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Last movie watched...

Started by SmallBlueThing, 04 February, 2011, 12:40:44 PM

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Daveycandlish

Quote from: JamesC on 11 August, 2013, 12:00:34 PM
Jurassic Park is very similar but with less emphasis on having sex with the attractions!

The velociraptors hunting in packs is very similar to what happens in the Bigg Market in Newcastle every weekend when the lads are on the pull!
An old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70's and 80's - Buy the hardback Christmas Annual!

Frank

Quote from: JamesC on 11 August, 2013, 12:00:34 PM
Jurassic Park is very similar but with less emphasis on having sex with the attractions!

I would have enjoyed a go on the Laura Dern ride. Only if the queues for Julianne Moore were too long, though.


Spikes

And speaking of Julianne Moore; Hannibal - last night on ITV2.
Not really seen this since i caught it in the cinema, so was kinda interesting to see it again, but its a load of dog shite, to be honest. The first two films, and books, are superb, but ive never seen a franchise run out of steam so quickly as this one. Well maybe 'Alien' beats it, but its a closely run thing...

Not seen owt of the TV series, so cant comment on that.

Richmond Clements

QuoteYep, Jurassic Park is very similar but with less emphasis on having sex with the attractions!

How about this then?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309748/

JamesC

Quote from: Richmond Clements on 11 August, 2013, 01:24:28 PM
QuoteYep, Jurassic Park is very similar but with less emphasis on having sex with the attractions!

How about this then?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309748/

Well it has a 9 star rating compared to Jurassic Park's 8 so I'm expecting something special!

Dragonfly

Rewatched From Dusk To Dawn over the weekend, still a very good film, but was then tempted to watch the two sequels. Bought a box set of the three about five or six years ago but have only watched the first film having been warned off the others. But this weekend thought what the hell and decided to go for it. I had some Jagermeister and a bottle of wine to ease the pain!
Watching the first sequel I was very surprised to see Bruce Campbell in it, didn't realise he was in it and in fact he wasn't really was he? Just had a short throw away appearance during the opening scene then reappearing towards the end as a life-size cardboard cut out.
Anyway I quite enjoyed this, it's not a patch on the first film but it's alright to see once or twice. It tries to put in a bit of Tarantinoesque dialogue but doesn't really convince. Still the final credits roll at about I hour and seventeen minutes so it doesn't outstay it's welcome and it is fun, tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself very seriously.
The second sequel is a bit crap really and shouldn't be seen more than once, and even that's pushing it. It's a cowboy film with vampires and just repeats the first films story structure. It doesn't help that at the beginning of the film we have a scene nicked from The Good The Bad And The Ugly where the outlaw protagonist is about to be hanged and is rescued by having the rope shot so he can escape. The whole film feels very derivative. It also feels very low budget, which in itself is not a bad thing, but gives the impression that no one cares.
So to sum up, first film Brilliant, second film okay, third avoid.

Frank

Quote from: gavingavin on 12 August, 2013, 06:55:04 AM
The second sequel is a bit crap really and shouldn't be seen more than once, and even that's pushing it. It's a cowboy film and just repeats the first films story structure.

Worked for Back To The Future.


Recrewt

Quote from: JamesC on 11 August, 2013, 11:13:15 AM
Futureworld.

I'd never seen this before and I really enjoyed it. I was expecting a re-tread of Westworld but the conspiracy angle set it apart.
I particularly liked the maintenance man's friendly scrap robot and the weird dream sequence featuring Yul Bryner that was obviously just added so that they could put his name on the posters!
I think this and Westworld are both really fun, easy to watch films - they really don't make them like this any more. Saying that I can imagine them both remade on a large budget and they could actually work really well with lavish sets and amped up action sequences.

These are great films and I see what you mean about them being remade, as the effects certainly show their age.  The beauty of a film like Westworld is that image of the cowboy pacing along after them.  It's a quiet menace that filmmakers nowadays don't seem to have the patience for.  So, fast forward to the remake and the cowboy now has a jetpack and freaking laser-beams.  Plus, we get lots of explosions and CGI effects and suddenly we have lost what made the original film so good.     

JamesC

Quote from: Recrewt on 12 August, 2013, 12:12:25 PM
Quote from: JamesC on 11 August, 2013, 11:13:15 AM
Futureworld.

I'd never seen this before and I really enjoyed it. I was expecting a re-tread of Westworld but the conspiracy angle set it apart.
I particularly liked the maintenance man's friendly scrap robot and the weird dream sequence featuring Yul Bryner that was obviously just added so that they could put his name on the posters!
I think this and Westworld are both really fun, easy to watch films - they really don't make them like this any more. Saying that I can imagine them both remade on a large budget and they could actually work really well with lavish sets and amped up action sequences.

These are great films and I see what you mean about them being remade, as the effects certainly show their age.  The beauty of a film like Westworld is that image of the cowboy pacing along after them.  It's a quiet menace that filmmakers nowadays don't seem to have the patience for.  So, fast forward to the remake and the cowboy now has a jetpack and freaking laser-beams.  Plus, we get lots of explosions and CGI effects and suddenly we have lost what made the original film so good.   

I think in any remake you'd definitely still need that character - the relentless, inescapable gunslinger that somehow makes it all seem personal.
In the moment of major malfunction though, you could have lynch mobs and posses chasing people down as well as a really great - and violent - bar brawl.
In Medieval World you could add a bit of medieval fantasy and have a dragon attack (with sets more akin to something like 'Game of Thrones' and less like 'The Adventures of Robin Hood') and in Roman World you could have gladiators hacking people to bits and setting loose the lions!

Tiplodocus

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Michael Mann's 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis.
I never tire of watching this - some fantastic merging of sound and vision - especially in the almost dialogue free final ten minutes.  The fights never out stay there welcome and are just on the right side of being cool without being unbelieveable. I read the book about twenty years ago but all I can recall is it being a lot more convulted and childish (bear skin disguises?) and generally unreadable than this film is watchable.

There's a great "old school" vibe about it as well that makes it proper epic.  No CGI forts or armies here - they just built it, dressed hundreds of extras and set them about hacking and blowing each other up. Brilliant.

I will plead complete ignorance as to whether the depiction of the native americans (or should that be native canadians?) is good or bad.

On one hand, Magua (Wes Studi) is dissed for taking on western ways, the Mohawks are shown just trying to hack out a life in a tough land and the titular Mohicans are all round nature-loving good eggs and bad asses.  On the other, there's an awful lot of savagery in them Hurons (even the Sachem's "wise" pronouncements at the end involve somebody being burnt alive). Still, at least nobody communes with an animal spirit guide - and the mains (Magua, Uncas, Chingacggook) appear to be actual native americans (even though probably not the right tribe/branch; well, the Mohicans are fictional!).
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

TordelBack

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 12 August, 2013, 01:16:47 PM
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Michael Mann's 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis.
I never tire of watching this - some fantastic merging of sound and vision - especially in the almost dialogue free final ten minutes.

Didn't realise it when I saw it the cinema, but LotM has definitely become one of my favourite movies.  It's full of action, spectacle, tragedy, great music, quotable lines ("Just dropped in to see how you boys was doin'"), and the wife assures me that DDL's buckskin-laced thighs are a wonder to behold. And as Tips says, the dialogue-free pursuit in the last 10 minutes is just a magnificent use of music and a model of restraint that many a film-maker could learn from.

And once more, for those arriving late (anyone who's ever read one of my posts before may, nay should, look away now):

When I saw this on release it was at an afternoon show, and sat behind us were two Dublin old dears who got right into the spirit of things.  Every time a Huron (and possibly even the odd Mohican) loomed menacingly over Daniel or Madeline, one of them would squeal: "Look out, it's the savages! Oooh, the savages!".  I hear them still every time I watch it, which is often.


Professor Bear

The last time I tried, I still couldn't watch Outbreak without hearing the two grown-ass women behind us in the cinema at the time trying to understand what was happening in every single scene for 90 minutes.
It's not quotable heckling we're talking about here, either, it's a running commentary by two people who - though clearly not malicious - did not understand what they were looking at.  To be entirely fair to them, at no point in the film does Dustin Hoffman say "we need to take blood out of the monkey to make a thing that will make people better because the monkey can not get sick so we will take his blood and put it in other people's blood after doing doctor things to it and this will make the disease go away"* which would have spared them a great deal of confusion at the end (as the characters extract antibodies from the monkey) when one asked "what are they putting in the monkey?  Are they putting him down?  Why could they not just shoot him then?" and "why did she get better when everyone else died?"



* Fair play to Dan Brown for seeing this gap in the market and stitching it up like a motherfucker.

Mabs

#5007
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 August, 2013, 01:43:19 PM
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 12 August, 2013, 01:16:47 PM
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Michael Mann's 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis.
I never tire of watching this - some fantastic merging of sound and vision - especially in the almost dialogue free final ten minutes.

Didn't realise it when I saw it the cinema, but LotM has definitely become one of my favourite movies.  It's full of action, spectacle, tragedy, great music, quotable lines ("Just dropped in to see how you boys was doin'"), and the wife assures me that DDL's buckskin-laced thighs are a wonder to behold. And as Tips says, the dialogue-free pursuit in the last 10 minutes is just a magnificent use of music and a model of restraint that many a film-maker could learn from.

And once more, for those arriving late (anyone who's ever read one of my posts before may, nay should, look away now):

When I saw this on release it was at an afternoon show, and sat behind us were two Dublin old dears who got right into the spirit of things.  Every time a Huron (and possibly even the odd Mohican) loomed menacingly over Daniel or Madeline, one of them would squeal: "Look out, it's the savages! Oooh, the savages!".  I hear them still every time I watch it, which is often.

I watched The Last of the Mohicans as a kid of maybe 11 years old and it blew me away! I was literally gasping in disbelief when[spoiler] Studi's Huron character pulls out  Colonel Munro's beating heart! [/spoiler]It was a visceral film, full of heart pounding action not to mention heartbreaking drama and still remains one of my favourite Mann films. Daniel Day Lewis was also magnificent in the film as 'Hawkeye', sticking to his true method acting roots he stayed in character/clothing and went hunting for real just like we see him doing in the film. That was the first time I saw him on screen and he's always remained a favourite actor of mine. Madeleine Stowe was also terrific in the film, I remember having a crush on her as a kid! Another aspect of why this film is so brilliant is that superb score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman. It is really thrilling not to mention memeorable (I'm humming it in my head as we speak!). Seeing as my missus loves films of a romantic persuasion, I think I'll get her to watch it, don't know how she'll feel about the bloodier parts though!
My Blog: http://nexuswookie.wordpress.com/

My Twitter @nexuswookie

Definitely Not Mister Pops

#5008
This week, I have mostly been watching, shark films. That's right, I explored The Asylum
.

Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus: Has one of the greatest scenes in cinema history, but peaks too early. I liked the way they figured out how to bait the monsters. Two of the main characters (both biologists) have sex, and during their post-coital cuddles (on a cold metal lab floor) the biologists suddenly remember that animals also like sex, so they should use pheromones. By the time the titular showdown comes about you've already seen both cgi shots of the monsters used too many times, and the whole thing is hugely anti-climactic. Debbie Gibson should have done a song and dance number.

Sharknado: Written by someone that knows absolutely nothing about tornadoes or sharks. Or any kind of weather or sea life. Or cars. The whole thing is obviously filmed in L.A on a sunny day, which doesn't really fit in with the whole tornado thing, so it's filmed with a greyish filter which just makes the colours (instead of the environment) look washed out. On top of this, the rain is totally inconsistent, lashing down in one shot, dry as a bone in the corresponding reverse shot. But if you ignore these little technical quibbles, you have a completely audacious, over the top and highly enjoyable movie.

Sand Sharks: Stars Hulk Hogan's little girl and that guy what was in Stargate for a while. It seems someone actually bought a book on sharks and skimmed through it before writing this one. I thought this was a fairly solid goofy creature feature, but it could have done without all the meta commentary "This is like something out of a Roger Corman movie!"

Which brings us to Sharktopus, in which Roger Corman borrows his buddie's boats and makes a solid creature feature. Julia Robert's brother plays an emotionally detached business man who funds an experiment to splice sharks and octopodes and control them using computers because SCIENCE or something. Obviously they lose control, so it's up to Best of the Best's daughter and some guy who can't work his shirt buttons to stop the creature before it kills again. My favourite parts are the little pastiches about people who live in beach land who meet grizzly ends at the tentacles of our antagonist. Played a little drinking game where we had a drink for every gratuitous shot of a bikini babe. Quite pished by the end, and it was only a ninety-odd minute movie.

Sharktopus isn't really an Asylum movie but it does have sharks, Atlantic Rim doesn't technically have sharks, but it is an Asylum movie. It was my first taste of their famous mockbusters and it was hilarious. The CGI was laughable and the performances were...really hard to summarise. There was the whole spectrum of terrible b-movie performances, ranging from the gurning hammery of nuke-happy eye-patch Admiral, to the awkward earnestness of the guy who replaced Wesley Snipes in  Art of War III. The military uniforms came straight from the rent-a-cop store, and figuring out the sets was a game in itself. The briefing room was clearly just a class-room, the war room looked like a call centre, possibly a bank? And the prison cell looked like a cleaning store or something. SO much stock footage.

Overall, I quite enjoyed them. Not very taxing and don't require you to pay too much attention. In fact, maybe I only enjoyed them because I wasn't paying close attention.
You may quote me on that.

Frank


You've been eating Pro Bear's porridge, Pops. Once you find a bed which is just right for both of you to share, youz can feast your eyes on this:

http://mashable.com/2013/08/09/sharknado-2-the-second-one/