What films have you watched recently?

goldtop

Downton Abbey - A New Era (cinema). As soapy/schmaltzy as you can get. Where Downton Abbey the series stared off so well, this must be the final nail in the coffin. All of your favourite characters get a last chance to be lovely and nice. Oddly, the cinematography is pants. Very narrow depth of field making it impossible to enjoy the sets - which had always been one of Downton Abbey's strongpoints. And there's a scene with Mosely and Baxter that looks all blurry and fake - like a badly done green screen. Bah! 2/10

fretmeister

jonnyburgo said:

Scott Adkins is a bit of a B-Movie legend, seems to be his niche and he has a prolific output

He auditioned for Batman at one point too.
He's great.

boogieman

The Outlaw King. Netflix. 

Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, fighting to unite Scotland after Steven Dillane (Edward I) decides he’s going to pick who rules it, and take loads of taxes off the locals while he’s at it. 

Basically it’s Braveheart 2.0 but Chris Pine does manage a more subtle job than Ol’ Mel did. The battle scenes are brilliantly done, lots of mud and gore. It’s supposedly historically accurate, in which case small wonder the Scots like their team kicking the shit out of the English side come World Cup time. 

Danny1969

The constant gardener - Netflix

Inspired by true events it's a film about a cover up of the true  vaccine results taken by large samples of Africans in Kenya ... An english diplomats wife gets heavily involved leading to tragedy. 

Highly recommended 8/10

Philly_Q

This week I've decided to watch some horror movies, picking them fairly randomly without wasting too much time over the choice...

Becky (on Shudder)
Becky is a very angry teenager, struggling to come to terms with her mother's death and her father's plans to remarry.  When the family is taken hostage by a group of escaped convicts (led by Kevin James, aka Paul Blart, Mall Cop, looking like Kirk Windstein from Crowbar), Becky takes matters into her own hands... this is a pretty effective little revenge thriller, perhaps a tad excessive on the violence but it would've gone down well with a horror festival audience.

Zombie For Sale (on Amazon Prime)
A run-down petrol station in the countryside is the unlikely setting for a zombie outbreak in this Korean horror comedy.  It's very nicely shot, well acted and pretty funny, but the story itself is really treading water at times and the film's way too long... still worth a watch though.

The Inheritance (on Amazon Prime)
An American woman inherits her grandfather's house in Eastern Europe, and finds it's haunted by family secrets from decades earlier... The boring generic title should've been warning enough; this is dressed up as a horror movie but actually plays like one of those ITV midweek thrillers.  It's absolute tripe.  But interestingly, it was filmed in Kyiv - which took me aback, as the film was a completely random choice.  Kyiv (in 2020) looks interesting but is portrayed as very empty... and very unfriendly.

Offset

Moonfall (2022) - Prime.  
Even though it's an Emmerich film, I was unprepared for quite how bad this film turned out to be.  I'm not too sure where to start - the absolutely preposterous plot?  The crap acting?  The (to my eyes at least) tedious CGI?  All present and correct in spade-loads, but the most unforgivable aspect of this car-crash of a film is that it is boring.  B-O-R-I-N-G.  What Donald Sutherland thought he was doing in his cameo role I really don't know - I can only conclude he needed the wedge and the producers thought he'd bring some gravitas to the whole sorry proceedings (he didn't).

1/10, and the 1 is for John Bradley's unintentionally hilarious 'comic' turn.  Dire.

goldtop

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Netflix) - the Keanu Reeves update. Very, very dull and the new plot lines were not interesting enough to add anything. Kathy Bates miscast, the sprog got very annoying very quickly, and all the tension of the ending just petered out. 2/10

Offset

goldtop said:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Netflix) - the Keanu Reeves update. Very, very dull and the new plot lines were not interesting enough to add anything. Kathy Bates miscast, the sprog got very annoying very quickly, and all the tension of the ending just petered out. 2/10

God yes that was an utter stinker wasn't it... I think 2/10 is being generous.

boogieman

Although, it was the perfect part for Keanu.  

Offset

1408 (2007, Prime).  John Cusack stars as a cynical, world-weary writer who visits sites of alleged hauntings with the sole intent of debunking these claims in his subsequent books.  Based on a King short story, the cast also includes Samuel L Jackson as the manager of the hotel housing the eponymous room 1408.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.  Cusack is excellent as the hack whose cynicism is very quickly replaced by sheer terror as the true nature of room 1408 reveals itself.  Some nice white knuckle moments - no gore or ghouls, just a nice ramping up of psychological pressure and tension.

One minor criticism would be that it felt around 15 minutes too long, but I'm nit-picking - it's a well-made, well-acted movie which kept me pretty involved for most (but not all) of it's 104 minute run-time.  A solid 7.5/10.

stickyfiddle

Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - 8.5/10 

Can’t talk about it in much detail without spoilers but it’s fantastic. Highly enjoyable, well worth bring in Sam Raimi and there are a couple of things that had me jumping up and down with excitement. 

Granted it’ll be much better for those of us who have followed the MCU including the TV stuff, but for those folks it’s among  the very best.

khaotic

Also the new Dr Strange.

I enjoyed it, but like the first one, I didn't feel it really caught fire for me - visually fantastic (in every sense of the word) but not  quite up there with the best of the MCU. A solid 6.5 or 7 for me.

As ever, there's some masterful misdirection in the trailers with elements shown there not playing out at all as they seemed. Some nerdgasmic fan elements, some kind of predicted, and some not really.

One mid-credits scene worth waiting for, one right at the end which is for Raimi fanatics only IMHO.

Haych

Hidden Figures 

Based on true events during the space race of the early 60s, three brilliant black, female NASA mathematicians strive to overcome backwards attitudes of the day to help put John Glen into orbit. 

A touching story of triumph over prejudice. I’ve not researched the backstory so have no idea how much is fact and how much is embellished for the sake of a good film, but it does make a pretty good film. 

They could have made it all about the injustice of being black during segregation but managed to focus on the brilliant minds of the ladies while not ignoring the struggle of being black in a white mans world at the time. 

Recommended. 

stufisher

Saw Hidden Figures a few years ... deffo my kind of movie  
You should read up on the true story ... especially whilst it's fresh in your mind ... I recall it being even more impactful.

Shrews

The Monster Club (1981)

I remember seeing this 'on video' back in the eighties and liking it. Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance, Simon Ward, Britt Ekland in a short story compilation that features B.A 'Bang, Bang, the mighty fall' Robertson and The Pretty Things on stage plus a stripper the like you've never seen before. They entertain a gathering of werewolves, witches, vampires and an array of 'monsters' some of which we know and love, others that need an explanation.

Vincent Price and John Carradine perfect as the host and his guest, this could've easily have been made into a TV series that I'm sure would've been essential cult classic viewing then and even now.

It's showing on Talking Pictures

9/10

Moominpapa

Mumon - The Land of Stealth (2017)

Stupid and silly film based around Japanese warring factions in early modern times. Horrendously misjudged in tone, soundtrack, acting, and just about everything else. Just be glad that I sacrificed myself in order to be able to warn you not to watch it.

As a film: 1/10

As a disappointment:  10/10

artiebear

boogieman said:

The Outlaw King. Netflix. 

Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce, fighting to unite Scotland after Steven Dillane (Edward I) decides he’s going to pick who rules it, and take loads of taxes off the locals while he’s at it. 

Basically it’s Braveheart 2.0 but Chris Pine does manage a more subtle job than Ol’ Mel did. The battle scenes are brilliantly done, lots of mud and gore. It’s supposedly historically accurate, in which case small wonder the Scots like their team kicking the shit out of the English side come World Cup time. 

like Braveheart , total nationalistic bollocks.  I speak as a, somewhat, educated Scot. 

stickyfiddle

khaotic said:

Also the new Dr Strange.

One mid-credits scene worth waiting for, one right at the end which is for Raimi fanatics only IMHO.

I’m not a big Raimi fan but loved the final post-credits scene. My wife was less impressed  

stufisher

To End All Wars (on Great Movies-Action channel)

Sadly, I missed the first half hour but it's right in yer face, so easy to pick up.

It's about the Argyll & Sutherland Highlander POWs that were enslaved and brutalised to build the Thailand death railway in WW2.  

It's powerful and it's horrendous so be prepared ... forget dodgy accents, token Americans and over-zealous Japanese outbursts ... ultimately it's about humanity and the search for forgiveness and peace.

Can't say much more without spoiling so just go watch it and strap-in for the emotional ride. It'll bend you out of shape methinks ... it did me.

I'd say a strong 8/10 because it's a true story.

Fledermaus

We watched Eat Locals again recently, a great little low budget British “horror” film. Reminded me of two others..

Dog Soldiers, with Sean Pertwee leading a band of soldiers on exercise in Scotland (I think?) but who are then hounded by werewolves….. 

Grabbers, set on a small island of the the coast of Ireland where the only way to remain safe from the alien is to be pissed!