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

[SteelEdge]

Anyone seen The Worlds End yet? Saw it last night and while it's undoubtedly the weakest of the Cornetto Trilogy I still really enjoyed it. I do think it suffered in having a group of 5 friends, instead of just focusing on Pegg and Frost's characters, as I thought the relationship between Shaun and Ed then Nicholas and Danny were very well done in the first two films. While the friendship is still there, having 3 others does take away from it a bit. It's a lot more action-y than the others as well, and I thought the fight scenes and most of the chase scenes were well shot. Quite a few chucklesome lines and moments but I think this will be the one that in years to come that fans will quote the least. Wasn't too sure about the final scene either. Still well worth a watch though if you're a fan of Pegg and the previous 2 films.

[ShortOrderCook]

Malcolm, Crazy, Stupid Love I found to be a real surprising treat. I actually fucking love that movie. Well worth a watch, really took me by surprise. I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed Ides of March too actually.

 

I first discovered Gosling in Half Nelson which is where I first started to fall for him and I'd still consider his finest performance.

[Dead Mike]

Totally agree with Branquey on Bronson. It jumps around all over the place and some of the more arty scenes seem out of place and can make it feel a bit disjointed but Tom Hardy is incredible in it

 

I thought Bronson was really good. I understand peoples complaints about it being arty & disjointed but making a feature length film from a book that's essentially a bloke in a cell doing press-ups for 20 years was always a big ask. I echo the comments about Hardy being tremendous.

 

I watched 'Olympus Has Fallen'. It's standard 'Die Hard in/on a X' fare. A good supporting cast but I've forgotten it already. Gerard Butler had very little acting to do.

[John Matrix]

Stuck on a golden oldie last night in an attempt to drown my sorrows / not go insane lying awake in a pool of my own sweat.

 

Who remembers Ricochet? I don

[patiirc]

I agree with some of your points there Pat, but I thought The Raid, to me personally, suffered from 'I'm watching somebody have a very long go on XBox' after 45 minutes.

I thought Dredd was paced to perfection, kept me more involved, had better characters and was a better overall film than The Raid, but may disagree with me.

I believe Gareth Evans borrowed heavily from Garlands leaked script, also, but I could be wrong there.

 

I think they are two films that split opinion, despite being very similar/nearly identical. I don't know anyone of my mates who likes both outright, it's usually one over the other, with the other being shite for whatever reason. It's not like I didn't like Dredd, just thought it could have been better, a sequel would have probably helped expand thing, but it's tanked hasnt it? Can totally under stand where you are coming from with the Xbox thing regarding The Raid as well.

[chokeout]

There was a random period in the early 90s where people realised Lithgow made an amazingly hammy badguy. Ricochet, Cliffhanger, Raising Cain. Then he just stopped doing it and went back to comedy. Its no coincidence that the highlight of the series Dexter was when he turned up as a psycho.

 

I think they are two films that split opinion, despite being very similar/nearly identical. I don't know anyone of my mates who likes both outright, it's usually one over the other, with the other being shite for whatever reason. It's not like I didn't like Dredd, just thought it could have been better, a sequel would have probably helped expand thing, but it's tanked hasnt it? Can totally under stand where you are coming from with the Xbox thing regarding The Raid as well.

 

Its done big business on DVD and Blu Ray, think it sold something crazy like 500,000 in America in its first week and is one of the biggest digital downloads of the year

Edited July 25, 2013 by chokeout

[ShortOrderCook]

Over the last month I've watched:

 

 

Man of Steel - I love me a bit of Supes. This film made me realise that I'm not so much a fan of the Krypton/Zod side of the story and prefer that to be kept brief, far more enjoying the story of Clark Kent and his story and struggles transitioning to human life. I've always gone off any series when the Krypton crew show up on Earth. So this wasn't really for me, felt much more like an Alien Invasion movie than a Superman movie. And the never-ending Peter Griffin vs The Chicken style fight just got right on my tits in the end . I like Cavill as Supes though.

 

Movie 43 - Essentially just a series of light hearted sketches with no real rhyme of reason to them whatsoever. Featuring such things as Hugh Jackman with a pair of testicles hanging from his chin on a blind date with a previously unaware Kate Winslet and Steven Merchant also on a blind date with Halle Berry which turns into a game of dares, with each getting more and more ridiculous each time. The sketches are totally hit and miss, but overall I loved it. Particularly the Naomi Watts one, which I think all involved played great. And I still fancy Watts rotten and I'm not sure why. Aesthetically not my type at all, but I'd undoubtedly hit that so hard you'd become the King of England if you managed to pull me out.

 

Cloud Atlas - I'd been keen to watch this since its release in the cinema, very much intrigued by the plot and concept. I may have chose the wrong night to watch it, being a bit knackered and very warm so I ended up dozing off...but I had no desire to attempt to watch if again following. Didn't take to it at all which was disappointing. Seemed like The Matrix lads being guilty of the same things that the later Matrix films suffered for.

[Loki]

Watched Dredd , that many people have salivated about as being epic. Aside from the gorgeous cinematography at points, super slo-mo and the 3d which works really really well. It's not brilliant and certainly not as good as The Raid.

 

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

Anderson was underwritten, (never pushed the underlying thing she found in Dredd in her first scene) as was Ma-Ma who came off as 'baddie of the week' in the end despite the explanation from the 'expendable' medic. The set pieces including 'Tramp crush', the Gattling Gun and the shot across the balcony were well done, but the whole film left me empty, lots of loose strands and things that went nowhere really.

 

Garland is better than that and I want to see how Never Let Me Go pans out, before writing him off completely. The Beach (novel) The Tesseract (novel) and 28 Days Later (film) were good. Not so keen on Sunshine and havent' read The Coma, yet

 

Why did Dredd use the Slo-Mo on Ma-Ma when that meant he was breaking the law that was so paramount to him. He committed a criminal act in passing judgement, so surely that means he himself should be judged? Sure, the fall would have been forever, and was emphasised for effect but she was already dying from the shot to the abdomen, so was needless and was a bit odd for the character?

 

What was the point of the rogue Judges, when they were pretty much nameless and faceless cannon fodder, nothing was really explored as to why they turned. Indeed one million credits was scoffed at as being a price to have been paid on Dredd's head, so made no sense. The woman rogue judge was next to useless as well.

 

Overall, it was an enjoyable film to a point but it wasnt as great as some people over various fora etc have made out

 

 

 

[close spoiler]

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Can't say I agree with that, Pat. Whilst The Raid was fun, it was over-plotted with too many characters for an action movie. Dredd was much tighter, leaner, more focussed. I also think some of your plot critiques are irrelevant. It's Dredd, it's an action movie. He's a bad man. The loose threads are just colour.

[Devon Malcolm]

Stuck on a golden oldie last night in an attempt to drown my sorrows / not go insane lying awake in a pool of my own sweat.

 

Who remembers Ricochet? I don

[John Matrix]

Yeah, that's a really good comparison. It fits perfectly alongside the likes of Passenger 57, another little gem from the same era.

 

I dont know what to make of Snipes career really, he had the huge Blade franchise and a couple of other good starring roles, Demolition Man probably being the stand out, but despite that i didnt ever feel he really took off like he should have.

 

I'm completely forgetting about White Men Can't Jump so you know what, i take that back. Snipes had an ace run.

[Dead Mike]

White Men Can't Jump is still excellent now. I rinsed it as a basketball playing teenager & rewatched it a few weeks ago. Ron Shelton had a belting run of sports films. Bull Durham, WMCJ, Blue Chips, Cobb & Tin Cup were all good. Cobb is massively underrated, Tommy Lee Jones is fantastic in it.

[Scott Malbranque]

Snipes was the man back then. Fuck yiz now, I had plans to watch a lot of Orphan Black tonight, but I'm gonna go with White Men Can't Jump, Major League and Demolition Mang.

Demolition Mang is fucking quality.

[Dead Mike]

'Drop Zone' was the better of the two skydiving films that came out at the same time too.

[John Matrix]

While you're at it, you may as well add in the first Snipes / Harrelson collaboration.

 

[Dead Mike]

The less said about 'Money Train' the better.