Last film you watched?

[Adam Easy Wishes]

Will it be shown in ABZ anywhere, do you think? Where would I find that out?

[Soda Jerk]

I've been waiting for Filmage for years. Bit disappointed that the screenings are minimal. Glasgow was the nearest screening, along with a few in England (two in London, one in Bristol, one in Leeds). Digital release coming in the new year, apparently. Too long to wait!!

[Old Gold]

Spring time release I do believe.  It's worth the wait man.

[Old Gold]

Will it be shown in ABZ anywhere, do you think? Where would I find that out?

 

Think that's it for Scotland, but this is kept well up to date: http://www.filmagemovie.com/

[Jaaakkkeee]

The Counsellor - Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy film about a lawyer who wants to get in about the drug trade. Too much talking. I like a talkie, but this was described as him getting in the the gritty realisation that the drug trade is dangerous. All it was was people going "What am I going to do?!" "I don't know." For about 2 hours with some pretty anti-climatical murders. Hank Schrader's in it as a buyer though. I don't know if I like or dislike it. I might watch it again. I think it's probably one of those film that I should like, but I'm just unsure of the whole affair. And of course Fassbender was having sex before the title of the film came up bcoz omg guyz remember Shame?!

[The Milner]

RED - Big Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and a few others play out retired FBI agents who are being hunted down. Its got the usual "im too old for this" or "it wasnt like this in my day" jokes, but it was still worth a watch. A couple of funny moments mixed in with a couple of terrible moments.

 

2.5 out of 6 for me. 

Edited November 20, 2013 by The Milner

[Lemonade]

I've watched some stinkers recently.

 

Mean Girls 2 - terrible straight to DVD sequel. Nothing funny happens.

**

 

Bring It On: All or Nothing - rich white girl goes to inner city school, aka "Bring It On Goes Urban", or "Bring It On Does Lazy Black Steroetypes". Acceptable lazy Sunday viewing. Hayden Pantyliner is good in the lead role.

***

 

Reform School Girls - 80s B-movie. Girl-next-door type gets sent to an all-female juvenile detention centre where all the girls appear to run around in skimpy lingerie at all times, and comes up against evil wardens and lezzy sex gangs. Expect tits. It's laughably bad but it's actually pretty entertaining. Wendy O Williams from The Plasmatics plays the least convincing teenager ever.

***

 

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - Dull as dishwasher teen fantasy. Brilliantly shot, visually dazzling but largely crap.

**

 

Chasing Amy - This has aged so badly. Some of the dialogue is cringeworthy and Alyssa is horribly written and horribly acted. 

**

 

Fish Tank - Gritty Brit flick which is more or less a family drama set in a grimy London council estate. Rebellious troubled teenager fucks her mum's boyfriend. Nothing to write home about.

***

 

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion - Boring film about two self-centred airheads who go to their high school reunion and pretend to be high powered businesswomen to hide the fact that they haven't done much with their lives. The two leads are too irritating to make this enjoyable.

**

 

Arachnophobia - This has stood up extremely well for the most part, except for the "battle" at the end which is cheesetastic. Creepy as hell and seriously tense. Had me biting my nails.

****

 

Hell Comes to Frogtown - In a world destroyed by nuclear war, most of the population has been left sterile. When Rowdy Roddy Piper turns up with his jizz still working, he is forced to rescue fertile females who have been captured by nuclear mutants, fuck them and start to repopulate the world. That ought to tell you what sort of film this is. I didn't get to the end so can't fairly rate it. It's shite though.

[Alkaline]

 

Chasing Amy - This has aged so badly. Some of the dialogue is cringeworthy and Alyssa is horribly written and horribly acted. 

**

 

Wash your mouth out you philistine!

[ca_gere]

He's right though. It's fucking terrible. There was a time when Kevin Smith was funny but that time was long ago now. Clerks is still a good watch, but there's something earnest and charming about it that holds it up to the test of time. Everything else he's done is very much of it's time/shit now.

[Alkaline]

He's right though. It's fucking terrible. There was a time when Kevin Smith was funny but that time was long ago now. Clerks is still a good watch, but there's something earnest and charming about it that holds it up to the test of time. Everything else he's done is very much of it's time/shit now.

 

You couldn't be wronger.

[Lemonade]

Wash your mouth out you philistine!

It has though. The dialogue is atrocious, Alyssa is such a stock character and the whole thing plays out like a wet dream Kev had.

[Paranoid Android]

imdb tells me that I haven't seen any Kevin Smith film ever.

[colb]

Wash your mouth out you philistine!

Hit wrong button - Chasing Amy best Kevin Smith film by miles, especially since he's only in it for two mins

[Jaaakkkeee]

Speaking of Kevin Smith

 

Red State - a change of pace for Silent Bob, but I loved it. Wasn't a standard stoner movie or a film about Ben Affleck. Really really fantastic. One of his best.

 

also watched these in the past few days

 

Fanboys - Never watched this because... well... I'm not that in to star wars. But this was great. Jay Bushalehashsdf Seth Rogen's skinny pal is pretty funny in it. and Kirsten Bell is well tidy. 

 

Benchwarmers - Always stayed away because of Rob Schneider. But found this pretty damn funny. Bit of a "turn off your brain" movie but still enjoyable.

 

Dangerous Minds - I definitely was pulled in to a gangsters paradise watching this. Made me want to go back to school and ace all my exams.

[Mr Owl PhD]

The Epic of Everest: Restoration of Captain John Noel's film of the 1924 expedition to Everest, which claimed the lives of Mallory and Irvine.  This was a case of me going to see the film because I've been listening to Simon Fisher Turner's new soundtrack, one of my favourite albums of the year.  The soundtrack works very well with the film for the most part, particularly as the ascent gets towards the 'sharp end'.  The footage is genuinely astonishing by any standards.  I've rarely seen a film of people so close to the edge of existence, which I suppose is a limit the expedition was fairly actively pushing the boundaries of.  The written commentary by Noel is sometimes a bit colonial in tone when describing local people but is also quite philosophical and intriguing at points.  This is on at the Belmont all week and if you're at all interested in mountains and like great film soundtracks then you should go and see it.

[Chris]

Safe House

 

Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington in a bourne-esque action thriller about a former CIA agent (Washington) who's been arrested after walking into the US embassy in South Africa.  He gets taken to an agency safe house staffed by a newbie agent (Reynolds) which then gets mullered by the bad guys.  The two stars escape and go on the run together/not together (it varies) while Brendan Gleeson and the psychiatrist from The Departed try and figure out what's going on... or do they?

 

Anyway I expected a fairly middling spy thriller but this was actually pretty damn good.  Much better than the shitty 4th Bourne movie anyway.  

[Camie]

He's right though. It's fucking terrible. There was a time when Kevin Smith was funny but that time was long ago now. Clerks is still a good watch, but there's something earnest and charming about it that holds it up to the test of time. Everything else he's done is very much of it's time/shit now.

 

Surely you're not including Mallrats?!

 

 

Just me then...

[Jaaakkkeee]

Hunger Games 2 - Oh my god, that was long. It was good though. Katniss is just so beautiful, but what an insufferable cunt. Also, we all know there's going to be a 3rd, but they still did the old "stare at the camera angry then cut to black because OHMYGOD SEQUEL" Apart from that ending, was rather enjoyable. 

 

The bastard at cineworld didn't fall for the old "oh, crap, i've left my student card at home!" thing, Vue normally let you off 'cause they're well sound.

[Paranoid Android]

I watched the first Hunger Games last night actually. I was surprised by how good it was. Jennifer Lawrence is really great.

[ca_gere]

The Hunger Games is one of those films I seem to just avoid entirely. I know there was a big hoohaa about it when it came out and I'm aware there are books but I haven't seen a single shot from a trailer or anything. From what i've heard it sounds like a battle royale type thing but for fantasy nerds. Is it genuinely worth watching? 

[Jaaakkkeee]

I watched the first Hunger Games last night actually. I was surprised by how good it was. Jennifer Lawrence is really great.

I was surprised too. Really good. 

The Hunger Games is one of those films I seem to just avoid entirely. I know there was a big hoohaa about it when it came out and I'm aware there are books but I haven't seen a single shot from a trailer or anything. From what i've heard it sounds like a battle royale type thing but for fantasy nerds. Is it genuinely worth watching? 

It's more for tumblrfags. They love katniss/peeta. Just so many gifs of OMG SO CUTE I WISH THEY WERE A REAL LIFE COUPLE.

It's quite different from battle royale. I mean, yeah, loads of folk on an island being forced to kill each other. But that's the only similarity and that's not what the whole trilogy of HG is about.

[Paranoid Android]

I had been in a kind of similar boat to you ca_gere, only slightly aware of it. I saw some positive reviews for the new one on some sites and was a bit surprised because I from the idea I had of it I expected it to get critically panned in the same way that the twilight films did. That intrigued me plus as I said I like Lawrence so I decided to give it ago and I'm happy I did. Interestingly it seems many people think the films are better than the books.

 

Obviously has quite a bit in common with Battle Royale but to be honest I think the hunger games has a lot more to it that BR does. (I haven't seen BR in a very long time so I could be wrong about that)

[Monster Zero]

I read the first 2 books, not got round to the 3rd yet...I liked the first film but wouldnt say it was better than the book. Pretty faithful adaptation though. Jennifer Lawrence is definitely one of the best actresses around the now. See 'Winters Bone', very good.

I thought 'Catching Fire' was a bit too much of a retread of the first book tbh so im undecided about seeing the film, will no doubt await DVD as usual.

[Paranoid Android]

I've got a few films in over the last week. It's been nice to work my way through a few things I had waiting for a while. I'd been ignoring films in favour of tv for some time.

 

The last few days viewing

 

Winter's Bone - I mentioned on this page that I like Jennifer Lawrence a lot and this film is a great example why. Excellent performance. She stars as a 17 year old who has to look after her younger brother and sister and mentally ill mother. Her father has gone missing as he is die to appear in court and if he's not found the family could lose the house. The film follows her attempts to track him down while some people in the local community seem to know something about it they wont tell her. Good film but I think I may have found it significantly less engaging if the lead performance hadn't been so strong.

 

The Way Way Back - Coming of age film about a 14 year old boy who goes on holiday with his mum, her boyfriend and the boyfriends daughter to their beach house. The very shy boy ends up becoming friends with the manager at a water park who helps him to come out of his shell. Fairly typical typical stuff but it was a good watch. The reason I watched it in the first place was Sam Rockwell, perhaps my favourite actor, who plays the waterpark manager. He is by far the best thing about the film and improves is greatly. Every scene with him in it is better than almost any without him.

 

Choke - Another film I watched for Rockwell and again he's excellent. The film was okay but kind of predictable, at least in the general path the film took. There were a few unexpected twists. If you're unaware of the plot, Rockwell plays a sex addict who works at one of those historical re-enactment places TV tells me are popular in the US and he often visits his sick mother (dementia) in hospital. 

 

Before Midnight - Final part of the trilogy following Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. A satisfying final part in most respects but I had some issues with it and I'd probably rate it as the weakest of the three, jsut. Like the other two it's mostly just conversation between the two lead characters and I can't say more than that without spoiling the other films. 

 

How to train your dragon - Excellent animated film, up there with the best pixar films but I'm fairly sure this was made by a different studio. The title tells you all you need to know about the plot really. Training dragons.

[Jaaakkkeee]

 

 

Choke - Another film I watched for Rockwell and again he's excellent. The film was okay but kind of predictable, at least in the general path the film took. There were a few unexpected twists. If you're unaware of the plot, Rockwell plays a sex addict who works at one of those historical re-enactment places TV tells me are popular in the US and he often visits his sick mother (dementia) in hospital. 

 

Is this based on the novel? If so, did it hold up to it at all?