movie recommendations

[Art Blade]

well said, fragger... SFX should be the icing on top, rather  :)

[RedRaven]

Has anyone seen the new Robin Hood film ? ? ?

Is it 'Must see at the Cinema' film or a 'Wait for the Dvd' kind of movie ?

Not really a fan of Russell Crow's w@&k to date, although Cate Blanchett is a very good actress, and Ridley Scott has directed some of my favourite films. The 'Robin Hood' story has been told so many times in so many different styles & genres on both Big and Small screen I wonder if yet another version is going to add to it.

  The animated Disney version with animals as the characters is my fave, and one of the funniest too ;D

[Art Blade]

The new RH? Is it the one when they bury him on top of his warderobe?

[fragger]

Lol, Art ;D ;D ;D

No Red, haven't seen that one as yet, I think I might wait for the DVD, if I see it at all. I agree, Ridley Scott has made some terrific films, some of his are my faves too. I also am not a huge Crowe fan, although I didn't mind him too much in Gladiator. Robin Hood, though...:-\ you're right, he's been done to death.

[Art Blade]

I also watched Sherlock Holmes, which I really enjoyed. A lot more mainstream than District 9, but quite a fun and clever movie, even though it is, shall we say, far-fetched. I found it very entertaining though. And if you're into period stuff, the depiction of late-19th century London is superb.

I've never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels, but I've heard that the way Holmes is portrayed in this movie is far closer to the original character than any of the Basil Rathbone-style film portrayals, ie. he's brilliant, but a total eccentric. Quite funny at times.

I watched Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law was funny and very British, while Robert Downey jr. in my opinion was a bad choice for one of the most English characters there are... why cast an American actor for that role? Don't get me wrong, the way he acts is great, I always liked him, but for crying out loud... he didn't even try to sound British. For example, in A Knight's Tale , Alan Tudyk (from Texas, USA) did a splendid job mimicking an English accent. Then I didn't know he was American, and imagine my surprise when I learned he was. And that was only a bit part. Mr Downey is a good actor no doubt (anyone seen him in The Soloist ?) but heck, Sherlock Holmes? Alright, that aside, the flick was a good show and entertaining, if you ignored everything you knew about the original. I liked the film as such, although or because it was sometimes a little over the top :)

[JRD]

I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes... it's a reboot of the old Sherlock created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A 21th century concept of "hero" applied to a 19th century character.

What I liked in that movie is that the way his mind works, how he finds out what happened, how the mistery is solved... all of that remais the way it is in the books. They didn't came up with a new character and simply named it Sherlock Holmes, they made it faithfull to the original one.

Ok, the original one would never fight like Downey Jr does, but hey... it's an action movie in 2010, what did you expected?  ;)

And Jude Law is great in that movie... usually, the side character is created such as it enhances the qualities of the main character... a dumb assistant to show how clever the hero is, a coward companion to show how brave is the knight and so on. Watson, in this sense, brings balance to the duo... he has his feet on the ground whereas Sherlock is a twisted person, without him, Sherlock is screwed!

Those were a couple of hours well spent for me... great fun!! :-X :-X

[fragger]

Glad you guys liked Sherlock, I thought it was a bit of fun as long as you don't take it seriously, which you're not supposed to anyway.

On a more somber note, we watched "The Road" yesterday...
...I'd give it a 6/10 but be prepared for a depressing 2 hours. Definately not for kids.

You got that right Rica, I watched this the other night. Certainly not a "feel-good" movie ;D I thought it was a very good production technically, but yeah, one of the most depressing films I've seen. I had to watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" again afterwards to get myself back up out of the dumps ;D I did enjoy it though, morose as it was.

One thing about The Road, and I'm finding this with a lot of films these days - the actors mumble a lot. I could only catch about every third word. At one point I actually yelled, "Speak up, dammit!" at the screen in exasperation. Top name actors often get paid fortunes to play these roles, so the least they could do is open their gobs a bit more, exercise their tongues and enunciate properly. They don't have to speak like Lawrence Olivier, just be coherent.

I also watched a sci-fi movie called "Moon". My advice - don't bother (zzz). One of the most dumbass movies I've seen lately. Even the visuals were crap, and that's saying something in these days of whizbang CG potential.

[Art Blade]

lol, I once watched "dark side of the moon" (careful, there are at least three films with that title, I mean this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099364/ )

...and after several attempts trying to convince myself not to quit watching, I quit watching. Like, after 50% of the film, max. OH MY GOD was that a crap movie  ;D

[PZ]

I watched Avatar in 3D at the theater, and discovered that it was not overdone as so many of the other 3D movies.  I actually enjoyed the 3D effects in high definitionsso the video was OK for me despite the weak plot.

[JRD]

When Inglorious Basterds was mentioned on this topic, I rushed and got a copy of two great Tarantino movies I really enjoy. One is, of course, Pulp Fiction.

The other one I watched yesterday - Reservoir Dogs

Man, what a movie... everything rely on actors performance and dialogs... low budget movie with great names and a crude story!

That`s Tarantino in great shape doing what he does best!

[Art Blade]

Pulp Fiction is classic...  :-X Reservoir Dogs is just brutal. Not bad, but rather brutal as in mindless insane brutal.  :)

[Art Blade]

Right now I've finished watching a Swedish film (hello deadman  :) ) which was really nicely done. Män som hatar kvinnor (English Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

You do know yhat it´s a trilogy don´t you? the third movie just opened here in sweden a few weeks ago.

Only now I got the second part (going to watch it), and the third part will be out in late 2010 (as in q4)... they do take their time  >:(

[JRD]

Pulp Fiction is classic...  :-X Reservoir Dogs is just brutal. Not bad, but rather brutal as in mindless insane brutal.  :)

Yes, it`s violent, I agree. But it`s not the violence that makes me think this is a great movie. What I like about it is that you get to know what`s going on as the dialog goes on along with the movie. You know the characters and the story little by little and almost all scenes are indoors in that shed, an office or the restaurant at the opening scene. It could even be a theater play! No special effects, no fancy location to create an atmosphere, only dialogue and actors performance!

Pulp fiction is even more violent, but again... it`s a classic!  8)

[tehsam016]

Haha yeah. Despite it's ridiculous amounts of cheesiness I still kinda liked Waterworld :P, hasn't really been any other movie like it, but that's probably a good thing too lol.

[Art Blade]

Same, not too bad, really. Kind of a mixture of Mad Max and The Abyss  ;D

[tehsam016]

Hah yeah exactly, it's funny Dennis Hopper was in the Abyss too, good actor, he will be missed.

[fragger]

I can't remember - who did Dennis Hopper play in The Abyss?

Btw - and I guess this is veering towards the topic "Movie Recommendations", - has anyone seen the Director's Cut of that movie? There's quite a lot of extra footage, and there is a lot more to the final scenes as there was in the theatrical release. It's well worth checking out if you liked the "vanilla" version of the film.

[Art Blade]

Good tip, will keep my eyes peeled :)

[Art Blade]

I guess this is veering towards the topic "Movie Recommendations"

Good point, I just merged those topics  ;) :-X

[fragger]

Cheers :) You know how it is with us meandering old fogeys

[Art Blade]

my pleasure :) Yeah, I know that perfectly well  8)

[JRD]

I don't remember Dennis Hopper in The Abyss either...

I know Ed Harris plays the main character - a hell of an actor this Ed Harris fellow, btw.

Wait... I don't remember Dennis Hopper because I guess he's not in the movie  ???

After that movie (Abyss) I always discussed with some friends about the diving vest he wear in the end, the one that fill his lungs with a liquid so he can stand the enormous pressure down in the abyss. I was diving very often back then and always wondered if it was really possible.

Anyway, if a sci-fi movie can come up with such an elaborated gimmick, then it ought to be good!  :-X :-X :-X

[fragger]

I know Ed Harris plays the main character - a hell of an actor this Ed Harris fellow, btw.

Totally agree, he's one of my faves.

After that movie (Abyss) I always discussed with some friends about the diving vest he wear in the end, the one that fill his lungs with a liquid so he can stand the enormous pressure down in the abyss. I was diving very often back then and always wondered if it was really possible.

Remember the scene where the Navy Seal demonstrates the breathing fluid on that guy's pet rat? That was for real, the rat - actually, one of 5 rats used in various takes - really was breathing the "oxygenated flurocarbon emulsion" in that scene (the real stuff is called "perfluorocarbon"). After they filmed the scene, they even went to the trouble of having a vet examine the rat to make sure it was OK. In fact, all 5 rats survived the takes.

So theoretically, it is possible for a human diver to breathe the fluid, but whether it would really aid in high-pressure dives is arguable and probably just a movie device.

Here's some info:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1028001

[Art Blade]

geez.. thanks for the info, fragger  :)

[JRD]

Just watched a movie during a flight last weekend!

GREEN ZONE

With Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass - both from the Bourne series!

I was bored so I chose an action movie to make time goes faster. At first it seemed like just another war movie where you don`t have to think. Turns out it`s a great thriller and full of good action sequences!

Matt Damon plays a US Sargent whose mission is to find weapons of mass destruction in occupied Iraq in 2003. His task proves to be a tough one as we all know - no WMD there at all! It all starts to get better when he decides to find out what is going on and why are they being lied to by their own government. Journalists, CIA agents and Iraqi leaders play key characters as the flick goes on!

As I saw it on a tiny screen at the plane, I`m looking forward to get my hands on a proper DVD and watch it in good wide screen with good surround!  8)