DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[King Pitcos]

Just watched 50/50. Highly recommend.

[Vice]

Star Wars - Return Of The Jedi

 

Very disappointing. I get that the last one of the three had to be a pretty jovial affair, but, for a lot of it, I just don't think the tone was balanced properly. The beginning feels a bit like "Carry On Star Wars", then it plods along, and then we get the trying-too-hard ewoks stuff, with C-3PO being worshipped, etc.

 

But there's definitely still some brilliance here; the speeder chase through the forests of Endor and the tension in both the final battle and the resolution of the Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader story.

 

And I watched the re-touched version, which has this monumentally bad image at the end:

 

 

I don't think Return Of The Jedi is a particularly bad film, but it's not even in the same league as A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Vice

[Cobra1000]

I just watched 50/50, thought it was incredible. Cried and laughed many times. Easily 5 stars, and added Pearl Jam made it a classic.

 

I watched Hugo before and thought it was absolutely craptacular, where all the 5 star reviews have come from I have no idea...

Edited December 4, 2011 by Cobra1000

[John Galt]

Hugo was ace. Probably the most fun I've had at the cinema all year. It does start off quite slow but when it gets about 20 minutes in, it's nothing but amazing. Probably helps if you're a fan of silent cinema like I am.

[The King Of Swing]

Helldriver

 

It's completely bonkers about sums it up.

[The Curious Orange]

I just watched 50/50, thought it was incredible. Cried and laughed many times. Easily 5 stars, and added Pearl Jam made it a classic.

 

The underlying chauvinism throughout slightly spoilt it for me. Every woman in it was either stupid, psycho or a slag (or all 3). In particular, the way they treated the girlfriend character was vile and how it was presented as deserved/funny was a bit disturbing.

[Foale]

Watched Happiness the other day, absolutely brilliant I thought. One of those films with lots of different characters but they all link up one way or another. Anyone else here seen it? The whole paedophile father thing was particularly daring.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Foale

[Loki]

I absolutely hated that film with every fibre of my being. I'm quite happy for art to be challenging, but that film just felt excessively nihilistic.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Watched Happiness the other day, absolutely brilliant I thought. One of those films with lots of different characters but they all link up one way or another. Anyone else here seen it? The whole paedophile father thing was particularly daring.

 

I like that movie, the scene you mentioned is hilarious, it's really daring, I often mention it to people if a conversation abut sick humour comes up, it's so dark but so funny.

 

Edited December 7, 2011 by Pritt Stick Licker

[TildeGuy~!]

Finally got round to seeing Warrior last night.

 

Really enjoyed it, I preferred The Fighter but it was a nice surprise to see a few UFC fighters and Kurt Angle thrown in the mix.

[King Pitcos]

I just watched 50/50, thought it was incredible. Cried and laughed many times. Easily 5 stars, and added Pearl Jam made it a classic.

 

The underlying chauvinism throughout slightly spoilt it for me. Every woman in it was either stupid, psycho or a slag (or all 3). In particular, the way they treated the girlfriend character was vile and how it was presented as deserved/funny was a bit disturbing.

 

Did you watch an alternate version where she got raped and mutilated?

[John Galt]

I just watched 50/50, thought it was incredible. Cried and laughed many times. Easily 5 stars, and added Pearl Jam made it a classic.

 

The underlying chauvinism throughout slightly spoilt it for me. Every woman in it was either stupid, psycho or a slag (or all 3). In particular, the way they treated the girlfriend character was vile and how it was presented as deserved/funny was a bit disturbing.

 

Did you watch an alternate version where she got raped and mutilated?

 

iamstockmonkey is actually Mark Kermode.

[The Curious Orange]

I liked the film overall, but the fact it really was every female character spoiled it slightly - especially when it dealt with other issues intelligently.

 

There's a few small plot spoilers in what I didn't like so I thought it best to spoiler them

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

The girlfriend character had to put up with a load of abuse, hostility and intimidation from Rogen right from the start (in fact the opening dialogue was a rant about what a failure of a girlfriend she was) plus the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character admitted he never said he loved her. It wasn't a surprise she cheated - In fact I thought she was better off without the OCD freak who hung around with the stoner man child all the time. When she tried to reconcile the level of abuse she got was quite nasty and add to that what they did to one of her gifts was just dickish from someone we're meant to sympathise with. If someone had called him on it and not shown as being deserved it wouldn't have been so bad to me.

 

The mum was an overbearing, controlling mental.

 

Anna Kendrick was kind-hearted but shown as being rubbish at her job, stalking ex-boyfriends on facebook and all she really wanted was a man in the end.

 

All the other women in it were anonymous and tricked into bed with the simple mention of cancer.

 

[close spoiler]

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[Merzbow]

I've just watched Be Sure to Share/Chanto Tsutaeru and it's one of the most touching films i've seen in a long time, a huge departure from the usual "extreme" types that Sion Sono usually releases. It's quiet and touching, very low key but still managing some shock value in the last quarter but even that was beautifully done.

[Surf Digby]

I've just watched King of the Kickboxers. I'm not entirely sure why, but I had a preconceived notion that it was considered one of the worst chop socky films ever made (which was my main motivation for watching it). Well, I wasn't far wrong. It's made by Seasonal Films, who gave us classics like Drunken Master, so they should really know better.

 

The plot centers around Khan (Billy Blanks and his creative approach to cornrows) a kickboxing champion who makes movies out in Thailand where people are genuinely killed on set. A harder than nails maverick cop from New York (played by Impact magazine favourite Loren "Aaargh" Avedon, in an almost carbon copy of Emilio Estevez in Loaded Weapon 1) is sent out to investigate, and it turns out that in a massive bout of originality, Khan killed his brother. Avedon ends up in these snuff movies, fights Khan, and eventually avenges his brothers death, as is the custom.

 

Fight scenes consist of a lot of one-move-per-cut, or close ups of a foot coming toward a face from someone off camera who is blatantly on a stepladder. They're not too bothered about stunt doubles even being the same race as the person they're doubling either. It's even worse than Drive.

 

Standing out from all this mediocre shite though is a brief appearance from Keith (Hirabayashi) Cooke showing off his awesome kicking skills. Fuck you, Robert Clouse for stunting this guy's career.