Movie review thread...
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[quote name='Luigi' timestamp='1358758298' post='338808']<br />
Saw The Grey last night on Box Office. Liam Neeson and a cast of plane crash survivors go fist to fang with killer wolves. It was OK. I mean, just OK. For sure. wolves just don't act like that around humans. Why the producers saw fit to demonise a creature like that made me a bit sick.<br />
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Worse bit was when the survivors construct a rope to get down from an impassable cliff-face and they almost all die. Then the wolves that have been chasing them turn up again. Guys, there's obviously another way down ....<br />
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The ending is one of those 'The director/screenwriter doesn't know how to end the thing so he leaves it up to the viewer's imagination' things. Although I had that sneaky feeling that I needed to wait until the credits had rolled and sure enough, there's like a two second shot of the aftermath of the showdown between Neeson and the BBW. Still, not enough to be unequivocal though.<br />
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I watched this Saturday night as well, and had exactly the same reaction. Although I think your OK rating is a little generous, at the end I let out an audible grunt of despair and wondered how I was ever going to get back that 90+ minutes of my life. -
[quote name='dK' timestamp='1358758539' post='338811']<br />
I watched this Saturday night as well, and had exactly the same reaction. Although I think your OK rating is a little generous, at the end I let out an audible grunt of despair and wondered how I was ever going to get back that 90+ minutes of my life.<br />
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I hear ya! The other thing that pissed me off was Neeson falling into a glacial river, crawling out and then somehow surviving for his showdown with the Alpha. Should have croaked it after five minutes in those temperatures. And yes, I think the miniatures on planes are plastic these days too .... -
haha I commented to my wife in that scene that even Bear Grylls wouldnt have survived that fall <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /><br />
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Watched Dredd last night, was ok...great part for Urban, never showed his face! -
[quote name='taniwharugby' timestamp='1358802700' post='338880']<br />
Watched Dredd last night, was ok...<br />
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A movie that really deserves the 3D experience. The "slo-mo" drug sequences, especially. The bullet ripping the guy's face off and bathing the viewer in slow-motion blood and flesh splatter really is one of the most beautiful visual sequences I saw all year, and although I haven't seen the dvd but I can't imagine 2D on a small screen does it the same justice. -
Finally got around to watching Red Dragon the other night. I've no idea why it has taken me so long to see it. I'd say it's better than The Silence of the Lambs on the whole, but the tension wasn't quite there. Of course that may have had something to do with a number of 500ml bottles of Schöfferhofer.
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Saw The Hunt (Jagten) last night - a Danish language film about what happens when a teacher is accused of abuse by a 5 year old girl. Sounds grim - and it is because not everything is what it seems and the story focuses on how the community reacts to the bombshell.<br />
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It's got Madds Mikkelsen (Le Schiffre in Casino Royale) as the schoolteacher and is directed by the same guy who did Festen. Mikkelsen took best actor at Cannes for this.<br />
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It's a tough subject to handle dramatically but The Hunt is enthralling and unnerving. It aint no date movie but it's worth seeing if you love your film. Or you can wait for the Hollywood remake, which is surely coming.<br />
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On the subject of Mikkelsen, anyone else seen him in Valhall Rising as a one-eyed Viking gladiator? Bleak, bloody and bizarre in many ways, but well worth catching on DVD. -
[quote name='Virgil' timestamp='1358630794' post='338508']<br />
Saw Django last night, classic Tarantino. Really violent at times and his usual style.<br />
Like it alot though felt it dragged on a bit long (same length as the Hobbit), Christoph Waltz is brilliant.<br />
Probably a little too predictable though.<br />
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8/10<br />
[/quote]Saw it tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. I quite enjoyed the Kill Bill series but felt the dialogue was pretty wooden at times, this was far superior IMHO, probably his best outing since Pulp Fiction. Waltz was brilliant as was Di Caprio's villain. Sam Jackson's character was like Jules Winfield's great great great granddaddy, with some of his dialogue almost lifted from Pulp. Oh and the lynch mob scene was sublimely funny, the whole theatre was cracking up; well I was anyway -
[quote name='Luigi' timestamp='1359111541' post='339552']Saw The Hunt (Jagten) last night - a Danish language film about what happens when a teacher is accused of abuse by a 5 year old girl. Sounds grim - and it is because not everything is what it seems and the story focuses on how the community reacts to the bombshell.<br />
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It's got Madds Mikkelsen (Le Schiffre in Casino Royale) as the schoolteacher and is directed by the same guy who did Festen. Mikkelsen took best actor at Cannes for this.<br />
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It's a tough subject to handle dramatically but The Hunt is enthralling and unnerving. It aint no date movie but it's worth seeing if you love your film. Or you can wait for the Hollywood remake, which is surely coming.<br />
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On the subject of Mikkelsen, anyone else seen him in Valhall Rising as a one-eyed Viking gladiator? Bleak, bloody and bizarre in many ways, but well worth catching on DVD.[/quote]<br />
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Mrs dK and I have this on our "to watch list". Mikkelsen is one of our favorites and Valhall Risng was a great movie -
Here comes the Boom - predictable movie about an overweight biology teacher who decides to take up MMA to raise money for the art teacher who is about to lose his job, still a few laughs along the way.
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[quote name='Tim' timestamp='1357454959' post='335740']<br />
[i]Zero Dark Thirty[/i]. A very, very good film. 9/10.<br />
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Just watched it and agree - it was a cracking film, and it was basically two movies in one, a thriller and then an action film. Strong performances all round, as I assume Maya was supposed to be annoying as hell, from a range of actors (TV, Aussies, Brits). The thriller part was tense and the action part was intense.<br />
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Great direction by Bigelow, I thought Hurt Locker was a wee bit overrated, but I think she got the mix right in this one, only one bad line in the film IMHO, the MF line by Maya.<br />
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It is a pity that politics will blind some people to the merits of it as a film as it is damn good.<br />
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Pointless fact: The guy (in the movie) who killed UBL is a Kiwi (at least an Aussie actor born in NZ). -
[quote name='Nepia' timestamp='1359197181' post='339721']<br />
Pointless fact: The guy (in the movie) who killed UBL is a Kiwi (at least an Aussie actor born in NZ).[/quote]<br />
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And the Edgerton brothers as well. I hear that talent agencies in Hollywood like the fact our blokes aren't self-interested cocks -
just need to convince Mrs TR this film is worth watching...
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[quote name='NTA' timestamp='1359198385' post='339727']<br />
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And the Edgerton brothers as well. I hear that talent agencies in Hollywood like the fact our blokes aren't self-interested cocks<br />
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You didn't poach the Edgertons from us as we'll did you? Oh, you mean Aussie actors. <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> The theoretical male lead, Jason Clarke is Aussie as well. Was a very international film, a few Brits popped up as Yanks as well. -
[quote name='Nepia' timestamp='1359197181' post='339721']<br />
It is a pity that politics will blind some people to the merits of it as a film as it is damn good.<br />
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I'm curious what you think are the "politics blinding some people." -
[quote name='red terror' timestamp='1359308545' post='339862']<br />
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I'm curious what you think are the "politics blinding some people."<br />
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Not really sure what you're getting at by this question? But:<br />
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As noted by Tim & TR earlier the film has gotten some mixed reviews - but as Tim mentioned the bad ones are generally from political commentators. Also, a few celebrities have come out against this film due to the 'torture' scenes. -
I expect the nature of the film and what it represents (good vs evil, war on terror etc etc) will always mean a film like this will polarise and bring politics into it.<br />
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[quote name='Kirwan' timestamp='1359402086' post='340105']<br />
...so any scenes of that nature are controversial just for existing.<br />
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It's not the torture that is controversial - although Bigelow wants people to believe that strawman is the root of the controversy - it's that the film purports to be a true story, yet distorts the reality. In the U.S. you see right-winger media slugs like Joe Scarborough praising the film saying it "proves that torture works." And the criticisms are not exclusively from political comms, most of them I've read are from artists & film critics, 'tho I did have to laugh at Bret Easton Ellis [url="http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/frank-bruni-new-york-times-its-hard-not.html"]comment[/url]. For me, I was somewhat unnerved by the torture-to-capture connection, but was laughing more at some of the ham-fisted dialogue. A good film, 8/10 (I saw a dvd dub, not on the big screen), but great propaganda 10/10.
