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

The Martian - 9/10
Great film, really enjoyable stuff and a return to form for Ridley Scott who has been bashing out sh1te (imo) recently. Felt like a modern Apollo 13

Spoiler

basically a disaster movie with a fairly happy ending

Fargo - 9/10
It's been awhile since i've watched this, great film. Dark and funny and a great story.

Fury - 8.5/10
Another good film! Knocked half a point off for Brad Pitts hairstyle!

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - batman/10
Animated batman film, wasnt sure how to score it! Actually very good, and it doesnt outstay its welcome at 75 minutes long. Story was good, my only complaint is the Phantasm's mystical powers.

Batman: Under the Red Hood - batman/10
Another animated batman film. Has parallels with Arkham Knight game storyline but still enough of a difference for it to be very entertaining.

 

Riddick (2013) 0/10 I stopped watching about a quarter of the way through. How on earth does rubbish like this get made?

 

They're a guilty pleasure for me, not a patch on the first but I enjoyed the tie in, and Katee Sachoff's boob shot



Agent 47 - 3/10

I don't know much about the games, had high hopes for this but it's just highly choreographed fighting but not as good as the likes of John Wick fight scenes.

Just about enjoyable but easily forgotten

 

Terminator Genisys 4/10
Second film this week I have given up on without watching it fully. Usual Hollywood casting of young beautiful girl in the starring role, far to much dialogue, far too much chat. I watched an hour and so little action. I am really surprised at Arnie agreeing to this drivel.

 

James Bond: SPECTRE 7/10

Usual James Bond boxes ticked. Didnt get me too excited. Wont watch again until it gets put out on ITV in 2 years.

 

Wake me when they find a gentleman spy again...the last three movies were all brawler type, thats what Statham is for

 

Rewatch Kingsman

 

Bond was never a spy, and rarely a gentleman...

 

Didn't Daniel Craig say something similar himself?

 

Try rewatching the first dozen or so, and repeat that with a straight face.

Yes Kingsman was great

 

He was a thug in a suit who could do subtle and discreet anything if he tried [even in the early ones]. Bond was about as overt as they come, at best he's the distraction for the actual spy.

And when faced with pretty much any woman with a pulse thought nothing of ****ing and then ****ing off.

 

Since it's halloween, I thought I'd watch some 'horror'.

Insidious 6.5/10 Good film, just not Horror. It's a supernatural thriller, at best. Quite creepy atmosphere and they don't try to jump scare you. Strange part is that I actually really enjoyed the plot of the film, the weird occult stuff was integrated nicely. The main protagonist is a little wimp, but not too much- it doesn't ruin the atmosphere. Also, the main 'monster' of the film was quite the scene stealer, couldn't take my eyes off of it. Quite a few supernatural plot twists that keep you entertained till the end - the ending makes sure of a sequel. It's not amazing, and not actually horror, as it doesn't present any real scares. It's great if you like a good supernatural thriller though.

Insidious 2 7/10 Enjoyed this one a bit more than the first, strangely. It builds upon the story of the first film rather nicely and it's a little 'scarier', but not by much. It turned more from a thriller into a sort of home-invasion horror. It technically has two plots going at the same time that interlink, and it's quite well written, but some of the supernatural talk does get a little silly. It's quite enjoyable to watch and watching all of the characters scrambling from the main antagonist makes for an entertaining romp.

 

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Truly a classic, not my favorite but a classic nonetheless. I like the acting from the 40/50, everything was so simple.

 

James Bond - Spectre - 8.5/10

I thought it was pretty good. There were a lot of references in the film to earlier films, but it was done in a way that didn't make it seem cheesy or over the top. The action sequences were pretty incredible too. I liked how the film also involved some of the other peripheral characters a little more than usual too. I could definitely watch this again - there were a few subtle things I missed I think.

Definitely worth going to see on a big screen.

 

Spectre - 7.5/10

I agree with the above comment about ticking the James Bond boxes. It was entertaining enough and the wife enjoyed it so I'd say if you liked Skyfall then you should like this one

One thing did pop into my head on the way out of the theatre was that I doubted I'd buy this on disc which made me realise that I don't actually have any of the Bond films in my collection. Which I thought was a bit odd considering how many I have, its not that I don't enjoy the Bond films -apart from some of the cringe worthy Roger Moore efforts.

 

I thought that visually it was quite nicely done --good world building. But the story was very light and drowned in the background. An epic-looking stage needs an epic story (and vice versa). See Dune for instance. But in Riddick we're thrown into this vast complex empire with very little exposition and within ten minutes we have to buy into some ex-con antihero singlehandedly overthrowing it with the awesome power of his taciturn aggression.

 

The older horror films were... I wouldn't say better, but they had a different quality to them. They could create an atmosphere, and without special effects, the actors had to create that frightening effect. It was truly a simpler time, but it was a real test of an actor's skills. Nowadays they can chuck in some special effects and people will call it scary.

 

I think you mean he couldn't do anything subtle and discreet.
But even so, that's exactly the point his main elements are chupze and surprise, manners and manipulation (mostly of the girl).
And in come the Daniel Craig movies, where he throws away the suit and just leaves the thug who packs out a machinegun. Which is fine for a generic actionfilm, but not for Bond.

Quite so, the movies hint at a lot more story than they actually tell, but I don't want to start reading a multiple volume (comic) backlog to grasp the "multiverse" to simply watch an actionflick.

That said, as actionflicks they're great

Anyway:

Edge of Tomorrow 7.5/10
SciFi-Action that's almost a comedy, very entertaining

 

Agreed. I didn't mind the recent (DCraig) Bond films as action romps, but there was a lot of 'Bond' missing. The closest they came to perfection, oddly enough, was the first movie. Slid progressively downhill after.

Still, I haven't seen Spectre yet, so can't comment. Will be heading in cautiously optimistic.

Hell yes! Vin Diesel is great when he's not playing nanny or some weird latter-day Van Helsing.

I just saw this again on TV the other day and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, even though the novelty factor of respawning was already spoiled. Mark of a good movie, I suppose. Plus, Emily Blunt

 

Me too!

Anyway there's no use discussing, everybody likes other aspects, and as long as the series is making money (and that it is) there will be new directors and at some point a new Bond.
The series dies and is resurrected so often
What I'm happy about is that the old ones have been rereleased in full-HD and look cracking!