What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 Oct 2007, 15:53

romerojpg wrote:Many people (even on this forum) have said they only watched a film for that reason

I doubt that.

People do see films that win Oscars they would've probably seen anyway. Why? Because most films that win Oscars are well made, at the very least.

The Oscars help to get films bigger recognition I don't see anything wrong with that.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 21 Oct 2007, 15:56

If you say so.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 21 Oct 2007, 18:43

Markgway wrote: That may be the funniest comment of all time.

omg how dare you!

romerojpg wrote: Took me probibly 40 minutes to notice it was Cage he is looking craggy.

Aye but it was a nice homage to Mortal Kombat. Really hope the Resident Evil films keep coming and that Paul W.S. Anderson has some involvement.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 21 Oct 2007, 18:51

bradavon wrote:The Oscars help to get films bigger recognition I don't see anything wrong with that.

Why would a high-budget and first-class marketed film need help to get better recognition? Did "Gladiator", "Crash" or "The Lord of the Rings" really need any additional recognition?

It's films like "Brick", "Jerry & Tom" or "Matando Cabos" that could need help with that.

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 22 Oct 2007, 08:31

Lots of people seem to think if a film has won an oscar, then it must be good.

Whilst on the subject of Will Smith, anyone seen Pursuit of Happyness? I have it on dvd, and may watch it tonight. Should I watch it, or watch something else?

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 22 Oct 2007, 09:19

Snooker - Ronnie O' Sullivan v Marco Fu: 4.5/5

Congratulations to Marco on his first title

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 22 Oct 2007, 09:44

"A Beautiful Mind" is an example of a truly shitty oscar winning movie

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 22 Oct 2007, 09:52

True, I didn't like it

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 22 Oct 2007, 11:53

Still havent seen A Beautiful Mind.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 22 Oct 2007, 12:51

Agreed, A Beautiful Mind is an utterly dreadful film. Completely contrived, sentimental non-sense.

bradavon wrote:It's not Smith but Mann who hurts Ali. While it's a very good film it's not a great film.

I totally disagree, Mann's filmmaking was fine. Remember the scene when Ali's in Sth. Africa running through the streets? That was top notch filmmaking right there.

What totally sunk Ali was Will Smith's utterly dreadful performance. The lead's performance makes or breaks a biopic. Eg Walk the Line. Pedestrian direction, but great performances from the two leads.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 22 Oct 2007, 13:05

Markgway wrote:
bradavon wrote: Nicholson makes it for more.
Funny. I thought Jack was the worst thing about BATMAN in a grotesque OTT performance that was more buffoonish than scary.

It was supposed to be like that. The Burton films are campy, have really cheesy dialogue with bad one liners and OTT acting (Eg Keaton's brooding). Burton didn't bring back the original dark vigilante Batman to the mainstream, just the old gay one trying to act tough.

It took Paul Dini/Bruce Timm's 90's landmark cartoon to re-envision Batman. Mask of the Phantasm is still the definitive Batman film.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 22 Oct 2007, 13:10

EvaUnit02 wrote:
bradavon wrote:It's not Smith but Mann who hurts Ali. While it's a very good film it's not a great film.
I totally disagree, Mann's filmmaking was fine. Remember the scene when Ali's in Sth. Africa running through the streets? That was top notch filmmaking right there.

What totally sunk Ali was Will Smith's utterly dreadful performance. The lead's performance makes or breaks a biopic. Eg Walk the Line. Pedestrian direction, but great performances from the two leads.

It's a combination of both. Will Smith does a good acting job, but he isnt Ali. Ali was so much bigger than life, that it would be hard for any actor to do him justice.

But Mann is also to blame. Because although the running through the streets in South Africa is a great great scene (awesome music as well), overall, the movie really is a bit boring. Mann really tried to show the serious man behind the persona of Ali, and TBH, it doesnt really make an interesting watch, nor an interesting movie.
A lot of the appeal of the real Ali was that brilliant fun he had, that sense of humour, that arrogance with tongue in cheek, that golden good heart, etc.
Mann should have shown much more of that side of Ali, like the time he was constantly going around looking for Liston to challenge and scare him, untill one night Liston was tipped of that Ali would be coming by and pulled a gun out and fired blanks at him, to scare the shit out of Ali

TBH, the documentaries and books about Ali are far more interesting and entertaining than Mann's movie is. Mann's movie plays it all down-key, too serious, and it makes it just 'meh' to watch. It's a high-budget TV biopic.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 22 Oct 2007, 14:38

brooce-leroy wrote:Whilst on the subject of Will Smith, anyone seen Pursuit of Happyness? I have it on dvd, and may watch it tonight. Should I watch it, or watch something else?

I really liked it. I watched it on DVDs about 2 weeks ago and I thought it was really good. The ending is kinda abrupt, but it's still a decent film.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Oct 2007, 15:07

Yi-Long wrote:Because although the running through the streets in South Africa is a great great scene (awesome music as well), overall, the movie really is a bit boring. Mann really tried to show the serious man behind the persona of Ali, and TBH, it doesnt really make an interesting watch, nor an interesting movie.

I completely agree with this paragraph.

The scene running through the streets of South Africa was outstanding, but that is only one scene.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2007, 07:58

Look Around You S1: 4/5

Very silly but often very clever parody of BBC "educational" programmes of the 70's/80's. It's even funnier as I'm sure I remember those sort of shows.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2007, 13:03

The Transporter: 2.75/5

Thought this was OK in a dumb action movie sort of way. I realise Shu Qi is basically playing a damsel but she's just whiny and REALLY, REALLY annoying. Stratham's accent (if he was attempting an American accent) is terrible.
I liked the bus station and "oil" fights though, and the "T-Shirt" fight

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Oct 2007, 16:15

She is a bit annoying in this but that is exactly what her character is supposed to be. All the bits at the end when her father appears and complains she isn't speaking English are annoying. No doubt they put those in to explain why Shu Qi doesn't speak very good English.

Thankfully they opted to completely forget Stratham is supposed to be American in Transporter 2. Which I was very surprised to see is a LOT better. It has much more story, it's no great story but is streets ahead of the story in Part 1. Transporter is ropey, Transporter 2 is not.

Neither are keepers though.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2007, 16:20

I didn't like her character TBH - annoying as well as a pathalogical liar

OK perhaps thats a bit strong but she has her own agenda.
I agree those bits are annoying especially when she speaks in Mandarin and we have no clue what she's saying :x

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Oct 2007, 16:25

A bit strong, you reckon?

. I definitely didn't notice that subtext.

I doubt what she's saying is of any importance. I did find she was her usual cute self in the scene between her, Statham and the cop. She mentions something about a beach, I think.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2007, 16:46

Well, if you listen to the commentary, one of them jokes how appropriate it is the name of Qi's character is "Lai", eg she covers herself saying she's the cook or something and during the bit when Stratham drives off and Shu Qi cries, she fibs specifically about her father being on the boat with immigrants and kidnapped (I think), we don't know she's the bad guy's daughter

Agreed, she was cute in the scene where she's being nice to Stratham in the morning

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Oct 2007, 16:52

Yep she sure was. What does Lai mean?

I wouldn't say those are cases of her lying for the wrong reasons. She says she's the cook as she's in danger if I remember correctly and also lies about her father because he's not a nice person. It's not something you'd readily lie about. It has been years since I've seen Transporter though so my memory is hazy about the detail.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Oct 2007, 17:26

"Lai" sounds like "Lie"

OK fair enough, saying she was the cook was just a white lie I guess

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Oct 2007, 18:33

grim_tales wrote:"Lai" sounds like "Lie"

What an ignorant Western comment to make.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 23 Oct 2007, 18:38

grim_tales wrote:"Lai" sounds like "Lie"
OK fair enough, saying she was the cook was just a white lie I guess

'white lie'

So that means a WHITE lie is somehow OK!? You're such a fucking racist, Grim!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 23 Oct 2007, 21:13

I think in Cantonese, "Lai" means "come"...