What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Clown Job]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

Attack of the Clones

Dreadful

I know it’s a crap film but I can’t help but love it 

[MSU]

Been laid up with the COVID for the last week so it's been a slog through some movies in the hours I've been awake.

053 -- Slow West (#22 in A24 series) Minus credits, this Western tale of one boy's ill-judged attempt to exit the friend zone clocks in at under 80 minutes. Michael Fassbender plays Silas, an Irish bounty hunter who forces his services on to Jay, Kodi Smit-McPhee, a young Scottish gentleman who has travelled to the New World to track down, Rose, the love of his life, who fled the motherland with her father after an "unfortunate incident". It's a quirky wee tale that's simultaneously ludicrous and comedic and somehow feels like an accurate representation of life in the infancy of a country. Directed and written with an incredible atmosphere by John Maclean who built on this success by doing absolutely nothing. An unexpected hit. 9/10

054 -- Amy (#23 in A24 series) Documentary on the life and death of Amy Winehouse. She never stood a chance. 10/10

055 -- The End of the Tour (#24 in the A24 series) Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky, Jesse Eisenberg, follows around and interviews Jason Segel's David Foster Wallace on the final days of his Infinite Jest book tour. Not a whole lot happens over 100 minutes or so as the journalist tries to build up a picture of the author and the author tries to conceal his demons from the journalist. There seems to be quite a bit of jealousy from Lipsky, a fellow writer, who holds Foster Wallace as a genius, while Foster Wallace does his best to reject those assertions along with his fame and success. I like Segel and Eisenberg so this two-hander was right up my street, but it still wasn't nearly enough to make me want to crack open Infinite Jest. 8/10

[101]

Been to see quite a lot this year most of it middle of the ground stuff, Belfast aside.

However last night went to see:

Everything Everywhere All at Once

It's absolutely fucking mental, like seriously whoever came up with the plot and story line needs help. That said it's an incredibly enjoyable ride that is made for the big screen, sit back and let them take you wherever the story goes and you'll be in for a great ride.

Don't know how long it will be in the cinemas for but it's seriously worth a watch as it won't be as good at home. A 9/10 you won't ever see a film like this again.

[Paul Kersey]

Who Dares Wins

Corny, flag waving thriller starring Lewis Collins as a SAS officer who infiltrates a militant terrorist group. 

This just plays out like an extended episode of The Professionals. 

It's a shite film, but is very entertaining shite. I've seen it at least 20 times but I'll watch it every time that it's on and I'll never get tired of it.

7/10

[Mr. Brightside]

Halloween Kills. 

Complete and utter fucking dross.

[MSU]

056 -- Dark Places (#25 in A24 series) This adaptation of a Gillian Flynn novel lives up to its source material insofar as it's pretty mediocre and not as good as Gone Girl. Charlize Theron plays Libby Day, who as a child survived a murder spree at her home that killed her mother and sisters and for which, thanks to her testimony, her brother went to jail. Down on her luck and struggling for money, Libby gets involved in a group of amateur sleuths who believe her brother is innocent. Once you remember that Flynn doesn't really write sympathetic characters it's a reasonable thriller despite not being very thrilling. Unremarkable. 6/10

057 -- Petite Maman. A fantastic in every sense of the word French movie about a little girl whose maternal grandmother dies, and she and her mum go to empty her house which is in the middle of an autumnal wood. The mother describes her childhood there and how she built a fort in the woods. Later, after the mother goes awol, the wee girl goes for a walk in the woods and finds another wee lassie building a fort. Just a wonderful story, beautifully acted, that deals with its theme of grief and generational trauma in a profoundly subtle and sublime way. My favourite movie of the year so far. 10/10

058 -- Mississippi Grind (#26 in A24 series) Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds star in this (for all intents and purposes) two-hander about a downtrodden gambler (Mendelsohn) who believes he meets his lucky charm (Reynolds) and the two head to New Orleans for a big poker tournament or something, bumping along from wins and losses towards a payday. The performances are more than decent but the story is dull, the characters flat, and there's very little to recommend or suggest that any aspect of it will linger long in the mind. 5/10

059 -- Room (#27 in A24 series) In keeping with Dark Places, this is another one where the movie lives up to the book, except in this case, I loved the book. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are both outstanding as a young woman and her son, the latter of whom at five has only ever known the inside of a 10x10 room. Not a movie I'm often in the mood to watch but when I do it gets me in the feels every time. 10/10

[scottsdad]

Tonight: Revenge of the Sith. Then I can finally be done with the prequels. 

I know they have their defenders, but re-watching these has made me realise how utterly dreadful a film maker Lucas had become. The dialogue is just woeful ("Younglings" ffs). The characters have no depth. The stories are convoluted and boring. The effects are good enough but man, I am looking forward to having this latest re-watch done. After this, my youngest will have seen all movies. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Tonight: Revenge of the Sith. Then I can finally be done with the prequels. 
I know they have their defenders, but re-watching these has made me realise how utterly dreadful a film maker Lucas had become. The dialogue is just woeful ("Younglings" ffs). The characters have no depth. The stories are convoluted and boring. The effects are good enough but man, I am looking forward to having this latest re-watch done. After this, my youngest will have seen all movies. 

It's probably the best of Episodes 1 to 3 - certainly better than the turd that is AotC.

[Mark Connolly]

3 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

5 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Tonight: Revenge of the Sith. Then I can finally be done with the prequels. 
I know they have their defenders, but re-watching these has made me realise how utterly dreadful a film maker Lucas had become. The dialogue is just woeful ("Younglings" ffs). The characters have no depth. The stories are convoluted and boring. The effects are good enough but man, I am looking forward to having this latest re-watch done. After this, my youngest will have seen all movies. 

It's probably the best of Episodes 1 to 3 - certainly better than the turd that is AotC.

Hayden Christiansen screaming "I hate you" was his only bit of believable acting

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Hayden Christiansen screaming "I hate you" was his only bit of believable acting

Comedy acting, I assume you mean.

[Mark Connolly]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

Comedy acting, I assume you mean.

I believe he was channelling every Star Wars fan's feeling towards George Lucas as he screamed it

[Jupiter Jazz]

10 hours ago, MSU said:

058 -- Mississippi Grind (#26 in A24 series) Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds star in this (for all intents and purposes) two-hander about a downtrodden gambler (Mendelsohn) who believes he meets his lucky charm (Reynolds) and the two head to New Orleans for a big poker tournament or something, bumping along from wins and losses towards a payday. The performances are more than decent but the story is dull, the characters flat, and there's very little to recommend or suggest that any aspect of it will linger long in the mind. 5/10

This is basically a poor reworking of Robert Altman's California Split from 1974 -- one of my favourite films starring George Segal and my number 1 actor of the 70's Elliott Gould. Give that a shot if you can get a hold of it.

[scottsdad]

Revenge of the Sith. 

By some margin the best of the prequel movies. Better action, better pace. The last hour or so dragged a bit as it felt like a bit of a tick box exercise in getting everything in place for A New Hope. 

[DA Baracus]

The Phantom Menace is the best of the prequels.

[Bully Wee Villa]

It really isn't.

[Mark Connolly]

It is if you count 2 and 3 as the start of the saga...

[scottsdad]

30 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

The Phantom Menace is the best of the prequels.

My youngest (aged 12) agrees with you. She liked Jar Jar the best.

[DA Baracus]

50 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

It really isn't.

It is. Considerably.

21 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

My youngest (aged 12) agrees with you. She liked Jar Jar the best.

I prefer Qui Gon Jinn.

[accies1874]

76. Weird Science (1985)* - iPlayer

Wasn’t a massive fan. Started off with an interesting enough premise but I felt myself losing interest in it after about 15 minutes. They just decided to lose themselves with a mad plot come the end which will appeal to some people but it wasn’t really what I wanted from what they set up. The characters also annoyed me early on and never managed to claw it back. It’ll definitely have its audience, though, and is probs a cult film.

77. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)* - All4

Found this a bit hard to follow first time round but rewatched the opening 30 mins or so which made the rest of it clearer. Really interesting ‘mystery box’ that probably requires a full-scale submersion that I'm incapable of doing. 

78. Open Water (2003)* - DVD

Daft stuff that wanted to get its characters into a situation and roll with it. 

79. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)* - Cinema

The multiverse film that everyone’s talking about! I like that this has, in my mind, become a protest film to the MCU’s latest release (which I haven’t seen so don’t feel suited to comment on). It’ll probs bomb because Dr Strange needs to be showing all day every day, but this has clearly touched pretty much everyone who’s seen it so that’s something.

The opening kind of reminded me of Parasite, using pretty typical family interactions in quite an unusual home setting to set up everything that’s about to come, and the mundanity of family life to contrast a forthcoming wild ride. I was ready for that wild ride to commence. 

But then it lost me. Once the multiverse kicked in, I lost track of the stakes as I was more invested in them keeping their business open than whatever apocalyptic event I thought was going on, and I struggled to pin down the mechanics which was either because of teething problems for myself or the film. These two issues just brought me right out of it and I stopped caring about the fun going on. I thought I was gone.

Then it clawed me back. Its characters and themes started taking over again from the multiverse of madness and the premise and ideas became one in a way that made complete sense. I legit can’t imagine these themes told outside this concept or this concept without these themes. It’s a really poignant way to look at life and cut so damn deep. The multiverse is also kinda metaphorical as if you strip it away and look at the mainline narrative then you still get a brilliant character study but adding in the multiverse makes it an incredibly imaginative way to portray that character. Not sure I explained that too well but might make sense if you see it. The idea of drawing on different versions of yourself could've been too convenient in a worse film but it's all set out early on in a kinda comedic, kinda depressing way. There’s also a wonderful rock scene which reminded me of another A24 release, A Ghost Story. That makes all the set-pieces, visuals and funky style worthwhile (not that they would've been rubbish in isolation) as there's proper meaning behind some rip-roaring silliness. I actually found it more fun than funny but plenty of people were laughing so personal taste etc. 

I’d be interested to see it again to see if that sticky patch becomes more palatable on a second watch.

80. Mean Girls (2004)* - Sky Cinema

A series of somewhat connected events bookended by a by-the-numbers introduction and conclusion. 

81. The Innocents (2022)* - Cinema

This does something horrible fairly early on which put me on edge for the rest of it as showed what it's capable of and constantly threatened to go back there (which it sometimes did). A good way to make an often low-key horror/thriller more tense. It depicts responding to grief/loss/absence quite well by making things intense, sometimes emosh, sometimes hella scary, but I don't think I ever want to watch it again. 

[Detournement]

Weird Science is a movie for teenage boys. 

Picnic At Hanging Rock is fantastic. One of the very few good things to come out of Australia.