What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[gasteropod]

Signs (2002) - 2/5

Lol.

[Killer Meteor]

That birthday party scene in Signs is brilliant. Makes up, almost, for the hokey ending.

[gasteropod]

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - 1.5/5

Kind of amusing in places ('Punish!'), but it's bad.

[Markgway]

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - 1.5/5

Kind of amusing in places ('Punish!'), but it's bad.

They should have given the old nun a shotgun. She was one tough bitch. But yes the film is shit apart from the creepy scene with the looney grandpa (that actor is genius).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afLeqqv2z44

[Markgway]

Funny People (2009-USA) **½

A half-decent Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler movie - now there's a surprise. It went on FAR too long though and too many of the gags are about dicks.

Flame and Citroen (2008-Denmark-Germany-Czech Republic-Sweden-Norway-France-Finland(!)) **½

Good WW2 thriller... doesn't quite hit the bullseye.

[luckystars]

Signs (2002) - 2/5

Lol.

Only managed to endure the first 20mins of this one^^

U did well!

[gasteropod]

Only managed to endure the first 20mins of this one^^

It only got worse after that

[gasteropod]

Troll Hunter (2010) - 3.5/5

Surprisingly convincing CGI, I particularly enjoyed the spectacle of the last and largest troll which was pretty exciting! The Norwegian scenery was a nice change, reminded me of tracks I'd raced on in Colin McRae Rally games

[Killer Meteor]

Blue Rita (1977)

Weird spy capers from Jess Franco, rather cold and with the ample nudity surprisingly untitillating.
4/10

Voodoo Passion (1977)

Even with Jess Franco's help, and some nice music, this is further proof the Germans could not do good erotica.
4/10

Macumba Sexual (1983)
One of Jess Franco's more striking pictures, this is mostly lots of footage of a rather plump Lina Romay in the buff with a terrible wig and even more terrible footwear, but there is an impressive performance from transexual Ajita Wilson as a voodoo princess, as well as some effective music and photography. Franco pops up to do the world's weirdest Peter Lorre impression (and without a trademark cigarette for once!) Worth a look.

5/10

[grim_tales]

Star Wars: Episode 1 3D - 2.5/5

Entertaining enough but I'm not really a big Star Wars person (and this movie was one of the worst recieved in the series IIRC?)
The pod race sequence still looked good (but its just like a video game!) In a way. looked at now I'm not sure thats really a good thing.
But didnt really notice the 3D much TBH, some of the effects and CGI have dated badly BTW (sometimes the actors looked like cardboard superimposed on a blue/green screen).
Couldnt stand Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd His acting as young Anakin was just DREADFUL. I know he was only about 9 at the time but come on.
I quite liked the lightsabre fight at the end (Quigon & Obi-Wan v Darth Maul) though which was good

[luckystars]

That old saying of 'a good car chase makes a movie' applies to the Phantom Menace.

Yes the Pod Race scene is awesome, and the finale is great but the story was so bad even a great screenplay couldn't save it. George Lucas 'did his thing' knocking out a story that does build over the next 2 films, but it really did need another writer to work it over and maybe even suggest a total rewrite.

Things that work about the film are the 'visual story telling' scenes such as the pod race, the light sabre battle, and the various 'interlude moments' when the droids, creatures or environments are performing more like in a Pixar film. When George hands the creative control over to animators, model makers, puppeteers and stunt coordinators the magic starts to happen. Which actually makes me think of the Star Wars prequels as more like Pixar style animated films, with some live action thrown in!

There's no doubt Phantom Menace is a 'quality' kids film. But its no more than that. It has some 'Star Warsy' moments in it, and some of the film is quite good. But generally every time I go back to it (by habit of watching them all every few years) I just zone out when the actors are talking.

Watched this about a week ago on Blu-Ray. I rated it 5.5/10 (just short of a ★★★ kids film)

[Markgway]

Drive (2011-USA) **

Overhyped update of Walter Hill's The Driver is good for about 50 mins at which point it degenerates into laughable shock violence and tedium. If ever a film didn't need CGI splatter it's this one. What's the point of creating mood, intrigue and character development (albeit with sparse dialogue) and then throwing it all away on B-movie carnage and silly plot turns. Hugely disappointing.

[Keung]

Chronicle - ★★★

[bradavon]

update of Walter Hill's The Driver

The stories maybe similar but it isn't. I believe it's from a book. I thought it was great, especially the lift scene and soundtrack.

Star Wars: Episode 1 3D - 2.5/5

Entertaining enough but I'm not really a big Star Wars person (and this movie was one of the worst recieved in the series IIRC?)
The pod race sequence still looked good (but its just like a video game!) In a way. looked at now I'm not sure thats really a good thing.
But didnt really notice the 3D much TBH, some of the effects and CGI have dated badly BTW (sometimes the actors looked like cardboard superimposed on a blue/green screen).
Couldnt stand Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd His acting as young Anakin was just DREADFUL. I know he was only about 9 at the time but come on.
I quite liked the lightsabre fight at the end (Quigon & Obi-Wan v Darth Maul) though which was good

You've basically summed up my opinion on the film too. Literally the only good part is the final fight. The Phantom Turd is dreadful, just awful.

I'll be checking out Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes back but no way am I watching all six. I can't believe Lucas is releasing ONE A YEAR

[Markgway]

update of Walter Hill's The Driver

The stories maybe similar but it isn't. I believe it's from a book. I thought it was great, especially the lift scene and soundtrack.

I know it's based on a novel, but it reminded me of The Driver (a better movie from what I remember). The novel was first published in 2005 and so could easily have been influenced by Hill's movie. I'm not saying it's identical, just noticeably similar.

I don't often agree with The Academy but they were right to exclude this from their Oscar noms. The lift scene should have been suspenseful, but like most of the second half of the movie, was badly directed. The soundtrack wasn't bad I'll give you that.

I'll be checking out Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes back but no way am I watching all six. I can't believe Lucas is releasing ONE A YEAR

Does anyone still give a shit about paying to watch 30 year old kiddie movies in theatres? Lucas has milked these to death. Enough already.

[bradavon]

Lucas has milked these to death. Enough already.

I'm more interested to see a 3D film I do like and see if it enhances it, than the films in 3D per se. I've only seen Tron Legacy in 3D and was distinctly unimpressed with 3D. I never bothered with Avatar and if I'd known 3 years on, it would "still" be really the only film to do something properly with 3D I'd definitely have seen it.

[Markgway]

I don't see the point in retrofit 3D. But it's your money.

[bradavon]

Me either but I should at least give it a try once right? It may work with Revenge of the Sith at least, it's largely digital and pretty modern. It's aged better than Phantom, which now looks ropey.

[degeneration]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 0.5/5, maybe even 0/5

DULL! Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. So slow and boring. The main plot thread is only given a tiny bit at a time, is never really explained, and then when you find out what exactly the film is about I was left thinking "is that it?". Someone in MI6 is a mole. That's it. The main suspects are not really given that much screen time to get anything from their characters. I struggled to stay conscious throughout the film, and only managed because I convinced myself that it would get good at some point. It didn't.

This is the sort of slow moving, slightly arty and thinking man's drama, made for people who think they are better than everyone else, so they can say that they loved it, that it was really good, when most other people will say it was slow and dull, so they can then scoff at the heathens for not "getting" the film.

What a complete and utter waste of 2 hours of my life.

[saltysam]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 0.5/5, maybe even 0/5

DULL! Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. So slow and boring. The main plot thread is only given a tiny bit at a time, is never really explained, and then when you find out what exactly the film is about I was left thinking "is that it?". Someone in MI6 is a mole. That's it. The main suspects are not really given that much screen time to get anything from their characters. I struggled to stay conscious throughout the film, and only managed because I convinced myself that it would get good at some point. It didn't.

This is the sort of slow moving, slightly arty and thinking man's drama, made for people who think they are better than everyone else, so they can say that they loved it, that it was really good, when most other people will say it was slow and dull, so they can then scoff at the heathens for not "getting" the film.

What a complete and utter waste of 2 hours of my life.

i haven't seen it but i'm not surprised-the original television series was mind-numbingly boring as well.

[IronMonkey]

Me either but I should at least give it a try once right? It may work with Revenge of the Sith at least, it's largely digital and pretty modern. It's aged better than Phantom, which now looks ropey.

It doesn't matter that it was shot digitally. What matters is that it wasn't shot in 3D - i.e. two aligned cameras. Anything post converted from 2D to 3D cannot create a true 3D image and in my opinion it does not look good.

[grim_tales]

Wasn't Phantom the first film to be shot digitally? I do agree though the 3D was not good/non existent because it wasnt shot in 3D, the CGI looked poor as well most of the time.

[luckystars]

Wasn't Phantom the first film to be shot digitally? I do agree though the 3D was not good/non existent because it wasnt shot in 3D, the CGI looked poor as well most of the time.

AFAIK Attack of the Clones was the first film to be shot 'entirely' on digital.

[grim_tales]

Thanks

[luckystars]

Spielberg apparently wanted to film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on celluloid, presumably to keep with the look of the original films, but Lucas convinced him to use the 'Lucas Digital' format instead! Shame that coz the film ended up looking horrible!!