Movie mini reviews

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Anery
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Anery »

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Sherlock Holmes Things that Peter Jackson wanted to put into LOTR but nobody would let him but now he's massively famous and made a shit ton of money and nobody will say no to him.

Second movie of the three, plot diverges from original work by Tolkein, GF had to wake me up again. Better than the first one though
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Dog Pants »

I watched Drive the other day after finding it on BBC iPlayer of all places. I've seen it referred to a number of times as the inspiration for Hotline miami, and althought there's only a passing resemblance I get what they mean. It's a revenge tale about a stuntman and part time getaway driver who has a beef with the local gangsters. The guy doesn't really say much, and his motives are peculiar. That's kind of appealing though, as he comes across like some sort of paradoxical psychopath hero with a heart. The Hotline Miami stuff comes from a combination of the anachronistic setting, which is modern but with an 80s slant, kind of like what Tarantino does with the 70s, and the sudden bursts of ultraviolence.

It's a self indulgent tale that's pretty thin on plot, but the point seems to be one more of style than story and it's well worth a watch for the melancholy it provokes.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by FatherJack »

The Lego Movie

I saw this today, it's been advertised for about a year but I think everyone forgot about it when it didn't come out for Christmas, so despite it being half-term I don't think anyone knows it's come out, as there were only nine people in the cinema, although we did go to the teatime showing. It's frenetically-paced and a lot of fun for adults and kids, mashing up nostalgia and sentiment like Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph before it but I'll talk about some of the technicalities before moving on to the theme. (hint: the theme is Lego)

Mechanics
It's all CG of course - because it's rather more easy to light and direct a CG actor than a plastic one that keeps falling over - but (almost) everything in it uses renderings of real Lego blocks, and it stays true to the actual (or lack thereof) articulation of Lego people's joints, mimics the stop-motion seen in Adam & Joe and the White Stripes video and pulls focus cleverly in a way that suggests they really are filming miniature figures.

This, while great does have it's downsides. The stop motion effect seems quite jarring at the very start of the film, like it is a sort of homemade trailer for the film proper, but they either dial it down or you get used to it, because you don't really notice it that much after a while apart from in a few specific instances. A lot happens pretty much all the time, but often this means the background is blurred (the pulling focus thing) to make it appear more filmographic - I get why they've done it, but since you just know they've gone to the effort of making that background explosion or whatever be actually made of real Lego pieces it seems a shame to blur it out. The adherence to the mechanics though doesn't have a downside - while the faces are obviously more animated than real Lego characters, they somehow manage to convey proper personality even through the limited body movement and of course the great voice acting.

The quick pace also means it's difficult to see fine detail, kind of like how you would have to buy the BluRay and frame-advance Transformers to see what was happening when they transform. There are complex models you'd really like to inspect more closely, but even on the big screen you don't get a clear enough view of them. We saw it in 3D, and to be honest it didn't benefit much from that - which is pretty lazy in my view for a CG film - there were only a couple or three of stand-out 3D moments, compared to the very many in say Frozen or Madagascar 3. 3D as it stands is a bit of a dead-end gimmick really isn't it? Ideally you could choose to focus your eyes on those background events as if you were actually there, couldn't you? As it is with current tech the 3D effect only works from a fixed camera(s) perspective and focus.

That said, all the action scenes, endless battles and effects were glorious - the way they show water, smoke and fire is inspired and you won't have seen the best of them in the previews. A couple of pre-film adverts even joined in the fun, with Lego versions of the BT Infinity and Confused.com adverts actually managing to hit the mark for once.

Scope
Worth mentioning, as unlike the aforementioned Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph which had a select few licenses they were able to use, the Lego Empire is utterly huge. The bricks along with the videogames give them rights to use with impunity stuff from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and superheroes from both camps - although as it's a WB film they stick to DC ones. It rather highlights how you can do pretty much anything you can think of in Lego - if you want to take Spider Man, Indiana Jones and Hello Kitty for a trip in the Batmobile to visit the Thundercats (not actual Thundercats), meet King Arthur and battle Minecraft Creepers in Hogwarts and Isengard, then none of those presents any significant problem - and they're just some of the licensed options, never mind what you can build yourself.

Content
Well, if you've seen both the vids posted in the trailers thread, then you've heard a lot of the jokes (albeit cut to pieces and not where they sit in the film), and mostly those with the biggest set-up. But since they come thick and fast, with plenty of pop culture references and nodwinks to the adults, there are still a few corkers sprinkled in there. The big question is whether this is just a 100-minute long advert for Lego, or not? Well, yes obviously...or maybe not, or maybeperhapsnotprobablyactuallyyes. I shall try to elucidate.

Theme
The sentiment section feels a little unwelcome and awkward at first but as it's the big thing in the story I won't spoil it, but it gets blown away by what follows so stick with it. Some (amateur) reviewers seem to have misinterpreted the message and it's probably best you don't read their reviews, as the main thrust of the plot (which they miss) is to encourage originality (and teamwork).

Any further comments refer more to the real world rather than the fiction of the film.

So, is it actually a bit...subversive?
A lot of pro reviewers have suggested that it is. It encourages original thought, yet has the full backing of a company which seems increasingly to produce kit models, with highly customised parts only really useful for their intended use. The film seems to be targeting with mild scorn what you'd imagine are the most lucrative areas for Lego - the kids who buy the many expensive boxes and just build the thing on the box and play with it, and the what can in all likelihood only be adults who buy the £300-plus Star Wars ship replica kits and so on.

Why it's not actually subversive
I think the pro reviewers also miss the point. Check out the Lego shop. Flying totally in the face of the message of the movie are kits to build models featured in the movie. However, side-by-side to them, and featuring much more prominently than I remember in a long time are basic brick sets - encouraging you to build what you want. They are marketing the shit out of both ends - hardly subversive.

I remember as far back as my childhood that my sister's Lego Café and so forth had special custom blocks which could mostly only build...a café, whereas I'd mainly only got boxes of blocks inherited from others. The colourful awnings from Pâtisserie-da-la-pouffe would have had no place on my Mega Tank of Accidental Death to all Barbies as the eagle-eyed Action Man pilot would have considered that they would make him look a bit soft had he plundered them from the smoking ruins of the rather unfortunate Pâtisserie-da-la-pouffe which happened to be in the way during particularly vigorous tank manoeuvres.

The point being that the custom-styled "special" blocks are in no way a recent trend because I'm talking the 70's, and that I suspect the negative feelings towards them have initiated a shift in the company's marketing towards a more prominent view of the brick sets, but also the message that both builder types can live and play together in (relative) harmony. It even sub-subversively demonstrates that you can use the supposedly single-use special blocks to create even more madly creative combinations, demonstrating a longevity to toys which might at first appear to only have a single purpose. Clever marketing.

Conclusion
Toy Story - be nice to your toys
Toy Story 2 - take care of your toys
Toy Story 3 - don't forget your toys, they want to played with
Wreck-It Ralph - toys have feelings, too
The Lego Movie - play with your toys Lego

So, a great big advert then?

Actually, yes. But how is that such a bad thing because, now I'm going to play with some Lego, because it's the greatest toy ever invented and this film has inspired me to create something wonderous?

I think that's a good thing.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by ProfHawking »

Good review FJ
might have to take a peek some time as I'm a massive lego/technic nerd

Also, confused.com just scored a viral marketing win from me for this
Roman Totale
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Roman Totale »

21 Jump Street

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. Recommended for low brain usage funnies.
Mr. Johnson
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Mr. Johnson »

Roman Totale wrote:21 Jump Street

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. Recommended for low brain usage funnies.
I enjoyed this too but I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it. Oddly enough I also kind of like Jonah Hill, he's like a non-cunty Seth Rogen.

Man, do I hate Seth Rogen.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by spoodie »

I hate Jonah Hill's face. It's the expression, looks sort of smug and gormless at the same time. Although he was very good in Moneyball, which is a good film in general.

I enjoyed 21 Jump Street as well, it's a good example of that genre. They're working on 22 Jump Street and apparently it's going to be self-referential, questioning itself as to why they would make a sequel. Meta.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Mr. Johnson »

I actually wanted to hate Jonah Hill but I'm unable to. He might be a cupcake in real life though, I am only referring to film Jonah Hill.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Joose »

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Fuck yes, more of this sort of thing please. I saw it described somewhere as a spy thriller that happens to include superpowers rather than a superhero film, which is spot on. Its not particularly highbrow but doesnt try to be, its a good action romp that isnt dumb. Adding only a couple of new characters stops it from devolving into X3 silliness, and the new characters are nice additions without overshadowing anyone. Its also pretty self contained storyline wise so although you will have a better understanding of what is going on if you have watched all the other Marvel films, the only one that is really required viewing is the first Captain America film and *maybe* the Avengers.

It includes a fair few little nods to the comics nerds without being alienating about it too, which is nice. It does raise a couple of questions though: at one point Stephen Strange is mentioned. For those that dont know, Dr Strange is a wizard. He does magic. I cant see any way they can explain it away as being "sufficiently advanced technology" like they did with Thor without *utterly* changing the nature of the character. But so far the Marvel movie universe has been strictly sci-fi. So...hows that going to work?

The other one is potentially spoilery, but only if you don't want to know the post credits bit. Its not directly a spoiler to the main story, but I'll spoiler tag it anyway:
Spoiler:
The post credits reveals Baron Von Strucker in a Hydra base talking about their successful experiment with the "twins". These twins are revealed to be a guy moving around really fast and a girl floating things about with her mind (with pinkish effects), so clearly they are the Maximoff kids, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. My first question would be "Why are the Nazis in the Marvel universe apparently obsessed with creating super powered Jews?", but another question is how is this going to work with the fact that Sony still hold the rights to the X-Men and associated thingies. Including, most notably, their dad. Does the concept of mutant=natural superpowers fall under the stuff Sony have the rights to? If it does, so they have to make them not Magnetos kids and not mutants, would it not have been easier to go for a couple of other characters instead? Its not like there are a shortage of Avengers to choose from.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Roman Totale »

I'm going to see this tomorrow, but the urge to read your spoilers is nearly overwhelming!
Joose
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Joose »

Roman Totale wrote:I'm going to see this tomorrow, but the urge to read your spoilers is nearly overwhelming!

For you particularly I would recommend not reading them. The spoilers wont matter so much to non comics geeks, but I suspect it might be more spoilery for you than for the average 5punker (you fucking nerd).
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by mrbobbins »

Re. Spoiler bit.
Spoiler:
They're in Avengers 2 so not sure how the licensing thing has worked out
http://sciencefiction.com/2014/03/25/fi ... ch-ultron/
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Roman Totale »

The Amazeballs Spider-dude 2

First off, I thought the last film was ok. Not brilliant, but I preferred it to the Maguire ones (common thought seems to be that Maguire is the better Parker, Garfield the better Spider-man).

So, this one I saw at the IMAX in 3D. Maybe I'm getting old, but god damn was it loud - I was worried I was going to go deaf within the first 5 minutes of the trailers starting. However, it looked incredible - never been to a 3D IMAX before but I can certainly recommend for a film like this.

Personally I thought it was a really good film, albeit a bit long. Great chemistry between Peter and Gwen (though they are going out in real life, so that's probably why), Jamie Foxx is highly entertaining as Electro, and it was generally just good fun.

It's not as good as Winter Soldier, but I thought that was exceptionally good.

End credit scene! Erm, I didn't get one - I feel robbed. Apparently there is one at the end of all the credits, but I and half the cinema were there until the lights came up and saw nothing.
Spoiler:
I'm not too disappointed though because it sounds like it's just an extended trailer for the new X-Men film, and absolutely nothing to do with Spider-man - there will be no crossover!
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by deject »

The Raid 2: Berandal

Holy shit! Possibly the best action movie in a very long time. It's fucking perfect. 10/10

Seriously, go watch the first one and then watch this. Like right now.


Oblivion

Visually and audibly amazing (done by Joseph Kosinski who did TRON: Legacy, so that is to be expected). Has just enough plot to make the set pieces work. Tom Cruise does a great job, which is something that I would not have thought I would have ever said about his recent work, especially after Mission Impossible 2. If you want eye and ear pleasing goodness without a complex plot, this is the ticket. The soundtrack is by M83 and is one that can stand on its own as a great album. If you like any of M83's work, this will grab you a lot. 7.5/10

Her

Her is a fascinating and thoughtful look at near future questions of human and technological evolution. Joaquin Phoenix puts on a masterful performance as the lead, considering he is acting against nothing for most of the movie. I dare say he should have been nominated for Best Actor for this. Spike Jonze creates a subtly brilliant depiction of a unspecified cityscape throughout the film that is both sublimely beautiful to look at and yet lets you focus on Joaquin Phoenix's performance. There are scenes that will definitely make you uncomfortable, make you question the idea of having a relationship with an AI, with your computer. The soundtrack by Arcade Fire is great and it makes me sad that I can't buy it anywhere at the moment. I think Her is one of the best movies from last year. It is smart, sometimes funny, sometimes incredibly awkward, beautiful, and while the idea of dating your computer is really fucking weird just to think about, Her does a brilliant job of keeping you interested the whole time. 10/10
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Joose »

Teenage mutant ninja turtles

I went in to the cinema fully expecting this film to be shite. If I'm honest I only really wanted to go because I saw the old shite ones when I was a kid. It was purely a nostalgia thing. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was actually good. The plot is stupid, but its a film about giant reptiles fighting robot samurai, so it can't really escape that. Instead it lampshades the shit out of how ridiculous it is and gets on with being a genuinely enjoyable film. It's funny throughout and has some really good action scenes (although they are, as with the rest of the film, ridiculous). They have only messed around with the original story a little, so there is no need to worry about that unless you are a crazy lore purist. Both myself and Mrs Joose liked it a lot. Thoroughly recommended. Astonishingly.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

TMNT was remarkably enjoyable, stupid as shit in all the right ways. :)
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

Lucy (2014)

Erm, Something between Crank, Nikita, 5th element and that one episode of red dwarf where holly gives herself an IQ of 6000.

pretty good though.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

We watched the grand budapest hotel last night.

I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it was really quite good.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

John Wick

... Actually, not nearly as terrible as I expected, Lots of action, violence, shitloads of guns and a cute puppy in a decent enough revenge based bundle, Turn brain off, enjoy loud noises, and moving picutres.
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Re: Movie mini reviews

Post by deject »

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:John Wick

... Actually, not nearly as terrible as I expected, Lots of action, violence, shitloads of guns and a cute puppy in a decent enough revenge based bundle, Turn brain off, enjoy loud noises, and moving picutres.
Also, I love that he was using the shortened Weaver stance the whole movie. A++++++
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