Tricky Dickys Right Foot Shot
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Die Hard, just because of the Alan Rickman thread!
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Last Film You Saw
- Thread starter FantasyIreland
- Start date
JRockBlues
Well-Known Member
Did my annual trip to the Leeds International Film Festival last weekend for the Anime Day. Here's a few thoughts on the 5 films that were shown:
The Case of Hana and Alice
Quite a sweet coming of age drama with a detective twist. Arisugawa Tetsuko (Alice) is forced to transfer to a new school when her parents split and her new year 9 classmates are not entirely welcoming. She subsequently learns that this may be more to do with where she's sat than anything else as rumours are that the previous occupant of her designated place was murdered by one of his four wives. One of which is her creepy neighbour (Hana) who no longer attends school and stays at home staring out the window. Can Alice break past Hana's barriers and find out what really happened? This was probably the most surprisingly enjoyable film of the day. Very light in tone with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments along the way. Very enjoyable and a good way to start off the day.
Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise
Huge change of pace for a science fiction look at the next stage of human evolution after an end-of-the-world scenario. Humans now mainly exist in digitised form. Though limited resources mean that memory allocation is given on a meritorious basis. The more worth you have to society then the more you get. Angela Balzac is a young security officer who looks for opportunities for advancement. Her latest mission is to discover the hacker that has managed to break past Deva's security and is broadcasting messages to its citizens. It seems as though these infiltrations are being sent from back on Earth so Angela, with the help of a local guide called Dingo, must find the culprit and put a stop to it. A fairly forgettable action-orientated mecha which attempts to take bits of Evangelion and Ghiost in the Shell but fails miserably. The big battle sequence is fairly epic though.
Miss Holusai
A fiction account of the renowned painter Katsushika Hokusai as narrated by his daughter O-Ei who assisted him with his work and also produced her own. Told as a slice-of-life story focusing mostly on O-Ei. It's a fairly bland tale that only comes to life with the interactions between O-Ei and Hokusai's other daughter, O-Nao. Blind from birth, O-Nao provides the emotional heart of the movie and only when her sister takes her from her carer provide moments of joy in the film.
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie
This is a continuation of the GitS: Arise/Alternative Architecture prequel series and continues the origin story of Major Motoko Kusanagi and the rest of her elite team that went on to form Section 9. Definitely not recommended as a starting point to the franchise as you pretty much have to know who everyone is beforehand. Up until now this new iteration of one of my most beloved anime's hasn't gone down very well. This new movie is the culmination of the rebooted franchise and marks the way forward for its future. Jumping straight into the action of a hostage situation it quickly moves on to an assassination and then the investigation into who was responsible for both events. Are they linked? If so, how? It's very much focused on the action end of the scale and while it does still ask some philosophical questions this is hardly the tone the film-makers are aiming at. Will not bring any new fans to the series but does enough to entertain existing ones.
Empire of Corpses
Sets the Frankenstein mythos in a steampunk world where corpses are re-animated to take the drudgery out of the everyday world. They are also used as cannon fodder in any conflicts that arise. Despite multiple attempts and continuing research no-one has yet managed to reproduce what Victor Frankenstein did and imbue one of these creatures with a soul. John Watson is a corpse engineer who has re-animated the dead body of his friend and is desperate to find a way to accomplish this feat. He is charged by the British government to investigate the whereabouts of Frankenstein's notes he eagerly sets off in pursuit. It's a globe-trotting quest that sees Watson visit many different parts of the world and being assisted or hindered by famous names from around the time (both real and fictional). After a very promising opening setup the film unfortunately descends into a fairly run of the mill chase/adventure sequence which culminates in a final showdown. At least it is quite stunning in the visuals department though.
The Case of Hana and Alice
Quite a sweet coming of age drama with a detective twist. Arisugawa Tetsuko (Alice) is forced to transfer to a new school when her parents split and her new year 9 classmates are not entirely welcoming. She subsequently learns that this may be more to do with where she's sat than anything else as rumours are that the previous occupant of her designated place was murdered by one of his four wives. One of which is her creepy neighbour (Hana) who no longer attends school and stays at home staring out the window. Can Alice break past Hana's barriers and find out what really happened? This was probably the most surprisingly enjoyable film of the day. Very light in tone with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments along the way. Very enjoyable and a good way to start off the day.
Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise
Huge change of pace for a science fiction look at the next stage of human evolution after an end-of-the-world scenario. Humans now mainly exist in digitised form. Though limited resources mean that memory allocation is given on a meritorious basis. The more worth you have to society then the more you get. Angela Balzac is a young security officer who looks for opportunities for advancement. Her latest mission is to discover the hacker that has managed to break past Deva's security and is broadcasting messages to its citizens. It seems as though these infiltrations are being sent from back on Earth so Angela, with the help of a local guide called Dingo, must find the culprit and put a stop to it. A fairly forgettable action-orientated mecha which attempts to take bits of Evangelion and Ghiost in the Shell but fails miserably. The big battle sequence is fairly epic though.
Miss Holusai
A fiction account of the renowned painter Katsushika Hokusai as narrated by his daughter O-Ei who assisted him with his work and also produced her own. Told as a slice-of-life story focusing mostly on O-Ei. It's a fairly bland tale that only comes to life with the interactions between O-Ei and Hokusai's other daughter, O-Nao. Blind from birth, O-Nao provides the emotional heart of the movie and only when her sister takes her from her carer provide moments of joy in the film.
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie
This is a continuation of the GitS: Arise/Alternative Architecture prequel series and continues the origin story of Major Motoko Kusanagi and the rest of her elite team that went on to form Section 9. Definitely not recommended as a starting point to the franchise as you pretty much have to know who everyone is beforehand. Up until now this new iteration of one of my most beloved anime's hasn't gone down very well. This new movie is the culmination of the rebooted franchise and marks the way forward for its future. Jumping straight into the action of a hostage situation it quickly moves on to an assassination and then the investigation into who was responsible for both events. Are they linked? If so, how? It's very much focused on the action end of the scale and while it does still ask some philosophical questions this is hardly the tone the film-makers are aiming at. Will not bring any new fans to the series but does enough to entertain existing ones.
Empire of Corpses
Sets the Frankenstein mythos in a steampunk world where corpses are re-animated to take the drudgery out of the everyday world. They are also used as cannon fodder in any conflicts that arise. Despite multiple attempts and continuing research no-one has yet managed to reproduce what Victor Frankenstein did and imbue one of these creatures with a soul. John Watson is a corpse engineer who has re-animated the dead body of his friend and is desperate to find a way to accomplish this feat. He is charged by the British government to investigate the whereabouts of Frankenstein's notes he eagerly sets off in pursuit. It's a globe-trotting quest that sees Watson visit many different parts of the world and being assisted or hindered by famous names from around the time (both real and fictional). After a very promising opening setup the film unfortunately descends into a fairly run of the mill chase/adventure sequence which culminates in a final showdown. At least it is quite stunning in the visuals department though.
Two Gun Bob
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Martian;
Top Bannana and Matt Damon is immense
It made me sit on the edge of my seat
Here is a nice clip for your kind perusal
Top Bannana and Matt Damon is immense
It made me sit on the edge of my seat
Here is a nice clip for your kind perusal
Last edited by a moderator:
Bill Walker
Well-Known Member
Spectre.
Not impressed.
Not as good as Skyfall, but I really enjoyed it, very dark I thought.
Bill Walker
Well-Known Member
Martian;
Top Bannana and Matt Damon is immense
It made me sit on the edge of my seat
Here is a nice clip for your kinds perusals
Its good but I preferred the book
Blue Smarties
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- 10 Aug 2008
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What was dark, Spectre? Not for me mate, it was very damp. Not impressed at all.Not as good as Skyfall, but I really enjoyed it, very dark I thought.
Bill Walker
Well-Known Member
What was dark, Spectre? Not for me mate, it was very damp. Not impressed at all.
I meant dark atmospherically, no blue skies and Palm tree's
as I said not great but still enjoyable for me
the god Gerry Gow
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- 15 May 2008
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Spectre
Over indulgent tripe
Somebody should have had the courage during the initial read through to say "you could cut 100 pages of this and no fucker would notice"
Over indulgent tripe
Somebody should have had the courage during the initial read through to say "you could cut 100 pages of this and no fucker would notice"
Bewar3them00n
Well-Known Member
The Martian at the cinema, good stuff, almost as good as the book.
Zero Dark 30 again on Film 4.
Star Wars again with my son, as we have tickets to see The Force Returns at the IMAX, and he's getting quite excited about it ( OK, I'm getting very excited about it too!)
Zero Dark 30 again on Film 4.
Star Wars again with my son, as we have tickets to see The Force Returns at the IMAX, and he's getting quite excited about it ( OK, I'm getting very excited about it too!)