DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[JLM]

Yeah the trailers for The Raid actually make me want to go and see it, which is quite rare for intrusive internet trailers. However, I also want to go and see The Dictator and The Avengers first, so we shall see what time/money allows.

 

I've recently started using Sky Player on Xbox and watching lots of movies on demand. Here are very short reviews of things I dun watched. There will be SPOILERS in them.

 

 

Again, HEREIN THERE WILL BE SPOILERS:

 

The Social Network: Quite enjoyed this. I don't know why I like Jesse Eisenberg but I do. I think Zombieland might be the reason. Or because he can be Michael Cera when I get a little bit bore of Michael Cera.

 

Captain America: Watched in preparation for The Avengers. I thought it was a lot of fun. Hugo Weaving is magnificently evil, Tommy Lee Jones phones it in but is still great and I find Chris Evans to be quite a likeable chap. CGI reduced mini-Chris Evans was fucking weird though. Took a while to adjust to that.

 

Saw 6 and Saw 7 (3D!!): I thought these were significantly better than 3, 4 and 5 because they didn't try (and fail) to be especially clever this time. Hoffman is an utterly absurd villain who doesn't try very hard at all to avoid acting like the most shifty and evil man in the universe. Then, when he is rumbled, he starts killing EVERYONE. Fantastic. I thought his end was nice and fitting too. Also some of the stuff about medical insurance in number 6 was surprisingly affecting and sincere. Tobin Bell's scenes are all still solid gold as well. I love how insanely elaborate and expensive looking some of the traps are in these. Honestly who has the time/manpower/money? Mad props for the use of the brazen bull though. Always been a fan of that story. Also, Betsy Russell is 48 years old? Get the fuck outta here.

 

Chain Letter: Teens are sent chain letter email telling them to pass it on to five people or die. Some of them do, those who don't start getting murdered by a guy using chains. Because it's a CHAIN letter, see? Serial killers love a good pun. Yes. I watched it because Nikki Reed is in it and she is lovely. Other than that it was by the numbers rubbish with a hilariously ham-fisted message of "Is all this technology necessarily a good thing??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" WELL IS IT?? You can communicate with the world but you might also get murdered with a chain. You win some, you lose some.

 

Husk: I liked this waaay more than I should have, because this was also by the numbers slasher horror with predictable reveals and few new ideas. Twenty somethings are driving through what I assume is Idaho, Suddenly some crazy suicidal crows smash into their wind screen and their car crashes. They wake up, one of their number is missing. They try to find him and bad things ensue. What I liked was the setting. It's not an original one (farm by the side of a road that goes on for hundreds of miles of nothing but fields), but the particular one they use is excellent. The farm is creepy and they make the most of the location with lots of great atmospheric shots of just how ominous the whole place looks. A seven foot high corn field with no visibility is always going to be a good location too, and it also means that bad things can happen even in broad daylight. The first half hour takes place on a nice sunny afternoon and still nobody is safe. I approve of that in a horror film.

 

The killer is the spirit of a guy who was murdered in the cornfield and then had his body made into a scarecrow. He now haunts the field and can jump from scarecrow to scarecrow to attack living people who enter it. When he kills them, he then takes charge of their body and they go into the farmhouse to scarecrow themselves in a wonderfully creepy ritual of hammering nails through their fingers to make claws and then sewing a scarecrow hood for themselves using an old foot operated sewing machine. They do this in a zombified state with cold, dead eyes and iit seems that they may not even be able to see people in the same room as them; a fact which is used to create some nice tense scenes. Scarecrows can be creepy as hell when they're done right and I like

 

So yeah, extremely derivative, full of plot inconsistencies and many of the usual slasher movie flaws, but I thought it was executed well enough to be entertaining. It looks great, builds atmosphere well and has some good jumpy moments. There are plenty of films that do exactly the same thing much worse than this does anyway.

 

Super: An odd one this. It feels like it's a terrible film but I found myself enjoying it (I think). I understand that might not make a lot of sense. I laughed at quite a lot of stuff and I enjoy Rainn Wilson, plus it has Bubbles from The Wire, but I read a review that said it feels like every first draft idea was greenlit and I can agree with that. It's the very definition of hit and miss from scene to scene. Didn't exepct it to be quite so gratuitously violent either. I didn't notice it was an 18 before watching it.

 

Kevin Bacon is such a prick in this film. What a great guy. The tone is all over the place; with Liv Tyler giving quite a strong emotional performance in amongst the madness that is the rest of the film. All of her scenes are completely sincere and serious and played to pull at the heart strings, as is the ending, but that all feels massively disconnected from everything else. I dunno. I liked Ellen Page in this, even though she does and says all the things in it that make me hate her in other films. Why? I don't know! It's probably shit but then he did nearly beat a guy to death with a wrench for pushing in front of him at the cinema. The film has quite a sadistic, nasty streak to it that some reviews criticised it for but I found to be one of its most appealing qualities. I am as confused by the film as it appears to be by itself.

Edited May 17, 2012 by JLM

[niff]

Watched The Dictator today. If you liked Borat/Ali G/Bruno, you'll like this. So many hilarious moments, I cant remember the last time I was in a cinema where people were actually crying with laughter.

saw this as well. much better than bruno with 2 absolutly brilliant sequences and some great silly lines to boot. only really the one bit that i myself found really offensive but its good to see cohen back on form and John c Reilly is really great as always

I found it to be funnier overall than his other films (although nothing can beat the fight scene in Borat) and again he's managed to make a rotten character likeable! I've walked out of the cinema smiling from ear to ear and loved his character's speech at the end of the film. Great cameos as well.

[Hyperion]

Saw 6 and Saw 7 (3D!!): I thought these were significantly better than 3, 4 and 5 because they didn't try (and fail) to be especially clever this time. Hoffman is an utterly absurd villain who doesn't try very hard at all to avoid acting like the most shifty and evil man in the universe. Then, when he is rumbled, he starts killing EVERYONE. Fantastic. I thought his end was nice and fitting too. Also some of the stuff about medical insurance in number 6 was surprisingly affecting and sincere. Tobin Bell's scenes are all still solid gold as well. I love how insanely elaborate and expensive looking some of the traps are in these. Honestly who has the time/manpower/money? Mad props for the use of the brazen bull though. Always been a fan of that story. Also, Betsy Russell is 48 years old? Get the fuck outta here.

Nice to see someone else that doesn't have a 'everything after SAW 1 is wank' attitude. Some great entertainment and memorable characters in that series, Hoffman is so great to me that I'm more or less routing for him throughout over the good guys, tho he did deserve what happened to him it was by no means final. Since only the 6th installment did poor box office, I wouldn't be totally shocked if a SAW 8 came along one day, however I'd also be happy for it to stay at 7 movies with a fitting end.

[Mr. Seven]

Went to see The Raid. It's pretty much everything you've heard it is. I wouldn't go the full five stars but it's highly entertaining.

[Devon Malcolm]

I've decided I'm going to watch Drive tonight as it's just been added to Netflix. I was going to watch The Mosquito Coast. If it's nowhere near as good as The Driver then words are going to be had.

[Devon Malcolm]

Okay, it was pretty good, but anyone suggesting it's a masterpiece or anything is a mental.

[Mr. Seven]

Pretty much.

[Devon Malcolm]

I think it's the first Ryan Gosling film I've seen, though, and he's brilliant in it.

[Mr. Seven]

Check out Lars And The Real Girl.

[DeanoTheGame]

He's good in Fracture too, even if the film is shit.

[DeanoTheGame]

Captain America: Watched in preparation for The Avengers. I thought it was a lot of fun. Hugo Weaving is magnificently evil, Tommy Lee Jones phones it in but is still great and I find Chris Evans to be quite a likeable chap. CGI reduced mini-Chris Evans was fucking weird though. Took a while to adjust to that.

I also watched this recently. The Hugo Weaving parts were awful. Everything involving the Red Skull was utter shit. Chris Evans is a likeable presence though, can't argue with that. Fun film overall. Better than Thor.Also, Husk is fucking rubbish and Super is brilliant.

[Putmydickinablender]

Just watching the Truman show, what are people's opinions on this film.? I think it is a fantastic movie, and for me jim carreys best just infront of eternal sunshine. Such a fantastic idea and all the parts are played perfectly

[Keith Houchen]

Just watching the Truman show, what are people's opinions on this film.? I think it is a fantastic movie, and for me jim carreys best just infront of eternal sunshine. Such a fantastic idea and all the parts are played perfectly

Yeah I love it. Are you a fan of the band Bad News, by any chance?

[Putmydickinablender]

Never heard there stuff, are they worth checking out?

[Keith Houchen]

One of their lyrics was "I'm gonna stick your dick in a blender", wondered if that was the inspiration for the username is all.