Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Decotron said:
Public Enemies - Yet another big budget star laden piece of shit. Some will probably enjoy it but for me it was so full of holes. Maybe I was in a cynical mood but still very very disappointing. Im sure the end result couldnt have been what Mann was aiming for.

5/10
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I didnt see any holes in it, though i would say it was a bit disappointing.

I thought it was a little slow and not very compelling.

Visually, i thought it was great - i though Mann brilliantly created the feel of 1930s Chicago.

The problem with it though is that i found it hard to make any real emotional connection to the characters. Johnny Depp is charming as Dillinger, yet hardly loveable and Marion Cotillard plays his moll well. Christian Bale as devoid of life as ever in his roll as the FBIs hunter.

Its still better than 90% of the crap at the Cinema.

6.5/10
 
The Last House on the Left

I watched this expecting a gore fest (due to the now very rare 18 cert in Ireland) and nothing more, and it was a gore fest in parts (a few disgusting bits) but it wasn't actually that bad a film. Infact I actually quite enjoyed it. The acting is surprising good for a film like this and there are some good characters. At times it is very graphics, especially the rape obviously, and probably does go needlessly far, but it's a decent film to pass time.

6.5 / 10
 
Weekend cu mama (e. Weekend with my mother)
Possibly the first Romanian movie I've seen. Not flawless and definitely more for the women. However Adela Popescu kept my eyes on the screen the whole movie.

7/10
 
Arlington Road
Good movie but suffered from several bouts of implausibility. The ex-wife story line was also a bit forced. Other than that it was certainly gripping and a mostly watchable thriller/farce

6.5

Beautiful People
Loved this film. Could have been clunky and cliche-riddled, given the characters: the lunatic Serb and Croat asylum seekers fighting each other, the foppish Tory MP and his rebellious daughter and the three racist NF-type heroin junkie Ingurland fans, among others, but its so cleverly written that it doesn't matter. Great movie.

8/10
 
cina said:
The Last House on the Left

I watched this expecting a gore fest (due to the now very rare 18 cert in Ireland) and nothing more, and it was a gore fest in parts (a few disgusting bits) but it wasn't actually that bad a film. Infact I actually quite enjoyed it. The acting is surprising good for a film like this and there are some good characters. At times it is very graphics, especially the rape obviously, and probably does go needlessly far, but it's a decent film to pass time.

6.5 / 10
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Schlocky schlocky schlock schlock
 
Transformers 2
2 hours of robots blowing stuff up and Megan Fox running in slow motion.
7/10, unless you expected it not to be 2 hours of robots blowing stuff up, then 4/10 or if you really want people to know that you aren't a kid anymore 1/10. However, if you are a 10 year old boy 10/10 and if you are a 15 year old boy 9/10 (for Megan Fox's slow motion chest)
 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I know I know. But still, some habit is still hard to change. So I was keeping the record of going to see HP movies at midnight, in spite of supposedly being over it a long time ago. I felt the adaptation of the book this time around is much better than some in the past. More humor is injected into the movie to balance out the darker theme. Acting is not the best, granted, and important points in the plot line are not emphasized enough, but all in all, it was a very well made movie.

8/10.
 
Watchmen

Now, I usually despise all superhero movies but I thought this was decent. Loved the dark tone and the soundtrack was great. I hadn't read the comic book or whatever it was based upon so I had no real expectations. Can't really put my finger on the rating.

Minus points for the whiny batman guy though.
 
Bruno

Saw this yesterday and i firmly believe it is a movie you rent once its been released from cinema and forget about soon after! It had its moments which i thought were brilliant but overall you felt after the first 20 minutes that the movie was just dragging on, around 11 people left the cinema before it ended and i do not blame one of them - infact i would have encouraged them to try and get a refund! Had its moments but they were few and far between:
Rating 4/10

The Hangover

Now if you want to see a movie that will make you laugh go no further!
Rating 7.5/10
 
Wibble said:
Transformers 2
2 hours of robots blowing stuff up and Megan Fox running in slow motion.
7/10, unless you expected it not to be 2 hours of robots blowing stuff up, then 4/10 or if you really want people to know that you aren't a kid anymore 1/10. However, if you are a 10 year old boy 10/10 and if you are a 15 year old boy 9/10 (for Megan Fox's slow motion chest)
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Now I realise why you didn't like a quality movie like Watchmen.
 
Oh, and...

A Bittersweet Life

3/5

Full-on action with little substance. It's beautifully choreographed and the shots are stunning as always in korean movies, but it just didn't offer anything more.
 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Not as good as Prisoner of Azkaban to me but still a good movie you might get a bit lost if you have not seen the others. People who have read the book I thought the cave scene was really well done and was great to see Quidditch back again looking miles better then it did in the first 2 movies.
7/10
 
lao said:
Now I realise why you didn't like a quality movie like Watchmen.
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Because it was a good looking but incoherent mess and you really needed to have read the graphic novel to understand what was going on. It didn't achieve what it was meant to do.

Transformers was what it said on the box. I wouldn't have bothered seeing it except my 10yo wanted to but I enjoyed it for what it was rather than criticising it for what it wasn't ever meant to be.
 
The Hangover~
Had this one hyped up to me by friends and many of the reviews on here and I must say I feel a bit let down. Yes it had some funny moments and it also had some very funny moments but it also had some hugely poor scenes like Heather Graham breastfeeding and anything involving Tyson after that first punch. Maybe I expected too much but I found it devoid of any charm and I didn't really care about the outcome of the film partly because of the poorly put together events but also because I didn't like any of the characters. Watchable and it made me laugh more than once but nothing special. 5/10

Bart got a room
Now this is more my type of film, great cast that includes William H. Macy, Jennifer Tilly, Jennifer Tilly's breasts, Cheryl Hines and the lovely Alia Shawkat. Nothing too original here storylinewise, protagonist Danny is looking for a date for the prom, his best friend (Shawkat) asks him to go purely platonically but he snubs her to try for a more glamourous companion. The film is given depth and warmth by the fact Danny's parents are recently divorced and he is coming to terms with them as seperate entities and bringing new partners into the picture. Not as laugh out loud funny as The Hangover but it wasn't trying to be, it's a subtle comedy where the laughs come naturally. 7/10
 
Wibble said:
Because it was a good looking but incoherent mess and you really needed to have read the graphic novel to understand what was going on. It didn't achieve what it was meant to do.

Transformers was what it said on the box. I wouldn't have bothered seeing it except my 10yo wanted to but I enjoyed it for what it was rather than criticising it for what it wasn't ever meant to be.
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Again, I have to disagree - I've never read the graphic novel, yet I didn't have a problem following the storyline.
 
Rooney1987 said:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Not as good as Prisoner of Azkaban to me but still a good movie you might get a bit lost if you have not seen the others. People who have read the book I thought the cave scene was really well done and was great to see Quidditch back again looking miles better then it did in the first 2 movies.
7/10
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bringing the wife and my 7-1/2 yr old twins to this on Sat. This is the kids first true non-kids movie theater experience (Cars, Madagascar II were the others) but hopefully they'll be ok.
I've been reading the book to them nightly and we're almost at the last chapter so they should be ready come Sat afternoon.
 
Spoony! said:
Again, I have to disagree - I've never read the graphic novel, yet I didn't have a problem following the storyline.
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Unless the graphic novel is far more rubbish than I'm lead to believe there must have been far more to it than the feeble plot of the film and much more coherently told. It was a mess and you didn't give a toss about any of the characters at all. I suspect it could have been very good but wasn't. I was the only one who even battled through to the end when I watched it. Which is unusual.

On a different note surely The Incredibles was ripped off from this to some degree?
 
Terminator 4 - whatever it is called Better than 3 but nowhere near as good as 1 and 2. Bale overshadowed by that Aussie bloke. Watchable and quite OK but it could have been so much better. Shame. 6 or 7/10
 
utdalltheway said:
bringing the wife and my 7-1/2 yr old twins to this on Sat. This is the kids first true non-kids movie theater experience (Cars, Madagascar II were the others) but hopefully they'll be ok.
I've been reading the book to them nightly and we're almost at the last chapter so they should be ready come Sat afternoon.
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You sound like a good dad
 

Watched H.P.A.T.H.B.P last night and I thought it was an enjoyable film. I haven't read the book in a long time but from memory it was reasonably faithful to the book. As with all Potter films it was probably 20 minutes too long and it focused a bit more on teenage angst/love.

Some sad Muppets clapped at the end, so I'm obviously not the only one who thought it was good.

I've not made my mind up on a rating, it didn't blow me away but I still enjoyed it so probably 6.5 - 7 out of ten would be fair.
 
I thought the Harry Potter movie was rubbish personally. Focussed way too much on the romance aspect i felt.
 
The Departed 6.5 / Infernal Affairs 9

OK, I'm gonna go on a rant here. I had an argument about this last night and saw IA mentioned in another thread so anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled stop reading

SPOILERS AHEAD

Right, I'm often accused by my mates of hating The Departed. This isn't true, I think it's a very good film, highly enjoyable and well acted. I can gladly sit through it 3 or 4 times. Problem is, everything good about it is ripped straight from Infernal Affairs and everything bad about it is added in. And the adds in make it far far worse than it's original counterpart. How Scorsese and WIllian Monahan in particular walked away with Oscars for this is something that annoys me greatly....It's not that it was bad, but that they managed to remake a film, with more money, great actors, a great director and all the freedom in the world, and they made it worse!!...How is that an achievement!

First off, Marky Mark. Now Mark is actually a good edition character wise. His character doesn't exist in the original and in terms of dialogue and on screen presence he's great. Problem is, his character is completely pointless and in 2 crucial instances, ruins the film for me. In The Departed when Martin Sheen's character is thrown from the roof (played out exactly as it did in IA) it's not the pivotal moment is should be because Marky Mark exists. In IA, he is the only person who knows the Di Caprio/Tony Leung Character is undercover so his death is a shocking and significant event. Thats it for Leo/Leung as far as we know. In TD, Marky Mark knows, so the whole importance is removed.

Then he comes into play again at the end by shooting the Matt Damon/Andy Lau character. There are several things here that annoy me. Firstly Damon is given no profound characterization in the film. He's the bad guy and we hate him. In IA, Lau is given a (forgive the word) journey in which he gradually comes to realize he's the bad guy and tries to atone for his ways. The shooting of his boss is the first step in this, not born out of self preservation as in The Departed, but down as much to guilt & atonement as it is to betrayal & saving his own skin.

Lau is actually the more interesting of the 2 in IA and crucially is the one who re-instates Di Caprio/Leung's status as a policeman after his death, even going so far as to bury him next to the captain. Something he does out of choice, not desperation.

The whole point of Infernal Affairs is the duality and jealously between the two. Both wished to have lived the other life. Di Caprio/Leung wanted the life of a respectable police man and Damon/Lau wanted the love and appreciation of The Gangster. In the end Lau is extremely jealous of Leung for doing the right thing. This is demonstrated beautifully in the last line of the film, one completely cut from The Departed.

At the begining, when both are in the Acadamy and Di Caprio/Leung is faux thrown out, they do it publically in IA, with the officer throwing him out telling the other cadets (including the Lau/Damon character) "Who wants to be like this man?" as a threat for those who don't take it seriously....At the funeral Lau thinks back to this incident and then says to himself - "I do". Brilliant!...Except in The Departed we end on Marky Mark shooting Damon/Lau because he's the bad guy, and then a rat scuttles past in some pathetic attempt at a visual metaphor that presumably seems cool to Monahan/Scorsese (yeah he's a rat, geddit? don't be a rat!!..feck yeah!!)

Then we have the stupid love triangle were Di Caprio (being the hero) sleeps with Damon's (being the villian) girl. In the end we find out Damon in impotent and shit in bed and the baby is probably Di Caprio's...What? Utter wanky bollocks....no such hokey macho one-up-manship hollywood tripe happens in Infernal Affairs and I'm glad it didn't...

Even the title is better!...Infernal Affiars (the original Hong Kong title referenced the lowest circle of Hell, so 'Infernal' play on 'Internal Affairs' is a brilliant bit of word play) Whereas 'The Departed is just some suedo intellectual guff Jack spouts about the dead.

In summary if you've seen The Departed, watch Infernal Affairs, If you've seen neither, watch Infernal Affairs FIRST!

Mega rant over..
 
uae said:
I thought the Harry Potter movie was rubbish personally. Focussed way too much on the romance aspect i felt.
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I can see your point, this didn't bother me too much but I can imagine it might grate with others.
 
Blade Runner 9/10

Well this film has aged well, saw it for the first time on Blu-Ray yesterday, and it just looked phenomenal. Everything from the music, the environments and dark atmosphere just suited the film perfectly. A great performance from Rutger Hauer, especially in that unscripted scene.
 
samabachan said:
The last two books were fecking dreadful as they descended into soppy, rambling noncery and "epic" battles. I'm guessing the film is the same?
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Soppy, rambling noncery? Yes. Epic battles? No. Nothing happened at all.

Terrible movie. I didn't expect much going in and yet I was still disappointed.
 
Wibble said:
Unless the graphic novel is far more rubbish than I'm lead to believe there must have been far more to it than the feeble plot of the film and much more coherently told. It was a mess and you didn't give a toss about any of the characters at all. I suspect it could have been very good but wasn't. I was the only one who even battled through to the end when I watched it. Which is unusual.

On a different note surely The Incredibles was ripped off from this to some degree?
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Possible. As for Watchmen - I think you had very high expectations for it. And that's the difference, probably. I was told it was awful but was pleasantly surprised. And yeah, plotwise it wasn't very coherent, however, the characters made the film for me. And yes, it was a great looking film.
 
MockneyRevil said:
The Departed 6.5 / Infernal Affairs 9

OK, I'm gonna go on a rant here. I had an argument about this last night and saw IA mentioned in another thread so anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled stop reading

SPOILERS AHEAD

Right, I'm often accused by my mates of hating The Departed. This isn't true, I think it's a very good film, highly enjoyable and well acted. I can gladly sit through it 3 or 4 times. Problem is, everything good about it is ripped straight from Infernal Affairs and everything bad about it is added in. And the adds in make it far far worse than it's original counterpart. How Scorsese and WIllian Monahan in particular walked away with Oscars for this is something that annoys me greatly....It's not that it was bad, but that they managed to remake a film, with more money, great actors, a great director and all the freedom in the world, and they made it worse!!...How is that an achievement!

First off, Marky Mark. Now Mark is actually a good edition character wise. His character doesn't exist in the original and in terms of dialogue and on screen presence he's great. Problem is, his character is completely pointless and in 2 crucial instances, ruins the film for me. In The Departed when Martin Sheen's character is thrown from the roof (played out exactly as it did in IA) it's not the pivotal moment is should be because Marky Mark exists. In IA, he is the only person who knows the Di Caprio/Tony Leung Character is undercover so his death is a shocking and significant event. Thats it for Leo/Leung as far as we know. In TD, Marky Mark knows, so the whole importance is removed.

Then he comes into play again at the end by shooting the Matt Damon/Andy Lau character. There are several things here that annoy me. Firstly Damon is given no profound characterization in the film. He's the bad guy and we hate him. In IA, Lau is given a (forgive the word) journey in which he gradually comes to realize he's the bad guy and tries to atone for his ways. The shooting of his boss is the first step in this, not born out of self preservation as in The Departed, but down as much to guilt & atonement as it is to betrayal & saving his own skin.

Lau is actually the more interesting of the 2 in IA and crucially is the one who re-instates Di Caprio/Leung's status as a policeman after his death, even going so far as to bury him next to the captain. Something he does out of choice, not desperation.

The whole point of Infernal Affairs is the duality and jealously between the two. Both wished to have lived the other life. Di Caprio/Leung wanted the life of a respectable police man and Damon/Lau wanted the love and appreciation of The Gangster. In the end Lau is extremely jealous of Leung for doing the right thing. This is demonstrated beautifully in the last line of the film, one completely cut from The Departed.

At the begining, when both are in the Acadamy and Di Caprio/Leung is faux thrown out, they do it publically in IA, with the officer throwing him out telling the other cadets (including the Lau/Damon character) "Who wants to be like this man?" as a threat for those who don't take it seriously....At the funeral Lau thinks back to this incident and then says to himself - "I do". Brilliant!...Except in The Departed we end on Marky Mark shooting Damon/Lau because he's the bad guy, and then a rat scuttles past in some pathetic attempt at a visual metaphor that presumably seems cool to Monahan/Scorsese (yeah he's a rat, geddit? don't be a rat!!..feck yeah!!)

Then we have the stupid love triangle were Di Caprio (being the hero) sleeps with Damon's (being the villian) girl. In the end we find out Damon in impotent and shit in bed and the baby is probably Di Caprio's...What? Utter wanky bollocks....no such hokey macho one-up-manship hollywood tripe happens in Infernal Affairs and I'm glad it didn't...

Even the title is better!...Infernal Affiars (the original Hong Kong title referenced the lowest circle of Hell, so 'Infernal' play on 'Internal Affairs' is a brilliant bit of word play) Whereas 'The Departed is just some suedo intellectual guff Jack spouts about the dead.

In summary if you've seen The Departed, watch Infernal Affairs, If you've seen neither, watch Infernal Affairs FIRST!

Mega rant over..
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The Departed was far better than a 6.5
 
olesmyhero said:
No, a 6.5 is about right, maybe even a little less.
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Oh come on it was very good, a lot different than Infernal Affairs and not as good, but still an 8-9 in my book, although I might overrate it at 9, 6.5 is way low, below that is a bullshit, it was a very good movie, obviously not Scorcese's best, but fecking A damn good imo.
 
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