What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[BFTD]

Alien: Covenant - was OK for a film that's, what, eight instalments in at this point? Lots of nods to the first two films, both thematic and more obvious repetition of dialogue, which is something that's started to annoy me a little in recent years. Some decent scenes involving the aliens, most of which have sadly been spoiled by the advertising, as usual. I couldn't decide whether or not the new proto-Aliens looked good or not, but there's certainly some dodgy CGI on the go - considering I'd read that the aliens were being done with practical effects, it would appear that there was a 'The Thing' style layering of CG over the top, and it's a bit distracting as it doesn't look 'real'.

The film's not a patch on the first two, obviously, and I found it less interesting than Prometheus (for all its flaws) for the spoilerific reasons outlined below.

Spoiler

Prometheus was all about the search for the Engineers and the origins of humanity. That plot thread seems to have received the blame for Prometheus' poor reception, as it's been dropped entirely for this film. Though it's unclear exactly whose decision it was, the ship we see leaving at Prometheus' conclusion simply drops massive amounts of the biological weapon onto the Engineers' homeworld, killing all animal life. Case closed.

David, the Fassbender android, is much less interesting in this one, having switched from dabbling in amorality to having a full-blown genocidal grudge against humanity. The switcheroo between himself and the Walter android is also one of the most obvious plot twists I can remember seeing, using the old 'cut-away-before-the-end-of-the-fight' tactic that's been used hundreds of times in the past. I'd have been happy enough with the ending if they'd found a less transparent and lazy way of doing it.

Overall, it seems like the explanation for the Alien species is going to be that mankind unintentionally created them itself, through the search for the Engineers and poor husbandry of artificial intelligence. It's pretty standard flagellation of the human race that we've seen many times elsewhere; it would have been nice to see a more inventive idea.

...so my obligatory Alien chart now reads:

1. Alien
2. Aliens
3. Prometheus
4. Alien 3
5. Alien: Covenant
6. Aliens vs Predator
7. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
8. Alien: Resurrection

[Shandon Par]

Mystic River

This had passed me by as the title made me think it was going to be some weepy romance. Turns out it was a Clint Eastwood directed adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel. I've been reading them all recently so the film caught my interest.

Eastwood's style is very straightforward. There's not really any music, just lots of strong acting, deep characters, solid plot. . just well crafted. Some crazy Boston accents and Sean Penn being a Sean Penn.

8/10

[Christophe]

(101-102)

David and Goliath 3/10

On Netflix, not sure if it's been released previously or a straight-to-Netflix, hadn't heard of it before.  Biblical epic. Rubbish. At the beginning the slaughtered lamb looks worse than the sheep in Rambo III - Fist of Furious Vengeance. It's a bit homo-erotic too and not in a good way. Not a spoiler as everyone knows what happens to Goliath but literally the closing shot is the stone hitting him on the forehead and him falling to the ground. That's it! Dreadful but has muscled men in skirts running around so 3 points for that

The Happiest Day In The Life of Olli Makki 7.5/10

B&W Finnish film shot in (I think) 16mm to recreate the era it was set (1962) about a real life Finnish boxer who took on the Featherweight champion of the world (Davey Moore). Really good. (Curzon Home Cinema)

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Christophe

[Hedgecutter]

Back from the cinema after watching Mindhorn.

Classic British-type comedy in a similar way to Hot Fuzz. Nothing particularly complicated, just a couple of hours of rather good comedy. 7/10

[babu]

 

 

Chico Xavier

     A biopic of the famous (in Brazil) medium.      on DVD  /subtitles

Very uplifting, well made , great acting & a few twists.

Chico Xavier  was voted as 'person of the Century', in the state of Minas Gerais. Ahead of popular ex president Kubitschek -  who founded Brasilia & world famous footballer Pele !

They even honored him with a commemorative stamp:

 

He was famous for psychography , what we call automatic writing. Published 400 books & gave all the money to charity.

I've read a handful of those books  that have so far been translated. They are superior works,  from a person who had no education to speak of.

 

Edited May 19, 2017 by babu

[killiepiemuncher]

 
 
Chico Xavier
     A biopic of the famous (in Brazil) medium.      on DVD  /subtitles
Very uplifting, well made , great acting & a few twists.
Chico Xavier  was voted as 'person of the Century', in the state of Minas Gerais. Ahead of popular ex president Kubitschek -  who founded Brasilia & world famous footballer Pele !
They even honored him with a commemorative stamp:

 
He was famous for psychography , what we call automatic writing. Published 400 books & gave all the money to charity.
I've read a handful of those books  that have so far been translated. They are superior works,  from a person who had no education to speak of.
 

Lardeedarr look at you, all art housie.

[Christophe]

(103)

Beauty and the Beast 7/10

Bill Condon (Twilight, Dream Girls, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh) live-action take on Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont book. A film very much defined by its extensive use of CGI. Available in 2D and 3D, it's currently the 11th highest grossing film of all time

(cinema)

 

Edited May 19, 2017 by Christophe

[Christophe]

(104)

Clash 7/10

Set during the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood protests in 2013 all the action takes place in one prisoner van. The occasional stylistic inconsistency aside it was impressive stuff, well worth catching (torrent)

[Brummie Clyde]

Watching 'The Void'. 

It feels very much like an 80s horror; elements of The Thing, Event Horizon and maybe The Keep.

Good so far anyway.

[Scary Bear]

Trainspotting 2

I'm not sure what mark to give this. Might have to watch it a couple more times.

I liked the way the backdrops showed the changes that have happened in the last 20 years, such as wind turbines. I liked the scenes shot about Edinburgh and especially up Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craggs.

In general it was a good watch but there wasn't much of a spark. I can empathise with that. The characters were supposed to be young and nuts in Trainspotting and now they are old and jaded by life.

I think I liked it, but it'll need another couple of viewings to decide.

[tongue_tied_danny]

Mindhorn

Utterly silly but pretty entertaining.

7/10

[Christophe]

(105)

Lady MacBeth 5/10

Atmospheric, loovely cinematography both outdoors and in but couldn't really buy into the story or the characters, oh well nevermind (cinema)

 

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by Christophe

[Christophe]

(106)

The Last Witch Hunter 0/10

Vin Diesel, Michael Caine, Frodo, Ygritte from off of Game of Thrones. I have never sat through a more enormous pile of shit in my entire life. Pure fucking bollocks. Inexplicably has 4 stars on Netflix. Diesel starts and ends with Pitch Black as an actor for me. Can't be doing with him in anything else. Only watched XXX for Asia Argento

[Ira Gaines]

Colossal

Anne Hathaway, while in the US, can conjure a monster in Seoul by walking on a sandpit. That's all the trailers ever give, and they make it out to be some quirky comedy. At times it is, but there's much more going on here. The big points being abusive relationship and addiction. The monster is important of course, as it plays a driving force in the latter.

As for how good it is, it definitely works. A bit hard to watch at times, basically thanks to how unnerving a performance Jason Sudekis puts on. The quirky stuff also works down to how ludicrous the concept actually is. A bit much going on, but it's a damn good effort.

8/10

 

[munro7]

(106)
The Last Witch Hunter 0/10
Vin Diesel, Michael Caine, Frodo, Ygritte from off of Game of Thrones. I have never sat through a more enormous pile of shit in my entire life. Pure fucking bollocks. Inexplicably has 4 stars on Netflix. Diesel starts and ends with Pitch Black as an actor for me. Can't be doing with him in anything else. Only watched XXX for Asia Argento

I am Groot!

[Bully Wee Villa]

"Source Code" - highly watchable sci-fi shenanigans with Jake Gyllenhaal. A bit like a more serious version of Quantum Leap. 8/10 (can't remember channel, maybe 4/Film 4).

 

 

[8MileBU]

Jason Bourne. 

Meh. 6/10

[wellinwigan]

1 hour ago, 8MileBU said:

Jason Bourne. 

Meh. 6/10

What did Tony think?

[Christophe]

(107)

Everly 4/10

Basically a torturey gangster romp which was just so ridiculous that I would have switched it off has it not been for Salma Hayek being pretty much in her underwear for the whole film. 8.5/10 for her (Netflix)

[Arch Stanton]

Bad Santa 2. A plot thinner than prison toilet paper but seeing Christina Hendricks wanting fucked  and talking dirty in a back alley was a highlight. 

Just a pity she didn't get her massive mammaries out but then that is unlikely.