A mediocre shark thriller. It's packed with bad dialogue and eye-rolling moments (particularly the last few minutes - there would have been no downside to just cutting them entirely), but it does have some moments of tension and a couple of effective scares.
Brilliant first half, by the end of the second half it decides to practically become an advert for the celebrity "Hacked Off" campaign. Still good, and worth watching just for Watkins' performance.
Genuninely scary. Its scariness does come from the use of jump scares, but it doesn't make the mistakes that many modern American jump-scare movies do of overusing them, using them on fake-out scares or of adding loud stings to the soundtrack to force the jump reflex. Some spooky and original imagery too.
Stephanie Beacham is very good as the evil governess but the direction is poor, lacking tension and giving the production the look of a cheap TV show. A shame, as the book deserved better.
Silly but often seems to take itself too seriously. It feels like something from the serial killer wave of the 90s that somehow arrived ten years too late. Costner is good, though.
Redmayne does an excellent job with his performance as Hawking, but best actor of the year? The Oscar-bait factor of playing a disabled genius probably had something to do with his win. Personally I think Jones deserved the Oscar more than he did for her more nuanced performance in a less showy role as Jane Hawking. Good direction and technical qualities but it never makes much of the subject: it dumbs down the science and then shoves it into the background and then a lot of the story feels sanitised. With all the main characters still alive they don't want to show any of them in a less-than-positive light. You're not going to find any mention of the police investigating his shocking abuse at the hands of Elaine. Compared to something like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly this falls far short.
There are only six films which have achieved the movie equivalent of a grand slam by taking the Best Picture award at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the National Board of Review. They are The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Tom Jones (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Schindler's List (1993), American Beauty (1999) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Tom Jones is another of those Academy choices that touched a nerve at the time but hasn't stood up. It's an uneasy mix of New Wave style (at its best in the fast editing and handheld camerawork shown off in the fox-hunt scene), historical costume drama (with a pleasingly grounded recreation of 17th Century England) and bawdy British sex farce. At a time when the French, Japanese and British New Waves were all breaking new ground I suppose it must have been exciting for viewers to see some of those techniques applied to the sort of traditional costume drama they were used to. Unfortunately, the complex story seems to spin out of control and becomes unengaging, while nowadays the humour seems unfunny and the eroticism insipid. I don't think any of the categories it won for were deserving, with the score being annoying and intrusive too. The acting was good, but were all those nominations deserved for the broad comic performances?
Film-maker's recommended link (best quality and downloadable): http://vimeo.com/telepathicmovie/wax
This film is released under a Creative Commons license.
This pathetic film is the second short on the DVD "Visions of Africa : 4 silent films", starting about 9 mins in. I found it in the DVD room of the UCL main library.
Comments 51 - 75 of 502
Movie comment on Firebase
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0V24IEHaoMovie comment on 47 Meters Down
ChrisReynolds
A mediocre shark thriller. It's packed with bad dialogue and eye-rolling moments (particularly the last few minutes - there would have been no downside to just cutting them entirely), but it does have some moments of tension and a couple of effective scares.Movie comment on Zing
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BETa92ALukAMovie comment on First Date: A Modern Love Story
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZegJ3bIwAMovie comment on For Y'ur Height Only
ChrisReynolds
Funny for the first ten minutes, then it becomes a repetitive chore to watch as we're treated to an endless sequence of fights.Movie comment on Night of the Slasher
ChrisReynolds
https://vimeo.com/127454533Movie comment on The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
ChrisReynolds
Brilliant first half, by the end of the second half it decides to practically become an advert for the celebrity "Hacked Off" campaign. Still good, and worth watching just for Watkins' performance.Movie comment on Under the Shadow
ChrisReynolds
Genuninely scary. Its scariness does come from the use of jump scares, but it doesn't make the mistakes that many modern American jump-scare movies do of overusing them, using them on fake-out scares or of adding loud stings to the soundtrack to force the jump reflex. Some spooky and original imagery too.Movie comment on The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
ChrisReynolds
Stephanie Beacham is very good as the evil governess but the direction is poor, lacking tension and giving the production the look of a cheap TV show. A shame, as the book deserved better.Movie comment on Material Witness or a Liquid Cop
ChrisReynolds
https://vimeo.com/64792289Toplist comment on Doubling the Canon 2017 nominations
ChrisReynolds
Added to IMDb:https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/material+witness+or+a+liquid+cop/
Movie comment on On - drakon
ChrisReynolds
Twilight with a dragon-man. If you're not a teenage girl this film will be a painful experience.Movie comment on Spooks
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR067Tv7-SIMovie comment on Animator vs. Animation: Animator vs. Animation
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb1VvUf21L4Movie comment on Mr. Brooks
ChrisReynolds
Silly but often seems to take itself too seriously. It feels like something from the serial killer wave of the 90s that somehow arrived ten years too late. Costner is good, though.Movie comment on Conventional
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIWRI1g_NFEMovie comment on Zombie in a Penguin Suit
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtdEKIsnEkMMovie comment on Deep Imagination
ChrisReynolds
KG (search by title)Movie comment on The Early 70's Horror Trailer
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4dWXGfuUO8Movie comment on Balle traversant une bulle de savon
ChrisReynolds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLR-LT55UeoMovie comment on The Theory of Everything
ChrisReynolds
Redmayne does an excellent job with his performance as Hawking, but best actor of the year? The Oscar-bait factor of playing a disabled genius probably had something to do with his win. Personally I think Jones deserved the Oscar more than he did for her more nuanced performance in a less showy role as Jane Hawking. Good direction and technical qualities but it never makes much of the subject: it dumbs down the science and then shoves it into the background and then a lot of the story feels sanitised. With all the main characters still alive they don't want to show any of them in a less-than-positive light. You're not going to find any mention of the police investigating his shocking abuse at the hands of Elaine. Compared to something like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly this falls far short.Movie comment on Tom Jones
ChrisReynolds
There are only six films which have achieved the movie equivalent of a grand slam by taking the Best Picture award at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the National Board of Review. They are The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Tom Jones (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Schindler's List (1993), American Beauty (1999) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Tom Jones is another of those Academy choices that touched a nerve at the time but hasn't stood up. It's an uneasy mix of New Wave style (at its best in the fast editing and handheld camerawork shown off in the fox-hunt scene), historical costume drama (with a pleasingly grounded recreation of 17th Century England) and bawdy British sex farce. At a time when the French, Japanese and British New Waves were all breaking new ground I suppose it must have been exciting for viewers to see some of those techniques applied to the sort of traditional costume drama they were used to. Unfortunately, the complex story seems to spin out of control and becomes unengaging, while nowadays the humour seems unfunny and the eroticism insipid. I don't think any of the categories it won for were deserving, with the score being annoying and intrusive too. The acting was good, but were all those nominations deserved for the broad comic performances?Movie comment on Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees
ChrisReynolds
Film-maker's recommended link (best quality and downloadable):http://vimeo.com/telepathicmovie/wax
This film is released under a Creative Commons license.
Movie comment on Butterfly
ChrisReynolds
xianjiro's link is just a short extract. This is the full 4 minute short:(mod-edit: dead link removed)
Movie comment on Rastus in Zululand
ChrisReynolds
This pathetic film is the second short on the DVD "Visions of Africa : 4 silent films", starting about 9 mins in. I found it in the DVD room of the UCL main library.Showing items 51 – 75 of 502