What films have you watched recently?

axisus

Finally saw Toy story 4. Loved it, I think they have kept up the quality. The animation looks amazing.

We get less Buzz, it's mostly a Woody film. I loved the introduction of Bo Peep as a really strong character.

Philly_Q

Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight

Very bog-standard summer camp slasher movie with elements of Friday the 13th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Wrong Turn, etc... the only thing which makes this stand out is that it's the first Polish horror movie I've ever seen.  I think.

On Netflix.

boogieman

The Gary Oldman version of Dracula. I thought I’d seen it already, but it turns out I haven’t. Oldman is very good in the part but the film is spoilt by Anthony Hopkins hamming it up as Van Helsing and an even more wooden than usual Keanu Reeves, complete with terrible British accent. The fx are pretty decent for its time, so not a bad watch. 

Reach for the Sky. Shown on a rainy Sunday afternoon, absolutely perfect timing for a classic film like this. Terribly dated but the fantastic story and great performance by Kenneth Moore carries it. 

goldtop

Sherlock Holmes (free on Prime). Charmless, and it was only afterwards that I saw Guy Ritchie was the director. If only I'd known... Anyway, if you think the classic supersleuth stories needed a makeover with overly long but oh-so-f****ing-slow-mo fight sequences and unnecessary CGI action-thrills, this is the one. For me, 2/10 (it would be 3/10 but Downey's mumbling accent was that annoying).

zepp76

Eddie the Eagle

 Cracking film (IMO) the part where he makes the British record jump and nobody is impressed but he is jumping for joy and celebrating put a lump in my throat because no matter what, that was his dream, what HE aspired to and he did it and that’s all that matters in life, to have dreams and to aspire to them.

Blueingreen

The Band Wagon.  1953 Vincent Minnelli musical, vehicle for a somewhat older Fred Astaire.  Surprised I've never seen this one before.  Excellent of its type. 9/10

boogieman

1917, on Prime. Superbly filmed, all done in steadicam shots following the lead actor. No idea how they managed that, but it works very well. It’s pretty grim at times and very tense but well worth a watch. 

RobDavies

boogieman said:

1917, on Prime. Superbly filmed, all done in steadicam shots following the lead actor. No idea how they managed that, but it works very well. It’s pretty grim at times and very tense but well worth a watch. 

Agreed.  Well worth a watch but it didn’t blow me away.   Why didn’t it rain on the Germans?

RobDavies

Finally got around to watching The Book Of Eli, on Prime.   Very enjoyable comic book style, dystopian tale..... with a huge twist.  

boogieman

RobDavies said:

boogieman said:

1917, on Prime. Superbly filmed, all done in steadicam shots following the lead actor. No idea how they managed that, but it works very well. It’s pretty grim at times and very tense but well worth a watch. 

Agreed.  Well worth a watch but it didn’t blow me away.   Why didn’t it rain on the Germans?

There were a few daft moments to be fair. Like the photo at the end being bone dry, even though he’d been in the river for ages. Or just walking into the group of soldiers in the woods and nobody noticed or even challenged him. (Where were the perimeter guards?). 

I suppose you just have to suspend disbelief sometimes or it’d be a very long (or very short!) film. 

goldtop

^ The biggest plot hole was the fact that the British had air superiority, but instead of using that to get such an important message through against such a tight deadline, the generals decided to send a 3-man team to fight their way!

Moominpapa

A Touch of Zen (1971). This is the film King Hu is best known for. Three hours long, like Legend of the Mountain, but much better paced and with greater variety of interest in the story. In a remote small town in Ming-era China a talented but unambitious artist gets tangled up with the fugitive daughter of a court official who was killed by the scheming of a corrupt court eunuch. Lots of interesting things going on in the story and some entertaining fight scenes in the people-flying-through-the-air wuxia style. Very enjoyable, and anyone who is tired of the cynical assembly-line output of CGI-heavy Marvel universe stuff could do a lot worse than try something like A Touch of Zen for a refreshing change.

boogieman

goldtop said:

^ The biggest plot hole was the fact that the British had air superiority, but instead of using that to get such an important message through against such a tight deadline, the generals decided to send a 3-man team to fight their way!

Ha ha yes, I hadn’t thought about aircraft. Bit like in LOTR, why didn’t they just use the eagles to take the ring to Mount Doom? 

Moominpapa

The Foreigner (2017) Efficient & effective thriller based around Irish terrorists trying to reignite the troubles. Jackie Chan plays a naturalized Chinese UK citizen whose daughter is caught up in the bombing campaign. Kudos and hats off to Jackie Chan, 63 years old and doing fight scenes and stunts like a fucking boss: what a pro! Pierce Brosnan is also good as a politician up to his neck in the shenanigans.

SteveRobinson

The Inheritance (Netflix) 

Don't even think about it.

Moominpapa

Ringu (1998) My elder son watched this for the first time a few days ago so I thought I would revisit it. Still holds up pretty well - even knowing the story it still sent some chills down my spine. Can't ask for more than that from a horror film.

gilby

boogieman said:

goldtop said:

^ The biggest plot hole was the fact that the British had air superiority, but instead of using that to get such an important message through against such a tight deadline, the generals decided to send a 3-man team to fight their way!

Ha ha yes, I hadn’t thought about aircraft. Bit like in LOTR, why didn’t they just use the eagles to take the ring to Mount Doom? 

It wasn't as though it wasn't in the script

boogieman

Edge of Tomorrow. Sci-fi / time jumping tosh free on Prime with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Lots of kerplosions, Tom the Midget being his usual heroic self and saving the world, stereotypical booyah US space marine types that you see in every single bloody sci-fi film. You know the ones: Hispanic woman, grinning non-talking nutcase, pumped up roid addict.  

According to Wiki, Warner Brothers spent $100 million advertising this, presumably to save TC getting pissed off with them after they all realised what a turkey they’d got involved in. I don’t know if 100 mill in advertising is normal these days but I’d never heard of the film and I used to go to the cinema a fair bit. 

There’s rumours of a sequel. Oh dear. 

ICBM

Our Little Sister

Another of those Japanese dramas I like... as usual, if you like action movies - or indeed, films in which very much dramatic happens at all - this is unlikely to be for you. As ever, beautifully observed, perfectly acted and wonderfully-shot, but with this one even I was a bit disappointed with the plot - there is one, but barely. There are a couple of quite strongly emotive elements, but they seemed a little less powerful than a few of the others I've seen, and one bit that was hinted at being a stronger twist but didn't develop, so the ending seemed a bit "is that it?".

7/10

(iPlayer)

tone1

tone1 said:

My Son received the Blue Ray Box Set of Harry Potter for his Birthday...We're on Number 2 (Something about a Chamber Pot) We watched the 1st one last week which I preferred to the 2nd...I hope it's not a downward spiral over the next 6 films...T'was about 20 mins too long and I kept asking him what was going on.....He's only 10 but can follow a plot better than his Old Dad...  

Ok, just finished the last instalment this weekend...Deathly Hallows part 36 or something... brief synopsis... 1st film ok....slowly lost interest during the middle half dozen films...got very confused but at least the graphics were pretty good by the last film...4/10