Knight and Day. A breezily paced, very agreeable in tone action movie, with a few well executed action scenes, in particular the freeway chase has originality in how it's shot and fluidity in how it comes together, marred only by the obvious and rather shoddy CGI. Tom Cruise's introduction in this sequence is mindblowingly cool, and if it had been his first formal introduction in the movie, it would have probably been the best introduction to a character since Captain Jack Sparrow in the first POTC. Apart from all that it's all rather fomulaic and uninspiring, but I was entertained adequately.

John Powell gives us yet another great score in this. I just can't get enough of his percussive action cues.

Here's a taste:



This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 16 2011, 06:34 PM

You are usually so lenient towards bad movies, so this must be a real turkey. Personally I find it hard to believe someone who made the best movie about love I've ever seen is capable of making such a disaster, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains the only movie I've seen from him, so I can't say.

Watched Animal Kingdom. Crime-drama from Australia. Great script that allows for a number of great characters I was very involved in, great pacing, assured direction. There are moments of suspense in here that do not rise from the plot of action thrills, but rather stem from the changing dynamics in the relationships between characters. Fantastic. These are characters that we care about, and when their lives are snuffed out... it's nauseatingly brutal. The only thing I didn't like was the ending... a film of this calibre didn't need a surprise like that.

Easily superior to The Town.

I dont care about that half-trick pony Seth Rogen so I dont care about watching the movie either.

Is that the one by Zack Snyder? How can it be that good? Scandalous!

Oh and I watched Winter's Bone. I suppose you can call it a perfectly good movie in its own right, but the whole thing was just unappealing to me in tone, looks, and story. Kinda like that other 'indie' movie I saw a few years ago, Frozen River or something. Something about how these movies look just seem so unappealing and uninteresting.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 2 2011, 10:45 PM

Everything was pretty good until that ending which petered out to nothingness. The movie just suddenly grew weak knees and everything fell apart. Go watch Animal Kingdom, which is a far better film about crime impacts life. It's a bit like Goodfellas without all the wiseguy jokes and fun tone.

There's a copy of the bluray floating around if that's what you are asking lol.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 3 2011, 10:19 AM

Due Date. The Hangover was funny as hell. What the he'll happened here?

Wow I just found out both True Grit and Black Swan are playing at local cinemas now... Not been paying attention.

I assume nothing is censored in TG? I'll try to catch it tomorrow.

Last 10 mins is the scariest I've ever felt watching a movie.

I know the bluray rip of Black Swan is out, I just watched it again last night, but I really suggest watching it in a cinema. I know there probably isn't a big hall anywhere in the country showing this, but you can catch it in GSC Pavilion- small hall, but the screen is pretty big, and unlike all other GSC/TGV cinemas I've been to, the Pavilion GSC has excellent picture and sound quality. The picture isn't dim.

Watch it in a cinema not because it loses its effectiveness on a small screen (I can assure you it's still every bit as powerful at home), but because Black Swan is one of the finest cinematic experiences I've ever had. From the mesmerizing opening dance sequence filled with foreboding blackness, to the jaw-dropping, head-spinning, soul-crushing final 30 minutes, this film will grip you like no other... provided you give in, provided you are willing to... lose yourself in it.

The following may contain small spoilers, and I recommend not reading until you have watched it.

The plot isn't that much and could be called perfunctory, but what Aronofsky does, how his darting, stalking camera pulls you right alongside Nina and right into her psyche... what he does with human flesh and skin looking so vulnerable to being violated in a very evil manner... and the insane images that manifests all about the film... my god. A long as you're not occupied trying to discern what is real what is not, and accept that it is the intention of the director to keep things blurred, to make Nina's experience yours, it is impossible to turn away from it.

And I can assure you, when the finale finally reaches its climax, you will be so utterly transfixed by what is happening that I could set fire to your dog next to you and you wouldn't move. I was watching this last night and the music (which is f***ing brilliant) was so loud that my mom was yelling for me to turn it down, and I didn't move a muscle. In a way, Requiem for A Dream has a similar effect, but while that finale was singularly bleak and destructive, Black Swan's finale moves in two opposite, incongruous directions simultaneously. You know it's going to be a crushing ending, but you also feel... glad for her. It is STUNNING.

Yeap. A masterpiece.

Sorry if I hyped it up too much, but that's how I feel.

Apart from both lead characters willing to die for their respective art, Black Swan and The Wrestler couldn't be more different. One is a film utterly reliant on acting and devoid of its own character, the other a perfect balance of bravura acting and the director unleashing his full insane vision.

Can I ask what attracts you to bad movies?

The Silence of the Lambs has one of the most jaw dropping sequences I've ever seen in a movie- namely the bit where Hannibal escapes. Everything apart from that could be shit and it would still be worth watching for that scene alone. As it is everything else is bloody brilliant too which makes it one of the all time greats.

I need to watch Hannibal again but I remember liking it quite a bit. Red dragon is very good too though it does play it very safe. Manhunter was good as well. Can't top Lambs though.

I thought the Green Hornet was decent too. It wasnt very good but it was tolerable and definitely not as bad as feared. At least it had Gondry's visual stamp over it- some of the action scenes were hard to see what exactly was happening even in slowmo, but shit it looked cool anyway.

I say 3/5

No intention of watching Rio!

It's easier to just say we are correct and you are wrong laa...

I actually watched a fair amount of movies over the last few weeks. Saw Harry Potter 7.1 Liked the first half a lot but the second half just draggged. I'm just sick of these so-called "contemplative" moments the last few HP movies (and books) like to throw at us. And haven't we seen enough of Harry/Ron/Hermione bickering like emo kids? Ptui. Also not a fan of how the latter books/movies like to make stuff up on-the-go to... to me the whole HP universe gets more ridiculous and illogical with each book.

Also watched the Red Riding Trilogy, a three-part made-for-TV series that is set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper case that also focuses on police bruality. Anyway the first movie is a pitch-black crime-noir, with bleak atmosphere and photography, and a great performance from Sean Bean. It is very good, but it just stops short of greatness because a lot of it is a bit undeveloped. The villain isn't developed enough, the relationship of the protagonist and the girl isn't, and the ending comes a bit too soon I feel. A longer runtime would have been better. The second part is a lot more procedural investigative stuff, and is engaging throughout. The most consistent film of the three. Part three is good too, but it reveals too much. I always felt the shady police figures in the first two were better left unexplained... well at least not explained to the extent that everything is black and white. Take as a whole though, the three films make for an excellent but bleak series.

The King's Speech. Liked it a lot. Much better than what I expect from a film about how a king learns not to stammer.

The Man From Nowhere. Another Korean revenge flick. Good first half but last hour becomes a dumb action movie with over-sentimental moments.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Apr 13 2011, 09:00 PM

A friend was repeatedly asking me to watch that in the cinema thank god I didn't go for it. Obvious it would suck, really.

Lolwut what did I say to make you bring up my name now?

I think it may be the best chinese movie I have seen, ever. Which probably speaks more about the amount of chinese movies I've seen than the actual quality of the movie really. But it's a superb movie.

Anyway watched a few movies over the last two weeks.

Paul - The jokes are a lot more low-brow than the usual Pegg/Frost comedies, but it's still highly entertaining and funny, with loads of nods to old sci-fi movies. The alien itself was annoying though, especially in the beginning. Pairing it with the voice of Seth Rogen just makes it worse.

Pi - Finally got around to watching Aronofsky's debut feature. You can definitely see where his latter claustrophobic, downwards-spiral-to-hell movies derived their inspirations from. They all share the same main theme, but are remarkably different enough to stand alone alongside each other. Love Libatique's high contrast B&W photography here. Good to see how a no-budget film can have smart ideas and look so stylish at the same time.

The Adjustment Bureau - Oh I liked it. OK, the movie does find it a hard time balancing romance and sci-fi. It isn't meshed together as well as say, Eternal Sunshine which has romance and sci-fi ideas going on simultaneously in each frame, coexisting perfectly. Here, the romance and sci-fi bits exist mostly in different frames. You have the romance when Matt Damon is with Blunt. And you have sci-fi when Matt Damon is with the adjustment guys. The tone swings. And when both elements merge in the final act, it feels rushed and not very captivating. But at least the it tried to do something differently. It had ideas, and executed them decently enough. I also loved the chemistry between Damon and Blunt, they actually reminded me of Joel and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine... and that's definitely a good thing.

Zodiac - Must have watched this 4 or 5 times now. Fincher's masterpiece.

Mean Streets - Watched for the first time. It was kinda loose storywise but Harvey Keitel's and De Niro's characters and the friendship between them made the movie. De Niro here actually reminds me of a friend If my friend were to be a gangster I have no doubt he would be something like Johnny Boy. I thought the ending was too abrupt. But really it's a very good film about a bunch of marginal thugs , their way of life, and how they interact with each other, sans a real driving story behind it (some subplots even go nowhere). And the movie is more personal and intimate than his later movies. Less calculated.

I watched those over the last two weeks... Plus let the bullets fly and xmen and pirates 4 in the cinema. Surely that's not too much! Still much less than the two movies you watch each day.

My exam is actually on next Monday. And I'm on study leave this whole week.

Never Let Me Go.

Wow. I don't think the relationships completely work, but the movie sure does linger in the mind. Probably for a long, long time. Imagine Michael Bay's The Island, take away all the action, center it on a love story, and make it depreeeeeessssing.

The Lincoln Lawyer.

Entertaining while it lasts, but forgettable after. In fact, entertaining up until the finale, which is far-fetched, uninspired, dull.

lol do I sound like someone who watched McConaughey rom-coms? He was good in Lincoln Lawyer although at times he was being a bit too much of himself.

Paths of Glory. Surely this is Kubrick's warmest and most human film? It's excellent.