What Films Have You Watched This Week - The Sequel.

[PeteJ]

Watched Blue Ruin on Netflix (US) last night, I recommend giving it a go. It's a revenge movie but smarter than your average with a very understated lead role who really pulls you into the film. It's good.

Then I watched Alien for the first time in about a decade, following my completion of Alien Isolation. Just made me respect A:I even more.

[Brad]

Evil Dead and Oculus

Very pleasantly surprised by Oculus

Is oculus the one with karen gillan in?

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, a nice play on the haunted family set up by focusing on the 'what happens next' with the characters already in the know. Some daft character decisions but overall decent

Watched 22 Jump Street today

Enjoyed the first but thought it overrated, the second film tries really hard to get mileage out of the idea but doesn't have enough gas in the tank. You could easily trim 30mins off the run time and still only have an 'alright' film. Hope Tatum sticks to his guns and doesn't return for the already moving forward 23 Jump Street.

[Neon Ignition]

Also watched:

A chunk of Hellraiser. It cracked up halfway and wouldn't keep on playing, crazy stuff but kind of enjoyed it as it was a different set up from most horrors.

A chunk of V/H/S but turned it off about 30-40 minutes in. So massively badly made with badly handled shakey cam corder style and so scare to its delivery at all. Maybe it got better later but zero about it suggested it would be.

Wrong Turn. Reasonable enough on rewatch despite some slight logic jumps but a bit too much on the dull side too

[usman]

Got passes to screening of new Jack Gyllenhall film, 'Nightcrawler'. Will report back tomorrow

Good actor, use to see him as Tobey Maguure knockoff but far better actor, very good performance in Prisoners last year.

[kryss]

Went to the Japan Film Fest today

Jiro Dreams of Sushi : Had seen it before. Not really impressed, I think some of my dislike stems from how much hipster love it gets.

Chef of South Polar : A fantastic film for anyone of any age. Sakai Masato is as charming as ever. Just one of those warm little films that tells its story well.

They gave out fee onigiri in the intermission but had to cut them in halves when turnout was full house, lol

I think a few of my peeps from the Japanese conversation club at school were at that. I was knee-deep in hell*


*if hell was the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem

[QualityChimp]

Got passes to screening of new Jack Gyllenhall film, 'Nightcrawler'. Will report back tomorrow

Good actor, use to see him as Tobey Maguure knockoff but far better actor, very good performance in Prisoners last year.

That's funny, because I watched Prisoners last night!
Although Gyllenhaal was good in it, I found his squinting tic a little distracting. He said in an interview that his character had loads going on in his head, but had to remain professional on the outside, so it manifests as this tic. It didn't really affect the plot, it was just all I could see every time he was on screen.

I think I was originally expecting a prison break drama from the title, but I watched the trailer and it looked interesting with some big name actors. It's about a couple of girls getting kidnapped and one of their fathers going to any length to find where they are.


The film is incredibly tense at the start and I just wanted to fast-forward to the end to check the girls were OK, but I found it overlong and about two thirds of the way through I wanted to fast-forward just to get to the end.

Hugh Jackman gets a lot to do in this and is very good, but a lot of the other characters don't have much to do. Terrence Howard seems to mumble most of the way through, but I can't decide if that's his style, or if I still haven't forgiven him for asking for too much money on Iron Man 2 and we got Don Cheadle, who's best part so far was playing "Don Cheadle in an elevator with a llama". The llama nearly acts him off the screen. Plus the llama probably does a better Cockney accent than Cheadle.

[hide][/hide]

I then started watching Gyllenhaal again in End of Watch, but I'll report on that when I've seen it all. In that was Frank Grillo, who was also in The Purge: Anarchy that I watched the other night and Captain America: The Winter Soldier that I saw on Saturday!

I really enjoyed this and thought it was a good entry to the franchise. The action was a lot more reality-based, which I enjoyed. A CGI Hulk smashing a CGI alien over a CGI NYC was thrilling, but watching some of the excellently choreographed fight scenes gives me more of a thrill. I thought the scene in the lift was brilliant. "Before we start, would anybody like to get off?"

Some interesting conflicts with Cap and Nick Fury as Captain America sees things in black and white, but Fury sees a whole swatch of greys in between.

I kinda missed the other heroes and Avengers: Age of Ultron can't come soon enough, but with Thor choking Stark in the trailer and rumblings of Civil War coming already, it feels like Marvel are only content when the heroes are fighting each other, rather than a supervillian.

[usman]

2012...

I wanted the entire family to get killed after about ten minutes. They were all so unlikeable and then at the end that twat nearly kills everyone on the ship but is treated like a hero when he surives? wtf. It's his fault those people died!

In a similar-y vein I hated Batman Begins for this. Batman refuses to kill a man for al-Ghul. So he sets fire to the entire monastery and kills everyone inside. WTF? What a douche I thought, but everyone was like yayyyyy.

Such a stupid film, same goes for the whole stupid trilogy IMO. To some the films are sacred cows, I must laugh at that.

... and we got Don Cheadle, who's best part so far was playing "Don Cheadle in an elevator with a llama". The llama nearly acts him off the screen. Plus the llama probably does a better Cockney accent than Cheadle.

No no no no noooooo. I don't know about America rah-rah business like Iron Man. But. Don Cheadle's best role was in The Guard. He and Brendan Gleeson nailed it.

Irish film = wish they made more of it

I think a few of my peeps from the Japanese conversation club at school were at that. I was knee-deep in hell*


*if hell was the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem

It was a lot of fun. I've been going since 2005, volunteered few years in between and got invited to the Emperor's bday celebration those years, super swank affair. Anyways never had a full house like that.

Sometimes it's so much nicer when you have a nice film and a packed cinema of (polite non-chavvy) people laughing and enjoying it with you.

[QualityChimp]

In a similar-y vein I hated Batman Returns for this. Batman refuses to kill a man for al-Ghul. So he sets fire to the entire monastery and kills everyone inside. WTF? What a douche I thought, but everyone was like yayyyyy.

Such a stupid film, same goes for the whole stupid trilogy IMO. To some the films are sacred cows, I must laugh at that.

Which Batman is that one? It sounds like Begins, but I can't remember that bit. I really enjoyed Begins, but they lost the gothic style in the sequels. Heath Ledger was very good as The Joker in TDK, but the film was very miserable and Bats didn't seem to ever beat The Joker. TDKR was OK, but made very little sense throughout as Bats kept wanting to fight Bane mano-a-mano instead of using some Bat Shark Repellent or something.

The best bit was Bane's rapping scene:
[hide][/hide]

No no no no noooooo. I don't know about America rah-rah business like Iron Man. But. Don Cheadle's best role was in The Guard. He and Brendan Gleeson nailed it.

I've not seen it, but I'd like to as Gleeson is normally excellent. I'd also like to see Calvary because he's in it.
I'm pretty sure you're wrong about Cheadle though - the llama scene is the pinnacle of his career thus far.
I guess he marked his card after the whole "Barney Rabble - Trabble" scene in Ocean's Eleven.

[randombs]

The Guard is brilliant. A must-see.

[Dogg Thang]

Cheadle is great at looking like he's about to cry. He always looks like he's about to cry.

[QualityChimp]

Cheadle is great at looking like he's about to cry. He always looks like he's about to cry.

That's because he's seen me blazing him with all the llama cusses.

[QualityChimp]

I've just finished End of Watch and it was brilliant.

Funny, emotional and tense. Some scenes were really nerve-wracking.

The film follows two cops over a couple of years after their patrol is moved to the tougher parts of LA.
They end up on the hitlist of several gangs and have to run for their lives.
The final quarter was tremendous.

[usman]

I would advise no one to watch Nightcrawler.

Rare film that can make you retroactively revise your opinion on an actor's past performances as 'actually, he was crap after all' and feel pure despise for the film.

This is a dirty, seedy movie that makes you feel dirty and seedy watching it and Gylenhall is disgusting to watch. 0/10, if negatives were an option -4576/10

Garbage film, do NOT WATCH PLEASE. Or at least not for money.

I've not seen it, but I'd like to as Gleeson is normally excellent. I'd also like to see Calvary because he's in it.

Calvary needs to come with what the USA fashionably calls a 'trigger warning'.

In this case the film actually needs one. For anyone with a history of sexual abuse by men or experience working with such victims, this film is massively triggering from the opening scene.

It may be a good film otherwise but for anyone in those two groups I think it would be very difficult to see that.

[QualityChimp]

Rare film that can make you retroactively revise your opinion on an actor's past performances as 'actually, he was crap after all' and feel pure despise for the film.

You finally agree about Don Cheadle then?

Thanks for the warning about Calvary. I'm blessed to never been exposed to anything like that, but it makes me uncomfortable.