Good films I watched this weekend (Vol 2)
Discussion
ash73 said:
Halb said:
Lone Star on tonight.
Never seen that before, thanks for the top tip, was good 
cirian75 said:
the 2003 Battlestar Galatica mini series, all 3 hours in one go
Shows that SciFi can be gritty and character driven with the right actors, writer and director
On the telly?Shows that SciFi can be gritty and character driven with the right actors, writer and director
The Grand Seduction
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Langweilig said:
White Tiger - An Oscar-nominated subtitled Russian film. A veritable tank fest. A Soviet tank commander survives an encounter with an enhanced Tiger tank that proves unbeatable in combat.
Just popped by to say thanks for this; hadn't heard of it before but it was a genuinely excellent piece of film making. The story line is not for everyone, even if you like tank movies, but the acting, production and especially the photography could be shown every day as a training class in Hollywood studios. Not sure whether to give it a go ? Try this handy test:- do you like tank movies ?
- did you think Fury was a real let-down ?
- are you ok with subtitles ?
- are you a fan of the 'less is more' school of acting ?
- does it annoy you when WW2 movies have infantry grunts with shiny pressed uniforms and gleaming dentistry ?
- did you ever regret that the X Files didn't do an episode set on the WW2 Russian Front ?
- would seeing a ghost tank emerge from the swamp mist with the Tannhäuser overture playing seem entirely reasonable ?
5 or more Yes ? Watch this film, in as high-res a version as you can.
Legend83 said:
confucuis said:
Untouchable (or "The Intouchables" to give it its correct name) was on last night, brilliant film. Love the opening scene with the Maserati!
Love every scene from that film! Can't actually think of a bad bit in the whole thing? Anyone?GetCarter said:
In my top 10. Seen it half a dozen times and will gladly watch it again (and again). What's not to like? LOVE the music by Einaudi.
On the subtle scale, I would say the soundtrack is one of the best I have ever heard.I think if I were to be uber-critical I would have changed the script to have the film end at the hotel balcony scene (with Eleonore secretly joining them on the balcony instead of having the slightly predictable restaurant scene as the finale.
I'm looking forward for the upcoming Child 44 film because I like the cast and a part of the story. However, reading the book it appears that the author, Tom Rob Smith, simply took all the investigation leads from actual Chikatilo's case and put them without any kind of artistic approach in it, except only changing era from late eighties to 1953. He did a huge amount of work investigating what was happening in the USSR at the time, but the only part of the story I really like is the relationship between the lead and his wife. Otherwise it's pretty much a lazy job and stereotyping.
The reason why I say this is the other film I watched tonight - Citizen X. It removes from fiction much more, and follows the investigation with some great detail. It is much more believable than the story made up for the aforementioned upcoming film, has a great cast and excellent chemistry between them, particularly Donald Sutherland and Stephen Rea. I was genuinely amazed that this film comes from Asylum film company, which typically known for cack. Highly recommended (not for the weak-hearted, though).
The reason why I say this is the other film I watched tonight - Citizen X. It removes from fiction much more, and follows the investigation with some great detail. It is much more believable than the story made up for the aforementioned upcoming film, has a great cast and excellent chemistry between them, particularly Donald Sutherland and Stephen Rea. I was genuinely amazed that this film comes from Asylum film company, which typically known for cack. Highly recommended (not for the weak-hearted, though).
Legend83 said:
The Grand Seduction
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Sounds like a re hash of the 1983 burt Lancaster film "local hero". No? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Crossflow Kid said:
Streamed "'71" on Saturday night.
Not a bad little movie. Slightly predictable overall, but very authentic looking and genuinely captivating.
Captured the dreariness of 1970s Belfast pretty well, and the occasional "big" effects were well done, with some hint of the less overt and slightly sinister goings-on between the various factions involved and the British Army.
From the clips I have watched it looks like it would be entertainingNot a bad little movie. Slightly predictable overall, but very authentic looking and genuinely captivating.
Captured the dreariness of 1970s Belfast pretty well, and the occasional "big" effects were well done, with some hint of the less overt and slightly sinister goings-on between the various factions involved and the British Army.
Same location different theme
I watched "Good Vibrations" the other night
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1920945/
I really enjoyed it
Based on real life events
The Imitation Game
This film is right up my street. I love film in general, but I am a patriot and have a soft spot for war drama, especially WWII. The trailer looked awesome. I loved the director's previous film, 'Headhunters'. I was ready to love this too.
Let me start off - there are some good aspects. Firstly, the fact that the story is being told in the first place, it's important. There are also a couple of dramatic 'set ups', and a eureka moment, which was the most memorable of the film.
However, that's it. With 20-30 minutes to go, I was actually willing it to end. Where do I start?
He's autistic, according to the film. That's highly debatable in real life. However, it's laid on so thickly there are laboured scenes just to explain autism. There is a flashback scene with him is school which explained autism, and how he felt perfectly in ten seconds, which would have made sense at the start, but it was at the end.
And that is the problem with the film. I felt like the autistic person, and I must be honest I don't think the film is that clever to do that on purpose.
I felt little emotion for the characters, and it was like I was always looking at the wrong thing as the story was more focussed towards artistic licence and made up side-stories rather than the crux of why Turing was a hero. Laboured scenes trying to promote Turing's debatable autism as fact, and Keira Knightley as an empowered female role take precedence over showing actual human stories of how important the Enigma machine was. It gets demoted to a few dialogue lines and some stock footage rather than actually showing the human impact.
Turing was a good marathon runner. That's not explained, instead we just see Cumberbatch running twice for no reason like some kind of b
d child of Forrest Gump and Jar-Jar Binks, the second time stopping poetically, exhausted in front of the sunset.
It jumped back and forth in flashback, for an artificial construct, and some of the flashbacks, including to his childhood added very little, apart from showing he was a 'geek' for want of a better word, and was bullied. Oh, and to set up the final scene which was one of the most constructed, silly scenes I have ever seen:
Where Turing bursts into tears explaining that going to prison would mean that his beloved machine 'Christopher' would be broken up, and we now know is the 'machinification' of his first schoolboy crush that he never got to deliver his encrypted 'I love you' letter to because the lad hid his terminal diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis.
It was the drama of a a daytime soap, rammed into the 'true story' of one of the nation's greatest heros. It was simply the zenith of the whole film and all of the constructed side-stories linked in a cringeworthy facepalm.
It could have been so good - and I really wanted it to be. It's not a 3/10, simply because by chance I had watched Superman IV The Quest for Peace at the weekend and that's given me counterpoint ...! But I'd have to ignore a lot of the glaring and frankly annoying fundamental problems to give it a 7.
This film is right up my street. I love film in general, but I am a patriot and have a soft spot for war drama, especially WWII. The trailer looked awesome. I loved the director's previous film, 'Headhunters'. I was ready to love this too.
Let me start off - there are some good aspects. Firstly, the fact that the story is being told in the first place, it's important. There are also a couple of dramatic 'set ups', and a eureka moment, which was the most memorable of the film.
However, that's it. With 20-30 minutes to go, I was actually willing it to end. Where do I start?
He's autistic, according to the film. That's highly debatable in real life. However, it's laid on so thickly there are laboured scenes just to explain autism. There is a flashback scene with him is school which explained autism, and how he felt perfectly in ten seconds, which would have made sense at the start, but it was at the end.
And that is the problem with the film. I felt like the autistic person, and I must be honest I don't think the film is that clever to do that on purpose.
I felt little emotion for the characters, and it was like I was always looking at the wrong thing as the story was more focussed towards artistic licence and made up side-stories rather than the crux of why Turing was a hero. Laboured scenes trying to promote Turing's debatable autism as fact, and Keira Knightley as an empowered female role take precedence over showing actual human stories of how important the Enigma machine was. It gets demoted to a few dialogue lines and some stock footage rather than actually showing the human impact.
Turing was a good marathon runner. That's not explained, instead we just see Cumberbatch running twice for no reason like some kind of b
d child of Forrest Gump and Jar-Jar Binks, the second time stopping poetically, exhausted in front of the sunset. It jumped back and forth in flashback, for an artificial construct, and some of the flashbacks, including to his childhood added very little, apart from showing he was a 'geek' for want of a better word, and was bullied. Oh, and to set up the final scene which was one of the most constructed, silly scenes I have ever seen:
Where Turing bursts into tears explaining that going to prison would mean that his beloved machine 'Christopher' would be broken up, and we now know is the 'machinification' of his first schoolboy crush that he never got to deliver his encrypted 'I love you' letter to because the lad hid his terminal diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis.
It was the drama of a a daytime soap, rammed into the 'true story' of one of the nation's greatest heros. It was simply the zenith of the whole film and all of the constructed side-stories linked in a cringeworthy facepalm.
It could have been so good - and I really wanted it to be. It's not a 3/10, simply because by chance I had watched Superman IV The Quest for Peace at the weekend and that's given me counterpoint ...! But I'd have to ignore a lot of the glaring and frankly annoying fundamental problems to give it a 7.
R666 said:
Legend83 said:
The Grand Seduction
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Sounds like a re hash of the 1983 burt Lancaster film "local hero". No? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Cotty said:
R666 said:
Legend83 said:
The Grand Seduction
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
Sounds like a re hash of the 1983 burt Lancaster film "local hero". No? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2319580/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Fairly charming and amusing film about the residents of a redundant NewFoundland fishing village who try and dupe a young doctor to re-locate there - the final criteria to be satisfied before an oil company will build a factory in the area.
I typically enjoy anything with Brendan Gleeson in it, and this was no different.
7/10
But the I got distracted thinking about Julie Warner's breasts and forgot to post it.
71
Not quite as pulse raising as I'd been led to believe but enjoyable all the same. Well acted and directed and enjoyed the John Carpenter'esque score.
7/10
Interstellar
Where to start with this one? I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan's films, especially the non DK one's such as The Prestige and Inception, but not sure about this at all.
Looked amazing throughout but was oddly paced (seems in a rush for the first 20 minutes and then drags), has a few eye rolling moments and the plot/payoff doesn't sit right with me at the moment. Tempted to watch again and see if I missed something...
Best thing about it for me were the droids TARS and CASE.
Not as huge a disappointment as the last big Sci-Fi epic (Prometheus) but not as good as I'd hoped either.
6.5/10
Not quite as pulse raising as I'd been led to believe but enjoyable all the same. Well acted and directed and enjoyed the John Carpenter'esque score.
7/10
Interstellar
Where to start with this one? I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan's films, especially the non DK one's such as The Prestige and Inception, but not sure about this at all.
Looked amazing throughout but was oddly paced (seems in a rush for the first 20 minutes and then drags), has a few eye rolling moments and the plot/payoff doesn't sit right with me at the moment. Tempted to watch again and see if I missed something...
Best thing about it for me were the droids TARS and CASE.
Not as huge a disappointment as the last big Sci-Fi epic (Prometheus) but not as good as I'd hoped either.
6.5/10
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