"Now Showing"

[furie]

Predestination

Pretty decent really and could've been a bit of a headf**k if I didn't see a lot of the twists coming.

I found it telegraphed everything really badly, so what could have been a really great film was just badly handled. It wasn't bad though still

Finally got around to watching Interstellar
As expected, it's a lovely film; fantastically shot. Also as expected, it's nowhere near as clever as it would like to think it is (see also Inception and Memento).

My biggest gripe was the over kill explaining the science and the problems it caused.
"If we there, we'll pass close the event horizon of the black hole and as we know, relativity due to gravitation distortions will mean every hour there will be 7 Earth years."
"So, going there means that if we spend an hour close to the black hole, it'll be 7 years back home? Due to the theory of relativity?"
"Yes, that's right fellow quantum scientist. Due to the theory of relativity, each hour there will be 7 at home!"
"Wow! 7 years every hour... Relativity sucks doesn't it?"
"It's just science making those 7 years pass every hour!"
---- Stuff happens
"We're back! OMG You're so old! How long have you waited?"
"About 26 years, but I've been lonely and may have lost count"
"But we were only gone for three and a quarter hours"
"Yes, but due to relativity, that cost me a lot of time. If I was a quantum physicist (which I am), I could have probably worked out exactly how long you'd been gone rather than being vague".
"I'm really regretting stopping to buy that hot dog now. Sorry, if only somebody had explained this relativity thing to me earlier!"

It's like that so much :lol:

Then near the end he's all like

Spoiler

"I've solved it. It's a 4 dimensional tesseract that's allowing all this to happen and I can instinctively work out how to deal in all these extra D's like a Chinese theme park visitor... Yet when faced with the simplest paradox, I'm completely stuck... I'll just feed these equations in Morse code, because the binary I used earlier wasn't good enough. I can also do a 2,000 figure equation in Morse code, but I'm damned if I'll sign off "love Dad" - that's too much effort and would be too useful... Or maybe I suddenly understand the paradox thing

Pretty film... Pretty to look at and pretty annoying 7/10

 

[Jordanovichy]

Big Hero 6

Pretty decent, I found the animation flawless, really good. Decent story too, right in the feels, oh Disney. But a Disney film needs a much better soundtrack. 7/10

 

[gavin]

^ It's a perfect example of good at the time, realise it's mediocre when you've had a couple of days.

 

[peep]

Beyond Clueless

I didn't know too much before seeing this the other night. It's a sort of essay on American high school films. It does a really good job of editing shots from lots of films to create a good backdrop to the essay-like narration. The point it was trying to make became rather repetitive and there were quite a few moments where it sort of died (random shot montage of not a lot happening set to some moody music, wtf?). However it did make me really want to check out loads of the films I hadn't seen, it was just something very different and I liked that.


Saw Big Hero 6 again. I still love it, the animation is just breathtaking and it has some ridiculous emotional moment.


American Sniper

This was so much better than I was expecting, Bradley Cooper gives a brilliant performance. I think at times it was a little dull and it was far too long for its own good but there's some excellent scenes. However I really don't think it deserves all the award attention it's getting.

 

[furie]

Big Hero 6
I'll start by saying it's a glorious film. It's fantastically animated and wonderfully paced. Baymax is a brilliant new character and steals the show.

The start is great with a wonderful way of bringing the story into motion and I loved that it didn't hold back. There's some great emotion in there and it generally works really well - it never felt like it pushed anything too hard. It was well balanced.

My problem (and I suspect it's because I'm becoming overloaded on "hero stuff") was that it did fall into a simple formulaic story that was predictable from about twenty minutes in. It was all a bit "Scooby Doo".

I don't know if it would have been better, but I wanted it to be a little more grey.

Spoiler

After discovering who the bad guy was and he goes on a rampage, I felt it would have been better if he knew his daughter was still alive and was using stuff that the business guy had to open the portal to get her back. The business guy knew it would be too dangerous which is why he was blocking the move. So Big Hero 6 go in to stop all the destruction only to find out it's a wild and badly formulated rescue mission instead when Baymax works out there are life signs inside the portal and then have to work together with maybe the professor getting trapped rather than Baymax who would obviously come back again. Though that would make it even more Spiderman 2 than it already was

I guess if he'd been a really bad bad guy all through, it would have been different. Only he wasn't, he just wasn't developed very well and you just felt like he was the bitter janitor. He needed a lot more to him than just "angry". Another case of Marvel not fulfilling completely on the bad guy front.

Anyway, overall I really enjoyed it. It wasn't a blow away experience, but it was still enjoyable. Probably an 8/10 + maybe 1 for how lovely it was. MMF would emphatically give it a 10/10 and thought it was the best film ever

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

American Sniper (At the Drive in!)

I love war movies especially those Middle east war type of stories so I wanted to see this one.

Bradley Cooper did an amazing job! The cinematography was amazing coming from Clint Eastwood. The effects were not so great but the soundtrack was amazing. I especially love the part of the fake baby. :lol: Everything was perfect except the slow story. It went fast at first but took forever midway. It was good story anyway. Overall the movie is great but other movies deserve the Oscar over this one IMO. 8/10

 

[peep]

Lol the fake baby. It was just so damn bad. Also find it interesting you saw it at a drive in. Never been to a drive in and find that an odd place to see it. Glad you enjoyed it too.

 

[gavin]

Pride

I'd heard nothing but glowing praise for this, and it was a decent film. There's not much else to say about it really. It was good, and interesting due to it being based on a true story that I'd known nothing about before. Worth a watch, not worth a repeat viewing.

The Theory of Everything

It was alright I suppose. Very predictable Oscar bait performances though. That's not to say that Eddie Redmayne wasn't great, because he was, but it's the sort of role that automatically gets nominated for every award despite not necessarily being all that difficult to portray seeing as it's all mannerisms and imitation over substance and subtlety. Play disabled: Oscar nomination. Do an impression of a real person: Oscar nomination. Double whammy on this one then. Too bad Stephen Hawking isn't gay really.

Stage Fright

It started well, and worked well as a "so-bad-it's-good", tongue-in-cheek pisstake at first. About halfway through it became actually bad though. There's only really one joke - taking the piss out of geeky stage-school kids - and it gets old really quickly.

 

[gavin]

Jupiter Ascending

It's very nice to look at, so if you're into big, special-effects-laden action/sci-fi, you'll probably like it. Watch it in 3D and in Imax if possible. Since it's complete style over substance, you'll want to at least see the visuals in the best way possible.

Otherwise, it was all a bit medicore really.

 

[gavin]

The Imitation Game

I really liked this. It's basically just a fairly simple film told really well. I've never really rated Keira Knightley, but she was very good in this. The whole cast was excellent thinking about it. It was just performed really well without being overly-mannered and cynically playing towards awards season (see The Theory of Everything).

 

[nadroJ]

Inherent Vice

http://www.cupcakesandcoasters.com/2015/02/inherentvicereview.html

 

[Jordanovichy]

So I have Netflix now and have watched a couple of films that came out last year (or earlier) that I never went to the cinema to see...either because I didn't have time or because they were banned.

Olympus has Fallen
Yes, I know, I'm slow on the uptake. I'd seen 'White House Down' and I loved every second of it, a really great movie, and as far as I'm aware they came out at the same time. I'd been told Olympus has Fallen was a better film though (of course it is, it has Morgan Freeman in it!), so I watched it.

It is **** amazing. One of the most intense, action filled movies I can remember seeing. So much happening with plenty of suspense all over the show. What I particularly liked about it was that it was actually believable. It just felt realistic, and my good lord, it could happen. I obviously expect many parts are exaggerated for Hollywood effect but this made the film immense. 9.5/10.

The Interview
So clearly I am staying on a North Korea theme here. I'm not really sure what to make of it, it was ridiculously funny...but that's just it, it was ridiculous. It was still a good film though and I did really enjoy it. It was just a very stupid film, but I suppose the ridiculousness of it all, especially the ending, add to it's appeal. Kim Jong Un smoking joints and playing basketball xD. It is good for a laugh if nothing else.

 

[tomahawk]

Spongebob 2

My nephew was dying to see it, and my sister refused to take him, so I elected to sit through it. Found it trippy as hell in parts, plenty of adult humor, and just a standard kid flick.

 

[tomahawk]

Sony and Marvel have officially reached a deal, sending the web slinger to the MCU for Phase 3. I'm willing to bet that Civil War story is changing tonight.

 

[peep]

I'm in two minds regarding this news. I liked Andrew Garfield as Spidey an found his story arc worked better than the Raimi films. Still, just having the character within the MCU is very exciting. Let's hope they don't try to restart his story for a third time, that'd be annoying.

 

[Crazycoaster]

I think it's going to be a new actor again from the sounds of it

 

[caffeine_demon]

Into the woods - Cleverly done, and pretty watchable, if a little too many songs!

And I couldn't stop thinking how much bakers wife...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTJ-CYqkJfg[/youtube]
Looks like Mysterious Sue!!

 

[peep]

I need to catch up with what I saw at the weekend....

Selma
A brilliantly acted piece of drama based around the peaceful demonstrations in Selma organised by Martin Luther King. I thought it was very good, some claim it's not 100% historically accurate and I've since learnt that they had to avoid quoting the original speeches because of copyright (I'm still in shock that people have actually copyrighted a speech), however this didn't change my opinion of the film, I thought it was a very powerful piece of film making.


Shaun the sheep
Excellent, Aardman does it again. With no dialogue (humans just mutter a bunch of random noises and yet are oddly done by some great British actors/comedians) you'd think it'd bore most children and yet it's entertaining from start to finish. There are some brilliant jokes in there, literally something for everyone from the little ones to the grandparents.

Question: There's a Blue Peter badge in this film and I know there was one in Pirates! blah blah blah, has it always been a thing with Aardman films? I don't remember there being one in Chicken run or anything. Hmm, might have to re-watch some of their older stuff!


Jupiter's Ascending

I really enjoyed this film, I loved the ridiculous scale of it all and all the crazy new Worlds and characters they created. It's a shame we don't get to explore them more or learn more of the crazy Royal family's history. The special effects are outstanding , once again, it's all about that extraordinary scale. The action set pieces are also brilliant and exciting. So the story isn't exactly excellent but it's ok.

Spoiler

There was a sequence and I was like "oh this is very Terry Gilliam-esque" and then low and behold he actually cameos a second later! I loved that and how the hell did they get him to do it?

 

[Jordanovichy]

Jupiter Ascending

Being as Orange Wednesdays are coming to an end at the end of February, I'm getting in as many visits to the local cinema as I can before this fateful day, so this evening I went to see Jupiter Ascending.

I'd heard only good things really, all hype too. But I have to say I was left disappointed. I agree with Peep, the visual effects were absolutely spectacular, they just appeared flawless. But the story lacked some oomph, it was bulked out with a lot of gumpf and could easily have been half the length. I think they tried to cram too many ideas into the film focussing on too many aspects of Jupiter's life that each aspect was poorly developed and it all moulded into one mess. And the romance was faked and false.

I know I sound like I really didn't enjoy it, but I did! It was a good film, it just needed more story there, with visual effects of that calibre, I'd expect a plot ten times richer.

Also I was annoyed at the blurring they used in the flight scenes to make everything look as if it was happening 'faster', especially the one over Chicago.

Spoiler

There were also unanswered questions. How did the dead mother's genes end up in Jupiter. What was that about the bees and why didn't they come back? It just needed more.

Oh and Sean Bean didn't die. #Annoyance

 

[peep]

^

Spoiler

They did explain the genes bit. They said that it's only a matter of time before the same genes are replicated naturally as part of nature. They weren't saying her genes were taken from their Mother, just that it's a coincidence that the genes become replicated every so often.

Not sure what you mean about the bees?

Ha, Sean Bean. I always see it as a triumph if he makes it to the end.