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Saw The Men who Stare at Goats on Starz the other day.

Not exactly sure how I felt about this. The comedy it has is alright and got me a couple giggles, while the whole strangeness of it all was pretty awesome. Not to mention the writer in the story is in the next city over.

Overall, it was alright, but I likely won't watch it again unless someone else is watching it, too.
7/10
 
E.T: The Extra Terrestrial was, unfortunately, a tad over-rated. I've had people my whole life going "How could you not have seen it?! It's amazing!", and I was left feeling that it was not "amazing", but just good. It was cute, it was a little soppy, and felt the whole "being taken away/experiments" thing kinda wasn't needed and spoilt the warmth from the film, but it was good.not amazing.

AHHHH, NOOOO </3

I have yet to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, even though I've owned it for like, two years.
 
^ Yes ^_^ AND WATCH IT! It is <3

I forgot to add that I saw Brighton Rock (2010) the other day. Visually and cinematically, it was made of nom, but the story didn't carry, and I left feeling really disapointed. It had good potential, but I know it's based on the original, blah, blah...

6/10
 
I quite liked The King's Speech, but, Helena and Geoffery were much more interesting than Colin.

8/10 I'd say. Good, but, Black Swan was better.
 
Black Swan Natalie Portman is fit and the film is ****ed up. Go see it. Oh and there isn't as much ballet as I thought there would be. It is beautiful though, in a sense.

8/10
 
^It's a deliberate deconstruction of the psycho/horror/bogeyman template, while still being within the stereotype, which should make it interesting!

ciallkennett said:
Black Swan. Just pure brilliance (sorry Slayed :p)
No need to apologise - we all have our own opinions, yours just happens to be wrong :p.

ciallkennett said:
E.T: The Extra Terrestrial was, unfortunately, a tad over-rated. It was good...not amazing.
See above :p.

Saw Tangled. I'd heard good things, but I was taken aback by just how good this is!

The key aspect here is the animation. Disney Studio's CGI work thus far has been very mediocre, but showed a definite improvement with Bolt - if not so much technically then at least in tone and script.

Well they got the director of Bolt jointly back in the saddle for Tangled, and this time the advancement in the quality of the animation is ENORMOUS.

The definition and movement of the human characters is stunning - I would venture better than what Pixar has thus far achieved, given that it drives the entire film in ways only The Incredibles has managed (and that was deliberately exaggerated).

Just watch the main characters closely for the level of facial animation and character work involved - it's hugely detailed, constantly front of screen, and they've managed to find the perfect sweet spot between fantasy and reality.

This extends to the two main (non-talking) animal characters - the animation and especially the timing is simply sublime. I was in awe.

There was a time no so long ago where CG animators went out of their way to AVOID hair - and here we have an entire film all about it! Watch the cloth behaviour of the clothes, the quality of the lighting - just amazing (oddly the water simulation was a bit rubbish).

Added to that, this is by far the best use of 3D I've seen outside of Avatar. The use of space by the directors is stunning - constantly the composition of a shot is defined by it's creative use of space, purely to enhance the shot and without breaking the suspension of belief with cheap 3D tricks. Brilliant stuff.

Aside from the animation, I thought they made a commendable effort to update a fairy-tale for modern audiences. I didn't find the songs particularly enthralling, Rapunzel was sometimes annoying, and the use of modern language seemed too anachronistic at times, but it was never less than entertaining, and given the constraints of a known fairy-tale they did a great job in finding a rewarding plot.

I do think they underminded some of the soul of the film by missing opportunities to make the main characters more engaging - comic effect occasionally takes over too much from proper character development.

But overall I was highly impressed, and I can't wait to see where this Disney 3D CG team takes us next.

(Nice interview with the directors here).
 
Watched Brighton Rock on Wednesday.

Was not a fan to be honest. The trailer was very misleading showing many of the Mod scenes and I was expecting a Mods and skinheads type film. I should have done my research as it was nothing of the sort. It was like a 3 part BBC drama but all in one. Or a really long episode of Heartbeat.

Watched Catfish yesterday.

Its a true documentary and its just weird. Although the scenes you are actually watching are quite boring you can't help but keep watching to find out what the hell is going on and how it is going to end. Its quite engaging in that way and if you wanted something different to watch I would recommend it.

Just watched The social network

Its interesting and a good watch but could definately have been shorter and the storyline isn't that incredible but thats probably because as its about Facebook you know whats coming next. I would recommend it though.
 
Buried

Great movie.. but the ending was just so.. depressing. The movie really drew you into the story.. and Ryan Reynolds probably did the best acting I've ever seen from him.

9/10


Dial M for Murder

Silly guy messed up ONE thing.. or it woulda worked out.

9/10
 
Right, just a few film reviews from me :p

N.E.Ds

About some bright Scottish lad who grows up to be evil due to the area he lives in and the people around him. Some would say it's a clever drama but I just found it dull, annoying and generally uninteresting. There is one scene in particular near the end that just doesn't fit in at all and just downgrades it even more in my opinion. Not a fan of this film what so ever.

Rating: 1/5


Hereafter

Over the last few years I've grown to like Clint Eastwood's films (when he isn't acting in them), I think he is a great director. However I have to ask, why the hell did he make this film? Following three separate people going through different emotional back-stories that miraculously happen to merge together towards the end in a way that is kinda predictable and doesn't work because it's trying to make the situations believable and they're just not. The acting isn't too bad, I think Matt Damon is quite good but all he does is mope around and gets a tad boring after a while. The story isn't anything special and like I've already mentioned with the whole 3 stories coming together thing not working you wonder if there is anything worse. Oh wait...there is! I'm a fan of both filming on location and studio sets but when you try to use a real location but use a studio instead but then completely make up what the real location looks like in a very populated area (London) and try to make it out to be what it's not it just doesn't work. No Mr Eastwood, since when has Charing Cross tube station been in a corner building in clear sight?! That made me angry (though I probably haven't worded it the right way). There is one very small redeeming feature in this film, but if I was to tell you about it would give it away and the thing that makes it good is that you don't know about it but I can say it's the first 5-10 mins of the film and is the reason it is nominated for a CGI Oscar (even though it doesn't deserve it as there is far superior CGI than that in better films). So yeah, I HATED this film.

Rating: 1/5


How do you know

I went in thinking, "this could be really terrible or enjoyable as I like half the cast and hate the other half" :p. Unfortunately it was the former opinion. The script was really lame, the acting was poor (due to the poor script imo), the camera work was really shoddy and it made me laugh like, once? Just over-predictable, boring and well, a kid could have written something better.

Rating: 1/5


I wasn't really having a very good week was I?

The Dilemma

I like Ron Howard but not everything he directs is good, this is another example of something he shouldn't have signed on to direct. I just found it annoying and not very funny. Surprisingly I thought Channing Tatum and Queen Latifah had the best parts. Both of them were very funny every time they were on screen, shame there wasn't more of them and less of the annoying one (Vince Vaughn).

Rating: 2/5


Barney's version

LOVED THIS FILM! Paul Giamatti as a horrible, corrupt man going through his troubled love life. He's genius and every scene he is in he just gets better and better and the story just grabs you as the plot thickens. It's rather simple but genius at the same time, it may be slow but it just works really well. I also thought Rosamund Pike was excellent, absolutely perfect in that role.

Rating: 4.5/5


Sanctum 3D

I went in not really knowing what to expect, maybe a few jumps and scares etc. However I watched a very good drama with the occasional scene with awesome 3D (underwater scenes were epic). The acting was mediocre but the fascinating story with the random moments of very graphic gore and wonderful cinematography just made it very good. It was one of those nice surprises at the cinema for me, expecting it be mediocre-rubbish and coming out having really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5


Brighton Rock

Not a fan of this film at all. The main character was just too dislikeable for me to enjoy the film (I think it suffers from the same issue that I had with N.E.Ds). Some of the cinematography was nice but the story felt ropey and I found myself bored a lot of the time, actually looked at my metaphorical watch at one point! I thought the only interesting scenes were whenever Helen Mirren was on screen and a scene towards the end, actually quite edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Rating: 1/5


The Fighter

This had been getting a lot of hype and I was hoping it would live up to it...IT DID! Yay, happy peep (especially as he had to PAY to see this one lol). I thought it was excellent throughout. The acting from the entire cast was just superb and it's quite scary the lengths Wahlberg and Bale went to just to look like the people they were portraying. It's one exhilarating, emotional rollercoaster ride and it is very entertaining. Amy Adams <3 she needs to be in more (apart from those awful rom-coms like Leap year). So yeah, if you haven't, you should check this film out, it's fantastic.

Rating: 4.5/5


Rabbit Hole

I didn't like the look of this film due to the trailer but I like seeing all the BAFTA/Oscar nominated films so I saw it, I'm very glad I did. I thought it would just be moping about all the time but it's very good, really interesting characters and it's great to see Diane Wiest in a really good role again (she is excellent in Parenthood). To be honest, the entire cast were excellent and I loved a particular scene with Sandra Oh and Aaron Eckhart, nice way to break up the very emotional scenes. It's surprisingly very enjoyable to watch. Not sure if Kidman should be up for the Oscar but she was certainly really good.

Rating: 4/5


Biutiful

Javier Bardem is nominated for an Oscar for his role in this film and I find it hard to see why. The film was just plain boring, the story wasn't very interesting and when something of interest did happen it felt very out of place. The film was very slow and I found myself looking at that mysterious metaphorical watch again. I just don't approve of this film in any way.

Rating: 1/5


I also saw Tangled and Kings Speech again. Love them both, especially Kings Speech, I loved pointing out to my Nan and Mum all the people I know on the credits :p

Should be seeing True Grit and Gnomeo and Juliet on Sunday, really looking forward to seeing both :D
 
^
So a few to miss (which I might have otherwise considered), and others that I may have to try. But Never Let Me Go is clearly next week's priority, for obvious reasons :p
 
^Never let me go, I won't be seeing at the cinema as I saw it at the London film festival. You can trawl through the topic to find my initial review but to sum it up, it's a very good drama with a random sci-fi twist that is only hinted at occasionally.
 
Yeah, you tried to explain it to me, but without giving too much away WAY back in October, around the same time as making Black Swan sound like want (which it was.) Everything I've heard's been promising anyways.
 
Just finished watching The Lost Boys Which I used to be terrified of when I was a kid. Can you really blame me when my sisters used to tell it ws scare me and threaten to put it on (along with Mars Attacks and one of the 1989 Batman movies.

I quite enjoyed it actually. Was uh, fun movie. But I'll take The Goonies anyday for my 1980's movie.
 
Nice reviews Snoo, peep and spicy.

I saw Rabbit Hole the other day - excellent drama, emotional at times, nice story, and overall pleasant film to watch. Unexpected bliss.

7.5/10

Watched Inception at a special screening at the cinema on Friday for the 4th time on big screen, 5th time altogether. Still amazing, still my favourite film ever.

Advanced showing of Chalet Girl this morning. It's a bog standard feel good film which has the same old storyline about falling in love. Had a couple of laughs, and Bill Nighy made most of them. Nothing amazing, but hey ho.

5/10
 
Saw two more films today. First up was Gnomeo & Juliet (in 2D)

I really enjoyed it, a simple twist on the famous Shakespear play. They really played on the fact that it has been done many times before etc which I liked and the voice cast is excellent, random but pure brilliance. It's just very good fun and there are moments which are very funny. I quite like some of Elton John's songs so I thought it just added to it in a nice way. It's just really weird seeing a Touchstone Pictures logo at the front of a film again.

Rating: 4/5


I also saw True Grit (2011)

I love the Coen Brothers, I think they are excellent directors and they've pulled out yet another fantastic film. It was just really good, Hailee Steinfeld is definitely the biggest highlight though. She carries the film throughout so well, still don't understand how she has been nominated for best supporting actress at the Oscars when she is clearly the female lead of the film and so amazing in the role too (know why? let me know, thanks). I thought the soundtrack was excellent as well, typical western fare which I really love. I you haven't seen it yet then I recommend that you do.

Rating: 5/5


Oh and I forgot to say in my last post. I was talking to someone last month about that Rubber film, looks awesome, can't wait to see it, has cult hit written all over it :p
 
Shawshank Redemption

In short, this film is bloody amazing... Brilliant character performaces, it's such a different film to what we see on a regular basis nowadays...

Character development and acting was damn spot-on... I can't really find faults with it... It didn't seem long, the main characters were all interesting, it was upsetting, it was hopeful...

It was damn near perfect, defo deserves number 1 on IMDB...

10/10
 
I've heard mixed reviews on Gnomeo and Juliet - but as I trust in your opinion peep, I may wait until it comes out on DVD and rent it.

peep said:
Oh and I forgot to say in my last post. I was talking to someone last month about that Rubber film, looks awesome, can't wait to see it, has cult hit written all over it :p

Rubber <3 I can't wait to see that! Looks too good to be true! :p

Also, saw the trailer for Source Code the other day at the cinema - I remember seeing the trailer months ago and thinking it will either be amazing or complete tripe - I hope not the latter. The newer trailer I saw the other day does indeed make it look very good.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE[/youtube]
 
Hot Fuzz

This is one of those films that are even funnier to watch a second time, because everything that's said or shown during the first half of the movie turns out to be important later on. And I mean everything. It's awesome, possibly my second favourite film ever.

10/10
 
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