What films have you watched recently?

HAL9000

Open Range (2003). Western starting Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner. Despite being relatively recent it really does have the feel of one of those classic older style westerns. 7.5/10.

JezWynd

Collision and Paris By Night, both featuring the amazing Roschdy Zem; Collision is a blast from start to finish and bears the hallmark of its producer, Luc Besson. Paris by Night is a lower key mood piece (Fr dialogue) but again, the camera loves Zem who is blessed with a deadpan expression that nonetheless allows insight to his thoughts - an oxymoronic visage!

Moominpapa

Unleashed (2005) First off it has to be said that this film is basically shit. This is because all Jet Li's non-Asian films are shit. Poor Jet Li, one of the finest Wushu artists of modern times, was given one piece-of-crap vehicle after another as he tried to break into the western film market. Some of you, like me, may be unlucky enough to remember Kiss of the Dragon or Romeo Must Die. In each outing Jet Li dutifully did his stuff with the fluid grace and skill that we expect of him. But the stories were pedestrian and hackneyed and the acting was bad and JL looked like a fish out of water each time. Unleashed isn't so very different. It is basically a queasy mixture of Guy Ritchie East End hard man film and Valhalla Rising. The storyline is so stupid I won't insult you with it (if you want to waste your time on this planet by watching it, then be my guest). But it must be said that buried under the pile of shit that constitutes most of this film is a halfway interesting film which could have been made, and one which - like Fearless -  gives Jet Li  the chance to show his range (which is wider than you might think). Luc Bresson waa the wrong person to direct this; Bob Hoskins does what he can with a role that wraps him in a "Bob Hoskins the Long Good Friday East End hard man" straitjacket and Morgan Freeman adds some class just by being himself. Kerry Condon is fun in her role, but all the actors are struggling against a fundamentally flawed concept.

Minor note for Jet Li & Yuen Woo-ping fans: the best fight sequence in the whole movie is a beautifully choreographed fight in a small toilet; brilliantly done.

ftumch

equalsql said:

Amelie, now streaming on Amazon Prime.

I'd forgotten just how wonderful this eccentric little French film was. It's the most perfect piece of whimsical humour and romance. Beautifully shot around Paris with a colour palette that must have inspired Wes Anderson.
incredibly uplifting and funny in the most gentle of ways. Audrey Tautou is just mesmerising, gorgeous and quirky as Amelie.
An absolutely glorious example of French cinema.

I loved it.  11/10

I Just love Amelie, such a beautiful quirky film. I don't do loads of foreign cinema but this and Angel-A by Luc Besson are two of my all time faves.

boogieman

Greenland (on Prime). Hackneyed tosh about a meteor on collision course with the earth.  Oh dear. The only interesting bit is Gerard Butler managing to be even worse than usual. 

Haych

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Based on a Sophie Kinsella book, Isla Fisher plays a young journalist who's up to her eyeballs in debt because she loves to shop over and above what her pay check permits.

When her jobs folds she takes a role at a financial magazine and writes an article about the perils of credit which resonates massively with its readership.  She's hoping to get the attention of the editor of a prestigious fashion magazine before the debt collector hot on her heels exposes her for the fraud that she is.

Bubblegum for the mind but quite entertaining all the same.

Deepwater Horizon

Disaster movie based on the true events of the exploration rig of the same name which blew up in 2010.  Not sure how much is actually true and how much has been sexed up for Hollywood, but it's well made and the main cast does a good job of portraying the characters well while making a watchable movie.

SteveRobinson

equalsql said:

Amelie, now streaming on Amazon Prime.

I'd forgotten just how wonderful this eccentric little French film was. It's the most perfect piece of whimsical humour and romance. Beautifully shot around Paris with a colour palette that must have inspired Wes Anderson.
incredibly uplifting and funny in the most gentle of ways. Audrey Tautou is just mesmerising, gorgeous and quirky as Amelie.
An absolutely glorious example of French cinema.

I loved it.  11/10

I've rewatched this recently too. A lovely film

SPECTRUM001

The Nest - 2021

just been to the flicks - again, that’s twice in two weeks.

The Nest stars Jude Law as a successful city boy who moved his family back to the UK from their New York lives. It is a powerful story of greed, family values and deception.

Quite harrowing, with an unbearable tension. Masterful in fact - but not an easy watch.

8/10

Offset

Jakob's Wife (2021).  Starring Barbara Crampton and the great Larry Fessenden.  A big nod to the TV miniseries of Salem's Lot in terms of style and characterisation.  Yet another twist on the vampire mytho with some heavy-handed feminist symbolism (intentionally I suspect) but very good fun nevertheless.  A few jumps and scares but a few good laughs as well.  I've loved Larry Fessenden since I Sell The Dead and he's on good form here.  Barbara Crampton is great and a bit of a legend to boot.  7/10.

Haych

The Talented Mr. Ripley

One the missus has been trying to get me to watch for a while. She’d seen it before and was most impressed when I figured out what was going to happen after the first 30 minutes. 

A young lower working class man (Matt Damon) bluffs his way into the life of a New York shipping magnate in the late 1950s and is employed to retrieve the businessman’s playboy son (Jude Law) who’s been living it up in Italy. 

After arriving in Italy and locating the millionaire’s son he quickly becomes absorbed into the playboy lifestyle and becomes obsessed with the young chap he’s supposed to be sending back to New York. 

To keep up the lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed he ends up taking drastic measures which become ever more complicated the longer he tries to maintain the lie that he’s somebody he really isn’t. 

Good story and well made but a bit slow in places and quite long. 

Matt Damon is very good, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Law’s girlfriend), both seem to not know which accent they are meant to be speaking with half the time, which is a bit annoying. 

Overall about 7/10. On Netflix if anyone fancies it. 

BigBearKris

"Old" (2021).

The latest from Mr. Night Shyamalan.

Group of tourists find themselves on the beach where ageing process speeds up to epic proportions. 
Idea was interesting but the acting was borderline farsical. Camera work was annoying as well. 
Avoid, although we did giggle a lot throughout in the cinema - so there was an entertainment factor.

2.475/10

axisus

It's a mad mad mad mad world
Classic 60 American comedy with a sterling comedy cast of the day. Not seen it for many years but I found it on iPlayer. Well worth a watch again!


Rat race
Basically a remake of mad mad world. Not a classic comedy but fun enough.


Vivo
Kids animated film about a little monkey delivering a message - on Netflix. We found it absolutely delightful. 

SRich

"Count Me In"   2021 (on Netflix)

Just watch the damn thing...it's amazing

10/10 for fans of percussion

Tone71

The River Runner

Really good documentary about kayaking four great rivers that flow from Tibet.....8/10

Mattharrier

Tone71 said:

The River Runner

Really good documentary about kayaking four great rivers that flow from Tibet.....8/10

Ooh, we were going to watch that tonight! Then my wife remembered she had a business call and I'm banished to the spare room

I love paddling, and I love watching paddling films, but these people are usually fucking nuts. Can't wait to see it though. 

rze99

Wolf Hall (BBC 2015)

Box set  

Absorbing and compelling historical dramatic adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s prize winning novels. 

Incredible cast of impressive British talent. Full of superb nuanced performances, perfect locations, music and costumes.

It is quiet, reserved, full of only candlelight and daylight scenes and the narrative pace is carefully measured.
 Some may find it slow and complicated. It is not easy viewing, you need to concentrate. Much is unsaid.

Mark Rylance is absolutely brilliant as the self-made, self-possessed and intellectually gifted Thomas Cromwell becoming ever more immersed in his scheming for Henry VIII and his own benefit.

I really can't fault it.  Probably the best thing I've watched in many years.

10/10

rze99

Private Lives (2017) Netflix

A middle-aged New York artsy couple are desperately trying to have a child. 

After multiple failed attempts at artificial insemination they try other more financially ruinous ways to get a child all at the same time at the expense of their financial well being, sense of humour and their wider family relationships.

Well acted, sharp realistic funny dialogue and at times touching. 

7/10 

rze99

The Discovery (2017) Netflix

A man (Robert Redford) who has scientifically proved the existence of an afterlife deals with the aftermath of the proof - an extremely high suicide rate as millions of people top themselves to go to the after-life existence.  

His son travels to visit his research centre on an island and finds himself embroiled in the research, his family history and that of a woman he meets.

An excellent initial premise and set-up becomes ever more vague and indistinct as the movie explores the nature of existence and the effect of relationships on the mind and spirit, as well as a well signposted romance thread.

Could have been a lot better, but still enjoyable.

6/10

HAL9000

SRich said:

"Count Me In"   2021 (on Netflix)

Just watch the damn thing...it's amazing

10/10 for fans of percussion

Happened to come across this yesterday. Excellent stuff. Would definitely recommend.

Mattharrier

SRich said:

"Count Me In"   2021 (on Netflix)

Just watch the damn thing...it's amazing

10/10 for fans of percussion

As a non-drummer, there was probably stuff in there that I missed or didn't fully appreciate, but it was really interesting and thoroughly enjoyable.