I Have Just Seen... VII

[Nate]

Instead of having lots of short-lived threads about individual films or telly shows, I thought I'd start a blanket coverage, all-rounder of a thread. So, if there's a DVD you've just seen, cinema, TV, illegal download, whatever - just post here.

I Have Just Seen...
I've Just Seen... II
I Have Just Seen... III
I Have Just Seen... IV
I Have Just Seen... V
I Have Just Seen... VI

[Rex Tirano]

I've just finished watching the first series of Lost. It's no where near as good as I remember.

Although I'm quite taken with American Horror Story. Apparently it's quite the thing in America at the moment?

- Rexy

[Crashpunk]

OANST might like to know that I've been watching old episodes of Doctor Who.

[Mr. Bungle]

I watched the first episode of Twin Peaks last night.

I think I'm gonna like this show.

[Dynamithix]

I watched the first episode of Twin Peaks last night.

I think I'm gonna like this show.

You're not gonna like it, you're gonna love it.

[OANST]

You're gonna love season 1. After that.......

[Dynamithix]

True.

[MeechMunchie]

I saw Toy Story 3 again. I didn't like it much the first time around, but seeing it again, it's pretty good. Not a masterpiece, but a perfectly acceptable ending to the story.

Chuckles the Clown is just the best thing ever, though. Closely followed by The Monkey.

[Mr. Bungle]

Naw, it's a masterpiece. I'm no movie buff but I'd include it in my top ten. Definitely my favourite Pixar film, and that's coming from a massive fanboy. Movie just hits so hard in all the right places. Shame that they haven't done anything that has even come close to it's emotional resonance and power since.

[MeechMunchie]

Eh. It certainly had emotional potency, but it was just so ham-handed delivering it in comparison to the first one.

[OANST]

I thought it was pretty damn good as sequels go, but I have yet to watch a Pixar movie that has made me have feelings the way Wall-E did. Fucking Wall-E, and making me feel shit.

[Slog Bait]

Toy Story 3 feels didn't hit me until the last 5 minutes of the movie. And even then, it was all nostalgic feels. Wall-E was nice to look at, but didn't really do anything for me otherwise.

The Incredibles is still my favourite Pixar film. I'm not sure if I want a second one, though, and I know that's something that's going to happen eventually.

[Dynamithix]

I watched Elysium, I really liked it actually, very entertaining. It wasn't as good as District 9 in my opinion, but still very enjoyable. Also some great acting by Sharlto Copley.

I also happened to watch Only God Forgives, which I was super excited for because I absolutely loved the director's previous movie, Drive. Now, I wasn't exactly hoping for another Drive set in Thailand, but I had pretty high expectations for the movie and I'll be damned if it didn't crush almost all of them.

What did I like about it? Well, like Drive, the cinematography is gorgeous, visually the movie is very cool, lots of red lighting and such which I liked and the acting was pretty good too, the main vietnamese dude and Gosling had pretty good performances. The soundtrack was very good too.

Pretty much everything else was bad, the plot, the pacing, fucking everything. The whole thing is paced so badly that it felt like hours before anything actually happened. I also didn't really mind in Drive that Gosling's character didn't speak much, but holy shit, is everyone in this movie fucking autistic? They all just stare at each other and speak only if it's necessary. The story was seriously very bad, it starts off with the main character's (Gosling) brother raping and killing some Asian teen for who knows what dumb reason and then the brother gets killed and their mom comes to retrieve the body or whatever and she also gets the killer assassinated or something and then they all get into trouble with this crazy Viet cop who likes to slice people open with a small sword and ugh, it just doesn't even make any fucking sense. You could narrow it down to one word; revenge. It's about revenge basically, and that your thirst for vengeance can cost you your life or something. So fucking pointless.

A big letdown overall which is a shame, I really expected something better but oh well.

[Job McYossie]

I just finished the first Lord Of The Rings movie. Planning on watching them all now, as I have recently become a huge fan of The Hobbit. I don't watch many movies though, much more of a gamer and video creator.

[Phylum]

I finally decided that I need to see more than the first episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I'm 4 episodes in and it's fantastic. I see what Strike Witch meant about it getting heavy in the 3rd episode. It's a lot more serious than I expected, and I really like the gravity associated with the wish granting. I was expecting that to be much more superficial.

Basically, I'm enjoying a magical girl anime. I'm sorry MA, I've failed you.

[Strike Witch]

lel wut a faget

[Wings of Fire]

*gives Strike Witch a warning for spam*

Recently I've been marathoning quite a few older shows. Here are some highlights:

Gunbuster: Stupid and sloppily written but with the sincerity and heart of gold. The first four episodes were kind of crap but five was great and six was a masterpiece. Not as great as everyone made it out to be, but a damn fun watch.

Berserk: Probably the biggest surprise of the year. I'd heard bad things about the anime adaptation (Probably a good thing I haven't read the manga) but I never expected it to be so serene and human between fights. Had a very well built up plot with endearing characters and was a nice self contained low fantasy story until the demons showed up. Amazing soundtrack, but fuck that ending.

Vision of Escaflowne: Horrible. Maybe the worst thing I've ever forced myself to watch to the end. Embarassing characterization, a nonsense plot hung together by cliches and one of the most low effort endings I've ever seen. I hated the final arc. Hated hated hated it. There was a bit where it weirdly tried to shoehorn in a nuclear weapon allegory into this dumb high fantasy world and I just couldn't take it remotely seriously.

Cowboy Bebop: A nice surprise given how negative I was about it going in. It's by no means a masterpiece. The dialogue was sloppy and all over the place, episodes lacked consistency in quality and characterization was perfunctory. Also, Spike was a really bland protagonist. Still, when it was on game it was really on game and six or so episodes were absolutely stellar.

Samurai Champloo: From the same director of Bebop, this really was a masterpiece. Great characters, every episode was fun and the dialogue (and especially the dub script) were exceedingly tight. A real blast to watch and it was so worth it by the end.

[Phylum]

Finished Madoka. I certainly didn't see that ending coming. I honestly didn't know what the characters would decide to do, and I loved it. This was the best kind of surprise ending, the kind where you feel that it couldn't have ended any other way.

I was surprised that it managed to keep up the pace and intensity for all 12 episodes. The only time it really slowed down was in Homura's backstory, and even then it was so excctiting to find out who she was that I didn't care. I wsa a bit worried that it was going funny when Kyubey revealed that it was a FUCKING ALIEN, and I feel like they might have forced the idea that it had no emotions around then, but it actually just made everything even more interesting.

I watched an entire magical girl anime and enjoyed it. My friends are so proud of me.

[Bullet Magnet]

I saw Gravity. I liked it. I've long been away of the horror of finding yourself untethered and out of reach of your shuttle or space station without an propulsion unit. If your fingers are an inch from the handle you may as well be a million miles away. So that really had me on the edge of my seat.

Some science issues, but they got so much right.

[Alf Shall Rise]

I watched The Poughkeepsie Tapes yesterday.

So silly. Like, it is really silly. There were a few moments and concepts in the film that were actually genuinely creepy, but they're easily overshadowed by all of the painfully stupid choices that the writers and director made. I know that it's an unfinished film, so that probably has a bit to do with it. But man. The killer is way too over the top. Completely ruined the mood so many times. That and the weird discoloration effect that was put on the entirety of the killer's footage didn't help so much either.

But one of the last scenes where the killer walks on all fours and stabs the English woman in the throat was pretty fucking good, especially how it was shot. Also, the stump.

[Mr. Bungle]

Picked up the first season of 30 Rock the other day cause it was really cheap. I had seen a few episodes of the show while channel surfing in the past, never thought it was anything too special but I figured I'd give it a proper chance from the beginning.

And goddamn, it's so much better than I thought. All the characters are so hilarious yet real, and the writing is really clever but isn't afraid to be ridiculous. Gonna pick up the next 2 seasons today.

[Nate]

Picked up the first season of 30 Rock the other day cause it was really cheap. I had seen a few episodes of the show while channel surfing in the past, never thought it was anything too special but I figured I'd give it a proper chance from the beginning.

And goddamn, it's so much better than I thought. All the characters are so hilarious yet real, and the writing is really clever but isn't afraid to be ridiculous. Gonna pick up the next 2 seasons today.

With the exception of seasons 3 and 6 (which are still watchable, but not as good as the rest), it's really great. I particularly like the final season; I hold it up as the high watermark of a show that was wasn't planned out from the start, yet managed to wrap itself up and give all characters satisfying conclusions.

[Mr. Bungle]

That's awesome. I have some extra incentive to watch it right to the end now, love a good finale.



Just watched the new Community. It was pretty hilarious. I could see this season being better than the third (already better than the fourth but I kind of expected that).

[AlexFili]

I saw Gravity. I liked it. I've long been away of the horror of finding yourself untethered and out of reach of your shuttle or space station without an propulsion unit. If your fingers are an inch from the handle you may as well be a million miles away. So that really had me on the edge of my seat.

Some science issues, but they got so much right.

Yep it's a great film. Not sure if you saw it in 3D but I enjoyed it extra much because of that.

I enjoyed the Sherlock finale, I'll have to go back and watch the earlier series

[Mr. Bungle]

Has anyone seen Her yet? It's been getting quite a buzz, sounds pretty good. Might go see it but I'm not really sold yet. The last few movies I saw in theaters were pretty disappointing, and I don't wanna make that mistake again.

[OANST]

I almost saw it a couple days ago, but decided on American Hustle instead.

American Hustle was fantastic, by the way.

[Phylum]

Saw Frozen with some friends. Really enjoyed it.

It's a kid's movie. It had it's flaws. Overall it was a well told story, and more interesting than what I expected. I kind of knew what was going to happen with Anna, but I couldn't be certain until the ending scenes.

Top notch animation as expected. Everything had more charm than you could shake a stick at. The interactions between Christof and the reindeer were fantastic. I want to know just how much of the fractal-heavy ice was computer generated. It really looked stunning.

Music was good too. I especially loved the troll song.

I could probably criticize a few things if I watched it again, but I'm more than happy just enjoying it.

[JayDee]

This came up on my suggested videos, now i want more.

[Mr. Bungle]

That was great.

I wonder if he posts here / has posted here / is aware of this place. He seems to be quite the fanboy.

[MeechMunchie]

This came up on my suggested videos, now i want more.

Lucky you.