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[Movie] Movie Review Thread
kaz
iLift
steveP
Well-known member
High Plains Drifter
http://en.wikipedia...._Plains_Drifter
One of the classic Eastwood westerns holding a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've seen quite a few of his movies recently, but there are just so many out there. I still haven't even got close to watching the Dollars Trilogy. This is a somewhat different take on the western genre with a bit of an ambiguous supernatural feel much like another Eastwood film, Pale Rider. The story is set in the late 1800s around a small mining town with a questionable past. The town prospered off a nearby mine, however a government surveyor has discovered the mine is on government ground, and the townspeople are not entitled to mine it anymore. The townspeople hire some local bandits to murder the surveyor, and when the law comes looking for the people responsible, the townspeople pin it on the bandits. Now the bandits have served their jail time and are on a one way route to take revenge on the town. This may sound like a lot of the story, but this is only told in flashbacks. The real story starts when a stranger who plays by his own rules and is a true gunslinger wanders into town days before the bandits are due to be released from prison. The townspeople bribe the stranger to defend their town by offering him anything he wants. Quite humorously, he indulges in everything including alcohol, women, an entire hotel to himself, declaring a new mayor and making the townspeople build a picnic setting for his amusement; then splits when the bandits show up. This is actually quite an easily digestible western to watch for people not into the genre. It's less about cowboys and Indians and more about consequence and mystery. I would recommend it.
The Shining
http://en.wikipedia....ning_%28film%29
A classic Kubrick film I'm sure everyone has seen or at least heard of. I've been putting this off for a while as with nearly all Kubrick films, you're going to be left collecting your thoughts and reading about the film later to make sense of it all. The story is about a teacher and writer, Jack, taking a job as a caretaker of a remote hotel on the offseason with his family. This should allow him to focus on his writing career. Before taking the job, the hotel manager notifies Jack that a few years prior a caretaker went insane and murdered his family. Slowly, as the months of isolation takes its toll, Jack starts showing the same signs of going insane. I can't say much else without spoiling the rest of the movie. This is also a highly rated movie, but certain things bothered me; the pacing is very slow and some scenes just don't fit at all. After the movie I read that this is based off a Stephen King novel, but it loosely follows it. Many subplots were omitted, but some of the scenes remained with no explanation. Stephen King also criticised the movie saying that the plot leaned too much towards the theme on insanity than the supernatural, which I agree with. I'm probably being a bit harsh on this as my expectations were high. You could also discuss the meaning behind the ending for pages, but I won't due to spoilers.
The Monuments Men
http://en.wikipedia....e_Monuments_Men
Recently out in cinemas, this is George Clooney's latest project he has written and starred in. Basically it re-enacts the actions of an army unit at the end of WWII instructed to protect artworks being looted by enemy forces as they retreat back to parts of Europe. I thought I was being a bit biased and unfair thinking this was incredibly dull and boring due to my dislike of Hollywood movies always making Americans the good guys and especially war movies where no blood is spilled yet millions have died. But reading the reviews after, I'm not alone. The guy falling asleep in the cinema near me should have been enough validation at the time. The problem here is that Clooney tries to be hip, funny and likeable juxtaposed to the countless lives lost to war. It just feels inappropriate and odd. All the characters were unmemorable as well and I didn't really care if they survived or not. Give this a miss.
The Iron Giant
http://en.wikipedia..../The_Iron_Giant
A late 90's animated film I had heard good things about. Set during the 50s during the height of the cold war, something crashes to earth one night and a young boy investigates. It turns out to be a giant intelligent robot. Shortly after, the government is snooping around fearing some type of Russian bomb or spying device has been deployed. The boy and the robot become friend while trying to avoid a rather insistent government agent. Reading the reviews on this, people make it out to be some heartbreaking story, so emotional; they have never experienced such a movie before. I mean it probably has a bit more meaning that most animated films from 15 years ago, but I didn't feel that connected to this; especially after some of the roller coasters Pixar has taken us on. I think this is still essentially a kids' movie, and kids will like it.
http://en.wikipedia...._Plains_Drifter
One of the classic Eastwood westerns holding a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've seen quite a few of his movies recently, but there are just so many out there. I still haven't even got close to watching the Dollars Trilogy. This is a somewhat different take on the western genre with a bit of an ambiguous supernatural feel much like another Eastwood film, Pale Rider. The story is set in the late 1800s around a small mining town with a questionable past. The town prospered off a nearby mine, however a government surveyor has discovered the mine is on government ground, and the townspeople are not entitled to mine it anymore. The townspeople hire some local bandits to murder the surveyor, and when the law comes looking for the people responsible, the townspeople pin it on the bandits. Now the bandits have served their jail time and are on a one way route to take revenge on the town. This may sound like a lot of the story, but this is only told in flashbacks. The real story starts when a stranger who plays by his own rules and is a true gunslinger wanders into town days before the bandits are due to be released from prison. The townspeople bribe the stranger to defend their town by offering him anything he wants. Quite humorously, he indulges in everything including alcohol, women, an entire hotel to himself, declaring a new mayor and making the townspeople build a picnic setting for his amusement; then splits when the bandits show up. This is actually quite an easily digestible western to watch for people not into the genre. It's less about cowboys and Indians and more about consequence and mystery. I would recommend it.
The Shining
http://en.wikipedia....ning_%28film%29
A classic Kubrick film I'm sure everyone has seen or at least heard of. I've been putting this off for a while as with nearly all Kubrick films, you're going to be left collecting your thoughts and reading about the film later to make sense of it all. The story is about a teacher and writer, Jack, taking a job as a caretaker of a remote hotel on the offseason with his family. This should allow him to focus on his writing career. Before taking the job, the hotel manager notifies Jack that a few years prior a caretaker went insane and murdered his family. Slowly, as the months of isolation takes its toll, Jack starts showing the same signs of going insane. I can't say much else without spoiling the rest of the movie. This is also a highly rated movie, but certain things bothered me; the pacing is very slow and some scenes just don't fit at all. After the movie I read that this is based off a Stephen King novel, but it loosely follows it. Many subplots were omitted, but some of the scenes remained with no explanation. Stephen King also criticised the movie saying that the plot leaned too much towards the theme on insanity than the supernatural, which I agree with. I'm probably being a bit harsh on this as my expectations were high. You could also discuss the meaning behind the ending for pages, but I won't due to spoilers.
The Monuments Men
http://en.wikipedia....e_Monuments_Men
Recently out in cinemas, this is George Clooney's latest project he has written and starred in. Basically it re-enacts the actions of an army unit at the end of WWII instructed to protect artworks being looted by enemy forces as they retreat back to parts of Europe. I thought I was being a bit biased and unfair thinking this was incredibly dull and boring due to my dislike of Hollywood movies always making Americans the good guys and especially war movies where no blood is spilled yet millions have died. But reading the reviews after, I'm not alone. The guy falling asleep in the cinema near me should have been enough validation at the time. The problem here is that Clooney tries to be hip, funny and likeable juxtaposed to the countless lives lost to war. It just feels inappropriate and odd. All the characters were unmemorable as well and I didn't really care if they survived or not. Give this a miss.
The Iron Giant
http://en.wikipedia..../The_Iron_Giant
A late 90's animated film I had heard good things about. Set during the 50s during the height of the cold war, something crashes to earth one night and a young boy investigates. It turns out to be a giant intelligent robot. Shortly after, the government is snooping around fearing some type of Russian bomb or spying device has been deployed. The boy and the robot become friend while trying to avoid a rather insistent government agent. Reading the reviews on this, people make it out to be some heartbreaking story, so emotional; they have never experienced such a movie before. I mean it probably has a bit more meaning that most animated films from 15 years ago, but I didn't feel that connected to this; especially after some of the roller coasters Pixar has taken us on. I think this is still essentially a kids' movie, and kids will like it.
El Testicle
Goat that feeling
Love Clint, Love the Shining, Monuments Men was worth the watch too.
steveP
Well-known member
"Crocodile" Dundee
http://en.wikipedia....odile%22_Dundee
A classic Australian movie I'm sure everyone has seen at least once. I hadn't seen it in at least 15 years, so it was probably time to give it an honest review seeing all I could remember were cheesy one-liners. The plot is simply about a New York journalist hearing of an Australian man surviving a crocodile attack in Darwin, flies over to investigate, not knowing what to expect. Dubbed a 'croc out of water' film, half the film is set in Australia where the New Yorker is dumbfounded by Australian culture, and the second half is in the inverse where the Australian who's never left the Northern Territory experiences a culture shock when visiting New York City. The gags in the film are actually better than I remembered, with quite a few getting a genuine laugh out of me. Paul Hogan originally wanted the film to be Australia's first real movie about Australia that would also double as a tourism commercial. Well it did that and then some, making $330m off a $8m budget. I found it funny that the quotes around Crocodile in the title of the movie were put there so Americans didn't think the main character was actually a crocodile. If you haven't seen this or it's been a while, it's actually a pretty good watch.
"Crocodile" Dundee II
http://en.wikipedia....le%22_Dundee_II
I followed the first film up with the sequel as they were made only 2 years apart and this picked up where the first left off. Where the first movie was purely about Australian culture and how its charm fit in with Americans, this tried too hard to devise a plot that seemed too farfetched. Somehow Mick Dundee is caught up with some Colombian drug dealers and he has to use his 'Australian skills' to outsmart them and save Sue. It's not a bad movie, and it did have decent laughs, but you could tell the writers had run out of ideas. It does pick up a bit when they return to Australian, but this then drags on too much and you just want the movie to end. If you really enjoyed the first movie, you'll probably get enough out of this to make it worth the watch. I didn't bother watching and reviewing the 3rd movie as I had already seen it not that long ago and the plot gets even sillier. Just pretend it doesn't exist.
The Lego Movie
http://en.wikipedia..../The_Lego_Movie
The movie everyone is talking about just released in cinemas. It's a 3D animated movie where the entire Lego universe is built from real life Lego bricks (note the plural of Lego isn't 'legos'.) The story is about a generic builder Lego man who accidentally fulfils a prophecy and becomes the chosen one. Here he and the audience are taken on a ride between Lego worlds and characters where the builder must save everyone despite having no special ability. The gags and jokes are mostly the specific characters playing themselves and sometimes poking fun at their role in the Lego universe. I was really hoping to be blown away by this seeing the overwhelming amount of positive reviews. However towards the end of the movie I realised I may have only laughed twice throughout the movie. The story in general, which does tie up nicely at the end, just felt like a mishmash of story lines and characters with no real direction. Maybe this was intentional, as it would tie in with the plot, but it just wasn't that entertaining for adults. No doubt kids will love this and Lego will milk this cash cow for a long time.
Office Space
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Office_Space
A Mike Judge film satirising the office place, much like he did later with society as a whole in Idiocracy. It's a very simple movie; a worker is fed up with the mundane office work of a software company during the 90s dot-com boom. I kept waiting for this to become cheesy like most office based movies, but it didn't. Every plot turn got me in more and more. I guess it's because nearly everyone who has worked an office job can relate and the stereotypical employees and bosses portrayed in this is spot on. At the time this wasn't a big success, but since has turned into a cult film with a big fanbase. It's definitely worth the watch.
http://en.wikipedia....odile%22_Dundee
A classic Australian movie I'm sure everyone has seen at least once. I hadn't seen it in at least 15 years, so it was probably time to give it an honest review seeing all I could remember were cheesy one-liners. The plot is simply about a New York journalist hearing of an Australian man surviving a crocodile attack in Darwin, flies over to investigate, not knowing what to expect. Dubbed a 'croc out of water' film, half the film is set in Australia where the New Yorker is dumbfounded by Australian culture, and the second half is in the inverse where the Australian who's never left the Northern Territory experiences a culture shock when visiting New York City. The gags in the film are actually better than I remembered, with quite a few getting a genuine laugh out of me. Paul Hogan originally wanted the film to be Australia's first real movie about Australia that would also double as a tourism commercial. Well it did that and then some, making $330m off a $8m budget. I found it funny that the quotes around Crocodile in the title of the movie were put there so Americans didn't think the main character was actually a crocodile. If you haven't seen this or it's been a while, it's actually a pretty good watch.
"Crocodile" Dundee II
http://en.wikipedia....le%22_Dundee_II
I followed the first film up with the sequel as they were made only 2 years apart and this picked up where the first left off. Where the first movie was purely about Australian culture and how its charm fit in with Americans, this tried too hard to devise a plot that seemed too farfetched. Somehow Mick Dundee is caught up with some Colombian drug dealers and he has to use his 'Australian skills' to outsmart them and save Sue. It's not a bad movie, and it did have decent laughs, but you could tell the writers had run out of ideas. It does pick up a bit when they return to Australian, but this then drags on too much and you just want the movie to end. If you really enjoyed the first movie, you'll probably get enough out of this to make it worth the watch. I didn't bother watching and reviewing the 3rd movie as I had already seen it not that long ago and the plot gets even sillier. Just pretend it doesn't exist.
The Lego Movie
http://en.wikipedia..../The_Lego_Movie
The movie everyone is talking about just released in cinemas. It's a 3D animated movie where the entire Lego universe is built from real life Lego bricks (note the plural of Lego isn't 'legos'.) The story is about a generic builder Lego man who accidentally fulfils a prophecy and becomes the chosen one. Here he and the audience are taken on a ride between Lego worlds and characters where the builder must save everyone despite having no special ability. The gags and jokes are mostly the specific characters playing themselves and sometimes poking fun at their role in the Lego universe. I was really hoping to be blown away by this seeing the overwhelming amount of positive reviews. However towards the end of the movie I realised I may have only laughed twice throughout the movie. The story in general, which does tie up nicely at the end, just felt like a mishmash of story lines and characters with no real direction. Maybe this was intentional, as it would tie in with the plot, but it just wasn't that entertaining for adults. No doubt kids will love this and Lego will milk this cash cow for a long time.
Office Space
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Office_Space
A Mike Judge film satirising the office place, much like he did later with society as a whole in Idiocracy. It's a very simple movie; a worker is fed up with the mundane office work of a software company during the 90s dot-com boom. I kept waiting for this to become cheesy like most office based movies, but it didn't. Every plot turn got me in more and more. I guess it's because nearly everyone who has worked an office job can relate and the stereotypical employees and bosses portrayed in this is spot on. At the time this wasn't a big success, but since has turned into a cult film with a big fanbase. It's definitely worth the watch.
jamiebosco
New member
Ha...srs?
The Hobbit movies are good (bit boring, but really well made) and are a prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Nothing to do with the Potter movies
BrisVegasGhost
Elite Member
We went the other night. Not bad but I prefer the original with Toby McGuire
ride29er
Confused Kunce
Getting rid of tony McGuire was the best thing to happen to Spider-Man, he sucked big time,
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The second new spidering makes Toby Maguires third one look like a Oscar winner
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