Film 2012

[vegster]

The Master

Saw this at the DOY's thursday eve. A strange film,weird in fact.

"A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader"

Well he certainly is unsettled but Philip Seymour Hoffman as the "charismatic leader " just does not cut it. Some scenes are beautifully shot but overall the story is very weak. There are occasional similarities to the way the Scientologists work but the film does not get close to risking a law suit and as such seems disjointed. Joaquin Phoenix gives a very good performance as a violent alcoholic given to strange mood swings and behaviour . But overall, The Cause are a bunch of happy clappy rich sycophants rather than a serious organisation.

6.5

 

[Acker79]

Twilight Breaking Dawn pt2
I hated the first one. It set the basis for a terribly written story about unpleasant people in unhealthy relationships. The second frustrated me, got to the end of it and nothing of note had happened. The third just bored me, and at one point confused me. The fourth part, Breaking Dawn pt1, was unintentionally hilarious, so there was some fun in watching it.

This time around, that unintentional humour continued, but that (very minimal) enjoyment of that humour was undermined by a completely ridiculous resolution, that just left me furious with the film.

A terrible end, to a terrible franchise.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Went to the rather excellent The Hunt this evening. The story of a town in Denmark on the verge of rurality, the men expertly bearded and each of licensed to attend regular hunting trips. The hunt of the title is nothing to do with such geezers out for the kill. This is more to do with a witchhunt. In this case it's of a teacher of a primary school and the accusation first started by one of the 5 year girls in his class that he has done something indecent to her. The truth barely looks to reveal itself and it's all gossip and suggestion and the speedy judgement of a partly lawless place filled with those who care little for evidence or a justice not of their own. The teacher is played by Mads Mikkelson and his frozen looks conceal an absolute torture inside. Brilliantly reserved in a situation in which you might worry that to scream innocence too loudly makes listeners doubt all the more.
The film was great and uncomfortable and tensely dramatic as bad looks turn to venomous strikes, whilst as a viewer one can never be a 100% sure either way. Have to hang on until the end to see how it finishes itself off. The direction was immaculate too. Thomas Vinterberg, one of the originators of the Dogme95 movement. This isn't all natural light and ad lib though. This is a carefully stretched wintry landscape in which aspersions are cast unforgivingly and society won't let somebody back in.

 

[Acker79]

Sightseers
Ben Whealey's last film, Kill List got a lot of good reviews, so I went to see it at the duke of york's, but was disappointed (I had atched A Serbian Film a week or two prior and though less extreme, there were a lot of similarities, so it felt very m'eh). I went into this with low expectations, and while it started slowly, it was actually quite funny. As with Kill List, there is a lot of freedom in the script allowing the actors to essentially ad lib their dialogue, while this can bring some naturalness to their words, delivery can be stilted or awkward at times.


In other news, the new star trek trailer is out:

Star Trek Into Darkness - Official Teaser (HD) - YouTube


And Cineworld have bought Picturehouse
Business As Usual | Picturehouse Cinemas

Unfortunately, unlimited passes won't be accepted at picturehouse cinemas (such as the duke of york's). Cineworld say they intend to keep them as a separate entity.

 

[Acker79]

Ooh, back to the main board.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Sightseers - for me one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and one of the only times I have walked out of a cinema with many audience members still laughing. The state of the middle class rambler's face after the dog shit scene was MLH (Major League Hilario) for me. Great British film making, great soundtrack, great performances, great script, great cinematography (Lake District especially) and Crich Tram Museum - what more could you want for your dollar?

 

[big nuts]

Sightseers - for me one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and one of the only times I have walked out of a cinema with many audience members still laughing. The state of the middle class rambler's face after the dog shit scene was MLH (Major League Hilario) for me. Great British film making, great soundtrack, great performances, great script, great cinematography (Lake District especially) and Crich Tram Museum - what more could you want for your dollar?

Agreed great film. Saw it at the opening night at the Komedia lovely cinema, with the added bonus of the director introducing the film on the stage.

Dark star on tap and bottled Brooklyn lager available - lovely.

 

[jameswestport]

I would like to recomend 'End of Watch'

 

[Acker79]

Seven Psychopaths
I was looking forward to this, partly because it's from the director of In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, partly because the trailer made it look quite manically quirky. It wasn't as quirky as suggested, and in places a little too slow for the story they were telling (I think the slow pace of the story in In Bruges fit with the story, the location, their reason for being there, etc.), whereas this one had a sense of things out of control, unexpected mayhem and so needed a bit more pace. There were some highlights (Sam Rockwell's idea for the end to Colin Farell's script was funny, and I liked the psychopath stories that are told in flashback, I liked Woody Harrelson), and generally, overall I suppose I liked the film itself, just not as much as I was expecting to.

Silver Linings Playbook
This was generally good. A little patchy towards the end, and some of the scenes of arguments or outbursts seemed a little too chaotic to keep up with everything that was going on, but, generally well told story heart.

 

[Acker79]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 3D
I enjoyed this. I have issues with it (pacing, questioning whether everything is necessary (hello, fighting mountains), length, the anonymity of a couple of dwarfs, and the disappointment of the 3D (I know! But, it's Peter Jackson, and it was shot in 3D, so I thought he would do more with it), and just the general "more of the same" feeling that you get with the fourth film in a series that has a consistency to look and feel) but despite those qualms I liked it.


And a new superman trailer has been released:

YouTube

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Koyannisqatsi at The Barbican tonight - full choir and Philip Glass Orchestra - going to be a cracker.

 

[vegster]

Managed to catch Sightseers at the new DoY venue in The Komedia. This was one of the blackest films I have seen in ages, it had the ability to be highly amusing and yet gutwrenchingly nauseous in places. Well shot and acted with the female lead looking not uncannily like a psychotic Elisabeth Sladen ( Sarah Jane in Dr Who). Events seem to take over what seems like a romantic caravanning holiday creating surprising and grizzly consequenses. Deffo a must see.

8.5

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Managed to catch Sightseers at the new DoY venue in The Komedia. This was one of the blackest films I have seen in ages, it had the ability to be highly amusing and yet gutwrenchingly nauseous in places. Well shot and acted with the female lead looking not uncannily like a psychotic Elisabeth Sladen ( Sarah Jane in Dr Who). Events seem to take over what seems like a romantic caravanning holiday creating surprising and grizzly consequenses. Deffo a must see.

8.5

Yep. Deffo a must see. Seriously hilario.

 

[keaton]

Not a new film but I saw the touched up re-issue of Lawrence of Arabia at Duke's yesterday. Never seen it before, stunning epic I recommend it on the big screen if you can catch it

 

[vegster]

Not a new film but I saw the touched up re-issue of Lawrence of Arabia at Duke's yesterday. Never seen it before, stunning epic I recommend it on the big screen if you can catch it

Always worth keeping an eye on the DoY's upcoming films as they do throw some wonderful classics back in to the limelight. Some films really benefit from being shown on the big screen as opposed to being viewed in the front room on a letterbox format.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Jack Reacher - as a fan of Lee Child and his books, I was not hopeful that Tom Cruise would carry off the six foot five Jack Reacher, and the film would be disappointing.

I was wrong. I liked the film.a lot. One scene as TC walked into a bar appeari g to be taller than everyone there was quite funny, but that aside I thought this was a bloody good film.

I'm going for an 8/10

 

[Ninja Elephant]

And the shameless post-building begins once again.

True thanks goes to all those who clicked on the ads on the old NSC swelling the bandwidth pot to permit this software to be paid for.

Has to be said it does look worth the money - flexible and powerful. Just need to make it look NSC-ish.

And it doesn't log me off every two seconds. Which kinda helps!

"I'm going to beat you to death with my bare hands and drink your blood from a boot". Seriously?...

Also, when he beats up one guy using the head of another.... moments of serious stupidity which for me spoilt what was a reasonably well done film.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

The Hobbit

I set my sights deliberately low and as such I thought it was quite good come the end of the film.

Martin Freeman is an excellent bit of casting.

 

[DumLum]

Best film I saw this year was 'A Royal Affair' thought I would keep that to myself however it was ranked as joint best film of the year on radio 5 this week.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Argo