Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

Predators

5/10

It was mildly entertaining, but not a patch on the first film. It all felt very contrived and lacking in creativity; the characters were predictable stereotypes, the plot was predictable as the whole first half of the film was pretty much a carbon copy of the original film (but worse), and the 'twist' near the end came out of nowhere (in a bad way, as in it seems like it was probably thrown in at the last minute when they didn't know what to do with the character) - the only obvious reason for its existence was to create a couple of 'tense' moments which weren't really that tense because the whole film was so bloody predictable you knew what was going to happen anyway

I wish I had saved my money and went to see Inception next week. That looks quite interesting.

 

You have no idea how badly I want to see Inception in Imax

 

Yeah, a friend told me today our local Odeon has opened an IMAX screen (I had no idea about it as I rarely go there), and I've just seen they're showing Inception on it next week

 

Cop Out
6/10
Kind of entertaining in parts but it's trying way way way too hard to be lethal weapon and fails. It's so cliche I can't work out whether it's just trying to be a true homage, a piss take or really wanted to be that way.

It says a lot that Sean William Scott was the most entertaining part of this movie.

 

just finished watching Seven Pounds (the credits are still rolling) and... I'm like... demolished (for lack of a better word)

 

WE MUST DRAG THE VAMPIRES SLOWLY INTO DAYLIGHT WITH CHAINS, THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO KILL THEM.

with a hint of

I'M A REBELLIOUS TEEN, WATCH ME DIE BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME, MY RICH CEO FATHER! *burst into flame*

That movie was a solid 3/10 from me..

The wave of cannibalism and death at the end saved it from a 1/10.

The concept was interesting, but the writing was so terrible..

Here are some quotes from IMDB:

Audrey Bennett: That thing could kill you!
Edward Dalton: I'm already dead. (in a badass voice)

Edward Dalton: Is this place safe?
Elvis: Living in a world where vampires are the dominant species is about as safe as bare backing a 5 dollar whore. (he was serious, this is supposed to be a deep scene)

 

It could have been worse. It could have been Twilight.

 

Twilight wasn't as funny, so maybe.

 

9

Great animation. Good sound. Original idea

The problem is not the story itself (it is predictable though, unfortunately) but rather the way it is told. Everything is always rushed. Before you can even get attached to a character, something happens to him/her. The main character meets the other characters at the same time as you but he seems to care way too fast. After just a few instant he treats anyone like close family. It's annoying

It had a lot of potential but it should have been made about half an hour longer to create bonds between characters

5.5/10

 

meats. snigger

I completely agree though. Fantastic everything except there's just no development. It's all: this.this.this.this.this.theend.

 

I actually like Stalker.

Spoiler

Its about what happens in minds of the characters, not about the Zone as seen in that movie.

 

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Rating: 8/10
Reasons: A solid, slow-burn thriller - much better than I expected. Has two very prolonged, hard to watch scenes but neither felt unjustified or exploitative. The film doesn't rely on clichéd 'shocking' twists either (which often just lead of a bunch of plot holes anyway), but instead just draws you in with the great characters and a dark story.

I look forward to the next two films in the trilogy, but I've heard they're not up to the standard of the first.

If, like myself, you enjoy stylish and atmospheric thrillers, I highly recommend the underrated, and oft-overlooked Zodiac too. Mark Ruffalo is a very watchable actor.

 

It was more or less a typo because I may have hesitated while typing. I don't usually make this mistake but oh well

 

Spoiler

OH GOSH, BRUTAL MURDERS OF YOUNG WOMEN, AND THE EVIDENCE WAS JUST BELOW IN THE BASEMENT OF THE GOOD GUYS! The entire ending of the movie was based on one shocking twist!

I thought this movie was way overhyped, every reviewer loved it to death.

-Why was there such a graphic rape scene?
-Why was Mikael Blomkvist so ugly?
-Why was there a minor lesbian subplot?
-Did we have to see all of those corpses toward the end?
-The hacking sequences were some of the worst I've ever seen.
-Every character was hugely cliched. The computer guy..

Nazi based stories have been done to death.

 

Title: Predators
Rating: 9/10
Reason: this is how you make a preadator film, some excellent homage moments to the original with an quite unpredictable story. deffo a BR purchase when its out.

 

Title: Unthinkable
Rating: 9/10
Reason: It makes you wonder if this type of stuff still goes on today.

Title: The Book Of Eli
Rating: 9/10
Reason: Gives you a glimpse on how a post-apocalyptic world may look like, and how to survive it.

 

Spoiler

I wouldn't call that so much of a twist, more of a reveal (we knew from the beginning that the killer would be a member of the Vanger family). They were on a private island, owned exclusively by a few very wealthy people - keeping a sadistic basement secret isn't really much of a stretch.

The two rape scenes were graphic, but guess what, in the real world people (both men and women) get raped every single day. This film is the first of a 3 part story arc about the girl in question. Those scenes were used to illustrate exactly how her incredibly traumatic upbringing has lead her to deal with situations in life, and her distrust of the 'system' that kept her locked up for many years. After being forced to give oral sex, she chose to go back and risk having to do it again (just to get video evidence), rather than go to the authorities and report the scum-bag (she didn't think that he would end up raping her instead). Yes, the scenes were very hard to watch, but neither felt exploitative.

Ugly? Well personally I thought he was a handsome guy, for his age. Remember, this isn't Hollywood where every single one of the actors have to be supermodels. In most US films I've watched, even the supposed ugly characters just so happen to be beautiful people made up to look 'ugly'.

RE: lesbian 'sub-plot'. You mean the 1 scene of a naked chick in the bed (bit of a stretch calling it a sub-plot, more character development imo). My take on it is this - Lisbeth is a bisexual who (after just being raped by a man), chooses to seek comfort in the company of a woman. I don't see the problem with the scene.

By corpses, do you mean photographs in the cupboard? If so, they were used to show just how many people the father/son team had killed.

The hacking scenes were bad, but since when do films show hacking in a realistic manner? In reality, hacking is a very abstract and non-visual task. But because hacking played a huge part in the beginning of the film, they needed to illustrate it in a way that a general audience can understand. "Log on --> Mikael's Laptop --> Success" is understandable to almost everyone. Sometimes a clear narrative is better than satiating nerds by having technically correct hacking sequences.

Yes the fat hacker was a slight cliché, but accusing every character of being clichéd is just silly - especially when this film is mostly praised for its great characters. You could argue that every character in every film ever made is a cliché in some way.

RE: Nazi theme. Maybe it has been done to death in Hollywood (an industry that is run mostly by Jewish people - so it's to be expected), but that isn't the case with European cinema. Aside from war related films, the theme is mostly avoided.

I think it's fine that you didn't like the TGwtDT (there are plenty of critically beloved films that I don't like), but I just think the issues you took with the film are slightly weak.

 

Exactly my feeling.

 

I wouldn't call the film excellent, but it's a travesty that it was forced straight-to-DVD. The whole film is alone worth watch for Samuel L Jackson as the borderline psychotic (is he ever anything else?) 'H'.

 

All I did was majorly nitpick, but the movie was just too silly. When I went to see it, I didn't know that it was based off a book, and one of my first thoughts was "this should be a book". A lot of what I had a problem with on-screen would not have been an issue in text, it probably would have been a lot better to just describe Lisbeth's way of dressing, she just looked stupid on camera. I know she has a lot of problems in her life, but dressing like a Marilyn Manson backup dancer is a little over the top. Other character's comments about her clothes compounded that, they just directly related the way she dressed to her metal distress, it had nothing to do with style. Once she opened up a little to Mikael, and again after she met her mother, didn't she start dressing more normally?

The movie should have stayed a book.

In other news..

DEAD SNOW (2009)

I'd call it a Norwegian Shaun of the Dead, but 50% less funny and a tiny bit scarier (things jump out a bit, but it's definitely not a movie that will give anyone nightmares). This European Nazi movie with an attractive cast was something I had wanted to watch for a while, I saw the trailer early last year, I thought it looked awesome, and I was right. The characters are shallow, and that's fine

Spoiler

because they don't last long

. The fight scenes were ridiculous, and it had a good amount of splatter for a zombie movie. I didn't know Norwegians were so badass, all I've known Norway for until today was making Roald Dahl.

7/10

Spoiler

(-1 because the badass character died, though he died in a badass way)