What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[MSU]

Apologies, got through a bunch this week, so I'll try to keep it brief.

038 On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- Some dodgy editing and way too long, but I've always thought it was a shame that George Lazenby didn't make more Jimmy Bond movies. Feels closer to the Daniel Craig era in a lot of ways. 8/10

039 Diamonds Are Forever -- A definite step back after OHMSS, and very much the lowest ebb of Sean Connery's involvement in the Eon canon, with a lackluster performance by Charles Gray as the third incarnation of Blofeld. The Mustang moment in Vegas still satisfies, but it's plowing a lonely furrow. And what a ropey pre-credits sequence. 3/10

040 Alice, Darling (#40 in the Anna Kendrick series) -- As with last year's She Said, I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Kendrick is the titular Alice who we learn is in an emotionally abusive relationship and her friend's birthday retreat becomes an intervention. The friends are preachy, the drama is more tell than show, which is a shame because it's acted well. 5/10

041 The Twilight Saga: New Moon (#7 in the Anna Kendrick series) -- There's a point in the movie where Bella, the werewolf guy, and some other dork, go and see the fictional movie Face Punch. We never see Face Punch, but we hear it, and it sounds about a hundred times better than Bella's Depressing Year. Kendrick is still engaging as one of the few characters not falling for Bella's bullshit. Someone we can all relate to. 1/10

042 Live and Let Die -- Roger Moore's high-camp first outing as Bond sees him inexplicably thrown into a blaxploitation movie, then there's Julius Harris definitely not just holding a hook in his right hand, and the bizarre intermission of The Misadventures of JW Pepper where Bond and the baddies disappear for five minutes while the bumbling cop pisses all over the momentum. I don't mind Roger Moore but this feels like a starting point that leads to Moonraker and A View to a Kill and it's hard to imagine Connery on Lazenby in either. 5/10

043 Triangle of Sadness -- Another in 2022's collection of movies about rich people being p***ks in a place, this time on a yacht (mostly). I enjoyed the first two acts more than the last but when it's good it's pretty good and when it's funny it's pretty funny. The sequence around the Captain's Dinner will stay with me for a while. I didn't really care for The Lord of the Flies third act and what it has to say about the super-rich guests, the entirely white crew there to pamper them, and the entirely non-white support staff below deck is a bit on the nose, but Harris Dickinson, the sadly departed Charlbi Dean, and Woody Harrelson put in great shifts,

And then I went to see the five Oscar-nominated animated shorts, one of which I'd already seen:

044 An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It -- This Australian short has an interesting central premise where we see the area around the animated set and flashes of the animators' hands and arms flashing in to adjust things, and the whole thing is really viewed by looking at the screen on the camera, all of which plays in well with the central character, a young telemarketer, having an existential crisis, but it's let down be being little more than an idea, and the vocal talent is pretty poor. 5/10

045 The Flying Solder -- This stunning short plays out like a Radiohead video and tells the true story of the Halifax explosion of 1917, which surprisingly to me at least, means an awful lot of a naked sailor flying through the air. The animation feels like it's on two planes, with the naked sailor painted fairly modestly but it's the backgrounds that really come to life and give a true feeling of vertigo, and I felt like I learned something, so there's that. 7/10

046 Ice Merchants -- I loved the vector-style animation in this short that deals with loss, grief, climate change, and the importance of a soft hat. A father and his son live on the side of a mountain, high above town, and travel down each day to deliver ice to the residents. It's beautifully told, all the more powerful for being silent except for the lovely score. I felt the very end was a bit of a letdown but the whole thing was pretty moving stuff. 6/10

047 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse -- The UK entry that has Christmas on BBC1 at 5:20 written all over it. It's the prettiest to look at and has the most impressive vocal talent (Tom Hollander, Idris Elba, Gabriel Byrne). It's also one of the twee-est, schmaltziest half-hours I've ever had to endure. I get that it's not aimed at an adult audience, but I honestly don't know who is going to take anything from it. A boy wants to get home but doesn't know where that is or what that is, so three animals show up to, apropos of nothing, dispense inspirational fortune-cookie words of wisdom that I guess are supposed to help or, I dunno, stop the wee boy killing himself or something? Given that JJ Abrams' Bad Robot is involved, I had hopes for a smoke monster to take care of the lot of them, bones and all. Cringeworthy stuff. 4/10

048 My Year of Dicks -- Saw this a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it, but enjoyed it more on the big screen and against its peers. It has the most complete story, is the most satisfying, combines many genres of animation seamlessly, has great vocal talent, and is pretty funny and heart-warming. I still think the end was a bit obvious, but the manner in which it got there is worth a tip of the hat. Hope it wins next month. 8/10

Edited February 19, 2023 by MSU

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Watching Banshees and all quiet on the western front sweep the baftas. I though Banshees was hot garbage but haven’t seen all quiet on the western front is it winning just a case of British academy/little Englanders love the war?

[BFTD]

Hard to be a God (shiver me timbers) - on a faraway planet similar to Middle-Ages Europe, travellers from Earth are frustrated by the inhabitants' Year Zero-esque insistence on stunting societal progress by executing their intellectuals, and find themselves sliding into decadence to cope with their impotence.

Disappointed by this. Really liked the idea, and was in the mood for the artsy treatment rather than the more traditional sci-fi approach that you'd expect; we see nothing of the technology that enabled our protagonists to travel through space, with the planet being monitored for a good few decades by the start of the film, and everyone cosplaying as medieval Lords. The locals would almost all be considered mentally subnormal, smearing everything with faeces and gurning inanely at the camera with blackened teeth (it's unclear if the fourth wall is a lens or another unidentified character). The whole thing's shot in moody monochrome, everything's filthy, and the rain never stops.

I was OK with all of that, but the problem is that it's three hours long and criminally boring. There's so much effort that's gone into creating a convincing world for us to be led around, but there's very little going on even as this remote society falls apart - demonstrating the grim conditions seems to be the point, although there's a sledgehammer moral to the story if you're willing to wait for it. It wasn't really worthwhile IMO. Plus, you'll struggle to understand what's actually going on without boning up on the plot first, and you won't gain much.

I fancy reading the book to see if it's a more engaging experience, if I ever get time. The source novel was written by same authors who created Stalker, famously made into a film by Tarkovsky, which I need to refresh my memory of now.

[accies1874]

Good to have you back @BFTD

[accies1874]

11 hours ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Watching Banshees and all quiet on the western front sweep the baftas. I though Banshees was hot garbage but haven’t seen all quiet on the western front is it winning just a case of British academy/little Englanders love the war?

I watched All Quiet on the Western Front yesterday afternoon rather than Spurs v West Ham and was really impressed by it. Started out thinking that it was inseparable from a lot of other incredibly well-made war/anti-war films, but it gets better and better as it goes on. 

[coprolite]

Ant Man and the Wasp- Quantumania. (2023)

CGI, very bad science, very evil baddies and some tiring wisecracks. 

This is another extremely silly entry in the mcu, similarly stupid to the recent Thor.  It's a bit of a mess story wise and a bit lacking in imagination given the blank canvas available for world building. 

I thought it was entertaining enough in a dumb way, like hot shots or something, but the rest of the family found the first half boring. 

I would say 4/10 but as there's black people and women in it i need to check with @Theroadlesstravelled whether i am racially qualified to opine. 

 

 

[accies1874]

8. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On - Cinema

NB: I'm very much in the minority here as this seems to be working for the vast majority of people, including my pretty much full screening. 

I found it completely insufferable. I was over Marcel as a comedic presence within about 2 seconds which is NOT GOOD considering his hyper-literal, sarcy comments pound you at a rate of noughts. The tweeness of the whole film was not for me either; it starts kind of like C'mon C'mon from a couple of years ago where you have a cutesy voice-over describing their world but, because it's a kid, they see the world through a more magical and appreciative lens wrapped up in all the fucking sweetness you can find. Its smugness comes to a head when you've got millions of tiny one-eyed shells crying which, in case you didn't know, is a cue for the audience to cry too because we've created something that is SURE to tug on your heartstrings. I accept that it's just my cynicism, but man this really annoyed me. 

I will say that I liked its pretty soothing colour palette and the occasional inventiveness when it came to scale, but I just never want to speak of this again. 

[ScotiaNostra]

Boyz N The Hood - 1991

Very good still. It hasnt dated in my opinion. It still looks good as a movie because it is really well filmed. Great storyline and characters. Every role is played well in the movie. Theres no weak spots in performance. Its just under the 2 hour mark and thats the perfect length for it. It packs a powerful message still. I dont think a better movie in this type of genre has been made since. Its a 4/5 for me. 

As it was so good, im going to go through and revist some of the other similatr movies from around that time. New Jack City, Juice, Menace to Society, Colours etc

[Miguel Sanchez]

I watched AI last night. I'm watching Minority Report right now. All I can conclude with any certainty is that Steven Spielberg can't direct sci-fi. 

[DA Baracus]

AI is absolutely terrible. So long and so very boring, not to mention the wee android lad is a nippy wee flange.

[Ewanandmoreagain]

The Lady Vanishes ( part )

I was a pleb , sorry impatient , and skipped to the train journey. 

Could not cope with Hitchcock " setting the scene " with two Englishmen abroad in Switzerland (?) worrying about getting back for the cricket

Very dated but q bit exciting and quite amusing !

Edited February 23, 2023 by Ewanandmoreagain

[Ewanandmoreagain]

On 19/02/2023 at 15:18, MSU said:

Apologies, got through a bunch this week, so I'll try to keep it brief.

038 On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- Some dodgy editing and way too long, but I've always thought it was a shame that George Lazenby didn't make more Jimmy Bond movies. Feels closer to the Daniel Craig era in a lot of ways. 8/10

039 Diamonds Are Forever -- A definite step back after OHMSS, and very much the lowest ebb of Sean Connery's involvement in the Eon canon, with a lackluster performance by Charles Gray as the third incarnation of Blofeld. The Mustang moment in Vegas still satisfies, but it's plowing a lonely furrow. And what a ropey pre-credits sequence. 3/10

040 Alice, Darling (#40 in the Anna Kendrick series) -- As with last year's She Said, I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Kendrick is the titular Alice who we learn is in an emotionally abusive relationship and her friend's birthday retreat becomes an intervention. The friends are preachy, the drama is more tell than show, which is a shame because it's acted well. 5/10

041 The Twilight Saga: New Moon (#7 in the Anna Kendrick series) -- There's a point in the movie where Bella, the werewolf guy, and some other dork, go and see the fictional movie Face Punch. We never see Face Punch, but we hear it, and it sounds about a hundred times better than Bella's Depressing Year. Kendrick is still engaging as one of the few characters not falling for Bella's bullshit. Someone we can all relate to. 1/10

042 Live and Let Die -- Roger Moore's high-camp first outing as Bond sees him inexplicably thrown into a blaxploitation movie, then there's Julius Harris definitely not just holding a hook in his right hand, and the bizarre intermission of The Misadventures of JW Pepper where Bond and the baddies disappear for five minutes while the bumbling cop pisses all over the momentum. I don't mind Roger Moore but this feels like a starting point that leads to Moonraker and A View to a Kill and it's hard to imagine Connery on Lazenby in either. 5/10

043 Triangle of Sadness -- Another in 2022's collection of movies about rich people being p***ks in a place, this time on a yacht (mostly). I enjoyed the first two acts more than the last but when it's good it's pretty good and when it's funny it's pretty funny. The sequence around the Captain's Dinner will stay with me for a while. I didn't really care for The Lord of the Flies third act and what it has to say about the super-rich guests, the entirely white crew there to pamper them, and the entirely non-white support staff below deck is a bit on the nose, but Harris Dickinson, the sadly departed Charlbi Dean, and Woody Harrelson put in great shifts,

And then I went to see the five Oscar-nominated animated shorts, one of which I'd already seen:

044 An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It -- This Australian short has an interesting central premise where we see the area around the animated set and flashes of the animators' hands and arms flashing in to adjust things, and the whole thing is really viewed by looking at the screen on the camera, all of which plays in well with the central character, a young telemarketer, having an existential crisis, but it's let down be being little more than an idea, and the vocal talent is pretty poor. 5/10

045 The Flying Solder -- This stunning short plays out like a Radiohead video and tells the true story of the Halifax explosion of 1917, which surprisingly to me at least, means an awful lot of a naked sailor flying through the air. The animation feels like it's on two planes, with the naked sailor painted fairly modestly but it's the backgrounds that really come to life and give a true feeling of vertigo, and I felt like I learned something, so there's that. 7/10

046 Ice Merchants -- I loved the vector-style animation in this short that deals with loss, grief, climate change, and the importance of a soft hat. A father and his son live on the side of a mountain, high above town, and travel down each day to deliver ice to the residents. It's beautifully told, all the more powerful for being silent except for the lovely score. I felt the very end was a bit of a letdown but the whole thing was pretty moving stuff. 6/10

047 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse -- The UK entry that has Christmas on BBC1 at 5:20 written all over it. It's the prettiest to look at and has the most impressive vocal talent (Tom Hollander, Idris Elba, Gabriel Byrne). It's also one of the twee-est, schmaltziest half-hours I've ever had to endure. I get that it's not aimed at an adult audience, but I honestly don't know who is going to take anything from it. A boy wants to get home but doesn't know where that is or what that is, so three animals show up to, apropos of nothing, dispense inspirational fortune-cookie words of wisdom that I guess are supposed to help or, I dunno, stop the wee boy killing himself or something? Given that JJ Abrams' Bad Robot is involved, I had hopes for a smoke monster to take care of the lot of them, bones and all. Cringeworthy stuff. 4/10

048 My Year of Dicks -- Saw this a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it, but enjoyed it more on the big screen and against its peers. It has the most complete story, is the most satisfying, combines many genres of animation seamlessly, has great vocal talent, and is pretty funny and heart-warming. I still think the end was a bit obvious, but the manner in which it got there is worth a tip of the hat. Hope it wins next month. 8/10

I believe there is a YT post somewhere imagining Sean in OHMSS !

[Guest]

Given that my previous three films over the past week were Women Talking, The Son and The Inspection, all with far more serious themes, I wasn't really expecting a lot of Cocaine Bear this afternoon, but there were a few laughs along the way.  

The kid three seats along who'd come straight from school seemed to be laughing at things that should have been beyond his years but then again it's 2023, after all.  And I was in Plymouth. 



 

[MSU]

10 hours ago, IncomingExile said:

Given that my previous three films over the past week were Women Talking, The Son and The Inspection, all with far more serious themes, I wasn't really expecting a lot of Cocaine Bear this afternoon, but there were a few laughs along the way.  

The kid three seats along who'd come straight from school seemed to be laughing at things that should have been beyond his years but then again it's 2023, after all.  And I was in Plymouth. 



 

I'm intrigued by Cocaine Bear. The trailer looks nuts and it doesn't seem to be taking itself seriously at all. Hopefully I'll get to it in the next couple of weeks.

[Fullerene]

On 23/02/2023 at 20:44, Ewanandmoreagain said:

The Lady Vanishes ( part )

I was a pleb , sorry impatient , and skipped to the train journey. 

Could not cope with Hitchcock " setting the scene " with two Englishmen abroad in Switzerland (?) worrying about getting back for the cricket

Very dated but q bit exciting and quite amusing !

There was also a 1979 remake with Cybil Shepherd, Elliot Gould and Angela Lansbury.

I also failed to understand the point of film before they get on the train.

Basically I love films set on trains, such as Breakheart Pass, Narrow Margin (the original and the remake),  The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 (the original but not the remake) and even Under Siege 2.

There are not enough films set on trains.

[Ewanandmoreagain]

23 hours ago, IncomingExile said:

Given that my previous three films over the past week were Women Talking, The Son and The Inspection, all with far more serious themes, I wasn't really expecting a lot of Cocaine Bear this afternoon, but there were a few laughs along the way.  

The kid three seats along who'd come straight from school seemed to be laughing at things that should have been beyond his years but then again it's 2023, after all.  And I was in Plymouth. 



 

Is Cocaine Bear Paddington , or Rupert , unleashed from copyright restrictions ?

 

[Ewanandmoreagain]

2 hours ago, Fullerene said:

There was also a 1979 remake with Cybil Shepherd, Elliot Gould and Angela Lansbury.

I also failed to understand the point of film before they get on the train.

 

Somehow I do not think there would be a couple of Englishmen going on about cricket in that version ?;

[sfha]

There is Something Wrong With The Children.

Dear, oh, dear...

 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Cocaine bear is a solid 10/10 movie if you want something that does exactly what it says on the tin and doesn’t take itself seriously doing so.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Scotty Tunbridge

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Ewanandmoreagain said:

Is Cocaine Bear Paddington , or Rupert , unleashed from copyright restrictions ?

 

Your typical sad tale of a child star unable to cope with the pressure.