What film did you watch last night?

[asteldian]

Hey, there's no account for taste: people used to watch executions in public squares and wild animals eating gladiators for fun!

And if Gladiator battles still went on you can be sure I would be there! Anyway, films:

XXX Return of Xander Cage 4/10 - Probably a generous score to some, but to be fair I knew exactly what to expect when going in. Over the top cheese, a bit of a Vin Diesel vanity project, definitely a poor alternative to watching the Fast and Furious series of films, but pretty much did what it set out to do which was let you turn off the brain and be distracted for 90 mins.

Nice Guys 5/10 - No doubt seems wrong to score this so similarly to XXX, and part of this is probably due to having high expectations and being a bit disappointed. I found it not nearly as amusing as I expected, a couple of chuckles. It was decent enough a film played very well by the actors, but overall I found it a bit....beige?

The Accountant 8/10 - Really enjoyed this, not much to say other than it was a surprisingly good film. Could probably argue it was a bit 'slow' in places but I never found it to drag and was entertained throughout.

Blood Father 5/10 - A bit of a Takenesque film with Mel Gibson. I liked the more manic style he brought to the film though was expecting it to be more aggressive all out action.

 

[Steampunk]

Hidden Figures: Great movie about three African-American women in the 60s battling both racism and sexism as they perform critical jobs at NASA during the 60's space race. Based on a true story. It's a nice historical biopic well acted and nicely shot as these three genius women work their way up against people who just can't understand the value of a genius level intellect because it belongs to a black woman.

Passengers: In the first act, Chris Pratt does a good job as a sci-fi Robinson Crusoe stuck alone and going slowly crazy in a luxury colony ship with ninety years till it's arrival. In the second act, Jennifer Lawrence appears as a love interest, and it's a great little love story with a clever, but obvious twist. However, Lawrence simply acts Pratt off the screen. She doesn't just look great, she's simply more believable in every way. When she loves him, it's convincing, when she hates him, more so. Where the film goes wrong is in the third act where they divert off into a "save the ship" sci-fi action film. They actually have to magic up a third character to set the whole thing up, and then the script ignores the love story until the end. It's basic "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy saves the world to get the girl back", but the detour is so jarring to the love story that has gone before.

The film looks great, as do the stars, but Chris Pratt (whilst great as an action/humour star) can't hold his own against Lawrence when it comes to acting and screen presence. It's not his fault, I thought he was great in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, but as the sole male lead, he had to up his game against someone of Lawrence's calibre and the good performance she gives in this film. The script has some plot holes that can be ignored, but a better script would have been less lazy with regards to veering the film off into action territory. It's as if the studio wanted a bit of action at the end, because "sci-fi", and the writers used it as an easy way of bringing the two leads back together. There's a reason they didn't put a plane crash, firey skyscraper, or bank hiest at the end of "Silver Linings Playbook" to bring the two leads back together - it's a dumb idea that spoils the film, and that's exactly what they did with Passengers.

 

[Mark1989]

Passengers, I really enjoyed the film tbh. 8/10

 

[Willir]

Logan 8.5/10

Really enjoyed it, loved how violent and darker it was compared to the latter Marvel films. I have always said it that Marvel should have went down the darker themed route years ago following Blade. Deadpool & Logan are probably up there with 2 of my favorite Marvel films in recent years, Guardians of the Galaxy is up there too.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Testament of Youth. Alicia Vikander falls in love with Kit Harrington just as World War I breaks out. Hilarity singularly fails to ensue. It's pretty grim all told. Very good, mind you.

She is amazing in this, and when I watched it I had no idea English isn't her first language.

 

[datalol-jack]

Hidden Figures: Great movie about three African-American women in the 60s battling both racism and sexism as they perform critical jobs at NASA during the 60's space race. Based on a true story. It's a nice historical biopic well acted and nicely shot as these three genius women work their way up against people who just can't understand the value of a genius level intellect because it belongs to a black woman.

Boss! Also, on a somewhat related note - a book: Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference (Race, Gender, & Science) by Claudia Henrion. An interesting read for anyone curious about how women were coming through the STEM ranks back in the day in the US. Mostly focuses on careers, education and life in academic mathematics, though. Very relatable and human stories. Halmos and Hardy sound like pompous, melancholic prats by comparison, with half the backbone and twice the opportunity.

 

[IvanDobskey]

Ghost in the shell at the cinema.

If you take it as it is as its own film, very good i thought. Much better than i expected.

7/10 I'd say. Maybe an extra .5 for scarlet johansen in a spray on outfit

Of course the original anime version is the superior film if you are going to compare them though.

 

[FrankJH]

The original Resident Evil film 5/10 - loved how it was set up and the 1st hour (quite a few familiar faces like Colin Salmon, Michelle Rodriguez & James Purefoy - who I think looks spitting image of a young Hugh Jackman) but after that it got a little monotonous with a few good scenes thrown in. Only really got this because I got Afterlife on 4k BR recently and enjoyed it as escapist fun and wanted to see how the series started.

My Fair Lady - 10/10 - Knew what to expect even though I havent seen it in 25+ years and loved every minute of it so much Im trying to find a few more Hepburn classics (already have Breakfast at Tiffany's, but want to get Roman Holiday, Sabrina and a couple more.......admittedly Im more familiar with the Harrison Ford remake of the latter which I also like, but have wanted the original for a while).

 

[datalol-jack]

The original Resident Evil film 5/10 - loved how it was set up and the 1st hour (quite a few familiar faces like Colin Salmon, Michelle Rodriguez & James Purefoy - who I think looks spitting image of a young Hugh Jackman) but after that it got a little monotonous with a few good scenes thrown in. Only really got this because I got Afterlife on 4k BR recently and enjoyed it as escapist fun and wanted to see how the series started.

Just play the HD version/remake of the original game... but it still won't tell you much about the spaghetti thinking of the film series. As a rule of thumb: game adaptation is bad, since a lot of the fun is inextricably linked to player agency.

 

[FrankJH]

Just play the HD version/remake of the original game... but it still won't tell you much about the spaghetti thinking of the film series. As a rule of thumb: game adaptation is bad, since a lot of the fun is inextricably linked to player agency.

forgot there was even a game

 

[datalol-jack]

forgot there was even a game

I think that was kind of the idea, actually!

 

[Steedie]

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

What? What did I even watch? The story just seemed...well there was one and that's about all I can say about it. I normally like these films as a switch off and enjoy kind of film, but this was just awful.

4/10

 

[Sankari]

The Great Wall.

Matt H. Damon stars as Matt H. Damon in Zhang Yimou's controversial 'white saviour' action flick.

Willem Dafoe drags himself through the exposition scenes and phones in a half decent performance. Andy Lau also makes an

Spoiler

inexplicable

appearance, and spends most of his time looking

Spoiler

apologetic or confused.

Tin Jing delivers a reasonably

Spoiler

convincing

performance as

Spoiler

That Girl With the Hair.

The plot is simple. Damon and his friend Pero Tovar are

Spoiler

mercenaries

who have travelled to

Spoiler

China

in search of

Spoiler

black powder.

The Chinese

Spoiler

capture

them and explain that the

Spoiler

Great Wall

was built to protect the empire from a horde of

Spoiler

green aliens

that landed on a

Spoiler

nearby mountain

several thousand years ago and attack every

Spoiler

60 years

because

Spoiler

of reasons.

At first the

Spoiler

Chinese

want to

Spoiler

kill

Damon, but they change their minds because

Spoiler

he is white.

Damon doesn't want to hang around but changes his mind after realising

Spoiler

That Girl With the Hair

is better looking than

Spoiler

most of the East European prostitutes he's slept with

so he decides to stay and

Spoiler

help

with the expectation of

Spoiler

getting his leg over in the penultimate scene.

The Chinese are OK with this because

Spoiler

he is white.

The aliens attack several times but the Chinese manage to hold them off thanks to the presence of Damon, because

Spoiler

he is white.

Yada yada yada, turns out the aliens were

Spoiler

burrowing towards the capital all along, and the attacks on the wall were just a diversion

so now there's a mad scramble to stop them before they

Spoiler

eat the emperor.

Because apparently they want to

Spoiler

eat the emperor.

The Chinese reach the capital with the aid of

Spoiler

hot air balloons that could not possibly fly

but Damon

Spoiler

manages to fly one because he is white.

Yada yada yada, Damon manages to

Spoiler

kill the alien queen because he is white.

The aliens

Spoiler

all die instantly

because

Spoiler

of reasons.

Roll credits, throw popcorn.

I was surprised and somewhat alarmed by the unrealistic number of Chinese people in every scene. It seems to me that there were even more Chinese people than you would expect to find in a movie about Chinese people in China. Fortunately the presence of Damon balances this out a bit,

Spoiler

because he is white.

I rate The Great Wall at 19.98 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as a disappointing 6/10 on IMDB.

:/

 

[Steedie]

Summer Camp

Horror showing on Sky at the moment, don't bother

4/10

 

[MoDe]

Battle Royal.

Daft action packed fun.

5/10.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I think that's pretty much the logical conclusion of the

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

spoiler tag

reached.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Battle Royal.

Daft action packed fun.

5/10.

Battle Royale? The iconic Japanese film? 5/10? You be illin'.

 

[Raymond Lin]

The Handmaiden

What a beautifully shot movie from the director of Old Boy (Korean). The culture, the intrigue, the characters, the performance, the style and story is just wonderfull capture and made.

So good! Although I would not go watch this with your family...at times it is like a full on porno.

 

[Nitefly]

Battle Royale? The iconic Japanese film? 5/10? You be illin'.

I found it interesting conceptually but boring in execution. 6/10 from me.

Currently watching the BFG, the recent version. Clearly aimed at young children as it's almost unwatchable as an adult. 0/10

 

[Raymond Lin]

Battle Royal is great, it's the Hollywood copycat that stars J-Law which is the lite version. Sorry Nitefly!