"Now Showing"

[ciallkennett]

Finished watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in Film Studies today. At first, I really wasn't enjoying it - a very bland storyline and random action scenes with Asians flying, which led me to pose the question "Why don't they ever fly to the market?".

However, I really engaged with this film and realised just how epic the action fight scenes are. The choreography and cinematography for this film were simply awesome, and really were crafted to perfection. The flying, I gathered, was for artistic flair, but at some point seemed silly (The bamboo forest scene rings a bell). But other scenes - such as the restaurant fight scene - literally left me drooling.

It was, overall, quite good. Shame the plot was a bit naff.

8/10

 

[Error]

Went and saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice with my parents.

To it's credit, it's good, but not great.

The storyline was fun, but very predictable. The first 10-15 minutes I got a little confused, and left behind, as it did have a running start. It was visually creative with the spells and creatures, using the environment to it's advantages. The effects was pretty awesome and looked believable, and the acting was good to. I do love all they pulled out of it, considering this was all based on a 3 minute short cartoon from Fantasia. And yes, they put a reference from it in there.

Overall, good family film, fun and enjoyable. Plus, I want that dragon ring. It's pretty badass.

7/10

 

[Nic]

Let's start with a bit of a history lesson... Months ago I saw a TV interview about a little independent British comedy film. No distributors had picked it up, so they had to sell it purely on word of mouth and the awards and recognition it had gained up at a number of film festivals. Eventually, a handful of individual cinemas were talked into showing it. I like independent British films, and this one looked great and the sort of thing I'd enjoy, plus I always like a good underdog story. However I didn't have the opportunity to see it. On Monday, I saw an advert saying it would be shown on TV this weekend. I got quite excited that I'd finally get a chance to see it.

And so it happened, that last night, I watched...

Beyond The Pole

After such anticipation, I'm glad to report that I wasn't disappointed. I was quite surprised, as there were many aspects of the film that I just didn't expect, but that's by no means a bad thing.

To give a short synopsis, it's a 'mocumentary' film that follows two friends as they embark on the world's first "Carbon-neutral, Organic and Vegetarian" unsupported expedition to the North Pole. They're hopelessly unprepared and have no idea what they're letting themselves in for, but have great intentions of raising awareness of global warming, and ultimately, saving the world.

There are some very, very funny momens. However, it also gets incredibly dark, and is very powerful in places. Not your average comedy then, but don't let that put you off. In fact, I think it makes it a lot more interesting and compelling.

If slightly off-the-wall, dark British comedy is your thing, then definitely give this a go. It's also worth supporting if you want to help prevent all films becoming homoginised American products of the big production companies.

4.5/5

 

[robbeal]

^Seen the trailers for that knocking about recently and I meant to watch it. Steven Mangan is always worth watching, and the other fella whose name i've forgotten. Yeah, might have to watch that at some point.

 

[ciallkennett]

Just watched Brokeback Mountain as it was my Film Studies homework looking at Ang Lee, and also because it was on my list. It was very good, had quite a touching story and the film itself didn't try to be anything more than it is.

I had to turn the subtitles on after the first 5 mins or so as I could not understand a word they were saying. Cowboy accents mixed with a lot of mumbling just doesn't work and made it hard to comprehend the speech. However, this didn't affect my view of the film.

It wasn't as good as I'd have hoped - what with all the awards and recognition it got, I felt it missed something. But nonetheless, a very good film and great acting my Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

8/10

 

[Ben]

Inception can get inside of me.

It's SO awesome. Probably not *quite* Nolan's best film because... Dark Knight... but, it's still by far the best film this year.

Eeeeeekkkk. Love it.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Spirit

A cartoon movie, and one of my sister's favourite ones, so I decided to watch it with her yesterday. It's pretty good, nothing out of this world obviously, but the end was so cute that it made me cry.

7.5/10


Camille

I bought this a while ago simply because the cover looked interesting (the girl had bright red hair). Well, I finally got around to watching it today, and it was fairly decent, but it seemed like they kind of stole the idea from Ghost or something. Either way, it was cool to watch a movie that took place in spots where I have been (Niagara Falls, woop), and the storyline was pretty cute, but it's nothing I'm in a hurry to watch again.

7/10

 

[Jake]

Inception

Mindfcuk movie of the year... it's great!

<3.

 

[Snoo]

2012

Finally saw it.. and.. well.. yeah.

7/10

 

[A-Kid]

2012 and Predators.

2012 was depressing and so far fetched it became unbelieveable. I don't recomend the film.

4/10.

Orange Wednesday it was so...

Predators. It was alright. Kinda like Predators playing Jigsaw. Some interesting but predictable turns. I can't really go into much detail without spoiling it. Its wide open for another film.

7/10.

 

[Nic]

^Seen the trailers for that knocking about recently and I meant to watch it. Steven Mangan is always worth watching, and the other fella whose name i've forgotten. Yeah, might have to watch that at some point.

Manghan is amazing in it! He gets the combination of unhinged maniac and lovable underdog spot on. The other bloke is Rhys Thomas. I sometimes find him a bit irritating, but he was also very good in this.

The only person that bothered me slightly was the woman that played Brian's (Rhys Thomas) girlfriend. Her performance was brilliant, but I just couldn't help thinking that they'd really wanted Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), but had to settle for a low budget alternative. Hardly her fault though, and as I say, still very good.

Oh, and it was on Dave, so it's bound to be repeated on a daily basis for the next 3 months. I'm sure you'll get a chance to see it before too long

 

[Martyn]

I liked Stephen Mangan in Free Agents (although I liked Sharon Horgan more), I don't think anyone else in the world watched that though. Maybe I'll look out for a Dave repeat.

 

[ciallkennett]

I watched Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo (My Sassy Girl) yesterday. It was a film I found while searching for foreign rom-com's a few weeks back, and it looked quite good, so finally watched it last night.

It was actually very funny, and the comedy was very strong even with the language barrier and cultural difference. I think I've laughed more time in this film than in most English-language romantic comedies. The story was also quite good, and the ending was nice and sweet and showed just how we can meet people before we are supposed to.

A highly recommended film. The only downside was that it was 2 hours 19 mins long, and quite a lot of it could have been cut down in my honest opinion.

7/10

I then watched Shrek the Third today in preparation for Shrek Forever After, which I may be seeing soon. I was quite disappointed in this film as it certainly didn't meet the standards of the first 2 films, and almost felt like the only reason it was made was to get more out of the franchise (which I suspect is well and truly correct).

The plot lacked direction, the comedic innuendo for the adults was slim pickings, but there was plenty to keep the kids happy.

Not as bad as it could have been, but by far a major disappointment. I'm contemplating putting off seeing the new one for a few months at least...

6/10

 

[kimahri]

Just finished watching Terminator Salvation.

**** it.

There was so much **** in there that reminded me of the first to it made me feel like shutting the movie off, finding them and watching them instead. Unfortunatly, I didn't and watched the whole movie.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Toy Story 3

Or the alternative title "This is how to make an excellent modern day family film, so **** Shrek 4"...

Yeah, it's amazing... My first 3D film and I adored every single moment... Go and see it... Now...

10/10

 

[peep]

Toy Story 3

Pixar...I love you. They just do everything so right. This has to be the perfect ending for such a great trilogy. It's just so funny, emotional and entertaining. It's a fun story and yet has very sad emotional times too. It's just so fantastic and the new characters are excellent. Everyone has to see this film.


Rating: 5/5

 

[Error]

Watched A Scanner Darkly

It's a movie set 7 years in the future (So, 2013), where an addictive drug is on the market that slowly causes brain damage.

It's not the usual movie, as it's entirely...animated, so to speak. It's feels rather long, but the storyline and character make it good. It has a good message in the end from the original author. Apparently it's all based on his drug experience and recovery or something.

Overall, it's a movie about drugs, and how they're bad. It's worth a watch just for the fact that it does something different.

7/10

 

[ciallkennett]

Watched two films today:

The Bucket List was ok, nothing amazing. Morgan Freeman's voice, however, can make any grown man orgasm. It just sends off so many hormones. The plot itself was very good, though I felt the execution could have been better - I didn't really connect to the characters as much as I would have liked to, which was disappointing.

The cover of the DVD also said it was full of "Lashings of comedy", though I didn't even laugh, nor smile, once during the film.

It was ok.

7/10

Just got back in from Toy Story 3. I shan't spoil it for anybody, but I can sum the whole film up in one word: AWESOME!

It was just unspeakably epic.

10/10

 

[Nicky]

This seems like I am jumping on the bandwagon but Toy Story 3 made me have a warm fuzzy feeling inside and just wish I was a child again. I was scared it could go wrong but it was just brilliant. Would definitely pay over and over again to go and see it.

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Inception

Okay, it really wasn't as mindblowing as people are saying. It's good, and the concept is awesome, but I think my mental capacity is too low to like, fully understand what went on, so I sat semi-confused throughout, besides at the end when it all seemed to make sense. But yah, t'was decent, just not outstanding.

7/10