What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[BFTD]

A Field in England - DVD - a small group of soldiers and an alchemist's assistant come under the influence of an Irish wizard during a battle in the English Civil War.

This is a very odd duck. FIlmed in black and white, which lends it a surreal feel and provides for some striking images, it's something of a horror film...but not really? The whole thing looks like it was cheap as chips to make, with only six cast members and filmed on location in a few fields, but it still feels like a quality production, with some convincing acting from the cast. The film gradually descends into a bit of psychodelia, which reminded me of classic Ken Russell, and that's no bad thing.

I'm not terribly sure how much I enjoyed it. There's a lot to appreciate, and it's certainly an interesting and unusual film, directed by Kill List's Ben Wheatley. Kill List had a certain amount of ambiguity, and there's even more in this movie. You're entirely welcome to make up your own mind what's going on. My main problem, which I also had with Kill List, is that it doesn't go anywhere that I found very satisfying, despite enjoying the ride on the way (although I did find Kill List to be the better film).

I've seen Wheatley's adaption of the JG Ballard book High Rise too, and it definitely feels like he has some stone-cold classics in his future; all three of his films that I've seen have disappointed, but they've all had something interesting to one degree or another, and all were worth watching. I'm certainly going to seek out his other films, and will look forward to his next big release - The Meg 2!  

[BFTD]

The Resident - TV - Hillary Swank moves into a new, suspiciously cheap apartment after an acrimonious split from her boyfriend, but feels increasingly uneasy as time goes on.

Saw this on release ages ago, but had forgotten how odd the plot structure is; it's a thriller that makes it obvious what's going on very early into the game, and who's responsible, then just leaves you to wait for Hillary Swank to catch up. Unfortunately, it takes her until the end, and it's pretty tedious in the meantime. I couldn't help thinking they'd have been better off playing the mystery angle, as there's no tension at all in what they made.

Something else I'd forgotten is quite how thirsty the first half of the film is (I think that's the term the kids are using). If you've ever wanted to see a lot of long, lingering pans across Hillary Swank's scantily-clad body, or watch her w**k in a bathtub, well, this is the film for you, my friend.

[sfha]

Spotlight

The incredible true story about the Boston Globe investgating priests abusing children in the city. Superb performances by Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo

Edited March 7, 2021 by sfha

[BFTD]

Ruffalo really seems to enjoy getting these true-to-life scripts. Anyone who liked Spotlight would probably get on very well with Zodiac and Dark Waters, the latter of which possibly comes to an even more shocking conclusion, considering most folk will now be aware of the Catholic Church's practices with their priests.

[DA Baracus]

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

9/10

Absolutely loved this! Laughed throughout and even came close to shedding a tear (oh Pearl Jam).

The references to all the previous films were tremendous and usually hilarious. Big shout outs in particular to Damon and Affleck in this regard!

I don't know what it was, but this movie was strangely soothing and comforting to me. It might be how it dealt with the past/present dichotomy, or more accurately (to me) dealing with the pain of having missed out.

Snoogans!

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by DA Baracus

[Twinkle]

Coming 2 America

Complete waste of time. I felt i was nodding off through most of it and maybe laughed once or twice. Stop making unneccessary sequels please

[tongue_tied_danny]

Jarhead

I saw this when it first came out and I gave it another watch last night. 

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a young squaddie in the first gulf war. There's very little combat. It's mostly about bored troops sitting around waiting for something to happen. 

This is one of the few films that really shows what a bunch of arseholes military types can be, although I read the book years ago and it goes much further in that respect.

7/10

 

[Detournement]

On 02/03/2021 at 09:25, NotThePars said:

It was all a dream is the worst plot twist/ fan theory in the land. 

Unless it's David Lynch. 

[JustOneCornetto]

Source Code (2011)

Been meaning to watch this for ages as it's directed by Duncan Jones who did Moon, one of my favourite sci-fi films.

This one's not as good but still pretty decent as Jake Gyllenhaal plays a soldier who wakes up aboard a train in the body of another man. Part of a Government experimental programme he has an 8 minute time slot to play out over and over until he finds the bomber who is about to blow up the train. Quite a few plot holes but I suppose you expect that with any time travel type story. Bit of a twist at thend which I should really have seen coming.

Jones used the Chesney Hawkes song The One And Only as the wake up call for Sam Rockwell in Moon and uses it again here as a ringtone on the girl's phone.

7/10

[Ira Gaines]

Duncan Jones clearly a man of taste.

[SANTAN]

1 hour ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

Jarhead

I saw this when it first came out and I gave it another watch last night. 

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a young squaddie in the first gulf war. There's very little combat. It's mostly about bored troops sitting around waiting for something to happen. 

This is one of the few films that really shows what a bunch of arseholes military types can be, although I read the book years ago and it goes much further in that respect.

7/10

 

I only saw this once quite a while ago and thought it was so boring, the whole time waiting for something to happen, I'd probably enjoy it now I know that's perhaps intended. 

[BFTD]

2 hours ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

Jarhead

I saw this when it first came out and I gave it another watch last night. 

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a young squaddie in the first gulf war. There's very little combat. It's mostly about bored troops sitting around waiting for something to happen. 

This is one of the few films that really shows what a bunch of arseholes military types can be, although I read the book years ago and it goes much further in that respect.

7/10

I seem to remember hearing they made a few sequels that entirely missed the point and became the standard jingoistic, hoo-rah, sodjers are great extravaganza that America loves so much  

I'm surprised we've never had a straight-to-video Apocalypse Now sequel where a sane and rational soldier has to use the incredibly-efficient American military to travel through a foreign land, in order to deliver a medal to a top military leader who refuses to leave his post protecting local civilians from the evil opposition army because he just cares too damned much.

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

Coming 2 America
Complete waste of time. I felt i was nodding off through most of it and maybe laughed once or twice. Stop making unneccessary sequels please

The script was so ridiculous you'd think a 10 year old had written it. Enjoyed the parts involving the OAP's from the barber shop but not much else.

[Twinkle]

8 hours ago, YER SISTERS YER MAW said:

On 07/03/2021 at 09:28, Twinkle said:

Coming 2 America
Complete waste of time. I felt i was nodding off through most of it and maybe laughed once or twice. Stop making unneccessary sequels please

The script was so ridiculous you'd think a 10 year old had written it. Enjoyed the parts involving the OAP's from the barber shop but not much else.

The barbershop guys are the only positive

[Stellaboz]

An Officer and a Gentleman 10/10

I can't believe this film is almost 40 years old and I hadn't seen it until yesterday. Richard Gere stars as a young trainee officer, raised by an alki dad after his mum killed herself. 

Absolutely loved this film, Drill Sargent Foley is such a great character and there's something I love about watching a film about people who go through basic training and grow as a person because of it. 

Gere also gets the better of the two ladies, by far. 

[Busta Nut]

Said this on another thread but since I am reading this thread

 

For our film at the weekend I chose "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

Needn't have bothered. She had no fucking clue what was going on.

[coprolite]

On a similar note to Mr Nut, watched Arrival at the weekend. I thought it was great in a proper geeky sci fi sort of way and also as a bit of non-linear and emotionally charged storytelling. 

The wife failed to understand any of it. 

Also watched Annihilation and pretty mutch agree with Dave's synopsis above. Very similar vibes to Ex Machina, but not as good. Plot was more like a low key  Predator though. I thought Natalie Portman was surprisingly good but Jennifer Jason Leigh was underused. 

[BFTD]

Navy SEALs - DVD - USA military soldier go kick ass foreign towelhead shooty bing blam BOOM!

Just the absolute median of the Eighties American military action movie, designed to act as a recruitment film; if your idea of a good time is watching the heroic American gun man go shooty-bang-bang at the generic Middle-Eastern Arab terrorists, then you'll probably like this, although there's also a lot of training and zany off-duty hi-jinx footage to get through. Decent cast, though, with Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, a small early role for S. Epatha Merkerson, and within the first five minutes a hungover Charlie Sheen wakes up face-down on a beach before throwing himself off a bridge from a moving jeep in what can only be described as, for him, Tuesday.

Despite that, it's possibly the blandest, most average film I've ever seen. I forgot every detail after watching it back in 1990, and I don't expect it to stick any better now. The computer game on the Atari ST wasn't bad, though.

Spoiler

 

[Detournement]

3 hours ago, BFTD said:

Charlie Sheen wakes up face-down on a beach before throwing himself off a bridge from a moving jeep in what can only be described as, for him, Tuesday.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I loved that scene as a kid. 

Navy SEALS has the plot structure of kids' shows of the era like M.A.S.K or Defenders Of The Earth with dollops of racism chucked in. It's a movie designed specifically to get idiot Americans to join the military. 

Top Gun was obviously the start of that and the complete lack of logic around the final fighter jet battle still troubles me but again if you have a child's mind it's incredible. 

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, Detournement said:

I loved that scene as a kid. 

Navy SEALS has the plot structure of kids' shows of the era like M.A.S.K or Defenders Of The Earth with dollops of racism chucked in. It's a movie designed specifically to get idiot Americans to join the military. 

Top Gun was obviously the start of that and the complete lack of logic around the final fighter jet battle still troubles me but again if you have a child's mind it's incredible. 

Yeah, I went through a phase of enjoying Chuck Norris films when I was about 10-12.

Saw one of them again a while ago and felt like Morgan Freeman at the end of the Shawshank Redemption: "I look back on the way I was then; a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that."