Films You Have Watched This Week: With a Vengeance

[Finsbury Girl]

Chappie.

I really don't know what to make of this film.

It's a mash-up of Robocop, Short Circuit and any number of unpleasant gangsta/Mad Max style films, that has serious problems with its tone. I really enjoyed the opening and wished they'd taken the story in the direction it suggested. Unfortunately, the sequences whereby the robot acquires child-like consciousness are appallingly acted by the humans (bar his creator) and poorly put together, as well as being deeply unpleasant in tone. The gangster hip hop surrogate family are just annoying gits, and I found all of their parts a chore to watch, and quite surreal. The bloke (Ninja) seems to have a cartoon image of a lad holding his massive cock scrawled on his body in biro ffs, and some of the graffiti in their grotty hideout is eye-poppingly bizarre/hilarious. The lass is tremendously awful. The decision to have the robot 'brought up' in such a crappy situation and environment just didn't sit right with me. There's no sense of wonder or pathos established. What a shame.

On the plus side, Chappie himself is really good. The visual effects are excellent and totally believable. The ending was strangely neat, too.

Nice bookends, then, to a very hit and miss middle section, which was marred by poor design and narrative decisions, rotten casting, and an unclear, unpleasant tone. I'd have had the story built around the acquisition of intelligence, emotion and conscience against a backdrop of industrial sabotage and the legal status of AI consciousness.

What's the score for Hugh's mullet?

[prinnysquad]

Harrowing/10

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

The Hottub Cinema is coming to town and they're going to be showing Ghostbusters!

Sadly, it's ?25 a ticket and I'm not gorgeous enough to be hanging out in my Speedo thong

I wonder what there liability insurance premiums are? Having worked in the hot tub industry, I know for sure that the length of a film is way over the recommended time anyone should spend in one due to the risks of hyperthermia.

[prinnysquad]

Is that what that auld bird said to you the other night?

"Hey, FatTyDoDd, you're a real hot tub."

[QualityChimp]

Lighten up, Gramps!

I make any hot tub time with and the laydeez is smokin' hot, don't you worry!

[speedlolita]

I just watched Face/Off. Great movie! Was a double sided single layer DVD though so I had to flip it half way through, bizzare!

[Baseley09]

Loved Chappie, thought the Die Antwoord peeps did a great job for non actors. Hugh Jackmans hair cut and shorts were perverse. Didn't care about the inconsistent tones, had a few laffs and some good violence, touching at times. At least 4 skulls.

[kryss]

I just watched Face/Off. Great movie! Was a double sided single layer DVD though so I had to flip it half way through, bizzare!

A flipper! We have a flipper! My only double-sided disc is Starship Troopers.

[CMcK]

You never owned a Laserdisc player presumably. I was well chuffed when I finally got a both sides play Pioneer LD. Still you noticed a few seconds pause as the laser moved to the other side of the disc!

This week I have watched Haywire, Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street. Enjoyed them all.

I really liked the old school Bond style of Haywire with the absence of music during action scenes.

Magic Mike, another Soderbergh film, was a good watch but the serious use of yellow filters was a bit weird.

And 21 Jump St was a good laugh. Taking the mickey out of remakes, cliched angry black police captain and classic role reveresal stuff.

[QualityChimp]

I watched Banshee Chapter, which is a pretty decent low-budget horror.

It's a great little Scooby Doo mystery that plays out quite neatly and with some good scares, but its over reliance on jump-scares meant I was constantly turning up the volume for plot then back down at the jumps to avoid waking anyone.

This unbalanced sound device meant I eventually muted the telly when I knew something was going to jump out. This kinda ruined the atmosphere

If you enjoyed The Ring, where there's a mystery to be solved but by investigating it, you put your own life at risk, then you will enjoy this. As long as you can watch it without worrying the loud jumps will disturb anyone!

[beecee]

just watched Ninja Turtles (2014). 1 hr 40 mins i'm not getting back!

[cutmymilk]

Yep it is really really bad.

Hated all of the Turtles, the morons. Quite how they pulled that one off is a mystery. And Shredderformer is abysmal.

[usman]

I really liked Chappie. It was a a very warm spring day outside, there's something to be said about seeing a film in a dark cinema knowing it's lovely weather outside.

4/5

Kingsmen - saw with free points, still untold regret. A worthless thing, cant call it film. Shouldn't exist.

0/5

Honoka'a Boy - Saw this 2007 Japanese film set in Hawaii a few years ago. Watched it again. Didn't like at all this time. Celebrates selfish and cruel young adults, just a dumb film.

1/5

Surfer, Dude - Weird and inexplicable 2008 film starring Harrelson and McConaughey. Such a weird watch. LIke watching a crap film from the 80s with two leading actors from the present day somehow in it because of...voodoo or something.

2/5 for the chill vibe but otherwise unwatchable

[QualityChimp]

Why do you despise Kingsman so much, Usman?

[usman]

Dunno, seemed a kid's film with extra violence points. Didn't like a jot of it from start to end. Annoying chav kid. Colin Forth dismal, MIchale Caine wasted as imbecile bad guy. Sam Womack wasted again as if EE wasn't bad enough. Sam Jackson's speech impediment. Pointless out of nowhere church side story. I know most liked it though.