[serman005]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 6/10, Jennifer Lawrence  A fairly cheesy dystopian part II in the series. Just not that good, though Ms. Lawrence is nice to look at...

 

[castleofargh]

famous names do sell. I suppose even in the creative process, getting traction and money works much better as soon as you've secured a big name. it leads to sometimes sad results but I understand the urge.

  The Great Wall 6/10
 
Okay but a bit to much Hollywood and some strange cuts in some of the fighting scenes and logic escaped a bit to much on some occasions. g. And I am not anal about that things in action movies. But mainly it just felt like a Hollywood movie I would hope for a more original flavour. Why do Matt Damon has to come over and star in these movies? I guess he brings in the cash but still. His compadron is from Game of Thrones I believe?

I liked the way it's filmed, visually it's well done IMO and that alone kind of makes it worth watching for those who like Zerg vs Terran gameplay(spoiler, the Terran player is a noob).
but the scenario... throw money at a rubbish script until it looks like a movie. yeah 6/10 feels about right.
also to quote ICP, effing magnets how do they work?. I get a feeling that the scenarists also didn't want to talk to a scientist.

 

 

[mutabor]

  The Great Wall 6/10
 
Okay but a bit to much Hollywood and some strange cuts in some of the fighting scenes and logic escaped a bit to much on some occasions. g. And I am not anal about that things in action movies. But mainly it just felt like a Hollywood movie I would hope for a more original flavour. Why do Matt Damon has to come over and star in these movies? I guess he brings in the cash but still. His compadron is from Game of Thrones I believe?

 
Smart move from Chinese to buy a Hollywood company and make China oriented Hollywood-ish movies with a mix of American and Chinese cast. Their goal was to operate as a typical Hollywood company in international market with benefits of worldwide release. It is very difficult to enter international market without Hollywood's involvement because worldwide distribution belongs to Hollywood companies which sell their movies in bulk to local distributors. So The Great Wall as being produced by a Hollywood company automatically receives worldwide release.
 
Pure Chinese films have little chances to receive worldwide distribution. At best they can get some very limited release in some countries. In Russia it is very rare that they buy Asian films for wide distribution. But if a Chinese blockbuster receives wide release in America it automatically receives wide release in Russia because Hollywood's infrastructure and distribution owns the world.

 

[WraithApe]

   
Smart move from Chinese to buy a Hollywood company and make China oriented Hollywood-ish movies with a mix of American and Chinese cast. Their goal was to operate as a typical Hollywood company in international market with benefits of worldwide release. It is very difficult to enter international market without Hollywood's involvement because worldwide distribution belongs to Hollywood companies which sell their movies in bulk to local distributors. So The Great Wall as being produced by a Hollywood company automatically receives worldwide release.
 
Pure Chinese films have little chances to receive worldwide distribution. At best they can get some very limited release in some countries. In Russia it is very rare that they buy Asian films for wide distribution. But if a Chinese blockbuster receives wide release in America it automatically receives wide release in Russia because Hollywood's infrastructure and distribution owns the world.

 
Smart move or cynical move? I think it's depressing that audiences don't see through this globalization strategy and pay good money to go and see this kind of stuff. There are big Chinese films that get international exposure - take something like Crouching Tiger; sure, it had major US backing and a director embedded in the Hollywood system, but at least it didn't resort to having half the cast be Hollywood names or the script in English.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Resident Evil "The Final Chapter" 2016 9/10

If anyone remembers the 1996 first Sony PlayStation game then you know this franchise has been around forever. After one after another the concepts stayed the same yet each installment provided a slightly different twist on the same basic plot. Maybe only entertaining for the indoctrinated? Yet if this was to be a first timers view into the world of the Umbrella Corp, "Final Chapter" still holds up well on it's own. For the fan of the franchise it's a nice review of all the films bringing back much of the nostalgia and basic primise.

Unlike a couple of the past installments, this one had me on the edge of my seat, and saying it's maybe the best one ever?

 

[oqvist]

I remember the games much more. I can´t remember the plot of a single resident evil movie. But may see that one.
 
Undisputed 4 8/10 nothing wrong with this one. Back to square one for Undisputed: Reboot

 

[Redcarmoose]

I remember the games much more. I can´t remember the plot of a single resident evil movie. But may see that one.

Undisputed 4 8/10 nothing wrong with this one. Back to square one for Undisputed: Reboot

The plot stays within the realm of the series though you may find the surprises fun. It's better than the last few I have seen and yes, don't remember the plots either. I maybe could not tell you the last couple James Bond plots for that matter?

 

[tdockweiler]

Das Boot - 10/10
 
Watched this again after a few years and realized I had rented only the directors cut. I had the full uncut version but it seems to have gone missing.
Somehow I had never realized all the excessive overacting this movie had. It doesn't bother me, but it is kind of funny when you watch it again and actually bother to look for it.
I actually think some of it adds to the movie

 
I really wish there were other movies this good. It's probably in my top 10 or 20 list of favorite movies.
 
Anyone seen the german film from the 80s called "Stalingrad"? That's another good one.
 
Oh and I just watched "Get Smart" for the 3rd time in 3 days. One of the funniest movies ever made IMO.
I hope they make a sequel someday. I never did see the original TV series though.

 

[GearMe]

...Oh and I just watched "Get Smart" for the 3rd time in 3 days. One of the funniest movies ever made IMO.
I hope they make a sequel someday. I never did see the original TV series though.

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPwrodxghrw[/VIDEO]

 

[Hutnicks]

  Das Boot - 10/10
 
Watched this again after a few years and realized I had rented only the directors cut. I had the full uncut version but it seems to have gone missing.
Somehow I had never realized all the excessive overacting this movie had. It doesn't bother me, but it is kind of funny when you watch it again and actually bother to look for it.
I actually think some of it adds to the movie

 
I really wish there were other movies this good. It's probably in my top 10 or 20 list of favorite movies.
 
Anyone seen the german film from the 80s called "Stalingrad"? That's another good one.
 
Oh and I just watched "Get Smart" for the 3rd time in 3 days. One of the funniest movies ever made IMO.
I hope they make a sequel someday. I never did see the original TV series though.

Stalingrad was done by the same production company and is quite excellent. Not to be confused with the dreck of the same name that came out a few years ago.

 

[tdockweiler]

The Founder - 7.75/10
 
Glad I rented this. It's actually an interesting story. Pretty negative portrayal of Ray Croc and it sure makes me not want to step foot into a McDonalds.
I probably haven't visited there more than once in the last few years.
 
Most fast food these days is just loaded with fillers and additives anyway just to make the company more money. Boxed food in grocery stores can be even worse, especially frozen foods.
Isn't there like 50 ingredients in a McNugget? Taco Bell is even worse sometimes. When I eat that at night I feel like I have a hangover the next day. I think it's the chemicals in it.
 
BTW the acting in this movie is really good. My favorite characters were the original owners played by Nick Offerman and John Carrol Lynch.
John was the husband of the police officer in Fargo and he's been in a ton of movies before, but seems to not be known well enough. I hope he gets more good roles like this one (he played Dick McDonald).

 

[MaceHane2]

Before I Disappear - 10/10

Great film. Superb casting, excellent script, obviously made by folks with faultless judgement in how to frame scenes. Kinda feels as though this takes place in the same universe as Breaking Bad.
This is almost the definition of an under-appreciated (if at all!) and little-known gem. First saw this back when it came out and the other night, after being seriously unimpressed by Logan (I know, completely different genre), I needed to watch something that I knew was not riddled with compromises and just plain great-to-watch and this sprang to mind. Promptly bought a 1080 iTunes copy and loved it all over again.

When I mention Breaking Bad I simply mean as in characters and scenes that feel real and authentic, along with an energy and inner drive that entertains at the same time as it depicts some fairly gritty events.

Just a great film.

 

[Hutnicks]

Gantz: O  (2016)   8/10
 
 
  Improbable monsters, boobs, blood  and gore, all wrapped in a really well done 3DCGi package. So over the top you cannot help but love this one. Same old Gantz plotting so nothing new here but that is not what this is about. This is about a new spin on the old Japanese Monster Movie genre with all the cgi trimmings. 
 
 Pity they did not do Gojira this way or GITS for that matter. Either live action film would have been much more enjoyable in this medium.
 
 
The Treatment (de Behandeling) 2014   4/10
 
 
  Belgian adaptation of Mo Hayder's novel. I have not read her stuff and if the characterizations here are anything at all like what she wrote I will never bother. Over the top stereotypes abound to the point of ludicrous portrayals. Any detective in any police force on earth would have been removed from his position a thousand times over. It is just so unbelievable that it is about a light year and a half beyond "so crazy it could happen"  Back in the days when writers could actually write this would have been the 15 cent pulp novel with the cheap cover in the wire rack next to the snack counter at Woolworths. One step down from a Harlequin Romance.  Add in perverted subject matter en vogue today and you have a really trashy film which is pretending to be the new "Noir". That is a trend that really needs to be stopped in film making. Taking shock value perversion and trying to sell it off as some kind of actual plot. In reality it's actually very little better than F grade horror with a cop theme.
 
 The nice part of this film is it is brilliantly produced and that is the true shame. All that effort wasted on film that just makes you want to groan about every 2 minutes. I can see why this wound up in Belgium, the Beeb would no doubt have laughed at optioning this script.
 
 Save the time and watch a series or two of Bron it does dysfunctional cop in a dark theme almost to perfection.

 

[Subhakar]

Das Boot - 10/10

Watched this again after a few years and realized I had rented only the directors cut. I had the full uncut version but it seems to have gone missing.
Somehow I had never realized all the excessive overacting this movie had. It doesn't bother me, but it is kind of funny when you watch it again and actually bother to look for it.
I actually think some of it adds to the movie

I really wish there were other movies this good. It's probably in my top 10 or 20 list of favorite movies.

Anyone seen the german film from the 80s called "Stalingrad"? That's another good one.

Oh and I just watched "Get Smart" for the 3rd time in 3 days. One of the funniest movies ever made IMO.
I hope they make a sequel someday. I never did see the original TV series though.

I watched the original cut ten years ago and director's cut recently. Former is better. Great film and ironical ending. One of my top 50. The recent "Black Sea" starring Jude Law is not epic but a decent enough film of the same submarine genre.

 

[Subhakar]

"Mississippi Burning": 7/10. Another terrific film from Alan Parker of " All the President's Men."