What films have you been watching recently?

Knowing
It started out not being too bad and the whole thing about destiny always holds potential to be an interesting basis for a film, unfortunately it lost the plot somewhere along the way and became a run-of-the-mill TV movie partway through.

Nicolas Cage is laughably bad at times (Kevin Bacon would've been perfect for the role) and I do wonder how he gets any acting jobs at all anymore. The kid is wooden but not that annoying - he's better than Cage at acting.

The script is workmanlike but it struggles to be anything more because the film doesn't seem to know what the story it is trying to tell is. Is it about destiny or is it a thriller? It fails to achieve either particularly well and it does it in the most dull way it can. It could have easily dropped half an hour and would have benefited considerably.

It's a shame to see the guy who managed to make Dark City putting this shite out and thinking it's good (iRobot is forgiveable because that was for Fox).

I used to like Nick Cage. Prior to 1997 you could guarantee that if a film had Cage in it, it was worth watching. Since then, the only decent Cage films are decent in spite of Cage's performance.

He's actually quite well cast in Christmas cheese-fest The Family Man.

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.
TV movie (HBO and BBC) starring Chris O'Dowd of IT Crowd fame and a couple of other lads. The whole film is pretty much set in a pub in Camden, which has a time leak in the toilet. It is effectively a feature length TV episode without a TV series to back it up. Theres a minimal effects budget but they could afford a razor for Dowd so he looks about 14 years old. The result is a film that lives or dies on its script, and for me it was a good'un so I really really really enjoyed it :D

I agree with that, very entertaining. Thanks for mentioning it. :)

V for Vendetta, which I thought was rather excellent. Or maybe it's just because I love stories about a movement started by one person that ends up overthrowing the oppressive ruler. :)

I liked V for Vendetta until I read the book and thought about how much more it could have been. It's not a bad conversion of the story though and it is well made it just waters down the overall message more than I would like.

State of Play
Politics and journalism is often attempted to be shown in films and is usually very dull or ridiculously unrealistic. This manages to be pretty entertaining if you like a nice conspiracy story but not too much action.

Ben Affleck is not terrible, Russell Crowe is pretty good (despite the comedy hair), and Rose McGowan isn't bad as the young blogger reporter (also gorgeous).

It manages to avoid a lot of clichés and even if it is trying to fit an entire miniseries into 2 hours it just about gets away with it as a standalone effort. There are a few too many twists for the timescale and a lot of the impact is lost because they have to move on so fast but it is still a decent attempt at a more intelligent thriller.

Unlike 'The International' is didn't bore me stiff with stories about banks, which is another bonus.

Fast and Furious

Bit of a sucker for these films but didn't manage to catch the new one in the cinemas so picked up the BR. Not a bad flick, with plenty of cheese, plenty of nods to the original films (yep just about all of 'em get referenced here, even the awful third one) and plenty of sexed up cars and chicks on display (though the lesbo snogging scenes in this are so cheesy even the missus passed comment on 'em).

Great little extra feature that must've been like an extended holiday for some of the cast.

All in all, not as bad as I thought it would be and a great opportunity to see who got older, fatter or who weathered well.

Footnote: Still can't make up my mind whether Michelle Rodriguez is sexy or not.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Not the sort of film I'd normally pick up but we wanted something light hearted for a saturday night after a hectic day.

It's like a Will Ferrel film without the man himself. Which makes it better IMHO. The eponymous hero is an Israeli secret agent and the first 20 minutes where he does his stuff against the Arabs is probably the funniest thing I've seen in years.

The rest of the film follows suit as he decamps to America to retrain as a hairdresser and bang lots of old ladies.

Very very very silly, childish and at times wrong but hilarious all the same.

I hate Adam Sandler more than I hate Will Ferrel.

That is all.

She always comes across as being massively miserable to me. I think she's like me in that her neutral expression make her looks pissed off when she actually isn't.

Me too, well actually, I hate Will Ferrel more. But this was different, and it made me feel odd inside enjoying a film with him in so much. I even had to fight the urge to rewatch it again as soon as it had finished :)

Yup, that scowling monobrow expression's a killer. Nice lips and hips though.

Toy Story 3 trailer.

For those who wish to see it. Not me, though. Blackout immediately.

Top Gun
It has been ages since I last watched this properly and it's still the best thing Bruckheimer has done. From the opening logo screens with that soundtrack kicking in until the last minute I enjoyed every second more than I probably should.

It drags a little bit in places and I was more interested in the planes, dogfighting, and Maverick's 'internal conflict' than his pursuit of Kelly. It even manages a few moments of genuinely emotional scenes; compare that to the likes of Transformers 2 as the modern equivalent and it's just sad.

Cruise's constant smiling is still okay because he comes across as a cheeky hotshot (exactly what he is) rather than the scientology worshipping, creepy look that it comes across as in his newer films.

Fuck the first couple of minutes of that are soooo depressing :(

Bangkok Dangerous

I wanted to enjoy this as Nic Cage is playing a hit man! With guns and bad hair! But too many stupid things happen, curse you Pang Brothers, why did you leave all this stupidity in?

It's not enough that he decides to break all his rules and pull a local bird, he has to pull one who not only doesn't speak English, she doesn't speak at all because she's a mute. The dates they go on whilst he's assassinating people are baffling. And cheesy.

The premise is sound- isolated assassin loses his isolation but the execution is poor.

Another Cage duffer then :(

/goes off to watch The Rock and Con Air to remind himself of the mans former greatness.

2002 surely?

Bit late doing an update:

Transformers 2
Dreadful in just about every way - I couldn't even make it to the end. Loud, pointless, awful script and terrible, terrible direction. Independence Day looks like a true work of art compared to this.

The Hurt Locker
Story of a group of bomb disposal people in Iraq. Very good, one of the best war films I've seen that isn't based around mass battles. All characters were pretty believable, tight direction and a very good script.

Wolverine
Not terrible but I did fall asleep watching it so I definitely can't recommend it. Worse then Hulk, better than X2 and X3.

The Manchurian Candidate
Story of some Gulf War I veterans that may have been interefered with by a dodgy scientist, one of whom is a leading US Senator. Not one of Denzel's best performances as one of the other ex-soldiers and the film is far too slow for what it is, it could easily lose 30 minutes and would be a lot better because of it.

The Ipcress File
Michael Caine in classic spy/police action. It's not as fast as Bond but it certainly feels like a lower budget and more realistic version of the same thing. Caine is excellent (despite some dodgy overdubbing as was necessary on ye olde films), as the womanising and cocky military guy/spy/cop.

I feckin' LOVE the Harry Palmer stuff. The Billion Dollar Brain's probably the best of the bunch. Best stuff Caine ever did IMHO

Black Dynamite - Incredibly silly in a good way. :)
War Photographer - Sort biography/documentary of James Nachtwey. Didn't convince me not to become a war photographer.
300 - A lot less homoerotic than I thought it would be. :)

Die Hard (blu ray)
Brilliant film and it's easy to see how it helped make Willis' career what it is. Some ropey performances in places but Rickman and Willis are both incredibly good throughout, especially for an action film that isn't exactly aiming for an intelligent audience.

Sad that it could be a very long time before we ever get to see another action film of its kind again.

Excellent transfer of the film too.

Die Hard 2 (blu ray)
Not bad but the first half hour is all over the place, trying to fit in all the exposition and feeling as though they realise they need to get to the action soon.

Too much of a retread of the first film but without the excellent villain (and performances). Willis is the only person in this that manages to make it feel like more than a TV movie with the budget to blow up a couple of things.

Watchmen
Though I would give this another try to see if I could like it anywhere near as much as many others seem to. Unfortunately it suffers from being dull and feels as though it was made by a fan rather than someone with the talent to pull it off properly.

Introduced the other half to Die Hard last Saturday night. By the Sunday we'd seen them all. 1 > 4 > 3 > 2.

4 gets to be so high because its just mental. There needs to be a Die Hard / Crank crossover. Crank Hard or something.

Oh and Independence Day IS a work of art.

2012 by the way is brilliantly bad. Shame they didnt do it in 3D, would be a perfect film for it.

Paranormal Activity has some real horrible moments in it, but they dont really go anywhere with it and the ending is pretty ropey. Worth seeing for the chilling bits though.

Brazil - Hmm, not sure about this one. Just had a look on the internet what the so called critics say. Some say it's the one of the greatest films ever some say it's confusing. I certainly agree that it is a bit of a mess, but it's not terrible.
Am I supposed to like that film or hate it?

It's like most Gilliam films - it has a lot of good ideas, the underlying story is pretty good, script is fine an acting performances are good. Somehow there's something wrong with it, as if the director is a bit insane and was struggling to hold it all together.

I always thought it was like a serious version of Monty Python with some sort of a point. I found it worth watching but I'm not compelled to watch it again any time soon.

Just watching Hannibal again. What a mess the second half is - so in that respect it's true to the book.

Saw Paranormal Activity last week and really enjoyed it. Haters of The Blair Witch Project probably won't appreciate but it's otherwise really nicely put together and delivers genuine scares and tension

You're supposed to love it to bits.

I do. I've seen it so many times I can practically quote it word for word (well not quite but almost).

I guess it depends whether you really like Gilliam's stuff. Taken as a parody of red tape and Orwell's 1984, it's ace but very darkly humorous.

For some reason the bit where he's trying on a suit in his boss's office and the little girl turns round and says "Put it on big boy, I won't look at your willy" cracks me up every single time.

Zombieland is one of the best films I've seen for ages!

Also, keep a look out for the animation film '9', it's gorgeous in a Dark Crystal kind of way.

---Bottom of the page filler---