What was the last film you watched?

[Riggers]

I've half-watched a few movies out here in India. It's been remarkably hard to find a Western movie without Jason fucking Statham in it. I did watch him in the appalling Death Race.

Likewise, I couldn't watch to the finish of Twilight, or Cop Out. I fell asleep in the middle of Godzilla, which I do like (it's a bit long, mainly cos it tries to be a monster movie and a New York movie, and though it does both pretty well, it could have had half an hour taken out of it).

One movie I really enjoyed (even though it was very badly dubbed) was The Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zhen. A movie about a Chinese fighting superhero battling the perfidious Japanese in pre-WW2 Shanghai. It looked fabulous. Shanghai and the fight scenes were beautifully shot. It had an entertaining villain, a story of doomed love, and bridges. Great stuff.

Is that the one where, in a particular fight scene, if you can successfully take on half a dozen jap soldiers and defeat them, you can have a big bag of rice? Hope it was that one 'cos it woz brilliant.

[Deano]

I came in late so I might have missed that scene. He did fight a lot of Japs, though. The only time he lost was when someone wandered out of a car and bopped him on the head with a blackjack. He didn't even try to fight back!

[Riggers]

Deaners. It's not the one I'm thinking of. It's this one: Ip Man. Based on a true story. Starring Donnie Yen.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn-images.hollywood.com/site/ip-man-still.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hollywood.com/news/Under_the_Radar_Ip_Man_and_the_Problem_with_Netflix/7725570&usg=__tPzDJQEtPM7gVnrj3Wfa_KmagDc=&h=324&w=447&sz=64&hl=en&start=6&zoom=1&tbnid=9JYtu9Y8Di8APM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=127&ei=V0tjT8yqEJSHhQfA49CQCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3DIp%2BMan%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1

And bloody good it is too!


Ooh Missus! I think it needs shortening!!

[jogler]

Just watched Predators:not for the first,or second,time.But this had some gory bits in it not seen before.Perhaps a Directors Cut or somesuch.

[Jakob]

There's a prequel and sequel to Ip Man and despite the heavy propaganda, they're both worth watching!.
Legend of the Fist was good too. In fact, I'll make the claim that Donnie Yen is the best martial arts actor out there at the moment. (Jet Lee is too old and doesn't have the gracefulness that allowed Jackie Chan to continue for as long as he did).

[tiermat]

Just finished watching Extremely Loud and Incredably Close and Extremely SAD

I luvd it.

[LindaG]

Just finished watching Extremely Loud and Incredably Close and Extremely SAD

I luvd it.

It is good, isn't it.

Do you need rehydrating?

[tiermat]

Yes!

[rogerzilla]

Cross Of Iron.  Didn't like it much;the acting is good enough but the plot seems to wander all over the place.  I don't think Sam Peckinpah was out to entertain, rather to make an anti-war point.

[mcshroom]

The Last Castle - which has more depth than I gave it credit for last time, but I'm not sure if the director meant the dark undertones it has about the lead character.

I watched it first time a few years ago and it was a reasonably fanciful jingoistic army/prison movie, but re-watching it I have a bit more empathy for the villain and less for the lead character.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The Castle. Do you mean this?

[mcshroom]

Ah sorry, trusting my memory is always bad 

It's called The Last Castle - now changed upthread

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

On Golden Pond and Four Lions.

[red marley]

On Golden Pond and Four Lions.

Now there's a double bill you don't often see down the local picture palace.

[LindaG]

On Golden Pond and Four Lions.

Now there's a double bill you don't often see down the local picture palace.

Indeed.  A unique juxtaposition of styles.

We just watched Airplane, which was much better than I remembered.  I larfed.  Thanks crusty 

[Valiant]

The Warrior 2011.

I quite liked it

[Chris S]

3 Idiots.

My first venture into Bollywood. Awesome!

Zoobi Doobi!

[fuzzy]

Lethal Weapon 3 (Tosh, but quality tosh).

Bad Boys. (Tosh, but far better quality tosh).

Both get a 

[gotnobrakes]

Just yesterday we watched Radio Days from our Woody Allen collection. It's such a nice film. You can just lounge on your favorite armchair, have some red wine and enjoy the experience. It's not exactly linear, but their is a plot in there somewhere. The story is mainly kept together by the radio theme.

This is definitely one of Woody Allen's more enjoyable movies. 

[Valiant]

The Taking of Pelham 123

Great film

[mrcharly-YHT]

The Hunger Games


My kids are fans of the books, so of course I've read them too. Good books, excellent for teenagers. I enjoyed them, but didn't think they were 'wow'.

I suspected that the film would be rubbish. The books are fairly gritty - set in a dystopian future, they don't pull any punches. There is everything that happens in under real oppression, from starvation, mutilation as punishment, mass executions, and people selling themselves for food. Not just trading sex for food with guards, but selling 'tickets' in the annual lottery, where teenagers are picked out to fight to death for the entertainment and oppression of the masses. This is something that isn't explained in the film; every teen gets their name once in the 'hat'. But they can 'buy' credits by putting their name down more than once.

Anyway, I thought that would be not translated to the big screen. I was wrong. Sure, there is a lot left out. But it rates as one of the best adaptions of a book to the screen I've ever seen.

Best to read the books first, tho', or you won't have a clue what is going on.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

[L CC]

More Bollywood.

Om Shanti Om.

Not enough dancing, but Pain of Disco will live with me for a while.

A Bollywood habit requires commitment. These films are all well over 2 & a half hours. Blimey.
Next up: some historical romance. O yes.

[Mr Larrington]

Local  Hero

[Wascally Weasel]

The Hunger Games


My kids are fans of the books, so of course I've read them too. Good books, excellent for teenagers. I enjoyed them, but didn't think they were 'wow'.

I suspected that the film would be rubbish. The books are fairly gritty - set in a dystopian future, they don't pull any punches. There is everything that happens in under real oppression, from starvation, mutilation as punishment, mass executions, and people selling themselves for food. Not just trading sex for food with guards, but selling 'tickets' in the annual lottery, where teenagers are picked out to fight to death for the entertainment and oppression of the masses. This is something that isn't explained in the film; every teen gets their name once in the 'hat'. But they can 'buy' credits by putting their name down more than once.

Anyway, I thought that would be not translated to the big screen. I was wrong. Sure, there is a lot left out. But it rates as one of the best adaptions of a book to the screen I've ever seen.

Best to read the books first, tho', or you won't have a clue what is going on.

I saw it yesterday and loved it and I haven’t read the books, so I would say that you can definitely see and enjoy the film without having read them.  I knew virtually nothing about the story before I saw the film (hadn’t seen any trailers and ignored all reviews beforehand).  I do think I got most of what was going on – I thought here and there that there might be stuff I was missing out on but not too much.  Obviously there could be loads I didn’t get but the film did not give the impression of being a poor adaptation.

I did get the ‘credits’ for extra food means extra tickets thing, so it is definitely explained (over time) in the film – there isn’t one scene where they say “This is how the Hunger Games work and these are all the mechanics laid bare” but through various scenes and dialogue the explanation is there.  All the better for being told that way (in a film at least).

I really enjoyed it, would recommend it highly.