The Movie Thread

[Abyss]

Hahaha. OK, now I remember!

Mild-Kafiritis I call it.

[Tripod]

I thought it (The Triplets of Belleville) was pretty good actually.

[Robert]

Film: Pandorum
Watched: Thursday
Format: DVD
Score: 7/10

Sci-fi horror is a combination of two of my favorite genres (see Aliens, ffs) so I was interested to check this out. Turns out it's a sci-fi horror mystery, so three for the price of one. It's a Paul WS Anderson produced / Constantin Film movie so I was expecting Event Horizon meets Resident Evil and I wasn't let down! Indeed, add the plot of 'Sunshine' and you've nailed it.

Gets off to a very good start, Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid very well cast, and not knowing wtf is going on. Then the horror gets a little much and even I was scared and rather depressed. The monsters are really very nasty and quite frightening. The middle section of this film was something of a struggle to stick with. However it's not over-long and the ending justifies the investment, with not one but TWO very good twists. The movie was built out of a combination of two scripts, and you can tell because it's not simple and trying to pack a lot in. But the conclusion is satisfying, and you can't always say that for films.

[alkis21]

I agree with your review.

[Tripod]

A good double feature about the financial crisis of 2008: Inside Job and Too big to fail. The former is an excellent and frustrating-as-hell documentary which explains how we got there, what exactly happened and what has happened since. The latter is an HBO "docu drama" which tries to capture the human element with a great cast including William Hurt as Hank Paulson, Paul Giamatti (as Ben Bernanke!), James Woods and Billy Crudup. If you only watch Too big to fail you might feel some sympathy for these a-holes which they absolutely don't deserve, you need Inside Job to put it into perspective. Inside job is a must-see, 10/10, Too big to fail I'm rating at 7/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742683/

[Robert]

I have started a programme called 'films I missed first time and need to see'.

Film: Paranormal Activity
Watched: Last Monday
Format: Blu Ray
Score: 6/10

OK, this film was slated because it was cheap and nasty. Actually, the director had a really nice idea, got some good actors and made it in his own home with limited resources. He had to work very hard to pitch the film over a couple of years to get a studio to distribute it. They were going to remake it but then it performed so well in test screenings that they kept the original. Is that so bad?

Paranormal Activity is another one in the 'found footage' category made famous by the (equally low budget) Blair Witch Project and (very high budget) Cloverfield. With this genre, the performance of the actors is more important than ever as they have to compensate for the incomplete footage and poor production values. The two leads in the film are very strong, and do a good job of holding the movie together. The theme is very much things that go 'bump' in the night - and if that sounds not very scary, I can tell you that bloody well was for me, as you care about the main characters, and the theme of demonic possession is a particularly unpleasant one, reminding us of The Exorcist. Sound is used very well in this film, and the gradual escalation of events from audio to visual and then physical really fills you with a sense of dread.

Just one scene in the film totally didn't work for me and looked crap - but it's a notoriously divisive scene and didn't ruin the movie anyway.


Film: The Dark Knight
Watched: Last Tuesday
Format: Blu Ray
Score: 6/10

I missed this the first time round, I know, I know, abuse me. There was a lot going on in this film and a lot to like. The obvious highlights are Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker and Gary Oldman's portrayal of Commissioner Gordon (which isn't too far from Stansfield from Leon at times). Add to that you've got Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey Dent, who almost gets more screen time than Batman, and even Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine chucked in there. There is only one problem with this; Christian Bale as Batman is as dull and wooden as his portrayal of John Connor in Terminator: Salvation. With everything else going on and so much acting talent thrown in, Bruce Wayne and Batman are the least interesting thing about this film. This is a terrible mistake.

I don't have anything against Christian Bale as his performance in American Psycho was outstanding, but in these huge-budget spectaculars, it's just that he has a knack for turning a lead role into a supporting one. Plus, I know it's a matter of taste, but they could have found him a more attractive girlfriend than Maggie Gyllenhaal, a dull actress who seems to score roles like this through coming from a Hollywood family. Overall - a partial success.


Film: Mulholland Drive
Watched: Last Wednesday
Format: Blu Ray
Score: 10/10

I bought this film purely because it stars my favorite actress (Naomi Watts) and was directed by one of my favourite directors (David Lynch). Why have I not seen it before?

What can I say about this film? I don't want to ruin it for you, but then I don't even think I could, because I can barely explain it myself. This is one of those films that is in a special category. It's one that has you debating LONG afterwards about what you just watched. What really happened, and what was imagined? Who was who? What happened in what order? You need to watch it again to pick up details you missed before.

This is simply a beautiful, lovely, tragic film which is anchored in the relationship between two stunning female leads: (naive Hollywood hopeful) Naomi Watts and (amnesiac femme fatale) Laura Elena Harring. The two encounter each other seemingly by accident and develop a mutual dependency that changes during the film. I cannot deny that part of the greatness of this film is the screen presence and interaction of these two beautiful actresses.

This film combines the cleverest tricks of some great movies: showing scenes out of chronological sequence (Pulp Fiction), exploding the identity of lead characters (Fight Club) and showing dream sequences and characters that are representations of real people (the Wizard of Oz). But it's way more than that - it's been described as a 'stream of consciousness' but don't let that put you off. It's actually very accessible, easy to watch, absurdly funny at times, and the surreal side doesn't take over to the point of alienating you. You feel that you know what is going on, except that as the film reaches its end, you really start to question what you have been watching and whether you need to see it differently. Overall Alkis should not watch this film; it would probably make him very angry. But Tripod and DaveToast will love it.

[alkis21]

Paranormal Activity didn't do it for me, I was neither scared nor interested. I loved Mulholland Drive, I totally agree with your review.

[Robert]

Cool, I was only joking about Mulholland Drive making you mad. I know that only Julianne Moore does that. As for Paranormal Activity, I guess it either works or it doesn't. The ouija board scene I found awfully crap. But that's because none of the actors were in it. In the scenes that the actors were present, they really held it together.

[Tripod]

Film: Super 8
Watched: recently
Format: cinema
Score: 5/10

Review: Set in 1979 it has the charms of an old school movie. A bunch of young teens are filming their very own horror movie (a zombie film, yeah!) and end up chasing an alien. Could be considered family friendly if there weren't a couple of gory scenes I'd probably not want to show my kids. Considering its charms I would have rated it a bit higher if the finale hadn't been such a let-down, too many explosions and special effects, silly confrontation with the alien, etc.

Film: Exit through the gift shop
Watched: recently
Format: HTPC
Score: 8/10

Review: This documentary about street artists - including the elusive Banksy -turns into a documentary about the madman filming the artists. Thierry, a Frenchman living in LA who is never without his video camera, visits his home country and finds out one of his cousins is the street artist Space Invader, who recreates the good old 8-bit space invaders in mosaic form and illegally plasters them all of the city. Thierry gets so interested in the work that back in LA he starts following local legend Shephard Fairey (later known for the Obama hope poster) and eventually even gets to meet and help the great Banksy. That would already be a pretty good documentary, but the whole thing takes a wild turn soon after which makes it even better.

[Tripod]

Film: Rise of the planet of the apes
Watched: couple of days ago
Format: cinema
Score: 5/10

Review: This flick got some surprisingly good reviews in the German media, even being called the best SciFi movie in years. Considering that, it's a total letdown. The story plays out exactly as you expect it to at the slow pace necessary to somehow fill out 105 minutes. Also, Ceasar's face - played by Andy Cerkis (Gollum) - is a tad too human for my liking. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed myself and didn't check my watch, which is a fairly good sign.

[Robert]

Film: Conan the Barbarian
Watched: Yesterday
Format: Some indie cinema in Melbourne
Score: 7/10

I enjoyed this more than I expected to. This is the sort of film I normally go to see with Simon Butt, which means it could range anywhere from awesome to shit, with a tendency to the latter. However this had higher production values than the original, and with a lot of real 'ouch'-factor violence, I found the fight scenes were really good... believable, fluid not choreographed Star Wars ballet shit but real tough guy brawling and biting and throwing and crushing and beheading. Conan was believably tough-nut, indeed the kid version of himself was already hard as nails. There was a little too much jumping around, a totally unnecessary tentacle scene and the bad guy just reminded me of himself in Avatar. Nonetheless there were some decent set-pieces (a fight with magical leaping sand-zombies is particularly good) and I very much liked Rachel Nichols.... yummy.

[gdh82]

No idea if the film's any good (?) but the friday night draw held on the very date will be better!

[Robert]

Why does nobody post movie reviews any more?

I am going to watch about 5 movies in the next few days.

Did anyone else secretly enjoy Sucker Punch?