Movies 2: Electric Boogaloo

Trust the fungus.

Last night I gave myself a break from exam marking to see Central Intelligence, the comedy with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. It was whatever descriptor is on the notch below 'average'. Sad.

I quite enjoyed Central Intelligence. Johnson actually played a roll, and the romp was fun. It didn't make me laugh that much, mind.

I laughed, a bit - more than anyone else watching it with me, at least. It was far less funny than it could have been, though, and the pacing was more uneven than a whole stack of odd numbers.

I recently watched Straight Outta Compton which after I tweeted seems a lot hasn't changed as it's set in the late 80's and it's now the late 10's, and songs like F@%K tha Police can still have plenty of meaning 30 years later.

Also last night I watched Ex Machina mainly as they had Alicia Vikander on the radio, ans they talked Bourne (I've never seen a Bourne film) and Tomb Raider. So I thought I'd give her Oscar winning role a watch and dam it was a good film.

Saw The Secret Life Of Pets whilst I was on holiday. It was not particularly good, having blown all its best jokes during the trailers (and I found few of them funny). Hoping to see Ghostbusters (2016 film) soon, to which I am looking forward - Melissa McCarthy's comic talent is like a gift to the world.

I never watched the original ghostbusters the whole way through because it just looks terrible by today's standards. And I probably won't watch the new one because I have exactly 0 interest in it.
I have however watched Zootopia recently and it was amazing. Really good animation and plenty of laughs - not huge, aching belly laughs like kung fu panda 3, but chuckles and giggles.

I have also watched Kung Fu Panda 3.
AND IT WAS AWESOME Kung Fu Panda movies are always hilarious and 3 is no different, really well written and the graphics are just superb. A fantastic end to the trilogy.

I liked the old Ghostbusters, but it is very of its time. Ghostbusthers, on the other hand, is an absolutely brilliant films. Creepy when it wanted to be, hilarious when it needed to be, heartfelt and exciting. Brilliant stuff start to finish, with just enough love for the original without stepping on the toes of being its own film.

Jim Trinca of Videogamer put it best. The original film was super 80s, with a group of baby boomers running around and messing shit up like money wasn't a thing. The new Ghostbusters are appropriately millenial, struggling to pay rent and dealing with a cynical world that won't believe in ghosts right in front of their eyes. There's a particularly hilarious joke about rent that absolutely sold me on this one.

Seconded. Ghostbusters (2016 film)

DIGRESSION ALERT: So Wikipedia.

is a big heap of fun and funny. The trailers didn't do it justice in that regard and, in fact, I feel they should be having a word with the publicity team about that. As Drunk Man said, it's got a lot of respect for the original and a big dollop of heart - its own heart, crucially. Also, Kate McKinnon is amazing. Film of the summer so far.

It'll be interesting to see if it keeps that title once I've seen Finding Dory.

Unfortunately, comedy films are very rarely done justice by trailers. Jokes rely on context and timing which a three minute trailer can't provide.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I liked the old Ghostbusters, but it is very of its time. Ghostbusthers, on the other hand, is an absolutely brilliant films. Creepy when it wanted to be, hilarious when it needed to be, heartfelt and exciting. Brilliant stuff start to finish, with just enough love for the original without stepping on the toes of being its own film.

Jim Trinca of Videogamer put it best. The original film was super 80s, with a group of baby boomers running around and messing shit up like money wasn't a thing. The new Ghostbusters are appropriately millenial, struggling to pay rent and dealing with a cynical world that won't believe in ghosts right in front of their eyes. There's a particularly hilarious joke about rent that absolutely sold me on this one.

I'm now way more interested in seeing this, it wasn't the woman Ghostbusters that bothered me but the fact it was reboot of a film I loved when I was younger & most of the time these don't usually turn out too well (Total Recall, Robocop) so it's good to hear both you & Zero enjoyed it.

I am curious about the film and yet also hesitant as my reason is I'm not the biggest fan of Melissa MCcarthy

This isn't a "Melissa Mcarthy film" as such. She's in it, but she's part of an ensemble and a little less overdoing it than usual.

Jas: it was definitely better than Robocop. That movie absolutely missed the tone, message and point of the original whereas this movie has a lot of heart.

I've just got back from watching Ghostbusters and thought it was brilliant. For reference I don't like the original, but do like Melissa Mcarthy, so feel free to disregard my opinion

I feel sort of the same as Shanks, I love the first Ghostbusters and I just don't find Melissa Mcarthy from what I've seen of her.

That a reboot of a classic film then add in someone, I don't find funny and it becomes something I'm not sure about watching but it has had a positive response now including you guys that when it comes out on DVD, Blu Ray etc I will give a watch.

Saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation last night. I love Ghost Protocol but RN fell short of its pure thrill ride: the stunts seemed smaller and the whole story more intimate, more personal. It's just not what I was expecting, to be honest.

Just got back from seeing Star Trek Beyond and my two word review is: it's okay

But it is a odd number Trek which I'm right in thinking are normally not great

Right. The odd/ even thing falls apart unless you include Galaxy Quest.

1 Star Trek: The Motion Picture A bit dull
2 Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan Masterpiece
3 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock A bit of a mess
4 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Comedy gold
5 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Weird and shite
6 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Good fun romp
7 Star Trek: Generations Missed opportunity
8 Star Trek: First Contact Great action piece
9 Star Trek: Insurrection Not awful, but nothing special. Feels like an episode of the show.
10 Galaxy Quest Amazing comedy
11 Star Trek: Nemesis Shit film that killed the franchise for years
12 Star Trek Excellent little reboot that captures the characters wonderfully while being a fun modern film
13 Star Trek Into Darkness I enjoyed it in the cinema, but the Khan thing was pointless and racist, the callbacks to the old film make no sense in retrospect, and the inter-planet teleporter and the anti-death potion ruin the potential adventure in the future. Not a terrible film, but disappointing.
14 Star Trek Beyond: Who knows. The director is a Trekkie and Pegg wrote it, so I'm optimistic.

Star Trek's better on TV than in films anyway, so fingers crossed for Star Trek: Discovery.

Galaxy Quest homage to Star Trek and the reboot before it was Star Trek was known as Star Trek 11 and I would call Beyond number 13.

Well, yeah, technically, but the point is you need to fiddle it to make the odd/ even thing work.

I wonder if they purposely tried to make alternate ones rubbish? Like, "It's the seventh one, it has to be bad... everyone ready?".

Yeah it's weird as Trek 11 is good but 12 isn't maybe it's a cast thing

With all of them, you can see how they went wrong. It's just a really odd phenomenon.

The first one I actually like, but it was a slow, thoughtful science fiction in the very classic mould which had the misfortune to release after Star Wars had completely changed the game.
The third one isn't awful, but it goes out of the way to undo all the things that made of Wrath of Khan interesting. By the end of Star Trek III, the characters who died in II are back and the ones introduced in II are dead.
Five was a Shatner vanity project. Generations seemed to either have too much faith in the two captains thing or not enough faith in the next gen because there was just no budget for the action. Insurrection, as I said, was unambitious. Nemesis was trying to be an action film but it relied on a pretty old cast and an insufficient budget again. And I've made my thoughts on Into Darkness clear.

I liked Star Trek Beyond. I'm not a huge Star Trek fan by any stretch - I've only seen a handful of episodes from TOS - but I've enjoyed the reboot film series. Beyond is a bit of a different beast compared to the previous two. It feels a bit stripped back compared to the previous two films and is a bit more fun, I'd say. I enjoyed it, so I'd say that's a thumbs up from me.

I quite enjoyed Beyond as well, though

Spoiler: