Watched it too a few weeks ago or so and liked it.Originally Posted by demagogue
Yep, he was very funny.But the main punchline is that Charles Laughton is my hero.
He showed every promise of being a great director too. Night of the Hunter is probably the weirdest and darkest film to come out of the 50's studio system, and one of the most striking and original directorial debuts I've ever seen. However, it bombed, both commercially and, at the time, critically, so he was never again given a chance to direct.
I just watched Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, fascinating movie.
I haven't watched any shows lately, but must say I'm intrigued by this new show:
I enjoyed Drive a lot - while, strangely, a friend of mine who usually has similar tastes disliked it. (He also really likes The Big Blue, which may put things into perspective.) Definitely felt like old-school Michael Mann without being derivative, and I'm finally starting to see why people are making a big deal of Ryan Gosling. Yes, his acting was almost entirely internalised, but he is definitely an actor who vanishes into his roles.
The one thing that irritated me, though, is the ending. Not knowing exactly what happens to the Driver is one thing, but the film seems to abandon its stylised realism without needing to. Either I missed something about the ending or the movie decides to take things onto a more metaphorical/symbolic level, but if so, it didn't really signal this switch very well. I was pretty much left going, "Huh?"
Albert Brooks was fucking scary, though...
Very vaguely related to Thirith's comment on Ryan Gosling: I was quite pleasantly surprised by Ryan Reynolds recently when I watched Buried. Never rated his acting chops much before, but he really was quite good in this - as was the entire movie, in fact. Especially considering it's a movie about one man in a box.
I'm hoping to pick up Drive at the weekend. Looking forward to it.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. It was mostly Nicolas Cage smoking crack and losing his shit, but trust me, great film.
Probably a spoiler, but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEJjjVrL1tY
Last night I finished off the final season of Star Trek Voyager. Now whilst there was most certainly a fair few filler episodes, the series stayed good and ended great. They don't make sci fi like that anymore which is a real shame.
Next up in continuing with my going through of all the Star Trek serieses I'm onto Star Trek: DS9 (watched the originals & next generation prior to starting on Voyager).
Dragon's Lair NES Remake Demo: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138312
Just saw Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence and the movie left me profoundly confused. Also it felt a little too hamfisted in the "look at our awesome 3D cgi!" department.
Innocence is an idiotic film, a career's low for Oshii.
I've just caught up with Game of Thrones. Seriously compelling stuff and a welcome break after Braking Bad and Californication. Good to have something in the fantasy vein to break it up.
DS9 is my favorite of the various Trek adaptations, mostly because it goes for a mostly well-done long-term story arc that starts early and lasts for the rest of the show. If you enjoyed Voyager of all things I don't think you'll be disappointed with DS9.
I certainly agree as I watched the series ages back, but its been so long since I last watched them that I can't remember how they go. That said back in the day I missed a fair few episodes so be bound to be a fair few I've not seen before.
Dragon's Lair NES Remake Demo: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138312
So yeah. I'm watching Shivers -- a movie about a sex zombies taking over an isolated apartment block. Welcome to David Cronenberg.
'Tis good.
I concur.
Jokes that are actually funny and not forced.
Action that looks good.
A great cast of characters that all get their moments.
Yeah I'm going to see it with a friend next Wednesday. It's going to be a Joss Whedon evening because later that night we're also going to see Cabin in the Woods. Anyone seen that one yet?
Can't believe that Cabin in the Woods is going direct to DVD in Australia... Bullshit!
For those that have seen The Avengers, does it matter that I didn't see Thor or Captain America, nor do I care for the characters at all?
Well, Loki is the bad guy of the Avengers movie, and the interactions between him and Thor do build upon what happened in the Thor movie. But the exposition should be able to cover things.
Also, the bad guys from Cap's movie (HYDRA) have some influence on the story.
As far as caring for the characters goes, all of the Avengers have important roles and get screen time. The movie doesn't spend too much time on individual character development*, but rather uses the characters as they were established in the previous movies to make the team interact.
*The exception being the two new characters Black Widow and Hawkeye, who haven't had any origins movies. Still, the time spent with their development only takes long enough to establish them.
This freaked me out many years ago. I haven't seen it recently but DC certainly knows how to be odd so it should be an experience at least.
To expand somewhat on WK's comments: What you do need to have, I would say, is a general understanding of who these characters are (otherwise e.g. Captain America's introduction boils down to 'a dude in a gym'), but I highly doubt that will be a problem even if you haven't read any of the comics. These characters are pretty well know outside of that as well, I'd think.
You don't need to have watched the previous movies to enjoy this one, though, no. Having said that, the previous movies do get referenced quite a bit (in the case of Captain America there's even a very brief flashback to The First Avenger), but most of the meaning should be self-evident from the context.
At any rate, this is how I'd rank the Avengers movies (gotta love a ranked list); this might help you determine whether you want to bother watching any of the previous films you haven't seen yet first:
- Avengers Assemble
- Iron Man
- Captain America
- Iron Man 2
- Thor
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- Incredible Hulk
Also, I'm sure other people will have different opinions on this, let's hear it!
Just saw Timecrimes as suggested in my old thread and quite liked it, very interesting take on the time-travel paradox and the "chicken and egg" idea. The middle kinda dragged a bit, but the ending offers a worthy payoff
Comics and movies shouldn't mix.
"But don't worry. Your true hero has just arrived to save the day."
I hadn't seen those films either, or Iron Man 2, but I still enjoyed The Avengers immensely. Very funny and tremendously exciting, it's easily the best comic book film I've seen and any quibbles I have a minor (a fairly uninspired score, you generally know where the plot is going) in the grand scheme of things. Whedon deserves massive props for bringing together all of these heroes from tonally different films, as well as juggling a recasting (Ruffalo brings a bit of Method nuance to his potrayal of Bruce Banner - hope he gets a stand-alone film) and some new characters, and making it all work so well. There are a lot of juicy character dynamics (much of the first half of the film honestly feels like one of those movies where an estranged family gets together at Christmas) and despite the rather large differences in power between some of them, no one comes off as feeling useless. Everyone gets their moment and while some characters naturally burn a little brighter than others (Hulk's rampaging is a thing to behold), no one truly overshadows the rest. Much to my surprise I ended up liking Captain America most of all. There was little to none of the jingoism I usually associate with the character and his old-fashioned sincerity is refreshing, even a little inspiring, in this age of the snarky, gritty or self-defeatingly ironic superhero. I'll be certain to check out his stand-alone film next time I'm at a DVD store.
Sold!
Watched Young Adult the other day, surprisingly misanthropic, Charlize was great, but the complete lack of arc for her character compromises the movie as much as it defines it.
I can't wait to see the sequel to the Avengers now that Thanos appears at the post-credits ending, eeep!!!
And, yes, Mark Ruffalo should get a proper standalone Hulk movie, he really made for a cool and tortured Bruce Banner, w00t!
Man.....can't wait for Dark Knight Rises....please be good, please be good, please be gooooood!!!
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