Last Movie You watched - 2018

[Edward M. Grant]

Here I've caught up with Ready Player One - better than I thought it was going to be.

Same here. I've never read the book, but it was an OK movie. And I got to demonstrate my knowledge of old Atari console games.

 

[Hobbit]

Not a lot of depth, but fun in a fast-paced way.

 

[Westy]

Not a lot of depth, but fun in a fast-paced way.

Agreed - I forgot I already watched it last year! And I think I liked watching James McAvoy as much as Charlize...he's good.

Watched Hereditary a couple of days ago - good but not great. I just think I'm over horror movies now.

 

[Hobbit]

Hereditary's on my list...

 

[Prairie_Dog]

My Sunday movie this week was the 2015 BBC production An Inspector Calls, which was based on a classic play by J. B. Priestley. The story is set in 1912, and the events occur over a single night, with flashbacks filling in the the narrative. A mysterious Inspector Goole (played by David Thewlis) arrives at the weathly Birling Family Mansion to solve the mystery of why a young lady committed suicide. It soon becomes clear that everyone there may have had an unfortunate part in her death.

It was a great but tragic story, with excellent performances from the cast. I would not have expected anything less from a BBC period piece!

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm following the path of least resistance on a borrowed Amazon Firestick currently plugged into my telly. I watch a film, go to the "Other people Also Watched" thingie, and watch the next free one I come across.

Which is why I have ended up watching some seriously weird crap over the last couple of weeks. Occasionally I have to dig my way out of the recursive holes I find myself falling down - after all, there is only so much arty 1970's Eurosleeze porn a man can watch before going very wrong - so, after hitting The Lickerish Quartet - arty Italian porn that Andy Warhol (no less) described as “an outrageously kinky masterpiece”, and realising that I found myself noticing that, no matter how many arty French porn movies I watch, they always seem to take place in a semi-delapidated châteaux I have never seen before - but I recognise the location that every Italian Horror porn movie was shot in, I rebooted - and found myself watching:

Wizards of the Demon Sword - bloody dreadful Sword and Sorcery bollocks with the cheapest set design I have ever seen in a professional film. A lot of sets were made entirely of bedspreads hung behind our actors - one of whom, Russ Tamblyn had just come off Twin Peaks. It must be weird being a jobbing actor in Hollywood, one day working on a top rated genre-busting TV show, the next week appearing in a piece of s**t destined to go straight into ex-rental bins in Blockbuster.

then

Gunan, King of the Barbarians (1982) - Italian barbarian claptrap. Most of the film consisted of people walking, or running, or riding horses for ages across the screen. A lot of the times they would walk, run, or ride horses in slow motion. If they were riding horses in slow motion they would always ride through a shallow river, Sometimes the person walking, running, or riding across the screen would stop, centre screen, look about as if half-heartedly searching for something, then, after not seeing whatever it is they were looking for, would carry on running in the same direction. Thankfully they didn't do this too often in slow motion. There was a tribe of Amazons involved. I think having a tribe of Amazon women appear on screen was almost a condition of Italian barbarian films of the period. There was nudity. At their moment of triumph the villains did that 1966 Batman thing of leaving the hero to his fate in a terrible fatal torture device. After planning for YEARS on killing our hero, and avoiding the dire doom that 'prophesy ' (yes that kind of movie) foretold lay in wait for them if he lived - they leave. They strap him to a table have a thirty second gloat then f**k off to do something else. Of course in true 1966 Batman style this lets our 'helpless' hero escape, though, in a not very 1966 Batman way, only with the assistance of the naked woman they'd helpfully strapped on top of him.


I'll keep you posted.

 

[Carl L. Sanders]

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer on DVD.
I'm a sucker for Gothic Romance(eroticism?) aimed at women. It's got to be well-done, of course, and in this old TV-flic, it is.

 

[Westy]

MI6 - Fallout. Good, stretching the limits of realism action - Ghost Protocol is still my favourite though.

 

[Westy]

Mandy
I went into this cold, knowing only Nick Cage was in it. LOL!

I've heard that's good.

 

[Carl L. Sanders]

We just finished watching the old HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce.
The Joan Crawford noir film of the early 1940s kept only a few characters and the title from the James Cain novel; this one is quite faithful, leaving in the weird 'smother love' lesbo stuff that is at the heart of the novel and some of the satire. Casting is uneven, with both actresses portraying Veda skillfully, but as for the guys...'I beg to be excused.' The numerous, lengthy erotic scenes between Winslet and Guy Pearce, apparently meant to be sexy, come across more as parody, imo.

 

[Westy]

Watched Solo: A Star Wars Story tonight - decent enough, but ultimately forgettable. Much of it is recycled ideas from the other movies.

 

[Westy]

It's a simple revenge movie plot with the expected misogynistic elements. Beyond that it is quite insanely creative and beautifully shot. I need to see it again to further process it all.

Watched it tonight - it is weird, but a creative and strangely unique weird, including the soundtrack. Not for the faint of heart!

 

[Hobbit]

Watched a few already mentioned.

Solo: Better than the reviews (and the box office returns!) suggest. Not the best movie ever, but not bad. It looks like the sequel it moves towards to by the end will never happen of course.

Mission Impossible: Fall Out. Tom Cruise really wants to be an American James Bond, doesn't he? Not bad though, if about half an hour too long. Henry Cavill OK too - can see why he's moved on from Superman...

Mandy: Bonkers - Cage does John Wick. sheer 80's style, over the top, madness. Has to be seen for the full on Cage rampage. And it begins with a King Crimson track (who I thought didn't let their music be used, in anything....)

 

[Carl L. Sanders]

A weird one from the bargain bin at Wallmart:
Mother!
I suppose every film-maker worth their salt wants at some time in their career to turn out a surreal work of blindingly different art. Otherwise, there's no way to explain this film.
I am a fan of the director (Dan Aronofsky; he did Noah and The Fountain) and the stars(Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) are...well, movie stars.
This thing is surreal as heck, I'll give it that, but, really, one can see the end coming halfway through the two hours. The big scenes of riot and madness in the 2nd half go on waaay too long. Ms. Pfeiffer is outstanding in her role.
This ain't no Inland Empire(though the Lynch influence looms large throughout, as does that of Franz Kafka) and The Cabinet of Caligari has already been done most of the past century.

 

[allanon]

Watched "The Predator" - awful. Before that "The Nun" was very good, at least in my opinion. "Slenderman" was boring, but "Meg" fun.
Overall, this year I enjoyed "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" and "Ready Player One" most. I am waiting for "Bumblebee" which looks very promising.
After TLJ, I am not watching SW anymore, so I missed "Solo". Missed all Marvel movies as well, except Deadpool 2 - I am tired of their formula...

 

[Prairie_Dog]

This weekend I saw “The Mummy” (2017) on HBO, and thought is was a decent film, with a few significant flaws. It was intended to launch Universal’s “Dark Universe” of re-imagined monster movies, but it seems it was regarded as a poor preforming film. This calls into question the whole planned franchise, or so I have read.

I really liked Sofia Boutella as our gender-swapped “mummy.” She had a great backstory, and seemed like a very original take on the old Egyptian monster. I also really liked Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, and of course, Mr. Hyde. The real problems I had with this movie were with the Nick Morton character portrayal by Tom Cruise. I’m not a hater of Mr. Cruise, I think he did pretty great roles in “Oblivion” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” However, in this movie he just had some lines that were off-putting. They were just wrong for the tone of the movie. Too jokey and using phrases that I suspect will not age well. I guess that it didn’t help that his Nick Morton character was something of a cad anyway.

Regardless, I think I would like to see what the next movie in the franchise offers, if it gets finished and released. It is reportedly “The Bride of Frankenstein” which could be pretty interesting.

 

[theonefirestorm]

Keanu Reeves' ex-hitman. Really recommend those if you like fast moving, impressively (if improbable) staged fight scenes and car chases.... not a lot of dialogue, which might explain why I think they're some of Keanu's best movies of late. (He's John Wick, btw.)

Can see why the Cecil Taylor would make a good soundtrack: like a 60's/70's spy movie.

Actually it's more like:

He's basically like Max from Collateral except made as a Antihero a Sympathetic character he kills bad guys not innocents and we know why he's killing the bad guys.
John Wick Chapter 2 is even greater a terrific sequel to a great movie in the league of Terminator 2, Captain America The Winter Soldier, Aliens, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, The Dark Knight, Superman 2, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, etc.

He's a freakin Ferrari moving more than 200 mph which is why I'm really astounded a person seriously said Axel Foley and Martin Riggs would waste and easily kill John Wick or may be defeat.
Either way that's 1 of the most moronic asinine things I've ever heard right up with the Music City Miracle is a forward pass or a mistake, and why because John Wick has way damn better feats he reloads faster, he kills way more bad guys no sweat in a short period of time, better shooter, and way damn freakin better fighter.

John Wick could easily kill them under 10 seconds, and if it's hand to hand fighting he wouldn't just break their noses also their wrists, and snap their necks or choke slam into the concrete ground which no doubt would kill them if it's on the cement ground.


If a faithful Double Dragon movie ever got made which Hollywood has no damn excuse for the delay it would be mostly like John Wick and John Wick Chapter 2 except 2 badass warriors that are breaking bones, smashing and hitting foes so mostly Marked for Death with vicious action including weapons used the bats, barrels, knives, whips, etc since this would be based on the original Arcade game.
A nuclear war is why the city became a Post apocalypse New York City,and a high amount of unshown stuff before the kidnapping of Marian so it could be a movie over 95 minutes including how the Lee Brothers met Marian and why are they attracted to her besides she's a babe make her a 3 dimensional character with a personality not just eye candy, etc.

 

[Hobbit]

This weekend I saw “The Mummy” (2017) on HBO, and thought is was a decent film, with a few significant flaws. It was intended to launch Universal’s “Dark Universe” of re-imagined monster movies, but it seems it was regarded as a poor preforming film.

There were parts I liked too: especially Russell Crowe, but the 'comedic' sidekick really got to me! (LINK)

 

[williemeikle]

Went for a rewatch of THE AGE OF ULTRON to see if it was any better second time around. It wasn't. Gave up at Iron Man chasing Hulk around after Hulk got whammied. Such a mess of a movie.

 

[Prairie_Dog]

There were parts I liked too: especially Russell Crowe, but the 'comedic' sidekick really got to me! (LINK)

The sidekick reminded me a lot of the “Jack Goodman” character from “An American Werewolf in London” who also kept appearing in visions only to the lead character in various stages of decomposition after death.