h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought Wrath of the Titans was my favourite film of the year so far, however I took a break from decorating and treated myself to The Hunger Games this afternoon. It was absolutely bloody brilliantand faithful to the which I finished last week. I'm glad I read the first.

I deliberately didn't look up the cast and was happy with each character (though I hadn't imagined Cato nor Gale were that good-looking)

Not so much a film I've seen, but has anyone seen the trailer for Prometheus?

Wow !

Yes, saw it yesterday. Twice WOW!

Looks like The Avengers is going to be a smash hit. It took in its international box office just this weekend $178 million. Not even opened in America yet. Could be a Billion Dollar movie.

Good I'd love to see Whedon get some clout. Maybe stupid studios will stop cancelling all his projects then!

FB

I watched Sunshine the other day. I thought it would be some rather crappy stuff, even if they had Brian Cox onboard. It turned out to be rather decent though, and nice getting to hear commentary on a movie from a scientist.

A Danish film called A Royal Affair starring Mads Mikkelsen. It's a historic love story that ends tragically. I thought it was very good, much better than a lot of critics rated it.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Not dreadfully taxing.

Not noisy.

No swearies that I can remember.

No naked bodies.

No fighting.

Some lovely scenery.

BBFC said 'Contains infrequent strong language and moderate sex references'.

I don't remember any.

Oh, now I think about it there was a sex scene. No pyjamas were removed.

PP

I saw Lockout today. Guy Pearce in Bruce Willis-mode: action man sent to rescue the POTUS' daughter from an orbiting jail. It's bloodthirsty and at times I was watching from behind my but it was quite a ride.

The Hunger Games is still my favourite film of the year so far, closely followed by Wrath of the Titans. Next week is Avengers in 3D though, so that might change

>>I saw Lockout today. Guy Pearce in Bruce Willis-mode:

I've only seen the trailer: "there's only one man who can save her...but he's a loose canon." I suppose if the ride is enough fun, you don't worry about the clichés?

Another Danish one: In China They Eat Dogs. A pitch-black crime comedy about a young innocent bank clerk who finally starts living life when his girlfriend leaves him.

Hunger Games on Saturday. It was OK. Warning: the handheld camera technique really made a couple of my friends feel ill at the beginning of the film. It was no big deal really - I've seen the plot in so many films. I felt the violence towards children a bit gratuitous.

I saw Avenger Assemble in 3D today. In-your-face death and destruction and lots of gratuitous violence for almost the whole 2½ hours.

Great film

Thank goodness, Vestboy, that someone agrees with me about Hunger Games. I wholeheartedly second all three points you made there.

I've just had a look at what's on offer in the original English at the moment. Iron Sky seems to be the flavour of the week.

Have we had any comments on that yet?

Ah - no. It's not due out till 24 May in the UK.

Avenger's Assemble, most recently.

Next week Dark Shadows.

Next month - PROMETHEUS! (I may even go see it in IMAX)

Alyce

Strange. Probably going to be a cult hit. A girl accidentally throws her friend off a roof before going on a rampage. Gruesome scenes of dismemberment, quite explicit and very black humour.

I spent the first half hour thinking WTF, but found myself drawn into it - giggling at the grossest scenes.

Not to everyone's tastes I expect but certainly one that will live long in the memory.

Fellowship of the Ring. Can't believe it's 10 years since it was first released. And now, of course, much funnier, because of all the family traditions that we associate with it. Anyway, tonight's viewing was worthy of note because it was Osh's first time. I was pregnant with him when we saw it in the cinema

Mol

Kekexili
A Chinese film based on a true story of Tibetan people who take up arms to defend their mountain antelope from poachers, who skin the animals and sell the wool to the American market.
A journalist joins them to write their story and is asked to join them on one of their patrols.
The outcome of his story and public outcry changed the Chinese government's policy. A moving and at times brutal story.

If you know films you might like this bit of fun. http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F128110?thread=404767&post=110611772#p110611772

Today has been an education.

Did you know there are IMAX purpose-built theatres with the ma-hoo-sive parbolic screen and then there are just regular cinemas which advertise themselves as IMAX but in fact are nothing of the sort?

Well this is the predicament I found myself in:


I used this website to search -

http://www.imax.com/theatres/#2.5

I bought a ticket to see Prometheus for the Imax in Norwich for the Jubilee week holiday I'm taking off from work: 9 glorious days of my own to while away, so as a treat I thought I'd see Prometheus in style and on the (literal) big screen.


I was relaying this tale at work, and one of my colleagues Nick told me about one of his friends who had done much the same and was disappointed to be led into - an ordinary cinema - with slightly wider screen.

So subsequent to buying my ticket I did some digging.

This is known in the trade be the entirely vapid and content-free label of "digital IMAX" and use IMAX projectors but the screen size and seating are all - standard ordinary unspecial, but you will pay an inflated price - even worse if the film is in 3-d.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX#IMAX_Digital_Theatre_System_and_Screen_Size_Controversy

You can see how disingenuous a company like ODEON behaves with this s on this page:

http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/imax/

Note - while they do however distinguish between the GIANT screen and the other IMAX digital theatres - they do not specify what the difference is (immersive vs ordinary) - and all the picture images are of (no suprise) the massive screen.

I think this is fantastically dishonest and boarding of flase advertising.

I did some more digging and found this on the BBFC website on how they rate IMAX movies for release, and I quote:


"The BBFC is pleased to announce a new policy for classifying Imax Digital works which further reduces industry costs for our Theatrical customers. From today (Tuesday 8th May 2012), the policy which has been agreed with the Film Distributors Association, is as follows;

New policy for classifying IMAX Digital

(i) The BBFC will continue to classify separately IMAX shot films;

(ii) The BBFC will continue to classify separately IMAX Digital films which contain any IMAX shot material;

(iii) The BBFC will continue to classify separately films being shown on the massive IMAX screens such as the one at Waterloo;

(iv) The BBFC will not classify separately films not falling into (i), (ii) or (iii) above which are to be shown on IMAX Digital screens which are no larger than 25.6m wide x 11m high. (NB This figure would include all the existing IMAX Digital screens which are equivalent to a regular screen



http://www.bbfc.co.uk/customernews/2012/05/bbfc-new-policy-for-classifying-imax-digital-works/

So count yourselves informed and before you buy an IMAX ticket - check with the cinema concerned on how the projection will be run.

As it is I cancelled my booked with Norwich and re-booked for a mid-week showing at the proper Imax at Waterloo on The South Bank.


But what a rigmarole - and I feel very aggrieved and rather justifiably livid that I had to find this out a) becuase a friend told me about a horror story that happened to one of his friends b) through all this time spent digging on the web.

It's just not on!

Watched Twilight: New Moon on Channel 4. I was expecting to hate it, like I did the first, but it's actually not bad. It's not good but it's not close to being as awful as the first. The reason for this is pretty simple: Edward isn't in it for a big chunk of the film.

Me and a mate were watching it, playing a drinking game whereby we did a shot every time Edward did something abusive to Bella. 20 minutes in and we were already a third of the way through out bottles of booze and I was starting to think our livers would die before the half-way point but then Edward buggers off, the abuse stops and the film is *much* better for it.

It helped the film that there was a lot of Alice: I like Alice a lot in the books. Her and the other Cullens (other than Edward) are far and away the most enjoyable aspect of the books.