What films have you watched recently?

fretmeister

Gassage said:

I watched Philadelphia last night for the first time ever.

Absolutely seismic. 10/10.

Agreed.
When I first saw it I only watched it because I'll watch anything with Denzel in it. It was superb.

rze99

Really enjoyed the Icelandic film Woman at War. If you like quirky eccentric unpredictable  French type stuff you’ll love it. Brilliant central performance.  

LastMantra

The Dirt.

I never got into motley crew but I enjoyed this. Just another story of rock-star excess but well done. Quite emotional at times. 

Haych

Bokeh

2017 film about a young American couple on holiday in Iceland. 

One morning they wake up to find out they are alone and everyone else in the country, and possibly the world, has vanished. TV and radio channels are only broadcasting test signals and static and websites are no longer being updated. 

As they try to make sense of what is happening the female character, Jenai, starts to become depressed and longs for the old life while her boyfriend, Riley, wants to make the most of the life they have now and continues to photograph everything on an old Roliflex camera, which I assume is where the film title comes from. 

Beautifully shot with some great photography and quite a captivating film even in the bleakness of the setting and scenario. 

Not much happens in terms of the plot but it’s more about the characters reaction to being the last people alive and the actors, Matt O’Leary and Maika Monroe, do a convincing job. 

Unfortunately, I’m unable to watch a film like this without feeling frustrated there’s no why. I don’t like open endings or make-up-your-own-mind situations. That said I also recognise it’s partially what makes the film so captivating - the why is irrelevant no matter how much you want to know. 

A solid 7/10

Moominpapa

One for the Studio Ghibli fans:  Okko's Inn. Although not a Studio Ghibli film, it is directed by one of their former staff, Kitaro Kosaka. An absolutely delightful film which, as with all the best anime, can be enjoyed by adults and children. In this case I would recommend at least 8 or 9 as the lowest age limit: there is some quite sad content. But it's a great watch: beautifully animated and directed.

Tone71

I watched Into the Wild again as A. it is in my top 5 films and B. they lifted the "magic bus" last weekend. Bit gutted really as quite fancied going to see it.

HAL9000

Gassage said:

I watched Philadelphia last night for the first time ever.

Absolutely seismic. 10/10.

Terrific film. IMHO it’s actually got better with age.

GavRichList said:

watched Jojo Rabbit this weekend. Very good / tremendously bleak. Im a big fan of Taika Waititi mind you, so was always likely to rate it. 

Brilliant film. Starts off as a quirky comedy until the Scarlett Johansson shoes scene after which it becomes very dark indeed. Excellent.

boogieman

Julian Temple’s Glastonbury film on BBC4 last night. Pretty well done and it covers a lot of ground in a comparatively short time. Not a huge amount of music content, but that’s not really the point of the film, it’s more about social history, changing times and attitudes. 

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

Julian Temple’s Glastonbury film on BBC4 last night. Pretty well done and it covers a lot of ground in a comparatively short time. Not a huge amount of music content, but that’s not really the point of the film, it’s more about social history, changing times and attitudes. 

Ahh. it's the weekend of the fiftieth ( or fifftieth year, one or the other) Glastonbury festival this weekend. I only went once, it was really hot, I hardly slept and had an argument with MrsTheWeary  - I can  easily recreate the festival experience this weekend ( well, if I can also get Tom Jones and Van Morrison to belt out a few tunes from the bottom of the garden). 

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

boogieman said:

Julian Temple’s Glastonbury film on BBC4 last night. Pretty well done and it covers a lot of ground in a comparatively short time. Not a huge amount of music content, but that’s not really the point of the film, it’s more about social history, changing times and attitudes. 

Ahh. it's the weekend of the fiftieth ( or fifftieth year, one or the other) Glastonbury festival this weekend. I only went once, it was really hot, I hardly slept and had an argument with MrsTheWeary  - I can  easily recreate the festival experience this weekend ( well, if I can also get Tom Jones and Van Morrison to belt out a few tunes from the bottom of the garden). 

I went once as well, in 1990. According to the film it was a year that was particularly bad for crowd aggro, but I don’t remember seeing any trouble. I did get epically slaughtered on a combination of organic cider and dope for a lot of the weekend so maybe I just sleepwalked through that bit. I also fell into a ditch in the dark, much to my ex wife’s amusement. Luckily that was on the thursday night so the ditch wasn’t already full of turds. The Cure were superb that year. 

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

boogieman said:

Julian Temple’s Glastonbury film on BBC4 last night. Pretty well done and it covers a lot of ground in a comparatively short time. Not a huge amount of music content, but that’s not really the point of the film, it’s more about social history, changing times and attitudes. 

Ahh. it's the weekend of the fiftieth ( or fifftieth year, one or the other) Glastonbury festival this weekend. I only went once, it was really hot, I hardly slept and had an argument with MrsTheWeary  - I can  easily recreate the festival experience this weekend ( well, if I can also get Tom Jones and Van Morrison to belt out a few tunes from the bottom of the garden). 

I went once as well, in 1990. According to the film it was a year that was particularly bad for crowd aggro, but I don’t remember seeing any trouble. I did get epically slaughtered on a combination of organic cider and dope for a lot of the weekend so maybe I just sleepwalked through that bit. I also fell into a ditch in the dark, much to my ex wife’s amusement. Luckily that was on the thursday night so the ditch wasn’t already full of turds. The Cure were superb that year. 

1992, although when I look at the line up I either didn’t see or can’t remember some quite big names from that year. 

Moominpapa

You Were Never Really Here (2017)  - a mashup of Taxi Driver, tv series True Detective Season 1, Night Moves, and The Equalizer.  I have a lot of respect for Joaquim Phoenix as an actor and he is constantly watchable here, but apart from his screen charisma there is   .  .  .  nothing. This is really an empty film that just relies on its echoes of earlier, better productions. I strongly recommend you check out any or all of the four sources I named - each one by itself is better than this,   5/10

Haych

Watched quite a few over the last few days.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Seen it before but it’s ridiculous as any James Bond film and equally as entertaining. I’m not that fussed on the franchise but Simon Pegg saved it and turned it into a decent series. 

Speaking of James Bond, I also watched Quantum of Solace the other night - not the best 007 film but again still enjoyable enough to watch. I’m still not sold on Daniel Craig as Bond and since he took over as 007 the franchise no longer has the same appeal it once did - it takes itself far too seriously now. Matthieu Amalric also was pretty awful as a Bond villain  

Next up was another Bond film: Tomorrow Never Dies - like this one a lot, it’s not the best story ever but I seem to be able to watch this again and again without finding it dull. Jonathan Pryce isn’t the greatest Bond Villain but he does an ok job and tries hard at it. 

Lastly, for Bond at least, I watched Goldeneye. Not sure why but in my head this is one of my least favourite Bond outings but when I watch it it always surprises me. 

Also watched Dora and the Lost City of Gold yesterday at my daughter’s request, when she was younger she was the spit of Dora the Explorer and knew it! It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be at all. A bit ridiculous but it also knows it and quite happily takes the proverbial out of itself quite a lot.

goldtop

Perfume. One of my all-time favourite books, but I'd missed it at the cinema. Found it on Amazon Prime. Started well, but I think that the whole premise does not translate well to the screen. With the book and Suskind's skill, your own imagination runs riot as you explore the character's 'super-power', but with the film, it's the director's imagination that matters, and it's a bit lacking. Acting was OK, I suppose. But John Hurt's narration is exactly what you'd expect if he was giving Paddington's back story. 4/10

Tone71

Moominpapa said:

You Were Never Really Here (2017)  - a mashup of Taxi Driver, tv series True Detective Season 1, Night Moves, and The Equalizer.  I have a lot of respect for Joaquim Phoenix as an actor and he is constantly watchable here, but apart from his screen charisma there is   .  .  .  nothing. This is really an empty film that just relies on its echoes of earlier, better productions. I strongly recommend you check out any or all of the four sources I named - each one by itself is better than this,   5/10

Spot on review, watched it this afternoon. Empty film sums it up.

Blaendulais

fretmeister said:

I liked Black Panther a great deal, Even though I was shouting "Where's Wallace, String?" through it!

But half of the press it got was bollocks. "The first black led franchise film" etc.

Nope.

That was Blade. And even though Wesley's clearly gone a bit weird, the first 2 Blade films were ace. 

Well said - reckon Wesley has lots more presence than Boseman.  

Blaendulais

boogieman said:

I’d call myself a horror fan, but I really don’t like the sadistic stuff like Hostel or the Saw series. Just seems gross for the sake of it. My absolute favourites are the old Hammer/Amicus films from the 60s and 70s, things like Pit and the Pendulum, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, The Devil Rides Out, basically anything with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing or Valerie Leon. 

Having vowed never to watch The Exorcist again after seeing it back in the 70s and feeling really freaked out afterwards, I did finally rewatch it fairly recently. It looks very dated now and the effects are pretty clunky. It still does the build up of suspense element well, though The Omen has stood up to time so much better overall. 

@boogieman Devil rides out possibly greatest movie ever.  I was lucky enough to meet Christopher Lee (lovely guy) and he autographed my import DVD in 2001.  He said it was one of his favourite  films  that he had ever made

Blaendulais

goldtop said:

Perfume. One of my all-time favourite books, but I'd missed it at the cinema. Found it on Amazon Prime. Started well, but I think that the whole premise does not translate well to the screen. With the book and Suskind's skill, your own imagination runs riot as you explore the character's 'super-power', but with the film, it's the director's imagination that matters, and it's a bit lacking. Acting was OK, I suppose. But John Hurt's narration is exactly what you'd expect if he was giving Paddington's back story. 4/10

I agree the back is excellent. The movie is (smelly) pants

boogieman

Blaendulais said:

boogieman said:

I’d call myself a horror fan, but I really don’t like the sadistic stuff like Hostel or the Saw series. Just seems gross for the sake of it. My absolute favourites are the old Hammer/Amicus films from the 60s and 70s, things like Pit and the Pendulum, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, The Devil Rides Out, basically anything with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing or Valerie Leon. 

Having vowed never to watch The Exorcist again after seeing it back in the 70s and feeling really freaked out afterwards, I did finally rewatch it fairly recently. It looks very dated now and the effects are pretty clunky. It still does the build up of suspense element well, though The Omen has stood up to time so much better overall. 

@boogieman Devil rides out possibly greatest movie ever.  I was lucky enough to meet Christopher Lee (lovely guy) and he autographed my import DVD in 2001.  

@Blaendulais. Wow, deeply impressed, that must’ve been a great experience. I can remember seeing the trailer at the cinema for Devil Rides Out where the guy on horseback lifts his visor. Scared the crap out of me! 

Blaendulais

boogieman said:

Blaendulais said:

boogieman said:

I’d call myself a horror fan, but I really don’t like the sadistic stuff like Hostel or the Saw series. Just seems gross for the sake of it. My absolute favourites are the old Hammer/Amicus films from the 60s and 70s, things like Pit and the Pendulum, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, The Devil Rides Out, basically anything with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing or Valerie Leon. 

Having vowed never to watch The Exorcist again after seeing it back in the 70s and feeling really freaked out afterwards, I did finally rewatch it fairly recently. It looks very dated now and the effects are pretty clunky. It still does the build up of suspense element well, though The Omen has stood up to time so much better overall. 

@boogieman Devil rides out possibly greatest movie ever.  I was lucky enough to meet Christopher Lee (lovely guy) and he autographed my import DVD in 2001.  

@Blaendulais. Wow, deeply impressed, that must’ve been a great experience. I can remember seeing the trailer at the cinema for Devil Rides Out where the guy on horseback lifts his visor. Scared the crap out of me! 

Terrfying