What films have you watched recently?

JezWynd

Midsommar. Modern take on the Wicker Man but with little of the depth or charm and no-one to root for. A sadism fest in pretty colours.

tony99

EricTheWeary said:

The Death of Stalin. 

Interesting, bit different, reasonably funny, lot of nastiness largely off screen ( violence and sexual abuse), dragged a bit in the middle ( although any film over 90 minutes I’d probably say that about). The ensemble performance with everyone in their own accents and the scripted banter making it seem very much like a filmed play ( not that it is that I know of). 

halfway through this, had to switch off last night as I was knackered

bloody good though, although it is basically the thick of it / in the loop but with different actors and a historical context, very enjoyable

Snap

stickyfiddle said:

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - Just don't watch this. It's as terrible as the worst bits of Last Stand, Origins, and Apocalypse. Even the usually-excellent McAvoy and Fassbender are phoning it in.

I've not heard/read a good review of this one at all/ Shame, as I like the cast, and enjoy an X men film. What is so bad about it? I'm intrigued.

boogieman

JezWynd said:

Midsommar. Modern take on the Wicker Man but with little of the depth or charm and no-one to root for. A sadism fest in pretty colours.

And presumably also missing Britt Ekland’s peachy arse? 

Dopesick

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - First time I'd seen it in years but it's pretty much essential viewing. The electro shock scene with Nicholson always makes me squirm because it looks so real.

24 Hour Party People - One of my favourite 'based on a true story' movies ever, although some of the scenes are made up. It's no world beater but I always find it a fun watch.

EricTheWeary

tony99 said:

EricTheWeary said:

The Death of Stalin. 

Interesting, bit different, reasonably funny, lot of nastiness largely off screen ( violence and sexual abuse), dragged a bit in the middle ( although any film over 90 minutes I’d probably say that about). The ensemble performance with everyone in their own accents and the scripted banter making it seem very much like a filmed play ( not that it is that I know of). 

halfway through this, had to switch off last night as I was knackered

bloody good though, although it is basically the thick of it / in the loop but with different actors and a historical context, very enjoyable

Yeh, that’s a fair summary. It’s maybe a bit one note - it's all about the interaction of this cast of characters and so the scenes get very samey. I was watching something with Stewart Lee talking about working with Armando Iannucci and he gave an example of something he ( Lee) had written that was funny on the page but wouldn't work acted out and Iannucci didn't necessarily get that. It was self criticism by Lee but but I can see that Iannucci is so wrapped up in the writing that maybe what works for the audience gets a little lost. 
I rewatched In the Loop recently and it's very like that, clever but all at the same tempo. It also suffers from portraying politicians as much less ridiculous than some politicians have subsequently been, it's almost quaint now. 

stickyfiddle

Snap said:

stickyfiddle said:

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - Just don't watch this. It's as terrible as the worst bits of Last Stand, Origins, and Apocalypse. Even the usually-excellent McAvoy and Fassbender are phoning it in.

I've not heard/read a good review of this one at all/ Shame, as I like the cast, and enjoy an X men film. What is so bad about it? I'm intrigued.

In short, everything. 

To start, it's basically a remake of X3: The Last Stand, which was terrible. It's directed by Simon Kinberg, who wrote X3, as well as DOFP and Apocalypse, so he's hardly got a great track record (FWIW I love DOFP, but that seems to have been a combination of easier-to-translate source material and pure fluke). And it doesn't do anything fundamentally different to X3 in its execution. 

You then have that same storyline applied to characters we've barely seen in previous movies, chiefly Sophie Turner's Jean Grey and *googles* Tye Sheridan as Cyclops. Each were effectively side characters one previous movie (Apocalypse) and it's just really hard to give a shit about either of them, and especially when they're also trying to cram in stuff with McAvoy, Fassbender, Hoult and Lawrence to boot. Then you add Jessica Chastain as A.N. Villain and you just have a messy film with dull plot, awful dialog, average direction, and a score that, while great in parts, just doesn't bloody stop through the whole film. 

After a decade of Nolan, Deadpool, Logan, MCU, and Joker it's just nowhere near enough. 

I've enjoyed some of the previous x-men movies and love the source material (particularly the 90's cartoon), but I can't wait for them to get into the MCU. I'm guessing they'll take it very slowly, adding one or two characters at a time (and not any of those who have featured in the main x-men movies). 

not_the_dj

Deepwater Horizon on Amazon Prime. 

Pretty good disaster movie...with the added hindsight that it's based on the real event. 

As usual after watching a "true" movie I'll do a bit of reading up on it. I remember it being on the news, but more so for the environmental impact rather than the initial cause.

ICBM

boogieman said:

And presumably also missing Britt Ekland’s peachy arse? 

I hate to disappoint, but it wasn't Britt's arse. She objected to hers being shown so they hired a body double for the rear view .

not_the_dj

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

And presumably also missing Britt Ekland’s peachy arse? 

I hate to disappoint, but it wasn't Britt's arse. She objected to hers being shown so they hired a body double for the rear view .

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

ICBM

not_the_dj said:

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

Supposedly not.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12767429.ekland-reopens-controversy-of-the-mystery-rear/

sweepy

Joker, unbelievable and compelling, one of possibly the best films I’ve seen 

EricTheWeary

not_the_dj said:

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

And presumably also missing Britt Ekland’s peachy arse? 

I hate to disappoint, but it wasn't Britt's arse. She objected to hers being shown so they hired a body double for the rear view .

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

I thought that sentence was going to read Wasn't it Rod Stewart's arse? that would have ruined some happy memories.  

breakstuff

EricTheWeary said:

not_the_dj said:

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

And presumably also missing Britt Ekland’s peachy arse? 

I hate to disappoint, but it wasn't Britt's arse. She objected to hers being shown so they hired a body double for the rear view .

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

I thought that sentence was going to read Wasn't it Rod Stewart's arse? that would have ruined some happy memories.  

JezWynd

The Aeronauts. Redmayne and Felicity Jones as pioneer balloonists. An old school adventure biopic, beautifully filmed and with a particularly affecting performance by Jones. I loved it, but I'm a sucker for big frocks and period drama. I was worried at times though, about all that heavy kit they tossed out of the balloon to keep the story aloft - suppose it landed on someone?

AlexC

Sassafras said:

Knock Knock.
I found it absolutely sickening. The first ten minutes of totally unconvincing  perfect happy American family life was nauseating beyond belief. I actually thought I might throw up. Then it lead into the establishing shots of his life as a successful architect living the American Dream which were equally unendurable. The film was only redeemed by the appearance of the 2 psychobitches who torture him, deservedly in his case I felt.

I watched that the other night. I thought it was funny. Wasn’t it s’posed to be funny?

Philly_Q

AlexC said:

Sassafras said:

Knock Knock.
I found it absolutely sickening. The first ten minutes of totally unconvincing  perfect happy American family life was nauseating beyond belief. I actually thought I might throw up. Then it lead into the establishing shots of his life as a successful architect living the American Dream which were equally unendurable. The film was only redeemed by the appearance of the 2 psychobitches who torture him, deservedly in his case I felt.

I watched that the other night. I thought it was funny. Wasn’t it s’posed to be funny?

Eli Roth probably thinks it's funny, but he probably also thinks Cabin Fever, Hostel and parts of The Green Inferno are funny.  I guess it's a matter of whether you share his sense of humour or not.

boogieman

ICBM said:

not_the_dj said:

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

Supposedly not.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12767429.ekland-reopens-controversy-of-the-mystery-rear/

Interesting stuff.

I’ve never heard of there being a sequel (apparently it was retitled as The Wicker Tree) but IMDB is fairly dismissive of it anyway and Christopher Lee hardly featured so it doesn’t sound like I’ve missed much 

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

ICBM said:

not_the_dj said:

Wasn't it Rod Stewart that objected on her behalf?

Supposedly not.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12767429.ekland-reopens-controversy-of-the-mystery-rear/

Interesting stuff.

I’ve never heard of there being a sequel (apparently it was retitled as The Wicker Tree) but IMDB is fairly dismissive of it anyway and Christopher Lee hardly featured so it doesn’t sound like I’ve missed much 

It's pretty bad.  I'm not sure why Robin Hardy thought a goofy comedy about religious American country-pop singers falling foul of Scottish pagans would make a suitable sequel.  It's worth watching as a curiosity, maybe...

Anyway, it doesn't tarnish the original, any more than the remake with Nic Cage did.

racefaceec90

breaking glass with hazel o'conner (hadn't seen it for years) really enjoyed it 

light of day with  joan jett,michael j fox (one of my fav films so a bit biased)

the void (have only heard of this just recently) i thought it was a great hp lovecraftian type horror (with actual physical special effects)

would happilly rec all 3