What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Boostin' Kev]

Creed - Bit of a corny throwback to the earlier films with a couple of good moments of nostalgia and a couple of badly done ones.  Good watch though.

Molly's Game and Lady Bird both very good imo.

[GrahamJags]

Last Flag Flying - 8/10 (cinema)

Richard Linklater directed road buddy movie about a guy who collects and buries his son who died at war starring Steve Carrell, Bryan Cranston and Lawrence Fishbourne. I really enjoyed this, Cranston in particular was excellent, providing constant comic relief.

[Ex Machina]

Couldn't agree more. The negative reviews for this are ludicrous. It's a great piece of cinema - a proper musical with an excellent set of songs and characters. I can understand Jackman's disappointment at not getting the golden globe as it has been a pet project of his for years. I can imagine it was disheartening seeing the wave of negative reviews and relatively poor box office showings in the first couple of weeks as a result. The word of mouth effect has taken hold though, and it's trebled its production budget now.
I think Zendaya is an actress to look out for in the future. She had a very easy charisma on the screen and stood out for me along with Jackman.
 

I disagree, the songs were good as were the choreography, acting and visuals, however the problem I have with this film is that the story was a mess. It felt very rushed and kept advancing through time with very little narrative. I don't know if this was done in editing or if that was always the plan but it made what could have been a 8-9/10 a 5-6/10 for me.

[Christophe]

(16)

What Happened to Monday 2/10

“In a world where families are allowed only one child due to overpopulation, resourceful identical septuplets must avoid governmental execution and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.”

Sounds like a great idea on paper and I thought this would be polemic about overpopulation. In reality it’s horribly executed, stupidly violent especially wrt the 7 sisters (all played by Noomi Rapace, to add the confusion) and has the most laughably awful fight scenes I’ve ever seen. Complete waste of 2 hours. (Netflix)

 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Christophe

[Ira Gaines]

I'm pretty much entirely in agreement with you on that. Especially on thinking it had a great premise. Watching it get so monumentally fucked up wasn't fun.

[GrahamJags]

(16)
What Happened to Monday 2/10
“In a world where families are allowed only one child due to overpopulation, resourceful identical septuplets must avoid governmental execution and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.”
Sounds like a great idea on paper and I thought this would be polemic about overpopulation. In reality it’s horribly executed, stupidly violent especially wrt the 7 sisters (all played by Noomi Rapace, to add the confusion) and has the most laughably awful fight scenes I’ve ever seen. Complete waste of 2 hours. (Netflix)
 

I saw this just as I was about to put this on while on a train journey to London. Decided against it and put something else on instead. Might watch it later, but I was scared that this was the way it would turn out.

[Christophe]

(17)

Loving Vincent 3/10

Ostensibly a detective story about the last days and mysterious death of Vincent Van Gogh. The selling point is that it is all hand-painted (not the first hand-painted film ever as they would have you believe, not by ooooooooh 110 years) and it’s like Van Gogh canvases coming to life.

It looks good for a bit. And then it looks like photoshop filters. Sometimes when it slows down and it’s basically just a flickering painting it is tremendous. But technology means that these days all films can ‘look good’. It’s a boring arena of criticism now. That said this film looks ‘right’ in parts. Not all the time. Some of the conversation pieces are terrible.

However the script is unbelievably poor. Just loads of clumsy exposition and most conversations end with “...and maybe you should talk to...” the next person he talks to. Cramming in these art-historical references like a kid with an A in Higher Fine Art. It gets embarrassing.

Not only that it’s ANOTHER film where Brit actors trot out the regional accents and do that style of modern British acting that just reeks of theatre school bollocks. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s just awful. But OH WAIT THAT LOOKS LIKE SUCH AND SUCH PAINTING AREN’T WE CLEVER.

The film does at least understand the visual pleasure of Van Gogh so I can’t knock that but the whole conclusion and raison d’etre of the film is basically oh wasn’t Vincent a starry eyed dreamer who was misunderstood, just the most conservative and uninteresting take on this man and his work one could muster. 

Peter Greenaway did two film about Rembrandt - one a film of his life and one a documentary about a painting - that knock seven shades of shit out of this one. (cinema)

[MSU]

15 minutes ago, Christophe said:

(17)

Loving Vincent 3/10

Ostensibly a detective story about the last days and mysterious death of Vincent Van Gogh. The selling point is that it is all hand-painted (not the first hand-painted film ever as they would have you believe, not by ooooooooh 110 years) and it’s like Van Gogh canvases coming to life.

It looks good for a bit. And then it looks like photoshop filters. Sometimes when it slows down and it’s basically just a flickering painting it is tremendous. But technology means that these days all films can ‘look good’. It’s a boring arena of criticism now. That said this film looks ‘right’ in parts. Not all the time. Some of the conversation pieces are terrible.

However the script is unbelievably poor. Just loads of clumsy exposition and most conversations end with “...and maybe you should talk to...” the next person he talks to. Cramming in these art-historical references like a kid with an A in Higher Fine Art. It gets embarrassing.

Not only that it’s ANOTHER film where Brit actors trot out the regional accents and do that style of modern British acting that just reeks of theatre school bollocks. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s just awful. But OH WAIT THAT LOOKS LIKE SUCH AND SUCH PAINTING AREN’T WE CLEVER.

The film does at least understand the visual pleasure of Van Gogh so I can’t knock that but the whole conclusion and raison d’etre of the film is basically oh wasn’t Vincent a starry eyed dreamer who was misunderstood, just the most conservative and uninteresting take on this man and his work one could muster. 

Peter Greenaway did two film about Rembrandt - one a film of his life and one a documentary about a painting - that knock seven shades of shit out of this one. (cinema)

I felt a little more generous towards it although I had the exact same problems you did. It does look amazing, and the Oscar nod was predicable, but the exposition plays out like a point and click adventure; The Secret of Monkey Island or something, where complete strangers will open up following next to no coaxing whatsoever before pointing the way to the next piece of the puzzle. The story was nowhere near strong enough to warrant 150 artists dedicating so much of their time.

[GordonD]

On 29/01/2018 at 09:46, Christophe said:

(15)

Ghost In The Shell 0/10

ScaJo plays a fat robot boy. Didn’t finish it. (Sky)

I've seen the remake set in Larkhall - Ghost in the Shellsuit

[welshbairn]

Molly's Game. 4/10. Bird runs illegal poker games and gets busted. That's it. Like a pilot to a TV series, unsurprisingly as it's written and directed by Aaron Sorkon. Too long, some good moments.

[Boostin' Kev]

Was trying to remember what film I'd watched recently was made by him. Thought it was a decent watch. 

[tongue_tied_danny]

Badlands

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek star as a teenage couple who go on a killing spree. 

An excellent movie, well made, well acted and engrossing.

9/10

[killiepiemuncher]

Marathon man. (dvd) 8/10

Is it safe?

#shudder

[Mark Connolly]

54 (Amazon Prime)

Seen it several times before - cheesy nonsense based on the infamous Studio 54 nightclub in NYC. Entertaining enough, with a cracking soundtrack. Also Salma Hayek and Neve Campbell so extra points.

[Christophe]

(18)

Darkest Hour 0/10

A well-crafted, beautifully-shot film with stellar performances from top to bottom. I fucking hated it. Actually I was going along with it for the most part until a scene at the start of the third act when Churchill uses the Tube to get to Parliament, at which I literally cringed my balls right off. (cinema)

[welshbairn]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 8/10. Frances McDormand is a cracking actress. My only gripe was a couple of actors playing too stupid for comic effect, and to make the audience feel clever. But it was meant to be a black comedy, so you have to allow some slap stick in a dark tale. Great short story though, you could imagine Elmore Leonard writing it.

P.S. The introduction of black characters and a dwarf also seemed to be to lighten the mood for comic effect. Seemed a bit clumsy.

Edited February 1, 2018 by welshbairn

[Christophe]

(19)

The Post 4/10

This was weirdly hard to follow considering how much was spelt out to the audience in clunky expositional dialogue, and several characters and their roles could not be distinguished from each other.  Ladlefuls of the usual Spielberg schmaltz too, although to be fair plenty of the expected solid camerawork. Bob Odenkirk and David Cross were excellent though, they should give those guys a TV show. (cinema)

[Arch Stanton]

The Godfather Part II, have seen it many times before but just took a notion tonight to watch it again.

I believe it's better than the original, the two timelines  are engrossing and the way they both pan out is a joy to watch.

De Niro's obsessive attention to detail, spending months in Sicily to learn, not just Italian, but the Sicilian dialect is impressive. He won the Oscar for BSA  despite only uttering a few words in English.

After watching it I realised I'd watched all 5 of John Cazale's films in the last few months (Godfather and Part II,  The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter). That's quite an oeuvre as they are all tremendous films.

[Arch Stanton]

18 minutes ago, Christophe said:

(18)

Darkest Hour 0/10

A well-crafted, beautifully-shot film with stellar performances from top to bottom. I fucking hated it. Actually I was going along with it for the most part until a scene at the start of the third act when Churchill uses the Tube to get to Parliament, at which I literally cringed my balls right off. (cinema)

LoL, it is a dreadful scene, are we really to believe the inspiration for one of the greatest pieces of oration in modern times  was  a blether with some randoms on an underground ride?

[Bully Wee Villa]

The Godfather Part II, have seen it many times before but just took a notion tonight to watch it again. I believe it's better than the original, the two timelines  are engrossing and the way they both pan out is a joy to watch. De Niro's obsessive attention to detail, spending months in Sicily to learn, not just Italian, but the Sicilian dialect is impressive. He won the Oscar for BSA  despite only uttering a few words in English.

After watching it I realised I'd watched all 5 of John Cazale's films in the last few months (Godfather and Part II,  The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter). That's quite an oeuvre as they are all tremendous films.

 

 

  

 

I believe that Cazale is the only actor whose every film was Oscar-nominated. The run continued even after his death as he has a flashback scene in Godfather 3.

 

I think Godfather and Godfather 2 are as close to perfect film-making as it's possible to get. Godfather 3 is not bad, really. Just nowhere near as good as its predecessors.