Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah I liked The Drop too.

Birdman - a film with wonderful performances and exemplary camerawork... that left me pretty cold and unimpressed. A score of almost entirely percussion which was often rather intrusive and distracting. I'm sure it's got some profound deeper meaning in it somewhere but it went totally over my head. There was an anti critic scene as well and those are always a bit annoying. Film makers love to portray critics as people who have no idea about what they are doing.

The Theory of Everything - Not usually one for life story/True life type things as so often they are a bit dull (Walk the Line/Big Eyes being two particular cases) but this was a really good engaging film about a remarkable person. Astonishing performance from the lead actor and the whole thing was paced perfectly to properly hold your attention the full two hours. And of course it's inspiring stuff. Doesn't seem to be being quite as well received as Birdman though which disappoints me.

I felt the score was awesome and really contributed to this unsettling feeling (also helped by the "one continuous long shot" idea) that I was watching someone's descent into utter madness.

I agree with the critic scene though - I get what they were going for but her apparent personal vendetta against Riggan (and other washed-up movie stars) struck me as a little odd.

I really loved the movie though, all in. Great performances from all of the cast, and surprisingly humourous.

My favourite part?

Walk the Line is great, fool!

So everyone seems to think but I didn't find it very interesting.

I thought Tusk was a bit rubbish.

Michael Parks is great, but I don't really think there is much else to like about the film at all.

Watched Thor 2 the other day. Surprisingly enjoyable. The baddie was kinda bland, and Portman was kinda annoying, but Thor and Loki are both brilliant, especially Loki.

Son of Rambow is simply a delight.

Taken 3 is pretty good, if exceedingly derivative.

Big Hero 6 is a simply lovely film by Disney, the first 3/4 of the film are just lovely to watch, the end not so much imo (kinda wish I had turned it off before the spoiled it). They have managed to get a definate manga feel to the standard Disney animation and it helps this film alot, also the main character is just awesome

I assume you mean beymax, not Hiro?

Watched 'Pitch Perfect' last night, which is basically like a 'Glee' movie, but with people you recognise, and Anna Kendrick as the lead who is always awesome.

Anyway, very entertaining, if you like that sort of thing.

yeh, Hiro is a tiresome

How have you only just watched that? I'd have thought you'd be all over it.

Coz I'd never heard of it until Mrs Gaywod mentioned it.

Go on...

Huh

Just watched '21 Jump Street'. Great stuff - laughing out loud all the way through.

I watched that and the sequel the other day and thought they were pretty rubbish for the most part, with the occasional good gags scattered through.

I saw that on Twitter and assumed you had just gone temporarily mad. Clearly it's a slightly more permanent state.

My condolences to you and your family. I hope you get the help you need.

When i saw the first minutes of Pitch Perfect I wondered if that's what i want for my life, to spend any more minutes watching something so stupid.

Since that there are people that apparently genuinely like that sort of thing just shows that i don't know anything about human nature.

I'd like to add that 21 and 22 Jump Street are probably some of the funniest films I've ever seen. Pitch Perfect was also superb.

I saw Into the Woods yesterday and it's a total mess of a film. Not entirely without merit but it's a definite mess. Struggles to find its tone and has no memorable songs. But does have Emily Blunt and Anna Kendrick which are always good things to have in a film.

I saw the The the The the the The Hobbit yesterday.

In the FREEEDEEEEZ!

I've never seen a Hobbit film in 3D before so it was quite a moment for me as the 3D had me in moments of jaw dropping inter dimensional stuff and, erm, other stuff that was utterly irritating beyond words.

It's probably been said about 3D before but since this is the first 3D I've seen in an age I want to point out:

* WHY DO MOST SCENES LOOK LIKE A FUCKING POP UP BOOK? I mean, honestly, the character look, at times, like pieces of cardboard moving back and forth. It's weird and I don't like it.

* WHY DOES THE 3D MAKE MY EYES HURT WHEN THE CAMERA PANS SIDEWAYS BUT NOT UP AND DOWN AND ZOOMING IN AND OUT? For saying its filming at 70 million frames per second it still looks a bit blurry with sideways pans.

* What else to moan about? Oh, with the new hyper visual stuff some scenes look terrible - like they're a BBC drama. The realism diminishes somehow. It's weird and I don't like it.

* Substantive stuff now:

1) Story: Terrible. It's a pitiful excuse for a last film. You got the gold now everyone wants it - FiiiiiiGHHT. That's it.
2) Dialogue: Terrible. I swear at least 3 times at the beginning someone looks into the camera and says "It's waaaaaaaaAAAAR". I was laughing out loud at how terrible it all was. It's contrived garbage.
3) Acting: Terrible. Some of the extras are particularly bad. I don't know if it's the ultra high def visuals that give it away but one guy during a particular fight sequence says something in such a way that I couldn't help but groan. Just terrible. And it's not just terrible actors working with a terrible plot with terrible dialogue. Not just that. But the pacing is all wrong. Endless close up shots of faces throughout and long lingering camera pans ruin the pace of the film. Oh and that elven woman (the pale one) and her silly bottle of liquid at the beginning? It was all so cringeworthy. And the old fuckers with the staffs? Cringe. And Gandalf? Cringe. And he doesn't use his magic when he's fighting either. And bird shit wizard? Well I just hated him the moment he was introduced.
4) But least he can do a big fight sequence though, right? Sort of. But the premise for the fight is retarded. They're attacking the town!!! THERES ONLY 100 people there, who gives a shit? Why is it a massive deal? Surely 100 people would be wiped out against this massive Orc army?
5) The entire fight sequence (the only reason this film even exists) is like one long videogame cut scene. Some sequences more so than others, and there's times when my finger wanted to bang the X button so it'd let me play the fucking thing.
6) The ending: too long; say bye to dead folk and fuck off will ya. Not as long as I was expecting though, so there's that.
7) The shire looks much worse in 3D than what I remember.
I still don't know how they won. They were getting panned.

So "The Hobbit 3: Attack of the overlong subtitle but least it ain't as bad as the last one" 2/10. Fucking dreadful.

I don't think that's not how it started. My memory is that the orcs began by attacking the armies massed in front of the mountain. They only subsequently sent some of their forces towards the town in order that the elves/humans/dwarves would have to split their forces by sending some folk to defend the civilians in the town. The town wasn't 'a massive deal' in and of itself.

The first Hobbit was awfully boring. I never gathered the strength to watch the second one. I'm probably never going to do so because there's not much of a payoff

I didn't expect to enjoy any of them knowing that they'd stretched the source material out so far but ending up really liking all three films.

The Hobbit 1: Boring.
The Hobbit 2: Less boring.
The Hobbit 3D: Less boringer then more boring.

They're, collectively, still a utter bag of shit and waste of time. I couldn't care less about stretching the source material. I just wanted to watch some decent filums. They aint.

Stretching is not the problem. Total Recall and Minority Report, for example, were based on short stories. The problem is filling the movie with dwarves rolling around, and then rolling around a bit more.

Then you're in for a humdinger of a movie saga then cause this film is filled with thems!

What? You didn't want that?

OH NOES!

Scottish accent dwaft in the last one pushed my buttons as well. HNNNGH.

They lost me when they spent 20 mins singing a song about washing up.

Woo! BFI on the Southbank are doing a Marx Brothers retrospective. Just got myself a ticket to go and see 'Monkey Business' (my favourite) on Saturday at 18:10.

Was tempted to go for 'Duck Soup', but I'm a fan of 'Sweet Adeline'.

There's a new Avengers/Ultron trailer out.

Rather excited for May.

Oscar noms are out.

Best picture:
American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash

Best director:
Wes Anderson, Alejandro G Inarritu, Richard Linklater, Bennett Miller, Morten Tyldum

Best actor:
Steve Carrell, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne

Best actress:
Marion Cotillard, Felicity Jones, Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, Reece Witherspoon

Original screenplay:
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Adapted screenplay:
American Sniper
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

I've not seen any of the best picture films. I should probably fix that.

Surprised that American Sniper has got so many nominations. I read a few really negative reviews of it.

You should stay off them extremist websites.

I'd like to watch it, though.

Hang on, I watched that film (sorry, just thinking about war films for a minute) with those guy's and the tank in WW2.

It had that guy from The Walking Dead in it. Shane.

It wanted to be Saving Private Ryan but was pretty terrible. Bloody hell what was that called?

Anyway, I watched that.

Yay me.

Is that how we do this thread?

A very white, male nomination list this year (actress categories excepted, obv).

The Grand Budapest was wonderful. Loved every second.

Was it Fury? That also had Brad Pitt in.

Did it make you angry, per chance?

I'm happy for Grand Budapest Hotel, even though Moonrise Kingdom was much better and didn't receive all this attention.

Also, glad that Ida was nominated for best foreign film as it was beautiful.

It's just entertainment. Stop trying to shoehorn in your shiny new beliefs.

BOOM!

*checks internet*

That'll be the one. Brad Pitt, that's the fella I was thinking about. Him. He was in it. I sharn't bother watching it if I was a person with a pair of eyes. Which I am. Or a one eyed fella. Hell, if I wouldn't recommend listening to it if you had two ears. Or even if you had one ea... etc.

No nominations for The Lego Movie!

Blatant bias against people of colour.