The Movie Thread

[ashmie]

Thanks to MiJ for a great movie evening with Judge Dredd the recent version. Really enjoyed the visual effects and the set of the film was amazing. It got me thinking when will Mus make Mega City 1.
It was great to eat some good food, fajitas, and drink some proper ale, Wychwood breweries. Movie nights are something I've wanted to get going for a long time and they are well worth it. Makes a change from having to look up rules. Very good fun. I reckon we should have more of these, horror double bills or Lord of the Rings marathons for example. Maybe over Christmas? Had a great time mate, thank you.

Now I'm thinking of a Dredd gang, possible a survivors team from Hassle Free miniatures as I'm a big Walking Dead fan at the moment.

[me_in_japan]

Not at all - twas mighty fine to have the company.

This past week I've been watching quite a bit of TV. There was Dredd on Wednesday with Ash, then on Thursday I watched the new Godzilla movie.

Goddamnit, I want my 2 hours back That was without a doubt one of the pishest movies I have seen in ages. While not quite as balls to the wall shite as Battle: Los Angeles, it managed to be a film about a giant monster which barely contained a giant monster. I don't know what the hell the writers were thinking, but it certainly seemed to be "hey! Let's make it so that every.single.time. Godzilla turns up he's either mostly underwater or fighting some big beastie in the middle of a frickin dust cloud". I'm not even going to get into the shoddy plot, poor acting*, and dodgy pseudo-science. If I'm watching a movie about a giant monster, I wanna see a giant monster, goddamit.

But

This was all made up for by this evening's viewing: episodes 1 and 2 of The Strain. This TV show is awesome good. Atmospheric, good beasties, sensible plot. Also very nice lighting, which is something I usually barely notice, but Guilliermo (sp?) del Toro is very good at it. I very much recommend this if you enjoyed Blade 2, the Necroscope books, or any epic-infection-ermagerd-the-apocalypse-is-coming kind of story.



*except Ken Watanabe. He was good, despite only speaking about 10% of the time he was onscreen.

[ashmie]

I enjoyed some good movies so far this winter.
I'd like to recommend Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Cold Fish (Japanese horror, very scary), The Swimmer (Burt Lancaster), Collateral and Burn After Reading.

That's all, thank you.

[Konrad]

Gorkamorka has put me on a bit of a post-apocalyptic kick, so I re-watched the Road Warrior trilogy this spring break. Lots of fun. You can see such a wide change in theme, style...and budget... in each. Mad Max is pure B-movie. There is even a slasher movie like scene there where the bikers chase Mrs. Max through the woods. That and a leather pants fetishist's fantasy flick. The Road Warrior gets a bigger budget and is just a big, bloody R-rated awesome action movie. Thunderdome is the PG-13 version, with cute kids. Mad Max meets The Goonies. Still a lot of fun just for the costumes, Thunderdome fight and Tina Turner rocks.
Watched "A Boy and His Dog" afterwords. Awsome, a bit slow at times but well worth the wait. It is not Old Yeller. If I get time, I'll watch 6 String Samurai again.
Any other it's-the-end-of-the-world-and-we-are-wearing-football-pads, movies you'd recommend? Just remember I have a Costner allergy.

[The Underdweller]

6 String Samurai is a fun movie!

I haven't watched many Post-Apocalyptic movies recently (or any movies, actually), but if I remember, Radioactive Dreams is pretty good.

[Lovejoy]

Hey! I watched some post apocalyptic telly recently, Day of the Triffids 1981 BBC series. Scared me as a kid, still worth a look for nostalgia value although a bit creaky.
Also rewatched mini series called The One Game on youtube which entertained and frustrated in equal measure, so I will bang on about it for a bit. It was broadcast only once in 1988, and I saw it at the time. It features Stannis and Daddy Greyjoy from GoT looking very like something from a bad martini advert, it's all bouffant hair, sub-Bryan Ferry soundtrack and women in shoulder pads. It was one of those shows made by and targetted at people who were clueless and contemptuous of D&D and other gaming. Young Stannis has to solve a series of tasks in order to get his life and cash back after an insane ex-game designer friend (looking a bit Rick Priestley) decides to make him play his twisted and 'cunning' (it's not) game. Unfortunately most of the games our hero has to play are ridiculously easy and more like a jigsaw puzzle or monopoly than anything else. Fun nostalgia but could have been amazing if the writer had done some actual research...

[Konrad]

And I actually did get around to watching "6-String Samurai" again. What a cool little B-movie. Usually I'm pretty meh when it comes to re-makes, but this flick would have been just kick-ass if it had had a budget. Someone with a budget, listen up!
It's best if you approach it like it's a dream. That way the 15 mile an hour car chase with the caveman-hillbillies lobbing jawbreakers at the heros with a pickup truck mounted catapult will make a bit more sense. La Mariachi meets Brazil meets Mad Max meets The Wizard of Oz.
Just Wiki'ed it out of curiousity. Budget was 2 million actually. Gross....125 grand....so sad.....

[Konrad]

And while I'm writing about books, might as well thread-o-mance the movie thread.
"Snowpiercer" A solid 7. In spite of that terrible title, and a truly uh...okay premise. That premise being after a disastrous attempt at reversing global warming (turns the globe into ice cube, oops) the last remnants of humanity have spent the last 17 years since trapped aboard as super-high-tech speeding train, guess they were taking the train to the high tech underground bunker and got lost....... The movie follows a revolution, starting from the dirty, crowded back of the train to the increasingly upper class cars. The car-by-car progression and surreal settings of the battles is very interesting. A door opens and it's a new world. Some great characters and sets. (Chris Evans does the reluctant hero, if you are interested.) But the supporting cast are much more compelling. Requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but once you operating under the train's rules, a good ride. Not a fun ride. It ends probably as well as possible all things considered, but certainly not on an uplifting note.
I guess the director is something of a big name in Korea. Did what is said to be a good monster movie called "The Host". 90% + on Rotten Tomatoes. May give that a look.

[ashmie]

Since the arrival of Netflix to Japan I've enjoyed some good films and documentaries this month and last.

Beats rhymes and life, the story of a tribe called quest.
Brave Miss World
Berbian Sound Studios
The Barbadook
Biggy and Tupac Story
Room 237
Hedwig and the angry inch

All very entertaining.

TV: orange is the new black, daredevil, X files, A Team.

Plans for Halloween viewing: Night of the Demon and some MR James stories.

[Miguelsan]

And while I'm writing about books, might as well thread-o-mance the movie thread.
"Snowpiercer" A solid 7. In spite of that terrible title, and a truly uh...okay premise. That premise being after a disastrous attempt at reversing global warming (turns the globe into ice cube, oops) the last remnants of humanity have spent the last 17 years since trapped aboard as super-high-tech speeding train, guess they were taking the train to the high tech underground bunker and got lost....... The movie follows a revolution, starting from the dirty, crowded back of the train to the increasingly upper class cars. The car-by-car progression and surreal settings of the battles is very interesting. A door opens and it's a new world. Some great characters and sets. (Chris Evans does the reluctant hero, if you are interested.) But the supporting cast are much more compelling. Requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but once you operating under the train's rules, a good ride. Not a fun ride. It ends probably as well as possible all things considered, but certainly not on an uplifting note.
I guess the director is something of a big name in Korea. Did what is said to be a good monster movie called "The Host". 90% + on Rotten Tomatoes. May give that a look.

As quoted by the director, Snowpiercer (based on a French comic btw) was a metaphor of the Korea he grew with with a smidge of Sci-Fi but really a political movie at heart. Once I learned that, many things made more sense.

M.