Thunderball

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

WIDESCREEEEEN

UNDERWATERRRRRRR

SHAAARRRRRKKSSS

This film is too long. But the girls work much better than in the previous film.

Goldfinger

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

Back to the Bond marathon. Goldfinger is one I've seen before a few times, not recently though. Pussy Galore. Ridiculous. Is it just me or does Bond rape her. And then we are to believe that he was so amazing she changed her sexuality and her morals and switched sides for him? Uhhhh....

Oddjob, so cool.

Spectre aren't in this one. I gotta admit I never put it together that they were an ongoing nemesis for the Bond franchise.

This one has something that the first two films lacked to varying degrees. That special something is fun.  The villains are more fun, Bond is more fun, the bond girls are rather tragic though, not in a bad sense but in a genuinely tragic sense. But apart from their sad fate there's a lot to enjoy with this classic. Not least of which is that title song.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

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

Write Up.

This long weekend they had screenings of the restoration to coincide with the bluray release this week for the 30th anniversary.

This was the first time I saw this at the cinema, a beautiful looking version of the original theatrical release. The film is just magic. What struck me watching in the cinema is just how restrictive and controlled the camera angles and shots are. Everything is either kept very wide or once we get to know the kids it's very tight on them in small environments. The same goes for the way they shoot the actual E.T. puppets and animatronics.

The story seems so simple and straight forward. It really takes its time when it needs to. And it's a great example of visually telling a story, there a long stretches where there's no dialogue at all and that's where the film shines.

Such a magical experience and I loved watching this in a cinema and seeing kids there watching it presumably for the first time, absolutely quiet and well behaved caught up in the film. Can't wait to pick up the bluray.

From Russia with Love

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

Ok, this is one I've never seen. Only the 2nd in the series and already you can see a huge difference in the way they tell the story. Some of that is probably a bigger budget, but the pace moves better, the story has periodic action and a few great set ups and payoffs.

And this is the film with the cat stroking villain whose face you don't ever see! Of course. Also appearing: Blonde Robert Shaw, whom I did not recognise at all, a very mission impossible pre-credit teaser, gypsy cat fight that stops the film dead in its tracks so we can perv at women for a bit, helicopter dodging and a villainous mastermind that has yet to be found out and killed! Presumably in a future instalment.

James Bond will return in Goldfinger.
Good to know.

Dr. No

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

The latest Bond film is imminent. I've never been a huge Bond fan, I do enjoy the few I've seen, mainly the later ones that came out as I was growing up. I've only seen a handful of earlier ones so I'm gonna attempt to get through them all leading up to the newest release.

Dr. No, 50 years ago. And not quite the Bond we know today, this film is a pretty slow paced spy thriller that's surprisingly light on action and heavy on talking heads. The villain doesn't even appear until the last half hour.

It's practically impossible for me to judge this in context, when I'm so used the the Pierce Brosnan films and this just seems so far removed from that. However a lot of the iconography is in place. And I love the title sequence. 

This is one of the few I had seen before but it was cool to watch in HD too, looks great. 

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

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

Friends are going to east to see the live show. Kinda jealous. But I did finally get to see the movie, an import dvd because even though it was scheduled to come out a week or so ago I haven't seen it available anywhere in Australia yet.

Anyway, if you watch the show, you'll get what you want from the movie. And if not, I don't know what you would make of it. Chances are it won't convert anyone that doesn't already love their stuff. I enjoyed it though.

Livid

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

Thought I could throw this on late night and watch an entertaining and intense french horror film. I think I was hoping for more something more along the lines of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's first film Inside. I love that film dearly. This one had much higher ambitions though. And I have to admit I was starting to nod off a little as the film itself became more and more dream-like. A trippy experience to say the least.

As a consequence I can't tell for sure that I fully grasped all the thematic relevance of what was going on in that last segment, or perhaps the film just lost the plot, but I think the former is more likely. Absolutely fascinating though. Did not see it coming.

And the whole set up was great, got me really excited. The crank up the creep factor well and you're never really sure exactly where the film is heading, which keeps you on your toes.

Beautifully shot, really gorgeous. Brilliant make-up effects. Some great gags and a different take on a tried and true horror classic.

I need to watch this one again to clarify a few things. Hopefully that will happen soon. But glad to see French horror is still going strong, they make great stuff.

Looper

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael, Alex, Rowan, Tim, Paul, Matt, Harriet

Write Up.

Twice in a day. So yeah, thoughts haven't changed much. People seem to be trying to read more into the ending than is intended I think. Chill out, it's not that complicated.  Johnson seems to like his bitter-sweet tragic endings. Just look at Brick and Brother's Bloom. He also likes his noir or western iconography. At least it felt that way to me watching it again.

Detention

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

Write Up.

This movie makes me so happy.

Looper

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

Rian Johnson finally has his new film out! And it is a lot of fun. I have to take issue with the time travel though, you should all know where I stand on this. Paradoxical. That's a no no. But you know what, despite what the trailer leeds you to believe the whole looper time travel thing is pretty much just a first act set-up for a slightly different conundrum. 

Yeah yeah, Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Bruce Willis make-up is a little trippy. But he does act and sound a hell of a lot like him. That's kinda fun. Paul Dano, didn't I just see you in Ruby Sparks? I literally just saw Emily Blunt in Your Sister's Sister. Save some for the other guys, geez. Also, Garret Dillahunt, I love seeing you show up in supporting roles in all the cool films. Your characters seem to always have the most unfortunate bad luck though don't they?

I must take a moment to point out the score. Because it is pretty awesome. 

Ok so I don't know how much I should say about what happens in the 2nd half of the film but I will say that little kid is great. The film has a very odd structure, that's to be expected in films dealing with time travel I guess, but this film still plays out very linear and doesn't use the time travel for much else except the set up. It has quite a few things to juggle and I don't think all of them fit together as well as they could but overall it's an entertaining film. I think I expected it to be more tricky with it's time play given 

Rian Johnson and Shane Carruth's involvement. But it's pretty straight forward. And Bruce Willis kills people with guns. What's not to like?

Your Sister's Sister

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

Lynn Shelton's follow up to Humpday, a mumblecore love triangle which follows all the beats you'd expect but has charming actors and an free flowing natural style that you don't mind too much. Actually to call this mumblecore might be a disservice, it is all improvised but no-one is actually mumbling. 

It's pretty much just the three cast in a cabin and we watch the drama unfold. I enjoyed it alright but thought the obvious resolution was dragged out far too long, as if we didn't know if it would all work out in the end or not and they were milking it for some non-existant suspense.

But the performances are good and it's a pleasant change of pace from the studio produced rom-coms. 

Super

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

Write Up.

Watching this just after the announcement that James Gunn is writing and directing the next big Marvel comics movie, Guardians of the Galaxy in the lead up to the Avengers sequel. What an inspired choice. I know they won't be able to let him rip loose like he does here but as long as he keeps some of that glorious insanity, we could be in for something special.

Really love this film. Delightfully corrupt.

Bait

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

Sharks in a supermarket. Should have been more fun for such a b-grade concept. The script was extra b-grade. And the accents alone were enough to make me throw up in my mouth a little. Please be Australia OR American, just pick one.

I don't know what Dan Wyllie thought he was doing but he seemed to be going with a completely different tone to everybody else. If he was purposefully trying to make his deliveries as bad as possible like I think he was, then he succeeded.

It's nice they went to the effort of shooting in 3d, but if they have to use 2d cameras for outdoor water scenes, they needed a much better post conversion plan in place. After watching 3 films in 3d at the cinema in a row, nothing was a problem except for the handful of shots in this film that were obviously given fake 3d in post.

I wanted to like this film, but it just wasn't fun or scary and with few exceptions, every character was horribly written and far too few of them died. I wish Piranha 3DD was getting a cinema release rather than this...

Resident Evil: Retribution

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Sam, Paul, Matt

What even was this? After the 4th film I wasn't expecting any miracles but this just really takes the cake. Yeesh.

Well the fx have gotten better. But pretty much everything else got worse.

Hotel Transylvania

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

Genndy Tartakovsky finally gets a chance at making a feature. And It's a good thing he went to Sony, who have once again proved they are masters at translating the hyper rubbery cartoon style of uniquely 2d graphic designed characters and translating them into 3d. Although why they couldn't have just made it a 2d animated film is beyond me. But the 3d was nice I guess. 

You can see his usual design style coming through in the characters and more importantly, in the camera, editing and direction. At the moment the layout feels pretty 2d as well but the striking imagery it creates gives it a great stylised look. The snappy single frame pose transitions he uses in his cartoons are on full display here too. 

As for the story, it's not too bad but nothing that wowed me. Still perfectly enjoyable though. It's certainly the best thing Adam Sandler's been involved with for a very very long time.