DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[Sergio Mendacious]

A good movie I watched recently was Manhunter. Fuckin brilliant. It's the original Red Dragon film. The acting was great. Best movie I seen for a while. Anyone else saw it?

 

Yes, this is the film I got ID'd for when I was about 25 - very embarrassing. Worth it, though, as it's a cracker. I've been shit scared of Tom Noonan ever since. Remember Noonan in that episode of "Louie"? Fucking hell.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

It's shit when people say "Yeah, good twist in that film" as it means I will be looking out for it and ruining the film.

 

Don't worry in that specific instance. It's the dumbest, out of nowhere, just for the sake of it twist ever.

 

Also, don't watch War anyway. It's shit.

 

War is so terrible, definitely Statham's worst, the twist is indeed dreadful too.

[Devon Malcolm]

A good movie I watched recently was Manhunter. Fuckin brilliant. It's the original Red Dragon film. The acting was great. Best movie I seen for a while. Anyone else saw it?

 

It's terrific. Much better than The Silence Of The Lambs and Brian Cox is a far better Hannibal Lector/Lektor as well.

[Astro Hollywood]

Every year I link to this in this thread, so if anyone's interested, the first part of my mammoth year-end best movies list is up. It's all the stuff that didn't make the top 20, and the shittest movies of 2013.

 

Have at it.

 

 

- Love, Spamstro Spammywood.

 

And here's the first half of the Top 20.

 

And here's the Top 10.

 

Feel free to point out where I'm wrong, what I've forgotten, or why my taste in films is skill.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Every year I link to this in this thread, so if anyone's interested, the first part of my mammoth year-end best movies list is up. It's all the stuff that didn't make the top 20, and the shittest movies of 2013.

 

Have at it.

 

 

- Love, Spamstro Spammywood.

 

And here's the first half of the Top 20.

 

And here's the Top 10.

 

Feel free to point out where I'm wrong, what I've forgotten, or why my taste in films is skill.

 

Thanks for posting your list! I'd only heard of half of the top 10, and had only seen 2 of those (and really didn't like 1 of those 2), so I think I enjoyed the 20-10 page more. I'd forgotten how much I wanted to see Elysium, and your bit on that has brought it right back. I was happy to read you liked Pacific Rim, too.

[Devon Malcolm]

Only God Forgives, the only film that could make a patiirc dinner party seem interesting in comparison.

[Mr_Danger]

The best way to describe it is its like watching a Sin Cara match without the entertaining botches.

[Astro Hollywood]

Thanks for posting your list! I'd only heard of half of the top 10, and had only seen 2 of those (and really didn't like 1 of those 2), so I think I enjoyed the 20-10 page more.

 

Yeah, it's a bit indie-heavy. Don't think the top four even had theatrical releases over here. I should change my name to Astro Mumblecore*.

 

*if neil even does this for a joke, I will burn this forum to the ground.

 

Only God Forgives, the only film that could make a patiirc dinner party seem interesting in comparison.

 

The most damning review I've ever seen

[Sergio Mendacious]

Thanks for posting your list! I'd only heard of half of the top 10, and had only seen 2 of those (and really didn't like 1 of those 2), so I think I enjoyed the 20-10 page more.

 

Yeah, it's a bit indie-heavy. Don't think the top four even had theatrical releases over here. I should change my name to Astro Mumblecore*.

 

*if neil even does this for a joke, I will burn this forum to the ground.

 

I think it would be funny ha-ha.

[Loki]

What do people think of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug then?

 

My one liner would be: better than the first one. Although it's the same length, there was a better judged pace to this one, with more distance/story covered and so less obvious flab. They shoehorned a LOT of material in that wasn't in the book, but most of it felt necessary, or at least apt. There's no doubting that the whole thing could have been amply covered in 2 films though.

 

Visually, it's a mixed bag. Some of the CGI is great: Smaug looks awesome and is well used and well framed. At the other end, some of the "people running across countryside" shots are terrible - obviously animated figures that just don't fit. Is is that expensive to get your cast/stunt doubles to run across a field, or ride a horse along a path?

 

The 3d is getting better with each film, but (and maybe this is just my old eyes) the more it's used consistently, the less real the whole film looks. Maybe everything now is greenscreen, but sometimes even in scenes which you think must be a set, the transparent depth field makes it look like the background is separated from the actors.

 

The best thing for the films for me is Martin Freeman. His natural approach to acting nicely undercuts all the pompous fantasy going on around him and give you someone to sympathise with and relate to. He's also about the only member of the cast not overacting in every scene.

 

I've only just realised that the main orc bad guy is Crixus the Gaul from Spartacus. +1 for Peter Jackson.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I've been twice and enjoyed it very much both times. I liked the first one too, but would agree this was better - certainly more action-oriented (the barrels sequence in particular was loads of fun). In fact I reckon your opening few sentences sum it up quite nicely. I was quite happy with the additions and modifications from the book: the prologue was great, Legolas fit in nicely, etc.

 

Agree on the CGI, too - Smaug was superb, as was his lair (though apparently they made 170,000 aluminium coins for that on top of the CG), but I still hate the CG-orcs, they just don't look real, and there were a couple of orc-y scenes where you could have been watching a PS3 cutscene. A good cutscene, but still. There's the odd little niggle, like the molten gold in Erebor, that probably looked better in 3D (I've only seen the 2D version, I saw the trailer for this in 3D and it just made it look like a pop-up book, and HFR can sod off) but the orcs were the main problem for me. The people-running-bad-CG was a nice throwback to when they did that with Legolas and the oliphaunt in Return of the King.

 

Freeman was excellent, and you're right, he really grounds the whole thing, which I suppose is was Bilbo's supposed to do too. I did think Luke Evans did a superb job as Bard, too - Bard's my favourite character, so I was happy. The Lake-town set was great, too. Like a scabby Venice. With a Stephen Colbert cameo, of all things.

 

It had more of the feel of a LOTR prequel to it, than Unexpected Journey - and I mean that in a good way. There were things being properly set in motion here that will work quite well if you were to watch these films followed by Rings.

Edited December 19, 2013 by HarmonicGenerator

[Vamp]

I'm undecided about The Hobbit. It looks gorgeous and some of the set pieces are fantastic, but some of the set pieces (especially the last one) seem to be stretched to the nth degree just to reach the target length. I think I'd rather singing dwarves as padding than set pieces that never end. But despite thinking that I do think its better than the first one.

[Chest Rockwell]

I found the first one really tedious, but I love the book... will I enjoy this film?

[Rey_Piste]

I've avoided the Hobbit films, for the simple reason of I've read the Hobbit book it's about 300 pages long. There's no way it needs to be split into 3, 2 and a half hour long films. I can understand the LOTR films being split into 3 since they are 3 fairly large books, but the Hobbit films are shameful money grabbing. Never mind the fact I found the LOTR films to be piss dull for the most part anyway.

[Guy Bifkin]

Got dragged along to it last night. It