What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
It's fine. 
Can't say I understand folk losing their minds over a less good yet more calculated Into the Spider-Verse, but it's good fun and there's enough good stuff to balance out the bad.
I was on board after the first 20/25 minutes. The opening sequence was great fun and really well done, and the character moments in that time were decent enough. This was probably more to do with the premise and ideas rather than Ned and Zendaya being good characters, but the film was bookended by nice wee moments that were effectively shunned when all the other stuff was happening in between. I didn't like the way FFH ended as it felt like the trilogy was getting further and further away from what made Homecoming so good, but they actually clawed that back at the start of this and made me want a whole film of chucking celebrity status into Peter Parker's traditional issues. 
NWH's at its best when Spider-Man, Ned and Zendaya are talking or the (too many) villains are interacting and these two things never really feel like they share the same film which left me wondering why we had an identity revelation storyline and the multiverse nonsense in one. Tbh you could've removed the other Spider-Men and improved it. If you're too lazy to come up with new characters/actors then have this Green Goblin be transported into the MCU with NO WAY HOME and he actually does stuff with the identity revelation. Spider-Man could send him back to get iced by Tobey Maguire again but makes the tough choice to redeem him (NO ANTIDOTES). It's the same crux as what we got but removes unnecessary villains retreading stuff from the previous films and gives a clearer choice for Tom Holland to make while also actually staying true to the initial premise. 
I was actually surprised, in a good way, by how small-scale it all was. Spider-Man doesn't work when there are Earth-shattering consequences so just having him finding cures for baddies was more fitting. The villains' set-pieces are all contained enough, and the Spider-Man v Goblin stuff has plenty of weight behind it. The others not so much. I was also pleasantly surprised by how little they played up the nostalgia aspect, despite the grating fan service. The nostalgia all seemed to be in the marketing as opposed to the film itself, although there was too much fan fiction written by Online Teenagers and Losers. 
It'll be interesting to see how this is received once the hype wears off. I get the feeling it'll have a Force Awakens and Endgame (which are also both good fun) kind of reassessment. 
Finally, using spoilers to market your film is actually really clever and allows a load of unpaid people (i.e. the general public and critics) to do their job for them. It's all one big FOMO which is ridiculous considering 99% of people know what the BIG SECRETS are, thanks in part to some probably-deliberate leaks. 

My biggest issue with the current Spiderman films is I just can't stand Tom Holland's whiny manchild accent.

[accies1874]

My biggest issue with the current Spiderman films is I just can't stand Tom Holland's whiny manchild accent.

I quite like that as he still seems like a kid despite being 25. I'm actually surprised we haven't reached oversaturation with Tom Holland yet but that'll probably come soon enough.

[Detournement]

Bringing Out The Dead. 

A Schrader screenplay directed by Scorcese. Nic Cage, John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore are psychotic paramedics in a nightmarish early 90s New York populated by junkies, drug dealers, prostitutes and the homeless. Funny, horrifying and a clue to what the NHS will be like by 2035.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

On 17/12/2021 at 19:12, DeeTillEhDeh said:

My wife is getting us to go through all the Harry Potter films (as they are available on SKY right now) - I don't think I watched any of them all the way through the first time round.

I now realise why - they really are fucking tediously boring.

They are my fiance's carry-over-from-childhood series (mine is LOTR @Thorongil hi best friend <3) and I foolishly bought her the blurays for her bday when we were in lockdown last year. Incredibly foolish on my part as I think they have all been on. 

@Detournement and @BFTD read this earlier which I think you would enjoy given your recent back and forth. Not exactly the same ground but certainly related 

Entertainment Monopolies Are Zombifying Mass Culture (jacobinmag.com)

Edited December 21, 2021 by Genuine Hibs Fan

[BFTD]

I haven't seen the majority of properties mentioned in the article (even my SImpsons knowledge is limited to the first decade or so), but it is remarkable how Disney (especially) appear to be working to give fans exactly what they think they want. I've absolutely no interest in most of their output, with the Marvel movies still a notable exception, but I've no doubt that I'll lose interest in those too eventually.

Thankfully, there's so much media being created elsewhere that it'll be quite easy to avoid the inevitable Star Wars/MCU crossover.

[Miguel Sanchez]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

I haven't seen the majority of properties mentioned in the article (even my SImpsons knowledge is limited to the first decade or so), but it is remarkable how Disney (especially) appear to be working to give fans exactly what they think they want. I've absolutely no interest in most of their output, with the Marvel movies still a notable exception, but I've no doubt that I'll lose interest in those too eventually.

Thankfully, there's so much media being created elsewhere that it'll be quite easy to avoid the inevitable Star Wars/MCU crossover.

The Simpsons only ran for nine series, that's a decade

[BFTD]

4 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

The Simpsons only ran for nine series, that's a decade

What happened in the last episode, by the way?

[Miguel Sanchez]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

What happened in the last episode, by the way?

Homer and Marge go out on their anniversary dinner, but are forced to take the kids. They end up having an unromantic dinner, and lose interest in being intimate later that night. Later, the two must go purchase a new refrigerator motor, but during a rainstorm, their car gets stuck in the mud, so the two rush into a barn. When the farm owner nearly discovers them, the two become excited and have sex. When they return home, they decide to spend a weekend at a bed and breakfast, but when they are there, they find themselves romantically uninspired once again, until a maid discovers them on a bed. They then realize that the fear of getting caught makes them excited. Later, they decide to go to a miniature golf course to have sex in the windmill there, just like they did when they were younger. The people there soon realize there is something inside the windmill, and the two barely manage to escape unseen. However, the people see their underwear, and realize someone was there. To get home, the nude couple steals a hot air balloon, but they accidentally wind up landing on a football field full of people. Homer and Marge travel back home, and are in the newspaper the next day.[52]

[BFTD]

4 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Homer and Marge go out on their anniversary dinner, but are forced to take the kids. They end up having an unromantic dinner, and lose interest in being intimate later that night. Later, the two must go purchase a new refrigerator motor, but during a rainstorm, their car gets stuck in the mud, so the two rush into a barn. When the farm owner nearly discovers them, the two become excited and have sex. When they return home, they decide to spend a weekend at a bed and breakfast, but when they are there, they find themselves romantically uninspired once again, until a maid discovers them on a bed. They then realize that the fear of getting caught makes them excited. Later, they decide to go to a miniature golf course to have sex in the windmill there, just like they did when they were younger. The people there soon realize there is something inside the windmill, and the two barely manage to escape unseen. However, the people see their underwear, and realize someone was there. To get home, the nude couple steals a hot air balloon, but they accidentally wind up landing on a football field full of people. Homer and Marge travel back home, and are in the newspaper the next day.[52]

I think I remember that one.

Could've done with finishing a season earlier IMO..

[accies1874]

Robbie Collin said in his Spider-Man review that (Disney) blockbusters are now source material for their own advertising campaigns. I thought that was a funny and depressing way to put it.

[Detournement]

55 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

They are my fiance's carry-over-from-childhood series (mine is LOTR @Thorongil hi best friend <3) and I foolishly bought her the blurays for her bday when we were in lockdown last year. Incredibly foolish on my part as I think they have all been on. 

@Detournement and @BFTD read this earlier which I think you would enjoy given your recent back and forth. Not exactly the same ground but certainly related 

Entertainment Monopolies Are Zombifying Mass Culture (jacobinmag.com)

That Simpsons stuff is depressing. 

It will get to the point where the big entertainment companies will decide to stop making films that don't deliver the maximum profit. 

A few people I follow on Twitter think Disney purposefully did a terrible job promoting The Last Duel, West Side Story and Nightmare Alley so they have an excuse to bury 20th Century Pictures and Searchlight (which they accquired from Murdoch with those titles in production).

 

[Arch Stanton]

Dr. Zhivago - an overlong, boring and woefully miscast "epic".

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

It will get to the point where the big entertainment companies will decide to stop making films that don't deliver the maximum profit.

We've been there for a while, surely?  

They'll likely always want to have a few fingers in the pies of smaller scale production as corporations want all of the money, by their nature. Even if (say) 80% of the public pay to watch CGI Mark Hamill and Doctor Strange fight Thanos reanimated into the body of Lotso Bear on a Saturday night, that still leaves another 20% that they could be earning on other screens. Possibly the fan service sequel Bambi 2, where it turns out that Bambi's mother was just sleeping and everything is fine, the extended edition of Old Yeller, where the gun was loaded with medicine, and the elusive Mickey Mouse feature that wasn't complete dugshite.

Edit: does anyone else remember an advert that Disney used to include before the feature on their kids' VHS tapes in the '80s? It featured a clip from Old Yeller, with the tearful kid realising his beloved dog had rabies, and getting ready to shoot him. What kind of sickos stick that at the beginning of a tape of cartoons for toddlers?

Edited December 21, 2021 by BFTD

[Detournement]

21 minutes ago, BFTD said:

We've been there for a while, surely?  

They'll likely always want to have a few fingers in the pies of smaller scale production as corporations want all of the money, by their nature. Even if (say) 80% of the public pay to watch CGI Mark Hamill and Doctor Strange fight Thanos reanimated into the body of Lotso Bear on a Saturday night, that still leaves another 20% that they could be earning on other screens. Possibly the fan service sequel Bambi 2, where it turns out that Bambi's mother was just sleeping and everything is fine, the extended edition of Old Yeller, where the gun was loaded with medicine, and the elusive Mickey Mouse feature that wasn't complete dugshite.

The point here is that Disney bought Fox not long ago and may effectively close it down. Result even fewer decent big budget films than now. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Detournement

[Thorongil]

On 17/12/2021 at 19:12, DeeTillEhDeh said:

My wife is getting us to go through all the Harry Potter films (as they are available on SKY right now) - I don't think I watched any of them all the way through the first time round.

I now realise why - they really are fucking tediously boring.

I though Prisoner of Azkaban was sublime. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Thorongil

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I though Prisoner of Azkaban was sublime. 

Finished them all - I found some if them a real slog. I haven't read the books so I don't know if that was a hindrance or not. Possibly it was as I think you can miss a lot of stuff that a book will actually explain or a least hint towards.

Each to their own.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Dr. Zhivago - an overlong, boring and woefully miscast "epic".

Depends what you are looking for from a film - I still think it's one of the most visually stunning films made.

The real issue with the film is that Lean really only focuses on one part of the book - missing out a huge chunk on the early lives of Yuri and Lara.

If anything the book would have been better as a series of films.

It's still a very good if flawed film.

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, Thorongil said:

I though Prisoner of Azkaban was sublime. 

It's not a great movie by any means but it's fine for what it is and that's cause they had a superb director in Alfonso Cuaron. 

[BFTD]

3 hours ago, Detournement said:

The point here is that Disney bought Fox not long ago and may effectively close it down. Result even fewer decent big budget films than now. 

That's shite for the shitmunchers who do the actual work, but there'll be other studios that are either formed or expand to fill the content hole. Besides, depending on who you listen to, the words "quality" and "big-budget" haven't often been seen together in public for as long as the summer blockbuster phenomena has existed.

I'd completely forgotten that Disney owns the well-flogged Alien and Predator franchises now too. I'd imagine we can expect a series of films where the Colonial Marines kick immense amounts of arse and aren't at all out of their depth or skewered by their own hubris, considering that's what fans of that franchise seem to want.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

7 hours ago, Detournement said:

That Simpsons stuff is depressing. 

It will get to the point where the big entertainment companies will decide to stop making films that don't deliver the maximum profit. 

A few people I follow on Twitter think Disney purposefully did a terrible job promoting The Last Duel, West Side Story and Nightmare Alley so they have an excuse to bury 20th Century Pictures and Searchlight (which they accquired from Murdoch with those titles in production).

 

Those 3 movies looked terrible tbf.

Nightmare Alley maybe the best but I still wouldn’t go see it.