What films have you watched recently?

EdGrip

Sightseers - excellent film. I loved the music, the director's style (I enjoyed Kill List and A Field In England, though neither as much as Sightseers, which was written by Alice Lowe and Steve Oram) and the performances. You may have spotted Alice "Madeline 'Liz Asher' Wool" Lowe in last week's episode of Sherlock. 

Mandela - I enjoyed this. The photography was beautiful, and I was especially impressed by the scope of the period design, and the attention to detail. Idris Elba was very good.

Moonrise Kingdom (new DVD purchase). I really enjoyed Fantastic Mr Fox, but this is my first live-action Wes Anderson film. I don't know if I was just grumpy, or hungry, but I found the first half of the film to be so annoying that I almost abandoned it on a couple of occasions. It's so gloopy and twee and directy and full of itself - any emotional weight to a scene or character is undermined by the film's own highbrow-hipster style and reading-from-a-book dialogue.

Maybe it's just that a Wes Anderson film is its own language, and I need to learn to accept it before I can start to give a shit about the characters on the film's terms - in the second half of the film, I seemed to try and bend with the current and enjoyed the third reel. 

Hmm. I will give it another chance at some point.

HAL9000

littlegreenman said:

Just watched Empire of the Sun, very very good.

Not normally a Spielberg fan but this is one of my all time favourite films. Particularly the 'Cadillac of the Skies' sequence.

holnrew

I wasn't taken with Moonrise Kingdom. I like Darjeeling Limited very much though. Give that a go, then Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (not many people like that one, but I love it

littlegreenman

Just watched Sicko by Michael Moore. Great film, and a dire warning for what could happen here if we allow the continued eroding of the NHS as true universal healthcare for all.

EricTheWeary

My film for ironing was Whiteout. That wasn't great either. 

CabbageCat

Man of Steel: Considerably better than I had been led to believe. Not much story to it but did the personal approach quite well, I thought.

The Wolverine: Worst X-Men movie so far. Yes, worse than III. Disappointed.

This is the End: The very definition of Silly American Movie. Some funny moments but an awful lot of unfunny ones.

Flanging_Fred

Watched 'The Ladykillers' for the first time. Not what I would normally watch but it made me giggle.

breakstuff

Paranormal Activity.The marked ones.
Expected it to be awful but really enjoyed it.Best film in the series after the first one and quite cleverly ties in with it too.
Lots of girlies in the cinema screaming made me laugh.

EricTheWeary

Flanging_Fred said:

Watched 'The Ladykillers' for the first time. Not what I would normally watch but it made me giggle.

@Flanging_Fred Which version?1955 or 2004?

If you watch the remake all the weird instruments are made by top guitar bod Danny Ferrington.

fretmeister

Flanging_Fred said:

Watched 'The Ladykillers' for the first time. Not what I would normally watch but it made me giggle.

The original is genius. The new one is appalling.

Ealing made some amazing films, including the finest film in the known universe, 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'

EricTheWeary

fretmeister said:

Flanging_Fred said:

Watched 'The Ladykillers' for the first time. Not what I would normally watch but it made me giggle.

The original is genius. The new one is appalling.

Ealing made some amazing films, including the finest film in the known universe, 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'

Years since I have seen either but the remake wasn't as awful as I had been made to believe as I recall it ( I'm not saying it was great, just not as Godawful as its reputation suggests). However, that was partly as I had it on rental dvd ( probably the last time I ever did that!) and there was a bonus documentary on Danny Ferrington which I enjoyed a lot. 

randomhandclaps

The original Ladykillers is one of my all time favourites films and a true Ealing classic.  What is notable is how little the Coen brothers mention their remake when talking bout their filmography.

When asked about the career it usually goes something like this -

Blood Simple

Raising Arizona

Miller's Crossing

Barton Fink

The Hudsucker Proxy

 

Fargo

 

The Big Lebowski

 

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

 

The Man Who Wasn't There

Intolerable Cruelty

The Ladykillers

 

No Country for Old Men

 

Burn After Reading

A Serious Man

True Grit

 

JAYJO

Drive 

Romance and Cigarettes

Both on catch up and enjoyed both of them.

CabbageCat

I think the Coens' Ladykillers is still really good. Not their best work but very enjoyable nonetheless. In fact the only Coens movies I don't really like are Blood Simple and Intolerable Cruelty and even they are perfectly OK.

Flanging_Fred

It was the original one with Alec Guiness. Mrs Wilberforce is awesome!

Also watch Hunger Games : catching Fire last night. Quite enjoyed it but the arena section seemed a bit rushed and the problem of finding drinking water was rather glossed over. Still good though. Looking forward to the last in the trilogy.

frankus

I saw the Stage production of The Lady Killers last year - Simon Day, Gordon Sinclair, Ralph Little - totally different to the film, more slapstick awesome set too...

I was a bit disappointed watching the film afterwards ... it's great but I think after years of The League of Gentlemen - the whole Alec Guiness playing Alastair Simms but with menace - has been refined... too much to make the original seem a little pale.


I watched Coming to America 6/10 I liked it, I didn't realise the robber was Samuel Jackson, before...

EricTheWeary

I have a fondness for Coming to America based on seeing at the cinema in Zurich. In English but with French and German subtitles.

Phil_aka_Pip

Alfie

Was given a Michael Caine dvd box set for crimble

There is some EXCELLENT guitar playing in the background music, which according to the credits is by Sonny Rollins. 

Edit. A few googles reveal the guitarist was none other than Barney Kessel. I've got some of his EllPees. The man's a hero

VimFuego

Tropic Thunder. Great fun, very silly, but fun.

IanSavage

A Korean thing called 'Phone', which I was recommended with "You won't sleep for days" - didn't find it all that creepy, slightly disappointing. Still better than 90% of Hollywood horror these days though.