What film did you watch last night?

[Electric_Andy]

The Martian: Enjoyed it, it's sort of a mix between "Castaway" and "Apollo 13". Yes it's a fairly obvious storyline but the way the lead character gets around certain problems is the interesting backbone to the plot. The end is very rushed though.

Inside Out: Watched it with my 3 year old son. Not a patch on the likes of "Up" or other Disney Pixar films.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Just watched The Gunman..Sean Penn..ok film

 

[Tin Pot]

Like @John the Monkey I had read the books and was disappointed when they went where they did. Del Toro interpreted them into a TV series (I think it was on 'Watch') which promised much, but delivered a watered-down version which was very disappointing.

Both Hellboys are brilliant, visually stunning and Ron Perlman is perfectly cast. They are beacons in interpreting 'comics' into films, amidst a swamp of dreadful Spiderman and Transformer abominations.

Which brings me to The Hobbit...

Awful in several ways:

The dwarf/elf love triangle.

Why is Legolas in it?

It's 9 hours long.

I wonder if Jackson even read the book before he started on his laborious and over-wrought interpretation.Tolkien wrote it as a light-hearted short story to tell his children at bed-time.

I think it's the first film that has actually made me angry; I realised half-way through the second one where it was going to end and knew that they wouldn't have enough book to make another film.

I was disappointed he didn't do the Hobbit to play to the 7yo kids, but to the grown ups who read it thirty odd years ago.

That said, I think it does work well for the grown up kids he was clearly targeting. An adult can watch the Hobbit(s) and LOTR as a continuous story and see the underlying messages in the stories that were ultimately questioning themes of good and evil, selfishness and mortality.

And that said, I still wish he'd done it for the kids. Mine like the first half of the first movie, and really enjoyed me reading it to them, but the movies get progressively depressing.

 

[Tin Pot]

SW: The Farce Wakes Up
6/10
May be visually impressive, but no hiding recycled plot lines from the original. Fun, but every ride on the Lucasfilm roller-coaster is getting a bit boring now....

Following from my last post, the Star Wars franchise has me at the opposite position. Lucas did Episode I for the kids not for the grown up kids and was broadly panned.

I'm in two minds to take my 7 & 10yo because as much as I loved Star Wars (watched 21 times as a kid competing with my mates), I'm not sure this works for this generation or is fundamentally worth passing on.

 

[LetMeEatCake]

Went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the weekend. Was almost afraid to go and see it given the almighty disappointment of the prequels, but this was joyous stuff. 9/10. Good fun and seemed to this 40-something very much like a return to the original three films - in fact I'd rank this above Jedi. It really felt like Star Wars and I left with a big smile on my face humming the (as ever, awesome) theme tune. Yes, it strayed from homage into rip-off territory at times. Yes, it occasionally made little sense. Yes, like most films these days it was too long. But it was epic, made me laugh, surprised me, moved me at times, and was stunning to look at and genuinely exciting. Thank you, Mr Abrams, for my Christmas present.

 

[MontyVeda]

Went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the weekend. Was almost afraid to go and see it given the almighty disappointment of the prequels, but this was joyous stuff. 9/10. Good fun and seemed to this 40-something very much like a return to the original three films - in fact I'd rank this above Jedi. It really felt like Star Wars and I left with a big smile on my face humming the (as ever, awesome) theme tune. Yes, it strayed from homage into rip-off territory at times. Yes, it occasionally made little sense. Yes, like most films these days it was too long. But it was epic, made me laugh, surprised me, moved me at times, and was stunning to look at and genuinely exciting. Thank you, Mr Abrams, for my Christmas present.

...and it's great to see John Boyega, the (then) unknown lead of the wonderful Attack The Block... a sadly underrated film.

 

[mustang1]

Star Wars (the new one) and also SW: A New Hope.

 

[NorthernDave]

I've been to see Star Wars - The Force Awakens today.
As a story in it's own right it was good, but as part of "the biggest movie franchise ever" it was a touch disappointing, in parts feeling almost like a reworking of A New Hope (episode IV).

I was much more impressed with The Rise, which I watched yesterday - a low budget British film, filmed primarily on location in Leeds and with a good combination of a young cast, a sound script and plenty of grit.

 

[AndyRM]

I was disappointed he didn't do the Hobbit to play to the 7yo kids, but to the grown ups who read it thirty odd years ago.

That said, I think it does work well for the grown up kids he was clearly targeting. An adult can watch the Hobbit(s) and LOTR as a continuous story and see the underlying messages in the stories that were ultimately questioning themes of good and evil, selfishness and mortality.

And that said, I still wish he'd done it for the kids. Mine like the first half of the first movie, and really enjoyed me reading it to them, but the movies get progressively depressing.

They get progressively drawn out and shiter too. The pacing is so awful the last one is near unwatchable. All of them could be edited down to two decent films quite easily.

This current trend of needlessly splitting stuff in two really annoys me. Harry Potter (though I confess I stopped reading when Rowling ditched her editor and started writing stupidly long books), Hungry Games (though they were actually quite good as they had enough book left at the end of Part One), Hobbit (had about ten pages to go)...

I think Twilight was the first to do it, spawning something even more hateful than the idea that vampires are handsome glittery dudes. They're monsters FFS, killing machines! And what's a hundred year old dude doing hanging around with highschool kids?! Keep your deranged masturbation fantasies to yourself.

 

[AndyRM]

Went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the weekend. Was almost afraid to go and see it given the almighty disappointment of the prequels, but this was joyous stuff. 9/10. Good fun and seemed to this 40-something very much like a return to the original three films - in fact I'd rank this above Jedi. It really felt like Star Wars and I left with a big smile on my face humming the (as ever, awesome) theme tune. Yes, it strayed from homage into rip-off territory at times. Yes, it occasionally made little sense. Yes, like most films these days it was too long. But it was epic, made me laugh, surprised me, moved me at times, and was stunning to look at and genuinely exciting. Thank you, Mr Abrams, for my Christmas present.

The bold is interesting, and sent me to IMDB to check. It's only about 5 minutes longer than any of the films in the first trilogy, and shorter than any of the newer ones.

I wonder if our viewing habits/attitudes to time perception are changing given the immediacy of mobile based distractions?

 

[cd365]

Creed. Direct rip off of the original Rocky but enjoyable anyway

 

[LetMeEatCake]

It's only about 5 minutes longer than any of the films in the first trilogy... I wonder if our viewing habits/attitudes to time perception are changing given the immediacy of mobile based distractions?

Ooh - that's really interesting. I hadn't checked the timings, but it definitely seemed longer. I hope you're wrong and that I've not become a mobile-addicted drone, restless after 10 minutes without a new distraction! I also wonder if the pacing of the film is a factor - pacing felt faster, more stuff happened, and there were fewer long, slow scenes - does that contribute to the impression of length? Then again, sounds like I'm arguing that long, slow scenes make for a shorter feeling film so I'm probably talking twaddle.

John Boyega, the (then) unknown lead of the wonderful Attack The Block

I knew I recognised him from somewhere. Thanks for that - and yes - top film - those teeth....

 

[John the Monkey]

... Lucas did Episode I for the kids not for the grown up kids and was broadly panned.

I'm not sure that works, given the convoluted story (as I remember it)...

Both Hellboys are brilliant, visually stunning and Ron Perlman is perfectly cast. They are beacons in interpreting 'comics' into films, amidst a swamp of dreadful Spiderman and Transformer abominations.

Yup, and yet different enough for them to represent an alternate continuity to the (already very rich) world of the print Hellboy. The creature design, and the atmosphere is what I think of when I think of Del Toro, and personally, I think there's just enough of that in Pacific Rim to keep me happy, although YMMV.

 

[AndyRM]

I'm not sure that works, given the convoluted story (as I remember it)...


Yup, and yet different enough for them to represent an alternate continuity to the (already very rich) world of the print Hellboy. The creature design, and the atmosphere is what I think of when I think of Del Toro, and personally, I think there's just enough of that in Pacific Rim to keep me happy, although YMMV.

Convoluted is an understatement!

Beasties and atmosphere I totally agree with - he's brilliant at both.

I'll give Pacific Rim another go. My only real memory of it is when the robot couple ran out of ammo mid-fight and were wondering what to do. Then one of them yelled 'SWORD!' and one appeared. I'm not sure my laughter was appreciated by the rest of the cinema...

 

[MontyVeda]

the Cyclechat Understatement of the year award goes to...

I've been to see Star Wars - The Force Awakens today.
As a story in it's own right it was good, but as part of "the biggest movie franchise ever" it was a touch disappointing, in parts feeling almost like a reworking of A New Hope (episode IV).
.

congratulations!