The Recommended Movies Thread

[bonnielass]

Hi guys,
I have just stumbled upon this thread, can't believe I didn't see it before now.
Haven 't had time to read back through all the reviews yet but I will cos I love movies and movie trivia, and I can see there are one or two "buffs" on here.

[sandman67]

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE : GHOST PROTOCOL

Cool title and, as long as you put your reason on hold, a pretty cool outing for the MI franchise after the lame duck third flick in the series. Seems that the franchise has caught its second wind and is now trottng along nicely without the saccrine cack laden baggage of No3.

Ethan and his team of misfits are landed deep in the doo doo this time by a crazy Swede social scientst who believes that the best thing for the human race would be a little nuclear war to clear out the dead wood of society. So he pinches a nuke command case and some activation codes from the Russians. In the process he also blows up part of the Kremlin, and kippers up Ethan and the team leaving them to carry the blame. the MI organisation is closed down, so the only hope for world peace is Ethan and his now rogue team who are hot on the trail of the crazy Swede, chasing him from Russia to Dubai, Turkey and on to India.

There are lots of big booms and thrilling chases, car pileups, buildings exploding etc etc, as well as the usual train full of gadgets and gee gaws. The team now also includes Brit comedian Simon "Sean Of The Dead" Pegg as comic relief, which adds some humor into the mix.

Its great Bond-a-like stuff and the two hours rip by at frantic speed. Great no brainer guns and gadgets eye candy spy fun, and a blessed relief after the crappy third flick which just sucked and blowed more than a digeridoo player on speed. At least this time they leave the hugs n kisses till the last scene.

Well worth a download and watch for fans of the genre and series. Out and about at all the usual suspects in lovely crisp DVDRIP and BDRIP formats

[sandman67]

this one looks like t could be a barrel o laughs

TED



that is the clean version of the trailer.....

In other news the Hollydud recyle machine rolls ever on, crushng yet anothet Arnie classic beaneath its wheels....this time its TOTAL RECALL, now being remade with Colin Farrel and a bag of fancy hi end CGI....looks good but the question still remains.... WHY!?????

[GLCQuantum]

....this time its TOTAL RECALL, now being remade with Colin Farrel and a bag of fancy hi end CGI....looks good but the question still remains.... WHY!?????

As cool a movie as it is, most 15-24 year olds have probably never heard of it. What was it, early 90's?

This is why remakes like this will always work and pull in the cinema money. I'm fairly sure the new one won't come anywhere close to the original for me.

[sandman67]

SHERLOCK HOLMES: GAME OF SHADOWS

The second outing for the Guy Ritchie rework of Sherlock Holmes has hit the release scene in a sort of watchable version so its review time. First the good news....

Like the first its a fresh take on the characters of Holmes and Watson, and its actually loosely based on a proper original Holmes canon Conan Doyle story - The Final Problem - which for non Holmes fans is the story where Doyle tried to kill off Holmes by setting up a mano e mano deathmatch between Holmes and his arch nemesis Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. This flick uses the story as a foundation, and sort of blends it with the "arch villain planning to corner the arms market then start a world war" plotline from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, along with the latters steampunk style Victorian sci fi technology. The wicked Professor is aided by his crack shot assassin henchman Colonel Sebastian Moran, and Holmes and Watson pick up a female aid in the shape of a saucy Gypsy fortune teller whose brother is one of Moriarty's soldiers in mayhem.

I loved it, just like I loved the first one, as it blends the old Holmes with wonderful steampunky neo Victoriana and some cracking CGI specal effects, including Holmes' Matrix style slo mo fight sequences. Its ripping Boys Own style stuff, and the two hours just fly by....IMHO it could have carried another half hour at least but its perfect as is and refreshing to see a full length film after a season of extended pilot episode style shorties.

Now for the bad news. The R6 copy that is everywhere has some drawbacks. It is at best a good quality DVDSCR and seems more lke a well processed TS copy....its watchable but in no way keeper quality....too murky and over saturated. Its also cropped to get rid of the Chinese subs that appear at some points. Its also not got subs for the occasional bursts of French and German dialogue. So...worth a download but its bin time for this copy in anticipation of the BluRay release that will come along in late June when the DVD is released in the US.

Id recc waiting as its well worth watching in lovely crisp clear quality, as a lot of the less well lit scenes are just a murky mess with the current version, and its annoying not to undertsand the foreign language bits. When it comes out in a good release it will be a solid gold keeper all the way.

Cherry on the cake? No 3 is in pre production already. Yaay!

[Dahling]

SHERLOCK HOLMES: GAME OF SHADOWS
... in anticipation of the BluRay release that will come along in late June when the DVD is released in the US.

Thanks for that info. I've downloaded two crap versions already, but now I'll wait a while.

Watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol recently - great fun.

Started to watch THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO last night. Some body said above, "watch the trilogy". My only problem is I read the books a couple of years ago and still remember the plot.
Couldn't finish the movie last night, as someone must have put Sang Som in my coke, but it's well done, and at 2 hrs 20 minutes or so, long enough for everything to develop pretty naturally. I'll watch the 2nd half tonight!

Keep up the good work, Sandman!

[sandman67]

I've downloaded two crap versions already, but now I'll wait a while.

Ive noticed that theres a Chinese "release group" who have been flooding the release scene with supposed R6 copies of films lately. I recommend that you avoid these. They are all, at best, DVDSCR copies that have been badly overprocessed and so are colour oversaturated and crappy quality. They also have to crop the bottom off so it gets rid of Chinese hard subs so the pcture ratio is also messed up.

Stick to R5, DVDRIP and BDRIP copies otherwise you just get crap.

[sandman67]

aha

seems the June date for SHERLOCK HOLMES was for the normal DVD. I forgot that BluRays get released earlier.

There are lovely crisp BDRIP versions out and about at the usual suspect sites - look for the "Absurdity" group version that is 750MB or the "H264-Crys" version that is just over 700mb....the others are all over 1gig. Oneclickmoviez.com is a good source.

Get at them

[sandman67]

time for a little Chinese feast with the latest martial arts epics out and about on the internetty,,,,

first up we have the historical epic WHITE VENGANCE that is based on an actual historical event during the turbulent peiod of Chinese history around the end of the Qin dynasty. Xiu Qing and Jia Qing are two generals leading the rebellion against the opressive Qin emperor. When the final battle is won there is then the sticky matter of who gets to become the next emperor, and the situation is not helped when a corrupt self serving vassal king muddies the water between the two friends, and encourages one to stitch up the other at a feast held ostensibly to cement their frendship. Backstabbing and plotting ensues, and the last man standing gets the throne....and of course the woman both fall in love with.

To tell you the truth though its wonderfully staged and filmed, complete with the usual epic battles and wonderful swordplay, the plot gets a little bit name heavy and dense in places, and its hard to keep track of who is stabbing who in the back. This detracts a bit from an otherwise excellent film, and its a shame the overblown heroic speeches and plotting sort of slows things down to an attention loosing crawl in bits. Still well worth catching, and is out and about at VeeHD and other places in lovely hard subbed (English subs) DVDRIP format.



Then for the man course theres the eye watering wu jia materpiece from the king of wu jia wire fu hmself Tsui Hark (Crouching Tiger, Hero, Zu Warriors, House of Flying Daggers etc) with a re-work of the classic kung fu sword flick New Dragon Gate Inn.... FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE. This is full on CGI heavy wire fu madness, and is eye blisteringly beautiful to watch.

Jet Li plays a Ming era general who sets himself against the evil corrupt forces of the main palace Eunuch, who in a time of weak rule has all but taken over the running of the empire and has perverted the system to his own cruel gain. Things come to a head at the eponymous Dragon Gate Inn, a desert caravan stop run by a woman bandit and her gang of less than salubrious staff, who have a habit of turning lone travellers into the next nights menu specials. Cue flyng sword fights, furniture and kitchen utensils a go go.

Proper full on traditional high fantasy wire fu wu jia madness at its best. Out and about in lovely DVDRIP formats all over the show. Sold gold keeper material like all Tsui's flicks.



dig about on YouTube a bit and you can find relatively hi rez copies of both...hit the CC (closed caption) button on these copies for the english subtitles.

[sandman67]

I always found economics one of the most boring subjects at school and so escaped the classes at the earliest op and did science instead. That means Im relatively an ignoramus in respect of stuff like the complex causes of the 2008 financal collapse, only really getting a grasp of the basics.....no regulation leads to abuse leads to bubbles that burst.

Anyways, theres an excellent and easy to understand documentary film doing the rounds on HBO via True at the mo... INSIDE JOB. After watching it (in slackjawed horror for most of the time) and Id recc you try and catch it either there or on download, as it made the whole stupid greedy shell game a whole lot clearer. Kicking off with the scandalous hijacking of the Icelandic economy and environmental rape by a plutocrat driven government it then dives headlong into tracking the timeline of the US collapse, explaining all those shifty shell game tactics and bizarre financial scams that caused it. It also exposes how the US economic political machine is now just a outlier department of certain major financial houses, and how all the senor govt staff are ex-CEOs and employees of those houses that caused the sodding mess. It concludes with an analysis of the current situation and outlook, and asks one very valid question: Why the hell are these swine not behind bars eating prison food rather than laughing all the way to the next helping of lobster thermadore?

A good watch educationally, even if it will have you doing a facepalm every 5 minutes in horror.

[sandman67]

One I came across via VeeHD

AMEN

This film, based on a German play, tells the semi-fictionalised account of SS Lt Gerstein, a specialist officer who through his work as a chemist overseeing the water treatment and anti-Typhus aspect of the war, becomes embroiled in the horror of the Holocaust. Gerstein is a specialist in the use of Prussic Acid, whhich we now know by its other name...Zyklon B. He finds, to his horror, that his work is being used to cleanse a different type of "vermin", and bravely sets out to try to alert the world of what is going on. Finding a sympatheic ear in the shape of a young Jesuit official, they struggle to get anyone in the Papacy or dplomatic world to listen, instead finding that walls of deliberate silence and ignorance are put in place.

Its a compelling watch, and even though it is partially fictionalised it tells the true story of the real Lt Gerstein through dramatic license. The RCC threw a sh*t fit when it came out as it accurately depicts the RCC's deliberate silent collaboration with the Holocaust, and also their actions evacuating its architects at the end of the war. It also makes a good job of portraying the internal conflict that Gerstein went through as he tried to justify his continued co-operation in the name of acting as a witness, only to be condemned at the end of the war, despite the fact his testmony served to convict many of the senior Nazis at Nuremburg and beyond.

Well worth a watch IMHO, and out and about in DVDRP formats.

[Frog]

What about Bob On Deadly Ground?

[Homer]

In other news the Hollydud recyle machine rolls ever on, crushng yet anothet Arnie classic beaneath its wheels....this time its TOTAL RECALL, now being remade with Colin Farrel and a bag of fancy hi end CGI....looks good but the question still remains.... WHY!?????

Because the power of a Phillip K. Dick story is timeless. As much as I liked the Arnie version of Total Recall it's done in an action movie style that is played out. I'd rather have today's movie goers see yet another watered down film version of a Phillip K. Dick story then not see it because the Arnie film is laughably of it's time.

[HHADFan]

In other news the Hollydud recyle machine rolls ever on, crushng yet anothet Arnie classic beaneath its wheels....this time its TOTAL RECALL, now being remade with Colin Farrel and a bag of fancy hi end CGI....looks good but the question still remains.... WHY!?????

Because the power of a Phillip K. Dick story is timeless. As much as I liked the Arnie version of Total Recall it's done in an action movie style that is played out. I'd rather have today's movie goers see yet another watered down film version of a Phillip K. Dick story then not see it because the Arnie film is laughably of it's time.

Phillip K. Dick and Jim Thompson - dead proof that methamphetamine, alcohol, and great writing DO mix.

[sandman67]

The point I was tryng to make Homer is that Hollydud seem more than happy to recycle old 80s flicks, even when they are utter dross like Dirty Dancing, but when approached with new scripts and film proposals they whine that they have no money. DONT make "At The Mountains Of Madness" even though you are in pre-production...make a cheap bandwaggon hopper out of "The Thing" instead. DONT make a total revisit of "Red Sonja" even though you have started the film...just take a flying dump on "Conan" instead.

Why remake one Philip K. Dick inspired film when there are plenty of his stories that are yet unmade? "The Man In The High Castle" begs for a film adaptation.....as do "Ubik" and "The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch".

Nahhh....its a lot cheaper and safer to just pay some lazy ass drone to rework one thats already been done.