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Film 2012
- Thread starter Acker79
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- #162
Ted
I wasn't overly impressed by the trailer, but it did seem to be getting a lot of good reviews and I'm a big family guy fan. I don't know if it was because they were bad joke or just that I saw them so often, but the jokes from the trailer were the least funny bits, I think they saved the best jokes for the film. There are lots of pop culture references, and there is some toilet humour but instead of trying to out do the same toilet jokes they did what felt like new toilet jokes, and Seth McFarlane seems to have a bit more intelligence about his humour, not necessarily in the content of it (that can still be very low brow), but in the use of it. There was a decent plot to keep it going albeit one that is not particularly original, and the performances were good. I particularly liked Giovanni Ribisi's Tiffany moment, and the non-speaking cameo from ryan reynolds.
I wasn't overly impressed by the trailer, but it did seem to be getting a lot of good reviews and I'm a big family guy fan. I don't know if it was because they were bad joke or just that I saw them so often, but the jokes from the trailer were the least funny bits, I think they saved the best jokes for the film. There are lots of pop culture references, and there is some toilet humour but instead of trying to out do the same toilet jokes they did what felt like new toilet jokes, and Seth McFarlane seems to have a bit more intelligence about his humour, not necessarily in the content of it (that can still be very low brow), but in the use of it. There was a decent plot to keep it going albeit one that is not particularly original, and the performances were good. I particularly liked Giovanni Ribisi's Tiffany moment, and the non-speaking cameo from ryan reynolds.
Barry Izbak
U.T.A.
I love all the Bourne films, but was a bit concerned when I learnt that Matt Damon wasn't actually going to be in The Bourne Legacy.
I shouldn't have worried, because the story was cleverly built around the fact that Bourne was out there on the loose, while concentrating on other agents in the programme and the people it.
So that said, I'm afraid that this will probably remain my fourth favourite in the series. It was action packed, but missed the Paul Greengrass style direction and Matt Damon's acting skill.
The story itself was ok, jumping from one location to another, and I was throughly enjoying it right up until our hero nicked the motorbike. I accept that Bourne (and Bond) films are not documentaries, but are intended to be fantastic and unreal. But this "car" chase sequence, albeit on two wheels, was ridiculous. It was ridiculous on the Mission Impossible scale. So unbelieveable it was laughable and hence spolied the end fo the film for me.
Nonetheless, whilst I won't go and see this again (my yardstick for a brilliant film) nor buy the dvd (a good film) I will look forward to seeing it on TV in a couple of years time.
7/10
I shouldn't have worried, because the story was cleverly built around the fact that Bourne was out there on the loose, while concentrating on other agents in the programme and the people it.
So that said, I'm afraid that this will probably remain my fourth favourite in the series. It was action packed, but missed the Paul Greengrass style direction and Matt Damon's acting skill.
The story itself was ok, jumping from one location to another, and I was throughly enjoying it right up until our hero nicked the motorbike. I accept that Bourne (and Bond) films are not documentaries, but are intended to be fantastic and unreal. But this "car" chase sequence, albeit on two wheels, was ridiculous. It was ridiculous on the Mission Impossible scale. So unbelieveable it was laughable and hence spolied the end fo the film for me.
Nonetheless, whilst I won't go and see this again (my yardstick for a brilliant film) nor buy the dvd (a good film) I will look forward to seeing it on TV in a couple of years time.
7/10
- Thread starter
- #164
The Bourne Legacy
I agree with Barry's overall opinion, not great not terrible. I thought the pacing was patchy, it took too long to get going (I don't mind films being slow as long as they are developing character and story, this wasn't the case with TBL). I thought the final chase/battle was anti-climactic.
Brave
The trailers did nothing to get me excited, and the continual playing of the same trailer that gave little about the film away (I was expecting something like Mulan crossed with braveheart, instead it was like brother bear crossed with freaky friday). The story is nothing new, but the visuals are beautiful and the film has a great deal of heart.
I agree with Barry's overall opinion, not great not terrible. I thought the pacing was patchy, it took too long to get going (I don't mind films being slow as long as they are developing character and story, this wasn't the case with TBL). I thought the final chase/battle was anti-climactic.
Brave
The trailers did nothing to get me excited, and the continual playing of the same trailer that gave little about the film away (I was expecting something like Mulan crossed with braveheart, instead it was like brother bear crossed with freaky friday). The story is nothing new, but the visuals are beautiful and the film has a great deal of heart.
Meade's Ball
Well-known member
My local cinema is the Rio, right on the Hackney borders. I love it there. They do latenight underground horror screenings and previews, doublebills on a Sunday afternoon that can often tie together two films of which i've seen neither, and there's a slightly dirty 70s cinema style feel to it with the seats comfortable yet worn and never a dazzling and processed brightness to it that you'd see in many a chain or an Iceland, and the fact that there's a bar at its front full of affordable beers and some odd cheap liquors for the the local art community brigade. With just the one screen it means they have to make the right selection of what to have on as their feature each week. Yes, they had on the depressive Dark Knight for a couple of weeks, but in general they'll go for something a tiny bit different, possibly presuming people like me will go to it no matter what. Now, i haven't been to the flicks for about 4 weeks. I hate that. There are some films perhaps half-decent that i may have missed, and a whole collection of god-awful ones too that it's still my sometime need to witness to be reminded of the vacuity of the mainstream. It's not been all-bad. My newly bought tivo has made me see some bloody brilliant epics and horrors and war films and Hitchcock classics and world dramas that have seen my through the days. Yesterday, though, i dared myself the 400 yards to the Rio for an afternoon showing. It was to see Jackpot.
Jo Nesbo was the pen behind the sword of this Scandanavian "comedy"-"thriller". I rather enjoyed Headhunters, another story he inked, earlier in the year and thought this might be along similar lines. I was sadly wrong. Yes, it was wacky and unbelievable, peppered with violent strokes and rambunctious comedy, but it didn't have the right mix to make it necessarily suspenseful to make one care for any twists.
It's a tale told in flashback and interrogation, by the one survivor of a clearly bloody shoutout at a driveby sexshop in the Norwegian countryside. He wriggles free from underneath the deceased body of an obese stripper holding a shotgun. The police, rather ofcoursely, want to know how it got to this stage and how he's the only one loose. Oscar, our regular and tortured guy with a heart who finds himself in endless mishap and wrongturns, begins it all by saying of how he and 3 workmates won a huge bet on the football. And how it all exploded from there. Greed takes a hold oh so quickly and these generally nefarious misfits have no bother in weaponing up in order to look to lessen the share of the couple of million kroner jackpot.
To me, it had feel of one of those one-star British loser-gangster flicks looking to mirror the success of Lock Stock, and i never liked them, or Lock Stock, for that matter. The people are generally ghastly and the sicko violence isn't sicko enough or just seems there for the sake of itself rather than, for instance, how it seemed to fit in in the more disturbing and grim Britflick "London To Brighton", with a psychological edge to it. It was a not greatly enjoyable 90 minutes and i'd wished i'd Bourne'd it instead.
The redeeming feature for me was that the man beheaded in the film is very much like the "character" in the North Stand who tended to foul the air at the Amex last year. I'd seen how they looked quite alike very early, and then to see his head chopped off was a moment i honestly cheered. Other than that, there's not much to it and the fun of the piece was here and there at best.
So, to sum up, Jackpot wasn't very good. A 3 out of 9.
Jo Nesbo was the pen behind the sword of this Scandanavian "comedy"-"thriller". I rather enjoyed Headhunters, another story he inked, earlier in the year and thought this might be along similar lines. I was sadly wrong. Yes, it was wacky and unbelievable, peppered with violent strokes and rambunctious comedy, but it didn't have the right mix to make it necessarily suspenseful to make one care for any twists.
It's a tale told in flashback and interrogation, by the one survivor of a clearly bloody shoutout at a driveby sexshop in the Norwegian countryside. He wriggles free from underneath the deceased body of an obese stripper holding a shotgun. The police, rather ofcoursely, want to know how it got to this stage and how he's the only one loose. Oscar, our regular and tortured guy with a heart who finds himself in endless mishap and wrongturns, begins it all by saying of how he and 3 workmates won a huge bet on the football. And how it all exploded from there. Greed takes a hold oh so quickly and these generally nefarious misfits have no bother in weaponing up in order to look to lessen the share of the couple of million kroner jackpot.
To me, it had feel of one of those one-star British loser-gangster flicks looking to mirror the success of Lock Stock, and i never liked them, or Lock Stock, for that matter. The people are generally ghastly and the sicko violence isn't sicko enough or just seems there for the sake of itself rather than, for instance, how it seemed to fit in in the more disturbing and grim Britflick "London To Brighton", with a psychological edge to it. It was a not greatly enjoyable 90 minutes and i'd wished i'd Bourne'd it instead.
The redeeming feature for me was that the man beheaded in the film is very much like the "character" in the North Stand who tended to foul the air at the Amex last year. I'd seen how they looked quite alike very early, and then to see his head chopped off was a moment i honestly cheered. Other than that, there's not much to it and the fun of the piece was here and there at best.
So, to sum up, Jackpot wasn't very good. A 3 out of 9.
Brightonfan1983
Tiny member
I've just watched this and was going to see Jackpot until I read your review! As is the case with *generic term alert* foreign films, not knowing the actors adds the rather pleasing by-product of not being able to guess beforehand who dies/shags who/is the hero, so don't read any reviews and let this tale unfold for you.
Euro-thrillers from novels tend to have a couple of plot-conveniences rearing their heads, and this does come from the same stable that gave us the original 'Dragon Tattoo' trilogy, but that aside, this is a very decent, well-constructed film, thrills and spills along the way, with a very satisfying conclusion.
According to IMDb, an American remake is in the pipeline but if you're tempted, see this before it gets inevitably mucked around with.
7/10
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Tony Meolas Loan Spell
Slut Faced Whores
Expendables 2 BALLS OUT ACTION do not expect anything chin stroking. 10/10.
Meade's Ball
Well-known member
I'd upset the girlfriend with a passing aside earlier in the afternoon, and for the length of time it took us to argue it out, we missed The Imposter. Have to go to that later this weekend. Instead, we ambled home, got our heads together, and went to another show. This time, Shadow Dancer. Directed by James Marsh who has a history of documentaries, the last of which was Man on Wire a couple of years ago about that annoying French guy who performed an astonishing act in New York walking so dangerously so high up with an ounce of protection. This one, though, concerned a period of time when The Troubles were at their end, but the conflict continued. 1993 Belfast.
It had the pace of Tinker Taylor - slow, methodical, dialogue here and there and sometimes muffled by background sound - but was a touch more intense in its generic thriller charms. Andrea Riseborough, one of the only redeeming features of the Brighton Rock remake, plays Collette, a Belfast mother and IRA sympathiser. She's in it deep , her family with blood on its hands. Riseborough plays her beautifully. Not classically attractive, but nuanced in look and feel to give body and flesh to a role despite her general gauntness. She gets the right mix of someone with ingrained family loyalties and a sense of desperation for a way out of all this for her and her son.
Someone sometime soon is going to get hurt. That's the feeling one has throughout and that makes for hooked and and slightly clenched fisted viewing. I quite enjoyed it. A well-made piece, imperfect in places, but held together tightly.
It had the pace of Tinker Taylor - slow, methodical, dialogue here and there and sometimes muffled by background sound - but was a touch more intense in its generic thriller charms. Andrea Riseborough, one of the only redeeming features of the Brighton Rock remake, plays Collette, a Belfast mother and IRA sympathiser. She's in it deep , her family with blood on its hands. Riseborough plays her beautifully. Not classically attractive, but nuanced in look and feel to give body and flesh to a role despite her general gauntness. She gets the right mix of someone with ingrained family loyalties and a sense of desperation for a way out of all this for her and her son.
Someone sometime soon is going to get hurt. That's the feeling one has throughout and that makes for hooked and and slightly clenched fisted viewing. I quite enjoyed it. A well-made piece, imperfect in places, but held together tightly.
pasty
A different kind of pasty
Went to see it today and thought it was awful. A few half decent one-liners made me laugh and did enjoy the Flash Gordon references, but that was about it.
We saw Brave today. The best kids/family film out this 'Summer', great graphics, but not spell binding like Up. Would probably have been better if we hadn't read 5/5 or 4/5 hype in reviews beforehand.
Barrel of Fun
Abort, retry, fail
My working day was a little slow, so I decided to utilise my old mans portable DVD player. I re-watched Shaun of the Dead. It was only now that I managed to appreciate it as an absolute masterpiece of scriptwriting, directing and cinematography.
A definite 9.7 (loses 0.3 for a lack of nudity).
A definite 9.7 (loses 0.3 for a lack of nudity).
Brightonfan1983
Tiny member
...
BHA Swiifty
New member
agree with that rating, i just love pegg and frost! hot fuzz was amazing despite the fact i've seen it so many times! shaun of the dead is a lot better for me although i've only seen it a few times, and "Paul" was average for them 7.5/10
Meade's Ball
Well-known member
It's rarity to wish for a return to the screen of Arnie just to see him slowly pull a bugging device the size of a big walnut from his head. But today i had that wish. Me and 3 other individual blokes, probably each of us a tad embarrassed and more than likely not very thrilled, sat in front of a enormo-screen in Islington to see the 10am screening of Total Recall. The original, which i of course favour, had Paul Verhoeven behind the camera. Now, all of his films were crude and extremist, but behind the bloody absurdity was always the glistening undercurrent of a society undone and made brutal by fascism. They tended to be rated 18 too. This Total Recall, though, like all films seemingly nowadays, is a 12A. And it has the director of the Underworld series behind the helm. That sort of says it all really.
A few bits are homages to the original film - a three-breasted hooker, a lookalike of the bloated woman Arnie disguised himself as when going through airport security, a spoken wish to one day go to Mars - but this one has hugely updated graphics in it, of course, and less neck-breaking violence, and has an air of vapidity to it. It might be the price of me having watched it in my early years when such output was virulently absorbing and now having grown out of it, but it also might be that it was just a bit bland. The screen was full of lights and the sound of rifle-fire filled the theatre, but it didn't have much to it. It lacked suspense. Once again perhaps because i know Arnie's and Michael Ironside's plastic future so well. But maybe because the director and wish to be rated for teenagers and below meant it was without a wish to sicken, or for the politics to even slightly matter. No dark magic. I wanted a drug-fuelled Austrian yelp and a talking taxi and a 3-fingered traitor and a hero with a towel wrapped around his head.
Another meh remake. I should've learnt really.
A few bits are homages to the original film - a three-breasted hooker, a lookalike of the bloated woman Arnie disguised himself as when going through airport security, a spoken wish to one day go to Mars - but this one has hugely updated graphics in it, of course, and less neck-breaking violence, and has an air of vapidity to it. It might be the price of me having watched it in my early years when such output was virulently absorbing and now having grown out of it, but it also might be that it was just a bit bland. The screen was full of lights and the sound of rifle-fire filled the theatre, but it didn't have much to it. It lacked suspense. Once again perhaps because i know Arnie's and Michael Ironside's plastic future so well. But maybe because the director and wish to be rated for teenagers and below meant it was without a wish to sicken, or for the politics to even slightly matter. No dark magic. I wanted a drug-fuelled Austrian yelp and a talking taxi and a 3-fingered traitor and a hero with a towel wrapped around his head.
Another meh remake. I should've learnt really.
New Carpet?
New member
- Aug 23, 2009
- 797
The Imposter
Could have easily stuck this in the "Disturbing Films" thread - there were quite a few stunned faces around leaving the cinema last night. This is one talking head documentary that does not get boring.
A 13 year-old Texan lad goes missing in 1994, feared abducted. Three years later, a Spanish couple find an unidentified teenager in an Andalusian phone box, alive but near silent. Surely it can't be him? (well, the title gives it away - it isn't)
But, despite the inevitable first half of the film, do watch on as the documentary relives the whole episode with the Texan boy's family and in particularly, the guy in the phone box himself. The full story unravels with shock and a string of surprising twists, resulting in a heavily thought-provoking finale.
9.0
(As a side note, this was the first film I've seen in the refurbished Duke of York's - not too much change in the layout, which is a good thing, and the new seats are a superb addition and really suit the place as well)
Could have easily stuck this in the "Disturbing Films" thread - there were quite a few stunned faces around leaving the cinema last night. This is one talking head documentary that does not get boring.
A 13 year-old Texan lad goes missing in 1994, feared abducted. Three years later, a Spanish couple find an unidentified teenager in an Andalusian phone box, alive but near silent. Surely it can't be him? (well, the title gives it away - it isn't)
But, despite the inevitable first half of the film, do watch on as the documentary relives the whole episode with the Texan boy's family and in particularly, the guy in the phone box himself. The full story unravels with shock and a string of surprising twists, resulting in a heavily thought-provoking finale.
9.0
(As a side note, this was the first film I've seen in the refurbished Duke of York's - not too much change in the layout, which is a good thing, and the new seats are a superb addition and really suit the place as well)
Meade's Ball
Well-known member
I had my mind on other things, of course, but was mildly determined to head into the flicks and see Berberian Sound Studio. I quite enjoyed it. Just the ordinary tale of a sound engineer in the 1970s who does most of his work in UK nature programmes being called over to Italy to do the sound for a film called The Equestrian Vortex. Only, this is not a film to do with horses. Instead one of witches and bloodshed and ghoulish hauntings. Little is seen, though, really, and it's all about the horror of noise, attached to the noise of horror. And the effect it has on our reserved British lead in such an alien and unsettling environ. Lots of images of studio machinery beginning to turn on, of tape reels spinning and earphones turned to fullblast as the mental terror mounts.
Good stuff, if never really exploding as one might hope. Worth a look if you revel in a bit of occasional light humour with some psychological tension. I like Peter Strickland as a director after only two films.
Good stuff, if never really exploding as one might hope. Worth a look if you revel in a bit of occasional light humour with some psychological tension. I like Peter Strickland as a director after only two films.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,750
Saw The Imposter at the DoY last night. Vaguely annoying documentary-style film, no sympathetic characters whatsoever, and the premise for the film was pretty ludicrous, even though it was based on real life events and includes interviews with the real people involved, portrayed by actors. Despite it being given pretty much universal acclaim it only gets a 6/10 here.
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Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,185
Ted last night. Thought it was okay (apart from the whole dad/son kidnap thing) but could have done with being 22.5 minutes shorter.
n1 gull
Well-known member
Shadow Dancer, cracking British movie with Clive Owen and some totally fit bird as the IRA terrorist. Real edge of the seat film, really simple premise of IRA girl gets caught by British intelligence and then is sent back to Northern Ireland to spy on her family. Great to see a British movie that was totally gripping. 9/10 strongly recommend