Be Excellent To Each Other

In a heroic move showing some brave decision making Paramount have decided, in response to no threats whatsoever, to pull all the prints of Team America from circulation too.

"Forget those plans by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and other theaters to run Team America: World Police in place of The Interview. The Austin-based chain says that Paramount has now decided not to offer South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s 2004 satire that focuses on Kim Jong-il, the late father of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Alamo says that the cancellation at its Dallas theater is “due to circumstances beyond our control” and says it will offer refunds to those who have already bought tickets. Cleveland’s Capitol Theater also tweeted that Team America “has been canceled by Paramount Pictures.” - Deadline

http://deadline.com/2014/12/paramount-c ... 201329597/

Gosh, Hollywood really is completely spineless. Reminds me of the super-late 30's when they wouldn't show anti-Nazi films in case the Germans got upset.

Though on the plus side I guess this'll mean one hell of a South Park episode.

I am not sure I would call it spineless; if there were an attack at a "theatre" showing this, they would be lambasted to hell and back. Furthermore, it shows unusual character that they even thought it was a possibility and took the lives of these people into account rather than letting them die for the price of a cinema ticket and some popcorn.

Depends whether you agree with negotiating with terrorists or not.

Not negotiating with terrorists is usually a lie.

Yeah.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists!" *furiously negotiates with aforementioned terrorists*

Are you not pleased the little man beat the big corporation?

It's certainly been interesting to find out that the internal machinations of the upper echelons of a huge corporation are far more dysfunctional than I ever imagined.

Is that a euphemism?

Come on baby, free my hostages.

I think it's a publicity stunt.

Films with stars from off the telly that I turned off after twenty minutes as they were garbage:

1) I Origin - with Glenn from TWD

2) Pompeii - with Jon Snuuuur from GoT.

Sick of shit films I finally got settled into Girl Gone.

It's got Ben Affleck in it but don't let put you put cause I really enjoyed that. I Remember seeing a trailer for it at cinema and thinking what a load of rubbish it looked but it was actually really quite awesome and twisted.

Ok, so you could poke holes in it with a stick but if you forget about that and just go with it it's bloody enjoyable.

Ok, fine, quick synopsis to try and convince you: Man goes to work, comes home and his wife missing. BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO HER!? What, you want me to spoil it, you duffus. Watch the bloody thing will ya?

Ok, ok, here's Ian's guarantee:

You will love this film.

OR

You will think it's stupid.

BUT, regardless, you WILL have a strong opinion on it cause it's that sort of flick. Have you a partner/wife/spouse/lover/mistress? Watch it with them and see how far apart your opinions lie on the merits of the film. And if your opinions are the same then HATE YOURSELF FOR BEING A LIMP WUSS OF A MAN/WOMAN WITHOUT THE CONVICTION TO CHALLENGE THE OPINIONS OF YOUR PARTNER/WIFE/SPOUSE etc.

I'm awarding it 8 barbed wires and a pineapple. Cause words can mean anything you want them to. Unless that word is "subjective". Obv.

I loved Gone Girl.

I've recently watched Angel 1+2 so I had to continue the saga with Angel 3: The Final Chapter (at least it's the final chapter until they did Angel 4).

Molly, who is sometimes known as her former prostitute name 'Angel' who has strangely given up on her success in law school to become a freelance photographer, goes back on THE STREET to find out who killed her mother. Basically.

It's a lot more ordinary than the first two films. Largely just a general crime thriller type thing with mediocre acting. Very straight to DVD stuff but scores very very high on the craster scale with a solid 1 star within the first 5 minutes.

'A Walk Among The Tombstones' the other night, with that there Liam Neeson doing ACTING instead of FIGHTING like he does in the Taken films.

It was alright I suppose, although why they put the annoying teenager in I don't know, and Neeson's character never really made a huge amount of sense either. Oh yes and the baddies were just too psycho to really be interesting. Not overly sold on the torture of women either, 'justified by context' or not.

6/10 - Watchable but mostly because of Neeson.

EDIT - Cut by the BBFC for a 15 (an uncut 18 was available), so probably best to get hold of the American R rated version.

'A Walk Among The Tombstones'

A 6/10 from me too. Pleasant enough (thanks to Neeson), but nothing special.

"EDIT - Cut by the BBFC for a 15 (an uncut 18 was available), so probably best to get hold of the American R rated version."

Wasn't aware of that but found out today that the studio releasing Taken 3 have decided to edit the action sequences so that it can be released as a 12A certificate in the UK (instead of a 15).

Taken 2 was shit, Taken 3 has the same director as Taken 2, and now that Taken 3 will probably have badly edited, bloodless action scenes (like Expendables 3), I'm guessing it will be extra shit...

Shame, because the original Taken was great violent fun.

Capote is a pretry good film about the author writing In Cold Blood and his relationships with the prisoners and his own circle. Hoffman is very good portraying Capote, anD I'd probably watch it again.

They're doing to Taken what they did to The Bourne Identity.

I think they call it Franchisementrizing.

Everyone went to bed at 10.30 last night so at last I watched Guardians of the Galaxy.

Really enjoyed it, nice change from all the romantic and drama films I've had to watch with inlaws and wife for the last week!

Couple of new films I've seen recently :

THE INTERVIEW (yes, that one...)

Childish humour, daft plot, but I still laughed quite a bit & found it generally fun. 6.5/10
If you hate Seth Rogan and/or James Franco, your opinion may vary.

SON OF A GUN

Fairly gritty Australian crime drama/thriller (with Ewan McGregor in a major supporting role).
This type of film is right up my alley and this was a good'un. 8/10

Gone Girl

It's was both ludicrous (plot-wise) and infinitely entertaining.

The original Carrie is phenomenal.

Watched The Hundred-Foot Journey the other night, very good film imo, about a Indian family who set up a restaurant in rural France opposite a Michelin starred restaurant (was supprised to see Spielberg's and Oprah's names at the end as executive producers...). 7/10

Watched 'Sex Tape' last night, starring Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz. Loads of arse shots of both of them.

Was moderately amusing for most of the film, but there's an excellent section in the middle featuring Rob Lowe, drugs and a dog.

This was one of the many films I downloaded to cater to the Wife\Inlaw's film tastes over Xmas. I really enjoyed it though, good film

Once we were free of visitors I had my revenge and the wife and I watched The Maze Runner (my choice) not a bad film and I guess depending on box office receipts there will be a few more films in the series

The Rob Lowe scenes were very good in this film, found the rest to be a bit flat , made me laugh in places though

Just watched White House Down. I guarantee that movie was born when someone said "Let's remake Die Hard!"

Most enjoyable.

The Interview is terrible, even for Seth Rogen's standards. Seriously, WW3 almost happened because of this?

James Franco made me lose all of my respected that i had for him since Spring Breakers.

I preferred Olympus Has Fallen.

I thought it was a watchable romp also.

I haven't seen White House Down but I note that it is a PG-13 which makes me immediately suspicious about any 'Die Hard' claims.

Olympus Has Fallen however was a great film, far more like Die Hard than Die Hard itself had been for years, in fact. (Also a proper 'R' rated film, as Die Hard has to be.)

Speaking of The Wire, has anyone watched The Affair already?

I wouldn't go so far as to call OHF "great", but it has more going for it than WHD.

WHD is perfectly enjoyable however, but I just found it overly predictable and typically sappy (the Emmerich staple) - there's a bit at the start of the film which is a perfect example of both, neatly summarised by my Facebook post from when I watched it (spoilers).

OHF has its flaws, I don't really rate Gerard Butler much as the McClane type, but the film does make up for it with some shocking stuff - the scenes near the start during the initial attack where took me by surprise.

The Interview is utter fucking dogshit at every level from start to finish.

Watched the new Robocop last night, it's not one I've been overly keen to seek out but it's turned up on Netflix so I decided to give it a go.

No one was more surprised than me when it turned out to a be a genuinely good film. It does help that Gary Oldman has a major part in it, as does Michael Keaton, who are both excellent actors and lend a lot of heft to the proceedings. (Samuel L Jackson never goes amiss either.) The chap who plays Robocop isn't someone I've seen before but he's entirely competent, and I recognised a few other faces in there too (a chap off The Wire, for example).

Violence wise it's clearly massively neutered but at the same time the themes and 'what happens' (even if we can't see it) are pretty adult, if it were released twenty years ago I could see it getting a 15 instead of a 12.

The special effects are universally excellent, for the me the mark of good CGI is when it's hard to tell what's CGI and what's practical effects, and whilst there's a lot of stuff that clearly has to be CGI it's always convincing.

More importantly than all of that it's just a good story, well written, well acted, well directed, and well told.

In a way it doesn't even need the 'Robocop' name, although I suppose there are enough similarities in there that they may as well name check the original, but it's really quite a different film. (For starters, this Murphy knows from the start what's happened to him and his family consent to him being 'Robocopised'.)

The only thing it's missing is seriously nasty baddies, there's nothing in there like Bodicker's collection of fuckfaces (or indeed Bodicker himself), and the slimy fuckers further up the chain are different too.

Small criticism though, overall a remarkably solid film and an unexpected treat - 8/10.

Pantani: Accidental Death of a Cyclist was pretty good. I got tears in my eyes a few times. The book is better if you are really interested, but the 90 minute documentary does well. I would recommend it to non cycling fans as well, due to the story told.

Why did people expected so little from the new Robocop? That director has an excellent record

I agree with everything this sensible chap said about said Robot Cop. viewtopic.php?style=19&f=3&t=3817&p=821018&hilit=Robocop#p821018

I guess it's because the original is so good and indeed turned out to be so prescient (and it really does hold up today, it's a film I rewatch periodically so it's not the old rose-tinteds going on).

Hollywood's habit of remaking films from not that long ago is annoying and often goes horribly wrong, and smacks somewhat of laziness.

Despite that, the new Robocop was a clever and worthwhile updating of a film I genuinely consider to be a modern classic.

Said that, i still haven't watched the new Robocop, and i don't intend to, just like i didn't with Total Recall. I just don't see the point of remaking films.

I wouldn't say the new Robocop is a remake TBH, there's enough that's different about it to set it apart from the original.

Worth a watch IMO.

Remember the Night (1939) - Sentimental but not too slushy romantic drama set around christmas time. Barbara Stanwyck stars as glamorous grifter caught out and arrested. During her trial the prosecutor takes pity on the idea of her being locked up over christmas and takes her under his wing over christmas, resulting in a road trip and discovering of how a bit of familial care goes a long way to make a better person. Stanwyck is one of my all time favourite actresses if not my favourite, her skill is beyond compare in how natural she was compared to other actors of the time. Her timing and body language excel in making you really feel for the character and as I say while it is sentimental it avoids being too saccharine with a relatively mixed emotion ending.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Again starring Barbara Stanwyck, this is the tale of a columnist having to fake being the person she claims to be in her column for Good Housekeeping magazine with having to host a war veteran and her editor. So suddenly she has to find herself a farm, a husband and a baby. Which she does with absurd and hilarious consequences. A sharp script and seemingly good chemistry between the two leads and again incredible timing from Barbara Stanwyck make this an absolute riot of a film. So full of charm it's impossible to grin for the full 1h40m. It's a real gem of a screwball comedy. Despite being set at christmas there's no real reason why it couldn't have been at any other time of year but it does help.

Whilst we are discussing remakes this is an opportune moment to remind everyone that Bad Lieutenant is the best remake ever.

The two things I disliked about the new RoboCop were the lack of any "real" baddies - I can't remember the bad guy's name in it, he just doesn't really "do" anything in the way that Clarence Boddicker did, and the actress that plays Murphy's wife, who is so devoid of acting chops that it pulled me out of any scene with her in it.

Gone Girl - Amazing film. 9.5/10

The Judge - Downy Jnr plays his usual arrogant role, but a good film 7/10

The Guest - Good film 6/10

next on the list is IOrigin

A Walk Among The Tombstones fails the "Is this film interesting enough to stop me casually browsing the internet whilst i am watching it" test.

7 Days: if you're the type of person who says "anyone so much as looks at my kid, I swear I'll do time" you'll love this torture thriller about the revenge a man takes on his daughter's alleged rapist and killer after kidnapping him. If you're normal, it is tightly acted and shot but ultimately you will be disappointed in a weak conclusion.

Theory of Everything - simply lovely, with stunning acting from the leads

Unbroken - fairly hard to watch at times, but inspirational story and quite poignant. Those Japs were evil fucks.

Hobbit 3 - standard LOTR fayre, enjoyable romp

Filth: Quite liked and enjoyed it but dinnae completely understand. Welled up at the end.

Worth checking out the book, where you get to see a bit more insight into the protagonist's state of mind.

Pride - Nice "Feel good" movie. If this was an hollywood effort i would most certainly roll my eyes with the overall corniness, but this movie could walk that thin line because of the good humour.

Only lovers left alive - Great directing and atmosphere wasted on a cheesy plot and script.

The Drop - Good unpretentious mob film. Nice performances by tom hardy (i think my wife has a crush on him, i have to be careful of what movies i chose to watch together:P) and from the great late James Gandolfini.