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Saw The Hobbit this evening. I enjoyed it and felt less than 3 hours but at the same time was expecting a bit more and felt a bit let down.
This review I read sums up what I felt but he says it a lot harsher and didn't seem to enjoy it at all whilst I still enjoyed the film.
The bizarre, unfunny, slapstick humor is painful. This involves snot jokes, burping, poop hair, and lame one-liners. Adding all this stupid humor really messes with the tone; it doesn't feel like it belongs in the LOTR universe which "The Hobbit" is trying so hard replicate. The film will go from trying to be epic to pathetic gags. It doesn't work. I don't mind a little humor occasionally but this is just overdone and it makes the film feel very unbalanced.

Now to the pacing. Many say the beginning is slow but they're wrong. The entire film is slow! Radagast's involvement is pointless and his bunny sled is ridiculous. We also get to see Saruman and Galadriel in a boring scene that has absolutely no relevance to the main narrative. Wait, what exactly is "The Hobbit" about again? Apparently Jackson is trying to make connections with LOTR, but "Fellowship of the Ring" already explains past events pretty well. Seriously, all the LOTR fanboy pleasing scenes could have been left out (including Frodo). But no, we need them in order to have enough material for the trilogy. Not good.

And I understand that Jackson is taking material from the appendices of LOTR. I wouldn't have a problem with this if all these extra scenes actually advanced the plot. But the White Council just talks and they never decide to act on anything. Also, that scene has NOTHING to do with the dwarves reclaiming their homeland. At least in "Fellowship" the plot makes major advancements but in "The Hobbit" the story hardly goes anywhere.

Let's discuss the action. It's like watching a video game. The main orc villain, Azog, looks fake. Everything is CGI overload; there's no tension. Characters survive unbelievable situations. Compare the ending orc scene in this film to the one in "Fellowship". Huge difference. Unfortunately everything in "The Hobbit" is cartoonish. Not to mention most of the action has no impact on the story whatsoever.

Now to the characters. Gandalf is great but that is to be expected. Martin Freeman does fine as Bilbo but his transition from weakling to hero happens a little too quickly and feels unrealistic. Thorin is your typical warrior like character; I didn't care for him too much. All the other dwarves are just there and if you were to ask me to name them and describe something about their character, I couldn't do it. And I'm sure you couldn't either.

But the film does have some good. We get to see Smeagol and Bilbo interact in an iconic scene. The finding of the Ring is also significant and is really the only scene that should have any connection with LOTR unlike Galadriel, Frodo, etc. And that's about it. Honestly, nothing really happens. While watching "The Hobbit" you kind of forget about the main adventure because of all the padding. Then at the end you're like, "Oh yeah, there's a dragon." Maybe the second film will improve.
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Saw the Hobbit at a local cinema last night. Considering I haven't seen much of LoTR and never read any of the books, I found a really good film which kept me entertained for the length of it. The only downside is it did take a while to get going but once Bilbo left the Shire, it started to get good.
 
Films what I have resently woched in Skool by Gavin Jones

The Hunger Games

It was alright actually. Better than expected. I only really watched it to remind me what happens in the story before I read the second book. My main criticism would be that some parts of it were over-long while others seemed a bit rushed and a bit too brief. It just felt a bit inconsistent I guess. Definitely worth watching and more or less true to the book from what I remember.

Nativity

Not bad at all for a kids' Christmas film, but that's all it really is. Predictable and "heart-warming" (ugh), but with a few funny moments.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!/Band of Misfits!

I actually really loved this. Very funny, plenty of more adult jokes and a fab villain: Queen Victoria. Excellent film.
 
Re: "Now Showing"

Just got done watching El Sexo de los Angeles (Angles of Sex), and I must say that it was quite an interesting look towards a known, but not a commonly acknowledged, type of relationship; a monogamous turned open, which then falls into a polyamorous relationship. It was interesting on the note that it kind of just happens unexpectedly, so you see the questioning, trials, deceit and overall hardships of realizing their love isnt "normal", and neither is what they originally percieved normality to be.

Its cute, bit cheesy, steamy at times, has eye candy for both guys and girls and brings into light a non-societal definition of a succesful and healthy relationship (not just you amd your partner).

Overall, I give it a 3.5/5, bordering on 4 as Bruno and Rai are pretty hot :3
 
I think I'm the only person I know who still hasn't seen Skyfall, but would like to. I suppose at this point I'd best resign to picking it up when it comes out in Redboxes, since theaters are starting to phase it out and most of my friends have seen it already.

I'll also echo the sentiment of not caring at all about The Hobbit. LOTR just isn't my thing.. the first two movies were a chore for me to sit through, so I didn't even bother with the third one and I won't with this one either.

Some quick reviews of things I've seen recently which were new to me...

- The Girl Who Played With Fire: The sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Solid movie, well-acted and mostly effective, but as with many sequels, it's not as strong overall as the original installment. There were a few head-scratching moments that defied logic and explanation.

- Glengarry Glen Ross: A pretty slick film and a faithful adaptation of the play upon which it is based. Big fan of the neo-noir feel as well. Alec Baldwin's famous speech during his lone appearance in it is enough to give you a new lease on life!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZg_ALxEz0[/youtube]

- The Karate Kid: Awesomely classic 80's camp, just a good, clean, fun movie to watch. Don't know if I'll ever end up watching the sequels, but I'm happy enough having just seen the original.

Later this week, this Tarantino fan is definitely going to see Django Unchained. Can't wait!
 
I've tried to watch Tarintino films with an open mind, but after each, I just think why did I waste my time?

Been rewatching some good ones this weekend.
Dark Knight Rises, agree that it does feel as if it is better just in the living room, which is weird since I loved it.
Lawless was just as good as I remembered, although I wish they wouldn't have cast Mia Waskinowsi or whatever her name is, she just rubs me the wrong way.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, quite possibly my favorite movie. Always puts me in a better mood, and I use it as a sleep aide. Turn it on, fall asleep, do the same thing until I finish it. Usually takes about 4 or 5 nights. Jason Segal and Mila Kunis are great in it, Russel Brand is just annoying.
Hobbit (2D) I noticed the difference immediately, still quite good though.

On tap this week is This is 40 and probably either Monsters Inc. 3D, Jack Reacher, or Lincoln again. Love getting gift cards to the movies for Christmas!
 
Saw Pitch Perfect the other day.

Love this film, it's hilarious, has good music and is just a joy to watch. Brilliant stuff :D

Rating: 4.5/5
 
I was dragged to The Hobbit the ohter day with my friends. To be honest, I didn't think alot of it. I was fairly bored HOWEVER if you're a big Lord Of The Ring fan (I've only seen one) then I'm pretty sure you will love it, as a few of my friends did. So don't go by my judgement.
 
In a concerted effort to not be in the house today, I went to see a couple of films after doing a bit of shopping for Christmas presents for my brother's spawn.

Life of Pi

I really, really liked it. I wasn't impressed by the trailer at all; I thought they'd made one of my favourite books look like a kids' movie, but it wasn't like that at all. It was absolutely gorgeous to look at (the 3D really adds to it rather than being a gimmick) and ended up being one of very few films that, for me, fitted in perfectly with how I'd imagined it from the book. Obviously that's a pretty personal interpretation of it, and others might have read it differently, but even still, it's a gorgeous film.

I'm glad they waited this long to film it. Apparently, the rights to the book were bought over 10 years ago, but until very recently it was deemed "unfilmable". There's a lot of CGI, and it's quite obvious in parts, but it really doesn't matter. The main actor, can't think of his name off-hand and can't be arsed to check, was excellent as well.

Anyway, one of the best things I've seen in the cinema for a really long time.

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Bore Fest

I cannot understand how a film that is pretty much - after it gets going - wall-to-wall action, can be so **** ing tedious and actually boring.

Parts of it did look amazing, granted, but the 3D seemed largely unnecessary (yes, someone's going to come in and tell me it must have been good then if it was so unremarkable, but that's not what I mean) and the silly frame rate didn't make much of difference to be honest.

I'm actually a bit pissed off at the shameless "see it 3 times" method of selling this film. I won't see it in the other 2 formats, but plenty of people will, and it's just ugh.

So yeah, huge, visually-impressive, action-packed film that ultimately bored the **** out of me.
 
So far this week I've watched the following Christmas films:

The Santa Clause - A classic!
The Santa Clause 2 - Reasonable for a sequel
The Santa Clause 3 - Utter turd
Santa Who? - Leslie Nielsen <3 One of my favourites
The Snowman and the Snow Dog - OMG so much crying!
Arthur Christmas - Pretty fab. I'd actually like to watch it again, as I'm sure there's some stuff I missed
Annie Claus is Coming to Town - Not at all bad for a crappy TV movie

Non Christmasey films I've watched this week:

Enchanted - Cheesy concept, but I really loved it
The Mighty Uke - Well made and interesting documentary
 
Mirrormask- 6.5/10

It's a beautiful film, I'm just not sure I really picked out all the deep psychological bits that are meant to be in the movie. I suppose if I made better connections between the girl's dreamworld and her reality then maybe I would have enjoyed it more. I'll probably have to give it another chance because I think it's one of those movies that you have to watch a few times to really notice everything about it. But yeah, the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, I just felt like the actual story was a mix of Labyrinth, Neverending Story, and Alice in Wonderland, which isn't necessarily bad because those are all good films.
 
The Campaign

I really liked this. Some really hilarious moments and overall a funny film.

Dark Knight Rises

Finally got around to watching this after missing it in the cinema. It was alright. That's it really. I think I was expecting too much as I'd heard pretty much nothing but amazing things about it.

Considering it's a Batman film, Batman is probably on screen for all of 15 minutes, which is probably a good thing as Christian Bale's Batman voice got on my **** ing tits. I have no idea why he was allowed to get away with doing it; it just sounds so, so stupid. I can only assume that the director was too scared to have a word with the arrogant cock about it since nobody in their right mind would find it appropriate.

Anne Hathaway was good though; they should have used her a bit more.
 
Django Unchained

Classic Tarantino, pretty much exactly what I was expecting. Strong dialogue, solid performances from the stars, some good witty moments, plenty of action & gore (a bit more than I bargained for at times).. good entertainment overall. It's very much in the same vein as Inglourious Basterds in that it's a revenge fantasy story where an oppressed people (or in this case one person) rise up & take violent revenge against their oppressors, but it doesn't feel too cookie-cutter. Put it this way, it's a 2 hour 45 minute film and I never felt bored, or that it was dragging on too long.
 
I too thought Pitch Perfect was pretty fab!

It was a little dull at times, but the humour and sexy girls totally made up for it!
 
The Impossible

*snooooorrreeee*

OK, that's a bit mean. The special effects, make-up and sets were all rather good, but whoever wrote the script just does not know how to write realistic sounding dialogue, especially for children. It was silly and overdramatic, even given the premise.
 
gavin said:
Christian Bale's Batman voice got on my **** ing tits. I have no idea why he was allowed to get away with doing it; it just sounds so, so stupid. I can only assume that the director was too scared to have a word with the arrogant cock about it since nobody in their right mind would find it appropriate.
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It was Christopher Nolan who made his voice that stupid in post, apparently. 'needed it to be grittier' is what Ive heard. :|
 
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