Movie/TV recommendations

[Wrestlevania]

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; watched this last night and it's a very good film.

[miffy495]

Ok, Last King Of Scotland was fucking great. It's really unsettling just how charming and likeable Whitaker makes Amin, right up until the bodies start piling up. Like, noticably piling up. Even when there's only a few bodies and you know how it's going to end, you still kinda like the guy. Damn. Good. Check it out.

[kennyken67]

noticing a lot of showcase shows referenced.

TRAILER PARK BOYS.

the first time i saw this show i thought it was retarded. But once you get to know the characters and the unique narrative used, its actually really funny and entertaining.

Also, ROBOT CHICKEN.

this show never disappoints. I own the DVD's

[eljay]

I should have mentioned this AGES ago, but have been selfish.

Everyone should watch Dexter.

It has the most original premise for a series in years, and is brilliantly dark. Michael C Hall of 6 Feet Under fame stars, and is superb, I consider it mandatory viewing (unless you don't like blood ;; ).

Also another unique concept starring a 6 Feet Under alumnus was The Lost Room with Peter Krause. A bizarre and very creative 3 episode mini-series made by Sci-Fi, hopefully piloting a fully fledged TV series ¬¬

[Roderick]

I just saw the Silent Hill movie. I have yet to form any decisive opinion on it. It wasn't bad. I don't know yet if it was good, but it wasn't terrible. Especially not for a game movie.

[Wrestlevania]

I just saw the Silent Hill movie. I have yet to form any decisive opinion on it. It wasn't bad. I don't know yet if it was good, but it wasn't terrible. Especially not for a game movie.

I felt the same way after my initial viewing; upon watching it for a second time I thought it was superb.

[DanJW]

Yeah, I liked the Silent Hill movie. After it's release I picked up the geneeral feeling that it was bad, but I'm glad I was convinced otherwise.

Spaff and I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Terradego Talladega Nights the other day. Both were good, although WIll Farrell was uncharacteristically unlikeable at the beginning of 'nights. It improved though.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I enjoyed immensely, and laughed at a lot of the lines throughout.

edit: corrected the name of the fucking movie Hey, if it had been Silverstone Nights or Monaco Nights I would have been fine. Any wonder I sided with "Jean Gerard"?

[Roderick]

Haha, that's 'Talladega' Nights.

A few hours after seeing it, I've confirmed that I really liked Silent Hill and that I want to see it again. If only all game movies were this good. Bit of a weird ending maybe, but definitely awesome movie. Though more of a fantasy movie than really horror, I'd say.

[vimes]

When I watched the Silent Hill movie, I hadn't played the games, at least not enough to say I knew them but I had been told that they were all about internal journey materialized by nightmarish storyline and shit.

So, Silent Hill the movie was a disappointment because it turned out to be just another scary and gory movie with a nice cinematographer but nothing impressive.

I still can't believe that Roger Avary wrote the scenario.

Anyway, recently, I watched Double Indemnity by Wilder and it rocks. I'm more and more enjoying movies from this era.

[Roderick]

I do have to agree that the character arc of the female protagonist was pretty non-existent. But then I also gather that it was a hugely difficult task to translate something as unique as Silent Hill to a movie, and I appreciate the things that they did get right.

That's no excuse for failing in those other regions of course, but it does soften the blow. SH is a very enjoyable and beautiful movie. I don't know what else Roger Avary wrote though, so I can't compare.

[miffy495]

Oh. And on Christmas Day, I watched the entirety of Season One of Slings & Arrows. Great, great show. If you're not Canadian, you'd probably never heard of it -- but try to check it out if you can. It's basically a drama/comedy following the action behind the scenes at the "not-really-Stratford but you know it's meant to be Stratford" Shakespeare festival as they try to stage the marquee play of the season (season one being Hamlet). Paul Gross (the mountie from Due South), as the constantly near-mental breakdown Artistic Director, is great in this. It's also the show where Rachel McAdams got her big break.

It's entertaining and you even learn a bit about Shakespeare's plays while you watch it. Can't lose with that.

A month later and I've tracked down a cheap DVD set of season 1. Damn this show is good. Thanks for the tip, n0wak. I know season 2 is on DVD, so the next questions are:

1. How many seasons are there?

2. How many can I find on DVD?

3. Has the show yet reached a point where there's a massive decline in quality, as always seems to happen when a show has a really promising first season?

[MrChlorophyll]

Just watched Unknown, starring a lot of people. My favourites being Barry Pepper and Joey Pants. And Jesus and Satan weren't bad either. And hey, let's give props to Mr. Kinnear and that guy from Suicide Kings.

A Who-Done-It of sorts where everyone has amnesia (insert groan if you want) so nobody knows what's going on! Unless the amnesia just totally ruins any story telling for you, it's a rather good little movie. Excellent performances by all and a double twist ending. I was able to figure out what was going on either a fair way off or right before the reveal, but the extra twist took me by surprise.

But I may be biased because I am a Barry Pepper whore.

Trailer here.

[Moosferatu]

Does anyone know if the new BBC version of Robin Hood is any good?

[DanJW]

I can't say I've watched it, but the general airborne concensus says no.

[eljay]

consensi are airborne now? We're Doomed!

Also yeah I heard it was utterly shit.

P.S. if anyone's going to get all grammar nazi on me about my plural up there, know this: I am well aware it is wrong, but I prefer it

[Ben X]

Does anyone know if the new BBC version of Robin Hood is any good?

It's ATROCIOUS. Even my New-Dr-Who-fan housemate thought it was terrible.

You thought Kevin Costner was anachronistic as Robin? Wait 'til you see this hairgelled loverboy poncing about amongst the leaves. The whole thing is boring, unfunny, badly directed and flabby.

Meanwhile...

Smokin' Aces: Fun middle section where all the characters come together, but ends abruptly in a mess of unnecessary plot twists and loose ends.

Night At The Museum: Shit, obviously.

Bobby: Professional but dull. Lots of people do stuff, then Bobby's shot. End.

The Fountain: Amazing imagery, performances, soundtrack as usual from Aronofsky, but very 2001 in its unfulfilled promise of story resolution. Probably needs a couple of rewatches to appreciate.

Blood Diamond: Powerful, but jarring mix between message movie and action thriller. How many times can these three characters dodge bullets?! DiCaprio good but accent strained, Hounsou powerful, and Connelly believable and back on the boil.

Sorry if these have all been out forever in America!

[Moosferatu]

The Science of Sleep :tup:

I wish Michel Gondry directed The Mighty Boosh.

[brkl]

Finally got an internet connection again.

The Life Aquatic is wonderful. It's warm, funny and peculiar.

The Last King of Scotland is wonderful. It's exciting, interesting and shocking. Forest Whitaker is godly.

[Roderick]

Just saw Howl's Moving Castle after having owned it on DVD for about a year or so. Good stuff. I love how it isn't doused in such a terrifying morality like you see in most other [American] animated films. Instead, all the persons whom you could consider 'bad guys' are treated with respect. Refreshing! These at least are movies I wouldn't mind my future children to build their moral system on. Also, a lovely tale of magic and wonder, just as we've come to expect from Miyazaki. Pity this is one of his last (or even his last already?) movies.

[vimes]

This is not his last movie; and Miyazaki has been talking about retirement since Mononoke... I guess he can't leave the studio until they found some valid replacement for him and Takahata.

Anyway, Howl's Moving Castle he's by far the weakest Miyazaki in my opinion : it's too much of a recycling of all of his previous movies to be as enjoyable as them. In fact, I'll go against Rodi on this one and say that the receipe isn't fresh anymore for anyone who watched any of his other creations : the overall backbone of Miyazaki's narration style begins to be obvious. It's not painful to watch yet and there are a few great moment [anything with the main character as an old women, the walk up the stairway] but you can't be as fascinated as before.

And the very end is oh so too much with the prince, and the transfrming and the stupid dialogs. Bleaurg.

[eljay]

I agree with Vimes, I was quite disappointed with HMC and felt that the press were just jumping on the bandwagon of loving Miyazaki oh so late. I blame it on the fact that it wasn't his own story, but an adaptation of a book by Diane SomethingWelsh. The ending was very much "ooh here's all the resolutions to every problem in about 6 seconds".

My feelings about it may have been skewed a little by the fact I had to watch the English Dub, which was atrocious except for Billy Crystal as the flame. The main young girl was an emotionless husk and painful to watch and Howl himself (christian bale) was terribly hammy and overdone.

[brkl]

Porco Rosso is my favourite Miyazaki film. I just bought it and saw it again. It's awesome. Too bad the English subtitles on the disc were crap compared to the Finnish subtitles I've seen on TV. I'll probably watch the English dub from now on.

[Roderick]

Maybe my opinion on the movie is slightly skewed because I just saw it, but I really liked it. Of course there were obvious comparisons with his other work, also notably Spirited Away, but I didn't really care. It took me some time to 'adjust' to how I should watch a Miyazaki movie. At first I was expecting it to go as fast as 'normal' animation, but I found the movies then to be extremely longwinded and exhausting. Beautiful, but exhausting. Now I've kind of 'learned' how to watch them. I adapt a sort of pose and mindset where I can just completely be absorbed by them and enjoy all the little animations instead of focussing rigidly on the plot. That's kind of also how the movies are made; the plot is subordinate to the characters and their little ways.

I find it fascinating. I did see a few bits that would obviously not have been in the movie if it hadn't been an adaption from an English book (the kissing of the prince in the end), but in the overall I get the feeling Miyazaki really made that movie his own. And again, I thought it was completely enjoyable, despite it being somewhat of a mixture of all that came before. For me, personally, it hasn't lost its magic by a long shot.

[ysbreker]

The last few days I saw quite a lot of movies:

The prestige: decent movie by Mr Nolan. very nice to spot all the neat references to how the big trick in the movie works. Also perfect acting and camera work Like you expect from these big names.

Basically the whole Tesla-clone-machine trick is an elaborate version of the birdcage trick you get shown at the very beginning of the movie and get explained how it works not much later. Nicely put if only you get it at the end of the movie

:tup: and a half

The Illusionist: Bit boring version of the prestige if you ask me. But the story didn't really attract me somehow.

:tup: and a half

The devil wears Prada: Nice little 'growing-up-realizing what-you-want-to-do-in-your-life' movie. Cute lead actress working for a supernasty boss (Great acting by Meryll Streep!) For the rest pretty much a by the numbers affair.

:tup:

The science of sleep: Might be even better than eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Great dream sequences. A very nice fragile kind of love story.

5 out of 5

Syriana: This was a verrry impressive movie. Make more of this quality work Hollywood!

5 out of 5

Next up are Borat, Volver, babel and The last king of Scotland.

[edit] Anyone seen Hot Fuzz yet? And does anyome happen to know the european release date for it?

[Roderick]

I don't think Hot Fuzz is out yet, and if it would be, it'd be out in England first, before America in any case.