The last movie I saw was...

[smurfomatic]

The Show

 

 

A frighteningly focussed man of many talents, passports, and identities, arrives in Northampton – a strange and haunted town in the heart of England. On a mission to locate a stolen artefact for his menacing client, Fletcher finds himself entangled in a twilight world populated with vampires, sleeping beauties, Voodoo gangsters, noir private eyes, and masked avengers. He quickly sinks into a bizarre and delirious black hole, that is hidden just beneath the surface of this seemingly quiet town. Soon enough Fletcher discovers that dreams and reality have been blurred and there might no longer be a real world to go back to-Welcome to The Show.

 

Strange to see so many areas of the town I've lived in all my life, up there on the big screen!

[LeMarchand]

The Show

 

 

 

 

Strange to see so many areas of the town I've lived in all my life, up there on the big screen!

 

Has Alan Moore disowned himself from this one yet?

[supportman]

Ford vs Ferrari

 

Thought it was excellent. 9 out of 10 for me.

[smurfomatic]

Has Alan Moore disowned himself from this one yet?

 

Not yet, maybe if there's a re-edit with a happy ending...

 

There's also a TV series planned, though I think that will have to introduce a lot more characters as there isn't much more that could be done with the cast from the film.

[LeMarchand]

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Vows We Have Made (Hallmark)

 

The Postables try to track down a young boy whose friend may be the key to his recovery, meanwhile Oliver and Shane are getting married ...

 

This one actually got the balance between the "mystery letter" and "team" parts right (unlike many of the movies) and seemed to be set up as a finale to the series. If it is, it was quite a nice one - though I would have liked to see some guest stars who the team had previously helped show up. Schmaltzy as hell, but the "letter delivery" scene did make my lip tremble.

[6Foot2]

Countdown: A nurse downloads an app to her phone that seems to predict the time the person downloading the app has left to live.

 

It's untaxing and predictable. The ending left an opening for Countdown 2.0

 

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes. Released: 2019.

[Ditto]

Not a movie, but I've tuned into Missions, the French Sci-Fi drama on iPlayer - it has me hooked. Any movie where yoyu forget you are reading subtitles is a positive sign in my view. I've just watched Series 1 Episode 7 and it follows on from a chance encounter into a emotional Dignitas discussion on radio today that was deeply emotional so it's a heightened experience given current focus on assisted dying going through the Lords and parliament currently. That aside, is anyone else watching this? Oddly, I find the theme tune so hypnotic, I'd tune in for that alone!

[FN-GM]

It's been a while since I updated this. Here are a few recent movies:

 

Don't Breathe

 

Don't Breathe 2

 

12 Years A Slave

 

American Gangster

Edited October 30, 2021 by FN-GM

[FN-GM]

Old Henry

 

It seems westerns are back! It was a short movie - around 1 hour 30 mins, hits the sweet spot to me. It was a simple but good story line and links into real world events. Would recommend.

 

[LeMarchand]

Two on Disney:

 

Black Widow. Entertaining enough, but fairly disposable.

 

Jungle Cruise. The African Queen meets Pirates of the Caribbean on the Amazon. Fun but dumb.

[Simcfc73]

Been watching it for 3 days now (you can tell how gripping it is). I imagine the pitch went something like... you know the funny guy from army of the dead.. how about we make a back story about him and drag it out for 2 hours.

 

[Garacesh]

Bloodshot (2020, Netflix)

The plot idea is reasonably interesting, if not too amazingly executed. Lots of Hollywood sci-fi, and a supporting cast that felt criminally under-used. I do wish what's-her-face that played Darling in Baby Driver got more screen-time. She had a reasonable amount of character development but it did feel pretty rushed.

 

An interesting concept, but ultimately ends up being a 'disengage brain, watch an indestructible Vin Diesel beat people up for an hour and a half'. It's fun, but only if you know what you're in for before you start and don't take it too seriously.

 

Probably wouldn't watch it again, but there's worse ways to kill time.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Garacesh

[paulkerton]

The Conjuring : The Devil Made Me Do It

 

Got 2/3rds of the way through and gave up. Nowhere near as good as the first two Conjuring films.

[Jawloms]

Bloodshot (2020, Netflix)

The plot idea is reasonably interesting, if not too amazingly executed. Lots of Hollywood sci-fi, and a supporting cast that felt criminally under-used. I do wish what's-her-face that played Darling in Baby Driver got more screen-time. She had a reasonable amount of character development but it did feel pretty rushed.

 

An interesting concept, but ultimately ends up being a 'disengage brain, watch an indestructible Vin Diesel beat people up for an hour and a half'. It's fun, but only if you know what you're in for before you start and don't take it too seriously.

 

Probably wouldn't watch it again, but there's worse ways to kill time.

 

That's the one where they have a car chase in "London", but suddenly none of the cars have GB plates and the architecture just isn't England at all, and they actually decided to film that bit in Cape Town.

[LeMarchand]

That's the one where they have a car chase in "London", but suddenly none of the cars have GB plates and the architecture just isn't England at all, and they actually decided to film that bit in Cape Town.

 

...and the British police drive around with assorted weapons on display in their vehicles!

[Garacesh]

...and the British police drive around with assorted weapons on display in their vehicles!

 

Lol yeah I noticed that. Random bobbies in their regular ol' cop car aren't exactly going to have a machine gun sat in their lap.

[LeMarchand]

Army of Thieves (Netflix)

 

Prequel to Army of the Dead that is basically safecracker Deiter's origin story. We meet him filming YouTube videos that no-one watches, but he's soon swiftly recruited into a gang that wants him to try to crack 3 infamous safes.

 

Star Matthias Schweighöfer also takes on directing duties and makes Deiter (née Sebastian) a bit less OTT than in "Dead", which saps a bit of the fun from the film and it's also a bit overly long as it has a lot of ground to cover. The Zombie Apocalypse is very much in the background apart from a couple of sequences for those suffering zombie burnout/-phobia, though. I quite enjoyed it but wouldn't say that it's a must watch.

[sonofsanta]

Anyone else seen Dune yet? I've been looking forward to it so much for so long and yet honestly, I came out slightly underwhelmed. It was absolutely gorgeous (so worth seeing on a big screen), the casting is impeccable, the design and aesthetic is staggering, and yet it felt... hollow. One of my friends described it as like having listened to a song for 2½ hours waiting for the drop, and it never landing. I think it's because it was so damned self-important, and in 150 minutes had one single moment of actual humour (with Duncan taking the wossit out of Paul), so no-one ever felt like a real person. I'm not asking for Guardians of the Galaxy, believe me, but Game of Thrones as a (book) series is as epic in scope and political machinations as Dune, and that managed plenty of humanising moments of joking. You need comedy to balance the tragedy and give it depth, to illuminate the characters and give them shape and substance.

 

It is as faithful an adaptation of Dune as you could ever hope to see on the big screen, and maybe that's the problem--it's a different medium. The book gets away with it a bit better by having you see inside the characters's heads, but you can't do that here (not without being super-cheesy, like the 80s version) and so everyone ends up feeling distant and like plot-shaped cardboard.

 

Maybe just a case of inflated expectations from loving the books so much and following the production so closely. I should know better than to get my hopes up, because nothing can ever match them then

[LeMarchand]

Anyone else seen Dune yet? I've been looking forward to it so much for so long and yet honestly, I came out slightly underwhelmed.

 

We're seeing Dune on Saturday, and I'm expecting to feel much the same as you. Villeneuve can handle the ideas and visuals, but I found both Arrival and 2049 too "distant". (Did like Prisoners, though and really must get around to Sicario).

[sonofsanta]

We're seeing Dune on Saturday, and I'm expecting to feel much the same as you. Villeneuve can handle the ideas and visuals, but I found both Arrival and 2049 too "distant". (Did like Prisoners, though and really must get around to Sicario).

 

Arrival I got on with fine--Amy Adams' performance is incredible--but 2049 was the same distance for me, yeah. Like a surreal dreamscape, with not enough to ground me. (My words coming out of Dune were "I feel like I've been in a fugue state".)

 

Sicario is an entirely different kind of film and worth the time, and conversely I need to get round to Prisoners!

[CHiLL]

Dune

I saw Dune at the weekend and really liked it. I've not read the books or seen the 80's film, so the only expectations I had for it were from the trailers and the hype around it. I really enjoyed it and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Very much looking forward to part two.

 

Last Night in Soho

Saw this last night and really liked it. I thought it was going to be more horrory and violent, given it's 18 rating...which I was kind of dreading because I hate jump scare films. But this wasn't that bad in those aspects. Good use of music, as to be expected from Edgar Wright and some really good performances. One thing that did grate on me, was the lead's very childish voice. Once I associated that, I couldn't unhear it.

[LeMarchand]

Love Hard (Netflix)

 

Low key romcom starring Nina Dobrev as a writer whose unfortunate dating history has provided fodder for her column but who yearns for True Love. When she thinks she has found The One, she decides to fly across the country to meet him only to find that things still seem to be stacked against her.

 

Quite sweet, but very slight. Bonus points for having the courage to follow through on it's moral lesson, rather than cheat at the end. Without giving away spoilers (not that many are likely to watch it, nor would I urge people to) but it's somewhat handicapped by the fact that one of the cast looks like a teenager even though he's supposed to be (and is IRL) in his 30s.

[LeMarchand]

Dune (2021) (Cinema)

 

Maybe it was my lowered expectations, but this was better than I expected. The only disappointment for me was that it was yet another with a very muted colour palette. Otherwise, very good with particular shout outs to the amazing sets and the ornithopters. Biggest surprise though was Sharon Duncan Brewster as Liet Kynes, who I've only seen in Intergalactic where she looked scary and seemed to be only able to pull off one-note acting. Here she looked like she could be a planetologist/ecologist and turned in a good performance.

 

Shame it's likely to be a couple of years at least until Part 2.

[Duranis]

We also watched Dune the other night and really enjoyed it. My partner has never read the books or seen the previous adaptions and she still enjoyed it.

 

We also watched APEX. By far one of the worst films I have seen in a long while. Bruce Willis is technically in the film but for the majority of his part in the film its just him walking about some woods. My guess is that he wanted a new car or something and said I will come for 1 day of filming and that's it. Basically feels like a high school film project with some B roll of Bruce Willis spliced in.

 

Not quite bad enough to be good. Was kind of funny watching Bruce Willis literally not caring at all though.

[paulkerton]

Mortal Kombat. Absolute bilge.