What films have you watched recently?

goldtop

White Noise (Netflix). I suppose genre-defying is another way of saying WTF. It's an absurd take on existentialism and suburbia, sometimes funny, mostly just weird. Some great cinematography here and there and a lot of nods to movies (e.g. Repo Man) and movie cliches - some bits are very 'meta'. A few clues here and there to help connect the dots, but I can't be bothered to watch it again. 4/10

stufisher

Agree with @SteveRobinson ; ... Wild Rose is a great watch and Jessie Buckley is superb. Even better when you read the back story.

Last night I watched The Shawshank Redemption again ... hadn't seen it for four yours or more ... it's truly fantastic!

Always a perfect 10 from me  

vanlooy1

stufisher said:

Agree with @SteveRobinson ; ... Wild Rose is a great watch and Jessie Buckley is superb. Even better when you read the back story.

Last night I watched The Shawshank Redemption again ... hadn't seen it for four yours or more ... it's truly fantastic!

Always a perfect 10 from me  

Cheers @SteveRobinson, watched Wild Rose last night really enjoyed it. 

Currently on More4

Brio

@boogieman ;;
"Did you see it at the cinema or on dvd @Brio ? "

DVD box set that a mate got as a Christmas present from his wife. We only watched the documentary.
An evening of beer, food and talking crap about guitars/music. Best evening of the entire Christmas period.

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

TROS got 1.0bn, which is the lowest of the trilogy but more than Solo because I guess people were invested in seeing the end of the story. 

Apart from the high-ups at Disney, who chucked out the real ending and made two hours of utter, pointless tripe instead - now making it impossible to film the right one.

I'm really struggling to think of a worse missed home run in the whole history of cinema. It makes The Godfather Part III look like a work of towering genius.

stickyfiddle

ICBM said:

stickyfiddle said:

TROS got 1.0bn, which is the lowest of the trilogy but more than Solo because I guess people were invested in seeing the end of the story. 

Apart from the high-ups at Disney, who chucked out the real ending and made two hours of utter, pointless tripe instead - now making it impossible to film the right one.

I'm really struggling to think of a worse missed home run in the whole history of cinema. It makes The Godfather Part III look like a work of towering genius.

Yep absolutely agree. You could fairly easily write a book on Disney's mismanagement of the Star Wars movies but top of the list has to be announcement of a trilogy then refusal to actually write a 3-movie treatment for that trilogy and just letting random directors do what they want without any overall plan. AND THEN to get scared and shitcan the high-potential screenplay they did have for the the third one. Utter insanity. 

And Kathleen Kennedy is still in charge, somehow. 

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

You could fairly easily write a book on Disney's mismanagement of the Star Wars movies but top of the list has to be announcement of a trilogy then refusal to actually write a 3-movie treatment for that trilogy and just letting random directors do what they want without any overall plan. AND THEN to get scared and shitcan the high-potential screenplay they did have for the the third one. Utter insanity. 

And Kathleen Kennedy is still in charge, somehow. 

And yet... somehow through all that, they managed to make Rogue One and Andor which are truly outstanding, Solo, Kenobi and the Mandalorian (which I've now revisited after abandoning initially) which are actually quite good, if not great, and possibly the Book of Boba Fett which I've only just started so will reserve an opinion on. So they *do* have some of the right people and the right ideas - but I agree, it just seems like there's no overall plan.

rze99

Men

2022 Prime

British "folk horror" written and directed by Alex Garland. It stars (the rather wonderful and lovely) Jessie Buckley as a recently widowed woman who travels on holiday to a home counties countryside village to stay in a gorgeous house but soon becomes disturbed and then tormented by increasingly threating and similar looking men in the village, all portrayed with great aplomb (and must have been huge fun) by Rory Kinnear.

With and intense surreal cinematography and atmosphere, it lures you in and gradually you become aware it is becoming more and more like a recurring nightmare until in the final third it sheds is veneer of being grounded in reality and goes full-on absurd  phantagosmical loony tunes horror-morph, with some fairly nauseating special effects. 
 
I was hooked. Like a cross between Wickerman and Company of Wolves.

8/10 

PS My wife popped to see me just as it was going mental and said "good God you must be sick watching that"!

rze99

Not a movie tv series

Slow Horses Series 2

Apple

Gary Oldman's performance is fabulously repulsive but with some great lines that had me laughing out loud but is also increasingly strong as a spy investigating with his various competent and crap team of MI5 cast-offs underworld Rusky dodginess. Unfortunately, the credibility gaps are absolutely 'kin huge in this series, but it's still fun and enjoyable with some nicely tense scenes.

7/10

AlbertC

The Swimmers
Netflix

The film follows two teenage sisters who leave war-torn Syria and become refugees trying to get to Germany so they can secure safety for the rest of their family left behind in Damascus. Both are talented swimmers (one more so than the other). 
I found it a pretty moving film that shows the perils faced on such a journey - at the hands of unscrupulous people profiteering on the vulnerable. But it's nicely balanced also showing the good in people as well.
It has an uplifting ending but I liked that it never really gets schmaltzy or too preachy.

7/10
 

Emp_Fab

Haych said:

Emp_Fab said:

"Non-Stop" with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.  A plane hijack thriller.

Without doubt the biggest pile of absolute dog shit I've ever had the misfortune to watch.

Just beyond awful.

Agreed. Liam Neeson is in danger of going the same way as Bruce Willis with his spate of dire, low budget action films of recent years. 

Apart from the idiotic plot there were several massive holes in the thing.... 

1) SMS texts do not work inside a plane at altitude.
2) Any Air Marshal treating passengers like that would be fired in a heartbeat
3) The plane cabin, toilets and flight deck were all too large
4) After any threat, the plane would have diverted to the nearest suitable airfield - not carried on with one pilot for ages.
5) Nobody but the pilots have access to open the flight deck door
6) The escorting fighters would never have insisted on the plane remaining at cruise altitude
7) The '8000 feet' altitude = pressure equalisation is bollocks.
8) The bomb blew out part of the rear fuselage, so why did the No.1 engine explode on the wing on the approach ?
9) The forward fuselage skin would not have opened up like a can of beans on landing like that.
10) There was no way they evacuated the whole plane in the 20 seconds shown.
11) All of the above.
12) ATC was completely unrealistic.

Emp_Fab

Oh, and 13)...  The bloody wheels wouldn't have fallen off either.  Pricks.

Haych

Calm down, Emp, but yeah, I agree with you on all points above.

Brio

You want realism in action films?!!
Every time I watch Top Gun Maverick I find something new to be amazed at, but I ignore it because it isn't a documentary.
The scene where Maverick without orders does a high speed run up the attack course to show it can be done shows him (on the computer plot) approaching the course.
He then rolls inverted and enters the course, when of course he should be heading away from it.
Am I dummy spitting?No.
It's only a movie.
And I enjoyed it.

Philly_Q

Brio said:

Every time I watch Top Gun Maverick I find something new to be amazed at,

How many times have you watched it?  It only came out a few months ago!

But I take your point, and I can see Emp's as well.  Very few movies are realistic... but I can accept the liberties, inaccuracies, plot holes and defiance of the laws of physics if I'm enjoying the film.  If I don't like the film, then they just make things worse.

Brio

Probably 6 times now, but editing through the dull bits. The wonders of buying the download. Glad i saw it at the cinema first though...

sinbaadi

Brio said:

You want realism in action films?!!
Every time I watch Top Gun Maverick I find something new to be amazed at, but I ignore it because it isn't a documentary.
The scene where Maverick without orders does a high speed run up the attack course to show it can be done shows him (on the computer plot) approaching the course.
He then rolls inverted and enters the course, when of course he should be heading away from it.
Am I dummy spitting?No.
It's only a movie.
And I enjoyed it.

Not seen it but why does rolling to inverted change your direction of travel?

Brio

Sorry, didn't explain, if when inverted you pull back on the stick, lots, which seems to be the new standard manoeuvre.

boogieman

Haych said:

Calm down, Emp, but yeah, I agree with you on all points above.

But, but…. it had Liam Neeson in it, honestly what did you expect? He’s like Jason Statham’s dad these days. 

goldtop

boogieman said:

Haych said:

Calm down, Emp, but yeah, I agree with you on all points above.

But, but…. it had Liam Neeson in it, honestly what did you expect? He’s like Jason Statham’s dad these days. 

What he does have is a very particular set of skills. Skills he has acquired over a very long acting career. Skills that make him a nightmare for people like me.