Topic: The Movie Thread

I've seen quite a few movies since my last post.

Batman: the Dark Knight Returns (VUDU) - animated film about an older Batman returning to the streets after a 10 year absence. He faces off against a number of foes, and other than the fact I thought the Mutant leader was kind of lame, it was a good time. Oh, and it had Reagan in it, which is always a plus.

The Last Samurai (DVD) - As I mentioned a couple months ago, I bought it on Amazon, and finally got around to watching it last Saturday. Great as always.

E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (Netflix) - Because I've never seen it in full (or if I have, it's been so long I can't remember). That trademark Spielberg vibe gives it some charm to be sure, and although it had it's moments (like when Eliot got drunk through his connection to ET), overall I thought it was very, very boring. I guess this one you just had to be there for (I liked looking at all the 80's stuff, though).

Also, I haven't watched it yet, but a relative gave me a digital copy of the Hateful Eight, since they have no way of using it (it came with their DVD copy, but they don't have internet).

Last night I watched American Pie: the Naked Mile (Netflix).

I figured I'd give this spin-off a try, because there isn't anything else on Netflix I'm really interested in watching (in terms of stuff I haven't seen), and because I enjoyed the main series films well enough.

It's a raunchy adult comedy, and while I've seen worse in the genre, I've also seen better (including the main American Pie films). Unless you're desperate for a comedy of this type, I'd say it's a pass (I felt it was TOO raunchy at times, even comparing it to some of the stuff that happens in the main films).

ET Was the first movie I watched at the cinema and I cried so hard my mother nearly took me out of the cinema. Even now it can bring a tear to my eye. I like the way it is filmed not many films have been filmed at the eye level of the main charcter which is clever. I guess growing up with the movie gives me a different persceptive to someone who did not grow up in the samre era.

Watched Pixels at the weekend was expecting a bad movie after the critics slammed it but I am an Adam Sandler fan and I like the movie game genre. I enjoyed the movie and the references to the video games of the 80's. Its not one of Sandlers best but I did like it.

Last night I watched Star Trek: the Motion Picture (Netflix)!

As a note, I'm not a big Star Trek fan. That's not to say I dislike it, it's just that I have a limited experience with it (the occasional The Next Generation & Voyager rerun, as well as the two newest films).

Now to the film itself. The general plot was interesting & I really liked the twist at the end, but I felt it was very slow (to the point of being dull) at times, and I couldn't get into the costume & interior set design (to be fair, this is a general feeling I have towards most 60's & 70's sci-fi design).

Still, it was a decent enough start, so I'll slowly make my way through the others (I think Netflix has them all except for the 2009 Star Trek).

I saw a couple of films since my last post.

The Minions Movie (DVD) - Saw this as a family a few nights ago. Kinda cute with a few laughs, but like most other Sony Animation (& even Dreamworks, TBH) films, it's nothing all that special.

Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (Netflix) - Much, much better paced than the first film. It's methodological, but stays interesting. I wasn't sure how much I was into it, then at the end when they snuck up on the Reliant & ripped Khan a new one, I had a huge grin on my face. The only thing was the end of film sacrifice lost most of it's impact just based on the knowledge that future films with said character exist (I'm sure it was mindblowing at the time). Also, with the jump into the 80's saw an improvement in costume & set design, IMO (actual computer screens with digital diagrams!).

Watched Captain America: Civil War and thought it pretty good. While Spidey's suit was okay (not great), I thought Tom Holland was really good it in every scene he was in. Black Panther's suit on the other hand was awesome, makes me wonder if they could make Batman's mask with lenses covering his eyes instead. The main negative for me in the movie was the underwhelming villain. It doesn't have the best story either compared to the (first) Avengers movie or Winter Soldier but the action scenes were amazing and certainly the best I've seen so far in a superheroes movie. If you're a comic book fan, the airport battle scene alone is worth going to the theaters to watch the movie.
Oh yeah, there's also Ant-Man turning into a giant which I wasn't expecting them to do during the airport scene but only because I thought it could be saved for a possible sequel. Not that I'm complaining, though as it made that scene even more epic!

Not a fan with Tom Holland being cast a spidey or antman but will probably give the movie a go. How much is Tom Holland in it? The films been getting decent reviews.

Wasted 2 hours of my life watching Mission Impossible Rogue nation I can never get that time back

Not a whole lot, maybe 10 minutes? He's only in the airport battle scene plus another scene before that. Even so, personally I think he's version of Spider-man's the best live-action depiction so far.

Saw Civil War today, and it pains me to say it but it was pretty average. There were some good parts - the trio of Captain America, Falcon, and Bucky were great (Falcon in particular) and Robert Downey Jr was great as usual, but this movie is nothing to get excited about. Ant Man was easily the best part of the film in my opinion, but then again I'm a Paul Rudd fanboy. There were a couple of major gripes I had with this film though:

1) The jokes. I usually like Marvel films for their witty humour, but this one seemed to be less funny. Falcon and Bucky had some good jokes together, Ant-Man was great, and RDJ was funny as always, but too many of the jokes seemed dull, and the constant one-liners just got annoying.

2) Spider Man. Really not a fan of Tom Holland as him. He overplays the "awkward teenage nerd" stereotype to the nth degree, and half of his lines are "That was awesome!" or "I'm just trying to impress Mr Stark!" Just really, really annoying.

3) The runtime. Almost 2 and a half hours long. If you make the film interesting enough, then I'm fine with a long time, but the opening act seemed to slog on forever. I get that they had so many heroes to introduce - hell, I forgot Hawkeye even existed before he appeared midway through the film - but the film dwelled quite a bit on boring parts.

I've seen a couple of films since my last post.

Disney/Pixar's Inside Out (DVD) - Pixar films aren't usually my cup of tea, but fittingly so, this one was quite emotional. I quite liked it.

Adventures in Babysitting (Netflix) - Watched this for some 80's cheese. It was pretty average for this type of thing, but it had a good laugh or two.

I've seen a couple of movies since my last post.

Star Trek III: the Search for Spock (Netflix) - "Great Scott, Marty! What has Biff done to the space time continuum this time!? I'm a Klingon!" (I found that casting to be seriously amusing). Anyhow, as for the film itself, I didn't like it as much as Wrath of Khan, but it was still much better than the first film.

Pleasantville (Netflix) - This one was pretty good. Two teenagers get sucked into a 50's "Leave it to Beaver" like sitcom, and their modern, real world values start transforming the show's universe. Of course, at it's core it's a critique of the kind of values those old shows perpetrated, but it's also quite amusing.

Watched X-Men: Apocalypse today and it was a pretty average movie and my least favorite Bryan Singer X-Men movie. To be honest, I wasn't really surprised since the trailers didn't really got me excited for the film. The CGI in certain scenes were't that good and I thought Apocalypse was a pretty underwhelming villain as well.:/ On the plus side, (like Days of Future Past) Quicksilver's scenes were amazing.

@mrobinson91 yes it is a great movie and yes its foreign but it all depends where you come from I watch quite a few non-english films so if you want some recomendations just let me know.

Watched Martian interesting movie but Matt Damon had way too much hope and optimism for someone who was trapped on Mars, alone and millions of miles and years away from rescue. The movie was not as good as I was expecting it to be.

@dryrain: Astronauts are pretty strong mentally. Have you seen how they react when things go wrong on space walks? Cool as can be. By the way, what's a really good foreign film you've watched recently?

@shadowofSparta into korean movies at the moment two good ones are Spring Summer Autumn Winter Spring (amazing setting) and Welcome to Dongmakgol (korean war/comedy)

@SkanetWasTaken: Timbuktu was pretty good and I've been meaning to get to Ida.
@dryrain: Spring Summer Autumn Winter is an excellent film! Caught it on Film4 a few years ago (they actually have very decent foreign film selections sometimes). Dongmakgol is on my list though and I'm a massive Korean cinema fan. So underrated. Recently watched Attack the Gas Station (classic cult film), The Quiet Family (very amusing) and The Foul King (anything with Kang-ho Song is good). All of those have that very distinct Korean dry and dark humour.

@shadowofSparta I agree Korean fim is underated they have been producing a lot of good movies. You will have probbaly seen a lot of the Korean films I am about to list if not check them these out. Vengence Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengence, Old Boy, Sympathy for Lady Vengence), Three Iron, Christmas in August, A Tale of Two Sisters, Thirst, The Chaser, A Bitter Sweet Life (personal favourite of mine) Mother, Bedeviled, Memories of Murder.

I will add more to the list once check through my ex-rentals I am bad with film names.

Your right Film 4 does have some decent films on and they tend to do seasons covering different topics or directors. You just have to keep an eye out as often they are on at silly times early in the morning. There are also some good foreign dramas on the channel 4 website under the title Walter presents they only have them online though but I have watched a few and they have been decent. Also BBC4 tends to have a good drama on saturday night from 9pm onwards. Normally French/Swedish etc.

@dryrain: Added Three Iron, Christmas in August and Bedeviled (skipped it before after reading some mixed reviews). Watched the others and they are really excellent. Vengeance trilogy firmly established Chan-wook Park as one of my favourite directors, Jee-woon Kim is also brilliant, made The Good, The Bad, the Weird and I Saw the Devil in addition to Bittersweet Life, Tale of Two Sisters (he's got amazing range haha) and any film by Joon-ho Bong is certified good. I used to keep up with Film4 and the excellent tv series they have on BB4 but I don't watch as much tv as I used to. Still always up for Scandi-noir. I recently came across a really odd, yet amusing revenge thriller from Israel called Big Bad Wolves. Humour was kinda Korean and it's a twisted but great film.

I watch quite a lot of Korean movies as well and definitely prefer them over HK or JPN movies over past 10 years. HK movies during 80's and 90's were pretty good but now I don't really watch them since most of them are awful.

Here are some of the ones that I like (with the lead actor's name):

• The Chaser - Kim Yeon-sook
• The Good, The Bad and The Weird - Jung Woo-sung, Song Kang-ho
• A Moment to Remember - Jung Woo-sung, Son Ye-jin
• Taegukgi (Brotherhood) - Won-bin
• The Man From Nowhere - Won-bin
• The Thieves - Kim Yeon-sook
• Tazza - Kim Yeon-sook
• The Host - Song Kang-ho
• War of the Arrows - dunno actor's name