Master And Commander with Russell Crowe and Paul Betthany.
Good, Crowe does his compassionate Richard Burton piece and Betthany great as the ship's doctor, but didn't quite see what new they had to bring to the table really. It had integrity, and lack of any obvious or noticeable CGI was a joy - nothing awful or incongruous, just that Pirates of Caribbean more fun really, did more with it. Master didnt' really have too many plot twists and like Pirates, didn't seem to visually diverse or colourful aside from a flash of bermuda blue. Mostly a dark, dark blue tone to it all. Still, they are at sea. 8-)
Downfall, the German film about the last days of Hitler, seen mostly through the eyes of his young secretary. Absolutely brilliant, and Bruno Ganz is superb as Hitler. His AH is a human being, which makes his monstrous acts--embodied in the film by abandoning the Germans to needless death in the streets of Berlin--all the more monstrous.
I have FINALLY seen this film, and I'd have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, despite its plenty of downfalls. Milla Jovovich was a competant and solid choice for the lead, and the overall cast was impressive. One thing I thought was awful was the large creature roaming the facility, before being involved in the climax at the end - it was the most unrealistic looking thing I've seen for a long time; the effects were quite poor. I think it might have been better had it's original director, George Romero, stuck with the project rather than pulling out for Paul W.S. Anderson to take over.
7.2/10
The Tommyknockers (1993)
Horribly over-long TV-movie in a series of Stephen King novels to be brought to the screen. I saw this once when it was first out and I remember it scaring me a little, but it certainly had nothing of the same effect on me this time. It was interesting watching the story develop, and there was a good cast - but only a few of them gave performances that they could be satisfied with. Notably good were John Ashton, Traci Lords and particularly the late, great E.G. Marshall. But the others such as Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger and particularly Robert Carradine ranged from average to dismal. The ending wasn't satisfying and there was no tension in the climax. I'd avoid unless you're simply curious; I don't know what the book is like, but if it's anything like this then I'll never read it.
4.9/10
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,402Chief of Staff
Downfall, the German film about the last days of Hitler, seen mostly through the eyes of his young secretary. Absolutely brilliant, and Bruno Ganz is superb as Hitler. His AH is a human being, which makes his monstrous acts--embodied in the film by abandoning the Germans to needless death in the streets of Berlin--all the more monstrous.
I really want to watch this film as it has had some good reviews, and you recommendation seems to back those up, Hardyboy.
Watched the first thirty minutes of Pirates Of The Caribbean and had to switch the channel. Started out good, but when Depp meets the two stereotypical nitwit guards and gets them to start arguing amongst each other thus enabling him to get onboard the ship they were guarding. I knew what was going to happen - poor lower class Orlando Bloom is in love with Knightly but her father has his sights on her marriage to the Coupling guy and would never allow such a marriage. However love would conquer all, but only after she gets through the inevitable triangle with Depp.
Watched the first thirty minutes of Pirates Of The Caribbean and had to switch the channel. Started out good, but when Depp meets the two stereotypical nitwit guards and gets them to start arguing amongst each other thus enabling him to get onboard the ship they were guarding. I knew what was going to happen - poor lower class Orlando Bloom is in love with Knightly but her father has his sights on her marriage to the Coupling guy and would never allow such a marriage. However love would conquer all, but only after she gets through the inevitable triangle with Depp.
Well this film appeared on television, and as I generally like Whoopi Goldberg's comedies I thought I'd give it a chance. I found this film generally good fun throughout. She plays a female Axel Foley! Sam Elliott shines in his role, and the cast is generally quite impressive, with a notable, if somewhat unfortunately small performance also from Harris Yulin, a great American actor. None of it made me really laugh, but I had to smile here and there; and it ended in style - a complete bloodbath that took care of about half of the characters at the very least.
If you like Goldberg or Beverly Hills Cop, or maybe the sort of film where an unlikely comic friendship is formed between two characters, then this one is for you. However the plot isn't too strong and some of the jokes might annoy you.
7.5/10
NightshooterIn bed with SolitairePosts: 2,917MI6 Agent
I watched of Mice and Men recently. I actually enjoyed this movie, even though I found the book to be boring. Gary Sinise's performance was pretty good.
I just saw Cruel Intentions on the abc Family channel of all channels. It's about a high school student played by Ryan Philipe from a rich eastern US family and his step sister played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. He seduces women just so he can "conquer" them and his sister just screws with other people's lives for fun. He makes a bet with his sister to seduce a virgin and ends up falling in love with her. This is where the movie gets bad. Philipe's character is so much more interesting when he is a bad guy and this type of plot has been done before a million times. I won't give away the ending, but I will tell you it was a bad ending. Still my roomates and I had a good time making fun of it. I don't even know why I started watching it in the first place because it must have been made for teenage girls.
Finally managed to see this film after two years of looking forward to it. Really interesting I'd have to say, and a good film overall - fine effort. The only flaw I personally felt was infact Johnny Depp's portrayal of Willy Wonka. The character isn't at all warm; you don't feel for him except in the child scenes. As an adult though, the character's sense of humour and strange form of insanity distances him somewhat, and I didn't like that. All of the other characters I actually liked a lot.
The inclusion of the Willy Wonka back story was quite good also, and the whole film was just as dark as you'd expect.
It's topped off with two Bond villains making appearances here and there; Christopher Lee and Geoffrey Holder. Good stuff.
I finally got to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the other day also.
I really enjoyed it.I know it has had very mixed reactions but I thought it was great.I also liked Johnny Depps portrayal of Wonker.I remember the books as a child and I cant remember Wonker as being warm, so I think he got it right.I agree the childhood flashbacks worked well.
I wasn't too sure about the Ompah Lumpas though,thought the original songs were more effective.
I just saw Dukes of Hazzard and then Duece Bigelow II. Don't bother with Dukes of Hazzard, even Burt Reynolds couldn't save it. Duece was ok , it had many funny moments . i.e. the woman in the vale.. But the original was much better
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
I watched 'The Year London Blew Up: 1974' the other day. I didn't watch it til the end but I decided to tape it and so I want to watch the rest of it some time later today.
They classed it as a film and it was on for over 2 hours. It was really interesting because my dad and me had been talking about it on Monday night.
If anyone watched it, you'll remember that the first place 'attacked' if you like, was a pub. It was called 'The Horse and Groom'. It must have been scary for anyone who was in there at the time. But the thing that made shiver was that my dad had been in there earlier. He was one of the lucky people.
Just saw The Transporter 2, I mean Transporter 2. Pretty ridiculous. Most of the acting was laughable and the characters were quite uninteresting. However the car chase was excellent and the action was also rather good. However it contains some CG that rivals DAD in awfulness. And the climatic fight was horrible (our favorite transporter somehow survives a freefall plane crash). The plot reminded me of MI-2 (not exactly a good thing). Still it was a decently entertaining film.
Best Line (Meaning Stupidest Line)
Transporter Frank: Your flight has been cancelled.
Villain (I don't even remember his name): No it is you who has been cancelled!
Saw Kung Fu Hustle this evening. A little bit goes a long, long way; but at its best it's fun and very funny. And there's a Bond connection: the Landlady was played by the same actress who played one of the karate-chopping nieces (the one with shortish hair) in The Man with the Golden Gun.
Caught Willard on cable, Crispin Glover gives another great performance, and seeing the Gunny, R. Lee Ermey as his overbearing boss was fun.
Still, something missing, couldn't buy into that whole army of rats thing, and a few scenes were downright comical - Willard in bed with the white mouse, Socrates, cooing and proclaiming his love. A little much ..
There have been lots of good movies on tv lately that I have been catching bits and pieces of.
Die Hard: Good, but not as good as everyone thinks it is. Bruce has some great lines and the tape thing is classic.
The French Connection: This was my second time seeing this and it was much better than I thought it was the first time. At first I didn't like the ending, but I like it now, it has a sort of mysterious feel to it and I like how they show what happens to people afterwards with the still shots. The still that says "Alain Charnier was never caught." is my favorite. It's just seems to really hammer home the fact that he got away. Did you know that the car chase was actually shot while gene hackman was driving through uncontrolled traffic and red lights?! Still, I don't really see why this won best picture, it was good, but not that good. Does anyone know what the sequel is like, it looked pretty bad.
The Constant Gardener. Wonderful film -- well-told, well-shot, extremely well-played. Not always easy to work with Le Carre as source material, but they did it well here.
Comments
Good, Crowe does his compassionate Richard Burton piece and Betthany great as the ship's doctor, but didn't quite see what new they had to bring to the table really. It had integrity, and lack of any obvious or noticeable CGI was a joy - nothing awful or incongruous, just that Pirates of Caribbean more fun really, did more with it. Master didnt' really have too many plot twists and like Pirates, didn't seem to visually diverse or colourful aside from a flash of bermuda blue. Mostly a dark, dark blue tone to it all. Still, they are at sea. 8-)
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Great!!
I have FINALLY seen this film, and I'd have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, despite its plenty of downfalls. Milla Jovovich was a competant and solid choice for the lead, and the overall cast was impressive. One thing I thought was awful was the large creature roaming the facility, before being involved in the climax at the end - it was the most unrealistic looking thing I've seen for a long time; the effects were quite poor. I think it might have been better had it's original director, George Romero, stuck with the project rather than pulling out for Paul W.S. Anderson to take over.
7.2/10
The Tommyknockers (1993)
Horribly over-long TV-movie in a series of Stephen King novels to be brought to the screen. I saw this once when it was first out and I remember it scaring me a little, but it certainly had nothing of the same effect on me this time. It was interesting watching the story develop, and there was a good cast - but only a few of them gave performances that they could be satisfied with. Notably good were John Ashton, Traci Lords and particularly the late, great E.G. Marshall. But the others such as Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger and particularly Robert Carradine ranged from average to dismal. The ending wasn't satisfying and there was no tension in the climax. I'd avoid unless you're simply curious; I don't know what the book is like, but if it's anything like this then I'll never read it.
4.9/10
I really want to watch this film as it has had some good reviews, and you recommendation seems to back those up, Hardyboy.
Absolutely not...
You should really finish to see this movie...
Well this film appeared on television, and as I generally like Whoopi Goldberg's comedies I thought I'd give it a chance. I found this film generally good fun throughout. She plays a female Axel Foley! Sam Elliott shines in his role, and the cast is generally quite impressive, with a notable, if somewhat unfortunately small performance also from Harris Yulin, a great American actor. None of it made me really laugh, but I had to smile here and there; and it ended in style - a complete bloodbath that took care of about half of the characters at the very least.
If you like Goldberg or Beverly Hills Cop, or maybe the sort of film where an unlikely comic friendship is formed between two characters, then this one is for you. However the plot isn't too strong and some of the jokes might annoy you.
7.5/10
2.5/4
Finally managed to see this film after two years of looking forward to it. Really interesting I'd have to say, and a good film overall - fine effort. The only flaw I personally felt was infact Johnny Depp's portrayal of Willy Wonka. The character isn't at all warm; you don't feel for him except in the child scenes. As an adult though, the character's sense of humour and strange form of insanity distances him somewhat, and I didn't like that. All of the other characters I actually liked a lot.
The inclusion of the Willy Wonka back story was quite good also, and the whole film was just as dark as you'd expect.
It's topped off with two Bond villains making appearances here and there; Christopher Lee and Geoffrey Holder. Good stuff.
8.6/10
I really enjoyed it.I know it has had very mixed reactions but I thought it was great.I also liked Johnny Depps portrayal of Wonker.I remember the books as a child and I cant remember Wonker as being warm, so I think he got it right.I agree the childhood flashbacks worked well.
I wasn't too sure about the Ompah Lumpas though,thought the original songs were more effective.
On the whole I would give it a thumbs up.
Which is an early 80's animated fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi and illustrated by Frank Frazetta.
Finally on DVD
Yay!!!
They classed it as a film and it was on for over 2 hours. It was really interesting because my dad and me had been talking about it on Monday night.
If anyone watched it, you'll remember that the first place 'attacked' if you like, was a pub. It was called 'The Horse and Groom'. It must have been scary for anyone who was in there at the time. But the thing that made shiver was that my dad had been in there earlier.
Best Line (Meaning Stupidest Line)
Transporter Frank: Your flight has been cancelled.
Villain (I don't even remember his name): No it is you who has been cancelled!
Two Stars
Must be a pretty remarkable film, then, considering a cow with such features would be extraordinary herself.
Still, something missing, couldn't buy into that whole army of rats thing, and a few scenes were downright comical - Willard in bed with the white mouse, Socrates, cooing and proclaiming his love. A little much ..
Die Hard: Good, but not as good as everyone thinks it is. Bruce has some great lines and the tape thing is classic.
The French Connection: This was my second time seeing this and it was much better than I thought it was the first time. At first I didn't like the ending, but I like it now, it has a sort of mysterious feel to it and I like how they show what happens to people afterwards with the still shots. The still that says "Alain Charnier was never caught." is my favorite. It's just seems to really hammer home the fact that he got away. Did you know that the car chase was actually shot while gene hackman was driving through uncontrolled traffic and red lights?! Still, I don't really see why this won best picture, it was good, but not that good. Does anyone know what the sequel is like, it looked pretty bad.
Giants of Marathon was OK (The Governator Arnold was a fan of Reeves in his younger days)