glassnahalf Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 5 hours ago, JustOneCornetto said: Dune (1984) The remake is due sometime soon which I can't wait to see so thought I'd give the original a rewatch It has a distinctly David Lynch look and sound to it and it does a fair shot at trying to recreate Frank Herbert's epic story. Saying that Lynch wasn't happy at all with the final cut which I think was out of his hands. I seemed to concentrate more watching it this time and enjoyed it more than I have done previously. 7/10 I have always liked this film in particular the opening scenes and steampunk technology. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shandon Par Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Calm With Horses Nice cheery one. Ex boxer with an autistic son ends up working as muscle for a rural Irish crime family. They order something unpleasant to happen to someone and things go tits up. Nothing groundbreaking but good solid performances all round, but Cosmo Jarvis really carries the whole thing. Sad, gritty, but bizarrely it has some tasty driving scenes (director sold his rally car to pay for film school so you get cameras strapped to bumpers as they tear through the countryside in an old Celica. 7.5/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YER SISTERS YER MAW Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Calm With Horses Nice cheery one. Ex boxer with an autistic son ends up working as muscle for a rural Irish crime family. They order something unpleasant to happen to someone and things go tits up. Nothing groundbreaking but good solid performances all round, but Cosmo Jarvis really carries the whole thing. Sad, gritty, but bizarrely it has some tasty driving scenes (director sold his rally car to pay for film school so you get cameras strapped to bumpers as they tear through the countryside in an old Celica. 7.5/10 Enjoyed that one too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Robocop - caught it again on ITV, like I assume everyone else has been lately. Still a joy. BigFatTabbyBoy enjoyed it too, so wanted to watch... Robocop 2 - as we've got the Robocop Trilogy set on Blu-Ray. Obviously not as good as the first one, but it's a lot of fun, and has plenty of grimly amusing moments as they explore the culture of the corporate-run America of Old Detroit. BigFatTabbyBoy liked this one too. Robocop 3's on hold for now, however, as I remember that being shite. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - didn't want to see this at all, as The Last Jedi was appalling in so many different ways, but BigFatTabbyBoy insisted. This one's just desperate pandering to try and get the fan base back on side, and it's clear Disney didn't have a single original idea for these films right from the start. Just embarrassing, and somehow they've managed to make a trio of films worse than Lucas' prequels. BigFatTabbyBoy had the cheek to complain after making me watch it, the wee shite. Batman vs Superman: Can We Make Justice League Yet? - or whatever the subtitle is. This is weird; I hated this film in the cinema, and I don't know if I've mellowed, or the extended version they released on DVD is an improvement, but I quite like it now. It's utterly convoluted, contains at least two films' worth of plot, suffers greatly from being used to advertise future movies, and is full of stuff that was nonsensical at the time and will now never be explained...but it improves with each viewing. BigFatTabbyBoy didn't like it now, despite enjoying it when he was younger, but he's going through that "people on the internet say it's bad, so I think it's bad" phase. I'd say it qualifies as OK, which is more than I ever thought I'd say about it. Still don't get the Wonder Woman thing, though. I know everyone was looking forward to seeing her, and the Wonder Woman film wasn't bad, but Gal Gadot has been a blank personality vacuum in the role so far. Hopefully she improves for the new film. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Chronicle - bunch of American high-schoolers (in their mid-twenties, naturally) develop super-powers after exposure to a meteorite. Found-footage flick that got Josh Trank the job of helming the ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot, and you can see why; on a pretty low budget, he managed to pull off a decent take on the superhero genre, with a cast of young unknowns who went on to bigger things. BigFatTabbyBoy enjoyed it too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Movie 43 - put this on for BigFatTabbyBoy, as I figured he'd love it. He did. Think I'm going to get fed up hearing about how realistic Hugh Jackman's balls looked, however. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tongue_tied_danny Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Black Dynamite Michael Jai White lampoons the blaxploitation genre. If you're a fan of the likes of Shaft or Truck Turner you will love this. If you have never seen these films you will think that this is incoherent garbage. 9/10 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRoseKillie Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Black Dynamite Michael Jai White lampoons the blaxploitation genre. If you're a fan of the likes of Shaft or Truck Turner you will love this. If you have never seen these films you will think that this is incoherent garbage. 9/10Being a bit harsh, there. Any film which features a kung fu fight with Pat Nixon deserves full marks, Shirley? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YER SISTERS YER MAW Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 The Blues Brothers Watched this classic many times but with it's recent 4k Blu Ray release with DTS X audio, it really makes some difference to the picture and sound quality and breathes new life into it. There's a few scenes that I'm positive I've never seen before and I'm sure they're not on the DVD version I own or been on it anytime I've seen it on the telly. 8.5/10 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mishtergrolsch Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Watched Predator 2 for the first time in years as I recently watched the original. Always remember it as being pretty average at best but have to say I really was shocked at how poor it actually is, especially compared to the original. I forgot Bill Paxton was in this till he makes his appearance. The original sets the Predator up to be a clever, adaptable and ruthless hunter here to stalk its prey for an unknown reason. Trophies? Glory? f**k knows. That's the mystery and that makes the film so much better. In this its here to stalk a gang of stereotyped 1990s Jamacans and a mid 40s LA cop in Danny Glover and gives up with about half an hour to go setting its self destruct to go off. Big Danny prevents this and blah blah blah ridiculous old lady scene, falls down a lift shaft into a hole and lands on the Predators ship which nobody had noticed. Cool fight scene and rather decent ending adding some history and meaning to the Predators saves it from being as bad as any Predator film made after this one. This one left me feeling that if an ageing, slightly out of shape Danny Glover can take a Predator out then it was either a shite one he fought or Arnies gang were vastly over rated. I go with the former, obviously. 5/10. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Batman Begins Every time I watch this, I am more and more convinced that it's a better film than The Dark Knight, and I love The Dark Knight. A quarter of a point off for Tom Wilkinson's weird accent. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Batman Begins Every time I watch this, I am more and more convinced that it's a better film than The Dark Knight, and I love The Dark Knight. A quarter of a point off for Tom Wilkinson's weird accent.IMO it's almost completely different from TDK: it has different aims with a different style (to an extent). BB is pretty much exclusively about Bruce and his view of Gotham (and how he thinks he can change it), but TDK was more of an 'epic' crime thriller that had Gotham and its infrastructure more at the heart of the narrative. BB mostly takes place in the slums/shanty towns of Gotham IIRC. You forget how stylised Gotham is in BB compared to TDK as the general view of the trilogy is that it placed Batman in a real-life setting. I thought the dialogue was different too (in keeping with the contrasting styles) as BB had its characters speak in occasionally distracting on-the-nose monologues which was pretty much avoided in TDK - save for Harvey Dent. They're both great and I think it's hard to compare them considering how different they are, but I'd say I prefer what BB is but appreciate that TDK does most things better. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustOneCornetto Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 (edited) The Imposter (2012) Fascinating documentary about a 13 year old boy who went missing from his home in Texas only seemingly to turn up just over 3 years later in Spain. The story is seen from different perspectives and it's so far fetched you have to remind yourself it really happened. Added bonus for me was hearing the song Wayfaring Stranger by 16 Horsepower a couple of times. 7/10 Edited May 30, 2020 by JustOneCornetto 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 6 hours ago, mishtergrolsch said: Watched Predator 2 for the first time in years as I recently watched the original. I really liked the concept for Predator 2 when it was first announced; a Predator is drawn to near-future LA by unprecedented gang violence sparked by a record-breaking heatwave. Back when we'd only had the original film, that sounded pretty badass, like when Alien 3 was supposed to be about the xenomorphs finally making it to Earth. Fox have made terrible decisions with these films time and again, though. Lethal Weapon was big at the time, so they obviously figured they'd get the guy from those films that everyone liked. When he wasn't available, they went for Danny Glover. Presumably one of the execs at the studio had a boner for voodoo being the scariest fucking thing ever, you guys, so they chucked a load of that in. It's amazing how often that shit seems to happen to film scripts; see producer Jon Peters for a prime example of forcing personal obsessions into movies. Something that just occurred to me - seeing as how Disney bought Fox (or 20th Century Studios, as they're now known) to reunite the Marvel characters they owned film rights to, does that mean they also own the Predator/Alien franchises now? ... Yes, apparently so. Loving this picture: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mishtergrolsch Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 15 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said: I really liked the concept for Predator 2 when it was first announced; a Predator is drawn to near-future LA by unprecedented gang violence sparked by a record-breaking heatwave. Back when we'd only had the original film, that sounded pretty badass, like when Alien 3 was supposed to be about the xenomorphs finally making it to Earth. Fox have made terrible decisions with these films time and again, though. Lethal Weapon was big at the time, so they obviously figured they'd get the guy from those films that everyone liked. When he wasn't available, they went for Danny Glover. Presumably one of the execs at the studio had a boner for voodoo being the scariest fucking thing ever, you guys, so they chucked a load of that in. It's amazing how often that shit seems to happen to film scripts; see producer Jon Peters for a prime example of forcing personal obsessions into movies. Something that just occurred to me - seeing as how Disney bought Fox (or 20th Century Studios, as they're now known) to reunite the Marvel characters they owned film rights to, does that mean they also own the Predator/Alien franchises now? ... Yes, apparently so. Loving this picture: The House of Mouse really are swallowing everything up to re hash and destroy successful old franchises that should be left in the past. They should use the money to pay for up and coming writers to write new and interesting films and not dry hump our childhood memories while smearing member berries all over our faces. A Disney Alien or Predator film would be fucking hilarious right enough. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Just now, mishtergrolsch said: The House of Mouse really are swallowing everything up to re hash and destroy successful old franchises that should be left in the past. They should use the money to pay for up and coming writers to write new and interesting films and not dry hump our childhood memories while smearing member berries all over our faces. A Disney Alien or Predator film would be fucking hilarious right enough. Unfortunately, all the Disney Corporation has ever done is take people's childhoods and feed it back to them, starting with the fairy tales they adapted in the early days. They're now retelling the fairy tales they already retold. It's always been a company that prizes technical innovation at the expense of artistic expression. New things are risky, after all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 4 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said: Unfortunately, all the Disney Corporation has ever done is take people's childhoods and feed it back to them, starting with the fairy tales they adapted in the early days. They're now retelling the fairy tales they already retold. It's always been a company that prizes technical innovation at the expense of artistic expression. New things are risky, after all. Did Disney not produce Deadpool? An R rated version of Predator/Alien, with a shit tonne of cash behind it, could be promising. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said: Did Disney not produce Deadpool? An R rated version of Predator/Alien, with a shit tonne of cash behind it, could be promising. No, but apparently they're happy to make more Deadpool films with an R rating. People still act surprised when they find out that Disney are happy to make money from films that aren't for kids. Apparently the first question some folk asked after the Fox buyout was, "are they going to make Deadpool PG?" I think there are still American family groups boycotting Disney because their Buena Vista label distributed Pulp Fiction Edit: unfortunately, with regard to Predator/Alien films, Disney don't seem to be very good at handling properties that need development. Pixar managed to keep making good original films for a while after the buyout as the folk who'd been responsible for their early classics were mainly still there, and they seem to have been smart enough to leave Kevin Feige to get on with what he was already doing at Marvel. However, George Lucas left the Star Wars franchise in a serious mess, and what Disney have managed hasn't been an improvement. The Alien/Predator films have arguably been shite since the '80s ended, so they'll need to find people to burn down that mess and start again, which doesn't seem to be their strong suit. We can only hope we don't get quasi-remakes of the original films, with elderly Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger handing over to younger, forgettable characters. And the least said about Indiana Jones, the better. Edited May 30, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanton Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 (edited) Lizzie , The story of The Borden family axe murders . Dark stuff . Good performances all round . Did she do it ? 8/10 Edited May 30, 2020 by stanton 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paranoid android Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Margin Call Stanley Tucci, a sour-faced Demi Moore, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, and Jeremy Irons, who is very good. They managed to make a potentially tedious topic (the stock market) quite engaging. No actions - just guys in suits talking. I slightly got the impression they may have been copying Glengarry Glen Ross - it's probably not as good as that, but I liked it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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