What's the Latest Thing You Saw at the Cinema?

Cloud Atlas

As with any film what you get from it depends upon what you bring to it.

In my case I am a scientist by training, but am also a committed Christian, and as such accept and applaud the scientific method for analysing and explaining phenomena, and determining the 'best fit' thesis. However, I completely accept that there is much that we do not, and will never, know. We see but in a mirror dimly.

As such Cloud Atlas was right up my street, and I loved it. However, I suspect this might be a Marmite movie, and many would be repulsed.

It had a number of narratives, and perhaps one pervasive theme. Did I understand it? Almost certainly not, but i am looking forward to re-watching it, and probably many times.

What a shame that this film bombed. I suspect that this is a film that will gain a great reputation over time.

M

A good movie with humor and twists:

The exit sign.

The Sweeney just made it our way.

Meh.

Django Unchained. Pretty good but not as well done as Inglorious Basterds.

Saw this on first release but half way through, just when the tension was starting to build, the fire alarm goes off so cinema had to be cleared... So I'm yet to see the last half.

Very well done film though is regards to the period sets etc. 

Argo

This is obviously a pretty small movie that not many people will have heard of.

To give Argo a hopefully useful boost I thought that a cinematic nobody writing a blog on a site populated by people who spend an amount of money normally reserved by sane people for a family car might give it a lift.

Juliette and I went and saw it last night. Juliette said, and I quote, 'I'm not too sure what happened, I spent most the film hiding my face in my hands'.

This is a very well crafted film that does build the tension, and maintain it. If you haven't see it then I would thoroughly recommend it.

Best film of 2012? Not for me, but a goody nevertheless.

M

The Hobbit

No, not a review, just a bit of a rant.

The Hobbit passed the one billion dollar mark this week, on the back of earnings in China, and as such is now the 15th highest grossing film. This was acknowledged two days later by boxofficemojo, who greeted the news in the following terms:

Thanks to strong grosses in China, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey finally passed $1 billion worldwide this weekend.

It is the use of 'finally' that irritates me. The fact is that The Hobbit, whatever you think of it, has done strong business throughout its release, and is a VERY successful movie. But, it is reported upon as a bit of a lame duck.

When Skyfall passed the same mark a few weeks ago this news was trumpeted as a part of the ongoing success story, despite taking longer to reach the same mark. Indeed the piece goes on to state:

The movie's worldwide gross is still well below that of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion), though it is at least ahead of Fellowship of the Ring ($872 million) and The Two Towers ($926 million). By the end of its run, it should finish just short of Alice in Wonderland, which currently ranks 13th all-time with $1.024 billion.

Note the '...at least...'.

I find it interesting that this film has made five times its estimated production budget, a whopping success on any level, and I suspect that that production budget will have covered much of the cost for the next two films.

M

Seen Lincoln and Les Mis in the last 8 days.

Lincoln was far better than I had led to be believed - not wordy just excellent.  Only downside was the volume of the trailers before the film started I measured the volume at 136db much to loud - painful at times.

Les Mis - a disappointment - needed subtitles. The captions that were on the screen should have been displayed for longer. As for the music - disappointing and flat and very samey.  

Wreck It Ralph

Short

Good - go see

Longer

There was a time, not too long ago, when we would go and see this sort of film as a family, but both the girls are now off at Uni. As it happens we picked up daughter A and took her to see daughter B, whilst we motored back home they went to see WIR that evening, and both enjoyed it.

When I was 23 I went to a local cinema to watch 101 Dalmatians. Now this was at a time before Disney had released their movies on VHS, and DVD was but a twinkle in the eye of Phillips, Toshiba, Panasonic and Sony marketing; in the days when public holidays included a program called Disneytime. I had never see the aforesaid film, and didn't have any child I could borrow to mask my desire to see a 'kids' movie. Well those days have now returned, but to hell with it, Juliette and I had a day off, and so we went and shared a cinema with one other couple, who looked about 23.

To me this film is a MUCH better version of TRON. Tron is a film that I loath. It is aimed at a teen market than should know better than to think that a computer game is populated by independently thinking and reasoning characters. However, within the context of a children's film this concept pays off in spades. Sure the logic is nonsensical but that isn't important, what is is the emotional feel of the piece, which is spot on.

Best animated feature I have seen since Toy Story 3. If you can't borrow a little one get in touch with your inner child and give him a treat.

M

Side Effects

I won't say too much, but a good film, only slightly let down by one aspect of the ending - for me anyway.

Hope this ISN'T Soderbergh's last.

M

Welcome to the Punch

What a bloody shame! Sooooooooo close, but .....

This is a film that has great style, some good dialogue, tremendous leads and doesn't just have a serious injury cured with an elastoplast. Unfortunately .....

If you know ANYTHING about police work and procedures in the UK then this film just doesn't work. Everything about the film shouts that it is set in London, although the classic skylines are never used. However, the feel of the film is that it is set in a mythical city set in the Atlantic half way between the US and the UK. This is a place where a rank of Lieutenant Commander exists in the UK police, where they have a political, as well as policing roll, and the shadow Home Secretary is running for office, and CRIME plays a central part in their campaign.

OK, if we accept that - does the film work? Well, not for me. Their is just a pervasive naivety in the way the people act, with respect to mobile phones, writing things down ....and in the case of the hero, his way of dealing with his boss, and evidence, that just pulled me out of the film.

The usage and results of guns was also puzzling. I have heard of people not being able to hit a barn door at thirty paces, and here you will see that enacted with people using modern automatic weapons.

.....and yet, the lead performances are very strong, and the central relationship is built effectively and in a way that you just want this story to be better and more realistically told.

I think if I had seen this film set in, say, Atlantic City, I would have enjoyed it FAR more.

I am glad I went to see it, but I will not watch it again. I do wish it well, when you see the number of companies who helped finance it I am sure a lot of people have small parcels of money invested in it. With a bit of tweaking I think this could have been a really good movie, as it is ....

M

G.I.Joe Retaliation Saw this with a friend and plenty of beer between the two of us. I recognised all my old toys

EJ

Brilliant photography. A little self serving in the presentation.

Oblivion

Before I get accused of inconsistent standards I want to say that in my mind there is a BIG difference between Science Fiction and Science Fantasy.

I would argue that John Carter of Mars falls solidly in the second category, so while it may not work on many levels ultimately the only question is, 'did it engage me?', and JC did, much to my surprise.

Oblivion is very much Science Fiction, and so I expect the science to work, the plot to be consistent AND the film to engage me; did it?

Science = No;

Plot = No;

Engage = Yes, but not enough to remove the bad taste from 1 & 2.

There are some great things in this film, it is a visual feast, well acted and enough twists to keep you thinking. I am NOT sorry that I went to see it, and if you are tempted I would say the BIG screen is the place to see it ......but.

And here I will sign off and not enter into spoiler territory.

M

Hi M, I disagree with you here. I don't necessarily believe that any Science Fiction is gonna give you particularly solid foundations for real future science prediction.

I thought it was a pretty good film all round.....and two Led Zep tracks to boot..Ramble On and I can't remember what the other one was. Did you notice his record collection? This is normally a directors thing, or it may even have been Tom Cruises little plug for his own taste, who knows...kudos to  the film just for that.

John Carter was ludicrous beyond words..........

Jason.

p.s. I won't mention the other over played/hyped track.

Hi Jason,

Yes I did notice the record collection, and was ticking them off as he thumbed through the collection.

I agree with your observation that: I don't necessarily believe that any Science Fiction is gonna give you particularly solid foundations for real future science prediction.

I just like what is in front of your eyes to be plausible - I won't go into any more detail, as it gets into spoilers - and if other things had been a bit more solid I would have just glazed over it.

I am glad I went to see it, but I won't be adding it to the collection.

WRT JC - ludicrous, yes, but much of Science Fantasy is, and much to my own surprise I found that I could just roll with it as I enjoyed the characters. I feel sorry for Andrew Stanton.

M

Pretty good movie.

Olympus Has Fallen

The action films that I probably return to most are Die Hard, Air Force One & Under Seige.

You would think that producing a balls out action movie should be meat & potatoes to the Hollywood machine, and yet they produce endless streams of stodge. Just looking at the Die Hard movies, one is a classic and three is enjoyable, I couldn't bring myself to go and see the latest instalment.

So how does Olympus Has Fallen measure up? Much better than I expected. Gerard measures up well, and is given a couple of pithy one liners. All the other roles are filled capably.

For me,what will prevent this from being multiple re-watch material is: the use of the MacGuffin at the heart of the story; the behaviour of certain supporting characters & some of the dialogue given to Morgan Freeman as the acting President.

One of the things I love about Air Force One is the sacrifices paid by several characters doing the honourable thing; here I am thinking of the Pilots on the Jumbo, the fighter pilot taking the missile & William Macy taking the bullet. In this film they had the opportunity to allow some similar noble sacrifice but didn't take it, in a way I found disappointing.

For me this film equates to Die Hard Three - enjoyable.

M

Good memories of Air Force One. I was in uni when it came out and at the time had a bit of a tentative thing going with a russian girl. Took her to this movie, oops, well she was not amused. I didn't feel committed enough to give in in the ensuing argument... good times.

EJ

Hi EJ,

That paints a whole picture in a very few words ....and makes me feel bloody old!

M

Iron Man 3

You will almost certainly know whether this is the sort of film that you are likely to enjoy, the only question is - has it been done well; and I would say, YES.

Of the three this is probably the one I have enjoyed most. As with the latest Batman most of the film has the main protagonist out of role, and this adds to the interest.

M

Oblivion

Loved it. The scenery, the technology, the atmosphere, the music, the pacing, all synced to perfection. The plot is good, too, although in keeping with the standard of modern scifi there are some pretty deep plot holes and yet again we have a postapocalyptic world where everybody dresses like Mad Max. It's also loaded with references to science fiction films: obvious ones include Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, the Matrix, Space 2001, Titan A.E., Wall-E, and of course Independence Day. And those who know about games: it's hard not to get the Gears of War reference in the library shootout. Brilliant!

Cheers,

EJ