Last movie watched...

[Kerrin]

"Super", last night and "The Guard" the night before. "Super", was magnificently demented with Ellen Page particularly good as the psycho sidekick. No dumbing down on the violence either, when you get whacked in the head with a pipe wrench you get properly f*cked up. Awesome cameo from Nathan Fillion of "Firefly" fame.

"The Guard", on the other hand, was a bit of a let down. Maybe I just expected too much from the trailer which had a lot of the best bits in it.

Thoroughly enjoyed the new Sherlock movie though which was the last thing I saw at the cinema. Ritchie got rather style over substancey in the fight scenes but other than that it was very good. Downey Jr and Law are a very enjoyable double act.

[von Boom]

Watched The Odessa File last night. A very well acted Nazi hunter film from 1974. Jon Voight's German accent leaves something to be desired, but he played the part well in other respects. The film holds up extremely well even 38 years later. And Mary Tamm is gorgeous.

[radiator]

Our Idiot Brother.

Normally a sucker for Paul Rudd's films but on this evidence he is coasting massively. His films always seem to have an easy, improvised charm to them but this just felt half-baked, and lazy in the extreme. The script (if there even was one) is at least three drafts away from being anything worth filming. Not funny enough to be a comedy, nor interesting enough to be a drama.

Yet another mediocre film for Steve Coogan to add to his CV.

[Keef Monkey]

Bah, sorry to hear that Radiator, I had that pegged as one to watch given how watchable Rudd can be. Nothing worse than when a script is quite obviously a set-up for some improv and chemistry to kick off and it just doesn't happen.

[radiator]

Nothing worse than when a script is quite obviously a set-up for some improv and chemistry to kick off and it just doesn't happen.

That's exactly what I found OIB to be. A very likable (and let's face it - incredibly attractive) cast (seriously, there are a staggering number of very beautiful women in this film), but no chemistry between them, and nothing funny or interesting for any of them to say. Emily Mortimer does a pretty excruciating American accent, too - at least Coogan plays British.

To be honest, I'm still not sure if it was actually intended to be a comedy or not (there are one or two goofy comedy moments that are reminiscent of the likes of Role Models et al), or whether it has pretensions of being a serious relationship drama - and if that's the case then the characters needed to be a lot better written and fleshed out then they are. Believe me, the script wouldn't have been greenlit in a million years without the talent who were presumably already attached to the project.

I felt the same about Get Him to the Greek - thought that was awful too, and couldn't believe the amount of good reviews it got.

[Tiplodocus]

I AM LEGEND

OK, the CGI Vampzombie things are very poor when they come rushing out of the woodwork (and scaling walls) and having superhuman strength and speed but I really enjoyed this. Will Smith is good, the devestated New York is expertly realised and it has some very tense moments and some good scares. And I'm a sucker for the [spoiler]upbeat [/spoiler] ending.

You can try and convince me it's crap because it's "hollywood" or you hate Will Smith or the original novella was better (it might be, I've never read it) or the Charlton Heston version is better (it might be, it's so long since I saw it but I don't think it was). 

But I still enjoyed it.

[chaingunchimp]

Lol the original novella certainly was a lot better than what we got in the film adaption (which seems more like a failed  attempt at making a blockbuster version of 28 Days Later than anything else) , what saddens me the most is that we will most likely have to wait a long time for a truer film adaption. Aw well I suppose I can always watch Daybreakers or the fangtastic Stake Land for my hit of vampiric post apocalyptic madness. (sorry got a slight problem with that film, just cause i looove the book so much).

But anyway watched Kill List the other day, pure brutal brilliance can't say much else for fear of spoilers, defo my fave film of 2011 just in front of Troll Hunter. Michael Smiley needs to be in more films

[Colin YNWA]

I'll stick up for 'I am  legend' I've not read the novella so can't compare but I really enjoyed the film as a bit of mainstream fun. Except [spoiler]when the dog copes it,[/spoiler] that made me sooo sad!

[TordelBack]

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.  Not a film per se, and the missus' choice of boxset, not mine - I've only seen glimpses of the original, quite liked the 300-ish aesthetic and wonderfully OTT gore, but my unreasoning hatred of John Hanna (and indeed everyone involved in Sliding Doors and The Mummy Returns) put me off chasing it around the schedules.  I've been pleasantly surprised.  It's definitely a Tapert/Raimi operation through and through, apeing superior HBO productions until it's pretty much Xena: The Deadwood Years, and there is FAR FAR too much cringe-inducing soft porn, but it's actually very entertaining stuff when it's concentrating on the backstabbing and frontstabbing.

There are problems.  The writers seem to think that emulating the foul-mouthed poetry of the beautiful dialogue in Deadwood is just a matter of using the word 'fucking' in every sentence, and they're wrong.  Rob Tapert seems to think that everyone wants to see his wife's (very nice) boobs as much as he does, and he's wrong - especially when they're being gnawed on by John Hanna. 

But it's more than made up for by some lovely casting in the supporting and guest roles (Temuera Morrison, Peter Feeney and Jeffrey Thomas are particularly great) and some quite superb fight sequences which must rank as some of the best I've ever seen.  It's also great fun playing spot-the-Hercules-and-Xena alumni, if you like that sort of thing - personally I love the way the Raimi crew stick together in production after production, right down to Loduca on the music. 

And Lucy Lawless really is always good value, if only she'd stop rubbing herself like she has all-body crabs. 

[Dandontdare]

And Lucy Lawless really is always good value, if only she'd stop rubbing herself like she has all-body crabs.

DON'T LISTEN TO HIM LUCY! You just keep rubbing yourself as much as you like. mmmmmmmmmm....

[Zarjazzer]

"Starship troopers 3 Marauder"-the greatest film ever in the history of the  world. Or it is after you've had loads of alcohol. Acting as corny as kansas, religion thrown in for no reason, special effects by ZX Spectrum, a world annihilated as two lovers kiss. An utter masterpiece.

If Paul Verhoeven had returned to either direct or just act as an executive producer, had it been the first sequel to the 1997 awesome original (with Denise Richards and Neal Patrick Harris returning alongside Casper Van Dien), plus a bigger budget than the $9million it purportedly cost (about $20million with a better script would've been more appropriate), ST3 could've been a pretty cool little movie, and I think the whole religious thing (speaking as someone of faith myself) is supposed to be satirical, but Ed Neumeier just didn't have the directing chops by himself to convey that.  The other trouble is, it simply couldn't compete as a 'further adventures of' with the superb Roughnecks CG animated series...

I'd totally forgotten about that series-shame they seem to have messed up the distribution and other things so well.  :(Still as St 3 apparently made money there will probably be a ST4.

[Emperor]

Lol the original novella certainly was a lot better than what we got in the film adaption (which seems more like a failed  attempt at making a blockbuster version of 28 Days Later than anything else) , what saddens me the most is that we will most likely have to wait a long time for a truer film adaption.

To be fair we have had a really good adaptation of I Am Legend (which proved very influential on George Romero) and one looser one*, so I suppose it made sense to pick it up again for another outing after the success of 28 Days Later, and you wouldn't have to stick too closely to the book if you didn't want to.

Oh and definitely read the book - it is a quick read and really gets you inside the head of the protagonist.

* I have yet to see I Am Omega, I will obviously watch it (I have The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man on DVD, I've seen I Am Legend and have a copy of the novel knocking around here somewhere, so it'd be rude not to try and catch it at some point), although

[SmallBlueThing]

To be fair we have had a really good adaptation of I Am Legend (which proved very influential on George Romero) and one looser one*

Don't forget 'I Am Cock', The Amy Reid-starring porno version.

SBT

[Greg M.]

Don't forget 'I Am Cock', The Amy Reid-starring porno version.

You'd think they'd at least have gone for something that scanned similarly - "I Am Bell-End", maybe.

[JOE SOAP]

To be fair we have had a really good adaptation of I Am Legend (which proved very influential on George Romero) and one looser one*, so I suppose it made sense to pick it up again for another outing after the success of 28 Days Later, and you wouldn't have to stick too closely to the book if you didn't want to.

Oh and definitely read the book - it is a quick read and really gets you inside the head of the protagonist.

Vinny's is the best version, done in an almost realist style, a pity they didn't have the cash to do it better.

Producers don't seem to get why the book is so well liked. It's a simple, small-town story with epic ramifications about a man realising his place in the world, not a Hollywood/b-movie uber-stake-fest with a 'successful' ending.


I am Omega misses the point, and tone, too.