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

[Plenum n Heather]

Saw 2 good Asian films recently (on DVD)

The Grandmaster is  a Wuxia/art movie about Yip Man during the Japanese occupation. This period has been covered several times in Chinese cinema, notably from Jet Li's Fist of Legend and Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury.

I really liked it, though I feel Zhang Yiyi is in danger of being typecast at this point; she plays virtually the same character in every Wuxia film!

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and viewed it as Crouching Tiger done right, as far as Wuxia is concerned. (Hard to beat Ang Lee when it comes to the artsy aspect, tho) I have a couple of issues with it, namely that it presupposes that you know who every character already is and that you can read Chinese. :)



Ruroni Kenshin is the live action film based off the popular manga. The movie is very true to the comic, and the fight scenes are FANTASTIC.

The acting is just so-so, as is also expected from a comic adaptation, with the exception of the actor who plays Jinei. He is awesome. There are also a few scenes of very gory wholesale MURDER which are so far outside the bounds of what we are used to seeing in American cinema, it was a bit shocking.

Still, an enjoyable film if for nothing more than the stellar swordplay.

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[Mr. Air]

Battleship

If you'd told me someone had made a film featuring both Rihanna and Tadanobu Asano in leading roles I never would've believed you.  But as it turned out, I quite enjoyed it.  As films based on Hasbro games go, it's better than Transformers, at any rate.

I think the first Transformers movie was better than Battleship. Transformers 2 and 3 were both pretty lame.

[_tom_]

Redline. Really really awesome anime film!

[Philly Q]

The Baytown Outlaws

One of those wannabe-Tarantino films, like The Boondock Saints or Smokin' Aces..... flashy, violent, all the characters strut around delivering their lines with that "ain't this clever" sort of air..... but I really liked it (I like those other two films too!)

[Lezard]

Redline. Really really awesome anime film!

I do like a good anime, will give it a look.


Saw Evil Dead and Iron man 3 this week.
Evil Dead was good fun, lots of little references for fans but not done in an overly distracting way and some very nice practical effects.
Iron man 3 was meh, some good performances but several pretty stupid setpieces stifled my enjoyment.

[Philly Q]

I've been watching some horror movies this bank holiday weekend:

Community
Before Dawn
Silent Hill: Revelation
We Are The Night

The first two are micro-budget British efforts (Before Dawn is a zombie movie directed by and starring Dominic Brunt aka Paddy out of Emmerdale).  The Silent Hill sequel is complete and utter garbage.  And the latter film is a German vampire movie which, whilst hardly very original, does at least have a bit of style and is well worth watching.

[Brow]

Iron man 3 was meh, some good performances but several pretty stupid setpieces stifled my enjoyment.

I saw Iron Man 3 this week and my opinion pretty much lines up with yours.

I found it to be strangely pased for a superhere/comic book film, a bit like the 1st Hulk film where you don't see the main character until an hour into it.

[_tom_]

Finally got round to seeing Django Unchained last night, I loved it. It was really long but didnt feel like it. Standout performances are Dr Schulz and Mr Candy, so good. I wish Tarentino wouldn't bother starring in his own films though, he's always cr@p!

[Ian Price]

Hmmm, must watch Django Unchained at some point.

I've started watching Hannibal in the last few days. Pretty decent so far - Mads Mikkelsen is impressing so far.

[Philly Q]

I've started watching Hannibal in the last few days. Pretty decent so far - Mads Mikkelsen is impressing so far.

I haven't seen the Hannibal series (I hope it's better than the films!), but Mads Mikkelsen is a top class actor.

[Ian Price]

I'm only 2 episodes in but already I'm pretty hooked. It's not like the films at all at the moment.

[Brow]

I guess I'll be the 1 to kind of disagree with Tom about Django  :lol:

I've got and seen all the other Tarantino films and this 1 also has his familiar stamp of: death, lots of talking, death, lots of talking repeat. I also felt it went on far too long. I'm not saying it's a bad film by any means, I just think it could've been shortened considerably.

I've also been watching Hannibal and it took me a few episodes to settle into it. I'm a big fan of the 4 books and the films in the series, and am still not completely sure of how I feel about Mads Mikkelsens take on the character, but it's starting to pick up a bit more steam now and I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going.

[Philly Q]

I guess I'll be the 1 to kind of disagree with Tom about Django  :lol:

I've got and seen all the other Tarantino films and this 1 also has his familiar stamp of: death, lots of talking, death, lots of talking repeat. I also felt it went on far too long. I'm not saying it's a bad film by any means, I just think it could've been shortened considerably.

I know exactly what you mean, Tarantino's films always have moments of brilliance but he seems to find it very difficult to self-edit and control his massive inclination to show off.  I like his films, sort of, but I also find them very, very annoying.  I still haven't seen Inglourious Basterds (have I spelled that correctly?) and I'm hesitant about watching Django Unchained, too.

By the way, everyone should see Sergio Corbucci's original Django with Franco Nero, now that is a classic!  :)

[WezV]

I really like Hannibal.   Nice to see some traditional luthiery made it into the most recent episode too

[Philly Q]

A double bill of Greek mythology - Immortals and Clash of the Titans (remake). 

The former is quite stylish but the script is almost non-existent.  The latter is better than I expected, but why on earth has wooden, dead-eyed Sam Worthington got an acting career?  :?

Edit:  I've watched Wrath of the Titans now, as well.  Felt like watching a computer game with a really disappointing Final Boss, but it's maybe a bit better than Clash... Bill Nighy helps it along, and even Worthington gives a better performance.