[Film] Film 2014

[Nibble]

Scorcese hasn't made a good film since he started f@cking Dicaprio.

 

[piersa]

Wolf of Wall is too long imo. AN hour less and it could have been excellent.
12 Years a slave is very well done but depressing.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

Went to see a preview screening of "out of the furnace" last night.
The film has a Stella cast, Christian Bale & Casey Affleck as Brothers, Woody Harleson as backwoods crime boss and some good cameo & support turns from Zoe Saldana, Willem Defoe & Forrest Whittaker.
What I thought was quite effective & adds atmosphere was because the film is set in rough Pennsylvania industrial town (in the rust belt) the film is shot with a very raw grainy feel to it. For me, the 1st quarter of the film is a little rushed, trying to build up the story too quickly. But when the film settles down into a survival and revenge plot line it Starts to flourish.
Really enjoyed it, and the star turns are from Bale & Harleson who's one of the nastiest *******s you'll have ever seen on film.

 

[Acker79]

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
I quite liked this. The music was a bit overly sentimental at times, but this is the type of film for which that is fitting. The first hour dragged a bit, as did the last half hour, and it seems to barely touch on each event before moving on, but I still enjoyed it.

 

[Acker79]

Philomena
I liked it. Nothing particularly noteworthy to review, does what you'd expect. Good performance from Judi Dench, Steve Coogan was more bearable than I find him when he does a character.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I wanted my girlfriend to ask for tickets to Inside Llewyn Davis as she kept calling it Inside John Lewis. Typically, though, i booked online and had her live without the moment of whoopsishness. As we left she said she hadn't felt much for it, but i was mostly hooked by it. A merciless series of lightly-tragic episodes for the homeless eponymous folk singer that looks as if he just won't make it have one hopelessly but intriguingly view. 1961 Greenwich Village is captured splendidly and the filming, as ever by the Coens, is immaculate and captivating. Oscar Isaac as Llewyn was excellent, although Carey Mulligan is a bit annoying as she comes and goes without forgiveness. So much music throughout and each track tells another story of deep sadness, when sung by Llewyn mostly, knowing full well that the light applause to them will be followed by his moving to another friend's couch and likely lead him not to where he'll make a name or life for himself.
A really good film and a relief to see in comparison with last weekend's 3-hour, as my brother called it, Scorsese's American Pie, Wolf in Wall Street. Jeez that went on and was horribly uncouth in way way beneath what i expect of Scorsese. One of his worst by far.
But Inside John Lewis i recommend for those with an eye, and ear, for the sombre and oddly comicly endearing here and there.

 

[vegster]

I saw Inside Llewyn Davis at The Komedia last night. This was a bit of a contractual obligation on my part, not a great fan of folk/country music as Mrs. V has dragged me to far to many earnest and serous, wailing, acoustic playing singer/songwriters. However this was handled in quite a nice way with the music being the real star in a way.

Overall I think the film did not really know in which direction it was going, much like the eponymous singer from the title. It was more of a tragi-comedy . Our hero seems thwarted whatever direction he seems to take although he stubbornly continues to chase the dream despite all odds. Carey Mulligans character,as Meade's Ball has said, is a bit of a witch to say the least and her foul mouthed tirades are neither clever, witty or in character with the role. Moments of fun, moments of poignancy but this film carries a melancholy that the music cannot shake off.

7.2

 

[keaton]

Inside Llewyn Davis
A lot like A Serious Man, not much story but a very good, melancholic and funny film

 

[Acker79]

Inside Llewyn Davis
I liked this, but felt the end was a bit 'huh?' until you properly digest it. Really liked the music, and generally rather liked the film. Not sure it deserves some of the hype it has received making it seem like it's their best film ever, etc.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

12 Years a Slave. Disappointing after all the hype. Some great acting but the lead character just wasn't particularly engaging and it was all a bit 'meh' when it could have been so much more.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

The Butler. A good film about the struggles of Black people to get equal rights in the USA. A very good cast. 7.4

Philomena. A film close to my heart. Well made and acted but had the feel of a TV movie about it. Done very well at the box office considering it's limitations. 7.6

 

[jersmith]

Watched End of Watch amazing movie sentimental + good acting anybody ??

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

I'm desperate to see inside Llewelyn Davis, I'm a massive Cohen Bros fan I love all their films (except intolerable cruelty)
Anyone else?

 

[shaolinpunk]

I saw The Wolf of Wall Street earlier this week. Really enjoyed it. Big fan of Di Caprio and he was on form as per usual, and the support was great too. I also had no idea that he was adept at physical comedy - the country club/pay phone scene had me in stitches. It didn't need to be as long as it was, but I didn't find myself checking what the time was or losing interest at any point.

Also, Margot Robbie is stunning

 

[Meade's Ball]

Last night i strangely cycled at an unholy pace to get to a ridiculously expensive Vue to see Lone Survivor. 2 main problems of it are the title giving away the ending and the fact that the one troop who made it was played by Mark Wahlberg, who is surely in the bottom 8 "actors" of all time. Before that the other patriotic machomen kept him in the background mostly and it didn't have his semi-hilarious hammery to it.
Overall it was relatively enjoyable, the action of it all high octane and the tension up in the Afghan mountains under constant fire from the evil Taliban was well done. The blood that burst from every pierced wound had me thinking of Vimto, strangely, in its light and see-through-ness, and i wish i had a sly can of that with me afterwards. It's coated with an unquestionable nationalism made worse for the final Wahlberg-smothered 30 mins and a Rambo-esque cliche or two of impossible army-trained unbreakable American hardness, but it was ok fun for its attention-keeping body-tossing adventure in the unforgiving wilderness.

 

[hybrid_x]

Nebraska 8.9

intelligent, funny, and capturing of the times.

highly recommended.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I won't talk for long about The Night of the Hunter which i saw for the first time on the big screen on Thursday, but what a hauntingly unnerving and murderous fairy-tale that is such a shame was straight away panned and Charles Laughton's career came to a close as a director right there. The visuals were at times just amazing, ones of a troubled child's imaginings, and certain scenes, such as the discovery of the mother's slightly rotten body bobbing roped to a sunken car on the riverbed, and that of the good-witch protector of children and the evil priest singing the same haunting hymn either sides of the plastic screen that divided good and evil until one of them slept and gave in, stick with me. Good on tv but any chance you get to see it on a larger screen do take it.

Today, though, i went to Dallas Buyers Club, and it was a good film. The time is the 80s and the rightly oscar nominated Matthew McConaughey plays the rodeo bull-rider, a lover of sex, drink and drugs more than out else, who is told he has Aids and only has a month to live. A brief spell has him in disbelief and has his homophobic repugnance matched by that of his "friends" who quickly turn their backs on him for all his suffering, but then the film largely tells the story of Ron Woodruff's determination to be medically self-governed and long outlive the medical profession's prediction of life expectancy. This could have made for a wet and over-moral drama, but despite the obvious cleansing of Woodruff's character in terms of his bigoted homophobia, he's never given saintly status. As much as he wants the right to use unapproved-by-the-Federal-Drugs-Administration drugs, he also wants to sell them to fellow Aids-sufferers for quite a money-making fee.
It's a well-made telling of this anti-hero character study smeared with macabre humour and shot in a crackly film that gives it that 80s feel, but McConaughey's performance is realistically terrific and carries it from start to finish. Jared Leto is excellent as his dragqueen business-partner and friend made thanks to Woodruff having no other option, but McConaughey, gaunt and flawed from the start, is a real showpiece. It demonstrates a little of what a few lines of natural age will do to an actor's face, or at least what it will give his acting options. He's been brilliant for the last few years and i hope the death of his romcom self is long-lasting, made all the more so with an Oscar this time round.
A good film.

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

This film made absolutely no effort to portray reality of those times

Care to elaborate?

 

[LamieRobertson]

I won't talk for long about The Night of the Hunter which i saw for the first time on the big screen on Thursday, but what a hauntingly unnerving and murderous fairy-tale that is such a shame was straight away panned and Charles Laughton's career came to a close as a director right there. The visuals were at times just amazing, ones of a troubled child's imaginings, and certain scenes, such as the discovery of the mother's slightly rotten body bobbing roped to a sunken car on the riverbed, and that of the good-witch protector of children and the evil priest singing the same haunting hymn either sides of the plastic screen that divided good and evil until one of them slept and gave in, stick with me. Good on tv but any chance you get to see it on a larger screen do take it.

Today, though, i went to Dallas Buyers Club, and it was a good film. The time is the 80s and the rightly oscar nominated Matthew McConaughey plays the rodeo bull-rider, a lover of sex, drink and drugs more than out else, who is told he has Aids and only has a month to live. A brief spell has him in disbelief and has his homophobic repugnance matched by that of his "friends" who quickly turn their backs on him for all his suffering, but then the film largely tells the story of Ron Woodruff's determination to be medically self-governed and long outlive the medical profession's prediction of life expectancy. This could have made for a wet and over-moral drama, but despite the obvious cleansing of Woodruff's character in terms of his bigoted homophobia, he's never given saintly status. As much as he wants the right to use unapproved-by-the-Federal-Drugs-Administration drugs, he also wants to sell them to fellow Aids-sufferers for quite a money-making fee.
It's a well-made telling of this anti-hero character study smeared with macabre humour and shot in a crackly film that gives it that 80s feel, but McConaughey's performance is realistically terrific and carries it from start to finish. Jared Leto is excellent as his dragqueen business-partner and friend made thanks to Woodruff having no other option, but McConaughey, gaunt and flawed from the start, is a real showpiece. It demonstrates a little of what a few lines of natural age will do to an actor's face, or at least what it will give his acting options. He's been brilliant for the last few years and i hope the death of his romcom self is long-lasting, made all the more so with an Oscar this time round.
A good film.

Dallas Buyers Club...went to see it last night...as you stated very well acted....its rough raw and brutal at times..with a little humour..but totally absorbing...well worth seeing for the story it told

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

I suppose it's just typical Hollywood. Everything was so heavily dramatised and sensationalised and the actors weren't convincing of their period. The slaves were portrayed as being more educated than their masters for the much of the film, so much of the dialogue was unrealistic.

I agree with you in part. The argument and reasoning behind how intelligent the character is/ was would be that he lived in the north which was more accepting of African Americans so therefore he was more likely to be allowed to be educated. However, I did question the realism of how readily he was accepted as it would have still been a very racist country at the time even in the northern states.

I do disagree with your point about relying on white guilt however as I did not feel this was the directors intention. These gruesome events did happen and that fact shouldn’t be shied away from because it makes us feel uncomfortable.