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

Ohhh gotta watch this! Is there an Eng sub out there?

 

The.. *acquired* copy I have has English subs... plus it's been shown on UK TV iirc so yes, there english subs [it may have been dubbed on TV, can't remember]

 

Caught one of my favourite films on Film4 the other night and immediately got glued to my seat.

Battle Royale 9/10

I've seen this film many times before so I proceeded to watch it mostly for the filmmaking. It's an extremely well made film. I'm a big fan of both the book and manga so I sometimes get annoyed by how much they change, but only so much can be abridged into a single film.

For example

Spoiler

Kiriyama was initially a student from their class but changed him to an 'exchange student who signed up for fun.

If you don't know about battle royale; what the hell is wrong with you? For one, this film is in japanese with english subtitles. In a nutshell, the government has almost completely collapsed and adolescents are running wild in japan. The government create the battle royale act to keep the children in line. Each year one class is selected and they have to kill each other off until only one is left. The entire event is televised.

The characters are believable and most of the acting is pretty top notch. There is quite a lot of gore, but it's tastefully handled; the effects in my opinion rival even the top ranking horror films nowadays. It's more of a Psychological thriller rather than a horror, but it is a gorefest. It is quite long at almost 3 hours, but it isn't boring, that's for sure. It's a sure thing for action, horror and thriller aficionados alike.

 

There seems to be some problems still. I accidently double posted; oops =/

 

on the topic of foreign / subtitled films:

The Raid - 9.999/10
Hands down the best action / fighting film i've ever seen! Looking forward to the sequel.
(Probably only an 8/10 in reality but in terms of action/fighting it's pretty much perfect!)

The Mystery of Chess Boxing - 8/10
30+ years old and the fighting choreography is perfect! Amusing and entertaining! Surprised I had never heard of it.

District 13 - 9/10
This film blew my mind when it was released and it's still a great watch. Again, brilliant fight scenes. The best thing Luc Besson has been involved with in recent times.


And a regular hollywood film:
Dallas Buyers Club - 9.5/10
Absolutely brilliant. Harrowing at points but just really well executed. The acting is superb and the story is engrossing!

Expendables - 0/10
So far off the mark it's unreal. Never despised Jason Statham so much. Also the editing is horrific, go watch the scene in the church with arnie, stallone and willis and tell me they were there at the same time. It almost seems like they all filmed their scenes completely separately and a wee bit of CGI to glue it together. Drivel from start to finish! Maybe the extreme quality of The Raid spoiled it for me.

 

Maybe "Drivel" was the point? I consider the Expendables to be part of the whole "Nouveau B-Grade" movement, which also includes Planet Terror, Drive Angry and some others.

 

Maybe, sir, maybe! Regardless I was not entertained.

Metro Manila - 9.1/10
Good story, fantastic acting, beautifully filmed. Nothing more to be said - go watch it!


(I've been handing out some really high score lately, something must be wrong with me! )

 

Law Abiding Citizen 5/10

A nice cast with an initially good plot are incredibly marred by terrible acting that most likely stems from a terrible script. The story eventually gets kind of absurd and it's unnecessarily violent and explosive. It's the kind of film you'd watch once and think it's okay, but put off watching it ever again. Pretty mediocre.

 

Bought it for my daughter earlier and we watched it before her bedtime;

Frozen 7.5/10

It's a great film for kids, it really is. For adults? Eh.... It's a bit boring. Comparing it to their last film Tangled which was rife with little in jokes for the adults and incredibly loveable characters, this one is a bit devoid of the fun. The animation is lovely, colourful and fluid and the storyline is based upon the Snow Queen.

The film moves pretty slowly a lot of the time though. But the characters are nicely designed (as a person who watches a lot of anime, Elsa is beautiful) and Olaf the snowman makes for a nice and more importantly, appropriate comic relief in the film. I liked the songs, a few were difficult to follow because the characters were singing different parts at the same time, but mostly good.

Great film for kids; okay for adults but it can be a little boring in places.

 

I'm going through a bit of a self-destruct phase at the moment: gaming when I should be working, eating shed loads of chocolate, going to bed much too late more often than not.

It's in that vein that for some reason I chose to watch Grown Ups last night. I was in the mood for some male-oriented, 'inappropriate' humour and assumed with Sandler at the helm that I'd get some of that so took a chance, despite knowing how poor it was rated by critics.

What a waste of time. So many films I've got in my 'to watch' list and I chose that non-event of a film. One of those films that has no plot and is just putting a group of people in supposedly humourous situations, relying on banter and a few bits of physical comedy. But the writing left a lot to be desired. So much lame dialogue and cliche. I did laugh a couple of times, and the one plus from it was the presence of the seemingly ageless Salma Hayek. If I wasn't such a glutton for punishment right now I'd have given up before the hour mark as it was obvious what sort of film of was going to be from the outset - 4.3/10.

 

Quote ALL THE POSTS! :O

Mega post here because I've watched a lot of films lately based on titles and reviews I saw here.

7/10

Not too shabby, pretty much standard Statham territory as we've come to know it now but as you said, surprisingly good for a Stallone story.

8/10

Couldn't agree more on the performances, direction and drama - I thought it was brilliant from beginning to end but I dropped it another point because the film varies so much from the true story it's based on.

8/10

I can see why the critics didn't like this one because it's basically a massive advert for drugs, sex and screwing working people out of their hard earned cash, but DiCaprio was brilliant in it nonetheless (seriously, when is the guy going to get an Oscar, I mean come on...) and it was hilarious in many places. Also I'm a sucker for anything (games, TV & films) based in the 80's and 90's

I'm pretty much with Naloac on this one, a solid 8/10 from me. I don't think it was the extended edition that I watched (maybe it was, at 2 hours 30 minutes long?) but whichever version it was, I liked it. Since I'm a crime drama fiend and my "top 3" film Heat was mentioned, this is the one I'm going to talk about most. I spoilered it all because I'm talking about plot lines.

Spoiler

Ben Affleck didn't suck in it at all, but he's no Bob DeNiro either, neither does Jon Hamm have anything on Al Pacino. Boston is nowhere near as amazing a place to shoot a film as LA, and Affleck will never be the director that Michael Mann is. In short, to compare this film to Heat is completely unfair. Heat is one of (if not the) best crime/robbery films of all time and will probably never be topped. I gave The Town 8/10 as its own film, as a new generation crime thriller, not comparing it to Heat (which incidentally is a 10/10 for me). I also didn't particularly like that Doug escaped at the end, but if he'd died then it would have been a carbon copy of the Heat ending. I didn't like that the whole crew got killed, but that's because I came to like them throughout the film - Jeremy Renner is a badass with or without the Boston accent, and a great actor in anything I've seen him do. Overall it could have been better but it could have been so much worse. It's getting harder and harder to make bank robbery films which impress these days with epics like Thief, Point Break, Public Enemies and Heat to name but a few out there, but this did a good job despite a few predictable plot lines. It goes without saying that Rebecca Hall is a cutie, but in all honesty her character was likeable and well portrayed too.

I didn't think it had a patch on the first, but was still a good continuation of the series. I'd say 7/10 compared to the 8.5/10 of the first.

Also, Emily Blunt <3

No seriously, it's a good solid film with great acting and a gripping story. Highly recommended to sci-fi and Emily Blunt fans 7.5/10

Spoiler

She'd have been dead long before the end of the film/10

Despite that, 8/10. Amazing acting from Bullock, but seriously, you can't expect anyone who knows anything about the challenges of space travel to believe that's possible. It was also a rollercoaster of emotion the whole way though. Don't watch it if you're feeling a bit blue some day

And finally I can't remember who mentioned Ender's Game, but I give it an 8/10. I love the story so far, despite having never read the books, but loved the first film and thought it set the stage very well for the rest of the story. I eagerly await the second installment, but I dropped it a couple of points for the fairly shocking child acting. I mean, I know they're kids, but I've seen better. The dialogue between the "launchies" and other cadets was pretty cringe-worthy at times. That's the difference between an 8/10 and a 9/10 or higher where this one's concerned.

 

Heat really does have one of the best shoot-out scenes in film history in my opinion. It's my got-to choice to putting on the projector and maxing the volume on the piddly speakers that I have for use with it

 

I remember playing (from laserdisc!) the launch sequence from Apollo13 to "stress test" my first home cinema setup (and neighbours! )

 

It does - and for good reason too, because it was shot on the streets of L.A. The live action scene that Mann used to shoot and record it is seemingly unheard of these days. It's all sound stages and special effects now. There's very little of that style of shooting action scenes in modern blockbusters any more. For everything it has to offer, Heat is one of the best crime films I've ever seen. Only Public Enemies comes close, a very close second.

 

The Mist 11/10

****ing perfection. cant remember the last time I scowled at the baddy on screen or was on edge for the end of a film.

 

Super Man: Man of Steel 9/10

enjoyed it. thought it would focus too much on supermans early years, but it did'nt and awesome sound, nicly paced and the actions sequences were great.

 

The Wrestler - 8/10

The beginning of this film is very good. The ending is a perfect ending for the film that has gone before it. But the middle bit isn't particularly special enough to elevate this film into my 'Great' category.

Justin & the Knights of Valour - 6.8/10

We were looking for a cheapo session at the cinema to take the nippa to and went for this. It was much better than the title led me to fear it would be. I've scored it based on my own perspective, if I'd been a 9 year old I'd probably have scored it a fair bit higher. The two things I particularly liked about it were that all the female characters were made to look shaggable, regardless of their age, and that the film levelled a very explicit attack at the concept of law and regulation, which is right up my street.

 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 7/10

Great action sequences, some nice VFX, incredibly mediocre soundtrack (the composer was obviously hired to "just make something like the Dark Knight").
Overall ok, but nothing special.

(Also "the Winter Soldier" is an incredibly lame name)

 

Wolf of Wallstreet - 4/10

What a waste of perfectly good time. I expected something and got absolutely nothing.

 

I actually liked the soundtrack in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Particularly in the scenes with you-know-who (the titular villain, not giving anything away here). Just because Zimmer has done dissonant sequences for some recent movies doesn't mean he should have the monopoly on them, and frankly, given the general air of sinister mystery about you-know-who (villain) I really thought it fit brilliantly. Certainly set the tone for me.

Overall, I would agree with the 7/10 rating, but ScarJo's arse tips to a solid 8/10 for me