Last movie watched...

[Michael Knight]

'They Live' as Roddy Piper said before he died he thought he just made a film at the time. The way society going.....

[Arkwright99]

I saw The Girl With All The Gifts the other night.  I can't talk too much about it without spoiling it, as the first part of the film very much relies on the 'what the fuck is going on here?' element.  If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.

I have read the book, and seen the film.  I think overall the film is an excellent interpretation of the book, plus being a superb film in it's own right.  Paced well, surprisingly good acting from Gemma Arterton, who I never previously thought was much good, great effects, and a cracking story.  I particularly liked the ending.

Saw TGWATG tonight; have to say I'm in two minds about it. On the plus side, I like Gemma Arterton, didn't realise it was Mike Carey who'd written it and the effects - particularly London - are extremely good for what is a low budget film (very similar to Dredd come to think of it). On the minus side, it's a genre [spoiler]zombie apocalypse[/spoiler] I don't really care for, 'The Girl' annoyed the crap out of me, characters do stupid things for no other reason that it advances the plot, and the final act is derivative of equal parts [spoiler]I Am Legend, Escape from New York and EM Forster's A Handful of Dust[/spoiler]. In the final analysis, I doubt I'd watch it again or buy the DVD\Bluray, and wouldn't rate it more than 3 out of 5, if I'm generous, primarily for the scenic effects but, if you like the genre, it might well be more up your street.

[Theblazeuk]

Finally got around to watching Good Will Hunting. It's alright. Could never live up to the hype and was never convinced of Will Hunting's savant powers (He's maths genius but also literary and history and insightful - I mean I wouldn't mind but there are bits of the script that point out that he's not a true polymath), but it's pretty good. The best part was all the properly over the top Bostonian.

[dweezil2]

I saw The Girl With All The Gifts the other night.  I can't talk too much about it without spoiling it, as the first part of the film very much relies on the 'what the fuck is going on here?' element.  If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.

I have read the book, and seen the film.  I think overall the film is an excellent interpretation of the book, plus being a superb film in it's own right.  Paced well, surprisingly good acting from Gemma Arterton, who I never previously thought was much good, great effects, and a cracking story.  I particularly liked the ending.

Saw TGWATG tonight; have to say I'm in two minds about it. On the plus side, I like Gemma Arterton, didn't realise it was Mike Carey who'd written it and the effects - particularly London - are extremely good for what is a low budget film (very similar to Dredd come to think of it). On the minus side, it's a genre [spoiler]zombie apocalypse[/spoiler] I don't really care for, 'The Girl' annoyed the crap out of me, characters do stupid things for no other reason that it advances the plot, and the final act is derivative of equal parts [spoiler]I Am Legend, Escape from New York and EM Forster's A Handful of Dust[/spoiler]. In the final analysis, I doubt I'd watch it again or buy the DVD\Bluray, and wouldn't rate it more than 3 out of 5, if I'm generous, primarily for the scenic effects but, if you like the genre, it might well be more up your street.

I tend to agree with you in large parts.

The Zombie (or hungries) genre is a little stale and overfamiliar at this juncture, for me I'm afraid.

I really, really wanted to like it, but after an excellent opening and first half hour, the tension seemed to sag and, as stated, many of the characters make illogical and nonsensical decisions, which rather spoilt the credibility of the film.
The performances were fine, as were the effects on such a meagre budget, but I'm not sure the film adds anything new to the genre and it doesn't inprove on 28 Days Later or even 28 Weeks Later in my opinion.

I will recommend that movie goers support it though as any British genre picture is to be celebrated and makes a very welcome change to all the awful rom-coms and second rate gangster films we churn out!

[JamesC]

Sicario

You know when everyone raves about a film and then you watch it and can't see what all the fuss is about? This is what happened last night.

To be honest I found it quite boring. I didn't really engage with the characters and the plot wasn't very interesting to me.
One thing I learnt was that if I ever get involved in a complicated drug money laundering operation, I won't use highly distinctive and instantly recognisable multicoloured elastic bands, I'll just use brown ones.

[By-Jove]

Magnificent Seven!

Terrible film and remake. Just like most of the modern westerns I've seen this side of 2000. It did have it's moments though. I like the way Chris Pratt's Gambler took out the brothers who tried to lure him into the mine shaft to kill him secretly. As if that might have such problem in those days. That card trick of his & the dynamite trick later on when I thought they had him outgunned and that was it.

The young Indian looked a little too clean cut  to be believable. Jut comparing to what I have seen of the pure ones in films of the past and I guess I could also say I just don't have a clue. He might have had real Indian blood too, but he could also just as well have been a settler's child just pretending.

The rest of this film just seemed like it was being coloured by numbers. It just reminded me how much I miss earlier westerns and some before the introduction of techni-colour. Those spaghetti westerns that had me believing that's how they all should be.

I believe the hero's, were really the villains and the bad guy was really their foil. Until, they were finished with him. It could make more sense if he wasn't seen to be shooting aman in the street and the sheriff on his payroll. That  is to say, that nobody is really good guy when.

I compared this film to the original through Wikipedia. Even though, I have only a vivid recollection of seeing the first one. They definitely had different characters and maybe a completely different story. If is correct, then why bother calling this remake? Aside from the seven leading men that only offer a shallow meaning to film's title.

[Spikes]

Psychomania (1973) - Which has recently received a pretty decent Blu-ray release from the BFI.
The film itself is rather cheesy, and bizarre, nonsense, but still fun.

And for the first time last night; Species, along with a bit of it's sequel.
Boy, was they ever a load of crap.

[Dandontdare]

Macbeth -n the Fassbender/Cottilard version from last year. Very good, probably the grimmest and bloodiest version I've seen

[Theblazeuk]

Green Room really, really good. Haven't been so tense in a movie for a long, long time. Felt exhausted afterwards.

[von Boom]

Macbeth The Scottish Play -n the Fassbender/Cottilard version from last year. Very good, probably the grimmest and bloodiest version I've seen

My favourite Shakespeare. I've seen... that play a couple of dozen times in various forms, but I still haven't gotten to this version. I'll have to give it a look.

[dweezil2]

Green Room really, really good. Haven't been so tense in a movie for a long, long time. Felt exhausted afterwards.

Yeah Green Room was great!

Watched Blood Father last night, another film set to revive the movie career of Mel Gibson.

Hackneyed and plot-hole ridden most definitely with pretty unremarkable script and direction, especially after being spoilt by the magnificent Hell Or High Water but Gibson gives it his all, with a powerhouse performance and there is a fantastically creepy cameo from Michael Parks. William H. Macy, in an underwritten role, sadly fails to really register.

All in all an average flick, aside from Gibson's performance and a genuinely tense and exciting climax, but worth a watch and it's great to see Gibson back infront of the camera playing to his strengths.

[radiator]

Swiss Army Man.

Hmmm. A film I admired rather than loved. Certainly very creative, with a novel, original concept, but it didn't quite work for me. Felt like an experimental short or music video concept stretched to feature length, or (less charitably) a student film that got out of control. Much as I tried to remain engaged, my attention frequently began to wander during the quieter moments.

2.5/5

[Professor Bear]

Suicide Squad - fuckin ell that was terrible.  I was led to believe that it was an entertaining mess, but it's not even that, it's just a bunch of seemingly unconnected ideas about what this kind of film should contain, shot mostly at night and with no story engine, just a bunch of characters thrown at a random disaster of the government's own making "because".
It also arguably doesn't help that these are the absolute worst versions of these characters ever put on a screen, with the deeply irritating Margot Robbie making me never want to lay eyes on anything featuring Harley Quinn ever again.  Will Smith is also hopelessly miscast, and yet paradoxically the only reason you even remotely buy into his character's redemptive arc.
Utter shit.

The Terminator - been years since I watched it and all I remembered were the bloated, pointless sequels, but the high-def remaster of this was ace.  Were Arnie's meat and two veg always visible in previous versions of the movie?  Well they are now.

Deepwater Horizon - not sure what I make of this.  It's pretty dull for the first hour or so and then it turns a human tragedy into disaster porn.  Memorable for Kurt Russell and John Malkovich trying to play regular joes and failing spectacularly.  Every time Russell spoke, it's clearly Kurt Russell not even trying to disguise how awesome he is.  The disaster stuff is well-realised, but it's shot as eye candy rather than as something frightening.

[TordelBack]

Utter shit.

Knowing the Prof's proclivity for winkling fleshy tastiness from the least appealing of shells, this really is a damning verdict.

[radiator]

Heard nothing but positives about Green Room. It's at the top of my to-see list. Will see it just as soon as I can catch my girlfriend when she's in the mood for a violent thriller about neo nazis... 

It was filmed where we live, maybe I could use that angle to sell it?