What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[SShaw]

Originally Posted by Pete

Saw three films at the cinema over the last two weeks:

NOW YOU SEE ME - Had no idea what it was about - in fact I'd never heard of it until I was asked to go and see it. Really poor, with a stupid plot and a really annoying cast (I usually like Woody Harelson but he irritated me a lot in this)

I saw Now You See Me this evening. It reminded me a lot of a bad episode of the U.K. TV series Hustler (at least I think that is what it was called, it was about a group of 4 con artists who planned and executed cons on 'deserving' victims each week) with a little seasoning of The Prestige. The plot was very, very predictable and while the film assembles a reasonably talented cast it then proceeds to waste them on badly drawn (and unlikeable) 2D characters.

[Zann]

The Cottage

Took a while to get going but had some decent gore (the foot bit got under my skin!) Good to see Reece Shearsmith in a movie, his character can't have been too much of a stretch from things he's done in LOG.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Zann

The Cottage

Took a while to get going but had some decent gore (the foot bit got under my skin!) Good to see Reece Shearsmith in a movie, his character can't have been too much of a stretch from things he's done in LOG.

He's excellent in A Field in England.

[Zann]

Originally Posted by Demdike

He's excellent in A Field in England.

It's on my list. Have avoided reading about it.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Zann

It's on my list. Have avoided reading about it.

Its one of those films where you can actually read about it prior to viewing as it really doesn't have a linear plot line at all.

You watch and let yourself become immersed in it or it leaves you cold, a highly divisive film.

[Handyman Joe]

Finally saw some new movies -

A Field in England - loved it, one that demands multiple viewings, hence the clever release strategy - fans will buy this. The music alone makes me want to dive in again soon

Maniac - cant deny this is well done and the retro synth soundtrack is spot on - but I feel like vegetarian movie goer these days, watching woman getting murdered for 90 mins is starting to make me feel queasy. Must be an age thing.

Cloud Atlas - Sadly an unmitigated disaster. For this to work each story strand had to have its own momentum so you were desperate to get back to them, but the opposite happened and you're left with 6 drab stories randomly intercut. Halle Berry is dreadful, Hanks and Grant risible. Listen, I loved the book, I admire the bravery of the directors in taking it on, but this film is just wretched.

[trebor8273]

Casablanca

What ever words I put down can't do this classic film justice. Cast and story all amazing. They really don't make them like this anymore, a film everyone should see at least once in ther life. 10/10

Sad thing is I tried to get some freinds to watch it, but because it was black and white and of a certain age they where not interested heathens !!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

Casablanca

What ever words I put down can't do this classic film justice. Cast and story all amazing. They really don't make them like this anymore, a film everyone should see at least once in ther life. 10/10

My favourite film of all time.

[SShaw]

I watched the German Blu-ray of Sinister this afternoon. My thoughts on the film are unchanged since I saw it at Fright Fest last year (you can read more over on my diary thread).

[Delirium]

I watched Pacific Rim, against my better judgement. It's been a while since I've so intensely disliked a film, but I hated it.

It felt like a Michael Bay movie (though thankfully without the crass sexualisation) with everything ramped up to 11 - the problem being, where do you go when you're so relentlessly pummeled that it becomes numbing? There's nothing outside of the set-pieces of course, but the cod-characterisation is actually embarrassing with its overamped melodrama and goofy, cartoonish scientists. It's also one of those films where evry character feels the need to shout all the time - if it isn't bone crunching robot/alien fisticuffs, it's egos running rampage - I've been to quieter heavy metal gigs.

And the thing is, it would almost be forgivable if the set-pieces were entertaining, but they really aren't. Most of the fights are set at sea, so there's little sense of scale to it all; the one brief fight in a city is over and done with soon, so there's little in the way of Godzilla style real peril, and the aliens all pretty uninteresting to look at. It felt like those cheesy Japanese programs in which a guy in a rubber suit hits a guy in a robot suit - and that is essentially it, while each set-piece is essentially the same with the Aliens getting slightly bigger.

Astoundingly bad. And my girlfriend knew I hated it as I did something I never do at the cinema - I went to the loo partway through. I either go before or can hold it, but I felt like some respite from the mindnumbing tedium of it all.. and the casual stroll to the loos and back was far more entertaining than the torturous 2 hours + of that insufferable piece of crap.