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What films are you watching?

Pancake

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dubai_phil

dubai_phil

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Anyone else seen Dead Man Down?

 

First US outing for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo team, Colin Farrell in the lead role.

 

Really well crafted thriller, sure it has a few glitches but builds the storyline well and builds towards an impossible Catch-22 ending.

 

Good entertainment & probably popping up on Sky Movies pretty soon.

 

Worth a watch

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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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With a very welcome day off from the drudgery of work booked I decided to spend in the afternoon at the cinema watching M Night Shyamalan's latest film - 'After Earth'.

 

Far into yet another dystopian future, double hard starship trooper Will Smith and his estranged space cadet son Jaden crash land on a long abandoned planet Earth. Smith senior unfortunately breaks both his legs during the crash, so the boy has to go on a very dangerous solo mission - against the clock of course - to locate a missing emergency beacon and save the day. Along the way he encounters the planet's (nastily evolved) wildlife and a ferocious 'fear seeking' alien creature they were transporting.

 

In my (somewhat jaded) opinion this film is little more than another 'par for the course' effort. Will Smith and Tom Cruise seem to take it in turns to churn out this type of visually impressive, but ultimately not terribly memorable, Sci Fi film as if they were the last two movie stars alive. The only really noteworthy elements here are this film resists the temptation to show us the relics of the old Human civilization, and that Will Smith fulfills what is in truth a supporting role to his son for once - to the extent of giving the boy top billing.

Jaden Smith does all the action scenes in this film and his performance is perfectly alright, child actors very often are in my experience - but I'm far from convinced that he really has his father's obvious star quality. There again, at my age I'm no longer in the target audience for this type of thing perhaps.

 

Don't get me wrong, impressive action sequences and great special effects are fine, but what movie makers don't seem to 'get' anymore is that the real heart of science fiction is that it was always the literature of ideas in essence. M Night Shyamalan made his name confounding the expectations of his audience - an ambition he seems to have grown out of sadly.

 

So less action and more ideas please because action, however well staged, is just not doing it for me anymore.

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Bearsy

Bearsy

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I've not heard of them films you and brett is on about pap, would i like them?

 

In other news i see that new superman film, it was v.boring. My favourite bit was when i realise general zog was Fred Cliser from groundhog day. Wrestlemania! No way!

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Batman

Batman

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I've not heard of them films you and brett is on about pap, would i like them?

 

In other news i see that new superman film, it was v.boring. My favourite bit was when i realise general zog was Fred Cliser from groundhog day. Wrestlemania! No way!

 

down load Best of the Best. Late 80s martial arts film with Eric Roberts.

Best of the Best 2 is not so good

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pap

pap

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I've not heard of them films you and brett is on about pap, would i like them?

 

In other news i see that new superman film, it was v.boring. My favourite bit was when i realise general zog was Fred Cliser from groundhog day. Wrestlemania! No way!

 

No Retreat, No Surrender is f**king awful - but gloriously so.

 

Check the trailer out:-

 

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Tokyo-Saint

Tokyo-Saint

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We sometimes forget that bear is only 15 and may not know about all the **** action films from the late 80s that he would actually love.

 

If you like that one B, you'll love this one too.

 

 

They even try to say it is a true story. I didn't believe the acting let alone the story!

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pap

pap

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don't mug me off bro, i was born in 80s i just prob don't remember bout the films coming out when i was 3 or whatever! Bloodsports looks sweet! Is like karate kid but more dumb! Love it!

 

You should really check out No Retreat No Surrender if Karate Kid + dumbness = your winning formula.

 

No Mr Miyagi in this film. Instead, our hero is trained in karate by the ghost of Bruce Lee.

 

The leading lady never worked again.

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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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As Film 4 was showing one of my favorite old movies this week 'Dr Strangelove' (a film I've come to think of as a old friend almost) I was quite unable to resist the temptation to see it yet again.

 

For anyone who has inexplicably never seen this film, Strangelove is perhaps (after 2001: A Space Odyssey) genius filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's finest effort. Set in the context of the now long gone Cold War paranoia of the 1950's and 60's, Strangelove is often described as a 'black comedy'. Now you may have seen this term applied to lesser films, but rest assured none of them could possibly be quite as black, or as genuinely comedic, as this wonderful movie is.

 

Feeding off Kubrik's fine script, there are many excellent performances on offer here, from the wonderful Peter Sellers playing multiple roles, to normally 'straight' actors such as George C Scott and Stirling Hayden playing against type and being very funny. But for me it's Slim Pickins performance as Major Kong that really tickles my personal sense of humour:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPnnPHkIuc

 

Hard as it is to believe now but apparently John Wayne had been asked to play the role of Major Kong. The uber patriotic Duke however understandably decided to turn it down. So by default almost, a somewhat obscure actor best known for small parts in Westerns got the job. Looking back on it now, it's almost impossible to even imagine the film without Slim Pickins in it.

 

 

PS - Trivial fans may like to know that the (then top secret) B52 cockpit was so accurately depicted by the set designers that Kubric feared an FBI investigation, and the famous gag depicted below was re dubbed from 'Dallas' to 'Vegas' during the editing process because it was considered insensitive to mention a "good time in Dallas" just a few months after Kennedy was assassinated there in 1963!

 

11932160_gal.jpg

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SuperMikey

SuperMikey

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Just watched Pacific Rim. Have to say I wasn't expecting much but it was actually pretty good. Michael Bay could take a few lessons from Del Toro I think.

 

My only major reservation is Charlie Day. He keeps getting cast in films and I just find him intolerable! Ron Perlman needed a much bigger part too. Aside from that it's good popcorn fodder and definitely worth a watch. Switch your brain off and enjoy.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Went to see the new comedy from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost The World's End the other night.

 

Was nowhere near as funny as the two previous instalments in their jokingly-titled Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) but still a good laugh and worth watching.

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badgerx16

badgerx16

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Went to see the new comedy from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost The World's End the other night.

 

Was nowhere near as funny as the two previous instalments in their jokingly-titled Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) but still a good laugh and worth watching.

 

Good sound track as well.

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Bearsy

Bearsy

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i've not seen that new alan partridge movie, but i like the title. It strikes me as clever. Alpha Papa would be a good name for movie in any instance, it sounds a bit gangsta and means like top dog, but in a slightly comical, twee way. Then you realise they're phonetic alphabet words which is kind of appropriate cos he is radio. Then, slightly belatedly if ur dumbass like me you think, oh, is his initials.

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Bearsy

Bearsy

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srsly? I put that on my do not watch list when i saw it was women trying to be funny. Women is not funny! I mean they are sometimes, if they're trying to carry television up flight of stairs for example, but not when they're in movie trying to tell jokes.

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dubai_phil

dubai_phil

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OK so here is a weird one.

 

A completely odd Sci Fi love story. Kind of film you can sell to her indoors as being a love story and then it's weird.

 

As a Sci Fi it's pants, as a Love Story it's pants, but mixed together I actually enjoyed it in a daft way. Certainly made watching the Bridgestone Golf Invitational shots from a Blimp seem weird.

 

Upside Down. Kirsten Dunst & Jim Sturgess. Kind of liked his bonkers in love geek role and she just looks hot at every moment in the film.

 

You have to concentrate on the first 3 minutes of the film that explains the weird science of the two planets and then yeah, good movie to keep you & the Misses entertained.

 

It rated a like (simply because Luther S3 hadn't finished downloading)

 

Rating? A poor man's weird film in a being John Malkovich kind of way enjoyable nonsense 6/10

 

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/dunst_lands_in_dud_LErcq7ClIjUpnX2Qxl7noN

 

"Upside Down" is such a gorgeous wreck that I could almost sense Terry Gilliam somewhere muttering, "Wait a minute, I should have been the one to screw up this idea."

Edited by dubai_phil
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pap

pap

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I've mentioned The Omen before. Finally got around to watching its sequels this week. Damien: Omen II is basically more of the same, with a less stellar cast. People think there is something wrong with Damien, try to kill him and end up getting bumped off in misadventure. Wasn't really very impressed; doubt I'll watch it again.

 

Third film is almost excellent. Damien, now an adult, is appointed Ambassador for England, while at the same time, Christ is reborn - hence the subtitle, The Final Conflict. Contains a very good Herod like sequence, and feels a lot darker than the other films. Excellent right up until the final part of the film, which is a huge pile of arse.

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Convict Colony

Convict Colony

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Not a film but started watching a series until Breaking Bad/Parks and Rec/Its Always in Phillidelphia comes out again and its called Hell on Wheels. To start with I thought it was a reality show on female drivers but it turns out it is about building a railroad across the US, its got decent violence, prostitutes and scalpings, its pretty decent as a time filler.

 

Sorry just saw that this was about films, so am about to watch Oblivion on iTunes and am waiting to get The End which looks ****ing funny and also Pain and Gain.

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dubai_phil

dubai_phil

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Oblivion - Really enjoyed it. Predictable yes but the special effects were seamless.

 

Took a pasting from critics but we also enjoyed it, had a good story & concept, not just digital effects for a change

 

Anyone else seen Looper?

 

Again a decent "Time Travel/SciFi" story with a well thought out plot that leaves room for so many paradoxes.

 

And manages to cover a REALLY tasteless solution to the "problem" with some decent soul-searching (hell Bruce Willis ALMOST acts for a few seconds)

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View From The Top

View From The Top

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Took a pasting from critics but we also enjoyed it, had a good story & concept, not just digital effects for a change

 

Anyone else seen Looper?

 

Again a decent "Time Travel/SciFi" story with a well thought out plot that leaves room for so many paradoxes.

 

And manages to cover a REALLY tasteless solution to the "problem" with some decent soul-searching (hell Bruce Willis ALMOST acts for a few seconds)

 

Looper was excellent. Really enjoyed it.

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angelman

angelman

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Oblivion - Really enjoyed it. Predictable yes but the special effects were seamless.

 

I liked Oblivion, and agree that it was a predictable. But nowhere near as predictable as the utter tosh that was Olympus Has Fallen. Tired old formulaic bull with the only difference being a new baddie. Just seen Star Trek which was OK but not as enjoyable as the first one.

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Tokyo-Saint

Tokyo-Saint

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Do not get tricked into watching City of Bones. It is not what u think.

 

I had the same problem when I was young bear. I spent ages trying to watch a film called '****' turns out it was just hillbillies doing country dancing. I nearly took blockbusters to trade descriptions.

 

I watched kick ass last night. Not a new film obviously, just never seen it before. I thought it was pretty good. This could be as I was expecting it to be total **** but it was actually lols in part.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Just watched the 2nd Star Trek film. General consensus was 30mins too long & not as good as the 1st. 5/10

 

Yeah I just watched it too. I was dubious about it because it has received a lot of criticism, but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected to. That is, at least, right up until the last half an hour or so, where it became a laughably bad re-hash of the original Star Trek II.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Just been to see Rush - the biopic telling the story of the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 F1 season. As a fan of F1 it was amazing to see the racing scenes on a big screen but even my GF, who hates F1, really enjoyed it. Top stuff from Ron Howard. The two actors playing Hunt and Lauda are brilliant and they both even look a hell of a lot like them as well.

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dubai_phil

dubai_phil

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Well, it's been just over a week now since we stayed over with my Daughter & her Hubby. Girls talked themselves to death over a huge Chinese Takeaway and then by 8:45pm had both passed out. That left me & S-i-L scrabbling around on Sky for something to watch...

 

And so we came upon a movie that Eric (I HATE you for this) had often mentioned......

 

So we tuned in sat back and watched Dirty Sanchez, The Movie.

 

It took a week before I could write this review 'coz until now EVERY time I've thought about it I've wanted to vomit. I mean REALLY? Jackass was beyond Gross at times, but to OUT GROSS Jackass? Our first thought was WHY?

 

There are parts of Sanchez that simply defied belief. Whether some of the gags were actually real or not I'll never know, but if they WERE staged then who the hell comes up with that stuff?

 

The PROBLEM with the damned film is that at some points we truly did want to Vomit and honestly we could not watch and came close to switching the TV off. And then at other times we laughed.

 

And THAT is what bugs the hell out of me. Anyways, here is my review..

 

FFS DON'T let your Misses/Kids watch it. And IF you have to watch it, invite some mates round, have a few beers first and a barf bag close at hand.

 

A Guilty Laugh & a Good Vomit. Not the kind of thing you really want from an evenings Entertainment. We sure as hell won't forget it though and I'm sadly glad I managed to watch 95% of it.

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