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Minor_Furie watched Schindler's List at school (no idea what subject).

He thought it was brilliant, but it clearly disturbed him. That's a good film, the film should disturb you. It should make you think hard about the horrors that occurred. It's a very hard movie, with a great point to bring across. The second world war was more than a bunch of gung ho soldiers yeehawing and screaming around in tanks and jeeps (as most WWII films and games portray it). It was a terrible period when evil men got the chance to exert power that should never have been in their hands.

It's a brilliantly handled film, brilliantly shot, brilliantly acted. It's not just a sad (true) story it rides on the back of, it's one of the best films shot to back up the powerful story.

And no, it's not a film to watch to enjoy. It's a film to watch to learn; not just about the horrors visited on the Jews, but also to learn a little about yourself and how to deal with intense emotions.

I've seen it once all the way through and partially a couple of times - but I could not bring myself to watch it all the way through again.
 
With this sentance, I'm also jumping on the Ollie bashing bandwagon regarding Schindler's List.

Anyway, back to reviews.

Fargo

I've got a boner for the Coen brothers atm and have all their films on my Lovefilm rental list. They (Lovefilm, not the Coen brothers) sent through Fargo.

Apparently based on a true story. Husband arranges for his wife to be kidnapped, with the idea that his wealthy father-in-law will pay the ransom. The kidnappers and him then split the cash and he can pay off his debts.

The film had suspense, superb direction and a chilled out pace. Some elements of dark humour was present - the pregnant cheif cop for example. Plenty of killing (but not needless killing) all topped out with quite a "homely" feel to the film.

On IDISOW?S, it's weeing in a pristine new urinal aiming at the little blue disinfectant block.

I also watched Star Trek.

Everybody has said that "you don't have to be a Star Trek fan to enjoy this film." And they were right.

I'm not a big fan of Sci Fi (I did watch the Next Gen, but only because I wanted to sound like Patrick Stewart) but I did enjoy the film.

As far as a no-brainer, explosion-filled, special effects and lighthearted films go, it was up there. None of the usual geekery that I automatically associate with Sci F was present.

On IDISOW?S, it's using a steaming hot jet of piss to write your name in the snow. Fun!
 
^ I love both of those films.


I watched Terminator 2 last night.

Absolutely amazing film, the special effects are superb and the action scenes are top notch.

Rating: 9/10

I also watched it on blu-ray which is superb.
 
The Grudge 2:
Didn't like the first one much but for some reason decided to watch the second. I'm weird like that. :p
Anyway the second one still failed to be scary at all. I don't see what people find so frighting about a girl who croaks and a boy who sounds like a cat randomly appearing around people. The story is very weak and doesn't make sense at times. There's no proper conclusion and it just seems to jump scenes randomly. The acting is pretty wooden and is typical American teen acting.
Avoid if you can. Unless you liked the first one for some reason. :?
5/10
 
Seen it all now so can write up a review. :)

Schindler's List:
Great film by Spielberg. It's shot excellently and the acting is great. The story is so powerful because it actually happened and he does well to show how sad it was and how horrible it was that millions of Jews got murdered.
I wasn't too keen on the idea of it being in black and white to begin with but now I don't think it would be nowhere near as good or effective as it was had it been in colour.
There were a couple of bits where colour was shown. The flame at the start and the girl in the red coat (and of course at the end). I'm not sure why they did this but it may of been so you spot the girl and then again later in the film.
The acting is great and makes it all seem so real. Some great performances in there by the cast.
The only negatives I could find with the film were that it's extremely long at over 3 hours, although I'm sure they tried to cut it down as much as they could without taking any impact away. It was also hard at times to understand what people were saying as they spoke quite quickly and their accents made it hard to pick up every word, but I managed to get past most of this by sticking on the subtitles as well. It didn't stop all of it though as the film seems to jump between different languages which don't have subtitles either so you have no idea what they're saying.
Overall it's an excellent film and very powerful. Something that a lot of people should watch if they have the opportunity. I'm glad I stuck it on again as it's a film you have to pay attention to all the way through.
9/10
 
^ That's more like it :p .

Shutter Island

I have wanted to see this since the first time I saw the commercial, and I felt so proud when my mom came out of the theatre confused and I actually UNDERSTOOD IT. Leonardo DiCaprio was actually not annoying, the storyline was interesting, and in a way it almost reminded me of 1408. The end is kind of cool because it can be taken in two ways as well, and I'm not sure which way I actually believe in; you'll know what I mean if you see it. Overall I definitely wasn't disappointed, though it was quite long, but didn't feel that way.

8/10
 
Ian said:
I've got a boner for the Coen brothers atm and have all their films on my Lovefilm rental list.
Can't wait to find out what you think of 'O Brother Where Art Thou'! Move it to the top of your list. :wink:
 
Watched Ed Wood with Minor_Furie the other night.

I still adore the film, and it's the best "Burton" in my opinion. The script is light, amusing and oddly moving at the same time. Depp is utterly fantastic as Ed Wood and the film has a re-watch value most Burton films don't.

I love the era portrayed, I love Ed Wood's awful movies, I love the film. Horse face ruins it, but she's not in for too long - 9/10.

Always finished watching Grey Gardens. I'm clueless about it :lol:

It's a really intriguing fly on the wall documentary. Both Edie's are brilliant characters - it's a real insight in the problems of eccentricity and fame I suppose? Problem is, it's not a period which interests me, and I'm not interested in the "social" side of the US at that time and popular culture and icons. So the characters and situation mean too little for me to really appreciate it.

It is interesting, but I think you need that "extra knowledge" to really get something out of it. Still, well worth a watch if you liked things like The Osbournes and want to see "real" people, actually acting themselves in their own abnormal way in front of cameras. Intriguing... 8/10.
 
I watch dorian graythe other day and though it was good. The story line was interesting (gut becomes corrupt but a painting of him take on his bad image because of the devil) Despite involving the devil and a living painting it was quite real in a sense. Worth a watch but not particuly worth going out of your way to watch it.

7/10 :twisted:
 
Alice in Wonderland 3D:
I left super early to see this to leave enough time to walk to the cinema, meet the girl I asked out and then go in to get the tickets.
First off that new trailer for Doctor Who in 3D was brilliant! Even if I'm not keen on Matt Smith being the new Doctor yet.

Anyway onto the film. In short, it was great. Not as epic as I thought it would be but it was still great fun to watch and really enjoyable. All the acting was really good from all the cast except for one.
I didn't like the girl who played Alice much at all at the start of the film. Her acting was pretty weak and I found her annoying. Although once she got to 'Wonderland' I grew to like her so it wasn't too bad.

The visuals are great as well. It had a lot to live up too after worlds in other films such as Avatar, although it still managed to be very colourful and had a nice look to it. The land was nice and imaginative and the creatures were cool as well.

I won't spoil anything that happens in the story but it's pretty decent. It could of been a bit stronger as they only brushed up on some things to move the plot along and some of the scenes seem to last quite a while as well.
Some of the scenes made everyone cringe as well which makes me wonder how it got a PG rating, but hey kids love seeing gross stuff. :p

The soundtrack was excellent. I was a bit annoyed that that epic song in the trailers wasn't in the film at all but all the other soundtracks were brilliant and well composed.

Overall it's a great film. Only things I can pick up on were Alice's performance at the start of the film, and the scene at the bottom of the rabbit hole with all the doors lasted far too long.
Don't believe what the papers are saying about it and go and see it. It's a great fun film to watch. :)
8.5/10
 
Alice in Wonderland

CRAP!

Complete load of arse nuggets!

I was REALLY looking forward to it, more than I have for any film in years and it was such a disappointment.

I'm not going to get onto the whole "the book was better" argument because I find it largely irrelevant for the most part. However, when you're taking something as iconic as Alice, you just shouldn't **** with it as much as Tim Burton has.

Ok, so it's a "sequel" to the original story. Don't **** ing call it Alice in Wonderland then! Horrible, horrible, horrible!

The only redeeming feature was Helena Bonham Carter, who was excellent. I'm just so over Johnny Depp now. Putting on a good accent does NOT automatically make it a good performance. He was sh!te.

I'm sooooooo pissed off at how **** ing awful the whole thing was. This could have/should have been brilliant, and it was shockingly, horrendously ****!
 
The film seems to have split opinion. Reviews in the press and stuff say only 52% said it was a good film and rated it 4 stars or higher. Also reviews on sites like IMBD and Flixter seem to be really mixed as well.

Critical reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 53% of critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.7 out of 10 based on 172 reviews. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 61%, based on a sample of 33 reviews. The site's general consensus is that, "Tim Burton's Alice sacrifices the book's minimal narrative coherence -- and much of its heart -- but it's an undeniable visual treat". Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 53 based on 36 reviews.

Todd McCarthy of Variety praised it for its "moments of delight, humor and bedazzlement", but went on to say, "But it also becomes more ordinary as it goes along, building to a generic battle climax similar to any number of others in CGI-heavy movies of the past few years". Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said "Burton has delivered a subversively witty, brilliantly cast, whimsically appointed dazzler that also manages to hit all the emotionally satisfying marks." while also praising its CGI, "Ultimately, it's the visual landscape that makes Alice's newest adventure so wondrous, as technology has finally been able to catch up with Burton's endlessly fertile imagination." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said, "But Burton's Disneyfied 3-D Alice in Wonderland, written by the girl-power specialist Linda Woolverton, is a strange brew indeed: murky, diffuse, and meandering, set not in a Wonderland that pops with demented life but in a world called Underland that's like a joyless, bombed-out version of Wonderland. It looks like a CGI head trip gone postapocalyptic. In the film's rather humdrum 3-D, the place doesn't dazzle — it droops." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said in his review that, Alice plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails."
 
Invictus

What a FAB film, never been too much of an Eastwood fan (as a director) - but if he can make more like this then I shall approve moreso of him!

Such a heartwarming and emotional human interest/sport film - although I'll be fully understanding as to why it will flop in America (and has done, most of it's takings being elsewhere). I mean, you can't exactly change the story for America to win the Rugby World Cup ;)

Sorry boys, this is one World Series that you never win (mainly due to other countries taking part :p )

Freeman's performance as Mandela was nothing short of perfect (although you somewhat expect it from him nowadays); and even Damon pulled off a brilliant François Pienaar! Both deserving their nominations - and Freeman SHOULD win!

I would recommend this film to anyone! It's no blockbuster (and no Ollie, you can't go to the cinema and just have it on in the background, you HAVE to pay attention) - but it does the job it was designed to. And very well at that!

South Africa winning the World Cup* at the end brought a tear to my eye and reminded me of a beautiful November evening when we lifted the Webb Ellis trophy! <3

9/10 - a must see says Neal!









*This is not a spoiler, no matter what any of you say. If you didn't know that South Africa won the 1995 World Cup you're a ****ing idiot and shouldn't be watching the film anyway as it will be wasted on you and your half wittedness ;)
 
Saw Alice in Wonderland.


Twas a good movie methinks. Johnny Depp did a pretty good job (and can dance pretty damn good as well :p) -Nice effects and a good all around movie.


8/10
 
kimahri said:
Anyone know if this version of alice is the same as Through the Looking Glass? Or based of it or what ever.

It's not based on either of them, apart from the characters. It's such a WASTED opportunity. All Burton had to do was give the book his usual dark twist and visuals, and he would have had something amazing, but no. It's been made as a sort of "sequel" to the books, with an adult Alice revisiting Wonderland. It's complete style over substance. The plot is so basic it's laughable.

It looks good,yes, but that's a given anyway. Actually, scratch that. There's just too much obvious CGI work, which really overpowers the whole thing.

It's completely devoid of any wit, humour or intelligence, which is what MAKES the books.

Epic fail.

RollerCoasterFanatic said:
Johnny Depp did a pretty good job

No, he didn't. As I said in my first rant, putting on an accent doesn't equal good acting. He did his usual British accent, but added a slight lisp to it. Wow, what an amazing performance! Oh, and he randomly went into a thick Scottish accent at times, I'm assuming to show the Hatter's madness. How clever of him! :sarcasm: So we get two accents for the price of one! Where's his oscar?!
 
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