What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Anyone seen the film My Way?

it's a Korean film about an obscure WWII event, about a Korean soldier who was forced first to fight along side the Japanese against the russians, then captured by the russians forced to fight against the Nazi's, then captured by the Nazi's and forced to fight the Allies on D-Day. Strangely the American's did find Korean's dressed in Nazi uniforms among the dead at Normandy.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

That means you want to be a woman.

Of course, don't know how I missed that glaring fact.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Kolleen Savas... Sounds about right.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The Expendables 2

Good fun.

[Hurmm 91]

You must be thinking I'm missing the point because I think the movie is silly.

No, I'm thinking it wasn't silly enough. I wanted more ridiculous scenes like that one early on which involved a motorbike and a helicopter.

Still decent fun though.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I got that from heads being blown and lopped off, and with Jason Statham doing ridiculous knife throwing. I got that from JCVD wearing sunglasses all the time, and from the charm brought in by Norris, Willis, and Arnold. It was cheesy action at its best. My only problem was the editing, particularly during the opening sequence. It felt like it went by too fast and that something like a motorcycle taking down a helicopter wasn't a "showcase" shot, but perhaps that was supposed to be the point.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Expandables (2010)

Basically the story is a do-over of Stallone's Rambo. A mercenary goes out to rescue a girl with ideals. Just with more explosions and less Asians.

A bunch of slightly dodgy looking guys who can't really act, delivering dodgy one-liners written by Stallone, while blowing shit up.

The film is entertaining, but somehow not as entertaining as one expects.

[Hurmm 91]

Heads being blown off gets tiring after a few times...

I don't doubt it's got some nice cheesy OTT humour, just wanted more of it. I get what you mean by the rapid editing in the opening sequence though, my guess is that it's indeed deliberate. It just whizzes by, like it was so easy for them. Jet Li kicked major ass with pots and pans in his 10-second action cameo.

Anyway I watched Premium Rush. It's fluff, and you probably won't remember it next week, but hell it's a slick and entertaining escapist fun. Kinda like Panic Room if you know what I mean (not as slick or course, this is Koepp not Fincher). The non-linear storytelling is gimmicky and cheap, but it works; familiar plot is jumbled up in a mixer and comes out seemingly fresher. The tone is often very light, which works very well in fluffy action thrillers, and the entire thing is tightly paced so there's almost never a momentum-halting moment. It's always on the move, literally. I do think some of the violence doesn't belong, and I'm not sure what to think of Michael Shannon's performance- he hams it up with liberal cheesiness but at times he goes so OTT that it gets too heavy, and his character is also a complete idiot. So he's cheesy, scary, and idiotic all the same time. A little bit at odds there. Overall though I don't have much to complain. For 90 minutes this movie provided a lot of fun.

The film is entertaining, but somehow not as entertaining as one expects.

That's how I feel about The Expendables 2. Never seen the first.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Avengers.

These films are all more or less similar, and "The Avengers" gives us much, much more of the same. There must be a threat. The heroes must be enlisted. The villain must be dramatized. Some personality defects are probed. And then the last hour or so consists of special effects in which large mechanical objects engage in combat that results in deafening crashes and explosions and great balls of fire - Roger Ebert

That's basically it. The trailer gives away pretty much the whole film in both plot and style.

This film lacks the oppressive dread of The Dark Knight Rises and the innocence of The Amazing Spider-man. But it's not without it's virtues.

Basically the film is about giving us a bunch of superheroes and letting them fight together. On that level, the movie succeeds brilliantly. Whedon might no longer be the demi-God of coolness like he was in his Buffy days, but he knows how to mak ethis shit look cool, in ageek sort of way.

The plot is...well there is a plot of sorts. Loki from the Thor movie invades Earth with some alien creatures of which the film gives us little info. Tom Hiddleston makes for a good villian. The rest of the baddies are just canon fodder..

Of the rest of the cast everyone does what they did before and they do it well. Downey is smug and charismatic, Evens in naive and forthright, that Thor guy....speaks in mock Shakespearean. Johansen looks gorgeous in her tight leathers and the pug faced guy from the Hurt Locker who looks a bit liek Daniel Craig is good in shooting a bow and Arrow.

Mark Ruffalo is new on the scene and steals the show as both Bruce Banner and the Jolly Green Giant. Hulk is hilarious in this.

The effects are immaculate, but these days they always are in movies like this.

Silvestri's score is a notch down from Captain America. Its' never anything less then effective. But it doesn't stand out, no matter how loud it is. His Avengers Theme consists of horns blaring out a short theme. It's better then Zimmer's 2 note Batman Theme, it's far less interesting then Horner's Spider-man theme, which actually has development, variation and subtlety throughout the score.

It's a cool movie, possible the best of the recent Marvel ones, but like all of them it's forgettable.

[MrJosh 892]

I like your reviews, Stefan.

And also, I agree. Though I felt like Capt America didn't have enough to do in the end battle, but I guess without flight, not much more he could have done.

[A24 4,339]

The Avengers.

... possible the best of the recent Marvel ones, but like all of them it's forgettable.

This!

I enjoyed it but it's completely disappeared from my mind. That's the Marvel factor for ya.

5/10

As one can expect, the life of Jane Austen is not as fascinating (or should I say, as well written) as her novels.

Alex

[Quintus 5,399]

Going to see The Expendables 2 this afternoon. Having learned this one is directed by the guy who made Con Air I'm expecting greatness.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Avengers.

... possible the best of the recent Marvel ones, but like all of them it's forgettable.

This!

I enjoyed it but it's completely disappeared from my mind. That's the Marvel factor for ya.

Alex

I saw Iron Man 2 a few months ago and liked it, but can't recall anything apart from Mickey Rourke being all weird and enigmatic...

[Ren 75]

Going to see The Expendables 2 this afternoon. Having learned this one is directed by the guy who made Con Air I'm expecting greatness.

Have fun!

[Brónach 1,302]

I haven't been able to forget The Avengers yet. I look forward to

Thanos killing the heroes. If I can't get the hero failing from a "bleak" Nolan film, I'll get it from a Joss Whedon film.

.

[Hurmm 91]

I think if you're looking for fun, go for Premium Rush over Expendables 2. It's a pity it's getting so little coverage.

[KK 3,307]

I watched Premium Rush last night. Its not anything we haven't seen before, but its a nice slick film. With a bunch of stunts and a good sense of humour, its a fun entertainer.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

none of the hero's will die in the Avengers 2 More of the Same Shit.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Squeezed in yet another viewing of Interview with the Vampire yesterday. There's a movie on my list of the best things in life. One that will always be there for me.

[Brónach 1,302]

none of the hero's will die in the Avengers 2 More of the Same Shit.

a) Marvel does this all the time.

b) Joss Whedon does it all the time. It's possible that we get a somewhat ESB-like ending from Whedon, specially after the triumphal ending of the first one.

c) Thanos did it in the comic books.

[Quintus 5,399]

none of the hero's will die in the Avengers 2 More of the Same Shit.

b) Joss Whedon does it all the time.

You obviously haven't seen Serenity.

Just got back from The Expendables 2. Probably the most manly, unabashedly jingoistic movie I've ever seen. In all, it was about as good as the first one: absolutely ridiculous and a great hour an half at the pictures, and damn; this 15 Rated picture is easily as violent as the recent Rambo. Arnie was hilarious for mainly all the right reasons, which was a relief. Hopefully he'll crack some skulls together in the third one. Pretty much everyone has there moment to shine, but it's Stallone who rightfully runs the show again. His charisma remains undiminished in his ageing years and he's as watchable as he ever was.

3/5

[Brónach 1,302]

none of the hero's will die in the Avengers 2 More of the Same Shit.

b) Joss Whedon does it all the time.

You obviously haven't seen Serenity.

You mean me or Joey?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I'm still astonished how little the film told us about those Alien enemies, who they were, what their motivations were. What those giant fish things were?

Btw, the ending is cribbed from ID4.

[Henry B 50]

Phantom of the Opera - awesome. The music is great, the visuals are great. Some bad lip syncing though.

Very poor choice of singers, though.

Is it worth getting the original cast recording? The Phantom can be a little rough sometimes, but I wondered if maybe that was an intentional decision given his character. Also the two producers weren't always in sync. I thought the women and Ralph were pretty good.

Yeah, he was completely untrained, at least in musical theater. And there was a lot of editing done to his vocal performances, presumably because of his shortcomings. It seems insulting to cast an amateur in the role of this character who's supposed to be a god of music who entrances Christine with the power of his voice. I guess you could say the sexy rock voice was appealing in its own way, but that makes Christine seem really shallow. Well, then again, the characters were all a bit shallow to begin with. I'm not as interested in Phantom as I used to be.

OLC is good and has far fewer sound effects. Also bits of music that were cut from the film and replaced with spoken dialogue.

[indy4 155]

Ah okay thanks for the info.

[nightscape94 965]

Monsters

I only heard of this film when I saw a review of it by Roger Ebert when it first came out. I always wanted to watch so I finally did, and I was not disappointed. This is the guy doing the upcoming Godzilla.. The writer/direct/special effects artist extraordinaire Gareth Edwards was able to make two interesting main characters out of what is fairly little back story. It's all in the dialogue and acting. It's a pretty obvious parable but it doesn't get too bogged down in the special effects; they exist for support of the narrative. I read some comments about it afterwards and saw that a lot of people thought it was boring. I suppose they should go back to watching Battle L.A. or Transformers if they need all out action.

Tim

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Just got back from The Expendables 2. Probably the most manly, unabashedly jingoistic movie I've ever seen. In all, it was about as good as the first one: absolutely ridiculous and a great hour an half at the pictures, and damn; this 15 Rated picture is easily as violent as the recent Rambo. Arnie was hilarious for mainly all the right reasons, which was a relief. Hopefully he'll crack some skulls together in the third one. Pretty much everyone has there moment to shine, but it's Stallone who rightfully runs the show again. His charisma remains undiminished in his ageing years and he's as watchable as he ever was.

Sums up my thoughts well enough. I had fun, and that's all I was expecting from it.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

none of the hero's will die in the Avengers 2 More of the Same Shit.

b) Joss Whedon does it all the time.

You obviously haven't seen Serenity.

Just got back from The Expendables 2. Probably the most manly, unabashedly jingoistic movie I've ever seen. In all, it was about as good as the first one: absolutely ridiculous and a great hour an half at the pictures, and damn; this 15 Rated picture is easily as violent as the recent Rambo. Arnie was hilarious for mainly all the right reasons, which was a relief. Hopefully he'll crack some skulls together in the third one. Pretty much everyone has there moment to shine, but it's Stallone who rightfully runs the show again. His charisma remains undiminished in his ageing years and he's as watchable as he ever was.

3/5

No, got it on dvd but I can't get past the opening. Josh weaton is not powerful enough to kill Iron Man, Cap't America, the Hulk. Killing thor would be awesome but wont happen, killing Hawkeye or BW would be okay, they are just people after all, not worthy of their own films.

[Wojo 2,453]

I started to watch Bullitt last night, which I had never seen before. My mom walked in at some point in the car chase, and soon after Bullitt got the name of the person from Chicago and I started to think I needed to start the movie over from the beginning and pay better attention to names and faces, she asked me, "when's this over?" I think she was tired, so I picked up the remote and said "now" and shut the DVD and TV off. It was, like quarter to 2 and high time to end it anyways.

[Brónach 1,302]

I'm still astonished how little the film told us about those Alien enemies, who they were, what their motivations were. What those giant fish things were?

I would have loved to know more about these (or even what Loki had seen falling in the wormhole). Although I'm not sure were in the film to put that information.

I also would have liked Thor to have a little more of dialogue.

No, got it on dvd but I can't get past the opening. Josh weaton is not powerful enough to kill Iron Man, Cap't America, the Hulk. Killing thor would be awesome but wont happen, killing Hawkeye or BW would be okay, they are just people after all, not worthy of their own films.

I think killing Hawkeye or Black Widow would be cheap. Killing Banner would be a bad idea, because the point with him is that all kinds of bad stuff happen to him all the time (still, they could do something to him like ending up lost in space or something). The worst thing you can do to Steve Rogers isn't killing him, but destroying him psychologically. They tell me that in the comic books, Thor is turned into glass and then smashed. That would be awesome. Specially since you can always get back to Thor via time travel, and Thor is a very cosmic character that allows that kind of turn of events.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Killing Banner isn't a possibility it seems.

[Wojo 2,453]

Not really. The Hulk is basically immortal.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Yeah, but if you beheaded him, he'd die, wouldn't he?

[Wojo 2,453]

Reading today's headlines, I see.

His healing powers are tremendous and would heal as fast as you cut him.

He is vulnerable as Banner, but the moment of injury would awaken even an anesthetized and exhausted Banner and turn him into the Hulk, bringing about the healing powers.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The Dark Knight Rises

Finally.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

And...???

[alicebrallice 134]

My Life in Ruins - 5.7

Pay It Forward - 8

To Kill a Mockingbird - 8.5. just as good as I remembered it.

[KK 3,307]

To Kill a Mockingbird - 8.5. just as good as I remembered it.

Love this film. A true classic!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

the ending is bad though.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

I love some piano playing in it.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

the ending is bad though.

and the child actors are bad.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Peck is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. As is Brock Peters. But I have issues with that film.

[alicebrallice 134]

To Kill a Mockingbird - 8.5. just as good as I remembered it.

Love this film. A true classic!

that it is! have you read the book?

the ending is bad though.

what? why do you think that?

and the child actors are bad.

well, wasn't the best acting I've seen but I certainly wasn't bothered by it.

[A24 4,339]

Spartacus

The film only works when the slaves are in captivity. When the slaves are free (shown as some kind of utopia here), there's simply nothing dramatically interesting going on.

6/10

On a sidenote, did you know that the Spartacus series gets a 8.7 on IMDb? That's ridiculous!

Alex

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

I don't know, the third act is brilliant in my opinion. That's were Kubrick gets a chance to shine, homaging Eisenstein once again.

Plus, Laurence Olivier's villian is a fantastic character. I simpatize much more with him than with Douglas!

[A24 4,339]

The third act is when the slaves are being defeated and they are no longer free. It's definitely the best part of the movie. It's the very long part in the middle, the utopia part, that is quite dull, IMO.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

To Kill a Mockingbird - 8.5. just as good as I remembered it.

Love this film. A true classic!

that it is! have you read the book?

the ending is bad though.

what? why do you think that?

and the child actors are bad.

well, wasn't the best acting I've seen but I certainly wasn't bothered by it.

It was for me Alice, but I think the film is vastly overrated. the book is just boring as hell.

[crocodile 8,017]

Spartacus

The film only works when the slaves are in captivity. When the slaves are free (shown as some kind of utopia here), there's simply nothing dramatically interesting going on.

6/10

On a sidenote, did you know that the Spartacus series gets a 8.7 on IMDb? That's ridiculous!

Alex

Oh Alex, you and your obsession with plot!

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

the ending is bad though.

what? why do you think that?

Brock Peter's character gets shot, under rather suspicious circumstances and no one in the film qurestions this?

Also, the black guy died, but it's OK, Robert Duvall is finally out of the house.

I just feels like a tagged on happy ending that has nothing to do with the rest of the film. And I actually felt insulted. This could have been the best film ever made.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

no it couldn't.