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The last film you watched

Started by wherearethespoons, November 10, 2008, 01:39:45 PM

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Quote from: Blimpkin on November 11, 2008, 05:58:43 PM
I watched a Robert Altman film called The Player.  I thought it was funny and very well observed.  I really like Tin Robbins as a sort of everyman character that also has a hint of the madman in his eyes.  Plus it also has Richard E Grant in it portraying a director who will never give up his artistic vision, only for later to betray his ideals completely with great comic reprocussions.  Plus it also has a veritable who's who of anyone who was in the movies at the time and a great opening tracking shot that goes on forever.



Yeah, it's a lovely film, I particularly love the bit near the end where Richard E Grant totally sells out and has Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts in the film, along with the "traffic was a bitch" line (I think that was the line, anyway).

edit - Tin Robbins kind of sounds like he should have been in the Wizard of Oz or something.

tarmac

Think Saw V was the last film I saw at the cinema.  I agree with most of Paaaaul's criticisms - I can't help but wonder how many more previously unseen accomplices they're going to shoehorn into the next film and I'm starting to find Jigsaw himself quite tiresome too; wish he'd just fuck off.

Spoiler alert
Also, when are they going to stop killing off all the decent 'good' guys?  I love Saw's array of flawed heroes and it might have actually been a nice twist to see one of the established victim characters survive.  It was a lovely surprise to find Donnie Wahlberg's character still alive in Saw IV, but a bit too short lived in my opinion.  Likewise the FBI dude in this one - wanted to see more of him dammit, especially after the whole pen/head-tank scene.   They haven't really got anyone left from previous films now.
[close]

Having said that, I find the Saw series on the whole quite easy to forgive and Saw V was pleasant enough to watch.  I love the direct continuity between films, (especially the fact a couple occur at the same time) which makes it feel more like a great big silly mini-series and the occasional weak 'episode' doesn't detract too much from the bigger picture.

Time to knock it on the head after the next one though, eh?

The Argus

I watched Of Time and the City, the latest Terence Davies film, last night. It was... unique.  I don't know if it's just my mindset at the moment but I found it an incredibly touching and heartwarming experience (although I did find his voice a tad overbearing at times).  It's essentially Davies talking about growing up in Liverpool, set to a majestic score and reams of footage of Liverpool old and new. It's the cinematic equivalent of sitting down at the fireplace on a winter's night and listening to a very eloquent and interesting old man talk to you about his youth.

It made me nostalgic for a time I was too young to experience which felt strange. It doesn't outstay its welcome either at just over 70 minutes long.  Hard to do something so unique justice but if it sounds like your thing I'd rush out and watch it while it's on at the bigscreen as I imagine it would lose some of its impact on a TV or monitor.

Cerys

I've just realised that Pirates of theCaribbean: At World's End wasn't the last film I saw.  Adaptation was.  So there we have it.

ThickAndCreamy

Quote from: Cerys on November 11, 2008, 09:00:00 PM
I've just realised that Pirates of theCaribbean: At World's End wasn't the last film I saw.  Adaptation was.  So there we have it.
Opinions? You can't just tease, you have to be opinionated or this thread simply fails!

the midnight watch baboon

SAW V was also the last cinema film I watched, I quite enjoyed it in spite of its continuity problems and the increasing lack of interest stirred by Jigsaw himself, and the fact that no one wore his face for a mask like they did in the promo posters. Trying to watch Network tonight but I've cranked the heating too high and can't stay awake.

Cerys

Quote from: ThickAndCreamy on November 11, 2008, 09:00:58 PM
Opinions? You can't just tease, you have to be opinionated or this thread simply fails!

Oops, sorry.  Ahem.  I enjoyed it - but then any film involving Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep can't really go wrong.  I'm a sucker for the 'film within a film' genre (if 'genre' is the right word).  And I was quite happy when I remembered that  Catherine Keener was also in Living in Oblivion - another fwaf job.  A little less happy when I remembered that she'd also been in Being John Malkovich.  I'd been hoping her involvement in Adaptation was a bit more clever and referential.  Ah well.

Oh, and the stoned Streep scenes were brilliant.

alan nagsworth

I've watched lots of films in recent weeks: Pan's Labrynth - Fantastic stuff, can't believe I had this in my collection for 6 months and never watched it. I sort of expected more fantasy stuff but I wasn't disappointed when I realised it wasn't; The scenes with the bastard of a General in are fantastic. I was pretty open-mouthed at all the violence and blood in this film, but nowhere near as open-mouthed as I was at the ending.

Night Of The Living Dead (Original version) - I expected legendary stuff and it delivered. Romero welcomes zombies as a common horror theme with open arms and the film just excels at creating tension.

Day Of The Dead - I thought Dawn Of The Dead was my all-time favourite horror film but my god! This comes so close, it's nail-biting. George adding yet another spin on the scenario and demonstrating that despite this worldwide horror, man's biggest threat is still himself. The logic behind 'Bub' and his gradual recognition of his life and day-to-day tasks, the progression throughout the film, the actions of the doctor and the subsequent outrage from the soldiers... it all just makes perfect sense, despite being a huge work of fiction mumbo-jumbo, this film was believable in so many ways.

Oh and I watched Goodfellas with friends today as they'd never seen it before. I love it.

Blimpkin

#38
Ha, I am a boob.  Tin Robbins.

I watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, last night and I wasn't that impressed.
As you expect the cinematography is stunning, but I found that I didn't really believe in Brad Pitts version of Jesse.  He lacked a certain edge that you get, say, with a Lee Van Cleef or Clint Eastwood character.  And I found myself cringing abit when he tried to act all tough.  On the other hand Casey Affleck was great and deserved to steal the show as the skittish Robert Ford, but I thought the problem on the whole was that the film didn't have enough to hold the viewer for 2 and a half hours.  Apart from knowing that Jesse is going to die at the hands of Ford, there is no extra story, characters, or anything that really fleshes it out.

But I am watching Jacobs Ladder tonight, any good?

I just watched Wanted. Crap and pointless - but still quite enjoyable if you switch off and enjoy the comic book-like violence and visuals. Suspend your disbelief off a suspension bridge and you'll be OK.

boxofslice

I watched Taken last night. Just an awful film whose message seems to be don't be a single female travelling abroad or you'll be abducted, forcibly addicted to heroin and sold into the sex trade by arabs. There's nothing to recommend this film not even the action scenes which are so Bourne-lite it's embarrasing. Don't see.

Blimpkin

Quote from: boxofslice on November 12, 2008, 11:02:03 AM
I watched Taken last night. Just an awful film whose message seems to be don't be a single female travelling abroad or you'll be abducted, forcibly addicted to heroin and sold into the sex trade by arabs. There's nothing to recommend this film not even the action scenes which are so Bourne-lite it's embarrasing. Don't see.

Oh man, that seems worth watching just to see how bad it actually is.

non capisco

I started to think Liam Neeson looked a bit like Michael Palin, then for the rest of the film imagined it was Michael Palin going round Europe beating people up, which amped up the level of enjoyment a notch.

no_offenc

I went to see Young @ Heart the other day, which is bafflingly only being shown at about 6 cinemas in the UK.  Why, I don't know, because it was rather good.  Makes me sort-of wish old age would hurry up so I can be as awesomely resilient and spunky as some of that lot are/were.  I would advise you to take at least one or two handkerchieves if you manage to catch it, as there's certainly a few teary-eyed bits in there.  Thankfully not in a mawkish way, though.

And this is why I'll never be a film reviewer.

And I semi-watched Shaun Of The Dead when they repeated it for the umpteenth time on ITV2 last night.  I still enjoy it.

Quote from: Blimpkin on November 12, 2008, 10:52:48 AM
But I am watching Jacobs Ladder tonight, any good?

Very good. An unsettling atmosphere.

Spiteface

#45
Quote from: tarmac on November 11, 2008, 07:17:03 PM
Think Saw V was the last film I saw at the cinema.  I agree with most of Paaaaul's criticisms - I can't help but wonder how many more previously unseen accomplices they're going to shoehorn into the next film and I'm starting to find Jigsaw himself quite tiresome too; wish he'd just fuck off.

Spoiler alert
Also, when are they going to stop killing off all the decent 'good' guys?  I love Saw's array of flawed heroes and it might have actually been a nice twist to see one of the established victim characters survive.  It was a lovely surprise to find Donnie Wahlberg's character still alive in Saw IV, but a bit too short lived in my opinion.  Likewise the FBI dude in this one - wanted to see more of him dammit, especially after the whole pen/head-tank scene.   They haven't really got anyone left from previous films now.
[close]

Having said that, I find the Saw series on the whole quite easy to forgive and Saw V was pleasant enough to watch.  I love the direct continuity between films, (especially the fact a couple occur at the same time) which makes it feel more like a great big silly mini-series and the occasional weak 'episode' doesn't detract too much from the bigger picture.

Time to knock it on the head after the next one though, eh?

I'm calling it right now.  My theory is:

Spoiler alert
Saw VI will feature Dr Lawrence Gordon from the First Saw movie, in some capacity.  Think about it.  You never actually saw his death on screen.

I've heard a few ideas as to why he would be involved still.  I don't think he'd be an apprentice.  Maybe he's been tested ever since he managed to escape the bathroom, essentially being in a similar role to Zep in the first Saw.  With this in mind maybe that's what was in the box Jigsaw left to Jill in his will.

The reason for Gordon even being in a test afterwards is simply because he never did pass the first one.  He was supposed to kill Adam in that bathroom.
[close]

I also happen to think all that I just tagged as spoiler would work in bringing the series full circle if Saw 6 is going to be the last one

George Oscar Bluth II

Burn After Reading - it was alright I suppose.

Jemble Fred

So is this 'Saw only appeals to birds' thing just in my head then? It just strikes me as odd that at least half the girls I know have the complete DVD collection (and it was a woman who forced me to see Saw V), but I don't know any guys who even give the films the time of day.

George Oscar Bluth II

I work at a cinema (have I mentioned that on here this week? I don't think I have?) and Saw audiences seem to be a cross section of chavvy lads, groups of girls, girls on dates with guys and horror nerds.

samadriel

I dunno what it is, but that kind of horror movie (the rubbish kind, I guess) definitely seems like a 'girl thing'; save for trying out the first one, I've never had a male friend either suggest seeing a 'Saw' movie, or have a kind word to say about one, but among the women I know, such disdain is the rare exception.  Meanwhile, I would cheerfully brutalise Leigh Whannel.

Saw 'Burn After Reading' the other day (spoilers follow).  Apart from it being very pretty, I was unimpressed with 'No Country', so I'm not shocked at BaR continuing down the 'Coens-are-a-bit-rubbish-now' path, but I'm still a smidge disappointed.  I don't think I've ever made the complaint "the tone was all over the place" about a film before, but that was the big problem with BaR -- as recently as 'The Man Who Wasn't There', they were able to move up and down the continuum of tragedy-drama-comedy reasonably elegantly, but here it was either gurning, gawping, hamfisted COMADY, or the dramatic relationship parts which, with some better-developed characterisation, I'd probably have liked much more -- more than 'No Country', in fact.
After an initial chuckle at her vanity, I found Frances McDormand's character an absolute deadweight, a hateful little shit without anything funny to add, while being far too much of a cartoon to add anything dramatic (yeah, love is blind, but I'm supposed to believe the gym owner saw anything in that hollow fuckwit?).  Brad Pitt was funny with Malkovich in the car (hell, probably the best bit in the film), but outside of that, he was just as tiresome as McDormand.  So at the comedy end you've got two unfunny leads, bridged to the 'middle' by Clooney (playing a mentally ill vagrant whose manner I'm supposed to believe women find attractive?  Christ, I'm more sexually magnetic than Mr what-are-these-floorboards-made-of) and Malkovich, (empty, characterless rage; not really Malkovich's fault, the script does nothing else with him. His attacking the gym owner was an absolute arse-pull, just 'something that should happen in a Coen Bros film'), and at the 'dramatic' end there's Tilda Swinton, her character little better than Malkovich's, all on her own with nowhere to go (she's running off with the vagrant?  Why?  She liked him exactly as much as Cox, ie, not at all.  A character with only one mode can serve its purpose fine in broad comedy, but it won't help the drama any).
Aaand there's a little bit of wasted J K Simmons in there.  It seems like the Coens have boiled their habits down to a batch of formulae, then taken the 'caper' formula and slavishly tried to make a movie to its specifications ("Hey Joel, what would we write for this scene?"  "I dunno... the movie's about to end... make him shoot the guy!").  It's got a lot of familiar bits and pieces (stupid, greedy duo!  Small, silly-but-lethal misunderstandings!  Scary angry guy! (a half-assed one -- Malkovich merely reminded me of Tom Cruise in 'Tropic Thunder', come to think of it; yuck!)  Neurotic Clooney!), but behind them seems to be the notion, either cynical or naive, that these bits and pieces can be written out with absolutely no regard for one another, tossed together, and a fully-formed 'Coen Bros script' will result.  Considering some of the great stuff they've done (god, I wish I had my copy of 'Hudsucker Proxy' around), they should know better.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Blimpkin on November 12, 2008, 10:52:48 AM


But I am watching Jacobs Ladder tonight, any good?

Yes, but prepare to be scared. It's still probably the most frightening film I've seen, the bit in the hospital in particular.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Jacob's Ladder is great. I finally got it on DVD a while back but I never seem to find time to watch it. I was going to on Saturday, but ironically I ended up watching Silent Hill on channel 4 instead.

The last film I watched was The Transporter, which as I expected was trashy but fun.

Wadded Bliss

Just watched Eden Lake. There's a lot of truth in that film. As The Unicorn Mang says "this is a bleak, cunt of a film." But it does make you think (if you're working class and have 1/2 a brain.)

I'd like to give a shout out to Jacob's Ladder. Very scary and very under-rated.

ThickAndCreamy

Watched Charlie Wilsons War today, great story just not a great film. Generally just good in every aspect and very watchable but without the plot it would be nothing. It was still quite enjoyable and quite intriguing to learn more about the actual real life events after watching the film, so in that respect it is a success.

Blimpkin

Ok I watched Jacobs Ladder last night and your right I loved it.  But I was left confused about the ending.  I mean I won 't ruin for those of you that haven't seen it, but the ending is quite open ended  (for me at least because I have a small brain) and I couldn't quite put my finger on what the actual outcome was, or what had happened precisely.  But then again, I guess thats the point.

The film itself wasn't scary for me, more as someone said before me; unsettling.  I mean I say I wasn't scared but as I was laying in bed and I considered the film again I did have to turn the bedside light on. 

De Niro's Bronx Tale tonight. 

Wadded Bliss

Quote from: Blimpkin on November 13, 2008, 02:45:32 PM
Ok I watched Jacobs Ladder last night and your right I loved it.  But I was left confused about the ending.  I mean I won 't ruin for those of you that haven't seen it, but the ending is quite open ended  (for me at least because I have a small brain) and I couldn't quite put my finger on what the actual outcome was, or what had happened precisely.  But then again, I guess thats the point.

The film itself wasn't scary for me, more as someone said before me; unsettling.  I mean I say I wasn't scared but as I was laying in bed and I considered the film again I did have to turn the bedside light on. 

De Niro's Bronx Tale tonight. 

I read it that
Spoiler alert
Jacob is dying, having been shot by his own men after taking the drug. Everything that happens in the film happens in those last moments as he's imagining what might have been. The angel is really an angel; the demons really are demons - a heaven and hell situation.
[close]

But I'm probably wrong!

thugler

Quote from: Wadded Bliss on November 12, 2008, 10:09:29 PM
Just watched Eden Lake. There's a lot of truth in that film. As The Unicorn Mang says "this is a bleak, cunt of a film." But it does make you think (if you're working class and have 1/2 a brain.)

No it doesn't. It's trashy as hell, noone acts remotely like real people. The chav characters are poorly drawn, either violent imbeciles (due to bad parenting) or apathetic imbeciles. Most annoying of all was how neither of the two victims could drive their massive SUV thing more than 100 metres without crashing it into something. And the ending was ridiculous.

Marty McFly

Quote from: Wadded Bliss on November 13, 2008, 05:33:00 PM
I read it that
Spoiler alert
Jacob is dying, having been shot by his own men after taking the drug. Everything that happens in the film happens in those last moments as he's imagining what might have been. The angel is really an angel; the demons really are demons - a heaven and hell situation.
[close]

that's what I thought too.



El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: thugler on November 13, 2008, 06:07:23 PM
No it doesn't. It's trashy as hell, noone acts remotely like real people. The chav characters are poorly drawn, either violent imbeciles (due to bad parenting) or apathetic imbeciles.

This isn't exactly far from the truth though.

The only thing I didn't really like were the two main characters, they were kind of annoying so their demise wasn't quite so tragic. And I had to laugh at the bit where he goes "come and look at this" and the camera pans to what we expect to be a majestic view...and it's just a lake and some woods.

Kazuo Kiriyama

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on November 10, 2008, 04:39:10 PM
I watched Eden Lake on Saturday. It was a good film but incredibly bleak. It oddly reminded me of ET with all the kids riding around the woods on bikes, except with people being horribly tortured instead of a cute alien.

Spoiler alert
The bit where the Indian boy got his head set on fire has to be one of the most disturbing bits I've seen in a film. The scream that accompanied it was horrible. And the ending is up there with The Mist as far as bleakness goes.
[close]

I'm never even mildly disturbed by films, that's how hard I am, but the sheer bleakness of Eden Lake had me tempted to switch it off, which I've never done for reasons of uneasyness. The bit you've spoilered there was genuinely horrifying, like nothing I've ever felt watching a movie before, and it stayed with me for the next few days. From the trailers, I was expecting something along the lines of that Luke Wilson film, Vacant. Not that it was a particularly good film, mostly a load of over the top Daily Mail Reader Comment stereotypes, silly decision making by the characters (even for a horror film) and unlikely coincidences, it was just more of a shocker than what I'd anticipated.