Movies 2: Electric Boogaloo

Jimbob wrote:

masofdas wrote:

I watched Whisper of the Heart which wasn't what I was expecting as I thought it was a fairytale set in this cat kingdom but I did enjoy it.

You're thinking of Heathcliff: The Movie

I think I'm thinking of The Cat Returns.

Nah, he was thinking of Garfield: A Tale of 2 Kitties.

It's one of my favourite things Oscar time and I've got some predictions:

Best Picture - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Director - Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Best Actor - Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
Best Actress - Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actor - Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actress - Allison Janney in I, Tonya

Anything from you guys?

I watched Fast & Fuurious 8 for the first time last night and while I enjoyed it and still love those characters it's went a bit too far into the secret agent side of things for me that it may as well have been a XXX movie.

They have done that, haven’t they? It is a bit unusual - I mean, I enjoy the series for the car stunts and there’s definitely more human stunts (Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham hitting people, each other). I still like it because of the family stuff but Kurt Russell’s character could definitely depart the series with minimum fuss.

With apologies to mas but the Oscars are not my thing, and that is ever since they didn’t give Amélie the Foreign Language Oscar during its year (it went to a worthy non-frivolous film about the war in Bosnia).

How have the Dwayne Johnson instalments of Fast been? I recently watched Baywatch and it exceeded my expectations. Also enjoyed Central Intelligence with him and Kevin Hart, and I hear good things about the Jumanji follow-up. Quickly becoming a reliable name.

I've been enjoying them. They're bigger and dumber with each installment, basically just action silliness where the cast happen to be good at driving cars. If you were into the street racing vibe, people say it's all downhill after Fast Five. If you're into bald men with big muscles killing baddies and talking about family, the series only gets better and better.

This does bring me to something I've been wanting to discuss for a while though: The Rock's character, Luke Hobbs, has really inconsistent treatment. In Fast Five, where he is the primary antagonist for much of the film, he's pretty interesting. Ruthless, cold and obsessed with the mission. He wants to catch Toretto, and to do that he will take any means necessary. He's on the side of the law, but he's an absolute dick and makes a good counterpoint to the main crew who are bandits with hearts of gold.

By the time you get to F8 of the Furious, he's just The Rock playing The Rock. He's entertaining to watch, as he is in anything, but I no longer feel like he's playing a role. It's like a weak wrestling heel/ face turn, where as soon as they're on the other side they completely change their attitude and persona. It's a shame, as his performance in films like Fast Five, or Jumanji, show he can actually bring some nuance to which kind of big tough dude he's playing.

Drunka wrote:

I've been enjoying them. They're bigger and dumber with each installment, basically just action silliness where the cast happen to be good at driving cars. If you were into the street racing vibe, people say it's all downhill after Fast Five. If you're into bald men with big muscles killing baddies and talking about family, the series only gets better and better.

Yeah, they're not bad they're just turning into something I didn't want them to be sadly - it's also hard to care about the bad guys in this film because it seems like they'll just get added to the family sooner or later.  

Fast 8 starts off so great too & I'd have much preferred a simple action film set in Cuba.

masofdas wrote:

It's one of my favourite things Oscar time and I've got some predictions:

Best Picture - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Director - Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Best Actor - Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
Best Actress - Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actor - Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actress - Allison Janney in I, Tonya

Just the one wrong but hey we can have this

I watched Get Out over the weekend. Absolutely brilliant film that fully deserves its Oscar for screenplay. I don't think I've ever felt as much dread watching a movie than I did watching this one. Highly recommended - has anyone else seen it?

JayMoyles wrote:

I watched Get Out over the weekend. Absolutely brilliant film that fully deserves its Oscar for screenplay. I don't think I've ever felt as much dread watching a movie than I did watching this one. Highly recommended - has anyone else seen it?

Yep watched it a few weeks back and really enjoyed it as well, if you tell someone that it's a horror film it honestly feels like you're doing it a massive disservice.

I thought I'd never see it so read the Wikipedia synopsis... then saw it. It's a good film, but with knowledge of all the twists and turns, not the blinder I'd heard it described as.

I think it would hold up on a second viewing... but probably not on a viewing after just reading about it.

Just watched The Cat Returns and it was a banger, next I've got Spirited Away.

Guess who has had someone to see films with this weekend:

Game Night - Very funny, hadn't heard too much about this but it was an absolute joy to watch.
Tomb Raider - Average, I liked the bits where they strayed away from feeling too Tomb Raidery better.
The Greatest Showman - Absolutely amazing, I was semi interested in the trailer but I never thought I'd actually get around to it, but as it has managed to stay in cinemas crazy long I took the plunge. Banger
Shape of Water - Nice, it was a nice story. Kind of weird, but ultimately nice.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

Tomb Raider - Average, I liked the bits where they strayed away from feeling too Tomb Raidery better.

I'm just back from seeing this. I preferred this version to the Jolie versions from the early 2000s - I think that's because I like the new version of Lara from the reboots more than the original PS1 era Lara, and that's the model that they've built Vikander's Lara around.

I agree with what you're on about Andy - the actual tomb raiding bits felt like scrapped ideas from an Indiana Jones movie and weren't particularly great, but the rest of the movie was pretty good, all told.

One thing that made me laugh looking back on it:

Spoiler:

Oh, and it was bloody bizarre seeing the Squeenix logo pop up in the cinema. I felt the same when I was watching the Assassin's Creed movie and the Ubisoft logo popped up.

Just come back from watching Ready Player One, I've not read the book and after Drunkas review of it, I've never planned to.

The film and now the book might be different, is just a dumb popcorn movie, I think that's what movie critics would call it and not a lot else of any real note. If you like seeing some nerdy things on screen blowing stuff up, that's what you're getting and don't expect anything else.

I saw it on Sunday. It's fine. It's really really dumb at points and obviously coasts on the references contained within it, but I had a good time.

The best bits are when Spielberg moves away from the world of video games and general nerd culture (it's these parts that feel cheap and purely for nostalgia's sake) and into the realm of cinema. It's clear those are the bits he wanted to get his hands on. There's a section of the film dedicated to one classic movie in particular which was a treat to watch and was genuinely funny throughout that whole scene if you've seen the movie in question - which I had!

Although, I suppose that's the problem with the film, isn't it? If you're not aware of half the things that pop up within the movie, it's going to feel flat and meaningless. I'm a big geek so I got a kick out of seeing Mecha Godzilla scrapping with a Gundam or Master Chief teaming up with Tracer, but it wasn't anything that would stay with me after leaving the cinema.

It's worth a watch, I'd say - I was entertained at the very least and delighted with a couple of scenes in the movie. But, a "dumb popcorn flick" is a reasonable assessment of Ready Player One, all told.

Watched Ponyo yesterday and Spirited Away today, both really good films but I'm posting to see if anyone has seen A Quiet Place? as I'm hearing good things about it.

Can't say I enjoyed Ready Player One much at all, I just could not stand the main character whatsoever. The references felt lazy and thrown in for the sake of it and it really felt like poorly written fan-fiction without a single original idea.

I also saw:
Rampage - fun action with big monsters and the rock
Isle of Dogs - bit of a weird one, I enjoyed it and am glad I saw it but I'm not 100% sure I get it.
Blockers - This was a great surprise, when I saw the trailer I thought it looked like hot trash, but after seeing some positive reviews I gave it a go and it was really good. A fun comedy with a lot of heart.

Everything comes out super late here. Ready Player One is out on 4/20, which I think is a deliberate bit of advice on how to actually enjoy that hot mess.
At least Infinity War is a worldwide release.

I watched Ready Player One. I felt like I had to, y'know? I can't believe how much of a free pass some of y'all are giving it!

And all of the issues with the movie are why I gave the book a massive pass back when folks were reading it last year (or was it the year before last?)

Watched Logan a couple of weeks back. A depressing but arguably fitting end to the story of Wolverine. I wager the fate of a certain character had people raging though.

Reading your RP1 verdict, Drunka, it feels like it's a film for people that are familiar with the references in that they can place them, but don't know them. The part-time or middle-ground nerds. Not the people who won't get them at all, and not people like yourself who can tell your fellow cinemagoers five fun facts about the origins of each character.

Then again, Scullion enjoyed it... Maybe you do need to watch it stoned.

It's not just the references and the death of art that they represent: it's also a poorly made film telling a bad story. It's not for anyone apart from braindead idiots. I need to just stop talking to anyone about RP1 because it genuinely makes me angry and that's so unnecessary and unhealthy. I AM OFFICIALLY DONE.