What's the last movie you watched 2012

**Westsiyeed** · January 1st, 2012, 02:03 AM

Watched a few over the holiday break:

The Skin I Live In - really enjoyed this, very dark, sometimes humorous, modern take on the Frankenstein story. Spanish director Almodovar can do no wrong lately with this his latest after other sublime movies such as Volver, Broken Embraces and Talk to Her.

The Ides of March - not a bad movie, well acted by Clooney and Gosling (who seems to be the latest flavour of the month, and has been pretty good so far), but I thought it was average overall. Probably also American politics is not the most inspiring of topics (personally) so the subject matter wasn't a great start.

Moneyball - quite a good movie even if you don't like baseball, though it was a fairly formula-driven underdog-proves-them-wrong movie

Kill List - now this was quite good, a genre-bending British movie about two hitmen doing some final jobs that go very strange. Not for the faint-hearted but well acted and a bit original for a change.

The Inbetweener Movie - have never seen the TV series, but this was a good bit of fun with a few genuinely funny bits (especially the dance scene to impress the girls). Quite juvenile humour with plenty of swearing; if this is your thing you can't go wrong.

**Jon Sprunk** · January 1st, 2012, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by Hobbit

Just back from Mission Incredible/Impossible. Good fun from Tom and Brad Bird (Director of The Iron Giant/The Incredibles: see what I did there?)

Very slick, very glossy: some awesome stunts which look incredible on a big screen. Plot's a bit all over the place, but generally worth the money.

Better than the last Bond movie...

Mark

My wife and I just saw this last week. I pretty much agree. Not a great movie, but entertaining.

**Chuffalump** · January 1st, 2012, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by Hobbit

Have looked at both of those, Chuff... but not been tempted enough yet. Be interested in what you think/thought.

Mark

Well, we watched The Eagle last night. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It dived in and out of the original storyline without stamping all over it but the ending diverged from the original, which was a bit annoying. A little superficial towards the end, I thought. It might have been interesting if The Eagle had been slightly more 'gritty'. Maybe half way between what it is and what Centurion was. On the whole, worth a watch.

So, if you like a bit of gratuitous slaughter then Centurion is for you. If you prefer something a little less focused and more towards Hollywood style then The Eagle fits the bill.

**Rat-Man** · January 1st, 2012, 03:31 PM

I got dragged out to, "Hugo". It was actually a delightful surprise. I enjoyed it a lot. Before that, I saw "A Dangerous Method". That was pretty good. You can't go wrong with Keira Knightly getting whipped while wearing a corset.

But you know, I think the feel good movie of the year was, "Melancholia".

**Loerwyn** · January 2nd, 2012, 08:59 AM

Despicable Me

I remember someone saying they'd seen this not long ago, and I saw it for sale in Tesco. I thought I might as well get it, so I did.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great animation, some great voice work and some really good humour. It reminded me a lot of Megamind, although I have to say I felt this worked better even though it's aimed at a younger audience. I liked how it wasn't a love story in the way these sorts of films tend to be, but it was sweet - if a little creepy at first.

Only real gripe is that Russell Brand wasn't any good... Sort of. He might have been better if the character he played suited the voice more. It just didn't work for me.

**DDCOrange** · January 6th, 2012, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by Loerwyn

Despicable Me

I remember someone saying they'd seen this not long ago, and I saw it for sale in Tesco. I thought I might as well get it, so I did.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great animation, some great voice work and some really good humour. It reminded me a lot of Megamind, although I have to say I felt this worked better even though it's aimed at a younger audience. I liked how it wasn't a love story in the way these sorts of films tend to be, but it was sweet - if a little creepy at first.

Only real gripe is that Russell Brand wasn't any good... Sort of. He might have been better if the character he played suited the voice more. It just didn't work for me.

Personally I liked the "Minions". Great comic relief.

**ubergeek** · January 6th, 2012, 04:18 PM

NIGHT OF THE DEMON

Couldn't believe my luck when i got this today in my local charidee shop for 1 scottish pound .

Directed by Jacques Tourneur of Cat People fame. Again the most striking thing for me is the use of shadow and light. Whether this is d.o.p. skill ,Tourneur or both i don't know but i am impressed. [ i'd be grateful for any more knowledgable readers input here ] . Certainly black and white filming accentuates the contrast that perhaps colour films can't exploit.
Cat People had the fabulous swimming pool scene where the waves were reflected on the ceiling and voices echoed.

Night of the demon also has the famous ' It's in the trees it's coming ' line which Kate Bush sampled on Hounds of love lp .

**JunkMonkey** · January 6th, 2012, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by ubergeek

NIGHT OF THE DEMON

Couldn't believe my luck when i got this today in my local charidee shop for 1 scottish pound .

You lucky lucky bugger. I love Tourneur's films.

I too liked Despicable Me though it suffered by comparison with Megamind which I saw in the same week - and thought was the better of the two. My wife and Number two daughter kept nudging each other all the way through Despicable Me and whispering - "It's Dad!". Couldn't see it myself.

**ubergeek** · January 6th, 2012, 06:07 PM

Cheers Junkmonkey i was just in the right place at the right time.
Did you catch the recent Tourneur season on BBC2? Assuming you're brit based or have access to brit terrestrial!

**kater** · January 7th, 2012, 06:19 AM

Killer Elite - yawn. Jason one-expression-unconvincing-hardman Statham teams up with Robert DeNiro, who has some of the most godawful lines of his career, as mercenaries to pull off three assassination missions against former SAS soldiers who killed the sons of the exiled Sheikh of Oman. Clive Owen, who does by far the best job with a crap script, tries to stop them. Don't bother watching this movie, every cliche, cheesey line and possible action movie trope you can think of thrown into a mixing bowl and painted to look part Bond/part Bourne, as so many recent movies have also failed at. When you have a Welshman played by an Australian with a Bondii Beach accent and a crack team of mercenaries using a civilian on a mission (with accidental comedy classic effect at a supposedly poignant moment) you know this hasn't been thought out. It's supposed to be based on a true story, I have my doubts. Avoid.

**JunkMonkey** · January 7th, 2012, 06:46 AM

Originally Posted by ubergeek

Cheers Junkmonkey i was just in the right place at the right time.
Did you catch the recent Tourneur season on BBC2? Assuming you're brit based or have access to brit terrestrial!

No I didn't. Much to my chagrin I only found about it afterwards. I live in Scotland but I just don't watch TV.
I don't even look at the listings any more because it depress me that so many people are so easily pleased with the dumbed down bilge they broadcast. I stopped watching after I realised Horizon (which used to be a serious science program) had been watered down to the point that it was bland infotainment arsedribble and cut in such a way (with ready made commercial break points) that it would be easy to sell to the Discovery Channel.

**Loerwyn** · January 13th, 2012, 09:55 AM

X-Men: First Class

OK, this film was both brilliant and a steaming pile of something best left unmentioned. Firstly, the McAvoy and Fassbender worked well, and I think their portrayals were pretty good (although Xavier came across as a little... strange, I think, as if McAvoy had learned how to be British by watching Austin Powers), and the 'bad guys' were generally good except for Emma Frost/Jessica Jones, who looked consistently ridiculous throughout the whole film. I was also moderately impressed with Jennifer Lawrence who worked well as Mystique, but her performance was hindered by the script and its poor decisions, but also another aspect (which I'll get to). I thought the plot was fairly good, and the intricacies worked well, but I didn't care about the impending war or anything, I was more interested in how they worked together and so on.

The problems? Sometimes it seemed like too much time had been spent on showing off the special effects, and a lot of the mutants shown got pushed into the background. They also picked up on some of the more obscure characters and then basically forgot about them for most of the film. There was also the make-up department, who were - not that I could do better - absolutely terrible. Beast looked atrocious towards the end, and Mystique once again looked absolutely ridiculous, and it seemed like they put Lawrence in poses that would show off her breasts - there was the scene where she was working out, the couple of nude scenes and then her conveniently unzipped jumpsuit near the end, with a number of shots of her cleavage.

So, in conclusion, it continues to widdle all over the X-Men franchise just as the previous four films did, and whilst like them it's watchable and even enjoyable at times, it doesn't even attempt to keep in-line with the comics nor to repair what's wrong with them.

Oh, and one other thing. Mystique is older than most of the other X-Men, including Wolverine, and this was pretty clearly shown in Wolverine: Origins (the comic, not the film). There is absolutely no reason as to why she should be shown as a child and then a young woman in First Class. It makes no sense.

But at least I'm a bit more convinced about the upcoming The Hunger Games film. And Ms Lawrence is kinda cute...