Last movie watched...

[SmallBlueThing]

Frankenstein's Army

I'd been waiting a year for this. I'll cut to the chase: one of the very worst films it's ever been my displeasure to sit through. Utter, utter, worthless bollocks- shitty acting, shitty designs that probably looked good on the page of whatever comic artist-wanabee dreamed them up, boring shitty gore sequences that were done better thirty years ago when we were all thirteen, and a hateful, boring, shitty premise that actually made me increasingly angry as it went along. A found-footage Blair Witch-style movie set in World War Two, and made "using a cine camera". And yes, he does lug an enormous sack of film around with him. Russian soldiers meet Frankenstein's son- who is experimenting on people, fusing them to machinery in an attempt to make robotised supersoldiers. It's an excuse for bad makeups, people with metal claws and drills for noses, and other boring, shitty bollocks. Made by imbeciles. Hateful. Fuck it.

SBT

[Recrewt]

John Carter

OK, I admit I was put off watching this for some time due to all the rubbish reviews and the uninspiring trailers.  Then someone told me it wasn't that bad and I decided to give it a go and I must say it was a lot better than I was expecting.

I got the blu-ray and on a 40" TV this is one of the most stunning films that I have seen for a while - the effects are really fantastic and the scenary and ships are beautiful.  The story is not bad at all and the whole thing was a lot more mature than I was expecting.

It is not without some flaws and the main issue for me was with some of the casting.  I have never really bought Dominic West as a baddie and Taylor Kitsch didn't really excel in the leading role.  This film is often compared to Avatar and I do wonder how it would have been with Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang in the main roles.

Still, a very good film where the time breezed by and I couldn't believe it when it got to the end.  Don't believe the negative reviews and give it a go.

[Hawkmumbler]

Frankenstein's Army

I'd been waiting a year for this. I'll cut to the chase: one of the very worst films it's ever been my displeasure to sit through. Utter, utter, worthless bollocks- shitty acting, shitty designs that probably looked good on the page of whatever comic artist-wanabee dreamed them up, boring shitty gore sequences that were done better thirty years ago when we were all thirteen, and a hateful, boring, shitty premise that actually made me increasingly angry as it went along. A found-footage Blair Witch-style movie set in World War Two, and made "using a cine camera". And yes, he does lug an enormous sack of film around with him. Russian soldiers meet Frankenstein's son- who is experimenting on people, fusing them to machinery in an attempt to make robotised supersoldiers. It's an excuse for bad makeups, people with metal claws and drills for noses, and other boring, shitty bollocks. Made by imbeciles. Hateful. Fuck it.

SBT

You just listed all the reasons why I thought it worked. It knows it's a piece of shit. It doesn't try to be anything else. It's not like Machete or Any of those other Roderiguez shit fests that try to capture the fun of rental shop gore extravoganzas. Instead it's just a completely self aware, boring, drawn out, dreary but ultimately harmless and disposable waste of and hour and a half. Don't see the reason to hate it, but agree that there is no reason to like it. Still beats any and most remakes of classic horror films mind.

[Dark Jimbo]

Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome, thereby completing the hat-trick (this was the only one of the films I'd not seen before). It didn't quite hit the heights of Road Warrior (a hard ask, anyway) but it was a great film all round. The diesel-punk aesthetic is ace, the narrative hardly has an ounce of fat on its bones, the pacing holds the interest throughout and it looks as though it's had a fair bit of budget thrown at it for once. Bartertown is a great location, a fully-realised society, with some great characters in it, and the mythology of the tribal kids is really well done ('attacked by a gang called Turbulence' particularly made me laugh). And Tina Turner was not only surprisingly not terrible, but actually pretty good.
There's no real criticisms from me, except that it all feels a little too light-hearted in the third act - when it should feel most dramatic - and at times almost seems to be pitching for a PG-type audience. I can imagine that's maybe why it sometimes comes in for some flak sometimes. Recommended though.

[Mabs]

John Carter

OK, I admit I was put off watching this for some time due to all the rubbish reviews and the uninspiring trailers.  Then someone told me it wasn't that bad and I decided to give it a go and I must say it was a lot better than I was expecting.

I got the blu-ray and on a 40" TV this is one of the most stunning films that I have seen for a while - the effects are really fantastic and the scenary and ships are beautiful.  The story is not bad at all and the whole thing was a lot more mature than I was expecting.

It is not without some flaws and the main issue for me was with some of the casting.  I have never really bought Dominic West as a baddie and Taylor Kitsch didn't really excel in the leading role.  This film is often compared to Avatar and I do wonder how it would have been with Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang in the main roles.

Still, a very good film where the time breezed by and I couldn't believe it when it got to the end.  Don't believe the negative reviews and give it a go.

Nice to hear you enjoyed it Recrewt. I feel John Carter is a hugely underrated film, I too ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I watched it with my 5 year old boy and he also loved it, although I do agree, it is quite unflinching in places hence why it got the 12 rating. But there's a lot to enjoy; one of criticsms was that the Mars depicted in the film wasn't too red enough, but it didn't detract my enjoyment of the film. I also loved Doug Chiang's design work on the flying ships and the travelling city. They were really streamline and organic looking (i.e insect-ish) which I loved. Great ending too.

[radiator]

I've always been put off John Carter - it seems almost as divisive as Prometheus - some people really seem to hate it.

I must admit I found the art direction really unappealing in the trailers.

[Recrewt]

Mars looks good in John Carter and I don't think any of the trailers do it justice.  You just see bits and bobs but in the film it all links together perfectly.

I have heard that Mars itself is red to us but on the surface would be more of a butterscotch colour so perhaps they were not too far off with that.  I don't think they can complain about being accurate though as I don't believe we could breathe on the surface of mars, so you win some you lose some!

[Professor Bear]

I'm surprised at the news that John Carter has been polorising, I found it far too vanilla to be that.  It is a competently made film, just unexceptional and not in any way ambitious.

[pictsy]

After seeing this film being mentioned here and vaguely remembering seeing a trailer for it I decided to do some research.  Actually, the books look far more interesting than the film does.

[Mabs]

After seeing this film being mentioned here and vaguely remembering seeing a trailer for it I decided to do some research.  Actually, the books look far more interesting than the film does.

Obviously they're the original stories, and the film in comparison will seem poor. But, I thought it was quite a good adaption. The film is based more on A Princess of Mars than the first book.

I'm dying to check out Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard's comic adaption for A Princess of Mars; the artwork looks spectacular.

[TordelBack]

Predators.  I have no idea why, as a fan of the first two, I stayed watching this to the end, but I just did.  Poor, weak, unimaginative and predictable fare.  Worst of all, for a film which has suspension of disbelief built into the structure of its franchise this was just plain implausible: Bill Paxton's hat from 2 was more believable, and better fun.

[Proteus4]

Watched World War Z last night. It felt really rushed and hectic. It was like the first few days of 28 Days Later (a far superior film) and the plot wasn't very engaging. Still, despite everything that was wrong with it I found myself feeling a little bit anxious during the opening 30 mins and cared about the central characters. Then it got all globe trotting and silly with brad having to visit Israel and Wales and wherever else. The plane stuff made no sense and then miraculously [spoiler]he and his one handed Israeli sidekick were the only ones to walk away from a huge crash.[/spoiler] Then doctor who appeared.

I can't say I was disappointed as I'd heard it was shit, but it certainly wasn't great.

[shaolin_monkey]

I watched Flash Gordon while eating my food this evening. It has been bloody years since I last saw it.

I love it! The battles towards the end, and build up of tension during the wedding, remain incredible exciting.  Wassisface playing The Chief Judge Ming the Merciless is just bloody brilliant, as is BRIAN BLESSED, the totally hammy over-the-top scene stealer. 

Add to that the fantastic soundtrack by Queen, and you just can't help but adore its cheesy camp awesomeness.

[pictsy]

... and you just can't help but adore its cheesy camp awesomeness.

Next up... Barbarella!!!!

[radiator]

I watched The Kings of Summer last night.

Really enjoyable indie-schmindie fare, though perhaps a little tonally uneven. It's the debut film by a writer/director team, and while beautifully shot it does sometimes show in the occasionally awkward script. However I did really appreciate a twist in the narrative at the halfway point that, to me, felt authentic and made things much more interesting.

Great support from Parks & Recreations' Nick Offerman and always nice to see Community's Alison Brie though she's barely in this movie. The lead, a newcomer called Nick Robinson, is great - he's just been cast Jurassic Park 4 which bodes well for that film. There's also a surprise cameo that fans of the Harmontown podcast will appreciate.

Overall I think that the similarly-themed coming of age flick from the summer The Way Way Back was the better, if more formulaic, film, though I liked them both.

Minor rant: had to pay £12 on the PSN store to watch the bloody thing as that seemed like the only possible way for me to watch it on my PS3. It wasn't available to rent for some mystery reason, and wasn't on Blinkbox either as that site only seems to have very mainstream films. Someone needs to make a good pay-per-view streaming rental site!