What was the last film you watched?

[Mrs Pingu]

Tidelands. High grade Terry Gilliam weirdness, but good.

[Hillbilly]

The Goonies.

Despite being all of 25 years since release (or thereabouts) this was the first time I'd seen it.  Brilliant film, funny and entertaining, which really captured what I remember being a boy in a play gang being all about (admittedly I didn't search for pirate gold as a lad, but the spirit and interaction rang so true).  I'm going to call this as one of the best child focussed films of all time.

[docsquid]

Happy Feet. It is one of my favourite films. Can't wait until Happy Feet 2 comes onto normal TV (ie not Sky).

[citoyen]

The Hobbit. Better than I was anticipating but that's because I had low expectations. Too long, too many tedious battle scenes, several bits that could be easily cut without detracting from the story, but to be fair, enough to sustain the interest for the duration. The scene with the trolls is good.

The 3D is utterly pointless and adds nothing beyond an extra couple of quid on the ticket price. I would advise anyone still wanting to see it to save their money and choose the 2D version.

Edit: having now read the spoilers in EG's review, I completely agree with every word.

d.

[LindaG]

The Lady Vanishes. The premake of Flightplan with Jody Foster. Very good train actoon.

[Torslanda]

The Wooden Horse. Classic British war film in that 'not quite Ealing Comedy, stiff upper lip, Goons in the block' kind of way.

Wooden sets, wooden acting. Not as good as I remembered.

[Peter]

But with bikes!

[padbeat]

I watched Moon with my 14yo this afternoon, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is sufficiently complex and  comes out slowly enough to keep your brain engaged, Sam Rothwell is excellent, and I managed not to tell Oliver that the voice of the computer (No, Oliver, it's not Hal ...) was Verbal Kint. Outstanding!

This evening (it was that sort of a day) was Looper which was entertaining enough. It's definitely one to let wash over you rather than try to engage with. Yes, Oliver. I understand paradox, but the Law of Narrative is in charge here!

[mrcharly-YHT]

Point Break.  Cheese. But better than I expected.

Love that cheesy movie.

+1. Great film. True entertainment.

d.

If you enjoy that one, try Grosse Point Blank

[CAMRAMan]

Grosse Point Blank is excellent cinema with an even better soundtrack.

I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män som Hatar Kvinnor. Stupid translation of the title, but decent cinema. A bit too much left out of the book, but it's a complex tale. I have the other two films in the series to watch soon.

[Deano]

Point Break.  Cheese. But better than I expected.

Love that cheesy movie.

+1. Great film. True entertainment.

d.

If you enjoy that one, try Grosse Point Blank

Hold on - you can't compare Point Break and Grosse Point Blank! Point Blank's a cheesy movie about surfer dudes and bank robberies with loads of cod-philosomaphising and a hilariously wooden Keanu Reeves being outacted by his surfboard.

Grosse Point Blank is a funny, literate, stylish testament to generation X and the nihilism of the late nineties*. Even Dan Akroyd's good in it. And it does have a killer soundtrack.

*except much better than that sounds

[LEE]

The Hobbit. Very good, but way too long. They could have cut out quite a lot and it would have been much the better for it.

They should have left out

(click to show/hide)

- the Radagast scenes
- the scene with Galadriel, Agent Smith, Gandalf and Count Dooku blabbering on about the witchking's sword
- an orc on a warg chasing Thorin
- the scene with the mountain giants hurling bits of the mountain at each other

None of those scenes contributed anything to the story. Most of them weren't in the book. They just made it too long.

I think Peter Jackson wanted to make The Hobbit a true prelude to the ultimate battle between good and evil that occurred in LOTR, rather than the straightforward excellent adventure/quest for treasure/children's story that Tolkien wrote.

Really?

I think they told Jackson that he needed to wring as many films out of this franchise as possible (without any of the principle actors dying of old age in the process).


LOTR was justifiable as a trilogy, it IS a trilogy.

The Hobbit isn't because it isn't.

They've thrown a lot of money at this film over the last few years (in royalties and various disputes), I suspect that making one decent film wouldn't recoup enough of it, so the audience get to watch a film, of a fairly short book, over a 3 year period.

Maybe the film is an analogy of this process...a long journey to a pot of gold.

I hope it's better than the Sinclair Spectrum version (Kerrrist I wasted some time on that rubber keyboard)

[fuzzy]

For christmas I recieved the Harry Potter 8 DVD box set so watched them over the ensuing few days.

Previously I had seen HPATPS, HPATCOS, HPATPOA, missed HPATGOF, seen HPATOOTP and missed the rest.

Of the books, HPATGOF was my favourite. The film wasn't. What happened the the Quidditch World Cup? FFS!

My favourite film was HPATPOA, helped in no small part by Gary Oldman at his finest mad, bad, psycho killer (Qu'est Que C'est (not)) best.

The rest of the previously unseen films were OK

(click to show/hide)

I had a bit of a blub at the death of Dobby

but nothing to write home about.

It was a good experiment however in watching the development of a group of child actors into adult thespians. Rupert Grint gets my vote as most accomplished actor of the three main protagonists.

After the HP saga was complete, I relaised that I had Apocolypse Now Redux on the shelf as an unwatched christmas pressie from a couple of years ago so watched that. It may be 49 minutes longer but, the additional minutes made for a more connected, understandable film. The character of Col Kurtz was explored in mored depth which enhanced the film considerably.

Still a great sound bite film as well.

[citoyen]

It was a good experiment however in watching the development of a group of child actors into adult thespians. Rupert Grint gets my vote as most accomplished actor of the three main protagonists.

IIRC he was the only one of the three with any prior acting experience - when my son was very young, we watched a film with Rupert Grint in it called Thunderpants. He played a geeky kid with a friend with an amazing capacity for bottom-burps and he invented a pair of trousers that contained the incredible wind power. It was quite amusing.

Edit: just checked imdb and it seems Thunderpants actually came out after HPATPS.

d.

[clarion]

I honestly don't know which of the HP films I've seen.  Almost certainly the first two, and not the last two, but, as for the others - who knows?

[citoyen]

I think Peter Jackson wanted to make The Hobbit a true prelude to the ultimate battle between good and evil that occurred in LOTR, rather than the straightforward excellent adventure/quest for treasure/children's story that Tolkien wrote.

Really?

I think they told Jackson that he needed to wring as many films out of this franchise as possible (without any of the principle actors dying of old age in the process).

It's too long since I read the book for me to recall what is and isn't in it (though I was fairly certain the stuff with Azog wasn't in the book), but I got the same impression as mark about the scene with the sword - it seemed very much like a bit of Star Wars 1-3 style backstory filling, felt shoehorned in and didn't fit comfortably with the main narrative arc.

That said, I think you're right too - the decision to make three films out of one slim volume must be financially motivated.

I hope it's better than the Sinclair Spectrum version (Kerrrist I wasted some time on that rubber keyboard)

Ha, do you remember what happened when you tried to "Kill Gandalf"?

d.

[LEE]

I honestly don't know which of the HP films I've seen.  Almost certainly the first two, and not the last two, but, as for the others - who knows?

I've seen them all (unfortunately my daughter was at the perfect age).

I can't tell them apart, they seem identical. 

My only recollection of them is wishing there was an "Arsium Ceasebloodyhurtingata" , or "Hurryuppus and Gettothefuckinendiolo" spell I could use in the cinema.  They were all 9 hours long right?

[clarion]

I think you just typed 'hours' when you meant 'years'.

[L CC]

I liked them.
It's not Twilight, now that really is shite.
HP is OK. Like Fuzzy we've been working through them this last week (I've seen them all at the pictures, read them all, had Stephen Fry read them as my bedtime story for about 3 years solid) and it's good to be reminded what little kids the actors were.

I'd agree, Rupert Grint is the best actor.

[Jaded]

Agree on Rupert Grint.

Our kids have grown up with the HP franchise, and interestingly they stopped repeat watching the films after the third one. We have a lot of DVDs but they never get mentioned as films to watch when we are choosing one.

The Hobbit? Three films? Gouging bollocks. Having devoured the LOTR films I have no desire to see TH. any of them.

[David Martin]

There are good bits in the hobbit. Part is nicely paced and it could be a good psychological film. Then it gets roundly trashed with too much CGI and silly chases (the orcs chasing Radagast are going round in circles? why?) and the excessively overdone chase in the Goblin Kingdom.

The troll scene was rubbish - nothing like the book.

[Wascally Weasel]

There are good bits in the hobbit. Part is nicely paced and it could be a good psychological film. Then it gets roundly trashed with too much CGI and silly chases (the orcs chasing Radagast are going round in circles? why?) and the excessively overdone chase in the Goblin Kingdom.

The troll scene was rubbish - nothing like the book.

And Radagast was on a sledge pulled by giant rabbits, just in case it wasn't already dumb enough.

[LindaG]

Point Break.  Cheese. But better than I expected.

Love that cheesy movie.

+1. Great film. True entertainment.

d.

If you enjoy that one, try Grosse Point Blank

+1.  Love that movie too!

[geraldc]

Watched the Prestige again. Amazingly my other half who'd never seen it before, saw all the clues/hints and worked it all out, and as a result couldn't see why I thought it was a great movie. I must make her sit down to watch Fight Club one day...

[Wascally Weasel]

Point Break.  Cheese. But better than I expected.

Love that cheesy movie.

+1. Great film. True entertainment.

d.

If you enjoy that one, try Grosse Point Blank

+1.  Love that movie too!

Top rated film in the Weasel house too!

Ms Weasel often says to me "You're a fucking psycho!" in that Minnie Driver sing-song voice.  To which I always reply "Don't rush to judgement on something like that".

I dress a lot like Martin Blank.

The follow up film 'War Inc' is a great example of just how badly the team behind one really fun film can make a complete dog trying to repeat the formula.  It's dreadful, or at least the first 35 minutes are, that's as far as we got.