Now Showing - What We Watched - Page 226

Watched two bluray movies this evening in the HT. First was Warrior, a movie about cage fighting. First up, I am not a fan at all of cage fighting, but this movie had serious heart. Nick Nolte put in another excellent performance but the entire cast were great. Yes, the showdown at the end was formulaic but the end was really good and I found myself caring about the people in this film. It's pretty violent as you would expect. Great soundtrack and some of the body slams really shook the room. Overall, an enjoyable movie, more about family dysfunction than cage fighting. Giving this one 3.75/5
Second movie was source code. This film had a real minority report / vantage point feel about it. Really interesting premise and ultimately quite scary. Jake G played his character very well. This movie was interesting. Not sure whether it has much appeal for a second viewing anytime soon but I would recommend it as a popcorn flick with a little more substance. This film makes great use of LFE. 3.5/5.
I knew hanging my projector before the room was finished was a mistake!

I have also recently watched source code, definitely makes you think.. Had a good twist too

"TinTin"- Again, a room full of Scouts (remember our last adventure with Scouts was Hugo). The kids all liked it better than Hugo. I preferred Hugo, but neither was better than a 3 of 5 for me.

Troll Hunter- subtitles, as they speak Norweigen. My two seven year olds stayed glued the entire movie. Surprising being that it was their first movie entirely of subtitles. It was fun and unique with a touch of scary. Definetely a "B" movie, but one of the good ones! If Michael Bay got a hold of this script with a 100 million dollar budget, it would be as exciting as any of the big summer blockbusters.

Three Muskateers- We liked this one far more than the critics did! We all enjoyed it more than both Hugo and TinTin. It lacked some in story, but the sets and costumes were grand. This would have been a good one for a room full of kids.

Watched Sea Patrol: Complete Series
2.6/5
Saw a couple episodes on television, ordered the box set. Hmm, it was much cheaper last month.
I'd put it on a par with Magnum PI, reasonably fun, and the primary investigative technique seems to be to get the main character kidnapped.
Sea Patrol is an Australian television drama, set on board HMAS Hammersley, a fictional patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy.
The first season debuted on 5 July 2007. The fifth season began airing in 2011. The Nine Network has confirmed that this was to be the final season, due to reliance on government rebates that expire after 65 episodes.
In 2008, Lisa McCune, was nominated as "Most Popular Personality on Australian Television" and "Most Popular Actress". Sea Patrol' is the most expensive Australian TV drama ever made at over $1 million per episode, mostly because they got to use a $60 million dollar boat for their exclusive use for 8 weeks out of each year. It's a patrol boat, with a pair of crane loaded Zodiak RHIB Jet Juliet 3's for boarding other vessels at sea.

Watched Kenny (2006)
1.8/5 (imdb 7.2/10, amazon 4.6/10, rotten tomatoes 100%)
Its a funny look at what could be the life of a dunny man.
For the first half hour I thought this was a documentary -- a few days in the life of an Australian porta-potty installer.
But it turned out to be a mocumentary.
Kenny is a decent, ordinary bloke with a son who's not sure what to think of him, a father who's out-and-out ashamed of him, and a job that's thankless in the extreme... but he handles every turn with humor, grace, and some very sturdy work gloves.
As expected, the script is full of absurd toilet humor, which is surprisingly good. A lot of humanity in it.
But it wasn't enough for me to recommend the film. I was hoping for a laugh-at-my-job film, and not a really sweet character study of a really nice guy with an apropos sense of humor whose family resembles his job.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Original version last night on Blu, gripping story I really enjoyed, the dubbed audio didn't bother me at all ... 5/5 for me, have the next two and the US version in line to watch...
Fridays watch Battlestar Galactica Extended episode of Pegasus on Blu... (the tralier for "Blood and Chrome" has me wanting some Galactica)...

It's a tough story, and I wouldn't force it upon my relatives because of that, but it is a quality piece. The next two live up to the first, which is unusual in sequels -- but of course they're not really sequels but rather a 6 hour story told as long as they thought they could hold an audience of 500 without bathroom breaks.

I haven't seen the US version.

My reviews
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post19377611
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post19998134

Watched The Desperate Hours (1955)
3.9/5 (amazon 4.6/5, imdb 7.6, rotten tomatoes 80%)
I was channel surfing the other day, and the movie "Firewall (2006) with Harrison Ford" came up and it said that it was a remake of "The Desperate Hours (1955) with Humphrey Bogart". Obviously a 1955 movie is not going to have anything to do with hacking computers.

Good acting. Good script. Good plot. Good movie. Lots of stereotypical 1955 characters. Whit Bissell does not play a scientist in this one, but rather an FBI agent.

I couldn't find the first two and finally stumbled across them yesterday, listened to English, but ended up turning on subtitles when they had printed pages up... can't wait to jump into #2 & #3.

Hi there BB,
Good to see some Aussie flicks hitting your screen. Kenny was never really about toilets and plumbing although that's the theme. Like you said, it's the story of a guy and his relationships with family. I did enjoy the show... It was inoffensive and had a nice finish. He is a character who you can't help but like.
Not sure if you have seen 'the castle' yet but that's another quintessential Aussie film. Its a story about the compulsory acquisition of a mans home to make way for an airport extension. Aussie films have a certain feel about them. A lot of it comes from our ability to laugh at ourselves to the point of cruelty. Not sure Americans get a lot of the injokes and piss taking. I know I recommended Muriels Wedding to Tony 123 and he just could not like any of the characters or the story. Me thinks the rest of the world needs to think more like us Aussies

I've watched a few other Australian things recommended to me in the past while:

- Beneath Hill 60

- Australian B movie weekend

- The man who sued God. (2001) [as I recall was pretty good -- and showable to the family]


Next week, or so
Australia (2008)
I haven't liked Nicole Kidman in anything since Dead Calm (1989),
and Tony's review didn't seem strongly in favour,
so I was going to avoid this one,
but I recently heard of The Bombing of Darwin Australia on 19 February 1942 WWII. The largest single attack mounted by a foreign power against Australia. A greater number of bombs were dropped on Darwin than were used in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The four IJN aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu) that participated in the Bombing of Darwin were later sunk during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. 242 Japanese aircraft attacked ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields. 23 aircraft destroyed. 10 ships sunk. 25 ships damaged. Apparently Australia tried to keep it a secret during WWII, but that was a couple years ago. If I've ever heard of it, I've certainly forgotten. We're both in the Commonwealth for crying out loud. Your navy ships are HMAS, and ours are HMCS.

So I went to see if there was a movie about it, and this seems to be the only one.

You people. If there isn't a movie about it, it's not worth knowing, is it?
-- Metatron, from the movie Dogma (1999)



I've seen "The Last Castle (2001)", but not "The Castle (1997)".

Watched Flypaper (2011)
2.7/5 (amazon 4.1/5, imdb 6.3/10, rotten tomatoes 17%)
Imagine Agatha Christie's "And Then There Was None" mixed with "Inside Man" with a sprinkle of ADD.
A bank. Two teams of bank robbers decide to rob the same bank on the same day. Then it becomes a murder mystery, and you'd think with two teams of bank robbers you'd have an obvious suspect, but no.
The characters are all two dimensional. The "expert" bank robbing team is actually incompetent if you take a moment to think about it, but against the "incompetent" team they appear stellar.
This is not a film to raise or test your intelligence in any way. But if you're not expecting much on the way in, it might qualify as a sleeper.
Bad language throughout, violence/murder too but not unusually gorry.
There are movies where directors hire teams of people to ensure the female lead (Ashley Judd) looks stellar throughout -- this is not one of those films.



Watched Touch of Evil (1958)
3/5 (amazon 4.3/5, imdb 8.3/10, rotten tomatoes 95%)
Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles
Stark, story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

Greg, I'll stick to my assesment of "Murial's Wedding". Sorry.

Win Win- It's official, I'm a huge Paul Giamatti fan! One of today's finest for character driven drama. This one is from a similar cloth as his performance in "Sideways". The writing is well thought out, you could feel the attention to the details. Little moments like a quick line or two to the neighbor across the street that might seem disconnected, help build compassion for this on the ropes protagonist. The story, is slow for a bits, however, it ends up going to a heartfelt and rewarding ending with several laugh out louds along the way. The newcomer that plays the teenage boy has a bright future.

Hi Tony,

Looks like win win is one to look at. Absolutely no issues with your rating for Muriels Wedding.... You take em as you find em. Did you ever get to watch Two Hands with the great Heath Ledger in one if his earlier roles?

With regards to the castle with Michael Caton, I do recommend this one. It's a heartwarming story and whilst nor overly complicated, tells a good story.

On a slightly strange note, I saw the How to Train your Dragon Dreamworks Arena Spectacular last weekend with my son. It was an enjoyable stage adaption of the film with some very good special effects, lighting and the dragons were excellent. was it worth 80 bucks per ticket.... Probably not.

Amen! The Castle (the 1999 version with Michael Caton - not another film of the same name) is one of my all-time favorite quirky comedies with a surprisingly heart-warming underbelly. (Don't know exactly what that means, but you'll understand if you watch it!) The colorful language means you won't want to watch it with the younger kids, but it's otherwise very pro-family, and hilarious. Fantastically memorable characters!

It even has a clip that should resonate with many of the HT DIY builders here at AVS, as we can appreciate the never-ending projects that the father is constantly starting, but not always ending (my son pointed out this similarity to me). Go to the 1:00 mark of this Youtube clip for that part, which only lasts about 10 seconds:



Ring a bell, my fellow never-ending builders?! I can almost hear Logan speaking!

That isn't a true trailer, and doesn't do the movie justice, but it gives you an idea. The main negative is finding this older, somewhat obscure film - I couldn't find it at Netflix (streaming or disk), Blockbuster, and certainly not Redbox, but you can buy it on Amazon. My son owned it, or I would have never known about it.

Highly recommend it for those who enjoy character driven, family friendly quirky comedies!

Watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011, US)
3/5 (amazon 3.6/5, imdb 8/10, rotten tomatoes 87%)
As remakes go, one of the better ones.
I was told that this would be all three Swedish films/books in one, but it's just the first.
The story was awfully familiar, but without the tension of the Swedish version where anything could have happened. The US version was like being wrapped up in a safety blanket, even with the one or two nasty scenes.
It's softer, less gritty, than the original. The characters are more socially compliant, even Lisbeth, who loses her strong loyalty at any cost, and her stark independance.

Watched Australia (2008)
2.7/5 (amazon 3.8/5, imdb 6.6/10, rotten tomatoes 55%, Decent Films C+)
165 minutes.
For starters, Nicole Kidman didn't annoy me as much as she does in other films, and was watchable.
The Bombing Of Darwin scene, reminded me a lot of Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor (2001)" with Ben Affleck -- both in terms of visuals/CGI, and that it was less than 5 minutes out of the movie.
The opening scene, australian bar fight, reminded me of Crocodile Dundee's (1986) opening while he waits for a woman to arrive from a far off less outback land, and I wondered if it was put in as a formulaic motif by the author, a script writer, or some 20th Century Fox executive; before touching on most of the top 10 formula motif's {Good vs. Evil, Love Conquers All, Triumph over Adversity, Individual vs. Society/BigCorporation, The Battle, Revenge, Loss of Innocence, Man vs Himself, Man vs Nature} skipping only {Death as a Part of Life}.
The movie is set in 1942, which might be why The Wizard of Oz (1939) appears so often within it.
The music was nice, as music, although incongruous at times.
Overall, it never really gets into gear as an epic, and although the actors are better the acting isn't better (e.g. Kidman at early kangaroo incident foreshadows how she acts the rest of the film) than King Solomon's Mines (1985) which had a much smaller budget and fewer cows.
The cream child Nullah, and the stolen generation, to my mind, were the movie. The cattle drive coming in a distant second, relative to other cattle drive movies.
I had no trouble at all understanding the dialog/accents, but apparently some did.
Still, better than I was expecting.

Watched Another Earth - not at all what I expected - while the title might suggest Sci Fi, its far more about the story of a young girl's struggle dealing with her past. For me, about 3.5/5. Wish it had run another 15 minutes to see where it led, but as often happens, the ending left a lot to interpretation as to what might happen, maybe for the best.

Watched Griff the Invisible - wasn't sure what to expect from it, as there were a recent spate of wannabe superhero movies, but enjoyed it as well. 3/5.

I've been pushing that one back on my list, but looks like its worth a watch. Thanks.

Absolutely agree with this review. It is an interesting movie and the premise of having another earth with parallel lives is intriguing, but this story is not the sci-fi 'trip to the other planet' that I was expecting. Had a real 'shot on digital handycam' feel about it in parts and an ending that left me just going 'um'. It never really ends, but then maybe that's the point. Worth a watch, even just for the interaction between the main characters. 3/5.

Hanes, you a truly a purveyor of fine Aussie movies. The Castle still rates as one of my favourite films, Aussie or otherwise. It's low budget with no special effects or even a particularly intricate plot line. It tells the story of an average working class family and the love that they all share, set against a legal fight to hold onto their property in the face of compulsory acquisition. The youtube clip shows only a few of the laughs. I think that there is a bit of the Kerrigan family in all of us and ours and this is what makes this film so charming. Certainly worth a purchase if you can find it.

Not quite Aussie - its kiwi I guess - but I remember renting The Quiet Earth on a lark years ago, and enjoying it a lot. I wonder if it still holds up, will have to find that somewhere, Netflix doesn't have it.

Watched Game of Thrones - Series One on Bluray. This is yet another fantastic show out of HBO. I loved the Sopranos so when I heard that this show was a mixture of the Sopranos and Lord of the Rings, I was more than a little interested. This show is amazing and the production values exemplary. The cinematography is of the highest quality with a very nice DTS-Master Audio soundtrack. It will shake your room in places but overall, it's the use of surround that is impressive here. Took me a little while to get my head around all of the characters but once I did, I can't think of a series that I have enjoyed more since Sopranos. Highly recommended, but not for young ones. In keeping with the mediaeval setting of this show, there is ample blood, gore and slaughter. Some of it is uncomfortable but probably necessary on the most part. There is also a fair amount of nudity and simulated sex scenes. This was less 'uncomfortable' to watch for me, but again, not a show for anyone up to later teens in my opinion. Very solid 4.5/5 from me.

Good show. ["I like it too" (Irish Spring circa 1980)]
I'd been watching it on television. The new season starts next week.

Strongest characters, dead.
Little person, needs an oscar.

Civil War, two sides at war.
About to be attacked from the north.
About to be attacked by a dragon girl from the south, and her horde of waring barbarians.

There's stuff afoot.

Watched two movies today. Firstly, on a great note, saw Tin Tin. Really enjoyed this- my new go-to reference disc for animation. Just amazing, as is the very dynamic 7.1 channel audio. Good story line, not too offensive for the kids and enough to keep the adults happy. Without the great animation and audio I would give it a 3.5. But due to the quality of the production, going a 4.25.
Also saw Happy Feet 2 on BD. Let's just say my four year old enjoyed it and I appreciated the snooze in my comfy chair. 2.5 and a very disappointing follow up to the first one. Animation was great but story was lame and convoluted. One for rental only.... Not happy I bought this.

I watched this a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. And yes the ending was something I kept trying to figure out. It was one of those sci-fi movies without any action or real special effects to speak of. It reminds me of another film I thought was fantastic ( The Man From Earth ) which I thought was a much better film than Another Earth.

Ahh cool, I have that one queued up too, guess it gets a bump up in the list.

Watched Sideways last night - it was somewhat entertaining, but I guess I expected more given the fairly high 7.7 imdb rating. For me a 3/5, but no more.

Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides - Netflix DVD - I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I have been watching a lot of my DVD's/BR again with my new system to enjoy them once again so forgive me for the "lateness" of this review.

Well this is the fourth installment of the Pirates franchise. IMHO it is the worst one so far. I really wanted to like it, I really did. However it actually took me two days (or two watching sessions) as I fell asleep the first time. It really is just a rehash of all of the other Pirates. I really enjoy the Capt. Jack Sparrow character but this movie just did not have that "spark" in this fourth film like he did in the first three. This installment just did not live up to the level of the other three films. The first one is still my favorite with each successive film loosing a little to the previous one. Just did not live up to expectations in my book. Glad I did not blind buy this one and that my compulsiveness did not lead me to purchase this film to complete the series. 2.5/5

Regards,

RTROSE

Watched The Adventures of Tintin
2/5 (amazon 4/5, imdb 7.5/10, rotten tomatoes 75%, Decent Films C+)
Based on the reviews, I was expecting a lot.
Didn't really enjoy it. Lots of people do though.
To be fair, I didn't really enjoy the books when I was a kid.
The characters look about right, and are familiar.
The cranes reminded me of mechano erector sets (steel/bolts), and I like mechano.
I liked Snowy (the dog), although many didn't, and we all miss the book's word baloons were we get to know what the dog is thinking.


Watched Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy (2011)
2.5/5 (amazon 3/5, imdb 7.3/5, rotten tomatoes 67%)
Had it's moments, but I didn't find it as interesting as the 1979 mini series with Alec Guinness. Although the 1979 was a lower quality and a lot longer, I found I was more willing to forgive its flaws.


Watched The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues (1955)
0.7/5 (amazon 2/5, imdb 3/10)
Blech.

Watched In Time with JT. Ok, let me be kind and say that the premise was interesting. Acting was wooden and plot holes you could fall into. at it's best, 2/5. Pretty lame really. Ymmv