The Recommended Movies Thread

[sandman67]

again mate....having a real Derpy Derp day

[sandman67]

IRON MAN 3

One of the reasons I liked Iron Man was it riffed on the same meme as the Nolan Batman films - the broken and faulty hero who relies on hi tech rather than super powers - and was full of dark humor. Then came Iron Man 2 which was just pants and a mess. So it was with trepidation that I viewed the third in the series...and I gotta say, despite watching it a couple of times (one broken into segments, one all the way through) I come away with no clear feelings, neither love nor hate.

I dont know whether the kid who is a major plot item was an annoyance, and his cod "father/son" relationship with Stark just a fob to making the films more family orientated, and I am pretty sure I am alone in finding the relationship with Gwyneth Paltrows character Pepper Potts an annoyance (if only for her stupid name alone) and totally unnecessary. I also sort of think Ben Kingsley was utterly wasted (you get why I say that in the last third of the film), and his transition from Mandarin the "oriental" supervillan to Mandarin the evil Muslim extremist Taliban clone such an obvious play on US Islamophobia and a blatant sop to the Chinese government so they could sell the rights in China it sticks in my craw. I dunno, I just dunno.

The way this is structured it looks like it will be the last in the series, with the Iron Man character now only appearing in future Avengers flicks. And I gotta say, Im not that upset at the prospect. Its just over 2hrs long....which I consider just about right for any film.....and it felt like every second that passed. It never dragged, but it really did seem like every minute of those two hours was noticed. And again with the stupid pointless end of credits scene?

Is it a keeper? For now....but should space on the HD get tight, it will be getting trashed. Two cheers for effort...but a hmmmmmmm as well.

Out and about in Chinese source DVDRIPS - give it a spin and see what you think.

[sandman67]

DEAD SOULS

When a priest who has taken up a heretical strain of his religion goes crazy apeshit bonkers and kills his own family in a wierd ritual manner he manages to miss the youngest of his children, still a baby, which his son hid in a cupboard. 17 years later young Johhny is all grown up, and on the eve of his 18th birthday receves a call from a lawyer who explains he has inherited his dead family's old farm property. So he returns to organise the sale, only to find his return has also awoken old spirits, and they have an entirely different agenda planned for him.

Pretty much by the numbers dot to dot haunted house fare, with some rather nice subtle touches here and there. Its just with this type of film its now nigh on impossible to make a standout film that innovates, and that sadly is the case here. We have seen it before, and many times at that.

Still, its worth a watch if you dig this sort of jump boo flick and have a long nite in ahead. Not a keeper but is a watcher. Gets one cheer for not going overboard.

Out and about in DVDRIPs at all the usual suspects

[PeteC]

Here's a classic which scared the pants off of me when I first watched it in 1975. Haven't watched it since but will given this full You Tube version. See what you think. Pete

PS: I came across it again as one of the actresses, Karen Black, just passed away yesterday.

317_.jpg (25.52 KiB) Viewed 744 times

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073820/

[buksida]

Epic

Animation (yes, I do like these), miniaturised girl in forest with leafmen and creatures battling evil bugs - great fun!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848537/

Available on crispy Yify DVD rips at your favourite torrent site.

[Homer]

The Cabin in the Woods

The story and acting in teen horror films are like the story and acting in porn movies: their purpose is to set up the gooey scenes. They're eye candy attempting to act there way through the required tropes. This movie is different.

The characters and location are all under the control and influence of an unnamed organization running the situation from a mission control like bunker setting. Story unfolds like any horror flick except the mission control parallel story. It pokes sly fun at horror story conventions while the mission control humor is broad.

One of the characters discovers a hidden microphone. When he and the others enter the bunker, the second horror story begins.

Rotten Tomatoes sums it up as: The Cabin in the Woods is an astonishing meta-feat, capable of being funny, strange, and scary -- frequently all at the same time. It was co-written by Joss Wheadon, so I don't see why anyone was astonished he pulled off such a feat. Directed by the guy who did Coverfield. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_cabin_in_the_woods/



torrents: http://torrentz.eu/search?f=cabin+in+the+woods+dvdrip

[sandman67]

OK - some newish stuff and a quick roundup of Viooz interesting posts

THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT

Big(ish) budget film director Renny Harlin has a stab at the found footage genre with this icy horror thriller playing with the infamous and mysterious Dyatlov Pass Incident that occured in 1950s Russia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident)

Obviously Renny goes with some of the wilder consipracy theory tropes associated with the incident to get into the horror thriller genre, and while there is nothing innovative done what is done is done well, and with a nice little twisty roundkick at the end.

Worth a watch on an idle afternoon at least, even if its not a keeper. At least its not the usual same old haunted house plot.

Out and about in DVDRIPs all over the place.

NOW

down at Viooz there has been a shed load of good stuff posted recently including the stage magic meets cheeky heist thriller NOW YOU SEE ME, superior and moving antipodean WW1 action drama flick FORBIDDEN GROUND, madass Thai set arty crime revenge flick ONLY GOD FORGIVES, Jason Stratham in another biff em up REDEMPTION (HUMMINGBIRD) and crime caper PARKER, Wes Snipes latest Blade meets High Noon vamp/zomb stomper GALLOWWALKERS, and a lot of other top line releases from Hollydud, which I will get to reviewing later, but there are some other interesting posts worth flagging

FOUR FEATHERS - the classic Alexander Korda 1939 version in spanking HD - one of my all time favorite films
SANJURO - the classic Kurosawa samurai flick that inspired Clint Eastwood spag bol western remake
DUELIST - an eye popping Korean martial arts historical whodunnit thriller that is in the top of my Asian flicks list every time
THE LAST CHUSHINGURA - a modern remake and retelling of the classic samurai drama about The Loyal 47 Ronin which re-unites the two talented leads of my favorite modern neo-jidae samurai epic WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN
13 ASSASSINS and HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI - Takeshi Miike's two recent masterful and amazing remakes of two of the all time jidae classic flicks about bloody samurai revenge against the establishment
THE FLOATING CASTLE - more samurai fun and games, this time blended with fantasy elements
BUDDHAS LOST CHILDREN - moving biopic documentary about a Thai Buddhist monks work with orphaned and off track children in the Golden Triangle region.
CARLTON-BROWNE OF THE F.O. - Peter Sellers and Terry Thomas in the classic "Ealing Comedy" rip on life and hi jinks in a colonial colony.

There are a mountain of greats, classics and new releases over at Viooz, and if you are not there you are seriously missing out on film excellence.

http://viooz.co/

Have at it lads, and as Miltiades said at the Battle of Marathon

AT THEM!



PS: Theres also a lovely spanky clean copy of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS on there as well

[ridgeydidge.au]

great resource, and quirky review styles which I love.Thanks Dave! you are a gem.

[sandman67]

ONLY GOD FORGIVES

The moody Ryan Gosling stars in this odd crime flick, and as usual spends most of the film staring out into space or at others with his patent 1000 yard stare. The good thing is that like his masterful performance in DRIVE his character and the film suit that silent and menacing style of his, whereas I felt in Gangster Squad he was out of place.

This madass crime revenge flick is set in Bangkok, and like the city itself is a nightime full of neon washed seedy city dives and ultra modern apartment blocks, and a daytime full of bustle, sweat and squalor. The film is very much like BLUE VELVET - a Tarantino piloted bad acid trip full of colours and wierdos, and could easily have been directed by Velvet's David Lynch. Weirdos and psychos abound, from Goslings leopard skin and bleached blonde psycho MILF mum, to his nemesis the Thai cop Chang who is also known as the Angel Of Vengeance for his vigilante style justice. There are no heroes in this bloody neon washed tale of woe, no redemption or salvation. Like RESERVOIR DOGS its just a downbound train full of the lost and damned.

Its a bit slow in places, but when the action starts it rocks. Arty and brutal but beautiful to behold I loved it from start to end, but be warned, some critics panned it. Me? Tis a solid gold keeper like DRIVE, a modern take on a great film genre.

Out and about in hi rez and normal rez DVDRIPS at all the usual suspects. Get at it. Three cheers and a chook dee

[dtaai-maai]

R.I.P.D.

Where do dead cops go? They join the Rest In Peace Department...
This is not a classic, but it's a fairly amusing and entertaining way to pass 90 minutes if you have nothing pressing to do.
A dash of Ghostbusters with a finger or two of Men In Black, a splash of True Grit and the merest hint of Ghost, Jeff Bridges hams it up wonderfully while Kevin Bacon and Ryan Reynolds do their best to keep up.
On the Sandman scale, I'd say probably not a keeper, but 3 good cheers .

It's a fairly recent release, but there's a good copy on Viooz (with some Asian subtitles that didn't interfere much).

[sandman67]

Wow....pipped to the post by DM on one I was going to review, but this will be a monster review slate anyway so on with the show.

First up two from the vault that I sat and watched with mum over a glass or three of voddy and lemonade

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

This has been reviewed by MrP and others but I thought Id throw my twopennethworth in

An ensemble cast of Brit actors in their silver years lead in this heartwarming Britcom about a bunch of retirees who in the current economic climate decide to become ex-pats and retire to what their brochures advertise as a retirement paradise in Northern India (looks like Rajahstan to me). Unfortunately when they arrive they find that the images are not representative of the real thing, and the young entrepreneurial manager has put lipstick on a pig - the hotel is in fact pretty run down and awaiting development, and the manager for all his enthusiasm is as shambolic as his hotel. Like his guests he has a cupboard full of skeletons to cope with, especially his overbearing mum and a secret girlfriend. When west and east collide, the hilarity ensues.

Its a lovely heartwarming Britcom of the premium stamp, with laugh out loud moments and heart twanging scenes. Anyone who has traveled in India will feel right at home and laugh even louder.

I loved it, and its a solid gold three cheers keeper all the way.



and much on the same theme

QUARTET

Again an ensemble cast of Brit silver stars lead in this comedy set in a retirement home for musicians. The home relies on the charitable contributions that come as a result of the annual Verdi tribute concert the residents put on, and in tight times those contributions are all the more essential to the homes viability. So when a famous opera diva comes to stay whose past in tangled up with one of the long term residents in a bad way the plans are thrown into chaos, and its down to the residents to work around the issues and play nice with each other before the concert is cancelled.

Again its excellent heartwarming Britcom at its best, with Billy Connolly shining out amongst the stellar cast as a lecherous old opera rogue whose age is his only restriction to his caddishness.

Top stuff, and again a solid gold three cheers keeper.

[sandman67]

Next up two with a whiff of the undead.

GALLOWWALKERS

Now anyone worth their salt would have put good money on Wesley "Blade" Snipes being in a film about the undead in the Wild West means it would be good. That would have been money chucked away unfortunately. Sure, Wes plays an extremely cool character, and some of the cinematography is excellent and very stylish, but the plot and scrip is a total frickin nightmare, and the editing a mess done by a retarded chimpanzee.

I can see what they tried to do - a Sergio Leone style western with a Bram Stoker gothic twist - think ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST with the bad guys as undead. But the director and editor have less talent than Leone's little toenail, so the result is just an incoherent mashed up bag of sausage meat - scenes that as standalone music vids would have looked cool and stylish, but when stitched together with a mumbled soundbite sentence voiceover narrative are just a shoddy mess. Personally I think this was good till it went to the cutting room to be edited, and there it was shredded and put together on the hurry up.

Watch at your peril - like JONAH HEX this was a premise with soooooo much promise, sadly massacred by incompetent direction, scripting and editing.

One cheer and it went in the trashcan.



R.I.P.D

Well I can only echo what DM said and said so well. This is effectively an entertaining mashup of elements of GHOST and TRUE GRIT, with a foundation recipe that combines GHOSTBUSTERS with MEN IN BLACK.

Turns out that when the best coppers die they don't just go up or down, they are instead offered a chance of avoiding final judgement (which for coppers is apparently a really dicey game of Russian roulette) by serving in the Rest In Peace Department - spiritual law enforcers who track down and bring to judgement wayward undead souls who have avoided hell and walk amongst the living. The Men In Black chase down rogue aliens, these guys track down demons.

Jeff Bridges really shines in full on Rooster Coburn mode as a dyed in the wool old school wild west marshall who is given a modern day recently deceased rookie to hammer into shape just as, quite literally, all hell is breaking loose and the rookie's partner seems dead set on releasing all the demonic bad guys on an unsuspecting Boston.

Good laughs, great graphics and a fun plot. So what if it is a blatant rehash of the Men In Black franchise.... MIB just reworked Ghostbusters anyway. And I dont care if the sodding po faced media critics slated it - I loved it (even more than MIB) and had a ball, with Bridges raising a few guffaws along the way.

A solid three cheers, and unlike DM I will be keeping it as I love bubblegum nonsense like this.

[sandman67]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhnd finally, step up to the crate Mr Cruise, your platform soled boots await

OBLIVION

Tom Cruise stars in this sci fi post apocalypse epic as a glorified repair man left behind on a depopulated post nuclear war earth to look after automated plants which transform sea water into power. The human race has left the Earth for a new life on Titan after an invasion by aliens set on harvesting the Earth and Moons natural resourced resulted in all out war that destroyed the planet. Now Tom and his female assistant run a maintenance program looking after the energy harvesters, protecting them from the aliens who sabotage them by night. Then an unidentified escape pod crashes down in Tom's sector, and its contents throw everything he thinks he knew into chaos.

I really liked this, and thought Tom actually managed to conquer his usual reliance on the same old character over and over to do something a little different. The VANILLA SKY like plot twists are also fresh and keep the flick trotting along nicely from its initial setup to the "reveals" as the film goes on. The effects are top notch and the package is wrapped up nicely by some competent support, even if the wonderful Morgan Freeman seems sadly underexposed and under-used.

A cool little sci-fi brain twister and well worth a drop and watch. Three cheers and a solid keeper.



ALL of the films above are out and about in crispy DVDRIPs all over the shop.

[Homer]

Sharknado

A ridiculous bit of delightful absurdity. One reviewer summed it up: Really, it’s a deceptively tough feat that the makers of Sharknado pulled off: making a movie that’s shlockily and campily hilarious without seeming to try too hard to make something shlockily and campily hilarious.

The title of the sequel is official - Sharknado 2: The Second One. I can't wait for the July 2014 release.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/08/showb ... ?hpt=en_c1

[richard]

Watched 'Assault on Wall street' last night

Gripping, sad but I suspect very true.

Big time financier crooks bleeding Joe public of their hard earned money.