RugbyRebels

joshfishkins wrote:

Banquo wrote:

joshfishkins wrote:
Yes and no (imo).

The Godfather novel is rather dull, but Silence of The Lambs is superb. I'm probably alone in hating Anthony Hopkins version of Lecter. In the book he is supposed to be charming and charismatic. Hopkins plays him as a bug eyed loon from the start. The original Manhunter film does a much better Lecter (Brian Cox).

True on Lecter portrayal, but I still found the film compelling; call it a draw then. Manhunter for me felt a little amateurish and over stylised tbh.

Don't disagree with that - overall Silence of the lambs is a better film, but Manhunter has a better Lecter.

..interesting that the Hannibal and Red Dragon (a remake of Manhunter) films (which I thought weren't as good as Lambs) had Lecter/Hopkins as the urbane charmer at least in part..

Banquo wrote:

joshfishkins wrote:

Banquo wrote: well spotted.

The Godfather....is better than the book imo. Silence of the Lambs?

Yes and no (imo).

The Godfather novel is rather dull, but Silence of The Lambs is superb. I'm probably alone in hating Anthony Hopkins version of Lecter. In the book he is supposed to be charming and charismatic. Hopkins plays him as a bug eyed loon from the start. The original Manhunter film does a much better Lecter (Brian Cox).

True on Lecter portrayal, but I still found the film compelling; call it a draw then. Manhunter for me felt a little amateurish and over stylised tbh.

I think that may be due to it being filmed a lot earlier than SotL, on viewing these days I find it amazing that Jodie Foster got an oscar for it, she overacts quite badly and it's not really a portayl of an FBI agent. Mind you that said I haven't read the book so I should reserve judgement until then, agree regarding Cox, much better Lecter, the fava beans Hopkins bit makes me laugh these days but I remember it being much scarier at the time in the cinema.

Apocalypse Now Redux or Editor's Cut. What a mess that was. Worth a look though just to see things spiral. And spiral they do.

20,000 days on Earth. It helps if you're a Nick Cave fan I suppose but I thought it was excellent.

Southpaw.
All a bit cliched and ho-hum. Jake Gylenhaal in good shape and the boxing settings (not the fight sequences themselves) were very authentic. Just a bit too predictable and a little pointless tbh.

This might be a little immature for you lot, but I thought The Book of Life, animated feature from Guillermo Del Toro was absolutely fantastic. Genuinely one of the best films I've seen in a long long time.

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I took the boy to see Zootopia.

He was probably a bit young for it, but it wasn't too painful to sit through.

I haven't seen an animated feature in years - it's amazing what they can do now.

Just back from Eye in the Sky

Enjoyed it. Nice to be able to sit and moralise (that's a word. Yes it is) with a bag of popcorn in hand. Must be Rickman's last film too.

Special Correspondents.

Thought it was a reasonably good premise but completely let down by the script and Gervais. He loves playing this type of character. Bit of a loser, hard done by, but a great guy at heart and always ends up doing the right thing and ending happily ever after. I wanted it to be good but I don't think Bana and Farmiga were particularly interested either. Perhaps that was how it was supposed to be?

cashead wrote:Speaking of animated films, saw Inside Out. Genuinely really liked it. One of the best films from 2015 is about a little girl's feelings.

Great film

10 Cloverfield Lane.

Rather godo I thought. A few scenes felt a little obvious like when , also when they were .

Apart from that, I thought the film was excellent. You could almost sense the ambience at times with the sound of the fish tank in the background.

Thought Goodman was excellent.

Son of Saul. Unrelentingly brutal and exhausting. Probably the closest potrayal of how I'd imagine camp life to be, and it's something I've read a fair bit about. A diificult watch throughout, but a very worthwhile, and timely one.

I always thought that camp life was most realistically portrayed in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

Colonia (2015)

Set in Pinochet Chile, starring Emma Watson, about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Baviera

Good film

Michael Moore's 'Where to Invade Next'.

Meh.

The Occupation of the American Mind

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?opt ... ival=16286

You can stream it for a donation.

About Time made to terrestrial over the weekend. Excellent cast in a whimsical Richard Curtis film. It tries to make a serious point about living your life to the full but, being whimsical, it doesn't really land the punch. Includes some clever titter-worthy quips and awkward social moments.

12 Years a Slave made a it to terrestrial too. A bit up and down I thought, often very good, not sure it's Oscar-worthy (if that even means anything any more). It's such a powerful story it seems to overwhelm the film a bit. Could have done with more of Northup's background praps as juxtaposition. Still, a lot of good, cast was great (maybe Pitt wasn't entirely up to scratch) Ejiofor is class to his very core, Tom Hiddlestone might have made a better fist of it though.

Grimsby.

Disappointing on the whole. Tries too hard to offend and neglects everything else. Some funny, if extremely puerile moments though.

cashead wrote:Ghostbusters. Script is about on par with the original, has similar strengths, and it's pissing off misogynists. Also, it's a fun 2 hours and the MRA crybabies that were having a tanty about it sight unseen can basically all go suck a fuck.

Is it worth a look?

morepork wrote:

cashead wrote:Ghostbusters. Script is about on par with the original, has similar strengths, and it's pissing off misogynists. Also, it's a fun 2 hours and the MRA crybabies that were having a tanty about it sight unseen can basically all go suck a fuck.

Is it worth a look?

It's rubbish.

Penda's Fen

At the Earth's Core

Neon Demon. My fucking god, DO NOT see this! Regardless of whether you enjoyed Drive. Just don't.

I'm not saying this because it was disgusting and offensive, it was just an assault on all senses, even as a massive Cliff Martinez fan.

USAF napalm strikes, Welsh longbow men, Romans legionaries and their Kiwi general versus the white Zulus of the black forest.

Slow mo "padding" in this scene is cringeworthy. Entertaining hokum nonetheless.

Lizard wrote:I took the boy to see Zootopia.

He was probably a bit young for it, but it wasn't too painful to sit through.

I haven't seen an animated feature in years - it's amazing what they can do now.

Agreed Zootopia is not bad at all, my girls love it, same goes for Inside Out, which while keeping kids happy is also very smart in the ways it breaks down the manner in which emotions and the mind more generally work. Two other really good kids animated films are the How to Tame Your Dragon pair, good stories, sharp animation. Brave is another one with Billy Connelly thrown in for good measure, shame to have Emma Thompson though. However my top one in this class is The Croods, good story, fantastic, literally, imagination and animation.

On a more sober note two recent semi documentaries I found really gripping were Selma with British actor David Oyelowo as MLK and All the way with Brian Cranston as LBJ. The two films cover pretty much the same time periods, leading up to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but from different perspectives. They both have the leads giving truly brilliant performances, not to be missed.