[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

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A two and a half hour film and they couldn't even find room for an explanation? Disgusting!

That's you in the grand scheme of things.

Sherlock Holmes

Boring, annoying and unfunny. 2 hours that feels like 4. The plot is introduced too late, it's unninteresting, and it's stupidly complicated (it reminds me to the second and third pirates of caribean films).

About the music...it's one of the worst scored movies by the german born composer. It's mixed far too loud, it's far to "weird". If you think the 50 minutes album is repetitive, then take care to watch and listen 2 hours of the same thing.
The only good thing is the 18 minutes track wich sounds in the movie exactly that in the Album. In this case the music works brilliantly, and gives energy to the final climax.

it's one of the few times I say this about the music from this german-born composer.

I agree. The movie is too complicated, too confusing (maybe the fact that it was a 1AM session didn´t help ) and Holmes´charcater is presented too eccentric. Well, at least Rachel MacAdams saves the day when she´s on screen. About the music, it is indeed mixed too loud.

I prefer Basil Rathbone´s Sherlock Holmes movies. Definitely.

You broke your promise yesterday. I´ll let Tim know. BAM!

Anthony, you said 3 days. and I surpassed that mark.

So...Are you listening Giacchino?

Depends on which option will keep me listening to Giacchino.

It's not good as a composition. It's messy, raw and all over the place, unfitting to any mood. I imagine the same problems are the ones it's facing in the movie.

Creation

Beautifully made throughout. It didn't entirely grip me, but there were some scenes that were too stunning to not get affected by. The movie jumped back and forth in time, so for the easily confused, one has to pay careful attention (I realized that Darwin's receeding hairline was a good indicator about where we were in time, so without his hairloss I would have been totally lost). Rated it 6 out of 10 on imdb.


The number 23

Funny to see Jim Carrey in a such a serious role. Being an Ace Ventura fan, especially the sex scenes seemed odd to me. I wouldn't say he's a bad actor, but there's definitely something missing, especially in the highly emotional and dramatic scenes. That said, I found the movie to be almost crap from beginning to end. The twist might have had an actual impact on me, if the movie had been better made, combined with a better lead actor. Rated it 2 on imdb.


Bridge to Terabithia

This movie made me cry (which doesn't happen often btw). Despite appearing like a children's movie, it deals with some very difficult subjects. Judging from the trailer I thought it would be more like a fantasy movie, but it ended up being very realistic. The child actors were very good, but some of the less central actors weren't always doing the best job. I loved Zigman's score in this movie, always highly listenable. Rated it 6 on imdb.

Peter

Transsiberian

I hadn't even heard of this 2008 film, but when I saw it was on tv something about it grabbed my attention and so I read the reviews (including a particularly glowing one by Roger Ebert) and had to watch it. And it turns out that it was part-financed by the European Union, so I helped pay for it, so thought I should make an effort.

Woody Harrelson (who is terrific - who knew!?) and Emily Mortimer play two American tourists travelling from Beijing to Moscow by train and who unwittingly get drawn into all sorts of problems after befriending a couple of other Western travellers. It takes a long time to get going but when it does it's incredibly tense and gripping. It's a shame that it relies on a bit of a silly device towards the end to lead to the conclusion, but it's a fine film.

The score is wonderful! Have never even heard of the composer, Alfonso Vilallonga. Would certainly buy a CD of it, but none is available. (It's a very "Moviescore Media"-type score, if you know what I mean.)

Avatar

I think I expected way too much for James Cameron's return to filmmaking after taking a decade-long hiatus for Titanic, but the story suffers from 'inspiration' ranging from Pocahontas to Ferngully. Cameron clearly threw his all into this movie, and his passion evident in the movie. The 3-D imagery, combined with the solid acting and impressive CGI work make this film entertaining. But praise aside, this is one of the most overrated films of the past decade.

I enjoyed Aliens and Titanic far more than Avatar. James Horner may have threw in every cliche or infamous trait he had into Avatar's score, but I thought it worked very well in the movie. Well, the music in the big battle sequence at the end was lacking.

Children of Men

I'm in two minds about this one. On the one hand I found it one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen - so much so that I do wish that I had never watched it in the first place. But on the other hand it was done in such a realistic way that I have to give praise to everyone who brought this project to the screen. I couldn't NOT watch it.

Exactly my thoughts. It's a particularly grim portrayal of the future, but that, its mood and overall sadness is what makes it a different movie and a worthy listen. Admittedly, it was an emotional burden to watch but i don't regret the decision to go for it. I also thought the choice of music focusing on the John Tavener material was very apt.