Last movie you watched

[Hubbs]

Payback (1999)

OK can I just say firstly...Lucy Liu and her character, LOVE it! absolutely my kinda woman in every sense hehe Liu is soooo damn gorgeous. Right that's my little perversion out in the open and out of the way, yep I'm a fetish freak...deal with it.

So apart from the delicious scenes with Liu what about the rest of the film? well its basically pretty darn good folks. In my view this is Gibson's last good film in an acting role, I also think its one of his best action thrillers too riding high alongside 'Lethal Weapon 1+2'.

There is a quite different directors cut of this film which is suppose to be more straight forward, I cannot comment on that as yet but personally I have always liked this film and see nothing wrong with it really. Sure its a little cliched and you always know Gibson will win in the end but he does get knocked around allot which is reasonably surprising for the good looking 'hero'.
Casting is great for all the characters here with a great slimy weaselly performance from Henry as 'Resnick', Paymer as the even more weaselly wet 'Stegman', Kristofferson is...well kinda as he always is and add some good backing in small roles from Bill Duke, John Glover and James Coburn, solid reliable casting there.

Violence is hard fast and totally enjoyable without there being that much blood, but you know what's happening, its adult only and it rocks. Thing is its all quite believeable too, its not just ridiculous over the top violence with no sense of realism, it all works well along with Gibson's little traps and setups.
I like the look of the film also, its almost in black and white, the picture is very bleak or washed out, kinda faded looking, shades of greys, blues, blacks and silver with not much else. Sounds odd but it sets the tone for the film whilst giving it some added class or distinction.

You can't go wrong here really, think 'Riggs' outta 'Lethal Weapon' only he's more badass and the series of events he's involved in are more sensible and darker.

[dude]

Street Kings

Yeah it's a fairly generic cop thriller. But that's what I like. Forrest Whitaker's scenery chewing monologue was pretty awesome.

[severen76]

Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I just can't sit through it, and I've tried multiple times. The way it's filmed, the costumes, Keanu Reeves everything just takes me out of the film. I feel like I'm watching some weird expressionist stage play with loads of different influences that don't glue together. I just can't get behind that.

I'll stick with my western inspired bad ass vampires from Near Dark.

[Hudson]

Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I just can't sit through it, and I've tried multiple times. The way it's filmed, the costumes, Keanu Reeves everything just takes me out of the film. I feel like I'm watching some weird expressionist stage play with loads of different influences that don't glue together. I just can't get behind that.

I'll stick with my western inspired bad ass vampires from Near Dark.

I recently watched it again because I've been reading the original novel since January. It seems to pride itself on being a faithful adaptation of the source material...but I don't think it really is. Much of the film is from Dracula's point of view whereas absolutely nothing in the novel is. He's also not really a sympathetic character in the book so much, or at least not up to the point I'm at, about 80% in.

And also, the movie isn't scary where there are some scenes in the book that if I think adapted faithfully would be absolutely terrifying. As far as Dracula movies go, I think I'll stick with Herzog's Nosferatu. It may be slow movie as hell but damn is it creepy.

[Hubbs]

Derailed (2005)

So I was gonna watch the JCVD thriller called 'Derailed' but after the first five minutes I realised I had the wrong film haha so I stuck with this despite Aniston being involved.

Honestly I was pleasantly surprised with this thriller, you don't think its a thriller and you don't see the quite decent twist in the plot, but its actually pretty good. I won't go into the plot for fear of spoiling it but its all about double cross, setups, scams...basically naughty lying laced with blackmail.

Bottom line the film is carried by an excellent performance from Cassel who is really quite evil looking and convincingly aggressive. His scrawny frame is deceiving as is his change in character to get into Owen's life which gives him the kind of presence that sends shivers down your spine, the fact that he won't stop makes him nasty and scary.

Owen does a good job as the husband in dire straits as he battles against the demands of Cassel's character, he looks the everyman and plays it well. Unfortunately Aniston simply cannot shake her comedic background and just cannot convey a decent performance in drama as far as I'm concerned, she just isn't convincing, purely a TV actor period.

For some reason someone thought the casting of 'Xzibit' and 'RZA' was a good move for this film, errrr no, they add nothing in their roles and I don't understand why they were even considered when simple more toned down characters would have been better. And can someone explain to me whenever these 'musicians' are cast in films the end credits always seem to role with a lame rap song? is that part of their deal or something!? completely wrong choice of music for the end credits here, totally ruins the feel.

From a slow start which feels like its gonna be crap to a pretty good thriller which does get you involved as the plot gets deeper. I didn't see the plot U-turn and it really makes things interesting as you root for Owen's character, before that its a little annoying as you tend to blame Aniston for his ever mounting problems but after the twist you see why.

[dude]

Much of the film is from Dracula's point of view whereas absolutely nothing in the novel is. He's also not really a sympathetic character in the book so much, or at least not up to the point I'm at, about 80% in.

Nope, he's right cunt until the end. But that's why the novel is so absolutely frightening, he's evil, pure evil.

[Hudson]

After watching The Seventh Seal I watched Bergman's "Hour of the Wolf." I normally enjoy things like this but I was bored out of my mind. There were a couple of creepy moments, the rest was just unintelligible crap I thought, at least compared to The Seventh Seal.

This coming from a fan of films like Enter the Void and The Tree of Life.

[SM]

Sunshine - Watched this for the second time and wondering how such a flawed film still seems to be satisfying overall.  The premise is silly, there seems to be a rather large plothole that results in the deaths of Harvey and Searl, and it becomes a slasher movie in the third act.

After much pondering, I think it's the excellent cast that saves it.

[Hubbs]

Paycheck (2003)

Another classic Philip K. Dick story is brought to the big screen only this time its been 'Woo'd'. To be very very honest this is pretty much a poor mans 'Minority Report' with a bad cast, accept for the big chinned Eckhart, why this short story has not been given the same care as 'MR' I don't know.

The film plays out with Affleck (yes -_-) as a 'reverse engineer' who...actually I still have no idea really what he is suppose to do in his role, all I know is it involves having his memory wiped after he's done each job but this time he has been used and set up by the evil Eckhart.

Cue allot of running around, guns blazing everywhere, your typical Woo car/motorbike chase with standard silly slow motion stunts and of course your typical standard Woo point blank face off...or Mexican standoff. The concept for the film is pretty neat, not totally original in today's film world but it has promise, unfortunately like 'M.I.2' Woo was totally the wrong director for such a decent sci-fi story.
The whole thing looks bad, especially during the finale which looks like its been filmed on a set from the 60's Batman TV show, plus the acting is poor and hammy from almost everyone. Its all too predictable and quite simply its been done allot better with other films.

[Hudson]

Sunshine - Watched this for the second time and wondering how such a flawed film still seems to be satisfying overall.  The premise is silly, there seems to be a rather large plothole that results in the deaths of Harvey and Searl, and it becomes a slasher movie in the third act.

After much pondering, I think it's the excellent cast that saves it.

I think it's just that it's very well made and acted. It's a well crafted movie except for the story. Everything looks amazing, like you said, the cast is excellent. Danny Boyle is a good director, just not everything clicked.

If any other group of filmmakers would've tackled this it probably would've sucked.

[SM]

I don't think there's a weak link in the cast - even Trey and Harvey who didn't have much screen time still worked.  And speaking of Trey, his mistake that caused the whole mess is something else that screams hokey.  And yet, you still don't really mind.

Compared to Event Horizon - I liked Sam Neill, Fishburne, Isaacs and Pertwee (as slightly cliched as the character was), but Richardson, Quinlan and the guys who played Cooper and Justin were fairly meh.  Even though I think the story of EH stands up better than Sunshine.

Go figure.

[Hudson]

Agreed. Haunted Spaceship From Hell vs. Spaceship Goes to Turn on the Sun

I'll go with haunted instead of a movie that tells me it's something else and turns itself into a horror movie.

[dude]

It might have to do with the absence of good spaceship films, I guess. I don't think I'd love Sunshine nearly as much if those films where common.

Red State

Well played Kevin Smith. This is easily the most interesting film he's ever made. It starts off as a generic teen horror and moves into far more daring territory, a hostage drama lifted by the presence of John Goodman.

[SM]

It might have to do with the absence of good spaceship films, I guess. I don't think I'd love Sunshine nearly as much if those films where common.

That did occur to me too.

[Hubbs]

The Mummy (1999)

After many many different ideas and approaches a final concept was agreed upon and this franchise was kick started, note...I really will try not to mention Indiana Jones too much.

A very loose 'remake' of the classic Karloff horror film this was completely re-imagined and given the 'Indy' treatment with minor horror aspects. To be honest the film is actually a little scary in places with a few jump moments, bugs eating people and getting under their skin and lots of decaying mummies with good close ups, like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' the film achieves the family adventure status despite actually being close to the bone here and there.

The film of course had dated now and the effects that were break through for the day now look pretty dreadful in places, the cgi on the main mummy is dire, bluescreen work is obvious, sets are obvious and the sand effects also look poor. This is of course looking at the effects now, as I said back in the day they were pretty neato, the best examples that still actually look good today are probably at the finale battle with a group of Egyptian mummy soldiers and some real time models, suits and makeup, the severed forearm crawling for the sword is a good 'Evil Dead' moment.

I always did hate the way Imhotep turned into a mini sand tornado for his vanishing act and kinda flew out the window, really nasty video game effects and idea there, looked dumb then...looks dumb now.

The plot is cheesy and simple as are most of the performances, you can easily tell who's gonna die right from the start because most of the character actors here are the usual cannon/monster fodder in other films. I know the film is suppose to be a kind of homage to B-movies and those old daring black and white adventure matinee flicks but the cast do really give the film a rough n ready feel, its almost as if they couldn't attract anyone else. Everyone is pretty well cliched to the hilt here with your toff sounding British accents, trigger happy yanks, the horrendous Kevin J. O'Connor, the odd but well cast Vosloo who plays it deadly straight and a nice little turn for British comedian Omid Djalili in a rather stereotyped role.

Its definitely one of if not the best period adventure type flicks that can hold a candle to old Indiana Jones, the only other few films that can challenge 'Dr Jones' in my opinion are 'The Rocketeer' which would be a flying Indy hehe and probably 'The Phantom' and 'The Shadow'. Looking back is was a good fun ride, nowadays its still fun but more like a bad video game of sorts. I think they tried too hard and went over the top with all the guns, stunts and stuck in too much slapstick, sure it was meant to be a blockbuster (and that's its problem really) but less is more right.



The Mummy Returns (2001)

The one thing I can say about this sequel straight away is kudos for the continuity, Sommers has managed to gather all the original cast to carry on and this does wonders for an otherwise very average film. Usually you tend to see the odd character played by someone else which always looks poor in my eyes.

Any who we kick off again with more nasty villains after treasure and power which we all know will end in tears...and probably some kind of horrible face melting death, there I go with my 'Indy' comparisons again. This time we have the combination of Imhotep back for more punishment with his reincarnated love, the Scorpion King which doesn't really serve much purpose other than to give 'The Pebble'....I mean 'The Rock' a spin off franchise and a small group of nasty well spoken cads led by British thesp Alun Armstrong.

The main problem with this follow up is thus, they gave the now happily married heroes a son as baggage, this of course automatically equals a much kiddie friendly film with allot more slapstick, dumb humour and much much less horror. Of course the first film did very well so you can't blame them for opening up the film for an even wider audience but of course they lose allot of integrity and faith from the more mature fans. I should really point out that they take the Indy comparisons a bit too far by actually dressing all the villains henchmen in the same type of costumes as in 'Temple of Doom'....really that was the last Indy thing I swear.

The entire film is much more of a cgi show this time around, that wouldn't be an issue but the cgi really has not dated well, even less so than the original film, hell even at the time this cgi wasn't too good. Add to this allot more over the top action which becomes too silly, terrible bluescreen shots, a laughable effort at a cgi scorpion cross 'The Rock' monster and almost the same sequences shot for shot from the first film in places...did I mention the horrific cgi?

Yes you get what you pay for here, you want more ludicrous mummy blasting action? you got it, you want action figure characters all dressed in desert coloured attire spouting the most idiotic, state the obvious exposition dialog? look no further. Unfortunately like many blockbuster sequels they just get carried away and completely lose your suspension of disbelief. Can't complain too much as you know exactly what to expect from this and it doesn't pretend to be anything else, personally I think it was just a poor glossy rehash which is more cartoon than film. The final 20min as the action all comes together is one of the biggest cgi messes I've seen ever, everything looks really very clearly artificial, but hey the Egypt setting was an enjoyable ride.



The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Probably the best film of the trilogy in my opinion, the first was a nice idea but they tried too hard, the second felt like a complete rehash with terrible effects but this is quite a fun romp. Its very silly (having abominable snowmen help out at one point and a rather daft plane crash sequence) and over the top, but the likeable Fraser and classic boy's own adventure style really shines through. The cgi is really smart in this film, its very good, crisp and realistic (accept for a dodgy dragon transformation sequence).

I must admit you do get an 'Indy' shiver down your back (duh!) maybe we have seen this all before, especially the predictable story line involving father n son action and even a hint at Peru for another possible story, Indy went to South America didn't he hehe. Did I mention Indy there again? no no no no no...well maybe yes, it can't be helped, really it can't!

The setting in China adds a nice or different type of mystical feel, another countries mummies and history well explored, and a touch of class which you always seem to get when a film is set in the East, the landscapes look awesome in the final battle scenario also.
The final 20mins of the film are really good, really takes the film up a notch, excellent use of cgi for some epic army visuals and some great magic and monster fun.

Better than the lame 'National Treasure' films and a darn good Indy style flick in my personal opinion...I know everyone hated this.