a lot, but was thoroughly bemused by the Pink Floyd-isms relating to the Michael Caine character, living at the Battersea Power Station -- it was a serious film, yet I kept wondering what the inside-joke was. -
[quote name='red terror' timestamp='1335773435' post='283605'] I saw it a couple times on the big screen - the 2nd time to analyze that enormously complicated single-take. I really liked it a lot, but was thoroughly bemused by the Pink Floyd-isms relating to the Michael Caine character, living at the Battersea Power Station -- it was a serious film, yet I kept wondering what the inside-joke was. [/quote]<br />
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I think that was just a quirky joke, having the flying pig balloon outside to re-create the cover of 'Animals'<br />
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Get the DVD with the extras. There is a good section on how they filmed that long sequence of the ambush when they are in the car. It was quite a feat to do in one take. -
[quote name='Crucial' timestamp='1335780899' post='283625']<br />
I think that was just a quirky joke, having the flying pig balloon outside to re-create the cover of 'Animals'<br />
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Get the DVD with the extras. There is a good section on how they filmed that long sequence of the ambush when they are in the car. It was quite a feat to do in one take.<br />
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I've not actually seen the film since it's cinema release, I'll have to watch the DVD some day. I seem to recall there were a few other subtle Floydisms too. There was also "In the Court of the Crimson King," so I was guessing Cuaron was an old Prog Rocker looking for gratuitous opportunities to trawl topographic oceans.<br />
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Re: the long take, it is superb; with the smaller mobility and automation of digital movie cameras, I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more, and in-fact, my mind is a bit hazy recollecting, but I've seen something in the past year that (to me) clearly looked like it referenced that CoM shot. -
There's some useful info on Wikipedia about the making of the film. Interesting that they got to film that terrorist bomb scene on Fleet Street just a month after the 2005 tube and bus bombings. <br />
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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?fjluu5<br /> -
Watched a few for the first time recently:<br />
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Limitless: Bradley Cooper is an excellent role-model for your childeren as he plays a no-hope loser who takes a fuck load of drugs and becomes not only really popular and laid, but fucking President of the United States. Nothing bad happens to him. Moral: Drugs make you awesome without consaquence.<br />
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The Ides of March: A political something where George Clooney runs for president (this bit will actually happen) and Ryan Gosling is a very smart young man who becomes progressively stupider as the movie progresses. By the end he is border-line retarded.<br />
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Moneyball: Washed out ex-player runs a Major League baseball team on the cheap, makes the play-offs, loses to a team that spent a fuck-ton of money. Changes the way the team is selected based on the maths of a fat nerd to pick a competitive team for peanuts. Makes play-offs. Loses, to a team that spent a fuck-ton of money (but this is ok because its not the New York Yankees). Nothing changes.<br />
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The Lincoln Lawyer. Matt McConaughey is a defense lawyer that makes a fuckload of money by representing bad guys. A bad guy tries to screw him over, but he uses equally bad guys to do equally bad things. Moral: No matter how evil you think you are, your Lawyer is most probably worse. -
Cabin in the woods. Feels like a horror film, but more laughs than scares. Another Josh Whedon flick released at the same time as his "Avengers." This has supposedly been on the shelf since 2010. Quirky, suspenseful, fantastical, and kinda silly. [spoiler]Big governmental conspiracy to slaughter totemic teenagers (i.e. whore, fool, athlete, intellect, virgin) as annual sacrifices to appease underworld ancient demons (or something like that).[/spoiler] 7/10
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Really enjoyed Avengers. Thought that Weedon di a good job of encorporating humour and giving all of the characters screen time. I guess with the success we're going to see a few more super hero movies and may even see a Justice League movie once the Dark Knight Returns is done.<br />
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Thought that the following was pretty funny.<br />
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[b]Avengers' adoption joke falls flat[/b]<br />
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The [url="http://www.change.org/petitions/marvel-comics-marvel-comics-apologize-to-adoption-community"]petition[/url], which has 247 signatures, is over a line muttered by Chris Hemsworth's character Thor, after Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow tells him his brother Loki - a villain - has killed "80 people in two days".<br />
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Thor replies: "He's adopted."<br />
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[url="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10805745"]http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10805745[/url]<br />
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I always wonder whether these people are really offended - in which case life must be a never-ending series of hurt feelings over minutiae - or whether they're scanning the world with eager eyes hoping for the opportunity to play the victim on behalf of those they see as downtrodden.
