Last film you watched and your rating: The Directors Cut

Dunkirk

I thought this was good, but there was something lacking in it that I can't quite put my finger on. Certain scenes in it were fantastic, the scene where all the civilian boats are coming into sight from the shore was beautiful. The dad on the boat was pretty great.

I'm glad it showed the more desperate side of war as opposed to the more gung ho patriotism that I was expecting.

It's something I would need to see again, to make a better judgment on. I thought there were some narrative jumps that didn't flow too well. I'm fairly sure it's not Nolan's best film though.

Edit - oh, one thing I forgot to mention was the interesting music. The idea of the music tempo getting faster when the scenes get more intense was nice. It's been done before, but it was used really well here.

I really enjoyed it. The sound is incredible in IMAX.

Bloody awful, isn't it, war.

The Big Sick: 9/10

The best rom-com I've seen in years. It makes you fall in love with the characters as much as they fall in love with each other. My only criticism is that there's not enough of Emma in it, she gets sick then disappears for the rest of the film.

Europa Report - Understated found footage film based around space exploration. (gooseberry fool goes wrong for team visiting Europa.)

The Deer Hunter - 6.5/10

+ Good development of characters and their relationships with each other
+ Some memorable scenes
+ Strong portrayal of the effects of war on a community/group of people

- Some annoying characters
- Some scenes are drawn out and - frankly - dull

Not much to say about this. It was okay, and had its moments, but it wasn't exactly enthralling.

Squinty wrote:Edit - oh, one thing I forgot to mention was the interesting music. The idea of the music tempo getting faster when the scenes get more intense was nice. It's been done before, but it was used really well here.

Weird. I've never encountered this.

Films I've seen recently

Dunkirk 9/10 - amazing, I can't really pick a fault with the film other than the beginning that made no sense. How were his company under attack from the Germans only about 100m from the beach a whole week before he got off the beach. The Germans simply weren't that close to Dunkirk at that point.

Despicable Me 3, 7/10- as good as the second film. Felt the minions were a bit sidelined however I assume this was on purpose as they are making a minions 2 film.

Spiderman homecoming 8/10 - excellent, one of the best films in the MCU. Humour was spot on.

Logan 8/10- Glad this did well at the box office as it's more interesting than the typical CGI smash fest super hero blockbuster (which I'm tired of).

Hacksaw Ridge 7/10- Slightly disappointed that it didn't reflect the real story more closely.

Sing Street 6/10 - Irish High School Musical, Enjoyable enough, you'd probably give it a higher score if coming of age musicals were your thing.

Rex Kramer wrote:Moana 9/10 - Stunningly beautiful, brilliant songs and a great story. I'm thinking it's Disney's best since Lion King. The only misstep was the chicken, but I guess that was there to make 7 year olds laugh (if mine are anything to go by). And that Jermaine Clement song was top notch.

What he said. Shiny!

Thinking about war films, I realised I've seen a lot of World World II films but I can't think of a single World War I film.

Apart from Lawrence of Arabia, are there any decent WW1 films? Preferably made within the last 20 years or so.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Thinking about war films, I realised I've seen a lot of World World II films but I can't think of a single World War I film.

Apart from Lawrence of Arabia, are there any decent WW1 films? Preferably made within the last 20 years or so.

All Quiet on the Western Front, most definitely not made in the last 20 years (1930) but a stone cold classic.

Deathwatch, a supernatural horror film set in the trenches, circa 2002

War Horse, of course.

There's loads really:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ww1+film

Tafdolphin wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Thinking about war films, I realised I've seen a lot of World World II films but I can't think of a single World War I film.

Apart from Lawrence of Arabia, are there any decent WW1 films? Preferably made within the last 20 years or so.

All Quiet on the Western Front, most definitely not made in the last 20 years (1930) but a stone cold classic.

Deathwatch, a supernatural horror film set in the trenches, circa 2002

War Horse, of course.

There's loads really:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ww1+film

I did run a quick Google, but had heard of a very small number of the films that came up and most of them seem to have been made before my parents were born!

Forgot about War Horse. Checked out Deathwatch but Rotten Tomatoes gives it 25%.

It feels like a gap in the modern day market, which I'm baffled to see hasn't been seized upon given the ongoing centenary opportunities.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Thinking about war films, I realised I've seen a lot of World World II films but I can't think of a single World War I film.

Apart from Lawrence of Arabia, are there any decent WW1 films? Preferably made within the last 20 years or so.

All Quiet on the Western Front, most definitely not made in the last 20 years (1930) but a stone cold classic.

Deathwatch, a supernatural horror film set in the trenches, circa 2002

War Horse, of course.

There's loads really:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ww1+film

I did run a quick Google, but had heard of a very small number of the films that came up and most of them seem to have been made before my parents were born!

Forgot about War Horse. Checked out Deathwatch but Rotten Tomatoes gives it 25%.

It feels like a gap in the modern day market, which I'm baffled to see hasn't been seized upon given the ongoing centenary opportunities.

Passchendale was on telly the other day. Unfortunately it was pretty poor although in a weird way I still enjoyed it.

The Trench was another one, had a guy from Eastenders in it I think which is a sure fire indicator of quality.

Despicable Me 3 6/10- Some decent jokes in there but it's too much geared towards to kids to get anything higher than a 6.

They Live - 4 stars. Cult classic which I've had a soft spot for, for many years.

Moana - 9/10
Big Hero 6 - 9/10
Stardust - 9/10

There's clearly an odd one out there but there's something about Stardust that really cheers me up, so I find myself going back to it a lot.

Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal

Not sure if I've ever mentioned this in all the years I've been on this message board but I watch this film probably once a year. It's entertaining in a gooseberry fool sort of way.

Slade Craven (a very obvious Marilyn Manson inspired character) is retiring and has decided to play his last ever concert on a plane to be broadcast online. What could possibly go wrong.

The entire film is available to watch on YouTube if anyone has a spare 90 mins...

Looks good, I'll check it out once I'm home.

Re: The Prestige, spoilered for spoilers, obvs.

Hellraiser III

After the first two excellent films Hellraiser III is, well, terrible. Even worse than I remember. The plot is, even for a budget horror, flimsy and uninteresting, helped along by some very noticeable and poorly placed editing. The acting is awful, even by Hellraiser standards, (I'm talking Resident Evil PSone levels of acting here). The new cenobites are like The Borg, but not in a cool way. Pinhead, while still played by Bradley, had far too much dialogue that it stripped away the unearthly, menacing persona that made the character so frightening in the first place. As for the gore? With the first two films there was a level of inventiveness to the horror that fitted in with the idea of Hell; where pain and pleasure are indivisible. Hellriaser III had none of this creativity, in fact some of it was laugh out loud silly with some terrible effects in places.

It gets an extra point because the Captain Elliot Spencer/Pinhead back story was relatively interesting, it's just a shame they didn't explore it further. In fact as a Pinhead origin story, one that told the tale of how a brave and heroic, yet somewhat disillusioned WWI veteran became a terrifying demon from hell, would have made for a much better and far more interesting movie

Such a major come down after the first two excellent Hellraiser movies.

2/10