What films have you watched recently?

goldtop

RobDavies said:

The Peanut Butter Falcon On Netflix.  

Heartwarming story of a Downs lad who escapes from his care home and befriends a ‘wrong un’, and their subsequent adventure.
Genuinely funny at times, Zack Gottsagen is brilliant and Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don) is lovely.  

Wish I’d saved this for Christmas Day...

Yup - we've saved that for our holiday viewing binge.

Jalapeno

ANA on Netflix, pretty dull tbh.  Not impressed.

goldtop

ANA or AVA? If the latter, it looks like a modern Nikita. Have avoided it so far.

Jalapeno

goldtop said:

ANA or AVA? If the latter, it looks like a modern Nikita. Have avoided it so far.

Yeah AVA

Philly_Q

Ninja Assassin

Good ninja helps Interpol take on a clan of bad ninjas.  With Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles and Sho Kosugi.  I didn't realise going in that it was an older film (2009) so the action scenes are all shakey-cam, choppy edits and gallons of CGI blood.  I noticed the names of future John Wick directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch somewhere deep in the end credits.

Not bad as a bit of mindless action, but I've forgotten it already.

zepp76

Thor Ragnarok

 mindless CGI thrills 2/10

 the fact they played immigrant song twice 10/10

hollywoodrox

I’m afraid to say loads of hallmark Christmas movies , the chicks are hot,they’re festive and pull at the heart strings and make you feel good. My only entertainment vice I’m a sucker for these Christmas stories . Bloody great .  

Blueingreen

The Godfather

After recently watching 2 and 3 took the chance to rewatch the original, probably for around the 6th time.  Confirmed my view that it's the best. 

It's not a perfect movie.  There's a lot of motivation and plot presented in terms that are plausible only as long as you don't think about them critically

All the same there's one iconic scene after another, many of the performances are stellar, the chiaroscuro cinematography still stuns, and Brando is magnificent, making a character who could have been a cardboard cut-out human, complex, repellent and charismatic. Still a solid 10/10.

HAL9000

RobDavies said:

The Peanut Butter Falcon On Netflix.  

Heartwarming story of a Downs lad who escapes from his care home and befriends a ‘wrong un’, and their subsequent adventure.
Genuinely funny at times, Zack Gottsagen is brilliant and Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don) is lovely.  

Wish I’d saved this for Christmas Day...

Excellent film. Definitely recommended.

Moominpapa

Weathering With You (2019):  Makoto Shinkai in familiar territory for him (quirky, slightly supernatural story - awkward teenagers coming into first real love - the allure and the cold rejection of the megacity), but with a step up from Your Name and his other films in the complexity of characters and interrelations. As always with Shinkai, the direction and artwork is sublime.

Haych

Firewall

Harrison Ford takes the lead in a clever heist movie. 

Ford is the security chief of a small chain of banks being taken over by a larger company. 

His family is taken hostage under threat of harm unless Ford finds a way to steal a large sum of money from inside and transfer to the crook’s account. 

Starts off good and keeps going with some subtle twists along the way. It drops off a bit towards the end but still doesn’t make for a bad movie. 

7/10

Haych

Hard Kill

Utter garbage, don’t bother. 

Even Bruce couldn’t save this one. 

0/10

Moominpapa

Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) - an earlier Makoto Shinkai that I hadn't watched yet. In this one you can see lots of Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli influences but interestingly mixed with what will later become signature elements of Shinkai's own style. Storywise it suffers from the same problem that every world-under-the-earth plot has, namely that watching as an adult you are distracted by all the unanswered basic questions such as  how can there be day & night? how can there be wind? how do plants photosynthesize? etc. etc. To really enjoy it you have to adopt a childlike stance and just take the premise for granted. There are some good aspects to it, but unless you are especially interested in ticking off all of Shinkai's movies on your viewing list, I wouldn't bother. (For kids of, say, 10 to 13, they might really enjoy it.)

Philly_Q

Haych said:

Hard Kill

Utter garbage, don’t bother. 

Even Bruce couldn’t save this one. 

0/10

Lee?  Campbell?  Forsyth?

Oh, Willis?  Let's face it, he's been sleepwalking through his roles for at least the last decade.

EricTheWeary

My son decided on What If? on Netflix which is a Canadian rom com with Daniel Radcliffe. 
I guess it's kinda sweet and funny in places. The soundtrack of sort of wimpy original songs is a bit annoying and Radcliffe seems to be playing Harry Potter without the wizarding. 
If you were obliged to watch something romantic you could do worse I guess. 

Philly_Q

Parasite

I finally watched it!  I don't know what I expected... but it it isn't what I expected.  The first half of the film is quirky and amusing, but nothing really unusual happens until the second half, which is strange and mesmerising.  I'm not sure how I feel about it really... it's all so carefully and beautifully constructed, when you think about it afterwards it's weirder than it seemed while you were watching.

goldtop

The Life Ahead (2020, Netflix) with Sophia Loren (86yo!) playing a reluctant foster-gran to street kids in Italy. She's superb, real and damaged and there's never a time you think this is a superstar slumming it in an indie film and overwhelming the screen. The young male lead is also excellent. Bittersweet story, no car chases. 8/10

Haych

Die Harder (Die Hard 2)

Been a few years since I saw this and I'm surprised to say I found it a bit disappointing.

Yeah, it's ok, typical for it's genre but nothing particularly outstanding and compared to the first film it's just a bit of a mediocre pastiche. 

I recall Die Hard 3 being a lot better and Die Hard 4.0 (or whatever it has now been renamed) was really good.

This one was just a bit meh this time round.

5/10

Lodious

Soul

Pixar animation with soundtrack by Jon Batiste and Trent Reznor. Thought the film was pretty good and having some decent music in the soundtrack a nice bonus. 

Enjoyed watching with the family so a solid....

7/10. 

SPECTRUM001

Blueingreen said:

The Godfather

After recently watching 2 and 3 took the chance to rewatch the original, probably for around the 6th time.  Confirmed my view that it's the best. 

It's not a perfect movie.  There's a lot of motivation and plot presented in terms that are plausible only as long as you don't think about them critically

All the same there's one iconic scene after another, many of the performances are stellar, the chiaroscuro cinematography still stuns, and Brando is magnificent, making a character who could have been a cardboard cut-out human, complex, repellent and charismatic. Still a solid 10/10.

Ahhh yes, we also watched it a couple of days ago. Hadn’t seen it for a few years, and it never disappoints. I was even more impressed with Brando than on prior viewings.

Not sure if I zoned out briefly, but I seemed to miss a bit of the wedding scene where the tipsy guy wants the orchestra to play a particular tune, and they send him up with pop goes the weasel. I would be surprised if the BBC edited it out ?