What films have you watched recently?

Blueingreen

Almost Famous. A rewatch, although I last saw it 20 years  ago and didn’t remember it at all well.

Cameron Crowe’s film, based on his own life, about a precocious teenager getting an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine that results in him touring with a fictional rock band. 

To get the negative stuff out of the way, it’s an affectionate, bordering on sentimental, memoir of the early 70s rock scene, with a lot of the ugliness, particularly around drugs and the treatment of groupies, soft-focused. The groupies are portrayed as more mature, more centred and with a clearer idea of what they want than the spoiled man-children they pursue. There’s some comfort and possibly even a sliver of truth in that but it inevitably feels like an evasion. 

And the plot is so thin as to leave the film feeling lumpily unstructured: a series of loosely connected set pieces.

There’s a huge amount to like though. The film captures the excitement of the early period of rock history better than any I can think of: it was a cheering reminder that tropes that I tend to think of as drab and old hat once seemed thrilling, glamorous, important and fresh. The acting is excellent throughout, good performances from the leads and actors of the calibre of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frances McDormand and Anna Paquin in the minor roles. And some of the set pieces are terrific, notably the one where everyone sings along to Tiny Dancer.

A more serious treatment of the subject could have been worthier but probably much less engaging. 8/10.

SPECTRUM001

SHANE

This is the 2022 flick about Shane Warne directed by John Carey and not the 1953 Alan Ladd western (although I wish it had of been).

I heard Shane being interviewed on Radio Four when this was released, and he talked it up as if it was going to reveal some interesting and deep (previously guarded) insights about his life, psychology and personality.

Therefore I am not sure if I watched the correct film - are there two recent docs on the great man ??

Cos I found this one to be as dull as dishwater, and just a biased lovefest celebration of his life as a Test Cricketer. Didn’t feel like I learned anything at all, and it is just plain boring.

2/10



THE GOOD LIAR

This starts as a con artist caper starring Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen, plus Carson from Downton Abbey.

However gradually turns into something far more interesting. Quite watchable, though a little confused at times. 

6/10

Haych

The Heartbreak Kid

A romcom from 2007 with Ben Stiller, who plays a bachelor who gets married to the wrong woman too quickly under pressure from his family and friends. 

On their honeymoon in Mexico he finds out the hard way what a mistake he’s made and falls for another holiday maker who he meets there. 

Fairly standard stuff which has a promising start but which degenerates into absolute garbage over the length of the over-long runtime. 

The jokes become more and more lewd, the language is unnecessary for its genre and the plot takes an unnecessary diversion for a while which adds painful time to an already overlong film and adds nothing to the story. 

It could have been quite a charming and funny film but ended up being very poor. 

3/10 on Netflix if you must. 

Danny1969

Offset said:

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)  I didn't get past the first 20 or so minutes of this.  The deliberately stilted and stylised dialogue was insufferable and deeply grating.  It had a great cast too, but I just couldn't stand any more of it.  Mrs O watched it through to the end, and the denouement was pretty much as I guessed it would be so I saved myself 90 minutes of pain and tooth-grinding.  Deeply unwatchable.  1/10, and the 1 is for Colin Farrell's impressive beard.

I though that film was superb, different strokes I guess 

rze99

High Hopes (1988) Mike Leigh on More 4. 

Socio-political comedy drama set in gentrifying late 1980s London. When his aging and confused mother is locked out of her council home, her son and girlfriend end up having to spend time with his utterly terrible sister, husband and truly dreadful neighbours. 

I'd forgotten most of this and my wife hadn't seen it and wanted to check it out. Very patchy indeed, is a nice way to describe it. Some lovely natural and affecting acting between the central parts (Phil Davis, Ruth Sheen and Edna Dore) and some really terrible crude rubbish cliches (the rest). Interesting to travel back in time (the decor, posters, clothes, cars, etc.). Some laugh out loud moments and also lots to cringe at in all ways.  This film always gets really high scoring reviews, but it's a very uneven mess full of clumsy 6th form politics really and much of the characters are too ludicrous to tolerate.

5/10

Blueingreen

Jack Reacher.  We watched this because we've started watching the very good Prime TV series and thought it would be interesting to compare the different treatments.  Tom Cruise famously miscast as the physically imposing Reacher (he's a 6'5" mass of muscle in the books, and this actually matters to the plot at times). 

Very average of its kind, loads of genre cliches, although to be fair it kept us absorbed until the end.  Well acted, good production values, some nice quirks.  One of those films you think would be very easy to tighten up into a much better movie of it's type by cutting out some of the obvious clunkiness.  No doubt a professional film writer would be able to explain why it's not that simple.  Still, reasonably entertaining, so 7/10.

Poboy

Danny1969 said:

Offset said:

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)  I didn't get past the first 20 or so minutes of this.  The deliberately stilted and stylised dialogue was insufferable and deeply grating.  It had a great cast too, but I just couldn't stand any more of it.  Mrs O watched it through to the end, and the denouement was pretty much as I guessed it would be so I saved myself 90 minutes of pain and tooth-grinding.  Deeply unwatchable.  1/10, and the 1 is for Colin Farrell's impressive beard.

I though that film was superb, different strokes I guess 

Quite a few faux-Kermodes in this thread... lolzy

Haych

The Hunt

An excuse for nothing else other then bloody violence and gore, didn't make it past the 15 minute mark. 0/10 Netflix

The Tinder Swindler

A Netflix documentary about an Israeli playboy living a billionaire's lifestyle paid for with money he conned from women he met via Tinder.

Incredibly interesting on many levels and beggars belief that he could not only put on a pretence that elaborate, with an entourage of staff, but that he could get away with it for so long. 

Recommended.

VimFuego

I kinda liked The Hunt, it was completely silly and the writing was very stilted, the characters were overdone to the point of cliche and the irony laid on so thick it could stop armour piercing tank shells, but it was fun.

SPECTRUM001

Deception - 2013 (Italian title - The Best Offer)

Starring Geoffrey Rush, Sylvia Hoeks, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland.

I really enjoyed this curious film about an eccentric auctioneer. Set in Europe with a grandiose and odd story - about love, greed, art, beauty and…deception.

Very watchable with a sting in the tail.

8/10

LastMantra

Blueingreen said:

Almost Famous. A rewatch, although I last saw it 20 years  ago and didn’t remember it at all well.

Cameron Crowe’s film, based on his own life, about a precocious teenager getting an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine that results in him touring with a fictional rock band. 

To get the negative stuff out of the way, it’s an affectionate, bordering on sentimental, memoir of the early 70s rock scene, with a lot of the ugliness, particularly around drugs and the treatment of groupies, soft-focused. The groupies are portrayed as more mature, more centred and with a clearer idea of what they want than the spoiled man-children they pursue. There’s some comfort and possibly even a sliver of truth in that but it inevitably feels like an evasion. 

And the plot is so thin as to leave the film feeling lumpily unstructured: a series of loosely connected set pieces.

There’s a huge amount to like though. The film captures the excitement of the early period of rock history better than any I can think of: it was a cheering reminder that tropes that I tend to think of as drab and old hat once seemed thrilling, glamorous, important and fresh. The acting is excellent throughout, good performances from the leads and actors of the calibre of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frances McDormand and Anna Paquin in the minor roles. And some of the set pieces are terrific, notably the one where everyone sings along to Tiny Dancer.

A more serious treatment of the subject could have been worthier but probably much less engaging. 8/10.

I thought that was sooo un rocknroll. 

Reggaebass

I watched The Tinder Swindler today, it’s not a bad story 

SPECTRUM001

Under Suspicion

2000 film starring Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman (back together post Unforgiven).

Amazon Prime lists this as ‘one of the best movies of all time’ (yes, seriously !!). Only if no other films have ever been made, as this was complete crud. 

A rubbish tale about an attorney (Hackman)  accused of child molestation and murder - entangled with his failing marriage to a hotty some years his junior.

Morgan Freeman reprises his role from Seven as a gumshoe detective with a heart.

Don’t bother.

2/10

Philly_Q

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

A group of social media influencer types buy up a load of property in the town of Harlow, Texas, for.... no apparent reason whatsoever.  As soon as they get there, they run into Leatherface, who kills everybody.

The only slightly interesting element here is that they bring back the character Sally, from the original film.  She's supposedly been searching for Leatherface for fifty years, but she can't be very good at searching because he's been right there in town the whole time.  Maybe she couldn't recognise him without the mask, he just looked like a normal... huge deranged psychopath. 

This is the ninth film in the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise.  Most of them are rubbish but none of them are as bad as this.

DrCornelius

Light Sleeper , an old Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon drama.

Very 1990s , awful soundtrack but great performances including some surprising turns from future stars (David Spade and Sam Rockwell)

A slow burner , almost film noir and if it were in black and white and without the awful music it would probably be talked of as a classic.

Very solid 8.5 out of 10

Reggaebass

Philly_Q said:

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

  Most of them are rubbish but none of them are as bad as this.

Thanks for that Philli Q, I nearly watched that yesterday, you’ve saved me from wasting my time 

Haych

The Big Short 

Second time watching after a good few years. Very well done for its story and for explaining complicated financial systems, situations and products in simple terms. 

Not quite as heavy hitting as the first time I saw it but it still carries a big impact. 

Recommended viewing if you’ve never seen it. 

Netflix. 

Blaendulais

VimFuego said:

I kinda liked The Hunt, it was completely silly and the writing was very stilted, the characters were overdone to the point of cliche and the irony laid on so thick it could stop armour piercing tank shells, but it was fun.

Agree totally awesome intelligent movie

Blaendulais

Kimi

Kravitz daughter in an awesome movie. The tentacles of the 'alexas''

Danny1969

Munich - The Edge of War - Netflix

Set in Neville Chamberlain's term, and featuring  his determination to avoid war with Germany. 2 old Oxford pals, one now back in Germany and one working in chambers for Chamberlain try to change the course of coming events. 

Beautifully shot and well thought out, makes you think what might have been.