The movie thread

[chickendippers]

I can't believe we didn't have one of these before! Post your movie reviews, news etc.

I'm gonna kick things off with Narnia; I think it's an awesome film, probably the best I've seen this year. The direction is awesome the cinamatography is the best I've ever seen, both my girlfriend and I were wowed by the sweeping views over the british countryside at the start and the use of slow motion in the battle scene. Generally the CGI is good, although there are a few questionable bits but it hardly spoils the film.

The story itself, well we know it's good; it is a bit wierd that they keep refering to the younger of the two boys by his full name (Edmund) throughout the entire film, but that's how it was written I suppose.
People say it's a very racist, or bible-bashing book (therefore film) but in all honestly I didn't pick up on any of that, all I got was a battle between good (the humans and other nice mythical creatures) and bad (the ice queen and her horrible orcs). If this is non-PC then so is LOTR.


So in conclusion: The Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe > Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Score: *****

[MadBadger]

gota admit the Christian aspect was blown out over the top thou in Nania

SAW2- (18 )
Mad Psycho takes 6 people from various walks of life all with a secret. Then 1 by 1 they are put through 'trials' and killed in various sickening/ghastly ways (watch out for the furnace i thought that was real bad) The cop from the first saw tracks down the Psycho and is in for a surprise..... great ending leaving SAW3 wide open :D

Easily
*****
good film



The Descent- (18 )
6 fit girls go caving after one of them loses there husband....... enter first 30 min of fit girls getting wet and crawling through narrow passages with..... viewer friendly angles :D Then the monsters attack (and not the mythical kind)

Great film extremal Shiite ending DVD may have alternate ending..... i hope.
*** (maybe a 4th star but ending still screws it up)


Team America: World Police (12 A )
Group of American super cops take on terror from Paris to North Korea..... In the Style of the Gerri Anderson puppet shows :D (Thunderbirds, Captain scarlet, Stingray) Ohh and did i mention a large A-list of 'stars' who are just perfectly insulted and imitated. Micheal Moore running around and blowing himself up cant be missed nor can the Team blowing up most of Paris :D

Very good Very funny film.
****

[chickendippers]

Only 4 stars for Team America? I would have definately given it 5!

[The Eagle]

Gah, i was gonna get it in town but then i remembered i was shopping for other people :p

[chickendippers]

I saw The Da Vinci Code yesterday and I must say it was an excelent film. Having not read the book and generally ignoring what people say about it I managed to come to the film without any preconceptions, and I'm glad I did - it's an excelent film!
Tom Hanks comes across very well being all serious, but things really pick up when Sir Ian Mcellen appears; the excentric old man character really lightens up the film and provides a bit of a break from the "being chased by the police" attitude that preceeded him. The plot twists and turns, but it's never difficult to follow and you're always on-top of what's going on.

Score: ****

[chickendippers]

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 is two-parter and as such it doesn't have an ending, it just sets up the third movie for a big battle which is a bit annoying. But that can be forgiven because the movie itself is funny and action-packed. Each character has their own motivation to be after the same artifacts so it turns into Mission Impossible by the end :p
The CGI is impressive as ever with Davy Jones and his crew looking particularly life-like...not sure about the scottish accent though.

Score: ****

[MadBadger]

SuperMan Teh Return

Man o' Steel returns from holiday.... to the remains of Krypton. Lex Luthor blags some old ladies riches gets outa jail and gets a Kryptonite Dildo to wave at superman. Lex raids Supermans fortress of solitude and nicks ****.... and causes alota probs iin the mean time.

Some decent set pieces like the plane, ship and earthquake..... thou not enough to be honist..... hopefuly its just being set up for the next one....

great CGI but the storys a bit lame... Spacey is great as Lex, Superman.... could be better.... Louis.... meh shes ok....

Rating
***

Go see it but try and sneak in! :D


As for POTC2

I loooove ma apples! Best bit of the damn film!

[chickendippers]

Stormbreaker
A kids action movie, but a good one at that and another British film with high production values. The action is good, the special effects impressive and the story funny in all the right places - especially the M-like character played by Bill Nighy. The cast is also pretty star-studded and includes Ewan Mcgregor, Jimmy Carr, Robbie Coltrane, Steven Fry and Alicia Silverstone. The story itself is nothing special; the usual evil guy wants to kill every kid in the country and the only person who can stop him is our hero Alex, but then you don't go see action movies for the storyline!

My one criticism is that I want hair like Alex - grrrr.

Score: ****


Over the Hedge
A film with a sickening moral about family and an action movie actor attempting to play a cute cartoon animal doesn't bode well for this film, but it's quite amusing so can be forgiven. The storyline is an interesting one in which RJ steals (and subsequently looses) a bear's food stash, he is given 7 days to get it back. He conveniently meets up with an assortment of animals whose habitat has just been replaced with a housing development and tricks them into helping him replace the lost food.

Score: ***

[Fenris]

Starship Troopers

Tagline - They Came to Our Planet, They destroyed our cities, But on November 7th, They'll learn, They messed, With the wrong species.

Set on the future earth, Johnny rico is a young student dating a girl named Carmen. When Carmen decides to join the military in order to become a class citizen (citizenship is only achieved through serving your country), Johnny follows and joins as well. He soon realizes that he joined for the wrong reasons but just as he is about to quit, an asteroid that originated from the orbit of planet "klendathu" hits Buenos Aires (his home town) and kills his family. Johnny and his fellow troopers set out to destroy the planet's inhabitants: a type of deadly and very large scaled space bugs.The fight is on to ensure the safety of humanity.

[EatsP1es]

Superman (another quick review)

thought the storyline was pretty weak and the connection with the characters wasn't deep enough to make it good. Saw it at IMAX (as in massive screen =P) with 3D glasses for some bits and whatnot and that was the ONLY THING which made it worth seeing.

**(*)

[chickendippers]

lol I like the star in brackets. I saw Batman Begins on an IMAX screen and i'm sure it makes the film seem better, although it's a good film anyway.

[Fenris]

Monster Man (2003)

Memorale quotes form Monster Man
-Monster Man- Wussies!
-Harley- I fell like we just played Drop the Soap with Godzilla, man!

A beautiful woman, a backwoods, inbred monster man, a super sweet monster truck, a road kill zombie brother and 2 friends...one anal retentive, overly sensitive nerd and the other a foul mouthed, adolescent slob. Throw them all together with a dash of Jeepers Creepers, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Road Trip and you've got Monster Man. A hilarious horror/comedy outing that never sets out to "say something". It's a simple, straight forward laugh fest. Unpretentious and well made, this horror/comedy is at its heart, a buddy flick. This film offered some hilarious and sickening set pieces. I highly recommend this to fright fans looking to be entertained.

[chickendippers]

Borat
Nothing needs to be said about this film; funniest thing ever!

Score: *****


James Bond: Casino Royale
As everyone knows it's a departure from the traditional suave bond of recent films and the action is certainly more reminiscent of the current generation of films in the same genre. However the film still retains many of the important bond elements; the credits with awesome theme which is very James Bondey (although noticeably lacking in babes), the innuendo and funny one-liners.
Daniel Craig certainly plays a more human Bond as opposed to the suave role that was written for Pierce Brosnan, my favourite scene was the torture scene which had every man in the cinema wincing but was simultaneously amusing.
The high stakes poker game was an interesting break from the action and I'm sure it posed a challenge to the film makers to make it interesting, it certainly succeeds in building up tension and is interspersed with brief action scenes for those who can't go 5 minutes without seeing some blood!

Score: *****

[Rodge]

V For Vendetta

goes off in a world very similar to ours, except some kind of Big-Brother government is ruling in England. One Man goes psychotic on London and start wrecking havoc and killing ppl who all have some dark secret from the past. Great explosions, Exotic battlescenes and a little romance between the star from The Matrix and the star of Star Wars (Hugo -Mr Smith- Weaving and Nathalie -Padmé- Portman). Special ending.


Overal, it's my favorite movie ever, following in line is 'Equilibrium' (Also about a special government, guess what movies I like...)

Score: *****

[chickendippers]

I can't say I thought Equilibrium was the best film I've ever seen. I did laugh when the guards surrounded the main character so that he could kill them with the special move he was teaching them at the start

[MadBadger]

V For Vendetta

goes off in a world very similar to ours, except some kind of Big-Brother government is ruling in England. One Man goes psychotic on London and start wrecking havoc and killing ppl who all have some dark secret from the past. Great explosions, Exotic battlescenes and a little romance between the star from The Matrix and the star of Star Wars (Hugo -Mr Smith- Weaving and Nathalie -Padmé- Portman). Special ending.


Overal, it's my favorite movie ever, following in line is 'Equilibrium' (Also about a special government, guess what movies I like...)

Score: *****

im sorry.... thats BS....

'One man goes psychotic and killing ppl who all have some dark secret from the past'?

wtf? The people he kills are all people who have driven England into the dictatorship nightmare it is! Sure he kills the people from the Detention Center but its not for him its also for Valerie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaH85QH6Tzo). they were both torured there by the Goverment who were also responsible for 3 chemical attacks on England and then blaming it on the 'Gays' and Muslems. The all deserved it FFS! Valerie's Autobiography is one of the most moving parts i have ever seen in any film yet you neglect to mention it! (or Big Ben getting blown up :p )



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaH85QH6Tzo

[Rodge]

im sorry.... thats BS....

'One man goes psychotic and killing ppl who all have some dark secret from the past'?

wtf? The people he kills are all people who have driven England into the dictatorship nightmare it is! Sure he kills the people from the Detention Center but its not for him its also for Valerie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaH85QH6Tzo). they were both torured there by the Goverment who were also responsible for 3 chemical attacks on England and then blaming it on the 'Gays' and Muslems. The all deserved it FFS! Valerie's Autobiography is one of the most moving parts i have ever seen in any film yet you neglect to mention it! (or Big Ben getting blown up :p )



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaH85QH6Tzo


well, there is that, but i wasn't going to give it all away, wasn't planning on giving spoilers... ow well...

[MadBadger]

well, there is that, but i wasn't going to give it all away, wasn't planning on giving spoilers... ow well...


I supose so... good point :p

[chickendippers]

Die Hard 4.0
A good old-fashion action movie, no complicated plot line to be confused by and plenty of explosions and crazy action scenes to keep every man happy. Yippie Kiay Mother!

Score: ****


Happy Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
IMO the worst of the novels certainly translates into the worst of the movies so far; nothing much really happens and the battle at the end feels crammed in to the last 5 minutes. Another stunning*cough* performance from Daniel Radcliffe, the rest of the cast were excellent as usual.

Score: ***


Bourne Ultimatum
Excellent. Action, intrigue and a strong plotline that so cleverly brings together parts from the previous two films. There's nothing new in this film in terms of the action that you haven't already seen in the Bourne series, but everything is bigger, better and the camera shakier!

Score: *****

[EatsP1es]

=P

i hear the simpsons movie is pretty mediocre - anyone seen it?



rush hour 3 was class though, the action was good, as was the joking - though it did seem they went a little too far to try and be funny ALL the time. the ending let me down badly.

[chickendippers]

Dunno, both my brother and g/f have said that it's hilarious! Can't wait to see Rush Hour 3 though!

The Pursuit of Happyness
Not my usual film fare, but good nonetheless. It's an inspirational and true tale of an American fallen on hard times living in the gutter who works his way into a training program and eventually gets a job despite impossible odds. God Bless America! Cynicism aside, Will Smith and his real-life son are very good together, finally a non-annoying child actor. A very touching tale.

Score ***(*)

[chickendippers]

UP
Wow, what can I say, this is not at all what I expected from a cutsey cartoon film from Disney Pixar. The beginning was so sad; starting with a shy kid called Carl meeting a loud-mouth girl followed by a montage through their life.

When the (now) elderly widower is forced out of his house he decides to attach thousands of balloons to his house and fly to South America to find the location he and his wife dreamed about. He is on his way, when he finds an annoying young "wilderness ranger" (read Scout) has tagged along. With no hope of returning the child to his parents Carl is forced to look after him and deal with his annoyances.

Without spoiling anything, the ending is heart-warming and very touching. I went into this film with no expectations, but it totally had me on the back-foot. Definitely recommended, but not if you need cheering up!