What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Paul Kersey]

Stripes

80s screwball comedy about a pair of slackers who join the army and become unlikely heroes.

Decent cast including Bill Murray, John Candy and Warren Oates.

Plenty of slapstick humour and gratuitous tits. This is from the same fine tradition of American comedies as the likes of Porky's or Police Academy.

A perfect film for those times when you just want a laugh and can't be arsed with anything too highbrow.

8/10

Edited January 8, 2022 by Paul Kersey

[MSU]

002 -- The 355. Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, and Lupita Nyong'o are the reluctant intelligence agents, forced to team up to chase a McGuffin around the globe that, if in the wrong hands, could start WW3. Despite a pretty solid cast, the story is boring and predictable and takes itself way too seriously. The trailer made this out to be a bit of light-hearted fun and I feel I have a decent complaint to take to the Trailer Ombudsman. No one onscreen seems to be enjoying themselves and it was even boring enough to sedate the group of unruly youths who'd occupied the back row of the cinema into a stupor. 3/10 

[Mr. Brightside]

Just to chime in on the accent thing, Chernobyl also went the same route as The Death of Stalin and was all the better for it. The only way to improve it would to ensure the characters from the same regions of the Soviet Union as each other had similar English accents to each other too.

[BFTD]

Hadn't realised until now that I quite fancy a film about something Scottish with Russian actors speaking English.

Or, better yet, imagine if those Wakaliwood boys made a film about William Wallace! I'd be pre-ordering the Blu-Ray now.

[Co.Down Hibee]

On 21/12/2021 at 09:16, Fullerene said:

Jaws is a monster movie similar to Alien or Predator.  As such there is always the issue of a convincing monster or not.  I can think of several films that went downhill when the monster appears - possibly most.

However the alien crab crawl scene was thankfully cut from Alien.  Jean Claude Van Damne was thankfully not the Predator.  Jaws benefitted from shark problems reducing the screen time for the shark and the music being an excellent substitute.

Suggesting the shark looked fake is an easy excuse.  Guess what.  It was.

Definitely an excellent film 10/10.

To quote Mark Kermode...Jaws is not a film about a shark , it's a film with a shark in it, the characters in the film is what makes it such a great watch .

Brilliant performances by the 3 lead characters 

[Paul Kersey]

3 hours ago, Co.Down Hibee said:

To quote Mark Kermode...Jaws is not a film about a shark , it's a film with a shark in it, the characters in the film is what makes it such a great watch .

Brilliant performances by the 3 lead characters 

It would be more realistic if the shark had a Russian accent though...

[Detournement]

On 08/01/2022 at 11:38, Clockwork said:

Parasite - (2019 Academy Award Winner - Best Picture) - South Korean dark comedy (subtitles) directed by Bong-Joon Ho.
Heart warming, cynical, amusing, shocking. Well worth a watch, thoroughly enjoyed it. One of those films when the credits start rolling you think, ‘wtf did we just watch there’!?

 

Heart warming????

[Co.Down Hibee]

The Hitmans wife's bodyguard

a couple of hours of nonsense , Ryan Reynolds does his thing, Samuel Jackson does his thing and Salma Hayek gives a mad OTT performance...it's OK, not as good as the first one.

[Arch Stanton]

Boiling Point (2021)

Stephen Graham is brilliant as always in a "single take" drama about a busy service in a restaurant.

The nature of the direction make it look like a play and is incredibly well done. Graham's character has some grief to deal with both related and unrelated to his role as a head chef and there's some decent support from the other actors.

However as soon as the nut allergy couple appeared it was obvious that would be the jeopardy and at the end of the film I felt kinda "meh" about the whole thing.

Also I'm sure there will be plenty of people who work in a restaurant claiming that it's an unrealistic depiction.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

21 hours ago, MSU said:

002 -- The 355. Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, and Lupita Nyong'o are the reluctant intelligence agents, forced to team up to chase a McGuffin around the globe that, if in the wrong hands, could start WW3. Despite a pretty solid cast, the story is boring and predictable and takes itself way too seriously. The trailer made this out to be a bit of light-hearted fun and I feel I have a decent complaint to take to the Trailer Ombudsman. No one onscreen seems to be enjoying themselves and it was even boring enough to sedate the group of unruly youths who'd occupied the back row of the cinema into a stupor. 3/10 

There looks to be so much estrogen in 355 that my Willie would shrink back up inside itself if I watched it. It also looks shite.

[well fan for life]

Tick Tick...BOOM! - 8/10

A semi-musical film about Jonathan Larson that features a singing Andrew Garfield. Didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did but it's a great film.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage - 6.5/10

It's light hearted entertainment that raised a few laughs. It's not the best superhero movie going but it's an hour and a half of fun.

 

[paul-r-cfc]

Recently watched The King's Man. This turned out to be a great film. Way better than i expected to be honest. In case anyone was wondering, Kingsman 3 is beginning film production September 2022.

Reviews panned it but I enjoyed it. Some really good fight scenes, particularly with Rasputin and as a history geek, I enjoyed working out what was coming and seeing some historic figures brought to life in bizarre ways. Surprisingly decent depictions of trench warfare also, with the last scene there genuinely catching me off guard.

[accies1874]

9. Up in the Air (2009)* - DVD

Meh. Not terrible, just standard fare for this kind of story. 

10. Rope (1948)* - DVD

Too many close-ups of people's backs.

0/10

11. Young Adult (2011)* - BBC One

I didn't mean to watch two Jason Reitman films over the weekend and only found out he directed this one when the opening credits started to roll. As it happens, I thought this was really good, mostly due to Charlize Theron who's excellent at capturing those tiny interactions (she's great in another JR film Tully) and kept me interested in the character while she was behaving like an asshole. Kudos for not doing a cheesy redemption turn and actually addressing the fact that Mavis is fucked up, even if they could've been a bit less on-the-nose or just binned a couple of scenes. I get the feeling they might've actually messed it all up if the film went on for a bit longer, but it didn't and it was good. It's a pretty simple trick but having the movie bookended by the main character entering and leaving a temporary residence is a nice way to make the viewer reflect on the person is leaving compared to entering. Arcs n that.  

[19QOS19]

Loving The Shining chat! I like the book and the film, fence-sitting c**t that I am. 
I feel sorry for Stephen King not enjoying Kubrick’s version. The thing in the book that scared me most was the sculpted hedge animals that started following and clawing.
 

This. It terrified me. I suppose CGI wouldn't have been as big a thing back when the film was made so Kubrick decided to leave that part.

The Shining is a terrifying read. I was at Uni when I read it and had to travel on the bus to one of my placements so read en route. It didn't have many stops but whenever the air released from the doors I would jump, so engrossed/terrified I was with the story. Really need to start reading more King novels but doubt any will be as scary as The Shining.

[NotThePars]

Another Round (2020) dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Oscar winning movie starring Mads Mikkelsen and some other Danes as a bunch of school teachers stuck in a middle class rut who begin an experiment where they drink during work hours to see if it can rejuvenate them. And it does... For a bit.

Really charming comedy that has a tragic but really affecting conclusion. Proper gone at this. The lads are class. Mads Mikkelsen is one of the best actors on the planet.

Really respect a movie where the message is "you just need to find the right amount of booze to succeed at life."

Edited January 11, 2022 by NotThePars

[accies1874]

12. Titane (2021)* - Cinema

 I'll do spoilers. There's nothing that spoilery, but I didn't know anything about it before watching and I felt that contributed to the overall experience. 

Spoiler

Firstly, what little I saw of the marketing (a trailer and a poster) was a bit deceptive and doesn't reflect a lot of what the film's about. That's good imo for reasons I'll get to, but I doubt the marketing department were all that interested in making the film better, more trying to get folk to see it by playing the MOST FUCKED UP THING OF ALL TIME angle. 

The reason that worked for me was that I went in expecting THE MOST FUCKED UP THING OF ALL TIME and the first 45-60 minutes had a lot of nasty, minging moments. I admittedly struggle with detailed gore and body horror, but it was done well here with intense suspense. It's funny when you hear Tarantino say he thinks violence is good cinema and everyone loses the plot, however there's no denying it can result in an intense and communal experience. In Titane, the violence is to service its trans allegory (is it even an allegory tbh?) with the main character's world initially being a horrible, violent place whereas they begin to find a bit more liberation post-"transition". I think, but could be wrong, that the nastiest parts of the first half are in very typical feminine moments too. There's also a life/birth and death thing going on. 

The tonal shift in the film is great and I didn't really notice it happening until a wee bit after it did. Using form to tell a story is good anyway, but it also means that you feel the character's liberation as well as the pain when the past keeps coming back to haunt them. This might just be me, but the contrast between pre- and post-shift meant that I didn't want to go back to that nastiness as a viewer so was in the same boat as them. 

Playing up the lack of belonging and masculinity v femininity angles helped give the main story more resonance with the vast majority of us who haven't and won't change gender, and successfully linking that with the introduction of parental themes too was impressive. 

I'll need to watch it again, mostly to take in the first half retrospectively, but it was an interesting film worth giving a go. 

[NotThePars]

Deerskin (2019) dir. Quentin Dupieux

Mr Oizo of Flat Beat directs a weirdo flick about a man who embarks on a murderous spree after blowing his life savings on a deerskin jacket and becoming obsessed with it. Think The Shining meets that Burnistoun sketch about an original nae name denim jaisket.

This was alright. It's incredibly daft and relies on massive suspension of disbelief but I think it works. I like Dupieux's movies in as much as they force you to fully engage with the premise and treat them as a very self-contained plot and setting. There's no polis or media involved here when they really should be but it's fine. It also feels very cheap but helps carry off a daft 70s horror vibe that fuels the comedy. The lead and the young French waitress/ editor producer are also great. It's also 77 minutes long! More movies need to be less than 90 minutes.

[BigDoddyKane]

11 hours ago, NotThePars said:

Another Round (2020) dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Oscar winning movie starring Mads Mikkelsen and some other Danes as a bunch of school teachers stuck in a middle class rut who begin an experiment where they drink during work hours to see if it can rejuvenate them. And it does... For a bit.

Really charming comedy that has a tragic but really affecting conclusion. Proper gone at this. The lads are class. Mads Mikkelsen is one of the best actors on the planet.

Really respect a movie where the message is "you just need to find the right amount of booze to succeed at life."

That was getting good reviews, I fancy watching it. 

[velo army]

Just watched A Family Man (2016) starring Gerard Butler and Gretchen Mol. Butler is a workaholic headhunter and is ruthlessly amoral about it. He does love his kids and his wife, and he expresses this by working his arse off. His wee boy gets leukaemia and it forces Butler's character (Dane Jenson) to reassess his priorities. It's not an immediate thing either. He fucks up a lot on the way, makes the wrong choices, and it makes his character all the more relatable. It's a cracking performance by Butler. I'm used to him in more muscular, action based roles, and he still plays a very macho guy here, but he shows a lot of range and a lot of the emotion (blubbering) I went through was because of his relationship with his wee boy. The cast as a whole are marvellous. Gretchen Mol carries the rest of the emotional weight as his wife. She's perfectly cast in this and portrays a deeply loving woman and is part of the reason you're rooting for Butler as their relationship seems so real and their chemistry is great. Alfred Molina provides some surprising emotional punch as an unemployed Engineer who Jenson actually fucks over a few times ,and I can't reveal much more without spoiling. Willem Dafoe plays his apparently sociopathic boss.

It's a really clever movie and manages to give satisfying arcs to all of the main characters. I was in bits at a lot of this, and it's a beautiful, deeply affecting movie. I would watch it again.

[NotThePars]

11 hours ago, BigDoddyKane said:

That was getting good reviews, I fancy watching it. 

Deserved.