Oblivion - 8/10
As usual, i watched this without seeing any previews or knowing what to expect.
Kinda slow but it kept me intrigued and wanting to know WTF was going on. Cool technology, reminded me about all the cool stuff in that total recall remake.

So what did others think? I just did a quick 5 min read of the movie's flaws/plot holes and like always it seems the more you analyse a movie, the more it falls apart. However i still thoroughly enjoyed watching it and didnt notice any of them during the movie.

Quick review of some other recently watched DVDs. Might help others avoid making a bad pick.

Alex Cross - 5/10
Too much boring character development bulls*** but decent action and the lost dude was awesome IMO.

Apartment 1303 - DNF (did not finish)
Terrible acting, boring as f***, lasted about 30mins before stopping. Avoid.

The Last Exorcism 2 - DNF
Enjoyed #1 but this was painful to watch. Avoid.

The Last Stand - 7/10
Knoxville and Arnie. What do you expect? Mindless action and some lols.

Olympus Has Fallen - 7/10
Slow start, awesome 15-30mins as s*** gets f***ed up, then decent rambo style rest of movie.

Dont see Red 2. I almost walked out.

The Place beyond the Pines. - 7/10
Interesting character development, the movie is a long one (2:20. I think) and it definitely plays out in chapters.
Solid cast, well performed, not your everyday hollywood movie. Fantastic cinematography.

Killing me Softly - 6/10
Not the most amazing movie I've ever seen. Solid cast and well performed roles. Seems adapted from a short story.
Again, beautiful camera work.


AVOIDS:

Olympus Has Fallen - 1/10
Not sure if we saw the same movie Dav0; Villain was pathetic, plot was horrific (and I came in for a 'pop-corn action movie' too!) and the visual effects were circa 1990 tv movie. I seem to recall the spurring line delivered by the hero at one point being, "I'm going to stab you right in the brain". I wanted to walk out, and don't know why I didn't. I got to the end of this movie and was simply mortified that it would appear on Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman's IMDB write ups.

The Man with the Iron Fists - DNF
I can't remember the hero's name, all I know is he's played by the rapper 'RZA' (he also played 'Samurai Apocalypse in Californication). Its a Tarentino film, not directed by Tarintino (or Rodriguez) it might've been doable if either of those guys directed it, but as it was I could not finish it.

the best part of oblivion was m83's awesome soundtrack.

after earth - 3/10
another terrible movie from shamalamadingdong. also, will smith needs to keep his son out of movies because he's a terrible actor.

this is the end - 9/10
definitely the funniest movie I've seen this year.

When I was watching Oblivion iI got a massive dejavu. Then i realised it was the same storyline Moon.

Hah, me too.

Olympus Has Fallen - 1/10

Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen for its budget and cast. We should really allow negative numbers...you know -10/10. The flaws in the movie were blatant and obscenely obvious. I watched it because it was a free rental and I can't help but stare at a wreck unfolding in front of me. I especially like how the terrorists managed to get their hands on all that super secret future US weaponry without the US noticing...

All this hate on olympus, you guys are f***. It reminded me of old school 80s/90s action movies with stallone, arnie, van damme, seagall etc. I did think the CGI was s*** but wasnt sure if that was cause i watched it on DVD and had just been amazed by oblivion on blu ray.

IMO that latest die hard was worse.

Olympus lost me when all the secrete service agents were running out the entrance of the white house storm trooper style getting mowed down by machine guns.

Pain and Gain was pretty good, I wasn't expecting a lot but it was well done and had some good black comedy going on.

I saw Star Trek at the cinemas and thought that was great. The cast have done great jobs of taking on mannerisms of their original counterparts without doing a full blown impression or over playing it (except for possibly the doctor who lays it on a bit thick). Sherlock did a great job as Khan as well.

Bear in mind I don't remember the original movie and people who like to compare those things may have a different view.

I also saw R.I.P.D which was more or less just a pop corn flick. Great actors, slightly cheesy ghostbuster like story with some fun action. Pretty forgettable but enjoyable in the moment.

If you're looking for plot holes in a movie like Olympus has Fallen, I think you're doing it wrong. I didn't really give a s*** about the storyline, I went in expecting to see explosions and Gerard Butler be a badass and it delivered, so I enjoyed it.

Pfft. Maybe for say Shoot em Up...Olympus Fallen I think they were actually putting this across as a bit of a serious action flick. That's why its so f**king horrible.

ravnOs yep, White House down is worse than Olympus...

Good to see people didn't mind Oblivion, wasn't the best, but better than some of the tripe that has come out lately.

Olympus lost me when all the secrete service agents were running out the entrance of the white house storm trooper style getting mowed down by machine guns.

Agreed. From that moment on I knew it was gonna be terrible.

Pain and Gain was probably the best out of the list. Did not expect that movie to be great but ended up being pretty decent black comedy which apparently stayed quite true to the actual event which was a real surprised.

Also pain and gain did not stay particularly true to the real events. I read a few articles on it. The guy who was kidnapped was apparently a really nice and decent guy, per interviews and the court proceedings and judges verdict. i.e. model employer, built the business up from the ground, good family man and well liked. What happened to him in reality has left him so traumatised he just hides out in his small home alone now too scared to get back into life.

He was not consulted at all on the movie and was portrayed as an arse hole simply to make the main characters more likable. Having read the interviews and what that poor guy went through over a month, then how the movie portrayed him was enough to make me dislike the movie.

last edited by Fade2Black at 22:24:00 25/Sep/13

I thought Oblivion was pretty bad. Just luck luster movie by numbers with the "big twist" telegraphed so hard it was ho hum when it happened. Could of been handled better as the movie premise was sound.

The White house movies (seen both) are just mindless action films and if u take them at such they are not a bad one time watch.

World war Z also one time watch mainly for the action. IF you read the book (i have) do not expect the movie to be about it. No idea why they called the film World War Z there is almost no similarity apart from there being dead people. The book is way way way better. Wasted opportunity to make a great film from a great book. Now we have average wooden brain dead Hollywood film.

What i have seen recently and like:

Inch'Allah - a look at what Tom Waits likes to call the Road to Peace. The Israeli / Palestinian conflict seen thru the eyes of a young Canadian doctor (Evelyne Brochu) staying in Israeli but working for the red cross just across the boarder in Palestine. Its pretty full on as both sides dont get a good rep most of the time and of course there is the inevitable: "you are just a white tourist over here what can you even know and why should we care what you think of our conflict". Quite a challenging film. I watched it in two sittings so i could take a break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51dixEewdSo

War Witch. (French title is:Rebelle). Another challenging film that also plays out a difficult topic with deft dignity and grace. Starts out with the kidnapping of a young girl (and massacre of her village) by an African warlords rebel army who is in need of more child soldiers. Turns out the girl has "special powers" so she is called a "war witch". Of course this is a very true to life story, not some fantasy film, so by special powers its more like superstition and mumbo jumbo that pervades Africa. Like lucky charms and such. Also taking drugs. Film is about what the girl see's and does and about the whole child soldier thing in Africa. Also about crazy Africa in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX5jXeXPTB4

Just watched this. Was really good although it runs for a tad over 2 hours.

The best offer was also quite good


[video=youtube;uLWgC98-T6kI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWgC98-T6k[/video]

hmmm what am i doing wrong with the video embedding?

its funny cause its true

and fine be helpful

ah that is how it is done. You were helpful. Ive come from a BB forum code place so this is new to me. Thx for helping out

World War Z - 8/10.
Really enjoyed this, I've read the book and it's quite different, but thought the film was pretty good stand alone.

I watched the movie thought it was one of the best zombie movies to date, and then I read the book lol completely different... Book is really good I hope they do a WWZ 2 and 3 continuing the different stages of the war?

Looking for a movie posted by Reverend Evil(?) a while back about a guy who gets out of prison/small time crim/mentally disturbed, hooks up with his g/f and presumably gets into some mischief. Australian movie, memorable scene from the trailer is a horse being thrown out of a plane. Had limited cinema release.
something like "Rain"?

Anyway I thought this was ok if you like offbeat serial killer type movies:

Safety Not Guaranteed was quirky fun id agree with that but the end was just not good. it was like ummmm,,, ok then?

Only God Forgives seems to have raised much ire from film people. Wooden acting and style over substance seems to be the common complaint. I liked it as a kind of off beat visual treat that was quite light on its feet. Sure if style over substance is not handled with deft hands it fails but much like films such as the Pillow Book, Prospero's Books, Enter the void or Wong Kar-wai's 2046 i thought OGF did a good job at visual treat but also subtle nuanced communication of the story.

But a film i recently watched and just didnt like: Elysium. I wouldnt call it a "bad" film. It is just a film i was disappointed in. It was hyped a lot. District 9 was quite good. But Elysium was like some dumb shoot em up with very little development in plot, characters or anything. Real flimsy.

Safety Not Guaranteed spoiler

well the movie all the way thru was whacky in a charming way. It handled the magical/ sci fi realism well. It did this by never really completely explaining the random moments as to why something was happening but also making some kind of plausible explanations. Why where those guys after him? Maybe he does have some thing the gov wants to hide/ cover up and so maybe he can do what he claims? but oh thats right he was stealing tech so of course they are investigating him etc. A plausible story fitting with reality.

but the end wasnt handled that way it was just right out in plain sight bam crazy s***. I would have preferred if the film kept to its more subtle fashion of making the realism exist with the what if craziness thru use of mechanism. Maybe at the last moment everyone has their attention look away via distraction and when they look back its like wtf

overall the whole film was great but just the way it ended was too overt and so to me it was like u kind of lost the mystery and the atmosphere the whole film had been building. Also i find life to be more like the whole film and less like the end. We never get resolution in magical realism because it isnt something u can directly look at. From experience It only goes on at "the corner of the eye" kind of thing. When u experience this kind of thing the point is you will always doubt if its real or its just crazy head s*** or if its something mundane that is just dressed up. the whole movie except the end kept to this idea. So the end was a bit of a break.

I had high hopes for Elysium. God damnit. Loved District 9. I'll still watch it and judge for myself.

Walter White is Heisenberg

What!!! OMG!!!!!

walter white is jesses dad

i've read the book and still think the movie is enjoyable.

I read the book first and now just finished watching the movie.

I really liked it! There were a lot of difference between the book and the movie but it still had the same idea of showing how different parts of the world were managing the infection. A few really dumb things like the scene in Israel - come on how can you not know that sound attracts them? Airplane scene was great. How they fought back was a bit lame though.

Bot the book and the movie had a weird bias towards Israel, not sure what the deal is. In both formats they accept every refugee when in reality they would probably lock down their boarders so hard and shoot everything insight.

I still agree with everyone that is saying it was a massive missed opportunity but i think the movie format is wrong for the book. Maybe a short series or Sherlock format viewing (3 long episodes per season).

is Oblivion being released in 3D ever?

WWZ should have been made into a TV series.

I thought there were some great action sequences but overall it was highly unoriginal. There were some bits lifted straight out of 28 days later(the staircase scene). What really ruined it for me was the pathetic resolution - that the z's could detect terminal illness.... literally within seconds.

I actually thought Brad Pitts was ok in it but for a $190 million dollar movie I expected alot more.

Sure it was greazy. The story had quite a few issues almost from the start and Tom Cruise is a massive douche .. again.

The story had quite a few issues almost from the start

Did you really notice them during the movie or only afterwards?

Just saw Hansel and Gretel - Witch Hunters. Pretty meh action flick but decent MA violence/gore. Probably 6/10 but i could see the 3D effects they tried for and i reckon visually it would have been much better in 3D.

WWZ should have been made into a TV series.

That's a good idea. A stand alone mini series for each chapter.

Weird that it's Mel Brooks son who wrote this.

world war Z written by the son of a great, mel brooks