What films have you watched recently?

Haych

The Guilty (Netflix)

Jake Gyllenhaal is a disgraced LA cop who has been taken off duty and assigned to emergency call handling while awaiting trial.  While on shift he receives a strange call from a distressed woman who starts talking to him as if she's talking to a small child.  He quickly figures out she's been abducted and starts asking her yes/no questions to try to find out more about what's happened to her and where she is.

As he pieces together the fragments of information he gathers he starts frantically calling around different services and people in the LA area to get help for the woman - they're all overworked due to wildfires burning out of control so he becomes ever more desperate to find a way to help the woman.

The film takes place entirely inside a call centre and there are very few other on screen characters.  The conversations he has with various people over the phone are quite clever but not spectacular in the way they cause the plot to unfold.

The twist towards the end wasn't one I saw coming but still left me feeling meh.  After that it all seemed a bit thin and a waste of invested time.

Not completely rubbish, a good effort for trying something a bit different, but didn't really work for this viewer.  Until about a third the way through the film I expected him to leap into action hero mode and go chasing across LA to find the woman and rescue her himself - if he had it would probably have been a much better film.

So, can't give it more than a 5/10

BigBearKris

"Halloween Kills" (2021)

I like the franchise and was wondering another sequel will hold up. 
Well, not great. It was ok but left me fairly annoyed. It was boring in the middle and few good scenes (firefighters, some hospital scenes and older couple's house) were sadly balanced with mediocrity and clichés (that was to be expected though). 

Overall - I wasnt expecting quality picture but still just 4.125/10

ICBM

Schumacher

Netflix documentary about the former motor racing world champion. Very interesting if you’re a casual follower of the sport - there’s a lot about his early life and background I wasn’t aware of, although it might be well-known to fans.

Slightly frustrating at the end - I fully understand why his family want privacy though, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to see him - so no way around that really.

7/10

Blaendulais

Venom 2

Absolutely dreadful. Hardy cowrote it.  Vanity project

Mellish

Jeepers Creepers 3. Loved the first two but found this a big disappointment. 6/10  

boogieman

Blaendulais said:

Venom 2

Absolutely dreadful. Hardy cowrote it.  Vanity project

Watched Venom 1 on C4 last night and thought it was decidedly average. Had the odd chuckle but otherwise, meh.  

Mellish

Speaking of Venom, I recall a film with that title starring Klaus Kinski. I think Oliver Reed was in it too. Brilliant movie from the past FWIW  

Tone71

The Father 10/10

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are father and daughter with the father suffering from dementia, filmed from the fathers point of view.

Absolutely superb, a real actors film and a really hard subject to make a film about......not a feel good in any way at all and a bit bleak so you'll have to be in the mood but easily the best film I've seen this year.

FastEddie

I watched 'No Country for old men' again this week.

It really is a lovely film. Sad but lovely. 

Another was Snatch. That film has aged badly. Not great at the outset and hasn't got any better.

Weaver85

Anyone else other than bigbearkris seen the new halloween film? I enjoyed the last one - how does this compare? 

merlin

I just watched "After Hours" by Scorsese. 

Having seen it many years ago (actually when it came out), I thought I ought to see it again after having watched Ted Lasso, series 2, episode 9 "Beard After Hours", which is loosely based on the original.

It is very, very, very stupid. 

Bungle1

Weaver85 said:

Anyone else other than bigbearkris seen the new halloween film? I enjoyed the last one - how does this compare? 

Having seen a few reviews of it online, my expectations of it were rock bottom. As a result I didn't think it was as bad as people were saying. I have no desire to watch it again but it was fine for a few hours of entertainment. It was a lot more brutal but not as grounded and reverts back to familiar 'dumb characters / omnipotent invincible villain' horror tropes which I thought the current writers had said they weren't interested in.

The Halloween franchise has such variable quality anyway, this is far from the worst, it sort of sits in the middle for me.

bobblehat

Black Widow (Marvel  -  Its a bit of a mess . Not the worst marvel film 6/10 

goldtop

The Lighthouse (Netflix). Finally got around to watching it and wished I hadn't. Kermode rated it and that's usually a good sign. 2/10.

Jaycee

Last of the Mohicans, it was on over the weekend. Haven't seen it in years

CFH

Arrival (Netflix)

A thought provoking and fresh take on the "aliens arriving" type of film. Simultaneously tragic and optimistic, with good acting.

I'd say a solid 8/10.

SteveRobinson

goldtop said:

The Lighthouse (Netflix). Finally got around to watching it and wished I hadn't. Kermode rated it and that's usually a good sign. 2/10.

I saw this at the cinema and really enjoyed it. Mrs R didn't one bit.

ICBM

A Lonely Place To Die

Chase thriller set in Scotland... a group of mountaineers discover a kidnapped child hidden in the remote Scottish highlands and then have to escape from the violent kidnappers.

The premise is very good, and some of the sequences done pretty well, but overall it's slightly too implausible - increasingly so as it goes on - and clichéd to the point of almost laughable at the end.

6/10

(iPlayer)

boogieman

Midsommar, on Netflix. A homage/retread of the Wicker Man plot but with Americans going to a strange commune in Sweden. Nicely filmed, quite atmospheric but waaaaay too long and not particularly involving. Also some really gross graphic injury detail that didn’t seem completely necessary. 

Stratavarious

LA Confidential..  not seen it for a few years. Still a decent film.  4/5.  .