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Saw three films today. First was Brave in 3D

Really lovely animation, some of the scenery was breath-taking. I thought it was a very enjoyable film, actually quite scary in places but some nice bits of humour here and there. Clearly not Pixar's best film but it's not their worst.

Rating: 4/5


The wedding video

I was expecting this to be one of those comedies where most of the funny clips are in the trailer, I wasn't disappointed. It was alright and in places it was a bit too predictable but when it was funny it was very funny.

Rating: 3/5


Bourne Legacy

I thought it continued on the Bourne franchise quite nicely. I felt it was trying to hard in the first half to sound intelligent and cool and I just found it a little boring. Took quite a long time to get to the action which I thought was odd. It felt like once the action scenes started to happen that it then got to the end a bit too quickly so the ending just felt a bit flat. Still, overall it was pretty good.

Rating: 3.5/5
 
A couple more movies I've finally gotten around to watching:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Very nice movie: entertaining, thought-provoking, and heartwarming. Also superbly acted by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Even though it could be hectic and a little confusing at times, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 9/10

Little Miss Sunshine
Really well done film, and a joy to watch. Brilliantly walks the line between drama & comedy; it's surprisingly heavy and emotional in parts while laugh-out-loud funny in others. Loved this one. 9/10
 
The kids took me to see Brave last night for my birthday.

It was pretty good. It's not a good "Pixar" film, and it's not quite a "Disney Princess" film - it fits in some strange ground between say Finding Nemo, Brother Bear and Tangled. It never really excelled in any area, but it was never awful either.

Very odd film, but the kids loved it with MMF out of his seat jumping with excitement at moments. So it was a hit there :). I'd say 3/5
 
The Last Days - 8/10

Yes, I got Netflix and decided to nerd up the documentary section as usual. It was a really good documentary for sure, not much different than many of the other Holocaust documentaries I have seen, but I respect each story as an individual story with each just as significant and interesting as the next. No matter how much I know about the subject, how many documentaries I've watched, or how many books I've read, I still can't get over how absolutely atrocious that period of time was. I liked that this particular documentary talked about everything from the beginning when the Jews were just starting to be turned against (like little laws, such as not being allowed in certain stores) to the point where it escalated to the concentration camps, followed by the liberation and present day. Very touching.

My Girl- 7/10

I've always liked this movie. I think it puts a really interesting spin on some of the more cliche kid's movies for sure. I love McCauley back when he was a kid and I think the girl who plays Vada was also a pretty good actress. I like that much of the movie was centred on death, and though that makes me sound a little morbid, it's something kids are sheltered from a lot and I think making a movie that focuses greatly on it without being gory was a good idea. It's a cute, innocent movie that has elements of friendship, love, and death, which is what makes it one of my favourite kid's movies.
 
Am I the only one who has seen the new Total Recall?

I liked it much more than I thought I would (especially because of the Blade Runner influence).
 
^I saw it, I thought it was meh.

Some recent watches for me.

Total Recall
Kate Beckinsale+Jessica Biel=at least watchable=this movie.
3/5

Inglorious Basterds
I had heard such great things about it, so I opted to watch it. I just don't get Quentin Tarantino movies and the hype it generates. First off, for a movie that claims Brad Pitt as the star, he is hardly in it. The flow is very weird, it just felt choppy. He is just a director I think doesn't deserve the praise he gets.
2/5

Expendables 2
So, I didn't see the first, didn't want to see either of them, but I was invited so I said, **** it, why not. All of my friends who loved it thought the action was "the best ever" and all fanboyish. So I go in expecting minimal enjoyment, but it was only $5, so I was ok with it. I laughed the entire movie, yet nobody else did. It was totally ridiculous, and it was totally a satire, but I think most people in the movie were not smart enough to pick up on that. For what it was, it was entertaining, very Snakes on a Plane-esque.
3/5
 
I don't think Total Recall has had a release over here yet Jerry, so that could be why as it seems rare you Americans go to the cinema :lol:

tomahawKSU said:
Inglorious Basterds
I had heard such great things about it, so I opted to watch it. I just don't get Quentin Tarantino movies and the hype it generates. First off, for a movie that claims Brad Pitt as the star, he is hardly in it. The flow is very weird, it just felt choppy. He is just a director I think doesn't deserve the praise he gets.
2/5
Click to expand...

See, I agree that QT gets a lot of over hype. It's almost "you have to love QT, if you don't, it's because you are crap". It's not quite that though and it's really hard to explain.

His films are often pastiche (the grindhouse stuff definitely) and they're often more a collection of "cool scenes" rather than a standard point to point plot movie.

You have to kind of come at them from a different angle and watch them slightly obliquely. It's really hard to explain, but Inglorious had me confused for about half the film as I couldn't work out if it was a quirky war film pastiche, a historical action drama or a heart-wrenching buddy movie. It turns out it's just all those things chucked in a blender with an ironic "history be damned, we're American film makers and can make history what it should have been" finale. Once it had clicked that all I was watching was "entertainment" then I settled down and really enjoyed the film (I need to watch it again actually so I can enjoy the first half more).

Thankfully I had realised this when watching Planet Terror and enjoyed it all.

I guess that's why he gets the praise. He produces films that are just bite-sized chunks of entertainment. The overall plot and story is secondary to the individual focus pieces which are fantastic examples of dialogue, tension, comedy, music video or all of them wrapped up in a five minute segment; then collected together with a rubber band and distributed as a film.

My only real advice would be to stop trying to understand his films and just to start enjoying them?
 
^^I read a thing about how all of Tarantino's films are set in an alternate reality where Hitler died as he does in Inglourious Basterds, by being killed by a gang of rogue American Jews, and thus the war was won not be organised army and strategy, but by some guys who were mega pissed off and loved them some violence. So in all of his films set after that, there is an intense focus on the importance of pop culture, because in this alternate reality things like that ARE more important because of how WW2 was ended, it's actually serious stuff. But to us it's just oh cool they're talking about cheeseburgers and McDonalds on their way to murdering someone, neat-O!

All conspiracy of course, but an interesting theory nonetheless: http://www.cracked.com/article_19323_6-movie-tv-universes-that-overlap-in-mind-blowing-ways.html
 
So I watched a few horror movies last night.

The Shrine- 5/10

I felt this had a lot of potential, but it didn't live up to what I thought it could be. I had never heard of it prior so I had no previous expectations, but it just really didn't do much of anything. The setting was great, the concept was pretty creepy, and the manner in which some of the people got killed really made me cringe (eyeballs + sharp objects= nooooo); however, the climax and the denouement all just seemed to happen way too fast, and I feel like they just got bored so they cheaped out on the ending. Like, since when do villains who are totally after a person full force suddenly decide to let them go to safety? Just seemed a bit of a poo ending to me.

The People Under the Stairs- 5/10

What the hell? I was so taken aback by this movie and how odd it was. I felt like it was a mix of Boys N' The Hood, the Goonies, and a horror film! Seemed almost a little stereotypical and racist considering the black folk all used black slang, were from the ghetto, and did lots of robberies. The actual horror part of the movie wasn't very... Horrific either. The concept of being trapped in a house I guess is sort of scary, but I felt like it was more of a "let's watch this person try to escape for an hour and fourty minutes" rather than seeing anything particularly scary. The ending was really ridiculous too which is where I thought it reminded me a bit of the Goonies. They help save the kids under the stairs, who were weirdly coloured and maybe slightly deformed, and then suddenly there is an explosion in the house that allows money to rain down and help all the people who were being evicted from their homes. Just a very "what the Hell" kind of movie. It did keep my attention, but I'm not sure if it kept it in a good way!
 
Pulp Fiction is my favouritest film evar.

BoredPortal.com_Pulp-Fiction-Guess-Who.jpg


lol.
 
^^ The People Under the Stairs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used to LOVE that film when I was a kid. I'd probably think it was **** if I watched it again now though.
 
Just got around to watching Transformers finally. Or rather, I attempted to watch it. Truthfully, I only managed to get about halfway through before I just had to turn it off. My god, what a crap movie. I don't even know where to begin... everything, other than the CGI I guess, was just so bad about it. And not that campy kind of bad that's funny and somehow endearing.. this was just bad bad, almost offensively so. The acting was universally awful (Megan Fox gets more screen time than any of the titular transforming robots and she can't act to save her life), the plot was mind-numbingly predictable and boring, the dialogue was childish (was this movie written by a 6-year-old?), and the attempts at humor were insultingly moronic and often annoying.

I was anticipating mindless entertainment with enough exciting action sequences and impressive special effects to make for an enjoyable movie, but this managed to underperform even those low expectations. I really cannot fathom how this movie made so much money and spawned two sequels, with a third one also in the works.
2/10 for good CGI.
 
The Campaign- 6.5/10

It has been getting so much slander by all my friends who have seen it, so I was about to go see Paranorman instead today, but it was only in 3D which takes a toll on my eyes. I didn't think it was as bad as everyone said it was. Yes, it was really goofy and stupid, but it was mindless and had a few parts that had me laughing really hard. There were about three or four parts that had me in full on laughter, and then a few giggles here and there, but it's very like, potty mouth humor so if you don't like that, don't watch it! Zach Galifianakis <3

"One time, when I went to the petting zoo, I let the goat lick my penis."
 
Re: "Now Showing"

I normally only end up posting in here if I see a film that I really like. So here I am talking about Chronicle. It's a 'real life' superhero film about three kids who stumble across something is the woods that gives them telekenetic powers and later, the ability to fly. Maybe its already been reviewd here, but I'm too lazy to check, sorry.

The film focuses more on the way the friends deal with their powers as they become alienated from society, and the situation soon turns dark and disturbing. All I'll say is that saving people is way down on the list as they concentrate on saving their humanity. I thought it was gritty and offered a pleasantly new take on the genre.
 
Re: "Now Showing"

I watched Chronicle a couple of weeks ago.

It was s**te.
 
Re: "Now Showing"

See, I think Chronicle did what is was meant to do quite well. It showed a more realistic approach to what would happen if 3 random teens were to gain powers (telekenises). They wouldnt go all superhero, but rather be teens and use it to pull pranks and whatnot (something an average teen would do).

Adding in the bully ridden teen who decides to use his powers against those that have bullied him adds in a depth of realness (in my opinion) to what one would do if they were to gain those same type of abilities.

It was a general good movie with decent rewatch value until the whole bit after the hospital. Then it pulled in a more superhero approach to ruin this realistic view and added in "AAAANDREEEWW! DONT DO IT!" which really got annoying. Adding onto that its hugely anti-climactic ending effectively killed the approach it set out to do, and ruined the movie. Granted they tried fixing with with the Tibet bit, but it was just over with no hope of fixing.
 
Sorry, but "realistic" and "random teens get telekineses" don't, and shouldn't, go together. Clearly it's not supposed to be presenting a realistic situation, and I don't have a problem with that.

I have a problem with it just being generally crap, with over-simplified, obvious characters, and pretty much just an updated version of a stolen idea anyway.

Adding in the bully ridden teen who decides to use his powers against those that have bullied him adds in a depth of realness (in my opinion) to what one would do if they were to gain those same type of abilities.
Click to expand...

Carrie, anyone?

The only difference being that Carrie was a generally good, well-acted, genuinely quite creepy, emotional film.
 
I thought Chronicle was alright, but maybe that's because I was expecting it to be complete crap (like the last 1/4 of the movie).
 
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