What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

No Exit

A recovering drug addict absconds from a rehab facility to go to her sick mother in Salt Lake City, but bad weather forces her to stop at a service station, along with several other travellers.  Then she makes an alarming discovery...

I saw a review of this yesterday and since it was on Disney+ I thought I might as well give it a go.  It's a pretty generic thriller but there are worse ways of spending 95 minutes.

HAL9000

Moulin Rouge - Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, and Jim Broadbent star in this pompous, overblown sprawling mess. Loved it!

Haych

Uncharted

Ridiculous Hollywood rubbish. Not an awful film per se but be prepared so suspend all reality and ignore holes in the plot larger than the Watford Gap. 

The end sequence is completely absurd. 

5/10

 Bend it Like Beckham

Feel-good film about a young Indian girl who wants to play football but gets resistance from her family. 

Not bad but got a bit bored, thought it went on a bit too long. 

6.5/10

vanlooy1

House of Gucci.
Decent enough if a bit long, convincing performances by most especially Ga Ga. Interesting story of which I previously knew nothing.

Blueingreen

Miss Sloane. Political thriller about a lobbyist who takes on corruption and the American gun lobby in an amorally aggressive way. It’s pitched very much at the audience for thrillers about glamorous, powerful people rather than the audience for more serious examinations of moral turpitude in public life (like Spotlight, for example). The plotting reminded me of the writing for glossy TV series like Damages, or a turbocharged version of The Good Wife. Superficiality, implausibility, absurdities and plot twists abound. Although there’s a deep moral ambivalence about some of central characters you are never in doubt about who will be wearing the white hats by the end.

Production values are high, it looks great, the acting throughout is excellent and Jessica Chastain in particular turns in a magnificent central performance. There’s also a series of twists at the end that  further damage the film’s plausibility, but are very satisfying as entertaining surprises. It felt a better movie by the end than it did with 15 minutes to go. But at times it felt an effort to make it that far. 6.5/10, including an extra half point for the ending.

Philly_Q

Body Cam

An uneasy mix of police-corruption thriller and supernatural horror, starring Mary J. Blige.  How do I end up watching these things?

Danny1969

A time to Kill - Netflix

Young girl gets attacked and father takes revenge. A star studded cast and a decent watch. Mathew MacCaughay and Samuel L Jackson are the leads and do a fine job.  7/10

Tamara Drewe - Netflix
British country romp set in the the West country, a young women returns to the village and creates a chain of events. Decent enough laugh here and there and some solid performances 6/10 

End of watch - Netflix
2nd time I've seen this. It's a clever film about 2 LAPD cops on patrol, one of them making his own video blog of his job. Most of the film is shot via body cam and car cam. Creating an interesting effect and a sense of witness. I really liked it 8/10

boogieman

Fledermaus said:

Just watched Zombeavers on Horror Channel, not a serious film by any means, but hilarious!

I’m going to have to watch that. Some films need watching because of the title, even though that’s sometimes the best thing about it. See also Nude nuns with big guns. 

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

Fledermaus said:

Just watched Zombeavers on Horror Channel, not a serious film by any means, but hilarious!

I’m going to have to watch that. Some films need watching because of the title, even though that’s sometimes the best thing about it. See also Nude nuns with big guns. 

I can’t remember which streaming service we had but our youngest was left alone for the evening when he was, probably, 16 and the history showed he’d been watching Nude Nuns with Big Guns. So, this has become a family in-joke ‘Oliver, what are you doing - watching Nude Nuns with Big Guns again?’ etc,etc. He’s at film school now so maybe it had a long lasting impact, I’ll have to wait and see how much nun and/ or gun content there is in his final year project. 

Snap

The Lost Daughter, Olivia Coleman. Oscar nominated. Not sure what to make of it. Quite bleak really. One of those films that when I got to the end of it, I sort of thought "what was the point of that then?"
She is however, excellent in it. The character she plays develops into someone you don't initially expect and the story does take an unexpected turn. 
Ed Harris is in it too, he's good.

SPECTRUM001

THE TENDER BAR - 2021

Directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck. True story about a young kid who is raised/mentored by his uncle and bar-room patrons (due to his absent father). Based on JR Moehringer's memoir.

A pleasantly watchable film, nicely acted and well worth its salt. Kinda think The Wonder Years meets The Waltons meets the usual Ben Affleck/George Clooney conscience.

6.5/10



THE MAN IN THE HAT - 2020

Directed by Stephen Warbeck and starring Ciaran Hinds. This is a British/French production in the grand tradition of timeless French comedy and eighties cinema (think Jacques Tati mixed with Betty Blue, Amelie etc).

Very little dialogue, it's all about a road trip across the most gorgeous southern French countryside and small towns. Essentially a love letter to a slow pace of food, sun, nature and absurd humour.

6.5/10 for the story, 9.5/10 for the cinematography

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

Fledermaus said:

Just watched Zombeavers on Horror Channel, not a serious film by any means, but hilarious!

I’m going to have to watch that. Some films need watching because of the title, even though that’s sometimes the best thing about it. See also Nude nuns with big guns. 

They're both utter tripe, but as far as I remember Zombeavers is less than 90 minutes so at least there's not much time to get bored.

axisus

HAL9000 said:

Moulin Rouge - Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, and Jim Broadbent star in this pompous, overblown sprawling mess. Loved it!

I was amazed at how good Ewan's voice was, it was a pleasure to hear him every time he sang. The 'Elephant medley' is superb, really well put together.

My recollection was that the ending of the film went off the boil a bit? I could be wrong.

axisus

We often watch a 'family' film with Takeaway on a Friday (me + Missus + daughters). The last two:

Free Guy - Utterly daft but highly entertaining. Ryan Reynolds is so good in lighthearted roles. He's basically an NPC in a game and he 'comes to life' within the game. Lots of fun, we all loved it. For the kind of film it is, I'd give it an 8

Tomorrowland - Well if Free Guy was daft, this is daft with knobs on. The whole story is utterly preposterous! If you can suspend disbelief though it is a wacky, fun film with some good sequences. Early on we see for me one of the best ever 'future world interpretations', there's a cool 'escape from the house' scene, also loved the mad Eiffel tower bit. Clooney is the star but the young (14ish?) Raffey Cassidy steals the show. What they need to do is edit off the first 5 minutes - It'a a rubbish scene which is kind of the end of the film. Also the very end, where they conclude that scene is pants - cheesy, syrup coated ending!

We liked it overall though. Once gain, For the kind of film it is, I'd give it a 7

ICBM

Judy

Renée Zellweger plays Judy Garland in the last year of her life.

If she never did anything very good before and never does anything good at all again it won't matter, she still deserved her Oscar for this.

The rest of the film isn't quite in the same league, it's a bit clichéd and ordinary, but tells the story well enough.

7/10

(iPlayer)

stickyfiddle

Matrix Resurrection
(possible working titles "M4trix", "Remind me why we need another Matrix?", "Matrix: Getting Wicky wit' it", "How I Met Your Matrix")

Well it's Matrix sequel, so that bar isn't very high. It clear that bar, but it's a close run thing. Feels like every other generic sci-fi movie that came out post-Matrix, changing nothing, saying nothing, subverting nothing, and basically just not being very interesting. Not a surprise, but not a good film either. I'm sitting writing this while the credits role and I bet it has a post-credits scene...

The small consolation is it's bloated 2.5hr length means I'm now only 36 hours away from seeing The Batman

paulnb57

The Unforgivable, Netflix

Formula stuff, but we quite enjoyed it

guitargeek62

The Batman

Probably the best* adaptation of the world’s greatest detective to date! This is much more in keeping with the tone and vibe of the last ~30 years of Bats in-print at least, and while it’s a smidge long* it was really nicely handled throughout and kept me intrigued. It’s definitely not for kids btw, this has more of a 12A/15 take on Seven/SAW at times, with the suspense of Zodiac and other good detective thrillers. My only initial criticisms** are that a few scenes were a little too dark and slightly underlit, and at times some of the voices were a bit hard to follow, but that might’ve just been me!

The new Batmobile is f*in awesome, and I have a crush on Catwoman all over again  

8/10 - will definitely watch this again, multiple times

*not helped by a loooooong day before sitting through the midnight showing of what was almost a 3hr runtime, excluding trailers! 

**Again, might be compounded by being tired while watching it, and also the not-fantastic quality of the cinema that I watched it in.

Danny1969

Against the ice  - Netflix

Based on the true story of the Danish 1909 expedition to NE Greenland to disprove the American theory that the NE tip was an island and not part of the land mass. The film concentrates on the following expedition where the caption and a volunteer travel with dogs and sledges across Greenland to get the proof from the now dead first expedition members.

I liked it, especially the last 1\2 hour which changed direction and was better for it. 7/10 

boogieman

Death Line on Talking Pictures (which for those who haven’t discovered it is a great Freeview channel for old black & white films and regularly shows 1960/70s horror cheesefests in the evenings, including lots of classic Hammer/Amicus stuff). 

Death Line has a pretty basic storyline with very sloooooow pacing but it has a certain period charm. Christopher Lee makes a brief cameo appearance, for no discernible reason I can figure out but Donald Pleasance is superb as the world weary police inspector who investigates a series of strange disappearances on the London Underground. The FX are actually pretty decent for the times (it’s a 1972 film) and it’s pretty atmospheric.

 I enjoyed it overall. “Mind the doors!!”