What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[BFTD]

Ant-Man 3 (cinema) - it's fine. It's just fine; certainly no worse than the majority of Marvel films over the last few years. It's just getting such a pounding because everyone had decided that Phase 5 was when the Marvel films would become really good again; this film's shown that's very much not the case, and people are not pleased.

FWIW, I think the real problem here is Disney - everything they touch turns to shit. Presumably it took longer with Marvel because they already had a path set when they were bought and were allowed to get on with it, but now Big Mouse is getting more involved and it's every bit as mediocre as their Star Wars, Pixar, and own-brand output since the Seventies.

Cocaine Bear (cinema) - bit of a weird feel to this one; it didn't seem sure exactly what it wanted to be, and didn't really satisfy as a result. Also felt like there was some lazy  rewrites/reshooting involved, as there were a couple of bits that felt like they were going somewhere before being dropped, like the forest ranger implausibly managing to avoid death. The final third really drags, and the CG is pants, but it gets away with that because it's a spoof of...something...so being deliberately crap is part of the charm. It was meant to be a spoof, right?

Certainly wasn't bad, and could've been a lot worse, but really not all that good either, and I can't imagine wanting to see it again.

[scottsdad]

7 hours ago, BFTD said:

Ant-Man 3 (cinema) - it's fine. It's just fine; certainly no worse than the majority of Marvel films over the last few years. It's just getting such a pounding because everyone had decided that Phase 5 was when the Marvel films would become really good again; this film's shown that's very much not the case, and people are not pleased.

FWIW, I think the real problem here is Disney - everything they touch turns to shit. Presumably it took longer with Marvel because they already had a path set when they were bought and were allowed to get on with it, but now Big Mouse is getting more involved and it's every bit as mediocre as their Star Wars, Pixar, and own-brand output since the Seventies.

Cocaine Bear (cinema) - bit of a weird feel to this one; it didn't seem sure exactly what it wanted to be, and didn't really satisfy as a result. Also felt like there was some lazy  rewrites/reshooting involved, as there were a couple of bits that felt like they were going somewhere before being dropped, like the forest ranger implausibly managing to avoid death. The final third really drags, and the CG is pants, but it gets away with that because it's a spoof of...something...so being deliberately crap is part of the charm. It was meant to be a spoof, right?

Certainly wasn't bad, and could've been a lot worse, but really not all that good either, and I can't imagine wanting to see it again.

You can't say that stuff out loud! The provisional wing of the Star Wars thread will be long soon to explain how some obscure spinoff about someone who was in a movie for 10 minutes is actually the best TV show ever made, eclipsing The Sopranos for drama, plot and excitement. 

[coprolite]

Up (2009)

Whimsical parable about a man with an unfeasibly square face. 

The opening 10-15 minutes montage would have made a really sweet short. 

Some of the animation was really good looking, but the design was all over the place. Different animals and human characters looked like they were out of different films. 

There were some entertaining and funny bits but overall it fell on the mawkish side of the emotions it was trying to elicit. 

5/10

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Wayward prodigy plus loveable robot take on baddies. Plus learning. 

This was more like it. Apart from the lab tech guy who was annoying and my as yet unanswered questions about power supply. 

7/10

Glass Onion (2022)

Thouroughly forgettable fluff with disproportionate acting talent and production values. 

Entertaining. 

6/10

[Miguel Sanchez]

I watched Robocop last night

Why weren't Arnold Schwarzenegger or Michael Ironside in it?

[Guest]

EO, a Polish film following the travels of a donkey released from a bankrupt circus. Incredible photography, very atmospheric but the cinema decided to crank up the volume to about a million and the jarring dischordant score soon became a bit of a headache, which made me glad that it was only 90 minutes long. 

That meant though, the little tales (tails?*) with each new set of encounters along Eo's way seemed too short for any character development, although in fairness I probably missed a load of allegorical references throughout. Worth seeing for the photography but take your earbuds just in case.

[* First rule of Bad Pun Club: if you think it, you must share it]

The previous visit was for Heaven in Hell, another Polish film following the relationship of a late forties-ish professional and an adventure sports instructor fifteen years her junior, and the dark twist behind it. That came in at two hours, perhaps a little bit long but they had to get through a lot of shagging. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by IncomingExile

[DA Baracus]

Fall

Two women get stuck up a very tall radio mast.

Far better than that sounds. Enjoyable stuff.

[BFTD]

On 07/03/2023 at 18:34, Miguel Sanchez said:

I watched Robocop last night

Why weren't Arnold Schwarzenegger or Michael Ironside in it?

The film was made for $13m when Arnie was earning more than that alone and, much as I love Ironside, Kurtwood Smith was irreplaceable in that film.

Total Recall for your Verhoeven\Schwarzenegger\Ironside fix!

On 06/03/2023 at 07:25, scottsdad said:

You can't say that stuff out loud! The provisional wing of the Star Wars thread will be long soon to explain how some obscure spinoff about someone who was in a movie for 10 minutes is actually the best TV show ever made, eclipsing The Sopranos for drama, plot and excitement. 

Star Wars is thoroughly dead to me, and I wish I'd given up after Attack of the Clones TBH.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

Fall

Two women get stuck up a very tall radio mast.

Far better than that sounds. Enjoyable stuff.

Broke into a cold sweat several times during that film. I wouldn't say I have a fear of heights as such but the edge of my seat was too close.  

[Steve_Wilkos]

Arrival - 9/10

[DA Baracus]

29 minutes ago, IncomingExile said:

Broke into a cold sweat several times during that film. I wouldn't say I have a fear of heights as such but the edge of my seat was too close.  

Haha aye, definitely has that element! It's strangely not as bad, for the most part, when they're actually at the top.

The twist that her pal was snagging her husband was obvious as soon as there were questions over whose arm was in the photo but the twist of her not actually making the jump was really well done. I read that you can actually hear her land on the dish instead of the bag so I went back to watch that part again and sure enough you hear her land. There's other clues too like her not taking any water when offered and not getting sunburned and knackered looking, and of course her not catching the bag when it falls when they're trying to charge the drone. 

Also I did chuckle when she said she was only snagging her pal's husband for four months but it was seemingly long enough to get a large tattoo on her foot.

[JustOneCornetto]

(16) The Strays (2022) – Netflix

Bit of a mess, doesn’t really know what sort of film it wants to be. Is it social commentary with a bit of horror thrown in, maybe but I found the new life Cheryl/Neve finds herself in some 17 years later just too implausible and the race element of the story is heavy handed. It turns into a revenge film which I did quite enjoy but I saw the final twist coming a mile off. 4/10

(17) Brian & Charles (2022) – Sky Cinema

I know David Earl from his work with Ricky Gervais in Derek and After Life and wasn’t sure how his character would work in a full length film. He plays Brian who is toned down a bit from his other work and there’s something endearing about him as he potters about on his own inventing lots of strange things and somehow creates a robot from odd things lying around, an obvious nod to Frankenstein but Charles, the robot, is no monster and embraces his humanity. They help each other as Brian deals with the village bully, Charles achieves his dream and also helps Brian get the girl. 7/10

(18) District 9 (2009) – DVD

An alien space ship is stranded over Johannesburg and the million or so prawn like creatures are herded into a slum ghetto which in some way is a satire on South Africa’s apartheid history. There’s some mockumentary scenes to give differing viewpoints on opinions but it’s Sharlto Copley who steals the show first as the bumbling official tasked with the mass eviction to resettle the aliens in a new internment centre and eventually becoming the aliens saviour. Good special effects and there’s some nice bits of humour. 7.5/10

(19) Green For Danger (1946) – Talking Pictures

Pretty good wee film set during WWII about an unexpected death in an emergency hospital during the Blitz. Another unexpected death of one of the nurses who was at the first death leads to the appearance of a Scotland Yard Inspector played brilliantly by Alistair Sim who slowly but surely and in his own humorous way solves the mystery. 6.5/10

(20) Chappie (2015) – DVD

Directed by Neill Blomkamp who did District 9 and also starring Sharlto Copley who plays Chappie brilliantly. It’s about a robot cop who is given experimental AI by engineer Deon played by Dev Patel. Chappie is stolen by some criminals and is used and manipulated but at the same time seems to learn from these harsh experiences and grows to love his captors. Throw in Hugh Jackman who wants to get rid of the robot cops to use his big transformer type invention leading to a big dramatic showdown. 7/10

Edited March 10, 2023 by JustOneCornetto

[ScotiaNostra]

Misconduct 2016 - Quite a strong cast. Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins just play same role it seems in every movie. I guess thats what happens after such a long career. You just go to the standard tried and tested and thats probably what they want. Story is a bit over the top with quite a few holes but as a movie to pass some time its worth a watch. 2.5 out of 5

[accies1874]

11. Hunt Her, Kill Her - Cinema

Wasn't gonna bother with any of the GFT festival stuff, but I didn't have any football to go to today so went to a morning showing of this as part of Fright Fest. 

It's a total b-movie. A female janitor starts a job working night shift in a factory which gets broken into by a few masked baddies. I can see how it might serve a purpose as a naff filler movie during a festival, especially for a Saturday morning, but it didn't work for me in isolation. 

A bit like Hush (the 2016 one, not the 2008 abomination), its its resourcefulness is its biggest (only?) quality. The main character does some inventive things to take down or punish her opponents - that's quite fun. There are a couple of funny moments, too, but not as many as the weirdos in the audience seemed to think. 

Like I said, it's a total b-movie and you're made aware of that early on with the naff dialogue and performances, so there's no real point critiquing them as the film's all about empty-headed thrills. So how are the thrills?

PANTS! Imo for one reason and one reason only: absolute garbage camerawork. Barely connected, poorly chosen shots that do a god-awful job of establishing the geography of scenes. How are you supposed to be tense or scared when you have no idea where the threat is and how immediate the danger may be? It sometimes tries to get around this by implementing daft, worn out sound cues to tell you that someone is in trouble or the danger has passed, but just makes it even more frustrating that you can't see what's going on. 

[MSU]

067 The Living Daylights -- I hadn't seen this one all the way through before. I don't know if it's my unfamiliarity with it, if Timothy Dalton is really that great a Bond, or if his debut is helped by coming off of the complete run of Moore entries in the last couple of weeks, but The Living Daylights isn't just a great 80s action movie, it's a great Bond movie. Another cracking theme tune doesn't do my enjoyment of this one any harm whatsoever, and nor does Maryam d'Abo in Mujahideen garb. 7/10

068 It Happened One Night (#7 in the Oscar Best Picture series) -- The story is simple, the script crisp, and the acting far better than I've been lead to expect from pre-war cinema combine to make a perfect movie and a template for a million romcoms that followed it. If it seems full of clichés and stereotypes, it's because it invented them. What is remarkable, though, is how well it has aged and despite the effect of subsequent mimicry, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert still manage to delight. Bugs Bunny has a lot to thank it for, too. 10/10

069 Women Talking -- The final movie from this year's Best Picture nominations list is a heavy enough story even before you factor in the fact that it's based on actual events in Bolivia where, in an isolated religious colony, men drugged and raped their women folk over a period of years. The movie is basically a meeting of those women to decide what they're going to do once they discover what's been going on. The acting chops on show here are as impressive as anything else released in 2022. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw, all do a magnificent job, which begs the question of why the movie didn't attract more Oscar nominations besides Best Picture. McDormand is only in the movie for a few scenes and does more with those minutes than some actors manage in a career. For me, as much as I admired it, it felt a bit stagey, and while the dialogue is as carefully crafted as it is beautifully delivered, there are moments when the text could've done with some subtext. 9/10

070 Kingpin -- It's a weird combination of events that led me to rewatch Kingpin for the first time in probably a decade or so. I worried that it hadn't aged well, and it hasn't, but the Farrelly brothers' output has never been renowned for its inclusivity. However, this doesn't alter the fact that the movie is packed full of jokes, and an awful lot of them find their mark. The thing that particularly tickled me this time was Ishmael being referred to as The Kid by Roy and Claudia despite Randy Quaid being 46 at the time of release and more than 10 years older than his co-stars. Purposefully mean-spirited, with Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray facing off to play the biggest douche in the movie, it does its best to hide its heart and it might yet be the Farrelly's masterpiece. 8/10

071 Scream VI: Ghostface Takes Manhattan -- The movie more or less picks up in real-time from the end of last year's Scream requel. Our Core Four of Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad have left Woodsboro and now find themselves in the Big Apple where Tara is attending a fictional liberal arts college on the Upper West Side, and Sam is battling online conspiracy theorists who reckon she was actually the killer in the last movie and she framed Richie. It's enjoyable enough, and it's maybe the best opening since Scream 4, but at this point in the franchise, all the meta chat is a bit dull, multiple stab wounds threaten the suspension of disbelief far more than any character, and the plot holes that had been threatening to bubble up for most of the movie do indeed surface in the third act. The returns are undeniably diminishing since the requel and, of course, the original, and there's an increasing part of me that hopes we end it here, while it's still enjoyable, and before we get to Scream X: Ghostface in Space (and Also the Future). 7/10

Edited March 12, 2023 by MSU

[accies1874]

I considered going to see the new Scream, then I remembered that I don't actually like any of the sequels. I absolutely love the first one and rewatched it the other night, but I agree that it's become a bit dull. The original is a brilliant, well-made slasher that also raises interesting questions about violence and depictions of violence but the reason I find it so rewatchable is because of the craft more than the commentary. 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

I enjoyed scream VI, not going to win any Oscars but it was an enjoyable couple of hours even if it did get pretty far fetched even by it’s own standards at the end.

[Zetterlund]

On 09/03/2023 at 09:06, DA Baracus said:

Fall

Two women get stuck up a very tall radio mast.

Far better than that sounds. Enjoyable stuff.

 

On 09/03/2023 at 10:32, IncomingExile said:

Broke into a cold sweat several times during that film. I wouldn't say I have a fear of heights as such but the edge of my seat was too close.  

This sounds right up my street so will give it a watch later. Reminds me of the feeling I had watching Free Solo.

Having watched the trailer for Fall, and this is maybe something for the PTTGOYN thread, why do people in movies who are desperately clinging on to a rope or someone's hand for survival feel the need to kick and thrash around as much as possible? If I were the one holding their hand I'd be screaming at them to say you're not fucking helping.

[MSU]

7 hours ago, accies1874 said:

I considered going to see the new Scream, then I remembered that I don't actually like any of the sequels. I absolutely love the first one and rewatched it the other night, but I agree that it's become a bit dull. The original is a brilliant, well-made slasher that also raises interesting questions about violence and depictions of violence but the reason I find it so rewatchable is because of the craft more than the commentary. 

Yeah, I watched the original last night and it's still incredible. When you look at the state of horror movies in 1995 (Leprechaun 3, Halloween 6, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre) it's all the more incredible that a year later something like this could be made that was fresh, that could out-Psycho Psycho by killing a leading actor in the first 13 minutes, and reinvent a genre. Still not sure why Henry Winkler had to get killed, tho. Expect a 10 on 10 on next week's list.

7 hours ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

I enjoyed scream VI, not going to win any Oscars but it was an enjoyable couple of hours even if it did get pretty far fetched even by it’s own standards at the end.

Agreed. I enjoyed it once it got going, I loved the chase sequences, and the city setting worked better than I thought it would, and Mrs MSU and I enjoyed picking apart the plot holes after. Perfectly functional stuff and good fun but compared to the original, it's night and day.

That said, in front of us there was a family of five, all of them wearing What's Your Favorite Movie t-shirts, and ranging in ages down to I'd guess 10 or 11 (yikes) and they were LOVING IT.

[BFTD]

15 hours ago, MSU said:

Scream X: Ghostface in Space (and Also the Future)

That was possibly the best film in the franchise FWIW.

Admittedly not a high bar, but it was pretty entertaining, funny, and had some impressively OTT murders.

[MSU]

1 hour ago, BFTD said:

That was possibly the best film in the franchise FWIW.

Admittedly not a high bar, but it was pretty entertaining, funny, and had some impressively OTT murders.

The liquid nitrogen and sleeping bag kills were amazing. Final Chapter and Jason Lives were my picks of the bunch, tho.