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Will said:
OK, as someone else has comandeered the TV, thus disrupting my plans for the evening and I'm feeling relatively lazy anyway, I'll throw together a couple more 'reviews'.

Firstly, and most excitingly, probably the highlight of my last weekend came on Friday evening when I made the trip to the London IMAX, to see Inception for a second time. This time, my expectations were entirely different than my first viewing - I'm not the sort of person who normally gets excited by cinemas, but this one was something particularly special, and that, combined with a film that's worlds apart from anything else I've ever seen left me feeling more like I was attending a concert - and I wasn't disappointed. Firstly, I'm full of praise for the cinema itself; an always stunning soundtrack on that system left me with 2 hours of goosebumps - I don't normally stay to watch credits either, but this time, I wanted to move in. The screen didn't disappoint either - I know it sounds like a bit of cliched marketing, but that's the closest you can get to feeling like you're actually IN the film (much better than the 3D bollocks which generally needs saving for animation) as the set up makes it almost impossible NOT to be drawn in, forgetting your actual surroundings altogether. In short, what was already the best film I've ever seen was made a good five times better - so if you ever find yourself with 15 spare pounds and an undying love for a particular picture, I really can't recommend the IMAX 'experience' enough. As for the film itself, its part of a rare breed that I found actually benefited from a second viewing, possibly because a relatively good understanding of the plot means less attention has to be spent on keeping track, though I figured out a few things that had thrown me last time, making the couple of mild annoyances a good bit less annoying - and thus your mind is better freed to appreciate more subtle background details as well as the actual acting, considerably more. I really could rave for hours on this occasion, but I'll spare you, and leave it with the word: brilliant. If it wasn't quite so long, I could easily be persuaded to go back at least ever week for a while! The only remaining annoyance is the mess it's made of my subconscious, which needs telling to make it easy! Though surely I can't be the only one whose dreams have been odder than usual after watching? I'll go into my own experimentation with lucidity some other time...

Right, moving on, though not all that far... "You'll want to see it again the second it's over" boasts the packaging of The Prestige, and I'd have to agree... though that was partly because its presented in such a way as to leave those of us less used to the complexity of cinema going "Wait... I think I may have missed something fairly vital? Because that ending has thrown me ENTIRELY?". However, aside from the fact that it left me reading the plot synopsis on wikipedia and feeling more than a little thick, as I still wasn't certain of how the ending worked, I think I enjoyed it - acting was great as usual, which made for compelling viewing as did the some of the ideas (even if I didn't always follow them, I DO like non-linear narrative :) ) and the effects and visuals in general are especially pretty. Consequently, while it may have to wait until I've got a free evening, and the unwatched DVD pile is taking over less of my white desk, I don't mind that that will also need watching again in order to do it justice.

And if you're wondering, Memento is part of that pile, but from the few things I've heard about it, it shall have to wait for an evening when I'm in a good mood and thus have an especially good concentration span. Aside from making films that are possibly just a little TOO demanding of my attention, we've learned that Christopher Nolan is possibly my favourite non-musical entertainer, and while its perhaps because I'm making slow progress that he's made 4 of the 5 best films I've watched on the Top 250 so far, that's still no mean feat...

And thanks to my quest to get more notches on the metaphorical bedpost that is the list (Curse you, Furie... though you're a great advert for lovefilm!), I've discovered an approval of Filmfour, which played One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest last week. It wasn't exactly how I imagined it, and, expecting there to be more than 2 scenes that I felt uncomfortable watching, I was pleasantly surprised - though not as surprised as I was that something with intense, emotional and at times downright dark subject matter could end up being really funny at times... (I... was meant to be laughing, right? I was never certain, so maybe I was watching it all wrong!) Impromptu boat trip, and reasons why crazies should not be allowed to play cards deserve specific mentions in this category. Finally, as I said on Facebook, we learned that Jack Nicholson is even better than I previously thought, especially at playing the insane and beyond, that never before had I been so disappointed when the villain (and a fantastically dislikeable one at that) comes out of the fight scene alive, and that when the most depressing of stories manages to finish on an optimistic note. Those who've seen the ending will know where I was expecting the credits to roll, and why it made the film for me that it continued for just a few more short minutes :) Perhaps because, along with Jaws, it's the oldest on my list by a clear decade, this one doesn't get the rave treatment from me, and will be unlikely to make a personal Top 10, but I could still see why a lot of people do hold it in such such high regard, as well as being probably the best use of that particular 2 hours.
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Heheheh, Will likes films :p
 
Hurrah for Will loving epic films :D

Cial, Black Dynamite is awesome and a sequel has been announced, one is excited :p


Last night I saw The girl who played with fire

First up, I has a confession...I never saw The girl with the dragon tattoo. However I managed to love this film and I think it is very well made. I loved how it just got better and better as it went on too. There was also a minor shock towards the end but half the audience screamed/jumped causing the other half of the audience to jump, was a highly amusing moment as everyone lightly chuckled about it, moments like that is why I love the cinema. Oh, we also got a short interview/introduction from the director of the film, he seems like a cool guy and he says the third film/book basically follows on from the second so I'm now looking forward to The girl who kicked the hornets nest. He also told us that they filmed all three films back to back which I thought was pretty cool. Now I just need to somehow watch the first one :p

Rating: 4/5


Tonight: Piranha 3D
 
Once again, I agree with Will on the whole Nolan thing :lol:

Like Will, I found the ending of The Prestige to be a bit... unsatisfying - though for different reasons I suspect. I found the film kind of bounded along and promised much more than it ever actually offered. I have watched it twice too, and it didn't improve it massively for me.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest is a good film. When I first watched it 22 years ago, it was a brilliant film. I watched it a couple of years back, and it's lost impact due to age, but it's still very good.
 
I first watched Zombieland, which was great! Really funny, quite black humour and the last bit is shot at a theme park.

Top moment: Tallahasse's slow-mo banjo kill.

8/10


I then watched Black Sheep.
I expected this to be good, but it just wasn't. Only a handfull of moments made me laugh in the 4 star (nuts magazine :lol: ) rated film.

Top moment: Flying sheep attack thing.

4/10
 
peep said:
Cial, Black Dynamite is awesome and a sequel has been announced, one is excited :p
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It's one of those films that'll grow on me so much that I want to watch it again :)

Watched another film from my list last night: The Virgin Suicides. I really wanted to love this film, and I did, but it missed out slightly on how much I would love it. I mean, it had everything: Attractive female girls, Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, desperate guys resembling myself being obsessed with said girls... But it just didn't quite hit the mark.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good film, but it wasn't as good as I'd have hoped.

7/10
 
The Virgin Suicides. I really wanted to love this film, and I did, but it missed out slightly on how much I would love it. I mean, it had everything: Attractive female girls, Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, desperate guys resembling myself being obsessed with said girls... But it just didn't quite hit the mark.
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I thought that movie was stupid and pointless to be honest.
 
^
The plot doesn't sound all that promising, but it's still not as stupid and pointless as the phrase 'female girls' - that's some great describing there, Ciall :p And yeah, whilst it's not something I'll catch myself admitting often, substance IS, as a rule more important to a viewing than eye candy - relying on that alone never ends well. Not even if said eye candy is being torn apart by predatory fish who've found themselves along way from the Amazon... How was that for you anyway, John? xD

Even if it's teenage Keira Knightley, who I'd previously assumed I only liked in Love Actually... That's right, this afternoon's weather a little on the grim side, it was time to tackle something else on the list - obviously something rather less cerebral, because of the time of day, and as the Knightley reference may have given away, Pirates Of The Caribbean was deemed most suitable for the occasion. [No, I hadn't seen it before. Yes, I know that shocks a lot of people...]
Hmm. I don't want to be too critical, as it really wasn't without its charm, but quickly figured why it was languishing at #220, though I couldn't put my finger on exactly what annoyed me about it. Apart, that is, from the fact that the usually brilliant Hans Zimmer appeared to have gone 'Hey, who needs a full soundtrack when just one memorable line will do! I'll just cut and paste that over and over for an hour or so!' Again, visually, it was nice but like I said to begin with, you can't just get by on the fact that scenery and the three main co-stars (who, however much Johnny Depp may get on my nerves, did the very best they could with what they had to work with - I got the impression it would have been next to nothing without them) were pretty, and thus, a little more plot and a little less pirate/skeleton fighting would have been preferable, and while there were moments I really liked, other scenes really did drag, though that may have been when my DVD player crashed. I guess I'll blame Disney (though I'm aware that that's putting my head in a noose) for the problems I didn't manage to overlook, most notably that while I don't mind a certain amount of predictability, being able to guess the ends of lines before they've been delivered gets irritating, and inspiring Bring Me The Horizon is, at best, unforgiveable.
But that's more than enough moaning - whilst it throws me that that makes the list above for example, Harry Potter, an infinitely more watchable film in a similar vein, and I'm not sad I don't have to encounter any of the sequels (especially as I've been warned they're quite a bit worse...), I'll still cheerfully concede it to be one of the better family adventure type films, and one which at least doesn't try to dress itself up as anything it isn't. There's also, as I already said, at least three bloody good performances in there... but then, aside from how to be ranty and opinionated, what do I know? :p
 
^ Do not hate on Johnny Depp in Pirates. I don't think he's sexy in real life, but him as a pirate.. mm.. Oh, and in Sweeney. Why is it that when he dresses up to be a weird character does he look hot?
 
^
Weird, or at least... different... is sexy. No point trying to argue with that logic, it's the ****ing truth. But as you might have guessed, it's the effortless sexiness that gets up my nose... he kind of reminds me of someone.

On a similar note, having only managed to get through a third of it back in October, I thought Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would make the perfect way of putting myself to sleep whilst ticking another box. Much to my surprise, whilst, ironically, I understood exactly WHY it had been turned off 35 minutes in last time, it was actually pretty good - overrated perhaps, but still provisional top ten material. As for my wish to find something mindless, it turns out reviewers who threw the phrase 'thought provoking' around pretty much hit the nail on the head,. A lot of that may be due to my apparent fascination with the exploration of the subconscious, possibly as someone (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, in fact those who disagree are either lying or highly fortunate) who'd have jumped at the chance to undergo similar mind surgery one more than one occasion... but how would I have gone about that, and what would have happened next...? Not questions I'm entirely sure I'm meant to be left puzzling over, but definitely ones I'll keep to mull over next time I can't sleep!
Even without this, Kate Winslet's [surely unforgettable!] maverick hairstyles should be enough to keep the drowsiest of viewers conscious. Finally, with even the length almost exactly right, the only possible complaint is that the ending was somewhat more emotional than I would have liked, perhaps a neccessary evil with the themes being the way they were (romance is not a personal favourite, but can occasionally work when mixed with comedy, and this time, the occasional laugh thrown into the mix intentionally or otherwise was enough to render it forgiveable...). Anyway, I digress, as since by the time that ending rolled around I still cared, and that marks an achievement in itself in my book. A surprise package indeed...

v Sigh. That's constructive. You've got to start somewhere, so I figured that might as well be with the good ones, rather than non-mainstream that I don't know what the **** it is... :?
As for the other comment, I think I make that bedtime.
 
Ok, so finally got to Inception, and it was absolutely brilliant.

I really didn't get to focus on the acting and stuff like that because I was too busy going WTF?!?! the whole movie. That being said, I feel like I got 90% of it and wasn't really too confused at all.

The plot, I felt, was incredible. Again, I was so busy just drinking it all in, I didn't really have time to sit down with a notepad and really think about it in a critical manner. Maybe the second or third or fourth time watching it I'll be able to see any holes or whatever, but I felt that it was amazing. How those actors weren't completely confused, I'll never know.

Special effects were really cool, and the suspence was so... intense, I guess, I was literally on the edge of my seat for pretty much the whole movie. There were scenes where I wouldn't realize I was holding my breath until the climax of the scene, where I would let out a big sigh of relief I had been holding in for 30 seconds to a minute.

The way the movie worked, for lack of a better word, simply blew my mind. I really was sucked into the movie (except for when I realized Fischer or whatever his name was played Scarecrow in Batman Begins :p ). Obviously, it did my job in entertaining me.

So, in conclusion, I definitely would recommend it, and really want to see it again.

10/10
 
Hurrah for Will posting again :D

So, last night I saw Piranha 3D.

Now I've heard that a lot of peeps didn't like this film and I reckon that's because they thought it was meant to be a serious film (silly peeps, it's not Inception). It's over the top silly fun with plenty of gore and porn thrown into the mix. The only two flaws I could find within the film were:
-Some of the CGI is a bit dodge
-Christopher Lloyd reminded me of how much he needs to be in more :(

Anywho, I found it to be hilarious, as did the rest of the audience. One minute everyone is screaming/jumping and the next we're all laughing at some ridiculous scene (silliest moment has to go to underwater naked ladies). Oh, if you also hate Eli Roth (writer/director of Hostel 1&2, appears in Inglorious Basterds) then there is a scene just for you and it is pretty epic.

A sequel is being talked about at the moment and I say: BRING IT ON! :D

Rating: 3/5 - Rating as a B-movie: 5/5
 
^ Inception is soooo overrated that I'm off to see it again today for the 3rd time ;) It's just so <3

And Scott Pilgrim times will be had in less than 2 hours at the first screening <3 And another film...maybe...

LiveForTheLaunch said:
^ Do not hate on Johnny Depp in Pirates. I don't think he's sexy in real life, but him as a pirate.. mm.. Oh, and in Sweeney. Why is it that when he dresses up to be a weird character does he look hot?
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Depp isn't in Pirates. He's in Pirates of the Caribbean! Trust me, you don't want to get those two films mixed up - two COMPLETELY different genres ;)
 
It can't be as cheese filled as James Cameron's original Piranha... Though that was meant to be serious... Still won't stop Neal from saying both versions are better than Aliens :roll: ;)

Sounds fun, but I'm not rushing to the cinema for it.

I got the kids to watch Clash of the Titans (the new one) with me last night. Maxi-Minor_Furie already has a healthy interest in Greek Mythology and wanted to know if any of the other titans were in the film. He also loves Zeus more than Jesus out of all the gods! LOL!

So, it's a modern "remake by numbers" type of affair. It doesn't have the character of the original, or the long, drawn out "epic" 70's-ness :)

I love the original. I know it's not great now, but the whole stop frame animation of Harryhausen mixed with live action always takes me back to my youth and great "sword fighting skeleton films".

The original was probably best of the 'B' sandal epics.

The remake? As I expected then. It's all low on plot and character development and high on trying to get from action scene to action scene.

Were as the original is pedestrian, this one is rushing along as fast as it can, mowing down everything in its path. The action scenes are too fast and blurred. While the original had lots of cuts due to technological constraints, sometimes making things tough to follow - this has no excuse. You have no idea who is who though, or what they're fighting or really what's happening. Just bang, bash, bop and see which of the forgettable characters comes out the other side.

That's pretty much it right the way through. It's not completely dire, but it's pretty close. My love of the original story bolsters my opinion slightly; however it's overall just completely forgettable. 2/5
 
c&r said:
Wow you guys watch some mainstream films.
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Chyah, I just watched it for the irony. But tonight I'm going to watch a movie, don't see the point in telling anyone the name, it's pretty obscure.
 
c&r said:
Wow you guys watch some mainstream films.

Oh and inception is totally overhyped.
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Why? Explain yourself thoroughly and with proper reasoning, otherwise go away and watch some underground indie movie nobody has ever heard of, then come back and give us a well thought out review of that so that you might inspire some CF members to think outside the box a bit.

Otherwise, just leave people alone with your 'holier than thou' bull****.

And also, do you know why films become 'mainstream'? It's because they're so brilliant that lots of people go and see them. Go figure.
 
I'm sorry I've not posted my review of Un Chien Andalou recently, I've been enjoying a divine new humus that Waitrose have released.

That obscure enough?
 
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