What films have you watched recently?

NothingOnTheTele

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

I lost interest in Marvel after Endgame, but made an exception after hearing this film was especially good. It wasn't good. 4/10.

Brio

A Fish Called Wanda.
Still pretty much perfect. Jamie Lee Curtis is a bit of a slag though, shagging three blokes in the film…

Poboy

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

I think this is about the fourth time I've seen this. Great cast, great writing, great cinematography. Just great.

rze99

The Menu
2022 satire / black comedy / thriller
Prime

Stars Ralph Fiennes as an obsessive and controlling star chef who runs a secluded and remote island uber-restaurant where photographs are banned and phone communications are conveniently absent. 

Celebrities and the very wealthy get a private boat to the island and a personal audience with the chef introducing a multi-course elaborate dining experience with the kitchen taking the form of a stage with chef as the MC and barker of rules and commands.  Ralph Fiennes plays it deadly straight as the intense and menacing star chef commanding the room and his staff of slavish robotic perfectionist junior sous chefs and apparatchiks. "Yes Chef!" is the response to everything. "No Chef" is simply unthinkable. Course after course, the evening becomes more and more threatening.

It's well played but it doesn't know whether it is a thriller or a satire so it tries to be be both and fails at both while being entertaining.  The script is patchy but has some fun skewering the ultra wealthy hiding their dirt behind the gloss of exclusivity,  privilege and experience.  The pacing is uneven and the plot increasingly ludicrous but, hey, that's ok because it's satire. 

Entertaining but unconvincing.

6/10

Keiko

Evil Dead Rise. 2/10. Absolute cack, but you know that from the front cover (what is the proper name for that?) Only got yourself to blame if you watch it.

Emp_Fab

Dark Waters, after several people mentioning it here.  Great film.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Emp_Fab

Brio said:

A Fish Called Wanda.
Still pretty much perfect. Jamie Lee Curtis is a bit of a slag though, shagging three blokes in the film…

A 'slag' ?  If you'd managed to get your leg over with three women in the timeline of the film, you'd be expecting a medal - and frankly, we'd all give you one ! (a medal that is).

Philly_Q

Giallo (2008)

Nearly at the end of my Dario Argento marathon... not much to say about this one, except it was unquestionably the worst film he had ever made at the time of its release (although there was even worse to come).  How Adrien Brody ever had an acting career, let alone winning an Oscar, is utterly beyond me.

rze99

The Pale Blue Eye 

2022 Movie Netflix

The action takes place in 1830 at West Point Military academy and Christian Bale plays saturnine renowned detective Augustus Landor widower called in by the academy Colonel against his better judgement to lead an investigation into a grotesque case  where a cadet a has been hanged and his heart cut out of his body by apparently expert ritualistic slicings of a knife.

Landor enlists the assistance of an officer cadet in the shape of a certain Edgar Allan Poe whose solemn poetic nature is distrusted by all.  The story gets darker as similarly hideous acts are perpetrated and the occult becomes the theme meanwhile ridiculous coincidences arise everywhere. It just so happens there is an expert on the occult nearby, by way of example.  The final acts are rather overdone and don't correlate well with what has happened before, and there is an outrageous twist and reveal.

Pale Blue Eye is directed with a heavy Gothic leaden feel.  It looks fantastic. The stark monochromatic beauty of the setting is offset by lush dark warm interiors heavy browns fires and glows of lights.  The starry cast all do a great job, though the accents waver considerably. 

It is watchable but it never really threatens or sucks you fully into mystery and the coincidences jar.

7/10

BluesLover

The Maid (Amazon prime)
A Thai horror film, with a rather nonsensical plot, that once I started watching I had to watch all the way through. In an odd sort of way I found it very entertaining. Can't say more as it would give too much away!
Pour yourself a beer, put your feet up and watch it.

Philly_Q

Philly_Q said:

Giallo (2008)
Nearly at the end of my Dario Argento marathon... not much to say about this one, except it was unquestionably the worst film he had ever made at the time of its release (although there was even worse to come).  How Adrien Brody ever had an acting career, let alone winning an Oscar, is utterly beyond me.

I'm going to have to disagree with myself.  After re-watching Dario Argento's Dracula (aka Dracula 3-D) last night, I'd have to say that, terrible though Dracula is, Giallo is even worse.  At least Dracula has some semblance of a plot, even though it bears even less resemblance to the book than most adaptations.... and on the upside, Adrien Brody's not in it.

Haych

The Starling (Netflix)

We put it on as it was billed as a comedy and Mrs Haych wanted something lighthearted to watch.

While it does have it's light hearted moments it's anything but a comedy really.

Jack (Chris O'Dowd) is in a psych hospital a year after his baby daughter died from SIDS, he just hasn't gotten over her death.  Meanwhile, his wife, Lilly (Melissa McCarthy) is holding down the fort dealing with her own feelings while trying to carry on the routine of every day life.

One day a starling takes up residence in a tree in her garden and starts attacking Lilly, defending its territory and its own hatchlings.

While struggling with her own grief she is recommended a psychiatrist, Larry (Kevin Kline), who has since given up his profession and is now working as a vet.  Reluctantly, and rather against his will, he offers help to Lilly with her situation and with the starling after she keeps turning up at his veterinary practice.

Honestly, the best film I've seen in quite a while.  It's really quite moving in places and then laugh out loud funny to break the tension when it threatens to get too morbid and serious.

Chris O'Dowd puts on an incredible performance and McCarthy proves she is worth so much more than her usual brash, sweary self.  Kevin Kline is also wonderful to watch and adds a measure of balance and reason to the chaos.

I really, really enjoyed it

fretmeister

Accident Man 2.

The first one was low on script, high on superb fight choreography and with a healthy dose of dark humour. It was based on the comic character of the same name who appeared in the short lived "Toxic" comic about 40 years ago. It was great fun.

The second.... more of the same. A good old fashioned martial arts film but with English dark humour and actually even better choreography. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. The fight scene editing is maybe the best I've ever seen.

Scott Adkins is a fantastic martial artist (in real life, not just in films) and a pretty good actor. He auditioned to be Batman for Batman-v-Superman but then Affleck got it, unfortunately. 

It was nice to see the recently departed Ray Stevenson again too.

It's not going to be challenging LA Confidential for any awards, but for its genre - a solid 8.5/10.

DaveJames

Super nova, with Colin Firth it's about a gay couple in a camper van traveling to see Firths family, Firths partner has onset dementia and wants to kill himself, very sad and moving, and brilliantly acted.

KDS

Emp_Fab said:

Dark Waters, after several people mentioning it here.  Great film.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Watched that a few months ago. Very good

ICBM

DaveJames said:

Super nova, with Colin Firth it's about a gay couple in a camper van traveling to see Firths family, Firths partner has onset dementia and wants to kill himself, very sad and moving, and brilliantly acted.

Just seen that too. Very powerful and emotional, not in a big outpouring way but subtle and deep. Stanley Tucci as Firth's partner is possibly even better than Firth, and with the more difficult role.

8/10

(iPlayer)

He's also in the - so far, I'm three episodes in - rather silly David Tennant 'Inside Man' series on Netflix, and also by far the best actor in it.

goldtop

Splinter (Amazon Prime) - take Carpenter's 'The Thing' and set it in nowheresville with a bunch of people you don't care about. But make sure you have zero SFX budget for the actual thing. Add a bad-guy-redemption ending that's entirely predictable. This is what you get. 1/10

Offset

goldtop said:

Splinter (Amazon Prime) - take Carpenter's 'The Thing' and set it in nowheresville with a bunch of people you don't care about. But make sure you have zero SFX budget for the actual thing. Add a bad-guy-redemption ending that's entirely predictable. This is what you get. 1/10

It wasn't brilliant, but I quite enjoyed it.  If seen loads worse.  I'd have given it 4.5/10.

LastMantra

Willy's wonderland


What the sufferin' bejesus?! 

What's Nic Cage all about anyway? He's really going for that weird Hollywood look. Jet black beard, trimmed to within an inch of it's life, on a wrinkly old face is always a bold choice. Hair on the top of his head looks like it's holding on for dear life!

Although it was pretty rubbish, got to give him a bit of credit for choosing some more "interesting" parts. I quite like him in a comedy tbf. 

Not seen renfield, but looks like it might be fun? 

 

DannyP

ICBM said:

He's also in the - so far, I'm three episodes in - rather silly David Tennant 'Inside Man' series on Netflix, and also by far the best actor in it.

Inside Man, by god that was poor.

The ridiculous and baffling choices made by the characters had me shouting at the telly. Plus it had that veneer of British TV crapness that made me want to apologise to any Americans that had the misfortune to tune in.

I agree that Tucci's performance was the best thing in it, in the same way a piece of sweetcorn is the best thing in a turd.