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List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2012

Hunger Games.

I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I was about 14. Scrap that. I didn't enjoy it but I may have done if I was 14.
 
Hunger Games- quite liked it, heroine is great. Disappointed that hunger itself was rather lost as a theme. The books are much more explicit that people starve to death both in the arena and in the Districts.
 
Gramsci said:
Exactly why I liked it. its not Harry Potter or twee romance. For the audience its targetted at I thought at last this is something a bit more relevant and progressive.

At Ritzy it was mainly teens. The book I read in a review is much more bloody and its been toned down to get a 12 certificate.
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I only recently read the trilogy of books (love dystopian stuff but because the books are supposedly aimed at a young adult audience (not 12 year old kids so the film has to be toned down a bit to get that certificate!) I just hadn't really considered it until the film got popular iykwim) and it actually ranks as one of the more disturbing and disquieting things I've read.

I've now actually managed to see the film, and it is massively toned down from the book. Naturally, the book is better, they almost always are.

Edit: and what Mr Smin said, starvation and poverty in the districts is the major theme in the books* that was only marginally touched on in the film, more should have been made of it.

*
Such as kids are so used to going hungry that when they finally get a decent meal while they are being prepared as cattle for the slaughter that the meal is described in great detail and the fact of their impending demise put on the back burner, the importance of acquisition of food and the horror and hopelessness of slow starvation are themes that could have been played better in the film
 
Not having read the books, one of the things I found really dissatisfying about The Hunger Games, apart from it being an incredibly bland looking film that feels like it was made by a committee, was that asides from the heroine none of the other characters seemed developed in any way. I would have felt much more involved had I known a little more about the other kids in the game. Battle Royale did a much better job in giving us some idea about a vast number of characters involved in a similar scenario, who we all get to know a little bit while the film goes on.

Is that something the film just skipped over, or are the other characters similarly underdeveloped in the books ?
 
The second book puts a bit more on the other teenage characters, but the narrative is entirely with Katniss and so we only know what she knows... and it takes time for her to discover anything beyond her small circle of friends and acquaintances.
 
Took the kids to see the new Aardman film The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! It's nothing special and probably not as good as Chicken Run or even Flushed Away but still has quite a few funny moments. The comparisons to Blackadder I've read in reviews are quite accurate, I think. The Guardian recently gave away the novel it's based on and we've been reading that as a bedtime story.
 
Epona said:
I've now actually managed to see the film, and it is massively toned down from the book. Naturally, the book is better, they almost always are.

Edit: and what Mr Smin said, starvation and poverty in the districts is the major theme in the books* that was only marginally touched on in the film, more should have been made of it.
]
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I did wonder this when I went to see the film. The film suggested the games were related to a war. Which I didnt really understand. A few of the scenes in the districts reminded me a bit of another film "The Road". Which was dystopian adult film.
 
Gramsci said:
I did wonder this when I went to see the film. The film suggested the games were related to a war. Which I didnt really understand. A few of the scenes in the districts reminded me a bit of another film "The Road". Which was dystopian adult film.
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I do think there is more explanation in the books than they have in the film, the games are punishment for a previous rebellion and a reminder that the govt is in control, the population in the Districts are little more than slaves to provide the Capitol with food and entertainment. The books are so much better in this regard, over the trilogy this theme about control and rebellion is further explored - don't forget that the film is also just one of a proposed trilogy to match the books (I believe the 2nd is in production at the moment).

In fact just read the books. The film is OK but as usual isn't a patch on the books.
 
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/extended_runs/la_grande_illusion

I saw Jean Renoir's restored film "La Grande Illusion" today. Its on at the BFI and a few other cinemas (Curzon in London) this month. Dates for BFI above

Its a film about French POWs in WW1 trying to escape from there camp. It was made between the World Wars. Its not really an action film but concentrates on the individual characters and the relationships between them. Also the changing French and German society class system during the war. Its an actors film and they are all very good. Also some great dialogue.

It was made in 1937. I was reminded of later films in parts of it. I wonder if its one of those famous films that is like a template for later war films. Up to present day.There is a scene later in the film that reminded me of "Essential Killing".

It has an old fashioned feel about it. And I was not sure I was going to like it. But as it went on it became a criticism of war. It is a decent humane film. It was made at a time when Fascism was becoming more powerful in Europe. Sadly its message was not heeded.
 
"The Kid with the Bike"



Latest film by the Dardenne brothers. Ive seen one there films (The Fils). They usually make films together. This is a touchingly simple ( in a good sense) story of a boy living in a hostel seeking his father. He gets to know the local hairdresser and stays with her on weekends. Like the Italian neo realist film the "Bicycle Thieves" the film revolves around his adventures with his bike.

Its very good on the relationships between adults and children. I wouldn't say its a completely realist film as it does bang not on about politics. Looks deceptively simple but its actually well constructed and thought out piece of film making.
 
belboid said:
Into the Abyss - new Herzog doc about capital punishment, told around the events of one particular murderous evening. As powerful, and moving as you might expect, unsentimental, frequently harsh, and surprisingly funny at times.

Despite this being a special preview, clearly advertised as with live (by videolink) Q&A with Werner immediately after the showing, nigh on half the ticket buyers still thought this meant they should show up twenty odd minutes after the film began. Eejits.
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Did Werner have much to say in the Q&A?

Ive seen the TV version but not the cinema one. If it hadn't been for Herzog I would not have watched it. The US death penalty has been done before. Herzog like in his doc about the Antarctic station (Encounters at the End of the World) adds something to what otherwise would have been run of the mill.

He enters into philosophical discussions with the inmates of Death Row. And surprisingly its clear they like these discussions. Including Herzog asking them there dreams. I agree they are unsentimental. It sounds like he concentrated on one of the first 2 cases. In the third he does get slightly sentimental when talking to the "gentleman" thief. But thats ok. Werner is very German. Hard headed rationalism with Germanic romanticism.

What I did like is that as an interviewer Herzog did not show pity but respected there position. He treated them as human beings when they are living and dying somewhere that takes away there humanity. Something he subtly shows in his doc series without getting on a soapbox about the death penalty.As he told them he was not there to review there case or try and get them off the Death penalty.
 


"Headhunters"

Barking mad over the top thriller from Norway. Out this weekend. See before the planned US remake. Its a satire on greed and power with a lot black humour. It is very violent in a Korean mad movie way. Goes along at 100 mph as well.

And the US remake will not have those stunning Scandinavian woman in it either.:D
 


Latest offbeat film by Aki Kaurismäki. This is about an aging "Bohemian" who shelters a young illegal immigrant. For those who know the films of Aki this has the laid back Finnish humour of the director and his heartwarming humanity. This somehow manages not to fall into sickly sentimentality.
It also a has slightly surreal edge to it.Its not surprising that at one point a character starts reading Kafka. Though this time the hero wins out against bureaucracy . Its not a realist film like Loach would have made. It however shows how ordinary peoples decency can win out against the state.
The few clips of real TV footage of asylum seekers camps in France being torn down by police root the film in reality. The film does show the plight of those who try to enter "Fortress Europe".
 
Wild Bill
Directed by Dexter Fletcher and set on a housing estate around the Olympic construction site, it's about an ex con (Wild Bill) returning home after 8 years inside. I thought it was great, and awesome soundtrack too..
 
Really wanted to see Le Havre or the one with Johnny Depp as a goth but submitted to the will of the husband and went to see The Hunger Games. I enjoyed it but thought it was overly long and not a patch on Battle Royale - but then THG was a 12 and BR is an 18 so very different beasts. Still - have not managed a film for ages so was pleased to be at the cinema.
 
Joss_Whedon_The_Cabin_The_Woods_Gets_Twisted_New_Poster_1322776971.jpg


As smart, original, funny and "meta" as you'd expect from something Joss Whedon is involved in. Difficult to explain without spoiling stuff. It starts out as an Evil Dead style horror film abut a bunch of young, generic potential horror film victims going for a weekend to the titular cabin. This is intercut with a parallel plot about a secret underground laboratory. Then it takes a gazillion twist and turns, eventually going bat shit crazy at the climax. But it works and it's great fun and while parallels to Scream have been drawn by reviews, it's not quite like anything else I've seen done before with the genre. Can't remember the last time I saw an American horror film I've enjoyed this much. The best way to see this film is to know as little about it as possible, BTW.
 
Saw the Aardman Pirates film with the daughter.
Good fun, pretty much what you'd expect. Plenty of daft. Some great moments.
Tennant is quite annoying as charles darwin though.
A solid 7/10.
 
Kaka Tim said:
Saw the Aardman Pirates film with the daughter.
Good fun, pretty much what you'd expect. Plenty of daft. Some great moments.
Tennant is quite annoying as charles darwin though.
A solid 7/10.
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Saw that at the weekend with my nephew & niece. Wasnt paricularly impressed given the write ups it has been receiving. Some funny bits but overall disappointing (compared to The Muppets which we watched the night before). Also it reminded me of why i dont particularly like going to the cinema anymore.
 
Le Havre.

Gramsci's said almost enough about it already, but why let that stop me? The story is incredibly similar to Welcome, but as told by Michael Powell rather than Ken Loach. The way Kaurismaki constructs a shot is just beautiful, his characters always so full of life (even tho the people I went with kept telling me one of the barfly's looked exactly like me in a few years time, bastards), and as for his use of colour, mmmmm
 
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