What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Squalor Vic]

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Thought it was pretty slow and didn't feel like a Ghostbusters film. I didn't hate it but it was just 'awright'

6.554/10

[Paul Kersey]

The Princess Bride

Comedic fairy tale from the 80s about a swashbuckling adventurer who strives to stop his sweetheart from marrying an odious prince.

An all star cast, including Mel Smith and André the Giant. 

This was fairly amusing.

7/10

[MSU]

004 -- The Tragedy of Macbeth. I struggle with Shakespeare quite a lot. Usually by the time I've translated a line of dialog into a language I better understand, I'm already four lines behind, so I never feel all that engaged, but I do feel stupid so it balances out. Joel Coen's adaptation, though, comes pretty close to breaking through my feeble brain. It looks incredible both in set design and cinematography, and Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, once I get beyond it was Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, put in brilliant turns. But the has-to-be-seen performance has to go to Kathryn Hunter as the Weird Sisters and Old Man. Hunter’s ability to make her body flow from one impossible posture to another brings an incredible uneasiness to her roles, a sensation that is only heightened by the black and white stock. She becomes an humanesque embodiment of the crows that punctuate the story and is worth the ticket price on her own. 9/10

[Mark Connolly]

The King's Man

It's utter fucking nonsense obviously, but I really enjoyed it.

[Lex]

Highlander
What a load of cheesy 80’s pish that was.
3/10

[Clockwork]

Disobedience (2017) Starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, not an original storyline in that the struggle between faith and sexuality is a fairly well worn path, but an easy paced watch. 7/10. Would perhaps have scored it a six but an extra point for the use of the track ‘Love Song’ by The Cure.[emoji6]

[accies1874]

13. The First Great Train Robbery (1978)* - iPlayer

Some good scenes and moments that I couldn't help thinking would be better in different hands. It just seemed to lack an energy or rhythm to grab me, which left the admittedly funny and inventive moments feeling a bit lacklustre. Wes Anderson should remake it IMHO. It looks very nice though - good colours, especially with the costumes playing off the locales. 

14. Scream (1996) - DVD

The opening scene really is goddamn good, isn't it? The takes are huge with the camera stalking Drew Barrymore - whose gradual descent is captured by her and the camera - while taking us through where the action's about to happen and setting up the components of the set-piece without telling us that's what it's doing. I rewatched this part with the sound off and playing at 1.5x and properly noticed how great the technique is, mostly because it didn't feel showy at the time and I was completely absorbed by it. 

The style of the opening is continued throughout the rest of the film. Big takes with a really wide-angle lens that distorts a lot of the picture (unsure if deliberate or just my copy) and takes in the surroundings making for a living setting. There are wee jumps in editing, camerawork and performances which add to the corny tone of it all, as does Billy constantly seeming to jump into scenes, and even the costume looks daft unless it's in a closeup or dimly lit. Matthew Lillard is also great fun on screen yet uneasy af. 

I also loved how it establishes the deaths, mostly Tatum's and Drew Barrymore's, by making us aware of all the elements which we only know in retrospect. It's just a great example of setting up and knocking down, like mouse trap or something. The cameraman's death maybe went a bit overboard with the references to the delay but it was still a neat way to relate to the film's themes. 

Probably the central idea of it all comes from Billy saying "movies don't make psychos, movies make psychos more creative". Does the fact that one of the killers says that mean that the makers disagree with it? The cheapo costume, hidden identity, voice alteration and simplistic weapon all give the impression that the killer could conceivably be a different person underneath the mask every time Ghostface appears. A lot of the characters do seem desensitised to irl violence - shown by the excitable reaction to the principal dying and Ghostface cosplayers kicking about - while having an affection for "fictional" horror. Even the principal, after disciplining students for dressing up as Ghostface, decides to jokingly wear the mask. Do people like violence because of violent movies, or do people like violent movies because they like violence? And what happens when the lines are blurred and the tables are turned? The depiction of the press links to that: they're giddy when they discover a teenager's been killed because there's clearly a market for coverage of real-life horror as well as movies. Wes Craven probably hates this, as apparently he walked out of Reservoir Dogs because he felt Tarantino was enjoying the violence too much. I can't say I agree but it's interesting to watch Scream with that in mind. 

The killers are fucked up, though, and you don't see anyone else gleefully committing murder despite the fact they all watch these films for entertainment and/or have a great affinity for them. I suppose it boils down to the idea of interpretation of cinema and how people will always take away different things from it, including, very occasionally, bad things. 

I've never been too sure how clever its slasher movie deconstructions are in relation to this film; they just seemed to be referential as opposed to flipping the genre. The concept of Sidney growing to take agency of her own story is quite clever, though, even if the character and actor aren't all that great, and I was reading something after watching it that said she evaded the killer because she had already gone through her own horror story and the character arc that would entail. 

Bit of a ramble but it's an interesting film to talk about. 

Scream 4 (2011) - Netflix

This retains the fun style of the original but had no protagonist, no characters and no investment. I didn't/don't find Sidney a particularly compelling character but she's surrounded by a rich gallery of side ones that elevate the film. The principal's minor role in the first is more entertaining than any of the folk here (tbf he was better than most in the original too). The costume looks better in 4 and this might be more overtly a comedy, which isn't actually bad, but the whole thing was hollow. You can obviously exhaust your ideas come the fourth in a franchise, especially when the first was lightning in a bottle, but after an 11-year break during which a fucking tonne of horror/slasher remakes had been farted out, they should've had a more interesting take. 

[Comrie]

Sea Ghost/The Thing Below

 

A Jim Wynorski piece of junk that takes elements of government shady business with an alien killer. It melds crap acting, terrible cheap CGI and a plot ripped off numerous better films. Wynorski does manage to fit in a striptease and a half strip so at least he's not lost his touch for that, I guess.

2/10

[Paul Kersey]

Last Flag Flying

This is an "unofficial" sequel to the Jack Nicholson classic The Last Detail.

A Vietnam veteran's son has been killed while serving in Iraq, so he looks up a couple of old buddies and they travel across America together to attend the funeral.

Although they are clearly the same three characters as in The Last Detail the names and some biographical details have been changed.

Bryan Cranston stars in the Nicholson role. He is very convincing as the cynical, hard drinking veteran, but he is just isn't Nicholson.

This shares the same blend of humour and tragedy as the original but tones it down quite a bit.

Overall, I'd say that in it's own right this a decent enough film, even though it's about 20 minutes too long. However, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I wasn't such a big fan of the original. 

6/10

[Hampden Diehard]

Guy Ritchie's "Revolver". Jason Statham being the exact same character he plays in every film he's in. Surely he's even bored with that? He's laughing all the way to the bank, so why change it, I suppose?

He's released from 7 years in jail and he reckons Ray Liotta owes him. Loads of guys get shot; dodgy accents; an unintelligible script that jumps all over the place. A waste of time. 2/10

[MSU]

005 -- The Rescue. A National Geographic documentary about the kids football team who got trapped in a flooded cave system in Thailand. A remarkable and emotional story of courage and ingenuity and perseverance, made all the more enjoyable from the heroes being people you'd least expect. I remember this from the time it happened, but I would've sworn it was longer ago than 2018. Even though I sort of knew how it ended, the characters involved are so engaging as they tell their story, it felt brand new. A triumph and at no point does anyone ask what Elon Fucking Musk thinks about matters. Highly recommended. 10/10

[Pocketman]

On 16/01/2022 at 18:12, Squalor Vic said:

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Thought it was pretty slow and didn't feel like a Ghostbusters film. I didn't hate it but it was just 'awright'

6.554/10

more nostalgic than cinematic...

[Mark Connolly]

The Matrix Resurrections

Its not very good, is it?

[Stellaboz]

10 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

The Matrix Resurrections

Its not very good, is it?

I thought it was okay, but I didn't feel at anytime there was a sense of threat or...high stakes like the original trilogy. Quite enjoyed the early part wondering where the f**k they were going with it, but the ending left me a bit...meh. 

[Mark Connolly]

1 hour ago, Stellaboz said:

I thought it was okay, but I didn't feel at anytime there was a sense of threat or...high stakes like the original trilogy. Quite enjoyed the early part wondering where the f**k they were going with it, but the ending left me a bit...meh. 

Pretty much exactly my thoughts.

Spoiler

The initial part with all sorts of mentions about Warner Brothers and reboots and retreads had me thinking they might do something very different, then they basically had the entire first trilogy in one film with a younger cast other than Reeves and Moss (and Jada Pinkett)

 

[Detournement]

It would have been far better if they had just stuck with the opening premise and done something like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind in The Matrix.

As I said before the action sequences were half assed.

[Sliced Bread]

The new Ghostbusters film. 
 

I guess it was just what it needed to be,  new and youthful enough to attract a young audience and reboot the franchise, but plenty from the original films to hook in us old farts who watched it in the 80s. It was ok, a bit too long, Bill Murray looks decrepit and it wasn’t the same without Harold Ramis. I did prefer it to the Paul Feig one a few years ago. 

[Arch Stanton]

Munich: The Edge of War (2021)

Boring

[Paul Kersey]

Betty Blue

A badly dressed French bloke and a barely dressed French burd go around doing incredibly stupid stuff.

This was pretty boring tbh. Must be one of the most overrated films ever. 

The only plus point is Bèatrice Dalle in the scud. 

4/10

[NotThePars]

Watched a few things over the last week or so

Spider-Man (2002) dir. Sam Raimi

The melodrama is very over the top and it's incredibly goofy but it's all in good fun. Lot of good OTT performances with Dafoe in the lead. I far prefer this to the MCU monstrosities and Garfield's flops. 

Con-Air (1997) dir. Simon West

What did I think at the end? Yeeha, that's right. Movies were much better back when they made no sense and nobody gave a shit cause it was all in service of cool actors doing cool shit.

Superbad (2007). dir. Greg Mottola

This surprisingly really holds up and I think it might be the comfortable best of that slew of US comedies from the mid-noughties maybe because it has such a simple premise: teens get a fake ID and try to buy booze to get their hole.

The Big Short (2015) dir. Adam McKay

Having watched this and Don't Look Up I think it's pretty obvious that McKay is on much firmer ground with economics. It's a bit preachy like everything he does but that works and is fine when he understands who he thinks is to blame.

The Other Guys (2010). dir. Adam McKay

It's been years since I watched this and while it stops being as funny after the first half hour or so I still enjoyed it. Also it's funny in hindsight how much of the plot of this is focused on a somewhat niche bit of financial fraud and the credits is all about the onset of neoliberalism and the financial crash. Man knew what his interests were.

Licorice Pizza (2021) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

PTA's pure vibes movie. I loved this even if me and my gf were squirming at the end scene. Hoffman and Alana are so great in this in what is their first role and the whole cinema was howling the entire time with laughter. The scenes with the Japanese wives especially were horrendous but I couldn't stop laughing every time it happened. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by NotThePars