Be Excellent To Each Other

Ender's game will be a tough film to make. It's pretty unpleasant, really.

Also - Gravity



Oh god. It's Open Water in space.

Elysium all the way, for me. Even with Matt Damon in it looks awesome.

And then yer man can make District 9.

HOLYFUCKINGSHITCUBEBLURAYOHMYGOD.

Amazeballs cubes!!

Why is it necessarily 'gratuitous' violence?

If the violence is contextualised then it's not gratuitous, in the first Taken the harder cut featured a much harsher torture sequence as well as more 'robust' combat/fighting sequences, but Neeson was trying to save his daughter's life after all, so it didn't feel over the top to me. The violence was contextualised and we understood what was driving Neeson's character, his daughter's life depended on him taking out the baddies.

The problem with cutting to a certificate is that in general it doesn't really change what's going on, in Taken 2 he's still going to kill a load of people and there's still a torture sequence in there, they've just been cut and cut until the censors say 'Yeah that'll do for a 12A', so you end up with a film where the story and theme just don't match up with what you're seeing and hearing.

It's also a very cynical cash-grabbing exercise, in that they can take the money at the cinema, and then sell it again as an 'EXTREME UNSEEN EDITION' on DVD/Blu-Ray. Now in the past these editions of films were reserved for when they were cut even at the highest rating in the cinema, so where the MPAA would make cuts for an R, the DVD could be unrated. Over time the BBFC have chilled out too, so stuff that was cut for 18 at the cinema can now be released uncut on 18 DVD, I'm fine with that.

What I'm not fine with is taking a film like Taken 2, which is clear R/15 (maybe 18), and cutting and cutting it until it hits PG-13/12A, taking TEN MINUTES out of a film to hit that cert is clearly absurd, I mean, the director damn near says as much that the cinema version is fucked and you'll have to watch the unrated DVD to see it properly.

Point is, Taken 2 didn't need to be cut, they could have released it at the 'proper' rating and that would be it, job done. Instead we get a shit version in the cinema and then to see it properly we have to buy it again on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Certain films suit a certain level of violence, Star Wars suits cartoony violence, Robocop suits harsh adult violence, Remains of the Day needs no violence at all, Rocky or Indiana Jones suit 'teenage' violence, and so on.

Where I get pissed off is films being artificially reduced to hit an artificial certificate point.

But the film would have worked perfectly well without the extra violence, no?

Well no, not really.

I mean, you could make that argument about any film with violence in it.

Would Aliens have worked perfectly well if we hadn't seen the full horror of the initial encounter with the aliens on LV-426?

Would Seven have worked perfectly well if the camera cut away every time we were about to see the results of one of the crimes?

Would Robocop have worked perfectly well if all we ever got to see was the ITV version?

The rage of Neeson's character in Taken is important, as an audience we empathise with him and his situation, we want the catharsis of seeing him take out the baddies, and if that gets a bit violent, then so be it - his daughter's life hangs in the balance.

What we don't want to see, surely, is him walking up to a baddie, half-perform a killing move with the sound effects dubbed out, and then see the baddy dead on the floor - it's a cheat, it's a con.

You may as well finish Star Wars as Luke enters the trench and put a caption up on the screen that reads 'LUKE BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.'

Oooh it's showing in Sheffield too late october. DEFINITELY GO TO THAT.

None of those are real equivalents to what we're talking about, though.

Aliens worked perfectly well without any gore, didn't it? Alien didn't have that much other than one scene.

Neeson's "rage" could be well demonstrated without seeing the inside of someone's body. What you're complaining about isn't stopping the film before anything happens (your death star example), you're complaining that you don't see enough.

Basically you just want to see as much violence as possible. Which is fine, you know, but it's not an argument about artistic integrity you're making.

Yeah, me too, as of last night.

What a bloody disappointment. Just think what they could've done; instead we got this tosh. Glad I didn't bother with the cinema on this.

What's even more sad is they're making a sequel.

Well I suppose they had to. So many unanswered questions re. the original film (which was awesome, obv.), let alone the new questions posed.

In summary, I basically thought it was about as much use as tits on a snake.

Well, p'raps, but none of the questions were very interesting this time around.

The film even Samuel L Jackson wouldn't touch.

Right - I need a sci fi film to watch because mrs K has got into Grey's fucking Anatomy and is hogging the xbox. RMD me do me do.

Eh? Hang on, you're making a big leap from what I actually said to 'you just want to see as much violence as possible'. The harder cut of the original Taken felt right to me, it wasn't gratuitous or sadistic, it was appropriate for the story and the characters and the theme. They could have made it a lot more grisly and gruesome if they'd wanted to (the torture scene for example was still relatively tame in the grand scheme of things), but there was no need for it and I didn't want it.

And I'm not talking about 'seeing the inside of someone's body' either, I'm talking about jarring cuts that break the flow of the film (I used to work as a VT Editor, that shit sticks out a mile to me), audio replacement/reduction, jumps in the narrative because stuff is flat-out missing, that kind of thing.

Remember we're not talking about some kind of hardcore snuff film with Taken 2, by all accounts it would have been an entirely uncontroversial R in the States and most likely a 15 in the UK, but instead it's been well and truly neutered to make it fit a certificate category where it doesn't belong.

I don't lust after violent films, one of my Top Ten Ever films would be Remains Of The Day, which is basically Anthony Hopkins talking with Emma Thompson for a couple of hours, certificate U. I do however want films to stay true to their story arc, their characters, their motivations, and hacking ten minutes out of Taken 2 breaches that standard.

The artistic integrity of a film is compromised, pretty much by definition, when the director's vision for the film is fucked with by a studio, be it for reasons of censorship or to attain a particular certificate, or to give it perceived mainstream appeal. (For example, the narration track and fake happy ending for Bladerunner, which Scott had to accept at the time as he didn't have the clout to push through his vision for the film.)

You seen Source Code? That's pretty good.

And Moon, directed by the same guy.

Or you could rewatch Wrath of Khan, that film stands up to rewatching several times over.

Or Bladerunner, if you haven't seen that for a while, it's easy to forget how fucking good it is.

I enjoy rewatching old favourites as much as I do watching good new films.

Compare Die Hard 4 with the unrated version as a good example of a film ruined by ratings changes. It was scripted and shot as an adult movie, then cut to ribbons (mainly in the language department) to make the big bucks of the teenager market.

Loved Moon - will give Source Code a go, although it's that gyllenhall guy, isn't it?


I watched Judge Dredd last night. Top 90s tastic. I too like rewatching stuff but I'd like to watch something new. Preferably with pew pew in it.

Davpaz - was it really? I loved that film.

there's a new one coming out soon(ish)!

If you haven't seen the uncut version, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Is it just extra swearies?

How would one go about watching the uncut version?

If you've not seen Source Code then definitely fire it up, it's a good, smart, 'proper' sci-fi film.

Read this spoiler after you've seen it:

Extra swears. Extra action. Adult themes. Angry words.

It's available on dvd I believe

You just want to see as much violence as possible, YOU ANIMAL.

Did you watch it yet?

Watched the first 10 minutes yesterday on the laptop on putlocker, then realised I could watch it on the Xbox on lovefilm. Going to watch it with Mrs K this weekend.

cube is dispatching soon! Also cabin in the woods! But cube!

fucking CUBE!

MIB3, halfway through, is most, most excellent.

"Just cos you see a black guy in a car doesn't mean it's stolen..... alright, I stole this one."

CUUUUUUUUUBE!

Pish with your cube.

you've not seen Cube have you?

Though actually, given the intervening 15 years, you wouldn't understand.

I actually have, yes. It was most passingly entertaining.

You are dead to mCUBE!

I'll avoid the cheesewire room.

From the director of In Bruges:

I've just thoroughly enjoyed Moon.

Yeah Moon is fab, watch Source Code next, directed by the same guy.

same guy WHO IS DAVID BOWIE'S SON.

We watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Weird but cool.

I'll add that to my list, but the next film I'll be watching is Big Man Japan.

This one is already very much on my radar, as In Bruges is a stunningly good film.

There are some accounts of it losing its way in the final act though, just like In Bruges did.

(I pegged In Bruges as a solid 10/10 all the way through, then the last fifteen minutes dropped it down to a 9/10.)

Skyfall (Bond) reviews are starting to come in...

4 out of 4 positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as I type this :

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

Plus there's Empire's 4-star review which hasn't been added to Rotten Tomatoes yet :

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/rev ... FID=137076

Thought Casino Royale was ace, but Solace was piss-poor in general.
This sounds like a return to form. Fingers crossed....

Haven't seen Solace, I just avoid films that are generally regarded as bad and drag a series down - (for example, I've watched The Matrix but have quite deliberately avoided Reloaded and Revolutions and have never watched one single frame of either of them, so to me The Matrix is still that perfect standalone film, completely unbesmirched by unnecessary sequels) - Casino Royale was fantastic though, and it looks like Skyfall is superb too.

I'll just wait for the unrated/director's cut DVD, as doubtless it'll take a bit of a kicking at the hands of the censors for a 12A in the UK and maybe to get it down to a PG-13 in the States. (Doubtless it'll be listed as 'uncut' at the cinema but for big films like this the distributors always take pre-submission advice on an early cut and thus deliver a version that doesn't need any further cuts.)

Even if the cinema version is actually the proper version, I still see no reason to endure the cinema these days, when we've all got big tellies and 5:1 sound setups at home, and we can pause a film if we need a piss, and we don't have to endure noisy cunts eating crisps and sweets and fucking around with their phones at home.

Seven Psychopaths looks excellent.

Big Man Japan

Bought this for £3 in HMV based on the cover and comments alone.

Not as good as I thought it would be, but entertaining enough. The ending is .

I award it a C+

Watched Cabin in the Woods last night and it was excellent. Hilarious and fucked up at the same time with an excellent cast and fittingly bleak ending. Good stuff.

I saw it at the cinema and am waiting for the BluRay to arrive as we speak.

Mostly I'm waiting for the CUBE half of the package though. CUBE CUBE CUBE CUBE.

Films fae the weekend...

Moon, meh.
Predators, was neither pish or gid.
Machete, well gid.