Gladstones Bitch Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Has any one seen ''The House Of The Devil''? I've heard good things about it so gave it a download, hoping its good. Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHvSkTDWFfk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Registration_Form Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 I watched House of the Devil last week. It's pretty good, similar to what carbomb said about The Omen (and a rule that applies for all good horror- see Hitchcock, A) in that it works on anticipation and ambiguity. It's both superficially retro (the title sequence will make you think you are actually watching a film made in the 1980's) and structurally quite retro. I tried comparing it to Drag me to Hell (another good horror from last year) and whilst it doesn't have the jumpy scares there is ample tension and it doesn't suffer from the tongue-in-cheek stupidity that Drag me to Hell does. Hope that hasn't spoiled/ruined anything! Â I'm on a bit of a Western kick at the moment. Having watched the excellent 3:10 to Yuma and very good Seraphim Falls (which just fella little flat at the end), I'm working through the trifectum of early 90's efforts- Unforgiven, Wyatt Earp and Tombstone. Like anyone who's into Western's I guess, there's just something so intriguing about the vast open, lawless spaces, and I really dig how these characters were built on reputations so a stranger would turn up at a town and demand a load of attention based on the fact that word got around that he was 'Wild Bill', 'Doc Holliday' etc. etc. Â Unforgiven was great. I thought Clint was sometimes comically over-serious (maybe I'm missing a point somewhere) but it was a nice touch having him prove pretty fallible (struggling to shoot, mount a horse) in old age and not being the bad-ass cowboy I kind of expected to just tear through everything unbeliavably. I got the feeling I should have watched some of Clint's older westerns to appreciate it fully but still very good, Gene Hackman playing a great 'bad cop'-esque foil. Â I'm on my last of three sittings to get through the epic 3.15 Wyatt Earp. Kevin Costner I just don't really like. Something so corny and cheesy abut him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgarTheSlouch Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 The plan for tonight is to FINALLY see The Stones's Cocksucker Blues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 ...Western Kick... Â Have you seen High Plains Drifter? Â Deffo worth a watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Murtz Posted March 6, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2010 What with the Oscar's being tomorrow night.. I wanted to get some opinions on the films I havent seen yet that are amongst the Best Picture nominees.  The Blind Side An Education The Hurt Locker A Serious Man Up in the Air  Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Green Posted March 6, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted March 6, 2010 A Serious Man is definitely something to prepare yourself for as it's not shy about telling you how smart it is at any given opportunity. A knowledge of religion does help with a lot of the gags. An Education is a good bit of fun and Alfred Molina is just fantastic in it but it suffers from a story that's a bit plain and obvious despite the character's "quirky" personalities (although a predictable story like this is miles better than shit like Garden State or Running With Scissors). Up In The Air is incredibly witty and the dialogue is superb but you could definitely argue that all Clooney is doing is playing himself and some have complained that the actual story is a bit plain and farfetched (I disagree, but whatever). Not seen the other two but I plan on watching Hurt Locker tomorrow, along with The Young Victoria. Â On another note, The Conversation is fantastic, The Crazies is loads of fun, Crazy Heart is a Jeff Bridge's tour de force and American Grafitti is a terrible mish-mash of ideas which even the most endearing of characters cannot keep interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Registration_Form Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 ...Western Kick...  Have you seen High Plains Drifter?  Deffo worth a watch  Nope and it has eluded my radar. I've been searching amazon etc. for Westerns and have a huge list of things to d/l purchase (Once Upon a Time in the West being next), but will add High Plains Drifter to it, fo sho.  Of the Oscar nominees I've only seen Avatar, Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds and District 9. Hurt Locker is great. Cost-excepted it's not really the polar opposite to Avatar as it's been billed, as it's still essentially an action/thriller (and not as political as District 9) but it's so, so tense and a great study of the psyche of someone with an insane job like disposing of bombs. Inglorious Basterds is my favourite though. Entirely different type of tension to being a split-second away from blowing yourself to bits, but it's the kind of film that only Tarantino could make. I've never had such a long film breeze past so quickly. The extended dialogue scenes (admittedly carried by magnificent Waltz) with the kind of bluffing/mental chess dynamic I've haven't seen since the Hopper/Walken True Romance bit are so engrossing you never want them to end. You think when Pitt talks up his Italian-speaking capabilities that they may just blag it past Waltz but what happens is just a wonderfully over-the-top pisstake of American arrogance/delusion. Hearing ''Err..Dominic Denucci" in such a thick US accent alone beats the humourless Avatar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Famous Mortimer Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 What with the Oscar's being tomorrow night.. I wanted to get some opinions on the films I havent seen yet that are amongst the Best Picture nominees. The Blind Side An Education The Hurt Locker A Serious Man Up in the Air  Thanks! As awesome as we are, I'd suggest going to metacritic which links to thousands of reviews of all the films you mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parkamarka Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 What with the Oscar's being tomorrow night.. I wanted to get some opinions on the films I havent seen yet that are amongst the Best Picture nominees. The Blind Side An Education The Hurt Locker A Serious Man Up in the Air  Thanks!  I haven't seen The Blind Side but this is how I'd score the others:  An Education: Well-made Oscar Bait, utterly predictable and very safe, but nothing too offensive. (**3/4) The Hurt Locker: Best film on the shortlist by a mile. Very tense and claustrophobic with believable performances and creative, sparing use of special effects. (*****) A Serious Man: A bit overrated, but it is in "good Coen" territory, in the vein of Fargo or Barton Fink. Sort of meanders unsatisfyingly towards a contrived conclusion. (***1/4) Up in the Air: Perfectly well put-together and likeable light comedy drama, not really worthy of the kind of Oscar praise it's getting. Average in a good way. (***) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 8, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted March 8, 2010 watched a few movies over the weekend:  Splinter - great little b-movie horror. Elevates itself above other movies in the genre by having some great f'n acting. If you like horror films i highly recommend it. The film has been put on many 'underrated movies' lists and you should be checking it out...please note that i fell in love with the actress in the movie too. Splinter  Sudden Death - old school Van Damme. Watched this with a mate and a few beers last night and it great fun. The movie is a complete Die Hard rip (even down to Van Damme's character's name being similar to Mclaine). I'm a huge fan of 90's actioners and if i had to make up a list of movies to watch from that era, this would very possibly be on it. Oh, and the fight between Van Damme and the female penguin mascot is a classic.  Feast - watched this after Sudden Death. This film was born out of a reality tv show to find a new director which was pretty wild. The kind of horror that doesn't take itself seriously at all and actually points out the cliche nature of the characters. Shut your brain off and it's fun stuff. Stupid, gorey, funny and fucking ridiculous. There's a 2nd and 3rd movie, i'll check em at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted March 8, 2010 Moderators Share Posted March 8, 2010 I watched A Night at the Museum 2 on Saturday. Â It was fun; if you liked the first one, then you'll like this. Hank Azaria was brilliant. Ricky Gervais is still an unfunny twat, but he was in this film less than the first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 I watched A Night at the Museum 2 on Saturday. It was fun; if you liked the first one, then you'll like this. Hank Azaria was brilliant. Ricky Gervais is still an unfunny twat, but he was in this film less than the first.  ^ This! I watched Stardust yesterday for the 1st time, other than some pacing issues and the bolded twat above, it was a very good film reminded me of The Princess Bride, in tone, humour and story line, The film score was a joy to behold and it was beautifully shot. The other downsides were that it went on to long, and there was lots of needless exposition.   30 Days of Night was on straight after, was okay... SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read Josh Hartnett, at the becomes a vampire by injecting himsel;f with vampire blood to save whats left of the town and dies Why he couldnt wait a few hours was beyond me, it was nearly sunrise... well shot,but unnecessary use of CGI re trucks driving on snow.. unless it was some how cheaper to CGI it rather than get fake snow in, I dunno. Neil Tennant looking bad guy ruined it slightly as kept thinking of Pet shop boy songs when ever he was on screen. it passed the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy_kahoona Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 ^ This! I watched Stardust yesterday for the 1st time, other than some pacing issues and the bolded twat above, it was a very good film reminded me of The Princess Bride, in tone, humour and story line, The film score was a joy to behold and it was beautifully shot. The other downsides were that it went on to long, and there was lots of needless exposition. Â Stardust is an axcellent film. Â DeNero plays a good part, even dexter fletcher couldn`t put me off this movie (anyone who seen Games Master first time around will know what i`m talking about!) Â But yea, Gervais was only in it for name sake alone! Ass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insert_name_here Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Green Zone I attended the regional premier of this last night and i thought it was fantastic. I strongly advise that you don't go to see this with a "It's the next Bourne film" mindset because although i'll admit it has been marketed in that kind of way it's really not just a "Bourne in Iraq" film. It's a pretty straight forward Action/Thriller which is surprisingly easy to follow. I thought Matt Damon and Brenden Gleeson work very well together, there are some great moments of tension and some brilliant action scenes. My only criticism of it is that the ending is a little bit preachy and while it doesn't ruin the film i think it's something they could have done without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Halitosis Romantic Posted March 9, 2010 Paid Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Had a ridiculous dry spell of movie watching, but since Sunday morning, have watched: Â [just the end of] Pochahontas Space Buddies Hunchback of Notre Dame Snow White Wall-E Spirited Away Howl's Moving Castle Kiki's Delivery Service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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