[Paul B]

Started watching red 2 which should be shit but is actually quite enjoyable.

Did you smoke some good crack before that one?

Nat and I watched (half) of it in Bishop when given the option of that or some kids movie about planes, 10 minutes in I wanted the planes. Thankfully lightening struck near the town, caused a massive fire and knocked out power so I was spared the end. Also this meant T-stubs got a pair of 'Raincheck' tickets which I hope he used far more wisely than I.

American Hustle and Wolf of Wall St. are both high on my 'To see' list, the latter is currently on at the Showroom too.

[psychomansam]

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!

[Stubbs]

Also this meant T-stubs got a pair of 'Raincheck' tickets which I hope he used far more wisely than I.

Went to see Thor 2, no regrets here!

[Evil]

Had this on DVD for a year or two really good film.
I have liked all the main actors (jesse eisenberg) I have seen.
Zombieland, Social network and most recently Now you see me.

If you like Jesse Eisenberg, have you seen Why Stop Now? It's quite an enjoyable film, although it didn't get great critic reviews, I enjoyed the amusing script, and he's very good in it I think.

Saw Ender's Game too recently, which I enjoyed, but it was a shame the trailer gave away the reveal (I suppose if you'd read the book you would know anyway, but it annoyed me).

[SA Chris]

Started Time Traveller's Wife, but it's a bit shit so far, is it worth persevering, or bin it? I've not read the book.

Should have quit, it's very poor. A good idea squandered.

[magpie]

Saw Ender's Game too recently, which I enjoyed, but it was a shame the trailer gave away the reveal (I suppose if you'd read the book you would know anyway, but it annoyed me).

Have you read the book?  I loved it but I wasn't sure if it would translate well into film.

I saw Catching Fire at the weekend which I am sure is not really to many people heres taste but I liked it, a good adaptation of the book which is fairly high praise as I loved the series when I read them.

[Evil]

No, I hadn't read the book, so I was annoyed about being given the big reveal in the trailer. I think there'll be a lot of people having not read the book, so I'm not sure why they needed to put that in the trailer. Maybe there wasn't much interest in the film, and they were just trying to get people in...? I think it's quite well done for film sci-fi which I agree doesn't always work. The kid playing Ender is good, which really helps as he's so much the focus of the movie.

Didn't really enjoy Catching Fire, seemed to drag on a lot, not much actually happening. Didn't care what did happen. I think if it wasn't for Jennifer Lawrence, it'd be pretty unwatchable (even though she was intolerably annoying along with Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, she is good as Katniss).

[Duma]

Been mentioned before on here, but really enjoyed Winters Bone properly bleak stuff, perfect for the middle hours of a night shift...

[magpie]

I thought she was amazing in Winter's Bone, I do have the biggest girl crush on her EVER though so I'd probably like her in anything.

Helpfully I can't actually remember what happens at the end of Ender's Game - it's the first in a trilogy that I read back to back so I have no idea where the first book finished and the next one started.

Edit: Scratch that!  I am thinking of The Maze Runner which is also being made into a film, I can't remember the end of Ender's Game so I won't watch the trailer and I'll get a surprise.  Sometimes having the memory of a sieve is not a bad thing.

[Davo]

 Saw American Hustle in the cinema the other evening. Thought it was very slow and felt that I was waiting for something to happen which never did. As someone said all the actors are great and I especially liked Christian Bale but they couldn't save it. Nearly walked out halfway through and in retrospect should have!

Dave

[Paul B]

I just checked the run times for Wolf of Wall St. and American Hustle, they're not short are they? Perhaps tomorrow night.

[Gallant]

Saw Inside Llweyn Davis at the Showroom today. I really enjoyed it through out, funny in parts and engaging for the duration of the film. It's not piss takingly long either.

[Falling Down]

Just watched "Out of the Furnace" Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Forrest Whittaker, the utterly beautiful Zoe Soldana & Williem Dafoe.  Really grim, gritty and brilliant.  Right up my street.  The script could've been better but it was redeemed by the actors.  9/10.

[SA Chris]

the utterly beautiful Zoe Soldana & Williem Dafoe.

Yeah I fancy him too.

[lukeyboy]

Not sure if it's been mentioned on here before but just watched Untouchable and thought it was excellent

[magpie]

Untouchable is brilliant, I loved it.

Just watched "Out of the Furnace" Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Forrest Whittaker, the utterly beautiful Zoe Soldana & Williem Dafoe.  Really grim, gritty and brilliant.  Right up my street.  The script could've been better but it was redeemed by the actors.  9/10.

I really want to see that, the trailers look good.

I watched Ender's Game last night, I wasn't very impressed, maybe because I'd read the book too recently and was comparing it, it seemed a bit rushed and it was REALLY cheesy. The other half wasn't that keen either so it might just have been a bit rubbish rather than being anything to do with the book.  I suppose that's the issue with reading books and then watching the film, they have a lot to live up to and I felt like this film skipped loads of stuff that was fairly critical to the story.

We also watched Dallas Buyers Club which was really, really good. The subject matter was quite hard going in places and the actors are shockingly thin, they really look awful, but it's well worth a watch. I can see why it's up for / won so many awards.

[Durbs]

I had the odd occurance of watching a Matthew Mconaughey film that wasn't shit! (He did take his shirt of as he's contractually obliged too).

Mud - Quite a good coming-of-age/stand-by-me type film. Not earth-shattering, but actually good.

The Sweeney - Less so, an ok TV film.

Hummingbird - Jason Statham trying to act, mostly fails, but not horrendous

[SA Chris]

Saw The Impossible over the weekend. Bit cheesy, but moving (mostly true apparently) story about a family in the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand. The filming of the tsunami itself and the aftermath are amazing and the scenes of devestation after it. Ewan MacGregor and Naomi Watts do an OK job of acting, but basically just have to look like crap for most of the film.

[johnx2]

Saw Inside Llweyn Davis at the Showroom today. I really enjoyed it through out, funny in parts and engaging for the duration of the film. It's not piss takingly long either.

Really, really good film with a lot more going on than the immediate plot. You get a sense of the protagonist, where he's from, stuff that's happened, without it being shown. You also get the Cohen world view (mine also) that life's meaningless shite, plus some good things. The loop the loop timeline's good too, and I love the setting. But then I'm close to being a Cohen bros fan.

I just checked the run times for Wolf of Wall St...

three hours of meaningless drug abuse and sex - made me miss the start...

[petejh]

Saw Inside Llweyn Davis at the Showroom today. I really enjoyed it through out, funny in parts and engaging for the duration of the film. It's not piss takingly long either.

Really, really good film with a lot more going on than the immediate plot. You get a sense of the protagonist, where he's from, stuff that's happened, without it being shown. You also get the Cohen world view (mine also) that life's meaningless shite, plus some good things. The loop the loop timeline's good too, and I love the setting. But then I'm close to being a Cohen bros fan.

Third this. Brilliant film, lots of depth, cats as metaphor, various 60s folk heroes, allusions to Homer's Odyssey. One I'd watch again.

[Paul B]

Saw American Hustle in the cinema the other evening. Thought it was very slow and felt that I was waiting for something to happen which never did. As someone said all the actors are great and I especially liked Christian Bale but they couldn't save it. Nearly walked out halfway through and in retrospect should have!

Dave

Agreed. Strong acting but I was expecting a bit more. Amy Adams rescued it for me though 

[Ti_pin_man]

I really enjoyed american hustle but can see why some will find it not to their taste.  For me, it sucked you in slowly and there was certainly a few times I wondered what the heck was going on but was glad I stuck with it.  If you go in and expect a typical hollywood film with action/guns and car chases youre in the wrong theatre but if you want a good film which is 'differently' directed then its quite a treat.  My only disappointment was the ending wasnt as good as I'd hoped, but I wont say more for spoilers sake. 

[a dense loner]

All I expected was a good film and the what I got fell very short for me.

Watched bad lieutenant port of call last night which turned out to be very watchable.

[Falling Down]

Been mentioned before on here, but really enjoyed Winters Bone properly bleak stuff, perfect for the middle hours of a night shift...

Dickon Hinchcliffe (ex-Tindersticks) wrote the soundtrack for Winters Bone and Out of the Furnace (and the really bleak second episode of Red Riding). If you have Spotify, it's great mood music to listen to whilst reading.

[Paul B]

If you go in and expect a typical hollywood film with action/guns and car chases youre in the wrong theatre

That's not what I was expecting at all, I was expecting more substance and I'd argue that if you found a movie to have a disappointing ending then it precludes it from being good!

Watched Rush last night, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It did go a bit cinematic-holywood at times but overall I thought it was good. With that, Senna, and the Rich Heap F1 documentary from a while back petrolheads have been mildly spoilt. Did the doc r: the Dakar rally air yet?