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

[Thunderplex]

That's a cracking little film. I think they show it on the Horror Channel now and again.

[Glass Smash]

Sometimes I find it so annoying trying to choose a movie to watch. You go through all of the movies that you haven't seen yet that's been sitting on your hard drive for months and when you do finally pick one it's usually a movie you've already watched about 20 times. Anyone else do this?

[tiger_rick]

Watched Chef last night. Written, directed and starring Jon Favreau. I thought it was excellent. It was a heart warming story, had some great landscapes on the road trip, an upbeat score and great chemistry between the three leads. Favreau is excellent and impressively, did the cooking scenes himself. The lad playing his 10-year old kid, Emjay Anthony, is brilliant in it.

 

It's one of those films that absolutley flies by, especially when they're on the road with the music and great scenery as they travel from Miami to New Orleans, Austin, Texas and then California.

 

John Leguizamo is really terrific as his pal and seux chef and Sofía Vergara (from Modern Family) and Scarlett Johansson look incredible.

 

Social media features heavily in the film. Be interesting to see if we watch it in 20 years time and go "Blimey, I remember Vine, what was the fucking point of that?". Also a cool feature where tweets being typed appear in the background or in the air and then when they hit send, they fly off like birds.

 

Yeah, a really nice film. If you need a cheer up, stick it on.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Empire's done a Top 50 films of 2014: http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-best-films-2014/p1

 

I've seen 20 of the films they picked, including most of their top 15, which, I think, is more than I expected to have seen... I'm in definite agreement with their #1, but I expect others may be in disagreement with most of the list!

[Chest Rockwell]

I've seen four of those, 3 of which were in the top 5. I liked all three of them and think they deserve to place on a list of the year's best films. SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
Boyhood was definitely the best film I've seen this year, anyway.

 

Despite not having seen the rest of them, or indeed many films, it really seems unlikely to me that there weren't more than 27 films this year better than 22 Jump Street (which I did enjoy).

Edited December 1, 2014 by Chest Rockwell

[Guy Bifkin]

Wolf of Wall Street feels like a 2013 film, I've watched it so many times this year. Probably one of my favourite films ever, let alone 2014. 

[Chest Rockwell]

It's one of the three I was talking about and it was really excellent.. but that said I can't imagine having watched it loads of times because it's bloody long!

[King Pitcos]

Any best of 2014 list that doesn't have Guardians of the Galaxy in the top 1 is worthless.

[Guy Bifkin]

It's one of the three I was talking about and it was really excellent.. but that said I can't imagine having watched it loads of times because it's bloody long!

 

I hate long films but it just flies by for me. There's never a lull. 

 

I also really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Planet of the Apes one.

[King Coconut]

I was disappointed by the new Planet of the Apes, but that's probably got a lot to do with the fact that I was waiting for it with cock in hand.

[Guy Bifkin]

Yeah, I did expect it to be shit. It's obviously not as good as the original. 

[King Coconut]

I've steered clear of Guardians of the Galaxy as well because it's for poofters, obviously. I might have to reconsider now that Bif 'The Ultimate Male' Kin has endorsed it.

[Guy Bifkin]

Watch it with Prince Coconut. I took my nephews and we had a blast. 

[Au]

I thought What We Do In The Shadow was fun and everything but it's definitely not even close to my top ten films this year. I thought it was pretty dull, for the most part, and all the best scenes are the ones with the werewolves; which wasn't many.

 

I'd pretty much agree with the rest of their top ten though.

 

--

 

I watched Wolf Children yesterday. My housemate recommended it ages ago and it's just sat on my hard drive for a few months but I was horrifically hungover yesterday and the idea of Japanese cartoons soothed my brain a little. Hadn't read anything about it beforehand and had not real expectations but it was utterly fantastic and I'm a bit annoyed at myself for leaving it so long without watching it.

 

It follows the story of a single mother raising her two children, who are half werewolf. Which sounds a bit daft on paper but the way the film deals with the human struggle in regards to that situation was wonderful.

 

It's directed by the same guy who did The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which I also thought was pretty good, but this is a real step-up from that. With Miyazaki retiring this year and rumours of Studio Ghibli shutting up shop in his absence, they'd do well to try and get this guy on board because between his writing/direction and their animation studio they could produce something incredible together.

[Glass Smash]

I'm going to have to watch that Wolf of Wall Street. I've had it for ages but never been arsed to watch it due to the fact that I don't like DiCaprio. But I've heard more good than bad about this movie.