Film Thread (What have you been watching?)

7 hours ago, tim2 said:

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society  for me later on. Will report back.

I report that I agree with John - a predicable ending but nowhere near as sugary as I feared it might be.

More long haul flight movies -

Three Billboards outside Ebbing - Great performances and dialogue.  Enjoyed it even if it is dark.  Funny and at times brutal.  5/5

The Hitmans Bodyguard - Meh.  Take it or leave it.  Action comedy that does nothing special.  2/5

Coco - Great story and animation about family and death.  Really very well done.  4/5

I know Deadpool won't be everyones cup of tea, but the PR campaign so far has been pretty perfect (Bob Ross, Celine Dion) and now this -

Breaking the 4th wall, with jokes so meta its hard to know where dead pool ends and Ryan Renoylds starts.  

Death of Stalin on iTunes best film I’ve seen this year . Very funny . New Star Wars the worst , absolute shocker 

I got round to watching Avengers: Infinity War this weekend, and am happy to report that it was better than I was expecting it to be.

I'm always a bit wary about films with this much hype surrounding them, and I've not kept fully up to speed with developments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I anticipated I'd be left wondering who the hell half the multitude of characters were and also not caring what happened to many of them, as well as thinking a film with that many characters to cram in might just be a bit of a mess.

Not so!

I thought the characters being split up and spun off into their own little story strands worked well, and it turned out I'd seen enough of the other films after all to have a reasonable grip on what was going on.

It's a fairly lengthy affair, but it survived the 'watch test' (I didn't check the time once to see how long before I could go home). 

The ending surprised me too and yep, I sat through all the credits to see the extra bit.

The Guardians of the Galaxy characters are my new favourites.

30 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The Guardians of the Galaxy characters are my new favourites.

I have mastered the art of invisibility!

i enjoyed it very much, I love the bit in Edinburgh where (spoiler free) one character was stood outside a kebab shop and you could clearly read over her shoulder a large sign saying “just ask! We will deep fry your kebab”

I never find myself saying that what cinema really needs is another superhero movie 

14 hours ago, DavidM said:

I never find myself saying that what cinema really needs is another superhero movie 

They put plenty of bums on seats which probably helps to keep a lot of cinemas open so they can show other stuff as well.

Having seen a few trailers for Deadpool 2 recently and having no idea what it was about, I watched the first Deadpool on Netflix last night.

I enjoyed the way it takes the pee out of the whole genre and Marvel's habit of tacking teasers on to the end of the credits with the main character asking the audience 'Why are you still here? We don't have the money for a sequel.'

Made me chuckle.

26 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Having seen a few trailers for Deadpool 2 recently and having no idea what it was about, I watched the first Deadpool on Netflix last night.

I enjoyed the way it takes the pee out of the whole genre and Marvel's habit of tacking teasers on to the end of the credits with the main character asking the audience 'Why are you still here? We don't have the money for a sequel.'

Made me chuckle.

 

I enjoyed the first one but at times I felt it was too self referential and ‘meta’.  

7 hours ago, John Drake said:

Having seen a few trailers for Deadpool 2 recently and having no idea what it was about, I watched the first Deadpool on Netflix last night.

I enjoyed the way it takes the pee out of the whole genre and Marvel's habit of tacking teasers on to the end of the credits with the main character asking the audience 'Why are you still here? We don't have the money for a sequel.'

Made me chuckle.

 

I liked the Ferris Buller set up for that also, down to the chica-chic-aa 

9 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

I enjoyed the first one but at times I felt it was too self referential and ‘meta’.  

I think the second one will be even more so. I'm still going though.

On 24/04/2018 at 9:37 AM, John Drake said:

I liked the concept of the hidden African nation of Wakanda,

Wakanda wasn’t hidden, only the developed part was hidden away.

Fake countries on earth that are recognised by the UN, news reports, government agencies etc are unbelievably annoying in movies. I’d rather Wakanda be completely hidden, or even on another planet.

I thought the movie was quite boring and, when compared to many other superhero movies, is below average.

If people are specifically looking for black actors as superheroes then the Luke Cage TV series is much better (but not really family friendly).

On 15/05/2018 at 9:14 PM, DavidM said:

I never find myself saying that what cinema really needs is another superhero movie 

Fair enough. They aren't everybody's bag. I find it odd though that superhero films get singled out. Generally nobody ever seems to ask if cinema needs another RomCom, another spy film, another war film etc. There are plenty of sub genres within, Ant-Man is basically a heist movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming a high school comedy, The Dark Knight Trilogy is as polar opposite from the first two as you can get. And if you don't like 'em then fine, but they may well be paying for films you do - Inception wouldn't exist if the Dark Knight hadn't done great guns at the box office. 

I went to see Entebbe at the weekend, the latest retelling of the 1976 Air France hijacking that ended with a daring and (mostly) successful rescue operation in Uganda by Israeli armed forces.

I was underwhelmed by it, and would say it probably deserves the critical reception it has received.

For a film that tells such a dramatic true story, it is quite lacking in tension and drama for long periods, and I wasn't convinced by its sympathetic portrayal of the terrorists either. None of the hostages or aircrew are given any characterisation at all and Idi Amin is virtually just a walk-on/walk-off part.

The rescue mission itself feels almost tacked on at the end, and is weirdly intercut with a modern dance performance which is probably supposed to be deep and meaningful but just distracts from the extreme danger of the situation.

A bit of a dud.

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

I went to see Entebbe at the weekend, the latest retelling of the 1976 Air France hijacking that ended with a daring and (mostly) successful rescue operation in Uganda by Israeli armed forces.

I was underwhelmed by it, and would say it probably deserves the critical reception it has received.

For a film that tells such a dramatic true story, it is quite lacking in tension and drama for long periods, and I wasn't convinced by its sympathetic portrayal of the terrorists either. None of the hostages or aircrew are given any characterisation at all and Idi Amin is virtually just a walk-on/walk-off part.

The rescue mission itself feels almost tacked on at the end, and is weirdly intercut with a modern dance performance which is probably supposed to be deep and meaningful but just distracts from the extreme danger of the situation.

A bit of a dud.

Oh dear. That was to be our MEERKAT movie this week, probably still will be. It seems to have been on the trailer list for ever! Best of the most recent for me was Lean on Pete! A challenging watch but an outstanding performance from the young lad who plays the lead. 

Saw Redoubtable last week - still unsure what to think. 

12 minutes ago, distantdog said:

Oh dear. That was to be our MEERKAT movie this week, probably still will be. It seems to have been on the trailer list for ever! Best of the most recent for me was Lean on Pete! A challenging watch but an outstanding performance from the young lad who plays the lead. 

Saw Redoubtable last week - still unsure what to think. 

I'd be interested to know what you think if you do go see Entebbe. I'd seen the trailer a lot too, which is why I went.

My expectations may have been too high. 

Saw Deadpool 2 in Hemel Hempstead while staying over after the Bulls recent trip to play the Stags at Pennine Way.

Have to say I think it is every bit as good as the first one, if not better. Essentially it's more of the same, daft plot, wisecracks, in-jokes, breaking the fourth wall and an unhealthy serving of gratuitous violence, but it just seemed to be done with a bit more swagger and confidence. They know it's a successful formula now. The cinema was packed n'all on a hot Sunday evening. I lol'd many times.

For the sake of trying something a bit different, I went to see the Han Solo Star Wars film in 4DX at the Cineworld in Castleford last weekend. For the uninitiated, that involves seats that move about in synch with the on screen action, smoke and light effects in the auditorium, and occasional blasts of air around your face and ears, plus actual water being sprayed on you from time to time. Oh, and the film itself is in 3D too, to complete the multiple distractions.

It was quite a novelty and if you were seeing a dull film it would stop you nodding off halfway through that's for sure. I quite enjoyed the Solo film anyway though, not sure why it has had such lukewarm reviews elsewhere. It's possibly just a bit too long, but it fills in plenty of gaps in the Han Solo backstory, and the actor playing the character does a decent turn. I could imagine him growing up to become Harrison Ford.

I'm going to see the new Jurassic World film in 4DX this weekend, and after that, I'll probably have had too much excitement and it'll be back to good old fashioned (and significantly cheaper!) 2D for me.

Personally I thought Deadpool 2 had the best opening Bond sequence in many years and I loved the mid credits scene. Overall as John did, I really enjoyed it too!

As for 4DX I've always suspected I'd pay NOT to sit in those seats.

Solo

A good old fashioned action yarn.  Thought it did a good job of keeping you entertained all the way through with various plot twists, thrills and spills.  I think it took itself less seriously than many of the recent Star Wars films and was all the better for it.

7.5/10

2 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Solo

A good old fashioned action yarn.  Thought it did a good job of keeping you entertained all the way through with various plot twists, thrills and spills.  I think it took itself less seriously than many of the recent Star Wars films and was all the better for it.

7.5/10

Saw it today and really enjoyed it.

Just been to see The Book Club with Mrs Phil, it wasn’t bad at all for a chic flick lite 

5 hours ago, John Drake said:

I quite enjoyed the Solo film anyway though, not sure why it has had such lukewarm reviews elsewhere.

The Star Wars films are now facing a concerted online campaign because they push a feminist agenda...

3 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

The Star Wars films are now facing a concerted online campaign because they push a feminist agenda...

Really? 

Just now, Phil said:

Really? 

Yup.  They also don't like black stormtroopers...