What films have you watched recently?

ICBM

Offset said:

I endured it for the first time with the girls.  Absolute tripe.  Totally unbelievable.  Waste of a great cast  Sentimental tripe with a laughable world-view.

I’m not a fan either.

Each to their own...

boogieman

axisus said:

I sat through the thee Hobbit films with one of my daughters, the first time I have seen them since the cinema release. My recollection was that I was slightly unsatisfied at the time of release, lots of pointless stuff added that wasn't in the books, Legolas (why was he even there??) looking considerably older! Bilbo's significance pointlessly lessened etc. However, I saw the whole thing with new eyes this time, and it's an epic set of films. The story is fantastic, and the casting is quite brilliant. Ian McKellen was born to play Gandalf, but for me top billing goes to Richard Armitage as Thorin. An incredibly powerful performance that far exceeded the character in the book. Other superb actors - Ken Stott as Balin, Martin Freeman as Bilbo, Aidan Turner and Dean O'Gorman as Kili & Fili, Lee Pace as Thranduil, Luke Evans as Bard, and many others with lesser roles who absolutely looked the part.

So for me, my new score would be 9.5/10

Next up the extended Lord of the rings. I've never seen the longer cut.

The extended LOTR films are excellent and explain some things originally omitted from the cinema release, definitely worth watching. The trilogy is my wife’s and mine favourite rainy day films, we’ve watched them all loads of times. 

Not so keen on The Hobbit ones.  Although they do have their moments and the casting and acting are great as you say, there’s far too much padding and pointless additions and the story was needlessly stretched to a trilogy. (For either monetary reasons or PJ’s vanity is all I can think). It’d be interesting to see a cut down version that actually follows the book, rather than the bloated thing that was released.

lovestrat74

Watched Goodfellas last night on bbc2. I must have watched this film 50 + times in my youth but for some reason the last 40 mins was a bit of a blur to me so I stayed up to watch it through.

Now I've always loved this film but watching it back last night I was a bit underwhelmed by the ending...

Anyway I learned something new about the film... Samuel L Jackson is in it! Well I never.... When i binge watch this back in the day I never knew who he was. He probably didn't hit the big time at that point in his career. But Pulp Fiction was just around the corner

paulnb57

The African Queen 

Bogart and Hepburn, I was surprised it was in colour, last time I watched this was on a black and white TV (!) so assumed it was black and white.

Some really iffy old school acting, laughabl background “jungle”  sounds, it has its own charm, we thoroughly enjoyed it….

axisus

Offset said:

axisus said:

Had a girly evening and sat through Love Actually for the first time in years. Rather enjoyed it. Hugh Grant is charming as PM, I liked his storyline. I like the Colin Firth one with the foreign girl. Bill Nighy is brilliant as always, Kiera Knightley looks drop dead gorgeous. The one bit I find tough is when Emma Thompson finds out about her husbands 'almost' affair (excellent Alan Rickman). I literally can't watch that bit, I feel so sad for her. I always say that I have too much empathy. 

OK, don't need to see it again for another decade ...

I endured it for the first time with the girls.  Absolute tripe.  Totally unbelievable.  Waste of a great cast  Sentimental tripe with a laughable world-view.

I don't need to see it again, ever.

I completely understand your reaction, it totally makes sense. What I don't understand is why I quite like it.

Offset

axisus said:

Offset said:

axisus said:

Had a girly evening and sat through Love Actually for the first time in years. Rather enjoyed it. Hugh Grant is charming as PM, I liked his storyline. I like the Colin Firth one with the foreign girl. Bill Nighy is brilliant as always, Kiera Knightley looks drop dead gorgeous. The one bit I find tough is when Emma Thompson finds out about her husbands 'almost' affair (excellent Alan Rickman). I literally can't watch that bit, I feel so sad for her. I always say that I have too much empathy. 

OK, don't need to see it again for another decade ...

I endured it for the first time with the girls.  Absolute tripe.  Totally unbelievable.  Waste of a great cast  Sentimental tripe with a laughable world-view.

I don't need to see it again, ever.

I completely understand your reaction, it totally makes sense. What I don't understand is why I quite like it.

We all have a couple of those stuck in a back pocket!  Carpenter's 'They Live', Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' (in my top five all-time faves but hated by many)... I could go on :-)

Reggaebass

2 of the most dreadful films I’ve ever seen and instantly turn it over when they come on are, love actually and Bridget Jones diary 

Brio

Violent Night.
When a group of mercenaries attack the estate of a wealthy family, Santa Claus must step in to save the day (and Christmas).

With David Harbour as Santa you get a weird blend of Hallmark tackiness combined with humour and extremely gory voilence.
I liked it but not for kids, teens probably OK. 
7/10


Long Kiss Goodnight
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.

A Christmas film (possibly) but i can still watch it every few years. Well put together action with good interplay between Sam LJackson and Geena Davis.
7/10

BigBearKris

Offset said:

axisus said:

Offset said:

axisus said:

Had a girly evening and sat through Love Actually for the first time in years. Rather enjoyed it. Hugh Grant is charming as PM, I liked his storyline. I like the Colin Firth one with the foreign girl. Bill Nighy is brilliant as always, Kiera Knightley looks drop dead gorgeous. The one bit I find tough is when Emma Thompson finds out about her husbands 'almost' affair (excellent Alan Rickman). I literally can't watch that bit, I feel so sad for her. I always say that I have too much empathy. 

OK, don't need to see it again for another decade ...

I endured it for the first time with the girls.  Absolute tripe.  Totally unbelievable.  Waste of a great cast  Sentimental tripe with a laughable world-view.

I don't need to see it again, ever.

I completely understand your reaction, it totally makes sense. What I don't understand is why I quite like it.

We all have a couple of those stuck in a back pocket!  Carpenter's 'They Live', Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' (in my top five all-time faves but hated by many)... I could go on :-)

"They Live" is absolutely ace!! 

lovestrat74

Watched the glass onion last night and agree with the consensus. Watchable but not a patch on the original knives out film.

Offset

BigBearKris said:

"They Live" is absolutely ace!! 

I totally agree but not sure how many others would!  Two words:  Roddy Piper :-)

Also in the unforgettable 'Hell Comes To Frogtown'...

* EDIT And another of my fave movies of dubious quality is Bubba Ho-Tep.  Bloody marvelous with the best premise ever!

fretmeister

Glass Onion.

Awful. I really enjoyed the first one and I love a good whodunnit, but this was appalling.

1/10. and that’s only because playing spot the cameo was ok.

RocknRollDave

ET

Kalimna

We've just watched Neverending Story. Phenomenal story, extraordinarily dated fx and acting. If any movie is crying out for a remake, this is it.

Stratavarious

Erin Brockovich 

Solid documentary drama.. seen it a few times.  Still a great movie. Lots of Julia Roberts cleavage action too. 

8/10

PhilW1

Watched two today -
‘Ambulance’—- total shit
’ Phantom of the Open’— really enjoyed it, nice family film and mostly true.

axisus

+1 to loving They Live and Roddy Piper in it! Great fun film. Marvellous punch up scene!

Lots of people here seem to hate Glass Onion. I've been looking forward to it as I loved Knives out. I'm now prepared for it possibly being poor, but ...... I have a pal who is a film reviewer and he put it in his top 10 for the year!

[EDIT] On the fight scene in They live - I just read this: Rotten Tomatoes ranked the fight scene between Roddy Piper's character, Nada, and Keith David's character, Frank Armitage, seventh on their list of "The 20 Greatest Fight Scenes Ever".

RocknRollDave

The Phantom Menace.

Having agreed to watch all the Star Wars movies again over the Xmas break, I was somewhat horrified that my other half insisted on doing them in chronological order, in terms of the story itself, rather than starting with the original Star Wars film.

Hence I’ve been putting it off until after xmas…

but….well, it’s no classic, there are some huge casting missteps and it’s obviously flawed, but if you let that go and take it for what it is.. it’s enjoyable enough.

skullfunkerry

Watched Krampus last night. Stupid, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the absolutely bonkers attic fight scene. As a film it's probably 4/10, but I'll give it a 7/10 because it was good fun, and definitely a different take on a Christmas film

fretmeister

RocknRollDave said:

The Phantom Menace.

Having agreed to watch all the Star Wars movies again over the Xmas break, I was somewhat horrified that my other half insisted on doing them in chronological order, in terms of the story itself, rather than starting with the original Star Wars film.

Hence I’ve been putting it off until after xmas…

but….well, it’s no classic, there are some huge casting missteps and it’s obviously flawed, but if you let that go and take it for what it is.. it’s enjoyable enough.

Should be in the machete order.

https://www.t3.com/news/star-wars-machete-order

4,5 to start. Than 2,3 as flashbacks. Then 6,7,8,9

Bin 1 completely as it does nothing for the story and then removed the midichlorians and most of jar jar.

It also preserves the Vader / Luke reveal.