Jump to content

The last movie I saw was...

LeMarchand

By LeMarchand
in TV & Movies

 Share

Recommended Posts

Garacesh

Garacesh

Posted
Posted

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The first two-thirds of the movie were really interesting. The plot built up slow enough to actually explain itself. Then there was one particular scene that felt so out-of-place. In all fairness, the movie's a 12, so I think it was aimed as a child-pleaser more than anything else, but it really jarred me away for a moment. The ending felt like it had gotten back the feel the rest of the film had.

 

I've never heard of Asa Butterfield before, but I felt he played the main character, Jake, surprisingly well. A little wooden at times, but overall enjoyable. Terence Stamp's role as Jake's Grandfather whilst, short-lived, was surprisingly enthralling. Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Barron was, unfortunately, a massive let-down. His character just felt too cheesy.

  • Thanks 2
LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Flowers of War

 

 

Set during the infamous "Rape of Nanking" this follows a self-centred mortician who ends up posing as a priest to try to save the lives of a group of schoolgirls and the collection of prostitutes who have also taken shelter in the same church. Given that this was (at the time) the most expensive Chinese film ever, and the first to headline a major Western star, it's odd that it got such a poor release. I've been wanting to see it based on the trailer, but only recently tracked it down on one of the more obscure movie channels. (True Entertainment, who appear to use VHS as their preferred broadcast medium).

 

The trailer (and the director's most recent "big" Western releases) make it look like it's going to one of those exquisitely shot but somewhat glacial Chinese movies, but punctuated with moments of stirring heroism. While does contain many beautiful shots and a few such moments, it's more like a traditionally shot film than the 2 mentioned in the trailer and the bit in the trailer with the flag is the main "big" heroic moment. There's still plenty of heroism, but it's much more low key - and heartbreaking - than the trailer leads you to believe.

 

"Inspired by true events" suggests that the writers would just use the historical background for their own story (the film is based on a novel), but amazingly the central premise of the girls and the prostitutes being protected by a westerner, and the terrible sacrifice that has to be made to ensure that some survive seems to have come from real life, except Christian Bale should be a lady missionary.

 

Worth seeing? I "enjoyed" it, but I'm not sure that I'd be able to watch it again as it's quite hard going due to the brutality the girls suffer. Well worth a look if you have the stomach for it, but may be too upsetting for some. (Mme LeMarchand hated it).

Sagima

Sagima

Posted
Posted

We watched Silent Hill at the weekend.

 

It's a film based on the computer game of the same name. I haven't played the computer game, I had vaguely heard of it. I'm assuming they just reshot all of the cut scenes from the game with short action sequences because that is what it felt like I was watching.

 

Not entirely sure why they even bothered with Sean Bean (or the male policeman) - they're in it for about 15 minutes but if they weren't in it at all it really wouldn't have made much/any difference. To be honest the female police officer could have been dropped with little change to the script.

Alice Krige seemed to be the only adult who put any effort into acting although I imagine quite a bit of what everyone else had to react to was cgi (I've seen her in four things and in half of those she was playing the borg queen which might have made her more comfortable with acting/reacting with imaginary cgi thingys)

The girl had quite a bit to do and she did it reasonably well. She wasn't in it that much but as she was the focus of the film she carried the whole thing

 

Don't watch it if you haven't - you'll never get those two hours back! If you liked the computer game I can only imagine how bad you might think the film is!

sparkeh

sparkeh

Posted
Posted

Mockingjay Part 1

 

Halfway through mrs_sparkeh turned to me and said "I think we've watched this...haven't we?" I had a think and realised that we *had* seen it but neither of us remembered it.

Didn't have much of an impact the second time around either! :S

GuyJD

GuyJD

Posted
Posted
Went to see Deepwater Horizon over the weekend and have to say I was expecting it to be better, the problem with "Based on a true story" films is they either have to stay true to the actual events and get you emotionally involved with the characters or go the other way and say the event actually happened but everything else we just made up a bit like James Cameron's Titanic, Deepwater Horizon sort of fell in the middle and did neither of the above very well at all, I walked out feeling a little bit meh.
LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted
We watched Silent Hill at the weekend.

 

I didn't think it was that bad. Have only played some of the first game, but IIRC the film takes bits from various entries in the series and bashes them together.

 

Re Sean Bean - if you think about it, he played almost the opposite of his traditional role.

korifugi

korifugi

Posted
Posted (edited)
All films based on video games are terrible, as are most video games based on films. It's just a rule.

 

Heeey - the first Resident Evil wasn't that bad. Then they added stuff in from the games and it went to poop.

 

FFVII Advent Children was also good.

Edited by korifugi
extra capitalisation
LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Heeey - the first Resident Evil wasn't that bad. Then they added stuff in from the games and it went to poop.

 

FFVII Advent Children was also good.

 

I like the first Mortal Kombat.

 

and Dead or Alive.

ICTDirect_Dave

ICTDirect_Dave

Posted
Posted
FFVII Advent Children was also good.

 

Advent Children is magnificent :D So very pretty!

 

Also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on the C64 was fantastic! Yes I did have to go THAT far back to find a Movie game I liked!

 

 

LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Bridget Jones' Baby

 

Was fun; laughed a fair bit. Not sure that it deserves the heaps of praise it's getting, though. If you want to see a funny film about mothers, I'd recommend Bad Moms instead. Also could not fathom the decision she made.

claireadams

claireadams

Posted
Posted
Watched this last night - Amanda Knox (2016) - IMDb

 

It's movie length, so yes it is a movie.

 

Was interesting. I never really followed much on the story when it happened, so found it interesting. That italian inspector was a bit imaginitive.

 

have around the last 30mins of this left to watch myself

  • Thanks 1
BKGarry

BKGarry

Posted
Posted

Weds night I went and saw The Girl on the Train, which i thoroughly enjoyed.

 

As it is closer to dark nights and I have been stressing at work, me and my friend have been making full use of our Cineworld cards :-)

 

Next movie I am really looking forward to seeing is A Streetcat named bob. Read the books a couple of years ago and they were great (they actually made me cry on more than one occasion) so I can't wait to see it

sparkeh

sparkeh

Posted
Posted (edited)
The Prestige (2006) - IMDb

Two stage magicians engage in competitive one-upmanship in an attempt to create the ultimate stage illusion.

The film was set out rather well and the story had the right twists and turns but the conclusion is flawed and has the usual idiot consequences to the story told. It was OK but the annoyance of the ending ultimately spoils my enjoyment of the film.

Disappointing.

@Galway Yeah I agree with that. The ending was a big let down.

 

A better film about illusions is

Edited by sparkeh

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...