What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

Samaritan (Amazon Prime)

Sam, a young teenager growing up in a rough area of Granite City ( ), suspects that his elderly bin-man neighbour, "Joe Smith", may be a former superhero believed to have died 25 years earlier.  And then the pair get into trouble with a local criminal gang.

This starts out feeling as though it's aimed at kids, like Last Action Hero or something, but it eventually drifts into fairly violent territory.  It's all very predictable, and Sylvester Stallone's increasingly rubbery face and strange-looking hair are distracting, but it's... OK.  It passes the time.

Keiko

bodies bodies bodies 5/10, no doubt aimed at a younger audience than me.

SPECTRUM001

DrCornelius said:

Moonage Daydream

A love letter to the Dame really . It’s a skilfully put together collage of images and songs tied together by snippets of Bowies voice.

I think you need to be more than a bit of a fan to really enjoy it . I am a huge fan so thought it was great

We went yesterday and have to say it is a sound and vision (hurr hurr) feast that is extraordinarily accomplished. Well done Brett Morgen.

Quite psychedelic, there is a loose chronological narrative that is very rewardingly arty. I think Dave would have been pleased.

And yes, totally agree - it could be a little vague and overlong for the non-fan. As above, we are fans so really enjoyed it. 

Mrs001 wanted more structure though. I was happy to just listen to Dave’s brilliant comic timing and all the fab footage.

8/10

Tone71

DrCornelius said:

Moonage Daydream

A love letter to the Dame really . It’s a skilfully put together collage of images and songs tied together by snippets of Bowies voice.

I think you need to be more than a bit of a fan to really enjoy it . I am a huge fan so thought it was great

Just got back from watching this and echo everything, also a massive fan so really enjoyed it.

rze99

Sisterhood 

2021 Netflix. In Icelandic. Scandi Noir crime drama. Not a film, 6 episodes,

Niche stuff. A fourteen year old vanishes without a trace at the turn of the millenium. Twenty five years later her body is discovered and three friends have to face the horror of their past as well as their present demons, real and imagined.

I have Icelandic family so we tend to try Icelandic stuff. This is all about the excellent female actors. The acting is really great but it's quite claustrophobic (despite expansive scenery) and centres on the dynamics between 3 ladies who bare and don't share the guilt of youthful crimes along with the wisdom (or not) and forgiveness of elder females.  

Recommended 7/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13655552/

dhj

This is also on All4 - Walter Presents. Me and the missus just finished watching this and agree wholeheartedly with your comments. Excellent acting but very claustrophobic. We love these sorts of series. 

7/10

Offset

rze99 said:

Sisterhood 

2021 Netflix. In Icelandic. Scandi Noir crime drama. Not a film, 6 episodes,

Niche stuff. A fourteen year old vanishes without a trace at the turn of the millenium. Twenty five years later her body is discovered and three friends have to face the horror of their past as well as their present demons, real and imagined.

I have Icelandic family so we tend to try Icelandic stuff. This is all about the excellent female actors. The acting is really great but it's quite claustrophobic (despite expansive scenery) and centres on the dynamics between 3 ladies who bare and don't share the guilt of youthful crimes along with the wisdom (or not) and forgiveness of elder females.  

Recommended 7/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13655552/

We have Icelandic family too - will have to check this out, cheers.

Brio

Vesper on Amazon.
Very bleak indie SF film that I found highly engrossing. At times not an easy watch but I couldn't stop viewing.
A solid 8/10 for me.

Longtallronnie

Brio said:

Vesper on Amazon.
Very bleak indie SF film that I found highly engrossing. At times not an easy watch but I couldn't stop viewing.
A solid 8/10 for me.

On Amazon? Can’t find it anywhere, but looks pretty cool. 

breakstuff

Top Gun Maverick.

A bit pants, if I'm totally honest, though I expected it to be as I'm not a huge fan of the original. Too much "yeah bro" frat boy bollocks for my liking. It just irritates me for some reason.

The flying scenes were really well done though, as they were in the original.

My biggest take away from it is that I now really, really want a pair of Ray-Ban Aviators to replace my ancient Polaroid shades.

boogieman

breakstuff said:

Top Gun Maverick.

A bit pants, if I'm totally honest, though I expected it to be as I'm not a huge fan of the original. Too much "yeah bro" frat boy bollocks for my liking. It just irritates me for some reason.

The flying scenes were really well done though, as they were in the original.

My biggest take away from it is that I now really, really want a pair of Ray-Ban Aviators to replace my ancient Polaroid shades.

I watched it recently too, thought it was ok as a chewing gum for the brain thing. The flight scenes were definitely the best bit about it. 

I’d never seen the original so watched it the other day…. Jesus what an absolute cheese fest. Hated all the booyah alpha male posturing. I also seriously wanted to punch Tom Cruise in his smug little face every time he did that corny smile routine at Kelly McGillis. 

Dav275

Eye in the Sky - Netflix

Tense drama about the build-up to a drone strike on some terrorists in Africa. Not a massive action movie, but it more shows the different attitudes amongst the various protagonists to the risk of "collateral damage".

Several famous faces in the cast, including Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman.

I enjoyed the tension and suspense, such that it is one of the rare films I have actually watched twice.

Snap

Don't Worry Darling - good, worth watching.

Offset

rze99 said:

Sisterhood 

2021 Netflix. In Icelandic. Scandi Noir crime drama. Not a film, 6 episodes,

Niche stuff. A fourteen year old vanishes without a trace at the turn of the millenium. Twenty five years later her body is discovered and three friends have to face the horror of their past as well as their present demons, real and imagined.

I have Icelandic family so we tend to try Icelandic stuff. This is all about the excellent female actors. The acting is really great but it's quite claustrophobic (despite expansive scenery) and centres on the dynamics between 3 ladies who bare and don't share the guilt of youthful crimes along with the wisdom (or not) and forgiveness of elder females.  

Recommended 7/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13655552/

It's on C4 BTW

EricTheWeary

Offset said:

rze99 said:

Sisterhood 

2021 Netflix. In Icelandic. Scandi Noir crime drama. Not a film, 6 episodes,

Niche stuff. A fourteen year old vanishes without a trace at the turn of the millenium. Twenty five years later her body is discovered and three friends have to face the horror of their past as well as their present demons, real and imagined.

I have Icelandic family so we tend to try Icelandic stuff. This is all about the excellent female actors. The acting is really great but it's quite claustrophobic (despite expansive scenery) and centres on the dynamics between 3 ladies who bare and don't share the guilt of youthful crimes along with the wisdom (or not) and forgiveness of elder females.  

Recommended 7/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13655552/

It's on C4 BTW

Ahh. Completely different programme with the same name on Netflix. 

Haych

Wild Target

Bill Nighy is his usually laconic self as a hitman who falls for a mark, in the form of con-artist Emily Blunt, who gets on the wrong side of a shady art collector for selling him a fake Rembrandt. 

Not hilarious but very good fun and highly watchable. Completely predictable from the get go but worth it anyway. 

6.5/10 - Netflix

Good Morning Vietnam

Don’t think this one needs an introduction. Can’t believe I’ve never seen it before but glad to have scratched it off the film bucket list. 

Rather excellent, I thought. A film with many facets and brilliantly made. 

9/10

Haych

Monsters

The premise of this film is difficult to unpack in a couple of brief sentences.  The film starts six years after a failed NASA mission to recover extra terrestrial samples from within our solar system.  After collecting the samples, the probe bringing them back to Earth breaks up on re-entry and crash lands in northern Mexico.

Soon after, extra terrestrial life appears in this area and it's cordoned off and declared as the 'infected zone'.  The Mexican and US military are then locked in what seems to be an endless war against the massive creatures, which kind of look like four storey cuttlefish/octopus type things.

The two main characters are Andrew, a jaded journalist, and Sam, an attractive tourist who is the daughter of Andrew's boss.

Sam is touring Mexico when borders and travel routes start closing because the ET creatures start to migrate.  Andrew is given the job of getting her home safely across the infected zone and back to the US and to her fiancee.

It's a low budget affair but it's very well done so it doesn't seem cheap.  In places it has the feel of a documentary simply because there are very few real actors other than Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy (Sam and Andrew) in the film.  Almost everyone else in the film are locals who were persuaded to be in the film (and not paid) and their scenes were shot on the fly, so it feels very honest.

Despite it having roots in the sci-fi and disaster genres it carries a completely different mood and it feels very real, if that makes sense.  It's not a high octane action shoot-em-up at all and I think there's supposed to be a social message in there, although I could be reading too much into it and looking for things that aren't there.

I really enjoyed it, it just felt very different and had a very unique mood.  I'll probably watch it again.

7.5/10 - on Disney +

Barquentine

Pixie on Netflix. A few good moments but basically a dud. 2/10.

boogieman

Saw a few new-ish films on a couple of long haul plane trips. 

Belfast. Very poignant story and well acted, the young lad playing the lead part was particularly good I thought. I wasn’t sure about the black and white treatment but it suited the theme and the times. 8/10

Lightyear. “The film that the Buzz action figure from Toy Story was based on”. Beautifully rendered CGI and pretty funny in parts (the cat robot especially). I got quite confused about Buzz meeting his future self due to all his hyperspeed trips, I don’t know what kids would make of that…. or maybe it was just me being dim. Up or Toy Story it ain’t but it’s not bad either. 6/10

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the pick of the bunch for me. Tarantino films can be very wordy and too stylised for me but this one really hit the spot. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are both superb, a nice cameo from Al Pacino too. I liked the way the real life events of Polanski and Tate were cleverly worked in to the story and didn’t see the twist coming till late on. The house attack scene was a bit OTT, almost cartoonish in the violence, but I couldn’t fault it otherwise. Great soundtrack too, Tarantino has a knack with finding the perfect music to fit the scene. 10/10. 

rze99

EricTheWeary said:

Offset said:

rze99 said:

Sisterhood 

2021 Netflix. In Icelandic. Scandi Noir crime drama. Not a film, 6 episodes,

Niche stuff. A fourteen year old vanishes without a trace at the turn of the millenium. Twenty five years later her body is discovered and three friends have to face the horror of their past as well as their present demons, real and imagined.

I have Icelandic family so we tend to try Icelandic stuff. This is all about the excellent female actors. The acting is really great but it's quite claustrophobic (despite expansive scenery) and centres on the dynamics between 3 ladies who bare and don't share the guilt of youthful crimes along with the wisdom (or not) and forgiveness of elder females.  

Recommended 7/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13655552/

It's on C4 BTW

Ahh. Completely different programme with the same name on Netflix. 

Yeah we had a moment or two of confusion. Increasingly the case as we head to our 60s!