What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[11thHour]

Flight - 8/10. Really good without being brilliant. As usual Denzel's performance is superb, but as with Training Day I'm slightly surprised about the Oscar nomination/win. For me personally he has put in better performances elsewhere but thats a small personal point. Fine turns by John Goodman and Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle is underused here but still manages to do well with what he is given.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Gran Torino - 9/10. I've seen it before and thought it was great. Saw it again the other day and appreciated it even more. Really enjoy this film.

Some really touching moments, along with some nice moments of humour - the scene in the barbershop is hilarious. Probably my favourite Clint Eastwood film.

The basic message is one that's easy to connect with - trying to lead an honest, hard-working life without getting sucked into a world of petty crime and gang vendettas. and learning new skills matter far more than what race or colour you are, and will earn you rewards and respect. What Walt views as "old school" American values - hard-work, the importance of banter between men, practical skills, willingness to learn - he can see developing in Thao. It's a simple message but it's one that's handled perfectly through all the little exchanges between Walt and Thao throughout. The ending is spot on too.

[DomDom]

Searching for Sugarman ( 2012 )

Basically the story of a singer who was around in the early 70s but didn't achieve much. It's a remarkable story as well.

10/10

[Savage Henry]

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Surrealist 'fantasy' based on a play, focusing on the post-Katrina relief operation. It focuses on one little girl who, for a child actor is astonishingly portrayed, and her apparently abusive father. It's a non-linear film, with no real narrative as such, but it follows her life as she learns to accept her father for who he is, and at the same time he teaches her about her relationship with the environment. This is more of series of set-plays than a film, with the beautiful Louisiana wilderness as the backdrop. Immensely moving at times. Fantastic score.

Reminded me, oddly, of Jesse James, as well as apocalyptic stuff like The Road at times too.

9/10

[Christophe]

Arbitrage 5/10

Chock full of dull financial psychobabble and unsympathetic characters. Left me cold.

[forehead7]

Batman Begins

Great opener to the trilogy. Gotham is captured brilliantly throughout this film and the slums look fantastic. When the shit hits the fan in the third act, it really shines. I don't think that gets enough praise. He's taken what Frank Miller has written/drawn on paper and he/they have translated it onto the screen very well.

8.5/10

The Dark Knight

This is really the pinnacle of the films. The story is pretty solid if you remove the international exploits.

9/10

The Dark Knight Rises

I think this holds up a lot better. I think the expectation and all the immediate disappointment clouds the judgement on this one. Yeah, it's not as good as its predecessor but that was a top quality film. There's obvious faults and the amount of plotholes that got mentioned at the time (and on the plotholes thread) are clear to see and taint it but it's still a very enjoyable film.

7.5/10

Over the three films, the acting is pretty superb. Bale is pretty tremendous as Bruce Wayne, even though he's got a mask and whatnot on, he has to ask in a certain way and that's probably the only reason people don't figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman (although the fact both of them are away for roughly the same time between the 2nd and 3rd installments is still a bit pish). He acts like a spoiled playboy type throughout the films (the various women he bags, throws his money around etc), doesn't let on how smart he is during them as well (after saving Coleman Reese). His Batman voice doesn't bother me, it is a bit ridiculous but I can't honestly say I could come up with something better and he's a guy in a fucking Bat costume, he can't talk like your average joe.

The villains are very good, the lack of superpowers is obviously something that suits the film perfectly and they don't get let down. Ledger obviously takes all the plaudits and rightly so. Murphy and Neeson are great in the first film though and do their characters justice. Eckhart puts in a great shift and probably doesn't get the praise he would do if he wasn't beside Ledger's Joker. Hardy is good but I don't think he's better than either of the others. His voice is just as ridiculous as Bale's Batman and I'm not sure I liked the mask story, it is a good way of making him ridiculously strong and whatnot.

The supporting cast are all fantastic. Oldman, Freeman and Caine, as you would expect, put in the veteran performances we've come to expect. Hathaway, Coutillard and Gordon-Levitt are good but they're all in a film that already has 5 great acting performances.

And of course, the films are directed well with Nolan at the helm. Gotta mention Zimmer as he gives some great soundtracking to the films.

[RonaldJoe]

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is the movie I watch last. It was a 3D movie and I enjoyed the movie a lot.

3/5

[Guest]

Hostel - 4/10

Utter shite to be fair. Some horror films are jumpy and others aren't frightfests but they creep you out. This was neither because it was so ridiculous. The only reason I gave it as much as 4/10 was because I was entertained by it's shitiness.

V for vandetta - 6/10

I couldn't work out if this was really good or a bit plop, I changed my opinion numerous times throughout. Me and my mate spent the entire film laughing at how much it didn't make sense and yet I kind of enjoyed it. The bit where Natalie Portman and V sat on the sofa watching The Count of Monte Cristo was hilarious, because cosying up with a masked maniac in his f**k bunker with a film and popcorn is standard behaviour.

Overall it was good fun but a bit daft and badly written at times. The scene I'm talked about is a good example, her saying "he cared more about revenge than he did about her" was about as subtle as a tank plowing through your living room.

Edit: vandetta. Interesting.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Guest

[Smurph]

Argo was very, very good. Probably an 8 or a 9/10.

Napoleon Dynamite is the sort of film that I should like but I thought it was shite. 4/10 being generous.

[Gall09]

Pitch Perfect - 8/10

I knew 5 minutes in i would love this film. Just hilarious. Reminded me of films like Mean Girls and Easy A. Rebel Wilson is fantastic in it, but every
character adds to the film. A lot of the cast i didn't even recognise, but they were perfectly cast. Exactly my type of humour. Jo Lo Ruglio turns up too and almost steals the show with a brilliant 5 minute cameo. Everything i've seen that guy in he's been class. A bit like Rob Riggle.

Mama - 5/10

This had it's moments, but ultimately ended up like every other horror about just now. It actually falls apart when "Mama" is fully introduced. The creepiness leading up to the reveal is when the film is at its best, but afterwards just falls flat.

[DomDom]

Warm Bodies ( 2013 )

I had a feeling watching it that some people wouldn't be amused by the "zombies" in this movie. I thought the movie was some good light hearted fun. Some cracking moments in there, but balanced out by some moon crater sized plot holes. I'm willing to leave the thumbs pointing slightly up.

6/10

Oz: The Great and Powerful ( 2013 )

The story of how Oz reached the land of Oz isn't a hard one to make sure you don't f**k up, and thankfully Sam Raimi manages to tell the story well enough. Could have done without the nods to The Wizard of Oz, with some references a wee bit more blatant than other, but it's held together by some incredible visuals, and just about enough interest in the plot to keep you going. It seems just a touch one dimensional at times, but I can forgive that, and James Franco turns on the charm good and proper here.

7/10

[port-ton]

Searching for Sugarman

Maybe i expected too much from it from the high praise it got on here. I didn't really enjoy the documentary style or the editing selections. The story wasn't told in an extremely interesting way and while it touched on really important things that his music had an impact on, it never really delved into it and decided to just be a glowing tribute to this mysterious musician.

I also googled the documentary after i had watched it to see what other people were saying about it and to further research Rodriguez. Safe to say that there are some moments in time that were never mentioned in the documentary that while i can understand their omission due to the story they were trying to tell, it made the story they were trying to tell a lot more fictional.

In saying that though, it definitely passed the time and i didn't not enjoy it, and i thought Rodriguez's songs were incredible.

6/10

Source Code

Watched this last night after years of almost being in the mood to watch it but never quite getting there. From the very beginning i was hooked on the storyline. I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy it for what it was, a good popcorn sci-fi movie that isn't trying to be too smart. well that was until the ending, when i was just completely taken out of it. The film had a natural ending point that would have ended it nicely, but they must have felt like they needed a climax and in 15 or so minutes managed to completely ruin the film for me. Even in a world of suspended disbelief, they managed to do something that considering the technology they were using would have been literally impossible, but they could have maybe gotten away with it if they'd tried to explain how it happened, but in the end they basically just went " Okay, this happened....deal with it " just to have their hollywood ending.

Only ' The Prestige ' beats this film for me in terms of a film i was quite enjoying until the ending completely ruins it for me, which is a shame because unlike The Prestige this film had a natural ending point and it was basically there and it would have been a film i loved, then they continued 15 minutes too long just to get a contrived happy ending.

6/10

[port-ton]

Wreck it Ralph

Absolutely loved this movie. Up there with the best animated movies of the last 10-15 years. Lots of nostalgia for video game fans but like so many movies might attempt to do it didn't throw it's hat on the nostalgia, it was just an extremely welcome added bonus.

I loved the world they created and the concept of the world and how everything works in it and when the movie ended i was disappointed that now i don't get to see more of that world. I hope they create a sequel because there is so much more to explore and with the intelligence they used to bring everything together in this movie it could be something amazing.

I also felt that it was quite a complex story for an animated movie in terms of that usually three quarters of the way through a movie you have the main characters fall out and go their seperate ways and often the creators do this in such a flimsy way just to follow the storyline and create something for them to fall out for over nothing. But in this movie the reason to fall out is entirely justifiable and isn't as black and white as in most animated movies and it really brings something to the movie.

I didn't find the movie hilarious, there wasn't a lot of real laugh out loud jokes like a lot of animated movies but the storyline and the world they created made it so much more than an animated movie. This was just brilliant storytelling, animated or not. A movie filled with real emotion and where the story and plot completely holds together to make something completely amazing.

9/10

[DomDom]

Airborne ( 2012 )

Probably one to file into my ( much better than I thought it was gonna be ) lot. This is a movie about a plane which takes off and the passengers wind up disappearing during the flight. Added turbulence thanks to a storm doesn't make things any easier, and there's another matter of a vase which is being escorted across the Atlantic. Rather than going for cheap scares, this one focuses more on the increasing panic of the situation, and it does so pretty well, even if it starts going to ridiculous lengths to do so. There's a couple of scenes here which had me just a little bit freaked out. Nice sideplots run through the main plot as well. There's some uninteresting goings on in air traffic control, but that's fine. I liked this.

7/10

Dodgy horror coming: The Apparition

[DomDom]

The Apparition ( 2012 )

And dodgy it is. This one revolves around some entity that gets unleashed to cause holy hell for those who release it. Crap stuff here, not made any better by cheap scares and shite cliche ridden set pieces.

2/10

Next up, the not so dodgy Berberian Sound Studio.

Edited March 10, 2013 by DomDom

[54_and_counting]

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Bit of an oldie, and not as good as Ritchie's Snatch, but still a good way to pass a couple of hours, i always liked the way that Ritchie would up all the smaller plots together especially in Lock Stock, plus the characters are quite interesting considering there is a lot of them and the screen time is cut down obviously,

Nice solid 7.5/10

[placidcasual]

The Apparition ( 2012 )

And dodgy it is. This one revolves around some entity that gets unleashed to cause holy hell for those who release it. Crap stuff here, not made any better by cheap scares and shite cliche ridden set pieces.

2/10

Next up, the not so dodgy Berberian Sound Studio.

Make sure, if you've downloaded it from a torrent site, that you get the subtitles separately for Berberian Sound Studio. The "versions" doing the rounds don't have the SRT file.

I sat through about an hour of it thinking it was a bit strange that half the dialogue was completely unintelligible to me. I thought it was filmed that way to put you in the shoes of the main character - confused, a little bit paranoid. It was only when he also started speaking Italian towards the end that I realised I'd wasted my time. I suppose that will teach me to steal movies.

For what it's worth, it really does look decent.

[Bookies Love Me]

THE RAID

F*k me that was vicious. Read they're making The Raid 2 which starts 20 minutes after the end of the first one. I think they should leave it as is. 10/10.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

Quite good. Expect that from most Philip K Dick stories. 7/10

[DomDom]

Make sure, if you've downloaded it from a torrent site, that you get the subtitles separately for Berberian Sound Studio. The "versions" doing the rounds don't have the SRT file.

Found that one out. Looks like I'll be giving something else a go. Dodgy horror as well. The ABCs of Death.

[placidcasual]

Found that one out. Looks like I'll be giving something else a go. Dodgy horror as well. The ABCs of Death.

I've got the subtitles file. If you need it, pm me your email address and I'll send it to you.