What films have you watched this week?

[mikewl]

Had the day off so rented a few films today, so far I've watched:

The Tournement:
Quite enjoyed this, its average stuff but quite entertaining with a few decent actor's (Robert Carlyle and Ving Rhames), its just about 30 assassins in a tournement to the death.

The Steam Experiment:
Val Kilmer and Eric Roberts in this Steam Room experiment, its not very good film but mildly entertaining.

[QualityChimp]

I think as a whole, The Matrix Reloaded suffered because it didn't tie up any loose ends, but it has some of the most inventive and exciting fight and chase sequences ever filmed, IMHO! I frequently put the DVD on and skip to the meaty bits!

Found Revolutions to be lacking in nearly every department. I thought the Zion stand-off was thrilling, but the fight sequences felt like rehashes of the earlier films, Morpheus ends up being Jada Pinkett-Smith's bitch instead of the badass from parts 1 & 2, Neo never satisfactorily beats Smith down and the Neo/Trinity relationship that was the whole point of Reloaded is just wiped out in about 5 minutes.

It's like Newt and Hicks in Alien3 all over again!

I saw Jackass 3D. It's exactly what you think it'll be like. Some great use of slo-mo and 3D in some bits, but pretty much not needed.

Agree 100% with zeroboo. I can't unsee some of the things they did. I always laughed most at the stunts, such as the trike on the giant half-pipe or the jumps into a lake, but that's me. I'll have to watch some Nitro Circus as that sounds more up my street.

It feels like they're all a bit desperate for the cash and fame from the show's height. I can well imagine Steve-o begging on the streets with a sign saying "will staple nuts to thigh for cash".

[eastyy]

weird thing is with lord of the rings i actually much prefer watching the extras like the making of feature

[noobish hat]

They messed up the Lord of the Rings adaptation too, in many ways, but in terms of structure they made the same mistake as DH. Because they felt the need to make all three parts equal in length (whereas Return of the King is the shorter book), they chopped the end off The Two Towers and stuck it in ROTK. So now the Two Towers movie essentially doesn't have an ending.

->Open Spoiler<-

The book has one of the greatest cliff hangers of all time, with Sam believing Frodo to be dead and leaving to complete the quest alone, only to find he is alive and out of reach. Again, this is a devastating ending, and rightly so, seeing as it's the second act in a three act structure. I don't know how film makers keep ****ing this up."Tolkien's story has been a massive success and influenced the genre in every possible medium for generations now - but **** all that! I'm sure we can piss around with the story, characters and structure, and it'll be just as good. I mean, it was only the TITLE that made the books so great in the first place, right?" Asshats. The other thing is, they played the 'OH NOES, SUCH AND SUCH A CHARACTER IS DEAD - PSYCHE! card one too many times for anyone to believe, even for a second, that Frodo had really snuffed it.

The only reason they could get away with completely removing the cliffhanger ending and destroying anticipation for the next part in the story was because people had already invested too much time in the trilogy, and there was no way anyone WOULDN'T be going to see ROTK.

[JazzFunk]

Not a film, really, but I watched the 90-minute long Fry & Laurie reunion show this afty, as warm, schmaltzy and predictable as you might expect but it REALLY made me want to re-watch the old "A Bit Of Fry And Laurie" shows, the clips they showed on here seemed funnier than ever, more anarchically violent than I remember. I HAVE to buy the DVDs!

[JazzFunk]

Just watched Mitchell & Webb's Magicians, quite surprised at how mediocre and lacking in individuality it was, how there were only two mid-level chuckles to be had in the entire film, it was much less funny than a -5 later series episode of Peep Show, and felt more like some shallow and unrealistic, magic-based drama than anything else.

Best thing to be said about it is that it is watchable, likeable, absolutely inconsequential and inoffensive, and bears absolutely no hallmarks of that once legendary "Cambridge Footlights genius".

It's a pretty puzzling thing to watch, and *totally* re-exemplifies all the tragic traits of trying to turn British sitcoms into feature-length movies (not that this strictly is, but it is kind of). But it's kind of nice, at least, though that's about all, and I liked it better than The Prestige.

[Kieran76]

Just watched Iron Man 2. It really is a stupid film, but Downey has enough spark to make it watchable trash. Scarlet looked fine as well, when she was dispatching the bad guys it made me think of P.N 03

[Btang84]

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Had already seen the first two films so was always going to watch this. The first 20 minutes were slow and retread quite a bit from the previous instalments, but after that it picked up and was rather compulsive. On the whole a pretty decent series, though very convoluted and could do with being a lot more simple; there are too many characters that show up and don't appear again.

There was one guy that turned up and started sleeping and snoring about 25 minutes in right in front of me! My mate and I nearly couldn't stop laughing, so thank god he was woke up. The first snore was quite loud and the entire audience must have turned around and looked at him!

The American - Slow, slow and slow. I don't mind my slow films and I did enjoy this, though I can imagine lots of people not enjoying this at all. 4 people walked out of this one, was surprised there weren't more. It wasn't deep and lots of people will find it lacking, but some interesting talking points by the end.

[Neil]

Just watched Iron Man 2. It really is a stupid film, but Downey has enough spark to make it watchable trash. Scarlet looked fine as well, when she was dispatching the bad guys it made me think of P.N 03

Just watched this tonight as well, I loved the first one and was really looking forward to this but was left feeling let down.
It was watchable just, Scarlet was the best thing in it and didnt get enough screen time.

5/10

[JP]

Late last night I watched a Spanish film called Killing Words on MUBI via our PS3. It's difficult to say much without actually getting in the way of the film if you watch it but the link above says just enough.

I'd never heard of it before last night and it's new on MUBI so it had only received two ratings which weren't particularly high. I thought I'd give it a go and I'm so glad I did, really enjoyed it.

It begins with a woman bound to a chair in a serial killer's cellar and he wants to play word games with her. I don't want to say anymore about the plot.


There's some beautifully constructed shots with a lovely use of colour throughout, the pacing works well, the acting is good and at times the film brought to mind some of Michael Haneke's earlier films.

I enjoyed it so much that I've switched of Gran Turismo 5 to watch another of the director's films on MUBI.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention earlier but I thought while watching it that this is a film that I'd put money on it getting an American remake at some point.

[mikewl]

The Man from Earth:
This was a very low budget film by the looks of it, but after 30 minutes it really draws you in, its basically a bunch of people tallking in a cabin for an hour and a half, one of which claims to have lived for 1400 years and decides to tell his story while the others try and disprove him, its worth a watch.

[Matt]

The Man from Earth:
This was a very low budget film by the looks of it, but after 30 minutes it really draws you in, its basically a bunch of people tallking in a cabin for an hour and a half, one of which claims to have lived for 1400 years and decides to tell his story while the others try and disprove him, its worth a watch.

I liked this. Would have worked better as a play than a movie. Some good ideas, kind of film that you think about for months after seeing it (well, in my case anyway). Worth watching

[abigsmurf]

Saw Despicable Me

So bland and by the numbers

[EvilBoris]

Saw Despicable Me

So bland and by the numbers

I actually thought it was ok, better than How to Train your Dragon.

A Classic example of pointless celebrity voices though, the initial credits showed a giant list of comedy legends and I didn't recognise a single one throughout the film bar Steve Carrell on occasion

[PeteJ]

I enjoyed it, especially the "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!" line from the small girl. Ok, I was feeling rubbish and it cheered me up
How to Train your Dragon was one of Dreamworks best films, don't knock it!

Watched The Social Network the other night - how on Earth can a film about Facebook be so good? Should never have doubted Fincher! The film has so much energy and momentum, it could have gone on another hour and I wouldn't have cared. One of the best films of the year, if not the best.