What film have you just watched?

[syrup]

Just been watching the 2019 version of Midway which is a bit of a CGI fest.It’s pure Hollywood with stirring music as they all go back out to get the last carrier and the Japanese crew are on their best stereotypical bowing behaviour. Brave men going after the Japs in outdated aircraft but I felt the film didn’t need all the schmaltzy bravado.

The original was on the other day
Far better IMHO no schmaltz just the film based on the facts

I often think those old films are better because the people who took part were not only still alive but many acted as technical advisors

 

[arfah]

Well oldies like you often have wee naps!

Gonnae no do that?!

 

[NSP]

Thought she'd had both removed because the cancer gene marker?

Yeah but, being rich, she had them replaced by equivalent-sized bags of silicone. See Ravers OP in his thread about the ordeal his family are going through at the moment for a more down-to-Earth/real-world example.

 

[ACAB]

The Cruel Sea
Not seen this before. Just brilliant, great story and acting. One of the best war films I have seen.

Completely agree, but the book is miles better.

 

[GreyArea]

The third act let it down in my opinion. I pretty much switch it off once their plane from Israel crash lands in the UK.

A friend of mine worked on that film on the VFX side. He didn't see it when it came out as he was working on another film. When we watched it together a year or so later he was totally gobsmacked at the ending.

He later told me that he'd called some friends to find out why the the third act was completely different from what they had originally filmed and was told that when it was shown to test audiences they didn't like the very dark ending so the suits sh*tcanned the whole third act and decided to reshoot.

Problem was they'd p*ssed the budget up the wall on the CGI so that's why you seem to get an episode of Dr Who (with Peter Capaldi funnily enough) welded onto the ar*e end of a Hollywood blockbuster.

 

[GreyArea]

Last night. "Cloud Atlas".
With a plethora of big names it had to be worth a look.
Twenty minutes in and I didn't have a clue WTF was going on but I persevered with it.
Six different stories from different eras all jumping back and forth in time with occasional connections left me somewhat bewildered initially but it all gradually starts to make sense. Some actors also playing multiple roles doesn't help either.
It's pretty long (just under 3 hours) but well worth watching if you don't have anything else to do at 2.00am.

4½/5 just for Halle Berry and Jim Broadbent.

Read the book, it's a lot easier to understand despite the jumping between timelines.

 

[J.A.S. Backpack]

Ready or Not on Disney +

A new bride to a blue blood family has to partake in a family game on her wedding night.
She picks the card for Hide and Seek and has to hide whilst the rest of the family have to find her . . . . .and kill her.

Its a horror comedy with some real fun moments. You'll be constantly calling out what you would be doing in that position. I'm just sorry the protagonist didn't get to use the elephant gun.

Pour a glass of your favourite tipple and enjoy the fun.
No politics, no lecturing and Andie McDowell finally getting what she should have got for her shoddy acting in 4 weddings.

 

[Effendi]

Thought she'd had both removed because the cancer gene marker?

Did she not have them removed due to a cancer scare?

I didn't know that.

Just googled.

 

[slick]

"While at War", a Spanish film set during 1936 in the early days of the civil war. Turned out to be very watchable, although more cerebral than action. Apparently based on real events.

 

[Rodney2q]

Clerks II

A sequel to the film Clerks

Set 10 years after the first movie this sequel is actually as good as the previous film, if not better. If you didn't like Clerks you won't like this. I found it laugh out loud funny, if a little predictable in a couple of places.

As with the previous movie the script is sharp and biting, with no place for political correctness...

Jay (talking to Silent Bob):

You know, sometimes I wish I did a little more with my life instead of hangin' out in front of places sellin' weed 'n shit. Like, maybe be an animal doctor. Why not me? I like seals 'n shit. Or maybe an astronaut. Yeah... I'd be the first motherfucker to see a new galaxy, or find a new alien life form... and **** it. And people'd be, like, "There he goes; homeboy fucked the Martian once."



[Dante and Randal are arguing about a wheelchair-bound customer]

Dante Hicks:
This guy found a way to reach out to a world he feels isolated from, and you found a way to take issue with it.

Randal Graves:
Oh, sure, take his side.

Dante Hicks:
Have you become so embittered that you feel the need to attack the handicapped?

Randal Graves:
What "handicapped"? He's just in a wheelchair - it's not like he's Anne Frank or something.

Dante Hicks:
[confused] Anne Frank?

Randal Graves:
Yeah, Anne Frank. The chick who was all [idiot voice] "duhhh!" until the miracle worker showed up and knocked some smarts into her.

Dante Hicks:
You're talking about Helen Keller.

Randal Graves:
No, I'm not. I'm talking about Anne Frank. She was deaf, dumb and blind.

Dante Hicks:
No, she wasn't - Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind.

Randal Graves:
Are you sure?

Dante Hicks:
Yep.

Randal Graves:
Then who the f*** is Anne Frank?

Dante Hicks:
Anne Frank was the little Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in a little room with her family. She wrote a diary.

Randal Graves:
Oh, yeah. Well then, I guess this guy is like Anne Frank, what with the diary and all.

Dante Hicks:
[exasperated] No, he's like Helen Keller, with the handicap!

Randal Graves:
You alway gotta be right, don't you, you Nazi douchebag?

 

[arfah]

Broken Arrow [1996]
Dir. John Woo

Disney+ (Star)

Starring John Travolta, Christian Slater and Samantha Mattis.

Bad guy USAF stealth bomber pilot tries to steal nukes for ransom and kill his co-pilot in the process.

Lots of action, one liners and plot twists.
pure escapism. 8/10

 

[Glasgow_Jock]

Bruised.

Poor man's Warrior. Woke shite.

 

[Awol]

‘Captain Phillips’ just finished on ITV4.

Phillips was the bloke captured by Somali pirates and taken into a lifeboat by them until the US got a little proactive.

I’ve seen it before and two things stand out…. Firstly, Tom Hanks is a truly superb actor and I’d suggest one of the best there is, and secondly, the sniping that brought the thing to a close, aiming at a couple of tiny heads, rolling around in a tiny lifeboat from a couple of hundred yards away in the dark, and from the deck of a rolling warship was, even by our standards (which I believe are the top of the tree internationally) absolutely outstanding.

 

[syrup]

‘Captain Phillips’ just finished on ITV4.

Phillips was the bloke captured by Somali pirates and taken into a lifeboat by them until the US got a little proactive.

I’ve seen it before and two things stand out…. Firstly, Tom Hanks is a truly superb actor and I’d suggest one of the best there is, and secondly, the sniping that brought the thing to a close, aiming at a couple of tiny heads, rolling around in a tiny lifeboat from a couple of hundred yards away in the dark, and from the deck of a rolling warship was, even by our standards (which I believe are the top of the tree internationally) absolutely outstanding.

IIRC the medics who treat Hank's character were actual active duty USN Medics

 

[Serpico]

Just been watching the 2019 version of Midway which is a bit of a CGI fest.It’s pure Hollywood with stirring music as they all go back out to get the last carrier and the Japanese crew are on their best stereotypical bowing behaviour. Brave men going after the Japs in outdated aircraft but I felt the film didn’t need all the schmaltzy bravado.

I just watched it on catch-up, was slightly wary as it got very average reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some amazing cinematics and stuck fairly well to the facts. Great performances by Harrelson and the Japanese lad who played Yamaguchi (he's also good in Silence). Was defintely "schmaltzy" in places aye, but when you consider the significance of the actual battle, and how grand a victory it was, I think we can allow the septics to blow their own trumpet a bit on this one.

Solid 7/10 for me

 

[Serpico]

‘Captain Phillips’ just finished on ITV4.

Phillips was the bloke captured by Somali pirates and taken into a lifeboat by them until the US got a little proactive.

I’ve seen it before and two things stand out…. Firstly, Tom Hanks is a truly superb actor and I’d suggest one of the best there is, and secondly, the sniping that brought the thing to a close, aiming at a couple of tiny heads, rolling around in a tiny lifeboat from a couple of hundred yards away in the dark, and from the deck of a rolling warship was, even by our standards (which I believe are the top of the tree internationally) absolutely outstanding.

Aye, brilliant film and the usual flawless performance by Hanks. Is on Netflix if anyone fancies it

 

[BaronBoy]

The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard - Amazon Prime
The follow up to the 2017 buddy-buddy movie comes with the addition of Salma Hayek, who at 55 is still as stunning as when she was 25. This isn't relevant to the story in any way shape or form and is for information only.

Her foul-mouthed diatribes makes Samuel L Jackson seem tame in his swearsmithing and that's quite an achievement. As Ryan Reynolds points out: "Her mouth needs an exorcism," which is one of the few laughs garnered in this movie.

96 minutes is the film's running time and unlike the dull "Red Notice," it doesn't outstay its welcome. It's all a cliched and fairly unfeasible plot, with plenty of CGI blood spatter and gunplay to the nth degree.

In one respect, I'd like to tear it to pieces, as a critical review is funnier than a meh one, but honestly, it diverted me for a little bit, had some eye candy and Morgan Freeman shows up in a cameo, which is always fun.

It doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good and counts in its favour. 2.5 out of 5.

Le Mans - DVD
The original Steve McQueen version, not the later Matt Damon/Christian Bale one. Somehow, I've never gotten round to watching this but I've finally remedied it this weekend. A very sedate to the point of glacial build up to the race with the announcer acting as Basil Exposition, discussing yellow flags, race procedure etc.

There's very little storyline going on here and it feels naked as a result. There's a small candle glow of romance with a dead driver's wife, but it never goes anywhere much. No, the whole movie's focus is the titular race and without doubt some of best racing scenes ever committed to celluloid. No CGI here, just stunts featuring real cars and real stuntment, McQueen having famously driven himself.

The thing that hit me hardest with this movie is the massive contrast between the way films were made back then compared to now. In those days, the movie relied on the intelligence of its audience, without spoonfeeding motivations throughout a movie. The actors would act and although that may leave some ambiguity on the table, it largely allowed the audience to make up its mind about motivations, thought processes, etc.

These days it's normally shouted at the viewers, repeatedly and loudly, along with tons of plots, subplots and subsubplots which reference other movies which you may or may not've seen.

To follow up on Le Mans, may I suggest watching the documentary made by Chad McQueen, Steve's son, about the making of the film. He was there with the family during the whole time the film was being made and fills in an enormous amount of the background to the problems and near disasters that occurred. You may have noticed in the credits a dedication to David Piper for his sacrifice.

Piper was the man who supplied many of the cars for the film after Enzo Ferrari withdrew his support when he found out that a Ferrari was not going to be the winner. David Piper was behind the wheel of a 917 going through the bends approaching the original White House corner when inexplicably it stepped out and crashed heavily. The documentary shows the photos of the wreckage. How anyone got out alive is beyond a mystery; the car was ripped in half and Piper suffered severe injuries requiring an amputation of his right leg. McQueen tried to get the producers (he was the original producer but had been replaced) to agree that the opening night's takings be paid to David Piper. He never received a reply.

 

[Nemesis44UK]

Just watched Power of the Dog.

Really wish I hadn’t.

Benedict Cumberbatch was for once really good. The film however was dreadful. An attempt at a meaningful artistic film that just about managed to be dull and shockingly boring.

I can see how you reached that conclusion and I completely understand. There's no story progression and no character development beyond Cumberbatch and the boy.

Having seen some of Jane Campion's previous work, I had an idea that I was in for a very slow film, forewarned is forearmed and all that.

 

[Nemesis44UK]

Halloween (201
Ahh, Michael Myers, my favourite horror film villain. The original was a masterclass in low-budget effective horror. Build the tension, release the tension, build the tension etc. Not like today's cattle-prod jump scares which substitute tension for loud noise.

Whilst this 2018 version (it's a direct sequel to the original movie that retcons all the sequels) sadly misses out on that formula of letting the viewers' minds fill in all sorts of scary gaps, it makes up for it with a slack handful of gore.

There's some creepiness early on when a pair of British podcasters try to talk to Michael in the asylum courtyard and upon production of his infamous mask, the courtyard erupts with all the other mental patients going nuts.

I really liked it and whilst the original 1978 one is still the best, this is better than Rob Zombie's efforts and pretty much all the sequels.

Halloween Kills (2021)
To complete the double bill, I watched the follow up to Halloween and this movie picks up directly after the previous movie. Laurie is in hospital and the town of Haddonfield is up in arms about the carnage wrought by Michael Myers. They decide to go on the warpath and there's no justice, there's just us is the order of the day.

Plusses and minuses - Heavy on gore, which is really nice and some inventive kills. Minus is that the film is strangely inert. Lots of focus to secondary or even tertiary characters (the nurse who was accompanying Loomis to the sanitarium in the original, anyone?) Whilst it's nice to see these old characters get an airing, the movie sort of plods along doing it's own thing and then ends.

Overall, I enjoyed it, particularly as part of a double bill and it's always nice to see Michael Myers again. He's my kind of villain- doesn't rush, says fcuk-all and gets stuff done.

 

[Nemesis44UK]

Clerks II

A sequel to the film Clerks

Set 10 years after the first movie this sequel is actually as good as the previous film, if not better. If you didn't like Clerks you won't like this. I found it laugh out loud funny, if a little predictable in a couple of places.

As with the previous movie the script is sharp and biting, with no place for political correctness...

Jay (talking to Silent Bob):

You know, sometimes I wish I did a little more with my life instead of hangin' out in front of places sellin' weed 'n shit. Like, maybe be an animal doctor. Why not me? I like seals 'n shit. Or maybe an astronaut. Yeah... I'd be the first motherfucker to see a new galaxy, or find a new alien life form... and **** it. And people'd be, like, "There he goes; homeboy fucked the Martian once."



[Dante and Randal are arguing about a wheelchair-bound customer]

Dante Hicks:
This guy found a way to reach out to a world he feels isolated from, and you found a way to take issue with it.

Randal Graves:
Oh, sure, take his side.

Dante Hicks:
Have you become so embittered that you feel the need to attack the handicapped?

Randal Graves:
What "handicapped"? He's just in a wheelchair - it's not like he's Anne Frank or something.

Dante Hicks:
[confused] Anne Frank?

Randal Graves:
Yeah, Anne Frank. The chick who was all [idiot voice] "duhhh!" until the miracle worker showed up and knocked some smarts into her.

Dante Hicks:
You're talking about Helen Keller.

Randal Graves:
No, I'm not. I'm talking about Anne Frank. She was deaf, dumb and blind.

Dante Hicks:
No, she wasn't - Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind.

Randal Graves:
Are you sure?

Dante Hicks:
Yep.

Randal Graves:
Then who the f*** is Anne Frank?

Dante Hicks:
Anne Frank was the little Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in a little room with her family. She wrote a diary.

Randal Graves:
Oh, yeah. Well then, I guess this guy is like Anne Frank, what with the diary and all.

Dante Hicks:
[exasperated] No, he's like Helen Keller, with the handicap!

Randal Graves:
You alway gotta be right, don't you, you Nazi douchebag?

Been a long time since I saw either of the Clerks movies and I know it's a heresy, but I didn't like them.

When Rosario Dawson said: "Sometimes, girls do like ATM," or something similar, I rolled my eyes.

It's clearly a construct by Kevin Smith and/or Jason Mewes, because no woman outside of some very dodgy website has ever said: "I enjoy the taste of my own $hit smeared on my tongue."