DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[Scott Malbranque]

The Great White Hype - Moments of pure comic genius laced throughout. Peter Berg's 'Mr.Roper, Mr.Roper" song puts me on the floor every time.

It really was one of those flicks I didn't like when I first watched it, but demands repeat viewings and is a quoter, up there with the Taps and Lebowski's of the world.

[SpiralTap]

Megamind: I absolutely loved this, one of my top 10 movies of 2010. Apparently Despicable Me is better so I

[Hyperion]

I've found this year pretty underwhelming for movies so far, there's been barely a thing I wanted to see, I'm subscribed to several trailer posting users on Youtube so I get dozens of trailers per week but nothing catches my interest, though both are really 2010 movies I saw True Grit & Tron Legacy this year and really liked them.

So that leads me to Battle:LA, I liked the trailer alot, so when the R5 DVD came online I gave it a download, I was going into it with awareness of the negative reviews so it could only be better than I was expecting and it was. Its not a great movie but it was a fun time passer. It really is like Black Hawk Down vs Aliens (not the 1986 movie), that's the best comparison I can make on what to expect. Think too many scenes slowed the pacing and it probably might have been better served by being 10 - 15 mins shorter. Also it really is Aaron Eckhart's movie, he's the only character that they really put any effort into developing, everyone else are just virtually faceless soldiers, only ones that stand apart are Michele Rodriguez cause she's a woman and Jim Parrack, only if you recognise him as Hoyt from True Blood however, neither are given anything to stand out from the pack.

The camera work also was nowhere near as shaky as I was expecting, its shot by Handcam but its not jerky and jarring at all, I expected it to be as jarring as Cloverfield by some things I read.

I think they have done a good job making each side feel like proper real life army soldiers even though one side are CGI creations.

Really a film for people that like soldiers shooting at each other, you won't get any great acting performances, dialogue or indeed anything you won't have seen before. Its been a box office hit so I wouldn't be shocked if a sequel ever popped up. Its just a fun movie if its the sort of thing you enjoy, I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Hyperion

[Jimmy_kahoona]

So that leads me to Battle:LA, I liked the trailer alot, so when the R5 DVD came online I gave it a download, I was going into it with awareness of the negative reviews so it could only be better than I was expecting and it was. Its not a great movie but it was a fun time passer. It really is like Black Hawk Down vs Aliens (not the 1986 movie), that's the best comparison I can make on what to expect. Think too many scenes slowed the pacing and it probably might have been better served by being 10 - 15 mins shorter. Also it really is Aaron Eckhart's movie, he's the only character that they really put any effort into developing, everyone else are just virtually faceless soldiers, only ones that stand apart are Michele Rodriguez cause she's a woman and Jim Parrack, only if you recognise him as Hoyt from True Blood however, neither are given anything to stand out from the pack.

The camera work also was nowhere near as shaky as I was expecting, its shot by Handcam but its not jerky and jarring at all, I expected it to be as jarring as Cloverfield by somethings I read.

I think they have done a good job making each side feel like proper real life army soldiers even though one side are CGI creations.

Really a film for people that like soldiers shooting at each other, you won't get any great acting performances, dialogue or indeed anything you won't have seen before. Its been a box office hit so I wouldn't be shocked if a sequel ever popped up. Its just a fun movie if its the sort of thing you enjoy, I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Its been a box office hit so I wouldn't be shocked if a sequel ever popped up.

 

Not often someone captures the same thoughts as myself but I got to agree with this.

 

I felt the film was a bit like spinning around on the spot with your eyes open, its fun to begin with but you realise theres no real substance and its giving you a headache!

[Green]

Scream 4

 

I will put all of this in spoiler tags as it's one of those movies that you should go into with as little revealed as possible. I'll just say that everyone who is a fan of the series who may be skeptical really should see it. If you need that extra bit of motivation then feel free to read on. I'll avoid spoiling the ending at least but still, read at your peril...

 

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

Firstly, if you're not a fan of the whole "meta" thing, you're going to fucking hate this. This Scream in particular is very much a pretentious film geek's movie. I'm sure there are some who could enjoy it otherwise but overall I wouldn't bother if that doesn't sound like the direction you want this film to take.

 

The horror in this one is underplayed quite a bit for a lot of comedic references and genuine parodies, not like the Scary Movie fart jokes and lowest common denominator shit. The mystery keeps you guessing and it does have quite a shocker ending that manages to make sense, particularly if you were following the development of the film online. Lots of fun characters, although some do suffer from being under-developed. The writing is solid for the most part but I won't lie that it's not without its flaws and there are moments that might make you cringe.

 

The acting performances are endearing enough, although Neve Campbell hasn't evolved from much more than that constant look of "I'm about to cry". She doesn't look like she's aged a day though and if you're a fan, like me, then it won't bother you too much. She's still got "it"

 

So yeah this is rambling and not a review as such but just something that will give those of you a vague idea of what to expect when heading to see this. To simplify it, Scream 4 is way better than Scream 3 (which really isn't too hard I guess) but not as good as Scream 2 nor the original film. However it doesn't fall too far below the second and there's plenty in there to keep a fan of the series interested and thoroughly entertained. If you're a sucker for horror, particularly Yank horror, then you'll fucking love it.

 

That is if you can get over some of the more obnoxious "meta" stuff in it...

 

 

So there we are. Not exactly a review as such but just an explanation enough for what to expect for those who may not be 100% sold on the idea. I still strongly recommend to anyone heading to see it to avoid reading up on it for now. It's going to be spoiler central.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Green

[insert_name_here]

Yeah that's pretty much how i felt with Scream 4 as well.

[Cobra1000]

Currently watching Big on Film4, an all time classic no doubt.

[truthofsin]

Dreamcatcher just finished on ITV and it was pretty good in a really weird way.. odd film for sure.. but Morgan Freeman AND Jason Lee in the same film, figured it was worth a look..

[Green]

Dreamcatcher just finished on ITV and it was pretty good in a really weird way.. odd film for sure.. but Morgan Freeman AND Jason Lee in the same film, figured it was worth a look..

Dreamcatcher is the most awful pile of shit I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through. Say what you want about Twilight's horrendous existence and pointless sequels like Dumb And Dumberer and Meet The Fockers, Dreamcatcher manages to actually show SOME level of promise at first before becoming a ridiculous, convoluted, mess of a film. Fuck Dreamcatcher, Stephen King, Morgan Freeman, Jason Lee and anything vaguely related to that atrocity.

[The King Of Swing]

What Green said and to make matters worse I actually paid to watch that garbage at the Cinema.

[Mr. Seven]

Dreamcatcher is rubbish but it has Timothy Olyphant (briefly) so it's not the worst thing ever made.

 

Right, Scream 4 then. I'm not doing spoiler tags as I'm in fast reply so deal with it. Just to reiterate;

 

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE SO SCROLL DOWN PAST THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT A REALLY BAD FILM SPOILED.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok. Let's get to it.

 

As someone who was about 12 or 13 when Scream came out and was thus mesmerised by it, I guess it's a telling sign of how badly the franchise ended up that I really didn't care about Scream 4 (or SCRE4M if you're a moron). The trailers all looked rubbish, and there was really no reason for it to exist. But the release date beckoned and I caught the bug and sad as it may be, I wanted to know who was behind the mask this time round, so off I went.

 

And yeah, it's shit. Really shit. I didn't expect a good film but I did expect some reason for it to be made in the first place. The problem is that Scream sells itself on things that are no longer clever to point out, so you're literally looking at your watch until it's time for THE BIG REVEAL. Everyone onscreen is just knife fodder until it's time for the end game.

 

- Speaking of knife fodder, the film takes (very mild and throwaway) shots at its rivals, dismissing the torture porn aspect of the horror genre. That's fair enough, as Saw is in many ways the Scream of its generation. It came along and did something new and made people excited about horror again but only served to usher in a flood of poor copycats and sequels. It's also a fair enough shot to take because the torture porn thing is played out and boring. However, it's more interesting than watching endless knife killings. That's really all Ghostface does. Phonecall - lurking in the shadows - jumping out of nowhere - stab stab stab, wash, rinse, repeat.

 

- There's zero tension and everything is telegraphed. Again, it's a stalk and slash movie so you're not expecting much but this is Scream, 11 years on and it's the original team and it's really smug and self-referential so you expect.... something? But you get nothing. Worse than nothing you get the confirmation that Wes Craven is done from a creative point of view, which is something of a shame.

 

- There is no reason for Sidney, Gale and Dewey to be in this movie. As a result they look incredibly out of place. The "new blood" on offer gets no chance to shine because the film doesn't know who to focus on. Everyone is just walking around waiting to get killed and not really giving a shit about it. Sidney's character is especially irrelevant. She is just there.

 

- So if there's no reason for our original characters to be here, why the FUCK do you have them all survive? What possible purpose can it serve? The whole thing feels like the criticisms that WWE gets when they don't push new faces, not to mention I guess everyone figured one of the three (if not all three) would buy it in the opening scene. So instead we get an opening scene that is trying way too hard to be clever that only serves to dilute the effect they were going for. So yeah, film ends with the old guard alive and well for no other reason than they were terrified to have different names above the poster. Who could possibly care about what happens next?

 

- As for THE BIG REVEAL, it's a mixed bag. It's believable in some ways, and really stupid in others. It also needs better actors to pull it off as the dialogue is so clunky, expository and desperate commentary that it simply doesn't work coming out of the mouths of who it comes out of.

 

- It's coming out of dumb fucking characters who can't see obvious shit coming. Infuriating.

 

- The scene that follows said reveal is beyond parody to the point that I thought someone had slotted Scary Movie into the reel.

 

- As is the finale which is so fucking stupid it beggars belief.

 

- Hayden Panettiere is probably the only one to come out of this mess with any credit. She's pretty good, sells the character well and manages to look so incredibly hot while sporting a haircut that a granny would admire.

 

- It's not enough to be self-referential anymore. The film makes a big deal out of being "meta" but all that does is make the film acknowledge how fucking run of the mill it all is.

 

I guess it'll make money and we'll probably get another installment. The problem is that we could really use another Scream right now, but not another episode of the Scream series.

[Jas]

Reign of Assassins

[Devon Malcolm]

The world didn't need a Scream 2 or 3 let alone Scream 4. It barely needed the first one. Shitty arsed repetitive and dull franchise.

 

Horror comedy isn't an easy genre to pull off though, in all fairness, and when you think about it there really haven't been THAT many examples down the years of films that have successfully pulled it off. Mostly they end up managing to do neither the comedy nor the horror very successfully. I've even soured to Shaun Of The Dead over the last couple of years.

[Jas]

Right, Scream 4 then. I'm not doing spoiler tags as I'm in fast reply so deal with it. Just to reiterate;

 

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE SO SCROLL DOWN PAST THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT A REALLY BAD FILM SPOILED.

 

I've shortened your post Seven and good read on Scream 4 that's just reiterated my intentions to never EVER watch this tosh.

The trailers were so boring which just added to the lack of interest.

 

I cannot wait for Thor though, IGN gave it a positive review.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Jas

[Philo_Vance]

Have had a quick scan through here and don't think I've seen this mentioned yet, if it has been then, apologies. Was just wondering if any of the film types on here are using Miso yet. Was recommended to me by a mate who runs a horror reviews site. For the uninitiated, it's a site where you can log what films you're watching, comment/review them and keep an eye on what your friends are watching. You can also link it to your facebook etc. It's fairly basic but I'm doing it to keep a record of what I'm watching as I've been getting frustrated with myself for not watching as many films as I used to. Anyway, if anyone's on it, my username's Dave2tone. Add me up. Here's the link:Click.

 

In other news, my last two films watched are:

 

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavre. A 2001 homage to low budget 50s/60s Sci fi and horror. You'll probably not appreciate it too much if you've not seen a lot of the old stuff, but if you have it'll have you laughing out loud. There's a sequel too, be watching that tonight I think.

 

Someone's Knocking at the Door (2009). very good, if a little short, horror about a group of med students getting picked off by a couple of nutters from fifty years before. Sounds cliched and crap, but actually very original and very, very stylish. Highly recommended.