What film did you watch last night?

Steampunk said:
I've watched all three, and while they are all flawed, they all seem to also bring something of value to the story by visualising it in a way you won't have seen it from the books. There are certainly many worse ways you could spend your film-watching hours.
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I assume you mean Dune? I've only seen the 2 edits of the Lynch version and the mini-series...is there another?
 
Paternity (1981)

"A single man searches for a woman who will bear his baby with no strings attached."

Burt Reynolds and Beverly D'Angelo star in this one. Has a "made for TV" feel about it, which isn't a bad thing.
 
The Blues Brothers 1980

Despite being 51 years old, this one has managed pass me by until now.

I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed it. Great sound track and car chase. I also enjoyed seeing how many famous singers and musicians I could spot, and a surprise cameo by a very young looking Steve Spielberg

7/10
 
Jojo Rabbit - 6/10

I think the wife bought this thinking it was some sort of family friendly animal romp... Wrong!

The movie is set towards the end of WWII in Germany and "Jojo" is a 10 year old boy, who's invisible mentor is Adolph Hitler. Movie starts with him training to join the Hitler Youth where a succession of mishaps sees him labelled with the "Rabbit" nickname and hospitalized after a hand grenade mishap. Then shifts focus to his home life and relationship with his mother and, without giving anything away, a surprise additional member of the family hiding in the attic. The movie revolves around Jojo trying to reconcile his preconceptions of Jewish people with his Nazi tendencies. There are a couple of surprise and sad twists towards the end. Depending on how you approach it, the entire thing is in incredibly poor taste or very dark comedic satire. A few elements thrown in for dramatic effect, for example Allied troops did not as a matter of course summarily execute captured Germans, they were treated as POW's.

A once watch job, I would have to say.
 
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Vern1961 said:
Jojo Rabbit - 6/10

I think the wife bought this thinking it was some sort of family friendly animal romp... Wrong!

The movie is set towards the end of WWII in Germany and "Jojo" is a 10 year old boy, who's invisible mentor is Adolph Hitler. Movie starts with him training to join the Hitler Youth where a succession of mishaps sees him labelled with the "Rabbit" nickname and hospitalized after a hand grenade mishap. Then shifts focus to his home life and relationship with his mother and, without giving anything away, a surprise additional member of the family hiding in the attic. The movie revolves around Jojo trying to reconcile his preconceptions of Jewish people with his Nazi tendencies. There are a couple of surprise and sad twists towards the end. Depending on how you approach it, the entire thing is in incredibly poor taste or very dark comedic satire. A few elements thrown in for dramatic effect, for example Allied troops did not as a matter of course summarily execute captured Germans, they were treated as POW's.

A once watch job, I would have to say.
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Jojo Rabbit still front runner for my personal film of the year. And you are mistaken if you believe that there were no summary executions or other atrocities carried out by allied troops - especially the Russians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war_crimes_during_World_War_II#Soviet_Union

Jokester said:
Maybe not be Western Allies.
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And here's a personal account from a US soldier:

Among American WWII veterans who admitted to having committed war crimes was former Mafia hitman Frank Sheeran. In interviews with his biographer Charles Brandt, Sheeran recalled his war service with the Thunderbird Division as the time when he first developed a callousness to the taking of human life. By his own admission, Sheeran participated in numerous massacres and summary executions of German POWs, acts which violated the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1929 Geneva Convention on POWs. In his interviews with Brandt, Sheeran divided such massacres into four different categories.

1. Revenge killings in the heat of battle. Sheeran told Brandt that, when a German soldier had just killed his close friends and then tried to surrender, he would often "send him to hell, too." He described often witnessing similar behavior by fellow GIs.[63]
2. Orders from unit commanders during a mission. When describing his first murder for organized crime, Sheeran recalled: "It was just like when an officer would tell you to take a couple of German prisoners back behind the line and for you to 'hurry back'. You did what you had to do."[64]
3. The Dachau massacre and other reprisal killings of concentration camp guards and trustee inmates.[65]
4. Calculated attempts to dehumanize and degrade German POWs. While Sheeran's unit was climbing the Harz Mountains, they came upon a Wehrmacht mule train carrying food and drink up the mountainside. The female cooks were first allowed to leave unmolested, then Sheeran and his fellow GIs "ate what we wanted and soiled the rest with our waste." Then the Wehrmacht mule drivers were given shovels and ordered to "dig their own shallow graves." Sheeran later joked that they did so without complaint, likely hoping that he and his buddies would change their minds. But the mule drivers were shot and buried in the holes they had dug. Sheeran explained that by then, "I had no hesitation in doing what I had to do."[66]
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Bad Boys 3 - 5.5/10 (I am being harsh this week, aren't I).

A bit easier going than Jojo the previous evening but at the end I was really left wondering why they bothered to make this, some 16 years after the previous instalment.

Very simple storyline, a bit of retconning and some totally implausible - even by movie standards - disregard of police protocol not to mention international jurisdiction.

Oh and the twist towards the end has at least some overtones of Smith's previous Renaissance Man. And why at the end is there at least a hint the protagonist might be on the "BB" team in a further sequel. Kill numerous law enforcement officials in Florida and the likely outcome is a needle in the arm, if you even make it inside a courtroom.

If you like car chases then there's a fair bit to keep you entertained and there are a few funny moments, but ultimately just another brain in neutral watch once popcorn movie.
 
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Vern1961 said:
Bad Boys 3 - 5.5/10 (I am being harsh this week, aren't I).

A bit easier going than Jojo the previous evening but at the end I was really left wondering why they bothered to make this, some 16 years after the previous instalment.
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Couldn't even finish watching Bad Boy 3, just too predictable and boring so 1/10 from me. I didn't like Jo Jo rabbit either, overrated nonsense.
 
Jumanji 2 - The Next Level

Starts off surprisingly poorly (the whole ‘old people not understanding’ thing is reaaaally overplayed) and rises to ‘watchable’. A couple of laughs.

Quite disappointed actually as the previous film was an unexpected win.
 
Ended up watching Glass last night. I know a few people found it disappointing but I thought it was ok. Not a film I'd be raving about but also not one that I felt was a waste of 2 hours.

I probably should have watched Unbreakable again beforehand to refresh my memory but was still enjoyable.
 
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