What was the last film you watched?

[Andrij]

I've just looked that one up and read the plot summary.   Wow.  I feel robbed of precious life having just spent a few minutes looking up and reading about the plot.  At least I now know never to actually watch that film.

[mattc]

Rush (hopefully spoiler-free review)

Some might put this in our "Vroom" sub-forum, but it really doesn't belong near any F1 fans*!

Probably a 3-stars-out-of-5. Some great bits, but it all failed to gel into a whole, and the mix of probably fact with probably dramatic licence kept bugging me. The first 10 minutes REALLY made me want to be James Hunt 

It had Austin Powers style sexy scenes, high drama on the track, cartoon-stereotype Brits, and a slightly hard-to-believe rivalry, where both drivers acted like arseholes most of the time. Several lump-in-the-throat moments (to my surprise, a guy deciding to just stop racing was the most affecting one). A peculiar mix. Lots of scenes felt like things that must have happened, but had been tweaked for drama so that they felt fictional. I await an authoritative list of real vs made-up with interest

The early track scenes were really great. Worth going to the cinema for the engine-noise alone. The finale was a bit spoilt with too much Gladiator-style music - the best motorsport films have used just the real sounds of the sport, they're all you need.

So overall I'd recommend it (if you like noisy cars and all that), but i felt a little let down. It's an amazing story, and Howard did so many bits well that you felt they could have made a REALLY good film with a few subtle changes.


Footnote: I liked that the best-looking woman in the thing married Lauda (She didn't get many lines, but 1 was probaby the best in the whole script). I was convinced I knew the actress - Alexandra Maria Lara - from somewhere. IMDB suggests not (I have never watched Downfall!). WHo the heck does she look like that I DO know???


*I was prepared for a film aimed at non-fans, but fans will probably hate it! I didn't spot any glaring errors EXCEPT filming done at Brands passed off as other european circuits. Nice try Mr Howard - but most fans will know Brands Hatch faaaar too well to let that one slip by 
[Christ I hope they did film at Brands .... ]

[clarion]

I don't find Hunt and Lauda acting like arseholes at all improbable.

[mattc]

Hunt: absolutely! Virtually his USP (except with budgies)

Lauda? Well all I know about him is from this film, and lots of clips of his famous crash, and rare short interviews at modern Grands Prix. I assumed he was a bit too sensible to say some of the twattish things he said in the film, but I may be very wrong about this. Perhaps he's more complicated than that.
I'd like to know if the (brief) narration by 'present day' Niki are words actually written/spoken by him. They presented a more feasible/bearable character than the portrayal in the filmed scenes.


EDIT: further research finds only evidence that they were in fact good friends. They were flatmates in F3. I think all those pre-race and post-race sweary confrontations were totally invented. Shame

[Hillbilly]

American Pie Reunion.  Enough laughs to make it worthwhile, but a lot of it was essentially "hey, remember when..."  It was a bit unsettling to see older versions of the leads.

Jim's dad was great in this one.  The actor who plays him has great comedic timing.  The end credits has a great little vignette in a cinema (it tickled my funny bone at least).

[Jaded]

Hang 'em High

On Channel 5, so I'm better placed to review the Wonga adverts. Which were devious, manipulative and mendacious.

The film had quite a few bang bangs, muscular gee gees, some lovely moo moos, some thrusting bosoms and only one man in a bath tub. Classic Western.

[bumper]

Sightseers
Very funny. A typical caravaners holiday . Some great stereotypes. You'll only enjoy it if you have the dark sense of humour.

Riddick
Crap

World war Z
A typical zombie type film but with Brad Pitt

[pcolbeck]

Man on fire - Denzil Washington as an ex CIA and special forces guy who is burnt out and now working as a bodyguard for a little girl in Mexico.

I was really enjoying it's strangely quite atmosphere for such a violent film but I fell asleep before the end. Not the films fault it was on late and I was very tired.

[Wascally Weasel]

Man on fire - Denzil Washington as an ex CIA and special forces guy who is burnt out and now working as a bodyguard for a little girl in Mexico.

I was really enjoying it's strangely quite atmosphere for such a violent film but I fell asleep before the end. Not the films fault it was on late and I was very tired.

Hah!  Snap!

I was watching that yesterday on DVD – watched the first half last night and stopped it before I fell asleep, will finish it off tonight.  I have seen it once before and remember enjoying it.

Tony Scott films are usually a lot of fun, even the very silly ones (and a few are really good movies – True Romance in particular).

[T42]

Gettysburg in the extended edition, all 4½ hours of it. Very absorbing, nothing portentous about it.   Helps if you know about the American Civil War in some detail and have Wikipedia open at the same time.  Going to watch it again in a few days.

I gave it 9/10 on IMDB.  Never done that before.

[citoyen]

Hunt: absolutely! Virtually his USP (except with budgies)

Lauda? Well all I know about him is from this film, and lots of clips of his famous crash, and rare short interviews at modern Grands Prix. I assumed he was a bit too sensible to say some of the twattish things he said in the film, but I may be very wrong about this. Perhaps he's more complicated than that.
I'd like to know if the (brief) narration by 'present day' Niki are words actually written/spoken by him. They presented a more feasible/bearable character than the portrayal in the filmed scenes.

EDIT: further research finds only evidence that they were in fact good friends. They were flatmates in F3. I think all those pre-race and post-race sweary confrontations were totally invented. Shame

Did you see the documentary on BBC2 last night? Cracking stuff. I really want to see Rush though it does sound a bit cheesy...

Hang on... I want to see it because it sounds a bit cheesy. 

[Wascally Weasel]

Gettysburg in the extended edition, all 4½ hours of it. Very absorbing, nothing portentous about it.   Helps if you know about the American Civil War in some detail and have Wikipedia open at the same time.  Going to watch it again in a few days.

I gave it 9/10 on IMDB.  Never done that before.

It’s one of the great ‘event specific’ war films that don’t mess around too much with historical detail (Battle of Britain, The Longest Day, & Waterloo being other good examples).

It doesn’t hurt that it was based on a very good novel (The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara), or that it was filmed on the battlefield location for the most part using recreators with a passion for historical accuracy.  It does continue the mythologising of Chamberlain a bit but that’s from the book and played straight.

I have toured the battlefield fairly extensively and followed the routes of the three main days of fighting and the film gives a very good impression of the events overall (apart from the bits it leaves out).

A couple of things made quite an impression on me on the battlefield – firstly the very short distance from the Devil’s Den to where the more exposed regiments to the right of the 20th Maine were and just how murderous the sniper fire must have been.

Secondly some dead ground maybe a few hundred metres from the ‘Bloody Angle’.  It isn’t clear from photographs or maps of the site but being there in person, and looking from both the Union and Confederate points of view, it’s there and perhaps explains what Lee saw when he conceived of the charge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bloody_Angle_(Gettysburg)

History is written in hindsight and the terrible mathematics of Civil War battlefields tend to make the failures emphasised in the retelling to be wasteful stupidity – thing is many of the ‘successful’ actions of that conflict would have been equally bloody and were the Union line to have been broken and some of the other actions on that day to have been better co-ordinated, it’s possible the charge could have caused the Army of the Potomac to either be rolled up or withdraw.

Disclaimer:  I’m no exponent of the ‘Lost Cause’ and I think the Union were always going to win the war, without full outside intervention, which the institution of slavery made all but impossible.

The follow up (prequel) film Gods & Generals isn't anywhere near as good.

[mrcharly-YHT]

The Breakfast Club

Never seen it. One-of-the-stepdaughters insisted we watch it.

Very wierd to watch this. Partly because the period it is set in (my teenage years). Partly because of the changes in society that are so obvious.

Obviously still resonates with today's teens tho'.

[spindrift]

I don't find Hunt and Lauda acting like arseholes at all improbable.

Hunt got married two weeks after meeting Susan Miller. Not long afterwards as their marriage foundered she bumped into Richard Burton on a ski trip. Burton fell for her and offered Hunt a million dollars for her. Hunt accepted happily, Burton told Liz Taylor their second marriage was over. How rich people do it, I suppose.

[mattc]

Hunt: absolutely! Virtually his USP (except with budgies)

Lauda? Well all I know about him is from this film, and lots of clips of his famous crash, and rare short interviews at modern Grands Prix. I assumed he was a bit too sensible to say some of the twattish things he said in the film, but I may be very wrong about this. Perhaps he's more complicated than that.
I'd like to know if the (brief) narration by 'present day' Niki are words actually written/spoken by him. They presented a more feasible/bearable character than the portrayal in the filmed scenes.

EDIT: further research finds only evidence that they were in fact good friends. They were flatmates in F3. I think all those pre-race and post-race sweary confrontations were totally invented. Shame

Did you see the documentary on BBC2 last night? Cracking stuff. I really want to see Rush though it does sound a bit cheesy...

Hang on... I want to see it because it sounds a bit cheesy. 

Watched the BBC doc last night. Very good. MUCH better than 'Rush'! They do have rather different strengths (being polite here  ). It certainly reinforced my opinions posted earlier.

It seems there was a real, bitter and fantastic rivalry between the Ferrari and McLaren teams, but the drivers were just ... well, driving. So Rush invented all this mostly unbelievable stuff between the two of them, pretty much ruining the real story. 


The only thing stupider than Rush that I've seen this week is this:
http://wtf1.co.uk/facepalm-radio-station-caption-niki-lauda-as-david-beckhams-elderly-fan/

[rogerzilla]

Goldfinger.  The best Bond film for one-liners.  Pusshy Galore?  I musht be dreaming.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Hunt: absolutely! Virtually his USP (except with budgies)

Lauda? Well all I know about him is from this film, and lots of clips of his famous crash, and rare short interviews at modern Grands Prix. I assumed he was a bit too sensible to say some of the twattish things he said in the film, but I may be very wrong about this. Perhaps he's more complicated than that.
I'd like to know if the (brief) narration by 'present day' Niki are words actually written/spoken by him. They presented a more feasible/bearable character than the portrayal in the filmed scenes.

EDIT: further research finds only evidence that they were in fact good friends. They were flatmates in F3. I think all those pre-race and post-race sweary confrontations were totally invented. Shame

Did you see the documentary on BBC2 last night? Cracking stuff. I really want to see Rush though it does sound a bit cheesy...

Hang on... I want to see it because it sounds a bit cheesy. 

Watched the BBC doc last night. Very good. MUCH better than 'Rush'! They do have rather different strengths (being polite here  ). It certainly reinforced my opinions posted earlier.

It seems there was a real, bitter and fantastic rivalry between the Ferrari and McLaren teams, but the drivers were just ... well, driving. So Rush invented all this mostly unbelievable stuff between the two of them, pretty much ruining the real story. 


The only thing stupider than Rush that I've seen this week is this:
http://wtf1.co.uk/facepalm-radio-station-caption-niki-lauda-as-david-beckhams-elderly-fan/

I watched both too.  I wouldn't call the documentary so much better because it was, after all a documentary and the other was a fillum so had a different approach.  I'm no present day F1 fan but as a story I thought Rush was an excellent film and almost certainly not nearly so far from the truth as might be thought.   I would not have described the rivalry it showed as 'bitter', very much what you'd expect in such a pressured, competitive activity.  Comparable perhaps to boxers in the weighing room. And let's be honest, 2 more different real-life personalities in the same game as Lauda and Hunt could scarcely be imagined. Its portrayal of the atmosphere of those times and attention to period detail is also noteworthy IMO.  From memory I did think that the film made Lauda look 'prettier' after the inferno he went through, but photos show they did that well too.

[tiermat]

Last night I watched Avengers Assemble, for the second time. Well, truth be told I saw the first hour then fell asleep.

Today, in an attempt to induce sleep I am watching Storm breaker.

[interzen]

Despicable Me 2

It took me ages to get round to seeing the original (and I wondered why the hell I'd waited so long) and I loved it.
The sequel? Well I definitely like it (hell, it's got the Minions - what's not to like?) but I think I prefer the original.

Probably won't stop me watching it again, though.

[Ruth]

The Paradine Case. It was really about the lawyers, not the court case, but it was quite brilliant. There's been a moral sea change since thia film was made so bits of it grated, but there are some fine performances.

[Wascally Weasel]

Sunshine on Leith/Filth/Wild Bill were my viewing pleasures this weekend (I also gave the remake of 'Thomas Crown Affair' a rewatch too).

I really do recommend ‘Sunshine on Leith’ to you all.  I think this one may prove to be a real word of mouth hit.  Would be curious what the locals on here would make of it ("We don't get that much daylight" seems to be the common comment online) as I suspect it gives Edinburgh a bit of the 'Notting Hill' treatment! 

In his review Mark Kermode described it something like “There are lots of things wrong with it but I absolutely loved it” which I would agree with lots.

I’m supposing I was already disposed to like it, being a fan of the Proclaimers (from whose back catalogue the plot is tortuously and whimsically put together) I think one of the reasons that I liked it is that through singing in accents (and not ‘throwing the ‘R’ away’) it rarely went into completely ‘musical’ style singing, which I can’t stand – there’s only one ‘English’ character (though lots of English actors) and her vocal delivery is technically great but in pure musical style and it grates on me.  Also, as the Proclaimers often sing conversational style story songs as a duet, their songbook does lend itself very well to musical interpretation; much more so than I would have thought at first.

It also starts with a quite a complex tone due to the subject matter and I think I would have appreciated a little more of that through the film and a bit more of the challenging side briefly presented  but those are minor gripes and the thing is full on joy from start to finish.

I did like the way that various scenes had passers by giving the proceedings a WTF look and at others the music was fitted in quite naturally (I liked the cameos too).

Oddly enough I watched Dexter Fletcher’s first film ‘Wild Bill’ last night and quite liked it.  It avoids most of the laddish clichés of UK fake gangster movies and is more about families and certainly doesn’t celebrate or glamorise crime.  He manages quite well to mix the sort of social comment that Peter Mullan gets into his films (like Orphans or Neds) but without them being quite so grim or challenging – it’s about difficult family situations but it’s done with some hope and a lighter touch than Scottish social realism films (I wonder if this was what got Peter Mullan signed up to ‘Sunshine’).

I also saw ‘Filth’, based on an Irvine Welsh novel and that presented a very different fictional Edinburgh – a much more complex and dark film and while I think it was well made, I’m not sure it would be right to say I enjoyed it – more that I was glad to have experienced it.  A startling performance from James McAvoy undertaking a very unpleasant role and looking progressively more messed up through the film.  It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that ‘Filth’ makes ‘Trainspotting’ seem like a life affirming film.

[tiermat]

WW, nice to hear some real life (i.e. not film critic's) view of films.  I heard a bit on R4 last week about the Scottish triumverate that was being released nationwide this week (Filth, Sunshine on Leith and For Those in Peril)

To me, Filth sounds the most appealing (but then I don't like musicals, and have a disliking of social dramas, apart from "Brassed Off" )

My viewing this weekend consisted solely of "Oz The Great and Powerful".  I loved it, it copied all the cliches from "The Wizard of Oz" without becoming a patiche.  You sort of know where the story is going before it gets there, but it doesn't spoil the film.  There are some great laugh out loud bits, some scary bits (we watched it with a pair of 9 yr olds who hif behind a blanket a couple of times) AND FLYING MONKEYS!!! Well, actually there are two types of flying monkeys, the good type and the bad type.

ETA: Mila Kunis has to be the sexiest witch ever, worth watching the film just to see her...

[fuzzy]

I reviited Se7en the other night.

I had forgotten what a cracking film that was

[LEE]

I reviited Se7en the other night.

I had forgotten what a cracking film that was

Is L3n Go0dm4n in that?

[fuzzy]

I don't know whether to  or