What films have you watched recently?

Offset

Intersect (2020).  I watched this for the second time the other night and I enjoyed it even more than I did the first time around.  If you like the idea of a film that combines time travel with H.P. Lovecraft themes (which I do) then this may prove enjoyable.  Ignore the shitty reviews.  Can't give too much of the plot away as it would be too easy to spoil, but I can say that the whole thing is told in a series of sequential flashbacks, starting in the present.  I admit I guessed the main premise fairly early on, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.  A steady 6.5/10.

Barquentine

Big Sopranos fan. Just watched The Many Saints of Newark. Don't bother.

boogieman

Barquentine said:

Big Sopranos fan. Just watched The Many Saints of Newark. Don't bother.

@Barquentine ;What’s so bad about it? I’m genuinely curious. I loved the tv series, I think it’s probably my all time favourite drama series and the film’s been on my radar for a while.   

RocknRollDave

Having newly subscribed to Disney+, the missus (very much the film buff of our house - I keep getting complete fails on that Movie version of Wordle, whatever it is called) has started watching the Marvel films in timeline order.

Not a fan in any way myself, but my goodness the quality is variable across the franchise. Some of them are very watchable and well-made. Some of them. 

Danny1969

boogieman said:

Barquentine said:

Big Sopranos fan. Just watched The Many Saints of Newark. Don't bother.

@Barquentine ;What’s so bad about it? I’m genuinely curious. I loved the tv series, I think it’s probably my all time favourite drama series and the film’s been on my radar for a while.   

I really enjoyed it but it focuses on a different branch of the family, being centred round Christophers father Dicky Montesanti. Livia, Johny Boy and Junior feature in the film with young versions of other well loved characters but it's Dickies story really. Tony (played by James own son)  is a young boy  then a awkward teenager in the film and plays a very small part. 

I personally had to watch all 6 series of the Sopranos 4 times before I got everything ... all the little details that joined the intricate dots. The actual real relationships between the characters, the goomahs and the parts they played, how people rose up or didn't.  The many saints of Newark is a film that assumes the viewer  knows all this so it's not a casual watch but for soprano nerds like me it was very enjoyable. 

rze99

Gassage said:

Vertigo 

James Stewart is absolutely compelling in this brilliant dark and gothic phsyco thriller about the interrelationship between man and woman

There are two ways of approaching Vertigo; one is to see it as a male film on the side of the male view of women; the other is to see it as a satirical attack on the misogynist mindset. They are, in fact, two sides of the same interpretative coin and this is Hitchcock's clear dig at the male dominated society of the 50s.

Vertigo also combines, like North by Northwest, a balance of Alf's brash flair for psychological shocks with his elegant genius for dapper stylishness and that interpretation of the 50s reference icons.

To score this less than 10/10 is like telling the Mona Lisa she needs to smile more. It could well be one of the greatest films ever made.

So it gets 10/10.

Absolutely fucking brilliant.

Indeed a wonderful riff on obsession and fraud Ive seen it so many times and always entertaining. I like the green Jag too. 

Philly_Q

RocknRollDave said:

Having newly subscribed to Disney+, the missus (very much the film buff of our house - I keep getting complete fails on that Movie version of Wordle, whatever it is called) has started watching the Marvel films in timeline order.

Not a fan in any way myself, but my goodness the quality is variable across the franchise. Some of them are very watchable and well-made. Some of them. 

I've seen them before, but when I got Disney+ I started watching them all again, to see if I could pick up some of the detail and recurring elements I'd forgotten.  Got a bit bored though...

I think most of them are really good, and well-made even if the plots aren't great.  But there are a few duds.

VimFuego

RocknRollDave said:

Having newly subscribed to Disney+, the missus (very much the film buff of our house - I keep getting complete fails on that Movie version of Wordle, whatever it is called) has started watching the Marvel films in timeline order.

Not a fan in any way myself, but my goodness the quality is variable across the franchise. Some of them are very watchable and well-made. Some of them. 

by and large the films are crap (with the exception of the Spiderman ones IMO) but some of the series are fantastic, WandaVison took my breathe away it was so good.

Philly_Q

Metal Lords

Metalhead Hunter and his lifelong friend Kevin are desperate to enter their local Battle of the Bands, but as well as dealing with the usual high-school romantic entanglements, bullies and parental issues, they need to find a bass player in time for the competition... 

I can't be objective about this.  I don't know what you will make of this if you're not a lifelong metal fan or a weirdo geeky misfit.  It made me laugh.  It made me cry.  It's wonderful.

Shrews

Jesus Christ Superstar

Well it is Easter time and time to eat chocolate eggs and dig out the Jesus movies. This one is hippy, trippy and I hated it. Well, the first time I watched it I hated it, but this is my third time now and I sort of kind of like it. It's actually better if you don't really watch it and just listen to it. But now and then just lift your head up and you'll see good looking young people, bizarre imagery and it's sort of believable. No it's not. Yes it is! Well, there's a machine gun, they arrive in a camper van, some bloke in a medallion and ray bans and well...it's Jesus Christ Superstar!

7/10, but moving to an 8/10 next year maybe. 

Haych

Death on the Nile

Agatha Christie classic turned into a movie yet again. Rather well done, I thought, although a bit long and a few scenes were either unnecessary or just drawn out a bit.

Kenneth Branagh did a decent job of Hercule Poirot and certainly pulled off a better French/Belgian accent than Jennifer Saunders can do with an American accent. 

The cast was really quite excellent and everyone did a good job. The scenery was naturally quite stunning being set in Egypt and the display of opulence was portrayed very well. 

The only thing that spoiled it is that it’s all been done before. Having seen the Peter Ustinov film, and I think David Suchet did one too that I recall seeing, there were no surprises in the plot. 

I also don’t think it was the best version of the film, for all its Disney dollars and CGI trickery, previous films were better. 

For all that, it’s certainly not a lemon and is still worth a watch, especially if you’re housebound with covid and have little else to do. 

Also didn’t know that Branagh has previously portrayed Poirot so will be giving Murder on the Orient Express a go a some point, I expect (Mrs Haych says we will, in any case) - even though I know what happens. 

7/10   

boogieman

Danny1969 said:

boogieman said:

Barquentine said:

Big Sopranos fan. Just watched The Many Saints of Newark. Don't bother.

@Barquentine ;What’s so bad about it? I’m genuinely curious. I loved the tv series, I think it’s probably my all time favourite drama series and the film’s been on my radar for a while.   

I really enjoyed it but it focuses on a different branch of the family, being centred round Christophers father Dicky Montesanti. Livia, Johny Boy and Junior feature in the film with young versions of other well loved characters but it's Dickies story really. Tony (played by James own son)  is a young boy  then a awkward teenager in the film and plays a very small part. 

I personally had to watch all 6 series of the Sopranos 4 times before I got everything ... all the little details that joined the intricate dots. The actual real relationships between the characters, the goomahs and the parts they played, how people rose up or didn't.  The many saints of Newark is a film that assumes the viewer  knows all this so it's not a casual watch but for soprano nerds like me it was very enjoyable. 

Cheers for that review @Danny1969. I really need to rewatch the tv series again I think. Only seen it three times so far. 

Haych

One Hour Photo

One I saw a long time ago but rewatched in bed this morning. 

Robin Williams takes on a much more sinister role than was his usual, as Sy the photo guy in this rather excellent movie. 

Sy is the lonely clerk at the photo processing desk in a supermarket. He doesn’t have much of a life of his own and becomes obsessed with a young family who bring their films to him for processing. 

He dreams of being part of their unit as some kind of uncle but can only live vicariously through their photos. 

A bit of a slow burner but excellently done and as you’d expect from its title the photography is excellent too. 

Williams’ performance is just brilliant. 

9/10

Danny1969

Don't worry he won't get far on foot - Amazon Prime

A film based on John Callahan's memoirs ... his life as a recovering alcoholic who is paralysed in a car accident. 

Really liked it, bit of a black comedy and unusual 7/10

Barquentine

boogieman said:

Barquentine said:

Big Sopranos fan. Just watched The Many Saints of Newark. Don't bother.

@Barquentine ;What’s so bad about it? I’m genuinely curious. I loved the tv series, I think it’s probably my all time favourite drama series and the film’s been on my radar for a while.   

The TV series was highly intricate and complex. The film is okay from a point of view of ideal curiosity but adds nothing to the story. As a stand-alone 'gangster' film it's average at best.

CaseOfAce

Boiling Point on netflix.

Watchable tense drama about a scouse chef at a high end (London?) restaurant with his colleagues on a frantic night.

stickyfiddle

VimFuego said:

RocknRollDave said:

Having newly subscribed to Disney+, the missus (very much the film buff of our house - I keep getting complete fails on that Movie version of Wordle, whatever it is called) has started watching the Marvel films in timeline order.

Not a fan in any way myself, but my goodness the quality is variable across the franchise. Some of them are very watchable and well-made. Some of them. 

by and large the films are crap (with the exception of the Spiderman ones IMO) but some of the series are fantastic, WandaVison took my breathe away it was so good.

imo the essential ones are... Iron Man, CA: First Avenger, Avengers, CA: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, Infinity War/Endgame and all 3 Spider-mans are extremely good. The rest are patchy, but good fun as part of the wider series.  There are only a couple which are truly poor.

And the three 2021 series were uniformly fantastic (Wandavision, Loki and Falcon from best to worst, but all good).

Scotty55

The Tomorrow War

Basically, a war in the future which needs to draft civilians from our time to fight in a war some 30 years in the future. All kicks off during the World Cup 2022 when a group of soldiers materialise and stop the game.

A ridiculous, unbelievable premis from the off - who do they think would believe that Scotland is in the final against Brazil?

skullfunkerry

I'm a bit late to it, but we watched Hot Tub Time Machine this evening. Very much enjoyed it: silly, occasionally gross and very funny. 

boogieman

47 Ronin (on TCM). Keanu Reeves as a half breed renegade samurai helping to serve revenge on an evil tyrant lord with designs on a beautiful daughter of another lord. Very stylised, formal and very “correct”, with heavy emphasis on honour and making the right choices, plus lots of bowing and furtive sideways glances. Keanu almost picks himself for the lead part as he’s entirely expressionless throughout. There’s fairly minimal dialogue which made Bride of Boogie and myself suspect it was either already dubbed, or possibly filmed in English but set up to be dubbed for the Asian market. 

It’s quite an odd film all round and it’s obviously borrowed influences from lots of films: at one moment it’s straying into Pirates of the Caribbean territory, the next it’s Water Margin.  

Overall it was ok. File under Crouching Tiger, Hidden John Wick.