Ah just another thing. if anyone here in the forum lives in Scotland, be careful any with white vans driven by some lovely bird
Sounds very interesting.
Godzilla (2014)
I still consider the original 1954 âGojiraâ to be the best of all the Godzilla films, by far. However, at least this latest version is better than the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla. I wonât spoil it for anyone intending to see it, so I may go into detail at a later time on what I thought was okay and what I thought was weak about the 2014 movie.
Yes it does !
Zulu - Jerome Salle 9/10
Very good thriller in tough Ellroy style. Very stylish, very well acted, no useless car chases, no idiotic plot twists or surprises. Salle can even make small scenes and secondary characters shine. And South Africa is more than a background.
Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom (yes, he too) are excellent in the leads.
âSinging in the rainâ and âLa notte di San Lorenzoâ. Both superb! Both watched in a summer open-air cinema (which is a lot more exciting than cinemas in winter).
Zulu sounds like just my kind of movie, itâs on the watchlist now.
Blue Ruin (2013)
In Balkans we have term âkrvna osvetaâ which translates to âblood vendettaâ. Itâs the tradition still practiced in certain parts of Albania, Kosovo or Montenegro. Sicilians know something about it too. Blood must be payed in blood and families settle their feuds on their own.
This is the movie about blood vendetta but placed in Virginia, USA. Itâs best I tell you no more about the movie, but think Blood Simple meets Winterâs Bone meets Gran Torino.
It has won film criticsâ award at Cannes. Recommended.
Edge of Tomorrow (Liman/14)
âEdge of Tomorrowâ (2014), directed by Doug Liman, is a military science fiction film that revolves around Cruiseâs character endlessly repeating the same day, always dying, to explore his evolution from coward to hero. By deftly showing Cruiseâs changing responses to the same people and events in the run-up to landing in the battle zone, he undergoes a subtle metamorphosis. From attempting blackmail on General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) in order to avoid action to eventually realising he alone can combat the alien threat, itâs a well-written character arc. He is allowed to handle a complex role which can switch deftly from seriousness to black humour (stemming from him being able to predict what other charactersâ are about to say and do due to his multitude of deaths). Itâs his best performance in a long time, benefiting from the intelligence of the material he has to work with. Itâs also a testament to the script that the time loop never becomes tiresome, but instead is constantly inventive in its repetition, the storytelling enlivened by the elliptical editing of James Herbert and Laura Jennings. Scripted by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (based on the Japanese novel âAll You Need Is Killâ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka), they handle the variety of plot threads and main duplication of the same day very well.
Emily Blunt, playing a renowned warrior, has the more limited role, her character âresetâ every time Cruise dies, but nevertheless shows her ability to project external strength and an admirable lack of sentiment in her training of Cruise. Bill Paxton as a tough Sergeant Major is fairly one-note, but itâs a fun note all the same, Paxton clearly enjoying himself in his constant admonishing of Cruise.
Director Liman is able to deal with kinetic action scenes as well as quieter, character-orientated moments, whilst cleverly altering how he films repeating sequences. The main battle scene on the French beach is a good example, initially staying with Cruiseâs point of view, but gradually revealing more information each time, until around midway through, Liman pulls his camera back and reveals in a long shot the enormity of the military operation. Visually, he and his cinematographer Dion Beebe are aided by the interesting production design, in particular the exoskeletons the soldiers wear and the design of the aliens themselves, which creates a neat dichotomy with the contemporary appearance of much of this near-future world.
If its final act is slightly weaker, preventing it from becoming truly excellent, this is certainly a far sharper, original and more intriguing sci-fi action film than is normally found.
[size=12pt]Witness - 1985 - Peter Weir[/size]
I have seen this film several times, but still a winner to me, so never a waste of time seeing it again.
Not only the obvious clash of cultures theme is well displayed, also the thriller part is positively achieved, and the romantic relation between Harrison and MacGillis characters is screen build in a very interesting way.
There are some great and iconic scenes like the final gun down in the barn.
Visually is a fantastic film, Peter Weir made out of a regular thriller story, into a very interesting film, really the work of a true cinema craftsman. Witness itâs also one the films in which Harrinson Ford is cool, and MacGillis was hot back then, even in those Amish dresses.
So one of the good Hollywood films of the 80âs.
I obviously didnât watch this on the cinema, wrong thread Iâm afraid.
The Salvation[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_salvation[/url]
-New eurowestern with Mads Mikkelsen, Mikael Persbrandt, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Eva Green. Story is very traditional revenge story / bad guy trying to drive people out of their precious lands which we have seen dozens if not hundreds of times. Iâd say that the film is a mix between contemporary american westerns and spaghetti westerns. The best part is the shoot out in the end which reminded me shoot outs in Stranger films. And like with many recent westerns thereâs the inevitable Leone references. Actors were pretty good, especially Eva Green whose strange mute character was really captivating.
3/5
Gone Girl - David Fincher 8,5/10
The first scene, the short opening scene that is, is excellent, apart from that it wasnât fascinating visually, but it is a great thriller which does everything right (what thrillers rarely do) with its plot twists and surprises, and first of all brings it to a consequential ending, a pretty good open ending. And it really was not foreseeable. At the moment I think it was more a writerâs movie than a directorâs one, even if Fincher made absolutely nothing wrong, and did a good job.
Iâm not sure if Affleck and Pike were fitting or not, or if some more charismatic actors (Edward Norton?) would have increased the film. Or was Affleck the perfect choice for the simplistic male protagonist?
Very eager to see this myself, when it opens in Britain later in the month - Fincher has to be one of the most interesting studio directors around at the moment (by which I mean he can take generic material and elevate it to something really interesting and even fascinating). Before then though, Iâll watch the two Fincher films Iâve so far never seen, Panic Room (by all accounts his weakest film) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
[size=12pt]GONE GIRL [/size](2014, David Fincher)
Fincher does what Fincher does best, balancing on the edge of farty while presenting us an arty blend of drama, paranoia thriller and social comment. Ben Affleck (ideally cast) plays a not so smart husband who finds himself in the middle of a media circus after the disappearance of his wife. All clues seem to point in his direction, so very soon heâs not only a suspect in a possible murder case, but also Americaâs favorite doormat, the man everybody loves to hate, trample and destroy. The missing wife (Rosamund Pike) is smuggled into the movie by means of her diary: fragments of it are presented in flashback form, and those flashbacks tell us there was something rotten in the marriage of Ben & Rosamund.
The first hour of this movie is suspenseful and witty, perfect paranoia, but then we get the first of a series of twists, unfolding a serpentine plot playing with (and manipulating) viewersâ expectations. Itâs of course all part of the game, this is a mystery thriller, and itâs also cleverly done, but it also creates a feeling of aloofness: the characters get lost in the shenanigans and in the end we donât really care what happens to any of them. Part of the problem may be the old Rashomon effect: the events are presented from different points of view and doubts are created about the trustworthiness of the characters and some our their statements. The movie is an adaptation of a mystery novel and yes: unreliable narration is a device that works better in print than on the screen (we donât always believe what we read or hear, but usually trust what we see).
With questions being raised about reality versus fantasy, truth versus lie, weâre close the world of the directorâs own The Game (1997), but with a couple of Hitchcockian touches added. It is stylish, and it is well acted (even by Affleck), but itâs also a bit of a cold achievement.
I plan to see Gone Girl these days. There also couple of more movies released in cinema these days that I am very eager to see, Fury, Interstellar and (most of all) Nightcrawler. Hopefully Iâll find time to see them all on big screen.
PS: Panic Room is very good movie in my book, not even close to be the weakest from Fincher. That would be The not-so-curious case of Benjamin Button. Even Girl with Dragon is weaker film than Panic Room. Panic Room is stripped-dwon, old school thriller, built around simple premise and unfettered by complex sweets that saturate much of todayâs mainstream genre, and it is all the more effective for it.
IMO, Panic Room IS a pretty weak film - itâs competently made as one would expect but it just hasnât got anything about it, really; almost feels like a generic made-for-TV movie - but I agree that both the remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the fuckawful The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are worse. The Social Networkâs a pile of shit too, IMO.
I want to see Gone Girl, though. Looks like it will be more 20th century âGood Fincheyâ than 21st century âBad Fincheyâ.
Good Finchey
- Fight Club (1999)
- Seven (1995)
- Zodiac (2007)
- AlienÂł (1992)
- The Game (1997)
Bad Finchey
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
- The Social Network (2010)
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
- Panic Room (2002)
Why âweâ if you mean âIâ? 
I for example did not lost my interest in the characters and the story.
I also thought that the âliesâ in the filmâs structure worked very well. Maybe also because the surprises werenât spared for the end, but revealed much earlier, so that GG could take a new direction after that. And this did Fincher all pretty good and satisfying.
And for me Panic Room is a disappointment, especially compared to itâs potential. I re-watched it a few weeks ago, the first time since the cinema, and I expected it to be better than remembered, but actually it wasnât. PR is often surprisingly conventional and often lacks ideas. Probably a âsafetyâ film for the Finch. PR gets a panicless 5/10
You are all out of your minds, PR is great, forcrissakes it has Dwight Yoakam in kickass role! 
(tense relationship between him and other two stooges, Whitaker and Leto, is what the movie is all about, and not to mention the movie also has Kristen Stewartâs best role)
Thatâs simply a stylistic device, used to create a certain distance: âIâ is too personal, âweâ is more general (in French âonâ is often used in similar constructions, the corresponding English âoneâ is too rare).