Saw the trailer for that a while back, was very very funny (as well as very sweary and very gory). I was wondering if it was an 'all the best jokes are in the trailer' job though.

Jon

Sure did.



Hope not.

Stake Land - Nowhere near as bad as the title suggests, this is an apocalyptic vampire movie that survives on actual characterisation (as opposed to what passes for it in Hollywood these days). That said, it's best caught on TV really, as there's many other films you could be watching otherwise. Still decent though.

I saw that earlier in the year. Quite impressed as it was 'him from Gossip Girl'.

Good to see Kelly McGillis in it too.

I rated it 8/10 so must have enjoyed it.

Both were great in it, nobody was eating the scenery despite the film and it's budget!

I struggle to rate films so I've given up in the interests of time

I try and rate mainly to keep track of what I've watched

Safety Not Guaranteed
8/10 (3/10 depending)

A low budget (frame that against most films - $750,000 is still a lot of cash) movie about a magazine intern working on a story inspired by a quirky classified ad asking for a time travelling companion.
Some really nice performances, nicely shot and quite heart warming.
Well worth a look, but I'm going to guess that a lot of you will be disappointed that nothing blows up, there's no sex and it's not exactly a comedy.
I suspect this is one of those Marmite films like Ghost World - I loved it, lots of people hate it.
So, I'll say that if you like that kind of thing, and you don't need vast SFX and Baysplosions, it's a solid 8/10. For many of you it'll be about the 3/10 mark.
But give it a go anyway.

Finally had a chance to catch up with Source Code and it was well worth the wait.

8 out of 10

Animal Kingdom - Supposedly gritty Oz crime family drama. It wants to be Goodfellas but it's just generic, gave up after 40 minutes.

Age of Heroes - Men on a mission movie and not too bad as it goes. Good acting,script's what you normally get with these sort of things, and it's all well shot and edited. Worth renting, though Danny Dyer haters should not apply!

Totally agree. The kid knows how to make a film. After Moon, my expectations were high. The third film is gonna be ridiculously amazing at this rate...

I love The Raid for the same reasons I love most martial arts films, the martial arts. The plot can take a backseat for all I care (which is why films that try to integrate awesome martial arts with some notion of script, like Chocolate and Ong Bak, always come up short for me - although Unleashed holds it own in that regard) but where it, and my two examples, differ from the two films you've highlighted is that Ip Man is actually a biop - albeit v.stylised (like Fearless and Fist of Fury) with a great deal of license with the facts (you call it propoganda, I call it storytellling) - and as for Hero - well that's set in a (almost mythical) time that predates the near-absolute destruction of Chinese cultural records. Having just finished reading (the rather academic) 1421, I've had my entire understanding of geographical-related history turned upside down, so I think it only fair we take cinema (of our modern era) depicting times long since passed with a touch more acceptance of why we're watching it - entertainment - not hard fact.

The ending of Hero is propaganda in its purest form; the assassin decides that because "the ends justify the means" the evil empire needs to continue? Directly quoting Machiavelli in the credits? It was like watching Triumph of the Will.

Propaganda is storytelling, they're not mutually exclusive, but propaganda has an agenda, quite clearly pro-China and anti-Japan, whether as a result of direct funding pressures or not.

Skyfall

Just went to see it.

It was good.

No-one's impressed at work. In fact 2 people fell asleep. Think I'll wait for it to come on Sky.

If you fancy a bit of fun for an hour and a half Tower Heist is OK.