What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[MSU]

045 -- Laggies (#16 in the A24 series) At 25, Keira Knightley's character is having a crisis as she watches her friends marry, settle down, and begin to have kids of their own. When her boyfriend suggests he's about to propose, she panics, and in an attempt to cling on to her youth she befriends a high school student (Chloe Grace Moretz), whose dad (Sam Rockwell) is very suspicious of the relationship. You can see where this is going even before Sam Rockwell shows up, but it's funny, has a bit of heart about it and deals with its signposted twists and turns in a pretty entertaining way, especially once you decide to ignore Knightley's accent. 7/10 

046 -- A Most Violent Year (#17 in the A24 series) On the surface, a movie about the distribution of heating oil in New York in the 1980s doesn't sound particularly interesting, but with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in the lead roles, it's something of a triumph as straight-laced Issac does his best to protect his employees by fair means while Chastain is more open to other drastic measures. It's a smoldering, atmospheric piece, maybe a little slow but all the better for it. Bit of a surprise looking back to see it managed to avoid a single big award nomination. 9/10

047 -- The Bad Guys -- On the spectrum of anthropomorphized animated kids movies, this is much closer to The Nut Job than it is to Zootopia (or whatever that was called in the UK). A pretty stellar cast of voice talent is singularly wasted in this dull, by the numbers, morality tale. A Wolf, Snake, Tarantula, Shark, and Piranha are the titular Bad Guys, untrusted by society so become bank robbers to make ends meet but during their biggest job, they're caught and challenged to turn over new leaves. The animation is quite nice but there was nothing much else to hold interest and judging by the unsettled kids in the cinema, there wasn't much to keep them hooked either. 2/10

048 -- While We're Young (#18 in the A24 series) -- Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are an uptight documentary film-maker and his wife, feeling adrift from friends who are having kids and settling down and totally older versions of the couples in Laggies. They meet Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, a more free-spirited younger couple who also make documentaries, and all of a sudden Ben Stiller is wearing a hat and they're all going to mystical Peruvian cleansing ceremonies while their old friends look on a shake their heads. I'm not sure if it's played for laughs, but everyone sucks here to greater or lesser degree, mostly greater, which left me hoping for an out-of-the-blue meteor collision to put them all, and me, out of our miseries. 4/10

[Clown Job]

Dodgeball

”If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball”

Absolute classic 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Shite. Stupid shite. The only redeeming features are J.K. Simmons and Kirsten Dunst not wearing a bra.

[Arch Stanton]

Moonfall - the latest turgid output from disaster specialist Roland Emmerich.

So dire that I fast forwarded to the last 10 minutes in the hope that the Earth would be destroyed.

It wasn't.

[MSU]

049 -- Cut Bank (#19 in the A24 series) It's a dreary kind of thriller based around the premise that providing evidence of a crime against a postal worker can result in a six-figure reward, which gives the characters here an idea. Blood Simple it isn't as it crawls from one cliched moment to another. The cast list, Liam Helmsworth, Billy Bob Thornton, John Malkovich, Bruce Dern, and the effort they put into this is far better than it deserves. On the positive side, it made me think of my own trip to Montana and Glacier County, so I guess there's that, even though it was filmed in Canada. 4/10

Edited May 4, 2022 by MSU

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Petite Maman.

French movie about an 8 year old girl who loses her grandmother.

It was ok. A bit weird tbh. 6/10. 

[Shandon Par]

No Time To Die

Didn’t fancy 3 hours in the cinema so caught this in two sittings at home (Amazon Prime). I’ve liked Daniel Craig as Bond but really didn’t like the last outing or two. Was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. A few often action scenes felt a bit generic and dragged out but some had real tension (maybe the film was a bit cobbled together?). Wasn’t sold on the main baddie and his mumbling but otherwise the languid pace and locations reminded me of the Moore era stuff. 
 

Surely the Basil Exposition stuff was a nod to Austin Powers? 
 

In my top 3 Bonds 

[paul-r-cfc]

Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

 

Nick Cage plays himself as he gets roped into a CIA operation in Majorca and a Taken-esque plot. Really enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Cage is a good comic actor, and does a good job taking the piss out of himself and his meme-tastic filmography. Pedro PAscal also puts a good shift in as a rich super fan.

 

Overall, nothing special but worth a watch.

[scottsdad]

We got through the original Star Wars trilogy. My youngest is making me watch the prequels. 

Tonight we are watching the Phantom Menace. 

[MSU]

050 -- Ex Machina (#20 in the A24 series) I've seen this one coming up on the list so I've been looking forward to it for a while. I've seen it a few times since it came out and it's never disappointed, and nothing changed this time. I love the story and I love the way its told and how it unfolds. It's simple enough and with a really bare bones of a cast but everyone is doing their job to the best level, not least Alex Garland in his directorial debut. I don't mind sci-fi that doesn't go out of its way to explain itself to me, and sometimes I prefer it, but if it is going to spend time having characters embroiled in philosophical debates, it really has to hold water, and I think Ex Machina does an exceptional job of that. If it has flaws, I'm blind to them and have no desire to go looking for them. 10/10 and that's without mentioning Alicia Vikander being very easy on the eye.

Edited May 4, 2022 by MSU

[scottsdad]

6 hours ago, scottsdad said:

We got through the original Star Wars trilogy. My youngest is making me watch the prequels. 

Tonight we are watching the Phantom Menace. 

Half an hour in and this is just punishment. So much about this that I had forgotten. Droids that say "Roger, Roger". The pisspoor dialogue. The lack of story. The acting. Jar Jar Binks. The cartoon voices of the unthreatening baddies. Did nobody at the studio watch this pish before releasing it? 

On the upside my kids tell me there is a level on the new lego star wars game called "Better Call Maul". 

[Fullerene]

Onoda

Went to see this film at Eden Court.  It is about a Japanese soldier who didn't know the war ended in 1945 and did not stop until the early 1970s.  Quite a long film.

Excellent.  10/10

[sfha]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

. The pisspoor dialogue,  cartoon voices of the unthreatening baddies. Did nobody at the studio watch this pish before releasing it? 

After having a look at Star Wars the above is a brilliant review.

[MSU]

4 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Half an hour in and this is just punishment. So much about this that I had forgotten. Droids that say "Roger, Roger". The pisspoor dialogue. The lack of story. The acting. Jar Jar Binks. The cartoon voices of the unthreatening baddies. Did nobody at the studio watch this pish before releasing it? 

What did your kids think of it?

[Mr. Brightside]

4 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Half an hour in and this is just punishment. So much about this that I had forgotten. Droids that say "Roger, Roger". The pisspoor dialogue. The lack of story. The acting. Jar Jar Binks. The cartoon voices of the unthreatening baddies. Did nobody at the studio watch this pish before releasing it? 

On the upside my kids tell me there is a level on the new lego star wars game called "Better Call Maul". 

It does have Duel of the Fates to accompany the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul fight though, which is the only good thing about it I think.

[scottsdad]

6 hours ago, MSU said:

What did your kids think of it?

My daughter says she enjoyed it, my son was like me. He has seen it before, but that was years ago. 

Next week: Attack of the Clones. 

[Fullerene]

11 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Half an hour in and this is just punishment. So much about this that I had forgotten. Droids that say "Roger, Roger". The pisspoor dialogue. The lack of story. The acting. Jar Jar Binks. The cartoon voices of the unthreatening baddies. Did nobody at the studio watch this pish before releasing it? 

For me, the original Star Wars was when special effects got serious as opposed to cheesy.  Maybe there were earlier films but this was the start for me.

Having said that, the films were mainly about the storyline and the special effects helped to carry that along with all three films.

Then came the prequels, where the special effects took centre stage with a storyline bolted on.  Awful.

To make matters worse, Lucas updated the original three to add more special effects that were simply not needed.

[DA Baracus]

19 hours ago, scottsdad said:

We got through the original Star Wars trilogy. My youngest is making me watch the prequels. 

Tonight we are watching the Phantom Menace. 

Phantom Menace is the best of the prequels. I loved it as a kid, was so. excited to see it in the cinema.

It's not a good film, but does have some good moments. Also features the least annoying version of Anakin.

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

My daughter says she enjoyed it, my son was like me. He has seen it before, but that was years ago. 

Next week: Attack of the Clones. 

Oooh, AOTC is the worst of the prequels! Awful, awful film.

51 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

For me, the original Star Wars was when special effects got serious as opposed to cheesy.  Maybe there were earlier films but this was the start for me.

Having said that, the films were mainly about the storyline and the special effects helped to carry that along with all three films.

Then came the prequels, where the special effects took centre stage with a storyline bolted on.  Awful.

To make matters worse, Lucas updated the original three to add more special effects that were simply not needed.

Lucas is a bit of an idiot. Quite telling that he had no one to tell him to pipe down on his pish for the prequels, unlike the original trilogy (such as his plan to make Han a green alien). His storylines for the prequels are abysmal and poorly executed.

The special effects in the original trilogy that he added in are rank and, as you say, add absolutely nothing.

Edited May 5, 2022 by DA Baracus

[scottsdad]

On the dialogue I heard that when making the original trilogy, Harrison Ford said to Lucas that he could "read this shit, but not say it". So the dialogue was made more accessible. Nobody did that for the prequels. 

[Detournement]

35 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

His storylines for the prequels are abysmal and poorly executed.

I'd say the storylines are good at the basic level. Palpatine playing both sides against each other in the Trade War and the Jedi investigating the Sith with Maul, Dooku then Anakin as antagonists are both good storylines which are undermined by the viewers knowing the major twists before PM even starts. 

The big issue is characters/actors. Han, Luke and Leia all have a charisma that Obi Wan, Anakin and Padme completely lack.