What film did you watch last night?

[AndyRM]

I would have thought Antichrist was the perfect Valentine's movie - couple go off to woodland cabin for romantic break...

More of a first date film I think.

 

[Glenn]

12 Years a Slave - Solomon Northup's true story of kidnap and enslavement in mid 19th century USA. Gives an insight into plantation slavery and the conditions they had to endure.

 

[Ciar]

Inside out with my four year old daughter, i watched and thought it was brilliant she just mooched around doing her normal attention span of a gnat special

 

[AndyRM]

The Martian. I was really pissed so will refrain from scoring it until I see it again. I think it seemed to be OK though. Although I'm not sure why they had to have two Matt Damons on screen all the time?

It's because he'd got Space Madness and was projecting himself for companionship. Sobriety might help with the more subtle nuances of what proves a difficult friendship.

Particularly the sex scene...

 

[Profpointy]

The Martian. I was really pissed so will refrain from scoring it until I see it again. I think it seemed to be OK though. Although I'm not sure why they had to have two Matt Damons on screen all the time?

These bloody 3d films cause the double vision thing

 

[AndyRM]

Not a film, but the first episode of American Crime Story - 7/10

A dramatisation of the OJ trial, got off to a pretty good start.

This has Falchuck and Murphy all over it: direction, sound, set pieces, style of an era - all as skilful as what they achieved with Horror Story. They've got a good few of their favourite actors in there too, I think Paulson might once again steal the show.

However, John Travolta as Bobby Shapiro is just awful. It's like he's dead from the eyebrows down. A really distracting, almost cartoon villain performance. Which I suppose he is, but you can do that with a subtlety Travolta has always lacked.

 

[swee'pea99]

Michael Clayton. Very much a George Clooney vehicle, but a well put together piece of work. George is very good.

 

[Hitchington]

Fear of 13. Watched off BBC iPlayer, bbc4 Storyville. Really good gripping account of a miscarriage of justice by a man on death row for a rape and murder he didn't commit. Honest, brutal, uplifting. 7/10

 

[rich p]

It was good, but yes, Travolta was weird! I think he might have had a bit of work done.

Exactly so. Botox makes you look like a plank of wood doesn't it?

 

[rich p]

Oh, and David Schwimmer can't act

 

[AndyRM]

Oh, and David Schwimmer can't act

He's not great, but he does look a lot like Bobby Shapiro which sort of distracted me from his wide eyed "Don't do it Juice" face.

 

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

No Country for Old Men. Cracking film with cracking acting, especially from the incidental characters.

 

[MontyVeda]

Fire In Babylon

A documentary about the astonishing West Indies cricket teams of the late 70s and early to mid 80s, which attempts to place them within the political and social events of their times. I can't say whether it would work for the non-cricket fan (in the way that, say, Moneyball does if you don't give a monkeys about baseball) but I really enjoyed it.

Cricket wise, the film points out their antecedents in the aggressive bowling of Australia's Lillee and Thompson (and argues that they didn't receive the opprobrium that the West Indies fast bowlers did), looks at attitudes to the team when they were viewed as loveable "Calypso" losers and when they were an all conquering force in world cricket. It also gives the batsmen credit, with some lovely footage of Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge.

Politically and socially, it looks at the impact of the success of the team in their home islands, and further afield, with one section covering apartheid era South Africa, and the rebel tour (Viv Richards' interview about this is particularly good, as are the pieces from the "rebels" themselves).

The film itself is a little short on critique of the team, with that being supplied mostly by the relatively easily dismissed hysterics of the British papers. There is a piece from David Frith in the dvd Extras that enlarges that (although I'd have liked to see him quizzed about the Australian team that the film argues inspired the West Indies, and whether he felt so strongly about that too). Also in the extras is a really good film about what it was like to face the West Indies' fast bowling attack.

A must for cricket fans, I think.

it's a great doc even if, like me, you're not into sport.

 

[MontyVeda]

The Martian. I was really pissed so will refrain from scoring it until I see it again. I think it seemed to be OK though. Although I'm not sure why they had to have two Matt Damons on screen all the time?

One Matt Damon is a good enough reason for me to not bother with it... thanks for the heads up!

 

[swee'pea99]

Just noticed Film 4 has Robin & Marion on in a couple of hours. One of my favourite films, despite its measly sub-7 on IMdB, courtesy of all the midwest muppets disappointed by a 'Robin Hood movie' so far removed from their Errol Flynnesque expectations. One of the most touching love stories ever filmed, with Audrey Hepburn positively luminous in her last ever role, Sean Connery proving once and for all that he really can act, and a superb script by William "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men" Goldman.