What films have you watched recently?

DiscoStu

Blade Runner 2049.

Visually it is breathtaking, but story-wise it is slow and - like the original film - I'm not really sure what it was all about!
Cool music though.

Concept 10/10
End result 5/10

Moominpapa

The Secret of Marrowbone - in the end better in conception than execution, but i give it points for trying something a little different (though many elements of it have been done before) and some decent perfomances. 7/10

paulnb57

Red Joan, came very close to falling asleep in the flicks.......which says it all really......

Siberia on Netflix, Odd, slow, nearly turned it off, but persevered to the end scene which caught us by surprise.....not Keanus best film by a long shot......

Philly_Q

The Incident
Escaped inmates take over an asylum for the criminally insane.  Written by S Craig Zahler, who went on to direct Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete.  There are hints of what was to come in those films, it's worth a watch.

boogieman

2001 A space odyssey. I realised last night I hadn’t actually seen this for about 30 years. Still very thought provoking and an iconic film, although the effects don’t look quite as gobsmacking as I remembered and there’s some very slow sections on the space ship. Dave shutting down Hal was a lot more emotional than I remembered.

 I’ve also got Kubrick’s Paths of Glory recorded, I’ve never seen it but a couple of mates reckon it’s his best film. 

ICBM

boogieman said:

I’ve also got Kubrick’s Paths of Glory recorded, I’ve never seen it but a couple of mates reckon it’s his best film. 

It’s very good. I don’t think there is a ‘best’ Kubrick film though, because the great ones (this, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, 2001, Clockwork Orange, Shining, Full Metal Jacket probably) are all so different they’re not really comparable.

It’s hard to think of another director with that many films as great, let alone so diverse.

stickyfiddle

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

BigBearKris

stickyfiddle said:

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

High praise there Sticky... I wanted to go last Friday- but 180mins put me off a bit. I could only imagine the 'epic' battles and sequences... 
I'm a little bit more encouraged now after your review though. 

stickyfiddle

BigBearKris said:

stickyfiddle said:

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

High praise there Sticky... I wanted to go last Friday- but 180mins put me off a bit. I could only imagine the 'epic' battles and sequences... 
I'm a little bit more encouraged now after your review though. 

I was expecting a shitload of CGI fighting and little else. Obviously there is plenty of that, but there's actually a huge amount of other stuff, all of which makes for a properly great movie. 

Also, I'm not usually a mid-movie-pee-breaker, but I had to go around the 2-hour mark. I missed about a minute of the movie, and had MrsF there to tell me what I'd missed, which wasn't much, but would have made for confusion later had I been alone.

There is a good when-to-pee guide here. There are very minor spoilers, but nothing major and better to have these tiny bits in your head but not miss anything critical if you think you'll need to go, imo: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/avengers-endgame-pee-breaks-heres-when-its-safe-to/1100-6466426/ ;

Philly_Q

An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn
From the director of The Greasy Strangler... the style is certainly similar but it's a lot more, er, family friendly.  And it's got Aubrey Plaza, Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry in it.  I think it's my new favourite romcom (although that wasn't a long list).

ChuckManual

I saw Avengers: Endgame on Thursday and I thought it was brilliant. The three hours flew by and I thought that it was a fantastic conclusion of the Avengers story arc - and of Phase 3 in general ...and then I found out that the forthcoming Spiderman: Far From Home is the actual end of Phase 3!

Helpful Spoiler Alert; there is no post-credits scene - so, if you're bursting for a wee, feel free to skip off to the loo at the end.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

Testament Of Youth

WWI film based on Vera Brittain's autobiographical book. Maybe not the most sophisticated acting and direction, but well enough done. I actually found it more emotive than They Shall Not Grow Old, even though it's to some extent 'fictionalised' in the sense that the characters are played by actors. I haven't read the book, but MrsICBM has and said the film was if anything more powerful.

9/10

Thought that was poor. The BBC did a serialised adaptation years ago with Cheryl Campbell as Vera that had much more of the mood of the times imo. I read the book many years ago and the characters in the new version didn’t ring true for me. The only part that did work was the evocation of youth - they were all very young but sported that faux gravitas that seemed to be a feature of growing into a man back then.

A film set in that period that did work for me was Journey’s End; they caught the grim boredom of the trenches and the separation of officers and enlisted men very well. I hadn’t realised that the movie Aces High was a direct steal of the plot of Journey’s End until I watched this version.

My shout for an entertaining movie is Ant Man. I’m not a fan of superhero movies, they seem like America writ large and i’m sick of the USA atm but recently i’ve seen two that have been a great watch - Dr Strange and Ant Man. Both have incredible visual invention and sharp, witty scripts.

schrodinger1612

stickyfiddle said:

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

I nearly went to see this, but I’m not familiar with the back story, so I saw Shazam instead (v.funny and entertaining!) What films do I need to watch to get me up to speed?

Blaendulais

Eighth Grade excellent movie

fretmeister

schrodinger1612 said:

stickyfiddle said:

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

I nearly went to see this, but I’m not familiar with the back story, so I saw Shazam instead (v.funny and entertaining!) What films do I need to watch to get me up to speed?

You can ignore the TV shows on the right. Just watch the films on the left and in the central column.

After Captain Marvel you watch Avengers Endgame

You can miss out The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton), and Thor 2. Mainly because they don't really assist the development.

Moominpapa

Blaendulais said:

Eighth Grade excellent movie

After seeing some reviews this is near the top of my list of new films to see.

JezWynd

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

I’ve also got Kubrick’s Paths of Glory recorded, I’ve never seen it but a couple of mates reckon it’s his best film. 

It’s very good. I don’t think there is a ‘best’ Kubrick film though, because the great ones (this, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, 2001, Clockwork Orange, Shining, Full Metal Jacket probably) are all so different they’re not really comparable.

It’s hard to think of another director with that many films as great, let alone so diverse.

Barry Lyndon is a standout movie in Kubrick's work imo. The photography, sets, costuming, story (Thackeray), music are all stunning. It's a masterclass in film making. Its only flaw might be Ryan O'Neal as the lead but he makes a decent fist of it and he probably brought the money to get it made.

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

schrodinger1612 said:

stickyfiddle said:

Avengers: Endgame

As someone who has seen every MCU movie except Thor 2 and most of them twice, it was excellent. A genuinely super-impressive feat just to have it not be a bloated mess, but to have so many strands work together, and leave a genuine emotional impact in most people in the cinema (ranging from cheers and laughs to tears) it's really really impressive/

For anyone who doesn't care about MCU stuff, don't bother just because it's an "event" type movie - it won't make much sense unless you know the characters and all the backstory.

I loved it times 3000.

I nearly went to see this, but I’m not familiar with the back story, so I saw Shazam instead (v.funny and entertaining!) What films do I need to watch to get me up to speed?

You can ignore the TV shows on the right. Just watch the films on the left and in the central column.

After Captain Marvel you watch Avengers Endgame

You can miss out The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton), and Thor 2. Mainly because they don't really assist the development.

Ideally this, but if you just want to know enough to understand the basics... 

Iron Man 
Captain America: the first Avenger
Avengers (called Avengers Assemble in the UK iirc)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Age of Ultron (not critical, but gives backstory to some of the characters)
Captain America Civil War
Guardians of the Galaxy (GOTG2 not essential but it’ll help you understand why Nebula is their friend now)
Spiderman Homecoming
Ant Man 2 (again not critical, but explains how ant man gets to where he is at the beginning of Endgame)
Avengers Infinity War

Thor Ragnarok and Captain Marvel are also nice-to-haves but not critical. All you need to know is that Thor has a sense of humour now and Captain Marvel is a massive near-invincible badass.

If that’s still too many (which it probably is!) then assuming you know basically who Iron Man and Captain America are you’d get away with just Avengers, Captain America Civil War, GOTG and Spider-Man Homecoming, then Infinity War. 

Coincidentally they’re also pretty much the best of the series, so it’s no hardship. Ideally add in Winter Solider too because it’s badass. 

schrodinger1612

Bloody hell, that’s a big list, I think i’ll stick to the condensed sequence above  thanks

Philly_Q

stickyfiddle said:

If that’s still too many (which it probably is!) then assuming you know basically who Iron Man and Captain America are you’d get away with just Avengers, Captain America Civil War, GOTG and Spider-Man Homecoming, then Infinity War. 

Coincidentally they’re also pretty much the best of the series, so it’s no hardship. Ideally add in Winter Solider too because it’s badass. 

You could almost pare it right down and say just watch the films directed by the Russo Brothers!  Doesn't quite work, but they're all at the top of the tree quality-wise.