Rate the last movie you watched.

[Belmit]

War, Inc.

Strange film. Reunites John and Joan Cusack and Dan Aykroyd from Grosse Pointe Blank, one of my all time favourite films.

Nice, direct take on war being a franchised entity. Marisa Tomei is still stunning in her mid-forties and all the cast take on the subject matter in the manner it was intended.

I never really took much notice of Hilary Duff before this but I now have an unhealthy interest in her! She pretty much steals the show as the oversexed Soviet pop star, even from Ben Kingsley.

Enough to keep me interested but not one I'd rewatch in a hurry. I must say though, Cusack does have some fighting skills - you can't act some of the stuff he does here. He demonstrated some in Grosse Pointe Blank but I always suspected he'd just been taught for the film. This makes me wonder if he actually has some martial arts background.

6/10

[SiD the Turtle]

Here's the first film I've watched this year as part of the IMDb Top 250.

64: Reservoir Dogs

I had my first viewing of Reservoir Dogs at about the age of 12. It was one of those films - like Pulp Fiction or Terminator 2 - that you were too young to watch but were 'cool' (wow I sound old) if you had seen it. Of course the main reasons for watching these kinds of films at that age were not artistic merit but simply blood and swearing. I haven't properly sat down and watched Reservoir Dogs since having borrowed it on VHS many years ago and I'm pleased to say there's more to it than just those teenage requirements.

It's well shot though different to how traditional films are shot. Scenes between two people that should be close-ups are shot down the corridor for example, yet somehow it works. Unfortunately the sound is all over the place, lots of dialogue can be missed because it's too fast and too quiet and the picture quality varies shot to shot. I think Tarantino learned a lot of lessons on these fronts in time for his later films (as well, no doubt, as receiving a much larger budget).

My main concern is that a lot of the dialogue went over my head (I'm probably too young) and in fifty years time it probably won't make a lot of sense being dipped in pop-culture as it is. It'll probably be on the top 250 in fifty years time too, but one of those films where people will note it as a classic, as a milestone, but not very good up against modern film.

It's a hard one to review. Like Pulp Fiction you can pick out your favourite scenes or quotes which make it memorable to an individual but when you put it all together you've got a film which almost every critic would agree is a classic.

7/10

[Garp]

Sherlock Holmes

Robert Downy Jnr, Jude Law, et. al.

Interesting take on the Holmes character, though decidedly not canon, in this case Holmes is presented as an almost Obsessive Compulsive type of character, barely keeping his world together. It's also good to see Dr Watson doing something more than just bubbling along in Holmes' wake and actually proving to be a character of value himself.

Holmes stops a black magic practitioner from murdering their 6th victim, who is then hanged, but the murders still continue and Holmes & Watson are left desperately trying to get ahead of the game before it reaches it's ultimate conclusion.

I have to say it's possibly one of the strongest Guy Richie films I've seen. You can see how much he continues to grow as a director, and for once he's ditched a large number of his trademark quirks... though he's still kept a bit of his love for slow-motion action bits in.

RDJ and JL had fantastic material to get their teeth into, which they did and managed to combine it all with an easy comradery that suggests many long years of friendship.

I suspect that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would probably be spinning in his grave at this version of Holmes, but I don't care. He's awesome.

8/10 - A thoroughly enjoyable film.

-2: Whilst the plot and story telling was strong, there were a few points where Holmes knew stuff without having had any way of deducing it, that lead me to believe relevant parts were left on the cutting room floor. Spoiler Alert! - Highlight below to read!

e.g. how did he know where the sewer entrance was?

End Spoiler Alert!.

[Del Lardo]

Originally Posted by semi-pro waster

The Hurt Locker

Starring

• Jeremy Renner
• Anthony Mackie
• Brian Geraghty
• Guy Pearce

War film

7/10 It's quite well done and I'm told reminiscent of Jarhead in that there's a lot of the time where it is just the interactions you are seeing rather than the action but it wasn't entirely a satisfying film and maybe that was the whole point of it as a metaphor for war. Also slightly odd in the use of the stars in this film, the most famous people tended to be in it for mere seconds compared to the rest, it's also a bit too long.

Agree with the rating, I enjoyed the film but there was something about it that left me rather unsatisfied.

[Del Lardo]

The Hangover

Think Dude Where's My Car but set in Vegas and funny. The plot is rather basic, Stag Party go to Vegas and shenanigans happen which none of them remember. They then have to retrace their steps (finding out what they did along the way) to recover something important.

Now where DWMC falls down The Hangover excels, the characters are really just caricatures but they work well and you can't help but like them and the shenanigans are extreme but given this is Vegas utterly believable


8/10

[BBx]

Night at the Museum

8/10 very funny and Robin Williams is in it too Nice easy film to watch and quite funny too.

Domino

What a load of ****. Filming technique - trying to be cool and failing. Keira Knightley HIGHLY irritating - the only good thing about it is Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken.

3/10

BB x

[Fayshun]

Originally Posted by BBx

- the only good thing about it is Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken.

Isn't that 2 things?

[BBx]

Yeah I forgot about Christopher Walken...

Lol

BB x

[A Place of Light]

Law Abiding Citizen
I can't say I've ever paid Jamie Foxxxxxx much notice before this one, but he's not too bad in it, even if he's clearly reading through a copy of "Acting-the Denzel way". Good movie with a great "bad guy", although it didn't end the way I wanted it to. Reminded me of "Taken" a little, which isn't a bad thing as I enjoyed that quite a bit.

7.5/10

[semi-pro waster]

Little Miss Sunshine

Starring

• Abigail Breslin
• Greg Kinnear
• Paul Dano
• Alan Arkin

Comedy film

8/10 I've known this is supposed to be good for quite a while now but never felt inclined to watch it, maybe because it features Steve Carell or maybe just because it didn't sound like a great subject material. It's actually very funny in the tradition of other black comedies (such as Election) but it makes some salient points about youth beauty pagents along the way.