Last film you watched and your rating

[iup=3541999]Tafdolphin[/iup] wrote:Godzilla (2014) 3/10

Utter, utter toss and a massive disappointment after the amazing trailers. How on earth a movie this huge was greenlit with a script as bad as this is beyond me. It suffered from exactly the same problems as it's 90s predecessor: an over reliant focus on, and under done characterisation of, the humans characters. I couldn't have cared less about the marine and his family if I tried, they were as two dimensional and cliched as you like, but they were the fulcrum the movie hinged on for some reason.

The direction also annoyed me. Although it was quite beautiful, Edwards' decision to not once, but twice cut away from monster fights as they began had me clenching my fist in frustration. A bad decision once is annoying, to do it twice is flipping off the viewer. When the fight did finally happen it was a background device to the most boring last-chance-dash in recent blockbuster memory. The hero marine (can't remember his name) said it'd take him 60 seconds to disarm the bomb. When they reach it, there's 27 minutes left. But wait! The panel to get to the detonator is a bit stiff! Rather than, I dunno, getting an iron bar from the wreckage and levering it off they decide to waste what time they have carting it literally across the entire city. I could go on and on with a list of utterly stupid and unbelievable leaps the script makes. On and on.

I wouldn't have scored it as low as that, but pretty bang on I'd say. I went in expecting a film about Godzilla, instead I got a film about Aaron Johnson boring me to death with Godzilla fighting in the background for 30 seconds. So disappointing. It was so "AMERICA strawberry float YEAH" it was almost sickening.

There wasn't even enough elizabeth olsen to please me.

Zombieland - 6/10

It's a zombie film, so right off the bat it's going to be gooseberry fool, but there were a couple of funny bits.

[iup=3542093]Skippy[/iup] wrote:Nonsense.

I welcome your rebuttal but I honestly can't see how anyone who reviews media for a living can defend a mess like that.

Calvaire - 3/10

What the strawberry float was this. Well, 'Belgian horror' apparently. Barely anything happened. Slow start, you think it's building to something, but no. The TV guide said 'intense horror'. There wasn't even mild horror, let alone anything else. Absolute load of shite.

Kill List

Quite creepy in places, with a Wicker Man vibe, and there was an overall atmosphere to the film that I liked. But it just didn't hold together, and has a ridiculous ending. And the guy who played the main chavvy hitman was the wrong choice for the role.

6

[iup=3542895]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:Kill List

Quite creepy in places, with a Wicker Man vibe, and there was an overall atmosphere to the film that I liked. But it just didn't hold together, and has a ridiculous ending. And the guy who played the main chavvy hitman was the wrong choice for the role.

6

Pacific Rim - 7/10. Probably the film transformers should have been. Decent action sequences.

White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen - 6 and 7 respectively. These films are virtually identical in so, so many ways. I don't understand how this can happen.

Rounders - 7.5/10. Would probably be higher if I knew all the poker jargon.

[iup=3542874]Tafdolphin[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3542093]Skippy[/iup] wrote:Nonsense.

I welcome your rebuttal but I honestly can't see how anyone who reviews media for a living can defend a mess like that.

I can, because it's my opinion. It's not a fantastic movie (gave it four stars initially but that's down to three now), but I enjoyed it a lot.

It's certainly conservative with its use of the monsters on screen to say the least, but there's plenty of pay off in the final act (which I believe is fantastically directed) to make up for the sparsity early on. Though I do think they should have lingered longer on the Hawaii fight.

As for the human characters, no they aren't fantastically rounded or even particularly well acted but they get the job done. Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins were both pretty awful though. The whole issue people have with monster movies focusing on human characters is a joke, such a film with the monster as its lead character simply wouldn't work and whether or not it worked in this instance for you, these films need a connection to the humans caught up in and getting killed by the monster wreckage on screen, otherwise it's just mindless, hollow, CGI carnage.

There's one scene that sums up Godzilla 2014's issues well: the one where the enemy monsters are attacking a bridge with two of the human soldiers on it. It's well shot + edited and should be genuinely suspenseful...but it's not because it's impossible to even care a smidgen about the people involved; they're blank soldier archetypes and nothing more, which the film spends far too long focusing on. I don't think you can blame people for wanting to go back to the monsters when anything without them in the film that isn't Bryan Cranston is so dull.

That's a running theme in disappointing films this year, both Robocop and Godzilla had staggeringly boring charisma-free leads...hopefully Hollywood takes cues from the main characters in Guardians of the Galaxy and not those.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

There's only so much crass humour I can take so the show can be hit or miss for me, but the film is an absolute delight; skewers its very existence brilliantly, not to mention having killer songs. Surprisingly sweet too beneath all the horrible things that happen in it!

9/10

Batman the Movie (1966)

Bahaha, this was fun! Plays very well as a surreal comedy featuring surprisingly understated humour; there's a wit to the gloriously campy dialogue that elevates it above the Schumacher films, despite them attempting the same tone.

Actually, on that note I'd also take it above the Tim Burton films! It works as a comedy far better than those do trying to function as dark action adventures.

8/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 9/10 Late to the party, but it's easily in the top 3 Marvel movies. Parts of it reminded me of The Dark Knight, it was that good.

Saw Cap again this week, after Guardians it just seems a lot more formulaic and clichéd. Still very good mind, but I'd put Guardians ahead of it.

So...

Avengers > Guardians > Iron Man > Iron Man 3 > Cap 2 > Cap > Thor 2 > Thor > Iron Man 2 > Hulk

[iup=3542980]Skippy[/iup] wrote:Saw Cap again this week, after Guardians it just seems a lot more formulaic and clichéd. Still very good mind, but I'd put Guardians ahead of it.

So...

Avengers > Guardians > Iron Man > Iron Man 3 > Cap 2 > Cap > Thor 2 > Thor > Iron Man 2 > Hulk

Guardians > Cap 2 > Avengers > Iron Man > Iron Man 3 > Thor > Cap > Thor 2 > Incredible Hulk > Iron Man 2 > Hulk

Saw winter soldier last night, great stuff.

9/10

[iup=3542895]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:Kill List

Quite creepy in places, with a Wicker Man vibe, and there was an overall atmosphere to the film that I liked. But it just didn't hold together, and has a ridiculous ending. And the guy who played the main chavvy hitman was the wrong choice for the role.

6

I'll give you the ending but wrong casting? Get out.

Two Days, One Night

Beautifully acted and surprisingly gripping drama about a woman (Marion Cotillard) who is set to return to work after a bout of depression, only to find that her co-workers have been forced into voting between laying her off and earning a bonus. She manages to convince her boss to organise a second secret ballot and spends the weekend trying to convince her colleagues to vote to reject their bonus and keep her on.

Cotillard's in almost every frame, and she's extraordinary as a fragile woman forced to fight for a job she might not actually be ready to go back to. It teeters on the brink of sentimentality once or twice, but the naturalism of the direction, the dialogue and the performances make it genuinely moving: you'll feel cheered by every tiny triumph, and each setback is quietly crushing. And the ending, which is particularly crucial here, is immaculately judged.

*****

[iup=3543050]Floex[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3542895]TimeGhost[/iup] wrote:Kill List

Quite creepy in places, with a Wicker Man vibe, and there was an overall atmosphere to the film that I liked. But it just didn't hold together, and has a ridiculous ending. And the guy who played the main chavvy hitman was the wrong choice for the role.

6

I'll give you the ending but wrong casting? Get out.

Just Jay the Squish-faced chubby cockney banana split, the rest were fine.

[iup=3543017]Corazon de Leon[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3542980]Skippy[/iup] wrote:Saw Cap again this week, after Guardians it just seems a lot more formulaic and clichéd. Still very good mind, but I'd put Guardians ahead of it.

So...

Avengers > Guardians > Iron Man > Iron Man 3 > Cap 2 > Cap > Thor 2 > Thor > Iron Man 2 > Hulk

Guardians > Cap 2 > Avengers > Iron Man > Iron Man 3 > Thor > Cap > Thor 2 > Incredible Hulk > Iron Man 2 > Hulk

Based on what I've seen

IM > IM2 > Cap > Avengers > Thor > IM3 > Thor 2 > Incredible Hulk

Watched Winter Soldier last night 9.5/10. My favourite comic book movie. Felt like a Bourne movie but with much better writing and action set pieces. Up there as one of my favourite movies full stop.

School Of Rock 8/10 Can't believe I've only just got round to watching this, great fun.

Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5/10

Entertaining, interesting, well acted and impeccably shot.