What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[SweeperDee]

I have no recollection of the fourth. I know 2 is in uni and 3 on a movie set but 4 is a blur.

4th is the last film directed by Wes Craven, albeit I think it’s probably the worst of the whole Franchise, weak killers and just a bit boring plot wise. Did help introduce a new generation to the franchise though and hopefully this new one does something similar.

[Paul Kersey]

The Lost Battalion

Solid but unspectacular ww1 film about an American unit who get lost behind enemy lines and have to fight like f**k for survival.

This is typical of the sort of recent war films that appear on the various freeview channels.

Decent action sequences but a slightly nauseating "America saves the world" message.

I was also mildly amused to see Michael Brandon AKA Dempsey from Dempsey and Makepeace pop up in a "I didn't know they were in that" moment.

6/10 

[Theroadlesstravelled]

The King’s Man. 

What the f**k is that? SNP bad nonsense.

[Paul Kersey]

Spring Breakers

This is the b*****d love child of GTA and a Britney Spears video

I like tits, I like class A drugs and I like guns and this film has them all.

Googolplex/10

[MSU]

003 -- Scream. To some degree or another, I've enjoyed all the Scream movies. I even liked 3. And I kinda liked 4. I thought this requel (not exactly reboot, not exactly sequel according to one of the characters) was probably better than both of those. They did a decent enough job of keeping me guessing about the killers, but it's not Knives Out and so the reveal wasn't quite the shock the directors would like. It didn't rely too heavily on jump scares and some of the deaths were surprisingly graphic. But despite it all, the nods to previous movies and the genre in general, the meta conversations, the bits I enjoyed most were with David Arquette and Courtney Cox just being on the screen together. I must be getting old. 7/10

[Detournement]

17 hours ago, Paul Kersey said:

Spring Breakers

This is the b*****d love child of GTA and a Britney Spears video

I like tits, I like class A drugs and I like guns and this film has them all.

Googolplex/10

Spring Breakers is fantastic. The scene at the piano singing Everytime is an all timer. 

Korine's most recent film The Beach Bum is even better imo. Most reviewers seemed to miss the very obvious but funny satire kind of like Starship Troopers and Showgirls. 

[Squalor Vic]

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Thought it was pretty slow and didn't feel like a Ghostbusters film. I didn't hate it but it was just 'awright'

6.554/10

[Paul Kersey]

The Princess Bride

Comedic fairy tale from the 80s about a swashbuckling adventurer who strives to stop his sweetheart from marrying an odious prince.

An all star cast, including Mel Smith and André the Giant. 

This was fairly amusing.

7/10

[MSU]

004 -- The Tragedy of Macbeth. I struggle with Shakespeare quite a lot. Usually by the time I've translated a line of dialog into a language I better understand, I'm already four lines behind, so I never feel all that engaged, but I do feel stupid so it balances out. Joel Coen's adaptation, though, comes pretty close to breaking through my feeble brain. It looks incredible both in set design and cinematography, and Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, once I get beyond it was Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, put in brilliant turns. But the has-to-be-seen performance has to go to Kathryn Hunter as the Weird Sisters and Old Man. Hunter’s ability to make her body flow from one impossible posture to another brings an incredible uneasiness to her roles, a sensation that is only heightened by the black and white stock. She becomes an humanesque embodiment of the crows that punctuate the story and is worth the ticket price on her own. 9/10

[Mark Connolly]

The King's Man

It's utter fucking nonsense obviously, but I really enjoyed it.

[Lex]

Highlander
What a load of cheesy 80’s pish that was.
3/10

[Clockwork]

Disobedience (2017) Starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, not an original storyline in that the struggle between faith and sexuality is a fairly well worn path, but an easy paced watch. 7/10. Would perhaps have scored it a six but an extra point for the use of the track ‘Love Song’ by The Cure.[emoji6]

[accies1874]

13. The First Great Train Robbery (1978)* - iPlayer

Some good scenes and moments that I couldn't help thinking would be better in different hands. It just seemed to lack an energy or rhythm to grab me, which left the admittedly funny and inventive moments feeling a bit lacklustre. Wes Anderson should remake it IMHO. It looks very nice though - good colours, especially with the costumes playing off the locales. 

14. Scream (1996) - DVD

The opening scene really is goddamn good, isn't it? The takes are huge with the camera stalking Drew Barrymore - whose gradual descent is captured by her and the camera - while taking us through where the action's about to happen and setting up the components of the set-piece without telling us that's what it's doing. I rewatched this part with the sound off and playing at 1.5x and properly noticed how great the technique is, mostly because it didn't feel showy at the time and I was completely absorbed by it. 

The style of the opening is continued throughout the rest of the film. Big takes with a really wide-angle lens that distorts a lot of the picture (unsure if deliberate or just my copy) and takes in the surroundings making for a living setting. There are wee jumps in editing, camerawork and performances which add to the corny tone of it all, as does Billy constantly seeming to jump into scenes, and even the costume looks daft unless it's in a closeup or dimly lit. Matthew Lillard is also great fun on screen yet uneasy af. 

I also loved how it establishes the deaths, mostly Tatum's and Drew Barrymore's, by making us aware of all the elements which we only know in retrospect. It's just a great example of setting up and knocking down, like mouse trap or something. The cameraman's death maybe went a bit overboard with the references to the delay but it was still a neat way to relate to the film's themes. 

Probably the central idea of it all comes from Billy saying "movies don't make psychos, movies make psychos more creative". Does the fact that one of the killers says that mean that the makers disagree with it? The cheapo costume, hidden identity, voice alteration and simplistic weapon all give the impression that the killer could conceivably be a different person underneath the mask every time Ghostface appears. A lot of the characters do seem desensitised to irl violence - shown by the excitable reaction to the principal dying and Ghostface cosplayers kicking about - while having an affection for "fictional" horror. Even the principal, after disciplining students for dressing up as Ghostface, decides to jokingly wear the mask. Do people like violence because of violent movies, or do people like violent movies because they like violence? And what happens when the lines are blurred and the tables are turned? The depiction of the press links to that: they're giddy when they discover a teenager's been killed because there's clearly a market for coverage of real-life horror as well as movies. Wes Craven probably hates this, as apparently he walked out of Reservoir Dogs because he felt Tarantino was enjoying the violence too much. I can't say I agree but it's interesting to watch Scream with that in mind. 

The killers are fucked up, though, and you don't see anyone else gleefully committing murder despite the fact they all watch these films for entertainment and/or have a great affinity for them. I suppose it boils down to the idea of interpretation of cinema and how people will always take away different things from it, including, very occasionally, bad things. 

I've never been too sure how clever its slasher movie deconstructions are in relation to this film; they just seemed to be referential as opposed to flipping the genre. The concept of Sidney growing to take agency of her own story is quite clever, though, even if the character and actor aren't all that great, and I was reading something after watching it that said she evaded the killer because she had already gone through her own horror story and the character arc that would entail. 

Bit of a ramble but it's an interesting film to talk about. 

Scream 4 (2011) - Netflix

This retains the fun style of the original but had no protagonist, no characters and no investment. I didn't/don't find Sidney a particularly compelling character but she's surrounded by a rich gallery of side ones that elevate the film. The principal's minor role in the first is more entertaining than any of the folk here (tbf he was better than most in the original too). The costume looks better in 4 and this might be more overtly a comedy, which isn't actually bad, but the whole thing was hollow. You can obviously exhaust your ideas come the fourth in a franchise, especially when the first was lightning in a bottle, but after an 11-year break during which a fucking tonne of horror/slasher remakes had been farted out, they should've had a more interesting take. 

[Comrie]

Sea Ghost/The Thing Below

 

A Jim Wynorski piece of junk that takes elements of government shady business with an alien killer. It melds crap acting, terrible cheap CGI and a plot ripped off numerous better films. Wynorski does manage to fit in a striptease and a half strip so at least he's not lost his touch for that, I guess.

2/10

[Paul Kersey]

Last Flag Flying

This is an "unofficial" sequel to the Jack Nicholson classic The Last Detail.

A Vietnam veteran's son has been killed while serving in Iraq, so he looks up a couple of old buddies and they travel across America together to attend the funeral.

Although they are clearly the same three characters as in The Last Detail the names and some biographical details have been changed.

Bryan Cranston stars in the Nicholson role. He is very convincing as the cynical, hard drinking veteran, but he is just isn't Nicholson.

This shares the same blend of humour and tragedy as the original but tones it down quite a bit.

Overall, I'd say that in it's own right this a decent enough film, even though it's about 20 minutes too long. However, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I wasn't such a big fan of the original. 

6/10

[Hampden Diehard]

Guy Ritchie's "Revolver". Jason Statham being the exact same character he plays in every film he's in. Surely he's even bored with that? He's laughing all the way to the bank, so why change it, I suppose?

He's released from 7 years in jail and he reckons Ray Liotta owes him. Loads of guys get shot; dodgy accents; an unintelligible script that jumps all over the place. A waste of time. 2/10

[MSU]

005 -- The Rescue. A National Geographic documentary about the kids football team who got trapped in a flooded cave system in Thailand. A remarkable and emotional story of courage and ingenuity and perseverance, made all the more enjoyable from the heroes being people you'd least expect. I remember this from the time it happened, but I would've sworn it was longer ago than 2018. Even though I sort of knew how it ended, the characters involved are so engaging as they tell their story, it felt brand new. A triumph and at no point does anyone ask what Elon Fucking Musk thinks about matters. Highly recommended. 10/10

[KingRocketman II]

On 16/01/2022 at 18:12, Squalor Vic said:

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Thought it was pretty slow and didn't feel like a Ghostbusters film. I didn't hate it but it was just 'awright'

6.554/10

more nostalgic than cinematic...

[Mark Connolly]

The Matrix Resurrections

Its not very good, is it?

[Stellaboz]

10 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

The Matrix Resurrections

Its not very good, is it?

I thought it was okay, but I didn't feel at anytime there was a sense of threat or...high stakes like the original trilogy. Quite enjoyed the early part wondering where the f**k they were going with it, but the ending left me a bit...meh.