Last Film Watched

bonk_king

Edit above. Sorry, my mistake, the film is called "hold the dark" and not "hold the night". Doh!

wolfsbane2k

Dr Strange.
Don't know any of the original comics or backstory, but thoroughly enjoyed the it. Good humour and acting throughout ( except for the dodgy American accent).

followed by

the new Ghostbusters.
Nope, nope, and nope.

vimfuego

The Hitman's Bodyguard

SAMUEL L JACKSON IS........SAMUEL L JACKSON
RYAN REYNOLDS IS............RYAN REYNOLDS

IN......

A gratuitous action flick.
Full of shallow plotlines but equally, loads of car chases, use of the term mofo, explosions and action sequences. What's not to like whilst monging out on the sofa?

crispybug2

Dad's Army

Finally got around to watching this, a stellar cast with particularly excellent performances by Bill Nighy as Sergeant Wilson, Daniel Mays as Private Walker and Michael Gambon as Private Godfrey with really only, the normally excellent and reliable, Bill Paterson hitting a slightly bum note as Private Fraser, however this didn't stop the film from being a steaming turd of a movie!

mr_goo

Venom - Tom Hardy brings the investigative journalist Eddie Brock and his 'parasite' to the big screen.
Good story and Hardy is well cast in the role. Another thumbs up for British actors playing lead roles in 'all American' roles.
Only downside for me is that most of the action sequences are now so frenetic with shot changes and SFX that I find it hard to process what is going on.
I asked my son whether it's my age and he said its same for him and that Marvel have received some criticism for this.
Anyhow it's a worthy origin story for another Marvel franchise..... yes Venom 2 is happening. See the reveal midway thru end credits and who his nemesis will be.... Cheers.

FocusZing

Peppa Pig - My First Cinema Experience.

I just found it lacked depth and character development.

robert88

FocusZing wrote:

Peppa Pig - My First Cinema Experience.

I just found it lacked depth and character development.

If you will watch Bellator..

crispybug2

A Star Is Born

Really good, I was surprised by how good Lady Gaga was, Bradley Cooper was also excellent and showed a very deft touch directing his first film as a director, also Sam Elliott just has the deepest speaking voice ever, you can hear the reverb on the speakers when he speaks

cooldad

Normally hate the cinema. I prefer to sit on my couch and fart at will, but went to the premiere of Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old.

I'm no film critic, so this is just my feelings.

Basically, the movie is a series of (mainly) bits and pieces of footage. Obviously from the early days of film making, with chunky hand cranked cameras. The improved footage is pretty amazing, without being 'hollywoodised'. It's clear, smooth, and well coloured, but not 'poppy'. Looks very natural, and hard to actually believe that it is old footage. The film begins and ends with some original footage, and the contrast is stunning.
The only dialogue is recorded excerpts from soldiers who were there, which works very well. A good mix of serious, sad and (often quite gallows) humour.

The realism of the footage really brings home the conditions they lived, and died under. Some shots are not for the squeamish.

At the time cameramen stayed behind lines, so there is no footage of actual fighting (just some of them going over the top), but he's used a montage of illustrations from contemporary magazines to go with the dialogue, almost comic strip like. It works, especially once he'd explained the what and why afterwards.

It's a very sobering film.

A highlight, if you can call it that, was seeing the interaction between the soldiers and captured prisoners. You could see very little antagonism, and neither side seemed to have any idea of why they were trying to kill each other, except that they had been ordered to. There is a lot of footage of field hospitals, with British and German medics working on British and German wounded indiscriminately. And the wounded sitting next to each other, no guns or guards. Brings home the pointlessness of war, and the real victims.

The interview was almost a highlight as well. This was obviously a labour of love for Jackson. He explained his motivation (apart from being a history buff, kind of a tribute to his grandfather, injured in the war, and died before he was born.)
Good explanation of what they did, and in very simple terms, how.
The original idea and budget was for 30 minutes. Obviously, both seem to have overrun.
They also restored and respeeded (is that a word?) another 1,000 hours of footage for the IWM. For free.

Bottom line, if you get a chance, see it. And I'm guessing the interview will appear online sooner or later. Also well worth a watch.

Looks like it will be shown on BBC on Armistice day.

awavey

cooldad wrote:

Normally hate the cinema. I prefer to sit on my couch and fart at will, but went to the premiere of Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old.

I'm no film critic, so this is just my feelings.

Basically, the movie is a series of (mainly) bits and pieces of footage. Obviously from the early days of film making, with chunky hand cranked cameras. The improved footage is pretty amazing, without being 'hollywoodised'. It's clear, smooth, and well coloured, but not 'poppy'. Looks very natural, and hard to actually believe that it is old footage. The film begins and ends with some original footage, and the contrast is stunning.
The only dialogue is recorded excerpts from soldiers who were there, which works very well. A good mix of serious, sad and (often quite gallows) humour.

I appreciate the source footage they had wasnt all going to be of the same quality so Id not expect perfect image quality from this film at all, there are limits to what we can do

but whilst some of the clips Ive seen do look amazing in the converted form, other clips look like they suffer the worst kind of motion/colour smearing and animation effects that you get when you digitise films or try and add missing frames, I mean they are creating or blending nearly a 1/3rd of the frames in this to make it look "normal" frame rate. and the computer software translates the grain of the film into a defect and tries to correct it by blurring it out, bit like photoshopping on fashion magazines and blends movement and it looks wrong.

its the kind of thing that would ruin it for me if alot of the footage turned out like that, because it needs to be respectfully done given the source material, and not look like its just a load of Weta Digital cgi animation.

JeemyW

I apologise if I am repeating things earlier said, but I can't read 40 pages, and I hope some of this stuff is useful for those of us looking for really good stuff to watch; this is stuff that really worked for me, TV and Film

- Exit Through the Gift Shop
- 10 Years
- The Little Hours
- Norsemen
- Murder in Successville
- Nightcrawler
- Split

JeemyW

Oh, also, if you like Andy Samberg; Tour de Pharmacy is pretty relevant!

robert88

JeemyW wrote:

..
- Nightcrawler

Great film. This review is clearly from someone like me who has had his bike nicked:

The film is about man who is not only morally bankrupt, but is the very definition of a sociopath. His character, which is that of a weasely, slimy, semi-intelligent, narcissistic, weirdo/loner, is despicable at best, and I found myself spending the entire film hoping he would die. .. The acting by Gyllenhaal and his co-star, Riz Ahmed, is exceptional but in the context of the movie it's akin to saying that last piece of cheesecake sure looked good although when you took the first bite it was filled with mold and you had to spit it out. Yuck!

But gorgonzola is not cheesecake.

pblakeney

Goodfellas. Has nowhere near the impact it had when released, 28 years ago. :shock:
Didn't realise Samuel L. Jackson was in it. He didn't fare well. Still good though.

earth

First Man

A film about Neil Armstrong and the moon landing. No spoilers because it was well worth watching. It was only slightly marred by the use of the shaky camera technique.

crescent

Bohemian Rhapsody. Fantastic movie.
Having grown up during the 70s and 80s it was interesting to learn a bit more about one of the biggest bands of the time. Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury is incredible. The finale is essentially the full Live Aid set recreated for the film and is so accurate it defies belief. Brilliant.

mrb123

A Star Is Born.

A very touching love story if you like that sort of thing.

Great performance by the two leads and also the guy playing the brother. The music and live scenes work extremely well.

Fairly predictable end but didn't detract from it over all.

robert88

Crescent wrote:

Bohemian Rhapsody. Fantastic movie.
Having grown up during the 70s and 80s it was interesting to learn a bit more about one of the biggest bands of the time. Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury is incredible. The finale is essentially the full Live Aid set recreated for the film and is so accurate it defies belief. Brilliant.

Not really a Queen fan, me but I did enjoy this film.

capt_slog

Robert88 wrote:

Crescent wrote:

Bohemian Rhapsody. Fantastic movie.
Having grown up during the 70s and 80s it was interesting to learn a bit more about one of the biggest bands of the time. Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury is incredible. The finale is essentially the full Live Aid set recreated for the film and is so accurate it defies belief. Brilliant.

Not really a Queen fan, me but I did enjoy this film.

+1

I saw it last night. Thought it was good too.

kingrollo

2 From Nextflix

Calibre
Zero Dark Thirty

Both very good and tension filled movies.

pblakeney

I thought the last 1/2 hour of Zero Dark Thirty was hilarious.
That’s the American special forces using stealth?

kingrollo

PBlakeney wrote:

I thought the last 1/2 hour of Zero Dark Thirty was hilarious.
That’s the American special forces using stealth?

Depends what youre expectations of stealth are

A bit like precision bombing to avoid civilian casualties

pblakeney

kingrollo wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

I thought the last 1/2 hour of Zero Dark Thirty was hilarious.
That’s the American special forces using stealth?

Depends what youre expectations of stealth are

A bit like precision bombing to avoid civilian casualties

Spoiler alert!


It's been a few years, but as I remember it... using explosives to open an unlocked gate whilst comrades are already in the grounds and crashing a helicopter fall outside my expectations of stealth.

kingrollo

PBlakeney wrote:

kingrollo wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

I thought the last 1/2 hour of Zero Dark Thirty was hilarious.
That’s the American special forces using stealth?

Depends what youre expectations of stealth are

A bit like precision bombing to avoid civilian casualties

Spoiler alert!


It's been a few years, but as I remember it... using explosives to open an unlocked gate whilst comrades are already in the grounds and crashing a helicopter fall outside my expectations of stealth.

But the Helicopter crash actually happened didn't it ?

pblakeney

I didn’t say it was inaccurate. I said it was funny.

djrikki

District 9 was on the Sony movie channel last night so sat watching that - reminded how such a great film it was/is.

Thought there was a sequel on the way? :S

mr_goo

The Snowman (not the Xmas cartoon).
Michael Fassbender brings John Nesbo's alcohol fueled Norwegian sleuth Harry Hole to the big screen. Or in this case a £5 dvd from Morrisons.
One of the worst book to film adaptations I've seen. Disjointed. Poor script. Poor acting. Poor editing. Too much reliance on the viewer knowing all the back stories to the main and peripheral characters from the earlier books.
The only thing it managed to do well was portray how cold and miserable Norway is in the winter.
An evening watching Strictly Come Dancing would have been more enjoyable.

crispybug2

Bohemian Rhapsody

I approached this film with a certain amount of nervousness, Queen, particularly their early material, have played a large and important part in my life (Their song Brighton Rock is entirely responsible for me learning to play guitar!)

I needn’t have worried, I’m not saying it’s without faults, facts and timelines are compressed and moved around to fit the narrative (but remember this is a film not a documentary!)

The performances are first class with Remi Malek as Freddie getting all his ticks and mannerisms spot on, and whilst not going into graphic detail Freddie’s sexuality and proclivities were not airbrushed out as was intimated in the build up to the release.

Also, as someone who attended Live Aid, the final scene of the concert gave me goosebumps, all in all if you are going to see this film it’s definitely one for the big screen, and I’m giving some serious consideration to seeing it again in IMAX.

earth

Requiem For A Dream

There are a few films I wish I had not watched and this is the latest. It's not that it is a bad film but make no mistake this is no comedy. I remember watching 1984, through all the grim horror without being too bothered because I was expecting the protagonist to be triumphant but the catch was at the end where the protagonist did not beat the system and escape he failed and was just reintroduced. A comedy has a happy ending.
You can watch a tragedy unfold and be taken to the bottom of despair but as long as there is a happy ending you go away invigorated and even laugh at the temporary horrors you watched.

But if the story has no happy ending then you are left in that terrible state.

pblakeney

earth wrote:

Requiem For A Dream

The clue is in the title.