What films have you watched recently?

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Winny_Pooh said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Alien (1979)

Saw the latest trailer for the new one due later this year, so thought I'd go back to the start and make my way through from the start.

Unsurprisingly, the original is still an absolute stone cold classic. Fantastic ratcheting up of the tension like any great horror movie, and just so many iconic scenes, individual shots and lines.

10/10

Gonna watch Aliens and maybe Alien³, then Prometheus and possibly Covenant . All the others can get fucked.

Like me you may find Aliens disappointing. It's basically a shoot em up 80's action movie.

I wish they'd have done an coherent Prometheus, it had such potential.

Meh, I'm a child of the 80s/early-90s - I grew up on sci-fi action movies like Aliens, Total Recall, Robocop, Terminator 1+2 etc; I'm sure I'll love it!

I had a VHS of Aliens  that my big bro had taped when it was on Channel 4, and I must have watched it an unhealthy amount of times as a kid. I bet I can still remember 90% of the dialogue word-for-word! 

I actually enjoyed Prometheus and thought the criticisms were a bit harsh.  I think it was a victim of the critics and fanboys' expectations being unrealistically high.

Emp_Fab

Fight Club.  It seems to have passed me by until now. 

What a load of arse.

I don't get how it was lauded as a great film.  Stupid plot that got worse as the film continued.

Jfingers

@Philly_Q ; oops, I thought the first post went out on a different forum...

LPManic

Watched the Godfather trilogy over the past week or so while on holiday.

I think Part I is the best. I think it's pretty fairly rated. I think Part II is the most overrated. I get the Vito prequel but it all seems very academic. Plus I don't really like De Niro's face. Pacino is great in this one though. And strangely I think Part III is the most underrated. A decent film but very melodramatic (which I guess it kind of the point). And pretty much unneeded really. And Al Pacino's hair is absolutely awful. I'd even go as far to say he is pretty crap in Part III apart form the kitchen scene and the confession scene.

All in all, glad I watched them. I'd give the Trilogy 8/10 overall.

Philly_Q

LPManic said:

Plus I don't really like De Niro's face.
And Al Pacino's hair is absolutely awful. 

These are good reasons not to like it.    Genuinely.  I can't stand either of them - due to their later work, not their early stuff - and I think I'd struggle to watch the Godfather films now.

Offset

^^ Many years back I watched the re-edited versions of 1 & 2 which places the storyline in chronological order.  Worth a watch.

SteveRobinson

On the Waterfront (1953) iPlayer

Classic film starring Marlon Brando plus other familiar faces. If you've never seen it, you should watch.

Mrs Harris goes to Paris (2022) Netflix

A charlady in 1950s London is smitten by her employer's £500 Dior dress, raises the cash by various means and travels to Paris and buy one herself, so changing the direction of the House of Dior. Great feelgood film with Lesley Manville in the title role.

The Bookshop (2017) ?

Set in 1959, woman attempts to run a bookshop in a small town but the local aristos want the building for their own ends. A decent enough film with Bill Nighy winging it again as himself. Probably even wearing his own clothes.

Grangousier

Just got back from Hundreds of Beavers. Without a doubt one of the silliest things I've seen in my entire life. Absolutely glorious. Essentially a live-action Warner Brothers cartoon that looks like it was made in 1918. Left the cinema laughing out loud for no particular reason, just the sheer momentum of laughing. 

boogieman

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Winny_Pooh said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Alien (1979)

Saw the latest trailer for the new one due later this year, so thought I'd go back to the start and make my way through from the start.

Unsurprisingly, the original is still an absolute stone cold classic. Fantastic ratcheting up of the tension like any great horror movie, and just so many iconic scenes, individual shots and lines.

10/10

Gonna watch Aliens and maybe Alien³, then Prometheus and possibly Covenant . All the others can get fucked.

Like me you may find Aliens disappointing. It's basically a shoot em up 80's action movie.

I wish they'd have done an coherent Prometheus, it had such potential.

Meh, I'm a child of the 80s/early-90s - I grew up on sci-fi action movies like Aliens, Total Recall, Robocop, Terminator 1+2 etc; I'm sure I'll love it!

I had a VHS of Aliens  that my big bro had taped when it was on Channel 4, and I must have watched it an unhealthy amount of times as a kid. I bet I can still remember 90% of the dialogue word-for-word! 

I actually enjoyed Prometheus and thought the criticisms were a bit harsh.  I think it was a victim of the critics and fanboys' expectations being unrealistically high.

Prometheus is fine as a brain-off film. I don’t mind it : it’s well filmed, got a decent cast, the tension builds pretty well and the fx are very good. Once you start analysing the story and think about the gaping plot holes, it all falls apart. 

However, Alien is still the best of the bunch by a country mile, it’s a magnificent film. 

Offset

Dracula Untold (2014), Netflix.

A reworking of the Dracula story - sort of.  In a nutshell, the warrior Vlad The Impaler becomes a vampire to save his family and his people from the invading Turks.  This is a good action romp with decent effects, a reasonable storyline and perfectly fine performances.  I'll admit that the only actor I knew in this was Charles Dance, who does a nice turn as an ancient bloodsucker.

There are a some stylistic twists and sequences in the film which borrow very heavily from - or pay homage to, depending on your perspective - Coppola's Dracula.  But this is most definitely not that film in any shape or form.  For all its' faults (not least a dreadfully miscast Keanu Reeves) I consider Coppola's film to be a masterpiece.  This on the other hand is fairly throwaway entertainment, but none the worse for it.  Given the ending I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a sequel, although we're 10 years on and counting.

6/10.

relayar

boogieman said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Winny_Pooh said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Alien (1979)

Saw the latest trailer for the new one due later this year, so thought I'd go back to the start and make my way through from the start.

Unsurprisingly, the original is still an absolute stone cold classic. Fantastic ratcheting up of the tension like any great horror movie, and just so many iconic scenes, individual shots and lines.

10/10

Gonna watch Aliens and maybe Alien³, then Prometheus and possibly Covenant . All the others can get fucked.

Like me you may find Aliens disappointing. It's basically a shoot em up 80's action movie.

I wish they'd have done an coherent Prometheus, it had such potential.

Meh, I'm a child of the 80s/early-90s - I grew up on sci-fi action movies like Aliens, Total Recall, Robocop, Terminator 1+2 etc; I'm sure I'll love it!

I had a VHS of Aliens  that my big bro had taped when it was on Channel 4, and I must have watched it an unhealthy amount of times as a kid. I bet I can still remember 90% of the dialogue word-for-word! 

I actually enjoyed Prometheus and thought the criticisms were a bit harsh.  I think it was a victim of the critics and fanboys' expectations being unrealistically high.

Prometheus is fine as a brain-off film. I don’t mind it : it’s well filmed, got a decent cast, the tension builds pretty well and the fx are very good. Once you start analysing the story and think about the gaping plot holes, it all falls apart. 

However, Alien is still the best of the bunch by a country mile, it’s a magnificent film. 

Alien is one of my favourite films. It's not just about the horror for me; it was the first science fiction film where I experienced total suspension of disbelief. A vicarious experience and punchy with it. Ridley Scott followed it up with Blade Runner, of course, and I think it's fair to say the impact of his aesthetic sensibilities remain influential to this day.

Offset

Shortcut (2020), Prime.

This creature feature is a fairly odd film for several reasons.  It involves five teens who are being driven around in a bus by their driver Joseph for a field trip.  Oddity #1:  the setting is obviously North America.  Joseph is American, the bus is American.  The teens, however, are unashamedly British.  Oddity #2:  fairly early on in the film, they break down in a tunnel and the bus is boarded by an escaped prisoner.  He too is British.  Hmmm.  Add to that the fact that said prisoner has absolutely zero bearing on the film - I can only presume the director added him in on a whim or owed the actor some money.

From this point on it's fairly standard kids-hunted-by-monster-decide-to-hunt-monster fayre.  The monster isn't really scary, the kids represent fairly standard stereotypes (Scooby-Doo sprang to mind several times) and the ending is uber-predictable.  All of that said however...

...it was crap.  2/10.

Philly_Q

^^  I don't think I've seen it.  I'll give it a go (I didn't read the spoiler).

Timcito

Offset said:

Dracula Untold (2014), Netflix.

A reworking of the Dracula story - sort of.  In a nutshell, the warrior Vlad The Impaler becomes a vampire to save his family and his people from the invading Turks.  This is a good action romp with decent effects, a reasonable storyline and perfectly fine performances.  I'll admit that the only actor I knew in this was Charles Dance, who does a nice turn as an ancient bloodsucker.

There are a some stylistic twists and sequences in the film which borrow very heavily from - or pay homage to, depending on your perspective - Coppola's Dracula.  But this is most definitely not that film in any shape or form.  For all its' faults (not least a dreadfully miscast Keanu Reeves) I consider Coppola's film to be a masterpiece.  This on the other hand is fairly throwaway entertainment, but none the worse for it.  Given the ending I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a sequel, although we're 10 years on and counting.

6/10.

Agreed. I thought it was a creditable imaginative take on the Vlad vampire myths. Also agree about Coppola's Dracula and Reaves' wooden performance. I remember saying words to that effect over on TGP some years ago, and there was some kickback. I forget the reasoning.

rze99

Official Competition 
Satirical movie 2024
Netflix. dr Pedro Almodóvar
In Spanish;

Penélope Cruz stars as a tyrannical obsessive film director in a sly and very funny satire of the movie industry, Actoooors and massive egos.

The action surrounds the first rehearsals and read throughs her interpretation of a best selling novel about rival brothers for a movie financed by a plutocrat trying to have his name written in history.

Antonio Banderas plays the womanising and shallow actor playing the bad-boy brother and classically trained and intellectual Oscar Martínez as strait-laced brother who, naturally, have nothing in common.

A vast modernistic empty Conference Centre is the donated rehearsal space that can barely contain the planet sized egos of these three clashing superstar misfits. Excellent performances .

Highly recommended

9/10