What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Boo Khaki]

Meh, Sindy >>> Barbie in any case. 

 

There should be a Ken Loach Sindy movie, probably starring Maxine Peake, where she works part-time on an underwear assembly line in some shithole in the north of England, the foreman is a lecherous pig, she permanently has a Benson hanging from her gub, and the one highlight in her life is getting pished on Babycham at the bingo with her pal Maureen.

I'd totally go to the cinema to see that. I'd even wear a pinny and put my curlers in.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Boo Khaki

[JustOneCornetto]

(56) Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case (2023) – Netflix

I do like these real-life murder cases that Netflix do but this one felt a bit incomplete. I agree with MSU’s review that there was so much more to tell. I couldn’t really remember this case but the whole documentary seemed to be more about the father who seems to be pretty well off and was able to spend a lot of time in Tokyo noising up the Police and trying to raise the profile of the search for his daughter. You also see a lot of him in present day telling the story of how it all panned out but you never get a sense of grief from him. From what I’ve read subsequently the Police were very inept and slow to bring Obara to justice but the documentary tends to paint them otherwise. 5.5/10

(57) Happiness For Beginners (2023) – Netflix

Quite liked this, there’s nothing complex or out of the ordinary about it. it’s all light-hearted and easy to watch. Ellie Kemper is pretty good as Helen who has been divorced a year and decides to go on an organised hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail along with a quirky bunch of other novices. The romance part of it is pretty predictable but never too schmaltzy and the run time is just about right with no padding out for the sake of it, also some great scenic shots along the way. 6.5/10

(58) Maggie Moore(s) (2023) – Sky Cinema

I was really looking forward to this as it seemed to be a Coen Brothers style film with John Hamm and Nick Mohammed, both of whom I like, as an unlikely Cop duo investigating the murder of two women called Maggie Moore. It’s directed by John Slattery another of my favourite actors from Mad Men plus Tina Fey, who is always good, as Hamm’s love interest and also plays a good part as a nosy neighbour  but while there is some good dry humour it never reaches the quality of Fargo. 6/10

Edited August 7, 2023 by JustOneCornetto

[Wee-Bey]

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1

Even though the Mission Impossible films are a bit shit, they're also a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. This one however didn't quite hit the mark with its AI plot and average set peices. Atwell may end up a decent acquisition for the franchise after being brought in to replace Fergie. Simon Pegg looks quite old now too which is one of my main takeaways from the film, which sums it up I guess.

[scottsdad]

Barbie.

I enjoyed it more than I should. 

If anyone is passing by the Falkirk retail park later on, can they please nip to Cineworld and collect my testicles? I think I left them there last night. 

[LowerLeagueFC]

The Dark Knight.

a timeless classic, Ledger, Oldman and Bale fantastic.

[jimmy boo]

Bull........low budget British revenge among criminals film with David Hayman and Neil Maskell. Very violent and very good.

[Squalor Vic]

2 hours ago, jimmy boo said:

Bull........low budget British revenge among criminals film with David Hayman and Neil Maskell. Very violent and very good.

Ending was a bit out there 

[jimmy boo]

2 hours ago, Squalor Vic said:

Ending was a bit out there 

I had to Google it!

[Miguel Sanchez]

Event Horizon (1997): Lawrence Fishburne leads a spaceship to the skies above Neptune to find a ship long thought lost. Sam Neill is on board and explains it travelled through a wormhole and came back, bringing hallucinations, gore and general unpleasantness. Lots of extremely stylish sets, a horrifying premise and Jason Isaacs are let down by studio meddling (it was rushed out because Titanic was delayed, I'm not sure where the audience crossover was), some weird characters and Morpheus playing the whole thing like a robot. If I saw this when I was 12 it would have scared the shit out of me, but I didn't. Still, it's the sort of sci-fi that should be made now.

In the Loop (2009): The Thick of It featuring Tony Soprano. Some characters from the TV show return as is. The rest return as is but with different names. The problem with making a feature length version of The Thick of It is that there are long gaps between the sweary Scottish people, and these are filled with Americans who aren't funny. 

Mouse Hunt (1997): Two brothers discover their dad left them a house. The house has a mouse in it which evades all their attempts to kill it. Classic slapstick farce, and a nice throwback to my childhood where I no doubt wore out the tape. Dumb, not as funny as I remembered, but a welcome nostalgia trip. 

Ghostbusters (1984): And on the subject of tape. The biggest difference between watching this now, streaming in HD and on tape on whatever television I had 20 years ago is seeing how all the scenes from the end outside of the main set are paintings. Good paintings, mind.

Mean Girls (2004): A homeschooled girl who is clearly a genius despite having the Janitor from Scrubs for a dad goes to school and hits literally every single American high school cliche imaginable. She makes two friends, one of whom is quite clearly a man in his thirties. Some laughs, a performance from Lindsay Lohan who seems very aware that it's a breakthrough for her, and finally some context for so many references I've seen over the years. Felt oddly shallow by the end, but not in a Plastic way.

Casino Royale (2006): James Bond sells Smirnoff, Omega (not Rolex), Sony electronics, Ford and Aston Martin (owned by Ford) while playing a game of poker which as far as I can tell lasts about a week, and features handy running commentary for people who've never stayed up all night watching PokerStars on Channel 4 while hideously depressed and wondering just how hard it could be? I'm no Bond historian, and I've seen Daniel Craig's films much more than anyone else's, but I really can't connect this character to any of the others I've seen, and it definitely feels like a good thing. There are times where it suffers from the problem I had with the Mission: Impossibles - too many big setpieces which don't really seem connected to one another but it somehow comes together well enough.

[TheScarf]

Parasite (2019). My first rewatch since seeing it in the cinema when it was released. Simply, one of the greatest films of all time. 

[scottsdad]

Off to see Oppenheimer tomorrow, with Scott...and his girlfriend.

Taking the girl to the pictures is one thing - but this movie? With his dad?

[MSU]

158 The Farewell (#90 in the A24 series) -- Such an incredibly simple and emotional movie that succeeds in pushing many of my buttons. Awkwafina is immense as Billi, a Chinese-American who goes back to China to see her beloved grandmother who is unaware that she has Stage 4 lung cancer. Lulu Wang's direction and writing uses a very light touch to examine the cultural differences and societal expectations between the US or really the West, and China, as Billi is conflicted by her love for her grandmother who she thinks deserves to know what is wrong with her. I just adored the way this movie moved and how beautifully it was shot and presented, and how it realistically moved between languages. There's a little sting in the tail at the end that I wish hadn't happened, but otherwise, I found it a bit of a triumph and a welcome reminder of how good Awkwafina can be. 9/10

159 The Death of Dick Long (#91 in the A24 series) -- Daniel Scheinert, out of off of Daniels, directs this odd wee story, which apparently has its basis in a true story, which on its own doesn't sound that remarkable until you actually sit down and watch the movie and then it's oh my fucking god. It's funny, intriguing, and deeply disturbing as a group of friends who play Nickelback covers for fun -- FOR FUN -- lose one of their buddies in suspicious circumstances and it's these circumstances, and the attempts to cover them up, that provide the intrigue. Reminiscent of Scheinert's Swiss Army Man and Coen brothers' back catalog, it's entertaining stuff and on the one hand it's hard to understand how it made so little money, but on the other hand, it makes all the sense in the world. 7/10

160 The Last Voyage of the Demeter -- Alien set on a boat with a vampire should be a better movie than this. It opens at the end and then recounts the events that led to the conclusion. We've all seen this done before rather well but here it just drains any lingering dregs of suspense. Based on the captain's log section of Dracula, it tells the tale of the ship and its crew hired to transport a consignment of wooden boxes from Romania to London. It's all just fine, there are some really heavy emotional moments, but the decision-making of the crew leaves a lot to be desired and Dracula really would be scarier if he didn't look like a peckish version of Dobby the House-Elf. 5/10

Edited August 14, 2023 by MSU

[Mark Connolly]

3 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Off to see Oppenheimer tomorrow, with Scott...and his girlfriend.

Taking the girl to the pictures is one thing - but this movie? With his dad?

This is not going to be awkward at all...

[TxRover]

John Wick 4…enjoyable ultra-violence. Quite enjoyed the ending, watching the fight up the steps at Sacre Coeur while remembering climbing those very same steps…also reminded me of:

 

[Lex]

Watched Hell or High Water at the weekend, one of the best movies I’ve seen for years. So much so that when it finished and the Mrs went to bed, I rewound it and watched it a second time. Only 1 hour 40 long but packs plenty into it. The extreme violence never seemed frivolous either.

[ScotiaNostra]

1 hour ago, Lex said:

Watched Hell or High Water at the weekend, one of the best movies I’ve seen for years. So much so that when it finished and the Mrs went to bed, I rewound it and watched it a second time. Only 1 hour 40 long but packs plenty into it. The extreme violence never seemed frivolous either.

Thats a really great movie, a classic really isnt too far to say imo. A modern day western classic

Edited August 15, 2023 by ScotiaNostra

[scottsdad]

19 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

This is not going to be awkward at all...

She has backed out. 

I said to Scott, why don't you just take her? I can go another time. But no, she's apparently gone off the idea of the film altogether. 

Thank God. That would have been cringeworthy. 

[Mark Connolly]

4 hours ago, scottsdad said:

She has backed out. 

I said to Scott, why don't you just take her? I can go another time. But no, she's apparently gone off the idea of the film altogether. 

Thank God. That would have been cringeworthy. 

The bits I'm thinking of probably would have been more awkward if it was just you and your son, tbf...

[coprolite]

Monsters (2010)

Low budget sci fi posing a predictable rhetorical question. 

Watched following some clickbait ad piece recommending it. 

Was actually good. The monsters were pretty shit and shit CGI but they used the old Jaws trick to good effect. 

Not a fan of the bit part actors (hispanic) being billed as speaking extras and not properly credited while the waspy leads got their own individual billing. 

Still, decent enough watch, quite low key and naturalistic with engaging (but dislikable) characters. 

6/10

[JustOneCornetto]

(59) Jealous Guy: The Assassination of John Lennon (2020) – Sky Documentaries

Having recently read the James Patterson book, The Last Days of John Lennon, I thought it’d be good to compare this doc to the book. While Patterson’s book is 90% about Lennon this film is more about Chapman with most of it narrated by his biographer, Jack Jones. Certainly a lot more information and background about Chapman but you get the feeling that Jones is trying to use the doc as a platform to give the murderer brownie points in his latest (2020) parole hearing which turned out to be his 11^th failed attempt. Being a John Lennon fan, I hope Chapman rots in jail and no way will he win his next appeal (13^th) early next year. 6.5/10

(60) Faithfully Yours (2022) – Netflix

Decent enough Dutch thriller somewhat spoiled by the ludicrous final twist. Two friends sneak off for secret affairs using each other as an alibi to deceive their husbands. Something happens to one of the women which means the other is in all sorts of trouble with the police and the two husbands. Keeps you guessing throughout and I would have given a 7 but for the ending. 6/10

(61) Girl In the Box (2016) – Paramount+

Based on the shocking true story about a girl, who is hitchhiking to see her friend, picked up by a married couple who enslave her and treat her to 7 years of torture and depraved sexual abuse. The man in particular, who has been called ‘the most dangerous psychopath ever’ is pure evil but the film gives the impression that there’s an element of Stockholm Syndrome. Luckily, he is eventually brought to justice but it really is an unimaginable scenario. 7/10

(62) Kes (1969) – Film4

It’s a long time since I watched this but it really does stand the test of time. Ken Loach’s debut film sets a high standard and he captures, perfectly. working class life Up North in the 60s. We all know the story about young Billy who trains a kestrel and finds he has a purpose in life but it remains a fine film with a fantastic performance by David Bradley who plays Billy. 8.5/10