Last movie watched...

[ThryllSeekyr]

My entire life so far feels like I movie I'm only allowed to watch in part and never interact with.

[Tiplodocus]

My entire life so far feels like I movie I'm only allowed to watch in part and never interact with.

Given that you have the ability to write, edit and direct your life, then you are the one that can change the script to be more fun. It is all in your hands. (even the bits set in France).

[Dandontdare]

but not the flashback sequences.

[TordelBack]

but not the flashback sequences.

Unless you're George Lucas.

[Modern Panther]

Birdman (or the unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Caught this earlier today, on the one day my local cinema is showing it.  Michael Keaton, a man who shot to worldwide fame playing a superhero and who drifted into cinematic obscurity after refusing a sequel, plays a man who shot to fame playing a superhero and who later drifted into obscurity after refusing a sequel.  It also stars Edward Norton, an actor often accused of taking himself too seriously, playing an actor who takes himself much too seriously.

...which makes it sound like an extended episode of Episodes.  But it's not.  It's brilliant.  It's an examination of the vagaries of fame and celebrity, of love and ambition, of mental illness and talent.  It's beautifully shot, pretty much as one long continuous shot, with a single camera tracking through a maze of corridors and dressing rooms, drifting unseen in front of mirrors or through impossible gaps in railings.  The use of sound and music are surprising and original.  The performances, all up close and unflinching, are powerful and likely to win a whole bunch of awards.

Or I thought so.  The lady next to me thought her mobile phone was much more worthy of her time. 

[Famous Mortimer]

The Magic Crystal (1986)

One of the more bonkers Hong Kong martial-arts-heist-sci-fi-comedy-spy-thriller-kung-fu-farce films you're likely to see this month. Seriously, it's absolutely bonkers, and is available in its entirety on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyEtD1xuYFM

[ming]

The Magic Crystal (1986)

Cynthia Rothrock!  Nice.

[Famous Mortimer]

The Magic Crystal (1986)

Cynthia Rothrock!  Nice.

I've been on a bit of a Rothrock kick recently, starting with "No Retreat, No Surrender 2" and moving on to the "Tiger Claws" films (surely some of the worst movies in history). I really ought to give the "China O'Brien" movies a bash at some point.

[ming]

I think the only film I have on the shelf with La Rothrock in it is Millionaire's Express; worth checking out as it features a huge number of familiar faces from mid-80s HK film...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millionaires_Express


I could watch this kind of thing all day!

[Goaty]

You're Next in netflix; bloody good!

[JamesC]

Real Steel. Love it!

[Buttonman]

The Friends of Eddie Coyle - bleak 1970's crime drama with Robert Mitchum as the titular snitch - good stuff.

Runner Runner - Poker based film with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake - OK but very familiar stuff - seduced into a world - smells a rat - turns the tables on enigmatic boss. Both leads lacking charisma (go figure!) and nothing to really recommend it.

[I, Cosh]

THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS.

More like THE MAN WITH THE SHITTY FISTS.

RZA takes bad acting to a whole new place. It looks gorgeous though.

I don't think I've ever wanted to like a film more. It's heart is so clearly in the right place but the fight scenes mostly fail to connect.

Another film with a similar West meets East pedigree which I think you'd be the sort of fellow to appreciate is Ted "Theodore" Logan's directorial debut Man of Tai Chi, which I watched the other night.

Tiger Chen is the eponymous hero out to show that Tai Chi can be used as a proper martial art. The main story combines a decent twist on the illicit underground fighting tournament format and a tug of war between Tiger's loyalty to his white-robed master and the Faustian bargain offered by Reeves' black-suited villain.

Tiger handles the fight scenes with aplomb - rivals like Iko Uwais from out of The Raid help - and the dramatic tension works better than average for this sort of film. Reeves turn as the villain is very enjoyable when he's simply being evil or dispatching an incompentent minion. The one big problem is that there has to be a big throwdown between the two and that ends up being the weakest part of the film.   

Keanu seems to have called in some favours from his old Matrix buddies to produce fairly game take on a Hong Kong action movie which, I assume deliberately, preserves a lot of the little elements you'd expect from a vintage Jackie Chan outing: combination of Chinese and English dialogue, very chaste love interest, talented fighter stuck with a menial job, Western villain. All with a refreshingly straight face.

[Keef Monkey]

Inside - Didn't know anything about this movie, a friend brought it over for a horror night. It's part of that wave of really quite extreme French horror that Martyrs belongs to, and it's similarly unpleasant. In a lot of ways I thought it was more full-on and was quite surprised that some sequences had made it through to a release. Some of the digital effects are quite hokey, which maybe helped its case in that regard, but the physical stuff looks largely convincing and it has some of the most unpleasant deaths and just jet-black ideas I've seen in a while.

Love horror, and it's interesting to see something go for such a relentlessly unpleasant tone, but unlike Martyrs (which I thought had some interesting ideas about faith) the object here seemed to just be to push things as nasty as possible. Can't say I enjoyed it (I like my horror films to be either scary or funny and this is neither), but if you want something very intense then this'll do.

[Beeks]

I watched 'After Earth' last night

God it's so bad..why has a civilisation who have conquered black hole space travel forgotten about guns?!

Those blind creatures with claws must be laughing their socks off

And the evolution of earth seems to have forgotten Darwenian principles and evolved creatures in a few months

Also..why the oxygen discs? When all the other air breathing animals cope perfectly well..and so do fires apparently

I love my sci-fi and am willing to suspend a little reality but come on!!