What film did you watch last night?

We watched X-Men Days of Future Past again the other day, in readiness for watching Apocalypse, which had come in the post from LOVEFiLM. Days... is comfortably superior. Apocalypse is endless bang crash green screen, and the key superpower seems to be the ability to deliver those lines with a straight face, although notable mention for Psylocke who was granted the ability to wear the fan service male gaze costume even if she didn't do much else.

Plot wise, a major problem is that there is no real jeopardy from Apocalypse, because you know that Jean Grey could take him to pieces at any moment, and then lol and behold she does. That also draws attention to the fact that all these films fundamentally revolve around a character getting too powerful and wanting to reshape the world their way, and while this time Jean gets to save the world, a few films back it was her turn to destroy it.

This post doesn't really address the gulf between the two movies, possibly the biggest drop off by a single director I can think of.
 
Black Mass, a solid couple of hours entertainment. 7/10.

Recently:

The Revenant, Scenery/Cinematography 8/10. The rest of it 6/10. 'The Grey' with Liam Neeson was a far better, same film really, a long chase across the snow with lovely scenery, terrible weather etc but the wolves were genuinely menacing.It felt claustrophobic and scary at times which The Revenant never did, and there were no broken legs that mysteriously fixed themselves, a nice twist at the end for those that hadn't caught on, and no BS Hollywood miracle reprieve for Neeson.

Interstellar - 8/10.
 
We watched X-Men Days of Future Past again the other day, in readiness for watching Apocalypse, which had come in the post from LOVEFiLM. Days... is comfortably superior. Apocalypse is endless bang crash green screen, and the key superpower seems to be the ability to deliver those lines with a straight face, although notable mention for Psylocke who was granted the ability to wear the fan service male gaze costume even if she didn't do much else.

Plot wise, a major problem is that there is no real jeopardy from Apocalypse, because you know that Jean Grey could take him to pieces at any moment, and then lol and behold she does. That also draws attention to the fact that all these films fundamentally revolve around a character getting too powerful and wanting to reshape the world their way, and while this time Jean gets to save the world, a few films back it was her turn to destroy it.

If Apocalypse is worse than 'Days' then I certainly won't waste my time with it. 'Days' was absolutely woeful. To be fair I think the entire Superhero/Comic book genre is completely played out on Film and TV. There hasn't been a really good comic adaptation since Watchmen or The Dark Knight, (the final Batman was nothing more than decent).

There's no jeopardy in any of these films really, there was more jeopardy in LOTR when you actually KNOW the entire plot backwards from start to finish and have done since you were 12.
 
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A prequel to the Harry Potter films starring Eddy Redmayne. I'm not a Harry Potter fan but I enjoyed this. Good family entertainment.
 
Wild Strawberries - sixty year old Swedish film about an old man reflecting on his life while travelling to get an award, was reflective. Not Ingmar Bergman's best but it has certainly stood the test of time. 4/5
That's on my list of films to watch, mainly due to its position on the IMDb 250. I didn't realise it was a Bergman film. I remember watching Through A Glass Darkly and it was just two hours of wtf.
 
Popstar: never stop never stopping.
7/10 really like lonely island and Andy Samberg in general so was pleased with this. Was laughing pretty hard in parts, very ridiculous film with probably the most musician cameos in a film ever
 
Saw "The Wailing" last night as I am a big fan of foreign horror and read some good reviews.

Unfortunately it really did nothing for me. Thought the lead actor was overly dramatic and probably added mostly to the films title..
 
Misses forced me to watch Bridget Jones Baby with her the other night. Having heard the others were meant to be really good, I though it might be alright......my god it was the worst thing I've watched in years.

And what has happened to the main woman's face?!!
 
Watched Dr Strange, excellent movie. Thought it was absolutely brilliant but the one thing that ruined it for me was Cumberbatch's terrible American accent.

It was pretty cringeworthy to say the least, don't understand why he just didn't stick to his normal voice ie British accent. Personally I think it would have been better if he had as Tilda Swinton kept her accent.

Other than that I thought the movie was damn good.
 
Patriot's Day (2017) - 9/10

A great tribute to the people involved in the Boston Marathon bombings, showing the strength and compassion of those affected by the tragedy.

The film does lose its way a bit in the second half due to the procedural nature of events, and the shootout seemed far too explosive.

A moving and emotional story with good acting, good character development, and a satisfying ending.
 
Kill the Irishman

Excellent crime drama. Probably the best I've seen since Black Mass came out at the cinema. I wasn't expecting something so polished and convincingly 70s in style. It was darkly humorous in places too.

8/10
 
Moana: Amazing animation, nice story, great voice acting. Lots of funny moments and a leap forward in character animation. Nicely emotionally manipulating in that I was brought to sniffles several times. Shame Disney still insist on punctuating their films with mostly forgettable songs. We don't have to still do this because we've left music-hall far behind. I guess Disney can do both now they own the likes of Pixar to do non-musical animation.

Fantastic Beast And Where To Find Them: Fantastic visual effects, but some annoying characters, particularly Redmayne playing his character as a mumbling auitistic, bland non-character. The female lead (Tina) just kept doing dumb things, matching Redmayne's annoying-ness. Combined with the character of Credence, that was also a broken, no eye contact stuttering/blubering etc, it was all a bit too much, with only the creatures and the supporting characters being at all pleasant to watch.
 
Spent the weekend with the lady friend looking after a cat... Needless to say there was much Netflix to be had!


Killer Mermaids

We where drawn to it by the creepy ass cover photo. Decided to ignore the 1 star reviews and give it a goosey. Pile of absolute dross.

Boring protagonists, underdeveloped script and a plot so confused it made Suicide Squad look like Citizen Kane. It tries SOOO hard that it can't even fall into that 'so bad it's good' category.


Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Damn, what a joyous piece of cinema. More so then anything, the quality that endears me most to a film is charm and this flick has it by the bucket load. In many ways it reminded me of 'The Fundamentals of Caring'. Troubled youngster seeks solidarity from an elder, they go on a journey and learn things about themselves etc, etc. Whilst it's a bit of a clichéd story, the beauty is in the telling and this movie nails it. Whilst not all of the comedic beats hit, there's some genuinely funny moments that had me do my Gervais style squark.
 
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