What films have you watched recently?

RobDavies

dafuzz said:

Star Wars: Harmy's Despecialized Edition - 10/10

Sooo.... after learning about the machete mix and having a bit of a google about it, I discovered this - a fan-made restoration of Star Wars (I'm not even calling it Episode IV anymore). All the digital crap has been removed as far as possible. You can read about it here and see some comparison screens. An insane amount of work has gone into it.

I got a bit emotional watching it actually! There was a real sense of nostalgia that I haven't felt since seeing the shitty editions in the cinema back in the 90s. It's a cliche to say "like watching it for the first time again" but that's genuinely how it felt for me. Needless to say the 'original' trilogy DVDs won't be coming out of their boxes any time soon.

That sounds cool. Is there an easy way of watching/downloading this?

dafuzz

Not really I had to set up a virtual machine and tor and visit some long forgotten places...

Annoying as I'd gladly pay for official versions but Lucasfilm is a twonk

Gassage

Well, after a slight wait of 20 yrs I just watched the Shawshank Redemption.

Outstanding, although very I was confused when I saw Morgan Freeman was NOT playing a Head of State.

DrJazzTap

Transcendence, It was a lot better than i was expecting. It's not had some very favourable reviews.

Seeing Godzilla on Thursday

DiscoStu

dafuzz said:

Star Wars: Harmy's Despecialized Edition - 10/10

Sooo.... after learning about the machete mix and having a bit of a google about it, I discovered this - a fan-made restoration of Star Wars (I'm not even calling it Episode IV anymore). All the digital crap has been removed as far as possible. You can read about it here and see some comparison screens. An insane amount of work has gone into it.

I got a bit emotional watching it actually! There was a real sense of nostalgia that I haven't felt since seeing the shitty editions in the cinema back in the 90s. It's a cliche to say "like watching it for the first time again" but that's genuinely how it felt for me. Needless to say the 'original' trilogy DVDs won't be coming out of their boxes any time soon.

I've not got a bad feeling about this!

Gonna have to acquire it...

ICBM

dafuzz said:

Star Wars Episode 1 - 2/10

Worst film I've ever watched six times.

I have just finished torturing myself by watching all three of the 'prequels' - the only one I'd actually watched all the way through before was the first one. Maybe it's just me, but I think they actually get worse as they go on - and the odd thing is that despite each being made later than the one before and hence presumably using better computers, the standard of the CGI seems to go *down*. Or maybe it's just that by the third one, it's nearly all CGI and hence it's more obvious.

The best thing about them is watching Ewan MacGregor being Alec Guinness being Obi-Wan… even Christopher Lee and Samuel L Jackson are rather wasted - although Ian McDiarmid is gloriously over the top and probably steals it.

dafuzz said:

Star Wars: Harmy's Despecialized Edition - 10/10

Sooo.... after learning about the machete mix and having a bit of a google about it, I discovered this - a fan-made restoration of Star Wars (I'm not even calling it Episode IV anymore). All the digital crap has been removed as far as possible. You can read about it here and see some comparison screens. An insane amount of work has gone into it.

I got a bit emotional watching it actually! There was a real sense of nostalgia that I haven't felt since seeing the shitty editions in the cinema back in the 90s. It's a cliche to say "like watching it for the first time again" but that's genuinely how it felt for me. Needless to say the 'original' trilogy DVDs won't be coming out of their boxes any time soon.

I'm going to have to check that out. Star Wars - like you I can't think of if as "IV", it will always be "I" - was the first film I ever saw at the cinema without my parents so it will always have a special place for me. I also have the "Original Trilogy" DVDs which I bought for my kids - I had heard there was an earlier edition which includes the proper cinema versions on bonus discs, but I couldn't remember which one.

ThePrettyDamned

Just finished watching Haute Tension again (Switchblade Romance).

Bloomin' excellent slasher film.  Sound track is neat, too, including Muse  

Has a couple of legendary scenes, as well as one or two minor plot holes but it's a horror - just use your imagination.  It really is an excellent film.

racefaceec90

will be watching beyond the valley of the dolls sometime soon,as i do love the film tbh 

guitargeek62

ICBM;238298" said:

I have just finished torturing myself by watching all three of the 'prequels' - the only one I'd actually watched all the way through before was the first one. Maybe it's just me, but I think they actually get worse as they go on - and the odd thing is that despite each being made later than the one before and hence presumably using better computers, the standard of the CGI seems to go *down*. Or maybe it's just that by the third one, it's nearly all CGI and hence it's more obvious.

The best thing about them is watching Ewan MacGregor being Alec Guinness being Obi-Wan… even Christopher Lee and Samuel L Jackson are rather wasted - although Ian McDiarmid is gloriously over the top and probably steals it.

No chance, the CGI definitely improves as the films progress, but it's still shockingly bad. It didn't even look that great back in 1999 when Ep.I released, but by the time the third one came out I'd given up caring (although the intro space battle is pretty good). You're right about the over-use of it though, not a single one of the CGI characters looks better (or less noticeable) than any of the man-in-a-mask ones. Same goes for most of the sets & backdrops too.

I can't agree about McDiarmid either - he's fine *until* he shows off his dark side and then begins to overact every single line. It sounds more like a 10-year olds impression of Palpatine!

ICBM

guitargeek62 said:

I can't agree about McDiarmid either - he's fine *until* he shows off his dark side and then begins to overact every single line. It sounds more like a 10-year olds impression of Palpatine!

That's maybe why I like him . The whole mess looks like it was directed by a ten-year-old, and he hams it up quite appropriately.

Alec Guinness thought the *original* was childish, God knows what he'd have made of these ones.

Monkeybone

Just got in from watching Godzilla...

The king is back! No more do I have to hang my head in shame when I think of American reboots of the Big G! I am a happy Godzilla fan.

minky

Currently, I'm catching up on loads of random old films that seem to have passed me by. Taxi Driver, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas etc. Some great stuff, and frankly some old toss out there there for some reason has got critical acclaim.

DrJazzTap

Just back from Godzilla, it is really rather good. Phew! Tempted go and see it again in 2D.

Monkeybone

DrJazzTap said:

Just back from Godzilla, it is really rather good. Phew! Tempted go and see it again in 2D.

I'm tempted to have a second viewing! I know there was talk of possibly no sequel, but I kinda hope they do do one.

Grumpyrocker

Godzilla.

Except I didn't.

Drove all the way to Dorchester. Had to park then go park somewhere else to find change because the parking fees had gone up. Finally got to the Odeon cinema.

And there was no sound during the adverts. And of course because they don't have proper projectionists anymore, could they sort it out? Could they heck. And so they gave us our money back.

Bunch of Arse.

Grumpyrocker

guitargeek62 said:

ICBM;238298" said:

I have just finished torturing myself by watching all three of the 'prequels' - the only one I'd actually watched all the way through before was the first one. Maybe it's just me, but I think they actually get worse as they go on - and the odd thing is that despite each being made later than the one before and hence presumably using better computers, the standard of the CGI seems to go *down*. Or maybe it's just that by the third one, it's nearly all CGI and hence it's more obvious.

The best thing about them is watching Ewan MacGregor being Alec Guinness being Obi-Wan… even Christopher Lee and Samuel L Jackson are rather wasted - although Ian McDiarmid is gloriously over the top and probably steals it.

No chance, the CGI definitely improves as the films progress, but it's still shockingly bad. It didn't even look that great back in 1999 when Ep.I released, but by the time the third one came out I'd given up caring (although the intro space battle is pretty good). You're right about the over-use of it though, not a single one of the CGI characters looks better (or less noticeable) than any of the man-in-a-mask ones. Same goes for most of the sets & backdrops too.

I can't agree about McDiarmid either - he's fine *until* he shows off his dark side and then begins to overact every single line. It sounds more like a 10-year olds impression of Palpatine!

There's much less CGI in the Star Wars prequels than you'd think. Heck of a lot of model work went into them - feel sorry for all the model builders at ILM, they did a great job and eveyone thinks it's just CG.

guitarfishbay

Saw Godzilla. Not what I was expecting to happen - for once seeing the trailer didn't ruin the twists. Worth a watch, I'm not convinced I loved it but some of the scenes were great. Sadly watching the trailer for Transcendance did ruin the film when I watched it the other week. I need to go back to not watching trailers...

guitargeek62

Grumpyrocker said: There's much less CGI in the Star Wars prequels than you'd think. Heck of a lot of model work went into them - feel sorry for all the model builders at ILM, they did a great job and eveyone thinks it's just CG.

There really, really isn't.

I followed the making of them from the announcement, through to release, and then all of the on-set footage I could find - Star Wars were the films that started the movie bug for me back when I was 5, and even then I was mainly interested in the designs & sets and very nearly went down that route during college. I can hardly say I'm a professional in any measure, but I've seen enough evidence to know how much it was used. I'm sure someone's already taken the time to do a scene-by-scene real/CGI analysis though, could be interesting* if not.

Not a single piece of clone trooper armour was actually made, for instance. Every single clone you saw was CGI - even in the close-ups. That's the sort of problem that the prequel trilogy faced; they over-used CGI because they could, and it shows.

Pretty sure a lot of the set dressing is done by the teams at Pinewood anyway (based on ILM's designs, obviously), not so sure about the location shoots though. Even so, huge amounts of the sets were done via blue-screen - even the Emperor's office/apartment is 90% CGI if you look carefully!!!

*if I was being paid to do it.

Examples:

*edit* And one last huuuuuuge one that drives it home a little further:

*second edit* Here's another good example of what changed in the production ethos;

In this shot, the only non-CGI parts are Ewan & Jackson - possibly/probably the crates too.

However, that door to Samuel's right is CGI; as are the two clones stood directly behind them; Yoda too, even though he doesn't move in this scene - so they could have used puppetry as before; and lastly the background, but that's understandable, and works perfectly well.

Grumpyrocker

But that's quite a selective choice of images. I guessed when I posted you'd reply like that. And even played the "I am an expert on this, you aren't card." Well played forum work. Never pays to make assumptions about the knowledge of someone you don't know though.

The characters riding on single seat vehicles in front of blue screens isn't evidence of anything. Because guess what? They did the speeder bikes in Jedi exactly the same way.

Anyway for balance here are many photos of the very impressive models, sets and locations used in the prequels.Look through the whole thread I've linked to - even on shots with some CGI it's often composited with model and miniature work. And even stuff that features lots of CG such as the Geonosis battle features a model set. Many sets only have greenscreen for the view out of the window, the rest being practical. And of course there would be massive use of green/blue screen in the final battle with Anakin - you wanted them to really film over real lava? But what of that lava planet? It's a massive model, composited into the green screen shots.

ICBM

Grumpyrocker said:

Anyway for balance here are many photos of the very impressive models, sets and locations used in the prequels.Look through the whole thread I've linked to - even on shots with some CGI it's often composited with model and miniature work. And even stuff that features lots of CG such as the Geonosis battle features a model set. Many sets only have greenscreen for the view out of the window, the rest being practical. And of course there would be massive use of green/blue screen in the final battle with Anakin - you wanted them to really film over real lava? But what of that lava planet? It's a massive model, composited into the green screen shots.

I know this sounds stupid because it's fantasy and no-one expects any of it to be "real", but if that much of it is model-making and not CGI, it's the opposite of what it says in that link - if you can't distinguish it from CGI, they did a *bad* job because it looks so totally fake. The whole lava planet sequence is completely laughable even by the standards of the rest of it.

I'll still see Part VII when they release it though, probably...