films we just saw

[lupogirl]

I saw Slither last night.

Did not think it was that bad.

Michael Rooker make up was really good and not CGI. Agree about the old school make-up.

This film did remind me of some other films like the The Blob(remake), Invasion of the Body Snatchers,and Dawn of the Dead. Were there'film in' jokes as I thought there was the short piece of music from the Predator and the Michael Rooker make up remind me of The Beyond VHS cover.

There some humours moments and Nathan Fallon is very nice on the eye.

Not a brilliant film but rather daft and easy on the brain cells. I did enjoy this more than Silent Hill!!!!!

Earlier someone mentioned mobiles in the cinema. I am hoping that one day ushers(like in olde days)would stay in the auditorium for easy access to rant to about some twonk playing with their mobile.

[ghouldrool]

ok while the comment re slime trails of alien slugs removing from the reality of an unreal situation seems oxymoronic there is a thing called versimilatude where u make the effort to make the unreal appear real...i this was a throw back to mid 90s level cgi with its slugs blatantly not really there
so amusment aside it is a legitmate niggle..surely as a guy who has had done profesional reviews u can appreciate criticsim of seemingly lazy filmaking?


jeez... u can tell i was disppointed with this one... i do put the B in subtle


EDIT: funny thing linking these 2 in a row stinkers (silent hill and slither) they both dont show us that a character smokes yet they bring out a lighter to help them see in the dark... only in movies do people just happen to have lighters on them for no reason.. if its in case they may need a light then duurrr y not just always have a small torch on you?

[AndyJWS]

Earlier someone mentioned mobiles in the cinema. I am hoping that one day ushers(like in olde days)would stay in the auditorium for easy access to rant to about some twonk playing with their mobile.

In some places we do I wish for the entire duration, cos we don't have staff showings so that way I'd actually get to see the films we show! But we do sneak in and have a go at anyone playing with mobile phones - don't care if it's on silent or not, if it lights up it's gotta be switched off, especially since mobiles are even mentioned in the FACT warnings now. If they can't keep it off, either the mobile leaves the cinema or they do...

Still, is worse with parents (increasingly, the worst offenders for cinema behaviour) who will occasionally think it's their right to start abusing and threatening the staff for telling them to switch off their phones as obviously being with their children means they're above the law... some will do the same when we refuse to accept their argument of "I've shown them the other films" as a reason to let their 13 and below year old children into Scary Movie 4... and this in a country where it is now supposed to be considered child abuse to use baby talk instead of a proper language to infants, somewhere the point is being missed!

Er, what was that about going off on rants?

EDIT: yay for movie logic In a film like Silent Hill you'd hope when doing that they would at least make mention (muttering maybe?) of looking in her Inventory (maybe they do, I haven't seen it yet)
Ironically I did used to carry a Zippo around when I didn't smoke, but that was cos I just liked Zippos ops:

ghouldrool - on the Silent Hill topic, most comments I have read about it (both positive and negative) have made specific mention of it looking and sounding fantastic - do you agree? You mentioned there were redeeming features but didn't specify further, curious as to what your angle was on that front...

[Alex Kidd]

Recently I've seen

16 Blocks, -which was fun in a bmovie style, in that it doesn't really have any huge set pieces in it. Bruce is perfect for the role though, washed-up, alcoholic, overweight - and he plays it perfectly.

Slither - I really enjoyed this but thought it got off to a slow start, too much time spent explaining what Rooker was up to, should have got going quicker as the rest of it felt rushed, Still I really enoyed it, plus it has a funny little bit at the end of the credits, a touch I always like.

Mission Impossible 3 - managed to get into a preview of this and it's so good, it's really really amazing. I really hated the other 2, thought they were both terrible, but this one is different, it's totally stripped down to a real edgy thriller. Plus Hoffman is outstanding as the bad guy, plays it totally blank and contained. Can't recomend this enough.

[ghouldrool]

the redeeming features of SH were indeed its visuals.. the place looks fantastic the creatures were creepy but the hell sequences were the icing on the cake
and the music was good, apprently direct lift from the games

lol.. liked the carrying a zippo when u didnt smoke thing

like a child who intentionally puts their hand on a light bulb thus deserving a burn i foolishly elected to watch zombie island massacre and Pinata on horror channel.....sigh...glad to hear MI:3 delivers... i liked the first one tho it is only bank holiday tv quality

[Alex Kidd]

You're right about the visuals on Silent Hill, the look of the film really made it for me, didn't fully understand what was going on but really enjoyed looking at it.

[soulmining]

I'm seeing Slither tonight, curious to see which camp I'll fall into as I've heard both sides of the argument on this one...

Yesterday I saw Brick which is a really cool little indie movie, currently being bigged-up by everyone... wouldn't really compare it to Donnie Darko, except that it's an original film from a first-time director that makes you use your brain... good old-fashioned detective story (with all the stock characters) updated to a modern college setting, complete with its own slang. Good stuff.

Interesting point on movie presentation, I do find it a problem too - Brick was hampered by shaky projection, the image wasn't stable at all and was quite distracting, and this was at the DOY, Brighton's Picturehouse cinema which is normally very good... Cineworld (where I do most of my viewing) is notoriously bad... within the last week alone I've had to complain about poor sound (like bad tracking on an old VHS tape) and during American Dreamz (awful film - don't bother) the film cut out altogether half way through...

[Alex Kidd]

Really looking forward to seeing Brick, looks extactly like my sort of film.

[Guest]

Watched this weekend: 16 Blocks; okay but nothing special, and Mos Def annoyed the hell out of me. Scary Movie 4 was only just tolerable but I think I only got one proper laugh out of it, and I can't remember what it was. Says it all. On the non-genre front, I tried Tristan + Isolde knowing nothing about it, but expecting something a bit on the Wagnerian side; watchable but a bit girly. I've Yorkshire blood in me, we don't have much room for sentimental slush....

streetrw - can't log on

[Alex Kidd]

Went to see the Kelly Brook erotic thriller 'Three' yesterday, it's was quite fun in a bad sort of way. Forgot how funny Billy Zane can be whe he's playing a psycho character, not sure the director intended to make the audience laugh as much as we did at the film.

[AndyJWS]

Might as well pop this here, but did any of y'all catch the big 3 trailer releases in the last coupla days?

££ Royale has some bizarre purposeless black and white, excellent action, great version of the theme but Daniel Craig is a Bourne, not a Bond...

Pirates of the Caribbean looks like a hell of a lot of fun, and am getting a sense of a touch towards the Indiana Jones way of things... hopefully will be tightly enough directed and edited to avoid being overlong and flabby - a condition I sadly now have to call "Peter Jackson (post-Hollywood) Syndrome"

Superman Returns - ah well... the teaser was better, to be honest. Looks like there could be some half-decent drama in there (thanks to Singer) and Brandon Routh does look the part, a bit of a resemblance to Reeve and similar vocal intonation too... Kevin Spacey is really chewing the walls but in a very fun way, seems to be the main highlight so far as his enjoyment really comes through. The use of John Williams' theme in the trailer is poor and unbalanced, and the CGI in several places is just plain embarrassing! Thought the "surfing" in Die Another Day looked like a computer game? Check out Superman landing, the images on ice and the plane in this trailer for an older computer game - XBox 360 graphics are way ahead of this (reputedly) $200million+ movie! Is even more glaring than the awful dinosaur effects in King Kong which managed to look less realistic than the 12 year older Jurassic Park...

In other trailer news, Lonely Hearts with John Travolta and Salma Hayek is looking promising (makes two of Salma's films I want to see this year, Bandidas looking silly but fun... OK I admit, I'll watch pretty much anything with Salma in it ) and Monster House is looking like a definite family must, along with Over the Hedge (one acronym - THX...) New Poseidon trailer and TV spots looking good, and the news that despite all appearances pointing to epic length the running time is only 98 mins means it's gonna be a hell of a thrill ride!

[AndyJWS]

OK, so M:i-III started here today, and as well as being in the screen over the staff room I also caught some chunks while on me rounds checking for phone usage, taking in ice cream, etc.

First impressions:
Pros: Importantly, the script is much improved over the previous two, something exascerbated by the showing of M:I-2 on ITV2 this week - had forgotten how misogynistic that script was!
Acting seems decent, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a good villan and Simon Pegg makes the Hollywood transition with ease!
Haven't got much from the story but from watching the audience reactions and (lack of) movement it seems engaging and brisk.
Sound is pretty decent, some of the dialogue can be a touch on the quiet side but the range is impressive (and realistic!)

Cons: For a big summer movie, the colour depth is pretty disappointing, whites particularly don't jump out as they usually do with new prints of major releases (I say new to contrast with next week's UK release of Prime, where the prints will have been doing the rounds in the US since October!) Is better in some scenes than others though.
Also exascerbated by rewatching of the immediate prequel is that although M:i-III has plenty of action, JJ Abrams just can't compare to John Woo in that regard, with a particularly annoying overuse of "shakycam" a la The Bourne Supremacy.
Despite some nice riffs on the theme, the music is pretty poor, especially by Hans Zimmer's standards, and the song over the end credits is just plain cringeworthy, embarrasingly bad!

Audience reaction on exit has been pretty positive, and I think I'd enjoy seeing the whole thing. Have a strong hunch will very much wish for some day a collaboration with JJ Abrams scripting and John Woo directing, then could have a film to really remember!

[streetrw]

Despite some nice riffs on the theme, the music is pretty poor, especially by Hans Zimmer's standards, and the song over the end credits is just plain cringeworthy, embarrasingly bad!

MI3's score is by Michael Giacchino (Incredibles, Alias, Lost) and I've read that it's fantastic. Can't wait for the score album. MI2 was scored by Zimmer and it's not very good, even by his standards. Better Zimmer action scores include Drop Zone and The Peacemaker; some add Teh Rock to the list.

[rawshark]

Freak Out! Yeah!!

Definitely worth checking out..!

I've just got my hands on a preview copy of the DVD (out on May 29th) and it's a great double-disc package...

[AndyJWS]

MI3's score is by Michael Giacchino (Incredibles, Alias, Lost) and I've read that it's fantastic. Can't wait for the score album. MI2 was scored by Zimmer and it's not very good, even by his standards. Better Zimmer action scores include Drop Zone and The Peacemaker; some add Teh Rock to the list.

Well, they'd be a bit misled as The Rock was actually a coalition by (predominantly) Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer only actually composed two of the themes but being the biggest name is often associated with it. Zimmer did rip it off hugely, though, in his Gladiator soundtrack, which was a real disappointment for me at least. On the other hand the M:I-2 score (as opposed to the crap "inspired by" album) is one of my personal favourites, complimenting the style of the film and combining orchestral and vocal styles excellently - the track Injection is one of my favourite ever pieces of movie music. Broken Arrow is another fine Zimmer soundtrack, The Peacemaker is OK (dug the choral parts) but Crimson Tide is a far better piece of Zimmer composition than Drop Zone...

Obviously we have different tastes, but ignoring anything read (Harry Knowles maybe?) I heard far more of this film (probably around three quarters) than I saw today because of where the screen is, and aside from a couple of riffs on the Mission: Impossible theme it is truly a disappointingly bland and generic piece of work that doesn't always fit what's on screen. Remember how the Goldeneye soundtrack was a huge letdown because aside from odd cases of tokenism it just wasn't Bond? That's what happens here... A large amount of the reason those riffs I mentioned stand out is because they really feel like they don't belong in the rest of the score, which is more suited to a lower budget romantic film than a big-budget action thriller...

Like I say, everyone has different tastes so you may like it far more than I have done