What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[avu9lives]

Startin to trawl through Steven Kings output! First one i watched was Maximum Overdrive Pretty average but not complete shite thanx to the Ac/Dc soundtrack.
Dark Half is next up!

 

[Orang Utan]

What's shit about it ? I thought the end was excellent.

the stupid CGI action on the bridge kind of spoiled it all for me. thought the middle section was the best - a decent prison movie.

 

[Reno]

The CGI wasn't always perfect, but that had more to do with the sheer ambition of the shots involved than for lack of trying. WETA is the best company in the business for effects now. Earlier on there is some weak CGI, so not sure why you draw the line there. I thought the battle on the Golden Gate Bridge was a great action sequence and that's what the film built towards all along: the start of a revolution. I also liked how savage and morally grey it was. The cops involved were only doing their job and hardly the bad guys.

 

[Orang Utan]

I wasn't drawing the line re CGI, just pointing out the action sequences which I thought were risible, even for a film about talking, intelligent, mutinous apes

 

[Reno]

I thought they were unusually well directed and coherent for a modern action film. So there...

 

[Orang Utan]

I suppose it's a matter of taste. I would rather see a film with apes telling us why they hate us than a film with apes destroying helicopters.

 

[Reno]

It's cinema, not a stage play. Movies tell their stories via images, action, montage and movement and there was plenty of information about the characters in the action sequences. I suppose McLane and the 'terrorists' could have also talked it out in Die Hard. If you want people babbling on for an entire film, go watch some Rohmer

 

[Orang Utan]

I like action movies too but as I said, I was disappointed when they broke out cos to me, the 'prison' bit was the more interesting part of the film. Perhaps it was too much of a contrast from seriousness to silliness. Die Hard-type/Bond movies are silly all the way through and can be very entertaining

 

[Reno]

I just didn't find it that silly, I thougth it was genuinely dramatic the way it was done and it was the rare modern action sequence where I felt invested in the characters (go apes go!). You have to suspend you disbelief for a film like this from the start, so a full on battle at the end wasn't that much of a stretch for me from what had come before.

I was just genuinely surprised how much I liked the film. Not being much of a fan of the original Planet of the Apes films and with the trailer looking shit, I thought it would be rubbish.

 

[Orang Utan]

I had trouble suspending my disbelief when the gorilla took out the helicopter.
(I guess they threw in a Die Hard homage there with the death of a major character)

 

[discokermit]

i thought freida pinto's acting was awful.

 

[Reno]

i thought freida pinto's acting was awful.

She did the best she could with an under-written role. Too often actors get blamed for poor writing.

 

[Orang Utan]

I felt sorry for her as she had nothing to do - typical useless female action role. Hardly any point to her being there.

 

[butchersapron]

I thought it was enjoyable enough, but the disinterested acting from fp as dk mentions above really stood out.

 

[Reno]

Whatever. Her character or acting didn't stop me from enjoying the film, in the end it was about the apes. The film wasn't perfect but for me it was the most purely enjoyable Hollywood blockbuster of the year, so I can't see the point in picking it apart bit by bit.

 

[discokermit]

in the end it was about the apes.

you don't even understand the "planet of the apes" films. none of the films are about the apes. it's about the people.

 

[Reno]

you don't even understand the "planet of the apes" films. none of the films are about the apes. it's about the people.

Fuck off and go play with your metaphors.

 

[TruXta]

Startin to trawl through Steven Kings output! First one i watched was Maximum Overdrive Pretty average but not complete shite thanx to the Ac/Dc soundtrack.
Dark Half is next up!

The early ones tend to be the best, but there are some goodies in later years as well. I quite enjoyed Darabont's The Mist. And the Green Mile is a decent offering too.

 

[DotCommunist]

i like the poorer quality TV adapts like IT, Tommyknockers and (spot the child actress drew barrymore!) Firestarter- langoliers too.

 

[TruXta]

i like the poorer quality TV adapts like IT, Tommyknockers and (spot the child actress drew barrymore!) Firestarter- langoliers too.

IT is great. Wasn't Firestarter a regular cinema release tho?

Edit: Come to think of it I have fond memories of Arnold in Running Man

 

[Reno]

Firestarter was a film for the cinema, followed by a TV movie sequel.

 

[Orang Utan]

The only thing I can remember about Firestarter is that it had a Tangerine Dream score, for which I have a weakness for. They've scored many week films, poorly.

 

[The Octagon]

Two-part finale of Battlestar S3.

Some excellent character stuff (although the Irish lawyer was a little 'cute' / clever-clever for my liking) and Lee Adama's speech was a humdinger.

The rest of it was just a series of WTF?! moments, once the 'music hearers' started moving around the ship I feared the revelation that shortly followed afterwards, still shocking though.

And as for -

Spoiler: S3 Finale

Starbuck's 'resurrection', I'm not sure I like the direction this is going in, all a bit 'Lost' religious for my liking

Would much prefer her to be the Final Cylon than be some mythical roadsign

Also - Roslin and Adama's flirting is a little disturbing

 

[butchersapron]

The Four Days of Naples - top notch recreation of the successful popular uprising against the Nazis in Naples, early 60s film so got a fair few of limitations of action type films of that time (including bad overacted deaths) but gets around these by telling a very multi-layered sort of story. It's a cliché but its the city fighting, there's no real lead characters and what ones there are just sort of get killed every few minutes with no fanfare or commentary.

 

[andy2002]

Kill List: Extremely violent and unsettling British hitman film that gets madder and madder as it goes on. Would probably need to see it again to properly work out the last 15-20 minutes though. There's one fairly clunky plot hole early on that they should have worked harder to smooth over, and the ending owes a great deal to another very famous British film that I won't mention for fear of spoiling things.

 

[8115]

Up, amazing. I nearly did a cry at the end

 

[Gramsci]

"A Serbian Film"

http://www.aserbianfilm.co.uk/trailer.html

Watched this on DVD as it had difficulty in being released here. Its in the "Torture porn" category like the "Saw" series. It is made by Serbians. It uses porn as a way to show what life is really like in post communist Serbia. The violence is that of the nationalistic corrupt state that is post communist Serbia. Does it work. Not quite. Its not for the faint hearted. In the context that it is a reflection of what those who grew up in the nightmare of the last 20 years of Serbia think about there country it is scary. Its also superior to the explotation genre it uses as it actually trying to say something. All credit for them to get it made. They faced obstacles at every turn.

A quote from the directors statement on website:

"The major metaphorical take concerning this film was to treat real life as pornography. In our region for the last few decades we have brought ourselves to the point where we experience our lives as pure exploitation through which we are emotionally, psychologically and creatively raped by the incomprehensible, chaotic, unbelievably stupid and brutal forces of corrupt authority. Through every kind of job you can get in order to feed your family, you end up being viciously exploited and humiliated in the worst and lowest fashion. In this country, beaten and battered beyond belief by both the forces inside and outside of it, spiritual prostitution became the only real currency. We make the allegory of it all come alive by treating pornography as something casual and perfectly normal-our everyday life. The virus of that special kind of pornography has spread to every pore of our existence – political, cultural and essential."

 

[Part 2]

Nokas...Good true story robbery film, usual farcical antics from dibble and robbers alike with a lot of lucky civilians wandering about as it happened. Coming in at 86 minutes which was about right to hold my attention and maintain the suspense. Made me think I should watch Dog Day Afternoon again.

 

[Gramsci]

Kill List: Extremely violent and unsettling British hitman film that gets madder and madder as it goes on. Would probably need to see it again to properly work out the last 15-20 minutes though. There's one fairly clunky plot hole early on that they should have worked harder to smooth over, and the ending owes a great deal to another very famous British film that I won't mention for fear of spoiling things.

Saw this in cinema. It is well shot and effective on big screen. Its also totally bonkers- in a good way. Reminded me a bit of Shane Meadows "Dead Mans Shoes" in its level of the mad violence that simmers underneath the supposedly mild British society.

I particularly liked the way it starts in boring old suburbia. And the way that it ( like Dead Mans Shoes) had 2 characters who were ex soldiers.

I know what u mean. It does use that famous cult film. However that looks mild by comparison.

 

[Part 2]

The end also bears resemblance to A Serbian Film