Anyone seen any good DVDs recently

**Wolf** · 12th October 2007, 18:39

Sliding Doors (Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah) is a brilliant comedy with a neat twist or two - certainly not the usual crap.

For those of the Vampire/Werewolf fan club: Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. Intelligent and one of the few times I didn't find the sequel to be a bitter disappointment or wonder if they'd actually watched the first movie.

Wolf: Brilliant. Quite a nice level of humour in it.

An American Werewolf in London: A bit old now but some of the best transformation effects and makeup of its era and an excellent soundtrack. Excellent off beat humour. "You ever talked to a corpse? I have, it's boring!" (this from a zombie.)

Others:

The Crow (Brandon Lee): Forget the other "Crow" movies.

Batman Begins: for making a comic-book premise believable and logical.

Deep Impact: Far superior to Armageddon. And it has an XT225 in it - but I liked the movie before I found that out.

Mission to Mars: Some good realistic Science Fiction throughout the earlier stages of the movie.

Rocky Horror Picture Show: It's astounding...

Living in Oblivion (Steve Buscemi): A festival movie about a bunch of people trying to make a movie. Funny, tense and brilliantly done.

In the Bleak Midwinter (a.k.a A Midwinter's Tale): Does for stage productions what Living in Oblivion did for movie making. Who the Fuck would want to perform Hamlet on Christmas Eve? Brilliant and funny.

Goodbye Pork Pie: Need we say more. Kiwi Classic.

Lord of The Rings trilogy. Excellent.

The Italian Job - the original one starring Michael Caine. Totally unbelievable, over the top and contrived - loved it.

**peasea** · 12th October 2007, 20:34

"The Departed", good lineup and you need to pay attention, which makes a change from all the snoozing material out there.

**Winston001** · 13th October 2007, 13:36

Here are the top 10 movies from the IMDB http://www.imdb.com/chart/top which I find to be pretty accurate. I'm working my way through the top 250.

1 The Godfather (1972) 239,654
2. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 283,481
3. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 136,945
4. 8.9 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 75,328
5. 8.8 Pulp Fiction (1994) 243,918
6. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 165,427
7. 8.8 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 176,034
8. 8.8 Casablanca (1942) 109,546
9. 8.8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 122,637
10. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

**Wolf** · 14th October 2007, 11:23

Originally Posted by Winston001

Here are the top 10 movies from the IMDB http://www.imdb.com/chart/top which I find to be pretty accurate. I'm working my way through the top 250.

1 The Godfather (1972) 239,654
Never seen it, heard it's excellent.

2. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 283,481
Utterly brilliant movie.

3. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 136,945
H'ain't seen the first so I h'ain't seen the second.

4. 8.9 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 75,328
Never 'eard of it, mate.

5. 8.8 Pulp Fiction (1994) 243,918
Hysterically funny. Loved this movie.

6. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 165,427
Loved this. Was sure that they'd over hyped it Hollyweird style so I did some research and found out it was fairly accurate.

7. 8.8 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 176,034
I preferred IV, but WTF.

8. 8.8 Casablanca (1942) 109,546
A classic. Definitely one of my favourites.

9. 8.8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 122,637
Seen the stage production but not the movie. Must see it at some stage.

10. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Yep, excellent culmination of the trilogy.

**Angusdog** · 14th October 2007, 11:44

"Zodiac", the story of the Zodiac killer in San Fran in the 60s. Still a new release but very very good.

"Deliverance". You really, really need to read the trivia on the Internet Movie Database. Like the kid playing the banjo? Couldn't play, so another kid put his hands through from behind and played the banjo. And they couldn't afford stuntmen, so the actors (Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight etc) did they own - can you imagine that happen these days?

There's loads of info on the Internet Movie Database. I tend to check out any good movie on there, after I've seen it, then usually watch it again a while later. Makes the second viewing more enjoyable.

Also check out any new release on Metacritic. It summarises all the available reviews with a precis, and rates the movie as a percentage. Zodiac = 78%.

**Maha** · 14th October 2007, 11:56

UTU........and the sequel....UTU II.......

**BuFfY** · 14th October 2007, 12:29

I watched the Sound of Music the other night... but that doesn't sound like your cup of tea!!
Agreed on Shawshank... otherwise The Green Mile is awesome

**Wolf** · 14th October 2007, 13:59

I enjoy The Sound of Music - even though it's mostly inaccurate and pure Hollyweird fluff. It's at least entertaining fluff.

The Green Mile was excellent, if rather disturbing in places.

**Laava** · 14th October 2007, 15:27

Amelie is good for some offbeat interest.
Little Miss Sunshine is seconded by me.
Shawshank is my all time no1
What' Eating Gilbert Grape and
Catch me if you can, are right up there. Leo is brilliant in these 2
Predator is a good original storyline, as is Alien. [Not so keen on the Alien sequels tho]
Matrix, but not the sequels.

**Wolf** · 14th October 2007, 17:01

Originally Posted by Laava

Predator is a good original storyline, as is Alien. [Not so keen on the Alien sequels tho]
Matrix, but not the sequels.

Sequels seldom live up to, and even more rarely surpass, the first one.

Predator 2 I quite liked as it revealed the "sportsman" nature of the Predators.

I actually liked AVP as it was true to both sources.

Matrix 2 and 3 totally failed to live up to Morpheus' promises in the original - Neo could not do one more thing regarding shaping the Matrix to his will than he could at the end of the first movie. What's the matter - haven't they ever played Duke Nukem or Doom with cheat codes?

I guess that's why I like Underworld: Evolution so much. It progressed as I expected and displayed great internal consistency. Things would happen and I'd be saying "Yep, was waiting for that" - not because it was "predictable" in the usual sense, but because it was a logical next step in line with what we learned earlier. Very satisfying feeling compared with the hearty "WTF?!?!" that usually accompanies most sequels (and even some badly-written firsts) I've seen.

**Trudes** · 14th October 2007, 17:02

Loved both the Kill Bill movies.

**Street Gerbil** · 14th October 2007, 18:41

Ratatouille is undeniably a masterpiece.

**Wolf** · 14th October 2007, 19:27

More from my extensive collection:

Sleeping Dogs - brilliant Kiwi Classic and the book, Smith's Dream belongs in the book thread as a recommended read.

Boondock Saints - These guys were more like Leslie Charteris's "Saint" than Val Kilmer will ever be. Love this movie.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - inspired, brilliant and the best bit of plot exposition I've ever seen in a movie (when Winston bollocks out Charles for letting Willy and Gloria in without using the cage. You get the whole operation spelled out in simple words and would have seemed contrived were he not talking to two utter dunces. "Alarm bells are ringing, Willy!")

**SVboy** · 14th October 2007, 21:06

I'll dip my foot in shallow end of the DVD pool-Mad max 1&2. Terminator 1 & 2[only the greatest movie ever made & sadly missing from all those other pretentious lists] And Goodfellas. Also Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind-that will fuck with ya!