Seen any good films lately? [3]

Watched "Legend" this afternoon. I liked it, I thought Tom Hardy did such a good job playing each of the Krays twins that I forgot it was him alone doing it. The film didnt tell me anything I didnt already know & I think it was trying to be seen from the outside in, which didnt really work as it was weak, I also think the producer wanted us to "feel" for them for once ? that they werent the cruel villians we all thought they were ? The mother of the boys wasnt mentioned hardly at all where as in previous films we lead to believe that Ron especially was dedicated to his mum. Nothing was mentioned about Charlie, the eldest brother either ? At just over 2hours it felt a long film at times & I dont think it went too deep into the whys & wherefores but, I have to say Hardy played the nutcase Ronnie very scarily. Without Tom Hardy I would have found this film boring in truth, but then, Its not a new story to me. Im sure anyone who doesnt know of the Krays will be mesmerized

I was curious about that when I first heard of it. I'll watch Tom Hardy in just about anything.

Watched Kingsman: The Secret Service and Ex-Machina yesterday, both very good

Woo hoo yeah baby !!!, Tom is my "crush of the moment "

Cheers, azriel. Have you seen him in Bronson yet? That's still probably my favorite Hardy performance.

malickfan wrote:Watched Kingsman: The Secret Service and Ex-Machina yesterday, both very good

I didn't watch a lot of movies last year but I adored both of those.

Kingsman is fantastic. its rare that I thoroughly enjoy a film, but I certainly did enjoy this.

Eldorion wrote: That's still probably my favorite Hardy performance.

What about Stark Trek Nemesis? *sarcasm*

I didn't think much of Bronson personally...

Mrs Figg wrote:Kingsman is fantastic. its rare that I thoroughly enjoy a film, but I certainly did enjoy this.

Felt like a cobintion of Kick Ass and 60s Bond movie, the church scene was

He was amazing as Bronson !! He really is a dam good actor in my eyes ! Each character Ive seen him play is different. Look at the difference between Bronson & as Bob in "The Drop" ! or as Ivan Locke in the film "Locke"

The church scene in Kingsman was my favorite part too.

Bronson was definitely not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it. Not as much as Drive (from the same director), though.

If I ever meet Petty its going to be.. Manners... Maketh... Man.

But I have loads of manners, bad ones granted but they still count!

Watching Spaaaaaaaaaaace Cooooooooooooooooop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was it?

Was as expected, a B-movie filled with shlock. Some of the performances from the actors that they hired were actually pretty good considering the production cost/script material. The performances from Mike, Jay, and Rich were a little stilted, though. Patton Oswalt's cameo ran a little too long IMO.

There were a lot of practical effects and miniatures, but also some pretty good CGI considering the limits of their production. Mike mentions in the commentary that their Canadian friend Colin, who appears in a couple episodes of BotW, did the CGI for their title sequence and the CGI in some scenes.

The script was pretty basic, which, when you're aiming for a B-movie feel, is alright, but I guess I would expect just a little more from RLM. There were a lot of gut-busting moments, especially between Mike and Rich.

I don't want to sound like I'm being too hard on the movie. I did enjoy it, and it fit the bill for what it was.

Sounds pretty good all in all, thanks for posting your thoughts on it.

The Revenant was really gorgeous. Although, I don't think it's sunk in enough yet for me to make any real value judgment on the narrative.

There's apparently this famous Norwegian actor in it, (Kristoffer Joner) who spent about 6 months working on it, but only appears for about 30 seconds. I can't say I spotted him, but still..

Watched Spotlight yesterday. If you are up for something serious and don't mind feeling depressed afterwards, go see it. Acting was good.... I forgot Michael Keaton could act!

even after Birdman?

Someone said that to me today... I haven't seen birdman.

He acts, quite excellently, in that film.

Watched "Victor Frankenstein". It was quite good if not a bit cheesy in places James mcAvoy hammed it up a tad towards the end & it wasnt 100% as the book because you are seeing it from Igors perspective. Daniel Radcliffe plays Igor & at the beginning you see him as a taunted & ridiculed circus clown, mainly due to his hunch back. He actually acted ! & I felt sorry for him ( Im losing my mind ) The film flies alone at a cracking speed & tho you never see any body dismemberment & grave robbing etc you do see that Igor isnt a retarded, blubbering cripple but, a man with a brain & intelligence. The hump on his back is answered for, he has a girlfriend & we see him try to bring Frankenstein to his senses. It wasnt earth shattering but, it wasnt crap either. I quite liked it The tone & atmosphere was well done & of course there was the obligatory "Its alive!!!" manic half laugh half demonic leer, which all Frankie films must have I think what I also liked was that there really wasnt much CGI used. A breath of fresh air as CGI can go too far & bore the arse off me. This version was more about life & a lot less about the technicalities of raising bodkins to stomp the Earth

I can really appreciate that absence of CGI Azriel; that sort of thing really stands out to me.

For example, I just got back from The Witch, and it contained no CGI at all as far as I could tell. 

And wow, it was really really good. I mean it was amazing! The strangest thing about it was how much it reminded me of my own childhood growing up. Not, of course, the horror aspects or the witches. But so much of the family dynamic, the farm-life with its various animals and small house, and the strong religious beliefs shown in the film were things that I had also grown up with. 

The acting was exceptional, the dialogue (and authentically 17th century-sounding delivery of said dialogue) was as interesting as it was cool-sounding, and the subject of the horror found in the film (witches in New England) was done just right. 

That's what I really loved about this film: the horror was only a backdrop to the real story being told of how the family was struggling to stay together in this harsh and horrible frontier environment. There is one scene (SPOILER IF YOU INTEND TO GO SEE IT!!)

Spoiler:

It's a dark, dreary, and nihilistic film about the struggle of goodness and love and family in the face of wickedness, death, and temptation that perfectly captures what the frontier in 17th century New England must have felt like while still making the ideas and viewpoints of that time relevant and very meaningful to a modern audience. 

It is a horror film though. Do not see this movie if you have a soft spot for babies being alive as opposed to murdered.

(Funnily enough, a certain character from Game of Thrones who had a nursing 10 year-old (or so) played a woman in this who gave suckle not once but twice.)

(And actually, her husband was played by one of the Ironborn who helped burn those boys back in season 2 or whenever. He was really good in this, and has a wonderfully deep and gravelly voice.)