What films have you watched recently?

chillidoggy

"Empire of Light".

Slightly biased due to it being set in my adopted home town, but I thought it was a decent film. Olivia Coleman is gorgeous, and so ordinary, so average, so natural, that she steals the show. A bit "light", but worth a viewing.

We went with about 30 other old farts from the local car club, some of whom were extras in as much as they were contracted to drive their old jalopies up and down the seafront in the background. The occasional interruption was to be heard in the cinema, with comments such as, "Ooooh, look! There's Dennis in his Austin!" 

boogieman

Offset said:

boogieman said:

sweepy said:

Pale Blue Eye, seriously, don’t waste 2 and a half hours, tedious and basically dull 

I guess it depends on what you’re expecting, it’s definitely a gothic period piece not a modern style thriller. I watched it recently and thought it was beautifully filmed, well acted and very atmospheric. It’s not fast paced for sure, but it keeps moving along nicely and the plot was intriguing enough to keep my interest. The accents were my biggest bugbear, they kept wandering all over the place. 

Agree with all of that @boogieman - I gave it 9/10 in an earlier review and my only gripe was Harry Melling's accent.  I can't say I noticed Bale going off piste.  I really rated it. 

You know what, I hadn’t even twigged that the Poe actor wasn’t American, so in that case he did really well. I also hadn’t realised he was in the Harry Potter films, doh! I thought he looked familiar but I’d seen him in Queen’s Gambit and associated him with that more than anything else. 

Emp_Fab

White House Down.

Oh. My. God.

I know I said the previous fillum I watched was the biggest POS I'd ever seen but White House Down beats it hands down.

Think of every American cheesy cliché you can and put it into one film.  That's it.

Retired vet, single dad, daughter, gets caught up in a coup orchestrated by the Speaker of the house who organises a military attack on the White House.  Retired vet and said daughter save the (black) President and - the World no less as they thwart a preemptive nuclear strike by the baddies.  Lots of saluting and macho pro-US posturing.

Team America (fuck yeah) writ large.

I was nearly sick in my mouth.

Brio

Wait until you see Olympus Has Fallen.

Offset

Emp_Fab said:

White House Down.

I was nearly sick in my mouth.

Where else would you be sick? 

Reggaebass

Brio said:

Wait until you see Olympus Has Fallen.

Or London has fallen 

rze99

Bank of Dave

Netflix British film

Burnley good-guy multimillionaire Dave, uses his company to lend to local people and businesses. Not only that but gives money to local charities. He cooks up the idea of starting a new bank purely to serve local people only and use all profits to go to local charities. Soon, he is using expensive City lawyers to take on the Etonian smarmy eliist banking regulators and going to court.

It's all too good to be true. Except it is true.

I watched this was I was feeling despairing of the world we are in and it genuinely made me feel good. Apart from the Karaoke scenes. Good Casting and Rory Kinnear is entirely convincing as Dave. I wanted to hug him.


Recommended family feel good

8/10

Offset

Reggaebass said:

Brio said:

Wait until you see Olympus Has Fallen.

Or London has fallen 

That was a proper stinker.  And I'm being kind.

Reggaebass

Offset said:

Reggaebass said:

Brio said:

Wait until you see Olympus Has Fallen.

Or London has fallen 

That was a proper stinker.  And I'm being kind.

Yeah it wasn’t the greatest was it 

Brio

Angel has fallen was even worse and Night has fallen is in preproduction with two more to follow.

skullfunkerry

Reggaebass said:

Offset said:

Reggaebass said:

Brio said:

Wait until you see Olympus Has Fallen.

Or London has fallen 

That was a proper stinker.  And I'm being kind.

Yeah it wasn’t the greatest was it 

London Has Fallen is terrible, but it had the greatest poster tagline of any movie in history: “Get ready to unleash bloody hell”.

We watched “Lair” the othe day: it was genuinely one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. The premise was pretty good, but the acting wasn’t great, and the script was utterly atrocious: it reminded me of a school project written by a kid who has no idea how actual adults speak or respond to things. Just dreadful: 1/10

BigBearKris

"Avatar- way of water".

Well, that was long...

It helped that I chilled in recliner seats for this viewing. 
I was invited to it so I politely accepted and prepared to be super uncomfortable with multiple toilet breaks. 
It actually wasn't bad. Simple story, very predictable, acting - I cannot rate as it's all motion capture CGI, but very well done. It's very eye pleasing and clearly cost a fortune. 
Not very thought provoking and won't make any of my top lists, but ok entertainment. I was pleased that 3hrs19mins went quicker than expected. 

EricTheWeary

Poboy said:

The Banshees of Inisherin.

Manages to be both bleak and amusing. Superb acting from both lead characters.
7/10

It’s hard to know what to say about it. The humour was redolent of Father Ted at times, indeed set on an a fictional island off Ireland,etc,etc, although overall hardly a laugh fest. Stil, good to see something different and intelligent. 

fretmeister

The Menu.

Loved it.

Great pisstaking of foodies and great performances.

8/10

DrCornelius

Ted as we needed a laugh.

Hugely inappropriate and all the more hilarious for it .

CoolCat

SPOTLIGHT (Biographical Drama)

Team of Investigative Journalists (Spotlight) working for the Boston Globe uncover and expose systemic child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston diocese.

A real eyeopener!

stufisher

Great call @CoolCat I haven't seen Spotlight for about 18 months but I've watched it twice and I'll deffo watch again ... because it's a true story and because it is so well dramatised it gets a 9/10 IMHO

Another one in a similar vein (to me anyway) that I haven't seen for 2 years-ish ... is Dark Waters (Mark Ruffalo). It's a shocker and it's legacy is powerful ... also 9/10

Last night I watched The Railway Man (Colin Firth). Have seen it before but worthy of a second viewing. Again, a true story with tragedy, pathos and (in)humanity at the forefront. It can feel slow in places but I think that's synonymous with the thread of the story ... time is a crucial element. Also good to see Nicole Kidman credible in a supporting, understated role ... good for her.
To me it's a solid 8/10 all day.

Will now be on iPlayer I think, so deffo worth a watch.

Haych

True Lies

Finally! One of my all time favourite Arnie films but hasn’t been available on any of the streaming services we subscribe to, and oddly enough, not available on iTunes!

Until now! Disney +, thank you!

Fantastic adventure comedy with Arnie, Tom Arnold, who has some brilliant one liners, Jamie Lee Curtis with “that scene”, and Tia Carrera and Art Malik as excellent baddies. 

It’s definitely a nod to 007 but in many ways much better, even if you ignore the gaping plot hole in the middle (I have never been able to make sense of it, anyway). 

Just a really good film from start to finish and one of my all time favs. 

Arnie is awful, as usual, but isn’t that what makes him so wonderful?

Oh yeah, and this was the first film (major release, anyway) to be completely digitally edited using the Scitex Video Cube - a company who I sort of once worked for. Goodness, that takes me back!

10/10

Leisceoir

Anyone else watch "Lightyear"? It got a lot of bad reviews because people thought it was another Toy Story movie and it was a lot different. The main character is actually the person the Buzz Lightyear toy was based on and has a totally different personality. I think the movie got largely overlooked because of the bad reception. I thought it was a really good film, one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in a long time. 

stickyfiddle

Parallels (2016) - 4/10
I love a good bit of low budget sci-fi when there's a simple idea executed well. This has some good ideas and almost zero execution. There is literally no payoff in the final moments. Very odd

Parallel (2018) - 5/10
Yes this is a different film. It's slightly better. If anything it actually tries one too many payoffs for me. Reminded me a little bit of Primer except with alternate realities instead of time travel. But about 10% as clever or well-executed as Primer.