CraigFowler Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 I've been bad at keeping up with this, so here's a massive dump of movies I've seen for the first time recently... 46. Muriel's Wedding A weirder film than I assumed. It's pretty funny in parts but not as much as I wanted it to be and surprisingly dark in others. The scene where Rhonda tells Tania about her husband cheating and then her and Muriel sing ABBA is absolutely iconic, though. 47. The Beautiful Game Hated this. The football chat really grated on me - like most films that try to tackle it, you're left with the impression that neither writer, director nor actor is a football fan - the acting was poor overall, the characters half-written and the lead character was unsufferable. 48. Sting Also pretty crap. More boring than scary and very predictable. 49. A Quiet Place: Day One A good prequel even if it's still the weakest of the three movies. The creatures are becoming less scary with each installment and felt they were almost secondary to the plot of this. That said, I liked the different take on the genre by centring it around a character with a terminal illness and Lupita Nyong'o puts in a really strong performance. If, like me, you're a big fan of the Quiet Place world then I'd recommend watching it. 50. Inside Out 2 Saw this as a double bill with the above, so you could see it was a prequel/sequel day. Also very good and lived up to my expectations. This was the film coming out this year which I was looking forward to the most. The introduction of anxiety as a character was incredibly relatable and, even as someone who has went through therapy/counselling, I still felt it helped me understand my own emotions even more, so kids should get a lot out of it. I also like the fact they condensed the story and didn't just make it about going through the first few months of high school, which is where most filmmakers would've taken it. The biggest downside is that it's not as funny as the first film. 51. Portrait of a Lady on Fire Loved this, which made the film all the more impressive to me because I'm typically not a fan of slow burn movies in which there's more tense silences than there is dialogue (see my review of Brokeback Mountain as comparison). There was just such strong sexual tension and chemistry between the two leads that it was impossible not to be transfixed by it. 52. Beverley Hills Cop: Axel F It's better than what I assumed Beverley Hills Cop 4 would be when I first heard it was getting made. It's got a few funny moments and some fun action set-pieces. It is predictable as f**k though. 53. Minions: The Rise of Gru Halfway through this I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be one of my favourite comedy films of all time. I was laughing so consistently and liked how they'd dialled up the chaos compared to the first movie. But it lagged a little bit in the second half. Still very good fun, though. 54. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore Thought this would be 'Falling Down' for millennials, but it ended up being something different. I was fully on board and thought it'd end up being one of my favourite moments of the year, but the ending really spoiled a lot of it for me. I thought it was a cautionary tale about revenge and vigilantism, subverting the genre because so many movies glorify this sort of behaviour, but it kinda copped out of that at the last second and now I'm not entirely sure what the point of it was. It was still entertaining viewing though and a lot funnier than I thought it would be. I also liked the sleazy, run-down feel to it. 55. Arcadian Not particularly scary and I didn't care all that much about what happened to the characters. I liked the design of the creatures better than what most reviews of it have said, but their powers were very inconsistent throughout the film, depending on whether a main character was in peril or not. I wouldn't recommend. 56. Cinema Paradiso Seeing as it's considered one of the greatest films of all time, I was a bit let down by this. It's a good enough movie, but I don't really get the hype. A nice story about friendship and a love-letter to cinema. The bittersweet relationship with the medium is all the more relevant now than it was when it was initially made. But I didn't really get why Salvatore (Toto) was told or felt the need to stay away from his hometown for so long (this is big in the conclusion to the film) and I felt it dragged at points. 57. In Flames A bit more creepy than the other horrors I've seen over the last month, but again I didn't find it particularly scary. I don't often mind in movies when you're not presented with the mythology behind whatever is attacking the protagonists, but I could've done with an exposition dump scene about halfway through this to help me understand what was going on. The ending answered some questions but left many more lingering. It does have some very good shots in it, I must say. 58. I Saw The TV Glow On the one hand, this is 90s nostalgia done just right. I really enjoyed the look of this: all the pastel colours and the 90s TV show clips were absolutely dead on. The soundtrack was also very enjoyable. But on the other hand, it's very much style over substance. I kept getting intrigued that the story was going to go somewhere interesting but it never got there and the ending was a let down. 59. 3 Idiots Watched this last night and really, really enjoyed it. Despite it's lengthy runtime (not long short of 3 hours) I wasn't really bored at any point, with perhaps the exception of one singing scene midway through. Thought it was just going to be a wacky comedy, but it's much deeper than that. Ended up being a real feelgood movie with many likeable, and some very unlikeable, characters and poses interesting questions about the education system not only in India but the wider world in general. I liked it so much that it dominated my dreams and I woke up in a really good mood as a result. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 62. Hundreds of Beavers - Cinema A delightfully inventive slapstick. Mad, but mad entertaining. I thought after half an hour that it might have run its course, but then it hits you with the reveal that it's only just beginning! One of the best title cards jokes too. The visual style blends a bit of animation with live action but all with the veneer of an old timey silent film. They really limited what was in the frame at any one time so that you could focus on the setup, punchline and just inventive ways to make you laugh at a man trying to kill folk in animal costumes. 63. MaXXXine - Cinema Just bang average. A thriller that isn't very thrilling, a horror that isn't very horrific, a mystery that isn't very mysterious. Why was Kevin Bacon there? That makes it sound much worse than it actually is, as I didn't get bored until the third act and it established its setting really well (though didn't do anything interesting with it), but yet again I left a film in this trilogy wondering what the point in it all was. It was like a lesser Last Night in Soho due to its Giallo influences, an aspirational young woman trying to make her way in The Big City, and the way that the past is both something for the protagonist to aspire to and something that weighs her down. The difference is that Last Night in Soho had a more interesting use for its call-backs to the past whereas MaXXXine just seemed like Ti West wanted to make a slasher set in 80s Hollywood. Should we just stop making films set in Hollywood? I feel like it's all been done at this point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 19 hours ago, CraigFowler said: 47. The Beautiful Game Hated this. The football chat really grated on me - like most films that try to tackle it, you're left with the impression that neither writer, director nor actor is a football fan - the acting was poor overall, the characters half-written and the lead character was unsufferable. I still don't know why this is. Is no one involved in the film/TV industry a football fan, or is it just something that doesn't translate well on screen. I can't think of football chat in a single film or TV show I've seen that hasn't been cringe-inducing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 (edited) Football on screen only seems to work when there's hardly any football shown ("The Damned United"), it's taken not too seriously ("Ted Lasso") or just done entirely as a piss-take ("Father Ted"). Football done seriously is nearly always woeful. Even The Sopranos was shite when they did "soccer" for a bit. Edited July 23 by Bully Wee Villa 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Tunbridge Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 Next goal wins is watchable if nothing else tbf. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velo army Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 (edited) Currently watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Rory Kinnear as Churchill is one of the worst pieces of casting I've ever seen. It's a terrible performance. It's good fun aside from this Edited July 25 by velo army 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgecutter Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Requiem For a Dream. Lasted half an hour before saying "it's only 9pm, let's quit this overrated p*sh and put decent on instead". The OH considered The Meg instead. The f***ing Meg. PS. Jennifer Connolly definitely improves with age. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 64. In a Violent Nature - Cinema Waited a few days before doing a review as I didn't, and still don't, know what to make of it. Its premise is fascinating - to strip back a slasher to the perspective of the killer - but I'm not sure that it did enough with that premise. There are loads of correct comparisons to make with other films, but I was weirdly reminded of The Zone of Interest throughout due to the In a Violent Nature detaching itself from genre conventions and giving a different perspective of horror where absence draws attention to what you're not seeing. Maybe that's the point of it all. It has a lot of stuff I love in horror like a villain lingering in the background of scenes, and I found the monotony of his footsteps to be effective as both luring you into perspective of the killer and also an attempt to build tension as to what he'll do next - the latter of which it failed to accomplish for me. It took until the final moments for any of the tension to be effective (and I genuinely loved the last 10 minutes or so) as its premise is in direct competition with making the consequences of the horror matter. The idea of a typical slasher existing in the background of what you're watching is honestly so interesting to me, but, despite the attempt at fleshing out the characters in that scene by the fire, they are very much disposable vessels for the killer to conduct brutal and kinda fun kills on. I appreciated the audience chuckling at a couple of them, though based on what I overheard leaving the screening I don't think they were too fond of it overall. Despite that, the killer is the main character: he's the one with motivations, a goal and obstacles to overcome. You get a sense of his personality as, similar to Leatherface, being a tortured individual who processes their trauma by inflicting horrendous acts of violence on young intruders. I think it was interesting to experience that through the person inflicting those acts of violence, especially the somewhat scary indiscriminatory nature of it as you almost want him to achieve his goal, but it just hasn't quite clicked in my mind yet. And, because I'm a man of my word, I watched a playthrough of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties last night. Until yesterday, I didn't actually know that that sicko @BFTD was going on about a game, and I'm not sure if it would be even more disturbing playing it, but my God that was one of the freakier Saturday nights I've had. When it first started up, I wondered why he was so freaked out by a very horny, very low-res woman talking through a screen, then the game-proper started and I was led on an unforgettable journey through a slideshow of otherworldliness. Slap an A24 logo at the start and you've got yourself an effective horror that does a ham-fisted job of commenting on the insecurities over finding love (I'm sure that was unintentional). 65. Poolman - Prime This straddles the fine line between being funny and insufferable - sadly it all too often falls into the latter category. The film's frequent references to Chinatown only succeeded in making me wonder "yeah, why am I not watching Chinatown right now?" and the fact that it resides within a fairly worn out subgenre that I don't like all that much in the first place (LA stoner-noir) meant that, as you might have guessed, I didn't like Poolman all that much. It's not all bad, though, as some of the background characters (well, mostly just Danny DeVito's) got some mild chuckles out of me, plus Chris Pine as director showed some talent at conveying an atmosphere, the promise of which was why I gave this a go in the first place. Unfortunately, that talent doesn't extend to directing his own performance - and it was a performance that really could've done with being reeled in by a director - or shooting a scene effectively, as I got annoyed pretty quickly at the god-awful editing which looked for all the world like it was the result of a lack of a vision from scene-to-scene. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSU Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 097 Deadpool & Wolverine -- I liked the first Deadpool, liked the second one less, and now at the third time of asking, it just feels like the schtick is pretty tired at this point. Deadpool seems to have the same disregard for the MCU as I do and so should also realize that a stabby, sweary, bloody, fourth-wall-breaking comic-book movie needs, at some point, to become a bit more than that, and maybe rely on things other than having people in the movie you don't expect to have in the movie, or having a good choice of music from our childhoods. All this said, I chuckled a few times and I quite liked The Void but it was too samey for too long. 5/10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 The Deadpool arc is interesting to me as it started out as a parody of the superhero stuff, but that became less authentic when it got a sequel and even moreso when it got brought into Marvel and cost 4x as much to make, so when the parody loses its effect then all you're left with is The Reddit Movie. That might be unfair as I haven't watched it and won't watch it, but in my mind Deadpool has become emblematic of why I've grown bored of these films as opposed to being in any way fresh. Anyway @MSU what's your take on the whole In a Violent Nature thing? I know you quite liked it but what did you think the point of it all was? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorge Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Saw Deadpool & Wolverine last night and it wasn't too bad, but as a non-comic book nerd I sensed a lot of 'in' jokes that flew past me, and it does drag on about 20 minutes too long (post credits payout is quite good though) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSU Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 1 hour ago, accies1874 said: Anyway @MSU what's your take on the whole In a Violent Nature thing? I know you quite liked it but what did you think the point of it all was? Ooft, the point of it? I heard an interview with the director and he claims they had to reshoot 70% of it as it wasn't working out and I'd be interested to know where he felt it was going wrong and I think it would help to accentuate what it ended up doing right. Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street eventually morphed into movies where we just want to see stupid teenagers being killed and this seemed to simplify all that. We know next to nothing about most of the victims, I'm not sure all of them even have a name, and we only get the slightest of hints that any of them have a story. The only person who has a clear motivation is Johnny. The last quarter of an hour or so breaks its own rule and while I found it really effective, it was an unfortunate rug pull. But I really liked that it started in its own sequel. I liked the role nature had to play in it all. The killer in the woods isn't doing anything new, but the killer seemed to be born from the woods and I thought that was interesting. The more I think about the movie the more I'm looking forward to seeing it again but I wish it had better actors and a better script and I wish it had a couple of kills that were at least 75% as impressive as the yoga one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laid Back Maverick Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 1 hour ago, Scorge said: Saw Deadpool & Wolverine last night and it wasn't too bad, but as a non-comic book nerd I sensed a lot of 'in' jokes that flew past me, and it does drag on about 20 minutes too long (post credits payout is quite good though) As a comic book nerd, I can confirm that yes, there are a tonne of easter eggs and in-jokes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chripper Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 (edited) "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" I'm actually on "Hawkeye". I'm doing yet another MCU rotation to work up to "Deadpool and Wolverine". (I haven't seen "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" onwards) By the time I'm there, it'll probably be on Disney +. Edited July 30 by Chripper 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54_and_counting Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 3 hours ago, Scorge said: Saw Deadpool & Wolverine last night and it wasn't too bad, but as a non-comic book nerd I sensed a lot of 'in' jokes that flew past me, and it does drag on about 20 minutes too long (post credits payout is quite good though) 1 hour ago, Laid Back Maverick said: As a comic book nerd, I can confirm that yes, there are a tonne of easter eggs and in-jokes. And remember, for the love of god, do not try work out the timelines, its a complete and utter mind f**k Spoiler Logan died in 2029 according to the film, but deadpool digging up his corpse in 2024, fucking got to love timelines and how fucking warped they are lol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laid Back Maverick Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 1 minute ago, 54_and_counting said: And remember, for the love of god, do not try work out the timelines, its a complete and utter mind f**k Keeping up the X-Men timeline traditions. See also Spiderman Homecoming. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chripper Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Anyone struggling with MCU timeline. This is pretty accurate: https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a825774/marvel-cinematic-universe-in-chronological-order/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54_and_counting Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 9 hours ago, Laid Back Maverick said: Keeping up the X-Men timeline traditions. See also Spiderman Homecoming. Ha forgot about that belter of a timeline f**k up 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 15 hours ago, MSU said: Ooft, the point of it? I heard an interview with the director and he claims they had to reshoot 70% of it as it wasn't working out and I'd be interested to know where he felt it was going wrong and I think it would help to accentuate what it ended up doing right. Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street eventually morphed into movies where we just want to see stupid teenagers being killed and this seemed to simplify all that. We know next to nothing about most of the victims, I'm not sure all of them even have a name, and we only get the slightest of hints that any of them have a story. The only person who has a clear motivation is Johnny. The last quarter of an hour or so breaks its own rule and while I found it really effective, it was an unfortunate rug pull. But I really liked that it started in its own sequel. I liked the role nature had to play in it all. The killer in the woods isn't doing anything new, but the killer seemed to be born from the woods and I thought that was interesting. The more I think about the movie the more I'm looking forward to seeing it again but I wish it had better actors and a better script and I wish it had a couple of kills that were at least 75% as impressive as the yoga one. Yeah the simplification of on-screen violence was what I took from it, too, but I kind of think that that's at odds with the spectacle of the "yoga" kill. That said, it also made the ending more effective for me as it was an additional act to the typical slasher film that made me reconsider the trauma inflicted by surviving something like this. Maybe the rest of the film is in service of that, idk. Just very conflicted about the whole thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 On 26/07/2024 at 21:19, Hedgecutter said: Requiem For a Dream. Lasted half an hour before saying "it's only 9pm, let's quit this overrated p*sh and put decent on instead". The OH considered The Meg instead. The f***ing Meg. PS. Jennifer Connolly definitely improves with age. The Meg is great fun. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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