What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

Alone. Film4 

A young American woman decides to make a new start by packing her shit and heading north.

Has an awful time.

Really tense throughout.

I would recommend it and say 7.5/10

[BFTD]

On 04/01/2024 at 22:44, scottsdad said:

The Batman (2022)

Too boring, too long, too boring, too serious, such bad acting, so boring.

I know what you mean. They're desperate to find some new angle on Bats now. The idea of a Batman flick that aped serial killer movies was a decent idea, but they're still limited by The Franchise; both this and Joker are examples of films that likely wouldn't have been greenlit without the superhero tag attached, for better or worse. Speaking of which...

Aquaman in the Lost Kingdom or somesuch (cinema) - the lord of the fishes has to fight a zombie horde and that Manta Ray bloke; also break his brother out of jail. Who cares, this series is dead anyway.

I only just saw original Aquaman a few days ago, because nobody cares about the fishmaster, and found it surprisingly OK; one of the better films in this round of DC films, which admittedly isn't saying much. I only went to see volume two because I wanted to see a film at the local and had already seen Wonka and...you know, I quite enjoyed it. It's just a decent superhero film with an entertaining cast, plot themes shamelessly ripped off from Marvel's Thor series, and lots of big flashy CG, but it was a decent watch as far as I'm concerned.

I think the hostility towards it has maybe come from the superhero backlash, and the fact that everyone's amazed that Warner Bros is still releasing Snyderverse films years after announcing that they were finished with the whole thing. I'd suggest this one's about as good as the first couple of Thor films, better than the original Aquaman, and more engaging than a lot of what Marvel's been putting out lately. Aquaman's probably had the best series of films out of this run-through of DC's characters, which isn't something I thought I'd be saying.

Wonka (cinema) - origin story for Roald Dahl's deranged chocolate sadist.

Only watched this for Paterson Joseph after noticing he had a prominent role in the trailer (and the rest of the film, thankfully), and was crushed to discover early on that it's a musical. I fucking hate musicals. Yet...it was really good; I enjoyed it a lot. The musical interludes were bearable, and Timothee Chalamet is pretty excellent, channelling Gene Wilder's take on the character while bringing his own ideas about the character's personality. The rest of the cast is similarly quality, with Joseph obviously standing out with his trademark comedic menace, and even Matt Lucas is impressively restrained. The story's pretty simple and has echoes of classic musicals like Oliver Twist, but it's been a while since we've had one of these and it's as good as any of them; I liked how we're invited to take pleasure from the happiness of even some of the nastier characters.

Something that might annoy Dahl fans is that there's little trace of his trademark cruelty here, but I don't think this would've been improved any by having Olivia Colman hobble her debt slaves (for example). Something I would like to see is a sequel showing how this sweet-natured, beloved young Wonka ends up the bitter, desolate, cruel figure from the Gene Wilder film, but I'm not sure how they'd be able to play that as anything other than a crushing downer. It would be nice to see these characters again, though.

(Olivia Colman, Paterson Joseph, Isy Suttie...did I miss any other Peep Show alumni?)

[BFTD]

One other thing about Aquaman 2 - there's an astonishing amount of channelling of other films going on. The whole thing feels very Thor, but there's an entire scene that feels ripped straight from Star Wars, long stretches of the backstory that screams Lord of the Rings, and there was a bunch of other stuff that just felt lifted from other series. This normally annoys me, as it feels lazy and condescending to the audience, but for some reason I think they just about got away with it here. Maybe because it was still quite entertaining regardless?

[Zetterlund]

Aliens

The GOAT in my opinion, just a flawless horror film. It was by far the scariest movie I'd ever seen on first viewing as a youngster, and I don't feel like anything else ever came close. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The aliens themselves are obviously just terrifying masterpieces of creature design, and the sets & atmosphere the perfect environment for them. Shame the series got rubbish after the first 2 (Prometheus was decent, tbf).

[Florentine_Pogen]

1 hour ago, Zetterlund said:

Aliens

The GOAT in my opinion, just a flawless horror film. It was by far the scariest movie I'd ever seen on first viewing as a youngster, and I don't feel like anything else ever came close. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The aliens themselves are obviously just terrifying masterpieces of creature design, and the sets & atmosphere the perfect environment for them. Shame the series got rubbish after the first 2 (Prometheus was decent, tbf).

Can't disagree with any of this. I would add that apart from having a great script, a great director(Ridley Scott), incredible production & set design (HR Geiger), the film also had an outstanding cast and possibly 'the'  most original and frightening horror scene of any movie, ever.

Of course, it also had the amazing Sigourney Weaver, whom I developed a crush on, after seeing the film in 1979. 

[Mark Connolly]

10 hours ago, BFTD said:

Aquaman in the Lost Kingdom or somesuch (cinema) - the lord of the fishes has to fight a zombie horde and that Manta Ray bloke; also break his brother out of jail. Who cares, this series is dead anyway.

I only just saw original Aquaman a few days ago, because nobody cares about the fishmaster, and found it surprisingly OK; one of the better films in this round of DC films, which admittedly isn't saying much. I only went to see volume two because I wanted to see a film at the local and had already seen Wonka and...you know, I quite enjoyed it. It's just a decent superhero film with an entertaining cast, plot themes shamelessly ripped off from Marvel's Thor series, and lots of big flashy CG, but it was a decent watch as far as I'm concerned.

I think the hostility towards it has maybe come from the superhero backlash, and the fact that everyone's amazed that Warner Bros is still releasing Snyderverse films years after announcing that they were finished with the whole thing. I'd suggest this one's about as good as the first couple of Thor films, better than the original Aquaman, and more engaging than a lot of what Marvel's been putting out lately. Aquaman's probably had the best series of films out of this run-through of DC's characters, which isn't something I thought I'd be saying.

I always thought that calling you a deviant was a bit of a laugh, and stretching the truth a bit.

You should be locked up for this opinion though

[Stevie Kirk]

11 hours ago, BFTD said:

I know what you mean. They're desperate to find some new angle on Bats now. The idea of a Batman flick that aped serial killer movies was a decent idea, but they're still limited by The Franchise; both this and Joker are examples of films that likely wouldn't have been greenlit without the superhero tag attached, for better or worse. Speaking of which...

Aquaman in the Lost Kingdom or somesuch (cinema) - the lord of the fishes has to fight a zombie horde and that Manta Ray bloke; also break his brother out of jail. Who cares, this series is dead anyway.

I only just saw original Aquaman a few days ago, because nobody cares about the fishmaster, and found it surprisingly OK; one of the better films in this round of DC films, which admittedly isn't saying much. I only went to see volume two because I wanted to see a film at the local and had already seen Wonka and...you know, I quite enjoyed it. It's just a decent superhero film with an entertaining cast, plot themes shamelessly ripped off from Marvel's Thor series, and lots of big flashy CG, but it was a decent watch as far as I'm concerned.

I think the hostility towards it has maybe come from the superhero backlash, and the fact that everyone's amazed that Warner Bros is still releasing Snyderverse films years after announcing that they were finished with the whole thing. I'd suggest this one's about as good as the first couple of Thor films, better than the original Aquaman, and more engaging than a lot of what Marvel's been putting out lately. Aquaman's probably had the best series of films out of this run-through of DC's characters, which isn't something I thought I'd be saying.

Wonka (cinema) - origin story for Roald Dahl's deranged chocolate sadist.

Only watched this for Paterson Joseph after noticing he had a prominent role in the trailer (and the rest of the film, thankfully), and was crushed to discover early on that it's a musical. I fucking hate musicals. Yet...it was really good; I enjoyed it a lot. The musical interludes were bearable, and Timothee Chalamet is pretty excellent, channelling Gene Wilder's take on the character while bringing his own ideas about the character's personality. The rest of the cast is similarly quality, with Joseph obviously standing out with his trademark comedic menace, and even Matt Lucas is impressively restrained. The story's pretty simple and has echoes of classic musicals like Oliver Twist, but it's been a while since we've had one of these and it's as good as any of them; I liked how we're invited to take pleasure from the happiness of even some of the nastier characters.

Something that might annoy Dahl fans is that there's little trace of his trademark cruelty here, but I don't think this would've been improved any by having Olivia Colman hobble her debt slaves (for example). Something I would like to see is a sequel showing how this sweet-natured, beloved young Wonka ends up the bitter, desolate, cruel figure from the Gene Wilder film, but I'm not sure how they'd be able to play that as anything other than a crushing downer. It would be nice to see these characters again, though.

(Olivia Colman, Paterson Joseph, Isy Suttie...did I miss any other Peep Show alumni?)

You missed Big Suze mate I noticed her in the Wonka shop before it went on fire .
Can only echo your sentiments on the Wonka film. I’m a cynical 50 something male who hates musicals and contrived OTT singing and dancing. However I have to say that I thought the film was absolutely fantastic entertainment from start to finish.

[BFTD]

14 minutes ago, Stevie Kirk said:

You missed Big Suze mate I noticed her in the Wonka shop before it went on fire .
Can only echo your sentiments on the Wonka film. I’m a cynical 50 something male who hates musicals and contrived OTT singing and dancing. However I have to say that I thought the film was absolutely fantastic entertainment from start to finish.

Holy crap, I even thought "wonder if Big Suze will make an appearance" after clocking Dobby  

[mathematics]

10 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

Aliens

The GOAT in my opinion, just a flawless horror film. It was by far the scariest movie I'd ever seen on first viewing as a youngster, and I don't feel like anything else ever came close. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The aliens themselves are obviously just terrifying masterpieces of creature design, and the sets & atmosphere the perfect environment for them. Shame the series got rubbish after the first 2 (Prometheus was decent, tbf).

I was just about to like this, but then I read the contents of the brackets. I still get Crystal-Skull-like flashbacks.

Alien was a masterpiece, introducing arguably cinema’s greatest female character.

Aliens was all round “let’s turn this up to 11” and is tremendous.

[Zetterlund]

1 hour ago, mathematics said:

I was just about to like this, but then I read the contents of the brackets. I still get Crystal-Skull-like flashbacks.

Alien was a masterpiece, introducing arguably cinema’s greatest female character.

Aliens was all round “let’s turn this up to 11” and is tremendous.

I thought Prometheus was a big upgrade on the 3rd & 4th films. Still nowhere near the first 2 obviously. 

[MSU]

001 The Boys in the Boat -- It's hard to imagine George Clooney sitting up late at night, desperate to direct the story of a rowing crew from 1930s Seattle and their attempts to reach Olympic glory, and I feel that shows. The Boys in the Boat is such a lackluster, by-the-numbers sporting movie that it must've just been something for him to do. I'm not at all au fait with the story of these young go-getters who go up against the establishment, wealthy rivals, and, dare I say, *themselves* in their pursuit of success but there wasn't a single beat that came as a surprise. Performances are contained and stereotypical for this sort of movie, a love interest is introduced for absolutely no storytelling purpose whatsoever, and oddly placed threats in the final act are brushed aside as though they never existed. All this said, one determined viewer behind me in the cinema gave it a determined solo standing ovation which was pretty much the most interesting thing that happened in the previous couple of hours. 5/10

002 Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget -- Sumptuous as ever animation from Aardman which ends up being the best thing about this unnecessary egg of a sequel. A few laugh-out moments aside, this is a pretty dull affair that fails to hold the attention. 5/10

003 The Hateful Eight -- The story construction here is somewhere between a Glass Onion movie, Red Dead Redemption, The Thing, and a real-life version of Among Us, and it works really well with, perhaps, the best cast list Tarantino has ever assembled. But bloody hell, at nearly three hours, it's so long, and the first half is so slow. It's a testament to how good the second half is that it finishes without feeling like a slog. The lighting is incredible and Ennio Morricone's score rounds the film off wonderfully. If only there was a two-hour version. 8/10

004 Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones -- I haven't been all that interested in the Paranormal Activity franchise since the first one, which I quite enjoyed, and the second one, which I didn't, and I only watched this to see what Christopher Landon would come up with. Generally, I'm a fan of Landon's writing and directing and I think he does a pretty good job here. It's not terribly scary or all that eerie, but I liked the characters and I enjoyed the set-up which did a better job of explaining the permanently present camera than I would've imagined. Added to the three-dimensional characters, Landon also adds a decent plot into the mix as well. It's like he knows how to tell a story. Crazy! Perfectly serviceable, just about the right length, well-paced, and a sequel that does a better-than-average job with the limitations of the franchise. I don't know why it attracts so much hate. 7/10

005 Wonka -- I'd quite like to be subjective here and spend some time complaining that the sound mix was a bit weird in places and I found myself having to lean in to hear the lines and the lyrics, but really I'd be setting myself up as trying to conceal the obvious. I was fucking enchanted, and my leaning forward had nothing to do with the sound levels. I adored this from the start and was more in love with it by the end, and as someone not exactly fond of musicals, this says a lot. But the songs were great and imaginative and clever and infectious and dazzling, which pretty much jives with the story and the aesthetic and some beautiful set-pieces. Everything about it gave the feel of being a kid in a candy store.  I love the worlds that Paul King and Simon Farnaby create, and I love the universe that dictates that Farnaby has to play a bumbling security guard. A triumph.

[DA Baracus]

13 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

Aliens

The GOAT in my opinion, just a flawless horror film. It was by far the scariest movie I'd ever seen on first viewing as a youngster, and I don't feel like anything else ever came close. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The aliens themselves are obviously just terrifying masterpieces of creature design, and the sets & atmosphere the perfect environment for them. Shame the series got rubbish after the first 2 (Prometheus was decent, tbf).

 

11 hours ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

Can't disagree with any of this. I would add that apart from having a great script, a great director(Ridley Scott), incredible production & set design (HR Geiger), the film also had an outstanding cast and possibly 'the'  most original and frightening horror scene of any movie, ever.

Of course, it also had the amazing Sigourney Weaver, whom I developed a crush on, after seeing the film in 1979. 

 

3 hours ago, mathematics said:

I was just about to like this, but then I read the contents of the brackets. I still get Crystal-Skull-like flashbacks.

Alien was a masterpiece, introducing arguably cinema’s greatest female character.

Aliens was all round “let’s turn this up to 11” and is tremendous.

Here's a top fact for you all; when Ripley takes the elevator down to save Newt and the emergency announcement says that there is 15 minutes to reach the minimum safe distance, the actual scene is indeed 15 minutes!

Edited January 7 by DA Baracus

[accies1874]

Let's get it started in here...

1. Night Swim - Cinema

A film about a haunted swimming pool. 

It very much squeezes that premise for all its worth with a couple of creepy drowning-related moments, but ultimately the horror just amounts to someone slowly moving towards something before being met with a loud noise, or the camera moving back and forth before, inevitably, showing something that shouldn't be there. Tbf I did also wince a couple of times - and not just at the script!

Like Thanksgiving from last year, I did appreciate its commitment to a colour palette (yet again light oranges and shades of blue) which provided a nice visual contrast for the swimming pool to make it really pop. Characters' skin tended to be tinted orange which contrasted with their blue costumes, their garden and house had that orange glow too, but some locations like the hospital and, iirc, the school were drenched in blue tones. That gave it a somewhat dreamlike tone, that the premise of a haunted swimming pool defined the story they wanted to tell, but despite spending the majority of the runtime wondering about the meaning behind those colour choices, I'm still not 100% sure. The idea of an old life vs a new is certainly prevalent, but I couldn't see a consistent pattern in the colour scheme that reflected that. 

It was a bit disjointed overall. The story often felt like a bit of a series of shorts which resulted in a lack of a satisfying payoff come the end. I appreciated that it tried to tell a story about its characters, particularly the dad, but going down the boring route of a possessed dad story made that a hell of a lot less interesting. There were occasions where I also thought that the shot choices/editing were a bit haphazard too, simply selecting some that looked the coolest rather than trying to create a visually cohesive scene. 

Not an amazing start to 2024, but I didn't expect much else from a film about a haunted swimming pool. 

[BFTD]

11 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

I thought Prometheus was a big upgrade on the 3rd & 4th films. Still nowhere near the first 2 obviously. 

Aye, Prometheus was the most I've enjoyed an Alien film other than the original two. However, anyone paying attention (which I clearly wasn't) can tear the story apart quite easily.

It's a shame that Ridley Scott seemed to take the criticisms to heart and switched to a generic Alien film for the sequel, as Alien: Covenant was very mediocre and I'm not surprised we'll never see the conclusion.

[Zetterlund]

19 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Aye, Prometheus was the most I've enjoyed an Alien film other than the original two. However, anyone paying attention (which I clearly wasn't) can tear the story apart quite easily.

It's a shame that Ridley Scott seemed to take the criticisms to heart and switched to a generic Alien film for the sequel, as Alien: Covenant was very mediocre and I'm not surprised we'll never see the conclusion.

I doubt I'll ever enjoy another creature horror movie as much again now that everything is 100% CGI. The aliens in the first 2 were so terrifying because of their realistic movements and interactions with people, before they turned into Jurassic Park velociraptors in the later films.

[coprolite]

Hunger games ballad of songbirds and snakes. 

Prequel without any of the familiar main characters, except for the big bad, whose origin story it is. Probably the best of the series as a film, but the worst as entertainment. It's for the kids, and they weren't that impressed. 

4/10

Wonka

Another prequel. I also don't usually like musicals (Matilda and South Park excepted) but then most musicals don't have the godlike genius powers of Neil Hannon on songwriting duties. 

Visually stunning for large parts too.  

The feel of it was very similar to Paddington 2 (not coincidentally) but even more silly and funny. 

"guarded by 200 chocoholic monks" is my new favourite line from films. 

A couple of characters felt half formed and a bit pointless. Wonka was just short of the unhinged menace of Gene Wilder's version. 

8/10

 

Nope (2022)

Some decent ideas but not scary enough for horror, not interesting enough for sci fi, not engaging enough as a drama. 

Should have been about the chimp. 

4/10 

 

Troll (2022)

Quality Noggie monster movie. 

6/10

 

Scrooged (1988)

Not as good as i remember. Some good bits, some funny bits. Mainly schmaltz

4 /10

 

Shazam 1&2 (2019 & 2023)

@BFTD@BFTD was wrong a few posts ago. Shazam was the best of the Snyder period DC efforts. 1 is better but 2 is entertaining too. 

Not sure they make a lot of sense likes but it's superpowered kids v monsters from hell, with some fun with superhero movie tropes tgrown in. 

6/10, 5/10

[BFTD]

52 minutes ago, coprolite said:

Shazam 1&2 (2019 & 2023)

@BFTD@BFTD was wrong a few posts ago. Shazam was the best of the Snyder period DC efforts. 1 is better but 2 is entertaining too. 

Not sure they make a lot of sense likes but it's superpowered kids v monsters from hell, with some fun with superhero movie tropes tgrown in. 

6/10, 5/10

Fair enough, I missed Shazam and my son said it was good.

Plus, I'd frankly forgotten it existed, much like Warner Bros seemed to.

[Arch Stanton]

Currently watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Candy and Martin are at the top of their game in this brilliant "buddy/road trip"  movie.

[mathematics]

Watched “Call Jane” today. 
 

It’s a pretty one-dimensional film about an incredible important subject, particularly because of the recent Roe reversal. Watchable, but I certainly wouldn’t watch again.

What is interesting though is how my recent parenthood has tried to f**k with my stance on abortion. Previously I was a “100% go for it, whatever your reasoning “, and I’m now having to fight the urge to harden my stance on “reasoning”. Getting into the Bill Burr territory with his cake analogy.

 

[Tartan Dave]

La Sociedad de la Nieve - about the uruguayan rugby team who crashed in the andes. Really enjoyed it, had read a fair bit about it before but the film made it a lot more real.