What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Savage Henry]

Haunting in Venice.  Fun, but predictable, but best of all it doesn’t have Gal Gadot chewing up the scenery.  
 

All Agatha Christie’s are the same, but this one is fun and snappy.  6.1/10

[D Angelo Barksdale]

Napoleon

Wee Bony gets the Braveheart treatment with some dubious scenes and meetings, but I enjoyed it. Battle scenes were great. Waterloo is a better film though I think. 

[JustOneCornetto]

Got a batch of DVDs for next to nothing in a charity shop and binged them over a couple of days,

(86) Paris When It Sizzles (1964) 

Audrey Hepburn teams up again with William Holden after appearing together in Sabrina a few years earlier. The age difference isn’t as noticeable here and this is a pretty funny film as Holden plays a screenwriter who has two days to finish a film script aided by Hepburn as the typist. There’s a lot of in jokes and several Hollywood blockbusters are parodied as the two of them are seen acting out each scene of his fantasies of the plot. Some good cameos from the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Tony Curtis and Mel Ferrer. 7/10

(87) Earth To Echo (2014) 

This is basically a mash-up of ET and Wall-E as three young boys find some sort of alien robotic life form. They manage to work out a form of communication and find out that it’s trying to locate it’s crashed spaceship and return home. Throw in some adults in the guise of construction workers who know about the alien, and it becomes a race between the kids and adults to decide the fate of the alien. It’s not bad but aimed very much at a younger audience. 5/10

(88) Tea For Two (1950) 

Doris Day stars as an aspiring actress who bets her wealthy uncle that she can say ‘no’ for 48 hours hoping that the winnings of $25K will help her achieve her dream. Based on the play No, No, Nanette it’s not Doris Day’s best film but it’s enjoyable enough. 6/10

(89) The Town That Cancelled Christmas (2009) 

There are a few films going around with a similar plot with neighbours competing over putting on the best Christmas decorations and this one has a new neighbour who is writing a book about social behaviour who decides to imply that his decorations are going to be mega which annoys the neighbour who has won for several years in a row. It’s very amateurish and not very funny at all. 3/10

(90) Ballet Shoes (2007) 

Three young babies are adopted in the 1920s by an eccentric palaeontologist played by Richard Griffiths and brought up by his niece as sisters. As the girls get older they vow to achieve their dreams with Pauline played by Emma Watson as an actress, Posy (Lucy Boynton) as ballet dancer and Petrova (Yasmin Paige) as an aviator. Bit of a fairytale feel to it and good support by Marc Warren and Emilia Fox. 6.5/10

[Arch Stanton]

Blade Runner.

Turned the soundbar up to 25. A bit naughty seeing as I'm a block of flats but hey-ho.

Yet what a great experience. It's  a  magnificent sci-fi film and the FORTY year old special effects are still believable. 

Rutger Heuer's ad-lib at the end would bring a tear to a glass eye...and dissappear in the rain.

[MSU]

235 Happy Christmas -- Happy Mumblecore Christmas, everybody. Anna Kendrick is Jenny, who turns up at her brother's for Christmas where he lives with his successful writer partner and adorable baby son. And that's kinda it. It's fun watching Anna Kendrick play such a f**k-up, and did I mention the adorable baby, and even though it's pretty funny in places and quite clever in others, 82 minutes is a lot of unfinished improv sentences for my tastes. 6/10

236 Now You See Me -- Part Ocean’s Eleven, part National Treasure, but with magic! It’s flashy hockum with a pretty impressive cast and an excitable score, but it makes no sense whatsoever and the biggest failure comes from its attempt at the illusion that the world gives the remotest f**k about magic. Plus Jesse Eisenberg’s hair knocks off another half star. 4/10

237 Now You See Me 2 -- I actually like this one a bit better than the first because Jessie Eisenberg’s hair is far more sensible. The same nonsense, the same assumption that people think magic is cool, and in losing Shannon from Home & Away from the cast, we gain Janis from Mean Girls. Also, we get Harry Potter who doesn’t do any magic for some reason. Not a bad time, all in all. 5/10

238 Enter the Dragon -- There's so much of this that's objectively poor. The plot makes little sense -- what drug baron *doesn't* invite loads of martial artists to their island? -- the acting isn't great, the dubbing makes everything feel false, and even the fight scenes don't really impress that much thanks to some weird editing choices. And all the squawking by Bruce, and others, amuses and baffles more than anything else. The score, though, is magnificent, and I still love the movie despite its faults and enjoy it every time I watch it. The Warner Bros logo at the start will always remind me of being 10 and at my Uncle Sammy's at New Year and seeing it for the first time on pirated Betamax. 8/10

239 Terrifier -- Torture porn is sooooo 2005, isn't it? It's impressive how a movie as short and notorious as this can be so boring. There's no plot, very little characterization, and once you get beyond being impressed with the practical effects and how oddly amusing Art the Clown can be, there's nothing much left. As an experiment and proof of concept for Damien Leone, it's probably successful, but as a sit down and watch movie, there's just not enough around the gore and the blood, not even much in the way of scares, for it to be enjoyable. 3/10

240 Fist of Fury -- I have fairly fond memories of this one and I can't remember if it's because I saw a different dub or I saw it subtitled, but this version is so badly dubbed it's practically unwatchable during the spells where Bruce Lee isn't squawking and punching lots of Japanese people. The story and its politics are more interesting than Enter the Dragon so it's even more of a shame that the dialogue has to be spoken in such a ludicrous manner. 4/10

241 Game of Death -- I mean, I guess it's impressive that they were able to cobble together a Bruce Lee movie with just 12 minutes of actual Bruce Lee footage after his death, including his actual funeral, but it's also creepy as f**k, desperately cynical, and an obvious cash grab. The original film's concept of ascending a pagoda with increasing levels of difficulty sounds far more interesting than this revenge tale where the only interest comes from how the makers choose to disguise the Bruce Lee stand-ins -- never in the history of cinema has there been so much fighting in sunglasses. The final act, though, with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fight, and the real Bruce Lee, is iconic. 4/10

242 Never Let Me Go -- It breaks my heart but I love this movie so much. I don't know that Carey Mulligan or Keira Knightley have been much better than they are here in Alex Garland's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's incredible novel. The science fiction background allows the story to accentuate the themes of helpless destiny and explore the attributes of what it means to be human. The children of Hailsham are alive with thoughts and feelings and desires as much as anyone but they aren't allowed to have a future where those things can be reality, and the childish ways they invent rumors to cope with this certainty do their best to affect your soul. As much as it breaks me, I adore this movie. 10/10

243 Paper Towns -- A fairly inoffensive coming-of-age drama about a boy's obsession with the girl next door, who after they share a night of high adventure goes missing, and the boy follows clues to track her down. Nat Wolff and Cara Delevinge are charismatic enough as Quentin and Margo, though they don't share much in the way of chemistry. The movie pivots about halfway through into a road-trip and despite a couple of decent gags involving gas station t-shirts, my interest kinda wanes at that point. That said, the story, based on John Green's YA novel that I quite enjoyed, saves a secret til the end that keeps the everything fresh and not too creepy, and Quentin learns some important lessons. And if nothing else, the movie and the book got me interested in tracking down some real-life paper towns, so I guess that's something. 5/10

244 Dream Scenario -- I'm trying to think of the last time I wasn't disappointed with a Nic Cage movie. It certainly wasn't this year. That said, I was with this one for longer than I was for the cowboy or vampire cos-play Nic Cage movies. Cage plays Paul Williams, a quiet, dull, tenured professor who inexplicably discovers that he has played a supporting role in the dreams of countless people. Somewhat miffed at his passive role in strangers' subconscious, he decides to embrace his five minutes of fame, do the breakfast show rounds and think about getting around to writing that book he's always been threatening to do, something his peers have already done. And up to this point, I was enjoying it quite a bit in a weird, understated, A24 drama kind of way. Nic Cage really is great in this role and has the minute details down to the ground. Paul is the kind of guy who shakes his head no, while his mouth says yes. He stutters around his words. He says things that only he finds funny. And yet, his wife -- who notably doesn't have dreams of him -- and his kids love him, and he has this undercurrent of disappointment and lack of fulfillment in his life. It seems easy to write the first act and a half of a movie like this just from the concept alone, but it's altogether harder to bring it home, and it's here that I felt the movie shat the bed. The concept, or the way writer and director Kristoffer Borgli handles the concept, just isn't enough. It takes a turn that has a drastic effect on Paul's character, and made the smile on my face feel more like a grimace. More and more, more even than Renfield, it feels like a wasted opportunity. 5/10

[accies1874]

Funny that Dream Scenario lost you after a while, as the trailer actually had the exact same effect on me. It started with the tone of a somewhat unnerving black comedy before giving off "Feel-good movie of the year!" vibes which is why I never bothered with it. 

[Steve_Wilkos]

@MSUBig man, get Terrifier 2 watched and then please let us know your thoughts.

[MSU]

5 hours ago, Steve_Wilkos said:

@MSUBig man, get Terrifier 2 watched and then please let us know your thoughts.

Yer on!

[ScotiaNostra]

American Animals, very good. Good acting Barry Keoghan was excellent but not just him. The story is good and fast paced. I didnt realise it was part dramadocumentary until it started and it suprisingly worked really well and still managed to feel like both a great thriller movie and a great documentary at the end. Well worth a watch for anyone whos not seen it.

Edited December 5, 2023 by ScotiaNostra

[MazzyStar]

The Notebook - Pish. Must be the worst Ryan Gosling film. 

[sfha]

Looking for a film to tide over the time before the missus watches the Celebrity Jungle show I came across the horror film Cobweb. I didn't hold up much hope but it was pretty good.

Edited December 9, 2023 by sfha

[BFTD]

On 04/12/2023 at 16:54, Steve_Wilkos said:

@MSUBig man, get Terrifier 2 watched and then please let us know your thoughts.

"Tricky w**k, but got there in the end"

[DA Baracus]

Just watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

An exceptional film. Very funny.

Also one of the most emotionally devastating films ever made.

Edited December 9, 2023 by DA Baracus

[accies1874]

11 hours ago, sfha said:

Looking for a film to tide over the time before the missus watches the Celebrity Jungle show I came across the horror film Cobweb. I didn't hold up much hope but it was pretty good.

You probably watched it a month too late and I watched it a month too early. It's very much a Halloween film.

[MSU]

245 National Treasure -- Ah, my attempt to find a Nic Cage movie I like was successful. There was a time in the 2000s when it seemed either this or its sequel was on a Sky Movie channel and whenever I happened upon them, I'd invariably watch to the end. It took around five goes to see the first ten minutes of this movie as I never sat down to watch it on purpose. It's all so ridiculous. I don't understand why treasure requires puzzles to direct people to it, and I don't understand why people don't just happen upon the treasure by accident, but I'm happy to go along with it. It's a stupid fun movie where everyone seems to keep their tongue pressed up against their cheek. I'm all for it, Cage is great fun, the supporting cast all do well, and it makes me smile. And I can't not go watch the sequel now. 7/10

246 National Treasure: Book of Secrets -- Same deal as the first one really, except this one wastes no time in introducing Ed Harris with a sob story about his grandpappy which makes Thomas Gates appear to be a traitor and there’s only one way to clear his name: find treasure! Another enjoyable romp with fun set pieces and a great dynamic between Cage and Kruger. I might even prefer this one, but not so much to give it another point. 7/10

247 Terrifier 2 -- The things I disliked about the original have, for the most part, been resolved here. There's a story for a start, and there's character development, and there's even a character to root for. The practical effects are brutal in places but there's an occasional Evil Dead 2 style lightheartedness to how over-the-top everything is. We're meant to be laughing through the disgust. Tell me the laundromat scene isn't ripping off the Nick Kamen Levi commercial at least a little bit. That said, there is a scene in a bedroom that goes on far too long, and the movie in general wades through its 140-minute runtime. It's probably purposefully bloated as Damien Leone asks how much of this we can take, but I think the optimal answer is probably somewhere nearer the 90-minute mark, thanks. 6/10

248 Reservoir Dogs -- Starting a festive stroll through the back catalog of Quentin Tarantino, and this one really takes me back. I refused to jump on the Tarantino bandwagon until I was more or less forced to watch Pulp Fiction, so I saw this one second. And now, 31 years later, the influences are far more apparent but this is still a captivating watch, even if QT started his own trend of casting himself in his movies where he's obviously a weak link, and it showcases his sometimes inexplicable fascination with the N word. So notwithstanding all that, it still stands out, it still impresses, and the dialogue and approach to storytelling, along with compelling characters, keep this part of an essential early collection. 9/10

249 EXmas -- Two fairly attractive people who became famous on The CW play Ali and Graham. Despite their recent, bitter estrangement as a couple, when Graham is too busy with work to visit his parents at Christmas, they invite Ali instead and because she always loved his parents, she agrees. So imagine the chaos that could ensue if he then changes his mind and flies out to Minnesota to show up for the festive period after all. Now imagine that lasting for an hour and a half. Congratulations, you've just imagined the entire movie. It's not a great movie, and it's not even a good movie, but it's a decent movie that is better than you'd expect, and funnier than you'd expect, despite 75% of the comedy coming from passive-aggressive quips between the couple, a perpetually missing Baby Jesus, and the constant wonder of why anyone would want to keep in touch with this family in the first place. It's not something I could ever see me recommending, but if you did happen to watch it, I reckon I'd be interested to know what you thought of it, and how closely it mirrors your festive period. 4/10

250 Pulp Fiction -- Just a beautifully constructed movie. I remember chatting with friends after seeing it as we pieced together where chronologically the movie started and ended and where the bookends in the diner feature in that timeline. Nearly thirty years later I'm sure everyone who's interested has long figured that out, but it speaks to the complexity of the movie that it took a bit of effort back in the day. I don't know if I'm more concerned about the racist language now, or the fact that I wasn't concerned about it in the 90s, but I wouldn't miss it if it was gone or at least toned down. What I do believe is that this is how these characters talk, and the way it is presented feels true, which is at least something. A thrilling watch still, despite the familiarity that allows me to quote along with Ezekiel 25:17, or Christopher Walken's soliloquy, or the discussion around the differences between a motorcycle and a chopper. 10/10

251 Jackie Brown -- The first time I watched this, I remember being bored titless through the first half hour or so, and then the next I checked in with myself, the movie had somehow tricked me into becoming 100% invested. By the end I was in love with it. And I still am. Pam Greer is just superb in the lead role, Robert DeNiro surprises in what is a more background performance, and Samuel L Jackson was hired to say the n-word a lot but still manages to bring some additional style and cool to proceedings that wasn't already delivered by Elmore Leonard's source material. So many twists and turns that all decide to double and triple-cross themselves but it all comes together beautifully in the end. I don't know how controversial this is -- perhaps not at all -- but I reckon this might be my favorite Tarantino movie and by diverting from type, I think this proves how great a director he can be. 10/10

252 Godzilla Minus One -- There's so much about this that's interesting from a human point of view. I don't think I've seen much that tells the Japanese story in the immediate aftermath of the war, of how the people made their peace with what happened, so it felt almost a shame to stick a massive prehistoric lizard into the mix and distract from that. The human story is pretty compelling stuff as cowardly kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima tries to put the war and his own shame behind him and focus on a family he seems to be reluctant to accept. The Godzilla effects, for the most part, are incredible. There are still a few moments where it looks like he lacks heft and weight, but when he rises out of the water, it's breathtaking. And he doesn't take any shit neither. In later scenes where he makes landfall and destroys a city, that city is staying destroyed. There are a few highly telegraphed twists in the tale, and I'm not convinced the subtitles show the dialogue in the best light, but it's a very good movie that balances the action and the characters surprisingly well. And on reflection, of course Godzilla appears in a story about post-war Japanese guilt and loss; that's the entire point. 8/10

Edited December 12, 2023 by MSU

[Musketeer Gripweed]

I went to see Wonka yesterday.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. A lot more than i expected. I will admit I got a bit dewy eyed at some points. It really brought the memories of the Gene Wilder version back. That movie really was my childhood. 

Hugh Grant is fucking hilarious by the way.

 

[Arch Stanton]

"They" say when your mood is low to watch one of your favourite films.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

[mathematics]

On 09/12/2023 at 12:19, MazzyStar said:

The Notebook - Pish. Must be the worst Ryan Gosling film. 

Jeez. That’s saying something.

[Archie McSquackle]

On 11/12/2023 at 21:58, Musketeer Gripweed said:

I went to see Wonka yesterday.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. A lot more than i expected. I will admit I got a bit dewy eyed at some points. It really brought the memories of the Gene Wilder version back. That movie really was my childhood. 

Hugh Grant is fucking hilarious by the way.

 

We had a family trip to watch this tonight and also really enjoyed it. Same writing team as Paddington 2 and, while not quite as good (that's a very high bar though), it's great fun. Some familiar faces from Paddington 2 and Ghosts due to the writing team and Hugh Grant absolutely steals the show again. Be warned, this is a bit of a musical (I'm not generally a fan) but the songs are written by Neil Hannon and are fine (but not a patch on My Lovely Horse).

[accies1874]

Part one of a big backlog:

56. Anatomy of a Fall - Cinema

A lot of interesting ideas and some great performances, but none of that translated to being an engaging film experience for me. It takes the private cracks of a fractious marriage and puts it on trial for all to see, which is a good idea to play with in theory but ultimately left me bored when it came to actually executing it. There are two scenes which genuinely had me gripped and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that they both took place in the moment rather than in a courtroom analysing the character. That analysis is the whole point of the Anatomy of a Fall, and the film has received universal acclaim so more power to them, but I honestly found it a complete slog. All I could think about during it was that I much preferred how Gone Girl and to a lesser extent Oppenheimer tackled similar concepts.

57. The Eternal Daughter - Cinema

Absolutely loved the atmosphere with its pretty minimalist production design, overuse of a fog machine, the constant windy soundscape which blends into the score and its soft-focus cinematography. For a ghost story, it’s much more dreamlike than it is nightmarish. Tilda Swinton’s performances as both the mother and daughter are kind of offbeat, as her emotional reactions are very rarely conventional for some of the situations she finds herself in; the narrative doesn’t make an awful lot of sense with scenes often not flowing into one another; there’s also humour that’s borne out of that lack of logic, particularly from the female staff member who’s got great comic timing. It’s very much carried by the atmosphere and my constant intrigue into what the heck was going on. It’s made clear pretty early on that something isn’t quite right in this hotel, and thus not quite right in the mind of protagonist. There are thematic questions to be asked about why Joanna Hogg chose to cast Tilda Swinton as the mum and daughter, which is why I think it worked really well, despite finding both characters quite off-putting. The issues I’ve seen other people have with this choice are why I liked it so much.

I absolutely haven’t worked it out yet, but the ending left a real impression on me. There’s one shot towards the end which made me consider a whole load of different emotions, initially positive but then quickly negative. Like with The Souvenir and particularly The Souvenir Part II, which are to some extent ghost stories themselves, it makes you wonder how much of what you see play out is reflective of Joanna Hogg’s own experiences. Not necessarily in a literal sense as it was in The Souvenir, more in terms of her emotional state. It reminded me a lot of why I loved Asteroid City, as I felt like I was watching the creator work out their own issues on screen in an engaging way. 

There’s still so much to unpack in terms of reality and the purpose behind it all in how it reflects the psyche of the protagonist. I think the answers are all there in plain sight which is why I’m so keen to watch it again (but didn't get the opportunity to), however it’s still an emotional, atmospheric piece after just one watch. Like another of my favourites from this year, Enys Men, it does feel like a dreamlike paranormal investigation released the public – it’s impressive to straddle the line between being something so fantastical and something realistic.

58. Saltburn - Cinema

As soon as you meet Barry Keoghan’s character Oliver, you’ll have a pretty clear idea of his destination, but the journey to get to that point goes in strange directions which made it such an enjoyable experience. In fact, just as I felt that the story was creaking a wee bit, they chucked in the film’s biggest curveball. It does belong alongside the recent spate of anti-rich films, but it was fun seeing an English take on that, and the characters are either just cruel people pretending to be kind or kind people pretending to be cruel which creates a morally muddier environment – something that the final act exploits well imo, although it labours its point a wee bit too much and commits a pretty terrible sin of overexplaining. 

The Oxford setting is like some of the fantasy schools you see parodied but very rarely legitimately depicted, then Saltburn is a dreamlike summer haven - it's otherworldly. The only location we get in the film that doesn't feel like it's designed purely for the screen is a really nice house in a lovely middle class neighbourhood! These settings provide insight into Oliver’s warped sense of reality, which is fitting as the film is about loneliness as much as it's about class structures. 

It’s really funny at points too. Almost all of Rosamund Pike’s lines made me laugh, and Richard E Grant occupies his background role perfectly. Those two are the more typical characters in this kind of story, but they cracked me up quite a bit. All of the performers are great, but Barry Keoghan needs a role that isn’t a slimy character sometime soon; I know his face lends itself to those roles, but I wanna see how he carries something a bit more charismatic.

59. Napoleon - Cinema

There’s a really tight comedy here that picks apart Napoleon’s ego, but I think that got lost in amongst all of the other stuff. The war scenes are impressive, especially the sound, but we’ve seen plenty of  impressive war scenes these past few years, so they aren’t really enough for me anymore. That’s why I was interested in Napoleon’s absurdity more than anything, but I ended up confused by the whole thing.