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

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Comedy sequels are really hard to pull off, it's so easy to go too over the top because you're trying to top the first one or alternatively just do the same jokes which is boring. I enjoyed Anchorman 2, I didn't think it was incredible or anything but I think it's a decent addition to the first and it felt like they waited long enough and tried to give the fans what they wanted, some jokes worked, some didn't. The antithesis of a good comedy sequel would be the hangover sequels, at once too over the top and the same jokes and churned out quickly.

[Devon Malcolm]

I always thought Airplane 2 was pretty unfairly treated. I loved it.

 

 

"Make them blink in sequence."

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Yeah, I like Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged me and Wayne's World 2. I still maintain comedy sequels are hard to do well.

[Mr_Danger]

Don't forget Porky's 2

[patiirc]

American Pie 2 was pretty good as well I thought. Echo the love for Airplane 2

[Scott Malbranque]

I always thought Airplane 2 was pretty unfairly treated. I loved it.

 

 

"Make them blink in sequence."

 

Airplane 2 is criminally underrated. I'd put it on par with the original, for this gag alone:

 

I also thought American Pie 2 was better than the original. Steve Stifler became my hero after that showing...

 

That Shatner link led me to this. I love Police Squad!

Edited December 24, 2013 by Scott Malbranque

[HarmonicGenerator]

This time last year, inspired by Astro's top 20 films of the year list, I went chronologically through all the new films I'd seen in 2012 and ranked them, but I worked out the rankings as I posted, so there was a kind of evolving list through one big post rather than me just posting my final rankings. I doubt it was very entertaining to read but I enjoyed posting it, so I'm doing it again with 2013's films, as I think I've seen all the new films I'll see this year, with the possible exception of Walter Mitty, which I'll pop on the end if I have to. One of these years it'll help me when I become a voting member of the Academy.

 

I'm not including classic films that were on at cinemas this year, or the Jurassic Park re-release would have easily topped the list, followed by 12 Angry Men. I'll not include live theatre broadcasts either or Alan Bennett's People would be high up as well...

 

Apologies in advance for not liking the right kind of films, and liking the wrong kind of films, presuming I've done that. Which I will have.

 

This is also going to be excessively long. I apologise for that too.

 

 

 

 

I started early with cinemagoing this year, going for a double feature with The Hobbit and Quartet on New Year's Day. Quartet's a very pleasant sort of a film - not as funny as the 'IT'S LIKE THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL BUT WITH BILLY CONNOLLY' advertising would have you believe, but it's a nice thing to let wash over you. I still think it's an odd choice for Dustin Hoffman to make for his first directing gig, but what a cast. My favourite part was probably over the end credits, where you see all their prestigious careers - even the people in the background of scenes had had thirty years in the National Theatre or were in the Royal Opera or something. Also, Tom Courtenay has a splendid speaking voice. Just splendid.

 

The rest of January was taken up with Les Miserables, Django Unchained and Lincoln on consecutive weekends. I shamelessly love Les Mis. The film version had everything I'd want from it - from that first shot of the huge ship being towed I knew we'd be in for something special. The music speaks for itself, but it could have gone so wrong, and it didn't, happily. Jackman did spectacularly as Valjean - yeah, he's a bit wobbly sometimes, but a perfect stage singing voice wouldn't have worked in this context unless you're someone like Samantha Barks and then you're forgiven anything because you're Samantha Barks - and to think he went from Les Mis, to Wolverine, to Prisoners in the course of the same year is pretty good going. Eddie Redmayne was great, as was Aaron Tveit, and their studenty scenes were some of the highlights (especially the Greenwich-Paris set). Hathaway earned her Oscar, and I even liked Russell Crowe; I think he was unfairly maligned, and quite liked what he did with using two kinds of singing voice, the official-police-sounding one and the inner-doubt one. Anyway, Amanda Seyfried's warbling aside I enjoyed all of it, and Tom Hooper should have had a few more directing nominations.

 

Les Mis was also the only film I've seen this year where it felt like everyone I'd speak to had seen it - young and old. That was a nice feeling of commonality I didn't get from anything else in 2013. I shall exclude the two Facebook-idiots who went not knowing there was singing in it.

 

Django was bloody brilliant too, everything I'd hoped for from it. Maybe a teeny bit overlong, but that's forgivable. DiCaprio made a superb villain (more on him a bit later). Lincoln was all about Daniel Day-Lewis, really, wasn't it? He just was Lincoln. Unsurpassable acting - the film itself tried its hardest to live up to him, but didn't quite manage it. Still all very compelling though.

 

 

The rankings as of January:

Les Miserables

Django Unchained

Lincoln

Quartet

 

 

Onto February, and Valentine's Day date night film A Good Day To Die Hard (girlfriend's choice, I swear. She loves Die Hard). Had I made this post a week ago I might have been a bit more forgiving. But we have since been to see the original Die Hard (hooray for Tyneside Cinema's Christmas Cult Classics Week) and it really confirmed that this one was pretty shit. "I'm on vacation!" SHUT UP WILLIS, THIS IS NOT WHAT JOHN MCCLANE DOES. I remember quite liking the ending, but it didn't really make up for what came before.

 

Later in the month, it was Cloud Atlas, which I loved. I still maintain I wouldn't have liked it as much had I not read the book beforehand - it was one of those rare adaptations where I think the film benefitted from comparing it to the book (unlike, say, a Hobbit or Harry Potter) - even if just by virtue of wondering how the hell it was even possible to turn it into a film in the first place. Interestingly, looking back I think the section of the book I liked least ended up being the best segments of the film - Jim Broadbent's bit. He was the MVP as far as the cast went, but Cannibal Hugh Grant was good, and Ben Whishaw does his bits well too. His character must have been fit to climb up Scott's Monument every morning. It's a film I keep meaning to pick up on DVD if I see it cheap.

 

I think the only things I saw in March were shorts - Paperman and the Maggie Simpson one - I'll not count them amongst the feature length films, but Paperman was beautiful and the Maggie one was like a shorter version of recent Simpsons episodes; that is to say, not as good as her daycare adventure in the Streetcar Named Marge episode.

 

Only one cinema trip in April, and that was to Iron Man 3. It's fine - you know you'll get a couple of entertaining hours with an Iron Man film, ditto with Shane Black, and Downey Jr carries his franchise like none of the other Marvel guys can - but Iron Man's still probably my least favourite of the solo Marvel serieses.

 

 

The rankings as of April:

Les Miserables

Cloud Atlas

Django Unchained

Lincoln

Quartet

Iron Man 3

A Good Day To Die Hard

 

(Shorts:

Paperman

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare)

 

 

We now get into blockbuster season, so things may get distinctly unartistic from this point on.

 

Star Trek Into Darkness was next, and it was alright. I don't get the same keenness to re-watch it like with the first Abrams Star Trek, but it had some great moments - the opening salvo was brilliant and I would have quite happily had more of that in the rest of the film. My overriding thought six months on is that the new Star Wars should be decent based on this, and that I'd rather like Cumberbatch as a Sith and Tom Hiddleston as a Jedi. Shortly after that was The Great Gatsby, which was alright as well. It wasn't great, but it wasn't as awful as a lot of the reviews said. DiCaprio again was great, and I realised after Gatsby that it's really really rare that I don't enjoy him in a film. This, Django, Departed, Aviator, Gangs, Revolutionary Road, Blood Diamond, Inception... the only thing I've hated is The Beach, and I just all round hated that film, so it'd be unfair to blame it all on DiCaprio.

 

June! Bit of a film-filled month, was June - Man Of Steel, World War Z, Despicable Me 2 and Flight (which was watched sometime after its release in a hotel room in Paris. High life, you know. If you're ever going to France and there's the option to stay at a 'Suite Novotel' - do it. All the PPV films are free to watch, the rooms are huge and really nice, and its affordable too because it's Novotel. There's one about 20 minutes' walk away from the Stade de France. Film was quite good too, it's really nice that Robert Zemeckis is back to making films that don't look like videogame cutscenes).

 

Man Of Steel I can give or take. Henry Cavill was good, I really liked the opening section on Krypton (shame it was blown up, I would have liked more Kryptonian madness), but the final fights were... well, boring. Smashy smashy smashy with no real feeling behind it. And I'm not a big Superman-comics fan but him killing a guy still didn't sit quite right with me. (Later on I realsed that all the smashy smashy probably killed loads of other people too).

 

World War Z's another one I loved. I'd read the book earlier this year and it's probably the best book I've read this year. The film's nothing at all like it, but that was fine, because I came away with the feeling that Gerry Lane's story could have just been a chapter in the book - and likewise, every character he met could have had their own separate story. I think Astro talks in his blog this year about the styles that a WWZ adap could have taken, and he's right, but as a standalone film with the name attached, this is great. I liked the Welsh final act too - it played a lot better than the original ending probably would have.

 

Despicable Me 2 had minions in it, and there was a story too, apparently. It was okay, had its moments, much like the first one really. Not that I can remember any of those moments right now, of course...

 

 

The rankings as of June:

Les Miserables

World War Z

Cloud Atlas

Django Unchained

Star Trek Into Darkness

Lincoln

Quartet

Iron Man 3

The Great Gatsby

Flight

Despicable Me 2

Man Of Steel

A Good Day To Die Hard

 

(Shorts:

Paperman

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare)

 

 

Into July, and more big films. Monsters University was better than Despicable Me 2, and though it wasn't on a par with Monsters Inc or a lot of other Pixar films, it was a fine prequel and better than the idea had any right to be. It may show me to be a bit simple but I took away something from its message of 'you may not end up being what you always thought or wanted to be, but that's okay'. It was preceded by the Blue Umbrella short too, which was another cracker. You always get a good short before a Pixar film.

 

The World's End I wasn't so fond of - certainly not to the extent Astro was. The idea was fine, the execution was fine, it was just Simon Pegg's character that put me off. I get what they were trying to do with him - we all know someone like that, etc etc - and Pegg was great in the role, some of the best acting I've seen from him, but he was just such an unlikeable twat. An unredeemably unlikeable twat. If they'd just given me one shred of something I can sympathise with, that'd have been fine, but nope, he's just a twat. Anyway... documentary time, now. Springsteen And I. You'd probably get nothing from it if you're not a fan, but it had a good mix of touching stories and utter weirdos contributing, and served as a further reminder (after having been to Wembley and Paris to watch the man himself) of the passion and connection you get from the Boss that so many other musicians can't hope to have. Amazing supercut of Born To Run at the end too.

 

Finally for this month, Pacific Rim, which had giant robots fighting giant monsters. This was good, because I wanted to watch giant robots fighting giant monsters. I also saw it in IMAX, so the robots and the monsters were very giant. This was good because they are giant robots and giant monsters, and they fought. At the time I think I wrote that if I'd seen it when I was 8 or 10 then Pacific Rim would have become a favourite film of mine, and I stick by that - and I'd like to think that was the kind of audience del Toro was trying to appeal to.

 

The rankings as of July:

Les Miserables

World War Z

Cloud Atlas

Django Unchained

Pacific Rim

Springsteen And I

Monsters University

Star Trek Into Darkness

Lincoln

Quartet

Iron Man 3

The Great Gatsby

Flight

Despicable Me 2

Man Of Steel

The World's End

A Good Day To Die Hard

 

(Shorts:

Paperman

The Blue Umbrella

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare)

 

 

We'll leave the shorts behind now because those were the only ones I saw this year.

 

 

In August, I was taken by the g/f to The Lone Ranger for my birthday. I can't believe how harsh so many of the reviews were. Yes, they could have done with cutting about 20 minutes off it, and yes, there are some unaccountably ridiculous bits (I'm looking at you, horse and rabbits), but I can forgive it all its shortcomings for two reasons. The first being the fact that Monument Valley was in it. The second being the runaway train sequence at the end, which was the most glorious, spectacular, thrilling, exciting, just plain fun action sequence I saw in any film this year, or in any film for a number of years. They threw everything into that sequence and created something really special, pure blockbuster popcorn-munching edge-of-seat thrills. I couldn't tear my eyes away, I could feel the grin on my face, and again, if I'd been 8 or 10 when I saw this I would remember it forever as one of the best bits of a film I'd seen - if the film around it had been better, you could see future blockbuster directors pointing to it as the moment they decided they wanted to make films. As it is, it's just great fun and an absolute joy to watch, and it makes you forget the problems of the film stuck on either side of it. Hans Zimmer, for all the people on here don't like him, does a superb job with the William Tell Overture - because of course the whole thing is set to William Tell - and you walk out of the cinema happy. Not because of the film, but because you were taken away on a fantastic escapist thrill ride for ten minutes of it. I'm ranking this one highly based purely on this part of the Lone Ranger, but the rest of it really isn't that bad either.

 

Anyway, sorry. Kick-Ass 2 was a double date night film (not my choice, it was the one that happened to be starting as we arrived) but it was okay. Better than the first one, which I didn't like at all, which admittedly may have been due to the likes of Empire praising it to high heaven when it came out, but it struck me very much as a "LOOK WE HAVE AN 11 YEAR OLD SWEARING HAHAHAHAHA THIS IS SO INAPPROPRIATE SHE KILLED SOME GUYS" kind of effort. This one tones that kind of thing down, it has a lot of fun, and while it probably won't be remembered in a few years', I'd favour it over KA1. (They have to call him KA on the action figures in Forbidden Planet. Ha.) Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, meanwhile, was as funny as I'd hoped it'd be. Lots of laughs. I haven't watched many comedies this year, so Alan probably claims the top spot for pure laughter.

 

 

The rankings as of August:

Les Miserables

World War Z

Cloud Atlas

Django Unchained

The Lone Ranger

Pacific Rim

Springsteen And I

Monsters University

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Star Trek Into Darkness

Lincoln

Quartet

Iron Man 3

The Great Gatsby

Flight

Despicable Me 2

Kick-Ass 2

Man Of Steel

The World's End

A Good Day To Die Hard

 

 

Aside from cinema trips, I caught up with a couple of earlier-in-the-year releases in September (as well as the aforementioned Jurassic Park and 12 Angry Men viewings). Wreck-It Ralph and A Field In England. The latter I utterly hated. I'd hoped that a film set in the English Civil War would have something going for it, but it didn't. Reece Shearsmith was quite good, but apart from that, basically everything Astro liked about it, I didn't. Ralph, meanwhile, which I know is a bit of an opposite to Ben Wheatley, as you'd expect. It was good. Didn't have a particularly Disneyesque feel to it, interestingly, but you could feel the love and enthusiasm the creators had for it - the sequel will be welcome.

 

Cinema-wise, we're moving out of blockbuster explosion-heavy territory now, starting with About Time. Girlfriend's choice again, and unlike when she's made me watch Love, Actually, I ended up really, really liking this one. Curtis' irritating attitude towards London aside, it's probably the best of his films I've seen. Rachel McAdams is lovely. I'd happily watch it again.

 

Rush came later in the month. What a bloody film. Astounding stuff, two fascinating central characters, great narrative, brilliant race sequences. It doesn't stand a chance at the Oscars but maybe a heap of Baftas could go its way in February. Blue Jasmine was the week after, and that was all about Cate Blanchett. She's astonishing, and she's backed up by some great supporting castmembers too. I remember not being massively keen on the ending - like with The World's End, I think I wanted a bit of upbeat redemption - but it was the right ending to have, I suppose.

 

 

The rankings as of September:

Les Miserables

Rush

World War Z

Cloud Atlas

Django Unchained

About Time

The Lone Ranger

Pacific Rim

Springsteen And I

Monsters University

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Wreck-It Ralph

Star Trek Into Darkness

Lincoln

Quartet

Iron Man 3

The Great Gatsby

Blue Jasmine

Flight

Despicable Me 2

Kick-Ass 2

Man Of Steel

The World's End

A Good Day To Die Hard

A Field In England

 

 

Don't worry, I'm getting near the end now. Just two films in October - Captain Phillips and Le Week-End. The latter I can safely warn people off. It has Paris in it: this is a positive. Jim Broadbent is good in it: this is a positive. Jeff Goldblum is Jeff Goldblum in it: this is a positive. This is all Le Week-End has going for it. Otherwise, it's one of these unnecessarily-harshly-realistic films which is very keen to inform you that everyone you ever love or think you love, you will sooner or later grow to hate. Your parents, your spouse, your children, there is no such thing as love, just a delay before you start hating them, so you might as well get used to it. That's the message I got from it. Eurgh. Not what I want from a film. Weirdly, the marketing for this tried to make it look like a rom-com.

 

Captain Phillips was bloody good though. The most gripping and tense film I saw this year - I'm including Gravity in that. Masterfully directed, with Tom Hanks being utterly brilliant, especially in that final scene. I mentioned that in this thread quite recently, but I'd happily see him win the Oscar based on those last few minutes along. Great film.

 

Speaking of Gravity, we IMAXed that on its release in November, and .... well, sadly, it wasn't everything I hoped it would be. The first scene is unparalleled greatness, and I loved it, and I really really liked it all the way through, as another super-tense drama, not knowing what will happen next, feeling like you've been holding your breath the entire time... it was just that the rest of the film couldn't quite stay at the level of that first scene. I'm glad we IMAXed it, though, because it made for a great cinema experience. Again, I'd be happy to see it win lots of awards and plaudits because I did really like it... just not as much as Phillips.

 

Thor: The Dark World carried on the good work of the first Thor - kept a nice mix of humour and action, interesting characters - and had everything I liked about the first one. I don't think it was quite up to Thor 1's standards overall, but I'd take it over Iron Man 3, certainly. Best superhero film of the year, hands down. Chris Hemsworth had a good autumn this year. Also Tom Hiddleston is in it and he's Tom Hiddleston, so that's a win. Carrying on from franchises, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was also able to keep up the quality of its first installment, and made everything bigger and with higher stakes successfully. Jennifer Lawrence suits the Katniss role perfectly.

 

Finally for November, it was a DVD job for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing. Much Ado's one of my favourite Shakespeares (for my money it's the best romantic comedy ever written) and this adap does justice to it, with Nathan Fillion and Amy Acker being particular highlights as Dogberry and Beatrice respectively, but Clark Gregg doing a lot with Leonato too. I thought it was excellent, and even if Whedon's name being attached to something puts you off, I think there's probably still something in here for you.

 

December, as I've mentioned, may yet include Walter Mitty (the reviews have put me off making the effort to go to Anchorman 2), but as of now, has consisted of Saving Mr. Banks and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, both of which I've talked about on here pretty recently so won't go over again, but both of which I loved (sorry Scott Malbranque).

 

Which makes the final rankings for 2013 the following... (I've bumped Quartet down five places in retrospect following a final check-over):

 

1. Les Miserables

2. Rush

3. Captain Phillips

4. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

5. World War Z

6. Cloud Atlas

7. Much Ado About Nothing

8. Saving Mr. Banks

9. Django Unchained

10. Gravity

11. About Time

12. The Lone Ranger

13. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

14. Thor: The Dark World

15. Pacific Rim

16. Springsteen And I

17. Monsters University

18. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

19. Wreck-It Ralph

20. Star Trek Into Darkness

21. Lincoln

22. Iron Man 3

23. The Great Gatsby

24. Blue Jasmine

25. Flight

26. Quartet

27. Despicable Me 2

28. Kick-Ass 2

29. Man Of Steel

30. The World's End

31. A Good Day To Die Hard

32. Le Week-End

33. A Field In England

 

 

 

So, what have I learned from this?

 

- Les Mis is unbeatable at the top, apparently.

- I'm a Tom Hanks fanboy, he appears in the top 10 three times.

- I liked Rush, Desolation of Smaug and Django Unchained more than I thought

- I didn't like Gravity as much as I thought...

- The train sequence wasn't enough for Lone Ranger to get into the top 10

- Of the four superhero films I saw this year, only Thor made the top 20. Am I going off superhero films? (possibly, but with Winter Soldier, X-Men, Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, it seems unlikely)

- Disney and Disney-owned productions seem to have done quite well

- I liked Star Trek more than Lincoln? Odd, that.

- My opinion of Man Of Steel has declined steadily since I saw it

- I really wasn't keen on The World's End.

 

 

And there we have it. My film of the year is Les Mis, followed by Rush, Captain Phillips, The Hobbit and World War Z. Sorry.

Edited December 24, 2013 by HarmonicGenerator

[Onyx2]

I really enjoyed that rundown HG, cheers for sharing. I've only seen two films at the cinema this year, Monsters University and Superman. Both mediocre. With Superman, I never thought I'd say this but: needs more Costner. I did enjoy Despicable Me 2 a lot more than you did it seems. Full of laughs.

 

I saw Hobbit last year so I didn't count it, but I adored it. I was just happy to spend more time in Jackson's Middle Earth. I'm hoping to catch Hobbit 2 this week.

 

I caught up with Django, and I bleedin' loved it. I know QT's films are long but at home this isn't really an issue. The soundtrack just keeps giving and giving too.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I did really enjoy Despicable Me 2 at the time; I will have laughed at loads of it. I'm probably being a bit harsh on it because six months later, I can't really remember much about what that stuff was - whereas with Monsters, I can recall a fair bit of that now, so it took what could have been Despicable's spot on the list!

 

Agreed on Django, Hobbit, and Costner - really liked him in Man Of Steel.

[Vamp]

I can't help but think Gravity's the most overrated film of the year really. Its nowhere near the film the critics seem to want to pretend it is.

[Ant]

I really enjoyed Les Mis too. Went to see it and the cinema was full, with showings every 30 mins or less ; not often you see that nowadays.

 

I might also have enjoyed it as I'd seen the West End musical version about 2 months before the film was released, so it was nice to compare/contrast in my mind.

 

I too thought Russell Crowe was overly criticised ; on the basis you're going to use Hollywood A-listers rather than singers that can act, could anyone pull the role off more convincingly? Probably not in my mind.

[The King Of Swing]

Don't forget Porky's 2

 

I wish I could forget Porky's 3.

[Devon Malcolm]

Favourite animation of the year was "From Up on Poppy Hill"

 

Bookmarked that a while back, I really do have to try and track it down, thanks for the reminder.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I'm really looking forward to seeing 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' and 'Her'.

 

Does anyone know if there's a release date for 'Her' yet?

Edited December 24, 2013 by d-d-d-dAz

[iamtheman]

IMDB has it down as Feb 14th