What movies have you seen lately? Now with reviews!Movies 

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Just saw I Am Number Four. Kind of disappointed tbh. The action never picked up until the last few minutes and it was relatively tame imo. It does set it up for a sequel or two, what with four other people that have yet to be seen. Cool concept for a series but a slow movie.
 
Watched Trigun: Badlands Rumble, October Sky and Equilibrium.

Trigun 3/5, decent but just more of the same. Might be more enjoyable if you haven't seen the series in a while or at all, but in the latter case you'd be better off watching the show.

October Sky and Equilibrium 4/5, both very enjoyable movies. Neither are without flaws though.
 
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The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) -- A very film-noir-ish tale about a chain-smoking, wisecracking private eye who is suspected of murder and set in the middle of a gangster run, love affair, and marital counseling, while trying to find the reason for everything that's happening to him. As for what the movie is, I think it works as a transitional film for Altman in which he has a smooth talking character that seems to be always on a loose basis towards the plot, but is seretly unraveling it, rolling along seamlessly with the camera work. The character is unpredictable, but only because the crazy situations allow for it. Unfortunately, the whole uncertainty didn't work that well for me. Funny bit: Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an extra in this movie and as far as I know, it's his first appearance in a feature film, he must've been 24-25 years old. 5/10



The Wraith (Mike Marvin, 1986) -- An evil bully and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After a teenager gets killed, a mysterious power creates a guy who has a car which is invincible and enables him to plot revenge. I'm quite sure this movie is very crappy and even when it came out the fad died quickly, but 25 years later it survives because it's still kinda cool, if tremendously cheesy. Still, the soundtrack is fun and the car chase scenes are good enough for a friday night of popcorn, 80s movies and brain on stand-by. Another funny bit: Charlie Sheen stars in this movie, he also looks about 24, tops. Also, if you've seen The Crow and liked it, you may not want to watch this one. 6/10
 
Tom Servo


The Wraith (Mike Marvin, 1986) -- An evil bully and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After a teenager gets killed, a mysterious power creates a guy who has a car which is invincible and enables him to plot revenge. I'm quite sure this movie is very crappy and even when it came out the fad died quickly, but 25 years later it survives because it's still kinda cool, if tremendously cheesy. Still, the soundtrack is fun and the car chase scenes are good enough for a friday night of popcorn, 80s movies and brain on stand-by. Another funny bit: Charlie Sheen stars in this movie, he also looks about 24, tops. Also, if you've seen The Crow and liked it, you may not want to watch this one. 6/10
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Search eBay for this DVD and the result will tell you how popular this movie is still. I bought mine slightly used on on there for $30 a year ago. :crazy:

Edit: Looks like the price went down some...

Is it weird that I was born in '85 and I quite enjoy 80's movies? :dopey:
 
Watched Unstoppable last night. Pretty good thrill ride but most of the characters weren't thinking logically and the movie could have ended several times had they just put two and two together. Spoiler alert... At the beginning the slacker gives up on the train rather than grabbing another ladder at the back. When they try to stop it from the front, no one thinks to jump from one engine to the other. For some reason dropping someone down from a helicopter is better? Only after trying to stop the train for several minutes does one of the main characters think to jump from car to car....however with a 70 mph head wind, i'm not sure he would have been able to.

In any case, I was invested in the characters and I truly wanted to see them succeed...but i was yelling at the tv telling them what to do. Why don't they listen to me? LOL.

I'd say it gets a 7/10. I enjoyed it, the pacing was good, and the action was realistic. It was about as entertaining as a runaway train could be.
 
R1600Turbo
Search eBay for this DVD and the result will tell you how popular this movie is still. I bought mine slightly used on on there for $30 a year ago. :crazy:
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30 bucks?? I got mine for... er... less than that.
 
I just watched 127 Hours which was really just OK. I enjoyed it more than I should have because it was based on the truth. I won't go into detail about it because I'm sure you all know the poor chap cuts his own arm off.

Next up tonight, my favourite steam-punk movie, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow'
 


Vantage Point (Pete Travis, 2008) -- In the years after 9/11, it's become annoyingly predictable that any country that is not the US poses a terrorist threat in American movies, and this one is probably one of the main examples, even when Spain actually supported the Afghan/Iraq invasions and even suffered the consequences. This movie is about the attempted assassination of the American president, told and re-told from several different perspectives, which frankly, it a theme I like to watch: a story being told from different perspectives, I mean. The premise, though overworked, works well enough and the way the whole story interlinks delivers alright, the problem is that it works on too many assumptions, has too many faults and tries to be so much more than it really is. Manual cars don't need gear changing, all Spaniards speak English, even when you speak Spanish to them, and the twists and turns of the plot are based on a paper thin assumption that the public is as ignorant about the rest of the world as the average American. Seeing Edgar Ramirez with a major role in the movie was an interesting surprise, though. 5/10
 
Transformers Dark Of The Moon, I bought it on Blu-Ray and I loved it, it's a shame it's getting such a bad rep, its like if a movie isn't Oscar worthy it sucks and that's it.. People need to lighten up and enjoy the movie for what it is! Oh and the Ferrari 458 and the Camaro look great in HD!
 
terminator363
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Loved that movie. Caught it on TV once (showed on the Japanese channel WOWOW... which shows excellent European movies... I miss having good cable...).

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Just watched Johnny English. So... uneven tone, recycled jokes (how many times can Mr. Bean... I mean, Rowan Atkinson, beat up the Queen?), so-so directing at points... but was it fun to watch? Why yes, yes it was. I think the early rooftop chase is the absolute best rooftop chase ever... anywhere. :lol:
 
Watched Fast Five last night. I think it's the second best of the series, only losing to the first one. But it's still not very good, though it was entertaining.

Listening to a bunch of Spanish/English speaking actors pretending they were Brazilian was a bit annoying though. The only one who could speak in proper Brazialian Portuguese was Jordana Brewster, and she barely spoke it.
 
chuyler1
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Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

4/5 stars

Great movie, start to finish. It is more of a modern day war movie than it is a science fiction flick. It was the perfect combination of live-action and CGI that pulled you into the action and kept you there as if it were real. I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't for a few issues I had with the script and editing. The character introductions at the beginning are a little hard to follow. You get the feeling you need to pay careful attention because the back story is going to come into play, but there is too much to absorb and a lot of it ends up not being important. They try to paint the main character played by Aaron Ekhart in a gray area where the other soldiers don't trust him. However he doesn't come off like Tom Berringer in Platoon. Aaron is a nice guy and as a viewer, I never saw him as a backstabbing villain out to save his own ass at the expense of other soldiers. The epic monologue that eventually reveals the truth of past events is too little too late. The audience has already decided they like him, so its wasted screen time trying to prove it to the other characters that we don't care about anyway. But its an action flick, so proper character development is not necessarily high on the list of priorities. The movie gets an A+ for action and heroism and I'm willing to look past the flaws and give it 4/5 stars.
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👎👎

Two thumbs down for me. Almost nothing redeeming in this film. Terrible plot that makes no sense and really stretches disbelief. Independence day-type bad plot but without the campy feel that has to go along with it. If you want to merge ID4 with District 9, you need a good plot - you DEFINITELY can't just reuse the plot from ID4 (except worse). Horrible writing overcame a decent atmosphere to ruin this one.
 
R1600Turbo
When did you buy it though?
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I didn't... further explanation would violate the AUP.

I saw this one:



Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976) -- The movie starts with police ambushing and killing several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members thus make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. The staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members, resulting in some very cheesy hero moments and some odd scenes. While I've never been a big fan of Carpenter, mainly because he insists on putting his name on everything, but also because his work seems to be too monotone. He also made the music for this movie and it's another point to subtract from it, since most of it is just two tones repeated over and over, sometimes even less than that. I remember watching this movie when I was about 8 years old and thinking it was awesome, I saw it again and thought it was crap, but I think my dislike for Carpenter has a lot to do with that. Still, the anti-climactic ending coupled perfectly with the overall low-budget aspects of the movie. 6/10
 
Mac K
Transformers Dark Of The Moon, I bought it on Blu-Ray and I loved it, it's a shame it's getting such a bad rep, its like if a movie isn't Oscar worthy it sucks and that's it.. People need to lighten up and enjoy the movie for what it is!
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A giant plot hole with bad acting, where the only redeemable values are ass shots and explosions?



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The Final Countdown - (4/10)

Let's be honest, a film with Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas immediately conjures images of Wall Street (young Martin and Kirk look a lot like Charlie and Michael), and you expect a good film. Eh, not so much. The premise is incredible, a 1980's aircraft carrier is sucked back in time, to the day before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. What would happen? Obviously, nothing. There is a single scene that makes you go, "Wow," as F-14s take out a couple of Japanese Zeros. You know that this one ship could stop the entire Japanese fleet and you can't wait to see it, but you don't because the story prevents it from happening, even though nearly every character wants to.

This had so much potential. Have them stop the attack and return to a drastically different present, where the US didn't enter WWII and become a military power, or a thousand other possibilities. So much could have been done with this but it instead left to just be a what if scenario.

So, if you like the style of cheesy 80's flicks, including the sci-fi films that have ten minutes of special effects and 70 minutes of talking give this a watch. But you won't be missing anything if you don't.
 


True Grit (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2010) -- A tough U.S. Marshal helps a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer, and while I'm usually a fan of well made remakes, I was kind of reticent to watch this one partly because I usually get easily annoyed by Westerns, but also because John Wayne movies bore me, and this one being a remake of exactly that, I figured as much. With that said, I think this movie was pretty cool, with Jeff Bridges being one of my favorite actors of all time and this time reuniting with the Coen brothers for some awesome moviemaking, and that's exactly what went on here. Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld are both awesome and the whole ambience of the movie are great as well. The last 15 minutes of the movie are incredible, as is the overall cinematography. Definitely one of the great movies from last year. 8/10
 
I has an 82/100? I saw it come up on Netflix but I haven't watched it yet.
 
Saw Cowboys and Aliens, and bits of Battle: LA

Cowboys and Aliens was good fun. It's not high art by any stretch of the imagination, but it was an entertaining way to kill an hour and a half. Not sure why people criticize it as if they were expecting something more, the cheesy name of the movie alone should've told them what this movie was all about.

Now Battle: Los Angeles. To be fair, let me preface this by saying that I wasn't really paying attention to the movie while it was playing. But what I heard and what little I saw didn't bode well for the film. It's basically like Cowboys and Aliens but stupider and with a more serious tone, making it less fun. The aliens are after our water? ...Seriously? H2O is extremely common in the universe. Why on earth do they feel compelled to wage war on us for ours when they could easily get it elsewhere without having to fight for it?
 
TB
I has an 82/100? I saw it come up on Netflix but I haven't watched it yet.
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It's very campy. If you take it too seriously then you'll hate it, but if you come into the movie expecting it to be silly then you should have a great time. 👍
 
FoolKiller
The Final Countdown - (4/10)

Let's be honest, a film with Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas immediately conjures images of Wall Street (young Martin and Kirk look a lot like Charlie and Michael), and you expect a good film. Eh, not so much. The premise is incredible, a 1980's aircraft carrier is sucked back in time, to the day before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. What would happen? Obviously, nothing. There is a single scene that makes you go, "Wow," as F-14s take out a couple of Japanese Zeros. You know that this one ship could stop the entire Japanese fleet and you can't wait to see it, but you don't because the story prevents it from happening, even though nearly every character wants to.

This had so much potential. Have them stop the attack and return to a drastically different present, where the US didn't enter WWII and become a military power, or a thousand other possibilities. So much could have been done with this but it instead left to just be a what if scenario.

So, if you like the style of cheesy 80's flicks, including the sci-fi films that have ten minutes of special effects and 70 minutes of talking give this a watch. But you won't be missing anything if you don't.
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👍 This was exactly my reaction when I saw it. I wanted them to change history so badly.
 
So I just watched Drive. It is kinda like grand theft auto and scarface without all the drugs and random violence. It's definitely totally different than any other movies I have seen in recent years and I mean that in a good way. It's very 80's style with cool music, murders, and tons of mystery. The movie sort of jumps right in and doesn't explain much about the character nor does the character himself. He and the entire movie is very quit with mainly background music and sound effects to allow you to feel what everyone is thinking. I really liked that about it, but It also is slightly annoying as even after the movie I have so many questions left unanswered. I think this movie could of explained more while still keeping the mystery about it, but I am very happy that they didn't go the box office route and just have a million car scenes and shoot outs non stop like most movies now a days. It is a little slow depending on what type of movies you like, but I would recommend watching it as its so different than the other movies out there.
 
livemusic
Watched Fast Five last night. I think it's the second best of the series, only losing to the first one. But it's still not very good, though it was entertaining.

Listening to a bunch of Spanish/English speaking actors pretending they were Brazilian was a bit annoying though. The only one who could speak in proper Brazialian Portuguese was Jordana Brewster, and she barely spoke it.
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Lol ya I thought the same. The first one had a lot of story to it with the stealing of cars and all the drama with the Asians. All the other movies in the series lost that and went just for as much action as possible. Even the cars they use now are weird. Its supposed to be about kids who put there whole bank account into their cars and you see expensive race cars. It lost the true reasons of what made people love it to begin with. In fast five it was funny to me that Vin Diesel came to Brazil not really knowing anyone and they have that one seen where he is with all the locals and the cops come to arrest him than he says how this is Brazil and it would be a bad move or something. As if these hardcore Brazilian drug dealers would car at all about him lol. I do like how it was more of the first cast which worked very well together, but unfortunately I think it's too late for them to make it about kids with cool cars anymore.
 
Villain
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trollhunter/

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"TROOOLLLLL!!!!!!!"/10

Very fun movie! I highly recommend it!
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I watched this the other night. Its like a Blair Witch parody almost. Definitely good for a silly fun watch.


Also:

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Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - (8/10)
It would probably score higher if we actually saw a decent portion of his show, but this merely follows him during his six month prohibition from TV as he did a live show because he must work. It shows him in the brainstorming sessions with his writers, good and bad, an even has him explaining to the camera that he takes on a hurtful joking demeanor when under stress, just before he snaps at his wife for making noise in the background. It is very likely the most honest display of a show creation you will see. One minute he is doing meet & greets and the next scene he is telling his manager how much he hates doing them and wants someone to start forcing people to leave him alone. By the end of it you realize that Conan is just like one of us, but in the spotlight while at work.
 
Watched Inglourious Basterds again. Damn I love that movie, Christopher Waltz as Hans Landa is just such a treat to watch.
 
Saw Liam Neeson's Unknown today. Pretty good movie. It's comparable to Taken so if you like that movie then you will like Unknown.
 
Watched X-Men: First Class. One of the best X-Men movies in my opinion, I'm not into the comics so it was nice to know the characters' background (I'm assuming it's the same from the comics), it was actually an interesting story. Some parts were a bit cheesy but overall I liked it, I had a good laugh at Wolverines' appearance.
 


16 Blocks (Richard Donner, 2006) -- An aging cop is assigned the ordinary task of escorting a fast-talking witness from police custody to a courthouse. There are however forces at work trying to stop prevent them from making it, and thus starts a Lethal-Weapon-esque relationship between the black con and the white cop, but with a few twists and turns in the plot to remain interesting, if a little too heart-warming at times. Still, it's an enjoyable and quite surprising saturday afternoon movie to watch when you have nothing else to do. As with most action flicks, there's not much more in the way of acting, cinematography or anything else, but thankfully the movie doesn't aim at anything more than it is, which is something not very much unlike Midnight Run, though maybe not as funny. 6/10



Addio Zio Tom (a.k.a. Goodbye Uncle Tom) (Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, 1971) -- Another eternally disgusting Mondo Cane movie, about two documentary filmmakers who go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade. While the reviews I read abut it promised all sorts of gore, death and extreme pornography, the truth is that they were right and the movie was exactly about that, but not in a tasteful, documentary-themed way like the movie sould be about, but more of a recreation of what people would fantasize the slave trade being like, which is an intense screw-a-thon in very little appeal to anything I've seen and which had me reaching for the remote constantly, not because it was gruesome, but because it was boring. On the one side there's the 'horrors' of being a slave, but on the other there's an apparent counterpart of today's actions in which blacks are mocked and made to act like monkeys, while the filmmakers make it appear as true. In short, a very misleading documentary made with the intention of shocking the audience into I don't know what, and while it may've been very shocking indeed 40 years ago, it's 136 minutes of nothing and exploitation. 3/10



Gone in 60 Seconds (H.B. Halicki, 1974) -- The original Gone in 60 seconds movie and seriously, one of the absolute best pursuit movies of all time. Even with its direct sound bits, awkward characters and not-very-likely scenes, the whole movie revolves around the ending chase that probably lasts more than half of it, but is worth every second of it. In fact, 93 cars are crashed in this 97 minute movie made with no special effects and with very real (and low budget) scenes. Seriously, if you've seen the Nic Cage remake and like it... and want to remain liking it, don't watch this one. If, on the other hand, you want to see a really good chase movie, look for this one. 9/10
 
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We had a chance to catch up with some films we'd been wanting to see at the weekend, so watched

Pirates Of The Caribbean, On Stranger Tides.

Unstoppable

Thor.

Attack The Block

We were both disappointed with Pirates. Just one film too far, in our opinion, and definitely suffered from the loss of so many characters from the first thee films.

Unstoppable we thought was very watchable. A good, old-fashioned 'disaster' movie, without gratuitous blood and gore.

Thor was also good, and whets the appetite for the Avengers film. That I am really looking forward to!

My personal favourite though was Attack The Block. The whole concept of a bunch of hoodie's fighting off some very nasty aliens appeals to my sense of humour. I'd be interested to know what anyone from another part of the world thought of it, if they've seen it. I know there were some concerns that people not from the UK wouldn't understand what the actors were saying, half of the time!
 

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