Last movie watched...

[HdE]

Point of (hopefully useful) trivia for those who are into their Total Recall (which seems to be getting a few mentions lately).

The TV series 'Total Recal 2070', which mashes Total Recall with Bladerunner, is currently available from legit sellers on Ebay for not much more than a tenner. Worth chcecking out!

Xenia Seeberg crops up somewhere, as I recall. Now that's GOTTA make it worthwhile, right?

[JamesC]

Silent Running.

Boring as hell!

[Jim_Campbell]

So... the Good Lady and I got Cineworld Unlimited Cards this year, which has rather bumped up our cinema attendance. So, briefly and roughly in order:

Safe: Statham vehicle. Nicely downbeat 70s thriller vibe to it; oddly mis-paced ending.

Snow White & The Huntsman: Visually impressive. Sundry dwarves, watchable turn by Hemsworth (wandering accent notwithstanding) and a bit of a show-stealer from Theron almost compensate for the personality-free void at the heart of the movie with whatserface as Snow White.

Lawless: Cracking film. Violent. Surprisingly funny. Shameless scenery-chewing from Guy Pearce made for a truly odious villain.

Expendables 2: Oddly, I liked the first film better because it played with a straighter face. The fourth-wall-breaking playing to the audience heavily spoiled this for me.

Dark Knight Rises: Probably doesn't stand up to repeated viewing, but as an 'event' movie it rattled past at a quick enough pace to (just about) skate over its plotholes and delivered enough thrills and spectacle for me to be satisfied at the end.

The Raid: 90 fat-free minutes of bone-crunching violence. There's a point near the end where I had to physically restrain myself from shouting at the screen: "Will somebody kill this son-of-a-bitch?!"

Avengers: Now equally placed with The Incredibles as "Best Superhero Movie Ever". Insert obligatory rant about Marvel's inability to grasp the significance of the success of recent Marvel movies that resemble nothing so much as the comics that Marvel simply doesn't make any more. Enormous, joyous fun.

Looper: Nowhere near as clever as it thought it was. If you're going to try and show off how intelligent your film is, it's probably best not to have brain-fuckingly stupid plotholes and nonsensical inconsistencies riddling the narrative.

Dredd 3D: Is there any point in my typing anything here? I liked it. A couple of duff notes (for me) eclipsed by Urban's pitch-perfect Dredd and Thirlby's revelatory performance as Anderson. A no-nonsense action movie that does justice (har!) to my favourite comic character and which is practically a feminist tract? Blimey.

Brave: Not sure why this got such lukewarm reviews. A major genre movie about a girl's relationship with her mother in which all the male characters are entirely superfluous? Add in a healthy amount of charm, a plot that wanders off in a slightly unexpected direction, some decent jokes and another bar-raising set of visuals from Pixar's animators... Well, I enjoyed it!

Skyfall: A bit schizophrenic on this one. Sorry to see the leaner, meaner aspects of Craig's Bond fall by the wayside, but kind of offset by the geeky thrill of some of the classic Bond elements being reintroduced/rebuilt. Definitely felt like I'd had my money's worth by the end.

Gremlins: Special one-off showing just before Christmas. Haven't seen it for years and I'd forgotten what gleefully nasty fun it was.

The Hobbit: didn't feel like a 2:45 film. Felt like 3hrs in the welcome company of old friends. Could it have been shorter? Yes, but it didn't feel overlong to me. Delighted to see the songs preserved, and the lighter tone seemed entirely appropriate given the different tone of the book from LotR.

Cheers!

Jim

[shaolin_monkey]

Silent Running.

Boring as hell!

Philistine! Sacrilege! Burn the unbeliever (but not using trees)!



Shame you don't like it. I thought it was a deeply moving film, but horses for courses.

[JamesC]

Silent Running.

Boring as hell!

Philistine! Sacrilege! Burn the unbeliever (but not using trees)!



Shame you don't like it. I thought it was a deeply moving film, but horses for courses.

I think it would have made a pretty good Outer Limits episode but the story wasn't strong enough to justify the running time.

[Michaelvk]

Took a chance and got 'Grabbers' off of iTunes.. "Sláinte.." Classic.. Like Tremors but moist. Very cool.

[TordelBack]

Avengers (Assemble).  Even better than the first time I watched it, an incredibly skilful and consistently entertaining movie that actually gives The Incredibles a run for its money and similarly manages to make superheroes both likeable and heroic.

Kickass.  I don't really get this, despite having enjoyed the comic.  It's well made, well acted and well choreographed, but it seems to completely desert its central premise early on and turn into just another overly violent superhero thing.  Ah well.

2012.  Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.  On stop, please, please stop. You just can't intercut a Universal Studios themepark ride with tear-jerking Sophie's Choice scenes of families torn apart by the end of the world and then play it as Mars Attacks and expect anyone to give a crap.  I've never seen a man look as embarrassed as John Cusack looks in this as he tries and fails to look interested in what's happening on the green screens and charmless central-casting family that surround him.  Holy crap, what a senseless waste.

Thank Grud for Jools Holland, Father Ted and cheap booze.

[maryanddavid]

Watched hugo tonight, the oldest two were up with us for the new year, great film, really enjoyed it. Its al about the story that makes a good film, and this has a it. Kids liked it too, Brendan didnt like to robot though, he has no problem with General Grievous and a bit of violence though!

[DeFuzzed]

Amazing Spiderman, 2012 - Surprisingly, I liked it. I didn't think I would and there were bits that were off for me, like some strained wise-cracking from Spidey, but with the dad's secret research and the clever use of the webbing, I was pretty much won over. Garfield still not my ideal Peter but he's not bad, does the whole spastic dork thing very naturally.

Looper, 2012 - Agree it's overrated. Still an entertaining movie. And the thing with JGL's face was very well done. Proper creepy little boy, like the new Cameron Bright.

Skyfall, 2012 - Gorgeous looking film. Liked Q better on second viewing. Loved the baddie and loved Bond, a great third outing.

Battleship, 2012 - Forgettable, dragged on. I thought Kitsch was fine in John Carter but his character here was very hard to feel for.

Taken 2, 2012 - Taken, in Istanbul. Prefer the first, although you could tell more money was thrown at this one.

[Ancient Otter]

Watched The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave last night. Haven't gone near the bundles of extras with it yet. Maybe a small bit over-hyped but I liked it and it made me want to pick a few French history books so that has to be a good thing, right?

[Spikes]

Silent Running.

Boring as hell!

Philistine! Sacrilege! Burn the unbeliever (but not using trees)!



Shame you don't like it. I thought it was a deeply moving film, but horses for courses.

I think it would have made a pretty good Outer Limits episode but the story wasn't strong enough to justify the running time.

Silent Running is a great film, but very much of its time. Snagged the Blu-Ray recently, and not having seen it in a good while, i did think it had dated somewhat. Visually it has a fantstic look, and one thats been copied quite a bit. Check out Moon, for example.

[radiator]

I watched Never Let Me Go, DNA's prior film to DREDD.

I liked it a lot, but it kinda left me a little unsatisfied. A gorgeous looking film, an outstanding cast (including Dredd's Domhnall Gleeson) and a compelling concept that is never quite explored as much as I wanted it to be. Perhaps I'm missing the point like those idiots who slag off Children of Men because the infertility crisis is never explained - it just IS and you have to go along with it - but I just kept wondering how the central conceit of the film worked, why characters behaved the way they did etc, and it rather spoiled the film for me.

Definitely worth a watch though.

[Frank]

Watched The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave last night. Haven't gone near the bundles of extras with it yet. Maybe a small bit over-hyped but I liked it and it made me want to pick a few French history books so that has to be a good thing, right?

Ken Russell's sensibility is an acquired taste, I suppose, but the cinematography and the boy Jarman's production design mean there's a visual feast to keep your dander up during the longueurs. Understood as the version of Nemesis which Mills and O'Neill would have made if they'd published it as their follow-up to Marshal Law - rather than as an adventure strip in a comic for wee boys in 1980 - it makes a lot of sense. Scenes of nun orgies, the figurative rape of Christ, and ossuary-wanking were tailor made for the Savage Pencil of Buster's most illustrious office boy.

I've seen myself through the dull bits in a few Clint and John Wayne films by superimposing a judge's helmet onto their heads, but you don't even need to imagine the Termite fashions in some of the scenes in this.

[Ancient Otter]

Understood as the version of Nemesis which Mills and O'Neill would have made if they'd published it as their follow-up to Marshal Law - rather than as an adventure strip in a comic for wee boys in 1980 - it makes a lot of sense.

Nemesis Book Seven looks like it uses as a big reference too - check out The Spanish Torquemada and Father Mignon

[Spikes]

Watched The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave last night. Haven't gone near the bundles of extras with it yet.

Ive yet to see this film, though the various Documentaries and reviews, along with the film's chequered past, have piqued my interest.
And while i agree that Russell's films are an acquired taste it would appear, given the subject matter, that the more OTT elements are perhaps justified on this occasion.

Is this the BFI produced DVD Ancient Otter? If so, ive given a mind to snagging this - and it does appear to come with a quite nice print of the film, plus a decent set of extras.

Warner Bros (who leased the film to the BFI for this release) lose big points though for not allowing the BFI to give it a Blu-Ray release, or allow the recently-ish found censored scenes to be either; re-instated back into the film - though annoyingly this 'full cut' has had a DVD release in other regions, albeit with a vastly inferior print quality, or be shown - in full, as a seperate feature. Though im led to believe you do see glimpses of these on one of the extras?