Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

The Green Berets is only a war film in the same way Dr Strangelove is a war film; in that it uses the backdrop of conflict to advance an ideological argument. I watch it every time it's on telly.

It's propaganda as most 20th century war films tend to be - but as Joe rightly points out, it was the wrong war.  Everyone and their auntie is used to banging on about the horrors of Vietnam, though I don't find any of the transparent jingoism and scant renationalisation of US containment policy in GB to be that much of a step beyond a film telling you Nazis are bad news.

[Ancient Otter]

Mongol (2007).  Absolutely splendid stuff - Conan with moustaches. Exactly how I like my mystical racial-myth hagiographies, dusty, well-paced, beautifully shot and with gorgeous women and even more gorgeous landscapes.  My favourite bit is where he's locked in a cage above the Tangrut capital for 5 or 6 years, and you just know it's only a matter of time until his gaolers are completely screwed.  Note to Snyder & Nolan re Man of Steel: [spoiler]even Genghis Bloody Khan doesn't kill the bad guy in the end[/spoiler].

Caught this by accident one evening on Film 4 and was pleasantly surprised. [spoiler]Love the bit at the end where it mentions Tangrut...[/spoiler]

[Ancient Otter]

Just watch Buried

Oh my...

You thought it was bad?

[Goaty]

Just watch Buried

Oh my...

You thought it was bad?

No, the ending left me speechless, it great film!

[Mabs]

The Deer Hunter is on ITV right now, this film never fails to bring a tear to my eye. A beautiful, heartbreaking film.

[Frank]

The Green Berets is only a war film in the same way Dr Strangelove is a war film; in that it uses the backdrop of conflict to advance an ideological argument. I watch it every time it's on telly.

It's propaganda as most 20th century war films tend to be - but as Joe rightly points out, it was the wrong war.  Everyone and their auntie is used to banging on about the horrors of Vietnam, though I don't find any of the transparent jingoism and scant renationalisation of US containment policy in GB to be that much of a step beyond a film telling you Nazis are bad news.

Sorry, the point buried inside my long-winded post was that The Green Berets is mostly (90-95%?) comprised of the kind of scenarios I described overleaf; the action and combat scenes don't amount to much more than an artillery bombardment and an oddly anomalous raid on an enemy chateau. I agree with your point that even transparent action vehicles disguised as war movies such as First Blood Part Two and The Dirty Dozen are pushing a particular point of view, but that's usually confined to something as trite as Rambo, John J's line "do we get to win this time?", before everyone gets down to the real business of wasting faceless enemy combatants with guilt-free abandon (90-95%?).

[JOE SOAP]

The Green Berets is only a war film in the same way Dr Strangelove is a war film; in that it uses the backdrop of conflict to advance an ideological argument. I watch it every time it's on telly.

If the US had been winning in Vietnam and they'd had a better control of the reportage; Green Berets might have been received a little differently by the general population. Rather than running in sync with the intellectual zeitgeist as the absurdist Strangelove (1964) did in post-JFK America; Green Berets, in the infamous year of '68, ironically must've seemed more Bizarro Worldish than Kubrick's danse macabre.

[Ancient Otter]

No, the ending left me speechless, it great film!

Yeah, top film. Well recommended everybody,  don't worry about Ryan Reynolds being in it!

[Goaty]

No, the ending left me speechless, it great film!

Yeah, top film. Well recommended everybody,  don't worry about Ryan Reynolds being in it!

Ryan really can acting in it!

[Buttonman]

More Reynolds not being shit in The Change-Up

[Charlie boy]

Despicable Me. Took me three (count them- three) attempts to watch this film because it was on last weekend, I had it on and my mate had come down to change clothes before she headed out to meet friends, so I had to stop watching to walk her into town. I then bought the film in Tescos for a couple of quid (utter bargain...) to see the rest of it and the same friend made me promise I wouldn't watch it without her so I put it on when she came down again, only for her boss to call and ask if she could come into work! Just finally watched it in its entirety and found it to be well worth the wait. I actually found it to be quite touching in parts but then it had me chuckling to myself the next moment. The minions and the three little girls could have so easily failed but they were great throughout. I'm actually quite excited about seeing the sequel next week now. Unfortunately, I have to see Man of Steel again with another friend next week but I'm pretty confident that Despicable Me 2 will act to remove the bad taste of a Snyder film from my eyes.

[TordelBack]

I'm actually quite excited about seeing the sequel next week now.

Me too - trying to find a slot for a family outing.  Despicable Me is ace, it's on at least once a week round here, and it never gets old: wonderfully simple story, great gags, nice designs, cute urchins.  Hope the sequel holds on to that formula.  It changed my mind about the utter worthlessness of Russell Brand, his performance was that good.

[Charlie boy]

It changed my mind about the utter worthlessness of Russell Brand, his performance was that good.

I'd forgotten all about seeing his name in the opening credits until I saw this post and after Googling it, I still can't believe Russel Brand was the voice of Dr Nefario! I've noticed the mentioned Bonus Features on the DVD include three short Minions movies and Gru's Rocket Builder Game. This really is a purchase that just keeps on giving.

[Professor Bear]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek were what turned me around on Russel Brand, as whether it was deliberate or not, he comes off as a rambling moron who does stupid things out of a juvenile need for attention, but is ultimately harmless.

Django Unchained.  Pretty good, and I usually hate films that set out to make pornography out of oppression.  Although Tarantino uses deliberately anachronistic camera techniques, I never realised that zooming in with a steadicam was actually anachronistic only because so many modern directors take the twat route of doing shakyshakyshakycam while zooming, and seeing it done "old school" here, it's actually very effective and dramatic and makes the character's reaction the center of attention rather than whatever CGI setpiece is happening off-camera, and there's an added bonus in that the action scenes are easy to follow and understand.  The music is fantastic - I love how characters have their own theme tunes in the best narcocorrido tradition - and the only blot would be that the n-word is so overused that it eventually became comical in a Blazing Saddles-type way.
But yeah, good film.

[Spikes]

Escape from New York. Starting to look its age now, or more probably it was such a tight/low bugdet, that it looks a bit creaky in places. But still, its prime Carpenter.
And Adrienne Barbeau was RED HOT then, wasnt she..