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Post by Syrette on Apr 1, 2024 22:58:09 GMT
I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised by it, because I expect it to be terrible.
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Post by Syrette on Apr 1, 2024 23:33:23 GMT
American Fiction - 9/10
Best film I've seen thus far this year. Deftly deals with important subject matters, supremely well acted (Jeffrey Wright has to be my favourite actor going), and is hilarious.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Apr 2, 2024 2:31:06 GMT
Wasn't there a thing where Murphy intentionally refused to be funny in BHC3, and Landis wasn't happy about it. Weird decision, and I forget why. The only thing I remember about it was being very disappointed. Turbulence - 8/10 Passenger 57 meets Cape Fear with Ray Liotta chewing his way through every scene. Lauren Holly is alright, but she’s no leading lady. Great support cast, loads of action and quite a bit of horror in it too. It follows all the 90s action, thriller tropes but always to a high standard, it’s another one where I can’t understand why it didn’t do better / review better at the time. It’s worth watching just for Liotta alone and highly recommended. I had entirely forgotten about that one! (or merged it with Passenger 57 and other Ray Liotta / Airplane action movies of the era) |
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Apr 2, 2024 8:09:36 GMT
Anatomy of a Fall - 9/10 French drama detailing the death of a man via a fall funnily enough and following it through the weirdly conversational and freestyle French court system. It’s filmed almost like a documentary and outside of one piece of music that is part of the story, I don’t think there was a single note throughout. However, the performances throughout are so…real…it just sucked me in and the 2.5hr run time vanished. The writing is great and the way the film slowly unpicks the relationship at the heart of the case was very cool. Loses a point for my brain deciding the husband looked like Alan Davies, which I then couldn’t unsee, and for the slightly unrealistic resolution with the kid who suddenly developed the emotional intelligence of a 40 year old at the end. Other than that though I thought it was superb. The dog should have won an Oscar. Good boy. |
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Post by rhaegyr on Apr 2, 2024 9:46:22 GMT
Probably the most realistic married couple arguments I've ever seen. Totally get the 'real' performances comment - I'd completely believe the prosecution lawyer was actually a lawyer in real life.
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robthehermit
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Subjectively amusing
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Post by robthehermit on Apr 2, 2024 10:18:28 GMT
Meg 2 The Trench.
Somehow manages to be worse than the first film.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Comedy horror that is neither comedic or horrific.
Equalizer 3
Old man takes down mafia. Good fun, better than 2, not as good as 1.
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Apr 2, 2024 10:48:56 GMT
The Outfit, aka Mark Rylance auditions for Alfred Pennyworth. They even give him Michael Caine’s narratorial gimmick from The Prestige, plus he looks just like he does in the comics.
I know I’m a bit late to the party with this one, but it’s floating near the top of my Netflix algorithm so I assume it’s still being pushed as a decent film and worth a watch. It isn’t worth a watch, really. I’ve heard it’s had complaints about feeling extremely like a stage play, and the reason so many people say this is because it’s extremely like a stage play. Not just the fact that everything happens in like two rooms, the performances are missing all of the detail and nuance that a camera can give you, all grand gestures and full body physicality that works at a distance but feels clownish and stilted close up.
This was clearly done on a small budget too, but it lacks the spontenaiety you sometimes get from such indie films. All that is left are the imperfect takes and shonky camerawork. Plus the sets all have that clean-pretending-to-be-dirty feel and other weird details that fall apart under close inspection (why is there is thriving snake plant in the shop in Chicago in the dead of winter? Why is the macguffin tape so obviously anachronistic?).
Mark Rylance and Simon Russell Beale are tremendous, of course. Everything else is not, and when they turned it into Rope halfway through we lost interest. Maybe you’ll make it to the end and maybe it’ll turn out to be a good film, but for us the first half was an increasingly uninteresting 4/10.
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Post by gibroon on Apr 2, 2024 10:59:14 GMT
American Fiction - 9/10 Best film I've seen thus far this year. Deftly deals with important subject matters, supremely well acted (Jeffrey Wright has to be my favourite actor going), and is hilarious. Watched this the other day. It is very good and the whole cast were great. Lovely movie. |
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Post by Dougs on Apr 2, 2024 20:13:45 GMT
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. 7/10. Thought Dan Ackroyd was ace, the love and warmth he has shone through. It hit all the right notes, and being in NY, got the nostalgia feels going. But it felt a bit by the numbers as a result. Biggest criticism is probably that it took a little long to get going but was worth seeing on the big screen and I enjoyed it.
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Post by brokenkey on Apr 2, 2024 21:28:42 GMT
Book of Clarence. 3/10
I thought this was going to be a streetwise comedy in the spirit of Life of Brian, and it sort of is until it turns into a literal redemption story.
Wish I'd stayed at home and watched Life of Brian instead.
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Post by Dougs on Apr 2, 2024 21:55:11 GMT
American Fiction - 9/10 Best film I've seen thus far this year. Deftly deals with important subject matters, supremely well acted (Jeffrey Wright has to be my favourite actor going), and is hilarious. Watched this the other day. It is very good and the whole cast were great. Lovely movie. Just watched this too. Very funny, Wright was indeed excellent. Fully deserves the plaudits. 9/10 also. Btw, can't remember the last time I watched two films in a day. Holidays rock. |
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Post by jimnastics on Apr 3, 2024 10:56:51 GMT
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. 7/10. Thought Dan Ackroyd was ace, the love and warmth he has shone through. It hit all the right notes, and being in NY, got the nostalgia feels going. But it felt a bit by the numbers as a result. Biggest criticism is probably that it took a little long to get going but was worth seeing on the big screen and I enjoyed it. Having not seen any of the other Ghostbusters movies since Ghostbusters 2, I was pleasantly surprised! Kids loved it (though quite scarey for them in places) and the wife and I got the nostalgia hits. Good school holiday family fun. We're going to watch Afterlife at home this coming weekend, a movie I never knew existed before watching Frozen Empire. |
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Post by Dougs on Apr 3, 2024 13:55:33 GMT
I preferred Afterlife but that might be because I was chuffed to see another decent film in that world. My wife preferred Frozen Empire because it was in NY and had even more nostalgia.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Apr 3, 2024 13:59:46 GMT
Even more nostalgia than Afterlife sounds a bit much.
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Bongo Heracles
Junior Member
Technically illegal to ride on public land
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Apr 3, 2024 14:49:39 GMT
It’s not ‘more’ per se, just worse. It doesn’t assault you quite as much with it but it is at the pointless ‘remember this?’ end of the spectrum and shoehorning it all in killed the pacing. Like now it’s set in NY again there is a mandatory but pointless trip back to the library complete with nods to everything other than ‘Alice, are you currently menstruating right now?’.
They shoehorn everything in, really, even the characters which leaves us with three separate strata. The old men are back because they have to be, the kids are back because they have to be and the middle aged people who should be the main cast kind of flap about doing nothing.
They should have binned off at least one level and just had the actual great cast of adults running the show. The old men are too old and the kids make it feel a bit desperate to capture the stranger things vibe.
5/10
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Post by clemfandango on Apr 3, 2024 18:08:27 GMT
The golden child - 7/10
This is objectively not a good movie, but Eddie Murphy is in his prime and all the other actors are having a great time, plus it’s about as 1980s as it comes with a great soundtrack, great fashion, great camera work and some truly shocking special effects. I’m biased because I loved this film as a kid, so if you haven’t seen it before you may have a very different experience.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Apr 3, 2024 22:37:14 GMT
The Settlers - mubi – 8/10
Brutal Western about colonisers of early 1900s Chile. Purely as a Western, it's not particularly novel, but it is based on true events and people from the time. The cinematography is gorgeous and the direction is bleak and effective. Humans are shitheads, basically.
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Post by clemfandango on Apr 4, 2024 16:49:09 GMT
Runaway Train - 9.5/10
Another great movie seemingly lost in time as nobody has heard of it.
Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay star in this 80's action thriller that feels a lot more 1970s in its direction.
Two prisoners on the run board a train that has no driver.
Top Tier acting.
This really is a classic, I've never seen it before and I was gobsmacked at how good it is. It's on Amazon Prime so its a massive recommendation.
Doing this rewatch of 1980s and 1990s action movies has been a real joy, I reckon I'm about 60 in with 40 left to go :-)
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Post by Bill in the rain on Apr 5, 2024 1:59:56 GMT
I can't say I've ever heard of that one. It does look more 70s than 80s, but I think someone had a theory that when we talk about decades in pop culture we're usually half a decade off. Eg, what we think of as 'the 80s' is more like 85-94, etc..
Doesn't look like Rebecca De Mornay either.
If you still have 40 left then I guess there are going to be a bunch more obscure ones to come.
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Apr 5, 2024 5:30:34 GMT
There is some stuff that I’m always surprised is late 70s in both films and music, assuming it is early to mid eighties.
Maybe it depends on when your born as I was at the start of a decade - 70s)
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Post by simple on Apr 5, 2024 6:33:54 GMT
TOTP often throws me because the very early 90s set and fashions haven’t fully escaped the 80s yet and same with early 80s and the 70s
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dmukgr
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Post by dmukgr on Apr 5, 2024 6:51:11 GMT
Oh yeah, early 90s films definately looks like they are 80s too with their dodgy fashions.
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Post by simple on Apr 5, 2024 7:00:10 GMT
Although those two blend backward for me a lot of late 90s stuff blends forward so almost anything nu-metal or from that huge wave of girl and boybands or r’n’b type stuff from 98/99 feels early 2000s to me
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Post by harrypalmer on Apr 5, 2024 8:20:02 GMT
Runaway Train is really great.
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Post by cristar on Apr 5, 2024 11:16:24 GMT
The Untouchables
I remember my friend in school lending me this on a recorded from TV VHS lol. Been a while since I watched it, but put it on for some young Costner because we are currently watching Yellowstone. My missus complained it was boring ffs, but I still think it is great. Do wish De Niro was more used. Connery is great in his Oscar win, even though he is a bit racist.
8.7/10
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Post by rhaegyr on Apr 5, 2024 13:11:18 GMT
Incredible soundtrack from Morricone too. The main motif is gorgeous.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Apr 5, 2024 13:21:45 GMT
Dunno how anyone could think The Untouchables is boring.
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Post by britesparc on Apr 5, 2024 14:55:03 GMT
Fantastic Four (2005) **
I always defended this film as being pretty lightweight but otherwise a fairly fun romp, if skewing younger than most comic book adaptations. On a rewatch, however, its flaws are more manifest. It bowls along in a haphazard, ridiculous fashion, not giving any relationships or plot beats time to germinate; and the action scenes are perfunctory and bland. It's not really about anything, and nothing really happens; and the very dated visual effects don't help. Where it really excels is the cast; Gruffudd and Alba are fine (Sue given a fair whack of stuff to do, Reed sadly a bit too "boy genius"), but Chiklis and especially Evans are superb, bringing heart and humour respectively. Evans burns off the screen, no pun intended; he's by a considerable margin the film's biggest asset. Its weakest link, though, is Julian McMahon as Doom; he's fine in terms of doing what he's asked to do, but it's so one-note, bland, and absolutely nothing like Doctor Doom. He's more like John Shea's Lex Luthor from Lois and Clark. Anyway, there's some fun to be had, but it's definitely a weak film.
(Disney+)
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Post by peacemaker on Apr 5, 2024 21:40:53 GMT
Monkey man! Indian John wick but a far better movie than John wick.
9
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Post by Syrette on Apr 5, 2024 21:49:03 GMT
Monkey man! Indian John wick but a far better movie than John wick. 9 Can't wait for that, not sure I can hold out for home release. |
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