Got Sky Movies and anytime+, selection of a load of films and the first one I watch is Sphere.

What a mistake that was.

Fellini - The White Sheik. Not impressed 5/10.

otfgoon wrote:

Got Sky Movies and anytime+, selection of a load of films and the first one I watch is Sphere.

What a mistake that was.

Sphere, as in the one with Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone? I thought that was a great movie

watched a few movies today..

The Sicilian Girl (Italian - was pretty decent)

The Mechanic (Jason Statham - if you like Statham - which we do, this was a really good movie)

Vanishing on 7th Street - watching now, too early to tell

Saw Pirates of the Carribean 4 yesterday. The episodes/concept have lost their appeal for me, so this might be the last of them I'll be seeing.

I thought Thor was quite good.

Only movie i'm actually looking forward to this summer is X-Men First Class.

I wasn't impressed with Thor. Also felt the 3D was not a big bonus. Even G-Force had better 3D, at least in the trailers.
Fast Five was definite value for money. I'm not looking forward to summer movies. Maybe Super 8 does a job, but I'm tired of sequels that don't advance the franchise

Burnwinter wrote:

Recent viewing:
Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway: both re-watches, both great 8/10

Love those films, especially the former. If you're a Lynch fan I strongly recommend Wild At Heart, if you haven't already seen it. My second favourite of his behind MD.

Recently seen films that I would recommend:
Reservoir Dogs
The Third Man
Kill Bill (1 & 2)

Saw Pirates of the Carribean 4 last week. It was ok, you know what you're getting with these films, Cruz gorgeous, and Depp very good.

I just watched The Tree of Life. I think it might be the best thing Malick has ever made.

Big call Klaus. The Thin Red Line is a masterpiece.

All of his films are masterpieces to be fair. I probably wouldn't include The Thin Red in the top three and I love it. I'm gonna have to let this one sink in but my spontaneous reaction was that I won't see anything better this year.

Jolly good Klaus. It's on the list anyway.

Watched Meek's Cutoff earlier. Felt like another gem. I've had a soft spot for Kelly Reichardt's films ever since I saw Old Joy. This was her best one yet. Nice lead performance from Michelle Williams too.

Watched 'London Boulevard' earlier. What a strange film; nothing happens for over an hour and the some people get shot.

Watched Deathstalker (1983) last night.

Lots of boobs, in fact the gratuitousness of the boobs far, far outweighed any eroticism. This film is a bit like porn without sex. No plot and lots of purposeless linking sequences.

Probably going to see Hanna tomorrow night. I'd like to see Attack the Block too.

And, listening to Kermode and Mayo talk to the director of that Senna film- that sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

Saw Get Low last night.

Decent setup and then a major missed opportunity. The whole last third was pure flatulence. Be edgier film-makers.

Klaus wrote:

I just watched The Tree of Life. I think it might be the best thing Malick has ever made.

Really, I'll have to check it out then.......

You really should!

I watched Unknown earlier. Thought it was piss poor. You could see the plot twist coming after ten minutes. The remaining two hours were just one long bore full of uncharacteristically poor acting from Neeson. 1/5.

Just seen hangover part 2. It's a fun watch but don't expect too much.

Machete wrote:

Just seen hangover part 2. It's a fun watch but don't expect too much.

I'd go with that, although i can't say i particularly enjoyed the first. They're ok.

although they've downgraded mystique in terms of hotness ooooooooooow

oh yeah no doubts there peperatum. that films gonna be proper giddy funness. gonna get me a bad ass giant coke, some popcorn, nachos and ben and jerry's as i get ma x-men first class on

That film looks so monumentally shite. Why do they have to fucking Twilight-ify everything these days? When did teenagers become so fucking gay?

Watched Hangover 2. Most of it was unfunny and desperate. I thought The King's Speech was genuinely funnier.

asajoseph wrote:

That film looks so monumentally shite. Why do they have to fucking Twilight-ify everything these days? When did teenagers become so fucking gay?

To be fair it looks a lot better in this trailer:

Caligula wrote:

Watched Hangover 2. Most of it was unfunny and desperate. I thought The King's Speech was genuinely funnier.

Mates were pissing themselves in laughter, I thought it was okay.

There were a good few bits that I thought were just not funny or necessary. Like the 'Bachelor Brunch' in the IHOP where Phil called the dentist's missus a cunt - was there a need for that? Was it funny? Not for me.

Just watched face off. Top flick. Nic cage is an awesome actor

anyways big bang looks a top film coming our way

Machete wrote:

Just watched face off. Top flick. Nic cage is an awesome actor

Wow, that takes me back. Awesome film!

John Woo was badly mistreated by Hollywood. He should've been the one to pave the way for the new action film era, not Michael Bay.

watched Shutter last night (the original Thai version).. not great, not really scary at all

tried to watch Lebanon today.. turned it off after 15 minutes.. terrible

saw OSS 117: Cairo-Nest of Spies today.. funny and campy, as long as you know what it is (spoof) ahead of time

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I just saw a short clip of the new X-Men film featuring Magneto - big Oirish accent on him. That's going to be very off-putting.

He's German Irish raised in Kerry - no wonder the accent's a bit mangled.
I think he looks a bit like a cross between Mad Jens and Eddie Irvine.

Saw Hangover 2 again tonight. Apart from the fact that the cinema I saw it in was fucking shit, it was pretty funny. Liked it.

Klaus wrote:

John Woo was badly mistreated by Hollywood. He should've been the one to pave the way for the new action film era, not Michael Bay.

Maybe. I love John Woo to death, but he's made many poor films, especially in Hollywood. You have to judge directors on results, given that half the job is being able to kick heads when people get in your way.

Hard Target is my favourite Woo film after he attempted Hollywood. Good film too.

Ok I finally got around to watching Visconti's The Leopard last night.

Fucking wow. Superb film. Guys I recommend not watching it until you're 30+ though - persistent themes include mortality, age and decline.

Burnwinter wrote:

Maybe. I love John Woo to death, but he's made many poor films, especially in Hollywood.

That was kind of the point though. He was typecasted by film studios that wanted the gimmick of Woo's filmmaking (slow-mo shots, jumpcuts and gunplay) without the social commentary or visual poetry that came along with it. His highly stylized heroic bloodshed films were completely different compared to the american action wave that was spearheaded by Arnold, Sly and van Damme. The story was similar for Yun-Fat Chow. He's easily one of the most talented actors of his generation and starred in some of the most memorable films of the late eighties/early nineties back in Hong Kong. The only big roles he could get in Hollywood were in direct-to-video flicks like The Replacement Killers and The Corruptor, though. Hollywood wasn't ready for Hong Kong.

Hard Target is pretty typical for the kind of films Woo ended up doing in LA. He had both hands tied to his back while the studio rewrote the script and casted van Damme instead of Chow as the lead. Personally I think the film sucked ass. There's a funny story about it in the book "Hong Kong Babylon", though. Apparently van Damme, enjoying a career high, had a number of clauses in his contract that meant he could do pretty much what he wanted on the set. He didn't like the fact that Woo wasted perfectly good footage on fleshing out other characters "because the audience pay to see van Damme and not a lot of supporting actors" (yes - he referred to himself in third person), so he made his own cut of the film and edited out most of the scenes where he wasn't in the frame. He ended up cutting over forty minutes of footage. He tried unsuccessfully to convince the studio heads to use his version instead of the one they had edited, but they weren't too keen on it. They came to some sort of agreement in the end where he got a few more minutes of screen time just for the sake of it.

None of that's news to me Klaus. I'm a long time follower of both Chow and Woo, together and apart.

I think some of the Hollywood efforts of both are trying to recreate blood opera (e.g. The Corruptor) but they fail. Something about the melodrama of HK cinema doesn't transfer so easily to Hollywood.

For me Hard Target's in the "so bad it's good" category. For me anyway. Has some great sequences too. Lance Henriksen's role is very enjoyable. I prefer it to MI:2, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, etc.

Again though I think if Woo failed to make a great film in the American system it's partly his own limitations that led to that failure.

I just don't see how you come to that conclusion when every single one of his Hollywood films ended up more limited in scope than the ones he made back in Hong Kong, and continued to make once he moved back. Do you mean in the sense that he shouldn't have moved abroad at all? Well, in retrospect he probably shouldn't. But it's hardly his fault that the american film industry gave him the cold hand once the papers were signed. Tinseltown is full of similar tales.

If anything good at all came out of Woo's failure to establish himself as a prominent filmmaker in Hollywood it's probably the fact that even more talented directors like Johnnie To stayed behind and continued to develop their unique brand of action.