Rate That Movie 2!: Electric Boogaloo

[numbersix]

Can't wait to see it. But it's out late Jan here. Boo

[silversurfer19]

Same here. We have The Descendents, Young Adult abd Dragon Tattoo all out the same weekend. What to see first? Decisions, decisions...

[numbersix]

The Descendents. Obviously

[silversurfer19]

Obviously. Think I'll go with Dragon Tattoo [wink]

[Chienfantome]

In France it's the same, end of January. Dragon Tattoo is mid-jan I think. ANd I don't even know if there's a release date for Young Adult yet !

[numbersix]

Dragon Tattoo opens around Christmas time here, so I'll probably go see it just due to lack of choice.

Same goes for Hugo. It's the only film out this weekend I'm remotely interested in, though I'm very wary of Scorsese, who I feel has become a hack and The Departed was the only half decent film he has made in about 15 years.

[Chienfantome]

I stumbled upon the filming of Hugo last winter in the streets of Paris, like 10 minutes away from where I live by foot. I'm curious to see if we recognize Paris.

[W]

I just saw Hugo 3D. Probably the best 2011 movie I've seen. I liked Attack the Block and Super 8 as my top 2 before today, but this is a lot better. There's enough comedy in it where it doesn't get overly dramatic, but not too much. It's more a mystery, I'd say. Not your typical Scorsese.

[Chienfantome]

Well well, Scorsese gets a lot of compliments with Hugo. I wasn't expecting anything from it only a couple of months ago, but I'm more and more curious about it.

[becs]

I do plan to see tintin, I grew up reading the books and have been anticipating the film for a long time. They had a ton of 3d trailers before Hugo; I think Tintin, The Lorax and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists all looked pretty worth seeing in 3d, the rest looked stupid or too kiddie for me.

[Buscemi]

The Descendants ***.5/****

Not as good as Sideways but a nice return to film for Alexander Payne. A nice mix of comedy and drama (and plenty of scenery porn from the Hawaii shoot), the story of a family in conflict is handled beautifully and tastefully. Clooney is good as usual, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard and Beau Bridges do well in their few scenes and the cinematography is very beautiful (though characters do look a little orange at times). Strangely enough, I found Shailene Woodley the film's weak link despite the acclaim she's been getting. To me, Amara Miller (playing Scottie) was the film's breakout. She's the funniest thing about the film and possibly the most memorable thing as well. I could easily see her appearing in more films in the future.

And a funny thing about the showing I went to: almost everyone in the theatre didn't realize this was a comedy until the last third. The theatre, filled with old people, sat totally stone-faced while my mother and I were cracking up during the funny parts. Finally, they starting laughing around the 80 minute mark of the film. It's like something clicked in their eyes saying "this is a comedy".

[Buscemi]

Hugo (3-D) ****/****

Martin Scorsese's best film since Goodfellas. Everything about it is great. From the performances to the 3-D to even the little dachshunds, the film's 126 minutes are one tasty morsel after another. Go see this movie now!

[silversurfer19]

Yesterday we went to see Arthur Christmas (8.5/10) - a movie bristling with fun and originality, it's a welcome addition to the cannon of my favourite Christmas movies. Aardman have brought their wit and charm from the Wallace and Gromit series and transformed a theme which has become rather stale in recent years into something fresh and colourful which delighted both myself and the hoardes of children around us. The story revolves around the son of Father Christmas who, in the midst of a high-tech operation now taking place in the North Pole, risks everything on a mission to ensure the traditions of Christmas are maintained. Heart warming and wonderfully entertaining, the movie tackles all the traditional themes of Christmas movies, from dysfunctional families and the importance of mystery in Christmas, but with Nick Park's dry wit and humour wraps it up in a whole new gift wrapping, splashing it with colour, imagination and some beautiful animation to ensure the kids are left bright eyed with wonder while the adults are rolling around the cinema with laughter. An almost perfect family movie, which, though it would have benefited from a little trimming around the edges, never outstays its welcome and will become a firm fixture of our household traditions leading up Christmas Day's in the future.

[becs]

Hugo (3-D) ****/****

Martin Scorsese's best film since Goodfellas. Everything about it is great. From the performances to the 3-D to even the little dachshunds, the film's 126 minutes are one tasty morsel after another. Go see this movie now!

:O

Boosh and I both liked the same film... everything they say about 2012 being the apocalypse is clearly true.

[numbersix]

Hugo - 5/10
Admittedly, this may be a knee-jerk reaction, but the film ultimately felt like a 2 hour advertisement for Scorsese;s cinema resoration organisation The Film Foundation. It's as agenda-pushing as any Christian Films (Corageous, Fireproof, etc). Which would be fine (hey, he's preaching to a convert here) but I felt his mastabatory fascination with the history and mechnaisms of cinema booged the film down, and ultimately sacrificed character and a coherent theme. It's also ironic considering it was shot on Digital 3D, and the overuse of what will be seen as the fad of the last decade, teal and orange grading.

Thematically it's a bit all over the place (Scorsese has been guilty of this before, and it's no coincidence it was with The Aviator, yet another film about the history of cinema). The world of Hugo and the world of George never quite cohere, and at key moments we get very leading and unnatural speeches that are meant to convince us about characters and motivations to bridge their stories, but never quite ring true because we're never shown it enough. And then there's two sub-plots that never quite work with the main film except for the ultimate feel-good nature that the film forces upon us. There's also a good few plot holes too, possibly cut in a clunky adaptation, I'm not sure.

On the plus side, a film about the wonder of cinema's origins is quite a subversive element for a children's film. I wonder what kids make of it? And even though Chloe Moretz totally over-acted, Ben Kingsley and Sasha Baron Cohen were both superb in very different ways. The lead was at times good, but the script often felt too uncomfortable.

The world Scorsese creates does feel fun and dynamic. I'm not sure if it was the intention but the 3D worked in a sort of antiquated way - it felt like a pop-up book at first. Some sequences glide beautifully, the camera floating without drawing too much attention to itself. But just like it shows us a lot of clips of classic silent movies, and not the bones of the stories that drew audiences in, this film too is great at wowing us with its individual sequences but never quite working together.