What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Stellaboz]

4 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

The Dark Knight Rises.

For a movie I enjoyed when I first saw it, I was bored rigid re-watching this. Of the Nolan trilogy only The Dark Knight stands up well nowadays. Overly serious, often tedious.

Having recently gone through the Batman movies (except the new one in cinemas), Tim Burton's are clearly the best (and I'd have Batman Returns over Batman). Then The Dark Knight. Then the 1966 Batman. Joel Schumacher's movies should just be burned they were so very awful.. 

I recently watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight with the missus. She wasn't impressed with them, though it's not her sort of film. Told her if she's not into them, then it's not worth watching this one as it's more of the same. 

 

Saying that, I LOVE them, The Dark Night is clearly the best of the 3 though and The Dark Knight Rises doesn't introduce anything new. 

[Pocketman]

3 hours ago, Stellaboz said:

I recently watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight with the missus. She wasn't impressed with them, though it's not her sort of film. Told her if she's not into them, then it's not worth watching this one as it's more of the same. 

 

Saying that, I LOVE them, The Dark Night is clearly the best of the 3 though and The Dark Knight Rises doesn't introduce anything new. 

I think the Joker's grand plan where he relied on certain actions and decisions being taken from a number of reasonable options doesn't stand up very well when you revisit it, particularly when assessed against a few films from that time that relied on that same plot device - Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness for one. I still loved the movie though retain a soft spot for Batman Begins. 

My order of favourites is the order of the trilogy, then Batman 1989, Batman Returns, The Batman, Batman 66, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. 

 

[Mark Connolly]

Returns is absolutely tremendous. DeVito is fantastic as the Penguin, and the Batman-Catwoman/Bruce-Selina relationship is played brilliantly by both Keaton and Pfeiffer.

Plus Michelle Pfeiffer is absolutely perfectly cast as Catwoman.

 

[accies1874]

47, 48 & 52

The Batman (2022) (and Zodiac (2007) and Se7en (1995)) - Cinema, Netflix, DVD

Ok so The Batman. I was really looking forward to this as it looked really funky and different from a lot of the other Batman stuff. However, it didn’t work for me despite giving it a couple of goes, so I decided to take a look at a couple of its influences to see what they managed to do that Batman didn’t. I’ll start with Batman’s good stuff as I can talk about them without talking about the other two.
Firstly, the sound is class. Whether it’s the rumbling of the Batmobile for the first time or the screaming of folk at the funeral, it managed to create terrific anxiety. I also liked this Batman/Bruce Wayne as he carries an immaturity and vulnerability that we haven’t really seen in a full film before (Batman Begins spent a bit of time there). The world really appealed to me, even with its architectural inconsistencies; I saw a review that said the reoccurring locations like the Iceberg Lounge and the scaffolding made for familiarity and sense of place which I agree with. This isn’t something you see a lot of in big blockbusters, especially considering the locations are a bit grimy. Jeffrey Wright’s a good actor but gets some shit expositional dialogue here.
Which brings me onto the negative – the script.
Even beyond the on the nose, portentous voice-over and often clichéd dialogue and plot points, a lot of choices made it quite unsatisfactory for me.
There’s some decent enough character stuff with Batman’s growth but I could’ve done with Bruce Wayne going on a similar journey which might have even made it click a lot more. Maybe the sequel eh? I also felt a lack of stakes throughout. Batman is mostly passive, the mystery is largely boring considering the cast of characters aren’t interesting enough to carry the twists and turns, and the resolutions all seemed to be a bit after-the-fact. So... Se7en and Zodiac.
They both have a villain whose step-ahead nature causes chaos within the minds of procedural, orderly people. Zodiac uses those minds to show the effect of the mystery on a big scale while Se7en is more focussed on the two leads and how they represent something wider. At the centre of both is a clear figurehead that causes friction with the characters we’re supposed to connect with. The Batman, meanwhile, has a bunch of different plot elements that don’t really feel like they tie in with one another. It’s hard to explain but almost every strand and character felt disconnected.
The Riddler also never clicked for me as a villain. He was too detached without being detached enough like John Doe or the Zodiac. The Zodiac’s unpredictability makes him scarier imo but tbf The Batman wants to tell a different story which is fair enough but just makes it a bit more meh. If you had the Riddler more shadowy then it could do the “Batman causes baddies” more effectively like Zodiac; whenever the killer is off-screen he feels like he could be anyone but when he’s there for the killings you sure as heck know he’s there. John Doe in Se7en is largely invisible which makes his chaos more uncontrollable and scarier imo. Mills and Somerset are chasing shadows that are causing a great deal of destruction and there’s nothing they can really do about it. John Doe is unseen and unrelenting, whereas they kinda try and do that with the Riddler but he’s the villain in a comic book movie so he has to be on screen for a certain percentage of the runtime. That means they have him as a physical being, either in the shadows or on a phone, which makes Batman look incompetent as opposed to the Riddler being clever. That interrogation scene was a masterclass in overacting a craaaazy person too. The Riddler's morality and psychology is OK in relation to the film's messaging but is really overplayed when you compare it to how Se7en does a very similar thing...

In Se7en, John Doe’s reasoning is so fucking stupid. This guy thinks folk should be murdered because they’re fat or they’re vain – of course he and Mills are different. However, he still manages to make a killer of Brad Pitt when he has every opportunity not to. There’s nothing forcing him to kill John Doe (other than the fact he’s played by Kevin Spacey), nothing bad will happen to him if he doesn’t, yet he still goes through with it because of the actions of someone with such a warped view of reality.

Despite Joker being a bit naff, I think The Batman suffers a wee bit from it coming out a couple of years ago. The whole "angry at Waynes - do they have a mysterious past?!" thing was done in literally the last Batman-world film in cinemas.

[scottsdad]

18 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

Returns is absolutely tremendous. DeVito is fantastic as the Penguin, and the Batman-Catwoman/Bruce-Selina relationship is played brilliantly by both Keaton and Pfeiffer.

Plus Michelle Pfeiffer is absolutely perfectly cast as Catwoman.

 

Agree completely. Having recently re-watched the lot, this for me was the best. 

Don't forget Christopher Walken - another proper baddie. 

[scottsdad]

18 hours ago, KingRocketman II said:

I think the Joker's grand plan where he relied on certain actions and decisions being taken from a number of reasonable options doesn't stand up very well when you revisit it, particularly when assessed against a few films from that time that relied on that same plot device - Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness for one. I still loved the movie though retain a soft spot for Batman Begins. 

My order of favourites is the order of the trilogy, then Batman 1989, Batman Returns, The Batman, Batman 66, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. 

 

Jesus I hate that film. Never in my life have I been so disappointed.

Two thirds of the way in, I am bouncing in my cinema seat. Surely this is the best ST movie ever made. Then they turned it into a parody of The Wrath of Khan, recycling lines and scenes. Left the cinema angry, like I had been mugged. 

[MSU]

033 -- Everything Everywhere All At Once. Came out of the cinema feeling the same way I did at the end of Scott Pilgrim and Kill Bill Vol 1, figuring that I've just seen one of my favourite movies ever and I'm going to go back to it many many times. 10/10

[Comrie]

Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars

Imagine the X-Files, set in Japan but with kaiju and Stuart Gordon deciding the angles. It sounds weird, but it works surprisingly well despite clearly no having much of a budget. Strangely hypnotic.

7.5/10

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Lost in translation 2003

A rom com about a 50 year old guy who tries to groom a teenager. 

 

The film wouldn’t be made nowadays.

[accies1874]

53. Devil (2010) - Horror Channel

A pointless endeavour. 

54. Westworld (1973)* - BBC One

Quite brave in that it’s really patient, taking its time with familiarising the audience with its different locations and just has random interjections from the different “worlds” that provide a sketch show quality that comes full circle when you get to the more exciting conclusion. The worlds in and of themselves aren’t the most compelling but contrasting them against each other makes them a bit more interesting. Too bad my recording cut out two minutes before the end so I didn’t get to see the ending.

55. Dial M for Murder (1954)* - TCM Movies

Really enjoyable watching this set things up and knock them down time after time. There's a scene with a phone call that is Pure Cinema. 

56. The Usual Suspects (1995) - DVD

I’d seen this before but was actually surprised by how long it took me to settle into it. A lot of names, timelines and plotlines that took me a while to place where everything was. Once that was out of the way, though, it was great watching it all unravel. 

[MSU]

034 -- Enemy (#6 in the A24 series). Jake Gyllenhaal plays a boring old history professor whose colleague recommends he watches a movie that seems to star his identical twin. Sure enough, it does and History Professor Jake Gyllenhaal becomes obsessed with Actor Jake Gyllenhaal to the point where they meet and discover that they even share scars. For the longest time it was a pretty confusing experience, and there's a lot of stuff about spiders that doesn't appear to make a whole lot of sense, but there are a few throwaway lines of dialogue (in a film that doesn't have many lines in its script) that help stuff fall into place because obviously all is not what it seems. The end really took me by surprise. 7/10

035 -- Under the Skin (#7 in the A24 series). Out of the opening few movies on the A24 list, this was the first I'd heard of and I'd seen bits of it, although I don't think I'd ever seen the end. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who drives around Scotland in a white van, boffing lonely young men (aka Hibs fans) to death. Kinda. There's a bit of pleasure from seeing places I know, streets I remember crossing and all that good stuff, and while it was interesting and Scarlett Johansson and everything, it was starting to get a bit repetitive until she picks up the bloke with the facial tumors and then the whole thing found its heart. Quite incredible and kudos to Jonathan Glazer or whoever it was who managed to get this premise green-lit. Well worth it. 9/10

[accies1874]

Enemy and Under the Skin is one hell of a double header.

[MSU]

Ha! Aye, I saw Seven and The Usual Suspects at the cinema on the same day back in the 90s but these two take the biscuit, I reckon.

[Detournement]

The beach scene in Under The Skin is harrowing. I think it's got a shout of being the best film of that decade. As I've posted before the bus driver was cheated out a best supporting actor Oscar. 

Enemy is great as well. Toronto looks completely dystopian. 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Detournement

[yoda]

On Under The Skin - Mica Levi's score is one of the best of the decade too.

I went to see The Worst Person In The World over the weekend. A really wonderful film that I can't stop thinking about.

[MSU]

32 minutes ago, yoda said:

On Under The Skin - Mica Levi's score is one of the best of the decade too.

I went to see The Worst Person In The World over the weekend. A really wonderful film that I can't stop thinking about.

Same. Absolutely loved it.

[coprolite]

Doubled up on Sam Rockwell yesterday:

The Bad Guys

Dreamworks animation about a heist crew of scary animals headed by the big bad wolf. 

Fairly tight, mcGuffin based, plot with some decently entertaining bits.  Non stop action with loads of uptempo music. Looks more cartoony than most dreamworks stuff, which goes well with some proper moments of cartoon physics. 

Just falls a bit short on characters, humour, warmth etc. 

6/10

The Way, Way Back

Awkward teen stuck on holiday with his recently divorced Mum's arsehole boyfriend makes unlikely friends. 

Really small events with almost no moments of real drama. Maybe one or two at most. But the small stuff was so well handled it felt really important, like it would for the characters. 

Really enjoyed it though they slightly overdid the pathos into mawkishness towards the end. 

Completely not what i was expecting from the title. Thought it was going to be a wonderyears style nostalgia fest with voiceover with Judd Apatow style humour. Still none the wiser about the title. Might be a reference to the car seat in the boot i guess? 

7/10

[Gianfranco]

The Way Way Back is a great movie.

[Detournement]

 

Oh baby.

[accies1874]

 
Oh baby.

Dune Part 2 imo