Last movie watched...

[Dandontdare]

H3 is a whole other topic. Unrelated to the Michael Myers story, it's either a brilliant, beautifully told horror film in its own right, or a waste of time, depending on your point of view. I love it.

Me too. I'm not a fan of slasher movies but this was unlike any other horror movie I'd seen, it's just so off the wall. That TV commercial music haunted me! And  I loved the whole big sci-fi concept behind it, it was a very Dr Who-ish story I always thought.

[mogzilla]

finally got round to watching the hurt locker today ,,,ok, but not mind blowing like black hawk down.


if i dont go into manchester tomorrow i may watch "the american"

[M.I.K.]

Me too. I'm not a fan of slasher movies but this was unlike any other horror movie I'd seen, it's just so off the wall. That TV commercial music haunted me! And  I loved the whole big sci-fi concept behind it, it was a very Dr Who-ish story I always thought.

The first draft of the script was by Nigel (Quatermass) Kneale. He asked for his name to be taken off the film after the producers wanted more gory bits.

[I, Cosh]

if i dont go into manchester tomorrow i may watch "the american"

You're probably best going into Manchester. Slow, but not in a good way.

[Roger Godpleton]

Cosh is wrong. You should watch The American just for the epic titttaaaayyyyysssss.

[Spaceghost]

this was unlike any other horror movie I'd seen, it's just so off the wall. That TV commercial music haunted me!

All this week I've been singing that to my kids.

All together now;

'Happy happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, happy happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!'

[mogzilla]

Cosh is wrong. You should watch The American just for the epic titttaaaayyyyysssss.

roger's well thought out balanced argument wins....besides i cant be arsed going out!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Just this minute finished watching The Mist by Frank Darabont (from a Stephen King novella) and I bloody loved it. I heard about this from the movie show on Radio 5 the other night with Dave Aldridge. He said it had a great ending, so I followed his advice (he's never let me down yet) and my God he wasn't wrong. That was just the type of ending that I love. I won't say what happens  at the end, as that would spoil the whole film.

Small town America, religion, military, people turning against each other, great acting and excellent effects made this highly enjoyable. The hero of the story goes to the towns main store with his son and while he's there a strange mist rolls into town. The problem is, inside the mist are numerous creatures that are killing the locals. The people inside the shop barricade themselves in but an extremely religious woman quickly divides the group.

As the story unfolds we find out how the creatures have managed to get here, horrible consequences for the person who is held responsible due to that. The interplay between the characters is excellent, especially when the shit hits the fan and it does many a time in and around the store.

I won't rabbit on about it too much, as to reveal scenes would mean that anyone wanting to watch it would lose the tension that is built up.

8/10

[Zarjazzer]

The Mist is fab!

I saw Max Payne and knowing only vaguely about it's gaming origins i found it nicely shot in a frozen looking Noo Yawk, but the plot seemed to meander about. Enjoyable in many bits but odd.

[Keef Monkey]

Love The Mist, it's up there with the few King adaptations that have really done the business for me. Tom Jane is brilliant in it too, as he is in most things to be fair (Hollywood, why you no give him more roles?!)

Watched Monsters last night and really liked it. It's a very different movie to what I expected, more of a quiet road movie/drama/romance/social commentary with the creatures themselves being on the outside of the real action and more of a catalyst than anything else. Really good movie, with some haunting moments that lingered with me through the night.

Also watched John Carpenter's The Ward quite recently after the blu-ray arrived (I rarely do the cinema thing now unless it's a special occasion) and enjoyed it too. It's not up there with his best, and the actual style of horror and scares wasn't particularly Carpenter I thought. By that I mean it felt there were a lot of concessions to modern mainstream horror, some cheap cat-in-cupboard-esque jump scares and gore, which has never struck me as his style. What I've always thought he excels at is the slow build creeping dread and tension style of horror, and there were enough flashes of that old Carpenter that I still liked it a lot. It's not up there with his very best, but it's a worthy addition to the Carpenter collection, and worked for me more than Ghosts of Mars or Vampires. His Masters Of Horror episodes show he's still got the horror chops so I'm hoping this is the start of a real comeback for him.

My only real gripe with the movie? I'll spoiler it in case it colours anyone's viewing of it, but [spoiler]there's a twist in the tale which while works great in the context of the movie, is stolen wholesale from another film. Like I say, works fine for The Ward, but if you've seen the movie in question you might feel a little cheated by the last act revelations.[/spoiler]

[Spaceghost]

Took the wife and kids to see Tintin at the weekend in glorious 3D.

Despite my initial reservations about the choice of motion-capture CGI and the creepy looking semi-realistic graphic style, I was really blown away. The story was a rip-roaring, globe-trotting adventure with action packed fights, chases and escapes galore.

The set pieces are wonderfully inventive with [spoiler]a high speed motorbike chase through the streets of Morroco and a 'sword' fight using two massive cranes[/spoiler] being stand-outs.

The characters are really well designed and animated and despite the highly stylised look, they feel human and realistic. Captain Haddock in particular is marvellous and provides many of the moments of humour.

The only criticism I can find is that [spoiler]the ending seems a bit sudden and leaves the story hanging, leading very obviously into the sequel[/spoiler].

Everyone enjoyed it although my 4 year old had trouble following the plot. My 7 year old thought it was brilliant and expressed an interest in reading the comics.

I loved it so much that, despite never having read a single Tintin book, I went out to Waterstones and bought the complete Tintin box-set for £45. If the film makers wanted to instill people with a love of the character and cause them to seek out the source material, they did their job.

[TordelBack]

Similar reactions to TinTin at TordelTowers.  I brought my senior sprog to see it as an end-of-mid-term treat, and we both enjoyed it no end.  At 5 years, it was his first 3D flick and it was a distracting joy to watch him trying to catch the various gubbins that projected into the negative space over his head, exactly as I did at Jaws 3D nearly 30 years ago.  I OTOH received a brain-splitting headache from the combo of contacts and specs, 'cos I'm old now, so very, very old. 

I thought it was an enormously faithful adaptation (even where it mashes-up elements from several books, necessitated by the understandable decision to focus on the 10th(?) book first), with some nice additions and very little that didn't fit.  Of particular interest was how well Hergé's designs translated into backdrops and outlines for some terrific action sequences.  The opening device of [spoiler]a Hergé stand-in as a marketplace portrait painter[/spoiler] shouldn't have worked but it really did.  I also loved the visual references to the titles and maguffins from other volumes, which gave me plenty to keep my brain busy and away from nit-picking.

Snowy's [spoiler]car-chasing [/spoiler]early in the flick was splendid, as was the whole Bagharr sequence, but the huge energy of the [spoiler]flashback pirate battle[/spoiler] was the highpoint for me, easily eclipsing the later Pirates of the Caribbean films and whetting my appetite for Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists.  The Boy's favourite bit was [spoiler]the tank blundering about carrying the facade of a hotel with it[/spoiler], and I can't fault him there.  Haddock in a pink dress also had him laughing out loud, so job done there.

I didn't think Thompson and Thomson (or was it Thomson and Thompson?) were used particularly well, since their scenes seemed to be wordy distractions from the main plot (no real harm done, but I could see my boy shifting in his seat as they bantered on), but then they don't really shine in the earlier books either.  Buttonman's recent diet was shown to be unnecessary, as the CGI versions are so plump that no-one could have mistaken him even at his most corpulent.  Maybe his recent well-photographed visit to the heavyweight eating championships in US the are an acknowledgement of this?

As with Lee's eldest, my boy expressed an interest in reading the comics, which I heartily endorse, having failed to find any Thor comics that I could readily match to his enthusiasm for that most brilliant of superhero movies. 

The mo-cap quasi-relastic style?  Honestly didn't notice it after the first five minutes, too distracted by the beautiful backgrounds and period detail.  I think it worked by remaining faithfully cartoony in its exaggerations, albeit hyper-detailed ones, rather than striving for Beowulf-style photorealism.

Lastly, Bell and Serkis were surprisingly excellent in their roles.  Serkis in particular is making quite a play for cinematic polymath of the 21st C. 

[Professor Bear]

having failed to find any Thor comics that I could readily match to his enthusiasm for that most brilliant of superhero movies.

Thor: Ages of Thunder, Thor/Power Pack, Avengers Disassembled: Thor and Thor: Vikings are enjoyable, completely accessible comics with a different take on the character in each, though Vikings is a Max title because of the zombie-smashing and gore, so vet first, and Disassembled is the character's swansong, full of mythic resonance and brings great closure to a 40-year run as a Marvel mainstay - it really does feel like this is the end of a decades-long story.  If you can get them in bargain bins, Dan Jurgens' Thor ongoing with John Romita Jr is a fantastic run of stories that shares a great deal with the films in terms of tone, scope, and massive fights, and there's also a great bit in it where Thor's diplomatic skills are employed to explain to a small child why Jesus probably does exist even though he's never turned up at a Marvel crossover to chip in with Zeus and Odin and all the other real gods.  I'd always viewed Jurgens as a journeyman writer, but he absolutely kills on the title and it just feels... epic.

[Buddy]

Tintin.

Though it was great.

[TordelBack]

Thor: Ages of Thunder, Thor/Power Pack, Avengers Disassembled: Thor and Thor: Vikings are enjoyable,

Many thanks for the pointers there, Prof.  I don't have any of those to hand, as I was really going on the county library's holdings which are pretty limited Thor-wise, but I'll keep a fresh eye out.  I wonder if I have Thor/Power Pack boxed-up somewhere, as I was a big Power Pack fan many years ago.  In fact, I wonder if I should go ahead and disinter the whole lot to read with the Boy - there's an all-ages comic to be proud of. 

The boy is Norse-myth-obsessed at the moment, and a recent DVD viewing of the superb Thor movie was the icing on the cake, opening up the idea of Thor et al in the modern day, as well as the idea of multiple interpretations of the same myths and characters, which is all good.

On another note, I have been illegally keeping up with the recent run of Journey into Mystery, which has been absolutely fantastic, but it's a very Thor-free book.  But I'm dragging the thread off-topic now...