Film 2011

[Spider]

Ironclad A solid, if overlong siege movie. Full of cliches and obvious character set up, and performances that veer between hammy and just plain dire (Derek Jackobi continues to make people wonder exactly why he is held in such high regard whilst Paul Giamatti chomps the scenery in a cartoon role). There are some fairly decent battle scenes (although the ease with which our heroes chop through hordes of invaders does become faintly ludicrous) and suprising amounts of gore. Predictable then, but fairly enjoyable, if they'd have shaved 10 minutes off the runtime and included one suprising plot development it might have been a decent film. 6/10

 

[keaton]

Taken
Better than I expected. Silly, lengthy and to a large extent pointless build-up to Liam Neeson's daughter being kidnapped. Then there's a brilliant telephone conversation with kidnappers followed by an hour of very decent action (sub-Bourne but much better than recent Bonds)
7

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Taken is superb 8.4

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Boy.

Kiwi film about a young boy who's life is thrown into upheavel when his father returns from a jail sentence.

Good little film with good acting from the two young boys who play the main child characters.

8/10

 

[Easy 10]

Taken
Better than I expected. Silly, lengthy and to a large extent pointless build-up to Liam Neeson's daughter being kidnapped. Then there's a brilliant telephone conversation with kidnappers followed by an hour of very decent action (sub-Bourne but much better than recent Bonds)
7

Quite entertaining, but absolutely LUDICROUS how he somehow identifies the kidnapper just from an (overseas) telephone conversation.

 

[Zamoracomehome]

Went to see Unknown at the weekend...don't see it if you're a Bourne fan and also liked Taken...it's a bad blend of the two! Also saw The Adjustment Bureau (I have a Cineworld Unlimited card), see that this week if you can, good fun.

 

[keaton]

Quite entertaining, but absolutely LUDICROUS how he somehow identifies the kidnapper just from an (overseas) telephone conversation.

I thought the bit were they responded to some small children running at Holly Vallance by unleashing a four man commando unit was the most ludicrous bit

 

[Hotchilidog]

.

Favourite Coen brothers film anyone?

The Big Lebowski is one of my favourite movies of all time. Comic genius, quality performances from all concerned.

 

[Barry Izbak]

UNKNOWN - after reading the review above, and being a Bourne fan and having loved Taken, I was a bit apprehensive about this.
But I enjoyed Unknown. It wasn't Bourne or Taken, but I thought it was a good film in its own right. Apart from one or two holes in the script, it held my attention throughout and there were plenty of twists and turns in the plot. To be fair, I rarely see the final twist in films, like when most people say "I saw the end coming a mile off", but perhaps I enjoy films more as a result.
I won't be buying this on DVD (like the films referred to above) and I won't be going back to see it at the cinema, but I will look forward to when it is out on Love Film or on the telly. 7/10

p.s. and look out for NSC graffitti early in the film when Neeson goes down the subway. made me smile

 

[Meade's Ball]

Ok so it's been two days since i sat through them, but i thought i might as well tell of them anyhow. Time off work, for me, means watching films. On Monday, i honestly struggled to see where my Cineworld pass might take me, and unfortunately it took me to the regular world of blandity that it normally does. Still, better than staying and wondering.
First up was Battle: Los Angeles. I have to admit that i found the whole thing a bit amusing. Not sure this is a critical plus when the likely end of mankind all thanks to the superior, water-thieving, bepincered creatures from another planet is being dealt with. It tickled me unexcitedly. Aaron Eckhardt with this divetted chin leads a team of marines for the last time before retirement to save that magical city of Los Angeles from space-slayers. The aliens, as well-arranged and technologically-advanced as they are, shuld have known you cannot mess with gun-toting homoerotic marines. I can't recommend it, but it's amusingly bad.

And then second was Fair Game. You can take a not-perfectly-constructed film and throw two decent actors in there to make it an agreeable cocktail. And that's what happened here. The story was important enough - the crookedly Bush-led government turning their back on a leading CIA operative - to tell and with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn as the married leads it made it ok. I can't say i emerge greatly educated or incredibly moved, but it wasn't as bad as some reviewers have made out.

 

[CHAPPERS]

I watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo the other day and very much enjoyed it. I give it a solid 8.

 

[Acker79]

battle los angeles
What's the point? So many cliches and tired same old same old. Basically an advert for the marines. I didn't even find it amusingly bad, just bad.

 

[Acker79]

Fair Game
It was ok, nothing special nor anything you need to make the effort to see, but not too bad. I probably would have been less impressed if I saw it tuesday after Battle Los Angeles as I had originally planned. Sean Penn was looking old and haggard, I don't know if it was by design or not.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Predators

Dissapointing. When you hire a film called Predators you expect to see some Predators. For the first 70 minutes it was just a bunch of blokes and a girl wandering around the Jungle.

Poor. Don't waste your time.

4.6

 

[Meade's Ball]

Had a better day of it today. Woke first thing to watch Dark Water on Lovefilm internet. I'd started it last night thinking a 2-hour nap in the arvo would keep me up until dawn. I was wrong. Of course i woke first of all at about 4am with a rather disturbing nightmare. I don't think the film and it were related. Anyway, Dark Water was simple enough but chilling. Old-style ghost-story telling of shadowy suggestion and a haunting chorus. The Ring by far outdoes it in the same method. I liked it though.

Next up was Revanche, watched on dvd from Lovefilm. An Austrian sexed-up mood piece of a bank robbery, a prostitute looking to escape her pimp and a policeman and wife trying to have a child. The three in the tale are greatly connected. It's quite Haneke-ish with the notion throughout that something explosive will soon happen and maybe never does. Virtually no music all the way through, but the performances are first class and the desire to witness the denouement make it gripping. The Meade liked it.

Lastly, and at the cinema until a few minutes ago, i lounged and yawned a little through Norwegian Wood. A popular book that i haven't read, but the film tends to say how not all stories are perfectly transferrable from page to screen. It went on a bit. I could imagine myself enjoying the depth of it in print. Not rubbish or anything, but couldn't say what the book no doubt does of incurable remorse and love forever torn with the aid of tragedy.

 

[Acker79]

Had a better day of it today. Woke first thing to watch Dark Water on Lovefilm internet. I'd started it last night thinking a 2-hour nap in the arvo would keep me up until dawn. I was wrong. Of course i woke first of all at about 4am with a rather disturbing nightmare. I don't think the film and it were related. Anyway, Dark Water was simple enough but chilling. Old-style ghost-story telling of shadowy suggestion and a haunting chorus. The Ring by far outdoes it in the same method. I liked it though.

Is that the japanese version of dark water or the american remake? I've only seen the japanese version and wasn't too enthralled, so never bothered with the american remake (despite having jennifer connelly in it)

 

[Meade's Ball]

Is that the japanese version of dark water or the american remake? I've only seen the japanese version and wasn't too enthralled, so never bothered with the american remake (despite having jennifer connelly in it)

Yeah the Japanese version. It was alright, i thought. Not brilliant, by any means, but i quivered a couple of times and that makes it better than, say, Piranha 3D for instance. And it had a little less of the grotesque stereotypicality that Juon: The Grudge gave us, even though that gave me the shits during watching.

Jennifer Connelly has a big and pointy nose.

 

[Acker79]

Jennifer Connelly has a big and pointy nose.

I don't care. I've had a crush on her since watching Labyrinth. It is defining. It's is unique and what makes her her instead of a cookie cutter face.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Looking forward to Submarine at the DoY at the weekend - yay!

 

[Meade's Ball]

Right then let's get this week's seen out of the way.
It started on Monday with the rather sweet Submarine. A coming of age comedy drama in Wales in the late 80s. It isn't groundbreaking and not lollishly hilarious, but there was enough cinematic play and tender renditions of the light tortures of teen life to keep one entertained. You can really feel the writing and direction of Richard Ayoade in there, that IT Crowd comic. Paddy Considine is amusing too.

Now, yesterday, i was off work again and had some time luring behind my eyes to waste, so into town i went to catch Limitless on its debut. I somewhat wish i hadn't. Bradley Cooper, the prettyboy who dared try to capture the myriad characteristics of Templeton Peck in the A-Team remake, is a befuddling writer, forever failing at the art he rarely tries at. Of course he coes across a half-tested drug that allows someone to have access to and use 100% of their brains for a day. He becomes a temporary genius. Wow. What a lucky bugger. The falsety of his intellect he doesn't often fall foul of, so it's kind of an advert for this drug and how wonderful Cooper is. Egotistical stuff with constant narration. Not utter rubbish, but not at all well made or engrossing.

Today was The Lincoln Lawyer. It was like a slightly pumped-up 2-hour version of Law & Order, but with a few half-decent actors on the scene. Matthew McConnaughey i would not class as one of them in general, but here, as a pimp-mobiled lawyer who defends those willing to pay a good-enough price, he was unlikable, but intentionally so. The rest in the bloody case were Marisa Tomei and William H Macy. It was quite a good show. Some cool hip-hop tracks in the background. I remained interested throughout. And i still fancy Tomei.