posted
I’ve not really watched many films, or read many books or bought many albums this year, so I’ll be brief on those.
Album
Much as it pains me to ever agree with BR, the bestest album I bought this year was Demon Days. It’s one of the very few CDs on my shelf which I can listen to from start to finish without feeling compelled to skip tracks. Whether or not I’ll still want to in 5 years time remains to be seen, but it’s enjoyable enough.
Book
Best things I’ve read this year are the Initial D manga books, which have brought great joy to my heart. I doubt anyone else here would be remotely interested in them though so I’ll say no more.
Film
Only counting films which were released in 2005, the best I’ve seen this year would have to be Land of the Dead. I know it wasn’t amazing, but it entertained me, and anything featuring zombie hordes is ok in my book, even if I was pretty disappointed with Romero.
DVD
As with the Initial D books, I don’t suppose anyone’s going to be too interested in this but the best DVD I bought this year would have to the Drift King’s Drift Bible. It’s basically an explanation of drifting techniques, and is very well produced and informative. It’s right up my street, and probably miles wide of anyone else’s.
Computer Game
There can be only one really. I had been waiting for it to be released for 3 years, but in a way I think I had been waiting for this game for my whole life. Gran Turismo 4 is not only my game of the year, it’s my game of the decade. It could even become the defining game of all time as far as I’m concerned. It’s everything I ever wanted it to be and more. There’s almost nothing I can criticise with this game. Aside from the inexplicable exclusion of a few notable cars (this is mostly due to politics) and a slight difference in the driving dynamics from GT3 which makes it slightly harder to control the cars using the techniques I had previously mastered, the game is utterly perfect. The graphics are beautiful, with scenery and car models all recreated with studious attention to detail. There’s a sense, at every step, that this game was created as an outlet of the passion Kazunori Yamuichi feels for driving. I suppose to many this could be just another driving game, but to me it’s much, much more.
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posted
I saw a film this year which I hated so much I had to go for a run afterwards to burn off the anger. At half eleven at night.
It was I'll Sleep When I'm Dead 'starring' Clive Owen, an actor who never fails to make me want to eat my own head.
I don't 'get' Clive Owen. He just sucks the life out of every scene I've ever seen him in. I turned King Arthur off half way through, not even Ray Winstone could survive acting along with that plank.
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quote:Originally posted by Abby: It is bad, real bad. And long....so long. You get that angry frustrated I want that part of my life back! feeling afterwards.
I had that exact feeling after watching Titanic. Was Troy that bad?
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posted
Troy was good! People just didn't like it because at no point was it obvious who you were supposed to be rooting for, and that confused them. Among the highlights are Sean Bean doing a very good Odysseus, Brian Cox chewing the scenery, Orlando Bloom's miserable performance in his duel, Peter O'Toole begging for his son, and the fantastic face-off between Achilles and Hector. Actully, Eric Bana should be in that list of highlights too.
Also, it's way better than Gladiator - by not having an indestructible hero it actually manages to introduce tension into the proceedings, making the duels a lot more exciting. Plus - it's actually got a really good script which does a nice job of rationalising the role of the Gods and making a few digs at modern American foreign policy, and arrogance. Particularly nice is justifying an attack on the Greeks through dodgy military intel, just because it's what they want to do. It's actually quite dense when you start to drill down into it, and i do think this is largely down to having David Benioff write the script.
The film's beautifully shot, too. I know that's a given with this kind of film these days, but things like the nighht-time firestorm, and the early morning attack look really wonderful. Furthermore, the film does a good job in the bigger battles - like the fear of the Murmadon's (sp?) shields making their way up the beach, or the twin walls of meat bunching against each other outside the walls of Troy.
It's true some of the dialogue is a bit clumsy, and it does feel over-long, although that's largely due to the fact that the film's central conflict is resolved about half an hour before the end.
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posted
I think it was actually worse than Titanic, but bear in mind that when I saw The Big T I was but a child, and perhaps more susceptible to these things. Troy is utterly utterly dreadful, and not in an amusing way (see Van helsing). It is astonishingly tedious and there is no enjoyment as the (many) minutes tick…slowly….past….
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Troy was good!
quote:Originally posted by Abby: I think it was actually worse than Titanic
quote:Originally posted by Roy: I liked Troy. The fight between Brad Pitt and the Hulk was cool.
I don't know what to do. I have so little free time in my life at the moment, I'd hate to waste it on a film worse than Titanic. But Pitt battling the Hulk sounds cool, sort of like when he wrestled the bear at the end of Legends of the Fall. What to do, what to do.
posted
Thorn is usually right about films. If I'm ever in any doubt, I'll get a second opinion from Benway. Often I'll consult with them after seeing a film before deciding whether or not I actually enjoyed it. Thorn was wrong once, but I can't remember what film he was wrong about. It was a dark day in TMO history.
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posted
Troy is big and pretty and and epic and impressing almost totally about Brad Pitt's thighs.
Sorry, Troy fetishises male beauty in a way that is interesting to see coming from a Hollywood usually more obsessed with the female.
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Thorn is usually right about films. If I'm ever in any doubt, I'll get a second opinion from Benway. Often I'll consult with them after seeing a film before deciding whether or not I actually enjoyed it.
This is an eminently sensible approach, and more TMOers should adopt this if they wish to avoid making fools of themselves by expressing incorrect opinions on film.
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posted
Yeah, like that time when I thought I liked 28 Days Later, but then discovered that I actually found it pretty mediocre. That could have been embarassing. Thanks Thornway, you really helped me out there.
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posted
Another film that I didn't like was Broken Flowers. I never thought a film with Bill Murray in it could be so dull. Even Mad Dog and Glory was better than this.
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posted
Surely and list of contenders for Worst Film of the Year has to include the parlous attempt to remake Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and self-indulgent overlong tosh The Aviator (relieved only by DiCaprio's naked bum)?
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posted
I voted it a 10 on imdb, just to be perverse, but I haven't actually seen it.
I could never make a stab at worst film ever. I've seen so many dreadful films, like The Foreigner and Boa vs Python. I think Van Helsing is still the film that upset me the most, though.
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quote:Originally posted by Endemic: Surely and list of contenders for Worst Film of the Year has to include the parlous attempt to remake Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...
I read a book about Douglas Adams recently. Did you know it took them about thirty years to make that film, off and on? One might expect them to have come up with at least one funny bit in all that time. Posts: 8467
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posted
Thorn what did I think of Aliens Vs Predator? I've got a feeling I might think it's one of the worst films I've ever seen, on a par with Underworld, but I'd like to make sure.
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scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
Thorn's review of 'Van Helsing' was one of the best pieces of movie criticism I've ever read. Bits of it still make me laugh now.
He is, however, wrong about Troy.
-------------------- ...because that's the kind of guy you are. Posts: 2730
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posted
War Of The Worlds was a bit shit. There were some good moments - The train of death, the attack on the ferry - but Spielberg just can't help himself. The way the son survived at the end. The way his in-laws just stand on the porch at the end, looking at him as though he's late for Sunday lunch and better have a good excuse.
I read an interview where Spielberg and Cruise were banging on about how the Cruise character wasn't a hero in this, he was an ordinary Joe trying to survive.
What, like that bit when Cruise takes out a tripod with a handful of grenades? He looked really fucking ordinary then.
I read the HG Wells book in the summer, and the film completely lacked the excitement of that book, that feeling of 'What the fuck...'. League Of X Gentlemen 2 did it so much better.
quote:Originally posted by Endemic: Troy is big and pretty and and epic and impressing almost totally about Brad Pitt's thighs.
Sorry, Troy fetishises male beauty in a way that is interesting to see coming from a Hollywood usually more obsessed with the female.
But did you like it? Would you recommend it to someone who maybe gets enough free time each year to see three or four films? I suppose I could go trolling back through old threads looking for Thorn's various film reviews to determine if we're on the same page movie-wise, but I already have a notion of your movie tastes based on your postings on other boards.
quote:Originally posted by Roy: There's a lot of beards in it, ralph.
Thanks Roy. But that's generally not enough for me to enjoy a film. Planet of the Apes contained mostly characters completely covered in hair, yet it did nothing for me.
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posted
I carried out a bit of a poll to see if I am woefully misguided on the subject of Mr & Mrs Smith. I tried not to influence people as to my expectations with the wording, which was...
Please could you give your opinion on the film Mr & Mrs Smith in as many words as you feel necessary...
Here are the answers, all of them with no edits….
I have absolutely no interest in ever watching the film Mr & Mrs Smith. That is all. (Cliff)
eye candy. that's about it. (Amelia)
aint seen it yet. sorry. (Andy)
shite Paul)
It could have been good if it were set in Stalingrad in 1942 and the plot revolved around the Soviet Empire's top sniper and his intellectual yet feisty love interest, who is also pretty handy with a rifle herself. (Guy)
I want to see it because of Ms Jolie, but the universal awfulness of all the reviews I've read have thus far prevented me from doing so (Lyssa)
Pointless! (a random person)
Top chemistry between the two (smoking hot) leads, some decent action sequences and some decent lines but let down by useless, unfeasable plot. The silliness does start to grate after a bit. Worth a watch if you like pretty people fighting and fucking but don't expect much more. (James)
pointless, amusing at parts, went on way to long. (Stuart)
so shite we had to switch it off and do something else... (Ruth)
Wank. (Foz)
Pretty conclusive I think. Ralph, don't waste your opportunity on this film!
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posted
I don't think Thorn will fail to notice that three of the people you cite in your pretty conclusive evidence haven't even seen the film in question.
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posted
Just because you know a lot of plebs, doesn't make you right. Also - Lyssa's comment is an explicit lie, because I was convinced to go and see the film after reading several positive reviews (eg, BBc News, Empire Online), so to say the reviews were 'universally' bad is an outright untruth. Can you email Lyssa and tell her I think she's a fucking lying fucking whore and if I knew who she was, I'd cut out her lying tongue, that fucking bitch. Cheers.
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posted
I'd far rather watch two hours of Abby smacking the shit out of Thorn's weakass taste in films than Pitt and Jolie 'amusingly' pretending to do the same to one another.
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Have Empire Online and the Beeb ever slagged a film when they thought there was a possibility of getting an interview with aforementioned celeb? The last time I watched Jonathon Ross he was busy telling me that the latest Harry Potter was the greatest film ever made. The c.unt. At least Lyssa has stated an opinion which hasn't been paid for. No, she should be killed for spelling a dull name exotically, nothing else, not that any other justification would be necessary.
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