What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

[danutz_plusplus]

Too bad. I had fun with Don't Look Up. I was shocked it was done by the same guy that did Vice, and Talladega Nights, Stepbrothers.

I watched Inglorious Basterds again. Great fun was had.

 

[Ripper]

I tried watching Don't Look Up, yet couldn't get into it myself. It seemed like maybe it wanted to be similar to Strangelove, yet fell seriously short, imo. I gave up after thirty minutes and went back to watching Hannibal, the television version.

Yeah, it didn't do much for me - a few funny bits here and there. I saw the Guardian review, and thought that was about right.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...udded-comet-satire-dont-look-up-is-a-disaster

 

[JDR13]

I watched Inglorious Basterds again. Great fun was had.

Awesome flick. The tavern sequence never gets old.

 

[Carnifex]

Honestly, I don't think there's a Tarantino film I've not enjoyed yet. Some are better than others yet he's not dropped a stinker yet, I've ever re-watched most of them. Too bad we'll never get his take on Star Trek, it certainly couldn't be any worse than what that franchise has produced since 2005.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I saw another film I enjoyed. The French Dispatch, and it's very much like most of Wes Anderson's films. That is filled with great amount of detail, in very quirky and dreamlike sets that all look fantastic. I'm not sure I connected with it emotionally very much, but that feels like a similar reaction of mine to most of his films. But just as most of his films they're a great delight to see. Each set and shot is so creatively done, and I particularly loved one transition where the young actor playing a character was exchanged for the different actor playing the older version of the character. Also, Benicio Del Torro was really great. I loved his character and story the most, of all of the little stories the film portrays.

I had previously seen his Moonrise Kingdom, and I feel I didn't enjoy that very much. It was interesting, but I think the premise was not particularly interesting to me. The French Dispatch felt very different, in that I really enjoyed the setting and subject matter.

 

[Ripper]

Did you see Grand Budapest Hotel? That was a favourite of mine in recent years, and I always thought Stefan Zweig was an interesting cat. Some of my mates find Anderson a bit too arch and artful, but for me the sense of humour makes it work.

I liked Moonrise Kingdom, too. I think it was the last good movie I saw Willis in, and in which he deigned to expend energy on acting.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah I saw Grand Budapest and remember liking it, but I can’t remember much of it. Pretty much the same for all his movies. Not sure if it’s my memory, or if they’re just more to be experienced than remembered.

 

[Carnifex]

I've seen Grand Budapest Hotel, the week it released and I've already watched it again, maybe six months ago. It's a solid film, fully engaging, with a great cast and marvelous sets, not to mention all the subjects covered.

 

[Carnifex]

Ok, so last night I turned on Amazon and saw an advert for a film called The Tender Bar....and right before I flicked past it, I saw Chris Lloyd in the cast, so yeah, I had to see Rev Jim of course! Then I next see Lily Rabe in the flick, and Afleck, so I stuck around and got to see a rather moving, intelligent film. I highly recommend checking this one out, especially if you've any lingering father issues.

 

[lackblogger]

I've been spending the past few weeks looking into past adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

I wont list them all at this point, but let's take a look at this version of Sherlock Holmes from 1931:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQNU_kwOYNE

Which is freely available on Youtube as public domain content. Yes, that's the whole film linked.

The sheer nostalgia it generates is quite indescribable. I mean, my parents weren't even born then, let alone me, and yet it conjures up so much nostalgia. Both the familiar character and settings plus the fact that these kind of films did used to be on television when I was growing up.

Everything about how films looked and sounded then is of a certain style, a style so conforming to all the other films of that era that you could watch any one of them and get very similar sensations.

And then you realise that the last Sherlock Holmes story Conan Doyle published was actually March 5th 1927, and you then apply that thought to the nostalgia of watching something that is, essentially, contemporary with it's original author. It would have been as contemporary to people in 1931 as Harry Potter was nearly 10 years ago.

And then it hits you. The fact that there are people still alive today who likely saw this film in the cinema on release day, or near enough, and saw it at an age that would have been memorable, like a 10 year old in 1977 going to see Star Wars. It looks so old, so old as to be from a whole different human age, and yet is still contemporary cinema in terms of being a film that could be of living memory.

Also, this film was, until very recently, thought lost forever. A copy was found in the USA & it's kind of a miracle it even now exists.

Truly fascinating.

 

[Carnifex]

Ahhhh that's a real gem you've found there, Lackblogger, I'm going to make certain I re-watch some of those great Doyle offerings. Those people got most of the stories quite correct, imo, and the casts were damn solid.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Personally, I like the adaptation of the older BBC series most. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1984_TV_series) I found it so good that I never watched another version.

 

[lackblogger]

Yeah, a lot of people have a lot of love for the Brett era of Holmes, it has an air of the definitive about it. I liked it a lot, but wouldn't let it preclude me from seeing any other interpretations.

 

[Carnifex]

True, I often find myself lured to the newer incarnations of shows/films, yet find myself usually preferring the older ones. I give the current ones a fair shake, they just done measure up for the most part.

 

[JDR13]

Copshop

The latest action flick from Joe Carnahan who directed the criminally underrated Smoking Aces. A friend of mine told me this was similar.

It's not on the same level as Smoking Aces (imo). It's not bad though. It's about a sleezy FBI informant who gets himself arrested in an attempt to save his skin from the hitmen who are after him. However, the jail he ends up in isn't as safe as he thought it would be.

There are a decent amount of characters, but the only actors I was familiar with are Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo. I thought the acting in general though was pretty decent though. It's a good popcorn flick.

 

[Carnifex]

Last night I carried out my threat and re-watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show yet again! It's a great way to get a totally silly story told to you with a great soundtrack at the same time.

And this time felt extra special, with Michael gone. /salute

 

[DArtagnan]

Matrix Resurrections

I'd say it was sort of ok. I kinda liked it, actually.

I was aided by low expectations, and I was all but certain it would never meet the standards of the first Matrix. I expected something on a similar level as the sequels - and I think that's about right.

Now, I used to quite like Reloaded - and found Revolutions passable. I have to say, though, that re-watching those recently made me change my mind a bit. They're not very good - at least not in terms of my current preferences.

In that way, I can honestly say that I think Resurrections is better - but definitely not a "great film". At least it's different.

I found some of the concepts interesting - and I think, in general, that it's been received somewhat harshly by most people.

Probably 6/10 or something like that.

 

[JDR13]

You feeling ok, DArt? You didn't hit your head or anything, right?

 

[DArtagnan]

You feeling ok, DArt? You didn't hit your head or anything, right?

I'm functioning within normal parameters

 

[SirJames]

Matrix Resurrections

I found some of the concepts interesting - and I think, in general, that it's been received somewhat harshly by most people.

Probably 6/10 or something like that.

Some of the concepts were interesting, but they totally failed to meaningfully develop any of them in a 2.5 hour movie.

For example, I thought it was interesting that the new city in reality had sided with machines and they developed a method of allowing sentient AI to interact with the real world using some sort of buggy floating metal dots. But what did this mean for the story? The robots helped them break in to the enemy base. Meh, anything could have done that. It's like they just designed the lock based on the key. Other than that, this concept was irreverent.

Bullet time, interesting enough. Didn't really matter. How did they beat it? I don't even remember. Did they hold hands or something?

What else was there? Oh, instead of Agents being able to take over peoples bodies they now just make them jump out of windows at passing cars? WTF is with that? What a waste of a battery. Why not just magically manifest some walls or something? Stupid idea.

I think not having Agent Smith was a massive blow to the movie. And the new Morpheus was a very weak character. All the characters were pretty weak, really.

Overall, it really was pretty shit. I sort of enjoyed the ride, good production values, lots of money gone into it. They even sort of let you know, early on, that Warner Brothers was forcing it; to help lower expectations!

I would have said the original Matrix was 10/10 back when I first saw it. But I'd probably have to give this new one a 4/10. I'm glad I saw it, but I'm sure I'll never want to watch it again, unlike the original.