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

You must be joking? The baddy's performance was way over the top - even beyond my extensive suspension of disbelief. What about the rational big city lawyer who can't balance his dislike for a neighbour and professional curosity?

The main character was fairly believable, along with a scant couple more, but most were off the scale.

Some of the nasties were straight out of Punch & Judy, and the tentacles at the loading dock? The talons barely touched the guy and huge chunks are torn from him with barely any more force than is required to pull apart a wet tissue.

Let's not delve too deeply into how the MP managed to be conscious let alone talk, despite the fact his whole body had been hollowed out by a thousand rapacious spiders from a nether dimension.

The end had some merit - few have the balls to end the protagonist's story in such a fashion - but even that was diminished by the miraculous clearing of the mist in the wake of an armoured column who managed to clear out the town and still be only five minutes behind him.

IMDB gave it 7.2, I'd give it a 6 on a good day.

 

Watch again. She uses a butt-double. No joke.

 

**** you and everything you love.

You can let a guy dream, ffs.

 

I read online or saw a video about it once, that a lot of actresses (I think it was Jennifer Love Hewitt specifically) use butt doubles. Now, every time there's a butt shot I look to see if I can see the face of the actress. Nine times out of ten . . . nope.

But it's a movie, designed to help you suspend your disbelief, so keep on believing guys! You'll probably never meet these women, let alone date or marry them, so you might as well imagine them as being more perfect than they are.

 

The Raid 2 - 10/10
Hands down the best martial arts film I have ever seen. It's the Raid 1 turned up to 11.
Every fight scene is a thing of beauty and the tension the director builds is immense.
Only minor complaint is that the subtitles were too fast at the start of the film, but you'll get the jist. I was thinking during the film that the gore / violence was handled quite minimalistically until

Spoiler

the prison fight scene, where it just kicks off, and I almost thought it's no more violent than the Raid 1 until the underground hammer scene, and I thought it couldn't get any crazier until the boss fights at the end - f*ck me it was tense!

I cannot wait to watch this film again!

Someone please confirm my review! I need to know i'm not crazy handing out a 10!

TL;DR - Ridiculously brutual, ridiculously gory, ridiculously well executed - GO SEE THIS FILM!

 

Another Earth (2011)

I was expecting some kind of watchable, middling, sci-fi time-filler. I was wrong - but without a sci-fi billing, I doubt I would have bothered picking it up.

It isn't really a sci-fi film, it's a superbly acted slow-moving drama about a young woman's search for redemption that turns into unintentional deceit, fondness and beyond; while all the time, her guilty secret hangs over everything like a pall of gloom.

The sci-fi in this film is the worst part of it - it is implausible to the nth degree, and almost in some ways unnecessary,

Spoiler

save for the support for the final scenes, her chance of redemption and that final kick in the nuts

; but that doesn't make it a bad film. You really do have to put the bad science to one side to get the most out of this film - I mean it IS science fiction but your suspension of disbelief is tested nonetheless.

Do not let that stop you from watching it though.

8.5/10

 

Budapest Hotel

Wonderful and very different style from everything else right now. Also, dat 4:3

 

The Raid 2 - 10/10

I concur, simply amazing. If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would have paid money to watch a Malaysian language film with subtitles for 2.5 hours I'd have looked at you very carefully as I seached for the exits. However the time just flew by, yes it does start a bit slower that the first film in terms of all out mayhem but it does deliver on all fronts as far as I'm concerned. BTW, yes it is very gory in places, not one for the sqeamish.

If you enjoyed the first film then you owe it to yourself to see the next chapter in the story. The car chase was really quite something, when you watch the freeway chase in the Matrix Reloaded you accepted that some of it was CGI, this one was all real.
Hammer Girl is just brutal, Baseball Bat Boy is very nasty - I did like the last shot we see of the bat - if you've seen the film then you'll know what I mean.

Re the subtitles, I didn't think they were too fast, the only issue I had was the daft bu££er sitting right in front of me who kept bobbing his head about. I wondered at one point if I had pigeon man in front of me.

 

Once again, 10/10.

I loved the original and this just builds on it in every way. The final fight was nail bitingly tense, it's one of the few films where you sigh with relief when a fight finishes because they're just so intense which is testament to the choreography. The way the camera swings around a fight rather than cutting to a separate shot is one thing that really sets the two Raid films apart from the average action movie, and show off the skill of the fighters and director brilliantly.

It's definitely not for those who get a bit pale at the sight of blood, there are some particularly graphic headshots for example, but as an action film it's truly second to none.

I wasn't convinced by the idea of introducing a storyline to the movie after the first did without a decent one, but it was implemented surprisingly well and enhanced it as a whole.

Definitely worth a watch if you like action.

 

The Three Musketeers [2011] - Just 40, Your Majesty... it was an off day/10

If you're after a serious docu-drama with a fanatical attention to historical detail... this film isn't for you...

I, however, enjoyed it...

 

Big Ass Spider - 7/10

Picked this one up for £2.99 and its the best 3 quid I've spent in ages. Its reasonably well done with pretty good CGI considering the budget. Greg Grunberg (the telepathic cop from Heros) is pretty good as the lead and Lombardo Boyar (whhhoooooooo?) is excellent as his sidekick and it clicks along at a good pace.
Yes, you can pick it apart for all sorts of reasons but it was fun to watch and its got a lot more going for it than some of the other CGI monster/disaster/horror B movies that doing the rounds at the moment - no names here but enough with the shark films okay?

For me, it really nailed its colours to the mast when they had Lloyd Kaufman as one of the victims in the park - if you don't know who he is then hand in your B movie geek credentials right now!

 

Glad i' m not going mental, it really was that good!

 

Saw Capt America again last night and I caught something I didnt the first time around.

The scene where Black Widow and Capt are interrogating Jasper Sitwell on the roof.

Spoiler

When Jasper is listing off targets for Project Insight, He says a few names, then Bruce Banner, then right after Bruce he flat out says "Stephen Strange" Aka Dr. Strange!

 

The Hobbit Part 2 9/10

Really enjoyed this, a lot more action than the first part. I can live with most of the changes to the book (although I would have preferred the book's version of how they got to stay at Beorns, but that would probably have brought the pacing down).

 

The Amazing Spiderman 2

8 / 10

Keeping it short and sweet

A great looking and fun film, action packed and leaves it open for the next installment

It is worth a watch

 

The Tree of Life 9/10

A film about regret, loss, happiness and beauty.

 

My search for a scary contemporary film continues;

The Conjuring 6/10

An old school style scary film with some genuine frights. Reminds me a lot of a film like the others. It's scary but doesn't have to use gore or cheap tricks. The characters are a little bit thin but it's a good watch, all in all.

You're Next 7/10

Feels like more a home invasion gone wrong rather than a gory slasher film. It's pretty much both. Mostly likeable characters and some witty black comedy make this film much more than just a gory film. It does use a lot of cliche antics to progress the film a bit but it isn't too tiresome because there's always a twist, even in the cliches. Even the killers are pretty cool and likeable too. It's make by many of the big indie film players and it shows; but it's a great attempt that kicked arse and does as well as the hollywood thrillers.

 

Mary & Max - 10/10

A delightful little gem of a claymation film that tells the story of an unlikely friendship between an 8 year old girl in Australia and 44 year old man from New York. The detail of the animation is stunning, the voice acting superb, and the jarring tonal shifts uncomfortably realistic. It prefaces itself with "Based on A True Story" which is not accurate - It is based on every true story.

Also...Philip Seymour Hoffman

 

Been catching up a bit this weekend:

300 - Rise of an Empire
7/10
Watchable, even if (and this bothered me in 300 already) cinematography was put above all else here. Eva Green and Lena Headey really make this film, and I even managed to gloss over some massive logic flaws

Spoiler

Why jump onto crashed ships when you could just set fire to them and NOT lose lives?

Ender's Game
5/10
I have not read the book, and I am sure the book is less messed up. Rushed pacing, lack of any and all character development, but good looking... that's about all I can say for the film. It would PROBABLY have done well as a series of, say, 10 parts. It would allow for better pacing, better world development and less WTF-ishness.

Hunger Games - Catching Fire
7/10
Not life changing, and more of the same. More glaring plot holes, more middling acting, but oh look - a chick with a bow.
Don't get me wrong. It's not horrible to watch, but please deposit brains in a jar before watching.

 

Enemy - ?/10

Really not sure how I feel about this one. Jake Gyllenhaal was quite good in it, but the movie itself is a bit strange. I enjoyed watching it, but I'm not quite sure I get what the director was going for.