Movies, Movies, Movies.....

[Team Thriller]

^^

And it's hard to live up to the awesome 10th anniversary original London Cast tracks!

I'm so excited for the movie! I want to listen to the tracks now but a large part of me wants to wait for the movie.

 

-- James

[Philrad71]

I bought Michael the London o2 arena version of Les Mis on Blu-Ray for X-Mas...hope he likes it, although I know he is super pumped for the movie!

 

 

Also watched 'The Odd Life of Timothy Green' the other night - great family movie!

[jray21]

I really liked that version of Les Mis. Can't wait for the movie version to come out tomorrow!

[robbalvey]

Already have our tickets!

[azza29]

^Wow - $6.75 for a movie! I don't think they've cost that down here for at least 20 years. Well enjoy, The Hobbit finally opens here today so I'm off to check that out.

[BeemerBoy]

Finally saw Skyfall over the weekend.

 

The first 2/3's of the movie were incredible; however, the ending fell flat. For a story that had so much going for it, including Javier Bardem playing an AWESOME villian, the writers really phoned in the climax. I'll withhold any spoilers, but it really was such a cliched ending.

 

Bond deserved much more.

 

Overall: B+

[Hilltopper39]

I saw Les Miserabeles yesterday and overall though it was really good. I've been a fan of the stage production and the music of the show for a long time and had fairly low expectations for the movie since I didn't think the cast could do the music justice but overall it really worked and was a lot of fun. It wasn't prefect (I thought Russel Crowe was terrible as Javert) but had some really strong moments and was a great adaptation of the musical.

 

Gavroche and Enjolras and Eponine were great.

[Mr.Roller77]

I'm really excited to see the new Star Trek film next year, I saw the Sneek Peek on Youtube about a month ago, looks awesome!

[Double0Kevin]

^ I watched the 9 Minute preview on IMAX during the opening weekend of The Hobbit. It was awesome, I can't wait to see it. Plus as a HUGE BBC Sherlock fan, I can't wait to see Benedict Cumberbatch as the Villain.

[robbalvey]

I'll write more about it later, but I really think that they made as perfect of a Les Miserables film adaption as they could. All the actors were good to GREAT! Being such a fan of the stage production (seen it about 50 times) and knowing that Cameron Mackintosh was personally involved, I had high hopes, but was mostly cautiously optimistic. There are changes from the show that I was worried about, but having seen it for myself, every change was well thought-out, fits the movie perfectly, and most importantly, makes the material more accessible for a movie audience. I'll write a bit more later, but overall, I was so impressed with it, that I need to go see it again!

[Double0Kevin]

Watching TRON: Legacy for the gazillionth time... I just absolutely love this movie. So excited that the new studio head at Disney sees TRON 3 as a priority and they are beginning to really move forward on it.

[Meteornotes]

Watched Safe House last night, and was surprised at how good it was. Definitely one of the better action films I've seen recently.

 

Deena & I also watched Pitch Perfect the other night. It was fine, not amazing, but it entertained. One of those movies I'd likely never watch again but amused while it was on.

 

dt

[Rollercoaster5000]

Was fortunate enough to attend the filming of Les Miserables at Pinewood Studios (to accompany my sister who is in the Lovely Ladies scene) and see the film at the cast and crew screening in London the night before the premiere. The film is breathtaking and it is no surprise members of the Academy have been giving it standing ovations. Having seen Anne Hathaway on the Pinewood soundstages it was never a surprise that she was going to deliver a knockout performance and be up for award nominations, I really hope she wins an Oscar. It's a shame Tom Hooper has not been nominated for best director at the globes but there is still the Baftas and Oscars coming up. He has delivered a true 'epic' experience, the scale of it is incredibly rare for a British film.

 

Two other amazing films of 2012 are the Danish film The Hunt (with Mads Mikkelsen - La Chiffre in Casino Royale) and Life of Pi. The Hunt is quite simply the best film of 2012 hands down, it may not be showing in many cinemas across the world at the moment but it is a must see on Blu Ray and DVD. Mads Mikkelsen offers the best performance of any actor of 2012, he will blow you away.

[alpengeist04]

Les Miz was absolutely incredible and deserves all the praise it's getting. ...Fantastic performances pretty much across the board and having them sing live while shooting the scenes added so much more emotion to the performances.

 

Overall: A+

 

 

I must say it was a very strong finish to the 2012 movie season, with Les Miz, The Hobbit, and Skyfall all being kickass movies. Along with The Avengers and Batman, these were probably my five favorite movies of the year.

[Double0Kevin]

So I watched the new Total Recall last night... while it wasn't close to as good as the original, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a fun action move with and interesting twist on the separated societies.

[jray21]

I saw The Hobbit a few days ago and really liked it. I really liked the Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit was very similar. It was actually a bit too similar, but since I liked the LOTR it was fine for me. Others who thought the LOTR series was just ok, will probably think the same of The Hobbit. Going to see Les Mis in just a few hours!

[onewheeled999]

Last night, my friends and I had a Tarantino mini-marathon, watching Pulp Fiction and then immediately going to the theater to catch Django Unchained.

 

It was the first time I'd seen Pulp Fiction after hearing so much about it. It was... interesting. I mean, I loved it from start to finish, but I can't think of words to describe this movie. It just has to be seen to believed.

 

Anyway, the moment everyone's been waiting for... Django Unchained is really, really good. But if you don't like violence, don't even think about seeing this: as should be expected from a Tarantino movie, the blood and gore are cranked up to eleven, then doubled. It's done in a darkly comic way, but in the big gunfight, they used fake blood by the gallon. If you can appreciate the silliness of it all, it's great fun. The story is easy to follow yet still incredibly enjoyable, the acting is some of the best I've seen all year (from all the leads equally: Foxx, Waltz, DiCaprio, and Jackson are all amazing), and it's overall just a hugely satisfying movie.

 

If it interests you in the least, see it. You will not be disappointed.

[azza29]

^Great to hear - still a few weeks until it's out here but definitely on my 'must-see' list.

 

Managed to see The Hobbit earlier this week, had only moderate expectations but was definitely a fun film. On a par with Fellowship of the Ring I think, and the writers have done a good job with filling out the story. I'm not surprised it's ended up as three films - although the book isn't terribly long, there is an action setpiece in almost every chapter so even two films would seem rushed.

 

Maybe it's just because I prefer practical effects, but I thought that the prosthetic orcs from LOTR trilogy looked better than the CG ones in The Hobbit. Anyway, looking forward to the next one in year's time.

[Double0Kevin]

^ Totally agree. With the Hobbit there is all these huge events that take place over just a few pages and then on to the next thing. With Lord of the Rings it took 4 chapters just for the characters to talk about an upcoming battle. LOTR mercifully cut unneeded slow points, where as Hobbit generously gave us more of what we loved to see.

 

I'm not sure why it's gotten such mixed feelings from critics. It seems like everyone went in expecting dark and serious Lord of the Rings and instead got the lighthearted and fun Hobbit.

[bottom_feeder_13]

The big problem with the Hobbit is that they heavily altered the actual story in a way that feels like it's there simply because there weren't enough battle scenes in the original. I personally went in with really high hopes and left disappointed. The addition of the white orc really seemed like it was unnecessary and added to make the movie longer. Also a lot of the little bits that serve as back-story fill-ins for LotR aren't there in the book. The other things I disliked were the casting for the dwarves, most of whom just looked like short people as opposed to really rugged and muscular dwarves. Finally I though that a lot of the CG wasn't nearly as convincing as in LotR, especially the eagles, which looked poorly textured and the orcs, which just weren't as good as the actual actors used in LotR. Just my 2 cents.

[Simipour'sTrainer]

Django Unchained - Saw the movie today, I absolutely loved it! I find it to be another Quentin Tarantino classic. The acting was great, the action (of course) was outstanding, and it had plenty of funny moments and zingers. I think anyone who enjoyed Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill are going to love this movie.

[azza29]

The addition of the white orc really seemed like it was unnecessary and added to make the movie longer.

 

I kind of agree with this, but like the addition of Lurtz in FoTR, they needed a character to lead the orcs to give the battle some focus. The prologue also helped to fill a fairly significant plot gap that (from memory) the book doesn't reveal until very late - why the dwarves are on this quest, and why Bilbo decides to help them.

 

One review I saw compared it to The Phantom Menace, which is a bit unfair. The tricky part of this film is that it's setting up everything to come and the payoffs will come later. I suspect by the time the trilogy is complete the first part will be looked upon more favourably.

[Double0Kevin]

I don't mind, the majority of everything added in was taken from the works of Tolkein. The stuff with the Necromancer and the back story of Moria sets up the major events and players of Lord of the Rings, even if you don't realize it just yet. Those story lines are important, but unlikely going to ever be made into their own movies because of their short length and lack of core characters.

 

This film is no where close to Phantom Menace. I'm kind of shocked that critics, people who are supposedly professionals, are judging this movie by comparing it to LotR. Yes, it is a prequel, but the source material is campy and fun. People shouldn't compare the goofiness and fun to crap like Jar Jar Binks or anything else within the video evidence of George Lucas raping our childhoods.

[bottom_feeder_13]

Yeah, I realize that most of that stuff was taken from other Tolkien works but I also think that it felt like they were milking pretty hard to make it long enough to be 3 parts. That said the troll scene was also pretty lacking, I thought that it would have been much better had they stuck to the original version where Gandalf tricks the trolls into arguing until sunrise instead of the way it was. There were also some other little inconsistencies with the book that I didn't like and the scene in the mountain was a bit too choppy and cartoonish.

[cfc]

I saw The Hobbit this afternoon, and while I found it enjoyable overall, I'm dubious about the prospect of squeezing three movies out of this one novel. They're going to have to pad the hell out of part 2. I think the casting is what saves it.