films we just saw

Chat here about anything horror related. Be it movies, news, remakes or events.
AndyJWS
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Post by AndyJWS »

Watched Poseidon this week and while it's not going to be winning any awards it's certainly the most cinematic film so far this summer, good for the experience with nice visuals (great opening tracking shot!) and good use of the entire sound field. Never a dull moment after the wave hits though, and really not 12A material, but suppose after The Da Vinci Code you can get away with anything :wink:

At work today Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift started, and seen about half an hour or so thus far between ice creaming and checking on chavs... well, although I had expected it to be a festering pile, I wasn't expecting a festering pile as racist and misogynistic as this! Horribly ripped off of Initial D at times, the stereotyping of Asians and the one black man in the whole of Japan is almost outright offensive even in small doses, not helped by the lazy scripting. Lucas Black (the kid from American Gothic) is fairly personable but can't raise it much, and the races vary between dodgy CGI shots, closeups of feet on pedals or speedometers/rev counters and some nice cinematography of surrounding areas without the cars actually visible (!), all of which looks like it's been edited by someone sitting on a washing machine on max spin setting. Oh, and while the subtitles for the Japanese dialogue are pretty accurate, the actual delivery (from supposedly Japanese characters) is truly embarrassingly bad. To be fair, the ending lifts the film a little, but it's really too late by then...

I know I was never really likely to enjoy this film, but I was hoping for drifting and racing to be at least the quality of last year's Dukes of Hazzard because of the involvement of many of the same drivers - sadly I have yet to see anything even close to approaching the General Lee's performance. Will post more as I see more of the film, and will carry on asking audience responses, but as thus far the only people who have liked the film have been under 10 (with parents) looks like it's a better bet to go for Hard Candy or Thank You For Smoking instead this week...

PS - Spoiler tags don't work on here?
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Post by jimbo »

Poseidon is great fun, really nicely done - lots of stunts, gory deaths, drama and tension, and Dreyfuss acts everyone off the screen. Perfect summer stuff, reminds me of when summer movies used to be good.

Saw Hard Candy last night - get along to your local and see this immediately, it's really squirmy disturbing stuff. Very satisfying, uncomfortable, and surprisingly funny. Great dialogue, great acting, clever storyline.
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Post by trixybella »

Seeing Hard Candy tonight, fully prepared to come out rather disturbed and a little upset, but should make good viewing. Will post my thoughts when I get back.
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Post by Alex Kidd »

You shold enjoy Hard Candy, I thought it was great, quite a hard watch in places. Let us know what you think.

I've just come back from a double bill of Hard Candy and Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Hard Candy was just brilliant, been hearing about it for ages so I was really looking forward to it, and it actually managed to be even better than I hoped it would be. Found it very hard t watch in certain parts, infact one guy got up and walked out after that certain scene, which I thought was a good sign.

Great script and acting as well, loved the ending as well.

Fast And The Furious was quite boring, started off quite fun and Lucas Black is quite good and a bit different in it, but there's no real story and I just got bored about halfway through. The best bit in the film is a surprise right beofre the end credits, which makes for an OKish ending.

Also watched a film yesterday which I've been wanting to see for years and just never been in the right place at the right time to see it, Rolling Thunder with William Devane. That was great, a real slow burn of a film with a fantastic shootout at the end, quite a powerful film, so glad I can finally cross that off my To Watch list.
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Post by trixybella »

So I'm back from Hard Candy and it's the most disturbing thing I've seen in ages.

It disturbed me on many levels, emotionally and physically, some of it is incredibly hard to watch, and having a 14 year old sister didn't make it any easier I can tell you!

Incredibly clever, it had me until the end, again something that hasn't happened in a long time.

Alot of people found Hostel the most disturbing movie in years, for me I was disappointed with it, this however, fully lived up to expectations and went beyond. I'll certainly be thinking about it for a long time to come. EVERYONE must see it!
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Post by Alex Kidd »

Glad you liked it, you're right I found this much harder to watch then Hostel. Easily one of the best things I've seen this year.
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Post by trixybella »

I think I was desensitised to hostel, firstly cos I've seen much more violent films(audition for one) , and secondly there was too much sex in it that by the time we got to the violence I was bored to tears.

Also the media hype it got didn't help, I was so looking forward to it and then lef feeling cheated I guess.
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Post by zappa fan »

Don't think I'll bother with Hard Candy. If it was a free showing or at FF then yes. But I'm sure will be on DVD soon...
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Alex Kidd
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Post by Alex Kidd »

It's well worth giving it a watch, especially worth seeing it in the cinema as it really focuses your attention on the film.
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Post by streetrw »

Did we see the same film? I got back from Hard Candy abut half an hour ago and I have to say I wasn't much impressed. I didn't think it was particularly terrifying or gruelling or difficult to watch, and legs remained uncrossed throughout.

One of the (minor) annoyances is that high-speed filming technique where every frame is crisp and sharp and there's no motion blur (probably most famously used in the start of Saving Private Ryan). Presumably the idea is that the human eye doesn't detect motion blur - but that's because the eye works at considerably more than 24 frames per second. (More than 24000, if it works in frames at all, which I don't actually think it does.) As it is, it just looked strobe-lit and unnnecessary.
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Post by Alex Kidd »

It's an interesting film in that it does seem to divide audiences. A friend of mine thought it was weird that I'd enjoyed it as well, he hated it.
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Hard Candy? with a chewy centre..spoilers!

Post by ghouldrool »

the human eye sees with the equivalent of 60 frames persecond at least.. allegedly the human brain is forced to concentrate when watching a film as the brain thinks its "missing" out on info so has to fill in the gaps..

i think the film was largely ordinary and really did wimp out by having it revealed that yes he was a danger after all..not just some loner guy who just happened to go for the wrong type..then the film really would have hada kick in the teeth where we realise that we left the film feeling bad for some one society tells us we shouldnt sorry but i find its hard to discuss this film without some spoilage ... having it that he did get involved in an evil act feels like an out, so that we can go "oh thank god he turned out to be a bad un".....it worked a little better in creating a sympathy for the devil vibe than Devils rejects though

and as she wanted him to die any way y not just cut of his dinkle for real? that scene really did get played too long and was rather artless in its attempts at suspense...less "ooooo noo something bad is coming" more "ffs get on with it"

it was a great concept but too strong for anyone but a real talent behind the camera.. it could have been a real corker.. there could have been so much more discussed... the emotional maturity of men like Jeff-his corny chat skills indicate that girls of a certain age are the only ones he can "romance", the boundaries of legal versus evil, the actual correct use of the term peadophile, and a better explantion as to how a "14" year old girl was able to constantly over power a man twice her size

a decent well made film, but like so many others just needed one or two more drafts of the script... i so wish this had been screened at a FF
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Post by soulmining »

I did the Hard Candy / Tokyo Drift double-bill today...

Hard Candy was excellent, one of the best films I've seen this year. Didn't require any flashy direction or big name stars, it was totally carried by a great script and great performances from the two leads. As someone else has said (not sure if it was on the forum) it would probably make a great stage play. I liked the ambiguity of the characters, well certainly in the first half of the film when I felt quite sympathetic towards Jeff. The 'surgical procedure' scene really made me squirm - great use of sound effects bearing in mind you didn't actually see anything...

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift was just dumb, but then I knew it would be before I saw it. The plot and dialogue were riddled with cliches and bad, bad ideas (why did all the Japanese characters speak so much English?) but hey, that was part of the cheesy fun - I'm a sucker for car chases in films, and I liked the relocation to Tokyo, so it was all good fun. Funny cameo at the end too! Not as good as 2 Fast 2 Furious though! (Seriously)
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Post by lupogirl »

soulmining wrote:I did the Hard Candy / Tokyo Drift double-bill today...

Hard Candy was excellent, one of the best films I've seen this year. Didn't require any flashy direction or big name stars, it was totally carried by a great script and great performances from the two leads. As someone else has said (not sure if it was on the forum) it would probably make a great stage play. I liked the ambiguity of the characters, well certainly in the first half of the film when I felt quite sympathetic towards Jeff. The 'surgical procedure' scene really made me squirm - great use of sound effects bearing in mind you didn't actually see anything...
)


Not sure I really enjoyed the film. I felt sympathy for Jeff for a short while and then I wasn't sure if I should sympthazie with the girl.

Have to agree with Soulmining about the surgical bit. It was great use of the your imagination when all you hear is her cutting. I reeeally did squirm during that scene. Then the thought she was going to his testicles into the blender. The Hostel I did not squirm as much as this film.
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Post by Alex Kidd »

I've been to see 2 interesting, but very different films so far this week.

Pretty Persuassion, which is the next in the line of black teen comedies, along the same lines as Heathers and Election. It has great dialogue and great actors, but it's really let down by an over complicated timeline and it's tone veers wildly all over the place, so you're never sure if it's a comedy, a drama or a film with something serious to say. Sometimes a wild tone can be good but it didn't really work for me. Worth seeing thoough just for the dialogue and performances though.

And Over The Hedge which at first glance a lot of people might not think about going to see, but it's easily one of the funniest film's I've seen this year, it just made me laugh out loud all the way through. It manages to tread that hard line of working both for kids and adults, in just the same way Toy Story did. Plus is has the best screen squirrel ever. It really is worth going to see.

Off to see Jet Li's Fearless tonight, already seen it on DVD but I really want to see it at the cinema, should look great.
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