The Films Thread

[harv]

Have decided to have a run of sci-fi films from the 50s. Watched War Of The Worlds on Christmas Day and have now started to watch Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, one of my all-time favourites of all-time. Next up after this is The Day The Earth Stood Still. Some great sci-fi from those days.

[harv]

Have decided to interrupt my blasts from the past with Man Of Steel, about half an hour in and it's not bad so far. Still can't help comparing it to the Christopher Reeves films though, which were a big part of my childhood, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for them.

[harv]

Finished it and wasn't too impressed overall tbh. They would have been better off not having a mashed potato of the first two films. Start off the way the other films did. Introduce Superman and Luthor in the first film and have Zod and Co in the second one. They also destroyed half of Metropolis which must have killed close to a hundred thousand people and Superman didn't seem that bothered.

[Dragontao]

Finally booked to see the Hobbit tomorrow night. Seems like a good start to the New Year. Then probably 47 Ronin on Saturday night.

[Late]

A few I've watched recently:

Her
In the near future, a guy falls in love with his computer operating system.
Aside from the strange story, the acting was fine, the portrayal of near-future tech/society was decent (believable, though too clean) and the progression of the story was okay. The basic idea of the film is just a bit too weird for my taste, though. And don't get me started on the freak he has phone-sex with near the start of the film. "Choke me with that dead cat. Do it!" Um...
5.0/10

Gravity
Sandra Bullock's stranded in orbit when her space shuttle is wiped out by debris.
Wasn't expecting much, but enjoyed this one. Granted there's not much in the way of story twists, or character development, etc. - but the little bit of story we have is decent, the physics are believable (and that's a big thing in this film) and the cinematography is fantastic.
7.0/10

Last Vegas
A sort of crossover between Stand Up Guys and The Hangover.
A group of old-timers head off to Vegas for a stag party. Morgan Freeman stands out - the other three seemed a bit subdued. Rather forgettable film all in all, though.
4.5/10

The Wolf of Wall Street
DiCaprio as a crooked '80s stockbroker - based on a true story.
Interesting, funny, and with plenty of (female) full frontal nudity. What's not to like? Except maybe the length. The film runs to about 3 hours...
8.0/10

[harv]

3 hours

[jman]

I thought gravity was a bit shit to be honest, its basically Sandra bullock screaming whilst the camera spins around for half the film.

Couple of films I watched whilst laid up..

Riddick
Not too bad, I'm not a massive fan of Pitch Black or Chronicles of Riddick, and this one hasn't really won me over, but its a bad-ass sci-fi film with some nice action sequences and one-liners, so there was some enjoyment!
4.5/10


The Wolverine
Wolverine is not my favourite character from the X-men films which we love, and this film was more plot-centric than action-heavy so I found some parts of the film weak, but overall it was a good flick and better than the all-action Origins film which was great action, but shit story.
6/10


The Escape Plan
This is the 2nd time I watched this and it was still a great action movie, definitely recommend.
7.5/10

[Dragontao]

I liked the Wolverine, he's actually one of my favourite characters, real badass, they just have not used him effectively in the films. Need to be an 18 certificate and let him cut loose.

[Late]

I must get that Wolverine watched at some point. I've had it ages, and I've enjoyed all of the x-men films to date - but this one didn't appeal from the trailers.

This week as well as rewatching Prometheus and the first two Alien films I watched:

The Escape Plan
I agree with Kieron: good old-school action film. Lots of fighting, guns, and explosions - and good chemistry between Sly and Arnie (who are both playing very intelligent people. lolz).
7.0/10

Prisoners
Very good film, with Hugh Jackman as the desperate father whose daughter has gone missing (desperate enough to try "extreme questioning" of the main suspect) and Jake Gyllenhaal as the detective in charge. Good plot, good acting. My only gripe is it was a bit slow in places. I suspect they could've whittled some of it's 2hr33m down a bit...
8.0/10

[jman]

Watched a few films recently :

Exam
Supposed to be a thriller about participants competing for a job in the world's biggest and most prestigious company (not Nintendo harv ) So they have to sit an exam with 1 question and after being given 80 minutes, they all turn their papers over and discover they are blank so they have to find out what the question is and the answer in the given time. 

Billed as a non-violent 'Saw', I thought I'd give it a go, to be honest, I thought it would be better than it was.. parts of it are just dull, dull, dull and so for a thriller, I found a lot of it just boring; coupled with the fact that the plot gets quite ridiculous with it's "twists" and the acting is quite cheesy in places.  You can tell its low-budget because the whole movie is shot in one room and I hadn't heard of any of the actors before (apart from Colin Salmon).  Nice attempt, but fails as a thriller for me.

3/10


Thor : The Dark World
Have to say again, Thor is not one of my favourite superheroes.. but I do like the fact that's its based on Norse mythology, and my girlfriend is currently teaching Vikings at school, so that was interesting to her.  Natalie Portman is just a dunce in this film, she actually added something to the 1st film, I felt like she did nothing in this one, despite the majority of the plot revolving entirely around her.  I felt overall that the film was about as good as the first one and I like how it tied into the absolutely absurd plot of the Avengers.  The action scenes were good but I just sat there most of the time thinking how much the dark elves reminded me of the cybermen from doctor who, which is funny because one of the doctors plays the main bad guy too 

Meh, not too fussed about watching it again, it was alright, that is all.
5/10


Pain and Gain
Might not suit everyone's taste, but I enjoyed parts of it.  Based on a true story - well a lot of it was different to the actual story and some of it was entirely fabricated.
4.5/10


Frozen
Thank god I didn't give in to my girlfriends demands and actually go to the cinema to watch this.  OK its not a bad animated Disney film.. if you have a kid.. some parts with Olaf were funny, but this is mainly for kids and Disney fanatics.
4/10

[harv]

I got in trouble (of sorts) at school regarding Norse mythology. I wrote an essay that basically said it makes more sense for a person to worship more than one godhead than Christianity. Needless to say at a Roman Catholic school this didn't go down well lol

The teacher wanted a word with me the next day asking me if I meant what I said in the essay. I then proceeded to tell him that I did and then went into more detail because the word/page limit meant I had to leave a few important points out lol

And then they made me have a talk to the priest at the school the next day during which time he tried giving me the Catholic hard sell. I then told him how ridiculous the entire Catholic religion was, including the guilt factor that the religion is so famous for lol. It really didn't go down well.

I really liked Exam although I worked out the answer right at the beginning.

[harv]

Some of you may have been experiencing issues with free US DNS codes for Netflix. That's because the company supplying these DNS codes have been charging for their service and have just realised that the world and his wife are using them for free lololol. So now they're doing IP checks every now and then which is why the service is spotty.

Good news is that I've found an alternative: 088.080.186.067 and 162.243.065.031

[jman]

Watched :

Runner, Runner
Absolute pointless garbage.. Justin Timberlake tries to gamble online for his university fee's for his masters.. he is successful at first but then gets wiped out by a player who seems to have the perfect hand each time.. suddenly he decides he was cheated and goes off to Costa Rica to accuse the online casino creator of cheating him (because that's what most sensible people do).. the plot moved way too fast, no build up of character and it was just pure tosh...

Turned it off after 30 minutes and watched

The Lincoln Lawyer
Now if you're looking for a great thriller, look no further.. as the name suggests its a courtroom thriller.. although most of the action happens outside the courtroom... lots of subtle twists, a good pace and a decent cast who can actually act.

7/10


Homefront
If you've seen one Jason Statham film, you've seen them all.. this one doesn't deviate away from the formula.. he is type-cast as the tough, quiet good guy hero in an old-school action flick.. nothing wrong with that - when everyone is packing their films out with multi-million pounds worth of CGI and special effects, sometimes its just good to go back to basics and this film does not disappoint on that.  Not the best plot in the world, nor original, nor is the acting world class, but it was enjoyable to watch, the action was good and Statham has that gruff, likeable factor which make him perfect for these roles

5/10

I was discussing with a mate the other day about top 3 JS films... for me it was pretty easy.

1.  Transporter
2.  Crank
3.  Blitz

[Dragontao]

I thought Homefront was okay.

I liked Statham in the Jet Li films. He's a decent action actor. Good use of martial arts and a good homage to the slapstick style of Jackie Chan in Transporter.

If your girlfriend has been teaching about Vikings, she might be interested in the Vikings TV series. Not bad. Shame it wasn't made by Starz though, there'd have been a lot more gore and boobs in it then lol.

[jman]

Watched Non-Stop at the cinema the other day.. Liam Neeson, Juilanne Moore.. Liam Neeson has to find a killer on a plane...

Meh it was alright.. not a bad thriller, it keeps the (absurd) plot moving and twisting along at a nice pace to keep you guessing who dunnit... by the unveiling, I thought it was quite obvious though.

5/10