What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by Demdike

How dare you shunt out Con Air, its a terrific action film.

"I sayd, put da bunneh, back in da bawx"

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

In its tone and overall cynicism, it's a little like Mean Girls but, as I said above, I was surprised by how funny it is, with me and others in the audience laughing consistently throughout.

Speaking of smart teen movies, I went and saw Perks Of Being A Wallflower last night, absolutely fantastic movie, a bit depressing, but very good.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Speaking of smart teen movies, I went and saw Perks Of Being A Wallflower last night, absolutely fantastic movie, a bit depressing, but very good.

Yeah that's another one I want to watch. I'm a sucker for those sort of movies.

[Gojirosan]

The Raven - 2012 US d: James McTeigue

As I rush to catch up on films missed this year, I get to The Raven.

It's a fine comic book type fantasy, a Giallo-esque reinvention of Edgar Poe's last days. No masterpiece, but there is a fine story here and it is made extremely well. Stylish without ever becoming flashy or showy, a cast well chosen, and a beautiful pacing that refuses to go hell for leather yet never becomes indolent.

Above all this looks absolutely gorgeous and sounds simply magnificent. The image is that of populist Gothic middle class Victoriana and this is portrayed quite wonderfully.. It gives us a time and place where men dressed properly and even the dank untidiness of the workplace was elegant and soothing. This is Hammer writ large and it works. Add to this a simply excellent sound design and mix. Listening through headphones revealed the perfect balance of sound effects, music and dialogue. Not so much as a hoof clop was too high or too low. It was a pleasure to hear such unassuming mastery of sound in a film.

Though less iconic than McTeigue's previous V For Vendetta, this is the better film, and the alternate history adventure actually reminded em of Alan Moore far more than the direct adaptation from 2006! One can only dream what today's McTeigue might make of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen had that franchise not been strangled in its cradle by an over-eager Hollywood.

Absolutely worth seeing, it never hits the stars but certainly stretches up there admirably, and as an example of unshowy technical proficiency in film-making, it should probably become a text film.

[keirarts]

Some of the cg gore in THE RAVEN bothered me. That and the downplaying of E.A Poes alcoholism, check out stuart gordons black cat for a more definitive portrayal of poe. That really stopped me considering The raven a classic.

[bdc]

Hadn't watched a HK film in what feels like ages so decided to pop one in...

Step Into the Dark (1998)

Ok it's a Wong Jing film (directed by Dick Cho) but a decent one!
This updates the man+female ghost romance films to the late 90's.
It's unpredictable and funny but also thrilling.
Just the way I like it...enjoyed this one.

PS there's little blood or gore but lots of ghostly goings on.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Yeah that's another one I want to watch. I'm a sucker for those sort of movies.

Me too, as missed it when it was showing at the cinema.

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Some of the cg gore in THE RAVEN bothered me. That and the downplaying of E.A Poes alcoholism,

I don't get the fuss about computer blood. I am not quite sure what there is to be "bothered" by it.

And I don't think they downplayed Poe's alcoholism at all! It was referred to as much as it needed to be considering this was a fantasy and not a biopic.

But it's not a classic. Just a very efficient and decent flick.

[Delirium]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

I wasn't overly keen on it, to be honest. I liked the tone and the manner in which it was told (almost fragmentary in nature), however, it suffered from a lazy and under-developed script filled with one dimensional characters. I gave it a 6/10.

Regarding We Need to Talk About Kevin, I completely agree. I saw it at the flicks and found it somewhat heavy-handed. The main problem being the central nature versus nurture debate (which I understand is far more convincing in the book, although I haven't read it). There seemed to be little debate in the film - he was an evil kid, end of; comically so at times.

Anyway, I recently watched the low budget New Zealand sci-fi, The Quiet Earth, which has been sitting on the shelf for years. It's one of those terrific little films where you could scribble the synopsis on the back on a matchbook, yet write an essay on the theories it raises. Essentially a last man on earth story, with Bruno Lawrence's scientist awakening to find himself completely alone - or is he? Devoid of any melodrama, our lead goes about sensibly trying to work out what happened, and seems to be quiet happy in his predicament! The film perfectly captures the eerie feeling of desolation, has a believable lead character, and concludes in an entirely satisfactory manner with a particularly beautiful final shot.

Sadly the book (by a NZ author too) is long out of print and apparently reaches silly money on ebay, so I'm out of luck there.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Delirium

Regarding We Need to Talk About Kevin, I completely agree. I saw it at the flicks and found it somewhat heavy-handed. The main problem being the central nature versus nurture debate (which I understand is far more convincing in the book, although I haven't read it). There seemed to be little debate in the film - he was an evil kid, end of; comically so at times.

Yes, there was definitely an air of 'comic book villain' about Kevin. As you say, very heavy handed, and little debate. There is no real exchange between Kevin's mother and father throughout the whole film. In fact, John C. Reilly was so under-used, he must have been laughing all the way to the bank with that minimal performance.