What films have you watched recently?

fretmeister

Knives Out.

Loved it. 7.5/10

hollywoodrox

I just watched Mall Cop  for the 2nd time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute 

Haych

hollywoodrox said:

I just watched Mall Cop  for the 2nd time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute 

We love Mall Cop. Kevin James is perfect and it’s one of those films that seems to get better every time you watch it. 

Longtallronnie

Watched Brightburn last night. Really enjoyed it, nice twist on the superman story. Liked that it wasn’t too long (around 90min) but maybe could’ve been a little longer to develop Brandon’s character more. 

Philly_Q

The Giant Claw (1957)

Earth is menaced by a giant bird (with a shield of anti-matter) and the US military and a team of plucky scientists battle to defeat it.  I saw this once before when I was a little kid and thought it was amazing - it isn't.  The bird is a wobbly puppet and there's lots of stock footage of plane crashes, military exercises and panicking crowds.  Good fun though.

There's an unexpected parallel with our present situation.  As the bird roams the planet (seemingly capable of being everywhere at once) the population is placed in lockdown, public transport is suspended and only essential trips outside are allowed - not that anyone seems to take much notice.

Also showing today in Horror Channel's "Classic Sci-Fi Weekend":

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
Journey to the Far side of the Sun (1969)

That pretty much put paid to me doing anything useful today.

Moominpapa

Embrace of the Serpent (2015) about parallel journeys involving white men and an indigenous shaman in Amazonia set first in 1909 then 1940. I've watched this twice now, and both times it has really moved me. Definitely not a date movie (unless your date is Greta Thunberg), and not for family movie night. But if you're into more indie-style film making and are willing to let a story develop at a slower pace than Hollywood fare, you might find this really rewarding.There are a lot of layers to it and a lot of history and themes to unpack, but it makes you work for it a bit, so understandably won't be everybody's cup of tea.

hollywoodrox

Haych said:

hollywoodrox said:

I just watched Mall Cop  for the 2nd time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute 

We love Mall Cop. Kevin James is perfect and it’s one of those films that seems to get better every time you watch it. 

I’m gonna watch the second one tonight. I like Kevin James in the king of queens sitcom too. Jerry stiller is hilarious as well

Haych

The Aeronauts. 

Sorry, but this was an hour and forty minutes of absolute mind numbing dullness. Only stuck with it because Mrs Haych wanted to see it. 

Two people go up in a balloon. A few disastrous things happen and they come down with a bump. Even then it’s so boring the main characters’ backstory has to be interlaced with the real-time to keep it vaguely entertaining. 

4/10 and that’s being generous. 

Blueingreen

Oceans 11.  Escapist fun without too much regard for plausibility, pretty much trading on its high wattage stars looking like they are having a ball; but decent, stylish entertainment if you're in the right mood.  Why did they make Don Cheadle's character English though?  No need for it and his accent has to be one of the worst in a major movie.  (Maybe it's meant to be so bad it's funny, but it just grated on me). 7/10

Haych

I also watched The Numbers Station last night. 

John Cusack plays a burned out CIA black ops agent who fluffs a hit by refusing to pull the trigger on a teenage girl who witnessed him offing a loose end. Instead his partner shoots her and it clearly bothers his conscience. 

He’s sent for a psych evaluation and is reassigned to a CIA outpost in Suffolk minding a clueless employee whose job it is to broadcast random numbers from a secure underground bunker over shortwave radio. 

Cue bad guys who break in with their own agenda and it makes for a decent movie. 

John Cusack plays the tortured CIA operative well. Malik Åckerman is ok as the otherwise clueless broadcaster who doesn’t know why she’s doing what she is but doesn’t really fit the role well when the heat is turned up. 

The plot isn’t strong, and doesn’t need to be, but still carries the movie along and it otherwise revolves around Emerson’s (Cusack) guilt at letting the girl die at the start of the movie. 

I thought it was pretty good for a film whose cast is for the large part just two people and Cusack carries much of the weight of that on his shoulders.

7/10 

BigBearKris

"Molly's game" - Jessica Chastain holds a VIP poker games - bit long and sometimes losing momentum but good.
6/10

"Underwater" - like in the title - Kristen Stewart runs around in pants saving underwater station from unknown creatures. I was expecting absolute rubbish - it was actually watchable... 
4/10

"Spectre". Again- because it was on ITV last night. After rewatching it for the 3rd, 4th time - it actually bored me on quite a few occasions. Climax is dire, Waltz is such an actor- and for a "mastermind" he was really naive and predictable. Monica Belluci looked better in low-res than I remember upon premiere night. Disappointing...
5/10

"Gambler". The one with Mark Wahlberg (isn't he pretty much in every release recently BTW?).
Not on par with "original" but also different. Goodman is good in there - and so is Wahlberg's desire to self destroy. Blackjack moments are far worse than poker ones in "Molly's Game" but its entertaining. 
5/10

"Tiger King". What can I say... its pure covid-watch and will go down in history books as one. Crazy and laughable/disturbing at times. Some beautiful cats there.
6/10 

skullfunkerry

I watched the new Invisible Man last night. My wife liked it, but I thought it was a bit shit, and was quite peeved that we'd paid £16 to rent it

Haych

This afternoon’s viewing was The Frozen Ground. 

Based on true events and set in Alaska in 1983 it tells the story of a 17 year old prostitute, Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens), who escapes the grip of serial killer Robert Hansen who is murdering young working girls and disposing of their remains via his light aircraft in the Alaskan wilderness. 

It’s the job of Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) to bring him to justice. 

It’s one of those films where you know who the bad guy is from the outset but the good guys don’t have the evidence to make the charges stick but it’s a race against time before Hansen kills again. 

Nicolas Cage does a solid performance but nothing extraordinary. Vanessa Hudgens is a good support but her character is cliched as the troubled young girl who has been forced to grow up too fast. 

Her character is portrayed as streetwise and hard hearted but also vulnerable and frightened and has the annoying tendency to flee and/or get herself into trouble. The good guys have to keep rounding her up and convincing her to stick around so she can testify against Hansen. 

John Cusack is the shining star of the film, though. He plays Hansen as increasingly desperate to recapture and dispose of Paulson while covering his tracks of his past crimes. He knows the cops are onto him and slowly comes undone throughout the film. His performance as the bad guy, not a role I’ve seen him play much, if ever, is excellent. 

The soundtrack is very good to boot although Shazam couldn’t identify more than one of the hard rock songs used in the strip bar scenes. 

I’m going to give this a strong 8/10 and as a film that’s based on true and clearly horrific events nothing is trivialised and homage is paid to all of Hansen’s know victims during the end credits. 

Haych

Last film of the bank holiday:

The Green Book. 

I won’t divulge any details but it is by far the best film I’ve seen for a long while. 

Without question a rare 10/10. 

Snap

Haych said:

Last film of the bank holiday:

The Green Book. 

I won’t divulge any details but it is by far the best film I’ve seen for a long while. 

Without question a rare 10/10. 

agreed. I thought this was a brilliant film.

ICBM

Easter weekend Monty Python double bill...

Life Of Brian and The Holy Grail

MrsICBM had never seen the Holy Grail, amazingly. Probably not much that needs to be said, since you all have . All-time comedy classics just about sums it up - but Life Of Brian is probably more than that, I would agree with anyone who thinks it's arguably the best comedy ever made. Holy Grail is very good, but the pre-title bit at the start is slightly too self-indulgent, and although equally funny, it's not quite as good since it doesn't quite have the sharp edge of satire that makes Brian so brilliant and genuinely great.

Life Of Brian - 10/10
Holy Grail - 9/10

I'll probably have to watch Excalibur again next, since it's also weirdly almost like a reverse parody of The Holy Grail.

Haych

Attempted to watch Love, Wedding, Repeat but it didn't make it past the 15 minute mark.

It looked really good in the trailers and had all the hallmarks of a good comedy but the acting was poor, the jokes weren't funny at all and it had a few too many unrealistic and casual f-bombs, in the search for cheap laughs, for me to remain interested.

I could have been good but it came over as trying too hard to be hilarious but failed badly in the process.

gordiji

Has anyone else seen 'Paul' . It's about a couple of geeks who go snooping around area 51 and accidently find an escaped ET ( hitch hiker) who likes a joke, a smoke & a beer. Highly recommended.

Haych

gordiji said:

Has anyone else seen 'Paul' . It's about a couple of geeks who go snooping around area 51 and accidently find an escaped ET ( hitch hiker) who likes a joke, a smoke & a beer. Highly recommended.

I do like Paul.  I've watched it many times.  It's usually my go-to movie when I'm feeling under the weather and just want to lie in bed, or on the sofa, and watch something easy and light-hearted.

fretmeister

Finally saw Star Wars Rise of Skywalker 

Ok it was pretty much a remake of ROTJ and it took a couple of liberties (force ghosts with powers?) but overall I really liked it. I don’t get the panning it got at all.

Thoroughly enjoyable nonsense, as even the mighty Empire Strikes Back is.