Movies wot I saw 2011

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

RE: Movies wot I saw 2011

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

I thought his mask was quite convincing. I had a hard time believing it wasn't the real Hugo Weaving.

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

the nose was great - but the cheek bones moving annoyed me abit

Henglegert Rinkerdink · Sorry... I must have the wrong street.

I did saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Sunday. It was rather splendid.
Sometimes the CGI stood out as very CGI, othertimes it was invisible. In fact, the least convincing things in the whole film were John Lithgow and James Franco so I'm assuming THEY were the CGI bit, not the apes.
Anyway, few little plot holes aside it was very good ... not sure about that k-jockey from Harry's Trotter hamming up the line from the original but hey ... well worth a watch. The evolution of Caeser is brilliant.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

I finally got round to seeing Tron Legacy last night. It was by no means a good movie,but it wasn't nearly as bad is I thought it might be. I was quite impressed by the CGI de-ageing of Jeff Bridges. It wasn't completely convincing, but considering how difficult it is, an excellent effort. Give it 5 or 10 years, and they will be able to motion capture the actors and have them as young or old as they like levying the audience none the wiser!

Anyway, it was fun, pretty, plotless nonsense.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

Saw the Inbetweeners movie at the weekend. It was exactly like watching an extended episode. I did think, perhaps that they'd stretched it a bit thin - the laughs per minute ratio was a little lower than the TV show. Also the character development for all of the characters took place in the last ten minutes - but what the hell, it was like having a new episode with a bit of identikit gross-out comedy movie thrown in!

The other thing I saw recently was The Last Airbender. What a horrible mess of a movie it was.

I'm a huge fan of the TV show it was based on - a cartoon that had characters with progressive arcs that built on their well realised beginnings, a rich and imaginative setting, an antagonist who was possibly more interesting than the main characters and an excellent, well planned, forward moving plot that built to a coherent and satisfying finale that didn't relied less on deus ex machina than a logical conclusion to the plot strands that had been developing since the start of the series, three seasons earlier.

The movie... not so much.

Although, they did keep saying stuff like 'You're a Bender!' and 'My, you are a powerful Bender' and stuff like that which, if you're British, is really, really funny.

Henglegert Rinkerdink · Sorry... I must have the wrong street.

With the Last Airbender ... what did you expect with M Night Shamalangadingdong involved with it?

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

His first coupla movies were pretty decent. I think the problem with the later ones was just that they were more of the same.

Action/adventure clearly isn't his thing.

Henglegert Rinkerdink · Sorry... I must have the wrong street.

TBH ... I don't think writing or directing are his things either. Sixth Sense was passable ... after that ... *shudder*

Maybe he should try digging holes ... heavily supervised.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

With his face?

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

We showed the kids 'The Incredible Hulk' on Blu-ray in the week. I have to say its a pretty film. Its by the numbers but the kids loved it - and I enjoyed it too -

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

The new Conan The Barbarian movie was a little underwhelming. It was pretty enough and suitably violent (but not on a Spartacus/300 scale). But there weren't many laughs to be had. It all took itself much too seriously and the awesome climactic ending was neither awesome nor climactic. I didn't hate it, but it didn't exactly light my fire either!

Despicable Me, however, was loads of fun. It's an animated movie about a supervillian who wants to pull of the hiest of a lifetime. Steve Carell provided some excellent voicework on the main character an the animation was pretty nice too. I saw it in 3D... it was pretty.

Henglegert Rinkerdink · Sorry... I must have the wrong street.

I will pass over Conan as 2 and half hours that never happened. My soul is happier that way.

Yesterday, however, I saw "The Troll Hunter" ... very "Blair Witch", "assembled from found footage", etc ... but very good indeed. Highly entertaining cast, well acted (apart from the horrific "Polish Decorator who smuggles things" who would have looked too far beyond politically incorrect in an old sketch co written by Benny Hill and Jim Davidson) and nicely thought out. Won't spoil anything but tis worth a look as long as you don't mind reading ... it is all in Norwegian ...

Also recently saw Due Date with Robert Downey Jnr and Zack Galafalackaladoohickeymajigger ... very funny, much better than "The Hangover". RDJs barely acted rage (clearly just being himself, perfect :) ) and Zack's complete lack of any shade of understanding worked very well together ... even through the schmultzy ending.

Aodan · Teiam Member

NOOOOOOO! I wanted Conan to be awesome!. Oh well.. I guess I'll wait for the DVD.

I've seen a whole lot of nothing lately.

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

I was tempted by Troll Hunter - if Susan sees this hopefully she'll put it 'on the list' for when I return back to earth

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

I saw the Social Network which was full of excellent actors acting excellently and talking really, really fast. It was like the West Wing but with nerds! Also, it starred Scott Pilgrim and Spiderman.

Aodan · Teiam Member

So I watched X-Men: First Class last night...

It wasn't terrible, but I can see why a lot of people took big issue with it. I was able to look past most of the plot holes and changes and inconsistencies cuz.. well.. James McAvoy...

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

Catfish and I watched Shutter Island last night. It was a pretty effective thriller, although even Martin Scorsese can't stop Leonardo DiCaprio from looking a bit weird. That said, Leo gave another pretty good performance. It seems he's improving in leaps and bounds. Sadly the plot was a little predictable, but the film concentrated more on creating atmosphere, with a crazy noirish soundtrack. Could have done with being less well lit, maybe - but that's probably just my taste.

Aodan · Teiam Member

Ever since Once Eating Gilbert Grape, I haven't been able to see Leo as anything else. That and he has that weird man-child face that creeps me out. I agree with your general assessment of Shutter Island though.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

Burke & Hare. Meh. It has more entertainment value as a 'spot the British comedy alumni' game than as a good movie. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Simon Pegg can definitely do better.

Aodan · Teiam Member

Watched Bridesmaids the other day.. the new one with Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig. It was predictable, but amusing. I was highly pleased to see Chris O'Dowd in it. I really liked him in the IT Crowd, and he was decent in this.

I followed that up with The Other Guys. I should know better than to watch Will Farrell movies, but it was on while flipping through the channels. Crap. Total, utter, crap.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

Aodan wrote:
Watched a festering turd the other day.. the new one with Runny Poo and Pebble Dashing.

I fixed it for you...

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

Play nice, Dazza :)

Aodan · Teiam Member

LOL Tell us how you REALLY feel ;) I didn't think it was terrible. I mean, it followed the formula of that kind of movie, but it had some amusing moments. The scene that played during the credits though... that one will be burned in my brain forever, and I may never see lunch meat the same.

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

What with lunch meat and loft insulation sex aids, I'm surprised you're not in therapy this week...

Aodan · Teiam Member

Who said I wasn't? O.O

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

Last night, I was taken to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy starring Gary Oldman and pretty much every heavyweight British actor you can think of - Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt... and so-on.

This was one of the finest ensemble performances I've seen in years. Every single member of the cast was awesome. Especially Gary Oldman who, it turns out can do non-psychoes really well to! It captured the 70's setting really nicely and also had the unhurried pacing of a classic 70's spy movie, which probably won't do it many favours in this world of fast paced movies with quick cuts and wobbly-camera chases. I really enjoyed it though.

That said, it had a couple of huge problems. Firstly, they had four excellent, excellent actors playing the suspects in the conspiracy. And they were very excellent. Problem is, they had very little screen time and when they were on screen, they mostly sat around looking pensive and not saying much. You never really got to know them. So when, in the climax of the film, the bad guy is revealed, you kinda shrug and say 'meh' and carry on.

I went to see it with someone who's read the book by John le Carre a few time and I think that someone who's familiar with the book and knows the backstories of all the characters and how they relate to each other will be very pleased with the movie. It captures the zeitgeist of the book very well.

Apparently.

By for someone like me, who hasn't read the book, the end is an anticlimax and you're left wondering why it's all such a big deal. i had to settle for enjoying the fantastic performances and atmosphere and old-school film-making.

Oh yeah... and if you like shallow depth of field, this is definitely the movie for you!

Truckman · Old. But wise!

Sounds like I need to get the book...Off to Amazon!......Ben

ddvmor · **I am the Jammie King!**

I concur.

JonnyStead · **"I'm Lois!"**

While I was off sick last week I saw 3 films - which I shall now summarise a view on

Green lantern - reluctant superhero by the numbers. Very pretty - true to the story and lots of fun. Worth a watch in HD

Thor - I thought, a better movie. Hopkins was great and the pace of the film was right. Again pretty, but some of the CGI (particularly the God's home world) was a bit sloppy. The battle scenes were good though and bode well for future movies like The Avengars and Man of Steel

Attack the block - alien invasion of London / Chavland. It was OK. Some of the one liners were good but the film should have been a 'made for tv' exercise in reality. Worth a watch though - some good characters in there.