What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[Stavros]

Two films yesterday:
Elysium (Neill Bloomkamp 2013)
I didn't look closely at the box or I would have left it in the shop, as this director's District 9 was rubbish and Elysium follows it into the charity shop. I think Jodie Foster was embarrassed at being asked to speak in an odd Anglo-French accent, her French was immaculate. I couldn't work out if she was chief of police or a real estate agent. I don't think it matters. The villain, a white South African called Kruger rants in Afrikaans slang which seems a bit odd even in LA in 2154. Matt Damon walks around with the remains of a bicycle stuck to his body and is of course, able to do things which most mortals cannot do, like saving damsels in distress.


Freedomland (Joe Roth 2006)
I bought this for £2.50. Two fine actors, Samuel L Jackson (whose wife is also in the film), Julianne Moore in a stale and predictable story, acting is good but it is all a bit too worthy with confused direction. At times the film is about the police discriminating against Black people, but this acts as a diversion from the main plot, while some characters, like the lead woman's brother, come and then disappear from the film. Overpriced at 2.50. Another one heading to the charity shop.

[Ben]

WORST Movies of 2013:



Best Films of 2013

[Jericho]

Eragon.
Yeah, yeah, i know, but i enjoyed it!

[RallyCola]

last night, i sat through Admission with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd...some shitastic movie my wife dvr'ed. skip it...it sucked.

to get toe elysium as was posted above...that's what happens with you give a "visionary director with a social conscience" a hollywood budget. it sucked in so many ways that i can't list them. i really though this dude was going to make good on his mutant movie idea instead of just making it a one-off youtube thing.

[Stavros]

last night, i sat through Admission with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd...some shitastic movie my wife dvr'ed. skip it...it sucked.

to get toe elysium as was posted above...that's what happens with you give a "visionary director with a social conscience" a hollywood budget. it sucked in so many ways that i can't list them. i really though this dude was going to make good on his mutant movie idea instead of just making it a one-off youtube thing.

Visionary? Social Conscience? I could see how the separate development of the haves from the have-nots can be read as mimicking apartheid in South Africa, but that is as far as it went, it was the film itself that failed at every level. It is amazing how much money people will part for to produce this stuff, same thing was said of Eragon although that was commercially successful.

[RallyCola]

well, i put it in quotes because that is how NB was classified after district 9.

as far as a story goes, district 9 built tension far better than elysium and also was somewhat less predictable, albeit not very good in the end. i can buy into the idea of oppression of what you do not understand more than i can buy into the "you are destined for great things" idea.

as far as movie making goes, i feel that district 9, with its grit and naive storytelling was just better paced and suited than elysium where the notes NB wanted to hit are immediate and rushed. elysium depends on too many traditional plot devices...the criminal turned straight...the old girl from the neighborhood that saw good in him...the selfish turned selfless, the tragic hero. The difference to me is that in district 9, you are really not routing for the prawns to get set free...you are routing for wikus to get his comeuppance but learn from it. the story telling allows you to decide whether or not you care about CJ and his son. In Elysium, you are told without a doubt that you are supposed to care about the little girl, hate Kruger and root for Matt Damon to save the day.

as far as acting goes, that i had no preconceived notion of what Copley would be like so that helped me keep and open mind with D9. Matt Damon was Jason Bourne meets iron man in Elysium and could not escape being matt damon. i didn't think he brought anything to the role that was noteworthy. Couple that with the fact that I think Alice Braga can't act well and Jodie Foster has not done a good movie in 20 years, I feel again, district 9 has an edge.

overall, i do favor district 9 over elysium by far, but that is not saying much because elysium is also on my list of movies i have seen that i wish i didn't. it is just another director that made a good movie then was given access to additional cash and cast and fucked up his sophomore attempt.

[Stavros]

I thought Jodie Foster was good in Spike Lee's Inside Man (2006) one of the few films Lee has made that is worth watching even if it does have lumberjack Washington in it. Looking back over her cv, I don't think she has had as many good parts she might have, possibly because she doesn't seem to like certain types of scene which women are expected to slot into, and there aren't that many parts for women which do not concern sex.

[Dino Velvet]

I was crushed when this show ended.

[goatman]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind(1977)

[Dino Velvet]