Mark Connolly Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 23 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said: I like Batman Returns. I'd rank the Batman films I've seen as follows: 1. Dark Knight 2. Dark Knight Rises 3. Lego Batman Movie 4. Batman Returns 5. Batman (1990ish) 6. Batman Begins 7. The Batman 8. Batman (sixties) 9. Batman Forever 10. Batman and Robin 11. Batman vs Superman 12. Justice League Extremely generous to Justice League there IMHO TBQHWY 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 I will say that the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League was better than what made it out to cinemas at the time. By "better", I mean that it was more coherent and tonally matched the films that came before. The whole Warner Bros DC project was still mystifyingly misguided, although I'm a little disappointed that we're not going to see more of where they were going with that mess, as it's pretty funny when someone's taking dudes in tights deathly serious. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squalor Vic Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Till - 2022 The horrific true story of Emmett Till who died at the hands of racists in Mississippi in 1955 is told through the POV of his mother Mamie, who went on to be a prominent civil rights activist. Wisely framing it through her eyes means we don't have to watch the actual deed being done (although the sight of the body is quite horrific) and no focus is really given to the white supremacists who participated in it, in fact I'm not even sure you see there faces fully, which is a welcome change. It could have done with 20 mins off it imo and the look of it felt like a made for tv movie at the start but when it gets to the crux of the story it really picks up. The performance of Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie is very good too. Overall a worthwhile watch if you like historical films of this nature 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 On 06/01/2023 at 18:14, jimmy boo said: A Man Called Ove This is the original Swedish version of the new Tom Hanks film A Man Called Otto. Grumpy old widower stuck in his ways and thinks he can boss everyone about has his world changed when new neighbours move in next door. Told in flash backs and is both funny and emotional.........8/10. I enjoyed the new one last Friday, would like to see the original. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSU Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 006 M3GAN -- A by-the-numbers 12A/PG13 Blumhouse horror movie that doesn't seem to know if it wants to make you scared or make you laugh but succeeds far better in the latter. Nine-year-old Cody's parents die in a fairly amusing car crash and so she is sent to live with her single Aunt Gemma, her mum's sister, who fortunately for the rest of the movie is a big hot shot designer at a toy company and she's been secretly working on a new project. M3GAN (Model 3 Generational Android) is a child-sized robot capable of spontaneous conversation, full of life lessons and worldly advice, and who will do ANYTHING to protect her owner. Gemma tests her new creation out on Cody and doesn't have to wonder what could possibly go wrong for very long before things start to go wrong. The effects of the doll are pretty neat and the performances are solid enough, but it's difficult to ignore how much it borrows from the likes of Child's Play, Ex Machina (a wee bit), Toy Soldiers, and Annabelle. In fact, M3GAN and Annabelle are made by the same people, which is a bit icky. It's not terrible, it's not great, but in the absence of interesting kills, effective jump scares, or anything remotely original, there are a few decent laughs to be had, particularly when M3GAN decides to sing, that makes it just about worthwhile. 6/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustOneCornetto Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 (edited) Inspired by @MSU and @accies1874 I'm going to try and list/review all the films I watch this year. Here's the first batch of four. (01) Private Property (1960) - Talking Pictures Quite a controversial film when it was released due to the sordid and harrowing plot about a couple of drifters who follow a beautiful blonde and spy on her from the empty house next door to her. The bossy one of the drifters, Duke, plans on seducing her and then passing her on to his pal Boots who is hopeless at getting a girlfriend. Of course things don't go smoothly for them and there's a dramatic end when the woman's husband returns home. JFK watched this on the night he won the Presidency and joked that because the film was condemned by the Legion Of Decency it would have helped him with some anti Catholic voters if they knew him and Jackie had watched the film. 6.5/10 (02) Wrong Turn (2023) - Netflix Think of Deliverance, which even gets mentioned in this film, and you get the idea. A bunch of young city people find themselves lost deep in the Appalachians and encounter some mutant/cannibialistic hillbillies. Nowhere near as subtle or good as Deliverance it pretty much turns into a gorefest with the characters being picked off one by one. Has the odd good and tense moment but not a film I'd ever watch again. 4.5/10 (03) The Swimmer (1968) - DVD A favourite film of mine which on first viewing would seem like a novelty and just a showcase for Burt Lancaster to show off his physique as he goes the entire film in just his swimming shorts. It's an odd start to the film as Ned Merrill just appears wearing his trunks and arrives at a big house with a swimming pool. He knows the owners and after some reminiscing he has the idea to get back home via a series of swimming pools in the affluent suburb of Connecticut. At each pool you learn a bit more about Ned and start to see that he is losing his sense of reality with the climax to the film really quite disturbing as you see a broken man at the lowest point in his life. Terrific film. 8.5/10 (04) The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Talking Pictures Bit of a landmark film as it's the first film noir directed by a woman, Ida Lupino who had a pretty amazing career as an actress, director, writer, producer and singer. This is a good film about a killer on the loose who hitches lifts then robs and kills the occupants. Two friends who are heading for a fishing trip in a small Mexican town pick him up but are then held hostage and threatened by the killer, Emmett Myers. Some good, tense scenes as they drive to the small town especially the scenes inside the car which give you a really claustrophobic feeling and as you'd expect a tense finale as the police close in on him. 7/10 Edited January 8, 2023 by JustOneCornetto 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpInTheAyr Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 BlackBird Funded, directed, and starring the lord of the dance guy Michael Flatley. A vanity project where he gets to pretend to be 007 and make pew pew noises. Watched this based on the review by Kermode who sounded like he was having an aneurysm having to suffer through it. This is one of those films that is so bad you can't help but admire the sheer audacity and stupidity of it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy boo Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Till. True story of 14 year old boy being lynched and murdered in Mississippi 1955. Some outstanding performances...8/10. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie S Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 (edited) Movie Watch 2022 I only managed to see 115 films in 2022, well down from a total of 149 films in 2021 and 171 films in 2020. Regrettably, at least in part due to work commitments, I only saw 11 films in the cinema in 2022, compared to 14 in 2021, and even more regrettably one of those cinemas (The Filmhouse) has now closed. Support your local cinemas, particularly the independents. There were some great discoveries amongst the films I watched over the last 12 months, but it was by no means a vintage year. I’ll try to do better in 2023 - particularly by going to the cinema more, and I resolve to start making inroads into my large pile of unwatched blu-rays / dvds. Going forward, I plan to jump on the bandwagon and list / review all the films I watch in 2023. In the meantime, these are my favourite 75 films that I saw in 2022 (a slightly arbitrary number - I’d rather have made it 100, but I couldn’t really make a case for having seen 100 good films last year). 1-Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) Criterion Collection blu-ray 2-The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960) Criterion Collection blu-ray 3-Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945) Criterion Collection blu-ray 4-Pig (Michael Sarnoski, 2021) Amazon Prime 5-The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021) Amazon Prime 6-Rose Plays Julie (Joe Lawlor, Christine Malloy, 2019) Amazon Prime 7-Hard to be a God (Aleksei German, Aleksei German Jr. 2014) Amazon Prime 8-Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) Edinburgh Filmhouse 9-The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021) Mubi 10-Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943) Universal 4K disc 11-The Northman (Robert Eggers, 2022) BA in flight entertainment 12-Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) Criterion Channel 13-Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup, 2022) Shudder via Amazon Prime 14-Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957) BBC2 15-Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul, 2012) Amazon Prime 16-The Endless (Justin Benson, Aaron Murhead, 2017) Arrow Blu-ray 17-Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland, 2009) Mubi 18-Gwen (William McGregor, 2018) Amazon Prime 19-Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, 2000) Criterion Channel 20-Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) Mubi 21-The Invitation (Karyn Kusama, 2015) Amazon Prime 22-The Wailing (Na Hong-jin, 2016) Amazon Prime 23-La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante, 2020) Amazon Prime 24-Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2010) YouTube 25-The Empty Man (David Prior, 2020) Amazon Prime 26-Everything Everywhere All At Once (Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Amazon Prime 27-November (Rainer Sanet, 2017) Amazon Prime 28-Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997) Mubi 29-Mister John (Joe Lawlor, Christine Malloy, 2013) Mubi 30-Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (Kier-La Janisse) Severin blu-ray 31-The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022) Everyman Cinema, Edinburgh 32-Cry of the City (Robert Siodmak, 1948) BFI blu-ray 33-Pontypool (Bruce McDonald, 2008) Shudder via Amazon Prime 34-Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949) Criterion Channel 35-Dogman (Matteo Garrone, 2018) Mubi 36-Reprise (Joachim Trier, 2006) Mubi 37-The Prowler (Joseph Losey, 1951) YouTube 38-Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier, 2011) Mubi 39-Palm Springs (Max Barbakow, 2020) Amazon Prime 40-The Black Godfather (Reginald Hudlin, 2019) Netflix 41-Café Society (Woody Allen, 2016) Amazon Prime 42-Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, 2014) Amazon Prime 43-Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954) Criterion Channel 44-I Walk Around Moscow (Georgiy Daneliya, 1963) YouTube 45-All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, 2022) Netflix 46-Titane (Julia Ducournau, 2020) Mubi 47-The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001) Criterion Channel 48-Wattstax (Mel Stuart, 1973) Criterion Channel 49-Blonde (Andrew Dominik, 2022) Netflix 50-Where are you, João Gilberto? (Georges Gachot, 2018) Mubi 51-Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1948) Criterion Channel 52-Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir, 2021) Mubi 53-The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther V. Fritsch, Robert Wise, 1944) BBC2 54-Oxide Ghosts: The Brass Eye Tapes (Michael Cumming, 2017) Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh 55-Elvis (Baz Luhrmann, 2022) Vue Cinema, Ocean Terminal 56-The House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009) Amazon Prime 57-Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (Brett Harvey, 2020) Sky Documentaries 58-Minions: The Rise of Gru (Kyle Balda, 2022) Century XD, Union Square, San Francisco 59-Lynch / Oz (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2022) BFI Player 60-The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932) YouTube 61-Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson, 2021) Mubi 62-Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022) Amazon Prime 63-House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller, 1955) Criterion Channel 64-Mulberry St (Abel Ferrara, 2010) YouTube 65-The Oak Room (Cody Callahan, 2020) Amazon Prime 66-The Night House (David Bruckner, 2021) Disney+ 67-The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2022) BA in flight entertainment 68-Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) Amazon Prime 69-Eyes of Fire (Avery Crounse, 1983) Severin blu-ray 70-The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022) American Airlines in flight entertainment 71-Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond, 2021) Mubi 72-Existenz (David Cronenberg, 1999) Amazon Prime 73-The Red House (Delmer Daves, 1947) YouTube 74-Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) Amazon Prime 75-Quincy (Alan Hicks, Rachida Jones, 2018) Netflix Edited January 9, 2023 by Frankie S 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coprolite Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Watched a fair few over the last week or so, mostly but not all forgettable family viewing. Highlights: Gremlins 2 (1990) wee rubber monsters terrorise yuppies in very silly postmodernist sequel to original kids' horror. Great fun. Less of a film than the original and more of an excuse to get gremlins doing stupid shit. They are brilliantly malevolent. 6/10 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) Pauper child and his malingering elderly relative win a trip to an eccentric confectionery geniuses factory. This gets more unsettling every time i see it. All five children suffer potentially fatal incidents. The whole thing is a massive ego trip for a rich megalomaniac. And the oompah loompahs are brutally sanctimonious about everything. Also the Oompah loompahs may well be trafficked. It's great though, probably my favourite Gene Wilder performance. Just the right mix of whimsy and menace. 8/10 End of Watch (2012) Gritty and Brutal police drama with idealistic young cops coming up against reality. This had lots of things going for it, did really well at creating a believable world for the characters and the acting and look of it was pretty good. The characters, especially the gangs, were caricatures and the events (and therefore plot) were dumb. Disclaimer, i watched this on Prime where the description had a major plot spoiler in it, that only happened about 85% of the way through. I may have enjoyed it more without this, but i'll never know. 4/10 Puss in Boots (2011) Walking talking cat has adventures in extended Shrek universe. Relatively entertaining. They had great fun playing with the anthropomorphic aspects and animal aspects of the cat chatacters. The playing with the fairytale tropes and characters felt half arsed. The humpty dumpty character was annoying and looked terrible. Relatively engaging caper with plenty going on and some decent moments of entertainment, but nothing particularly hilarious or memorable. 6/10 The Battle of Algiers (1966) Watched because of its write up in the top 100. Story of a terrorist campaign and counter insurgency operation in 1950s Algeria. Largely follows one insurgent/ freedom fighter lieutenant from radicalisation in jail and then the head of the counterinsurgency in a curiously detatched, almost reportage style. It's pretty unflinching on the moral dilemmas and tactical expediency on both sides. There is no moral guide at all and that's left entirely to the viewer. It looks superficially rough but it's really well crafted. The different areas of the city feel like separate worlds and there's a couple of jump cuts between them where that difference is shocking. And the soundtrack just fits. My only real complaint is that it ended too early in the overarching story. 9/10 That "ironic" Nicholas Cage "comedy". (2022) 15 minutes in and was getting increasingly unimpressed by how shit it was. And really annoyingly shit because it thought it was clever. Film abandoned 0/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie S Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 (edited) #1 Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) Criterion Collection blu-ray 9 Excellent Japanese psychological horror film from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I was intrigued enough to buy the blu-ray after reading an interview with ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon-ho, in which he described ‘Cure’ as one of the greatest films ever made. While I don’t rate it quite that highly, Kurosawa skilfully suffuses this police procedural with a sustained atmosphere of dread. I suspect this film was an influence on South Korean director Na Hong-Jin’s excellent 2016 film ‘The Wailing’, one of the best horror films I saw last year, and, even at this early stage, I expect ‘Cure’ to be one of my highlights of 2023. #2 Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019) BFI Player 8 Hugely promising breakthrough film from Mark Jenkin, which explores the culture clash in a Cornish fishing village as the community’s traditional way of life comes under threat from the tourists who descend during the summer months. Jenkin cleverly converts his micro budget into an asset, and the roughness of the 16mm monochrome film stock works exceptionally well, lending the rugged Cornish landscape and the stoic locals a mythic quality. I’m greatly looking forward to Jenkin’s upcoming folk horror film ‘Enys Men’, which is also set in Cornwall. #3 Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Amazon Prime 6 I greatly enjoyed Östlund’s ‘Force Majeure’, but this (Palme d’Or-winning) film isn’t (IMO) in the same class. It‘s one of a number of voguish recent films (see ‘The Menu’) that attack the privileged, but it lacks the potency to land a decisive blow on a soft target. The film is split into three chapters, and the middle segment, set on a luxury yacht, with the ever-reliable Woody Harrelson excelling as the drunken ship’s captain, a socialist who holds his rich passengers in contempt, is by far the best. Overall though, it’s a disappointingly crude and overlong farce, punctuated with occasional amusing moments. #4 The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022) Vue Cinema, Omni Centre, Edinburgh 5 Heavy-handed satire masquerading as a horror film. Presumably the intention is to satirise the pretensions of the high class restaurant industry and its customers, but whenever a deft incision is required, the director’s instrument of choice tends to be a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. Mylod honed his directorial skills on one of my favourite TV series (‘Succession’) and one of my least favourite (the irredeemably crass ‘Entourage’), neither of which are renowned for their subtlety, and it’s hard to care very much about the fates of the patrons of celebrity chef Julian Slowick (Ralph Fiennes)’s exclusive restaurant (conveniently situated on a remote island) as they’re such crudely-drawn caricatures (the sycophantic foodie, the ageing film star who is hitting on his young P.A., the parasitic food critic & cynical magazine editor, the nouveau-riche new tech brats etc). Rather like chef Slowick’s amuse-bouche, ‘The Menu’ is an insubstantial confection, offering little in the way of nourishment. Edited January 9, 2023 by Frankie S 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 On 08/01/2023 at 16:13, JustOneCornetto said: Inspired by @MSU and @accies1874 I'm going to try and list/review all the films I watch this year. Here's the first batch of four. (01) Private Property (1960) - Talking Pictures Quite a controversial film when it was released due to the sordid and harrowing plot about a couple of drifters who follow a beautiful blonde and spy on her from the empty house next door to her. The bossy one of the drifters, Duke, plans on seducing her and then passing her on to his pal Boots who is hopeless at getting a girlfriend. Of course things don't go smoothly for them and there's a dramatic end when the woman's husband returns home. JFK watched this on the night he won the Presidency and joked that because the film was condemned by the Legion Of Decency it would have helped him with some anti Catholic voters if they knew him and Jackie had watched the film. 6.5/10 (02) Wrong Turn (2023) - Netflix Think of Deliverance, which even gets mentioned in this film, and you get the idea. A bunch of young city people find themselves lost deep in the Appalachians and encounter some mutant/cannibialistic hillbillies. Nowhere near as subtle or good as Deliverance it pretty much turns into a gorefest with the characters being picked off one by one. Has the odd good and tense moment but not a film I'd ever watch again. 4.5/10 (03) The Swimmer (1968) - DVD A favourite film of mine which on first viewing would seem like a novelty and just a showcase for Burt Lancaster to show off his physique as he goes the entire film in just his swimming shorts. It's an odd start to the film as Ned Merrill just appears wearing his trunks and arrives at a big house with a swimming pool. He knows the owners and after some reminiscing he has the idea to get back home via a series of swimming pools in the affluent suburb of Connecticut. At each pool you learn a bit more about Ned and start to see that he is losing his sense of reality with the climax to the film really quite disturbing as you see a broken man at the lowest point in his life. Terrific film. 8.5/10 (04) The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - Talking Pictures Bit of a landmark film as it's the first film noir directed by a woman, Ida Lupino who had a pretty amazing career as an actress, director, writer, producer and singer. This is a good film about a killer on the loose who hitches lifts then robs and kills the occupants. Two friends who are heading for a fishing trip in a small Mexican town pick him up but are then held hostage and threatened by the killer, Emmett Myers. Some good, tense scenes as they drive to the small town especially the scenes inside the car which give you a really claustrophobic feeling and as you'd expect a tense finale as the police close in on him. 7/10 26 minutes ago, Frankie S said: #1 Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) Criterion Collection blu-ray 9 Excellent Japanese psychological horror film from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I was intrigued enough to buy the blu-ray after reading an interview with ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon-ho, in which he described ‘Cure’ as one of the greatest films ever made. While I don’t rate it quite that highly, Kurosawa skilfully suffuses this police procedural with a sustained atmosphere of dread. I suspect this film was an influence on South Korean director Na Hong-Jin’s excellent 2016 film ‘The Wailing’, one of the best horror films I saw last year, and, even at this early stage, I expect ‘Cure’ to be one of my highlights of 2023. #2 Bait (Mark Jenkin, 2019) BFI Player 8 Hugely promising breakthrough film from Mark Jenkin, which explores the culture clash in a Cornish fishing village as the community’s traditional way of life comes under threat from the tourists who descend during the summer months. Jenkin cleverly coverts his micro budget into an asset, and the roughness of the 16mm monochrome film stock works exceptionally well, lending the rugged Cornish landscape and the stoic locals a mythic quality. I’m greatly looking forward to Jenkin’s upcoming folk horror film ‘Enys Men’, which is also set in Cornwall. #3 Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) Amazon Prime 6 I greatly enjoyed Östlund’s ‘Force Majeure’, but this (Palme d’Or-winning) film isn’t (IMO) in the same class. It‘s one of a number of voguish recent films (see ‘The Menu’) that attack the privileged, but it lacks the potency to land a decisive blow on a soft target. The film is split into three chapters, and the middle segment, set on a luxury yacht, with the ever-reliable Woody Harrelson excelling as the drunken ship’s captain, a socialist who holds his rich passengers in contempt, is by far the best. Overall though, it’s a disappointingly crude and overlong farce, punctuated with occasional amusing moments. #4 The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022) Vue Cinema, Omni Centre, Edinburgh 5 Heavy-handed satire masquerading as a horror film. Presumably the intention is to satirise the pretensions of the high class restaurant industry and its customers, but whenever a deft incision is required, the director’s instrument of choice tends to be a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. Mylod honed his directorial skills on one of my favourite TV series (‘Succession’) and one of my least favourite (the irredeemably crass ‘Entourage’), neither of which are renowned for their subtlety, and it’s hard to care very much about the fates of the patrons of celebrity chef Julian Slowick (Ralph Fiennes)’s exclusive restaurant (conveniently situated on a remote island) as they’re such crudely-drawn caricatures (the sycophantic foodie, the ageing film star who is hitting on his young P.A., the parasitic food critic & cynical magazine editor, the nouveau-riche new tech brats etc). Rather like chef Slowick’s amuse-bouche, ‘The Menu’ is an insubstantial confection, offering little in the way of nourishment. Good luck comrades. It'll be long and hard journey but a rewarding one. Should say that I nicked the whole idea from @Christophe who doesn't really post here anymore. @Frankie S agree on Bait - top notch and hoping to see Enys Men at the weekend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Tunbridge Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Agree on the couple of shouts for Till was a great film if maybe a wee bit too long. I genuinely genuinely did not know this was a true story until the recap bit at the end, I thought it was a more intense/dramatic to kill a mockingbird style story until the end. The bit with the dead boy was absolutely harrowing (suppose that’s what they were aiming for). After doing my own reading about the real life situation it’s scary how accurate the film is. Wild the woman that lied in court and basically got the boy killed is still alive and kicking living a normal life, hope she has had nightmares every night of her life. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 The Stranger Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris in a tense undercover police story set in a moody Western Australia. A decent watch. 7/10 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy boo Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 1 hour ago, Scotty Tunbridge said: Agree on the couple of shouts for Till was a great film if maybe a wee bit too long. I genuinely genuinely did not know this was a true story until the recap bit at the end, I thought it was a more intense/dramatic to kill a mockingbird style story until the end. The bit with the dead boy was absolutely harrowing (suppose that’s what they were aiming for). After doing my own reading about the real life situation it’s scary how accurate the film is. Wild the woman that lied in court and basically got the boy killed is still alive and kicking living a normal life, hope she has had nightmares every night of her life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvijYSJtkQk&t=770s 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 (edited) Batman Returns An enjoyable film but falls just short of its predecessor for me. It has more Batman and keeps alive the fantastic grimy aesthetic of Gotham from before but the villains can't match Nicholson's Joker. They're all good villains mind. De Vito is great as Penguin, but Penguin is just a bit too silly too often, and for me didn't carry any menace. His main 'weapon' was to turn folk against Batman, but when the people of Gotham were shown to be gullible morons who instantly turn on folk, those tactics proved to be less than effective. His gang were too daft and lightweight to be a real threat too. Max Schreck was decent but wasn't really a big bad, at least not to Batman. However, Michele Pfeiffer absolutely kills it as Catwoman and is easily the stand out of the film. She's just tremendous in the role. She doesn't ham it up and plays Catwoman and Selina Kyle perfectly. She's easily the best Catwoman on film. She begins as a villain to Batman but quickly becomes something else, something inbetween. The Catwoman/Batman and Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne dynamics are great and really progress the story. I said that the 1989 Batman film could have been called 'Joker' instead; well there's a case for calling Batman Returns 'Catwoman' instead. Batman Returns has been said to be a bit of an exploration of facets of Bruce Wayne, with the three antagonists all representing different sides of him. Indeed, with the film being set at Christmas, could there even be a nod towards the three famous Christmas spirits, with Cobblepot (past), Kyle (present) and Shcreck (future) showing us what Bruce Wayne could have been were things slightly different? Edited January 11, 2023 by DA Baracus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 Batman Forever Riddle me this; what the f**k did I just watch?! This is supposedly a follow on to Batman (1989) and Batman Returns, but it's as different to them as it is to the Nolan trilogy. Gone is the grimy, dark, grunge and more grounded Gotham of the previous two films and in its place a lurid, retina scorching explosion of neon and a riotous luminous pallete. Also gone is the more serious (for the medium) tone, with a lurch right in to sheer silliness, ludicrousness, over the top performances and outright nonsense. Within the first few minutes we have a security guard gurn about "Boiling acid!!!" as his glasses slip off and melt in a pool of it (it's bright green of course). Keaton saw the direction this was going and wanted no part, so Val Kilmer plays Batman/Bruce Wayne, and he's actually pretty decent at both. He has a few quips but mostly plays both serious and does so well, having a good physical presence and exploring Wayne's mental anguish a bit. There are two big villains here, both classics from Batman's 'Rougue's Gallery', Two Face and The Riddler, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey respectively. Both massively ham it up, seemingly inspired by the Adam West Batman series. To be fair, it looked like both were having a great time and seemed to have a competition of who could be more loud and over the top. Toss of a coin in the end for me.... Chris O'Donnell is introduced as Robin, and mostly is decent. However he's treated as an literal child at times, despite clearly being in his 20s. The dynamic between him and Batman has a not bad story. Nicole Kidman fires around half naked for much of her screen time as psychologist Chase Meridian who wants a shot on the Batdick, but also fancies a wee slice of Wayne too. The film may just overdo the whole 'duality' thing a bit. It's fitting that Two Face is in this film, as the film clearly isn't entirely sure what it wants to be either. On the one hand it aspires to be a more serious Batman film (see the psychological exploration of Bruce Wayne's trauma, his relationship with Robin and his struggles as Batman) but then it wants to be a comedy film (see The Riddler prancing around the Batcave, Two Face's two dinners and the many quips). It is actually fairly enjoyable though. I laughed quite a lot, with Carrey and Jones providing much of the mirth. It's fucking nonsense mind, but managed to successfully stay on the right side of the line with it, unlike its successor. Talking of which, I may as well give it a view tomorrow since I've done the rest. Sigh. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theroadlesstravelled Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 Airplane 1980 “Don’t call me Shirley.” Some of the jokes show their age a bit but it’s still packed with timeless comedy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 10 hours ago, DA Baracus said: Batman Forever Riddle me this; what the f**k did I just watch?! Don't worry. Batman and Robin is a true return to form and you'll love every second of it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetterlund Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 I only just watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for the first time in the last few days, having had no interest in them or indeed any of the comic book genre since the 90's movies (which I loved at the time). Must admit I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed them, and I'll definitely be giving TDK Rises a watch soon. As with the Tim Burton films there's a unique atmosphere around the Nolan efforts. I've read people saying they didn't like the almost-ever-present dramatic soundtrack fading in and out but I thought that was one of the best things about the movies. Some good humorous moments too. Looking back at the Batman catalogue,, it completely escaped my brain that George Clooney did one. I'll have to revisit these older ones too now that I'm in the mood. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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