Films! good, bad, recomendations, and general film talk

[Jamie]

Some good news from the HBO camp, they are going ahead with season 3 of 'Game of Thrones', which is unsurprising really, but with HBO you never know... Bring back Carnivàle!

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni26016706/

[nfe]

Tentatively good news. Major drop in quality so far and some major streamlining and out of character moments don't bode well. Hopefully it's just to try and quickly introduce characters and trim things a little for mainstream audiences.

[dave_mc]

^ yeah i mean i haven't read the books but at times with this new series i had no clue what was going on

i appreciate that you don't have as much time as with a book, but still

also heard that sky arts is getting the original israeli version of homeland- excellent :D

[nfe]

also heard that sky arts is getting the original israeli version of homeland- excellent :D

I'd like to see that. Be very curious if something that made Israeli telly was as sympathetic to Muslim terrorists.

[WezV]

^ yeah i mean i haven't read the books but at times with this new series i had no clue what was going on

i felt it was an issue with the books as well. there were definite moments where i had to use the family trees in the book to remind me who was who and what had happened to them.

 the second book starts as the second series does, with lots of new characters for you to get to know and love.  It keeps growing this way through out the other books too.

As a TV series i have simialr feeligns to the walking dead - Massive attempts to be true to the source material at first but it dwindles very quickly and tehre is no way either of the Tv series will get as far as the books currently are

[gwEm]

watched a film called 'Moon' last night.. a kind of arty sci-fi. Liked it alot.

[Philly Q]

I've watched a few recently:

Ironclad - OK medieval drama.  Not very historically accurate apparently, but good battle scenes, if nothing else.
Insidious - Not as good as I'd been led to believe, but worth a watch, horror fans.
Red Riding Hood - Complete and utter bollocks in every way.

[dave_mc]

I'd like to see that. Be very curious if something that made Israeli telly was as sympathetic to Muslim terrorists.

well i mean it's based on the israeli one and the guy who made the israeli one is an executive producer on the us series...

i felt it was an issue with the books as well. there were definite moments where i had to use the family trees in the book to remind me who was who and what had happened to them.

 the second book starts as the second series does, with lots of new characters for you to get to know and love.  It keeps growing this way through out the other books too.

As a TV series i have simialr feeligns to the walking dead - Massive attempts to be true to the source material at first but it dwindles very quickly and tehre is no way either of the Tv series will get as far as the books currently are

ah ok

yeah it's even harder on tv :lol:

[WezV]

watched The cabin in the woods last night.  thought it was great, although i guess it wont be for everyone

it takes the clichéd horror film format and completely throws it out the window, it does loose some of the tension of a traditional horror film and has more humour (it is Joss Whedon).   probably not one to see if you like horror films to really scare you, but a must see if you want something a bit different

[juansolo]

watched a film called 'Moon' last night.. a kind of arty sci-fi. Liked it alot.

Moon is a classic. No fighting robots or explosions. Good old-style sci-fi told well. Reminded me of a cross between Silent Running and 2001 (in tone rather than content). Great film.

[Philly Q]

watched The cabin in the woods last night.  thought it was great, although i guess it wont be for everyone

it takes the clichéd horror film format and completely throws it out the window, it does loose some of the tension of a traditional horror film and has more humour (it is Joss Whedon).   probably not one to see if you like horror films to really scare you, but a must see if you want something a bit different

I was initially put off because of the Joss Whedon connection (I think he's talented, but a bit too jokey and smart-arsey).  

And I don't like self-referential horror movies like Scream, which was ultimately just another bad horror movie which inspired another load of inferior sequels and imitations, reinforcing and adding to the clichés rather than subverting them.  I always think of these films as "horror movies for people who don't like horror movies".  They're exploiting a genre which some people love, taking the piss out of it, but sanitising it and flogging it to a mainstream popcorn audience.  

But enough ranting.  :lol:

Anyway, I started to hear some word-of-mouth on The Cabin in the Woods and I started to get interested after all.  Maybe it was worth seeing.

Then I unintentionally saw a trailer.  Gives away so much that it's completely pointless seeing the film (at least until it comes out on Blu-ray/DVD).  Arseholes.  :x

[WezV]

well it is kinda self referential and it  kinda jokey and smart-arsey so it may not be for you

the trailer does give away that there is more going on - but i still found the actual story surprising

I would say its a horror movie for people who do like horror movies - yes its purposely subverting the genre, but not taking the piss out of it the way the scream series does

[juansolo]

One I enjoyed more than I expected to recently was the Thing remake/prequel. I'm going to be a harsh critic of it as I consider Carpenter's Thing in the top 3 monster movies of all time (Alien and Cronenberg's The Fly being the other two). So I went in expecting a travesty and found myself quite enjoying it.

What's good is that it's quite reverential to the Carpenter film and sticks rigidly to things that happen in it. That also counts against it as you know exactly how things are going to turn out. I suppose knowing that removes a bit of suspense, but I don't see how it could have been done any other way. The other thing that jars slightly is the need for a couple of Americans in there. I understand why however and they mostly get away with it.

Finally the Thing itself. The reason the original worked as well as it did was down to what Carpenter could do with very little and he was at the very peak of his powers on the Thing. The new film is a little hobbled by modern CGI (I know it's animatronics enhanced by CGI in this...) and the modern need to show you how impressive it is in absolute graphic detail. Which leaves nothing to the imagination. Carpenter would keep it dark and give you a glimpse of what was in the darkness. Which just works better. As such when it does split open for the umpteenth time, it's no shock. It, and to be fair a lot of modern horror, has lost that impact and suspense.

It's worth a watch though. Carpenters film is an utter masterpiece (and needs seeing first if this has somehow passed you by), this is kind of a nice companion piece to go with it which you can enjoy even if you really liked the original.

[Modular1]

watched a film called 'Moon' last night.. a kind of arty sci-fi. Liked it alot.

Great film. The directorial debut of David Bowies son. Source Code (his second) wasn't too shabby either.

[nfe]

watched a film called 'Moon' last night.. a kind of arty sci-fi. Liked it alot.

Moon is a classic. No fighting robots or explosions. Good old-style sci-fi told well. Reminded me of a cross between Silent Running and 2001 (in tone rather than content). Great film.

This post reminded me I'd never seen Silent Running so I watched it last night. Quite enjoyed it aside from the honking Baez tunes. So cheers.

It's now inspired me to go back and watch the other stuff from that wee blitz of 70s sci fi like Dark Star, THX1138 and Solaris.