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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?


Rugster

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The Exterminator

Chances are if you had a video early to mid 80s you've seen this. A revenge thriller in the Death Wish / taxi Driver mould that includes a mobster being fed into meat grinder.

Didn't hold up as well as I remembered , but , along with The Warriors and The Wanderers this was essential viewing for teens in the eighties. On the horror channel on Virgin and worth a look if you see it on the schedule.

6.5/10

Edited by saint dave
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Half Nelson ( 2006 )

Ryan Gosling is a heroin addict teacher, and this movie is about both his own downfall, and his effect on others, primarily a student in his class. I think this is pretty close to being a brilliant movie, mainly down to the way in which Gosling spirals and lets his addiction take control, and the way that this is dealt with in the eyes of others as well. However, it's about half an hour too long, and much of that is down to a boring as f**k love story, although that winds up playing a key part later in the movie.

7/10

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Watched a few on holiday

The Fighter - enjoyed it myself, although knew a bit about the story anyway 6/10

Bane - Utter shite - 1/10

Toy Story 3 - Glorious film making - 7/10

House at the End of the Street - Not what I expected, with a half decent twist. Just couldn't interest me though - 5/10

Real Steel - Really enjoyed it for some odd reason - 8/10

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Argo-

Finally got round to watching this at the weekend. I thought the way the real footage was mixed in was good. It was also funnier than I expected it to be. I did enjoy it but I'm struggling to see why it won best picture, the characterisation (particularly of the hostages) was non existent and it was a bit obvious with the symbolism at points. Additionally, further research suggests that it is about as historically accurate as braveheart which for a supposedly true story is disappointing. Not everyone will care about that but it bumps it down for me.

6.5/10

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Movies based on fact will be judged the same as movies not based on fact. Which is just how good they are. I thought given how well Ben Affleck put it together was incredible, especially given the fact that each different section ( the US, the studios, Iran ) had a totally different feel, none of it felt wedged together which is pretty remarkable. Best Picture I'm not so sure about, but given that Affleck wasn't up for Best Director, it's good that he got the recognition.

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I think there is definitely a duty to either capture historical events accurately, or alternatively change names or provide a disclaimer saying 'Loosely based on historical events'. The main problem for me was in the end credit sequence from ARGO with the IDs and the real-life photographs set against shots from the film which suggested that what you saw was EXACTLY how things went down. It makes the undermining of the efforts of any nation that isn't the USA a bit of a slap in the face. Other inaccuracies seem more justifiable - like making their passport check more dramatic purely for the purposes of the film.

Braveheart had the same problem, with the speech from the Bruce saying something like 'People will tell you I'm a liar, but history is written by people who hanged heroes' at the start. The other example which springs to mind is the way that JFK portrayed wild inaccurracies as facts to stir up conspiracy theorizing and accuse innocent people of complicity in an assassination - that seemed quite cheap and unethical too.

On the other hand I don't have a problem with something like the bit at the start of Fargo which says it is based on true events but names have been changed, but in fact it was all completely made up.

Edited because paragraphs were removed for some reason.

Edited by The OP
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There is only a duty to entertain your audience, and use the story to do that. Anything else is what you'd want from it, but ultimately, that's not going to happen. Ever.

The French tried it with a movie about a hijacking, and it actually worked quite well, if a little unspectacular. Apparently the new movie Compliance is pretty close to the truth of the story it's telling as well, although that was incredibly shit.

Any country that takes anything as a slap in the face in a movie needs to visit a doctor. Always nice to have a giggle at China for these sorts of things.

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There is only a duty to entertain your audience, and use the story to do that. Anything else is what you'd want from it, but ultimately, that's not going to happen. Ever.

The French tried it with a movie about a hijacking, and it actually worked quite well, if a little unspectacular. Apparently the new movie Compliance is pretty close to the truth of the story it's telling as well, although that was incredibly shit.

Any country that takes anything as a slap in the face in a movie needs to visit a doctor. Always nice to have a giggle at China for these sorts of things.

That's absolute bollocks, in my opinion of course. When you are portraying the lives of real people you have a duty to those people to not besmirch them purely because it doesn't suit your propagandist's take on things.

The 3 films I have mentioned aren't like Inglourious Basterds or Boardwalk Empire, where it is made abundantly clear that this is a fictionalized version of events featuring real people here and there - they use techniques and even overt statements to make their portrayal seem like 'truth' to the average filmgoer. When you are dealing with the reputations and efforts of real people this is very poor form, and when you are using inaccuracy to stir up nationalist sentiment it is pretty insidious.

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Crazy, Stupid, Love - 7/10

Really charming, funny film. Steve Carrel and Julianne Moore are good as the couple who end up splitting after Moore admits to sleeping with work colleague Kevin Bacon. Ryan Gosling plays a shagger who takes pity on Carrel after seeing him moaning about his life 2 nights on the trot. He teaches him how to dress and how to talk to and ultimately shag women.

I really did not see the twist at the end in the garden coming, and it was class. I have no shame in admitting i fancy Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in equal measure. He is a beautiful man.

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Just seen Silver Linings Playbook on a flight to Dubai from Mumbai, thought it was really very good. I've not really been a fan of Bradley Cooper until now. Sure in the comedy/hangover stuff he's decent enough but this shows him in a new light for me.

Julia Stiles is better than being the 3rd string female in a film, her career has sort of stagnated.

For the posters above mentioning Gosling i've seen him in 3 movies (Blue Valentine, Half Nelson and Crazy, Stupid, Love) and thought he was great in them all. Has he ever been in what you might term a more mainstream movie?

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The Hunter - 5/10.

Willem Defoe is hired by a company to travel to Australia to find the Tasmanian Tiger which is thought to be extinct. Defoe is on decent form here as is Sam Neill but apart from that its pretty poor. Story is interesting enough but it could've been used so much better, it builds and builds where you think it is going to all come together but just doesnt get there.

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Just seen Silver Linings Playbook on a flight to Dubai from Mumbai, thought it was really very good. I've not really been a fan of Bradley Cooper until now. Sure in the comedy/hangover stuff he's decent enough but this shows him in a new light for me.

Julia Stiles is better than being the 3rd string female in a film, her career has sort of stagnated.

For the posters above mentioning Gosling i've seen him in 3 movies (Blue Valentine, Half Nelson and Crazy, Stupid, Love) and thought he was great in them all. Has he ever been in what you might term a more mainstream movie?

Bradley Cooper came good in Limitless for me. Great performance in that film for me.

As for Gosling, could maybe say Ides of March and Gangster Squad would be classed as mainsteam movies.

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For the posters above mentioning Gosling i've seen him in 3 movies (Blue Valentine, Half Nelson and Crazy, Stupid, Love) and thought he was great in them all. Has he ever been in what you might term a more mainstream movie?

Wasn't he in The Notebook? I'd agree with the above that Ides of March and Gangster Squad are also pretty big.

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