A few films recently watched.

[Blir]

I watched Terminator Salvation over christmas. The action was done quite well, thought a lot of it was quite exciting, but the film was just done all wrong.

 

+'s

I liked the Marcus Wright character

Special effects were decent

Good action

 

-'s

Christian Bale

The last section of the film in Skynet

and everything else

 

Please let Terminator die now.

 

-'s

 

Helena Bonham Carter as Skynet - wtf?

Uninspired soundtrack by Danny Elfman

CGi 80s Arnold - it was completely unnecessary.

 

lol. I love the way he was hiding in a prison cell, that was a genuine laugh!

 

-'s

 

Desert heart transplant

Motorbike robots

Nuclear fuel cells just... lying on a table

Skynet having immaculately cleaned coridoors

Ridiculous amounts of previous Terminator references

[takeshi]

mad detective - korean thriller. basic plot: schizophrenic ex-cop hunts down serial killer with multiple personalities. best thriller since departed.

 

It was actually made in Hong Kong. I only say this because it's directed by Johnny To, one of the few Hong Kong directors making interesting and entertaining films nowadays.

 

Public Enemies 7/10 - Kind of by-the-numbers chase film. What really saves it from being mediocre are the character actors in small roles like Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover and Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson. Also, for the most part, the film is really beautiful. Mann seems to get better each time using HD cameras but there were a few shots that looked like something from a video camera and all the special effects in the film looked pretty fake (face transfer, blood).

[sneaksta303]

I watched Terminator Salvation over christmas. The action was done quite well, thought a lot of it was quite exciting, but the film was just done all wrong.

 

+'s

I liked the Marcus Wright character

Special effects were decent

Good action

 

-'s

Christian Bale

The last section of the film in Skynet

and everything else

 

Please let Terminator die now.

 

-'s

 

Helena Bonham Carter as Skynet - wtf?

Uninspired soundtrack by Danny Elfman

CGi 80s Arnold - it was completely unnecessary.

 

lol. I love the way he was hiding in a prison cell, that was a genuine laugh!

 

-'s

 

Desert heart transplant

Motorbike robots

Nuclear fuel cells just... lying on a table

Skynet having immaculately cleaned coridoors

Ridiculous amounts of previous Terminator references

 

i'm a big terminator fan and couldn't even finish it. 2/10

[Guest beatfanatic]

Sherlock Holmes - 7/10

 

I guess Guy Ritche CAN make something other than Lock stock/Snatc kinda movie. pretty decent movie with an annoying soundtrack.

[Guest abreaktor]

mad detective - korean thriller. basic plot: schizophrenic ex-cop hunts down serial killer with multiple personalities. best thriller since departed.

 

It was actually made in Hong Kong. I only say this because it's directed by Johnny To, one of the few Hong Kong directors making interesting and entertaining films nowadays.

 

Public Enemies 7/10 - Kind of by-the-numbers chase film. What really saves it from being mediocre are the character actors in small roles like Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover and Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson. Also, for the most part, the film is really beautiful. Mann seems to get better each time using HD cameras but there were a few shots that looked like something from a video camera and all the special effects in the film looked pretty fake (face transfer, blood).

goddamn you are right, hk it is!

 

i have kinda run out of the GREAT, the really good movies of the past 40 years, so now i am discovering indie movies and those gems that went under the critics radar for some reason. keep them coming!

[goffer]

I didn't even know Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes... he fell off my radar after Swept Away.

[Guest Gary C]

Yeah, early on its advertisements Richie's name was all over Sherlock Holmes, but they rightly downgraded him behind RDJ and Jude Law.

 

I left feeling like I'd just watched an action-film. It had the splashes of Richie (slow-mo, backwards storytelling, cockneys and an upside chase scene), but it was very much more of a paint-by-numbers blockbuster than I would've expected from him. They were some surprisingly dark images, but it was still very straight-forward.

 

In fact, having just thought about it, there were moments throughout, and primarily during the final fight that really reminded me of Wild Wild West...

 

Of course the eras of both films are similar, and there's no reason why Holmes shouldn't include some futuristic steampunk-esque technology, but the way in which the characters kept talking of 'the future' was annoying.

 

And the Moriarty thing really annoyed me too. When he was first introduced in a shadowy carriage I wondered whether he'd become a main character and kept looking at my watch, checking the remaining minutes, as to whether he could still be included and become the villain.

But the villain role was left to Blackwood, a character I was never particularly interested in after his introduction and "resurrection".

As those minutes dragged on and as I checked whether they could include Moriarty or not I became increasingly disheartened and cheated.

 

The film was fine, but if I knew then what I knew now I wouldn't have gone to see it. I'd rather wait until it's released on DVD, or pirate it online, and pay for the sequel (a film I would want to watch).

[Guest beatfanatic]

The entire movie I thought Blackwood was played by Andy Garcia only to come home and find that it was Mark Strong. They looks exactly the same to me.

 

[awepittance]

woah wtf, they do

[Guest zaphod]

mark strong is a pretty awesome actor though

 

the abyss

 

i really love this film. i think it's cameron's second best behind aliens. for some reason none of the cheesiness bothers me the way it does in avatar. i guess it's a combination of acting and setting. the effects work is very impressive and the set pieces are pretty amazing. proof to me that a film doesn't need to be cgi and 3d to be effective. many of the scenes done on a set with practical effects and water work simply couldn't be replicated in cg, and if they were, they wouldn't be nearly as good.

[Guest Benedict Cumberbatch]

no they don't.

 

 

Moriarty is rumoured to be brad pitt

[awepittance]

Abyss is an amazing film, i much prefer the directors cut/extended edition. basically a great homage and reiteration of a classic scimovie the day the earth stood still. but cameron is the master of doing homages while layering tons of new intriguing creative concepts on top of them. And i agree that without CGI and gigantic budgets people got really fucking inventive with special effects back then. In fact the Abyss is probably one of the last huge epic sci fi movies to not rely entirely on CGI that i can remember. I know you don't like Dune but it reminds me of the same scope and scale and i appreciate the amount of actual man hours that went into designing all the real sets and costumes. Apparently they designed those diving suits and masks for the film so you can see the actors expressions

 

edit: i remember being obsessed with that pink 'breathing' liquid as a kid, it was like a much talked about subject at my elementary school similar to the fascination with mary's hoverboard in BTF2

[Guest beatfanatic]

no they don't.

 

 

Moriarty is rumoured to be brad pitt

 

From imdb trivia page

 

There were rumors that Brad Pitt has been cast as Moriarty and re shoots have taken place, but the rumors were quickly denied.

[Guest zaphod]

yeah that's what i bought. i had never seen that cut before, but it completely changes the tone of the theatrical version (for the better, i think). too bad it isn't on blu ray.

[kakapo]

mark strong is a pretty awesome actor though

 

 

 

Mark Strong came to prominence in the BBC 90s series Our Friends in the North (along with Christopher Ecclestone, Daniel Craig and Gina Mckee). It may be totally lost on non brits, but it's considered one of the great UK tv series. There are torrents of it knocking about (don't know where at the moment) and its worth tracking down.

[awepittance]

what cameron films are availible on blueray? ive just seen T1 and T2. probably titanic is also but fuck that

 

still waiting for the Coen brothers to put stuff on blueray, so far it's only the Big Lebowski and No Country for old men.

[Guest zaphod]

fargo is on blu ray

[awepittance]

*buys*

[Guest beatfanatic]

mark strong is a pretty awesome actor though

 

 

 

Mark Strong came to prominence in the BBC 90s series Our Friends in the North (along with Christopher Ecclestone, Daniel Craig and Gina Mckee). It may be totally lost on non brits, but it's considered one of the great UK tv series. There are torrents of it knocking about (don't know where at the moment) and its worth tracking down.

 

Apparently Christopher Ecclestone is playing the role of John Lennon in a new film.

[goffer]

fargo is on blu ray

I got this for christmas :)

[kokoon]

what cameron films are availible on blueray? ive just seen T1 and T2. probably titanic is also but fuck that

 

still waiting for the Coen brothers to put stuff on blueray, so far it's only the Big Lebowski and No Country for old men.

fargo, the man who wasn't there

[kokoon]

and burn after reading, ofcourse. but there are nice HDTV encodes floating around of the following:

- The Ladykillers

- O Brother, Where Art Thou?

- The Hudsucker Proxy

- Miller's Crossing

- Raising Arizona

 

The Big Lebowski was released on HD-DVD

[lumpenprol]

mark strong is a pretty awesome actor though

 

 

 

Mark Strong came to prominence in the BBC 90s series Our Friends in the North (along with Christopher Ecclestone, Daniel Craig and Gina Mckee). It may be totally lost on non brits, but it's considered one of the great UK tv series. There are torrents of it knocking about (don't know where at the moment) and its worth tracking down.

 

that is such a porn name.

 

He was also good in Ridley Scott's body of lies

[kakapo]

mark strong is a pretty awesome actor though

 

 

 

Mark Strong came to prominence in the BBC 90s series Our Friends in the North (along with Christopher Ecclestone, Daniel Craig and Gina Mckee). It may be totally lost on non brits, but it's considered one of the great UK tv series. There are torrents of it knocking about (don't know where at the moment) and its worth tracking down.

 

that is such a porn name.

 

He was also good in Ridley Scott's body of lies

 

The sign of a great actor is making the audience forget for one moment your ludicrous hair extensions.

 

[awepittance]

and burn after reading, ofcourse. but there are nice HDTV encodes floating around of the following:

- The Ladykillers

- O Brother, Where Art Thou?

- The Hudsucker Proxy

- Miller's Crossing

- Raising Arizona

 

The Big Lebowski was released on HD-DVD

 

i'll have to find those, thanks for the heads up. so Lebowski was never released on blueray eh? i just watched it via Netflix streaming HD so i assumed it had. Looked pretty good.