Your 2016 Film Diary

[bob]

In b4 @Mr\-Paul...

 

What films have you seen?

Edited January 3, 2016 by 130131301364

[Charlie]

I went to see The Danish Girl on Saturday night. I wasn't too sure what to think as the trailer wasn't that great. I actually really enjoyed it, I had no idea what the story was outside of the trailer and I didn't realise it was a true story until afterwards. Well worth a watch.

[somme]

I went to see The Danish Girl on Saturday night. I wasn't too sure what to think as the trailer wasn't that great. I actually really enjoyed it, I had no idea what the story was outside of the trailer and I didn't realise it was a true story until afterwards. Well worth a watch.

 

Yeah I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival back in September. A very moving film and I can't fault the two leads at all.

[Kav]

I've seen it countless times but my girlfriend hadn't seen it, so we sat down and watched The Shawshank Redemption.

 

I'm sure everyone knows how good it is. She loved it of course, cried her eyes out at the end.

[somme]

Going to see Aliens on the big screen later this month. Unfortunately it's not the superior director's cut but meh, I'd already bought the tickets before I found that out. (The cinema then tweeted me that some people prefer the theatrical version - makes no sense to me.)

[Mr-Paul]

Thanks for creating the thread, @Dr\. bob! Been away for work so haven't got around to writing up my end of 2015. A quick update for the start of 2016 though...

 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

Third time, still loved it.

 

Daddy's Home

 

Wanted something light and funny to entertain me. Usually enjoy a bit of Will Ferrell. This wasn't funny, at all. Giggled a couple of times at most. Unoriginal. Avoid.

 

My 2016 List

 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Daddy's Home

 

Next up, will be seeing Creed on Thursday.

[Charlie]

Daddy's Home

 

Wanted something light and funny to entertain me. Usually enjoy a bit of Will Ferrell. This wasn't funny, at all. Giggled a couple of times at most. Unoriginal. Avoid.

 

Did the trailer not give that away? :p

[Mr-Paul]

Did the trailer not give that away? :p

 

I generally avoid trailers nowadays... and I thought it couldn't be that bad... how wrong I was!

[Hero-of-Time]

I thought it was hilarious. I went and seen it on new years day with my oldest nephew. We are both big Will Ferrell fans and it was a standard Ferrell comedy that had us both in stitches.

 

The whole situation with Grif, the stories his boss kept telling him, the back and forth between Ferrell and Walberg were all great.

 

Fantastic start to the year for me.

[bob]

Hopefully be seeing The Danish Girl tonight, but it's on at an arse time, so we'll see.

[Mr-Paul]

The whole situation with Grif, the stories his boss kept telling him, the back and forth between Ferrell and Walberg were all great.

 

Those parts were good I just didn't find it funny/original enough overall, and like you, I'm a fan of Ferrell. Maybe I'm just a miserable bastard at the moment!

 

Will try to see the Danish Girl over the weekend, everyone I know who has seen it has said it's brilliant.

[Hero-of-Time]

Those parts were good I just didn't find it funny/original enough overall, and like you, I'm a fan of Ferrell. Maybe I'm just a miserable bastard at the moment!

 

Will try to see the Danish Girl over the weekend, everyone I know who has seen it has said it's brilliant.

 

Oh, it wasn't original at all. Ferrell and Walhberg were essentially the same two characters that they played in The Other Guys.

[Mr-Paul]

Will try to see the Danish Girl over the weekend, everyone I know who has seen it has said it's brilliant.

 

I lied, I saw it this evening.

 

It was great. Very touching. Wonderful, captivating performances from the leads - it was equally about Gerda as it was about Lili. I see Oscar nominations coming for them both (but probably not wins). The film looked lovely too - great cinematography. Definitely worth a watch.

 

My 2016 Film List

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Daddy's Home

The Danish Girl

[Sméagol]

Since I'm lazy, I didn't actually see any films as intended, yet.. I disappoint myself.

 

But;

 

I have tickets for Star Wars in Dolby Cinema on the 10th, en The hateful eight in 70mm for the 12th. Can't wait to be astonished by oldskool and newskool cinema tech.

[Charlie]

The Hateful Eight isn't going to be shown at Cineworld. Gutted I'll actually have to spend money to watch it!

[Fierce_LiNk]

The Hateful Eight isn't going to be shown at Cineworld. Gutted I'll actually have to spend money to watch it!

 

Why? It looks awful and all of the impressions seems to say the same thing. The Tarrantino wave is over and he's now been exposed for what he is.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Fierce_LiNk

[bob]

__________

Edited January 12, 2016 by 130131301364

[Goron_3]

Creed on Friday. Creed on Friday. Creed on Friday.

 

In case you can't tell I'm rather excited.

[Rummy]

The Hateful Eight isn't going to be shown at Cineworld. Gutted I'll actually have to spend money to watch it!

 

Err, what? Why?! At NO cineworlds?!

 

Oh, it wasn't original at all. Ferrell and Walhberg were essentially the same two characters that they played in The Other Guys.

 

I went to see Daddy's home as I really enjoyed The Other Guys and hoped they'd make a good partnership again, but I felt this film just wasn't up to the same standard. I think unoriginal is definitely the best way to put it - whilst funny in places most of it felt quite generic and obvious to me.

 

Hoping to go see The Danish Girl or Joy tonight, might actually try and keep up with this thread and use it to make sure I go to the cinema more!

[Hero-of-Time]

I seen Creed last night. It was some European premiere event and the Odeon at the MetroCentre had the live feed from London. Sadly we had to sit through the whole red carpet stuff, like interviews and stars arriving, before the film actually started.

 

Loved it. I honestly can't think of any other films series that consistently get me all fired up. This one was no different.

 

I love the Rocky character. There's a certain innocence about him that makes him so lovable and Stallone once again was able to bring the character to life. There's no wonder that he brought home the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his performance. There's a section in the film where he gives a speech that is quite powerful and emotional and I was honestly moved by it.

 

Michael B Jordan gave a great performance, as well. The back and forth between him and Rocky was great and they done a great job of showing his character grow throughout the movie.

 

The only downside to the movie was the guy Creed fought at the end.

 

I didn't care for the guy he was fighting. Having a guy with a scouse accent and then holding the fight in England just kinda took away from the spectacle i'm used to seeing in the Rocky movies. It just felt a little cheap.

 

 

 

I love that the film had that moment where you know it's all gonna go down. When he cuts him and the music changes I was well hyped.

 

The moment he sees his father and then shoots up from the canvas was fantastic.

 

In the final round when the Rocky music started playing I had such a huge grin on my face.

 

[killthenet]

Watched Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck on Netflix last night. I've never been a huge Nirvana fan, but I appreciate what they mean to a lot of people and have always appreciated Kurt Cobain as an artist, so this was an interesting insight into his personality. He was a lot more family oriented than I'd been led to believe, this documentary lets you understand him as a real person rather than simply the tortured drug addict that he'd been painted as in the press over the years. The filmmakers have used a lot of material that Cobain actually produced himself, like handwritten song lyrics, drawings and audio recordings he made and have put it all together with some really nice rotoscoped pieces.

 

Also watched The Hateful Eight recently, I'm wouldn't call myself a Tarantino fan in the slightest but I enjoyed it. It's almost definitely too long, clocks in at just under 3-hours, but its really entertaining - especially the phallic monologue from Sam Jackson.

[Sméagol]

Joy ♥♥♥♥♥

Interesting story, pretty enjoyable but not remarkable. And the beginning is too hyperactive. But the ending was pretty satisfying.

 

Star Wars: the force awakens ♥♥♥♥♥

Unfortunately I must say the Dolby Cinema experience is not noticeably better than say, an Imax experience. I think the image was somewhat clearer, but if I need a side-by-side comparison to be sure.. The chairs were great though, I'll give 'm that.

 

The hateful eight ♥♥♥♥♥

Enjoyable, but in hindsight, also not very remarkable: I'm in no hurry to see it again. Unlike the Dolby Cinema above though, the 70mm experience was great. I mean, technically I can't compare as I didn't see the normal version, but the image looked awesome. Back to the film: some good dialogue and a fun story, but would have liked a somewhat bigger scope.. More outdoor scenes for example. I had no problem with the runtime though.. While it was longer than Django unchained, I didn't feel the film, unlike Django, was too long. I can see why Jennifer Jason Leigh got an Oscar nomination by the way, she was great.

 

The hunger games: Mockingjay part 2 ♥♥♥♥♥

An abysmal ending to a series I actually enjoyed in the beginning. This is why you shouldn't split films right in the middle. I saw the previous one over a year ago, I could've used a recap. Plenty things didn't make sense even regardless of the lack of buildup and character development though. So much senseless dramatisation.. No proper send-off for certain characters. Boring action. Bah.

 

Joy ♥♥♥♥♥

Star Wars: the force awakens ♥♥♥♥♥

The hateful eight ♥♥♥♥♥

The hunger games: Mockingjay part 2 ♥♥♥♥♥

 

[killthenet]

Watched a few more of the awards season films over the past few days, here's my thoughts on a couple of them.

 

Joy

It was enjoyable, but i'm not a fan of David O'Russell at all. Without the star power of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper I don't think it would be worth watching. As much as it pains me to say it because I have a well documented hatred for Bradley Cooper, but the scenes with him & Jennifer Lawrence on screen together are by far and away the best moments in the film.

 

Room

I didn't know anything about the film going in, other than it had Brie Larson in it and had a lot of buzz about it. I ended up really liking it, but I won't go into too many specifics about it because I really think going in fresh is the best option with this. Brie Larson is really good but the boy who plays Jack is fantastic and I can't understand why he hasn't been nominated for an Oscar, they usually love giving kids nominations.

 

Bridge Of Spies

A really nice collaboration between Hanks and Spielberg, they tend to get the best out of each other and this cold war drama is one of their best. Mark Rylance is brilliant as the British citizen accused of being a Soviet spy, a really enjoyable movie.

 

The Revenant

I really don't like Tom Hardy, so I was disappointed to find that he was in this but he plays an absolute bastard so my hatred of him actually benefited the film. It looks incredible and Dicaprio does a fine job in the central role, I really loved the music in this, combined with the scenery it reminds me a lot of 'Skyrim'.

 

I can totally see them giving this Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars, but that would be three Mexican's in a row - after Cuaron won for 'Gravity in 2013 and Inarritu won it himself last year for 'Birdman' - so i'm not sure the Academy would like doing that so they might give Best Director to Tom McCarthy or Lenny Abrahamson, just to mix things up a bit. Speaking of Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is the next on my list, really looking forward to that one as McCarthy's 'The Visitor' is one of my favourite films.

[Goron_3]

Creed

 

Saw this on Friday and I have to admit that it took me completely by surprise. In 2007 I was super excited to watch Rocky Balboa which would 'end' the series so I didn't get on the hype train for Creed until just a few days before, but it easily surpassed my expectations and it's probably the best film of the lot, bar the orginal which won the 'Best Picture' Oscar.

 

Michael B. Jordan does a great job as Creed but the standout performance by far comes from Sylvester Stallone. He's absolutely excpetional from beginning to end and it makes you fall in love with his character all over again. The chemistry between him and Michael B. Jordan is fantastic.

 

The camera work is also sublime and I would go as far to say it's some of the best work I've seen. There were a number of sequences that were filmed in one continuous shot, which is mindblowing considering how complex they were. They managed to take the world of Rocky and make it modern, without losing the soul of franchise.

 

Even if you haven't seen the originals, do give this a watch. It's a wonderful film that doesn't just rely on the Rocky legacy but instead turns the franchise into two great characters and not just one.

 

Looking forward to watching it again but for now I think it's as good as Ryan Coogler's debut 'Fruitvale Station'.

[dan-likes-trees]

I really don't like Tom Hardy, so I was disappointed to find that he was in this but he plays an absolute bastard so my hatred of him actually benefited the film. It looks incredible and Dicaprio does a fine job in the central role, I really loved the music in this, combined with the scenery it reminds me a lot of 'Skyrim'.

 

I can totally see them giving this Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars, but that would be three Mexican's in a row - after Cuaron won for 'Gravity in 2013 and Inarritu won it himself last year for 'Birdman' - so i'm not sure the Academy would like doing that so they might give Best Director to Tom McCarthy or Lenny Abrahamson, just to mix things up a bit. Speaking of Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is the next on my list, really looking forward to that one as McCarthy's 'The Visitor' is one of my favourite films.

 

Similarly, I'll be interested to see if Emmanuel Lubezki makes it three cinematographer Oscars in a row after Gravity and Birdman. What a mighty talent; surely the thing that really gives the mad energy to those films. I only just noticed his past work when I was googling the other day; he's also responsible for Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambian, The Tree of Life, The New World... what a CV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't say stills truely capture the way the movement of the camera in films he's worked on

 

Anyway, I loved The Revenant largely for that reason. The combination of sound design and those long tracking action shots.. not sure I've ever seen anything quite like them. Took a long time to get invested in the characters in any way - but definitely a must-see, at the cinema, on the biggest screen you can find...