What's the last movie you watched 2012

[sink_plunger]

As father to a 9 month old boy, I'm afraid movie watching has become a rare treat that Mrs sink_plunger and I enjoy about once every three months, so I'm sadly behind the times. That said, we did get to see "The Dark Knight Rises" last week - a strong ending to a great trilogy, though not as good as "The Dark Knight". It was let down by some uneven pacing (I feel as though there's another 45 minutes of footage languishing on a cutting room floor somewhere) and I'm a little unsure why Nolan felt the need to abandon Chicago in favour of New York for his location filming. But still, a rollicking good film!

And we have "Troll Hunter" sitting in our DVD player, just waiting for a spare few hours.

[Loerwyn]

Just finished watching the English translation/redub of A Monster In Paris, a French CGI film.

Pretty darned good, actually. Better than Dreamworks' Megamind, easily. It does have a few slips here and there, though, where the animation doesn't seem quite right and a few moments have some slightly wonky lip-syncing (probably a symptom of it being edited for an English audience, I'd assume the French is smoother) but other than that it's pretty darned good.

[Chuffalump]

Better than Dreamworks' Megamind, easily.

Neveeeeeeeeeeeeer!!!!!!!

[Gabe.]

Just watched Starship Troopers: Invasion. It's the fourth in the series that was originally based on some pseudo-fascist novel that was actually a political essay in disguise.

Anyway, it was made entirely in CGI and is actually quite a rolicking tale. It's not very original and not very moving or groundbreaking or anything like that, but it only last 1.5hrs and is fun while it runs.

Word of warning; be prepared for a lot of CGI boobies. Apart from that, lots of man v bugs and gratuitous violence.

I don't know if I would reccomend it, but if you enjoy random and exciting adventures in space, then I don't see why not.

[Action Avenue]

Apollo 18. It was terrible, in my opinion. The makers of this "spoiled milk" production, tried too hard to make this movie to be like Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project, except set on the moon. The boredom of it all dulled my senses to the point of a coma like existence, at least until the ending credits rolled. (After that, I perked right up knowing that I narrowly escaped with my brain still intact.) Oddly enough, my wife kind of liked it. May have to re-evaluate our relationship...... just joking.

[Luke_B]

Melancholia directed by Lars Von Trier. Interesting, if you can stand handheld camerawork and the 'I want to slit my wrists' vibe. It's basically about the end of the world through the eyes of a person with severe depression. It uses fantasy/SF elements in a way that might appeal to genre fiction fans. I like the director's other works and went in knowing what expect, but this won't be to everybody's tastes.

[PeterWilliam]

The Road, based of McCarthy's book. I've not read McCarthy however and it leaves me wondering if his novels translate well into film, or if "the book is better than the movie."

[Loerwyn]

The Road, based of McCarthy's book. I've not read McCarthy however and it leaves me wondering if his novels translate well into film, or if "the book is better than the movie."

Well, they've done at least two so he can't be too bad

[Luke_B]

The Road, based of McCarthy's book. I've not read McCarthy however and it leaves me wondering if his novels translate well into film, or if "the book is better than the movie."

The Road didn't make a great film, book better though overrated. No Country for Old Men film was on par, if not slightly better than book; both were very good.

[JunkMonkey]

Transamerica (2005) - I love watching films where I have never seen the actors before. They are who they are portraying. It's not (deep American movie trailer man voice in your head please) "MegaStar X is Johnny Hero..." time. My copy of this film is a BAFTA, 'For Your Consideration' screener which has about the plainest vanilla cover I have ever come across: film's title on the front and spine, and a tickbox list of all the categories for which it has been nominated on the back. Not even an age rating. Strange the things you find in Fort William charity shops. I've never seen Desperate Housewives. I was still not sure if the actor playing the transsexual hero of this film was male or female until the end credits rolled. Why Felicity Huffman didn't get an Oscar is a wonder. A hell of a performance. Loved it. I was in tears at the end.

[EllenS]

The Fall- I just stumbled across this on Netflix, and found it one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I'm going to have to rewatch it and follow the details more closely. It's set in the 1920's in a hospital with an paralyzed stuntman telling fantastic tales to a little girl. I thought it was going to be a fantasy in a disneyesque way, but it was dark and compelling and a very complete story.

[Loerwyn]

Transamerica (2005) - I love watching films where I have never seen the actors before. They are who they are portraying. It's not (deep American movie trailer man voice in your head please) "MegaStar X is Johnny Hero..." time. My copy of this film is a BAFTA, 'For Your Consideration' screener which has about the plainest vanilla cover I have ever come across: film's title on the front and spine, and a tickbox list of all the categories for which it has been nominated on the back. Not even an age rating. Strange the things you find in Fort William charity shops. I've never seen Desperate Housewives. I was still not sure if the actor playing the transsexual hero of this film was male or female until the end credits rolled. Why Felicity Huffman didn't get an Oscar is a wonder. A hell of a performance. Loved it. I was in tears at the end.

If you ever get chance, JM, I highly recommend you watch YYZ. It's an Argentinian (I think) film with a slightly similar subject matter, but it hits you hard.

[Edward M. Grant]

'Hunger Games': takes all the flaws of 'Battle Royale' and magnifies them by a factor of ten, then sticks a boring two hours on the front which shows you lots but explains so little that I couldn't care less about any of the characters.

From what I understand, the books make a lot more sense, but I've never read them so I can't be sure. The movie seemed to wimp out any time it could have got interesting, and the ending was just horrible.

[symbolhunter]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 & 2). I haven't always appreciated this film series though I understand that the last 4(?) films had a different director. I gave up after the second. I did read the entire series however and decided to try the last two-part film. In fairness it was pretty good. In some respects it even had some advantages over the novel--particularly in Rickman's portrayal of Snipe. There was a redemptive quality which came out because of the brilliant acting of the character which isn't as apparent in the novel.

All-in-all I liked it.

[JunkMonkey]

Scorcher (2002) - by the numbers cheapo 'action' movie in which the world is doomed to an early spanking by Chinese underground bomb tests accelerating tectonic plate activity, which will lead to a runaway greenhouse gas, which will something something ill-thought (through very sciencey) babble blah blah.... Look. Just take it from us we're father / daughter scientists - with relationship problems - but we have LAPTOPS! so we know what we're talking about... The world's doomed unless we explode a nuclear bomb under Los Angeles. Get me the sweaty, sexist, insubordinate hero-type that rescued the maverick scientist's daughter just after the credits, he's got a team of misfit stereotype hero type chums but let's send along a creepy agency man in case he drops a ball - sorry 'drops THE ball'. Snarl! Snarl! "I've never dropped a ball" My god! Hero boy's estranged daughter is trapped in the city....* the ironic troubled father/daughter parallels! but wait! There's been a miscalculation... They need two simultaneous explosions at the same depth ten miles apart and there's only eight hours left... and the Agency man has killed half the team because.... well, some reason....

oh, you know the rest....

It's the sort of film where the hero not only takes along a spare nuclear bomb just in case the first one doesn't go off but he can carry it in a duffel bag and run vast distances with it without breaking a sweat. Scorcher turns up on the Movies4Men channel between films like Operation Wildgeese and Lawnmowerman 2 but I seem to have accidentally bought a copy. I think I was seduced by Rutger Hauer's name on the front. He plays the President of the United States. He must have been on set for all of two days.



*the presence of the daughter would suggest that, even though he claims never to have dropped a ball, his had.