These are the opinions on various films from the members of The Triforce: ( http://www.thetriforce.com/newblog/index.php )

"It was mildly entertaining. Nothing special. John Cusack is still great though. And Christopher Walken." _{-Derek From the Block}

"John Cusack... mm. I loved seeing Catherine Zeta Jones act like a complete diva." _-Alexa

"[It] impressed me greatly.

"You need to suspend your disbelief a little as the hook is a major conceit: it's a film noir, but set in a high school. The dialogue can be tricky to pick up, but it's played wonderfully straight, with none of the nudge-nudge-wink-wink homages or references that could have been a temptation.

"It's a film that assumes that the audience is intelligent enough to follow the numerous characters and power plays that develop, and although some of the scenes with the adults are a bit jarring (the protagonist backchats the Vice Principal like a Private Eye would the Police), the whole thing hangs together really rather well.

"The soundtrack is astonishing too.

"Well recommended." _-Marckee

"[..] [I] really liked it too." _-Tang

"Brilliant, natch." _{-Mr Coyote}

"Alec Guinness is a genius." _-Lurkio

"Really nowhere near as pretentious and loathsome as I'd imagined. In fact I quite liked it. Natalie Portman showing her fanny off in a strip club helped obv." _-JamesL

"Cute, nice, enjoyable and sort of overrated. But I knew it was so I wasn't let down. Also: The stop-motion technique is the awesomest animation technique in the world." _-Haarball

"[..]About as funny as I expected. Which was not very. Also as expected: Jessica Stevenson and Martin Freeman were the best. Unexpected: I laughed out loud at a reference to the Flaming Lips." _-Jude

"Absolutely fucking awful." _{-Derek From the Block}

"I didn't like the book but always thought it would be better as a film. It was enjoyable, but that's it. I wont be buying it on DVD to watch again, and that's what usually sets the standard for me. " _-Besty

"Odd, but interesting enough. Wouldn't have been scary at all except my brother giggled maniacally every time someone got seriously wounded. " _-Alexa

"I thought Fargo was boring." _-Haarbal

"Fargo would've been boring had it not been for the semi-random deaths, the horrible accents, and the giggling from my right edging the experience toward 'horror'. " _-Alexa

"It's a bit shit but Venkman fucking rules hard. " _{-Spleen of Montreal}

"For a sequel that basically rehashes the first film scene for scene, it still manages to have more original ideas in it than pretty much the last five years of Hollywood's entire output. Danny Ackroyd was one creative canuck back in the day. " _{-Mr Coyote}

"But the way that the entire city blast the GB's for being frauds pisses me off. Didn't they notice the giant marshmellow man and the city over run by ghouls? " _{-Spleen of Montreal}

"Documentary following ex-squeeze frontman playing an american tour in his motor home to crowds of about 25. The man seems to love what he does, and his enthusiasm is relentless. All the squeeze songs performed with just himself, a guitar and the audience doing backing vocals. I'd really like to see him live now. _-JamesL

"Fucking brilliant! " _{-Spleen of Montreal}

"Infectiously brilliant. I'd forgotten Nimoy was in it. "_-JamesL

"Really quite very excellent, if you're an old Shaw brothers fan, as it's full of old stars. However, my advice to most of the people round here, best to just leave it alone. Stephen Chow is an acquired taste, and he constantly uses CGI. However I would argue that he uses it brilliantly, as his stuff is only ever a small step away from being a Tex Avery cartoon anyway.

"Looking through the credits it shows that Sammo Hung was the original fight choreographer, and did the 3 old school masters fight at the start, but was replaced by yuen woo ping due to ill health for the rest. It's a shame as Hung's fight is awesome, and he rarely seems to be choreographing stuff these days. Although looking at IMDB, the last film he did it on was the medallion, which coincidentally was on five this afternoon, but I didn't watch it, as it's shit. I remember it having a few good moments in it though.

"In summary, Kung fu is cool."_-Jamesl

"i've seen shaolin soccer and the first half hour of kung fu hustle. what i saw was funny, but the use of CGI really annoyed me. it seemed he was using it just for the sake of it, even when it wasn't necessary. "_-Babyinajar


"I quite liked it." -_{Mr Coyote}

"Thought it was humorless annoying rubbish... with a cheery art style... The short movie with just the penguins is actually funnier than the full length film..." _{-Inflatable Moron}

"I thought LITERALLY the opposite. The penguins thing bored me to tears, although possibly because I was waiting for Wallace and Gromit to start.

"As I said on the old forum (sigh), I didn't love it, but I liked that the script was witty without constantly resorting to tired pop culture references (pay attention Shrek) and I enjoyed the animation, which I thought was the closest CGI has come to Tex Avery cartoons.

"I give it three shrugs out of five on the Coyote Ambivalence scale. "_{-Mr Coyote}



Cornybeard: Really not very good. It could have been so much more cooler and fun.

Iainl: I still loved M:i:III (though not that dumb abbreviation, sorry). Stunts, explosions, break-ins and stuff. The end leaves me deeply, deeply afraid of an M:i:IV with wifey as an agent, and the sheer number of things borrowed from True Lies was a bit strange, but that early mission in Berlin was great.

Tom: it's mechanical and characterless sure but it's an effective big screen action flick and it filled a couple of hours when I had nothing else to do. Doubt whether it will translate to tele very well.

Starke : Pretty good action movie, a few annoying lines.


Babyinajar: i had forgotten how funny it was. i was constantly laughing out loud at some really stupid things.


Haarball: First time I've seen it actually. Wonderful comedy - made me laugh out loud quite a few times. Sort of subtle but at the same time not to subtle, which I've come to perceive as a common trait in many quality comedy flicks.


Syrupalex: Not sure if it was written about in the previous forum incarnation but it's great.

Starke: [It] was good, but I thought it was going to be better, I hated the fact that the director cut out so much of the magic element because he's "never liked magic".

Daywatch is out quite soonish, I think???

It's got a classic fantasy plot - secret societies of Light and Dark Others who are part of a long long battle for supremacy. There's been a truce for ages to prevent both sides wiping each other out but they are waiting for a superOther to come and break it all open. This is all revealed in the opening credits so this isn't a spoiler.

Anyway, Russia has a very interesting folk history - Baba Yaga for example - and if I knew more about it I'm sure I'd see lots more references. So see it as an Eastern European learning experience or just as an excellent non-American piece of Sci-Fi. The film is based on the first of a trilogy of books so hopefully they're making/havemade the others. I may try and read them - as long as they've been translated into Blighty.



Mr Coyote: Feature length documentary about Tianamen Square (well the protests in the 80's) on More 4 at the weekend. Brilliant and fascinating.
It made me realise that I don't know enough about China, so I ruddy well went and bought a book about it. See me on the books thread in a few days time!



Dan: it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. That, and it's better than the first one, so I was quietly pleased.
Glad it didn't cost me any actual money to watch it, though. Then I'd probably have been annoyed.

JamesL: Wow! I wasn't expecting much, and thought it was one of the worst films I'd seen in a long time. If a film with zombies is boring to me, it's got to be pretty fucking awful (see also house of the dead)


Jamesl: Really is one of the most tightly paced action films of the last couple of decades. And yet it always fascinates me how its biggest asset is also its biggest flaw. the film is about the bus, but because you can't have the baddie on the bus, the tacked on ending always annoys.


Jamesl: This film just absolutely floors me. How can people who made such an interesting and lean, near perfect action film, make such an abomination of a sequel? Speed works because it is set in situations you can identify with, an elevator, a bus and the tube. Speed 2 opens with a chase with what looks like an ice cream truck spilling computers, then moves to a cruise ship with awful writing. WHat the fuck is up with Willem Defoe putting leeches on himself. Plus the most prolonged analogy about marriage and waitressing is painful. For someone who doesn't agree with the Great bad film arguement, speed 2 is the exception. It fascinates me with its genuine ineptitude. Jan De Bont has been cinematographer of countless excellent films, and director of Speed and Twister, which I enjoed immensly. How come nobody along the many lines of production just stopped it and said, THIS IS SHIT.

" How can you be running the ship if you're not on the bridge. Who's in control of the ship? Oh that's right I AM"

"What are you talking about?"

"that's what infuriariates me, you don't even know what I'm talking about. Isn't it true that the captain goes down with the ship!" what are you talking about mental Willem Defoe

It's called speed 2. "we're going to crash into those cliffs, in about 5-6 hours from now" What the fuck were they thinking.



Derek From the Block: It's all right I guess. Standard Biopic fare. It doesn't help that I always associate Joaquin Phoenix with Signs.




Lurkio: Meh. Although the opening fight scene was very good. It was OK, but the Rock played it too straight, Sean William Scott was too annoying and Walken hammed it up too much.

Jamesl: I really liked welcome to the jungle. I thought it was a modern day commando, except The Rock is 100 times more charismatic than Arnie.

Derek From the Block: I liked Welcome to the Jungle. Though I discovered it didn't hold up so well on DVD. However, Walking Tall did. Despite it not really being as good. I like how the film just does what it has to do in an appropriate length of time. It's just really well paced.

Baby H: Is welcome to the jungle the same as the rundown? If so it's amazing.


Tom: well, I didn't really like the first two that much apart from on the level where I'll get some satisfaction out of any kind of comic book adaptation as long as it has some explosions and a couple of in-jokes, and I kind of felt the same about this one, you know, it' passable.

People who enjoyed the first couple will probably like this exactly the same amount.

Mind you, Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut is a terrible idea, the rubber body suit he wears is a worse one.

Starke: Better than the first, not as good as the second.

Babyinajar: not sure what to think of it.

Derek From the Block: really enjoyed it. Far more focussed and enjoyable than the second one. The second one was overlong and made a mess of things with having the action split between two groups of good guys.
This one concentrates on the main theme of the story much more. Maybe one or two moments which could have been pacier but on the whole pretty good. Mistique is hott too.

Mr Coyote: A film in which armies of superheroes with different powers knock fuck out of each other in spectacular fashion. Every ten minutes there was a scene that would have been a double page spread image in a comic. I think people will like the film exactly the same amount as they like big dumb 'event' superhero stories in mainstream comics, with no real depth but plenty of fanboy baiting, soon to be retconned character deaths.
As such, I fucking loved it.