currently on at the 'pictures':

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

SHERLOCK HOLMES is fine Peter: great representation of Victorian London, fine sardonic quips from Downey, and a cool finale atop the halfway-constructed Tower Bridge, in all it's greenscreen/ CGI glory.......this film belts along at a swift pace, but if you want to see it, I would move quickly, as I'm not sure how much longer it will be on for [though it's still on this week]. I'm not especially a Sherlock fan, but this film captured my interest. Sorry, I'm not yet familiar with the Funnybones film you mentioned.


I'm just doing a pale imitation of BAZZA NORMAN on here: it's your own tastes/opinions that count, I'm just saying what I think of the films I see.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

meanwhile, here's a WOLFMAN promo pic to get you in the mood:

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[Just noticed it says: 'RAB' at the bottom of that last pic: wow, hope I'm not an unwitting werewolf....]

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Here's the OLIVER REED wolfman film that Raven mentioned: this looks eerily effective here, and this version isn't bad at all, with good makeup, even if the HAMMER special effects regarding the transformation scenes obviously lacked the miracle of today's visuals:

Image

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Peter Gray
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Peter Gray »

I meant Lovely Bones...keep calling i funny bones.. :)
A Peter Jackson film..

thanks for the feedback on Sherlock everyone....

Raven
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Raven »

One of the best werewolf make-ups I recall is that of the white werewolf in the 1975 Tyburn film Legend of the Werewolf, which used to turn up late at night on the BBC. (A Google Image search will produce a visual of the beastie, including a great poster for its cinema double-bill, paired with a rerelease of Hammer's Vampire Circus.) Not necessarily an extremely good film overall, though it's quite entertaining, but there's an effective finale when Peter Cushing confronts the creature in a Parisian sewer.

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Raven »

Peter Gray wrote:I meant Lovely Bones...keep calling i funny bones.. :)
A Peter Jackson film..

thanks for the feedback on Sherlock everyone....


Well, Lovely Bones isn't out yet. It looks interesting from the trailer, but it only gets 36% on www.rottentomatoes.com (which collects together most of the professional published reviews).

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Jonny Whizz
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Jonny Whizz »

I really enjoyed Sherlock Holmes. It flies against expectations of the character and Downey is brilliant. If you can accept Dr.Watson being played as a kick-ass hardnut you should like it.
I thought Sherlock Holmes was great too! Well worth going to see in my opinion.
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Digifiend
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Digifiend »

Re: The Lovely Bones, it's based on a book by Alice Sebold, who I've never heard of before. One thing that goes against it is the fact that one of the cast members (Rose McIver) is the yellow RPM Power Ranger! Most ranger alumini have had very unsuccessful careers. Another thing that makes it look doomed to failure is that in America, it opened in only three cinemas! It took five weeks to get a wider release.

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Raven »

Digifiend wrote: Another thing that makes it look doomed to failure is that in America, it opened in only three cinemas! It took five weeks to get a wider release.

This was an unusual strategy, but it didn't doom it to failure. In the sixth week it increased to over 2,500 screens and was quickly making between 20 to over 40 million dollars per week. It reached number 3 in the US Box Office chart.

Apparently the idea behind the initial limited release was to build momentum.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

A SINGLE MAN; Colin Firth stars in this angst-ridden drama set in the US in the very early 60s. The period setting is well-handled, but the subject-matter, that of a high-school tutor and his inner turmoil regarding his homoerotic impulses, is not for every taste, and although the inner decadence of the middle classes is a good theme, there is an ill-advised scenario involving a botched suicide. There's not a great deal to reccomend this film, unless----inexplicably----you desire to see the sight of Firth's bare buns. [2/5].


VALENTINES' DAY: I was dreading this film, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected......this takes the Valentines' Day theme [I wasn't even aware they celebrated it over there] in latter-day LOS ANGELES, with criss-crossing scenarios involving multiple characters: fast-moving, so never really boring, however an overdose of 'Uncle Sam's ' over-sentimental wholesomeness becomes a bit overbearing near the end. Not really a bad film, and probably pretty good if this is yer bag. [3/5].

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Phoenix »

Raven wrote: Apparently the idea behind the initial limited release was to build momentum.
So is that what they are doing with An Education, which is up for all sorts of awards, and is on general release according to The Guide, which is always included with the Saturday issue of The Guardian, and yet its appearances anywhere in the North West area can only be described as sporadic? If it has been shown in Liverpool or anywhere near me it must have been when I was in London. Even so, the expression on general release doesn't seem to mean the same thing for all films.

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Raven »

Phoenix wrote: So is that what they are doing with An Education, which is up for all sorts of awards, and is on general release according to The Guide, which is always included with the Saturday issue of The Guardian, and yet its appearances anywhere in the North West area can only be described as sporadic? If it has been shown in Liverpool or anywhere near me it must have been when I was in London. Even so, the expression on general release doesn't seem to mean the same thing for all films.

An Education was released at the end of October last year, Phoenix, so I expect it's long gone from the circuit now, except maybe for a few London cinemas. Its DVD release is only three weeks away.

A Peter Jackson-directed film based on a bestseller is always going to get massive distribution but there are problems in the UK with smaller films. There are British films that get awards in festivals for a few years then finally get a release and are hardly in any cinemas, especially up north. I don't know how good this one is but there was a recent British thriller called Summer Scars that had been in the can a couple of years before finally getting a release and was reviewed in all the big film mags, but it didn't seem to get a screening any cinemas near me.

The Lovely Bones may have been following the old U.S. style of distribution. Films used to open in just a few cinemas nationwide to build up a momentum then would get a full release quite some time later. It was a very gradual build up. I think they were doing it that way with all the big films in the Seventies, still.

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Phoenix »

Thanks, Raven. If all else fails I can at least buy the DVD or, more likely, borrow it from Blockbusters.

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

THE LOVELY BONES: going by the confusing 'coming attractions' advert, this seemed a bit of a mystery, and I never knew quite what to expect......however, I found this pretty gripping stuff, with much twists along the way; for most of the running time, you are genuinely wonder what is going to happen in the next scene: a rare state-of-affairs these days.

I don't want to give too much away, but early on, the central young girl character narrates on the soundtrack that she will be murdered at some point in 1973, and this novel approach in itself is enough to reccomend this. A lot of unusual, stylized scenes set in the afterlife, however, during the second half, this shifts gear into mostly psychological drama, with supernatural trimmings.

Directed by LORD of the RINGS/KING KONG remake helmsman Peter Jackson, this looks like neither of these works, and it is probably healthier that it takes off in it's own direction......also, watch out for Jackson's Hitchcock-like self-cameo-role, around the mid-point.


[5/5, not so much because its'a great film, but more because it's refreshingly original, and non-typical].

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Re: currently on at the 'pictures':

Post by Phoenix »

The reviewer of The Lovely Bones in this morning's Film And Music section of The Guardian was very dismissive of its qualities. In truth, hardly any qualities could be discerned.

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