Last Movie You Watched (2017)

I finished Punisher season 1 a couple of days ago, and, O my brothers, the last two or three episodes have some of the most outrageous ultraviolence I ever viddied outside the sinny, like real horrorshow.
 
Quite the dearth of interesting new releases at our local Cinemark; last year there were several of note.
OT; Last evening I watched Hidalgo. Really, this is one of the better films of the last 20 years or so, imo. Viggo Mortensen's performance was a highlight.
 
Detroit - Kathryn Bigelow's retelling of the riots in Detroit in 67 - it's very well made (as are many of her other movies); the motel scene is especially thrilling and harrowing (it's almost hard to watch), but after that it really died - the last 30 minutes seem like a let down. Good, but not great like Zero Dark Thirty or The Hurt Locker.

Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan's take on the mass British evacuation from France in 1940. Visually spectacular, and very original in that there were no central characters, no German soldiers, very little gunfighting - the focus was on the visuals, the atmosphere and the music. Very ambitious and overall it works, though the de-centralised storyline and characters didn't feel right.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - enjoyable enough, but very much visuals over substance. I also thought the acting was very sub-par, and by about 30 minutes to go I was losing interest.
 
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Westsiyeed said:
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - enjoyable enough, but very much visuals over substance. I also thought the acting was very sub-par, and by about 30 minutes to go I was losing interest.
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I have started to watch it twice and quit after about an hour each time.
it is so visually striking and so badly miss cast with a weak script as far as dialog and plot is concerned.... most disappointing film of 2017 for me
 
Silent Running (1971)

Now that was an interesting experience. I've seen Silent Running six or seven times since I first saw it in the Cinema where it was running as a second feature to the newly released American Graffiti.

It's an OK film. Not one of the greatest SF film ever but a good example of the genre from the mini golden age that Hollywood enjoyed before Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas buggered it all up by making films that made more money than sense.

At no time during any of the watchings of it have I ever felt the need to cry. At times I remember feeling slightly embarrassed by the near mawkish sentimentality on show. Tonight I snivelled like a baby and had tears streaming down my face at the end of it. How? Why?

This time I was watching it with my two daughters. Daughter Number One (aged 15) had never seen it before and had chosen it as her turn in our turn-and-turn-about family film night. Daughter Number Two (aged 13) HAD seen it before... and fell asleep.

The way our chairs were arranged as we watched the film meant I could not see my daughters. At the end of the film Daughter Number One was in tears. Real big wet faced trembling lips greeting. Somehow, silently, without being able to see her, I had picked up on the depth of feeling the story had induced in her and joined her. I've always known that watching a film with an audience (rather than on your own) intensifies the experience but I had never felt it so strongly and strangely as tonight. I really do doubt that telepathy exists but this was the nearest thing I have ever felt that came close to it.

Her explanation? Pheremones. She reckons I smelled the sadness coming of her.
 
Westsiyeed said:
Kathryn Bigelow's retelling of the riots in Detroit in 67 - it's very well made (as are many of her other movies);
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The Weight of Water is my fave of her movies; Near Dark is a lowest budget Horror film par excellence.
I did not care for Dunkirk. That makes three of the last four Nolan films that I thought were less than stellar: The Dark Knight Rises, Inception ( what a snoozer) and this latest.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed Interstellar.
***ot: Two by Bo Derrick(rip):
Tarzan. The photography, costumes and Richard Harris(rip) were superb. The beauteous Bo, alas, was more a phenomenon than an actress. That said, there are several nude scenes in this film that show how well-founded that '10' was.
Orca. I like this film; sort of a spaghetti Jaws. Once again, as always, Richard Harris was swell.
 
I tried to rewatch Tangled but had to stop when the witch-mother's emotional abuse amps up when she finds Rapunzel by the shore. The writers nailed the passive aggressive manipulation. I can't handle it.

The last movie I saw in theater was Blade Runner 2049. Beautiful and haunting more than thought-provoking, it covered familiar tropes in cyberpunk. I appreciated that. This sequel did an admirable job reproducing the feel of the original movie in visuals and tone.
 
Daughter Number One and I watched Fritz Lang's fully as restored (as it will ever be) 1927 Metropolis. (The version that includes the rediscovered South American footage with Fritz Rasp's part restored.) Me for the umpteenth time (in various versions), her for the first time.

Damn but it was an ambitious and beautiful film.
 
I watched Moana with my Goddaughter age 11 and found it to be a very good animated film, the voice acting was first rate and the cultural aspects were handled very well' as for Hannah sitting next to me, she was totally enthralled ... how her folks will deal with her newfound desire to visit the south seas.... well that might be a problem... its sort of an expensive trip... it may have to wait for her gap year.
Movie strongly recommended
 
JunkMonkey said:
Fritz Lang's fully as restored (as it will ever be) 1927 Metropolis. (The version that includes the rediscovered South American footage with Fritz Rasp's part restored.)
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I still live in hope that a more watchable version will yet emerge.
My wife and I love this film!!
***OT: The Martian Chronicles, a 1979 Broadcast TV Miniseries ( ~ 4.5 hours)
It's easy, in retrospect, to laugh at or be bored by the cheap sets, glacially-paced scenes, etc.,, but the fundamental elements of the old Bradbury 'novel' remain and are effective in this adaptation.
Bradbury never really grabbed me as a SF writer( though I did like Pillar of Fire); my wife is very familiar with his work and is a fan.
I did and do admire his Oscar-winning Screenplay for Moby Dick. More than once we've looked up a scene in Melville's novel , only to find that it was actually written by Ray ( and/or John Huston.)
 
Thor Ragnarock
9/10

This is a great movie that is different from the 2 Thor movies.
It's mostly Sif, Thor, and Bruce Banner escape from Skaar and having to defeat Hela and her army.
Great action Thor fights Hulk and obviously he was going to win because You can he's fearful on his face and Grandmaster interferes using something similar to a shock collar.

Grandmaster is a magnificent bastard Super Villain which is why I'm unhappy he doesn't appear in more of the movie.

Huge alterations Thor lost a eye in the climax, Surtur destroyed Asgard, Thor learning Asgard can be a group of people not just a physical location also Thor and the group need a place to live.
Also Hela destroyed Thor's hammer.

Thor's hair was cut against his will so different hairstyle for this movie.

Great climax which has a high amount of action, great action at the start Thor fights Surtur and his minions also the Giant Fire Demon Surtur.
Surtur was used to defeat Hela which is different a foe Thor couldn't defeat and Asgard is destroyed and new home fot Surtur.
Extra scene Thor sees persons it's answered as to who in Avengers Infinity War trailer.

Justice League
9/10

A great action fantasy team super hero movie.
The DCCU logo is wonderful because more than a dozen super heroes are shown.

The Super heroes have arguments and drama which is related to current situations including risks of Superman is resurrected so no lameass contrived drama, drama for sake of drama, or about dumb stuff.

Believable likable flawed characters including Cyborg that lost his mother in a traumatic way, most of his physical body is Cyborg or metal, and not knowing most of his powers.

A serious movie that has funny lines and scenes but not overdone so maybe inspred by the MCU.
Not negative because The MCU is great.

Great cameo of a Green Lantern not Hal Jordan but still great, a after credits scene that makes it obvious a Injustice Leage will be in a Justice League movie that includes Deathstroke.
Each Super Hero is great and unique, and all are shown for powers including Aquaman a badass.
Now I imagine the gemeral public will move on from Aquaman is a joke character that talks to Fish because he was done justice as a Badass character in this movie.
It is to Aquaman what the Burton Batman movie did for Batman.

It's obvious Aquaman has a Trident not a damn pitch fork so I wonder why they made Batman use a factual error line.

SteppenWolf proves to be a team threat including no problem fighting the Amazons, great climax with the Justice League having to destroy a device so the Earth isn't altered, also defeat SteppenWolf that is challenging even with Superman involved in the fight.

A foreshadowing of Darkseid so likely he'll appear in a sequel because 1 of his best Minions failed.
 
The Farthest is a documentary on the life of the two Voyager spacecrafts - launched in 1977, they greatly exceeded everyone's expectations and have been a pinnacle in all space exploration since.

This was an interesting and heartfelt movie; the investment and time the team put into this project is apparent - the Voyagers are like their offspring, and to see Voyager 1 leave the heliopause is like "letting go" one of their babies! It was such an achievement given the comparably minor computing power in 1977, and to be able to direct these two spacecraft to flyby the (well-placed) outer gaseous giants, including the moon Titan, was an achievement.

It also reinforces the insignificance we hold on this tiny planet is such a vast Universe, but humbling that a small piece of us (the gold record) is hurtling off into distant space for thousands, hundreds of thousands of years - and there's always a faint "maybe" it will be discovered by some other form of life out there. Recommended!
 
Ooooh: sounds interesting. Going to keep an eye out for this one. Thanks, Westy!
 
Bright on Netflix
not as bad as the reviews made it out to be. It has an interesting premiss and a sub par direction job with too much back story cramming the script. The concept is that the lord of the rings movie took place about 1000 years ago and it examines the tensions of the resultant multi species world where multi species must coexist . The film feels more like the setup for a series (a pilot show) but with Will Smith as the star I guess that did not fly as I doubt he is ready to move back to series TV. The sequel has been green lit and it would not surprise me to have his character killed off in that one to ease the transition into series TV with out him. I had the feeling the script was padded to give Will Smith more to do.

It was an OK TV movie and I was entertained at the 6 or 7 out of 10 level.
 
The Snowman
Norway is a pretty country. The film itself is poor. Fassbender is a fine actor, but I prefer my Scandinavian thrillers populated with Scandinavians speaking Scandinavian languages. I'm funny that way.
3/10
 
Thor: The Dark World - which made me realise how much better than most Marvel movies the first one was.
 
I thought Hush was pretty good. I'm normally not into 'slasher' type stuff, but it's an interesting spin on the "someone is trying to get into my house and kill me" trope, and it's not a gross-out gore fest. Would recommend.
 
fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-poster-eddie-redmayne.jpg


OK, first, let me say that I have not read the Harry
Potter books, nor watched the Harry Potter movies. So, this was my first journey into the “Wizarding World.” It was pretty self-explanatory, and was separated both in time and geographically from the the events of the Harry Potter series. It occurs in New York City of all places! Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander who specializes in magical beasts, several of which get released into the wilds of New York, and must be recaptured. However, there is a rare and dark beast there that requires his attention too...

The special effects are pretty awesome, and the characters are generally well done. Eddie Redmayne plays a likeable “Magizoologist” who really cares about the creatures he studies. I was supprised I liked it as much as I did. I look forward to the inevitable sequels!
 
Having a pretty low brow sense of humour, my brother recently got me to watch the Andy Samberg mock-umentary 'Tour de Pharmacy;' A fictional re-telling of the 1982 Tour de France, in which all but five cyclists get banned from the event for doping.

Usually Samberg's movies and comedy sketches are a little too low brow even for my tastes. Tour de Pharmacy however had me laughing harder than I have in years despite the sheer stupidity of it. It's the kind of movie that most self-respecting people would probably cringe throughout. But had I paid to see it in theatres rather than see it for free, it would have been money well spent.
 
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