[SA Chris]

Am I going to get flamed for saying I watched Alpha Papa this weekend, and was disappointed? Some very funny moments, but there were single episodes of the TV series where I laughed more.

[french erick]

This thread refers to it pg 69 but...
3 years later, I finally watched Senna. Reminded me about being a kid. But I was inspired sportwise too. Amazing footage from the time!
Even managed a sesh after watching it (brownie point with the wife AND endurance point on homewall).

[tomtom]

This thread refers to it pg 69 but...
3 years later, I finally watched Senna. Reminded me about being a kid. But I was inspired sportwise too. Amazing footage from the time!
Even managed a sesh after watching it (brownie point with the wife AND endurance point on homewall).

Rush is good too.. very different type of F1 film  - but very good (I thought it might be wank but its not..)

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Watched The Girl Next Door the other night hoping for a nice trashy high school teen-com, mildly disappointed to discover it was actually far better than it had any right to be. Actually quite watchable and funny in places. Great sound track, reasonably good story (bear with it). Even Mrs Obi enjoyed it.

Red2 was disappointing having lost most of the humour of the original which I quite enjoyed.

[Johnny Brown]

Watched recently...

Spike Island - Bunch of lads attempt to get to the famous Roses gig. Nothing new but entertaining and funny and with a decent soundtrack obviously.

Saw this at Easter too. I wasn't expecting much as it didn't do well, but after initially fending off a cringe I really enjoyed it. Lots of faces from Shameless, similar vibe of not taking itself too seriously but great entertainment.

[r-man]

BTW, true detective is pretty dam good

Best thing on TV for ages.

[Jaspersharpe]

Only two series that I've watched this year are True Detective and The Trip To Italy (as per iPlayer thread). Both amazing.

Don't think I'll bother with anything else for a while as the bar's been set too high (and anyway, there's too much great sport on).

[tomtom]

Having just done a round trip to Oz, I caught up with recent films during my flights.

American Hustle: Good - bit more serious/emotional than I thought it would be.

Anchorman2: Shit. Amusing in places but really just shit. Racist dinner scene just terrible on all sorts of levels.

Wolverine: The one where he's in Japan - not bad - though I was semi comatose.

Lego Movie: Awesome (everything is)

Dallas Buyers Club: Absolutely fantastic - brilliant. Funny, touching and sad.

Inside Llewyn Davies: I love Cohen Brothers films and this didnt disappoint. A bit of a meander but great.

Robocop: (the re-boot). Alright, but a bit disappointing - some good bits but could have done more with it.

Wolf of Wall Street: Great film - though a bit sad/mixed at the end (he got what he deserved really) - but a good 90's excess romp in places.

Also saw the Banff film festival world tour in Darwin - some good stuff there - notably a superb 45 min film about two Norwegians who lived off nothing all winter in a secleded beach in the arctic circle. And went surfing in the middle of winter. Also Alaister Lee's Leo Houlding Antarctica thing - which was one of the better films but a bit 'whoo - yeah' for my liking. That said it would have been shit if Leo hadn't been there the character that he is...

[bigtuboflard]

+1 to American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street, both very well put together films. Probably enjoyed American Hustle more simply based on the style of film and the era it was set in.


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[tomtom]

+1 to American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street, both very well put together films. Probably enjoyed American Hustle more simply based on the style of film and the era it was set in.


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Me too. AH left more of an impression.

[galpinos]

Wolf of Wall Street was somewhat spoiled for me by being sat next to my mother in law. The seemingly endless waves of hookers, shagging and tits got a bit much.

I would say it was a Goodfellas "light" (though I haven't seen Goodfellas in years so I may be looking back with youthful and impressionable rose tinted glasses). My main issue with it was that I felt no sympathy/empathy for Jordan Belfort at any point (not a criticism of Di Caprio as he was excellent), he screws people over for the whole film and, despite a short and seemingly very comfy sojourn in prison, gets away with it. Him appearing in a cameo at the end kind of reinforced that.

Having said that, good dialogue, brilliantly shot, Jonah Hill was quality, Matthew McConaughey’s brief appearance was dynamite and it didn’t feel three hours long.

I thought American Hustle blew it away though, not just because of Amy Adams or Christian Bale with a gut and combover (the look I seem to be creeping towards).

[galpinos]

The Counselor – Good film but pretty grim (I hadn’t realised it was wriiten by Cormac McCarthy). Strong cast, performances, plot and dialogue but ends up quite brutal.
On a side note, it’s incredible how different Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz look (in character) bearing in mind they are but a year apart!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Counselor

[Jim]

got this to watch next I think. Anyone seen the blacklist? - woprth watching?
(sorry yes TV series here and not films I know  )

anyone readng back, me and the misses have watched the first 2 episodes and we won't be watching any more.
(Again TV series here and not films I know  )
Obviously GOT is totes amazeballs and I've also been recomended Banshee to start watching which looks quite good.
Will report back

[psychomansam]

got this to watch next I think. Anyone seen the blacklist? - woprth watching?
(sorry yes TV series here and not films I know  )

anyone readng back, me and the misses have watched the first 2 episodes and we won't be watching any more.
(Again TV series here and not films I know  )
Obviously GOT is totes amazeballs and I've also been recomended Banshee to start watching which looks quite good.
Will report back

    http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,12396.350.html  (sorry, not had sex in a while)

[Hoseyb]

a poor forecast and an afternoon pass (the Dad equivalent of not being grounded) Meant I got to see X men -Days of Future Past in 3D.

Total Geek out.  not only allowing them to start covering the interesting stuff without the sideways cock ups of non Singer films but it was really like in side my head pretty true to the comics. cant wait to see what happens next, I expect if Logans still adamantium deficient, Apocalypse will  sort it before making him a Horseman...

  Slight over geek there..

Ok, but my son is called Logan after all

A good one for comic fans

[Fiend]

X-Men - Days Of Future Past : Really good, my favourite in the extensive series. Context is really strong for this, actually gives it some purpose to the superhero dicking around. Start of it is great, characters are pretty good throughout.

Godzilla : Quite okay, escalates nicely and some good spectacles. Crams a lot of different stuff in, it's not just "omg big monster" which is nice, but equally is a bit patchy. The human story / human hero is overdone and the far more interesting background to the monsters is underdone.

The Others : Very good, essentially The Orphanage Lite but that's fair praise indeed. Creepy set-up and creepier characters and unfolds nicely.

The Thing : (the latest remake) Not bad, quite stylishly done, an interesting blend between a sort of remake and and a prequel setting it up well for the 1980's Thing. However it lacks the character and memorability of that classic, and is not as freaky and tense as it should be.

[Fiend]

Edge Of Tomorrow - fuck me this is good. Had high but wary hopes based on the trailer but it's better still - the whole Groundhog Day + Starship Troopers theme is inherently entertaining, but it's smart, well-paced, good characters and surprisingly funny. Definitely continues in the trend of well done sci-fi from a few years ago like District 9 and Source Code. Only regret is I didn't watch it earlier so I could catch it at the cinema again.

[Fiend]

Only regret is I didn't watch it earlier so I could catch it at the cinema again.

Actually, just went to see it again in IMAX 3D.....it is that good 

[Falling Down]

Wolf of Wall Street was somewhat spoiled for me by being sat next to my mother in law. The seemingly endless waves of hookers, shagging and tits got a bit much.

  I made a mental note not to tell my parents how good the film was.  Imagine taking someone on a first date....

(Have you changed your phone number or are you just ignoring my texts )

[Plattsy]

Best thing I've seen lately is Robot & Frank. Funny and heart warming comedy crime caper about a retired cat burglar who is down and suffering with alzeimers/dementia. Through the friendship of an assistance robot finds his lust for life.

Also really enjoyed Prisoners.

[SA Chris]

Best thing I've seen lately is Robot & Frank. Funny and heart warming comedy crime caper about a retired cat burglar who is down and suffering with alzeimers/dementia. Through the friendship of an assistance robot finds his lust for life.

Is it good? I saw the trailer and thought it looked terrible.

[Jaspersharpe]

Wolf of Wall Street is very funny and entertaining.  A searing expose of the US financial system it is not.  Clearly everyone in America including Scorsese is in thrall to Wall St.  Really good though.

Thought it looked like that, and nothing wrong with that. You watch a Scorsese film for great cinema rather than historical accuracy.

Goodfellas is still one of my favourite films ever but he got a load of stick for glorifying gangsters (despite none of then ending up "winning").

If you want an expose of the US financial system then Margin Call or Too Big To Fail are both very good imo:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1742683/

It's funny you mention that, because I thought it was, in many ways, basically a remake of goodfellas, but with Wall St men as the bad guys (with a few stylisms stolen from Tarantino this time). I think it's actually very damning of the 'gangsters' on Wall St but only in that it's accusative towards certain rogue 'bad guys'. It doesn't often attempt to criticise the rest.
That said, those it does criticise are, for me, caricatures of the 'industry' as a whole and the film does a good job of carrying a serious message - but sadly perhaps it's only for those who want to hear it.
Very good film, very funny, very entertaining, lots of good scenes, some very memorable. I was largely entranced for the full 3 hours. Not quite sure if it's a new classic, perhaps slightly too facile for that, but certainly well worth the time either way. Take a drink!

Finally got round to watching this the other day and thought it was great (as did Mrs S). Agree that it is actually very damning on the characters involved but it does also occasionally point to the fact that they are technically small fry in comparison to what the big boys and the system as a whole is doing.

And yes, it is basically Goodfellas but with a different type of criminal....... which is no bad thing!

[Plattsy]

Best thing I've seen lately is Robot & Frank. Funny and heart warming comedy crime caper about a retired cat burglar who is down and suffering with alzeimers/dementia. Through the friendship of an assistance robot finds his lust for life.

Is it good? I saw the trailer and thought it looked terrible.

I thought it was good yep. My expectations were low which probably helped.

Others this year I've enjoyed are both Hunger Games films and Prisoners.

[Evil]

I watched a new Arnie film recently  - Sabotage. Although I quite enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure kind of way, I thought the beginning set it up to be far more interesting than it turned out. I think I had hoped it would flip the usual mindless action flick into a bit of an intelligent police procedural type thing with some bonus Arnie action on the side....but it didn't (hope that's not too much of a spoiler, I don't imagine people are saving this one up for a special viewing!).

[tomtom]

My most recent long haul flight viewings produced a rather small haul.. thanks to it being BA and with their pitch of 31 inches and the tiny contrastless screen being thrust to 6 inches from my face (due to the huge person in front reclining ALL the way the whole journey -eating was like trying to eat inside a small cardboard box). But I did manage to see:

Jack Ryan - special blah blah blah blah... well it was OK, and if it was on the TV and nothing else was on its alright.. but don't pay hard ££ to watch it..

And I can't remember any of the rest. So they were shit.

There you go - if you go and see a load of films you can't remember 2 weeks later - then they were shit and you shouldnt have bothered viewing them.

PS - I watched the lego movie twice.