Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Sept 1, 2014 23:59:53 GMT
Lockout (2012)
Squint a bit and you might suspect this was a cheeky unofficial remake of Escape From New York, but in practice, it plays more like Die Hard in Space, as Guy Pearce's ex-CIA quip machine is sent to rescue the president's daughter from captivity in space prison (sadly not on fire). It's watchable fare, but the constant stream of nudges, winks and general in-jokes slowly begin to grate, and action setpieces become increasingly limp towards the finish. The film almost gets away with it, largely thanks to a likeable turn from Pearce, but, by the time the hilariously convoluted denouement rolls around, I felt it had just outstayed its welcome.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Sept 12, 2014 20:58:40 GMT
Iron Man (2008)
One of those things that had always passed me by, this was an amusingly glossy mirror image of Batman's origin story, with Downey Jr. clearly enjoying himself immensely as likeable skirt-chaser turned superhero Tony Stark. It's an entirely pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, but lacks the emotional clout of Batman Begins, with Jeff Bridges bringing little to the table as an unmemorable villain.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Sept 14, 2014 0:06:29 GMT
Chungking Express (1994)
Wong Kar Wai transposes the French Nouvelle Vague to Hong Kong in this quirky drama about two cops and the very different women they become involved with. I genuinely don't know where to be with this one; it's wonderfully shot and impeccably acted, but somehow I felt it was a little too self-consciously cool and lacking in substance. It's possible I might enjoy it more on a second viewing, but my immediate reaction is that I also felt the two halves of the story seem to have little to do with each other and I'd have appreciated a more obvious reason for presenting them together in this way.
Faye Wong can have the top off my egg anytime though.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Sept 21, 2014 21:27:45 GMT
Threads (1984)
This infamous BBC dramatised documentary about a nuclear strike against the UK, and its aftermath as witnessed by the residents of Sheffield, clearly owes a great deal to earlier film The War Game, but it remains a harrowing, haunting work in its own right, filled with brutal and often shocking imagery more chilling than any fantasy-based horror.
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Post by Michael Whitehouse on Oct 3, 2014 16:13:59 GMT
Threads is the most frightening film I have ever seen. It stayed with me when I was a kid and then later as an adult watching it again, it was even more terrifying.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Oct 3, 2014 18:34:50 GMT
Can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like watching it as a kid - I think I'd have been mentally scarred...
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Post by Martin on Oct 5, 2014 13:37:45 GMT
If you liked Threads, you should check out When the Wind Blows. It's an enchanting animated film about a lovely old couple trying to apply stiff-upper-lipped "Blitz spirit" to a nuclear armageddon, and slowly dying of radiation sickness in their front room. Magical.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Oct 6, 2014 1:16:20 GMT
Hah, yeah they showed us When the Wind Blows in school, in their infinite wisdom. Presumably they felt we were too lively and would benefit from being horribly depressed...
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Oct 11, 2014 23:00:19 GMT
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Revisited GitS for some words I was attempting to churn out for an article. I've been inclined to run the film down a little bit in recent years, having been quite enamoured with the more accessible tv series, but that stops here. It's always going to be a victim of its own hype and the film's depth is more in the questions it asks than the story per se, but it's still an exceptionally absorbing and often searching work of sci-fi. I think I could watch a ten hour loop of just Kusanagi trailing around the stunning Neo Hong Kong backdrops with that eerie chanting soundtrack playing in the background and never get bored once.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Oct 22, 2014 19:49:22 GMT
'71 (2014)
A tough, old-fashioned survival thriller about a hapless young squaddie lost on the streets of Belfast during the height of the Troubles, '71 is an intense and often brutal experience that I feel actually recalls more Walter Hill's Southern Comfort than, as the critics keep suggesting, Assault on Precinct 13. The film withers slightly into more familiar territory toward the end and, while taking great pains to remain even handed, shies away from trying to pass any serious comment on the politics of the time, but there's no denying the stark, raw power of the early scenes where our protagonist is flung headlong into a horrific situation he cannot begin to comprehend.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Nov 7, 2014 20:10:01 GMT
Nightcrawler (2014)
A grim glimpse into the world of freelance newsgatherers, shot through with a vein of satirical gallows humour, I found it an oddly remote and unsurprising experience, but one made good by an absolute acting tour de force from Jake Gyllenhaal. We may be denied any insight into how his sociopathic hustler, Lou Bloom, came to be, but somehow that makes him all the more horrific - an everyman every bit as childlike and pitiable as he is monstrous and inhuman. Nightcrawler is never as bitingly painful to watch as the likes of Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy, but it certainly deserves its comparison.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Nov 16, 2014 15:42:40 GMT
Superman (1978)
Another one of those things that I'd just never seen before, I was surprised at how well Richard Donner's take on the Man of Steel still holds up. Although it finally becomes a far more lightweight affair than the early scenes on doomed Krypton might suggest, the witty script and well chosen cast keep things bounding along with deftly handled balance of drama and comedy whose influence still looms large over even the most recent superhero films.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Nov 26, 2014 19:08:48 GMT
The Wind Rises (2013)
Having avoided it thus far due, frankly, to sheer lack of interest, I was pleasantly surprised to see this fictionalised biography of Japanese airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi was a much livelier, wittier affair than I'd expected, and the level of visual craft on display is absolutely astonishing. Nevertheless, for all the fantastical flourishes and bittersweet romance, I feel the underlying narrative is so sober and low-key that it's difficult not to see it as Miyzaki going out with a respectful bow, rather than any grandoise display.
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Post by bossmacphail on Jul 26, 2015 23:04:33 GMT
SouthPaw (2015)
Another transformative performance for Jake Gyllenhaal, is he the new Chrisitian bale?
Gyllenhaal plays a boxer at the top of his game who falls from grace after a tragic event, forcing him to work his way back up the ladder.
I perhaps went into this film expecting too much, but it doesnt add much to the genre that Rocky and The Fighter before it hadnt already.
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Gaff
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Post by Gaff on Sept 9, 2015 13:36:45 GMT
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Being mostly uninterested in the Marvel juggernaut (wake me when they do another Punisher), I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Cap'n's second solo outing. As noted elsewhere, for all the superhero trappings, it bears a strong resemblance to the paranoid post-Watergate thrillers of the 1970s, with Steve Rogers ideally positioned as the innocent do-gooder adrift in a world governed through shades of grey. The third act 'flying base' conclusion seems close to a running joke now, and the titular Winter Soldier has so little to contribute that he might as well have not been included, but otherwise a very solid effort.
The Last Stand (2013)
Small-town sheriff Arnie is the last thing standing between a South American druglord and the Mexican border, in this middling comeback vehicle. Big Arn is still spry and joined by an excellent supporting cast, but all involved are let-down by a witless, timid script that frequently fails to deliver more than the most perfunctory dialogue or make us care about its uninteresting characters. It's still watchable and, to its credit, does finally come alive into the last half-hour, but ultimately it feels like a missed opportunity.
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