actually the more i think about it, the more i realise it borrowed quite a few key plot points from elsewhere... (MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD)

1. a male and female protagonist pair are presented to reside in a clean, airy, futuristic home above the ocean, years after a reported apocalypse-type event, with the hope that one day they will leave for a faraway place to join the rest of humankind (the island)

2. the main character suffers flashbacks in the form of dreams, which are eventually explained as remnants of a past life before his memory was wiped, and hold clues to the story (total recall)

3. the characters are told to stay out of marked no-go areas for health/safety reasons, when the areas actually hold secrets key to the plot, and a twist for the viewer (the village)

4. as part of the twist, the main character realises he is merely a clone with implanted memories, farmed for work purposes (moon)

5. the woman giving orders and promising a happy ending starts out helpful and friendly, but gradually turns more robotic and malevolent, and is revealed to be an evil piece of artificial intelligence with a single, glowing eye, residing above the floor in a huge metallic chamber where the protagonist eventually defeats her/it (portal)

6. after a surprising switch, the main character sacrifices his life by blowing up the huge celestial object on which he resides in order to save mankind and ensure a happy life for the woman he loves (armageddon)

also, why did the scavs dress themselves up to look like aliens? (or should that be predators...) 

On the money about stuff there. The hispanic styling of Matt Damon's buddies was far more charismatic than he was.

Del Toro....yeah I dunno what he was thinking. As well as PL and DB, The Orphanage is bloody great, even if I did watch most of it from behind a sofa! 

Orphanage didn't hold up as well for me on later viewings, but I really enjoyed it the 1st time around. Think I mentioned that years ago in here... 

but I did like Julia's Eyes in terms of spanish horror/thrillers. 

Shallow, silly, forgettable but still fun. Would be a good plane movie. 

The East: Didn't like the main character but overall a pretty nice thriller.

Now You See Me: Started great, got worse and worse. Not recommended.

The World's End: Not as good as Shaun or Fuzz but still lots of fun. Lots of it sucked but I didn't notice while watching. Lots of great laughs. I expected more but wasn't disappointed. Great cast and it even started with a tune from Spaced (not one you would have expected). Also, Tires! 

And now I really want to watch the world's end again and again. 

Some quickies too then.

Safe: had this recorded but put off watching it for weeks because I thought it'd suck. It didn't. Great action flick.

Horror Express: shitty 70s horror with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Not worth watching.

Killing Them Softly: decent cast, I like Brad Pitt. James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta. Shame it was a pointless movie that went nowhere. Boring crap.

Skyfall: not as good as I was expecting, lots of silly moments and plotholes.

Ruby Sparks: nice romance. Cool idea. Touching ending. Bit of a downer is the main character not being that likable.

Lovely Molly: typical modern horror. Not bad actually, especially the main actress being so damn cute. I enjoyed.

Land of the Blind: Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland. Despite the poor imdb ranking, this is a pretty great movie. Very underrated, better than everything I've listed above. 

THE ICEMAN: Michael Shannon is the best actor working right now. With another actor this might have been a so-so movie, but his performance is really impressive.

MUD: Anyone who has read Mark Twain, or run around the forest getting in trouble as a kid, will love this. Not sure about the guy who plays Mud, it could have been someone else, but overall great.

CHASING ICE: Remarkably egotistical given its stated goals, or maybe that's just me saying I'd like to see more footage of ice and less of humans, but the footage of ice here was amazingly beautiful.

THE EAST: Some strong performances (Page, Skarsgaard, Marling, basically in that order) but too obvious as a fantasy of what hippie activists WISH they were (lol like James Bond stuff). A not-so-serious discussion of serious issues, and hippies are kinda ridiculous, but worth watching.

LUTHER S3: Not as unique or weird as before; still worth watching but seems like they lost something.

PILLARS OF THE EARTH: haven't read the book but this is disappointingly conventional, somewhat nonsensical, and seemingly a waste of a high budget and a good cast. I assume the book will be better if I ever get time to read it. 

Tronyn,

seen Frozen Planet? 

I googled it and saw some national geographic style stuff but I think I've only seen the underwater icicle, and I think that might have been a promo for something or other a while ago ;) 

Good, there's some scenes which I'm not sure why they're there. 

definitely worth checking out. 

one scene really bugged me and some of the music is cheesy but the rest of it is very impressive.

Make sure you watch this one in 3D, it adds a lot. 

Go see. Now. Unless you're in the UK where it doesn't open for an age, what's that about? 

Result in monocle popping, tea spurting shock across the sceptered isle?

Is it really worth seeing in 3d? Everything I've seen so far just used it as a gimmick. ie. the entire backdrop in avatar.... 

like Hugo and The Life of Pi, it actually uses 3D properly. Those are the only 3 films I would ever recommend 3D for. 

 

I saw it in 3D and very rarely thought about the 3D. That may mean that it adds to the immersivity (yay for making up words!) of the experience, or it was irrelevant! 

and cannot agree that the 3D was irrelevant :) 

yesw it doesnt have usual gimmicky 3D of stuff coming out of the screen. Doesnt mean its not using it, particularly depth of field. 

Heh. Fair enough! 

spring breakers (2013)

i remember watching the trailer for this and thinking it looked awful, trashy and stupid. then i saw generally favourable critic scores and assumed it was unashamedly good at being awful, trashy and stupid.

it's actually thoroughly compelling and at some points mesmerising. beautifully shot and scored, darkly atmospheric and occasionally quite disturbing, for various reasons. it's not without problems as it rather loses focus towards the end and plays out a pointless sub-plot in such a ridiculous fashion that you start to wonder if the whole thing is a dream, and a few moments seem thrown in purely for the shock factor. it still leaves an impact overall though. james franco is insanely good; his scene with selena gomez (yes) is one of the most profoundly uncomfortable and creepy movie moments i can remember.

we need to talk about kevin (2011)
excellent; can pretty much repeat the first two sentences from the previous paragraph but there are no gimmicks in this one, just brilliant pacing and performances. i found it scarier than most horror movies

trance (2013)
not one of boyle's best. probably his worst, actually; it's all very bright, colourful and mind-bending with quite an original score but the plot seems needlessly convoluted and quite clumsily held together. maybe worth a look if you're a fan of reality-questioning mindfuck movies but nothing to get excited about 

Spring Breakers I'd only watch to see hotties Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez. I hope someone gets their titties out.

We need to talk about kevin, not actually listed as horror but thrillers can be scary. Is it the kind of movie where you're just waiting for the big twist? Writeup sounds like you are. Like Carrie.

Trace; I think Danny Boyle is quite overrated anyway. Trainspotting, the beach, 28 days later, slumdog, 127 hours... all overrated. I do like Sunshine though. 

there's loads of tits. that's not really a reason to watch it though

it isn't a horror, no. it is creepy however and the premise is certainly scary for anyone old enough to worry about raising kids. the climax is pretty shocking too but i wouldn't call it a 'twist'

opinions and all that. loved all those