What films have you watched recently?

UnclePsychosis

The Equaliser 2

I was in the mood to switch off my brain, and Denzel is normally pretty watchable if nothing else.

And that pretty much sums up the film. Denzel is an ice cold badass and what little plot there is is completely unbelievable. Style over substance, but in a sort of enjoyably satisfying brain dead way. 

Shrews

Sully

The true story of the Hudson River plane crash with Tom Hanks starring as the captain who successfully landed the plane in the river after a bird strike took out both engines. Simulators found that he could've landed at a runway, but he challenged the findings. Fascinating stuff. Tom Hanks, as always, is excellent.

It's a film that could've been longer IMO, with perhaps more of a backstory to some of the passengers on board. There were snippets of them, but they may as well have been cut out, as for me they didn't build any viewer concern for them. They needed some time just to tell their story too.

For example: There was a baby on board, that child I believe was 27 years old when the film was made and may have had children of his own, and much like Schindlers List much of the Wow factor highlighted by the film was how many Schindler Jews there now were. Likewise, some stories about the passengers lives would have added to the story IMO.

8/10

Philly_Q

The House at the End of Time (Shudder)

Elements of horror, thriller, science-fiction and even a bit of sentimental family drama come together in the tale of Dulce, a woman who is released from prison and returns to the house where, allegedly, she murdered her own family thirty years before.  A sympathetic priest helps to investigate what really happened.

I haven't seen many Venezuelan films.. I think that unfamiliar style and location gives this an atmosphere it would have lacked had it been a Hollywood film.  Very good, I enjoyed it.

BRISTOL86

Words on Bathroom Walls (2020)

About a teenaged boy with schizophrenia who gets expelled from his school after an ‘episode’. 

Really well told story, touching and with some really funny moments of dark, self deprecating humour. 

Really enjoyed the performance of the lead character, played by Charlie Plummer, and have already looked for more stuff he’s been in to put on the list. 

One of the best films I’ve seen in some time. 

9/10

ennspek

RocknRollDave said:

paulnb57 said:

Luther, Netflix

Utter drivel, bloody hell, it was poor

Just finished it. Absolute drivel, as you say.
 I enjoyed watching it, but probably just for the high number of (unintentional) laugh out loud moments.
Completely ridiculous, from start to finish.

Oh, Idris, what were you thinking?!

Maybe he had time to kill in between adverts.

equalsql

Emily 2022
An imagined biop of Emily Bronte in her final years, (she died at the age of 30).
A brooding, but rather pointless fictional spicing up of her love life for cinematic reasons. It is beautifully filmed and the actors do a fine job. Emma MacKey is compelling and hypnotic as Emily but the story is so far from the actual truth of the author's real life that I personally found it a bit ridiculous.
Worth a watch but don't take it seriously.
7/10

Brio

Bugger. I watched Luther on Netflix and never having seen the series thought it was OK. Not great, but I've seen a lot worse.
The trouble is you came in with a whole back story you wanted to continue.
If you want awful check out Operation Fortune. It feels like a low budget version of "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" but with Jason Statham and her out of Parks and Rec.

Truely crap.

paulnb57

Saving Private Ryan was on 4 or Film 4, so we recorded it and watched it last night, we had forgotten a lot since the last time we saw it, was when it was first released.

We felt it loses its way a bit in the middle, quite graphic in places for its age, but the way it was filmed highlights Spielbergs genius.

Still worth a watch

Jfingers

@BRISTOL86 cheers for the recommendation of Words On Bathroom Walls, really enjoyed that.

Charlie Plummer is in Lean On Pete, which I thought was a 9/10.

ICBM

The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death

Loosely related sequel to the first one which was quite atmospheric and scary.

This one… isn’t really. The atmosphere mostly involves not having any lighting budget, and the scares are so predictable you can count down to them. The plot isn’t very good either. Reasonably well filmed, but that’s about all. It’s not absolutely terrible but I really wouldn’t bother.

4/10

(Disney+)

axisus

Stardust

Hadn't seen this for an age, honestly this is brilliant storytelling from the hand of amazing author Neil Gaiman. The story is so full of interesting ideas, for me it is the best 'fairy tale' ever. Anyone who has any kind of interest in the genre should absolutely see this if they haven't already. 9.5/10 for me. 

BRISTOL86

Jfingers said:

@BRISTOL86 cheers for the recommendation of Words On Bathroom Walls, really enjoyed that.

Charlie Plummer is in Lean On Pete, which I thought was a 9/10.

Thanks for that, I'll absolutely add that to the list! Glad you enjoyed it!

JezWynd

Everything Everywhere All At Once. Watching the first hour of this movie I was wondering how it even got a release, never mind winning an Academy Award for Best Picture. The second hour was an improvement cinematically (while making a nonsense of the story the previous hour had set up - perhaps I dozed a minute or two and missing something crucial, it's easy to do when each time you open your eyes the same nonsensical action is playing out ad infinitum).

A line delivered during the final quarter (the home stretch - release!) summed it up succinctly and accurately - it’s all just a swirling, pointless, bucket of bullshit.

Philly_Q

JezWynd said:

Everything Everywhere All At Once. Watching the first hour of this movie I was wondering how it even got a release, never mind winning an Academy Award for Best Picture. The second hour was an improvement cinematically (while making a nonsense of the story the previous hour had set up - perhaps I dozed a minute or two and missing something crucial, it's easy to do when each time you open your eyes the same nonsensical action is playing out ad infinitum).

A line delivered during the final quarter (the home stretch - release!) summed it up succinctly and accurately - it’s all just a swirling, pointless, bucket of bullshit.

I think you disliked it more than I did, but I'd make pretty much the same assessment...

SteveRobinson

Fall 2022 (Netflix)

This is the most terrifying thing I've ever watched.

EricTheWeary

The Equalizer 2 

Film 4

I really liked The Equalizer and found 2 very disappointing when it came out. So, better than I remembered tonight. Bit silly in places, bit cliched in others but it hangs together. Two of the cast later get reunited in The Mandalorian I realised. 

JezWynd

EricTheWeary said:

The Equalizer 2 

Film 4

I really liked The Equalizer and found 2 very disappointing when it came out. So, better than I remembered tonight. Bit silly in places, bit cliched in others but it hangs together. Two of the cast later get reunited in The Mandalorian I realised. 

The Equalizer is revenge porn. It's a very popular genre, we all love to see the bad guys get their just desserts, but director Fuqua takes it over the top with a near identical shot in both movies as the primo bad guy gets taken down in tortured, wet, slo-mo. The actor in the first movie, Marton Csokas, has a chillingly deadpan perma-sneer that gets cartoonish during the death shot. It's powerful stuff, esp with the repeated 'before I die alone, I will have vengeance' vocal line leading up to it.

Haych

Fall (Netflix)

Not a comfortable film to watch if you don't like the thought of being up high.  Very little in the way of gore but all the same it should be classified as a horror film, it's just about the most tense thing I've ever watched.

Two best friends decide to climb a 2000 foot radio tower in the desert a year after one of them loses their husband in a climbing accident.

After reaching the upper platform of the tower and performing pointless stunts, the rickety ladder becomes detached and falls to the ground leaving the pair stranded at the top with no way to descend the structure.

Talk about tense and nausea inducing!  It's very well done.  There are no green screens or digital effects, either.  The top 100 feet of the tower was constructed on the summit of a mountain so all the up high shots look realistically up high.  I guess there must have been some digital shenanigans for the look downs shots, but the scenes with people in them were mostly done properly.

As well done as it was, the cynic in me doesn't buy the ending. I have an iPhone, it has never worked like that for me.

Hard to give it a score, as a film for tension, totally 10/10.  Plot 5/10, plausibility 2/10, acting 6/10.

Offset

SteveRobinson said:

Fall 2022 (Netflix)

This is the most terrifying thing I've ever watched.

Me too.  I had to turn away more times than I could count.

stufisher

Totally agree with @Offset ; about Salem's Lot ... I haven't watched it for many a year but I still get flashbacks now after 44 years. 

Almost word for word how I'd describe it and how it made/makes me feel and I've certainly no gripe with its perfect 10 rating.

It's now back on my 'to view imminently' list ... along with The Wire boxset (my favourite series ever) and My Cousin Vinny (for the endless laughs).

Watched Alien and A Few Good Men again within the last few days ... basically, why wouldn't I? Both superb and both always hold their value IMHO.