The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary 3, cast, good fun.

The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary 2, the technical commentary with Edgar Wright and DP Bill Pope.

Pacific Rim

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up

Commentary time! You can't doubt Del Toro's passion. He sure loves his monsters. Some interesting things to learn too, mainly about the use of colour and design. A bit of a history lesson too.

Marry Poppins

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

Write Up.

Saving Mr. Banks is coming out soon, so Disney released a tie-in Bluray of this classic. I checked out the extra features, there's a lot about the creation of the Broadway musical and some good interviews and the commentary, which I listened to again as I watched. It's much easier in HD to see the seams in the fx work but the animation and especially the amazing matte paintings have such detail to them that you can really appreciate. Good to see again as a refresher before Disney's oscar hopeful for this year.

Gravity

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Gemma

Write Up.

They had cheap tickets to a Vmax session. This time I sat a little closer. Makes a big difference even though there's some slight ghosting that's more prominent. Sound is much better in the bigger cinemas too.

The World's End

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

Commentary time! There are 3 on the bluray but I had to start with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Always entertaining and insightful and so much to pick up on. They love to pack their films with hidden sight gags and double meanings and there's so much here I missed in the fist two viewings. Such a fun film.

The Fall

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Shane

Write up.

I recently looked over all my lists of all the films I've seen since 2008 to find out which ones I rewatched the most. This was pretty high up on the list but I still have friends who hadn't seen it yet, so this fixed that problem and bumped it up a place too.

American Hustle

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

A fun period conman movie with a great cast. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely hilarious. Loved Louis C.K. too. With a conman movie you usually expect some sort of narrative long con, not so here, this is a very straight forward tale and they clearly set up the final play so what this film amounts to is pretty much a bit of fun with great actors playing interesting characters but not much of an inventive plot. I expected something more from David O. Russell but this isn't a heavy hitter, just a slightly overly long piece of well put together entertainment.

Did anyone think that was a Sandra Bullock cameo? I wouldn't be surprised, the didn't even credit Robert De Niro hah.

Battle of the Year

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Another year, another 3D dance movie. Oh man this one's a doozy. Hilariously inept dialogue and scenes with probably the most blatant product placement I've ever seen in any film since Mac and Me. Apart from just being a big ad for a multitude of Sony products and Braun shaving the film blatantly uses chunks of the documentary Planet B-Boy (now streaming from Sony's online store to PS Vita...) to get the coach played by Josh Holloway, and the audience up to speed on what exactly B-Boy-ing is. And in truth the dancing style did nothing for me, I don't really get it. The 3D was, umm, a thing.

In all honesty the dialogue and forced drama was so hilariously bad that I really enjoyed myself enough to reccomend this one to those of you that like that sort of torture. Josh Peck was the only actor who got one or two genuine laughs from me and he did the best at selling the material but really, there's nothing much here but another forgettable trashy dance movie.

Gravity

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Dominic, AJ

Write Up.

It's still out! Woo.

Closed Circuit

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Nice 70's style paranoid thriller for the modern age. It's a bit of a slow burn but once it gets going it's okay. Unfortunately I think most of the audience is going to be slightly ahead of most of the twists and turns of the film but it's still intriguing enough and the cast equip themselves well.

Delivery Man

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Ken Scott has remade his own film, Starbuck, from 2011. I haven't seen the original but by all accounts this one is the same but in english. And with a more expensive cast.

And it's okay I guess. An interesting premise but not exactly mined for dramatic potential. It's a stock standard template and I didn't find it particularly funny, and it probably raises more questions than it can answer in the runtime but it's only concerned with making a pleasant experience and there's nothing particularly offensive in the film so I guess they succeeded. 

The Spectacular Now

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

What a beautiful film. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley step up and deliver some of the most naturalistic performances of teenagers I've ever seen. And it helps that the writing of these character are give them so much to play with. The entire film is just subtly heartbreaking, I guess at times more overt than others, but it never tips over into melodramatic or feels anything other than honest. Get out there and see this now.

The Railway Man

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Cicely

It always amazes me just how many more new stories people find to tell from the wars. This time a true story and perhaps more interesting, the aftermath of a survivor from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The structure mirrors the story of Nicole Kidman's character trying to fill in the gaps of the past. We're often shown the beginning of a sequence and the end only to have the middle revealed later on where it will have more of a dramatic impact.

Not knowing the book or story it was based on, the revelations throughout the film worked quite well for me even if the manipulation was quite transparent. The cast are all great and it was a treat to have the director at the screening for a Q and A after.

The tragedy of war and the brutality of torture has been seen many times on screen before and it didn't make much of an impact here but probably more important and far more successful emotionally was the climax and message of reconciliation. In large part due to the performances of Colin Firth and Hiroyuki Sanada.

I could have done without the wall-to-wall score but otherwise a satisfying film.

The Wicker Man

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

They had a special screening of the new Studio Canal print at an outdoor cinema here and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check it out on the big screen. There's a massive dip in quality and colour for some scenes but it's a vast improvement on the only other available option, which was from the workprint on VHS. Pretty cool that they managed to dig it up and dust it off for the 40th anniversary.