CraigFowler
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Posts posted by CraigFowler
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22 hours ago, BFTD said:
Can't remember if I mentioned it at the time, but I really liked that film. An interesting idea to essentially follow Jason plodding around while the protagonists of a Friday the 13th film are doing whatever we'd normally be focused on. You get to see/hear them in the background doing some of the tropes inherent in these films, and there's a bit of humour that comes from knowing that's what's happening, but we really don't care about any of it. We're just stomping about in the forest with the big man, giving zero shits and waiting for someone to cross our path that needs murdered.
Wouldn't mind seeing it again, thinking about it. I even quite liked the ending, which reminded me a bit of No Country for Old Men, but I can totally see why people would have found it a massive letdown. I'm not sure people who didn't grow up watching slasher flicks would get a lot out of it either. Also really don't think it requires a sequel, but it's getting one and I've been wrong before...
Edit: there's also a bit of the Ride in the Park segment of V/H/S 2, which was a similarly unusual take on the zombie genre.
IYKYK
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77. Maxxxine
Weird that I've watched all three films in this trilogy when I wasn't entirely fussed by the first one, but Mia Goth just has such a magnetic screen presence and I like the spunkiness (pun intended) of the character. Think I just about preferred this to the first with the sights and sounds of 80s Hollywood, as well as some landmarks from cinema history, preferable to a rural farmhouse. And despite the expansiveness of LA there's a sense of claustrophobia as the net tightens around Maxine as the film continues. Though it's not a patch on Pearl and Goth's demented performance. There are a lot of flaws with it: it lacks depth, a couple of the kills are disappointingly off-screen and I wasn't entirely enamoured by the killer's reveal. But it's decent fun, even if one scene almost made me shudder out of my skin.
78. In A Violent Nature
I liked this way more than I would've imagined. It was both a hark back to the classic 'slasher' film of old, with the killer a lumbering, powerful menace in the mould of Jason or Leatherface. Yet it always felt quite original to me with the way it was constructed. The camera largely follows the killer and you never see any other character except when they're in the scene. Some of the shots were very cool as well, especially the pan above his head during one kill scene so you're floating above the action. The killer takes his time and so does the movie. It's never frenetic and it helps add to the tension and doesn't at any point become too ridiculous. And the kill scenes? Jesus suffering christ! There's a couple in particular that are going to stick in my head for a long time. I also appreciated how they handled the lore of the movie. There's one expedition dump scene as expected (but it's round a campfire in the dark, so it's naturally a strength – and again, it's very well shot) but as the movie progresses you learn that version of events may not entirely be accurate, and in the end it keeps its mystique. As for the ending itself, I can imagine it'll feel a bit flat for a lot of people, but I liked it. Again, it was something a little different. My favourite horror movie of the year so far.
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74. Despicable Me 4
Forgot I'd watched this, which mostly tells you what you need to know. I liked the stuff with Baby Gru taking a while to warm to his father, while the villain(s) were decent enough without being particularly special. I prefer the Minions so this side of the franchise. I know that means they're going to be relegated to side characters in these tales but even for a DM film I felt they were either too marginalised, or what they were given wasn't that funny. It's fine. If you've got kids I imagine it'll keep them satisfied and it's watchable for adults, just not much more than that.
75. Hotel Rwanda
Expected big things from this. It's a conflict I've always had a curious (and probably morbid) fascination with, I think Don Cheadle is terrific and it is a film I've often spotted in the IMDB top 250 of all time. Given all that, I have to say I was disappointed. The 90s aesthetic and the sound was a big reason for that. It often felt too Hollywood-ised, which distracted from the impact of what should have been the most gripping and/or harrowing scenes. The entire film being in English is another example of that. It just didn't feel authentic. I don't want to be too hard on it as it was made in a different time and had it been shot in 2024 I know it would have looked and sounded very different, but it still surprises me it's so well revered all this time later. To be clear, I would say it was good but not great. Not as great as it should have been.
76. Alien: Romulus
I liked this more than I thought I would, but there's still a lot of issues with the film. May as well start of there. I didn't really give a toss about any of the characters barring the two main leads and the other protagonists, pretty much from the very start, just came across as barely, or cliche, written, though one of them does end up making a difference to the story, which I didn't see coming. The CGI use on one character in particular is appalling. It looks like a cut scene from a video game and took me out of the movie every single time they showed up. There was one acting performance as well which was pretty uninspired as well. And some of the fan service stuff, including one scene in particular, was eye-rolling.
As for the positives, for the most part it looked great. The set was very well designed, some of the shots in space were stunning and the editing worked well in some of the more thrilling scenes to keep the tension at a high. Both of the leads are good in their parts, especially David Jonsson and there are some pretty gnarly death scenes, even if one of them fell a bit flat due to aforementioned bad acting. The twist at the end was also something I didn't see coming. It was a big swing in this franchise but I think it just managed to pull it off.
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Let my movie watching slip a little around my birthday week...
71. Thelma
After The Great Escaper last year I'm really enjoying how greater representation of marginalised people has led to capers about octogenarian/nonagenarians breaking out and going on a personal mission. This was more of an outright comedy but still had the perfect amount of pathos to it; posed a lot of interesting questions about when the time is right to admit you need help just to get through the day to day, thereby giving up your independence and a big part of who you are as a person. It's consistently funny and June Squibb and Richard Roundtree were both excellent in the lead roles. A very good movie.
72. Kneecap
Love, love, love this. I previously called Hundreds of Beavers the funniest movie of the year, but this might top it for me. I laughed consistently from the very first scene. The three members of KNEECAP all played themselves and did a very good job, which points to really strong direction from Rich Peppiatt. The background of Irish sectarianism and the fight to have the indigenous language kept alive as a means of fighting oppression was a very powerful one. I found myself feeling a bit emotional at a couple of scenes with regards to this near the film's conclusion, though that could easily be down to the hangover I was experiencing while watching at the GFT. Yes, the film is a bit of a mess structurally, but the chaos adds to the story and kept it fresh for me. Besides, all the main threads that you have to pay attention to run through the story as expected, so it's not like you get lost. I've also been listening to their 2024 album since the film came out and think it's f*****g great. Can't wait to hear more from them.
73. Oddity
Low budget, Shudder-produced horror. I enjoyed the premise as a blind psychic sets out to find out what happened after her twin sister was brutally murdered. There are a number of very creepy scenes and some well-done jump-scares. Downsides were that the budget couldn't be stretched to make the ending more believable than it looked, while it also uncovers a fairly big plot hole from earlier in the film. Also, the final shot was a bit naff and featured the weakest actor in the entire movie. Still, it was a horror flick that didn't bore me and give me the chills on a good few occasions, so worth checking out.
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60. The First Omen
I'm probably a little more down on this than I would normally be, but it was hard not to continuously compare it to Immaculate while watching, a film I really... well, liked is too strong a word, but it was a horror movie that affected me more than any film I've seen this year. TFO actually is a bit more consistent with its lore and story, but it doesn't have the pure 'WTF is happening?!' terror of Immaculate's final scene. I did like the way it pointed the audience toward one conclusion the whole way before throwing a curveball, even if the very ending itself was a bit drab. It's creepy, well-acted and while it plays a bit with the mythology, which will annoy some fans of the origin, it's a well-crafted origin story.
61. Hotel Transylvania
Wouldn't say it was particularly hilarious or memorable, but it was good, light, Sunday afternoon fun.
62. Chuck, Chuck Baby
A musical in the way that the TV show 'Blackpool' was a musical, with the actors singing along to established pop songs which play over the top – a technique I don't mind at all. It manages to be both depressing and uplifting at the same time. The characters felt very real and grounded. On the one hand, their lives were very miserable, stuck in a rundown, austerity-stricken town, but on the other hand there was a lot of joy to be had in friendships and a newly-discovered love which offers fresh hope for the future. The cast are great, but Celyn Jones' portrayal of Gary was the highlight for me. He was such a complete and utter b*****d, but a comical bad guy. The kind where you'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't so damn pathetic. This had a very small release so I'd throughly recommend trying to hunt it out.
63. Hundreds of Beavers
If this was 20 minutes shorter then it would have been in serious contention for my movie of the year. I knew it was absurdist and slapstick comedy going in, but I wasn't prepared for a movie which is essentially a looney tunes sketch stretched over almost two hours. The first 10 minutes I sat there going "is this going to be like this for the entire runtime". Thankfully I soon settled in and really enjoyed it. For me it's the funniest film this year, but it definitely gets a bit repetitive and too slow in advancing the story as it gets beyond the hour mark. Cut it down and this would have been a 10/10 for me. I'd still recommend it for anyone who likes physical comedy.
64. Young Woman and the Sea
The story of Gertrude Ederle, the first women to swim the Channel. A biopic that reminded me of the type you'd sometimes see on Sky Movies and be called something like The Michael Jordan Story or The Tiger Woods Story, where there was some merit to them but largely they were a bit of fluff. Don't get me wrong, it's so much better than those, but the way it told the story, hitting all the major beats of her life leading up to her major sporting accomplishment, was something of a throwback. The first half of the movie is the main problem with it. It tries to cover too much and just ends up going from scene to scene too quickly. But once it gets to her making the first of two attempts to swim the Channel it really comes into its own. By the end I was rooting for her like I didn't know how the story would end and shed some tears when she finally did it.
65. The Bikeriders
This didn't do it for me. A rise and fall of a biker club. Like a condensed Sons of Anarchy. Better acted and directed, no doubt, but without any many likeable characters, secondary or otherwise. Also, the Jodie Comer narration was just pointless and, quite frankly, a little annoying. Because she's Jodie Comer I'll assume she nailed the accent, but that nail was also being scrapped down a blackboard.
66. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Move over Anyone But You, there's new WORST MOVIE OF THE YEAR champion. Christ, what happened to this series? It's supposed to be an action/cop franchise with a bit of humour sprinkled throughout it, mainly due to the terrific chemistry of the two leads. Now it's just a full-out comedy with a ridiculous plot (yes, even more than the first movie) and a bunch of improbable action set-pieces. And that would be fine if it was actually funny, but it really wasn't. I laughed at it many more times than I laughed with it. I would've been a better movie if Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) died of that heart attack at the start.
67. Longlegs
Very creepy with a real sense of dread hanging over things. Very Silence of the Lambs, but for one major difference which I think is the problem with this film, and that's Nicolas Cage's performance. It'd be obvious to say he's not Anthony Hopkins, but I generally think he gets a bad rap and enjoy a lot of his movies, even when he's hamming it up. The issue is that Cage is known for hamming it up, so when he went full coo-coo with the character in this one, I just instinctively wanted to laugh and it took me out of the film. I kept seeing Nicolas Cage and not 'Longlegs'. Another actor without such a storied history for going OTT, or a relative unknown, would've been better and made this a more effective movie.
68. Deadpool and Wolverine
Didn't have much hope going in, but they were elevated spectacularly with the opening scene in which Deadpool kills a bunch of guys with Logan's corpse while Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC plays. I laughed throughout and thought 'this is f***ing great!' Unfortunately the rest of the film didn't live up to that. It was funny, but like every Marvel movie where they turn the humour up to 11, I ended up not giving a single shit about any of the characters. The fan-service was off the scale, the fourth-wall-breaking went too far even for a Deadpool film and it still wasn't as funny as the original. I liked it better than Deadpool 2 though.
69. Babes
A comedy about two friends, one facing the aftermath of (a second) pregnancy, the other experiencing it for the first time. It does a lot of really nice things about subverting expectations and not going with the standard Hollywood tropes for what pregnancy is, so it's got a strong message running through it. The major issue is that it's just not funny. Think I laughed twice.
70. Dune: Part Two
For spectacle and sound, yep you can't get much better than this. I just don't really care about sci-fi stories where there's a lot of world-building going on. There's so many exposition scenes throughout the two movies and I still only really understood about 80 per cent of what was going on and why. And that's because it was just mentally easy to check out of it. The type of movie where I'll admit it's very good but it just isn't for me.
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On 26/07/2024 at 21:19, Hedgecutter said:
Requiem For a Dream.
Lasted half an hour before saying "it's only 9pm, let's quit this overrated p*sh and put decent on instead".
The OH considered The Meg instead. The f***ing Meg.
PS. Jennifer Connolly definitely improves with age.
Requiem For a Dream is one of my favourite movies, if not my favourite, that I'll never watch again. I thought it was exceptional. I find it surprising you'd turn it off after 30 minutes. It's not like it's overly pretentious or it's a very slow burn where nothing happens.
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I've been bad at keeping up with this, so here's a massive dump of movies I've seen for the first time recently...
46. Muriel's Wedding
A weirder film than I assumed. It's pretty funny in parts but not as much as I wanted it to be and surprisingly dark in others. The scene where Rhonda tells Tania about her husband cheating and then her and Muriel sing ABBA is absolutely iconic, though.
47. The Beautiful Game
Hated this. The football chat really grated on me - like most films that try to tackle it, you're left with the impression that neither writer, director nor actor is a football fan - the acting was poor overall, the characters half-written and the lead character was unsufferable.
48. Sting
Also pretty crap. More boring than scary and very predictable.
49. A Quiet Place: Day One
A good prequel even if it's still the weakest of the three movies. The creatures are becoming less scary with each installment and felt they were almost secondary to the plot of this. That said, I liked the different take on the genre by centring it around a character with a terminal illness and Lupita Nyong'o puts in a really strong performance. If, like me, you're a big fan of the Quiet Place world then I'd recommend watching it.
50. Inside Out 2
Saw this as a double bill with the above, so you could see it was a prequel/sequel day. Also very good and lived up to my expectations. This was the film coming out this year which I was looking forward to the most. The introduction of anxiety as a character was incredibly relatable and, even as someone who has went through therapy/counselling, I still felt it helped me understand my own emotions even more, so kids should get a lot out of it. I also like the fact they condensed the story and didn't just make it about going through the first few months of high school, which is where most filmmakers would've taken it. The biggest downside is that it's not as funny as the first film.
51. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Loved this, which made the film all the more impressive to me because I'm typically not a fan of slow burn movies in which there's more tense silences than there is dialogue (see my review of Brokeback Mountain as comparison). There was just such strong sexual tension and chemistry between the two leads that it was impossible not to be transfixed by it.
52. Beverley Hills Cop: Axel F
It's better than what I assumed Beverley Hills Cop 4 would be when I first heard it was getting made. It's got a few funny moments and some fun action set-pieces. It is predictable as f**k though.
53. Minions: The Rise of Gru
Halfway through this I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be one of my favourite comedy films of all time. I was laughing so consistently and liked how they'd dialled up the chaos compared to the first movie. But it lagged a little bit in the second half. Still very good fun, though.
54. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Thought this would be 'Falling Down' for millennials, but it ended up being something different. I was fully on board and thought it'd end up being one of my favourite moments of the year, but the ending really spoiled a lot of it for me. I thought it was a cautionary tale about revenge and vigilantism, subverting the genre because so many movies glorify this sort of behaviour, but it kinda copped out of that at the last second and now I'm not entirely sure what the point of it was. It was still entertaining viewing though and a lot funnier than I thought it would be. I also liked the sleazy, run-down feel to it.
55. Arcadian
Not particularly scary and I didn't care all that much about what happened to the characters. I liked the design of the creatures better than what most reviews of it have said, but their powers were very inconsistent throughout the film, depending on whether a main character was in peril or not. I wouldn't recommend.
56. Cinema Paradiso
Seeing as it's considered one of the greatest films of all time, I was a bit let down by this. It's a good enough movie, but I don't really get the hype. A nice story about friendship and a love-letter to cinema. The bittersweet relationship with the medium is all the more relevant now than it was when it was initially made. But I didn't really get why Salvatore (Toto) was told or felt the need to stay away from his hometown for so long (this is big in the conclusion to the film) and I felt it dragged at points.
57. In Flames
A bit more creepy than the other horrors I've seen over the last month, but again I didn't find it particularly scary. I don't often mind in movies when you're not presented with the mythology behind whatever is attacking the protagonists, but I could've done with an exposition dump scene about halfway through this to help me understand what was going on. The ending answered some questions but left many more lingering. It does have some very good shots in it, I must say.
58. I Saw The TV Glow
On the one hand, this is 90s nostalgia done just right. I really enjoyed the look of this: all the pastel colours and the 90s TV show clips were absolutely dead on. The soundtrack was also very enjoyable. But on the other hand, it's very much style over substance. I kept getting intrigued that the story was going to go somewhere interesting but it never got there and the ending was a let down.
59. 3 Idiots
Watched this last night and really, really enjoyed it. Despite it's lengthy runtime (not long short of 3 hours) I wasn't really bored at any point, with perhaps the exception of one singing scene midway through. Thought it was just going to be a wacky comedy, but it's much deeper than that. Ended up being a real feelgood movie with many likeable, and some very unlikeable, characters and poses interesting questions about the education system not only in India but the wider world in general. I liked it so much that it dominated my dreams and I woke up in a really good mood as a result.
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May is, understandably, probably my busiest time of the year except the Christmas period, so I've been slacking on keeping up to date on this thread. Still managed to get in a good few movies though, both at home and at the cinema, which I'll rattle through now.
34. Challengers
I really enjoyed this. I liked the dynamic between the characters, the way it was told across different timelines, how much it seemed to understand tennis, and I particularly enjoyed the music. There was only one scene in which the OTT techno beat didn't work for me, and felt they should have gone with something a little less intrusive (or no music at all) but any other use of it worked perfectly. It's funny in parts, it's tense just about the rest of the time and I was satisfied with what could be perceived as an abrupt ending.
35. Abigail
A lot of fun. Always a sucker for a heist (or in this case, kidnapping) movie in which you get the lowdown of every character in one scene, and this did that well. There's a lot of humour and a lot of cartoonish gore. Horror comedies are a very difficult balance and this slanted towards the comedy aspect a lot more, but I laughed consistently and there was just the right amount of tension. My main (and only) gripe is that it's 20 minutes too long, especially as the ending is pretty crap compared to the rest.
36. Boy Kills World
Similar to Abigail in many ways. Funny and lots of OTT violence, but with some impressive martial arts combat. Telling the story through the mind of the narrator rather than his voice was fun, and H. Jon Benjamin must have one of the best comedy voices in the world. Was also impressed with Bill Skarsgård, who did a lot of fine acting without the ability to talk. The big problem with the film is the balance between the comedy and the back story, which is really, really dark. It worked for me until the last 20 minutes or so, when it completely forgot about the comedy aspect, when then leaves you wondering "so what story were you trying to tell here?" I also saw (half of) the twist coming. All the same, I liked it.
37. The Idea of You
Pretty rubbish but not awful. Presents a good question of why it's OK for older famous men to date much younger women, but when the reversal happens everyone flips out, but it's too much of a bog-standard, cliched rom-com to do anything more than loosely pull at that thread. Also, by making the male love interest mega-famous, and therefore that in itself becoming a huge issue, it kinda loses that thread even further.
38. Brokeback Mountain
Finally got around to watching this. I'm really not into slow-paced movies where there's a lot of stoic brooding and people not really saying much, so I was a bit restless for points of this, which is over two hours long. However, Heath Ledger is absolutely superb. It's one of the best acting performances I've maybe ever seen. It's also, undeniably a very important film, especially for the time. It really shows how much we've moved as a society where the name of this film used to be an homophobic punchline for about a decade. Ahead of its time and an impressive piece of work, even if it moved a little slowly for my tastes.
39. The Fall Guy
I disagree with other commenters, and some reviewers, who say Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have chemistry in this. Comedic chemistry, perhaps, but romantic chemistry absolutely not. There were also a couple of scenes where they kicked the arse out of the joke so much that I started to cringe in my seat. It's also too long and the "twist" is very predictable. And yet, in spite of all those flaws, I had a good time watching it. It's dumb, popcorn fun. The stunts are impressive, especially the manner in which they were able to inject so much comedy into them. Gosling has got serious skills as a comedic actor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was nailed the part of the A-lister douchebag. And it's got a great performance from a French-speaking dog.
40. Blockers
Essentially, supposedly-smart-but-actually-dumb parents try to interfere in their kids' lives and end up being more immature than the teenagers, especially when they consistently don't listen to reason. It's fairly by the numbers, but it was decent enough. Leslie Mann can do these types of movies in her sleep, John Cena was a pleasant surprise and the redemptive arc of Ike Barinholtz's character was my favourite part of the film. The kids themselves are all pretty likeable and easy to spend time with. It passed the time with a few laughs.
41. Along Came Polly
Never fancied this at the time it came out and I was right to avoid it for so many years. It's a better acted movie than I thought it was going to be, but I barely laughed at all during the runtime (and this is ME we're talking about here) and neither liked Ben Stiller nor Jennifer Aniston in their respected roles.
42. Battle of the Sexes
This was on my list to watch since it came out in 2017, but I wouldn't say it was worth the wait. I liked it, but I was a bit disappointed overall. It's an enjoyable enough watch, I guess I just expected a bit more. It took me a while to put my finger on exactly why and I think it's trying to be too much at once. It's about equality, social injustice, sexism and fighting back against all of that - but it's also a comedy. That tone is down to Steve Carrell's take on the gregarious showman that was Bobby Riggs. I've since said reviews that criticised the film for making him too sympathetic, but I've also seen it written that the portrayal was fairly accurate. Yes, he had outdated views, not uncommon at all for the time, but he was viewed as a decent person and someone Billy Jean King herself liked very much. So we skip between them throughout the run time, but also get King's affair with her secretary (changed to her hairdresser in the film). This, like the portrayal of Riggs, was true to life, but sometimes you need to take more of a creative license in order to make a better movie. The comedic aspect jarred with King's story and what she was fighting for as Emma Stone's portrayal comes across almost adrift in her own film. In the end, the creators tried to fit in too much and ended up making something that was just a bit too vanilla to be memorable.
43. Scoop
I'm a sucker for films about the journalistic process so this was very much in my wheelhouse, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Rufus Sewell is brilliant as the nonce prince, but I shall reserve some extra praise for Billie Piper who excelled in the main role. I also liked the way Keeley Hawes' character underlined how the royals a) can get away with having a prominent member as a big fat sex offender, and b) why they thought it was in any way a good idea to stick him on television in the first place. Because both have the same reason, the disturbing revery towards them and how some people just don't think they can do any wrong.
44. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Loved it. Absolutely loved it. At almost 150 minutes runtime I had my reservations going in, but it gripped my attention from the first minute to the last. It's a terrific spectacle. Chris Hemsworth really shines in his role and Anya Taylor-Joy is excellent as she is in everything. The action scenes are incredible and I did appreciate that the story slowed down and revved back up again, unlike Fury Road which was pretty much a chase scene from start to finish. Though it is almost literally hell on earth, I enjoy spending time in The Wasteland. The world-building elements worked for me. I didn't think Fury Road could be topped but, for me, this did it.
45. Hit Man
Writing this not long after coming back from the cinema to see this. As it wasn't reviewed on Kermode and Mayo (have a feeling there was no press screenings as it's a Netflix production) I didn't really know what to expect and only saw a brief summary of the plot. Turns out, it's a very fun but also very well made movie. Glen Powell was last seen assisting Sydney Sweeney and their fellow cast members to stink up the joint in my least favourite film of the year so far, Anyone But You, but he very much makes up for it here. He really gets to show off his charm and have a lot of fun playing different characters within the one role (his American Psycho impression had me giggling away). It was a little difficult to buy him as a geeky, unlovable loner when he still looks like Glen Powell. Also, they brought back the 'ugly duckling' Hollywood cliche of just needing to remove glasses and get a better haircut to truly be your best self (I was half-expecting a Rachael Leigh Cook cameo), but I did believe him as someone putting on ice-cool confidence instead of that being the real him. As an intended comedy, there are several funny moments and some strong supporting performances, but it was also very tense at times and he has some real chemistry with the female love interest (whom I hadn't seen before). I even liked the scenes where it goes back to him teaching his students about psychology and morality, as I found them interesting.
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31. Love Lies Bleeding
Not what I expected from the trailer, which made it seem almost like a Thelma & Louise style on-the-run movie but with a lesbian romance at the heart of it. The latter part is accurate, but it's more a film about obsession, the blinding impact of love, trauma, retribution and dysfunctional family dynamics. It's also way more violent than I imagined. At points it drifts across into horror-film territory. I genuinely regarded it as bit of a weird story and then there was a choice near the very end which took me out of it entirely. There were also a few jarring tone shifts. Not the worst but I expected and hoped it would be better.
32. Bros
A hyper-sexualised romantic comedy that's about a gay couple rather than a straight one. Was disappointed to hear this has flopped at the box office but not surprised at all. As my partner and I both remarked to each other after about 20 minutes into the movie, very regrettably, that it was strange to see what was so obviously a Hollywood movie, with the sheen and gloss of a typical US romcom, but with the romance at the heart of it one of a gay, male couple. Even if a lot of society, in the UK at least, is becoming more and more accepting of gay culture and stories, it's still a relatively new thing in mainstream cinema and I hope the studios persist even if this one didn't wash its face. Because after those first 20 minutes I forgot all about the internalised biases and really enjoyed it. I was fully invested in their story and blubbed like a bairn at the end. My one big criticism is that, while I found it consistently funny, there weren't any real big laughs for me. And I watched it while [redacted], so I was primed for that.
33. The Wolf of Snow Hollow
A horror-comedy crossover which doesn't quite nail either. I didn't find it scary or even that tense, and I only laughed out loud a couple of times, but I still really quite liked it. I'm not sure what to make of Jim Cummings overall, having not enjoyed Thunder Road, but his struggling-to-stay-afloat-in-the-world, goofily intense charm worked for me a lot better in this one. I enjoyed how they told the story with time hoping back and forth often in quick cut-cut-cut scenes. It was an fresh way to tell a story that's been done many times and I found the ending pretty satisfying. My favourite of the three above, but Bros comes a close second.
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Congrats on securing your League One status this season with a couple of weekends to spare. Seems like you had a real shot at the play-offs before injury woes lined up not-so-perfectly with a murderers' row of fixtures.
Reason I'm here is that I'm looking to get a Kelty fan on to the podcast (for a Patreon episode) to discuss the season and the club's long-term standing within the SPFL. I was wondering if anybody here would either be up for it or could recommend a fellow Kelty fan who you think would be decent on a podcast?
Cheers,
CF
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On 21/04/2024 at 17:37, Beachcomber said:
McNulty, Craigen, Booth, Watson are out of reach financially of other League 2 teams.
Spartans have a lot of kids and great community club but lets not pretend they have a strong following. Last home league game 385.
Every player you've mentioned there is either from Edinburgh (Watson, McNulty), the surrounding areas (Booth) or have roots in the city (Craigen). You can add Danny Denholm to that too. McNulty is also playing for his father-in-law.
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On 19/04/2024 at 15:21, accies1874 said:
I wrote about my Worst Ever Cinema Experience last year. Now that @CraigFowler is One of Us it would be good to know if he remembers this:
I'm tempted to say that the best ever was the second time I saw Past Lives last year as I watched a wonderful film in the cinema with no one else there, but I'm gonna go with when I saw The Lighthouse in 2020. It just seemed to be everything I love about cinema wrapped up in one screening where I forgot where I even was for a couple of hours.
You Were Never Really Here in 2018 was also a brilliant experience, but I think I'll be speaking about that film soon so I'll leave it for another time...
Oh my god, I do remember that! I forgot about the clicking. They were doing my tits in. I should've just moved seats earlier. They kept taking me out of the movie and it really irritates me when that happens.
To contribute to the thread, last year I went to see Teenage Turtles Ninja Mayhem at the Vue in Edinburgh. It was during the festival and I was killing a couple of hours before meeting friends. Now, obviously as it's a family movie, you expect going in that you might not always get the ideal behaviour from your fellow cinema-goers, but this really took the biscuit.
There was a couple who sitting a row behind me to the right. They had a child with them who was clearly too young to be in a cinema. When the lights went dark before the film was about to start she shouted out "is it bed time mommy?" Which was quite sweet and funny, but she continued to speak consistently as the film went on.
Worse still, they just let her roam about the place. Considering there are stairs in the cinema and it would be quite easy for her to fall and hurt herself, I though this was incredibly poor from the parents. And, for further distraction, she had on trainers which lit up every time she took a step. Mercifully, a Vue employee checking in saw what was going on about 2/3rds of the way into the movie and went up towards the couple. He didn't even say anything before the woman got up, retrieved her daughter and got her to stay still for the rest of the screening, which suggested she knew all along that her daughter was distracting for the rest of the cinema but just didn't bother her arse to do anything about it. Thankfully, although she did still speak at times, she was a lot more settled after that and I was able to enjoy the rest of the film, but jesus christ. What a couple of selfish p***ks. I don't blame the wee girl, she was just doing as so many would at that age.
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On 17/04/2024 at 20:02, Theroadlesstravelled said:
Wolfman (2010)
A horror fantasy with Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving.Should be decent with those actors right?
Nah it's actually pish with horrible CGI for the time.Went to see that at the cinema. Absolutely rubbish. Thought it was hilarious when they tried to make the Anthony Hopkins reveal at the end a big twist even though they'd showed it happening earlier in the movie.
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27. Monkey Man
John Wick-style revenge action thriller with similarly impressive choreographed fight scenes (especially as Dev Patel broke his hand very early in the filming and they had to change everything to make his other hand the dominant one). These type of movies... saying they're not my thing is maybe too strong as it implies I don't like them, which isn't the case, but it would take something spectacular for me to really say they were incredible pieces of work. The stuff about the Indian class system, sectarianism and trans community was all interesting, but left me wanting to know a bit more about that and less fighting in toilets. Good fun overall and I wasn't bored.
28. Civl War
I came out of the cinema thinking 'good but not great' but I find myself siding with the film a lot more as people take against it for, in my view, fairly absurd reasons. It seems to be getting hammered for not having anything to say about the current American political climate in an election year. Firstly, anything brought out in 2024 that was overtly 'American right-wing is bad' would just end up looking incredibly preachy and self-righteous and would achieve absolutely nothing in stopping that criminal, sexual-assaulting racist getting a second term. Secondly, it ABSOLUTELY DOES say something about the current political landscape. The president in the film has caused the Civil War by becoming a fascist dictator, as evidenced by the scene where it's revealed he gave himself a third term and disbanded the FBI. It's not a right v left story, it's an anti-fascist story, with California and Texas (two states with wildly different political ideologies in recent history) being the alliance to fight against the president. Another strength of it not being right v left is that one of the overriding points is that war is hell and ultimately it doesn't matter when you're on the frontline witnessing the daily atrocities, as our war-photographer protagonists are, because ultimately it just ends up being about one man trying to shoot another man. So I was completely on board with the message and there's terrific tension right throughout the movie. My main gripe was that I found the characters to be too one-dimensional and a bit cliched and didn't particularly care all that much what happened to them. Even with this, it's very good. Maybe not 'great' after all, but very good.
29. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
Now this is great. A lot of fun, consistently funny throughout, the animation is terrific as they adopt the Spider-Verse-esque style, and in the red-eyed wolf they have one of the scariest baddies in a family movie that I've ever seen. Thought they borrowed from fairytale mythology particularly well in this one compared to the other films in the Shrek universe. And even though I was initially irritated by Goldilocks and the Three Bears having thick cockney accents, I was charmed by them in the end.
30. Femme
One of the toughest films to watch that I've experienced in recent years. While it didn't quite hit the skin-shedding tension of the final scene in Immaculate, it was a consistently more stressful film throughout. That said, I thought it was a brilliant piece of work with strong messages about the futility of revenge, forgiveness, empathy, understanding, repression and self-hatred. I was a broken man by the end of this and I say that as a good thing. It had a real emotional impact and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Both of the leads are absolutely brilliant and it's a shame this didn't get more attention because it deserves it. It's on Netflix the now. Watch it.
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21. Good Grief
Was really enjoying this for the first half. It was witty, charming and packed an emotional punch. But all of that ended up wearing off a bit quickly for me by the end of it, which was all a bit predictable. A decent watch but nothing more.
22. Immaculate
Fucking hell! A film that has stayed with me, buried deep into my mind like a malevolent intruder much like the growing baby inside the Sydney Sweeney's main character's uterus. It is shocking, gory and deeply disturbing. The ending give me such a huge reaction that I felt like running from the cinema or covering my eyes to make it all stop. I thought it was great! A horror movie that shows me I'm not yet fully desensitised to horror movies yet.
23. 12 Monkeys
Despite owning the DVD at one point I'd somehow never watched this. Younger Craig was an idiot because this was very good. A clever take on the time-travelling genre, especially the way in which it messes with Bruce Willis' main character's sense of reality and linking that to his interactions with mentally ill patients in the psychiatric hospital. Brad Pitt's nervous energy throughout his scenes is another thoroughly watchable bonus.
24. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
This could have been good. There's a decent enough structure and storyline and more than enough characters and actors that it's easy to spend time with, but that's the problem. There are far too many of them! I counted 11 people in the final scene. That's pretty much every character we're introduced to in the entire film (bar 2, I think) and it
25. They Cloned Tyrone
This very much reminded me of Sorry To Bother You, which is a better movie, but it was still a good bit of fun all the same. A broody John Boyega excels in the main role which Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Paris are a lot of fun as the supporting leads. A movie about race and racism in America but doesn't take itself too seriously.
26. Late Night with the Devil
I thought this was great overall. It's a very good idea to contain the horror story within an episode of late night American TV with a single-minded host hell-bent (pun very much intended) on getting a boost in the ratings. There were plenty of creepy moments to keep you going, but it was all building towards a climax and it didn't stick the landing. The ending completely took me out of the story and spoiled the experience to a degree. Though it is still definitely worth a watch.
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15 hours ago, Empty It said:
As much as this is an absolute bin fire of a thread my biggest gripe with it is that it's in the Championship sub section, should surely be in the OF section due to the OF being 99% of open goal content and subscribers.
Well seeing as it's in the Championship section, let me do some rare plugging on this forum (AVFTT section wasn't my doing).
Shaughan and Fraser Clarke chatted extensively about Dunfermline and Dundee United on our latest free-to-air show:
This is also available to watch on YouTube (with a shocking lack of beards):
And we've got a couple of Championship related Patreon episodes this week.
Farming for hope in the Highland capital: a discussion on the novelty of Duncan Ferguson wearing off in Inverness and the club's complicated off-field issues: https://www.patreon.com/posts/farming-for-hope-100670641
Are Dunfermline Athletic looking up or down?: a chat about one of the most hard to place clubs in a league that's famously full of teams who frequently go from promotion contenders one week to relegation battlers the next: https://www.patreon.com/posts/are-dunfermline-100825577
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4 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:
Can you tell us if everyone on the Terrace likes wrestling or not?
Of course not. I think it's only two of us out of 15. I shall refrain from naming them. It's their burden to carry.
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25 minutes ago, Arab_R_us said:
Only Comment i can remember from fowler about open goal was when he said about Kyle "Never meet your heroes" or something like that. dont think he approves.
He would want their subscribers thou
That was in response to him ripping into us on Twitter as the final show of series 1 aired. He (presumably after being advised by the Open Goal hierarchy) quickly deleted the tweet.
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This has been some read
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Another rush job as I've been slacking of late...
16 - The Holdovers
The right teacher can change the course of your life. I liked this, and very much at the time, but I've gone a bit colder on it since seeing it at the cinema. It just didn't really stick with me. The performances are great and they've potentially uncovered a gem in Dominic Sessa, while Paul Giamatti is great in anything. Bit surprised by the really strong Oscar buzz for DaVine Joy Randolph, but looking at two of the other four nominations (haven't seen The Color Purple or Nyad) I do now understand why. She was good but it didn't land with me the way I expected. I think that was my biggest disappointment with the film is that it didn't really hit me emotionally, and I'm not sure why.
17 - The Iron Claw
A reversal of the above (I saw these in the cinema on the same day) in that I didn't enjoy The Iron Claw as much in the cinema at the time as I did The Holdovers, but it stuck with me a lot longer. Zac Efron is superb in the main role and you really believe someone that famously handsome, and now absolutely bursting with muscles, would feel uncomfortable in their own skin and struggle to live up to the dreams and demands of their father, again played superbly by Holt McCallany. The downside is that the second half is relentlessly grim. I know that sounds obvious given the story, but it still feels a bit rushed as it goes from one tragedy to another. You don't get much of a sense of their own motivations other than to try and please their dad, which is a shame because they're all played well, especially by Harris Dickinson. The best parts of the movie are when the four brothers interact with each other, so that sense of loss is still there. Can't believe I'm saying this as I rarely ever do, but it could have done with being a bit longer.
18 - Asteroid City
Yeah, I never fully worked out exactly what was going on with a lot of this film either. The black and white stuff? Nah, sorry, don't understand and care even less. The UFO sighting area where everyone converges and meets and you get all the typical (and, as always, delightful) Wes Anderson style of shooting, dialogue and quirky characters? That I did enjoy, and it was the main chunk of the movie. Overall, though, it felt like he was trying too hard to make something a bit different.
19 - Wicked Little Letters
I couldn't figure out if this was colourblind casting (in favour) or the director putting diversity into a period peace where it didn't make much sense historically (less in favour, though still not annoyed about it, as I imagine many twats will be), and this internal debate did take me out of the film at points. But overall it was exactly what I needed after some family-related shit put my mind on a recurring spin: an easy watch, good fun, funny, and superbly cast. I always enjoy Jessie Buckley, especially when she gets to play someone struggling to stay on the rails. Olivia Coleman is superb at playing the 'sweet and smiley on the outside but something lurking below the surface' role, Anjana Vasan shines as the sleuth with her eyes wide open (both figuratively and literally), but the star of the show is Timothy Spall, who is so wonderfully over the top in his detestability. Took me a while to properly warm up to it, but I very much liked it by the end.
20 - Maestro
Trying to fit in every Best Picture nomination before Sunday eve - which, considering my weekend, will have to involve watching Killers of the Flower Moon on what is likely to be a vicious Sunday hangover (so wish me luck with that!) - and it's doubtful I would have bothered to watch this otherwise. But I'm glad I did. There were a good few scenes where I was like "god, this is shot very well" or the director chose an angle which I found interesting. A liked the transition from black and white to colour as the years, presumably, rolled into the age of colour in TV and movies. Compared to Priscilla, I thought they documented the evolution and strains of the core relationship in a more satisfyingly structured way. Both I'm burying the lead here, as the main reason to watch is the performance of the two leads. The enthusiasm which drips out of Bradley Cooper's impression of Leonard Bernstein is infectious, but Carey Mulligan absolutely steals the show as his wife. She can convey such tremendous expression in the slightest of movements, particularly her eyes, and she is truly the heart of the film, which ultimately is a love story, just a very unconventional one.
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Don't have a lot of time this evening so I'm going to do quick reviews of these.
12 - Howl's Moving Castle
This is the third Hayao Miyazaki film I've seen and the one I've probably liked the least. It lacks the cutesy charm of My Neighbour Totoro and, even though it was set at a time of war, I didn't feel the same sense of peril with the main character and those close to her as I did with Spirited Away. I guess it was just a bit too fantastical for my tastes. That being said, I still enjoyed it. The Witch of the Waste going from being a domineering presence to a bug-eyed grandmother was the highlight for me, I laughed just about every time she was on screen after that.
13 - The Apartment
A romantic comedy that was well ahead of its time with a concept that's more original and interesting than 99 per cent of romantic comedies which have been released since. Jack Lemmon is such a likeable and relatable lead, Shirley MacLaine is an enchanting presence and plays the messed-up, love-sick interest of the lead with just the right balance, and Fred MacMurray superbly goes against type as the manipulative Sheldrake. All three of them are perfect in the roles and that's what makes it. The script is funny and while you have a fair idea of where the film is headed, it throws in a few curveballs along the way to keep you on your toes. My only main gripe is that it's about 15 minutes too long.
14 - Zone of Interest
The best movie released in 2024 so far for me. There is nothing much which happens over the course of 100 minutes and yet I was transfixed on the screen throughout. That's because the attention to detail is astounding. Talking about it with my partner afterwards, there were little moments we each picked up on which, once shared, enhanced our experience of seeing it. It's very much a film which is show, don't tell. I've hastened to use the word "enjoy" so far because it's not an easy watch by any means. Even as the film continued and I began to realise how restrained it was in any sort of dramatic elements, I still had a sense of dread coursing through me, which isn't all that surprising given the subject matter. It's a hugely important and brave movie to make, as well. It's just commonly accepted that Nazi's were monsters, which is what we tell ourselves as a society to bring comfort and banish the idea that something like that could happen again (of course, it already has happened again in some form elsewhere, just not in countries that the UK cares about, but I digress). When in fact they were not monsters, they were people, and people can do things so heinous that we don't have the words to properly describe them.
15 - American Fiction
There was a lot I liked about this. Movies and books only really showing black people living in poverty or being involved in drugs or crime isn't something that had crossed my mind before, so it posed some tough questions amid the well-balanced satire. It was also a lot funnier than I expected the movie to be and, despite just watching it by myself, I laughed out loud on several occasions. Furthermore, it was an interesting character study with regards to Monk and how he struggles to relate to the world around him. However, it's also a film about family and that's where I thought it was a little weak. As a drama it didn't get to me emotionally. I think the best way to describe why was the use of the mother's dementia. It's really just used as a reason to drive the plot. The scenes with Sterling K Brown are all great and I think it would've been better if they'd trimmed that part down and just made it about their dynamic and nobody else. But the biggest problem for me came in the third act. Had it all been tied together nicely then I think I would've liked it a lot more. As it was, I was left feeling a bit like the film was unresolved and narrative decision late on which really didn't work for me.
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10 - All of Us Strangers
Not gonna lie, was a little disappointed by this. It's definitely very good and for the most part beautifully wove together the emotional impact of loss through fantasy and reality. The scenes with the parents are all incredibly well done. But I spent the film wondering about the Paul Mescal character and, I have to say, the payoff just didn't work for me at all. Can't really say too much more about it without getting into spoilers, but the choice detracts from the main plot of him having these conversations with his parents that he never got to have and facing the reality of finally letting go. It took away from its impact and just made it all a little too much in the end. I also found it hard to emotionally connect with Alan. I shed one tear in the entire film and I'm typically a blubber at emotional movies. I'm very lucky to have not had any real devastating fatal losses in my life, yet, so perhaps that's to do with it. But there's other films were I have nothing in common with the lead but still end up really rooting for them. In this I didn't really. That said, like I said at the start, it is good, just not as good as I expected it to be or as the premise promised.
11 - Anyone But You
Oh dear lord, I absolutely HATED this movie. I never walk out of the cinema but I strongly considered doing so. I can forgive a romantic comedy for being cliched and predictable, sometimes that's exactly what you want and need and having went straight to the screen after All of Us Strangers finished, that was precisely what I was in the mood for. I can even forgive romantic comedies that aren't even consistently funny, just so long as the characters act like human beings would and there's a certain degree of charm. There is none of that in this film. It isn't funny, it isn't charming, there is many a dialogue that is absolutely cringe-inducing. Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell both feel miscast, there are no likeable side characters (they aren't dislikable either, they are just NOTHING) and it's built on a premise that is so, so tired. 'Couple who really like each other don't get together due to miscommunication'. Jesus wept. Been a while since I properly really disliked a movie, so I'm glad I saw it. It was cathartic. And Sweeney and Powell spent most of the movie with barely any clothes on with Sydney, Australia, as a setting, so at least it was good to look it.
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9 - The Beekeeper
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha [breathes]... hahahaha [sighs]... this is rubbish. It's a Jason Statham movie so that pretty much goes without saying, but it's also got a plot that gets increasingly more preposterous as it motors on, some incredibly hammy or bafflingly weak acting for what is quite a strong cast, a whole bunch of 21st century new-age baddies thrown in, and a main character who spends half the movie mumbling some barely comprehensible nonsense about bees. And I had a very good time watching it. It doesn't take itself too seriously in the slightest, there's a lot of vibrant colour which pops off the screen, the fight sequences are great and pretty well choreographed, and the violence is often morally satisfying. Definitely falls into the 'so bad it's good' category for me. Also, I watched it on Sunday evening after a heavy weekend and it was exactly what I needed at the time: popcorn-munching nonsense.
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8 - Night Swim
This was... fine. Actually, it's quite rubbish but it passed the time and I was never bored. If you're happy enough with the premise going in that it's a swimming pool that kills people then you're going to get exactly what you paid for. I thought the dynamics between the family were quite realistic, especially the son feeling like he's living in the shadow of his famous father, and that father not knowing exactly how to connect with his son because the one thing he's good at his son isn't. Also liked how it asked the audience how far would you be willing to go to chase your dreams, or should you just accept reality. There's also good tension throughout the movie. As soon as someone said "pool party" my heart started beating faster and the dread didn't settle until that scene was done.
On the other hand, I didn't really care enough at the end about whether they made it out alive. Some of the pool spirits are quite creepy but a lot of them looked crap. And that was an issue with the film, it wasn't really that scary. The tension didn't pay off. Also, the ending is weak AF.
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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?
in TV and Film Forum
Posted
Love that movie. Watched it at least half-a-dozen times.