Movies you've recently watched

This upcoming week I've lined up Argo, Cloud Atlas, Wreck It Ralf, Lincoln, A Royal Affair and Skyfall. Not going to splurge on food at the movies cos this's about 80something bucks right here.

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Never watched Explorers and finally did on a pal's recco. Didn't know Hawke was in it and it turned out to be pretty sweet except the ending. Impressive graphics and a charming movie - 7/10.

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Harry Brown belong to Cain for his amazing acting. The movie had some gritty tense moments and the story's engaging. Was putting off seeing this and just got around it. 8/10.

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The Awakening fell flat for me albeit the good cast and production values on film. The movie starts off with a similar premise as in Red Lights but changes when the lead goes to a school, chasing a ghost that'd appeared in class picture every year. Not too bad till everything starts to fall place and gets predictable after. The movie dragged on once the plot was revealed too. 3/10.

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The Crying Game, definitely a bit of a classic but I wasn't feeling it, in the sense it took me a while to get engaged in the movie as I normally would. I took breaks to even cook, listen to music and then got back on it. The story essays so well once Rea's character is shown to be in a city and the end is pretty neat. 7/10.

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Watched 101 Dalmations after 10/15 years easy, it's aged pretty well for me and I've watched it countless times as a kid! My first dog was a Dalmation too, so it's a very dear and close movie as far as I'm concerned. 10/10.
 

Lithrael

Remember, always hold your apple tight
I always loved Explorers. It's one of the ones I must have watched fifty times once I got a VCR. I always felt kind of bad for the director in that he felt it fell so short of his hopes, because it's still just a perfect kids' sci-fi romp anyways. And Robert Picardo is great under all that costume in a time when that stuff was most torturous. I read somewhere that he had to come back to dub some lines in post and had trouble nailing the same feel for the character because he wasn't under the strain of the costume.

I just saw Wreck-it Ralph. It is cute as all get-out. It made me cry because I am a weenie.

I also saw Hotel Transylvania, which was also made of cute but was definitely the "we need a story to hang all these jokes on" breed of comedy. I LOVED the rigs though. The people who set up the models for the animators to work with did everything right. The Mummy was particularly awesome. SO much energy in the animation. Just FUN. It's hard to imagine Genndy Tartakovsky's style translated to computer animation better than this.

Oh yeah, and ParaNorman. Absolutely fascinating visually. Again the puppets' look and rigs were just gorgeous. They pioneered some new techniques for the film too: where usually in replacement-face or replacement-head animation, the poses are all hand sculpted and hand painted, these guys created a lot of the face poses on the computer and fabricated them with a 3D color printer, allowing them to make a LOT more than has been feasible before. The plot is OK; the characters are great. The opening third or so of the movie is the best IMO; it felt like I was finally seeing a new treatment of the 'outsider as main character' movie intro. Those usually feel pretty samey.

I didn't see much of Frankenweenie but you could really tell it didn't have ParaNorman's budget. The puppets and animation had less finesse than Nightmare Before Christmas. The story didn't seem to call for much finesse though so saving the cash was probably a good move.

Rewatched Coraline as well. Gorgeous movie too. I think I might be a Henry Selick fan. Just realised he did Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, which was one of my favorite experimental animations in the very early 90's. Looking forward to his next project.
 

MrWeatherby

What's up, ketchup?
Just got out of Skyfall. I'm a big fan of the James Bond series, and this movie was a love letter to the old ones in so many ways while still managing to be fresh. It's as if someone took the concept of Die Another Day and did it in a way that wasn't sucky as all hell; paying tribute to some of Bond's finer moments without using them as a crutch.

I'm still gestating on some of the stuff, so I'm not quite sure what to make of a few of the movie's twists. However, it does seem that if you were to take Casino through Skyfall as being a means to cast out all the carry-overs from previous Bond generations and start the series anew, then the mission was certainly accomplished. There's a very strong sense by the end of the movie that things have come full circle, and it's a lot more satisfying than any conclusion to a trilogy I've seen in recent memory.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
MrWeatherby said:
Just got out of Skyfall. I'm a big fan of the James Bond series, and this movie was a love letter to the old ones in so many ways while still managing to be fresh.

Yeah, everything I've read/heard about it has been in this vein. Favorable comparisons the classic Bond films, Craig's mastery of the character, a convincing reinvention of the formula, invigorating, etc. Even multiple comparisons to The Dark Knight (which is kind of... random). I even like Adele's downbeat theme song despite the lyrics being a bunch of gobbledygook (a staple of most Bond themes =).

So, yeah, I'm now ready to be disappointed! :guts:
 

MrWeatherby

What's up, ketchup?
The comparisons to The Dark Knight are not random at all once you see the movie, and are very apt.

Silva is very much The Joker with a huge splash of Hannibal, and is all about destruction and upsetting the order. He pulls off plans with near impossible foresight, and is incredibly theatrical in every message he sends. There's a whole sequence about halfway through where he dresses up as a police officer along with some of his goons in order to pull off an assassination, and in an effort to get Bond off his trail he rigs some underground passageways with explosives causing a subway train to crash through the ground and into Bond's path.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
Speaking of that gobbledygook, this is one of the few intros that actually held my attention visually. It was creative and abstract in a way that was really fun to watch, unlike most of the usual throwaways.

@Weatherby
That subway train explosion scene was the only one that I hated. Even for an evil mastermind/genius, that totally broke my suspension of disbelief. There's just no effing way he could have planned that successfully. He would have had to know exactly what time Bond would crack the code, exactly how quickly it would take Bond to navigate the tunnels below the city, and then somehow link that perfectly with a subway schedule? I groaned.

I loved everything else about the movie.
 
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Bored 2 nights ago I hopped on to Netflix to find something good. In the past weeks I've barely had the time to get on Netflix so I'm considering disconnecting it soon. Anyway, surprised me to see Copland on there and re-re-reeeeeewatched it. Gets better every time I see it. 10/10.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Saw SkyFall, which did have a pretty cool credits sequence, especially the very start of it which was fantastic. The movie didn't knock my socks off in the moment, like where I'm feeling like I'm watching the best Bond ever, but I was entertained and came away thinking it was pretty good in hindsight. Don't know if it's better than Casino Royale, but it's still growing on me, and I like it more the more I think about; always preferable to the other way around. By that token, it was a little more personal and introspective a Bond film, so it's not really supposed to take your breath away with the stunts or the stakes. A lot of it was surprisingly kind of like... a normal movie. Especially toward the end. Take that as you will. The final scene was also very cool, kind of a perfect note to end on... but what followed kind of spoiled it for trying too hard and coming off looking unnatural (like, it looked bad).

Scorpio said:
That subway train explosion scene was the only one that I hated. Even for an evil mastermind/genius, that totally broke my suspension of disbelief. There's just no effing way he could have planned that successfully. He would have had to know exactly what time Bond would crack the code, exactly how quickly it would take Bond to navigate the tunnels below the city, and then somehow link that perfectly with a subway schedule? I groaned.
MrWeatherby said:
Yep. Thats why it's Joker As Hell.

I'm going to disagree with this sentiment and interpretation because it can be rationalized as a general plan to cover his escape (he had to know he'd be pursued), Bond just happened to be right there at that exact moment. So, hopefully that eases your pain from that scene. In any case, it was no worse than the entire premise.
If Silva wanted to humiliate, confront and kill M, all he had to do was sneak into her apartment like Bond did. And the Skyfall end game scenario was insanely ludicrous for both sides. Nobody would have wanted any part of it and it made no sense whatsoever... but it was neat nonetheless. =) Well, except for M dying anyway... wasn't half the point protecting her? Oh well!
Yeah, best not to think too much about that stuff. Anyway, I thought Silva was semi-interesting, mostly in his initial homoerotic introduction, but after that it was pretty standard super-competent but fatally-crazed bad guy stuff
(if I could have done without something it would probably be the Lector cell they put him in, I think those just need to be retired from movies at this point)
. Plus, I felt like he wasn't in the movie that much, I mean the focus shifted to him once he was introduced, but he wasn't around enough to connect with as a villain as much as I would have liked. Afterwards I couldn't help but think, once again, how interesting it would have been for Sean Connery to be the villain under similar circumstances. Talk about the best Bond ever.
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
I saw Skyfall too and I did like it. I thought Connery would have made an appearance too, since they showed the old car model, I thought it wasn't too farfetched for hime to appear.
 

MrWeatherby

What's up, ketchup?
TheBranded1 said:
I saw Skyfall too and I did like it. I thought Connery would have made an appearance too, since they showed the old car model, I thought it wasn't too farfetched for hime to appear.

I think there was an interview not too long ago where they said they wanted to cast him as the groundskeeper of Skyfall, but then they decided the audience would focus too much on him, and that it'd be strange to bring him back in a role that wasn't James Bond.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
MrWeatherby said:
I think there was an interview not too long ago where they said they wanted to cast him as the groundskeeper of Skyfall, but then they decided the audience would focus too much on him, and that it'd be strange to bring him back in a role that wasn't James Bond.

Thought of that too, especially with that welcome to Scotland line. Disappointing they didn't just roll with that and get the two best Bonds on screen (especially considering the 50th anniversary celebratory ending). If they had just played it straight I don't think it would have been any more weird and distracting than Albert Finney showing up as a random groundskeeper. Just much cooler. I hope Connery comes out and says he wouldn't have done it anyway just for my own peace of mind. =)
 
I recently watched Rust and Bone(De rouille et d'os). Pretty interesting story.Don't wanna spoil it for you guys, but it's definitely one of my favorite French/Belgian movies. Marion Cotillard is a goddess, and Matthias Schoenaerts is so badass. Also saw Rundskop(Bullhead), the other movie were he stars in.It was pretty good, for a Flemish movie.
 
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Rust & Bone is a damn good French film by the same guy who made A Prophet (if you've watched/ a fan of that). Beautifully shot (subtle show of shadows in between scenes or the shots in/ around water in general with the whales), well acted and engaging dialog puts this Drama on top of some of the generic movie that come out in Hollywood. Cotillard plays a whale trainer who develops a close bond with Matthias's character after she is involved in a life changing accident. Matthias' character is that of a flawed man living on the edge of poverty who has a son to take care of and you see a bit of a love-hate relationship between the two. Cotillard steals the movie for me and Matthias's character didn't do much for me until
the very end when he finishes taking a piss and for what follows
, great scene that considering the build-up to it. 9/10.

Have you watched this one, Aazealh?

EDIT: Just saw your post Devilwoman! Cool coincidence : p ... Bullhead by the way is amazing. I preferred Matthias in that one actually ... that last scene was cool.
 
IncantatioN said:
Rust & Bone is a damn good French film by the same guy who made A Prophet (if you've watched/ a fan of that).
Well I never really paid much attention to French cinema.Of course I've seen some of the most successful movies like The visitors(yeah I know that's pretty old), or movies by Luc Besson,if we can consider them French movies, because they have this Hollywood touch about them that I don't necessarily like.But the truth is ever since I saw the trailer, I liked Rust and Bone and I think it deserved to win in Cannes.Unfortunately I still haven't watched A Prophet by Jacques Audiard.I haven't watched it when it came out because back then I wasn't that interested in French movies. Also it's pretty hard for these movies to be released in the theaters in here ,let alone find a DVD . But I'll try to find it because I heard a lot of positive comments about it.

EDIT: Oh lol I thought you were replying to me.What a coincidence!
 
Haven't watched The Visitors, I'll check it out now that you mention it, thanks! I haven't seen a lot of French cinema but accidentally I get to see em when I try to check out something good/ recommended. It's prolly how I got around watching Breathless, A Prophet, Le Samourai, Von Gogh, Playtime, Delicatessen, Buffet Froid, La Haine, Cache, The Tenant, The Red Circle, To Our Loves, Eyes Without A Face and just a handful more. I wish I knew more :sad: ...

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Sleep Tight is a refreshing Spanish Thriller and it has a few unsettling scenes ... wait scratch that, the premise itself is twisted AND refreshing. Well-crafted, funny and the main lead played his part convincingly. The end is hilarious in a messed up way : p ... this's one of those movies where you're kinda rooting for the bad guy. 9/10.
 
^ Sweet.

Joe Chip said:
Have you seen Intouchables or Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. I really enjoyed them.

I'll check these 2 out, thanks mate. On my way to work I was looking at pictures of my movie-rack and realized I missed mentioning In My Skin, Fantastic Planet, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Martyrs, Irreversible. I need to pick up Alphaville and Death Watch =_='
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I saw Argo last night. It was really good, aside from Ben Affleck's wooden acting. He's a great director, though. I think he needs to stick to that and leave acting behind.

I'm seeing Lincoln in a few hours. I don't think I've been this excited for a film since True Grit. :guts:
 
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This was pretty fun, surprisingly decent actually. Sinister had a good ambiance to it though I thought the last 2/3 minutes should've been left out, but whatever. Hawke and his family move into a new house and gets the usual warning from the local deputy to leave. But he doesn't obviously, he's a writer finishing a book, investing a recent murder. 7/10.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
My girlfriend and I watched Men in Black 3 over the weekend. I enjoyed the first movie, but the second was disappointing. Fortunately, the third one was a lot of fun. I'm hoping they leave it at this and end on a high note, but my guess is we'll be seeing Men in Black 4 previews soon enough...
 
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