What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

boogieman

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

Underwhelming described it for me too. Nice concept for a film but there were so many plot holes I just found it annoying. The monsters can’t hear you when you live in a cellar... so why not make your home in a cellar? The monsters can’t hear you above the sound of a waterfall... so maybe make your home by a waterfall? In fact why not just surround your house with noisy things to distract them?  And I really didn’t care about most of the characters beyond the little boy with the spaceship at the beginning and the deaf girl.  

FarleyUK

boogieman said:

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

Underwhelming described it for me too. Nice concept for a film but there were so many plot holes I just found it annoying. The monsters can’t hear you when you live in a cellar... so why not make your home in a cellar? The monsters can’t hear you above the sound of a waterfall... so maybe make your home by a waterfall? In fact why not just surround your house with noisy things to distract them?  And I really didn’t care about most of the characters beyond the little boy with the spaceship at the beginning and the deaf girl.  

Surely the noise of everything around your home would attract them?

cj73

boogieman said:

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

Underwhelming described it for me too. Nice concept for a film but there were so many plot holes I just found it annoying. The monsters can’t hear you when you live in a cellar... so why not make your home in a cellar? The monsters can’t hear you above the sound of a waterfall... so maybe make your home by a waterfall? In fact why not just surround your house with noisy things to distract them?  And I really didn’t care about most of the characters beyond the little boy with the spaceship at the beginning and the deaf girl.  

Haven't seen the film but I take it from your description that they are Soviet Spies and that the sound of running water foils their listening ability

Keiko

I really liked a quiet place. So long as you dont take it too seriously, it is silly but very enjoyable. 8.5/10 from me.

Saw bumblee recently, which is also a bit silly but enjoyable. 7/10

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

Underwhelming described it for me too. Nice concept for a film but there were so many plot holes I just found it annoying. The monsters can’t hear you when you live in a cellar... so why not make your home in a cellar? The monsters can’t hear you above the sound of a waterfall... so maybe make your home by a waterfall? In fact why not just surround your house with noisy things to distract them?  And I really didn’t care about most of the characters beyond the little boy with the spaceship at the beginning and the deaf girl.  

I got confused by the whole cellar thing.  I didn't really pick up on the fact that they had a house and a barn - not paying attention - and I couldn't understand why one cellar was full of whiteboards (saying things like "CAN'T SEE" and "WHAT ARE THEIR WEAKNESSES?") and the kids weren't allowed in there (why?), then there was another cellar which got flooded then suddenly wasn't again (I guess it was the other cellar...).

Also if a creature can't see or smell, you'd imagine it would have really good hearing and would probably wander around anyway hoping to just stumble on prey.  So even tippy-toeing and sign language probably wouldn't help much.

boogieman

FarleyUK said:

boogieman said:

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

Underwhelming described it for me too. Nice concept for a film but there were so many plot holes I just found it annoying. The monsters can’t hear you when you live in a cellar... so why not make your home in a cellar? The monsters can’t hear you above the sound of a waterfall... so maybe make your home by a waterfall? In fact why not just surround your house with noisy things to distract them?  And I really didn’t care about most of the characters beyond the little boy with the spaceship at the beginning and the deaf girl.  

Surely the noise of everything around your home would attract them?

Spoiler alert. 






The aliens/monsters/whatever they are (it’s not revealed) have super sensitive hearing that they use to track down their human prey. If there’s masses of overlying noise presumably they wouldn’t be able to hear any conversations and eventually they’d lose interest in the house.   

Blueingreen

The Man Who Would Be King.  Somewhat disappointed in this. Took a long time to get properly going and even after that there were some boring bits.  To be fair Connery and Caine are very good, especially Caine who's a better fit for his character. 

I'm not super sensitive about politically correct stuff but even so I found the let's laugh at backward foreigners stuff embarrassing; and the implication that if you killed a few random people on the way to making your way in the world it didn't necessarily make you a bad person if you were white and they were superstitious savages is even worse.  Yes, I know it's a different time and few in the cinema at the time would have had any problem with it; and there's an element of adventure film convention where a death isn't really a proper death; but it's still hard to watch now. 7/10 for the colourful good looks, the good acting and some nice flashes of wit.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

A Quiet Place

It's certainly effective and to some extent goes against the horror movie stereotype by having characters you can care about, but I was a little underwhelmed.  It's all a bit too M Night Shyamalan.

I thought it was a bit Paranormal Activity for being quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet, LOUD, quiet etc.

ThePrettyDamned

Velvet buzzsaw 

Amazing. Darkly funny, and absolutely savage. Top performances all around with characters you love to hate. Watched it because I *loved* nightcrawler. 

fretmeister

ThePrettyDamned said:

Velvet buzzsaw 

Amazing. Darkly funny, and absolutely savage. Top performances all around with characters you love to hate. Watched it because I *loved* nightcrawler. 

I just watched that.

I did enjoy it but I also feel that the pacing could have been a little better

Philly_Q

Philly_Q said:

BigBearKris said:

Philly_Q said:

BigBearKris said:

Not yet he hasn't.

Not this year he won't.

I don't care for it much, but nor should he... His performance was ok, but nothing special. He's got nothing on Cooper, not to mention Bale or Mortensen. IMHO of course...

Yeah, I don't have strong opinions about it, I haven't even seen any of the nominated films (yet) so I'm not having a go at Malek.  But I suspect the Oscar will go to Bale - or maybe to Bradley Cooper as consolation for not being nominated for best director.

If I had a hat I'd eat it.  Well done Rami Malek.  I still haven't seen the film.

Blaendulais

Cold Justice.  As the reviewers say it may be Neeson's last but its a goodie

HAL9000

The Basis of Sex. Ok but very slow. Mrs9000 and I both nodded off. 4/10.

Skipped

Train to Busan (2016)

Just watched this. Made a big impression on me. That might be because I have seen pretty much none of the wave of "Zombie" movies (and tv) that have appeared in recent times.

9 out of 10.

Warning: A key part of the film is  heartbreaking and involves a small child. It is sad. "Railway Children" sad. Times 10.

equalsql

Moominpapa said:

5 Centimetres Per Second. Anime by Makoto Shinkai. Gorgeous animation, great direction, and a keen dissection of how first love can colour your life. Strongly recommended if you're an anime fan.

Have a Wiz @Moominpapa, such a superbly animated film. The drawing is just breathtaking it's an utter masterpiece.

I was so entranced by the artwork I ended up buying the original (i.e in Japanese) art-book of the film called "The Sky Of The Longing Of Memories"

Which I'm flicking through as I type this

And I have the dust-jacket:

JezWynd

Roma. - Loved it; it reminded me of movies made in the 70's, where not much happens but the minutiae of life is writ large on the screen. Probably the only film where the suspense element is provided by dog shit.

On a huge sci-fi kick atm and Star Wars has rescued me from winter blues. Episode 1 to 3 were all terrible imo and I didn't have much expectation when they rebooted the franchise. I think I wrote a put down of VII when it first came out but watching it again on a tv screen, it was much more enjoyable. The casting of 1-3 was a big part of what sunk them, all excellent actors but they just didn't seem at ease in the Star Wars universe or with each other.

They seem to have put a lot more effort in casting the new movies - Ridley and Boyega are brilliant, it probably helps that they don't have a lot of acting baggage, a new hope, as they say. It still seems a bit tame that they rehash all the old icons - bad guy in mask with funky vox, evil overlord appearing via hologram, seeking the one who can save them etc. But hell; it's Star Wars and taking it in any other direction would probably doom it to life as an endless tv series.

Also watched Rogue One, which might just be my favourite of the new releases. Casting, again, is spot on - the girls' empowered thing is strong with the force atm and Jones is perfect as the orphaned heroine.

Finally, caught Solo, which seems to have had poor reviews, with internet word being they won't pursue it as a franchise spin off. Which is a shame, as it's a neat movie. Starts off a bit cheesy but soon picks up when Han meets Chewy and flies from then on.

Integration of the digital elements into the new movies is seamless and looks far more natural than in 1-3 where the focus was often on large armies and endless alien vistas which often looked more painterly than filmic - perhaps that was the myth making prequel they had in mind but it never caught my imagination the way the new more intimate stories do.

The Last Jedi just landed on my doormat, the story continues....

stickyfiddle

International flights last week and that means movies...

Deadpool 2
Same same. Still funny. I wonder if potentially a better movie than the first but suffers for not being first so loses a smidge of shock factor. 

Venom
Hmm. Ok. Tom Hardy is actually really good (as ever) but the rest is, not so great. 

Velvet Buzzsaw
Critique of art and critics and buyers in a sort of black comedy meets Final Destination way. 

Bohemian Rhapsody
Highly enjoyable despite plenty of factual liberty-taking. Malek deserves all the awards he's been given, as he properly embodies Freddie. But it's good that the movie didn't win the Best Picture Oscar, as that would have been a stretch. 

Massive bonus points for "Brian" who is genuinely spectacular as BM yet I don't even think I know the guy's name. 

failed_astronaut

@JezWynd I have a theory about Ep I-III. If you took all the Obi Wan investigative stuff and put that into a movie, it would be like an intergalactic Columbo and a hell of a lot more enjoyable!

We went to see Mary Queen of Scots last night. My memory of the historical facts is pretty hazy but the film itself was just quite boring with some really questionable camera work, cuts and pacing.

fretmeister

Re-Watched Batman Returns at the weekend. First time the kids have seen it.

It has dated quite a bit, but it was still enjoyable. 1 kid loved it, the other got bored!