seen any good flicks lately?

Be interested to hear what you think FF.

I quite liked Cloverfield.  I nearly switched off though in the first 10 mins because the leads were so annoying a hateful.  But I was glad I stuck with it.  A differnt take on the alien invasion/monster movie.  I'm not a gamer though so the first person thing isn't something I'm that familiar with.  

I also thought Blair Witch was good.  Again, the people in it aren't easy to like.  In fact, they're a whinny bunch.  But the situation of getting lost in the woods and going round and round in circles with spooky things happening, for me at least, made for something pretty scary.

Didn't like Cloverfield & Blair Witch was just as bad.

One film that I did really like that is in the same style was 'The Tunnel Movie'. You can (legally) download it for free from the net. It's an Aussie film about a reporter who takes a small crew into the tunnels under a city (Melbourne/Sydney can't remember which one) to do a story. It's rare that a film gets to me but I had bad dreams that night!

Other reviews:

X-Men - for someone who doesn't like the Marvel comic films it wasn't too bad. If you liked the other X-Men films then you should quite like this one.

The Hangover 2 - I thought this was really really funny & have seen it twice. Same situation as the first but I feel better done. Bad reviews are because people are saying the plot has already been done.

Mother's Day - Avoid! Not truly awful but went on too long & you end up thinking some of the characters are truly stupid.

Pirates 4 - Same stuff churned out as the previous 3 but not having seen all of the others I thought it was watchable.

The last one I went to see was 'Thor'

What a cracking film!!, I'd expected Kenneth Branagh to be incapable of directing such a film, but (as stated elsewhere) it's basically a Shakespearian film.

Chris Hemsworth is spot on as Thor. & crikey!, does he look the part too!

Anthony Hopkins is his usual brilliant self, having Natalie Portman as a scientist & not a Nurse (Jane Foster is a Nurse in the comics) was curious but worked

And as for Asgard, what a fantastic set (even though, mainly 'CGI')

 http://thor.marvel.com/  (includes trailers)

Other points of note (to tie in to other (Marvel) films

 - Agent Coulson (S.H.I.E.L.D) when seeing  the 'Destroyer' sent by Loki, asking if it was "One of Starks?" (Tony Stark = 'Iron Man', & another forthcoming member of the 'Avengers' movie)

 - Selvig (Jane Fosters boss) mentioning a friend/ex-collegue who was 'up' on Gamma radiation (presumably meaning Bruce Banner = 'The Hulk')

 - The archer who takes aim at Thor in the S.H.I.E.L.D compound is meant to be 'Hawkeye' (another of the Avengers)

 - Nick Fury appearing in a 'teaser' at the end of the credits (Director of  'S.H.I.E.L.D')

I'll be off to see 'Green Lantern' when it comes out, & hoping that the planned 'Justice League' movie does happen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern_(film)

Imagine that; a film with Christian Bale as Batman, Brandon Routh as Superman - not sure who'd play Wonder Woman & 'Green Lantern' in that though, as it's a 'GL' in 'League' (John Stewart - the next 'GL')

There!, i've revealed myself as a bit of a 'geek' ,or a.........................

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/The_Simpsons-Jeff_Albertson.png/222px-The_Simpsons-Jeff_Albertson.png 

My brother-in-law and sister saw Senna recently and spoke very highly of it. Mind you, they are both F1 fans, but they said there was complete silence in the cinema at the end.

Just looking back over my recent DVD list to see if there's anything worth commenting on. There's some lighter stuff on there at the moment, mainly to keep Mrs SVT happy - she was not at all impressed that she 'wasted' a Friday night on Synedoche, New York, so I've been trying to find some more suitable disengage-brain start-of-weekend films...

Tidal Wave - Mrs SVT likes disaster movies and tends to roll her eyes when I choose something with subtitles, so what better compromise than a Korean diaster film?  It was interesting to observe how far it follows the conventions of Hollywood films - I'd say there was a much slower build-up, more focus on the ordinary people and less on the scientists trying desparately to make their voices heard.  Maybe it was the language difference, but I found some of the latter scenes quite moving whereas I could imagine myself chuckling at the schmaltz had it been a US film.

The Village - a film that was better than my expectations, but I had low expectations.  I think it blew too much of the suspense too early but I didn't predict what the inevitable twist would be.  Not great, but not bad for a Friday night.

You, Me and Dupree - I had very low expectations of this but found myself enjoying it as it progressed, despite my better judgement.  Owen Wilson does a very good job with Dupree, the amiable (or is he?) slacker who comes to stay with newlywed friends Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson but isn't exactly the ideal house guest. It was more good-natured than I expected and definitely featured more Lance Armstrong than I predicted.

Paranormal Activity

Pretty good, and had several chills when it was going on. Mrs B jumped and did the hand to mouth thing several times, and she isn't easily shocked.

This was all in our living room so i bet it was a lot more effective in the cinema. Best haunting fillum in a long while and no CGI!

8/10

Thor

Good cheesy fun 7/10

Please forgive me for not reading back through 311 pages, in case this is bindun, but...

Dust to Glory. Documentary on the Baja 1000. Pure awesome.

Bit of a boing for the movies thread, but hve to give a major thumbs up for...

Catfish. Movie documentary ostensibly about social networking, but SO much more than that. One of the most interesting and original things I've seen for years.

(apols if it has been done on this thread.... as above, I can't be bothered to trawl through all the previous posts)

Saw this a couple of months ago Doogie - really interesting take on assumed identities etc.  Really liked how the tension was ratcheted up once the rumble was in and then allowed to dissipate during the reveal. 

Oooh, the flicks thread is back! Now what have I seen recently...?

The Ghostwriter - Ewan MacGregor is the ghostwriter of the title, Pierce Brosnan the Tony-Blair-in-all-but-name ex-PM whose autobiography he's writing.  Throw in Olivia Williams' Cherie-type wife, a war crimes tribunal, a murdered predecessor and some historical facts that don't add up, and he finds the job not quite what it was cracked up to be.  Great use of the New England coast for the setting, average performances from two leads who I don't tend to expect much of, an okay conspiracy plot with a conclusion that's both silly and cynically believable at the same time. The whole war crime part of the plot seems tagged on, with no real bearing on the story other than to put the ex-PM and posse on edge, and seems more like wishful thinking from the writer regarding Blair.

Biutiful -  Javier Bardem carried the film. He was great but the film would have been shocking without him. 

Dogtooth -  I wasn't in the right mood to see this. There were some funny lines though.

In a Better World - This film was an Academy Award winner which says a fair bit. Contrived but a relief for me to watch having just seen Dogtooth. 

Incendies -  The story was weak but the film really drew me in with the brothers quest and some well placed action scenes. .  

Outside the Law -  Great performances by the actors but as a review on rottentomatoes said, it was like an overloaded pizza with too many toppings. Weak take on history apparently. 

The Kids Are Alright - This wasn't my choice for a film. A witty 'modern day drama'. A fair few cliches but it wasn't as bad as I expected it would be. Let down by a weak ending.

True Grit - I know this has been out for ages but I enjoyed this much more than I expected I would. I saw it for the cinematography.