What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fullerene]

On 20/08/2024 at 21:50, DA Baracus said:

Watched the original Planet of The Apes for the first time last night.

Enjoyable, albeit cheesy/hammy acting fairly often (even down to how folk moved at times), and a bit daft, but decent.

However, thanks to The Simpsons, I burst out laughing when Dr Zaius was first on screen and couldn't stop for a good couple of minutes.

Have committed to watching the other original ones now (they're all on Disney Plus, along with the 2001 abomination and the re-boot ones, including the dull, pointless, most recent one).

I wonder how many people went to see the film because they thought Diane Stanley was cute.

 

[accies1874]

70. Trap - Cinema

Now, I haven't been to a gig in years, but even I know that this just isn't normal. 

The best thing about this is that it feels like a Hitman level, using disguises and distractions to sneak into places you're not supposed to be in. The worst thing about Trap is that there's no point in any of that - it's just too damn easy, devoid of any stakes or tension. There's a reason for that, but that reason completely undoes the best thing about the film: its premise.

Something else that undoes the premise is the fact that it very rarely feels like they're at a concert. Josh Hartnett keeps leaving - for reasons that do make sense in relation to the plot - but every time he leaves, the corridors are always packed with people. Who are these people? Isn't there a concert going on? It just seemed like they were always looking for an excuse to get away from the show, thus reducing the film to just being a bog standard police search with the most inconsequential police force you've ever seen (yes there's a reason for this, no that doesn't make it OK). 

It's to be expected that Shyamalan's characters won't speak or indeed act like human beings, so his choice to essentially make the Trap itself the protagonist, the thing we root for, is vaguely interesting, but he gives up on that with about 45 minutes to go and tries to give his daughter the spotlight for the remainder of it, despite it being much harder to get behind the rich and famous singer with no connection to the killer than it would have been if the final conflict was between Josh Hartnett and his daughter. 

After about 45 minutes, every time I looked at my watch I wondered "how have they still got this long to go?"

Damn you, Shyamalan, for reeling me in with these interesting premises then invariably disappointing me.

71. Only the River Flows - Cinema

Slow, atmospheric, absolutely gorgeous and, imo, never boring. Let me spend more time in this misty, rainy and analogue world of leather jackets and murder!

Despite listening to reviews beforehand which said that the film is first and foremost a character study as opposed to a procedural, those two things are linked in a way that I didn't appreciate until later in the film. All of that procedure involved in solving the murders is a result of Ma Zhe's obsession, and that obsession isn't shared by his boss who's more interested in paperwork, his ping-pong-playing colleagues or his wife who's pregnant with a child inflicted with an incurable defect. This results in him being isolated not in terms of his relationships (he spends a lot of time with other characters) but rather isolated emotionally - he has no one to confide in and no control over anything. Se7en and Zodiac are obvious touchpoints in terms of depicting how a serial killer's unpredictable impulses can seep into the life of an obsessive investigator. 

That said, as much as I enjoyed every minute spent watching it, I'm struggling to have a definitive opinion after just one watch, as it's a sleepy film that focuses on its details and atmosphere to at points almost distract you from the people wrapped up in it. It's so sleepy that it occasionally blends dreams with reality as Ma Zhe gets deeper into the investigation (investigation into the murders and into himself). I think it'll become even more interesting with a retrospective understanding of what kind of film it is, however its cinematic run has sadly come to an end here, so I'll need to wait for a home release. 

[DA Baracus]

22 hours ago, Fullerene said:

I wonder how many people went to see the film because they thought Diane Stanley was cute.

 

An idea that aged as poorly as she did in the film.

 

Watched Conquest of The Planet of The Apes last night.

Much better than Beneath and Escape although still very silly and often cheesy. If Khan hadn't brought his pal to the city none of this would have happened, although perhaps that's an allegory for the overall arc of the humans causing their own downfall by trying to prevent what Zira and Cornelius said would happen in the previous film? 

Some of the stuff is a bit on the nose (heavy Nazi vibes, a black man being the saviour of Caesar) but it was the 70s. There were some parts where I thought the cast, apes and humans alike, were about to burst out in to dancing, in a style similar to the opening credits of the first Austin Powers film.

[101]

Recommend Kneecaps film which is out this weekend. I caught an early release on Monday and really enjoyed it. Great story really well told. Out in most places across the weekend but probably won’t hang around

[MSU]

7 hours ago, 101 said:

Recommend Kneecaps film which is out this weekend. I caught an early release on Monday and really enjoyed it. Great story really well told. Out in most places across the weekend but probably won’t hang around

There were what I thought were advance screenings of this a couple of weeks ago over here but the times didn't suit me. I thought it would be coming out this weekend but there's no sign of it. I fear I've already missed my chance.

[wirez]

i I've been watching the Alien films over the last couple of weeks in prep for a cinema visit for the new one.

Alien - 10/10 - The classic sci-fi horror

Aliens - 10/10 - Great action film

Alien 3 - 8/10 - A return to the creepy jump scares of the original. Not as claustrophobic and too many random characters.

Alien Resurrection - 2/10 - Pish. Just made for the $

Prometheus - 7/10 - I quite enjoyed it as a sci-fi film. Not really an Alien film though.

Alien: Covenant - 5/10 - Far too many under developed characters. Fassbender does all the heavy lifting in his dual role.

Hoping the new one will be a return to form.

[101]

1 hour ago, MSU said:

There were what I thought were advance screenings of this a couple of weeks ago over here but the times didn't suit me. I thought it would be coming out this weekend but there's no sign of it. I fear I've already missed my chance.

I think I saw that they are touring stateside. Might catch it in a wee independent cinema or something 

[Chripper]

"Goodfelllas" (1990)

There are just some movies that don't age.

"Goodfellas" is one of them. It's as great now as it was in 1990.

It's a timeless maspiece.
It's the movie that Quentin Tarantino would dream of making and Martin Scorses Is the director that Tarantino wished he could be.

Liotta, De Niro and Pesci have never been better.

9/10

Edited August 24 by Chripper

[Scorge]

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

Won't do full reviews, but Blink Twice is a quite interesting Escape From Wrong 'Un Island thriller , The Crow is utter toot with sub-video game special effects splatter, It Ends With Us would be a generic cliche-ridden 2.15 Wednesday afternoon Channel 5 fluff were it not for the DV stuff, thankfully Between The Temples was a light if slightly slow-burning comedy about an ennui-ridden cantor.

 

[Craig fae the Vale]

Alien: Romulus at Odeon Braehead. 

Enjoyable sci-fi/horror that was probably the best film of the franchise since the first two. Good story, engaging characters and really excellent practical effects. Well worth a watch.

Spoiler

The AI Ian Holm was also a lot less egregious than I was expecting, although I don't really think the character needed to be that specific model of synthetic in the first place.

 

Edited August 24 by Craig fae the Vale

[BFTD]

20 hours ago, Chripper said:

"Goodfelllas" (1990)

There are just some movies that don't age.

"Goodfellas" is one of them. It's as great now as it was in 1990.

It's a timeless maspiece.
It's the movie that Quentin Tarantino would dream of making and Martin Scorses Is the director that Tarantino wished he could be.

Liotta, De Niro and Pesci have never been better.

9/10

I shudder to think what Quentin Tarantino's Goodfellas would have been like, and I generally enjoy his films. Chock full of scenes painstaking lifted from other mob films, long lingering shots of Lorraine Bracco's feet, and would have Jimmy Conway used as a sockpuppet to deliver a random speech about how good the films of Lucio Fulci will be when he finally gets around to making them.

Borderlands (cinema) - bounty hunter Cate Blanchett reluctantly returns to her home planet when the head of a megacorporation offers her a fortune to track down his missing daughter.

I know nothing about the games this is based on, despite owning two of them; I've contemplated playing them before, but something about them just doesn't seem like they're my bag, and this film has kinda confirmed that, which is maybe the opposite of what they had in mind. It really wishes it was Guardians of the Galaxy, which it's not even close to being in the same league as, but it's not quite as bad as it's being slated as.

It's just a pretty generic action film with a lot of shooting and snarky dialogue. I actually really like Cate Blanchett as a flame-haired badass action gal, and could watch her throw silly shapes in gun battles all day. Jack Black's wee robot dude makes fun of everything that's happening, and is occasionally entertaining while being a bit more than just Jack Black, which is what I was expecting. Everyone else is fine, although the wee girl is annoying as f**k, but somehow I get the impression that's maybe just something that's carried over from the games? Could always do with a bit more Gina Gershon, although her accent is tremendously awful (once again, is this canon?)

There are far better films in the cinema, but if you've seen them and just want a daft mid-quality sci-fi action film...yeah, it's fine. It does feel like something that was originally made for a streaming platform though, and that's probably a better home for it. Just don't expect anything that feels original, or a story that throws up any surprises.

[BFTD]

5 minutes ago, Scorge said:

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

Won't do full reviews, but Blink Twice is a quite interesting Escape From Wrong 'Un Island thriller , The Crow is utter toot with sub-video game special effects splatter, It Ends With Us would be a generic cliche-ridden 2.15 Wednesday afternoon Channel 5 fluff were it not for the DV stuff, thankfully Between The Temples was a light if slightly slow-burning comedy about an ennui-ridden cantor.

The most I've done is three, and I really didn't have a good time during the last one; something about being focused on a screen in the dark for that long made me quite disoriented. Don't know if I'd cope with a film festival very well, although I'd still love to try one someday. Used to do double-bills every weekend when I had a Cineworld Unlimited card.

(The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, and The Blair Witch Project, if anyone's interested. I'd already seen a pirate copy of Blair Witch and really liked it, so that wasn't the reason I didn't enjoy myself!)

[JustOneCornetto]

Alien: Romulus (2024) - Cineworld

As a stand-alone film I thought it was pretty good, there's enough action,. tense moments and the usual set of characters, some likeable some not so much, to keep you engaged for a couple of hours.

If you're a fan of the Alien series it doesn't take long to figure out the timeline which is set between the original film and Aliens. I don't mind references to previous films but thought some of them were too much of a cut and paste job and while the introduction of Ian Holm sounded like a nice tribute to his android character Ash in Alien I didn't think it was great visually.

There are some flaws and plot holes in the film but overall you are rooting for the rag tag bunch especially Rain and Andy, her android brother. To get to the main plot of the film with the young group aboard the Romulus they seemed to just skip over how simple it was for them to jump aboard a spaceship, seemingly unattended, and be able to fly it just by playing computer games.

Be interesting to see if the planned tv series Alien: Earth is a sequel to Romulus. Would be good if Rain and Andy feature in it.

 

[Chripper]

Since we're on gangster movies:

"Wise Guys " (1986)

It has 5.6 on IMDB but do not let that put you off. (It used to be 4.2)

Siskel and Ebert both absolutely loved this movie. Probably the only critics who did. And they weren't shy about dissing a movie when they hated it. One of them (can't remember which... probably both) burned Chevy Chase to his face whilst they were on David Letterman together.

This movie Is hilarious and it has a post-"Taxi" Danny DeVito.

Need I say more?

This is an unappreciated and hidden gem of a movie. The director is "Scarface's" Brian De Palma. He got hammered for this movie, but it just goes to show that the masses are usually wrong.

I like to think of this as being an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" prequel. Would explain why Frank doesn't like gangsters.

8/10

[MSU]

104 Borderlands -- I hated the characters, the CGI, the story, the dialog, and the acting but not anywhere near as much as I hated that f**king robot. 2/10

105 The Union -- I need to stop complaining that Netflix keeps making this same movie over and over (usually with Kayley Cuoco) because the previous versions don't feature Mark Wahlberg. I didn't appreciate how lucky I was. 3/10

106 I Saw the TV Glow -- This was in and out of the cinema before I got a chance to see it, which on one hand is good because it saved me from being broken in public. Jane Schoenbrun writes and directs this incredible allegory for transgender egg-cracking where nothing is simple or rosy, and Justice Smith, who I've become something of fan of this year, sells it 100%. It's helped along by a stunning visual aesthetic, a cracking score and a heartbreaking finale. I'm a straight white guy in my fifties, and I don't quite understand a lot of the gender politics or generally the sort stuff that gets JK Rowling upset. My eldest stepkid came out as non-binary last year, I don't 100% understand what that means, but I don't need to so long as they do, but I feel like this movie has helped me understand better. This said, it could quite possibly be seen in different ways, and it certainly has the capacity to frustrate. But for me, it's easily in my top five of the year so far. 10/10

107 My Penguin Friend -- It's a cute idea for a short movie but there's just not enough in it to justify the hour and a half runtime. The penguin arrives, six months later the penguin leaves, six months later the penguin arrives again. We get the picture. The cuteness of the idea is spoiled by some dreadful acting, particularly from an unseen researcher who I would put money on them being voiced by AI. The penguin is the best actor in the movie. To its credit, though, the movie doesn't slam us over the head with the fact that the old man is clearly substituting the penguin for his son who he lost at sea in a storm, but if anything maybe that could've been accentuated more. I really wanted it to tug on my heartstrings and coax a tear or two from me, but that was never really in danger. But hey, it's a movie about a penguin, and in that regard it certainly delivers. 5/10

108 Strange Darling -- Unsettling sexual politics and rape fantasies aside, there were a few things I enjoyed in this somewhat pretentious thriller. My heckles were up when the first thing the movie tells you is the film stock it used -- because we needed to know that? -- and they were further raised when it became clear that the chapter device was only employed to make sure we picked up that it was telling its story out of order. I thought the acting was pretty decent and while it looked like it was filmed for whatever change they found down the back of the sofa, I thought they did a good job with the aesthetics. The script had a loose feel to it, and it the scenes with Ed Begley Jr and Barbara Hershey were wonderful. The whole thing left me feeling a bit itchy, though, and I think it overplays matters to suggest there's a twist in there as it everything about the early stages of the movie were there to set it up. I wouldn't call it great, I probably wouldn't recommend it, and I have no desire to ever see it again, but I didn't hate it. 6/10

109 Between the Temples -- Frustratingly distracted in the cinema by a couple who. Just. Wouldn't. Stop. Talking until they finally left halfway through to go, I dunno, chat loudly through a stranger's funeral. So I enjoyed the second half far more than the first. I've seen lots of Jason Schwarzman movies without really forming an opinion on Jason Schwarzman. It's impressive that he can be in so many movies and almost pass under the radar. He's very good in this, as a cantor in a synagogue who finds he can't no longer sing following the death of his wife. Along comes Carol Kane as his former music teacher who decides, later in life, that she wants a bat mitzvah and becomes his student and, wouldn't you know it, Jason Schwarzman and Carol Kane learn some lessons together. It's one of those comedies where you can appreciate it as being funny without necessarily feeling the need to laugh all that often. The dinner party scene towards the end is pure cringe-inducing, mostly in a good way. Some of the editing and shot choices, though, are all over the place and distracting and I'm not sure any movie needs quite so many close-ups of people noisily eating. I'm sure Nathan Silver has his reasons, but they're lost on me. 7/10

[Miguel Sanchez]

A frankly stunning amount of Claptrap hate here.

[scottsdad]

On 24/08/2024 at 22:33, Scorge said:

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

 

Oh yes. As recently as New Year I did 5 Star Trek movies in a day (2, 3, 4, 6, First Contact)

I have done this before with various combinations.

[Chripper]

On 24/08/2024 at 22:33, Scorge said:

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

Yes.

A decade or so ago I binged the "Lord of the rings" trilogy.

A whole 9 hours and 19 minutes.

At the end, I felt like I covered every inch of Mordo, myself.

Never again.

[MSU]

On 24/08/2024 at 17:33, Scorge said:

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

Won't do full reviews, but Blink Twice is a quite interesting Escape From Wrong 'Un Island thriller , The Crow is utter toot with sub-video game special effects splatter, It Ends With Us would be a generic cliche-ridden 2.15 Wednesday afternoon Channel 5 fluff were it not for the DV stuff, thankfully Between The Temples was a light if slightly slow-burning comedy about an ennui-ridden cantor.

 

Most I've done at the cinema was 4 in a day at the Cineworld on Renfrew Street in 2011. I was there from 11 in the morning until around 10 at night, testing out my shiny new Unlimited Card. I saw Bad Teacher, a Shrek movie, Stake Land and, I think, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It was quite exhausting and I've never done more than 3 in a day at the cinema since.

[KnightswoodBear]

On 24/08/2024 at 22:33, Scorge said:

Had a day off yesterday and needed a rest so did 4 films back-to-back. It's surprisingly toll-taking - has anyone gone more?

 

 

I did a Star Trek one at the about to be demolished ABC in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. 

TMP, WoK, III, IV, V, and VI (I can't remember if Generations was included as well)

I think I had a sleep during V.