What film did you watch last night?

Unlocked.

This paint-by-numbers contribution to the popular and well established Anglo-American geopolitical spy drama/thriller/social commentary/Rapacesploitation genre is crammed with big names, but not much else.

Noomi Rapace stars as an undercover spy of generic European heritage. Orlando Bloom stars as someone who looks like a low-rent Orlando Bloom. The badly embalmed corpse of Michael Douglas is dragged out for another airing. John H. Malkovich stars as John H. Malkovich, and he's even more Malkovichy than usual. Toni Collette is in there somewhere as well, but her role is quite forgettable.

The movie twists and turns in exactly the way you'll expect if you've seen any spy film in the last 90 years, and although it has a few good moments there's nothing that really stands out. The smooth but uncreative plot is strictly confined to threadbare genre tropes, and never takes any risks. The bad guys are predictable, yet their motives are never properly explained even though the question of motivation is precisely what the entire story hinges on. As a result, there's no solid payoff in act three.

I rate Unlocked at 16.65 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as an adequate 5/10 on IMDB.
 
The Last Jedi.

I'm not a big Star Wars fan tbh. I find the originals good but not great. Quite liked The Force Awakens. This was a mess tbh. Didn't really enjoy anything about it.

Kylo Ren was probably the best character in it for me. It is hard to believe Luke is the same character form the original trilogy tbh.

I'll go 5/10. There were things some people will enjoy, but not me.
 
District 9 - excellent from start to finish, amazing special effects that just blend in better than a lot of much newer films. A real good take on an alien invasion/refugee crisis. 5/5
 
bledd said:
Place Beyond the Pines
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I enjoyed Place Beyond The Pines, so will check out You Were Never Really Here. Kind of skipped over it when browsing.

Had a long haul flight so had the chance to watch a few films:

Mollys Game - 8/10

All the dialogue, relentless pace. Enjoyable none the less though, Chastain plays the role very well and the story is interesting.

All The Money In the World - 6.5/10

Would have been interesting to see it with Spacey as Getty. Tells the story well and the set details are great. Fantastic acting from the mother, but can be repetitive and drags a bit in places.

Only The Brave - 9/10

Incredibly compelling and emotional re-cap of a true story, great acting all round.


Will aim to see Ready Player One this weekend
 
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Decided to rewatch The Crow. Surprisingly the acting is a lot better than I remembered (I loved Michael Wincott in this), although the plot is obviously shallow given it's comic book roots. It's an enjoyable romp with a good soundtrack, although I've no desire to trudge into any sequels. The morbid part of me had my eyes pinned on Lee for all the scenes where there is gunfire...such a tragedy that this film was the cause of his death.
 
Willow - really not very good. I gather the CGI was revolutionary at the time but old CGI doesn’t really hold charm like old practical effects... although the practical effects in this were great.

Tedious plot and tedious characters. Even a tedious theme / March that you will hear a million times in every action sequence. Evidently it’s hard to do fantasy well.

4/10
 
Thor Ragnarok 5/10 (And that's me being generous)

Worst Thor film yet. What is with these films trying to cram in as many dumb gags per minute as possible these days?

A few of them made us snigger, but most fell flat and just made the film seem forced and silly.

Not a good film.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Thor Ragnarok 5/10 (And that's me being generous)

Worst Thor film yet. What is with these films trying to cram in as many dumb gags per minute as possible these days?

A few of them made us snigger, but most fell flat and just made the film seem forced and silly.

Not a good film.
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I actually enjoyed a lot of Thor, but came out of it concerned that Marvel/Disney had seen the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and decided to apply the same formula to its other films. Korg was the highlight of that film for me.
 
Nitefly said:
Willow - really not very good. I gather the CGI was revolutionary at the time but old CGI doesn’t really hold charm like old practical effects... although the practical effects in this were great.

Tedious plot and tedious characters. Even a tedious theme / March that you will hear a million times in every action sequence. Evidently it’s hard to do fantasy well.

4/10
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I also re-watched Willow recently and it had definitely lost its charm. I remember really enjoying this film when I was younger but our expectations have risen so much and the plot/screenplay and acting really aren't good enough to make it a classic. I also tried to get my kids to watch ET recently but no joy it was too slow and even I probably felt this a little. Hyper active modern movies have ruined my palette a little.
 
HumanShield said:
I actually enjoyed a lot of Thor, but came out of it concerned that Marvel/Disney had seen the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and decided to apply the same formula to its other films. Korg was the highlight of that film for me.
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The first two were decent enough brainless entertainment. But this one just seemed almost like a parody of the first two.

I see where you're coming from with the guardians of the galaxy comment. Certainly not as good though. The first one anyway.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Thor Ragnarok 5/10 (And that's me being generous)

Worst Thor film yet. What is with these films trying to cram in as many dumb gags per minute as possible these days?

A few of them made us snigger, but most fell flat and just made the film seem forced and silly.

Not a good film.
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On the flipside - up there with Guardians as the best of the Marvel movies for me and absolutely the best of the Thor movies (which I both liked btw). The meeting of Marvel style sci-fi and the Asgard fantasy / mythology was great.

More stuff in space pls Marvel.
 
Thoroughbreds 8/10

Extremely qwirky story of two american Beverly hills type childhood friends one who's emotionally dead and the other who hates her rich stepdad. Sounds ridiculous but I really enjoyed the twists and ending.
 
Warbie said:
On the flipside - up there with Guardians as the best of the Marvel movies for me and absolutely the best of the Thor movies (which I both liked btw). The meeting of Marvel style sci-fi and the Asgard fantasy / mythology was great.

More stuff in space pls Marvel.
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I think the Thor films have gotten progressively worse.

First one was decent, second one average, third one poor. Far too many silly gags per minute in the third one for me.

I guess I'm just getting a little fed up with endless super hero / marvel films now.
 
IvanDobskey said:
I think the Thor films have gotten progressively worse.

First one was decent, second one average, third one poor. Far too many silly gags per minute in the third one for me.

I guess I'm just getting a little fed up with endless super hero / marvel films now.
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I agree. I didn't get the hype with the third one, felt out of place.
 
IvanDobskey said:
I think the Thor films have gotten progressively worse.

First one was decent, second one average, third one poor. Far too many silly gags per minute in the third one for me.

I guess I'm just getting a little fed up with endless super hero / marvel films now.
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I liked both the first and second - but still haven't seen this third one.

I'm concerned I won't like it based on these reviews because the first two while a little lighthearted were reasonably serious and it worked. If 3 is anything like GotG (which I didn't enjoy despite it being hyped up so much), and making a mockery of the setting then I doubt I'd enjoy it either.
 
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