What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Gerald’s Game

Netflix


Stephen King story, apparently includes various references to other bits of his work although mostly passes me by. 

Cheerless and certainly not for date night. Indeed, if someone gets upset by themes of child abuse probably avoid altogether. But otherwise gripping film with strong performances. 

Quite apart from the themes you mentioned, there is one scene which may test the intestinal fortitude of even hardened gorehounds. I feel a bit queasy even thinking about it.

Haych

stufisher said:

Another huge thumbs up for Bank Of Dave  

Does anyone else immediately think of Roy Kinnear when they see Rory Kinnear? It's automatic for me now ... doesn't matter if it's a Bond movie or a comedy or an interview ... I always think of Rory's dad  

I always think of the Jasper Carrot joke about Joe Kinnear.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

Gerald’s Game

Netflix


Stephen King story, apparently includes various references to other bits of his work although mostly passes me by. 

Cheerless and certainly not for date night. Indeed, if someone gets upset by themes of child abuse probably avoid altogether. But otherwise gripping film with strong performances. 

Quite apart from the themes you mentioned, there is one scene which may test the intestinal fortitude of even hardened gorehounds. I feel a bit queasy even thinking about it.

Ahh, yes it was very realistic (not that I’ve ever seen anyone actually do that)  

Sporky

Oh, and Cell.

Excreable. 

-4.1 / 7.7

HerbieTheRadDorklift

The Whale 8/10

Superb acting from Fraser.

Philly_Q

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Amazon Prime)

Finally got round to watching this one... it's had a lot of good reviews and (unexpectedly) a pile of Oscar nominations but I wasn't sure if it appealed to me or not.

It's very inventive and colourful, funny and manic at times and has a few pretty good action scenes... but it also has an awful lot of talking and gets rather repetitive.  The science-fiction aspects of the plot seem mind-bogglingly complex for a while, but it all boils down to a very simple (and familiar) underlying message which I have to say left me unmoved. 

Worth a watch, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again.

Haych

Also late to the game but finally got round to watching Everything Everywhere All At Once last night.

Didn't know what to expect but it was a bit like The Matrix collides with a Salvador Dali painting.

The first part was utterly brilliant, loved every second of it.  The second part lost me a little bit and felt like it was dragging the story out a bit too long with some very bizarre scenes.  The last part was so short it barely made any impact on the rest of the film.

I thought it was clever how all the themes used early on in the film tied together towards the end, but then I guess that was the point.

Not sure what message, if any, it was trying to put across but when all was said and done it felt a bit anti-climactic.  After such a brilliant start with many converging plot lines it seemed to lose momentum and become a pithy meh at the end.

Everything 10/10
Everywhere 5/10
All at Once 4/10

Philly_Q

Haych said:

Not sure what message, if any, it was trying to put across but when all was said and done it felt a bit anti-climactic. 

Love and family is all that really matters.  I honestly don't think it was any more than that.  

And after setting up this infinite number of parallel universes, all threatened by Joy as some sort of fashionista Thanos, they basically chucked all that out and reduced it to a mom becoming more self-aware and learning to understand and appreciate her daughter and (to a lesser extent) her husband.

It all felt a bit Emperor's New Clothes to me.  Or, as we used to write in junior school essays ,"then I woke up and it was all a dream".

Haych

Philly_Q said:

Haych said:

Not sure what message, if any, it was trying to put across but when all was said and done it felt a bit anti-climactic. 

Love and family is all that really matters.  I honestly don't think it was any more than that.  

And after setting up this infinite number of parallel universes, all threatened by Joy as some sort of fashionista Thanos, they basically chucked all that out and reduced it to a mom becoming more self-aware and learning to understand and appreciate her daughter and (to a lesser extent) her husband.

It all felt a bit Emperor's New Clothes to me.  Or, as we used to write in junior school essays ,"then I woke up and it was all a dream".

I did get that, which is what made it so much of an anticlimax. The brilliant first half of the story reduced to we are here because we’re here so make the most of it and live happily ever after. 

Poboy

Badlands.

Excellent.
8/10

Sky store.

RocknRollDave

All Quiet on the Western Front

Hmm, in two minds about this film.  On the one hand, it left me feeling strangely cold. The ending was obvious, and a little trite. The cinematography was very self-consciously "ooh, look at how we have framed this shot!" and it just felt like a needless retelling of a story we all know.
On the other hand, the acting was superb and the battlefield scenes (i.e. most of the film) were extremely vivid and convincing.

Hard to know how to rate it out of ten, as it is clearly a very good film that has been made with a lot of expertise and attention to detail. I dunno, it just didn't hit me in the guts in the way I feel it was intended.

BigBearKris

"Plane" (2023)

Gerrard Butler as a hero pilot fighting thai (?) militia in the jungle

It was just as ridiculous as it sounds. Pure stupidity and quite entertaining once you agree to switch off your brain cells. Flying scenes we're hilarious as well. 

4.231/10

boogieman

Infiesto (Netflix). Straightforward crime thriller with two Spanish detectives tracking down a killer who’s abducting young people. Badly dubbed but also subtitled (although confusingly the subs don’t always match the dubbing) but you slowly ignore that after a while as the story develops. Quite dark and brutal in places but atmospheric and well filmed. Overall : 7/10. 

DannyP

You People - 2023 - Netflix

First 10 mins was excellent and I thought I was in for a treat.

Then it slowly slid down the pan.

Jonah Hill's character was interesting in those opening scenes and then totally washed out as the film went on. I didn't feel the chemistry between the central couple either.

Some funny moments from Eddie Murphy, and surprisingly funnier moments from David Duchovny, but sadly the decent into slapstick and culture clash cliché made it a disappointing watch.

Stratavarious

Tenet

Skipped it on release.  A bit of a storyline over effort by the director but with some nice cinematography and practical action sequences. 

Very hard to hear dialogue over music and sound fx in first 3rd. Had to adjust TV audio quite a bit to enjoy it and had to stop and restart a few bits.

Not a great Sci-Fi.. maybe trying too hard. 

01/6

fretmeister

Stratavarious said:

Tenet

Skipped it on release.  A bit of a storyline over effort by the director but with some nice cinematography and practical action sequences. 

Very hard to hear dialogue over music and sound fx in first 3rd. Had to adjust TV audio quite a bit to enjoy it and had to stop and restart a few bits.

Not a great Sci-Fi.. maybe trying too hard. 

01/6

Nolan is a cretin. He spouts crap about the background noises and background music being just as important as the dialogue and that is so obviously false I can only assume he is embarrassed by the dialogue and he's unwilling / too cheap / too egotistical to bring in a script editor so instead he hides it.

He's only made 2 good films. He should call it a day.

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

Infiesto (Netflix). Straightforward crime thriller with two Spanish detectives tracking down a killer who’s abducting young people. Badly dubbed but also subtitled (although confusingly the subs don’t always match the dubbing) but you slowly ignore that after a while as the story develops. Quite dark and brutal in places but atmospheric and well filmed. Overall : 7/10. 

No dubs on my Netflix. 

I recognised one of the actors from Money Heist. 

Interesting that it uses Covid/ lockdown as part of the story 

It’s otherwise a fairly straightforward cop thriller as you say, bit lacking in complexity. Sort of Spanish Scandi  noir, lots of rain in grim mining towns. 

Edit: we are potentially going to northern Spain this year and the town of Infiesto would be pretty much on our travels, I could visit and see if it’s really that grim! 

Devil#20

Narvik

Bit thin on the ground for the historical aspects and generally bobbins. 2/10

Offset

In The Shadow Of The Moon (2019, Netflix)

Watched it a while back and decided to re-watch and re-evaluate (a bit of a theme with us at the moment).

On the plus side, it's an interesting concept.  I can't give too much away but it's a sci-fi film and you know all is not as it seems.  However you'll get the gist of things fairly early on without necessarily getting the full detail of central premise.  It's all fairly intriguing up to this point however and pulls you in.

Spread across several decades, it starts to unravel a bit when Boyd Holbrook's character is pictured some years later and has let himself go.  His long(er) hair and scrappy beard just look what they are - false, and badly false.  And then there are some completely inexplicable coincidences which are not explained - you're just expected to accept them.  When the central premise is revealed, you just shake your head in disbelief - like other recent sci-fi films (the recently reviewed Ghosts Of War for eg) it just requires too much suspension of disbelief from the viewer.  Finally, the ending - nah!

Boyd Holbrook, the ever-watchable Bokeem Woodbine and Cleopatra Coleman turn in good performances.  However, they can't quite save what in my eyes is an initially intriguing but ultimately frustrating film.

5/10

SteveRobinson

Men (Amazon Prime)

Folk horror tale of guilt and the Green Man.

Great acting from Jessie Buckley, lots of peril and a weird ending that I didn't quite get.

8/10