»

[Lucky Rathen]

Originally Posted by Rusty Deathnail

I watched "Dead Snow" the other night. An okay pastiche Zombie B Movie. A fair bit of "Shaun of the Dead" going on in it. Not essential.
Tried re-watching Blair Witch. Did not strike up my interest at all and got turned off.
I've "On the Beach" with Gregory Peck and "The Life Aquatic" to look forward to this weekend.

The Life Aquatic is amazing.

[Bigsby]

I liked the ending of The Wrestler. Fun to keep the audience guessing, we don't need to be spoon fed everything.

Watched The Hangover last night. Thought it was great.

[delboy]

just watched danny boyle's sci fi film from 2007 'sunshine' and really enjoyed it.

[Paulscoconutass]

Persepolis: animation following an Iranian girl growing up in Teheran and Austria. Although the obvious attraction to this film is its amazing aesthetics - and from the start to finish it looks amazing - it’s easy to forget that the actual story is so strong. Above this the film is quite informative, giving a good background of the modern history of Iran, yet there are so many funny bits to balance out the tragedies and shocks. I’ve not seen anything like this, and was mesmerised for the full 90 minutes. I’d suggest watching this with the French audio and subtitles (unless you won’t be affected by Sean Penn and Iggy Pop doing the English audio… WTF?!?!?) Would recommend this to most people. Score: 8/10


Revenge of the Nerds: to minutes in it was obvious that this film wasn’t going to be the barrel of laughs it looked like. The geeky laughing was about the only thing I found funny, and the rest of the film hasn’t aged well at all. It was probably good at the time, but is almost embarrassing now. The tags on this post tell more about the film than any paragraph could. Score 4/10


Hana-Bi: a film of two halves really. First half sets up the backdrop for the second, but because all of the action and drama had happened at the start I was restless after the hour mark. Long shots, minimal style, bare dialogue contrasting with the graphic violence and slapstick comedy moments. Very little happens, but the bodycount’s impressive! Overall, not as good as other similar film’s he’s done (Violent Cop / Sonatine) or starred in (Gonin), but worth watching if you like. Score: 6/10

[Paulscoconutass]

Also, I've started this short review site for when this thread dies or it gets into another ridiculously protracted argument and nobody else can be bothered posting in it...

Paragraph reviews, of films

[Rusty Deathnail]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

The Life Aquatic is amazing.

I can't wait to see it again. An old friend moved country and took my copy with him so I've finally forked out for another. I really can't wait. Hope it's as entertaining as I remember.

@Del - I thought Sunshine was an utterly breathtaking film right up until the end when they went down the Event Horizon road. Apart from that, stunning to watch and listen to. Would benefit hugely from a good home speaker set up.

[Teabags]

Originally Posted by Rusty Deathnail

@Del - I thought Sunshine was an utterly breathtaking film right up until the end when they went down the Event Horizon road.

Precisely what I thought.

[Le Stu]

The Orphanage This, I enjoyed. It's not piss your pants scary but there aren't any cheap gimmicks in it either. It's just a good ghost story.

[Diesel]

Bronson "Stylised" biopic of "Britain's most violent prisoner". Why anyone would want to make a fillum about a complete and utter waste of skin like this guy, is totally beyond me. The movie consists of him shouting "Come on then you faaaaakin caaaaaahnts, let's 'ave it" to the screws, fighting with them, then lying around drugged in a straightjacket whilst the director tries to give the movie some gravitas with the use of classical music. Utter gash 1/10

Gran Torino The Clintsters swan song? Not a bad movie at all, like a gerietraic Death Wish in parts. 7/10

[Lucky Rathen]

I watched TMNT last night. I was initially startled at the look of the film, I knew it was all CGI, but it was very cartoony, exaggerated CGI, like Ratatouille, or The Incredibles and I expected it to look more realistic (yes I realised that 6 foot talking turtles isn't very realistic but you know what I mean). However I soon got used to it. It was quite strange also in that I was expecting a "reboot", complete with character history etc and a whole new story arc beginning. however it plays like a sequel of the three live action movies - Shredder is dead and the Turtles are retired, and it's straight into the story with no backstory at all.

The main problems with this film are threefold:

1 - The tone of it is all over the place. It can't seem to decide if it wants to be cartoony and kiddy friendly, or dark and gothic and aimed at a more mature audience, and it ends up straddling both and jumping between the two, which gives it a rather uneven feel.

2 - The plot is a bit contrived and borrows heavily from The Mummy movies - it's not very "classic Turtles". Basically this warlord guy 3000 years in the past opens a gateway to another dimension, which grants him immortailty but turns his army to stone. It also releases 13 other worldly demons onto Earth. Cut to 3,000 years later and the guy is sick of being immortal and is trying to capture the 13 creatures (which have been walking the Earth unnoticed for 3,000 years) so he can send them back to their hell dimension and he can finally die. The army who were turned to stone (who can still walk and talk etc.) are trying to stop him from rounding up the monsters cos then they will die as well. Cue the Turtles reuniting to kick some monster and stone ass. Dimensions portals, ancient artifacts and stuff just doesn't feel very Turtles-y.

3 - The comedy bits, quips and gags that made the original series (and films) such a success fall a bit flat, because they just aren't very funny. Michaelangelo has a few decent lines but it's really really short of laughs.

In saying that, it's not a bad film. The fighting scenes are cool (although there really aren't many) and the voice talent really shines. It just feels like an extended version of a TV show. They really should have gone all out for the movie, and shown all the classic Turtle stuff (they don't even mention pizza once!). It's like they concentrated too hard on the look and not enough on the plot and the script. It really misses the snappy dialogue of the earlier Turtles stuff.
Sequel due next year - must try harder.
** 1/2