[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

I hated that film James and never want to see it again.

Good score though, yeah!

( to UK members ) Is there anything really worth watching on TV this Christmas? Apart from Top Gear Bolivia Special followed by an evening of comedy brilliance with Steve Coogan / I'm Alan Partridge this coming Sunday night I can't think of much else?

Any pointers???

And exactly why I'm asking people like you Steven, the vast majority of X-mas TV is total shite. I just want to know what's worth my time.

Time to bring out the old Monty Python or Fawlty Towers episodes.

I didn't like this though I did see it on a poor quality stream. I'd like to watch it again to see if I will change my opinion.

I saw those series and immensely enjoyed them. Depardieu's daughter plays in it (Julie), doesn't she?

Le Château des Singes (A Monkey's Tale)
French animation scored by Alexandre Desplat. The movie is just ok. Something about different tribes of monkeys (the civilized versus the savages) and superstitions about forbidden regions, a scheming minister, a poisoned princess... whatever. The score is decent fun especially for the scenes of playing on the trees and in the castle. But the songs... oh my... let's just say that his score writing is much much better that his song writing skills.




Oh yes, she's in it too and rather pretty looking. Too bad that she's added more rotundity to her face as seen in more recent films like Un Secret

YESYESYESYESYESYESSSSSSSssssss! I will be watching.

I agree that the Brosnan film is better though neither of those two actors have a tenth of the charisma of McQueen and Dunaway.

I favour Legrand's score too, in fact it's a favourite of mine and always has been though I do like Conti's effort.

RV: Monsters Vs. Aliens

Very good, funny film. Loved the Close Encounters and E.T. references in the film as well as in the score.

Loved it too! Went under the radar though.

Just saw: AVATAR (IMAX 3D)
For a film so long in development, you'd think Cameron could've come up with a better plot. Avatar comes across as a film with such exhaustively developed worlds, their culture, fauna and creatures, that they forgot to spend a little more time on the script.

That's not to say the film isn't a blast. Especially during the first act, where we get to discover this marvelous new world, there's plenty to see and experience, particular when seen the way it was meant to be seen: in IMAX. Scenes like the 'pure spirits of the forest' one are nothing short of breathtaking, accompanied by a pitch perfect score from Horner.

Yet, when this first amazement is over, the storytelling faults become apparent in it's final act. Plot holes aplenty and cheesyness to boot, this is pure Hollywood in all its cliched predictability. Luckily the war keeps us busy in 3D, yet I'm sure this will disappoint when seen again on the small screen.

Did Cameron revolutionize special fx? Probably, yes. Character animation, creatures, landscapes, it's all amazingly photorealistic. Did he revolutionize the 3D medium? No. Maybe in the way he uses it for subtle effects, yet on a technical level, this still has a lot of issues.

By the way, are there any more people who saw this with subtitles? My biggest propblem was with the subs, not responding well to the 3D effects around it. Although they did foresee this and as such placed it not just centred but also at the left or right side of the screen, depending on where the characters were and what the 3D effect was, the subs still made me go cross-eyed several times. A problem I'm sure Americans and Brits don't have.

I did. It's pretty ok once you get used to it, after 10 minutes or so. Plus the subtitles' shifting places and depth in the movie (shifting from background to foreground etc) was very spot-on and a delight to see!

Greek subtitles where changing levels in depth too, apart horizontal positions in the screen too!