Posted October 10, 2015 Interstellar I saw this at the IMAX in Southampton on release and thought it was good/great. Wasn't convinced by the ending and did feel at the time that it was a cop-out. However, I've changed my opinion on it now and think that the film is genius, a classic and that the ending is both thought provoking and intelligent. The film is stunning. The set pieces in this are incredible and I love the story that's being told. If this film isn't a 10, then it's close. Favourite scene is still Miller's Planet and the soundtrack that accompanies it (Mountains) is hnnnnngggg. I listen to the Soundtrack to this on the way to work. Fruitvale Station This film is grim. The start of it is a disturbing prelude of what is to come, yet it does keep you in suspense as you're eager to find out what actually happened in both the build-up to and the actual "event". I watched it with Ine and two other good friends and we were all pretty angry by the end of the film. There are some moments that you could argue are biased, yet I actually think the portrayal of the main character is good. He's flawed. Yes, Oscar does care for his daughter. But, he's cheated on his girlfriend, has done jail-time, is involved in selling drugs and has an anger problem. I don't think the film sugar-coated what took place. Based on what the beginning footage showed and what happened in the Station scene, the two looked very similar. Shocking, really. My Film Diary 2015 Big Hero 6 The Wolf of Wall Street American Psycho Gravity 3D The Lego Movie Lost in Space (lol) Batteries not included Avengers Assemble The Imitation Game Oblivion Jurassic World Super 8 Terminator Genisys Man of Steel Gone Girl Inside Out Foxcatcher Interstellar Fruitvale Station Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 12, 2015 I can wholeheartedly recommend The Martian and Sicario. Sean Bean survives! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 12, 2015 I watched the Intern and really enjoyed it. It was lovely. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 12, 2015 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Really good. Very touching and poignant, while still light-hearted and funny in places. A nice indie drama. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Really didn't like this. Found it really boring. I was a fan of the first film, and a fan of the books, but this made too many changes and was a big disappointment. Everest Beautifully shot, I was expecting it to be a disaster movie, and while it does have a disaster, I liked that it spent time reaching the top of the mountain rather than just being about the tragedy. Jason Clarke is 500x better in this than in Terminator Genisys. Sicario Good film. Tense. But I didn't like it much. Just not my sort of thing, I guess. The Martian Actually saw this twice. Really enjoyable, funny, exciting, just an all around decent sci-fi film. Out of recent 'space travel' films, I preferred this to Interstellar. Will be getting the book of this to read at some point. The Intern A nice, but average film. Not overly funny, not too exciting, but the leads, Robert de Niro and Anne Hathaway, make it worth a watch. Decent premise, some good dialogue; I enjoyed it. My 2015 list The Theory of Everything Big Hero 6 Into the Woods Foxcatcher Wild American Sniper Ex Machina Kingsman: The Secret Service Jupiter Ascending Focus Project Almanac Chappie Insurgent Run All Night Cinderella Get Hard Fast & Furious 7 John Wick The Duff The Emperor's New Clothes Avengers: Age of Ultron x 2 Spooks: The Greater Good Mad Max: Fury Road x 2 Pitch Perfect 2 Tomorrowland: A World Beyond San Andreas Man Up Spy Jurassic World Mr Holmes The Terminator Blade Runner: Final Cut Minions Terminator: Genisys x 2 Ted 2 Ant-Man x 2 Inside Out Southpaw Pixels Maggie Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Fantastic Four Vacation Trainwreck The Man from U.N.C.L.E The Bad Education Movie Paper Towns Straight Outta Compton Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Everest Sicario The Martian x 2 The Intern Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2015 Sad to see that this thread died Well I'll update it what I've seen in the last two months! The Walk A film about the guy who walked on a wire between the twin towers. It'd been done before with Man on Wire, but I enjoyed this for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it was well shot for 3D (and pretty terrifying for someone whose only real fear is falling!) Good, but unremarkable really. The Last Witch Hunter Vin Diesel stars in a film about his D&D character. Despite it being panned by critics, I actually found this quite entertaining for a fantasy action film. Michael Caine plays his "Alfred-like" mentor, and You Know Nothing Jon Snow does her real posh accent. I can understand why it flopped at the box office, but you may enjoy when it comes onto the telly as a bit of mindless fun. SPECTRE Bond. Enjoyed it. Not Craig's best, even though I felt he was more "Bond" in this one than his previous outings as the character. Awful theme song. The worst. Would rank it below Casino Royale and Skyfall; can't remember enough of Quantum of Solace to compare. He Named Me Malala A documentary on Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. Very interesting, and she certainly is a wonderful character, but I didn't learn much new from it. Burnt A drama about a chef played by Bradley Cooper, co-starring Sienna Miller. It was well acted by the leads but the film itself wasn't special in anyway. The sort of thing you'd watch once and never again. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Double Bill These two don't live up to the first two at all. The first half is still bad, but works better as part of a whole, but overall, it's too long. I loved all three books but this just didn't work that great as a film, and some of the book's most emotional story beats just didn't hit well on film. A real shame. I enjoyed part 2 as a fan, but overall, meh. Bridge of Spies Wow. One of my films of the year. So good. Tom Hanks - brilliant. Intense. The audience actually applauded at the end. Go see it if you haven't. This will win awards, I'm sure. The Good Dinosaur I enjoyed this, and certain parts pulled on the heartstrings, but it definitely isn't one of Pixar's best. Felt like it could've come from another studio. Beautiful visually, but a pretty bland story overall. Black Mass Johnny Depp plays a mob boss in Boston in a performance that he'll definitely be nominated for awards for. Based on a true story, it's a bit slow paced, but if you enjoy your crime drama it's a compelling film. Was expecting more Cumberbatch, seeing he featured in most of the film's marketing, but really, he's not in it a lot. The Night Before A christmas comedy starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie, as three friends who are spending one last christmas together before having kids/becoming "real grown ups". Quite a lot of laughs in this, the majority from Rogen's character being on drugs. If Seth Rogen on drugs ain't your thing, don't bother with this. Krampus A christmas horror! Went to see this because it's got Adam Scott in as the lead. Didn't scare me at all, and I'm a wimp. It plods along a bit, but some of the xmas/horror imagery is pretty good. Wouldn't rush out to see this, but if you're a horror fan you might find a bit of enjoyment from this. That's me up to date... next up... THE FORCE AWAKENS. My 2015 list The Theory of Everything Big Hero 6 Into the Woods Foxcatcher Wild American Sniper Ex Machina Kingsman: The Secret Service Jupiter Ascending Focus Project Almanac Chappie Insurgent Run All Night Cinderella Get Hard Fast & Furious 7 John Wick The Duff The Emperor's New Clothes Avengers: Age of Ultron x 2 Spooks: The Greater Good Mad Max: Fury Road x 2 Pitch Perfect 2 Tomorrowland: A World Beyond San Andreas Man Up Spy Jurassic World Mr Holmes The Terminator Blade Runner: Final Cut Minions Terminator: Genisys x 2 Ted 2 Ant-Man x 2 Inside Out Southpaw Pixels Maggie Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Fantastic Four Vacation Trainwreck The Man from U.N.C.L.E The Bad Education Movie Paper Towns Straight Outta Compton Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Everest Sicario The Martian x 2 The Intern The Walk The Last Witch Hunter SPECTRE He Named Me Malala Burnt The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Bridge of Spies The Good Dinosaur Black Mass The Night Before Krampus Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) Sad to see that this thread died Hmm, let me help you out with that then. In short; I can recommend The lobster, Le tout nouveau testement, Maryland, Bridge of spies, Virgin mountain, A perfect day, and The good dinosaur, though I'd also give The gift a look. The lobster is perhaps my favourite of this bunch. Since last post: Crimson peak ♥♥♥♥♥ Was expecting something fun from Guillermo del Toro, with that cast, but it disappointed. I wanted more horror, but it's not a horror. Could have been a great detective story as well, but it's not that either.. I'm not sure what it is (apart from mostly boring), but it lacked something. Life ♥♥♥♥♥ Was ok. Liked the cast (Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson). It's about a reporter who captures James Dean short rise to fame. Youth ♥♥♥♥♥ Latest film from the director of La grande belleza. Not as good though, but was ok. It has more comedic elements in it, but it follows more characters, and as a result, don't get to know them as well as we do Jep Gambardella from La grance belleza. The lobster ♥♥♥♥♥ This was great. Just the kind of weirdness I like.. Probably need to go see this a 2nd time, and may bump this up to 5 stars. In this world, people aren't allowed to be single, and get turned into animals. A funny film with a very cynical view on love and relationships, but can be tense at times.. That ending. Mia madre ♥♥♥♥♥ An Italian drama that didn't resonate with me. 45 years ♥♥♥♥♥ A British drama that didn't resonate with me.. Is the man who is tall happy? ♥♥♥♥♥ A documentary from Michel Gondry who interviews a linguistic expert. It's interesting, but I'd have liked to go deeper into the subject matter. Son of Saul ♥♥♥♥♥ Absolute shit. Probably one of my most controversial opinions, because this film seems to be universally loved. Since it's controlversial, I'll elaborate, even though I don't want to give this shit film any more thought. We quite literally follow a guy in Auschwitz. The film uses a 4:3 ratio. I don't mind in itself, the ratio can be used to great effect, and is great for dialogue heavy films while capturing facial expressions. Problem: the film has barely any dialogue, and the guy we follow pretty much has one facial expression. The film has actually quite a bit of action, but you barely get to see any of it, because you see either his dumb face, or the back of his head. The film was extremy tiring for me. The film uses a lot of long shots, but they tiring because 1: again, you barely get to see any of the action around him, and 2: the guy is a fucking idiot. We follow him wandering from one location to another, on his stupid and futile mission, doing extremely dumb things, which kept me wondering why he's not shot within the first 10 minutes of the film. Of course, at the end, he finally is shot, which is fitting, and not surprising, but also an incredible boring end to an already boring film. The idiot deserved it though. His dumb actions may be justified if we got to know him, but they barely touch upon his background in the film. Not the worst film I've seen this year, but regardless, I don't ever want to be reminded of it again. Le tout nouveau testement ♥♥♥♥♥ Unlike the Hungarian entry for the Oscars above, the Belgian entry was great. God is an asshole and lives in Brussel. His daughter is fed up with him, sends out all the deathdates to all the people, and escapes their home to search for apostles. Lovely and absurd, funny, and sometimes tragic. For those who give this film a try: there's a post-credit scene. Sworn virgin ♥♥♥♥♥ A drama about a woman from somewhere in the Balkan, who takes a vow to live a life of celibacy, in order to be treated as a man (and enjoy all the perks that come with it). I loved the idea of this, and I'm a fan of the actress, Alba Rohrwacher. It's a nice but sad story. Ixcanul ♥♥♥♥♥ Drama set in Guatamala about a girl who's about to be married to the boss of her father, but gets pregnant by some local boy. It's a nice "get a look into a different culture" film. The gift ♥♥♥♥♥ A guy and his wife move back into his hometown, but gets haunt by his past when someone from his school shows up and displays some disturbing behaviour.. Nice thriller with a great twist. SPECTRE ♥♥♥♥♥ I liked this more when I actually saw it.. In hindsight, it was ok. Action was great though, but story-wise things are lacking. To me, the problem was that it felt too much like a rushed end to a trilogy, as if they were not expecting for Daniel Craig to return. There were various references to the previous films, but I really felt they could have set up things better for the next film, or even better, as my brother thought, they could have set up things better in the previous films for this film. SPECTRE and Blofeld don't feel like things that should be handled in one film alone. Maryland ♥♥♥♥♥ An extremly simple but effective thriller with Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger. A guy is hired to protect a woman and her kid while her husband is away. Unfortunately, her husband is pretty shady, and some people are after some documents kept in their house.. That's all there is to it, but I found it entertaining. Bridge of spies ♥♥♥♥♥ A compelling story with drama and humour which also gives a nice look into the cold war era. The Russian spy was great. The end of the tour ♥♥♥♥♥ Some similarities with Life, but I found this more entertaining. This one is with Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg. We follow a writer for the Rollingstone who interviews David Foster Wallace, a popular writer. Loved the interactions between the two, great characters. Lots of humour as well. Virgin mountain ♥♥♥♥♥ An icelandic comedy/drama about a 43 year old virgin who falls in love with a woman he meets at a dance class. This is a very sweet film, and often funny as well, without resorting to making fun of the guy. He's very sympathetic, and I was rooting for him because of all the troubles he has. Great film. Glassland ♥♥♥♥♥ An Irish drama about a young taxi driver who's trying to get money to get his mother in rehab. Cast is great though I'l like to have seen some actual Irish actors.. But expecially the main actor Jack Reynor, is great. That said, the film didn't do much for me in the end. It's depressing, but without much pay-off. A perfect day ♥♥♥♥♥ A black comedy about some disillusioned aid workers who try to get stuff done in a conflict zone, but have to overcome various setbacks. I really loved the cynical tone of the film, and the sense of the aid workers feeling helpless. The intern ♥♥♥♥♥ Ok feelgood film with Anne Hathaway, looking absolutely delicious as always. I liked it in general, pretty funny in the first half, but there was too much emphasis on the feminist message in the 2nd half. The good dinosaur ♥♥♥♥♥ Not as good as Inside out, but that's not saying much, as Inside out set the bar pretty high. I just prefer the human drama of Inside out, but that doesn't mean I didn't thoroughly enjoy the adventures in The good dinosaur. Some pretty visuals in the form of gorgeous landscapes, and very funny. Coming up: Saturday there's a one day film festival in Amsterdam, I intend to watch a bunch of genre films there, The final girls among them. Apart from that, I'm interested in seeing Pawn sacrifice, Sufragette, Er ist wieder da (a comedy where Hitler returns), Steve Jobs, The Hunger games: Mockingjay part 2, and a few others to lesser extent.. Then there's Star Wars: a force awakens, and after that, there's Carol. And that's pretty much it for this year. Edited December 11, 2015 by Sméagol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 3, 2016 I closed the year off with Carol, which frankly disppointed me. That brings the total to 166 films I've seen in the cinema (what did I win?). Next year: 200 at least. My New Years resolution. My favourite films of 2015 Realité Laggies Guns and talks No men beyond this point Frank Still Alice The imitation game Song of the sea Shaun the sheep movie The guest Turbo kid Blade runner (the final cut) The one I love Inside out The case of Hana and Alice The martian Cop car The lobster A few almost favourites you should check out: Magical girl Phoenix Sicario Le tout nouveau testement The final girls And the complete final list: Black coal @Mr\-Paul Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2016 (edited) Got beaten to creating the new thread! Still, I must finish up with my final round up of 2015 film. While I didn't see anywhere near as many films as Sméagol, it was definitely my most prolific year of cinema visits. After my last post, I saw two more films. In the Heart of the Sea Dull. The story that inspired Moby Dick. Honestly, I can't really remember much about it, it was that bland. Star Wars: The Force Awakens I have to confess I am a massive Star Wars fan and even love the prequels. But this exceeded all my expectations. Sure, you can argue it's a retread of the original trilogy, but it was so much fun and I can't wait to see what happens next. I'm so in love with Rey. Such a great character. I saw it at the BFI IMAX at launch and have since seen it in 2D, and while the IMAX/3D doesn't add too much, it was great seeing it on the biggest screen in the country with great sound in a theatre packed full of fans. I could go on forever about this film, but won't! So the final list is: The Theory of Everything Big Hero 6 Into the Woods Foxcatcher Wild American Sniper Ex Machina Kingsman: The Secret Service Jupiter Ascending Focus Project Almanac Chappie Insurgent Run All Night Cinderella Get Hard Fast & Furious 7 John Wick The Duff The Emperor's New Clothes Avengers: Age of Ultron x 2 Spooks: The Greater Good Mad Max: Fury Road x 2 Pitch Perfect 2 Tomorrowland: A World Beyond San Andreas Man Up Spy Jurassic World Mr Holmes The Terminator Blade Runner: Final Cut Minions Terminator: Genisys x 2 Ted 2 Ant-Man x 2 Inside Out Southpaw Pixels Maggie Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Fantastic Four Vacation Trainwreck The Man from U.N.C.L.E The Bad Education Movie Paper Towns Straight Outta Compton Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Everest Sicario The Martian x 2 The Intern The Walk The Last Witch Hunter SPECTRE He Named Me Malala Burnt The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Bridge of Spies The Good Dinosaur Black Mass The Night Before Krampus In the Heart of the Sea Star Wars: The Force Awakens x 2 73 cinema trips (including multiple viewings!) My favourite/best films of year have to be Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Bridge of Spies, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, The Martian, The Theory of Everything, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Straight Outta Compton, Blade Runner: Final Cut (not a 2015 film but saw it for the first time ever, and in a cinema) The worst/most disappointing films I saw this year are Terminator: Genisys, Fantastic Four, Sicario, Foxcatcher (I know these two are meant to be "good" but they did nothing for me) Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, In the Heart of the Sea Let's hope 2016 will be a good one for film! Edited January 5, 2016 by Mr-Paul Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
