What films have you watched recently?

Moominpapa

The International (2009) - thriller with Clive Owen as an Interpol agent and Naomi Watts as an American District Attorney who have joined forces to pursue an investigation into a  bank that is doing very dirty business. The plot is a bit OTT at times and there are some moments that sacrifice common sense for somewhat hackneyed cinematic effect, but on the positive side there are decent action scenes and some good performances. I'd call it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10 ad worth a watch if you are in the mood for an action movie.

munckee

Stratavarious said:

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

One of the best films ever for me. 

Stratavarious

Moominpapa said:

The International (2009) - thriller with Clive Owen as an Interpol agent and Naomi Watts as an American District Attorney who have joined forces to pursue an investigation into a  bank that is doing very dirty business. The plot is a bit OTT at times and there are some moments that sacrifice common sense for somewhat hackneyed cinematic effect, but on the positive side there are decent action scenes and some good performances. I'd call it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10 ad worth a watch if you are in the mood for an action movie.

I do like that movie a lot for for some reason.  

Got a more authentic ‘euro’ feel to it.  I find it very watchable. Just hangs together well and not too crazy paced.

Haych

Not a film but a mini series on Netflix called Clickbait

The story is of a family man who appears on a viral video, looking bruised and bloodied and is holding signs stating he's an abuser of women.

The video ends with the statement that when it has received 5 million views, the man dies.

So starts a frantic search to find the man and those who have abducted him before he's murdered.

It's an eight part series with each episode continuing the story from the perspective of a different character affected by events in the plot.

It's actually pretty good and I was convinced quite early on that I knew how it was going to unfold but the last episode revealed a twist that was impossible to see coming.

I didn't recognise any of the cast but they all seemed to do a decent job of their roles, even if they weren't outstanding.

BigBearKris

"Dune" (2021).

Lynch's film from 1984 is one of my all time favourites, despite being hated pretty much everywhere. 

I loved the books as a young man so I was looking forward to decent adaptation for years. 

I liked it. Its visually stunning and managed to catch the eerie climate. I'm not sure about the cast, especially Paul, but it wasn't bad choice either.

It's "simpler" than 1984 film and story makes more sense, but it's difficult to fit so much if the content into film, even if it's 2 parts. 

Strong 6.333/10

CMW335

Bungle1 said:

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.

Yeah I quite enjoyed it tbh, not the best but probably the goriest of the franchise and a decent follow up to the last one for me… I seem to be in the minority though. I love these types of movies and am a sucker for anything even half decent with Jason, Freddy or Michael Myers

rze99

The Mule 

2018 Netflix  

Clint Eastwood directs and plays a tough Korean war vet turned award winning horticulturalist who cares more about his self-developed varietal flowers than he does any of the people in his life. First we see him as charming success but careless of family matters and then picks  12 years later his place is being foreclosed his business model being screwed by the internet flower businesses leaving him homeless and without income.

All he has left is a truck he’s been driving for decades. He is approached by a family contact who leads him to work driving cross state with his truck full of drugs. He is as unlikely a drug smuggler as you could imagine and of course it works in his favour until things get mightily complicated with the OCG where situations develop that cause him to reflect on his priorities.

Clint is hugely enjoyable and the story absorbing enough to overcome a few unlikely elements to develop into something more emotionally powerful than anticipated.

Hugely enjoyable.  Recommended 

8/10

 

rze99

Deception (UK) US title: Best Offer

Prime

Geoffrey Rush and Donald Sutherland star in this mystery-tale set world of ultra high-end art auctions and antiques. A snobby aloof super-wealthy and corrupt valuation expert and auctioneer is hired by a mysterious hyper-agoraphobic young heiress to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. Gradually the nutty heiress begins to dissolve his reserve and he becomes infatuated with her leading to lapses of judgement, doubt and inner torment. 

The movie is involving with great sets and performances especially Rush and a convoluted narrative on deception, self-deception, love, obsession and a parallel tale of vintage automata. Unfortunately I largely figured out what was going on too soon in the movie which somewhat spoiled the carefully built tension. Family viewing warning: up-skirt nudity.

Enjoyable but not brilliant.

6/10

Haych

Shutter Island

Netflix

A clever mystery movie with sinister overtones from Martin Scorsese. 

Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo play the roles of US Marshals who are investigating the disappearance of a patient from an institution for the criminally insane on a island 11 miles off the coast of Boston. 

Convinced there are sinister events happening to the inmates, DiCaprio’s character becomes increasingly paranoid as the plot unfolds and the story progresses. 

I won’t add more and risk spoiling it for others. 

I have seen it before but Mrs Haych hasn’t so I watched it with her last night. It’s been some time since I first watched it though and the only thing I really recall was the ending, which I thought was disappointing the first time round. 

Definitely a better movie for a second viewing! This time the ending wasn’t disappointing at all and the final scene took on an entirely different meaning for me. 

Highly recommended viewing 8.5/10

boogieman

Dracula. The 70s version with Jack Palance as the count. Now I like a good vampire film but this is a truly terrible film, not even in a good/terrible way like some of the cheesy Hammer versions. 

The acting is universally awful. Simon Ward just stands around most of the time looking gormless and hardly speaks or reacts. Nigel Davenport as Van Helsing does some unexplainable things:  such as when he’s brandishing a crucifix to hold Dracula back, then Drac simply says “put that down”. So he does!! Jack Palance actually looks the part but is just phoning the performance in. 

A complete steaming turd of a film. 1/10. 

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

Dracula. The 70s version with Jack Palance as the count. Now I like a good vampire film but this is a truly terrible film, not even in a good/terrible way like some of the cheesy Hammer versions. 

The acting is universally awful. Simon Ward just stands around most of the time looking gormless and hardly speaks or reacts. Nigel Davenport as Van Helsing does some unexplainable things:  such as when he’s brandishing a crucifix to hold Dracula back, then Drac simply says “put that down”. So he does!! Jack Palance actually looks the part but is just phoning the performance in. 

A complete steaming turd of a film. 1/10. 

It's funny, although I agree it's pretty poor, that version of Dracula seems to be quite well-regarded in the US.  Maybe it's because the director Dan Curtis has something of a cult following.  Then again, there are few good adaptations of Dracula so it's not as if the competition's all that strong...

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Then again, there are few good adaptations of Dracula so it's not as if the competition's all that strong...

I'd give it to the first Christopher Lee one for the sheer iconic status of his Count, and the Gary Oldman one for accuracy to the book, but neither is perfect.

I re-read the book again recently for the first time in about thirty years and it's astounding how good it is, and how complete the vampire mythology even by modern standards.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

Then again, there are few good adaptations of Dracula so it's not as if the competition's all that strong...

I'd give it to the first Christopher Lee one for the sheer iconic status of his Count, and the Gary Oldman one for accuracy to the book, but neither is perfect.

I re-read the book again recently for the first time in about thirty years and it's astounding how good it is, and how complete the vampire mythology even by modern standards.

It's a great book.  Maybe in terms of pacing and structure it doesn't easily translate to film, but a straight adaptation of the book would still be better than most of the films.

I agree that the Coppola version and the 1958 version (but not any of the other Christopher Lee ones!) are probably the best, although personally I love the 1931 Lugosi version and the silent Nosferatu best of all.  But none of them are very close to the book!

stickyfiddle

I did flights so I watched movies...

Ghostbusters
Still my favourite movie ever. It is genuinely perfect as far as I can tell. 

A Quiet Place
I totally understand the hype as it's a great concept and well executed. It's really good if you ignore the obvious big questions (chiefly "why don't they go live near a waterfall, or build one near their house?")

Ford v Ferrari (Le Mans '66 in the UK)
I really enjoyed this one, despite not expecting to. 

Ghostbusters 2
Definitely not as good as the first but still a decent film. I think it's had a bit of critical reappraisal since the 2016 version came out, demonstrating that there's actually really a lot to like about GB2. I look forward to Afterlife with heavy nerves...

Dune (in an actual cinema!!!!) 
I adored Denis Villeneuve well before Dune. I still adore Denis Villeneuve after Dune. I haven't read it, so can't speak to that, but a friend who names the book as her favourite in the world also loved it, so I'm going to take that as a good thing. I enjoyed it a lot; the only genuine negative I have is that the story is not resolved. Assuming they get a green light to shoot part 2 next year and it's as good as this one, then I expect the pair of them to be among my all-time favourites. 

EricTheWeary

I’m part way through Den of Thieves on Film 4. Seems pretty awful so I thought I’d write something now in case I give up on it or just fall asleep. 

Violence, male gaze, no characters you could possibly empathise with, normalisation of gun culture. Does have Jerry from The Walking Dead in it, which is nice. 

It has a veneer of smart thriller but seems to be just angry white men shooting stuff. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

I’m part way through Den of Thieves on Film 4. Seems pretty awful so I thought I’d write something now in case I give up on it or just fall asleep. 

Violence, male gaze, no characters you could possibly empathise with, normalisation of gun culture. Does have Jerry from The Walking Dead in it, which is nice. 

It has a veneer of smart thriller but seems to be just angry white men shooting stuff. 

Gerard Butler and Fiddy?  Say no more.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

I’m part way through Den of Thieves on Film 4. Seems pretty awful so I thought I’d write something now in case I give up on it or just fall asleep. 

Violence, male gaze, no characters you could possibly empathise with, normalisation of gun culture. Does have Jerry from The Walking Dead in it, which is nice. 

It has a veneer of smart thriller but seems to be just angry white men shooting stuff. 

Gerard Butler and Fiddy?  Say no more.

This kind of movie ( it’s still going on) generally passes me by. I’ve accidentally stumbled into a sub genre of angry bollocks. 

50 Cent doesn’t get to do a lot, I’m not sure he’s even spoken a line at this point. 

boogieman

I thought Den of Thieves was actually ok. Of course it does have Gerard Butler in, so you’re already kind of forewarned that it’s going to be a little bit shit. 

Offset

boogieman said:

Dracula. The 70s version with Jack Palance as the count. Now I like a good vampire film but this is a truly terrible film, not even in a good/terrible way like some of the cheesy Hammer versions. 

The acting is universally awful. Simon Ward just stands around most of the time looking gormless and hardly speaks or reacts. Nigel Davenport as Van Helsing does some unexplainable things:  such as when he’s brandishing a crucifix to hold Dracula back, then Drac simply says “put that down”. So he does!! Jack Palance actually looks the part but is just phoning the performance in. 

A complete steaming turd of a film. 1/10. 

I'd almost forgotten what an utter minger of a production that was.  I may re-watch it over a bottle of wine just to punish myself.

Offset

Philly_Q said:

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

Then again, there are few good adaptations of Dracula so it's not as if the competition's all that strong...

I'd give it to the first Christopher Lee one for the sheer iconic status of his Count, and the Gary Oldman one for accuracy to the book, but neither is perfect.

I re-read the book again recently for the first time in about thirty years and it's astounding how good it is, and how complete the vampire mythology even by modern standards.

It's a great book.  Maybe in terms of pacing and structure it doesn't easily translate to film, but a straight adaptation of the book would still be better than most of the films.

I agree that the Coppola version and the 1958 version (but not any of the other Christopher Lee ones!) are probably the best, although personally I love the 1931 Lugosi version and the silent Nosferatu best of all.  But none of them are very close to the book!

I adore the Herzog version with Klaus Kinski.  Hugely atmospheric with a haunting soundtrack.  It has that indefinable 'something' about it for me.