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The Film Thread


DeadlyDirk

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finallly got around to watching Skyfall last night - as Bond's go, it is up with the best of them - certainly better than the last serving Quantum of Bollocks.

Bardem was quality and the sequences in London, some of the best for a long time.

Obviously teed up nicely for the next one! Wonder if Sam Mendes will direct again?

Tonight we have War Horse to watch - although don't think I'm in the right mood for it...

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Just watched Drive. Remember it getting generally positive reviews on here, with a few bad ones thrown in. A couple of friends had recommended it quite highly.

I was worried after the first 15 minutes or so that Gosling's character was going to piss me off. However, in the end I really enjoyed it. Got reading about it, as I often do after watching a film, and came across a terrible review (in that the review itself is awful, rather than the writer's verdict on the film) on the Guardian website - here.

I like how he claims to have watched the film twice, but has completely misunderstood the 5 minute rule that the driver has.

Anything he's written loses credibility for that.

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Cool Hand Luke on DVD last night with my sons. There is obviously an age between 10 and 15 where this film goes from "nothing's happening, I'm bored" to "this is a great film". I think it's to do with the car washing scene!

Then watched Kill List on Film 4. Really not my sort of film, but pretty enjoyable. Thought I'd be more disconcerted by a film like that, but I found it entertaining.

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Someone on here spoiled the M death twist. Not explicitly, but they said something like "Can't believe they kept the twist secret" so as soon as the storyline went down the M assassination route, i assumed she was going to die. This is what i meant by it's not very Bond. Didn't strike me as a typical Bond storyline. But I liked it, played on that mother/son relationship that they've built on with the Craig films.

i hadnt seen anything official but as soon as i knew Ralph Fiennes had been cast i thought it was a bit too obvious that Dench was stepping down

watched argo, thought it was great, really is stranger than fiction, not sure its good enough to smash award season like i hoped it would be but it'll be nominated for lots, brilliantly cast and shot, the neat touch of using the old WB logo is a sign of things to come, thought they nailed the period

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i hadnt seen anything official but as soon as i knew Ralph Fiennes had been cast i thought it was a bit too obvious that Dench was stepping down

watched argo, thought it was great, really is stranger than fiction, not sure its good enough to smash award season like i hoped it would be but it'll be nominated for lots, brilliantly cast and shot, the neat touch of using the old WB logo is a sign of things to come, thought they nailed the period

That's a good point. I didn't make that connection myself. But as soon as it became obvious that he wasn't the arsehole he was introduced to be, and was actually going to be a decent bloke, it made sense.

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I watched Taste of Cherry. 'sfilm about a bloke who drives around the iranian countryside in his land rover and kills himself. There's a really odd Holy Mountain-esque ending, which breaks the fourth wall. I'm not sure what it was supposed to symbolise. At all. I was hoping for a little more substance. Quite disappointed.

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Saw Skyfall yesterday. Thought it was by far the best of the new ones. Probably haven't enjoyed a Bond that much since GoldenEye. Not that I didn't like Casino Royale or QoS, but I much preferred the lack of convolution, the humour (riding a Komodo dragon? **** YES) and Bardem's 'Frank-N-Furter-as-a-Bond-villain'. Great stuff.

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Excellent character based drama. Well acted throughout (Michael Shannon his usual top drawer quality) and a nice, slow burning storyline about a family feud. No signposting of the story, nothing over the top and obvious, just a very well observed and well made movie.

Same Director Jeff Nichols also directed Take Shelter (with Shannon again) and his next movie 'Mud' stars Matthew McConaughey in what's being described as another top performance. He's on a bit of a roll at the moment isn't he? :)

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Seeking A Friend For The End of The World - with steve carrell and keira knightley - a very sweet drama/rom-com I thought. I do like Steve Carrell and this was very nicely done. Combined humour sensibly within the tone of the narrative.

The Watch - Moss, what are you doing?! First bit was so poor and whilst it picked up as the film went on it never got above 'slightly naff' for me. I have seen more irritating stiller and vaughn films but also better ones ( starsky and hutch )

probably not as bad as some of the reviews I have since read of it, though. (Ringing endorsement that)

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I'll rattle through a few movies I've watched recently

Ted - Very funny, such a good idea for a comedy.

Bernie - Not a very good black comedy

Total Recall - yes the remake, less said the better bar Kate Beckinsale is absurdly hot in it.

The Hunger Games - Dreadful and epically boring.

Get the Gringo - Not the worst way to waste an evening

Moonrise Kingdom - Another excellent Anderson flick

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Very boring isn't it.

Pretty much.

I quite like the Assassination of Jesse James... and that can hardly be called a rip roaring action movie but it looks incredible and has superb atmosphere and great performances. But Killing Them Softly... blimey. It manages something that should be impossible. It's only just over 90mins long, but feels both longer than that, and shorter. Longer, because like the directors previous film, it takes it's time over everything, long dialogue sequences being the prerequisite, which slows the film to a crawl. But also shorter, because nothing happens. The entire film feels like the first act in a gangster epic, it feels like set up from start to end for a bigger story. It proves deeply unsatisfying.

It's a film with something to say, no problem with that, but this has the filmic equivalent of someone with a megaphone screaming their argument at you. 80% of scenes have some reference to the economy, but they're too obvious - this a film where everyone's radio is tuned into economic/political discussion or rhetoric, every TV has political debate or commentary on it, there are a few on the nose bits of dialogue making reference to the economical situation in 2008, and there are a few conspicuous shots of things related to politics and economics (to the extent the film opens with shots of McCain and Obama campaign posters). In fact the problem with all of these references are they are too conspicuous. It smacks you around the head with it.

And it is boring. It's so boring. Worthy, but bloody dull.

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You summed it up perfectly there. My mate summed it up accurately with the sentence, "it's a short boring film where nothing happens."

I agree with all of that, plus must mention James Gandolfinis scenes are among the most dull and boring I've ever seen in a film. An amazing achievement.

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