Atheist Ireland Forum

Title: Repo Men
Verdict: don't bother
Why: The film couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a comedy, serious sci-fi, or a Tarentino wannabe. Two excellent actors Forest Whitaker & Jude Law are mostly wasted in a plot that is mostly implausible. Essentially the story is about the near future where artificial organs and enhancements are available for all that ails you, and where said bits can be forcefully & fatally retrieved by the Big Pharma company if you fall behind on your monthly payments. Yeah, not even in Saudi Arabia. Our callous hero has a change of heart when he finds himself in the same boat.

Title: The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Verdict: Don't bother
Why: All one has to do is look up the real story that this film is "based" upon, it's a joke from start to finish, not scary, but then again for those that are superstitious and believe in this type of dribble it may well scare them. I watched it last night due to it being the only DVD in the house that I hadn't watched and I was bored. The problem was I was even more bored after it. The brilliant Laura Linney was wasted on this film.

Film: Oldboy
Verdict: I really liked it.
Why: There is something endearing about this film in that it manages to balance comedy and high tension drama. It's fair to say most people love revenge movies. Eastwood has almost made a career of them; this is most certainly revenge themed but not in the way you expect. If Tarantino was born in Korea he would have made this film.

he he

Title: Eden Log (Clovis Cornilliac)
Verdict: weird but worth it if you are into sci-fi, will appeal more if you are into gaming
Why: it's a refreshingly non-Hollywood brand of sci-fi, a post-apocalypse dystopia which manages to merge a bleak futurist genre with grimy noir thriller. It's not perfect, the climax could have been better, and it has a strange similarity to being an action RPG complete with "levels" which won't appeal to everyone.

I have a backlog of dvds to get through so I will be spamming this thread until I'm done.

Title: Moon (Sam Rockwell, Dir: Duncan Jones)
Verdict: Brilliant
Why: This is Real Sci-Fi ™ in the style of the best of Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick. It's about a miner on the dark side of the moon with only a computer and a satellite uplink for company. The film explores what we take for granted about who we are as well as the nature of life lived by remote contact.
Also, the director happens to be the son of someone famous. But that's irrelevant. As a director he makes all the right moves.

four lions.written and directed by christopher morris.a comic look at four
muslim terrorists who plan to blow themselfs up to become martyrs.
really funny film worth checking out.if your a fan of morris its a must see

Irritating Pedantic Science Guy: Actually the Moon has no “dark side” in a state of perpetual night; both the far and near side of the Moon receive roughly the same amount of light. When we have a New Moon the far side is a Full Moon.
I hate myself.

Nonetheless, sounds good, might check it out.

@ Irritating Pedantic Science Guy: yes, that's right. The movie doesn't depict it as a dark side either.

Title: Robin Hood (Ridley Scott version)
Verdict: not nearly as bad as you've been told
Why: Any director trying to do this story is equally cursed and blessed. Cursed in that it's been done a thousand times before from Disney's anthropomorphic horror to Kevin Costner's unintentionally comedic epic; blessed because any audience knows the basic story and the roles of its large cast of characters.

This one succeeds far more than Costner's in trying for a more authentic and historical feel (ok, they're all a little bit clean but I'll live with that); and it manages to at least have women characters who whose sole function in life isn't just to wait around to be rescued. The main players are more nuanced than the conventional stereotypes of legend, and the story tells a not implausible version of the back-story to the legend of Robin Hood.

It suffers from a complicated story. Were the essential Robin Hood story not so well known, audiences would find the constantly twisting plot involving a cast of thousands too distracting to engage with any of the protagonists. As a result the film was never going to be Oscar material. But as another retelling of the Robin Hood sage, it's not bad really.

Man Bites Dog

Really good movie. Its an old film based in Belgium and is about a film crew that watches a serial killer/hitman do his job. Its very funny with some shocking violence and not to be watched if easily offended. The crew start off stand offish and then start to empathize with a likeable man who commits horrible crimes.

What do the women get up to in it ?

please don't tell me they wear mens clothing and fight with swords etc

If you mean is it like Xena, Warrior Princess, The Nottingham Connection, then no. You can rest assured.
I mean the women don't spend the entire movie whimpering and crying in a corner somewhere.

Also, it ain't so far-fetched as it sounds.

Title: I love You, Philip Morris
Verdict: Excellent
Why: Quirky and different. Starring Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor. I actually don't want to spoil it so I won't give too much away. I knew nothing about it before watching it and I think I enjoyed it more because of that. Their characters are gay and both give outstanding performances. Very funny in parts and touching in others. Carrey is highly under rated imho.

Title: The girl who played with fire
Verdict: Excellent
Why: I really enjoyed reading the Millenium trilogy, and the film did a fantastic job of presenting the story of the second book on the big screen. OK there were a couple of very minor plot deviations, and there were levels of detail that had to be skipped simply for lack of time, but all in all it was just as gripping to watch as the book was to read. And it was refreshing to watch a film with unknown actors (to a non-scandinavian audience at least) that looked a bit low-budget, not too glossy and just not so Hollywood