What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[BFTD]

8 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I've got a choice of the new Indiana Jones or Wes Anderson's Asteroid City this afternoon, both of which have been panned by the Guardian critics, but I want to see anyway. Might just toss a coin.

Surely either of them would've been more interesting than a couple of hours spent doing that.

[54_and_counting]

New Indy film

Meh it does what it says on the tin, anyone expecting different i dunno why given the indy franchise

Decent idea behind the story but dragged on a bit, liked the glasgow scenes though 

[JustOneCornetto]

(43) Shergar (1999) – DVD

Everyone knows the story of Shergar being stolen and initially held for a ransom but what happened after is still a mystery and it’s all guesswork about the final outcome. This film uses some factual stuff about the kidnapping by a group of dissident IRA men led by Mickey Rourke and the subsequent extensive police search but it then romanticises the story with a young farmhand at the hideout farm riding Shergar away and meeting up with a gypsy traveller, played really well by Ian Holm, and his granddaughter. Bit of a Greek tragedy ending but not a bad film. 6/10

(44) Moon (2001) – DVD

Great wee film directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son). I’ve seen it quite a few times and it always makes me appreciate just how good Sam Rockwell is in it. It’s very low budget but you can see how some of the landmark sci-fi films have influenced the story, visually and philosophically. Maybe knowing the twist spoils further watches slightly but it remains a big favourite of mine. 8/10

(45) Limbo (2020) – Film4

Set on a remote, unnamed, Scottish island this is a story about a bunch of asylum seekers waiting to see if their applications are accepted. The story focuses mainly on Omar, a Syrian refugee who is a talented musician and carries his oud, a sort of guitar, everywhere he goes, as a sort of comfort and memory of home. There’s a lot of long lingering shots of the bleak landscape to convey their misery but there is some humour especially when they attend the cultural awareness classes run by the delectable Sidse Babett Knudsen. The pace is slow but the film does show the struggles that refugees must face in a sensitive way. 7/10

(46) Asteroid City (2023) – GFT

Everything you know and expect in a Wes Anderson film is here, from the vibrant colour palette, an ensemble cast and quirkiness, here it’s a play within the story with Bryan Cranston as the narrator.There’s the odd visual gag but the humour is mostly nerdy Big Bang Theory type given it’s about a junior stargazing convention in a small dusty town famous for being hit by an asteroid, Scarlett Johansson goes through a whole gamut of references to Hollywood, from Marilyn Monroe to Kim Novak in Vertigo, there’s a running gag, pun intended, of a cartoon Roadrunner, a nod to Westworld and I’m sure there are lots of other easter eggs I missed, Certainly not his best film but I did enjoy it and will watch it again as soon as it hits TV  7.5/10

(47) 10x10 (2018) – Netflix

One of these films that came up in my notifications which made it sound pretty good. While it does have a lot of mystery and suspense in the first act it quickly becomes very predictable and flawed as a man kidnaps a woman he’s been watching and locks her up in some sort of small bunker type room at his house in the middle of nowhere. It becomes cat and mouse when his   reason for doing this is revealed and she struggles to escape with a lot of fighting between them. At the end you’re not sure who you should be rooting for once you know the full story. 4.5/10

 

 

 

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

25 minutes ago, JustOneCornetto said:

(44) Moon (2001) – DVD

Great wee film directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son). I’ve seen it quite a few times and it always makes me appreciate just how good Sam Rockwell is in it. It’s very low budget but you can see how some of the landmark sci-fi films have influenced the story, visually and philosophically. Maybe knowing the twist spoils further watches slightly but it remains a big favourite of mine. 8/10

 

 

Very good film, loved it when I first saw it and enjoy reruns even knowing the twist. I think it was written with Rockwell specifically in mind. 

Quite liked Source Code by the same director but think I might be in a minority on that one.

[BFTD]

4 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Very good film, loved it when I first saw it and enjoy reruns even knowing the twist. I think it was written with Rockwell specifically in mind. 

Quite liked Source Code by the same director but think I might be in a minority on that one.

Surely not; both Moon and Source Code were very good. I was a bit annoyed when Zowie Bowie (to use his Sunday name) decided to take the Warcraft job, as that didn't seem like his thing at all, and was always going to be shit.

Just noticed that he had a straight-to-Netflix film called Mute that came out five years ago, and is apparently a poor sequel to Moon. Need to remember to see that.

[Stellaboz]

Source Code was tremendous.

[Salvo Montalbano]

43 minutes ago, BTFD said:

Surely not; both Moon and Source Code were very good. I was a bit annoyed when Zowie Bowie (to use his Sunday name) decided to take the Warcraft job, as that didn't seem like his thing at all, and was always going to be shit.

Just noticed that he had a straight-to-Netflix film called Mute that came out five years ago, and is apparently a poor sequel to Moon. Need to remember to see that.

2 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Source Code was tremendous.

I think everyone I've spoken to about Source Code thought it had quite a smaltzy ending but in the main I enjoyed the concept (same with Deja Vu and In Time). I've not seen Mute but I've not heard anything positive about it. Sam Rockwell has a tiny cameo I believe.

[MSU]

128 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny -- My attempts to get through the previous installments ahead of this stalled after Temple of Doom, so I have still to see Crystal Skull, which apparently would've been of some use here. Although I was looking forward to this, I was prepared to roll my eyes a bit and disapprove of the de-aging of Harrison Ford, but honestly, after a couple of minutes of thinking that the movie looked like a computer game, I stopped noticing because Toby Jones was on the screen and I love Toby Jones. It is, by and large, a series of chase scenes and daring dos strung out for a couple of hours, and aside from one scene on a boat, it never stops to take a breath. I was reminded of a National Treasure sequel, which isn't a bad thing in my book. It was good fun, made me laugh, and although I wish it had ended differently, during the final few scenes some popcorn dust blew in my eye which could easily have been mistaken for me shedding a tear or two. 7/10

129 Coherence -- I love sci-fi like this -- movies like Triangle and Time Crimes and Moon -- which take big themes in a small setting and do something remarkable. With a reported budget of $50,000, James Ward Byrkit directs his own script about a dinner party of friends who gather at the home of one of the couples at a time when the Miller Comet is tracking closely across the sky. It's probably best to go into it with as little information as possible, but aside from some improvized lines that kinda clunked all over the odd scene here and there, I thought this was clever, chilling, and shone a light on the usually evil assumptions an audience can make. 8/10

[accies1874]

Coherence is absolutely top notch. 

[Flybhoy]

London to Brighton. 

A really tough, harrowing watch, some brilliant performances, notably from Lorraine Stanley who is now in Eastenders and Boxer turned actor Johnny Harris who, seems to be the go to guy for independent film makers in Britain looking for a Cockney geezer to play an absolute scumbag, some may recall him getting his brains smashed in with a hammer after a lifetime as an incestuous rapist in This is England 86.

Here he plays Derek, a pimp who bullies Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) to get an underage girl for a rich gangster who gets his rocks off with that type of thing but, things quickly turn very ugly, can't go into much more detail without spoiling it for others, not an easy watch but a gripping one, although the 'twist' at the end I saw coming a mile off.

7/10

[Craig fae the Vale]

Went to see Asteroid City last night.

Delightfully weird, very funny, really enjoyed it. Don't read anything about it before going in, you'll enjoy it all the more.

[Miguel Sanchez]

There follows the first post in a series:

Mission: Impossible (1998)

Televisual nonsense with extremely 1998 CGI. The hacking scene was very tense though.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

The world's most charisma-free man and the world's most boring woman fail to build any chemistry for an hour before lots of shooting, rubber masks and extremely drawn out roundhouse kicks. Nonsense, but boring nonsense.

[coprolite]

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Office politics in an unethical boiler room.

Hadn’t seen this before. It’s very obvious that it’s adapted from a stage play and although I haven’t seen the play I’d guess it wasn’t adapted much.  It’s very stagey.
 

95% of it is in two locations and I suspect that most of the remainder was only relocated to shoehorn in a gratuitous “Nighthawks” tableau. Generally looked good and the aesthetic captured the grubbiness of the subject matter.
 

It’s very talky. There’s a good rhythm to the dialogue that sort of builds through the film, although a couple of bits felt indulgent/pretentious and some of the attempted zingy back and forth fell flat.

It’s mostly about the performances though. Jack Lemmon (particularly) and Ed Harris hamming it up against understated turns from Kevin Spacey and Alan Arkin, while Pacino is note perfect as a charming manipulator with an undertone of desperation. Even the Baldwin was quite good.

Thematically, it’s a less subtle “Death of a Salesman”

7/10

[scottsdad]

Back to the Future and Back to the Future II.

My daughter had never seen these so we watched them over the last couple of nights. Utterly brilliant movies. Just enjoyable. 

With part 2, there is so much plot in there, it's amazing to think it's less than 2 hours long. If it were made today it would be 3, easily. 

We're watching part 3 on Friday.

[accies1874]

14 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

There follows the first post in a series:

Mission: Impossible (1998)

Televisual nonsense with extremely 1998 CGI. The hacking scene was very tense though.

I think I'll go through all of these next year by the time Part 2 comes out. I've only seen 4 which I enjoyed until I realised that there was still a whole story to wrap up after the scene on the skyscraper. It was all a bit of a let-down after that.

[Comrie]

The Prophecy (1995)

 

A whole bunch of religious nonsense chucked in a blender, but it's Walken as Gabriel who holds this together by going full Walken and just chewing everything he can and is helped by Viggo Mortensen turning up later as Lucifer. Nice supporting roles from Amanda Plummer and Eric Stolz.

If you just go for the full on fun of seeing Walken go nuts, it's worth it.

7/10

[Miguel Sanchez]

3 hours ago, accies1874 said:

I think I'll go through all of these next year by the time Part 2 comes out. I've only seen 4 which I enjoyed until I realised that there was still a whole story to wrap up after the scene on the skyscraper. It was all a bit of a let-down after that.

I don't think I'd seen any before. I don't think I'll be rushing to the cinema.

[accies1874]

24. Asteroid City - Cinema

Well, I loved it. A wonderfully chilled film with a world I was happy existing in for 100 minutes hanging out with the characters. I liked the look of the film from the trailers but was a bit concerned that the Asteroid City section would be constantly interrupted by the black and white stuff, however the colourful world absolutely took precedence with the other stuff acting as interesting and fluid sidebars to branch things out. The saturated colour palette never grated on me, rather it and the score and production design were weirdly comforting to me. 

When Wes Anderson's on form, one of the main things I like about his films is the alive cast of characters who either get minimal screentime or just linger in the background, and this film did really tap into that. In fact, it's actually a key component of the film. 

The idea of storytelling is tackled in a much more appealing way to me than The French Dispatch approached it. The story within a story within a story made me consider the psyche of Edward Norton's character - a small role - and how his own emotional processing fractured into creating this vast array of characters, which in turn draws attention to Wes Anderson's mindset as he created that character as a branch of his mind to explore all of these different emotions represented by the characters in Asteroid City. 

I wondered in the opening credits when he did his first typical quick-pan what must be going through his head when making a film nowadays. He must know about all of the memes, parodies and A.I.-generated imitations, however he still goes into his films and executes his style perfectly, and that kind of all comes together on a few different levels. Firstly, there are the junior stargazers who are all geniuses meeting other geniuses which should, in theory, lessen the uniqueness of their talents - something that one of them clearly struggles with - but their individual quirks ultimately allow them to stand out in this field. There's a short moment at the start of Act II after the alien has landed where the camera tracks past them and it's interesting watching how that event affected their previously established personalities - fear, obsession, strength. It all feels completely natural despite depicting an otherworldly scenario. Then on another level, the Asteroid City televised play production brings together a bunch of actors who have "made it" more than most end up making it, yet they similarly have identity crises in their profession, especially in relation to using personas to externalise internalisation. I find that whole concept of personas and defence mechanisms interesting, although it wasn't until the end of my second watch last night that I began to wonder how much of the Asteroid City section of the film was showing slips of character - definitely a couple of times towards the end, but I'm not sure if it was prevalent throughout the film. 

It seems to be a celebration of all of these different characters within a wider world, struggling to stand out in a huge world with vast personalities confined to a tiny town which is emphasised by some of his tracking shots which seem to just incidentally land on a conversation which we might not get to hear if the camera kept moving. Watching the chaos provoked by the alien was great, too, as it acts like an inciting incident for a lot of the characters except the ones who prefer to maintain the façade of emotional understanding. A fun theory I have is that we are essentially the alien, dropping in and out of a huge planet/galaxy/existence to find these chaotic people at breaking point. 

I can't quite articulate what I make of the "you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep" stuff, but imo it's essentially what we see portrayed throughout the entire film.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Several things spring to mind.

Tom Cruise makes films so he can kiss women. Tom Cruise makes action movies so he can kiss women and then talk about women at inopportune moments when the action is happening. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a tremendous loss. This is the second JJ Abrams film I've seen where he takes a popular, career defining franchise and makes a new instalment which pretty much copies the entire plot from the original. This was originally supposed to be directed by David Fincher and that would have been much more entertaining.