What films have you watched recently?

hollywoodrox

The Jerk with Steve Martin as I had to see him being silly again 

tony99

hollywoodrox said:

The Jerk with Steve Martin as I had to see him being silly again 

you shouldn't call your dog life-saver, you should call him shit-head

Shrews

Haych said:

Went to see No Time To Die at the cinema this afternoon. 

Mostly it’s excellent, Craig has gone out with a bang in his last outing as Bond.  Of the Craig era Bond movies this is certainly the best by a long way. 

I’m going to add no spoilers, just go watch it. The next film will be very interesting, although, even as a Bond fan I’m of the opinion that everything Bond can do has been done and maybe it’s time for Bond to finally draw his government pension and retire. 

I think there's some scope maybe for a series of films about his military career and how he got recruited into the secret service, perhaps with flashbacks to Bond in his schooldays (hinted at in Skyfall).

boogieman

Rocket Man. Pretty good watch, although I’m not really an Elton fan. 

hollywoodrox

tony99 said:

hollywoodrox said:

The Jerk with Steve Martin as I had to see him being silly again 

you shouldn't call your dog life-saver, you should call him shit-head

He kept calling it that through the film too, so funny .

Philly_Q

Free Guy

I felt like watching something undemanding but entertaining.  That's exactly what I got.

VimFuego

Infinite -  a kinda modern remake of highlander in a way. Quite an interesting idea on the immortal being meme. Excellent ensemble cast led by Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is absolutely outstanding as the baddie (worth watching just for his performance) but ultimately it was just silly, and the ending where Wahlberg suddenly remembers he's some sort of jedi is ridiculous. If you want a no brain bit of hokum with a stellar cast giving it the beans, then it's well worth a watch.

EricTheWeary

2 Tone - the sound of Coventry. 

I think shown recently on regional BBC but also on YouTube. It’s a well made clips and talking heads documentary about the start of 2 Tone focussing mainly on The Specials and The Selecter ( nothing about the broader aims of the label). Also good if you have an interest in Coventry or Pete Waterman. 

https://youtu.be/xE_cpmiZaic

skullfunkerry

We watched a independent sci-fi film yesterday called Prospect. Was a bit slow, but very atmospheric, and we both quite enjoyed it. Pedro Pascal was in it, but he was the only name I recognised - 7/10.

...and then after that we watched one called Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Iwan Rheon was almost the only actor in it; it's about a soldier stationed at a watch post for 100 days, after Earth has been almost completely overrun by aliens called the Nonsuch. I was fully prepared for it to be really shit, but it was pretty compelling, and well worth watching to the end - 7.5/10.

SPECTRUM001

Blueingreen said:

Gosford Park. 2001. Saw this in the cinema when it came out and didn't especially like it. I've never been much of an Altman fan.  But I thought I'd give it a second chance, and am pleased I did.

It's a "golden age of detective fiction" style murder mystery in an upstairs/downstairs country house setting. But Altman focuses on character and power relationships in the English class system rather than the whodunnit (for a big section of the film it's not even clear that it is going to be a murder tale - the murder happens quite late on).

Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame is the writer but don’t let that put you off, it’s Altman’s much more sardonic view of the class system that dominates. It’s ironic that Fellowes's career was probably kick-started by an excellent script so contrary to his own snobbish prejudicies.

The sheer number of characters and the complexity of the various plot strands means close attention is needed, particularly nearer the start. A large and stellar cast is very good although only a couple get meaty enough parts to really enhance their reputation.  Emily Watson is particularly excellent.

it doesn't all work - Stephen Fry plays a hopeless gentleman detective in charge of a highly competent but ignored PC Plod: it has the potential to be a very good joke but the comedy is too unsubtle.  The main plot, designed to show the evils of an exploitative class system, is too lurid to be credible, and loses power.  But the same message is conveyed much more effectively by a large accumulation of small observations.

All in all well worth seeing if you haven't already. 7.5/10

Gosford Park is a film of quality - and particularly engrossing as a storyline / script.

I saw it listed on Netflix last week, and the above review has prompted me to watch again !

SPECTRUM001

Angel Face - 1952

Directed by Otto Preminger and starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.

Classic film noir that follows a familiar path of destruction, and has a predictably fab atmosphere.

Also a reminder of how advanced and glamorous Hollywood was some seventy years ago. Bob Mitchum has his usual super cool sardonic persona, and Jean Simmons is suitably confusing as the femme fatale.

Not particularly groundbreaking, but an admirable film nonetheless.

7/10


The Thirty Nine Steps - 1935

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat.

Sheer class and quality - an amazing film and the best version of a well told yarn.

10/10

Trivia note - Donat was distantly related to Public Image Ltd’s first drummer: Jim Walker.

Shrews

Amelie

Visually stunning, I must admit I got sucked in to this quirky but surreal French tale, and fell a little in love with the main character. She's offbeat, geeky, unique and slightly bonkers. You'll likely be charmed by her as much as I was.

Still, in the last 20 mins or so I just wished she'd hurry the fuck up and get off with the bloke from the porno shop.

8/10 

Philly_Q

Till Death

Megan Fox plays an unfaithful wife whose wealthy, controlling husband arranges an anniversary weekend away in their remote lake house, which had been closed up for the winter.  It turns out he knows about her infidelity and has planned an elaborate revenge...

I saw the trailer for this about ten times during the Frightfest weekend in August, otherwise I'd have passed it buy.  Shot in Bulgaria with a largely British/Irish cast doing dodgy American accents, it takes forever to get going but the last half hour is reasonably exciting.

On Netflix.

Haych

Fun with Dick and Jane (Netflix)

2005 comedy with Jim Carey and Tia Leoni.  I'd never heard of this film before, but Mrs Haych saw it and recommended it.

Jim (Dick) is desperately trying to work his way up the corporate ladder in a massive company.  He's finally promoted to a VP position just before the company tanks and is made into something of a pariah.  When Dick gets the new job Tia (Jane) quits hers as they think they're on the road to financial security.

After the company goes south Dick and Jane go through a period of extreme poverty and risk losing everything so take desperate measures to gain back some of their previous financial success.

As well as being quite an entertaining film it seems to be having a pop to global corporations who operate unethical strategy to get ahead - the end credits list thanks to Enron etc, although the film was made a couple of years before the big financial crash in 2008 so that confused me a bit.

Despite being entertaining it just wasn't that funny, even with Carey at the helm.  He wasn't bad in it either and seemed to put everything he had into his role like he usually does but there were very few laugh out loud moments.

The story itself was ok but it seemed a bit pedestrian and lacking in direction for a while, so I struggled to engage with it - maybe that contributed to its lack of laughs - shrugs.

Overall, not awful, quite entertaining but its report card would read, could do a lot better.  6.5/10

bobblehat

The Green Knight -  Complete load of boll@%ks    1/10 

fretmeister

Free Guy.

Bit disappointed. Had good reviews and Reynolds was his usual self but ultimately it was a bit like an update to the Truman Show for kids.  6/10

Philly_Q

Haych said:

Fun with Dick and Jane (Netflix)

2005 comedy with Jim Carey and Tia Leoni.  I'd never heard of this film before, but Mrs Haych saw it and recommended it.

I've seen the 1977 film with George Segal and Jane Fonda several times.  I didn't know there was a remake!

Haych

Philly_Q said:

Haych said:

Fun with Dick and Jane (Netflix)

2005 comedy with Jim Carey and Tia Leoni.  I'd never heard of this film before, but Mrs Haych saw it and recommended it.

I've seen the 1977 film with George Segal and Jane Fonda several times.  I didn't know there was a remake!

I knew nothing about it either, didn't know it was a remake!

Offset

skullfunkerry said:

...and then after that we watched one called Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Iwan Rheon was almost the only actor in it; it's about a soldier stationed at a watch post for 100 days, after Earth has been almost completely overrun by aliens called the Nonsuch. I was fully prepared for it to be really shit, but it was pretty compelling, and well worth watching to the end - 7.5/10.

Yep, I watched that as well and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.  Great little film with a shit title.

Offset

bobblehat said:

The Green Knight -  Complete load of boll@%ks    1/10 

Is it the sort of 'so-bad-it's-almost-good' type-bollocks?  It's on my watchlist...