The last movie I saw was...

[Sagima]

Watched the most recent of the Die Hard (A Good Day to) movies at the weekend. They really shouldn't have bothered.

 

It's probably on par with Live Free or Die Hard, maybe slightly less well written. Certainly not a scratch on Die Harder.

 

John goes to Russia to look for his son, gets embroiled in evil russian nuclear plot, ends up in Ukraine, saves the world(?) - basically the sort of thing most NYPD officers probably get up to on their holidays.

 

Still it doesn't go on for very long and lots of things/people get shot, blown up and presumably the protagonists will have died from radiation related diseases before too long so I won't need to watch anymore of them (unless his daughter takes over as the lead).

 

As a plus it did lead me to read the wikipedia entry on the Chernobyl disaster which was very interesting - far more so than the movie.

 

If you can watch it for free then by all means do so but I think they should be dissuaded from doing any more and as money appeared to be their sole interest in doing this film it's probably best we stop them from making anything more from it.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Sagima

[LeMarchand]

Now You See Me

 

A team of magicians (think Dynamo rather than Gandalf) with different specialities are recruited to form a "super act" whose shows climax in a lot of money being stolen and redistributed. (But somehow they can't be locked up because then the authorities would have to admit that magic was real). FBI guy Mark Ruffalo and professional debunker Morgan Freeman are both on their trail.

 

Totally preposterous, but a lot of fun. Moves quickly enough that you don't have time to consider how the heck it makes any sense. The only thing that bugged me whilst viewing (lots of questions popped up after the film!) was Morgan's motivation, which seemed to be that he wanted to stop "con men" - but no-one actually believes that magic acts are real, surely?

[sonofsanta]

So on my recent transatlantic flights...

 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is better the second time once there's not the weight of expectation on it and you can just relax and enjoy it. Not sure who has more sexual tension; Finn & Poe or Hux & Kylo. I am also now convinced that Kylo Ren is the Snape and is not actually evil but either (a) a plant (b) trying to force himself to be when he really isn't.

 

Crimson Peak by Guillermo del Toro, with Tom Hiddleston and other fancy names. Very moody & gothic, fantastic creature design (ofc), but there wasn't enough plot in the second half--enough revelations--to keep momentum and suspense high.

 

Creed aka Rocky 7. I'm a sucker for a Rocky movie anyway, but this was solidly done, very engaging & enjoyable, great acting and characters throughout, and that fight cinematography! Gorgeous. Absolutely one of the best Rocky films, up there with 1 & 2.

 

Victor Frankenstein with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Again, gorgeous production, but... idk. Didn't feel meaty or engaging enough. Enjoyable, but not quite satisfying, y'know?

 

And then also watched Horns on Netflix over the weekend which was both darker than I was expecting and better. Daniel Radcliffe's accent is atrocious (par for the course with his acting, tbh) but the story was great. Actually very enjoyable and, importantly, satisfying.

[LeMarchand]

I am also now convinced that Kylo Ren is the Snape and is not actually evil but either (a) a plant (b) trying to force himself to be when he really isn't.

 

Unless what he does to "that person" is all a fake out, I'm having difficulty going with that theory.

[sonofsanta]

Unless what he does to "that person" is all a fake out, I'm having difficulty going with that theory.

 

It's in line with the "Snape kills Dumbledore" moment from HP for me--part of the cover. Or, if it's (b), trying to sever his last connection to the light side. I reckon we'll see a redemption arc from Kylo, and his guilt at what he did then.

[Garacesh]

(b) trying to force himself to be when he really isn't.

I'm having difficulty going with that theory.

 

I agree with @sonofsanta.. He's trying to force himself to be. He's seen the power of the Dark Side and he wants a piece of that pie, but he's not really 100% convinced it's for him. We see parts in the movie where he's kind of giving himself a pep-talk, and I feel that when he did "that thing he did", he was trying to force himself fully over to the Dark Side.. Kind of like "If I don't make the commitment, I'll be weak."

 

I fully expect we'll see a redemption ark, though (either that, or Rei struggling with Dark/Light.. One of them has to, it'd be boring otherwise )

[LeMarchand]

I reckon we'll see a redemption arc from Kylo, and his guilt at what he did then.

 

I think you're right there. It happened to his analogue in RotJ! So - Star Wars VIII:The First Order Retaliate & Star Wars IX:The Jedi Arise...

[sparkeh]

Finally got round to seeing Ant-Man and I loved it!

 

I really like the Marvel productions that are less *crash* *bang* *kerthump* *whizz* *whizz* *boom* *the end* and a bit more interesting/funny.

 

Ant-Man, Jessica Jones, Daredevil =

 

Avengers, Iron Man = meh...

[jdoyle]

watched Die Hard II for the umpteenth time at the weekend. So bad

[Simcfc73]

I watched Pixels at 6am on Sunday with my 6 month old who really likes early mornings.

 

It was ok, nice to see the old computer game characters... Adam Sandler does look like he is going through the motions in it... shame as Happy Gilmour was ace.

[Boredguy]

I also watched Pixels this weekend... mainly as there was not much else on TV Friday night. Wasn't too bad but certainly not one that was worthy of a cinema release.

Also watched Enders game and tbh I was glad when it ended.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I finally watched The Force Awakens for the first time last week and though it was - mostly - excellent!

 

Good characters, decent story, suitably dark, hints of a backstory (but not enough in my eyes), excellent bad guy in Ren, boy does he have anger issues!

 

THAT event was not so shocking as it's hard to avoid details for so long, but I agree that he's heading one of two ways here. It'll either send him fully Dark Side and he'll be a force to contend with, after all he's done some pretty horrible things already(jedi academy for example) or it'll knock his focus and allow a trained Rey to best him leaving Luke to face off against Snoke in IX.

@Domino mentioned this to me earlier in the year but I agree that they've mad the lightsabers suitably terrifying. Its refreshing to see a character look petrified when a blade is that close to them (as well they should)

 

All in all an excellent return to the universe and far far FAR better than the prequel trilogy.

[Garacesh]

they've mad the lightsabers suitably terrifying.

There's actually a good chunk of lore surrounding Kylo's lightsaber, it's a shame they didn't go into it on the film, but the tl;dr is that the crystal he uses is damaged, so he's gone with a much older design that vents out excess energy (thus, the crossguard), but the damage also makes the beam less stable.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

There's actually a good chunk of lore surrounding Kylo's lightsaber, it's a shame they didn't go into it on the film, but the tl;dr is that the crystal he uses is damaged, so he's gone with a much older design that vents out excess energy (thus, the crossguard), but the damage also makes the beam less stable.

 

 

Yeah I read that bit too. I like Ren's older style saber it's nice to see him use it like a broadsword too. But in general, I think they've made character's reactions to facing the most deadly hand to hand weapon in the galaxy much more genuine. Unless you're a fully-trained Jedi, it's fair to assume that facing somebody wielding a humming blade of pure fiery death would be the most underwear-spoiling thing they've ever done and I think they convey this pretty well

[Garacesh]

facing somebody wielding a humming blade of pure fiery death would be the most underwear-spoiling

Take a leaf out of the henchmen in Deadpool's book.. Wear the brown pants

[CHR1S]

Been watching the latter Saw movies, V.VI and 3D, ok for a bit of gore.... but very little else.

[sparkeh]

Into the grizzly maze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKoFtLoYZ_0

 

mrs sparkeh's review: "Enjoyable toss"

[LeMarchand]

The Huntsman: Winter's War

 

 

Pre/Sequel to "Snow White and the Huntsman". Pre- sets up a Frozen/Snow Queen scenario with a touch of the White Witch from Narnia as it's revealed that evil queen Ravenna from the first film had a sister who, driven to despair by the murder of her baby, sets herself up as the Queen of the Northern lands stealing children and training them up as her personal army - which is how we get The Huntsman. Se- writes out Snow White and sends The Huntsman on a quest to destroy the magic mirror, but he finds that events in his past may not have happened the way he believed.

 

Not bad if you like this sort of thing. I do wish that Hollywood would wake up to the fact that if they want to show that they are colourblind then they should realise that there are more ethnicities than black and white...

 

Can't remember Chris Hemsworth doing such a broad Scottish accent it the first one and although the actual accents sounded fine to me, it was odd hearing him and Jessica Chastain talking in brogue.

 

Shout out to Nick Frost who I have seen play both a dwarf (in this) and a giant (in Galavant). Guy's got range...

Edited April 20, 2016 by LeMarchand
Added trailer + accent comment

[LeMarchand]

Pixels

 

Not as bad as popular opinion might suggest. Didn't make a lick of sense, but quite fun nonetheless.

[Joanne]

Four Lions

 

I don't know how I felt about this. Funny, but also quite sad.

[Norphy]

I found it rather depressing. I don't think I'd bother watching it again.

[Joanne]

I found it rather depressing. I don't think I'd bother watching it again.

 

Yeah... like taking advantage of stupid people...

[sonofsanta]

It's both for me. Absolutely hilarious ("Where did you buy the bleach, Fass?"), but definitely ends as a tragedy, as you realise how they've all been railroaded into this position they were told they wanted but none of them actually do. The part where he has to say goodbye to his wife at the hospital... yeesh. Very effective social commentary, to me, really sneaks its punches in under the humour.

[LeMarchand]

Bastille Day

 

 

Idris Elba plays a rough, tough, CIA operative who doesn't play by the rules (amazingly not divorced with a drinking problem) who teams up with American pickpocket in Paris Richard "King o' The North" Madden when the latter steals Charlotte Le Bon's bag that, unbeknownst to him, contains a bomb. "B" movie fodder, but a pleasant enough way to pass the time. It was odd having the 3 main "Americans" played by Brits (Kelly Reilly is the CIA boss lady) and the accents were a bit shonky. Charlotte Le Bon appears to have had her teeth straightened since "The Hundred Foot Journey"; hopefully she won't have full-on American tombstone teeth in her next film.

[sparkeh]

Got round to seeing to Batman vs Superman and it was... kinda ok...ish

 

Problems:

 

• A lot of the early story didn't make a heap of sense, Batman seemed way too angry at Superman way too quickly for little reason
  
• What is *chuckle* Jesse *heehee* *twitch* Eisenberg doing with...LexLutherandhisbabbleddialogueandtwitches. So, so irritating. But then I find him intensely irritating in most roles
  
• Amy Adams has very little to work with playing Lois Lane which was a shame
  
• Ben Affleck's workout scene was the campest thing I have seen in a long, long time. Not against camp but was not in keeping with the rest of the film
  
• As I watched the section where Wonder Woman is watching the videos of the other Meta Humans, I had to check that hadn't fallen asleep and woken up during a trailer for forthcoming DC films
  

 

On the plus side, Affleck seems to have made a decent fist of playing Batman. Wonder Woman was a great character and I very much enjoyed, albeit briefly, Jeremy Iron's take on Alfred.