Last movie watched...

[TordelBack]

The Expendables is the male equivalent of the Sex and the City movies.

Jeebus, it's not that bad is it?

[willthemightyW]

A documentary type thing that was on more 4 about a year ago apparently, that my friend had recorded, and still has, called Mafia Hunters. I managed to catch the beginning and the end, and it looked really interesting. Problem is this friend lives down in the land of Plymouth (saw a bit of it while I was visiting him) and it's recorded on his free view box I've looked around, it was part of more 4's true stories season, and it was pulled from 4oD when channel 4 apparently (I don't know for sure) ran into troubles with the "state of Calabria"
in Italy, where it was filmed, the Calabrian mafia was that that was exposed in this documentary, so loads of people obviously think there were some shady dealings etc, but I now don't know where I can watch it. Does anyone have any info? help would, as always, be much appreciated! Thanks!

[Keef Monkey]

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, in the IMAX. Very nice to see something that's obviously been made with IMAX very much in mind, the Dubai scenes are genuinely breathtaking and made for the format. I find quite often action/stunt scenes leave me pretty cold these days (probably because of the fast cuts and CG used) so it was brilliant to see something like that where what's going on is genuinely exciting enough on it's own and Brad Bird obviously had the confidence to let it breathe. I'm not great with heights and my heart was in my chest! Apparently Tom Cruise did his own stunts, so maximum respect as there's no fecking way I'd step out on there! That sequence aside it's a fun caper, I've always enjoyed the MI movies immensely and while I loved how the 3rd movie went pretty dark, this one feels like a big enjoyable James Bond-esque romp (and more James Bond-esque than James Bond is these days).

Also, there was a 6 minute scene from The Dark Knight Rises, which looked tremendous. The action was really spectacular and Bane looks really menacing, but he's completely unintelligible for most of it. I think I picked up about 2 lines and it rendered everything quite confusing as he seemed to be explaining what was going on for most of it. Something will definitely need to be done about the digital effect they're using on his voice, or the movie might be a bit of a strain. Still, it really did look amazing and I'm sure with enough feedback Nolan will iron that out.

[Tiplodocus]

Pretty much totally agree with Keef up there.  Bane was actually easier to understand before they took his hood off.

Ghost Protocol also rocked - the Indian bit was a bit of a let down after the Dubai shenanigans but Bird pulled it out of the bag with the Car Park scene (which reminded me of the end of Monsters Inc.) 

I'd rather we had IMAX screens everywhere than 3D screens.

[Keef Monkey]

Absolutely with you on that, it adds far more to the experience and to immersion than 3D ever has for me. Also the Monsters Inc. thing is a very good point, not sure if this is Brad Bird's first live action film but he's certainly managed to carry across the energy of his animated stuff really well.

[chaingunchimp]

This weekend I was mostly watching:

The howling 3 the Marsupials. Which isn't really as bad as most people make out.

The Howling 4 the Freaks: which is as bad as most people make out.

Big Trouble in little China: brilliant as always.

Re-watched Sucker Punch: same conclusion as before looks nice, brilliant fight scenes and that's it, horrible confused mess of a film (in my opinion) but saying that I could watch that first fight with the Oni over and over again.

Man-Thing: which was actually ok, enjoyed the more hard edge horror take on this character, kinda makes me yearn for a Swamp thing reboot tho.

and Transformers Prime Darkness Rising: which was a pleasant surprise, as usual most of the human characters where fairly annoying but all the robot centric plot lines where pretty interesting, and the Megatron character design is the only redesign of this character I have actually liked, combines the classic design and the (rubbish) movie design perfectly, pity tho as i really didn't like any of the other Decepticon designs (looked a little bland). Plus it's got transformer zombies (which have been done before) so it's a win for me.

[JamesC]

Sherlock Holmes - A Game Of Shadows.

I liked it - very action packed and fast paced and everyone looked like they were having fun.

The one thing I didn't understand was why Colonel Moran shot the guy through the window when he was about to get blown to smithereens by a bomb anyway.

[DoomBot]

Just watched Cowboys and Aliens. What a wasted opportunity. Dull dull dull

[Davek]

Watched Tracker last night - Ray Winstone is a Boer War veteran who has moved to New Zealand.  Takes a job to track a Maori fugitive with some British soldiers.  Great cinematography, fight scenes, Ray Winstone with an Afrikaans accent, and a good twist in the tale. 

[mygrimmbrother]

Sounds interesting Davek, and made me think of The Proposition straight away, which is one my favourite films ever, so I'll check that out.

Recently watched Kill List - what a complete headf*ck that was. Don't want to say too much for those who haven't seen it, but I think I liked it (still trying to decide). I enjoyed it's David Lynchisms anyway.

Also just seen The Thing, and I know this will probably get me banned from the internet but I liked it. Before you start, I'll just point out that Carpenter's is my all time favourite movie and probably always will be, so bear that in mind. Obviously it was never going to be bale to compete with that version, but in it's own right it was harmless fun and I enjoyed every minute. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a fine lead, contrasting nicely with macho Kurt, and with more than a few Ripley-esue moments. The effects have had a lot of criticism but they were not a problem for me at all, thought they were suitably grotesque and technically fine. One particular criticism was that the CGI creatures are given far too much screen time, but you could argue that Bottin's beasties were given the same treatment in Carpenter's.

So yeah, it'll never be in the same league as the '82 version, but personally I'm glad it was made. It'll be interesting to see how I feel on repeated viewings though...

[CYCLOPZ]

The Kill List and The Woman, that was a very interesting double feature. The Woman had quite a controversial showing at Sundance I think and now I see why. If you mis-construe the intentions of the director it can be taken as quite offensive.
The Kill List was very atmospheric and nicely acted.

[Professor Bear]

One particular criticism was that the CGI creatures are given far too much screen time, but you could argue that Bottin's beasties were given the same treatment in Carpenter's.

Their use in the Carpenter version was for shock value, as the nature of the film was that it was about how nobody knew who was or wasn't an alien, while the new version uses the creatures not as punctuation but as text, with lots of sequences with the monsters chasing people about at length compared to the 1982 version only having one such sequence right at the end of the film.  The monsters' behavior in the new flick is also odd - why does that woman just go all "arg" on Romana Flowers that time, or why does that monster fuse to that dude's face a bit and then leave it at that?  This does not seem like "blending in" to me.  Also why the bit in the spaceship, and did I miss the bit where it blew up when I took that slash?

[johnnystress]

Saw a bit of Inglourious Basterds last night

It could have been much better. Some great scenes; the initial farmhouse scene , the cafe ....so well done

I liked the relationship between the German war hero and the girl, Col. Landa is great, Michael Fassbander's character too..all good

Then it's all spoiled by silly hip and retro -chic graphics from 70's blaxploitation movie and music from a spaghetti western

If you could cut out all that crap it could be a much better movie

bah

[TordelBack]

Then it's all spoiled by silly hip and retro -chic graphics from 70's blaxploitation movie and music from a spaghetti western

If you could cut out all that crap it could be a much better movie

But one unlikely to be made by Quentin Tarantino.

[johnnystress]

good point