Film/moving picture show you most recently watched

[Gemmill 46090]

Hotel Transylvania is knocking about too.

[Howmanheyman 33916]

Life Of Pie

 

Simply outstanding, a bio-pic about a man from Boldon in the North-East of England who would buy, make and scoff as many mince pies and pasties as he could before taking photographs and posting them on a football message board always on an 'outer space' style bench. The cinema had a special 'Greggs counter' brought in especially for the film and I partook in their fine wares whilst watching the movie.

 

10/10 the pies,

 

7/10 the film

 

I'll have to watch out for that one, CT.

[Christmas Tree 4851]

[catmag 337]

Wreck It Ralph

 

 

 

 

I must say I absolutely loved this. It had all of the feeling that it could've been a Pixar production as it was that good.

 

Kids will love it, but people my age and a bit older will love it too due to the many video game references from the 80's and beyond. The Bad Anon scene is absolutely fantastically done and another one that makes you feel totally nostalgic, so if you get those references you'll be in stitches for a lot of it.

 

As you would expect there's stories built around friendships being formed and broken that are designed to get you and they really did. As I've alluded to it's full of humour that was really quite clever, some total laugh out loud moments but other ones that are really subtle and clever. If you are a fan of this sort of animation like I am then you will love it.

 

8.5/10

 

I'll definitely be taking the bairn to see this. He's developed a liking for Sonic and Mario recently so it should go down well.

[ewerk 31228]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Completely ruined by one stupid problem. These kids are into The Smiths and all sorts of alternative music yet not one of them can identify Bowie's Heroes as the tunnel song? Fuck right off.

[Gemmill 46090]

Completely ruined.

[ewerk 31228]

Aren't you a bit old for coming of age films?

[Happy Face 29]

Frankenweenie

 

Think it's a big ask of kids. I was canny tired but the first hour is quite slow moving for a cartoon, I was willing it along much of the time. And black and white too. Started thinking it was an emo film made by an emo for emos. There's chuckles throughout that hour but the last half hour is the big pay-off. Well worth sticking with for the monsters arriving in numbers.

[Happy Face 29]

Argo

 

The sort of CIA film I like. Where they put in the leg work to outsmart their opponents. Think it's brilliant when these contrasting films come out at the same time with very similar themes. For all it's hype as a low key, non-hollywood style war film, Zero Dark Thirty is the much MORE Hollywood of the two, it whitewashes torture as a means to an end and satisfies the (pro US) audience with a big shoot-out finale where the bad guy gets it in the head. There is no consideration at all of opposition or any issues that might have caused concern about the mission, it's a straight forward celebration - "Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11, here's the story of how we killed him".

 

Argo on the other hand is matter of factly critical of US (and UK) intervention in the area, just by stating what those nations have done in the area during a prologue, it damns them. It gives a voice to Iranian opposition, it has characters on either side question why they're in their position and why they're doing the work they do. There are no caricature good guys or bad guys, just people, who (as in reality) have the best intentions. So there's some cars flying up a runway at the end to give it a crescendo. It in no way changes the story or the truth of the situation.

 

Of the oscar nominations I've seen I'd be still be most happy if Django won I think. It's still much too overlong but it's just great fun. It has no chance though. R rated films don't win. So after that it should be Argo.

 

Still got Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi & Silver Linings Playbook to watch though.

[Christmas Tree 4851]

Argo

 

The sort of CIA film I like. Where they put in the leg work to outsmart their opponents. Think it's brilliant when these contrasting films come out at the same time with very similar themes. For all it's hype as a low key, non-hollywood style war film, Zero Dark Thirty is the much MORE Hollywood of the two, it whitewashes torture as a means to an end and satisfies the (pro US) audience with a big shoot-out finale where the bad guy gets it in the head. There is no consideration at all of opposition or any issues that might have caused concern about the mission, it's a straight forward celebration - "Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11, here's the story of how we killed him".

 

Argo on the other hand is matter of factly critical of US (and UK) intervention in the area, just by stating what those nations have done in the area during a prologue, it damns them. It gives a voice to Iranian opposition, it has characters on either side question why they're in their position and why they're doing the work they do. There are no caricature good guys or bad guys, just people, who (as in reality) have the best intentions. So there's some cars flying up a runway at the end to give it a crescendo. It in no way changes the story or the truth of the situation.

 

Of the oscar nominations I've seen I'd be still be most happy if Django won I think. It's still much too overlong but it's just great fun. It has no chance though. R rated films don't win. So after that it should be Argo.

 

Still got Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi & Silver Linings Playbook to watch though.

 

Get PI watched man. Best film in years.

[Happy Face 29]

Get PI watched man. Best film in years.

 

Like weightwatchers frozens are the best food?

 

 

Was looking forward to it anarl

[Tooj 17]

It is class.

[angrysteve 0]

State of play --- Russell Crowe --- 6.5 / 10

 

Nice political thriller.

If you haven't seen the TV mini-series CT, get it watched, absolutely fantastic and a million times better than the below-par film version.

[Christmas Tree 4851]

If you haven't seen the TV mini-series CT, get it watched, absolutely fantastic and a million times better than the below-par film version.

 

Nice shout, cheers.

[Happy Face 29]

Life of Pi

I've not read the book, but they reckon it was unfilmable, I don't know what's been missed out if anything, but I thought it was lush to look at and a great story. What annoyed me was the unnecessary bits of voice over. The whole point of a film is to show, not to tell, but when Richard Parker jumps out of the boat, we see him do it, but Pi still tells us "Richard parker jumped from the boat". There's worse examples but I don't want to spoil the ending. Also, it may be the way the story is told in the book(?), but there's nowt worse than the "let me tell you a story" set up. The writer in this had no more to do than Kevin Arnold did in The Princess Bride...look happy when the story is happy, look sad when it gets sad. All the ideas and themes that are in the film without needing to be spoken get explicitly voiced either by Pi or the writer. I don't know if it's worse when they tell you how to interpret the film or when they describe what's happening on screen audio-book style.

 

Amour

At the total other end of the spectrum. A very slight film that has no need whatsoever for voiceover, story telling characters or exposition. Just an elderly man in his flat with his dying wife. Enjoy isn't the word for it. Haneke could teach Ang Lee a thing or two about just letting the camera observe though.

 

Wreck It Ralph

Seen a few people rave about this on here but having seen all the Oscar nominated animations apart from Paranorman, it's looking like Pirates would be my choice to win it. This was canny enough, think I preferred Frankenweenie too. Much better than Brave though. Can't believe that won the Bafta over Frankenweenie.

 

Cloud Atlas

Came out in The US last year, not sure why it's been delayed for release here so long. Out at the end of the month I got free tickets to a preview. I was dreading it. A 3 hour film that links 6 stories over hundreds of years by the Matrix folk who got so far up their own arses by the end of that trilogy. Sounded like a pretentious load of twaddle I would be aching to get out of. I was never ever bored though. I was often lost and unsure what any of them had to do with each other, but I think I'll get more and more of it with subsequent watches. Some might say there is too much twaddle about tolerance whether it's race, sexual orientation, age or futuristic"true bloods"....but i think it's well balanced with some broad humour, particularly the Jim Broadbent stuff in the old peoples home, which plays like Maggie Simpsons escape from nursery on The Simpsons.

[luckyluke 2]

I thought Brave was OK but yeah, not a patch on Pirates (or indeed any of the more impressive Pixars).

[The Fish 10972]

I was dreading this, but the new trailer looks decent.

 

[Tooj 17]

The first trailer looked pretty good too.

[David Kelly 1260]

Is it going to be another origin superhero film? I'm fucking sick to death of seeing them now like. Every fucker on the planet knows where Superman came from so there's absolutely no need for another one when there's so many good Superman stories out there. I fear that whenever another Batman film gets made without Christopher Nolan there'll be yet another re telling of how his parents were killed when he was a bairn!

[The Fish 10972]

Is it going to be another origin superhero film? I'm fucking sick to death of seeing them now like. Every fucker on the planet knows where Superman came from so there's absolutely no need for another one when there's so many good Superman stories out there. I fear that whenever another Batman film gets made without Christopher Nolan there'll be yet another re telling of how his parents were killed when he was a bairn!

 

It is another reboot, but it's the 1st Superman movie I've seen advertised where I don't immediately think I'll hate it.

 

The problem for the studios is licences. That's why there was a new Spiderman film, Sony had to release another movie if they wanted to retain the licenses.

 

Also there are kids around now, who don't know the origin, or the specific version of the origin that the studio wants to push.

[luckyluke 2]

Is it going to be another origin superhero film? I'm fucking sick to death of seeing them now like. Every fucker on the planet knows where Superman came from so there's absolutely no need for another one when there's so many good Superman stories out there. I fear that whenever another Batman film gets made without Christopher Nolan there'll be yet another re telling of how his parents were killed when he was a bairn!

 

+1.

 

So long as there are dorks like Fish lapping them up they'll keep coming, sadly.

[The Fish 10972]

+1.

 

So long as there are dorks like Fish lapping them up they'll keep coming, sadly.

 

Go kung fu kick a cannula, you angry spazz.

 

End of the day they're action films, no different to the Time Cop and Eraser of their days. If they upset you, you've a pretty empty life.

[David Kelly 1260]

It is another reboot, but it's the 1st Superman movie I've seen advertised where I don't immediately think I'll hate it.

 

The problem for the studios is licences. That's why there was a new Spiderman film, Sony had to release another movie if they wanted to retain the licenses.

 

Also there are kids around now, who don't know the origin, or the specific version of the origin that the studio wants to push.

I can't imagine there's many kids old enough to see this that don't know the origin story of Superman and even Zod's been done before in the Christopher Reeve films and Smallville.

It's just lazy and gutless for me. And it's not like there's no material there with decades of comics and graphic novels.

I'm sure I'll see it and it could turn out to be a really good film but I'd have just liked to see them be a bit more adventurous like Nolan was with Batman.

[The Fish 10972]

I can't imagine there's many kids old enough to see this that don't know the origin story of Superman and even Zod's been done before in the Christopher Reeve films and Smallville.

It's just lazy and gutless for me. And it's not like there's no material there with decades of comics and graphic novels.

I'm sure I'll see it and it could turn out to be a really good film but I'd have just liked to see them be a bit more adventurous like Nolan was with Batman.

Like Nolan was? Nolan did a reboot, then 2 sequels. I wouldn't call that adventurous at all. If anything Marvel were adventurous with the Avengers movie.

 

This Man of Steel movie looks like they're trying to get a strong character driven plot as the spine of the film, rather than the flashy but paper-thin Superman Returns.

 

The Spiderman thing is infuriating because I think the Disney/Marvel films all seem to work well in their own little part of the universe they're creating. So it is possible to have Robert Downey Jnr's IronMan fighting against the more childish, more mythological Loki, but I just couldn't see them being able to even reference the new Spiderman, the X-men. Of course this means that if Disney/Marvel regain the rights to these franchises we'll see another set of reboots.

 

However, these films aren't aimed at you, or even fans of the genre like me. They're aimed at the kids who'll watch the film, buy the action figures, wear the t-shirts, play the computer games, watch the connected animated shorts, and who won't care if another Spiderman film comes out 5 years later.

 

 

(As an aside, the Superman franchise hasn't really been done since the first 2 films in 78 & 80, 3 was terrible, Returns was, as I say, paper-thin and Smallville is Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Edited February 11, 2013 by The Fish

[Tooj 17]

III was funny though just because of Richard Pryor turning up to work in that car.

 

A Quest for Peace needs to be erased from all of our minds.