2010 Movies

[Pilgrim]

Just got back from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Nice film, but I have to say it was rather slow.  There was a lot of time spent on wide shots of landscapes and the key characters sitting around a tent, and not as much time invested in moving the story forward as I expected.  I could easily cut that film by 15-20 minutes and improve it.

Also, I need to pull out book #7 and review it, but I don't remember the "Deathly Hallows" as being a wand, cloak and stone that could restore life.  Perhaps it has been too long since I read it.  I'm wondering how many liberties they took with the final story - which IMO would be a considerable mistake.

[Highlander]

I think they were iirc

Enjoyed the film, but starkly lacking as it is only "part-one" - we won't be getting the DVD until the "double-pack" comes out, for obvious reasons...

Hope to see TRON next week - on call until 0800 on the 25th...

[Highlander]

Well, saw Tron this week and although I was very pleased, overall, I've been spoilt by Avatar and fully understand what Big D said about Clu - well worth the trip and interesting seeing "13" away from "House"...

I think the CGI for "beings" within Avatar will be a tough act to follow...

Bye-bye 2010...

[Barklessdog]

Just got back from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Nice film, but I have to say it was rather slow.  There was a lot of time spent on wide shots of landscapes and the key characters sitting around a tent, and not as much time invested in moving the story forward as I expected.  I could easily cut that film by 15-20 minutes and improve it.

Also, I need to pull out book #7 and review it, but I don't remember the "Deathly Hallows" as being a wand, cloak and stone that could restore life.  Perhaps it has been too long since I read it.  I'm wondering how many liberties they took with the final story - which IMO would be a considerable mistake.

I fell asleep during it. I thought it was one of the most boring movies I have seen. 3 hours of them being chased, with not much in-between. Saw Tron which was not bad, not great. Too much story & not enough action.

[Muzikman7]

In spite of the fact I swore I wasn't going to watch any more movies with vampires or zombies, I watched Zombieland last night I thought it was terrible the rules thing was kind of amusing but thats it glad I didn't spend any money going to see it.

[Darrol]

I think the CGI for "beings" within Avatar will be a tough act to follow...

That reminds me, the CGI in Avatar is rather interesting in terms of the characters. I went back and watched the CGI closely which is when I noticed that things are a bit backwards from what one might think. The characters looked great, no doubt about that, but the CGI looked it's best when the characters were not clean so when they had mud on them or the paint. Those times were when the CGI looked good enough to be real while the other times it still had a CGIish look to me.

[Aussie Mark]

My brief inflight movie reviews from my Xmas flights cross country to visit the in-laws:

1. Tomorrow When The War Began

Australian made action movie about some teenagers who return from a camping trip to discover their town has been invaded by (generic, unspecified) Asian army and all townsfolk herded into POW camp.  Decent, low brow entertainment, good action and some teen hotness.  Storyline is interesting conceptually in my part of the world.  3 stars

2. Buried

Much better than I expected.  The entire movie is shot inside a coffin, with the sole actor we see being the guy in the coffin (US contractor in Iraq taken hostage).  He has a Blackberry and a Zippo lighter in the coffin with him, so the movie is all about his conversations with family, employer, State dept, FBI and his kidnapper.  Left field concept that works very well, suspenseful, and we share the hostage's frustration.  Surprise ending not what most people would expect.  4 stars

3. The Expendables

Stallone, Dolph Lungren, Jet Li, plus cameos from Arnie, Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke.  Old fashioned shoot em up, plenty of explosions.  Suffers from weak plot (but who cares!), and overzealous use of superfast cut editing.  Hot Latino chick doesn't get her gear off, which was a major disappointment for me.  2.5 stars

[Highlander]

So... it's all done now...

What was your film of the year, and your biggest disappointment...?

For me, Avatar (with inception running a very close 2nd) and although I liked it, my big disappointment was probably Tron...

[Freuds_Cat]

Saw Inception the other day. Enjoyed it, liked the concept, acting was good (well, none of it stood out as particularly bad). Plot was a little obvious but this was understandable due to the restrictions of the concept. Ending was blatantly obvious as soon as you found out what was going on with the main characters wife (about 2/3rds of the way through the movie) which was a bit dissapointing.