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[robbeal]

^I'm seeing Watchmen tomorrow night, it better be a bit dark! I've been looking forward to it for months, so I just hope my own personal hype and expectation hasn't got the better of it. I've also got to endure a night at the cinema with no sweets or chocolate, due to damn lent...

 

[Anonymous]

I just finished watching the animated movie:

The Sky Crawlers
This must be one of the most strange movies I have ever seen, it really gives the movie Akira a run for it's money for the strangest anime's I have ever seen. And it really have a lot of great CG sequences.
Anyway, about the movie:

After experiencing several major wars, people have finally obtained peace. However, they are unable to appreciate peace without contemplating war and death from a safe distance. Therefore, they make a show business out of war. In this staged war, those who must fight each other are children called “Killdre”. They remain forever young until they die in the sky.

Kannami Yuichi is stationed at Uris, a front line base in Europe. He has no memories of the past prior to arriving there, but he knows he is a Killdre, and knows how to operate a fighter.

Yuichi’s ability is soon acknowledged and he becomes an ace pilot. Then, he meets a girl, Kusanagi Suito, a commander of the base, who is also a Killdre and used to be an ace pilot as well. Although they are meeting for the first time, they feel as if they had known each other for a long time and soon they become close. However, one day, she asks him a surprising thing: “Can you kill me? Otherwise, we cannot escape from all this.”
Yuichi’s ability is soon acknowledged and he becomes an ace pilot. Then, he meets a girl, Kusanagi Suito, a commander of the base,who is also a Killdre and used to be an ace pilot as well. Although they are meeting for the first time, they feel as if they had known each other for a long time and soon they become close. However, one day, she asks him a surprising thing: “Can you kill me? Otherwise , we cannot escape from all this.”

The main reason why I saw it is that I'm a big fan of the work made by Production I.G. and produced by Mamoru Oshii (the makers of Ghost in the Shell Movies/Series, Kill Bill (animation), etc.), and one fun thing is that there is a lot of references to a lot of references to the older stuff they have made.

I give it a 9/10

 

[Sean_Rohan]

I just finished watching the animated movie:

The Sky Crawlers
This must be one of the most strange movies I have ever seen, it really gives the movie Akira a run for it's money

Isn't Akria such a brilliant movie?!
...Might have to check Sky Crawlers out now....

Got round to watching Watchmen and I really liked it. More so than I did with The Dark Knight.....
Though it was at a good length (I honestly don't mind long movies) this didn't seem like it dragged on at all - story was....well, a superhero story. A really good superhero story......

I don't understand how people are annoyed with the time jumps, I followed it quite well? Must be attention span or whatever......

I'm not going to say it was the best movie ever, it most certainly is not when you look at Shawshank, City of God, Godfather (etc) but for its genre it whoops everything out the window along with most action films.

My only gripe with the movie is the soundtrack. Yes all very good songs, but seriously? Has this director no sense?
It's like he left his iPod in the editing room with his favorite playlist playing.
Simon and Garfunkel in the same room as Jimmy Hendrix? What ****?
Totally brought it down a notch.

In all, I enjoyed the movie - 8/10

 

[peep]

^I love long films too (Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford is an awesome film) but I felt that Watchmen really dragged on and if I had a watch I would have defiantly been checking it about an hour in. I really do think this film is like marmite. Some are going to love it (like yourself) and some peeps will loathe it (moi).


Anyways I caught The longest yard on TV last night.

I was pleasantly captivated by this film. I've never been interested in the film but I think it was good and Adam Sandler didn't annoy me as much as I thought he would.

Rating: 3/5

 

[Sean_Rohan]

Jesse James is obviously a great movie! Coupled with the fact the soundtrack is just....beautiful.
Always makes or breaks a movie. Soundtrack.

I tried to stop myself from checking my watch because I didn't want to know it'll be soon finishing. Heh, strange.....
I agree wholeheartedly with you, and that's just the great thing about all films. The mix reviews and opinions.

Just finished watching Casino......
Better than Goodfellas. Nuff said really.....

 

[Ben]

I LOVE long movies... as I said to Peep, it's only minutes longer than The Dark Knight, but the difference is that FLIES past even watching it again and again, Watchmen dragged.

And I can follow time jumps (Memento?), but, Watchmen was just all over the place. It was just cutting between periods seemingly at random, and, I got lost. Couple that with a story that's all over the place, and I thought it was crap.

 

[Gavin]

The Nolans are love

Yeah, Colleen has done quite well for herself, but I think it was clear that Linda had all the talent.

So every guy who has a friend who is a girl, wants to have sex?

Yes, but possibly not with her. There's a sizeable percentage on CF members who can back me up on that....

I finally got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire, not really expecting to like it, but I really enjoyed it. I thought the kids in it were brilliant. Wasn't too keen on the pointless Bollywood dance at the end though. 9/10

Watched Doubt last night. Really good film considering how little actually happens in it. Definitely an "acting" piece, but when you adapt a stage play, that's to be expected. Some of the best performances I've seen in ages though. Everyone was fantastic. 9/10

 

[Error]

Being with birthday money and wanting out of the house, Peter and I finally saw Watchmen

I only read the first 2 chapters of the book, but it was still really, really nice looking. The special effects were great and the acting was fairly solid. The storyline is bold, as the book was, in showing superheroes as they really were: just humans. The score was very nice, even with some 80s music going it still fit. It was very much appropriately rated R for the lovely yet highly awesome fight scenes (some of which you got to see either people getting blown apart or bones sticking out of them), and the rape/sex scenes. It kept to the book well and true, but I have 2 faults with it:

1) More boobies, less junk. Seriously, every other shot of Dr. Manhattan showed his junk. Several times it literally was the focal point of the shot (center screen). I mean, we started off the movie with two girls making out, why not more? Not to sound pervy, but come on!
2) Have the ending look more thought out. I seemed very rushed and incomplete. Just sort of the "now what?" faces on everyone gave it away that we were all a bit lost on how it ended. It was like having a big bowl of your favorite ice cream, getting down to the last bit and having someone take it away from you. They expect you to fill in the feeling of finishing it without knowing how it all ended.

Overall, great movie. I shall be getting it when it comes out for the depth in storytelling. It's a long sit, running nearly 3 hours. But hey, beat Load of the Rings by a longshot.

9/10

 

[Ploddish]

^Those two faults are exactly how the comic plays out. Manhattan's penis is to show how completely out of touch with humanity he is now, and the feeling you got at the end was exactly the feeling you get at the end of the comic.

I've yet seen it, however, so I can't comment properly on this.

In other news: Bolt. Yes, yes and yes to John Lasseter. Saw his touch everywhere, and it was glorious. All the voice actors whom I thought wouldn't work at all completely dissapeared into their roles, and I honestly forgot they were there till the credits. Music was splendid also - top score to John Powell again!

8/10

Moar CG! Oh wait, Up's not here till October. AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH.

 

[kimahri]

Uh yeah.

Saw Watchmen last night and well, I liked it.

I can definitely see why it's an 18 now with people getting smacked in the head with a butcher knife, Repetitively, Manhattans Rudey dudey, the bit too reveling sex and some other stuff.

And to top it all off I haven't read the book yet I still enjoyed it.

Thumbs up from me.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

I forgot how awesome 1408 is until yesterday. Anyone who can make a film almost completely in the same location, and with most of the scenes consisting of only one person, is talented.

The movie really annoys me as well though, I dunno why but it's liek I wanted him to get out so bad but it never happened.

 

[furie]

You forgot because it isn't - it's pants. Tosh in extremis!

Hour and a half of my life I'd like back thanks 1408!

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

^ It's awesome, so shuuush.

Sooo, I gave Dead Man Walking another chance, because last time I tried watching it, it kept freezing on my DVD player, so I stopped watching it altogether. So, this time I watched it in my living room and surprise surprise, it froze and wouldn't start back up again. I then realized there's another side to the disc, so I played it on that and it worked!

As for the movie itself, great! I loved it, it was almost like a Green Mile-esquey movie (well, since they both have the Death Row and inmate relationship, that's pretty obvious), only not quite as good. It was still an amazing movie though, I really loved the characters, and the acting was great as well. I actually thought the guy was going to get out somehow, but no, definitely not a happy ending to this movie. For some reason I always end up feeling bad for the inmates in any prison/death row related movie, I dunno why though.

Definitely a tearjerker and unfortunately it's a VERY overlooked, underrated movie!

9/10

 

[Anonymous]

The Sky Crawlers
This must be one of the most strange movies I have ever seen, it really gives the movie Akira a run for it's money

Isn't Akria such a brilliant movie?!
...Might have to check Sky Crawlers out now....

Akira is pretty good and you get everything until everything goes WTF!!!
It's a case where they have taken out too much of the plot for anything to make sense. Sky Crawlers on the other hand feels like it just starts in the middle of a movie, and there is a lot of stuff that would need some explaining in the beginning so you would get the rest.

I love the Engrish in it though.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I have been wanting to see this FOREVER! I have always been intrigued by movies involving the second World War, and the Holocaust especially, so this really appealed to me. In short, it was a very good movie, but I did have a few issues with it.

1- Character Development- The friendship between Schmul and Bruno wasn't developed far enough for the end to be as effective as it could have been.

2- Length- Pretty short at only 1.5 hours, which again leads to the fact that they didn't really develop things much.

3- Historical Inaccuracies- I'm not a literal person, I usually take movies at face value (unless they are totally unrealistic and portray concentration camps as like, amusement parks or something, then I'd have a problem), but seriously, Bruno WOULD have been caught sitting outside a fence playing checkers with Schmul, or throwing a ball to Scmul, day in and day out. I didn't really mind it though, my mom was the one who brought it up.

4. Abrupt Ending- This is both good and bad, as in it didn't really follow the trend of wrapping up a story, which may have been good, but it actually left me kind of speechless despite knowing what was going to happen. The way it ended, showing the mother mourning what she knew happened (I won't give it away directly), and the Father standing there in shock was a pretty odd way of finishing a movie up, but it was good all the same.

Overall, pretty good movie, could have been slightly better but still, very good! Schindler's List still takes the cake for concentration camp/WWII movies though.

7.9/10

P.S.- Tearjerker, for sure.

 

[robbeal]

Saw Watchmen last week, and I really enjoyed it.

It is a little long, but not overlong, there's a lot to fit in so its never going to be a particularly short film. I think the one thing that let it down a little was some of the acting. The characters of Silk Spectre, Nite Owl & Adrian Veidt just seemed a bit weak. Fortunately Rorschach and Doctor Manhattan were played very well, which made up for the others. The other thing I thought worked brilliantly was the soundtrack, especially the opening sequence set to Bob Dylan's 'Times They Are A-Changin', probably the best sequence in the film. Not sure about Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for a sex scene though, that was a bit odd!

I didn't have any problems with the changing time periods though, i thought they were pretty obvious and easy to follow. The section at the start was a look through history to set the scene, any other ones were scenes to build a character's back-story, or stories relating to The Comedian, which were pretty obviously flashbacks, seeing as he was killed in the opening sequence.

Overall, an 8/10.

 

[Anonymous]

My opinion

I think that Jumper is a great film, combining drama with stunning action and an irish guy. Containing great cars and good looking girls with the "i didn't expect that" ending which will make you laugh.

I think i would class this film as a..
comedy - mid sci-fi - love film.[/b]

 

[Kebab]

I forgot how awesome 1408 is until yesterday. Anyone who can make a film almost completely in the same location, and with most of the scenes consisting of only one person, is talented.

The movie really annoys me as well though, I dunno why but it's liek I wanted him to get out so bad but it never happened.

Very good film. Extremely atmospheric but it didn't scare the pants off of me. It's one of those you watch which can be quite strange to get in to, but when you do you'll be constantly gripped at this bizarre yet amazing story. I really liked how the characters off the old fashioned TV appeared around the room too.

It frustrates me too and I can never get around it, I just wished the ending wasn't as disappointing as expected.

Overall it is a great 90 minutes spent watching my TV screen, some noticable flaws will catch at the end but thats for you to find out personally.

7/10

 

[mrclam]

I think that Jumper is a great film, combining drama with stunning action and an irish guy. Containing great cars and good looking girls with the "i didn't expect that" ending which will make you laugh.

I too enjoyed jumper.. I wanted/expected to hate it.. but didnt.

Not the best film i've ever seen obviously - that accolade goes to ghostbusters and the goonies.

.. But pretty high up there.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Very good film. Extremely atmospheric but it didn't scare the pants off of me. It's one of those you watch which can be quite strange to get in to, but when you do you'll be constantly gripped at this bizarre yet amazing story. I really liked how the characters off the old fashioned TV appeared around the room too.

Very atmospheric, and very trippy, and although it's not one of my top ten films by any means, I think the whole wtf-ness is what I like about it. One of the most important things in movies for me is when you actually can get into it and put yourself in the characters place, and wonder what you'd do if you were them.

It frustrates me too and I can never get around it, I just wished the ending wasn't as disappointing as expected.

I quite liked the end, it was kind of surprising. As for the frustrating thing, the reason it frustrates me is because everytime I watch it I always think/want something different to happen and for him to somehow convince himself not to go in the room in the first place (then again what kind of movie would that make?) or to find a way of escaping.