I thought it was run-of-the-mill stuff.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran are here to talk about a frustrating 2 points dropped at Crystal Palace. They then discuss the regeneration of Old Trafford. Finally, Nik is joined by special guest Michael Statham from the Football Oranje podcast - who gives us a more in depth look at our EL opposition FC Twente, and then runs through the (many) Dutch connections currently at United.
Run-of-the-mill kids stuff even (and I reckon kids only like it for those yellow things running around and not much else). There's not much in there for older audiences I didn't think... Also, it wasn't very funny.
Plus, Megamind is brilliant!
Plus, Megamind is brilliant!
Yeah it was very childish. Strange considering it was billed as a natural successor to the godfather.
The Insider - Great thriller, didn't know Michael Mann was capable of something like this...acting, music...bang on.
Yeah The Insider is fantastic.
Not a Mann fan??
cnut! You know what I mean, with Pixar films even as an adult you can enjoy them and find a second layer to what's going on. I felt Despicable me lacked that aspect.
Mann is brilliant, one of my favourite directors, I'll fight you like Neeson fights wolves if you don't agree. I'll punch you in the ovaries Nilsson, beware.
Well, Public Enemies wasn't very good, I've also never seen Miami Vice and have no real desire to... but Collateral, Insider and Heat are all bloody excellent films. I also have soft spots for both Ali and Mohicans, though both have problems.
I think Heat's overrated. It's a great film, but the whole holding hands death scene seemed like a farcical abuse of billing. LOOK, LOOK, WE'VE GOT BOTH OF THEM!!! MUST INCLUDE MORE POIGNANT SCENES WHERE THEY BOTH GET TO DO SOMETHING!
Collateral is fantastic.
Collateral is fantastic.
I didn't like Heat very much, it felt very of its time. It obviously looked amazing which made it entertaining enough, but it seemed to care more about celebrating the fact that Pacino AND De Niro are both on screen together, than actually finding anything interesting for them to do. Which became annoying. The dialogue's mostly awful like any action film, in Heat I remember it always being delivered with utmost seriousness. edit: feck you, Mockney.
Many thanks, I'll check a couple more out. With Happiness, I kind of think the comedy took away from anything the film had to say, though that was probably deemed necessary for it to be considered watchable. Everything was so over the top with no subtlety, which made it funny, but also meant there didn't feel like any sort of progression for the characters or story. I was just left waiting for the next big excruciating/comic reveal, with the bits in between lulling.
I've only seen two of his other films, his apparent "magnum opus" Heat, which is hopelessly average and overrated. I couldn't even finish Miami Vice.
I agree that it's overrated (in that, a lot of people would tell you it's one of the best crime films ever) but I still think it's an great movie on the whole. Especially with the way it's shot and the characters are dealt with. I do agree with your criticisms though, and I'm not a fan of the ending either. It's been a good while since I've seen it mind, so probably could do with a rewatch.
It is, however not as good as Collateral, which I love (though again,it loses its way towards the end a bit, but not enough to detract from the film overall - especially that first hour). Easily Mann's best film for me... and if anything, underrated (probably because of the Cruise factor).
Miami Vice is my favourite of his I think, the work he did on the use of HD cameras (already prominent in Collateral) reached its pinnacle and made for a visually stunning film. I enjoyed everything about it, except Gong Li's performance which was pretty dreadful.
I agree Heat is overrated (though again, compared to what? I've always only considered it as a good gangster movie, which I think it is), and I really like Public Enemies, Collateral (which is excellent), Ali and The Insider.
I agree Heat is overrated (though again, compared to what? I've always only considered it as a good gangster movie, which I think it is), and I really like Public Enemies, Collateral (which is excellent), Ali and The Insider.
In the Name of the Father - Harrowing, engaging drama. Contained the best bit of acting I've seen from Day-Lewis.
I thought Postelwaithe was absolutely brilliant in it as well. One of my favourite movies.
Going Overboard: 1/10
Adam Sandler's first movie sets the standard for the rest of his career with his wildly unfunny, non-stop yacking becoming grating five minutes into the film and continuing or another hour and a half. Featuring Billy Zane as King Neptune.
You definitely can't read all about it over at my film review blog. Page hits definitely aren't like crack for me.
Adam Sandler's first movie sets the standard for the rest of his career with his wildly unfunny, non-stop yacking becoming grating five minutes into the film and continuing or another hour and a half. Featuring Billy Zane as King Neptune.
You definitely can't read all about it over at my film review blog. Page hits definitely aren't like crack for me.
Weird thing is, I get Cruise in that. Much like Interview with a Vampire. I get why he's a big deal when I see him play those roles. It's when I watch one of his 700 dead behind the eyes intense action hero films that I can't fathom for the life of me why he's such a megastar.
This should answer everything:
Manhunter is another good Mann film. I think Heat is his best, I actually think he handled the DeNiro/Pacino thing well. They only spend about 4 minutes of the film together!
Yep, I'd love to see Cruise take on more roles like in Collateral, as opposed to Jack X or whatever his next mega hero role is. He's just done too many of them by now that at this point, it's clear he's in auto-pilot every single time.
Collateral is probably the last Cruise film I could say I enjoyed him in (I liked MI:4 quite a bit... but that was mainly due to the set-pieces) he'd had a good run before that too, with Last Samurai (massive guilty pleasure of mine - though again, I mainly enjoy it due to Zwick's direction), Minoirty Report, Vanilla Sky (crap film - but he's at least doing something in it), Magnolia (where he is actually very good from what I remember) and so on.
Collateral has the silliest plot of any film ever made
Just wait until you see Man of Steel...
I'd forgotten Magnolia. Yeah, that's another one he's an actual actor in.
Magnolia is his best performance, I suspect because he put a lot of personal stuff into the part.
Woah woah woah... I think you're forgetting Top Gun here.
And Cocktail!
And Losin' It!
Miami Vice was one of the worst "big budget" films I think I've seen. Can't believe it cost well over 100 million.
Man of Steel - Awful. 2/10
Olympus Has Fallen - Awful. But the action is good if you can tolerate the nauseating jingoism and unsubtle attempts to turn you into a warmonger. 4/10
The Hangover 3 - Meh. My girlfriend liked it so I had to pretend I did as well. I don't even remember what happens. 5/10
Warrior - Martial arts. Tom Hardy. What's could go wrong? Everything! Terrible film. 3/10
After watching this shower of shite, I had to balance it out with something good so I rewatched:
Barry Lydon - Amazing. Still one of the best shot films ever. 9/10
Olympus Has Fallen - Awful. But the action is good if you can tolerate the nauseating jingoism and unsubtle attempts to turn you into a warmonger. 4/10
The Hangover 3 - Meh. My girlfriend liked it so I had to pretend I did as well. I don't even remember what happens. 5/10
Warrior - Martial arts. Tom Hardy. What's could go wrong? Everything! Terrible film. 3/10
After watching this shower of shite, I had to balance it out with something good so I rewatched:
Barry Lydon - Amazing. Still one of the best shot films ever. 9/10
The stories that came out of that production were hilarious, especially the ones involving Jamie Foxx. The man makes Kanye look humble.
World War Z
I wouldn't go all-out Brophs on it but it wasn't great. Yet another movie with irritating shakey cam. Too to jump from one location to the next to ever take stock and get me caring about what was happening. Keeps showing cities on fire because it's the quickest, laziest way to show that something bad has happened. Lacking in violence for a zombie movie. In one scene someone gets their arm cut off, a later scene has medical aid applied to the stump, both scenes are veeeery careful to keep the arm out of shot at all times. Too broad in focus (although what could you expect with a title like that), the great big brown CGI effect of a million zombies was completely unengaging, the fewer zombies there were on screen the more interested I could get in what was happening. 5/10
I wouldn't go all-out Brophs on it but it wasn't great. Yet another movie with irritating shakey cam. Too to jump from one location to the next to ever take stock and get me caring about what was happening. Keeps showing cities on fire because it's the quickest, laziest way to show that something bad has happened. Lacking in violence for a zombie movie. In one scene someone gets their arm cut off, a later scene has medical aid applied to the stump, both scenes are veeeery careful to keep the arm out of shot at all times. Too broad in focus (although what could you expect with a title like that), the great big brown CGI effect of a million zombies was completely unengaging, the fewer zombies there were on screen the more interested I could get in what was happening. 5/10
Pulp Fiction-9/10
Ashamed to say I've only watched this for the first time. Brilliant film and Tarantino at his best. So many iconic scenes in there and Samuel L Jackson was the standout for me. It's structure is bizarre but I'm assuming that's kind of the point. Still thought it was great nevertheless.
Ashamed to say I've only watched this for the first time. Brilliant film and Tarantino at his best. So many iconic scenes in there and Samuel L Jackson was the standout for me. It's structure is bizarre but I'm assuming that's kind of the point. Still thought it was great nevertheless.
Where does the 5/10 come from? Doesn't sound like you enjoyed any of it?
I didn't find it outright terrible, I mostly just found it boring, average. Hence 5. I liked it a little better towards the end and then it ended really suddenly before I could get too satisfied.
watched parts of this probably more than 20 times and it still doesn't get old.
this movie resurrected Travolta's career too. for me he was the standout.
Was it a 12 rating? If so then that'll be the main reason for the lack of violence. I think I'll probably avoid the film as everything about it seems like they just wanted to make more money. I haven't read the book yet but it sounds like they massacred it's plot to give us something simple and standard, the age rating was probably pushed down so that they could simply make as much money as possible due to younger audiences then going to see it.
Travolta, and pretty much all of them for that matter, was brilliant. There was just something about Jackson in it that I really loved. He was electrifying, whether it be discussing cheese royales, bible passages or telling the guy not to say 'what' again. Travolta and Jackson went together so well on screen though in particular.
It was 15A here in Ireland.
The following may contain spoilers:
I think 5/10 is a reasonable score for World War Z, maybe even a 4/10. As pointed out the film is just far too choppy for my liking, too many sections of the film just felt incomplete, rushed and tended to jump to the next section without giving any or much closure. The closer action scenes just seemed far too fast, I know it was meant to imply the zombies were quick, but you could hardly see what was going on or who was what. The Camp Humphreys scenes in the heavy rain were just ridiculous, you could see rain puddles on the floor in the background and the rangers leading Gerry to the plane, but not the zombies. The zombies were well prepared in ultra black camouflage so you could only see them on screen when they appeared right next to the rangers & Gerry. And please tell me the scene with Dr. Fassbach (pronounced Dr. Fusspot by most people in the film it seemed) was in there for comedic value; the reaction to the whole thing was just absurd – “Oh one of our best hopes has just killed himself – ah well, move on guys”. Good job Gerry is a part time Dr of science as well as a investigator all of a sudden, he can just carry on the mission single handedly. There’s so many random questions too, like why when promised he would get a full Navy Seals team to go with Gerry on this mission was there only Gerry, Fusspot, a pilot and one/two seals. Can they not see WTF is going on out there and they think that’s an idle squad!? Why did Gerry take Segen with him? He knew she wasn’t going to turn, so why take a one handed liability with him? Again, stupid. The film was focused far too much on Gerry / Brad Pitt too, other actors/actresses hardly got a look in, we just got to stare adoringly at the seemingly indestructible man that was Gerry. Talking about screen time, it was nice to see one of Lost’s key stars Matthew Fox turn up in this, when he jumped off the helicopter on top of the apartment block and took out a few zombies so Gerry could get on board, I was thinking he might have had a good role. What... wait, that was it!? A whole 10 seconds! Why on earth would he even accept a role like that! The clichés kept coming too, like the pathogen they went to get, why not tell Gerry beforehand what pathogen they actually want, so in case of any trouble if only one of them made it they would know what to look for... nah, that’s far too simple. So not only does Gerry have to guess at which pathogen he’s taking, one of the researchers throws another curve ball – if he injects himself with anything out of the right hand containment he’ll die on the spot. FFS - do you not think he would of liked to know that! So then he writes a message for his family, and guesses which pathogen to use. Instead Gerry, use that pen and paper to write “BUZZ THE PHONE WHEN I HAVE A RIGHT ONE!”. No, that would make too much sense. Then it just sort of ends with some nice montage to fill us in on what they couldn’t be arsed getting into much detail about. Oh and of course, not to forget, we finally get to hear the rest of that Muse song, the song that the first 10-15 seconds of was used throughout the whole of the movie! No matter if it was a dramatic or action scene, that Muse song would start to play at any bloody opportunity. Must be an excellent soundtrack.
So, after writing that, I’m giving it a 4/10 after all, I’ve just made myself even more annoyed at it
I think 5/10 is a reasonable score for World War Z, maybe even a 4/10. As pointed out the film is just far too choppy for my liking, too many sections of the film just felt incomplete, rushed and tended to jump to the next section without giving any or much closure. The closer action scenes just seemed far too fast, I know it was meant to imply the zombies were quick, but you could hardly see what was going on or who was what. The Camp Humphreys scenes in the heavy rain were just ridiculous, you could see rain puddles on the floor in the background and the rangers leading Gerry to the plane, but not the zombies. The zombies were well prepared in ultra black camouflage so you could only see them on screen when they appeared right next to the rangers & Gerry. And please tell me the scene with Dr. Fassbach (pronounced Dr. Fusspot by most people in the film it seemed) was in there for comedic value; the reaction to the whole thing was just absurd – “Oh one of our best hopes has just killed himself – ah well, move on guys”. Good job Gerry is a part time Dr of science as well as a investigator all of a sudden, he can just carry on the mission single handedly. There’s so many random questions too, like why when promised he would get a full Navy Seals team to go with Gerry on this mission was there only Gerry, Fusspot, a pilot and one/two seals. Can they not see WTF is going on out there and they think that’s an idle squad!? Why did Gerry take Segen with him? He knew she wasn’t going to turn, so why take a one handed liability with him? Again, stupid. The film was focused far too much on Gerry / Brad Pitt too, other actors/actresses hardly got a look in, we just got to stare adoringly at the seemingly indestructible man that was Gerry. Talking about screen time, it was nice to see one of Lost’s key stars Matthew Fox turn up in this, when he jumped off the helicopter on top of the apartment block and took out a few zombies so Gerry could get on board, I was thinking he might have had a good role. What... wait, that was it!? A whole 10 seconds! Why on earth would he even accept a role like that! The clichés kept coming too, like the pathogen they went to get, why not tell Gerry beforehand what pathogen they actually want, so in case of any trouble if only one of them made it they would know what to look for... nah, that’s far too simple. So not only does Gerry have to guess at which pathogen he’s taking, one of the researchers throws another curve ball – if he injects himself with anything out of the right hand containment he’ll die on the spot. FFS - do you not think he would of liked to know that! So then he writes a message for his family, and guesses which pathogen to use. Instead Gerry, use that pen and paper to write “BUZZ THE PHONE WHEN I HAVE A RIGHT ONE!”. No, that would make too much sense. Then it just sort of ends with some nice montage to fill us in on what they couldn’t be arsed getting into much detail about. Oh and of course, not to forget, we finally get to hear the rest of that Muse song, the song that the first 10-15 seconds of was used throughout the whole of the movie! No matter if it was a dramatic or action scene, that Muse song would start to play at any bloody opportunity. Must be an excellent soundtrack.
So, after writing that, I’m giving it a 4/10 after all, I’ve just made myself even more annoyed at it