Wreck-It Ralph. This year's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Great fun with a dash of heart.

Eh. I thought H&G wasn't that bad. Nothing I would pay to watch but ahem, it was okay. More blood and splatter than I thought. Renner and Arteton were miscast though.

But no way this thing cost only $1 million!

This post has been edited by QuickFire: May 26 2013, 01:04 AM

G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

They made it grittier and more serious and took out almost all the camp and cheesiness in the first movie. Basically, they took out all the stuff that made the first movie so fun.

2.5/5

Indeed! They're just a faceless bunch of SWAT team now. Where's the campy but cool gadgets from the first movie? There's nothing here that comes anywhere close the fun of the paris chase sequence.

And I also miss Marlon Wayans. He and Tatum made a fun duo. I used to like the Rock, but he's getting a bit too serious in his roles.

The Lone Ranger

Not sure how this got such terrible reviews. It's a rollicking good time at the movies- a fun, silly western adventure in the vein of the POTC movies. I didn't expect to like Depp in this, but he won me over. Yes it's kinda like Jack Sparrow but it's also different in at least one major way... he doesn't talk much in this. Sure, the pacing is off at times and the tonal shifts are jarring for the first hour, but once it settles down and you are attuned to its quirks, it's just such fun escapism. There are two major action scenes, one in the beginning and one at the end. Both are great. Verbinski brings his action A-game from POTC flawlessly into the midwest, and it's refreshing to see a director who knows how to film his action. The finale action sequence is probably the best action sequence I've seen since Spielberg's Tintin.

Picture looks reliably good looking as are all of Verbinski's films. Would have preferred less saturation of colours and more naturalness but it does look classy. Zimmer's score is also surprisingly decent- at least it's actual music this time.

I quite highly recommend this. Could be shorter but some great fun. 4/5

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jul 20 2013, 11:40 AM

Independence Day hasn't aged very well. I don't mean from a VFX standpoint. I mean from an aliens coming to earth and blowing shit up standpoint. Because these days you have stuff like The Avengers. Despite that the movie is still pretty damn fun. It's just that the gleeful excitement that was once its hallmark has since been successfully replicated and bettered.

The RoboCop movies... ahh. Been some years since I watched the first one. It should still rank as a grimy, filthy classic of sorts. I love it. Robocop 2? I havent seen that one since I was 6 pr 7 years old probably. What I do remember is that it's horrifically violent and mean, but as a kid I really loved it. Not sure how it fares now. Robocop 3... that had the flying RoboCop? Even as a kid I thought it was rubbish.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Aug 11 2013, 11:01 PM

Now You See Me.

Wow. What a complete load of shit.

Riddick.

Having never seen the first two films, this turned out pretty impressive, for the first two-thirds of the movie anyhow. The first half hour or so is just Riddick and the rough, alien terrain - and it's pretty great stuff. The visual palette looks arresting, and actually reminds me of the visual style of Alien3 (a very good thing). Brown hues all around. The pacing here is meticulously deliberate. It's one man against an alien nature. Face-offs against the inhabitants are executed magnificently - carefully paced and never rushed, a true survivalist story.

The second part of the arrival of the mercenaries. In a way this part reminds me even more of Alien3, with its bunch of low life criminals/bounty hunters. Not entirely sure if it's intentional, but the head honcho of the first group of bounty hunters (that spanish guy) is hilarious at times. Most of the characters are disposable cutboard cutouts but they do provide entertaining cannon fodder for the titular character.

The last and weakest part is where the full blown alien menace arrives... and disappointing it is no where near as intimidating as the one-on-one showdowns in the first segment of the movie. Simply a generic man vs. aliens action movie, the last 30 minutes.

Watch it for the mesmerizing first act.

3.5/5

It's decent enough and not as bad as its reputation suggests, but it looks fabulous.

The movie is a massive disappointment. Relative to expectations and the talent involved, it is the biggest dud of the year. Shocking from Wright and Pegg.

But...



What are they smoking?

...and we're back to disagreeing with one another.

And I thought the acting from the kid was unimpressive. Didn't like him one bit.

It's actually not a bad movie, but I felt nothing coming out of the theater. It's mildly interesting, but also very childish in many aspects, and key facets of the movie just aren't developed well enough to make the experience feel like something. In the end you walk out feeling like you saw an average movie.

Sometimes I prefer watching a really bad movie as opposed to a thoroughly average one. At least the really bad ones make me feel something.

Elysium.

District 9 was an entertaining watch but I always saw through Blomkamp for the very average director that he is, so I wasn't expecting this to be impressive save for maybe some decent action. I was wrong. This is worse. It's pretty laughably bad- bad acting, utter waste of potent story, and frankly some wretched pacing, editing, and storytelling. Wow, talk about ineptitude.

Easy to guess that you loved it!

Some of the action was pretty fun, and the beginning showed a lot of promise, but that's as much praise as I can give it.

Take the scene where one of the illegals ships make its way to Elysium near the beginning of the movie. It's told and edited in such an incompetent fashion and it feels so rushed, where the scenes are not allowed to breathe at all which just makes it a series of shots with little natural flow.

The whole promise of a proper intelligent sci-fi? That peters soon into an action flick with a rubbish, vanilla plot. Ugh.

Her.

Go see it at the cinema because

1. It's possibly the single best film I've seen from 2013. Spike Jonze, you little quirky genius.
2. your support will convince GSC to keep bringing in movies like this?

Wouldn't call it level with Se7en; it's far less classy and far more blunt in its themes and violence, and its deliberate insistence in planting your feet in morally murky waters is questionable, but the shock factor, zippy pace, and sheer audacity of the direction (the cab scene.. whoa) make this a very worthy watch for those who can stomach it.

I actually finished that movie.

Probably a movie that could make the slightest bit of sense only when you're high...

That's the one with Andy Lau? The one with incessant car crashes and explosions with bad CGI? Surprised you liked it that much!

Some movies I caught over the last month.

1. Snowpiercer. One of the better movies to be shown here recently, and is Bong's (The Host) english debut. His striking visual acumen is intact, as is his biting commentary on how society functions. Not perfect, but a damn good watch. 4/5

2. Don't Look Now. Seminal british psychological horror movie from the 70's. It's got an enveloping atmosphere of dread and doom, and kind of makes me never want to visit Venice. The spine-tingling climax is deserving of it's legendary status. 4/5

3. Instructions Not Included. Starts of good but wades too much into typical common denominator tv series comedy. Would have been much better in the hands of more capable writers/director. 2.5/5

4. The Wolf of Wall Street. This is Scorsese trying to do another Goodfellas. Long running time but I wasn't bored at any point, though I didn't think it was stellar either. It's consistently really good but rarely exceptional. A typically good performance from diCaprio but somehow I feel he's peaked. 4/5

5. Cheap Thrills. Didn't know anything about this before putting it on. Wow. A great indie concept film that delivers black humour and ugly shocks. Don't read anything about it, just go watch it. 4/5

6. The Spectacular Now. Ho-hum coming of age film, that doesn't stand out from the rather large pool of recent coming of age films. Main character is unlikable throughout, and any last second change in character isn't going to make me change my mind. 2.5/5

7. Blue is the Warmest Colour. Exceptional film not just about first love, but love for someone of the same sex. Feels real and honest, with a big part of that down to the performances of the man actress. 5/5

8. Anchorman 2. Lame humour that is passable on a lazy night. 3/5

9. Philomena. Judy Dench, that's all that needs to be said. 4/5

10. Nebraska. After being disappointed by The Descendants, this is a much, much stronger film from Alexander Payne, and could possible be as good as his best - Sideways. It's not as outright funny as that one, but the humour in this one is very, very well thought out and written. As with the best comedies, it stems from observations of the human behaviour, it's the kind of that doesn't make your mouth laugh our loud, but rather your mind. And that's one side of the coin. The other side is a tender and delicately put together road trip/father-son film with great performances from every single one of the cast (if anything, just watch the film for the character of the mom). It feels small, but leaves a big mark. 5/5

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 30 2014, 11:01 PM

The House of the Devil.

I remember thinking how creepy this was when I watched it about 4 or 5 years back. This has not changed. Its probably one of the creepiest and most sinister horror movies I've seen, and it runs almost entirely on slow burn until the blood letting finale. The sense of unease in the atmosphere is scarily palpable. THIS is how horror movies should be done.

Plus it features one of the most gasp-inducing sudden deaths I've seen. You'll know what I mean when it happens.

Ti West's follow up The Innkeepers fares much worse. That had an odd blend of comedy and old school horror neither of which really worked. But I'm eager to see his latest film The Sacrament, based on actual events which I recently read up and found to be disturbing even on paper.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: May 13 2014, 11:22 PM