What film did you watch last night?

Narc (2002) - Jason Patric and Ray Liotta star in a pretty boring cop thriller. Found this one when I was considering watching The Lost Boys and it reviewed pretty well on Rotten Tomatoes, but it just wasn't for me. Didn't hold my attention at all.

Red Sparrow (2018) - Really quite enjoyed this. Wasn't expecting much at all, and thought it was going to be awful, but came away pleasantly surprised. I actually thought it was better than Atomic Blonde (although not directly comparable).
 
ianh said:
Tomb Raider (2017) - 5/10 - Generic adventure movie No27 is OK at best with some OK action scenes, OK acting and OK story all of which kept me pretty focused for it's runtime while not really sparking my imagination. Young Lara came across as a whiny spoiled kid (on purpose I hope) for most of the movie which didn't really engender her to me so I felt nothing in her scenes of peril. Talking of which, as we've seen the "follow-on" stories (Jolie movies) we knew that Lara was never going to be in any danger which kind of spoils any attempt at making a "will she won't she make it" moment. Overall it felt OK, not good or bad just OK and helped while away a few hours.
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She's the title character, she's hardly going to die in it ;). Also I think this is meant to be a reboot so not linked to the Jolie ones.
 
Solo - better than I expected, not perfect but good fun! I enjoyed it and that is fine, I am a bit concerned about the cost of it and the box office take so far but I've done my bit. 4/5
 
Death Wish (2018) - 3/10 - Apparently something has removed all of Bruce Willis' charisma, energy, acting ability and passion for film making looking at his "performance" in this movie. The supporting cast, who earned the 3/10 (it was a 0/10 without them) do a good job of at least appearing to give a crap about being in the movie but the story, like the star, is old and well worn. Seen as nothing substantial has been changed since the much better original, it makes me wonder why a studio (or Eli Roth) would even bother spending money making this.
 
Fast 8 - 6/10

It's probably one of my least favourite of the franchise. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, just that I do miss the simplicity of the earlier iterations.

Batman - The Killing Joke - 6.5/10

Mark Hammill is brilliant as always. Quite a dark Batman story.
 
VincentHanna said:
Have you watched the original recently? It's really not that great or very deep.
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I haven't no, but I remember it having a bit of magic that this latest film didn't have. A good film to me is when you forget the actor is acting. The original succeeded in that, but in Welcome to the Jungle, actors like The Rock, Jack Black and Kevin Hart pretty much played themselves. It put the exhibition of these 'funny' Hollywood guys before the actual story.
 
Solo, A Star Wars Movie - 6/10 - It's a "good" film but I have to wonder why it was made as, even without all the anti-TLJ stuff going on, did Disney really think that a large enough number of everyday people wanted to see a Han Solos back-story so it was going to make an oodle of money? I mean SW fans would have seen it (before the TLJ issues) but "normal" people who aren't really fussed by all the back-story films, would they have turned out in their droves like they would to a Marvel movie? I'm not sure.

Anyway, about the film itself - I think it's worth a "good 6/10" despite having some obvious reshooting flaws and not having the best cinematography (just how dark can you make scenes!) but the cast generally do OK despite a few very confusing character decisions. Harrleson did a better job than the rest (a bit like Hunger Games), Clark had an odd arc from strong to giggly before going back to strong but the much raved about Lando performance, to me, seemed more like an excitable 20 year old rather than the experienced and semi-retired (at 20) smuggler that he is supposed to be. I always thought he was 5-10 years older than Han in ESB despite being the same age I just found out (both 33 in ESB).

The visual effects are excellent, as to be expected from a SW film nowadays, when you can actually see them (so many dark scenes) but the story is a bit weak and I don't know how Canon some of the events were in the EU before this film (is the way the film gives him his last name accurate?) but overall it was good enough that I wasn't bored watching and laughed at the right places etc. That is until the oddest SW character (IMHO) came on screen - L3-37 - who I think was meant as a "joke" character by the original directors (I mean the name looks like 1337 or "Elite" in leet speak - how can that be serious?) but during the reshoots it seems that Howard didn't know that and has made her a serious one? Anyway, it's a fairly awful character for most of the film bar one single interesting speech about the relationship they have with Lando.

One last odd note - Han is supposed to be 19-21 yet the actor looks 25+ which is too old for the 10 years which needs to pass between this film and Ep4 where he is supposed to be 30-32. It was just a little distraction and I only really thought about it more after the movie.
 
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Early Man - 6/10 Aardmans latest, sadly a little disappointing, it just felt a little thin compared to Aardmans usual fare, I mean half the fun with their stuff, be it Wallace & Gromit or Shaun the sheep, Chicken run, Flushed away etc is whats going off in the background, the little sight gags you pick up on which Early Man seemed to lack, like I said, a little disappointing.
 
Terminal - 8/10 - If you love film as a visual piece of art then this film is for you. The cinematography is utterly stunning with use of derelict buildings and lighting used to maximum effect. Outside of that narrow viewpoint the film itself isn't bad, around a 6/10, with and good story which goes a little nuts in the last 3rd with strong performances from Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg and Dexter Fletcher, although Max Irons is a little weak and Mike Myers just can't help but be "Mike Myers playing......." which, given the scale of his role, is a little disappointing. However, as mentioned, it's the visuals which steal the show and the incredible use of light/colour in particular makes the film so enjoyable for me.
 
Dr Strange - 7.5/10 - Finally got round to watching it & rather enjoyed it, didn't think I would but was pleasantly surprised on the whole tho I did find Tilda Swinton as the ancient one really damn distracting when ever she was on screen, & sadly not in a good way.
 
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