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peep

CF Legend
^I love the director but he does make some absolutely dire kids films. Silly man, should go make more decent films.


Anyways, today I went back to the London's BFI IMAX and saw Under the Sea 3D.

I was very impressed, then again 3D IMAX films usually do. Jim Carey narrated the documentary and wasn't as annoying as expected, actually amusing at times. Fish are amusing and interesting and so overall the film was very enjoyable.

Rating: 4/5
 
Atonement

I always saw this in stores but never bought it but after I bought my sister Ice Age, I realized it was a 2 for $25 deal that Atonement was included in, so obviously I picked it up.

The movie itself for some reason confused me a little bit beacuse it did jump around to different time frames once in a while, but it wasn't too hard to follow. Also, I felt it ended a bit too abruptly, but in a way that was kind of good because it didn't end up with just being a happy ending, but rather a very bad ending you would not expect at all. It's mostly like.. A happy-ish ending happens, then the time frame switches to when one of the characters is old, to which then she proceeds to tell audiences "well that ending was made up, the main guy dies of Septicemia and my sister dies two weeks later of a bomb". So it was sad, but it was so abrupt that there wasn't really time to be sad, it was just a feeling of like.. "Oh". I felt they didn't really give you a chance to get to know the characters THAT well either.

Overall it's a decent love story but I'm not SUPER into the whole romance scene. Certainly better than your average one though and I liked how it didn't conform to the stereotypical "together forever" endings.
7.5/10
 

the_missus

Mega Poster
Inglourious Basterds

Saw this last night and loved it!! I'm not the biggest Tarantino fan out there, but this film was brilliant!! The direction of this film, I thought was just awesome! The soundtrack was just weird, but oddly fitted quite well.

I haven't watched a film that's made me laugh, cringe and feel sad all at the same time. This film is immense and as Jordan said, the end scene....well it's just epic!!

When it finished at the Cinema, there was actually a standing ovation....I haven't seen that happen in years!! So that's a testament to how good this film is.

So yeah, go see it!!
 

Slash

Giga Poster
Cloverfield

This is seriously one of the best films ever. Its not a conventional plot and its not a plot that clearly shows a defined movement of whats happening but its just simply fun to watch.

Synopsis
The movie starts with a party. A man called Rob is leaving New York for Japan when all of a sudden, there is a huge earthquake. Everyone runs to the top of the building to see what it was. When buildings nearby are blown to smithereens. Turns out there is a monster in New York and its devouring people and buildings in its wake. Its the story of four people trying to escape this monster

The camera isn't what you would normally have in a film, its in the point of view of one of the protagonists. One of the protagonists of the film is merely carrying around a camera of which he was using to film testimonials for Robs leaving but then uses it to film the wake of what happened, the camera is passed around a few times so different people are using it but mostly one character "Hud". In my opinion this greatly amplifies the feelings in the film as it makes it more personal, as if your actually there.

Overall Cloverfield is a thriller, a movie to make you jump and be gripped. It has its share of gore, humour and action that keeps you nailed to your seat for the entire 1 hour 24 (including titles and credits!).

Overall I give it an 8/10 because I feel the movie's story wasn't expanded enough.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Slash said:
Cloverfield

This is seriously one of the best films ever. Its not a conventional plot and its not a plot that clearly shows a defined movement of whats happening but its just simply fun to watch.

It's not one of the best films ever - sorry :p

There are two major issues with the film.

1. You don't care if any of the protagonists live or die. Like Blair Witch, they're all irritating enough for you to cheer when they bite the dust.

2. The film is too much a "standard cliche horror" with a sparkly wrapping. I think the idea of the film is excellent, and the documentary style way of telling it is superb - particularly near the beginning of the film (the first ten - fifteen minutes of post party 'action' are very good indeed).

The problem is that after that, it becomes very transparent that the camera technique is being deliberately used to create "standard cliche horror". It pulls the realism out of the film for me - dumps me out of that suspension of disbelief it had me in.

It is fun and it is good, but it's far from great.

Best do some catch up reviews actually.

Platoon - One of those films I saw on release when I was a teen. I loved it back then. It was full of everything a teen could want. Swearing, violence, blood, violence, drugs, violence, a serious message, violence, violence and a bit more violence.

It's a really odd one to revisit actually. I remember how touching the film was, lots of emotion. And it's still something of an emotional roller coaster. However, it seemed to me now to be a bit of a 'big pot o'stuff' on the stove.

As a teen, I loved the needless violence (it's not needless it's portraying 'Nam). Now, it sickens me. I've grown up and understand that this is a representation of things that really happened.

As a teen, I thought I was so in touch with my feelings to understand the tensions and to feel when Elias goes down to the psychotic Barnes. Now it feels a bit cheesy and over the top. Like Oliver Stone needed to have a bad guy/good guy thread in the film to give the audience a story to cling to.

As a teen, the message of the mess of the war and how screwed up it made everyone, yadda yadda yadda appealed to my teen sense of righteousness. Now, it all feels a bit ham fisted. It may be that over the years, having seen a lot of Vietnam films, you become a bit tired of the whole "what were we doing and how many people did we screw over?" message. I think maybe it's the fact that I find Sheen really cloying and whiny - like he'd have survived five minutes in Apocalypse Now next to his daddy!

I do think it's still a good film, but it was on a teen pedestal. It's been knocked from what I'd have always said was one of the best films I'd seen to "pretty good". Ah well, the joys of mistakes in your youth :)

Still worth a 4/5

Next, the family watched The day the Earth stood still. I'll quote madame_Furie

Madame_Furie said:
That was a rubbish ending! It didn't explain anything

It's okay my dear, the entire film was rubbish, you shouldn't have had high hopes for a good ending. :)

I am a fan of the original, and I don't object to remakes - as long as they're actually good. This had none of the charm of the original. The entire point of it seemed to be lost in some kind of swamp of script. The tension of the original with Klatu on the run, the quest to get him to change his mind - it all worked brilliantly. Thanks to the piece of oak board performance of Reeves, tension was in short supply - as was any sign of a decent script. Boys own adventure time with the brat struggling to work out the script.

It all went rapidly downhill with the "we have a cool scene where Gort destroys this, but for the rest of it the destruction will be according to plot needs" ending.

Churned out run of the mill pap, based on probably one of the best Sci-Fi B-Movies ever made. I'd give the original a 7/10, but the remake a 5/10.

Pap!
 

Uncle Arly

Strata Poster
[Rec]. I love this film so much. It's probably my perfect horror film. It just feels so real, the chracters, locations, even the premise of the "walking dead" works so much better than other films out there.

I've heard there is a sequel to be released later this year, I realy hope they can keep up the same standard.

Anyway, I'll give [Rec] a 9.9/10.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
^YES! Another [Rec] lover. :D

That film is so amazing. My favourite horror movie ever and I've lost count how many times I've seen it now.
Can't wait to see the second one. Especially as I'll be old enough to see it in the cinema when it comes out. :)
 

Slash

Giga Poster
furie said:
Slash said:
Cloverfield

This is seriously one of the best films ever. Its not a conventional plot and its not a plot that clearly shows a defined movement of whats happening but its just simply fun to watch.

It's not one of the best films ever - sorry :p

There are two major issues with the film.

1. You don't care if any of the protagonists live or die. Like Blair Witch, they're all irritating enough for you to cheer when they bite the dust.

2. The film is too much a "standard cliche horror" with a sparkly wrapping. I think the idea of the film is excellent, and the documentary style way of telling it is superb - particularly near the beginning of the film (the first ten - fifteen minutes of post party 'action' are very good indeed).

The problem is that after that, it becomes very transparent that the camera technique is being deliberately used to create "standard cliche horror". It pulls the realism out of the film for me - dumps me out of that suspension of disbelief it had me in.

It is fun and it is good, but it's far from great.

Maybe, but have you read up about why the Cloverfield Monster attacks? It adds greatly to the film and a lot of the film you'll miss because things happen in the background that tell the tale of the monster.

Slusho (www.slusho.jp) this is the company Rob becomes Vice President to. they make a soft drink that uses products from the "Deep Ocean Floor", Tagruato (www.tagruato.jp) is the company that drills this product. If you notice at the start of the film their oil rig is pulled down in the news report.

Also Tagruato have a satelite. At the end of the movie Rob pans out with his camera and shows the sea. If you didn't notice, something falls into it. This is the satelite that wakes the monster up. It then takes down the oil rig and confused it goes to New York and pulverises everything thats there. If you notice when Hud is looking at the monster the monster appears to have fish like appearances and external pouches for lungs. That is because its a sea creature. Like Hud talks about earlier in the film, the monster was indeed believed to be extinct but was dormant until the satellite woke it up.

Along with this Teddy sends his girlfiend, Jamie, a sample of something. Its actually one of the basic compounds of Slusho's drink. He tells her NOT to drink it and especially keep it cool. She does neither and Hud films her on the sofa looking ill. This is because if you drink too much they find out that your stomach bloats or even explodes. Much like when Marlena was bitten by the creatures that came from the Cloverfield Monster.

Just thought id tell everyone that.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hmmmm... So I have to go away and read something to really enjoy the film, find the characters less irritating and make the cliche section in the latter half of the film that make the film really dire and ruin suspension of disbelief excellent?

I suspect that unveiling the spoiler above will not fix the films fundamental flaws ;)

Just read it, I was right. The last half of the film is still a dreadful cliche and ruins the promise of the excellent fifteen minutes after the initial attack :)
 

Slash

Giga Poster
Fair enough after all its your opinion and I respect that, I was just telling you these things.

I admit the first half was better than the second but it was still a great film in my mind.
 

peep

CF Legend
Watched two DVDs today. First was Scream.

I like this film, I love how it plays with the genre like a cat with a ball of string. I do however struggle to watch it without remembering the Scary Movie version of some scenes, slightly ruins it now.

Rating: 4/5


Then I watched Star Wars: Episode I.

This was the first time I watched it the whole way through and I rather enjoyed it, apart from Jaja Binks. The action scenes are really good and the music is epic.

Rating: 3/5
 

mrclam

Giga Poster
Sorry to be a grumpy pumpy with regards to avatar.. but im TRYING my best to not know ANYTHING about the film until i see it...

I find a lot of movies get spoiled by too much hype before they get released - to the point that all twists are pretty much given away - etc.
 

Ollie

CF Legend
^^How can you not like Jar Jar Binks?

^I'm not to bothered about avatar. Not looked into it at all and haven't read/watched anything about it so I should see what it's like without it's hype.
I've heard the Avatar game is going to be in 3D and that's about it.
 

the_missus

Mega Poster
Slash said:
Cloverfield

This is seriously one of the best films ever.

I wouldn't go that far. I really enjoyed the film and thought it was a bit different, but wouldn't say it was one of the best films ever. There's too many great films out there, all for different reasons and unfortunately this doesn't really compare......well for me anyway.

Now the film I watched last night was Slither. This has shot right up into one of my favourite films, it was just so funny!!! I love horrors and comedies and when the two are combined well, makes for a very happy Nat! Some of the dialogue in this film had me in absolute stitches, very very enjoyable film indeed!!!
 

peep

CF Legend
Haha, seems that watching one Star Wars film wasn't enough for me so I just watched Episode 2 and 3 :p

Once again I thoroughly enjoyed them. I've actually realised that I love these films more than I first thought lol, random.
 

mrclam

Giga Poster
the_missus said:
Now the film I watched last night was Slither. This has shot right up into one of my favourite films, it was just so funny!!! I love horrors and comedies and when the two are combined well, makes for a very happy Nat! Some of the dialogue in this film had me in absolute stitches, very very enjoyable film indeed!!!

The soft pron with sharon stone?
 

peep

CF Legend
Just watched Scream 1 & 2 on DVD.

I like these sequels, I love how the whole trilogy plays with the genre but I said that yesterday :p

May watch the rest of Star Wars tonight, haha, mega film geek times.


EDIT: CBA with double-posting. Just watched Star Wars episodes 4, 5 and 6. My geek radar is off the scale :p

When fans got all fussy about the alterations for the DVD I never quite realised that in the sixth installment they,

Replaced the guy playing Vader with Hayden Christensen (the guy who play Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vadar in episodes 1-3)

So that was really odd. I also noticed that they added loads of celebration scenes which kinda worked, though I did spot Jar jar Binks lol.

Overall, well this saga of films is absolutely amazing, nothing comes close to how epic it is (LOTR fails). Do I now go on to watch Clone Wars though?
 
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