Movie Discussion

[broadsword]

Saw "Street Kings" on DVD last night ... wasn't too impressed.

Keanu Reeves - not his best performance

Hugh Laurie - woefully miscast

Forest Whittaker - bit of class, helps lift the film

Plot - didn't exactly see it all coming a mile off, but some of it was pretty obvious.

A major let-down, really. Was expecting so much better.

[neekoy]

Saw "Street Kings" on DVD last night ... wasn't too impressed.

Keanu Reeves - not his best performance

Hugh Laurie - woefully miscast

Forest Whittaker - bit of class, helps lift the film

Plot - didn't exactly see it all coming a mile off, but some of it was pretty obvious.

A major let-down, really. Was expecting so much better.

Got to agree, there is nothing worse then a writer/director having a decent premise and storyline for 3/4 of a movie then not knowing how to finish a well rounded tale

[American]

Saw "Tell No One" a French film based off of an American novel. Well done and I thought it captured the tone of the novel very well.

[DingleBaiter]

Saw "Tell No One" a French film based off of an American novel. Well done and I thought it captured the tone of the novel very well.

Seconded - awesome film, excellent in every aspect IMO. I like films that make you think or discuss afterwards, and this film is certainly one. Terrific.

[Hasta]

Following its recomendations n the 'best Movie of all time' thread I've just rented and watched Crimson Tide.

Excellent. Great build up of tension.

[American Rover12]

Just watched X Men II again. Forgot how good that movie was. It's only downfall; all the cuts to the miniature scenery. So poorly done. haha

[neekoy]

FINALLY watched the Dark Knight

Probably the closest thing to perfect I have since Pan's Labyrinth

[Rovermatt]

Another Max Payne trailer. The games were awesome and this could be very good. Let's hope so anyway. Edited September 1, 2008 by Rovermatt

[broadsword]

Watched Run Lola, run yesterday, a german film with Franka Potente in it.

Definitely not your usual sort of movie! Really liked the premise, and it worked quite well.

[Shevchenko]

Just came back from watching Wall-E and its just a wonderful, funny, touching, action packed and sweet film.

And just beautifully animated. How they put so much emotion into robots is quite something.

Loved it. Absolutely one of the best films I've seen this year.

[DingleBaiter]

The Strangers

I really don't know what to make of this... it's a horror movie which certainly gets you scared and on edge, but the ending and storyline seemed poor to me. It's supposedly based on true events in 2005. It lasted about 90 minutes but seemed to go on forever - perhaps an indication that I think it was a poor movie! I suspect it was on an extremely low budget, too.

Anyone else seen this?

I thought this was a remake of Ils/Them, seems the same sort of premise - that was based on 'true events' apparently. Not revealing the 'events' as it would be a spoiler for a great, original film. However, seems that line with any film seems to be completely irrelevant these days - ref. Blair Witch.

The 'true events' this film refers to - as admitted by the director - isn't anything like the film, it was ONE event when a band of strangers were calling on houses in his childhood neighbourhood to see if anyone was home, and then committing mischief/minor crime. Certainly no basis for a horror film I'd suggest. There IS a Brit film coming out soon - eden lake I think it's called - which has the lad Turgoose from 'This is England' with a similar premise - bored chavs terrorising a couple which I'd bet will be better done.

Anyways, going to see it soon, have a few others to watch first.

Priority went to RocknRolla yesterday, and don't know what to make of it; it's better than Revolver but no Snatch/Lock Stock. I think Ritchie can make a great film, but my two faults with it are it's overlong, with lulls in the pace, and it's clearly set up as a pilot for a sequel/series (if it performs well that is). Good things - the cast, some great performances including Archie/Mark Strong (always good), Toby Kebbel as the bombed out rocker and Gerard Butler (one two), some good scenes, funny too, and it's a 'typical' Ritchie film, with certain visuals, dialogue, humour, soundtrack etc.

Can't help feeling it could have been better though. Good cameo from Gary Neville as 'Cookie' Looks like he's trying to launch another Jason Statham with Tom Hardy, casting him as 'Handsome Bob', no doubt a nod to JS's character in the Italian Job. No doubt JS was burned after Revolver, or too busy on the upcoming 'Death Race' remake or Crank 2.

Edited September 6, 2008 by DingleBaiter

[broadsword]

The critics have panned it completely. I'd have thought Jason Statham has better things to do these days.

Saw Bucket List Friday night, made me chuckle at times. And Flight Plan last night, bit of an old one. It passed the time, only really interesting in the last 20 minutes, but it was alright.

Oh, and I saw Rambo recently too. Terrible dialogue and acting, barely makde it to feature length. I think the absolutely insane amounts of gore were meant to distract you from the paper-thin plotting, dialogue and charecterisation. At times some of Stallone's lines were unintentionally hysterical. This is not a compliment.

[DP]

The critics were always going to pan Rocknrolla as it was a return to genre for Ritchie. You'll see it's the pretentious broadsheet brigade who have done as opposed to the dedicated film magazines who actually know what their audience like.

Saw it last night. Got pretty much what I expected so left a happy man. It hardly revolutionised British film making but is a slick, funny comedy ganster thriller which I managed to lose myself in for a couple of hours. Set itself up nicely for a sequel too. Just a shame it took him all these years to find some decent actors.

[DingleBaiter]

The critics were always going to pan Rocknrolla as it was a return to genre for Ritchie. You'll see it's the pretentious broadsheet brigade who have done as opposed to the dedicated film magazines who actually know what their audience like.

Saw it last night. Got pretty much what I expected so left a happy man. It hardly revolutionised British film making but is a slick, funny comedy ganster thriller which I managed to lose myself in for a couple of hours. Set itself up nicely for a sequel too. Just a shame it took him all these years to find some decent actors.

Think one of his biggest strengths is coaxing performances out of minor stars, and a few Hollywood types with their cameos. Ludacris was good in this again, I do think he's a better actor than you'd expect - as in Crash - and the all-round performances were worth it alone. Enjoyable film really, you always know what you're going get from GR and he has had a lot of imitators. He did well with Vinny Jones and it was all downhill afterwards for him - Midnight Meat Train anyone? It did seem to plod a little at times, probably would have been cropping some of it to keep the energy his first two films had.

He can set a scene well too, and milk it too, but like Tarantino for that I guess. Bet he could even get Nicolas Cage to put a good performance in. Enjoyed Bangkok Dangerous, good enough to sit through another doe-eyed performance from Cage. He always seems to play the same role in every film, doesn't he?

Agree with prev poster ref Strangers BTW, sat through it and one thing I took away from film was how big Liv Tylers feet are Okay film, the tense bits were done well but stretched the premise too long overall.

Still can't wait for Quantum of Solace tho.

Edited September 7, 2008 by DingleBaiter

[Billy Castell]

As I said before, Guy Ritchie making another mockney gangster film? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz At least when Scorsese made all those wop gangster films with De Niro, a few were good.

I reckon all the Bond fanboys had finally shut up about Daniel Craig being crap and so on.

[Cocker]

I read in the paper that in the new Bond movie he is going to swap his dry martini shaken not stirred for a coke zero after a 5m sponsor from coke.

If this is true (remember, it was only read in a sunday paper) it really would be very sad to see them sell out bond in such a way.

Having said that I would be impressed if he got to the bar and asked for a pint of bitter and a bag of nutts

Edited September 9, 2008 by Cocker

[Nelsta]

Watched A Scanner Darkly Last night, Strange little film.Based on a book and the entire thing was cell shaded.

Not sure i fully understood it, But will be watching it again as soon as possible.

Also for the first time ever i watched The Blues Brothers, I really dont know why i have never watched it before, But i loved it.

[Rovermatt]

Watched A Scanner Darkly Last night, Strange little film.Based on a book and the entire thing was cell shaded.

Not sure i fully understood it, But will be watching it again as soon as possible.

That's an insane movie. It looked like the inside of Philip K. Dick's head (so to speak )

Edited September 9, 2008 by Rovermatt

[Teemu]

The critics were always going to pan Rocknrolla as it was a return to genre for Ritchie. You'll see it's the pretentious broadsheet brigade who have done as opposed to the dedicated film magazines who actually know what their audience like.

Saw it last night. Got pretty much what I expected so left a happy man. It hardly revolutionised British film making but is a slick, funny comedy ganster thriller which I managed to lose myself in for a couple of hours. Set itself up nicely for a sequel too. Just a shame it took him all these years to find some decent actors.

I think about the same could be said about Love Guru too. I was a bit put off by the critics but finally went to see it last friday and did not regret. It's pretty much the same stuff as the Wayne's Worlds and the Austins. The story isn't perhaps quite as strong this time, but the laughs are still there. So if you liked his previous films I'd think you'd like this one as well. Maybe take the few beers before hands too to make sure, especially if you're not in to hockey or gurus or such

"If Jack would help you off the elephant, would you help Jack off the elephant"

Enough said.

[Rovermatt]

Empire magazine is usually dead on with its reviews. The Love Guru sounds typically rubbish.

Empire did however miss a trick with Hellboy II (probably something to do with its ongoing love affair with Guillermo Del Toro). It suffers from exactly the same problems as the first film - all the best bits are in the trailer, a rambling, senseless story and some rather embarrassing, not too mention completely unconvincing, romantic fluff that doesn't half feel forced. This coupled with a very irritating smugness in its adherence to the source material (even if it isn't very good), the whole thing is a monumental waste of time. A ludicrous finale featuring the Antrim coastline and amputee goblins with Belfast accents is really the last straw. I just hope Peter Jackson manages to reign Del Toro in when it comes to making The Hobbit.

Edited September 9, 2008 by Rovermatt

[Nelsta]

GhostBusters 3 Confirmed.

[broadsword]

featuring the Antrim coastline and amputee goblins with Belfast accents is really the last straw. .

WHAT?!

Are you serious?

Looking forward to Quantum of Solace and Crank 2.

The first Crank film made me laugh out loud, I thought it was hysterical, but what do I know?

Edited September 9, 2008 by Bryan

[Rovermatt]

WHAT?!

Are you serious?

Yes, it's utterly preposterous.

[DingleBaiter]

I read in the paper that in the new Bond movie he is going to swap his dry martini shaken not stirred for a coke zero after a 5m sponsor from coke.

If this is true (remember, it was only read in a sunday paper) it really would be very sad to see them sell out bond in such a way.

Having said that I would be impressed if he got to the bar and asked for a pint of bitter and a bag of nutts

Oh c'mon, it's hardly the first time product placement has hit the series? I was more miffed when BMW crashed into the franchise. There's loads of money to be made in these films and as long as it's done with a degree of subtlety, or adds to the film, it's cool I think. There's worse films around that have done it terribly I'd suggest. Check out the last one, how many Jags in how many scenes, and which car does he cruise around in - a Mondeo.........

[Rovermatt]

The product placement in the last film was outrageous. Sony Vaio, Sony Ericsson (the model I own in fact), Ford, Omega, Aston Martin all made an appearances. The film still managed to kick ass. I wouldn't worry.

Edited September 10, 2008 by Rovermatt