The Movie Thread

[me_in_japan]

thank you I knew garland had done a bunch of other stuff, but couldn't bring it to mind last night and it had been bugging me. Didn't realise he did Dredd, mind you. Anyway, well worth checking out his latest.

[Primarch]

I watched the latest Bond movie, Spectre, the other day. Can't say that it was all that great to be honest. The story tries to tie together all of the previous Daniel Craig movies, but unless you happen to have watched them all recently, (or have a better memory than me), a lot of it won't mean an awful lot. The rest of the movie is kind of what you'd expect from a Bond flick. Fast cars, well choreographed stunt sequences etc. At this point, I think I'm looking forward to the next guy, rumoured to be Idris Elba, taking over the role.

[me_in_japan]

I watched Kingsmen: The Secret Service this evening (another Netflix gem). I'd recommend it - it's basically how old James Bond movies used to be, but moderned up. Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Sam Jackson and (hah!) Mark Hamill, who I completely failed to recognize. It's a spy romp that doesn't take itself too seriously but manages to still be a nice exciting action movie. Thumbs up from both me and Mrs MiJ.

[Spevna]

I watched Kingsmen: The Secret Service this evening (another Netflix gem). I'd recommend it - it's basically how old James Bond movies used to be, but moderned up. Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Sam Jackson and (hah!) Mark Hamill, who I completely failed to recognize. It's a spy romp that doesn't take itself too seriously but manages to still be a nice exciting action movie. Thumbs up from both me and Mrs MiJ.

Seconded. Very entertaining flick.

I finally watched Ip Man, a movie about Bruce Lee's teacher. Great fight scenes, as you'd expect, but it is such a blatant piece of nationalist propaganda.

[Konrad]

I watched the latest Bond movie, Spectre, the other day. Can't say that it was all that great to be honest. The story tries to tie together all of the previous Daniel Craig movies, but unless you happen to have watched them all recently, (or have a better memory than me), a lot of it won't mean an awful lot. The rest of the movie is kind of what you'd expect from a Bond flick. Fast cars, well choreographed stunt sequences etc. At this point, I think I'm looking forward to the next guy, rumoured to be Idris Elba, taking over the role.

I just saw it last night. Sad to say I was fairly unimpressed too. I know they have been trying to round out and deepen Bond's character with these films, but this one just sort of plods along gloomily. Craig seemed sort of tired and just going through the motions.
That Dave Bautista guy was absolutely terrifying though. And damn if that was not a beautiful Aston Martin. The final scene with Mr. White was actually quite touching. And I actually sort of liked this Blofeld. The whole "sibling" jealousy thing was ridiculous but so was Q's DNA scanning laptop. It is Bond after all. But the (foster) family connection did sort of make sense. Who else but your big brother would invest all the time and effort in a typical Bond villain plot and then tell you all about it while torturing you?
Skyfall was far and above the best of the Craig run. Then Casino Royale. This one ties with Quantum of Solace for me.

[Konrad]

Buddy of mine has been doing a movie podcast- The Accidental Film Club- http://theaccidentalfilmclub.libsyn.com/
Only just got around to listening to the first episode.....sorry Paul.... But got me to watch Yojimbo. Love Akira Kurosawa films, but for some reason, I never saw the whole thing until now. They were also talking a bit about horror flicks. Which reminded me of "Let the Right One In". A friend recommended it a while back, and I promptly forgot about it until now. Perfect vampire flick for a cold, cold winter day. Really more tragic than horrifying. The main characters are 12 years old, both amazing actors for their age. Probably old news, but I highly recommend it.

[Konrad]

Been catching up on a bit of sci-fi recently.
Moon- not bad, has an intriguing "Twilight Zone" sort of start, but the story did not grab me. Worth it for Sam Rockwell's performance, and as he's basically the only character, so it's a pretty heavy job. The other character is the moon station AI, voiced by Kevin Spacey, which is as it could only be, just perfect. The sets are very low budget, real models, but nicely done and really add to the stark, lonely, desolate feeling of the whole film.

Ex Machina- About the slickest, smartest, AI movie I've ever seen. Really gets you thinking. As you peel away the layers of the plot, it never disapoints. Again, only a few characters and all give excellent performances.

The Host- directed by Bong Ju-ho, the guy who did "Snowpiercer". More than a couple cuts above the average monster movie. I saw it with really bad subtitles, I can only assume the dialogue is better. The monster hunters are a family, a father, his 3 grown children all hunting for his oldest son's daughter, who got grabbed by the monster. (The monster likes to keep a few alive for bedtime snacks.) Just normal, sort of screwed up people, nothing heroic, until they have to be. Not often you actually care about the characters being chased by the monster in one of these flicks.
And the monster is pretty cool too. A bus-sized eel/salamander with waaaaaay too many mouth parts....

[ashmie]

Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle 2
Goodbye Emmanuelle

Not seen them before. The first two are very good and reminiscent of a time when erotica was actually erotic and classy. Well recommended for early spring viewing. Watch them back to back if you have the stamina.

[ashmie]

Seconded, Pauls Accidental Film Club is great fun and has lots of film recommendations. Also yours truely is in the first or second episode talking about M R James. I sound drugged up though.

[ashmie]

Alien 3

Not as rubbish as you once may have thought. Watched the 2003 directors cut on Blu ray. I think the film would have worked better as theatre.