Last movie watched...

[shaolin_monkey]

I wionder how many boxes of Lego this anti-capitalist propaganda movie will sell? 

[Spaceghost]

I wionder how many boxes of Lego this anti-capitalist propaganda movie will sell? 

You can either join us in smashing the evil capitalist structures (made of Lego) and help us to begin constructing a new, fairer society (made of Lego) or it will be up against the wall (made of Lego) with you.

[Hawkmumbler]

Happiness is a bag of LEGO. True happiness is two bags of LEGO.

[Recrewt]

Man of Steel

At the weekend I saw MoS for the second time (first was in the cinema).  I know this got mixed reviews on here but originally I did not think it too bad so was interested to see how it would hold up on a repeat viewing. 

Henry Cavill certainly looks like Superman to me - the guy must have spent about two years in the gym and looks like a bodybuilder.  In terms of his acting though, I am still not sure - clearly the film wanted to go down the troubled origin story route but this means our Henry spends a lot of the film looking glum and not saying much.  This also ties into one of the big things that the movie got wrong - he doesn't really convey that he cares about humans and that is something that Christopher Reeve did very well. 

Russell Crowe was great as Jor-El and I think Michael Shannon did a good job with Zod.  Unfortunately it seems than more Russel led to less Kevin Costner so I can see why some people thought his character was off.  I didn't, but he could have done with more screen time to convey this.

I would say the first 2/3rds of the movie are pretty good and its just towards the end where things go awry.  Anyone seeing a Superman movie is going to expect some impressive effects but the film doesn't seem to balance this out very well.  Buildings crashing around might look great and we know Superman is busy at the time but without showing him saving some people leads to the conclusion that he does not care.  I don't think thats the case and I also don't believe that Superman leading Zod out of Metropolis to a desert would have been as interesting.  We need to see damage but they clearly went over the top on that.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie and it is certainly better than the boring Superman Returns.  I think some folks have rose-tinted views of the original Christopher Reeve movies - they were not bad but also they had their own flaws.  As I said before though, Christopher Reeve really nailed the caring about humans part of the character and this is probably why people can forgive the various murders that he carried out in his movies. 

[Tiplodocus]

RESISTANCE
Lovefilm bills this as a drama/thriller starring Michael Sheen about an alternate history where D-Day failed and this miracuolously gave the Germans enough resources to invade Britain.

it is not thrilling, it is not dramatic and it does not "star" Michael Sheen.

Slow and dull with two good but very muted central performances make it hard to engage at all.

[Tiplodocus]

THE SOUND OF THUNDER
Time meddling shenanigans starring Edward Burns based on a Ray Bradbury story wot I haven't read.
Ludicrous but possesses a kind of momentum that kept me going to the illogical end.

Ok, I'll have to accept that time changes occur in ripples that leave you aware of what has changed in history because that's how this film wants it to work. But how can Travis go back and warn Jemima "we couldn't afford Gemma Arterton" Rooper when  every hunting party, hunting the same allosaurus has never seen each other?

Plus wasn't Big Al and his kin extinct by 65 million years ago?

Plus ape/lizard hybrids? Is that even possible? (Willing to be educated).

Budget was apparently cut from $80m to $30m which explains the poor special effects but surely the story and script were all worked out by then?

[TordelBack]

Plus wasn't Big Al and his kin extinct by 65 million years ago?

Allosaurus had been extinct for longer before 65MYA than they have been since.

[Mabs]

Thanks Mabs, it's iPad with Procreate app

Oh no! I was afraid you'd say iPad! 

But the results speak for themselves. I'm more of an Android person so might go for something in that range.

[TordelBack]

Trust me, you WILL enjoy this film.

Yeah, we all loved it here.  In fact it's been a topic of conversation ever since, each of us loving a different bit.  As discussed upthread, I felt the last quarter was weaker than the rest, but it was ultimately very satisfying: The Matrix meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, animated in Lego.  Could have been a disaster, but it really isn't.


EDIT: One of my favourite aspects was how crappy some of the incidental voicing was (Dumbledore and Gandalf, for example, or the Micromanagers), which sounded exactly like squeaky kids' VO on their Lego videos on YouTube.  That's pretty clever.

[Hawkmumbler]

Dallas Buyers Club. A stupendously good film. Well acted, well cast, amazing cinematography.

[HdE]

Man of Steel

At the weekend I saw MoS for the second time (first was in the cinema).  I know this got mixed reviews on here but originally I did not think it too bad so was interested to see how it would hold up on a repeat viewing. 

Henry Cavill certainly looks like Superman to me - the guy must have spent about two years in the gym and looks like a bodybuilder.  In terms of his acting though, I am still not sure - clearly the film wanted to go down the troubled origin story route but this means our Henry spends a lot of the film looking glum and not saying much.  This also ties into one of the big things that the movie got wrong - he doesn't really convey that he cares about humans and that is something that Christopher Reeve did very well. 

Good post!

I look kindly on the movie, seeingas it provided something I'd been curious to ee for some time - a Superman movie with a harder edge and less nicey-nicey shot all the way through it. I've found myself watching it several times, as family usually want to see it when they visit.

I don't think it's a bad movie at all. There's some too-close-to-corny-for-comfort dialogue, and a few scenes defy any kind of logic, but otherwise I think it's pretty neat.

Completely agree with your  analysis of Cavill as Superman, though. I think he's pretty good in the role, but something about his performance doesn't quite convince.

(And, I'll admit, I've re-watched the movie a couple of time for Antje Traue alone. Hurr!)

[ZenArcade]

TordelBack the timespans over the Jurassic/Cretaceous period are staggering.

[paddykafka]

Conan the Barbarian (The Arnie Version). It still stands up really well - even after all these years - and I can't imagine anyone else for the part. One of the best soundtracks ever. But I'm still left with one question: Just what the hell was that Wheel of Pain thingy all about? Sprogs are chained to a device that goes around and around in a circle for years and years and yet never seemed to produce anything whatsoever for their labour. No water, no grain, no gold, nada, zilch, nothing at all. If you put High Vis jackets on the guards watching the kids, then you could imagine it as a sort of Medieval Government / City Council work project, where nothing of any value results from them - but they keep people in employment and thus the dole figures down.

[Tiplodocus]

You can tell I've had a cold as I have had time to lie on the sofa and watch rubbish.

QUATERMASS 2
Very, very far from as good and scary as I remembered.  But it is over 40 years since I saw it. Bloody hell, Brian Donlevy is rubbish.  I just love the idea of British Space Programme being run by William Franklyn from a shed. And has an impromptu dance scene because, well, films used to have dances in them.

PARADOX SOLDIERS
It's Back to the Future but on the Eastern Front during WWII. OK, closer to Biggles.  Enjoyably daft - though I felt a bit uncomfortable (not sure why) when the [spoiler]hero tries to link up with the Grand-daughter of the women he loved (and saved the child of) back in the past[/spoiler]. It's a sequel of some sorts - though Lovefilm isn't telling what the original was. 

[Professor Bear]

If you put High Vis jackets on the guards watching the kids, then you could imagine it as a sort of Medieval Government / City Council work project, where nothing of any value results from them - but they keep people in employment and thus the dole figures down.

You haven't been keeping up - Conan was a slave, and Jobseeker placements aren't slavery.  We know this because the European court of human rights was going to define it as slavery until the Tories changed the wording of the Jobseeker's Agreement before a verdict could be recorded so that now it technically doesn't qualify as slavery even though the requirements of the document are exactly the same.  And before anyone tries to be a smarty-pants and say "but that only affects future Jobseekers, surely, and the ones signed to the old agreements are still technically victims of a crime against humanity?" they made the new wording of the Agreement retroactive so that their crimes from the past didn't happen.  No, I don't understand that bit, either.
Also the Wheel Of Pain is unlike work placements because they fed Conan and gave him a bed, so technically he was being compensated for his efforts.  Also, Conan learned things while a slave and pursuing educational qualifications while on work placements has been disallowed for a while now - you are literally not allowed to learn anything on a work placement anymore.

In a nutshell, the Wheel Of Pain is nothing like work placement.  It is better.


About Time - Richard Curtis writes and directs this sort-of time travel fable, possibly encouraged by his time on Doctor Who, and it's not bad at all.  The time travel is merely a McGuffin for some emo nonsense, but it's nowhere near as hysterical and overblown to the point you swing in the opposite emotional direction and want people to fall into a thresher like on Who, though it does occasionally over-egg things a smidge.
The biggest problem for a potential audience may be the film's middle-class setting that seems more akin to watching aliens on Star Trek - everyone is a lawyer or a playwright or retired at 50 to their cliffside mansion to quote Dickens at their not-a-care-in-the-world kids, the closest we get to a working class person being someone who reads novels for a living, and even then this person is an immigrant, just to further hammer home the idea that there is literally no-one in Britain but middle class Hugh Grant impersonators so they have to import people so that there's someone to be charmed by mumbling private-school charm.