What films have you watched recently?

Haych

Leisceoir said:

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. 

I watched Lightyear a few months ago with the kids.  I quite enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty good film in its own right.  I think some were expecting it to be a continuation of the Toy Story franchise, like you say, though.  

From my own perspective I don't think this wasn't handled extremely well by Disney.  I think they almost wanted people to make the Toy Story connection so it would naturally capitalise on the back of that.  When it became clear the actual connection was a bit more tenuous I think a lot of potential viewers gave it a wide berth.

I only knew it wasn't a Toy Story thing because my stepson, who is a bit of a movie fanatic, told me ahead of time.

For all that, though, it was a good film, I enjoyed it and there were a few references to things in the Toy Story franchise dotted about here and there, quite cleverly as well.

Chuffola

fretmeister said:

Snap said:

24 Hour Party People. Not watched for a long time. It's brilliant. 10/10. compulsory for any music fan IMO. 

I've still not seen that!

I only watched it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Shameful, really. It was excellent. Coogan particularly.

Blueingreen

The Man Who Never Was.  1956 British film based on Operation Mincemeat, the real life source material for the 2021 film of that name.  The idea was to have a body washed up on shore with papers that would mislead the Germans about where the impending Allied invasion would start.  Clifton Webb, always watchable, stars.  It's from the stiff upper lip era of British war films but good of its type, well-acted and not taking too many liberties with the real story.  I haven't seen the more recent version but this one seems to have a better critical reputation.  Solid entertainment if it sounds like your sort of thing.  7/10.

Flanging_Fred

I was bored and watched Death Race 2000 yesterday. I’ve not seen it before.  

Erm, I can’t quite work out if this was supposed to be a serious comment on American culture and violence or just an exploitative parody?  

Stratavarious

Flanging_Fred said:

I was bored and watched Death Race 2000 yesterday. I’ve not seen it before.  

Erm, I can’t quite work out if this was supposed to be a serious comment on American culture and violence or just an exploitative parody?  

Oh.. I thought it was a documentary 

Haych

Bank of Dave

Perfect Sunday evening feel good film.

Dave, a successful businessman from Burnley, wishes to set up a bank for the benefit of the local community as he feels those running mainstream financial organisations aren't fit to run a bath.

The existing establishment isn't pleased at his proposals and seeks to hinder his journey in any way possible.

A very charming and very well done British David vs Goliath story, based on true events, although I think much artistic license has been assumed to make it into a couple of watchable and entertaining hours, and why not.

Rory Kinnear makes the role of Dave very likeable and Joel Fry is the clever but unassuming city lawyer employed to help Dave navigate the minefields of the financial world.  

Really enjoyed this very much, if you like a decent feel-good film then this ought to yank your chain.

Oh yeah, on Netflix.

  

Philly_Q

The House (Netflix)

As so often happens, I went trawling around the streaming channels and ended up with something completely random...

British animation film with three very different stories centred on a mysterious house.  It's intended for adults and the first two stories are slightly unsettling, but there's nothing which would particularly distress younger viewers.  The animation is mostly stop-motion and reminded me a little of Fantastic Mr Fox.

It's not essential viewing but it's nicely done.  There are some familiar voices in the cast, including Jarvis Cocker who plays the main character in the second story, and performs a song over the end credits.

chillidoggy

“Apocalypse Now”

I dig this one out and watch it every now and then, it’s one of my all time faves. Simply perfect.

EricTheWeary

Jack Reacher Never Go Back

C4

Awful. There can have been no one in the making of this film that thought that they were making something good or worthwhile. It's a pinnacle of mediocrity. 

grappagreen

Haych said:

Bank of Dave

Perfect Sunday evening feel good film.

Dave, a successful businessman from Burnley, wishes to set up a bank for the benefit of the local community as he feels those running mainstream financial organisations aren't fit to run a bath.

The existing establishment isn't pleased at his proposals and seeks to hinder his journey in any way possible.

A very charming and very well done British David vs Goliath story, based on true events, although I think much artistic license has been assumed to make it into a couple of watchable and entertaining hours, and why not.

Rory Kinnear makes the role of Dave very likeable and Joel Fry is the clever but unassuming city lawyer employed to help Dave navigate the minefields of the financial world.  

Really enjoyed this very much, if you like a decent feel-good film then this ought to yank your chain.

Oh yeah, on Netflix.

  

Agreed - watched it this weekend as we couldn't find anything else to watch and really enjoyed it.

Reggaebass

Watched,  Law Abiding Citizen, last night, I’ve seen it before a long while back but still a good film 

sinbaadi

Haych said:

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

Right up there on my all time list of favourites.

It has it all.

Not seen it for a few years but what's the plot hole?

boogieman

Haych said:

Leisceoir said:

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. 

I watched Lightyear a few months ago with the kids.  I quite enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty good film in its own right.  I think some were expecting it to be a continuation of the Toy Story franchise, like you say, though.  

From my own perspective I don't think this wasn't handled extremely well by Disney.  I think they almost wanted people to make the Toy Story connection so it would naturally capitalise on the back of that.  When it became clear the actual connection was a bit more tenuous I think a lot of potential viewers gave it a wide berth.

I only knew it wasn't a Toy Story thing because my stepson, who is a bit of a movie fanatic, told me ahead of time.

For all that, though, it was a good film, I enjoyed it and there were a few references to things in the Toy Story franchise dotted about here and there, quite cleverly as well.

I watched it a while back. It seemed to fall between stools, it was a bit too sophisticated for little kids and not knowing enough for adults. I love the Toy Story films but didn’t enjoy this one very much. My older grandson (nearly 5) got bored with it quite quickly. 

Philly_Q

Haych said:

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!

Also it's never been available on Blu-ray, despite the film's popularity.  I don't know if that's due to some James Cameron control-freakery...  The Abyss isn't available either.

Haych

sinbaadi said:

Haych said:

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

Right up there on my all time list of favourites.

It has it all.

Not seen it for a few years but what's the plot hole?

So Harry is a secret agent for Omega, and his wife knows nothing about his line of work and presumably doesn't wish for his wife to know.

However, after he finds out that Helen is being 'recruited' by Simon and takes her in for interrogation, he then recruits her and sets her up for a rendezvous with himself, posing as some bad-guy arms dealer or something in a hotel suite.

How was he going to explain why he's there when she's expecting to meet with a sleazy warmonger?

Of course, it's all made null and void by the fact that Aziz's henchmen suddenly rush the room and abduct them both.

Unless Harry was about to completely blow his cover story with "hey honey, guess what, I'm actually a secret agent" - because that was going to always go down well, right - then it's an unanswered WTF moment.

Stratavarious

Haych said:

sinbaadi said:

Haych said:

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

Right up there on my all time list of favourites.

It has it all.

Not seen it for a few years but what's the plot hole?

So Harry is a secret agent for Omega, and his wife knows nothing about his line of work and presumably doesn't wish for his wife to know.

However, after he finds out that Helen is being 'recruited' by Simon and takes her in for interrogation, he then recruits her and sets her up for a rendezvous with himself, posing as some bad-guy arms dealer or something in a hotel suite.

How was he going to explain why he's there when she's expecting to meet with a sleazy warmonger?

Of course, it's all made null and void by the fact that Aziz's henchmen suddenly rush the room and abduct them both.

Unless Harry was about to completely blow his cover story with "hey honey, guess what, I'm actually a secret agent" - because that was going to always go down well, right - then it's an unanswered WTF moment.

He only ‘liked to watch’ and asked her to close her eyes before going near her. He stayed hidden out of the light.  

She would have planted the bug, left and been none the wiser to his identity if all had gone to plan.

He just wanted her to have the thrill of being a spy on a mission.

Haych

Don't Say a Word (Netflix)

2001 thriller.  After a heist gone wrong and after spending 10 years inside, Sean Bean reassembles his crew to recover a priceless gem stolen in the original raid.

The only thing that stands in his way is the location of the gem, which is locked in the mind of a psychotic patient (Britney Murphy) who is in a catatonic state and locked up in a mental hospital in New York.

To get at this information, the young daughter of an eminent psychologist (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped with the promise of her safe return when he is able to get the patient to divulge a six digit number which reveals the location of the jewel.

Based on a novel by by Andrew Klavan and that's quite the thing - I can see how this story would make a very good book as the various twists and turns of the plot unfold, but that slow unfolding and the carefully placed bombs of information set to go off at just the right moment is lost in its adaptation as a film.  

The young and fierce female detective investigating murders linked to the case never really gets the time to develop her story or character, she's barely even in the film really.  You just know that in the book she plays a much bigger part in the story.  The same goes for the colleague of Michael Douglas' character, played by Oliver Platt, who is clumsily used only as a plot mechanism and then discarded and forgotten midway through the film.

It feels like the plot is too complicated to effectively condense into 120 minutes and is heavily watered down as a result.

6/10 - good effort and probably a very good book, but as a film it should have been better.

bertie

Bank of Dave

great old fashioned "british"  sunday afternoon feelgood special   

based, obviously, on a true story with some poetic license thrown in

really enjoyed it

9/10


EDIT -  hah,  pretty much what @Haych said 

VimFuego

Brightburn. Been kinda aware of this film for a while, but not really looked into it, Saw it was leaving soon on prime, so thought I'd catch it. So glad I did, excellent. Obviously, I have a general dislike of how hollywood always portrays the super powerful, demonic entity hell bent on revenge and destruction in such a negative light, but other than that I really enjoyed this film. Really good fun.

Offset

VimFuego said:

Brightburn. Been kinda aware of this film for a while, but not really looked into it, Saw it was leaving soon on prime, so thought I'd catch it. So glad I did, excellent. Obviously, I have a general dislike of how hollywood always portrays the super powerful, demonic entity hell bent on revenge and destruction in such a negative light, but other than that I really enjoyed this film. Really good fun.

Agreed.  One of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a while and done on a comparatively small budget.