Rate the last movie you watched.

[Fayshun]

Final Destination 5.

Teens escape death, but the reaper wants them back crap-fest.

Taking it seriously 2/10

Treating it as a comedy 7/10

Oh I assume it was in 3D at the cinema as the starting credits consists mainly of things flying towards the camera.

[Belmit]

The Machinist

Taken me ages to finally see this, and all I really knew about it was the whole 'Christian Bale shed 65lb for the role' thing which made the movie sound gimmicky. Thankfully it's brilliant and the weight thing cogent to the plot, not just 'this guy needs to look sickly'. Was expecting a drama, but got more of a psychological thriller. Quite Hitchcockian, with a wonderfully sleepy/manic performance from Bale.

9/10

[Kitten]

Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief

Pretty good teenage fantasy romp thing. Good cast & work a watch just to see a MASSIVE Sean Bean at the end.

7/10

[Zirax]

The Hunger games

Hmmm, definitely borrowed quite a few ideas from Battle Royale and the Running Man. A good concept but a hell of a lot was skipped or not explained. I get the feeling that the story is actually going to be in the books. Nicely timed cutaways from all gore/blood to get a nice low rating for maximum audience coverage.

In all, something to watch but another one not to bother watching again. I do get the distinct impression that you need to read the books.

5.5 I've seen worse.

[Kitten]

Argo

2 words: Bloody Brilliant.

My film of this year.

10/10

[Belmit]

The Thing (2011)

Billed as a prequel but virtually (embarrassingly) identical to the superior original. Infuriating as the lead keeps a cool head whilst all around her are being dicks, annoying as the ending sets up the original film despite feeling like it's set in present day.

3/10


Final Destination 5

I have big problems with this franchise in that each movie is identical with no progression in the mythology. They could be so much more. This one is no exception but it does tie in a little with the original at least. It's all about the theatrical deaths and if that's what you're after you'll not be disappointed.

3/10

[Garp]

The Descendants

George Clooney
Shailene Woodley
Amara Miller
et. al.

9/10

A land baron tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
Kari was very reluctant to watch this because there was such a fuss about how it's a local film and local films usually end up being stereotypical over the top crap (e.g. "50 first dates"). I was kinda meh about the prospect but I put it in the Netflix queue after Dym asked me a few questions on MSN about it.

Both of us ended up really enjoying it. It's outside of our usual preference in films, neither of us tends to go in for the major dramas. It's so completely "Hawaii" it couldn't have captured it better if it tried. It really shows that the book's author was born and raised locally, and the screenwriters have done a good job of not making it too Hollywood. There were no awful attempts to use pidgin or Hawaiian, just straight language, local style The family name, King, and their land heritage seems a very deliberate nod to the Castle family, who partnered with the Cooke family to become one of the "big five" companies that ended up owning almost all of the land here.

From some of the questions Dym had: Yes people really do business looking like that, Hawaiian shirts + slacks is considered smart. You generally won't see major business done wearing shorts but it happens. Yes locals do wear "slippahs" (flip flops) pretty much all the time. Business is the general exception to the rule but even that's not hard and fast.

The story is well presented, eventually compelling (it took me a little while to particularly care about them) with enough angles to keep things fresh. Shailene Woodley does a particularly good job as George Clooney's eldest daughter.

[Kitten]

Paranorman 7/10

As some of you will know, my friend's brother wrote and directed this movie. He's previously worked as Head of Storyboard on Coraline & the Corpse Bride along with a few other things - this is his first foray into his own movies and I've watched the progress of this movie from when he was pitching it to uninterested agencies to seeing it on the big screen, so very exciting!

I enjoyed this but I found it a bit hard to get into the characters. The story was typical Burton/ilk fare and there were some bits at the end that were very scary, considering it's a kids film. Overall, I liked it and I would think most kids would too. Burton still edges it for me, but for a debut, it's pretty damn good.



Frankenweenie : 9/10

Given I love Tim Burton anyway, this was always going to be a winner. Lots of little nods to different types of horror movie, a cute 'cast' and a good story. Enjoyed this muchly.


Twiglet: Breaking Dawn 7/10

Probably one of the best of the franchise. The first 2 were ok, the 3rd and 4th were just filler, but this one was pretty good if you can ignore the annoying teenage sulkiness and the lack of reaction from Ms Stewart. Not a bad teenage film but if sparkly vampires aint your thing, stay away


Looper 6/10

Was looking forward to this a LOT but the fact that the lead guy in it (Gordon-Levitt?!) was made up to supposedly look like he could be a younger Bruce Willis and actually looked like he was wearing a Victorian death mask including full red lips and scouse brows which I could NOT drag my eyes away from, really detracted from the story. Also, the fact that there is an utterly mahoosive hole in the whole concept, which totally contradicts something that happens earlier on in the film, really pee'd me off.

Skyfall 9/10

Not sure why so many people slated this. Great film. Really enjoyed it, some clever nods to the retro stuff - and a good theme (is older better?) I know people complained about the baddie being a bit caricaturish, but c'mon, can they win? They get slated by some faction of Bond 'fan' whatever they do, and I thought it was a great action packed film. Love Craig as Bond.

[A Place of Light]

Recipe to make Taken 2.

Take one "Taken"
Dilute to the point of transparency.
Stretch it as far as it will go then stretch it some more.
Half bake it until not-ready then serve to an undeserving public.

[semi-pro waster]

Originally Posted by Kitten

Love Craig as Bond.

You could have that sentence without that last two words and it would still read true wouldn't it...?

I'l try and remember to put up the last few films I watched tomorrow, there's some decent ones in there including Angels Share.