What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[gasteropod]

Round-up of stuff I've been watching recently:

The Exorcism of Emily Rose - 2.5/5
Next - 3/5
Film Socialisme - 3.5/5
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium - 3.5/5
World on a Wire - 4/5
8 1/2 - 4/5
Bunker Palace Hotel - 1/5

[Markgway]

Film Socialisme - 3.5/5

I think that was in Kermode's bottom five worst films of 2011.

[gasteropod]

I think that was in Kermode's bottom five worst films of 2011.

Yup he saw the film with Godard's awful subtitles, I started watching it like that and then changed it to proper ones.

[grim_tales]

Why did he chose awful subs?
I hate it when subs spoil a film. Theatrical subs (eg on the old DVD of God of Gamblers or newer R1 of Come Drink with Me) are awful, and I watched Bicycle Thieves once and it was hard to understand what was being said as the subtitles only translated part of the dialogue

[gasteropod]

Why did he chose awful subs?

Godard wanted the film to screen without subtitles, but the distributors quite rightly insisted that it had to have them, so he decided to do them himself. Whenever someone speaks a line of dialogue, he has cut it down to about three words, and spaces them strangely - with wordstogetherlike this and also far apart. Basically really fucking pretentious and makes the film absolutely unintelligible - it's a fuck you to anyone who doesn't speak French.

The amusing thing is that some people are praising these 'Navajo' subtitles and remarking on how they better represent what is happening on-screen and let you take in the images more. BULLSHIT. If people in the film are speaking dialogue in French, then non-French speakers need it fully subtitling - if Godard wanted three-word sentences, they'd be fucking speaking three-word sentences!

[HungFist]

minor spoilers ahead

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (USA, 2010) - 4.5/5
5 min: My God, this film is like totally great!!!! And I thought it'd be crap.
15 min: Knives Chau love! Thank God I’ll be back to the school girl land chasing uniform soon!
20 min: What the fuck, this film’s so illogical!! The fuck’s up with him, resisting a 17 year old Chinese school girl??!!
25 min: Ok, admitted, Mary Elizabeth Winstead ain’t so bad in the underwear after all, despite being Caucasian and all…
57 min: Hey, I’ll be a stalker soon, too!
70 min: Wassup with her hair still blue??!! Go green already!
91 min: Knives Chau comeback! I’m in lesbians again!!!
93 min: Shokku!!!
101 min: Pretty hot goth loli maid look that drummer’s got! This film’s high on JP vibes!
105 min: Man, this movie is pure love!
112 min: You don’t dig this film you’re probably too old and ought to do something about it!

[gasteropod]

Yup Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is excellent

[grim_tales]

Why did he chose awful subs?

Godard wanted the film to screen without subtitles, but the distributors quite rightly insisted that it had to have them, so he decided to do them himself. Whenever someone speaks a line of dialogue, he has cut it down to about three words, and spaces them strangely - with wordstogetherlike this and also far apart. Basically really fucking pretentious and makes the film absolutely unintelligible - it's a fuck you to anyone who doesn't speak French.

The amusing thing is that some people are praising these 'Navajo' subtitles and remarking on how they better represent what is happening on-screen and let you take in the images more. BULLSHIT. If people in the film are speaking dialogue in French, then non-French speakers need it fully subtitling - if Godard wanted three-word sentences, they'd be fucking speaking three-word sentences!

I hope theres an option for proper ones then That idea Godard had sounds so pretentious imo.

[gasteropod]

I hope theres an option for proper ones then That idea Godard had sounds so pretentious imo.

Yeah it's unwatchable with them, and yup you can indeed choose full English subtitles, thank God.

[Markgway]

Tormented (2009-UK) *½

Failed black comedy-horror tackles the subject of school bullying; but is ineffectual, trivial, and silly. Cut for a '15' cert, but still very bloody at times with a lot of crude dialogue.

[Markgway]

A Prophet (2009-France-Italy) **½

Long and unfocused prison drama. Engrossing at times; not sure if it's anything more than that.

[HungFist]

Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (Finland, 1994) – 1.5/5
A pointless sequel misses the original’s humor and freshness. With half of the cowboys killed, the rest travel to Europe, without any memorable encounters. The funnies joke is found in the introduction text – the rest of the film doesn’t pay off.

Calamari Union (Finland, 1985) – 3/5
Aki Kaurismäki’s semi-genius film follows 15 Franks and one Pekka on their journey from Helsinki’s Kallio district to Eira. Not all Franks will survive. The film goes from brilliant to dull and everything in between, as might be expected from a film improvised on the set, starring mainly rock stars, and reportedly shot entirely when the director was either drunk of having a hangover. Nevertheless, there’s something genius about Frank society!

[Markgway]

The Hunting Party (2007-USA-Coatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina) ***

Darkly comic thriller about three journalists who track down a Serbian war criminal. Unjustly ignored upon its original release, despite an A-list cast (Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Kruger). Check this unsung gem out on TV or DVD if you can.

The Ides of March (2011-USA) ***

Sharp political drama about betrayal and dirty tricks. George Clooney stars, writes and directs and does a damn fine job on all three. Solid supporting cast. A rare modern film that (at 101m) could've done with being 10-15 mins longer.

[HungFist]

Hot Potato (USA, 1976) – 1.5/5
Miserable comedy-adventure vehicle for Jim Kelly. Unintentionally amusing in parts, boring in others, but Kelly kicks ass even when the film doesn’t. Unless enjoyed under the influence, or in a early morning film festival slot, it's better stick to the good Kelly films (Black Belt Jones, Three the Hard Way...).

Showdown in Little Tokyo (USA, 1991) – 3.5/5
A fun early 90’s b-action film. Not as great as Commando (also by director Mark L. Lester), but comes with tons of awesome dialogue, evil Japanese villains (lead by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), not-too-bad action, strong L.A. atmosphere, and some suitably appalling silicone babes. Dolph Lundgren as an American (?) cop following the Japanese honor code and Brandon Lee as a Japanese-American (??) cop completely ignorant of Asian cultures makes an amusing, tongue in the cheek duo. It’s also worth noting that the Japanese dialogue spoken in the film and the theatrical English subtitles for these bits differ like day and night...

[Killer Meteor]

Hot Potato (USA, 1976) – 1.5/5
Miserable comedy-adventure vehicle for Jim Kelly. Unintentionally amusing in parts, boring in others, but Kelly kicks ass even when the film doesn’t. Unless enjoyed under the influence, or in a early morning film festival slot, it's better stick to the good Kelly films (Black Belt Jones, Three the Hard Way...).

Showdown in Little Tokyo (USA, 1991) – 3.5/5
A fun early 90’s b-action film. Not as great as Commando (also by director Mark L. Lester), but comes with tons of awesome dialogue, evil Japanese villains (lead by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), not-too-bad action, strong L.A. atmosphere, and some suitably appalling silicone babes. Dolph Lundgren as an American (?) cop following the Japanese honor code and Brandon Lee as a Japanese-American (??) cop completely ignorant of Asian cultures makes an amusing, tongue in the cheek duo. It’s also worth noting that the Japanese dialogue spoken in the film and the theatrical English subtitles for these bits differ like day and night...

It's astonishing how utterly blind a lot of these films are about the differences between Asian cultures and races. In Bloodsport, Roy Chiao initially refuses to teach Van Damme to be in the Kumite because he isn't Japanese...well neither are you buddy!!!!!

[drees5761]

Yeah, its called acting...lol

[gasteropod]

Renaissance (2006) - 2.5/5

[Markgway]

The Children (2008-UK) **

[grim_tales]

I couldnt bring myself to watch that

[bradavon]

It's astonishing how utterly blind a lot of these films are about the differences between Asian cultures and races. In Bloodsport, Roy Chiao initially refuses to teach Van Damme to be in the Kumite because he isn't Japanese...well neither are you buddy!!!!!

To be fair. Most Asian people think all European people's are the same.

[HungFist]

Most Japanese people think all caucasians speak English as their native language

It's also quite common in Asian movies that American soldiers speak with random European etc. accents, or can hardly speak English at all...

Thinking of it, though, the latter may be not be a mistake at all

[Xenon]

Batman (1989) - a classic which still holds up to this day. Great performances by Keaton and Nicholson. 9/10

Batman Returns (1992) - a decent sequel but it could have been a lot better. I guess Burton was given a little too much creative freedom in this one, since there are quite some out of place scenes which I couldn't help but label them "Burton-esque wankery" while watching. 7/10

Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal (2001) - why did I decide to ruin my birthday party for me and friends with this piece of crap is beyond me... What the fuck is wrong with me?1/10

[Markgway]

I couldnt bring myself to watch that

You didn't miss anything.

[saltysam]

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes 3/5 Solid update on the classic franchise,head and shoulders above the Burton remake from a few years back.

Justice League:Doom 2/5 Another DC straight to home video animated adaption of a comic storyline,well enough done but these films feel a little samey to me.

[bradavon]

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes 3/5 Solid update on the classic franchise,head and shoulders above the Burton remake from a few years back.

Agreed. It's good isn't it. I still like the original best though.