What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

"Horrible Bosses". A decent comedy, worth a watch, but not something i'll remember in 10 years. I'll give it a 6.5/10.

Otherwise i've mostly been watching TV series, I really prefer it over movies nowadays..

Firefly. Never gotten around seeing this show to the "end" (yes i know it was cancelled). I still think it's overrated, but it's worth a watch, many of the characters are very likeable, too bad the story is rather dull most of the time.

Code Geass. Animé that is supposed to be good, seen the first ep and it was "ok".

Homeland. Some new show by the creators of 24 (i believe). I like it so far (2 episodes are out). Great to see David Marciano, he was really good in The Shield. I wonder if this show could even be shown in sweden, it would probably be seen as anti-muslim/islam propaganda and be banned from TV..

Modern Family. Its starting to get a little old? It's still cute and all, but i'm not too impressed with this season so far.

It's always sunny in Philly. I _love_ this show, this season has been a lot better than the last which was rather weak. Can't wait to see the latest episode (just noticed it's available, wohoo!)

South Park. The latest episode with Mexicans that tries to get _out_ of the US was pretty funny.

In preparation for the upcoming movie remake (trailers at the usual sites) with all those great British actors who needed a new job after Harry Potter, I've watched the original series from the late 70s again.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
George Smiley, a retired former director at "the service", is called back to help out with a serious problem: one of 4 directors at the service's HQ, "the circus", is a Russian mole.
This is the legendary 5 hours long TV mini-series based upon John Le Carrè's cold war spy novell. Alec Guiness brilliantly plays Smiley as a cold & intelligent professional who has serious issues with personal relationships to other human beings. It's a pleasure to watch Guiness, he shows some great acting. Notable guest stars are Ian Bannen and Ian Richardson.
There's only one action scene at the beginning. After that it's only dialogs and flashbacks with more dialogs. The dialogs are razor sharp, though, and intrigues everywhere.

Nowadays the intro and middle part would be shorter, the showdown longer. The acting is more extrovert than in the average English production. But anyway, it's still a fascinating show which aged very well. I consumed it in one session. This makes it an A, I guess.

While I was in a good mood I also re-watched the sequel,

Smiley's People (1982)
Smiley is pulled into one last case in which he gets the chance to catch his old nemesis, the calculating & ruthless head of the Russian "service", codename "Karla" (played by Patrick Steward).
Bigger budget, more guest stars from several European countries (Mario Adorf, Curd Jürgens, several people from Das Boot), shot in England, Germany, Switzerland and France. A colder atmosphere, less emotion, a bit more action. Some characters' relations with Smiley are inconsistent (friends instead of colleagues, "Oliver" instead of "Sir Oliver"). The whole thing feels a bit slower than the first series, although it's theoretically more dynamic. In the end Smiley finds out he had to become like Karla to beat Karla. There's nothing sympathetic about Smiley. He used Karla's weakness (no spoiler here) against him.
I give this one a B. Of course it has a couple of minor issues, but it's still way above average.

Both shows are worth watching for Alec Guiness alone. The scene in which he has his glasses in his lap, cleaning it, or so, and shifts his character from old & broken to fully involved & in attacking mode simply by putting his glasses back on and looking the other guy straight into the eye is simply brilliant. "I understand you're AWOL?" (shocked silence) "On the wanted list?"

Transformers 3. 1/10. Very very weak. It's not like the first two were masterpieces but at least I could see the damn robots more.

Seems the old cartoons remain the only watchable thing.

bloodlover said:

at least I could see the damn robots more.

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Yeah I just couldn't get into all that confusing close up CGI robo jumble. Less is more I say.

I re-watched the spongebob squarepants movie the other night, the movie I break out when I want to shut off my brain and stare blankly at something fun.

Real Steel
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A mediocre story, although overall still decent enough especially the second part and its ending. You would like it if u love seeing big robot fighting each others (but not in the scale as in Transformers)

Just returned from 'Tintin'. For me, it was the best movie I have seen in theaters in a long, LONG time. I started to grin the moment the flick started, and I'm still grinning, and it's not because of the action and the 3D stuff (do they still show 2D flicks in theaters?), no sir.
I loved how they mashed those three books to get a coherent story, I loved the little details, the atmosphere, how they translated the characters - and pretty much all the rest. Even the Thompsons. I sat there in awe when ... that was just glorious. I so want to see the next Tintin movie ... still can't believe it. I'm afraid I enjoyed it more than my son.

But wasn't this supposed to be nothing like the comics, and of course suck big time due to endless action?

Which 3 books? Einhorn + Rackham + ?

... the third one (or rather, the first one) was The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Yes, there was lots of nonsensical action - but the kids in my entourage enjoyed that greatly despite having read the books, and I must admit it was really well done.
Yes, in the books Sakharin never was an important villain - but he worked well as a villain in the flick. Probably gave the dynamic duo Spielberg and Jackson more freedom to go wild.
Yes, they cut pretty much all of the story of the Crab while keeping most of the Haddock references and characters, and they took quite some liberties - but for me the movie wasn't 'nothing like the books'. Basically, what they did was take the three Tintin books where Haddock was the featured character and mold them into a Haddock movie.

Saw "Despicable Me" on DVD today - it's a very nicely stupid movie and I've been laughing a lot - especially in the end. (The beginning was not so funny - of course, because this is basically the movie about a "super-villain". )

But what I laughed about most was this short movie : "Banana" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5sq0am3HdI
Watch it until the end !

I have just watched the animated film or movie Rio on DVD. And I found it to be a very good movie with a good story and some very nice music. It's the story about a BLU(e) macaw who goes to Rio with his human to find -ahem- true love.... And as the is one american traditional movie, we can guess how it goes, can't we. Basically, this is just a romantic comedy set in Rio (de Janeiro) in Brazil....and we all know how those end

Thanks - I was thinking of buying it, but I was more or less unsure/unaware of its quality.

TinTin

Wasn't bad, though I found it to be too action-oriented. I'd have preferred a slower style, with more emphasis on creating a strong sense of adventure. One less over-the-top action sequence and a few more mood-establishing scenes - and it would have been the perfect beginning.

Also, I seem to recall a submarine sequence in the Rackham story - which I was kinda hoping for. I have fond memories from childhood about that scene.

7/10.

DArtagnan said:

Wasn't bad, though I found it to be too action-oriented. I'd have preferred a slower style, with more emphasis on creating a strong sense of adventure.

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The cynical one inside of me says that this movie was made by an American. And that's why the same movie made by an European would be so different.

But that's the "Cynist" inside of me speaking.

By the way :

EU original : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tall_Blond_Man_with_One_Black_Shoe
US remake : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_With_One_Red_Shoe
Both contain the same story - but both are very different in their ways of telling the (same) story, the speed, the look.

Conan (2011)

An empty shell of a standard fantasy movie. An endless stream of boring action scenes. No interesting characters, nothing interesting. Terrible.

The technical competence can't save this film. F.

The Killer Elite (2011)
Not a remake of the 70s Peckinpah film.
A nice 80s style action film, which is okay because the film plays in 1980. The action is hand-made, slightly retro, in most cases slower than usual nowadays and competently made. The actors are okay (de Niro), much better than expected (Statham) or good as always (Owen). A couple of interesting side characters, a surprising ending, good pacing with just the right mix between action and dialogs. The story doesn't matter, but the political conspiracy makes it reasonably interesting.
It's an undeserved box office flop. Certainly one of the better films this year. A sympathetic little old school action flick which reminds me of the more complex action thrillers of 70s and 80s, when the enemies were still characters instead of nameless masked soldier types.
Good entertainment without the typical Hollywood stupidity. B.

So what's your score of Melancholia ?
Apart from the stupid physics....i think 1st half of the movie was interesting and second not bad but the whole thing sat like a rock on my chest . I was never a big fan of vonT but his films are always weird enough to keep my attention while i can not say i like them.
Brunette chick performance is stunning at moments .

Contagion

Pretty good for what it was. Didn't really bring anything new to the table, but the performances were good - and I liked the realistic approach to what happens to people in that kind of scenario.

Not really sure it was a film we needed, though, and I wonder what motivates development of such material. I guess it's just a safe investment with Soderbergh and some of his favorite actors involved.

The Thing 2011

Incredibly stupid and bad.

Just finished watching Super 8.

Not a bad movie, but I kept thinking it felt a little too familiar. Then it hit me… I already saw this movie back in 1982. It was called E.T.

Not that the story is really that similar, although there definitely are some common themes. It was more the overall "feel" of the film. J.J. Abrams is credited as the writer, but Spielberg's influence is obvious.

I think I would have liked Super 8 a lot more if I saw it when I was younger. That's not to say adults can't enjoy it, but it would definitely have appealed to me more 20 years ago.

JDR13 said:

I think I would have liked Super 8 a lot more if I saw it when I was younger. That's not to say adults can't enjoy it, but it would definitely have appealed to me more 20 years ago.

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I have exactly this same feelings any time I watch The Goonies on DVD.
I seldom do so nowadays.

But still - it's an remarkable movie, especially it teaches youngsters how to deal with handicapped people. For that message alone, The Goonies is gold.

"Animal Kingdom" is a great crime drama, very gritty and tense.
"Mother" is a good film ("Madeo")