What films have you watched recently?

Brio

And it basically makes a very strong case for Idris Elba being the next Bond?

I think this and Hobbs and Shaw did exactly the opposite.

LastMantra

Die Hart.

Pretty much the same as every other Kevin Hart film. Only difference is he kind of plays himself. Travolta was quite funny. Tbh I wasn't really concentrating on it, not that it needed much concentration. 

Sightseers. 

British dark comedy. Quite old now, I'd seen it before. Quite funny, bit weird. Worth a watch. 

Philly_Q

Brio said:

And it basically makes a very strong case for Idris Elba being the next Bond?

I think this and Hobbs and Shaw did exactly the opposite.

I've said it many times, but even if he was the perfect choice for Bond - which I don't think he is, personally - he was too old when we started talking about him five years ago, and he's way too old now.

HAL9000

Badlands (Sissy Spacek, Martin Sheen). Despite it being 50 years old somehow I’d never seen it. A teenage couple go on a killing spree in (North?) Dakota. She is hopelessly naive while he has delusions of grandeur as well as being casually apathetic about killing. IMHO the film doesn’t start off particularly well but it gradually sucks you in and gets you involved. Some of it looks dated now but when you bear in mind that this was a directorial debut filmed on a shoestring then it’s a pretty impressive piece of film making. Some aspects are very much of its time but it mostly holds up pretty well and gets a solid 7 out of 10 from me.

rze99

AlbertC said:

The Wonder
Netflix

I enjoyed this very well acted film. Set in 19th century Ireland. A young girl becomes the focus of attention after stopping eating but suffering no ill effects. The community, papers and church are all embroiled in the circus surrounding this "miracle". 
Florence Pugh plays a widowed nurse brought over from England to study and assess the girl and her condition.
Lovely wild scenery of Ireland.

8/10

We watched this last night too and thought it was superb on all levels. Fantastic central performances. Highly recommended

Haych

Watched the new Luther film too last night. 

Thought it was alright so long as you didn’t think too hard. If you think about it then it becomes very obvious that it’s totally implausible as to be ridiculous. 

Otherwise it was a bit like a Jo Nesbo novel turned into a film. 

fretmeister

Philly_Q said:

Brio said:

And it basically makes a very strong case for Idris Elba being the next Bond?

I think this and Hobbs and Shaw did exactly the opposite.

I've said it many times, but even if he was the perfect choice for Bond - which I don't think he is, personally - he was too old when we started talking about him five years ago, and he's way too old now.

He’s 60 this year I believe.

Far too old. Make him M instead.

DrCornelius

Salems Lot - the original David Soul one.

Fancied a bit of a spooky flashback to the days when this terrified me. It’s so hammy watching it now though but the odd scene still gives me a jump

EricTheWeary

Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Prime. 

Having known almost nothing about this I went in eyes open. Enjoyed the set up with the laundry and the lesbian daughter and then it was 8 hours of sci fi nonsense, FFS the multiverse thing has been done to death. I can see the Oscars for technical aspects and nothing wrong with the individual performances but it was just very, very boring. 

boogieman

Gray Man. Ryan Gosling as Six, a sort of John Wick character, only he’s a private contractor engaged to take out a really Bad Guy. Loads of kerplosions, shootings, car chases and brutal hand to hand combat. Utterly ludicrous and a complete nonsense of a plot, but still fairly watchable if you turn your brain off. 

ICBM

The Thirteenth Tale

Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman in a psychological drama.

Redgrave and Colman are brilliant, as usual. It’s well-made, and the first three-quarters are very good, atmospheric and creepy…

But the twist in the tale is utter crap, not believable and ruins everything that was so carefully set up. Who wrote this?

And why weren’t they fired?

3/10

(Amazon Prime)

Haych

Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?

Not a film but a four part docuseries that I binge watched, so it was more or less like a film. 

Tells the story of John Leonard, who in 1995 was a 20 year old college kid who took Pepsi to task when they ran an ad campaign that suggested they would supply a Harrier Jump Jet in exchange for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points. 

Pepsi obviously meant it as a joke but failed to include a disclaimer on the ad and never thought anyone would actually take it seriously and try to claim the jet. 

But John Leonard did, and when he found small print that allowed him to buy the necessary Pepsi Points instead of drinking about 1.2 million gallons of Pepsi, he sent a cheque and tried to claim the Harrier. 

It’s Murica, so a legal battle was inevitable. 

Quite funny, obviously ridiculous but also entertaining. I enjoyed it. 

RobDavies

rze99 said:

Prisoners

2013 Netflix

Two families suffer the abduction of their daughters and there's only one lead. The Detective assigned is rigorous despite his incompetent boss, but is unable to hang anything on the only suspect emerging and then, led by one of the exasperated and increasingly aggressive fathers, they take their own actions and horrible things gradually ensue (avoiding spoilers). Things get darker and darker. Super performances all round this is not an easy watch and it is pretty long. Warning: Torture and extreme cruelty scenes.

Very impressive 
8/10

One of the best films I’ve seen in recent years.  Can’t really go too far wrong with Jake G.  

RobDavies

Bull (All 4) - ridiculously violent revenge flick that desperately wants to be Dead Man’s Shoes, but lacks the class.  

Banshees Of Inisherin (Disney) - Outstanding and funny but also very weird film from the same team who did In Brugge.   

Bank of Dave (Netflix) - I’m sure the real Dave is a decent human but this is the most predictable ‘feel good’ bore-fest I’ve seen.   I did chuckle at the way it tried to portray Burnley as a multicultural utopia when infact it’s probably the most racist town in the U.K.  

Four good Days (Netflix) - Decent drama about a mother and daughter trying to address the latter’s heroin addiction.  Good stuff from Glenn Close and Mila Kunis. 

500 Days Of Summer - Distininctly average Rom-com recommended to me by my son.   Films like this are hard to watch when you detest both lead characters. 

Haych

Capitalism: A Love Story

2009 documentary film by Michael Moore telling the story of how America has been sold down the river in a race to the bottom while capitalist mechanisms rake in wealth for the top 1% at the expense of everybody else.

It seemed familiar so I'm assuming I've seen it before.  Michael Moore seems to always make quite an engaging and entertaining documentary, even when it's quite hard hitting.

I enjoyed it, even if I have probably seen it before, but then I hate capitalism despite being a cog in the machine, and I'm sure nothing has improved in the 14 years since the film first came out.

On Netflix.

rze99

EricTheWeary said:

Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Prime. 

Having known almost nothing about this I went in eyes open. Enjoyed the set up with the laundry and the lesbian daughter and then it was 8 hours of sci fi nonsense, FFS the multiverse thing has been done to death. I can see the Oscars for technical aspects and nothing wrong with the individual performances but it was just very, very boring. 

We enjoyed it a lot up to a point and the performances are excellent. Inventive and off beat. A lot of little laughs along the way. Unfortunately The endless universe switching is obviously ridiculous and goes on too long and gets irritating. 

Danny1969

I gave up on Everything Everywhere All AT Once after 20 minutes, it was just too predictable, slapstick and over acted. The science also seemed to be a mash up of the many worlds  / Everett inturp of QM and the multiverse theory. 

rze99

Haych said:

Capitalism: A Love Story

2009 documentary film by Michael Moore telling the story of how America has been sold down the river in a race to the bottom while capitalist mechanisms rake in wealth for the top 1% at the expense of everybody else.

It seemed familiar so I'm assuming I've seen it before.  Michael Moore seems to always make quite an engaging and entertaining documentary, even when it's quite hard hitting.

I enjoyed it, even if I have probably seen it before, but then I hate capitalism despite being a cog in the machine, and I'm sure nothing has improved in the 14 years since the film first came out.

On Netflix.

and if you enjoyed that here's an absorbing documentary The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire (Documentary). 

My son's Economics lecturer put him onto this and it shows how the UK has created and nurtured the off shore financing world story told by the insiders themselves..

At the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions and Britain and its dependencies are the largest global players in the world of international finance.

free on Vimeo.

EricTheWeary

Danny1969 said:

I gave up on Everything Everywhere All AT Once after 20 minutes, it was just too predictable, slapstick and over acted. The science also seemed to be a mash up of the many worlds  / Everett inturp of QM and the multiverse theory. 

I watched the Kermode review of it this morning. He seems to go to great lengths to say nothing about it. Such an acclaimed film I wonder if he didn't like it but can't bring himself to say so. 

I'm quite keen on Family Guy's Road to the Multiverse which covered much of the same ground as EEAAO back in 2009 but in 25 minutes. Happy to recommend that as an alternative. 

Offset

EricTheWeary said:

Danny1969 said:

I gave up on Everything Everywhere All AT Once after 20 minutes, it was just too predictable, slapstick and over acted. The science also seemed to be a mash up of the many worlds  / Everett inturp of QM and the multiverse theory. 

I watched the Kermode review of it this morning. He seems to go to great lengths to say nothing about it. Such an acclaimed film I wonder if he didn't like it but can't bring himself to say so. 

I'm quite keen on Family Guy's Road to the Multiverse which covered much of the same ground as EEAAO back in 2009 but in 25 minutes. Happy to recommend that as an alternative. 

Final nail in EEAAO's coffin from my perspective.  I'm not going to bother.

Kermode is fairly opinionated and isn't backwards in coming forwards - perhaps he just thought it was 'meh'... unlike him to hold back though.