What was the last film you watched?

[Hillbilly]

The Amazing Spiderman

Replace "The" with "Not So". 

I went into this thinking "it might be ok, Marvel have been on a bit of a hot streak recently" and had my limited expectations disappointed.  Too blunt and not an engaging enough story.  Spiderman actor was half decent though (better than Toby McGuire).  Pity he was up against a rather weak villain.  I just didn't feel the menace.  I also found some of the CG pretty ropey for a key IP film. 

A pity, because I look back on the Sam Raimi films as some of the best superhero films of the early 21st century.  Particularly #2.  I'm trying to remember if I had the same reaction to the first in that series, and if I did then perhaps The Amazing Spiderman 2 will rebound towards something more substantial.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The Hangover. Brainless fun.

[Gus]

Kick Ass II, nowhere nearly as good as good as the first one.

[BrianI]

Congo.
Nice to see Winstone Zeddmore (sans Proton Pack).  Disappointed in the lack of Um Bungo though...

[Kim]

Congo.

That film's major fault was not having been made in the 70s.  It could have been vaguely good.

[Kim]

Following on from the above, I discovered that there was a 2008 mini-series (read: long TV movie) of The Andromeda Strain (which is my all-time favourite film).

Obviously it was going to be a disappointment, but I actually thought they did a pretty good job wrt pace and faith to the original story, while re-telling it in a modern setting.

At least until I watched the second half.  Oh dear.

(click to show/hide)

I jokingly predicted the 8-bit ASCII, so the Outbreak ending and lazy conspiracy paradox explanation was inevitable.  Sigh.   

[essexian]

"We're the Millers"

A very predictable but extremely funny comedy.

Well worth seeing if you like knob jokes and like the idea of a semi naked  Jennifer Aniston. Its also worth waiting for the outakes at the end of the film 


Question: if there is no one in the cinema, do they play the film? I ask as SWMBO and I were the only ones in the cinema for the 2.05pm showing (which of course didn't start until 2.40!!!!)

[red marley]

Question: if there is no one in the cinema, do they play the film?

Ah, that age-old philosophical question (I think the answer depends on whether or not the film is about unstable trees in forests).

[TimO]

Star Trek 2: Crappy story, but Sherlock is good.
Iron Man 3: Best of the lot. (But that's not saying much!) ...

I quite enjoyed both of them.  I'm not claiming that either are classics, but I'm quite happy with fairly mindless escapism.

Iron Man 1 was OK, and obviously started the series, 2 wasn't dramatically different from 1 in many features, 3 was however quite well done.  As you say, possibly the best of the three.  They seem to have largely closed up the series with that one, but it has left a small opening, should they feel the need to continue it further.

[L CC]

Out Of Africa

I'd like to say it was for cerebral reasons, or the glory of African landscapes an all that.

But it's not. I'm just ogling Robert Redford.

/stereotype

[Kim]

I'm just ogling Robert Redford.

Known in this house as "The exception that proves the rule"

[T42]

Damn. What was the film we watched last night..?

[Ruth]

Le Grand Boucle. I watched it on the plane. A bit like Run Fat Boy Run, but about cycling. I rather enjoyed it. Formulaic but funny.

[Andrew]

Le Grand Boucle.

I've seen loads of ads for it (I live in France) and it strikes me as something I might watch at home on a rainy Sunday afternoon, if I was bored and at a lose end. Something inoffensively amusing to pass the time - the perfect airline movie really!

[Ruth]

Le Grand Boucle.

I've seen loads of ads for it (I live in France) and it strikes me as something I might watch at home on a rainy Sunday afternoon, if I was bored and at a lose end. Something inoffensively amusing to pass the time - the perfect airline movie really!

That's exactly it. It was fun spotting all the veteran pro cyclists.

[Mike J]

Wreck it Ralph - was really good 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Little Fockers 

[sg37409]

Pans Labyrnth. Very good though not as good as I'd hoped given the reviews.
(the last of my 5 for 30 quid blue rays from hmv, despite resolving not to buy any mair dvds !)

[L CC]

No2Daughter is ill, so gets to choose (it's all a bit arbitary, really) so last night we had Sense & Sensibility (Emma Thomson as Miss Dashwood, Alan Rickman gets the girl, that kind of thing) and tonight we'll be visitng Pemberley for Pride & Prejudice (the Kiera Knightly one). Later in the week, to continue the theme, I'm heading over the road to the theatre to see Mansfield Park (belongs in another thread, I think) and by Friday I'll presumably be rocking this look on the bike:

[CrinklyLion]

Despicable Me 2, in the minuscule Screen 4 at the Reel (formerly Odeon) cinema - there are people who have TVs in their living rooms bigger than the screen, and I reckon it probably only seats between 40 and 50.  Kids Club showing, so all six of us got in for £11.20 including the online booking fee.  We all thought it was quite splendid and the Smallest Superhero Next Door was apparently doing purple minion impersonations on the way home from school today whenever he got a purple one in his packet of smarties

[Steph]

Last night on i-player, the original King Kong. Wonderfully dated and yet still  fresh.

[Chris S]

Vanilla Sky.

If nothing else, it was this movie that introduced me to Sigur Rós.

It's all a bit of a mind-fuck. Like Inception - don't watch it when pissed  .

[Ruth]

Elysium. 

I rather enjoyed it!

I said earlier to Crinklylion that I required splosions, space and handsome men's back bottoms.

Two out of three ain't bad.

[spindrift]

Anaconda 4 A Trail Of Blood

A blip in the series.

[ian]

The Happening.

OK, I knew that was supposed to be bad, but it was a £1 in the cheapo bin at the Coop. I mostly like bad. I've seen Battlefield Earth twice. Come on, my brain said, give it a go. Of course, it's the same brain that has assiduously catalogued the splendid outerwear of Mr Steven Seagal.

At least with BE, well it's a Scientology wet dream, so of course it's going to be more mental than lucky dip in the pharmacy's psychoactive section. You just have to read the words "John Travolta as a 9 foot alien" and all can be forgiven. If that's what it's like in a Scientologist's brain I want to be miniaturised and sent there in a little Fantastic Voyage submarine.

The Happening though, I have trouble describing. I googled it after the fact, because to be honest I wasn't sure it had actually happened. Maybe I'd drank too much Chateauneuf and set sail on a sloshing red ocean of feverish dreams. But it did apparently happen. My traitorous little brain didn't distill it out of mid-range French plonk. Its probably too late for spoilers, and I'm telling you this because you don't want to see it, but I think the plot can be summarised as the cast of Sesame Street gets hayfever. Every aspect is awful. There's a school of thought (if the internet can be believed) that it's actually a parody, a pastiche of B-movie cliches, but in case it's the most inept parody ever. So inept, in fact, that Oscars would need to invent an entire new Inept Parody category and make this movie the all-time winner before promptly closing the category and denying all knowledge that it ever existed.

It's one of those movies where you just have to imagine the look on the studio executives' faces when they saw the final cut and realisation hit that they'd let that Nocturnal Shamalamadingdong guy spend $50 million. I can only imagine it was elaborate revenge for some slight in a previous movie. If so kudos, if not, he's made the kind of movie that just defies every law of filmmaking. It's not just defying those laws, it's stripping down and beating its chest and offering to fight every single one of those laws. The CDC should lock it in vault with the smallpox and Miley Cyrus.