Last movie watched...

[Mabs]

After the sad news of the death of Lewis Collins I started watching Who Dares Wins on youtube. It's a piece of of right wing propaganda trash, equally as ridiculous as Rambo II and Red Dawn. My left wing socialist principles should be offended by all of those films yet I can't help enjoying all of them. WDW was never going to win any awards but it is one of those films that is so bad it's good.

the climactic raid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5OquYTgQBk) on the bad guys who have taken hostages is such a daft section that it never fails to raise a smile. Two men hanging from ropes attached to the underside of a helicopter? Lewis Collins wearing a shirt a size too small so that it shows of his muscles while running? This film had it all.

Don't worry Colin, you're not the only Leftie with a penchant for right-wing fodder! 

It's funny because a lot of my idols growing up were staunch right wingers, such as Clint Eastwood and Arnie Swarzenneger. In the case of Eastwood, some of his films could be considered Left orientated, such as Million Dollar Baby and even his masterful Flags & Letters double bill. It's all a bit mystifying if you ask me. But regardless of his views, he still remains a legend for me.

[Colin Zeal]

One thing I somehow forgot in talking about how daft Who Dares Wins is, is the utterly bonkers plot. CND decide they're going to set off a nuclear bomb to show the world how bad nuclear would be?

[TordelBack]

CND decide they're going to set off a nuclear bomb to show the world how bad nuclear would be?

You never can trust those dirty peaceniks.

[pictsy]

How is it that I've never heard of Who Dares Wins?

[Spikes]

After the sad news of the death of Lewis Collins I started watching Who Dares Wins on youtube. 

Its good, isn't it. That and Wild Geese (both set in motion, and produced by Euan Lloyd I believe), are both firm faves.

[pictsy]

Dredd

Only the second time I have watched it.

As a stand alone film it's entertaining, concise and slick.  What you want from a science fiction action movie.  The basic plot works well and to it's advantage.

As a comic adaptation it's OK.  There are enough nods to the comic to keep me relatively happy.  The first time I viewed it I didn't like Anderson.  I loved early Anderson with all her attitude, humour and warmth - a real antithesis to Dredd.  I really enjoyed Anderson's soul searching, trip to Mars and return to the big Meg.  So I have a soft spot for Judge Anderson.  As much as Karl Urban's Dredd is a convincing Dredd, Olivia Thirlby's Anderson was not a convincing Anderson for me.  I have reconciled this point to a degree and on second viewing I enjoyed the movie Anderson in the context of the film (which does work - in the context of the film).

This film only had to do one thing to get a thumbs up from me.  Be better than the '95 Stallone shite.  With that in mind, my standards were set really low so when I first saw Dredd it was a really pleasant surprise and I honestly think it is better on a second viewing.  It is soooo much better than that other film.

One scene I really did like was when the Judges escaped briefly on the skater rink balcony and Anderson looks out over the night time MC1 skyline.  There was just something about it that resonated with me.

This was very much like on of those self contained stories of life in the big Meg.  In the comic it is those stories that keep things fresh.  I think the film did well not to pick any of the big moments in Dredd's history to base the film around.  I hope if a potential sequel becomes a reality this is kept in mind. 

[radiator]

One of the great disappointments about there not being a sequel is that we won't get to see the relationship between Dredd and Anderson develop. I could imagine her becoming a lot more confident and strident, and standing up to Dredd a lot more.

I definitely agree about it getting better on repeat viewings, and I think this goes some way to explain the rather muted reception the film got on its release (lots of three star type reviews and a notable lack of mainstream buzz) and the high esteem it's held in now, a year after release. I feel like as people have discovered it and revisited it on DVD it's getting a lot more of the recognition that it deserves as something of a minor classic in the genre. I think a lot of people were expecting this massive, ott cgi epic (like every other blockbuster nowadays), and were underwhelmed on first viewing, but are now appreciating it for how tight, focused and understated it is.

[pictsy]

Agreed.

I am now not so bothered about whether we get a Dredd sequel or not.  We have a pretty good Dredd film that works as a standalone film.  Sequels can often disappoint.

[Hawkmumbler]

After the sad news of the death of Lewis Collins I started watching Who Dares Wins on youtube. 

Its good, isn't it. That and Wild Geese (both set in motion, and produced by Euan Lloyd I believe), are both firm faves.

Yes, they are great fun 'British' alternatives the the favourites of American action cinema.

Been going through a new box set recently, The Short Films of Jan Svankmajor. Some cracking little films in here, Darkness light Darkness, Meat Love and The Jabberwocky being some of my favourites.

[HdE]

Sat and watched 'Cloud Atlas' last night. Had been dubious about it, seeing as it seemed at a distance to be a cod rip off of 'The Fountain'.

Surprisingly, it wasn't crap. But it also wasn't what I'd term 'particularly good'. It's definitely overlong, though, and not even one tenth as clever as it thinks it is.

[Ghost MacRoth]

So true.  And that's the cut down version!

[HdE]

The old man decided he wanted to watch a bit more of it today, and as I was doing stuff ont he computer in the same room, I found myself taking it in a bit more.

I've softened to it a bit. But not by much. There's definitely stuff you pick up on repeat viewing, but it's nothing mind-blowing.

[pictsy]

Equilibrium

A film with a long list of flaws.  It's watchable and entertaining to a degree.  Another one of those films that is grave disappointment for not living up to it's potential.  A super cop in a society without emotion where feeling is a crime and the punishment is severe.  It starts to present it's world in an interesting way but never bothers to go further than skin deep.  The story is pretty messy as well.

[ThryllSeekyr]

The Wolverine, which is one of those films.  Juvenile and ponderous and seemingly made for people ashamed to be watching a superhero film, this is still quite unambiguously one of those thanks to superpowers upon which the plot hangs, supervillains that literally hiss and spit and kill people at random, a plot to steal the hero's powers, and a showdown at the end where the hero fights a bigger version of themselves right out of the Robocop 2 Good Sequel-makin' handbook.  It's not very interesting.

Red Sonja - shit.  I admit I don't know much about the character, but she's supposed to be some kind of warrior maiden who owes nothing to men as far as I can tell, yet here she's not just the student of male warriors - despite there being an order of warrior nuns in the film to which she has close ties - but she has a rape backstory as well, the latter of which has literally nothing at all to contribute to the story beyond compounding some already well-dodgy sexual politics.
If you ignore the direction, the story and the acting - haha oh God the acting! - there's some admirable old-school fantasy trappings in here to enjoy like giant skeleton bridges, lonely skull-shaped temples to forgotten gods sitting in the middle of nowhere and climactic sword battles in crumbling citadels.
Still shit, though.  I wish it wasn't, but it is.

I watched this other day, but didn't pay much attention. I thought the young Asian-Prince and his protector good comedy relief.

PACIFIC RIM

Was just awful, and not worth the $30.00 AUD I payed for the DVD

I just thought the idea of needing two mind-linked Pilots directing the movements of these giant robot Jeagers very lame and then the fighting moves weren't nothing special. The monsters, I forget what they were called exactly. Some sort of giant Shark/Crustacen hybrid turned out be a big let down just like the rest of the movie. I just signed with exasperation when I saw [spoiler]Ron's Perlman's Character slice his way out of corpse of one of the infant giant monsters. Like he could never be killed.[/spoiler]. I'm only glad I didn't fork out nearly $50.00 AUD to see this in HD/3D at the movies.

[Ghost MacRoth]

Byzantium

Nicely performed and shot, but a tad ....dry.  Think they where going for down to earth and real, but came of as po faced and dull in many respects.  On the plus side, Gemma Arterton was hot, Johnny Lee Miller was an utter cad, and Saoirse Ronan was very good, if again, a tad on the dull side.  Worth a watch, but nowt spectacular.