The Recommended Movies Thread

[sandman67]

Sometimes a small budget plus a first time director makes for a disaster, especially when the director is also the script writer. But sometimes it works, and works so well its a gem. That is true for the next one out of Uncle Sandy's review bag

INTERVIEW WITH A HITMAN

A crime film director who is washed up hits on an excellent idea for how to inspire his comeback film - he will interview a hitman about his life and base the script on that. So he eventually contacts Viktor. a Romanian who freelances for London gangland as the ultimate contractor. Viktor agrees, and tells the director his life story from the hellish vertical slum flats of Belgrade, through his rise in the Romanian mafia, and his forced exile to the UK.

Luke Goss is excellent as Viktor - with these sorts of cold yet tragic parts he really does shine, and you can almost hear the soul of Viktor dying with each hit he discusses - where Depp has the expressive eyes Luke Goss has that gravelly broken heart voice full of pain. And the plot, which at first seems just your normal linear a to z turns as twisty as a corkscrew by the end of the film, with a real kick in the arse surprise ending. The small budget does mean that the film style isnt as fancy pants as a big budget Hollydud special, but it works well and is well made IMHO.

I liked it a lot, and recc you keep an eye out for it. Out and about in DVDRIP formats at all the usual suspects

For a titchy budget first director flick it deserves a definite three cheers.

[sandman67]

MEN IN BLACK 3

When Boris The Animal, the universes best assassin breaks out of MIB supermax prison on the moon he sets out to settle an old score and literally kill two birds with one stone by jumping back in time to 1969 and knocking off Agent K. This also means the Earth protection system K helped build isnt there in the "new" future which allows Boris and his mates to invade. So Agent J follows Boris back in time to save K and the rest of humanity while he's at it.

For the life of me I cant work out why this one got a bit of a kicking by the critics, as to me it seems easily as good as the other two, and thanks to the novel twist on the save the day plot mixes up the tried and tested formula and set of standard comedy references the other two relied on (celebs are all aliens, etc etc). Josh Brolin does a spookily good impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones as K...and thats a laugh in itself to watch. The CGI and effects are all top notch, and its just around the right length to satisfy while not overdoing stuff. Like the others its good natured fun from start to end.

Anyways, I liked it, and to me its a three cheers keeper.

Out and about at all the usual places in DVDRIP formats

[PeteC]

Geeze SM, your posting at 0113 hours and then again at 0554. You need to lay off the coffee for a while. Pete

[Big Boy]

Geeze SM, your posting at 0113 hours and then again at 0554. You need to lay off the coffee for a while. Pete

Don't knock it, he doing a fine job. My son's been waiting for MIB3 for months

[Homer]

Sometimes a small budget plus a first time director makes for a disaster, especially when the director is also the script writer. But sometimes it works, and works so well its a gem. That is true for the next one out of Uncle Sandy's review bag

INTERVIEW WITH A HITMAN

...
For a titchy budget first director flick it deserves a definite three cheers.

Three cheers regardless of budget and director's inexperience. I was struck by how well the director told his story with pictures, non verbal acting and music. It wasn't until some scenes were over that I realized how little dialog there was while the story was still loud and clear. This film requires one to pay attention because unlike many popular films it doesn't keep reminding you of major plot points or the significance of what happened or why a character is about to do something. But it's well worth it.

[sandman67]

glad you liked it mate. I thought it was a bloody excellent effort - the scripting and plot really did carry it. That spartan use of dialogue did make it feel like it was Viktor telling the story....no emotion, few words....cold and calculating.

The only thing a bigger budget could have added would be to make it "Look" less like it was filmed on digital cameras and give it more of a "filmic" look - the post processing to do that is pretty expensive methinks as it is a sign of a small budget production. When it isnt done, as here, the film looks more like a TV program than a film.

And maybe they would have used some more "faces", but as the cast was essentially only three main people, all of whom are competent actors, such additions wouldnt have made much of a difference.

The pacing was spot on, the use of contrasting colour pallets between the three "phases" of the film (flashback in washed out sepia based tones/current interview in warm summer tones/hitman sequences in cold shadowy and darker tones) was a clever touch as well seen mostly from directors with music vid backgrounds.

One small hiccup that looks like it was an editing bloop was that the storyline about the London gangland boss wasnt threaded out fully..... the woman writing an article on her laptop was presumably a journalist but what happened between Viktor saying he didnt want to work for him as it was too risky after the second in command went rogue and then that happening, and why was Viktor in her place - who sent him there?

But for me it was the kicker at the end that was the cherry on the cake. Real surprise.

Anyways, glad you liked it mate. Luke Goss is a good one to keep an eye on as his appearances usually signal a film worth a watch.

[sandman67]

Well, I just flipped a couple of burgers on the trailer barbie....and heres my IMHOs

First up it finally looks like the remake of RED DAWN is going to be released....yeah....RED DAWN. Meh....and as expected this looks even dumber and stoopider than the original. Y see now Russia has gone bye bye and Cuba moves towards democracy the makers needed a new evil socialist set of baddies to come and take a dump on Moms Apple Pie land. So, wary of naffing off the Chinese, they instead chose....North Korea. Yep...the country that makes its crappy ICBMs out of leftover fireworks and old oil drums and is watched by more satellites than soft mick suddenly develops ultra high tech EMP devices and smuggles a full airborne assault force across the Pacific. Duuuuuuurrrrrr......chuck in buckets of testosterone, God, guns and wrap the whole things ass in the stars and stripes..... yukski comrade! This is a sure fire hit for right wingers, who will probably cream their kecks, and gangs of brain dead jock frat boys on a kegger who will spend the whole flick beating their chests and chanting USA. My humble.... looks utter drivel and even worse than the original.

And then to alleviate that crapfest there is the looks greatness of SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS starring an ensemble cast from Chris Walken through Sam Rockwell (Moon) and Colin Farrel to that great oddball character actor Woody Harellson. Seems to be about a bunch of guys who make a living kidnapping dogs who manage to kidnap the wrong dog - that of a mafia boss. Cue insanity, madness and a standoff in the desert. Its from the writer of IN BRUGES so expect bucket loads of wierdness to ensue. And the trailer looks great.

Anyways..... look them up on YouTube and see what you think

[sandman67]

jus a quick word of warning

the versions of the biggie PROMETHEUS kicking about are all R5 dvdrips with really crappy CAM soundtracks

my advice is wait a few days till the R1 versions come out

[sandman67]

PROMETHEUS

Ok, I dropped a copy, jiggered about with the sound, re-synched it and watched the end result....so what is Ridley's not-an-Alien-prequel prequel to Alien like then? Well...its good....very good in fact.

You will be familiar with the premise by now - following clues gathered from ancient ruins all over the world that show a common solar system far away a crew of scientists sponsored by the iffy Weyland Industries company flies to the planet to find what they expect will be the space aliens that seeded life on Earth. When they get there they find more than they counted on.....and the "life seeds" get activated and turn nasty, which leads into Alien.

Except it deliberately doesnt. Whereas the Marvel superhero films all slot nicely together and other prequels do the same such as Wolverine slotting into the X Men series, this one deliberately changes some of the end stuff so it doesnt slot with Alien....which IMHO is a total fail as the rest of the film is obviously heading that way anyway. Seems redundant. And as usual the scientists act like a band of teen slasher film yahoos rather than a bunch of proper scientists who would be careful before activating the derelict spaceship controls....etc. And y know what...the robot crew member with its own agenda is done mate in Alien and Aliens....twice was enough already. And the head ending up off the body and on a tray...all three previous outings. Try harder Ridders!

Still, its great eye candy and trots along nicely.....but still while it is a breath of fresh air into the franchise it still carries the occasional whiff of stale sewer lazy recycling the same old tropes on it.

Fassbender is excellent as the TE Lawrence obsessed robot, but Noomi Rapace sucks again - she redifines wooden acting and for the life of me I cant understand why the hell she is so popular.

So....well worth a download and definitely wait till the proper DVDRIPs are out as the current CAM sound is trash and cuts off before the actual end of the film. Its also a keeper.....but it only gets two cheers for the annoying "its not a prequel really" cack and repeated plot hooks from earlier flicks.

[sandman67]

Big releases are pretty thin on the ground at the mo, so Im ending up watching a lot of smaller budget releases, most of which are just dross. But occasionally a reasonable one comes along like

THE DEVILS BUSINESS.

Bruno, a right bad un East End villun, sends a couple of his boys around to pop a slug into the noggin of some posh git who has pissed him off. Mr Pinner, the jaded Northern Irish assassin, is lumped with the dopey football hooligan wannabe hardman Colin as his second man, and while they are waiting for their mark to come home from the opera they get to talking. It also seems that the posh git is not as squeaky clean as would be expected, and seems to be an up and coming Aliester Crowley type. So when the mark does finally get home, things start to go very titsy very fast.

Its only just over an hour long and made with a titchy budget, so more like a creepy TV play than a Hollywood slasher flick, and the chills are mainly down to the actors and the story line, which is actually quite frippin good. An example is that while they are waiting Mr Pinner begins to tell Colin a gothic tale of the worst hit he had to do...and it totally sucks you in. The actor playing Pinner is great..and the way he tells the story really does have you hanging on every word. Yes the end gets a bit cliched, and I can think of a couple of much better endings they could have used, but there y go. It still works wonderfully all the same, and is a little gem IMHO.

Well worth a watch IMHO and gets two hearty cheers for effort and Mr Pinners creepy tale within a tale.

Out and about in DVDRIPS at all the usual places.

[buksida]

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

'A group of British retirees decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self.'

For me it didn't quite reach the heights of 'Pirate Radio' and 'Slumdog Millionaire' but still terrific. A breath of fresh air. Entertaining, colourful and uplifting.

Watched this yesterday, a refreshing change from CGI and superheros, highly recommended.

[richard]

No wonder I have nightmares once in a while

Watched.............A Knights Tale....followed by.............Elfie Hopkins

AKT was rather amusing but EH gave me the shivers

[sandman67]

RED LIGHTS

Big budget chiller thriller with a stellar cast including Sigouney Weaver and Bob DeNiro that sadly goes out with not a bang but a whimper.

A small university based team of scientists makes a profession out of exposing fake mediums and psychics, including working with the law from time to time. They also have to compete for funding and resources with the much more popular quackadoodle para-psychology unit at the same university. When Simon Silver, a famous Uri Gellar like medium from the 70s, comes out of retirement it becomes their mission to debunk him publicly, the problem beng that as they do so strange things start to happen with alarming regularity. Is Silver the real thing after all?

Now, you get into the film and its a wonderful ride....sort of shades of Sixth Sense, Angel Heart etc.... a thriller with a distinct whiff of the gothic. And the ride goes on....getting ever better and more creepy. Then in the last 10 minutes you pop through a pair of swing doors for the grand finale ending...and its Ronald McDonald pulling a mooney at you while smoking a crack pipe.

A great little film totally ruined by its tissue thin nonsense ending. If I were a studio exec, and its a good job I aint given most of the utter crap in circulation at the moment, I would have got out of my seat at the finished editing screening, kicked the director in the head, and told him to go back and shoot a new end.

There y go.

Out and about in DVDRIPs all over the shop.

Gets three thbbbbbbts for the dumb ending that ruined a good film.

[MrPlum]

Iron Sky

That wee small voice did try to warn me... 'DON'T DO IT!!!'

I toughed it out until the half-way mark but couldn't take any more German and Black ('Homie'? ) stereotyping. The plot was stupid and inconsistent; one scene was inserted just to allow as much foul language and abuse in as short a time as possible; the acting was wooden, Germans as usual, portrayed as dumb and robotic, with juvenile and unfunny mocking of the language. Only a brain-dead teenager on Ritalin could find anything of merit in this.

Borrowing a comment from IMDB...

'Just leave it playing and walk out the door. When it is finished come back home. Your roach problem should be solved.'

[sandman67]

THE EXPENDABLES 2

A second outing for Sly, Jason and the gang. The creepy CIA contact Mr Church blackmails Sly into taking a young safebreaker deep into enemy territory so she can open up a CIA safe that is unfortunately deep inside bandit country on a crashed plane. There he and the boys run into a pack of psychotic satanist bandits (not kidding) led by Jean Claude Van Damme who are interested in the contents of the safe as well, and in the process of obtaining it off one of Sly's mates. So Sly and the lads set out to kick some ass, blow things up, crash big stuff into bigger stuff, kill the baddies and generally save the day whilst cracking a few wry one liners and riffing on the action movie genre.

It soon turns into a who's who of action film stars, with Arnie, Brucie, Jean, Jet, Dolf and even sad sack old Chuck Norris all showing up to join in the game of who's the hardest action hero. The body count hits three figures in the first reel, and its just one long shoot em up from there on in. A real no brainer....but hey its also a lot of fun and thrills as well, and some of the Arnie shnappy vun liners and self mickeytaking references are a laugh. The other hilarity is the facefull after facefull of bad cosmetic surgery, Arnies orange permatan and shockwig toupee, and deciding which one of our once proud and handsome hero types looks the worst. My vote is for Dolf, who has gone from the smooth carved features of Rocky Russian to someone who looks like they've been washing their face with a bead blaster hose. No wonder young lad Jason Stratham grins his ass off all the way through.

I liked it, even if it was as dumb as a bag of spanners, and its definitely a keeper. Its thick as an Ascot toffs enclosure, and tissue thin as the wrapper on a toffee, but its a three cheers thriller all the way.

Out and about in a very watchable R5 DVDRIP.



And then theres the found footage (yes.....another one) horror flick GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2

Now, you recall, or not, that the first film was about the makers of a hokey Discovery Channel style ghost encounter show who go to film in an abandoned insane asylum that is supposedly haunted, and find that the building is "alive" and full of nasty vengeful spirits of patients expermented on by a satan worshipping head doctor..... yep, just about every horror flick cliche in one bundle.

Well, 2 picks up a few years on, and a GE obsessed film student convinces his mates that his conspiracy theory that 1 was a real incident and they set off to find the apparently disappeared film crew and hospital, guided by an anonymous online source. And off to the hospital they go.... and you can guess what happens then. Its just another found footage horror, and although it adds a few novel twists to the reasoning behind the premise, it sticks to the format, and thats a weakness built into all of these films. If you havent seen the first one most of what goes on in this is a bit meaningless. Thats another weakness.

So, a few jump out of your seat shocks interspersed with lots of annoying teenagers and shaky cam work.

Worth a watch if you like the genre, otherwise it aint. Personally I would recc instead you watch the vastly superior Japanese "found footage" film NOROI: THE CURSE whch you can find easily on YouTube. That, like most asian cinema, is better for one main reason.... it actually has a complex plot that you need to pay attention to.

One cheer to GE2 for effort