What films have you watched recently?

Simonh

I remember loving Krull as a child. Tried to watch it a few years ago - oh dear it is bad...

HerbieTheRadDorklift

A Classic Horror Story on Netflix. 

Very good, quite satirical.

Philly_Q

Stratavarious said:

Krull...  silly but fun watch.. 6/10.

Lysette Anthony looked nice.

A bit of trivia - looking nice was basically all she did, because they re-dubbed her voice!

Moominpapa

Ip Man 4 - the Finale (2019)

I bow to no man in my love of Donnie Yen as a martial arts movie star, but this was just unutterably wretched. Even the truckloads of money they paid DY to come back and squeeze one last money-grubbing drop out of an already tired franchise couldn't make him look like he wanted to be part of it. The plot cliches were packed in tighter than the neutrons in a neutron star, the script was horrendous, the acting was abysmal -everything about this was dire. Unless you are an incurable masochist, do not watch this film.

Haych

Beckett (2021)

Beckett (John David Washington) and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) are on holiday in Greece when late one night while driving to a rural stopover they're involved in a car accident.  After crashing though the walls of an abandoned house Beckett sees a woman and a child but they do not help.

April dies in the accident and Beckett wakes up in hospital.  While trying to process the death of his girlfriend he tells the police about the people he saw in the house and soon after the police are trying to kill him.

It starts off very good until about halfway through when it starts to borrow standard plot lines from just about every political thriller ever written and the story becomes predictable.

There also needs to be a plausibility check as during the course of the film the protagonist is first of all involved in a car accident and breaks his arm.  He's then shot, beaten up, stabbed, beaten up some more and then shot again but he still has the wherewithal to jump blind from about five stories up onto a moving car, and survive. Nah, that just ain't happening, sorry.

John David Washington plays his part quite well, though.  Too bad Alicia Vikander gets killed off early.

6/10

On Netflix if you fancy it.

Poboy

Haych said:

Beckett (2021)

Beckett (John David Washington) and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) are on holiday in Greece when late one night while driving to a rural stopover they're involved in a car accident.  After crashing though the walls of an abandoned house Beckett sees a woman and a child but they do not help.

April dies in the accident and Beckett wakes up in hospital.  While trying to process the death of his girlfriend he tells the police about the people he saw in the house and soon after the police are trying to kill him.

It starts off very good until about halfway through when it starts to borrow standard plot lines from just about every political thriller ever written and the story becomes predictable.

There also needs to be a plausibility check as during the course of the film the protagonist is first of all involved in a car accident and breaks his arm.  He's then shot, beaten up, stabbed, beaten up some more and then shot again but he still has the wherewithal to jump blind from about five stories up onto a moving car, and survive. Nah, that just ain't happening, sorry.

John David Washington plays his part quite well, though.  Too bad Alicia Vikander gets killed off early.

6/10

On Netflix if you fancy it.

Spoiler alert!

munckee

Moominpapa said:

Ip Man 4 - the Finale (2019)

I bow to no man in my love of Donnie Yen as a martial arts movie star, but this was just unutterably wretched. Even the truckloads of money they paid DY to come back and squeeze one last money-grubbing drop out of an already tired franchise couldn't make him look like he wanted to be part of it. The plot cliches were packed in tighter than the neutrons in a neutron star, the script was horrendous, the acting was abysmal -everything about this was dire. Unless you are an incurable masochist, do not watch this film.

Shame I really liked the first two. 

SteveRobinson

Lucky (2017) 

Starring 89 year old Harry Dean Stanton who died shortly before its release.

A gentle story about getting old and death. Full of great characters with some deep philosophical themes.

skullfunkerry

Last night's film was Synchronic. Anthony Mackie & Jamie Dornan are paramedics, there's a new drug going around... it was pitched as a sci-fi thriller & I guess it was, but slower & lower key than you'd expect.

Possibly not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

Moominpapa

@munckee Yes, me too - the first two films in the series were far superior. They still had many aspects that were cliched, overblown, and just plain silly, but those things are endemic to the genre, and they can be easily ignored if the other aspects of the film are good. Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010) had a younger and more involved Donnie Yen, and were also enlivened by Louis Fan Siu-wong and Sammo Hung respectively who were both excellent. I've watched both films several times and really enjoy them.  The problem with Hong Kong cinema is that it will never leave well enough alone, even when it has done something that most people say is unlikely to be topped. Originally Donnie Yen didn't want to do Ip Man 3 as he thought there was no way it could be better than 2, and I wish he had stuck to that decision.

Greatape

Moominpapa said:

@munckee Yes, me too - the first two films in the series were far superior. They still had many aspects that were cliched, overblown, and just plain silly, but those things are endemic to the genre, and they can be easily ignored if the other aspects of the film are good. Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010) had a younger and more involved Donnie Yen, and were also enlivened by Louis Fan Siu-wong and Sammo Hung respectively who were both excellent. I've watched both films several times and really enjoy them.  The problem with Hong Kong cinema is that it will never leave well enough alone, even when it has done something that most people say is unlikely to be topped. Originally Donnie Yen didn't want to do Ip Man 3 as he thought there was no way it could be better than 2, and I wish he had stuck to that decision.

Wis X 200. 

Watched three very different movies recently:

'Zatoichi' (the noughties version). Had seen it at the cinema, but not since. Just as great as I remembered. Beat Takeshi is note-perfect. 

'Bitter Lake' - Adam Curtis on the history of Afghanistan's travails. Complex, and occasionally the stylised filmmaking devices get annoying, but damn - 2 hrs of documentary that had me gripped. 

'Paris, Texas' - again, a rewatch after a long interval. Loved it all over again. 

Stratavarious

The Island...  5/10.   Starts really well and first third could set up a really great SciFi... but the rest is just a really protracted silly action chase sequence.   Really struggled to keep interest and stopped it three times.

For a clone movie, 6th Day is better structured.

Philly_Q

Why's everyone watching The Island after all these years?  Has it just arrived on one of the streaming channels?

skullfunkerry

Philly_Q said:

Why's everyone watching The Island after all these years?  Has it just arrived on one of the streaming channels?

I was wondering that. I think it might be what you suggested, as the reason I watched it was that I saw it advertised on one of my streaming apps

Stratavarious

Philly_Q said:

Why's everyone watching The Island after all these years?  Has it just arrived on one of the streaming channels?

Promoted on Netflix at the moment.

Seen it before but I think I must have skipped the out of style action scenes last time.

Blueingreen

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  Typical Tarantino - sometimes violent, stylish, shallow, entertaining.  Great performances from DiCaprio and Pitt.  Tarantino divides opinion but I enjoy his movies when he's on form, as he is here.  9/10

Hootsmon

Saint Maude.......some wow moments and 1st class acting 10/10

SPECTRUM001

The Courier

Finally - me and Mrs 001 have been to the flicks for real. The first time in nearly two years.

And happily we went to see this gem of a film. That said, if you like Cold War tales of espionage a la John le Carre etc. Except of course this one is all true.

Benedict Cumberbatch does a great bit of method acting, and his Russian pal (whose name I cannot remember) is soulfully superb.

I love this stuff, so it was probably always going to entertain me. But, yep it is a solid and riveting watch.

8/10

ps - not sure why, but we both found the cinema volume way too loud; annoying and painfully so. Not sure if that is age, or lack of loud noise during the Pandemic…

SteveRobinson

ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas

Loads of interesting stuff about the origins of the band. Good to see the Eliminator videos again and there are some great original performances for the film.

Haych

Sweet Girl

Netflix are pushing this quite hard so when I found out that Gregg Hurwitz had a hand in writing the plot I thought I’d give it a go. 

For anyone not familiar with Gregg Hurwitz, please read his Orphan X series of books, they are awesome!

Anyway, synopsis goes a bit like this: man has wife and daughter, man is happy, man’s wife gets sick and dies because big pharma manipulates market to withdraw lifesaving drug, man gets revenge. 

That’s not a spoiler, it’s quite obvious from the outset that it goes down like this. 

Big twist that I didn’t see coming. I should have but, yeah…… that was a bit odd but still, it works quite well. 

It’ll never go down as a classic but it’s really not so bad. 

Now, when will they get round to the Orphan X movie, that would be brilliant………..

6.5/10