Last movie watched...

[Hawkmumbler]

Tjreads was, and still is, utterly terrifying.

[NapalmKev]

Captain America: Winter Soldier.

I had high hopes for this after stellar reviews from many quarters, but on the whole I was unimpressed.

The Acting I can't fault, all the main cast were good but I feel the whole film was let down by the Plot.

SPOILERS - the build up was good with CA and Fury, and the way SHIELD was in danger of becoming a tool for fascism. But the culmination of Plot threads (Hydra being in control the Whole time) seemed a bit daft/crap even by Comic/Superhero standards.

On a more positive note, I thought it better than the first film.


Cheers

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

A coupla low budget efforts:

Roger Corman's Fantastic Four

It's available on youtube. Apparently some obscure production company somehow got the rights to The Fantastic Four, and had to make a movie or else they would lose them. So they gave Roger Corman a million bucks, and this is what he came up with. If you're willing to overlook the shonky special effects (Playstaion 1 standard CGI) and poorly choreographed fights (one of the fights is literally the screen just rotating 360^o then all the baddies fall down), it's actually a pretty fun movie. Does a much better job of characterising the FF than either of the big budget Hollywood efforts. Dr. Doom was a bit weird though. I think the actor thought since he was wearing a big metal mask, he should try to act with his hands as much as possible, a choice which veers wildly between silly and creepy.


Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Good God I don't know where to start with this one. It should be shown to every budding director or film school student. It is a perfect example of how to get everything wrong when making a movie. The first 10 minutes is just shots of a guy driving around in his car. We don't know who he is, where he is going or even where he has come from. Why is it in the movie? My best guess would be because they rented that Mustang, and by God, they were going to use as much footage of it as they could to get their money's worth. It was a nice Mustang to be fair.

The sound editing is shocking. They clearly knew about ADR, but only used it a handful of times. The rest of the dialogue has hissing/traffic/wind/general background noise, which alters between the shot/reverse shots when 2 characters are talking. Almost every shot is boring too. Dull static framing with nothing interesting happening on the screen, and most of the time it's just two people having awkward unnatural conversations.

The plot is...I don't know....bullshit. I thought I was going to watch a movie about birdies going mental and attacking people, but for the first hour I thought I had got the wrong movie. It was more like a rom-com, but with neither rom nor com. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the stock footage. They (what were their names? Fucked if I know!)  go on a date to restaurant, we are shown stock footage of a restaurant, and then they're sitting in an entirely different restaurant. The movie tries to misdirect you by having the same background music playing in the 2 different restaurants.

But yes, the plot. Birds (eventually) go crazy and start attacking people because.....global warming/climate change? At three different points of the movie, three different scientist characters deliver three huge exposition on why these birds be crazy, and none of them make any sense. They go on at length, expounding the evils of man, how we've poisoned and raped mother Earth and her natural resources. Taken at face value, you'd think this movie was trying to convey some sorta environmental message, but I don't think so. I think there's something sinister going on here. The premise is so completely ridiculous I have a hard time believing the people that made it care, or indeed know anything about the environment or nature. I think this movie was made by anti-climate change science-deniers as false flag propaganda.

I won't even start on the dodgy special effects, they are dodgy, but they're the most competent thing in this movie, which isn't really saying a lot.

This movie also has its own bespoke Nu-metal soundtrack. I shit you not.

It is terribly made, badly acted, badly edited and poorly executed shite. But by God it's entertaining.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard or so long when watching a movie.

[Dandontdare]

A coupla low budget efforts:

Roger Corman's Fantastic Four

It's available on youtube. Apparently some obscure production company somehow got the rights to The Fantastic Four, and had to make a movie or else they would lose them. So they gave Roger Corman a million bucks, and this is what he came up with. If you're willing to overlook the shonky special effects (Playstaion 1 standard CGI) and poorly choreographed fights (one of the fights is literally the screen just rotating 360^o then all the baddies fall down), it's actually a pretty fun movie. Does a much better job of characterising the FF than either of the big budget Hollywood efforts. Dr. Doom was a bit weird though. I think the actor thought since he was wearing a big metal mask, he should try to act with his hands as much as possible, a choice which veers wildly between silly and creepy.

I love this version! It's been a while since I saw it, but doesn't the Torch at one point out-fly a laser beam, beating it across the Atlantic? And Reed, for obvious reasons, doesn't do a huge amount of stretching!

[Frank]

Sorry to drag down the tone, but I just watched The Artist on iplayer. It's funny, steals from the best, and understands exactly what it is that makes moving pictures such a joy. Plus, I'm a little bit in love with Berenice Bejo.

[Hawkmumbler]

Bambi Meets Godzilla:

...........

WTF DID I JUST WATCH? 

[HdE]

I finally got to see The Raid today, after friends loanedme their copy, and...

...

I did not enjoy it.

Lots of people raved to me about this movie, but I actually found it pretty dull. Sure, the fight scenes have a lot of energy, but overall I just couldn't get excited about any of it.

Also, I've said it here before, but I'm REALLY getting weary of hearing the c-word being tossed into movies ever more frequently. I find it vulgar. And, on that subject, this is another movie that wins the 'everybody sounds brainless because they swear so often' award.

Really glad I hadn't spent money on this!

[Theblazeuk]

You're Next

Nice to see the tables turned. Particularly the last one. Though the[spoiler] Night of the Living Dead [/spoiler]ending was frustrating in the extreme.

[GrinningChimera]

Doom


I can think of another 4 letter word that would have been a more appropriate title.

I'm not sure how much potential there is in a movie based on an fps. The action scenes were pretty good, as were the special effects, but the writing! Even our own (I say that as a Kiwi and a Dredd fan) Karl Urban is disappointing (although this could be put down to the script writing more than anything)

If you do feel the need to watch it, I suggest watching the the sound off. It would be a lot more enjoyable!

[Theblazeuk]

That bit where its all in first person was nice though. Shame about the rest.

[SIP]

I just saw doom again recently too.

I think it could have been a decent dumb sci fi actioner but its just way too long and loses all pace in the middle. If 20 minutes had been cut from the middle of the film it would have been a whole lot better. Thought Karl urban and Dwayne were fine in it.......just got alittle boring.

Don't get me wrong, its rubbish, but it could have been a lot more fun.

[SmallBlueThing]

Nightbreed (Mr Barker, 1990, German DVD edition titled "Cabal")

How do I love Nightbreed, let me count the ways... No, actually, lets not. Safe to say, I'd not seen this in two decades, and tonight watched it with the boys. Eldest called it his "favourite film ever" and has not stopped talking about it since it stopped. I knew he'd respond to the 'monsters as heroes' theme, and he did in spades. Doubly impressed that Midian is in Canada, so now desperately wants to go visit granny, so he can go find it. Youngest thought it was "very scary, but very awesome"- both absolutely horrified it has no sequel.

As for me, I thought it was just as fresh and lovely as when I first saw it all those years ago. Yes, the same bits stick out as being a bit crap (the matt-painted graveyard, the obvious studio-bound nature of said graveyard, Boone's oh-so-cheaply shot reanimation and that slow zoom through a broken window, some of the lesser makeup effects and the dodgy opticals that dog most Clive Barker films of this period- most notably the deaths of the cenobites in the first Hellraiser and the climactic battle in Rawhead Rex- oh, and the truly awful performance of David Cronenberg as Dr Dekker) but it's still more than capable of living up to its pre-release hype as "the Star Wars of monster movies". I have no idea why it's so hard to get hold of over here, and why I had to buy a German dodgy DVD-ROM copy off ebay (which was at least in proper widescreen, has the trailer as an extra and is in English with no subtitles), but the news they are finally releasing Barker's preferred edit later this year (or next) is music to my horror-ears. One can only hope we eventually get a sequel, or a remake, or a tv series, and that Barker at last gets his arse into gear and writes a new book.

Several million out of ten.

SBT

[judda fett]

Love Nightbreed, again haven't seen it for aeons and now have a hankering to track it down on dvd. Also was I believe the first film Chris Cunningham worked on (90's pseudo-Biz Dredd art and Mean Machine/ Hammerstein creator from the '94 film).

[Fungus]

Sunshine

Managed about half the film. Then gave up. Deleted from hard disk.
Can't be sure it was the film's fault as I was recuperating from a hospital op. Hoped it would distract me, but despite early signs of promise it bored the stomm out of me after about an hour.
Life too short to stare at films that go nowhere.

[SIP]

You missed out, I think sunshine is an excellent film and certainly cannot be accused of going nowhere!