Off Topic The Review Thread

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Steelmonkey said:
I'd recommend The Thin Red Line - came out about same time as Saving Private Ryan, but based on the battle for Guadacanal, and based on the autobiography of one of the combatants. Delves much deeper into the pyschology of war, and the needless loss of life.

All time favourite has to be A Bridge Too Far though - having spent several years working alongside the Parachute Regiment it was a regular watch. It's another film that glories in our spectacular failures during WW2, but which we look back on with admiration at the bravery displayed in the face of over-whelming odds - it was on recently and I still loved it.

Another favourite, although not truly a war film, is The Hill with Sean Connery as a military prisoner in North Africa during WW2, and his battle of minds with the despot who is the warden of the prison camp - old, in B&W, but still brilliant and brutal.

I saw Dunkirk in the cinema, and really enjoyed it, although I doubt it would have anywhere near the same impact in your wonky TV! Worst thing that happened during the film was my 15yo son asking me if it was WW1 or WW2 - FFS, what do they teach kids these days <laugh>
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Great recommnendations and films :)

Films about "wars" evolve with time. The trend tends to be from the victories to the glorious failours and then more subtle details. Plus, unfortuately there are new wars.

Regarding WW2, in additon to the about mentioned films I would add "The Pianist" by Roman Polanski, "Schindler's List" by Steven Spielberg and "The Reader" by Stephen Daldry.

As regards more modern conflicts, I recommend "Spy Game" by Tony Scott as well as "The Hurt Locker" by Kathryn Bigelow.
 
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Steelmonkey said:
I'd recommend The Thin Red Line - came out about same time as Saving Private Ryan, but based on the battle for Guadacanal, and based on the autobiography of one of the combatants. Delves much deeper into the pyschology of war, and the needless loss of life.

All time favourite has to be A Bridge Too Far though - having spent several years working alongside the Parachute Regiment it was a regular watch. It's another film that glories in our spectacular failures during WW2, but which we look back on with admiration at the bravery displayed in the face of over-whelming odds - it was on recently and I still loved it.

Another favourite, although not truly a war film, is The Hill with Sean Connery as a military prisoner in North Africa during WW2, and his battle of minds with the despot who is the warden of the prison camp - old, in B&W, but still brilliant and brutal.

I saw Dunkirk in the cinema, and really enjoyed it, although I doubt it would have anywhere near the same impact in your wonky TV! Worst thing that happened during the film was my 15yo son asking me if it was WW1 or WW2 - FFS, what do they teach kids these days <laugh>
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The ‘Thin Red Line’ is a really good film; Terence Malik, I believe? I particularly like the scene where the Japanese soldiers emerge from the river banks, very chilling. Thought provoking end too.
 
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I have a large collection of older war movies, pretty much all of which I can recommend:

  • The Heroes of Telemark
  • The Battle of the River Plate
  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  • Above Us The Waves
  • Run Silent, Run Deep
  • 49th Parallel
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Aces High
  • Carve Her Name With Pride
  • Appointment in London
  • Ill Met by Moonlight
  • I was Monty's Double
  • In Which We Serve
  • Malta Story
  • Reach For The Sky
  • The Lion Has Wings
  • The Way Ahead
  • We Dive at Dawn
  • Tunes of Glory
  • Went the Day Well?
  • The Long and The Short and The Tall
  • Too Late the Hero
All worth watching.
 
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No one seems to have mentioned Sam Peckinpah's Cross Of Iron in their favourite war films. Unusual in that the story is told from a German perspective, it is graphic and brutal, as you would expect from Peckinpah. Recommended.
 
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What are the worst films anyone has seen?

For me, the following films I could not sit all the way through;

Wayne’s World
Austin Powers
Anything with Jim Carey except Man on the Moon
 
IwasanotherwatfordR said:
What are the worst films anyone has seen?

For me, the following films I could not sit all the way through;

Wayne’s World
Austin Powers
Anything with Jim Carey except Man on the Moon
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quite liked austin powers.

In past 2 years i have watched (since i was an adult and can understand) Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, Die hard 1,2,3,4,5, Stars war 4,5,6, Alien, Aliens, Rambo first blood, Terminator.

Boy they don't make classics like they used to.
 
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IwasanotherwatfordR said:
What are the worst films anyone has seen?

For me, the following films I could not sit all the way through;

Wayne’s World
Austin Powers
Anything with Jim Carey except Man on the Moon
Click to expand...

I quite enjoyed the recent film "The Disaster Artist" - a biopic about the writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau of the film voted the worst of all time - The Room. He funded the film himself too, reportedly up to $6M of his own cash - and the film only made $1,800 in it's opening weekend! It's now deemed a cult classic, but the dialogue and cinematography is clunky at best, and downright awful most of the time - so cringe worthy it's almost worth watching (but it is really bad).

The Sharknado films - awful, wooden acting, cheap as chips special effects, dumb story lines in all of them (and yes, I've seen at least 3 of them!!) - good Saturday night pissed viewing if nothing else.

The wife likes to watch the new trend of horror films, where a family either move into a new house which is inevitably possessed, or take in an adopted/orphaned/abandoned child who is possessed - leading to the same storyline in them all. 90% of them are dire, with terrible acting and script - nothing like the original Poltergeist or Amityville films.
 
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Bit of a chaotic and unpleasant trip back with delays and plane changes, but did manage to get to watch Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story. Well worth watching though not really very well made. It was much more Mick Ronson’s role in the Bowie story, virtually nothing on his early life and not so much on what he did post his relatively brief stint as a Spider from Mars. Some odd, quite stilted voiceover from Bowie, who’s praise is never quite as fulsome as I would have expected, some good archive footage including interviews with Ronson himself, and lots of talking heads - Lou Reed (and everyone else to be fair) loved him. I didn’t realise that besides being a great guitarist he arranged and scored loads of stuff - the first score he wrote, after learning how to do it by looking over someone’s shoulder, was Life on Mars, and the arrangements on Reed’s great Transformer LP, including Walk on the Wild and Perfect Day, were his, and of course All the Young Dudes.

He seemed a lovely bloke as well as a great musician. I suspect Bowie wanted to badge him as a ‘great early seventies’ guitarist because his influence on Bowie’s breakthrough albums (and still my favourites) was immense, and Bowie didnt really want this recognised. They remained mates until Ronson’s death before he was even 50. He clearly wasn’t interested in getting rich, just liked being involved in music, and had no cash during his illness.

For Bowie fans and of course Ronson devotees recommended, though it’s not a great film.

Side review - Delta premium economy class - garbage. A slightly padded seat and about two inches of extra leg room over economy. Same food etc. This seems standard for US airlines, I guess premium can’t be much more expensive than coach, but not worth it.
 
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Steelmonkey said:
I quite enjoyed the recent film "The Disaster Artist" - a biopic about the writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau of the film voted the worst of all time - The Room. He funded the film himself too, reportedly up to $6M of his own cash - and the film only made $1,800 in it's opening weekend! It's now deemed a cult classic, but the dialogue and cinematography is clunky at best, and downright awful most of the time - so cringe worthy it's almost worth watching (but it is really bad).

The Sharknado films - awful, wooden acting, cheap as chips special effects, dumb story lines in all of them (and yes, I've seen at least 3 of them!!) - good Saturday night pissed viewing if nothing else.

The wife likes to watch the new trend of horror films, where a family either move into a new house which is inevitably possessed, or take in an adopted/orphaned/abandoned child who is possessed - leading to the same storyline in them all. 90% of them are dire, with terrible acting and script - nothing like the original Poltergeist or Amityville films.
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never watched it myself personally but apparantly "teeth" is a pile of horror dogshit
 
Recommended in advance Jonathan Meades on Jargon, BBC4 10.30 tomorrow.

Meades, along with Adam Curtis, is one of the giants of television, everything he does is unique, personal and thought provoking, film essays on food, art, architecture, society, you name it. Now he apparently destroys jargon in favour of slang, and a lot of swearing is involved.

He is an acquired taste, you’ll either love him or hate him and you will know within the first 3 minutes. He is unashamedly pompous, intellectual, challenging, incapable of dumbing down, hugely opinionated and very funny. In my opinion. I also get why many would hate him.

Here’s a taster, to save you time and blood pressure issues if you want to smash his face in based on this

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If you have time, please watch the latest episode of Judge Rinder Crime Stories on ITVHub. It covers the tragic death of a young girl who I had known for pretty much her whole life and whose family are coping with their young daughter being killed by a drunk/drug driver at the age of just 19. We really need to toughen the laws and sentencing for these people.
 
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