nEoPOL’s JANUARY IN FILM

As 2016 begins, January was a yet another big month for nEoFILM. Here is a run down of the movies which we watched over the past month, all 35 of them spanning eight decades of film…

 

1940’s

• ALONG THE PILGRIMS WAY (Documentary Short) (?) 8/10 “Little known British Travelogue. An interesting time capsule”

 

1950’s

• KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (1953) 5/10 “The Ladybird children’s version of the heroic Lancelot version of the classic myth of King Arthur. Though this was not intentional!” (16mm, B/W 1.33:1 version)
• BEN~HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1959) 9/10 “One of the stand-out classics of American and Epic cinema.”
• SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) 8/10 “Filled with classic moments, many still funny but I cannot help feeling that this is a comedy of it’s time”

 

1960’s

• THE SWORD IN THE STONE (1963) 8/10 “A classic if not erroneous retelling of the King Arthur’s ascension to the throne”
• RUN WILD, RUN FREE (1969) 7/10 “A well shot drama focusing on helping a mute young boy’s self esteem through his relationships with a pony and bird on Dartmoor.” (16mm)

1970’s

• ALIEN: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (1979/2003) 8/10 “There is no doubt that this is a brilliant and innovative movie, a true Sci-Fi classic… I just do not like it as much as I respect it”

 

1980’s

 

• WILLOW (1988) 6/10 “Second rate Star Wars friom George Lucas” 
• HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1989) 9/10 “Brilliant cold war thriller with an all star cast led by Sean Connery and the first of the Jack Ryan movies”

 

1990’s

• BLUE PLANET (IMAX) (1990) 8/10 “A beautifully shot glimpse of the Earth from space”
• THE NAKED GUN 2½ THE SMELL OF FEAR (1991) 7/10 “A cracking sequel to a ludicrous parody”
• THE NAKED GUN 33 1/3: THE FINAL INSULT (1994) 7/10 “Much funnier than is should be…”
• APOLLO 13 (1995) 10/10 “The most enlightening movie about the Apollo programme ever made  in my opinion.”
• RAMSOM (1996) 8/10 “Effective thriller remake of the little known original”
• THE ROCK (1996) 10/10 “Michael Bay’s second and one his best action thrillers, helping to define the 90’s as the action era.”
• THE GREEN MILE (1999) 8/10 “One of the best and most moving Steven King adaptations”
• ENCOUNTERS IN THE THRID DIMENSION (3D) (IMAX) (1999) 5/10 “A gimmicky but entertaining CGI IMAX 3D movie before 3D made its comeback”

 

2000’s

• THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN (2003) 6/10 “A disappointing but ambitious comic book adaptation Essentially a prototype for the later Avengers franchise”
• HAUNTED CASTLE (3D) (IMAX) (2003) 6/10 “A CGI IMAX 3D “Horror” musical. Entertaining for fans of IMAX”
• FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) 9/10 “Gripping documentary by Michael Moore”
• STAR WARS: A MUSICAL JOURNEY (DVD) (2005) 8/10 “A presentation of John William’s Star Wars score which never gets old”
• SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006) 8/10 “Underrated yet flawed soft Superman reboot/sequel. Much better than it’s reputation”
• HOSTEL: PART 2 (2007) 6/10 “Horrendously gruesome and gratuitous horror porn but with a surprisingly witty edge which is drowned by the litres of blood spilt during the brief running time”
• TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE FALLEN (2009) 7/10 “Underrated Michael Bay actioner”
• SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009) 7/10 “Fresh take on the legendary Baker Street detective”

 

2010’s

• CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010) 4/10 “Shocking remake of the Ray Harryhousen vehicle from the early 80’s”
• NUDE NUNS WITH BIG GUNS (2010) 3/10 “Terrible, cheap, cult sexploitation flick with a title that says it all!”
• HER (2013) 9/10 “An interesting, innovative and topical love story,”
• DUMB AND DUMBER TO (2014) 7/10 “Surprisingly good sequel to the 1994 hit”
• JUPITER ASCENDING (3D) (2014) 5/10 “Overblown and Shallow”
• GRACE OF MONACO (2014) 6/10 “Granted, clearly a work of fiction and nothing more than a very average “biopic” but nicely shot and not a difficult watch. Just nothing special”
• FURY (2014) 8/10 “One of the best war films saving Saving Private Ryan? Quite possibly”
• KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2015) 8/10 “Novel take on the spy genre. Once you have seen this, it cannot be unseen…”
• GIRLHOUSE (2015) 4/10 “Modern day exploitation slasher flick, with little but sexual violence to offer.”
• MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (3D) (2015) 7/10 “An up to date and and gloriously epic Mad Max movie. Artistic action rules whilst plot and characters suffer…”
• PAINT DRYING (2016) 1/10 “Over 10 hours of it!”