Last movie watched...

[JOE SOAP]

Mike Myers gotta eat.

[TordelBack]

I think that's a matter of opinion.

[Roger Godpleton]

The Legend of Korra is a good show.

[Roger Godpleton]

Godfather 3. What an awful movie.

[Bat King]

(marvel) Avengers Assemble.

I assembled with my son & two of my chums.  Late showing last night (son is 18 but we've snook him in to the 18 only late showings for three years now... well not now as we don't need to sneak him in...

We laughed muchly at the jokes.

We all appreciated how well the solo acts were used.

All in all it was a top notch experience.

[SmallBlueThing]

MARVEL AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

See dedicated thread I guess, but safe to say I was wiping away tears of sheer joy throughout. Really want to go back and see it again- this time in 2D, as I found it a wee bit dark (for the first time with 3D, although others claim this to be a problem constantly)

THE WICKER TREE

I had no great expectations that Robin Hardy would pull magic out of his pagan pants with his very belated sort-of-sequel, The Wicker Tree- but by crikey he did! As lopsided and celebratory of its absences as the first one, and as reliant on music, comedy, weirdness, mystery and late-coming horror. It's hard to gush about something so new- we'll let it bed-in for a few years, shall we, before we proclaim it a classic, but it's the Wicker Sequel I wanted to see. Nicolas Cage and Neil LaBute- Do you see now? DO YOU?

I should add that, like the original, many will utterly hate it and be slack-jawed at the possibility that anyone could like this piece of shoddy crap- and everyone else will claim to hate it until they meet someone else who liked it for the first time, at which point they will feel relieved and slightly less dirty, and realise they loved it. It's sort of The Wicker Man meets Murder She Wrote meets Songs of Praise meets a Confessions film meets a bit of 28 Days Later, but with some of the really important scenes removed on purpose to make you work harder. Oh, and the end is pure Amicus. Madness, utter madness and strangeness. Christopher Lee even appears in flashback via a painting- probably accompanied by a wibbly wobbly time travel noise. Sheer brilliance from beginning to end.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL

Meh. Didn't do much for me, I'm afraid. Loud, brash and with Tom Cruise pretending that jumping off buildings holds an element of danger for him- though insurance would suggest otherwise. Much the same as all the other Mission Impossibles, I would think (I've seen one of them- it was the same as this one) and also to most other big budget Hollywood blockbusters. But at least Avengers had the benefit of characters I like. I find it impossible to enjoy a Tom Cruise film, based on Tom Cruise being a repulsive mentalist- made tolerable here only by laughing at his ridiculous new hair.

SBT

[Ghastly McNasty]

Dodging Avengers reviews as i'm going on Friday. Seems to be the last movie lots have seen.

Just watched In Time. Awful film. *Insert amusing quip about wanting to get my time back* interesting premise but made no sense when explored beyond the surface. Style over substance. Weak acting, even from Cillian Murphy who is usually ace, he barely seemed bothered. Thumbs down.

[SmallBlueThing]

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN

And still we surge on through the Universals. This one has everything: Lon Chaney (now having dropped the 'Jnr') back as Lawrence Talbot, Bela Lugosi as the Frankenstein Monster, an utterly mesmerising and wonderful first ten minutes when grave robbers break into the Talbot family tomb on a full moon to steal gold rings and money from the body of the deceased Chaney (in a very real sense- D'oh!) and come acropper, some great miniatures, singing and folk dancing in a big musical number and a much-delayed but entertaining MONSTER FIGHT, at the end. That there is the dictionary definition of 'everything', in my book.

You could guess the story: Chaney wakes up in his tomb in deepest Wales, and finds he's now immortal, but gets put in a hospital in Cardiff, where he wolfs-out at night and murders people. He escapes and goes off to find the gypsy woman whose son bit him in the first film, with a view to discovering a cure or a way to kill himself. She takes pity on him and decides to take him to to Dr Frankenstein- in Bavaria or somewhere like that- by horse and cart. Wales, to Frankenstein's village, in a horse and cart. Yes. They get there, and of course the doctor is dead- having been killed in Bride. Larry tries to find the doctor's diary; which he is sure will have the secrets to life and death in it, but finds the Monster instead, so releases it from its icy tomb.

Here, Lugosi looks a bit weird, stumbling around with his arms outstretched, groping frantically (and so giving rise to a zillion Frankenstein impressions ever since)... until you realise he's playing it as if the creature were blind. Then it makes sense why Talbot has to grab him by the arm to calm him, and guide him around. Then it doesn't make sense any more, as the creature appears to regain his sight a bit, but still walks the same way. Oh well.

The daughter of Frankenstein is introduced, there is a fiesta, Chaney is a heartbreaking stillpoint of dreadful sadness in the middle of all this (presumed) colour and life, and you really feel sorry for him. It's easy to laugh at these old films now- but one thing watching them has reinforced to me is the acting accomplishment of the likes of Chaney and Karloff. When Chaney freaks out at the singing and dancing man, it hits you right here. Anyway, yadda yadda, it all ends up back at the castle, where the monsters fight and then [spoiler]supposedly die[/spoiler]... until they are found at the start of House of Frankenstein.

Not my favourite by a long chalk- I love Chaney's Wolf Man with all my heart, but he's not in any way scary. Not now I'm all grown up anyway. And Lugosi's stab at the creature is buggered by either a terrible editing decision or poor direction, so ends up looking remarkably daft- especially in comparison to Karloff's incredible performance a decade earlier. But it all looks great, and the musical sequence was appreciated. I give it three hunchbacks out of five, or two-thirds of a complete graveyard. My boys (for it is they for whom wife and I are supposedly watching these) were divided; youngest thought it was "just okay" and eldest said "it was brilliant".

Tomorrow we jump into colour and Hammer's DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS.

SBT

[DeFuzzed]

Tintin

Surprisingly good. I loved the comics so I was wary, despite Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's involvement, hence why I waited so long until I watched it.

The motion capture is amazing, and the whole visuals of it was just lovely to watch. Didn't get dizzy or eye-weary at all, and I'm pretty susceptible to all that when it comes to effects. The tone, colours, voices, it all was like the comic was directly translated to film, fantastic.

And Snowy was the star, as always, and rightly so

Also, fast-moving fun. The boys loved it (11 and younger), much more than they liked Avengers. How's that for surprising? Although I think that was due to the humour going over their heads a bit in the Avengers (I laughed, they said what? what?) and maybe because they love new and Tintin was very new to them.

But could have done with less of the twins, despite my love of Pegg and Frost.

[Satanist]

Albert Nobbs - Except he doesnt because he's Glenn Close dressed as a man so she can work in a 19th century irish hotel. No hilarity ensues.

Its a day later and I still dont understand how I ended up watching this but it was alright if not quite my bag.

[JamesC]

Albert Nobbs - Except he doesnt because he's Glenn Close dressed as a man so she can work in a 19th century irish hotel. No hilarity ensues.

Its a day later and I still dont understand how I ended up watching this but it was alright if not quite my bag.

This sounds like the worst premise for a film I've ever heard.

[Mudcrab]

Also not much much of a stretch for Glenn Close to look like a man. Ever since the film where she kills the rabbit I've hated her with a passion. Always been told I'd love The Shield, but I refuse to watch anything that bitch is in! Completely irrational I know, but that was a performance that stuck with me. I really hated that film. Can't even remember what it was called now, so please don't tell me!

Leonard Nimoy is Spock.
Glenn Close is an evil manipulative pychotic cunt.

Oh and the last film I watched was Cap'n 'merca. Yep, was good, far better than any previous ones and was good that it didn't have half of it in the present day.

[Van Dom]

The Gate.

Wow. Havent seen this in....must be 20 years easy. Really couldn't remember a thing about it. Watched it with the kids this afternoon and well thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a bit scarier than I expected and there were a couple of times where the kids were genuinely freaked out and I had to consider turning it off...but, of course, as soonas  I suggested that they were like "No, daddy, its fine!" A few of the jump parts were real genuine jumps, got a good few screams! It was great fun and its a thoroughly enjoyable and well made movie, with more substance and ingenuity to it than most modern flicks of its kind. Compared to Super 8 - which barely registered with the kids (and me) - after this was over they couldn't stop talking about it for hours, discussing the best bits, the scariest bits, the funniest bits. We honestly havent enjoyed a film as much as a family in.....ever I think!

Well worth a re-watch if you havent seen this in years.

[SmallBlueThing]

Havent seen The Gate since vhs rental release! Seem to remember i wasnt overly keen at the time- but that probably had more to do with expectations attached to its 15 cert; which in the mid to late eighties got translated as 'horror film without gore' and therefore was doomed before we pressed play. It would be interesting ti see what time has done to it. And The Keep- another written-off possible gem.

Hmmm....

SBT

[Third Estate Ned]

Den of Geek did a retrospective on The Keep a while back where they said it isn't available anywhere on Bluray or DVD because of legal issues surrounding Tangerine Dream's soundtrack. Here it is:

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/856378/will_we_ever_see_the_keep_on_bluray.html

You can stream it from Netflix, if you want to see it badly.