Last Movie You Watched - 2020

[Hobbit]

We've mentioned this before, but I really rate Keeton, especially in the first Batman. Over time he has become a little underrated, but watching the first one again recently, it still surprises me how good he is.

Don't know if you remember it, but the fuss about him getting the part ("a mere stand-up comedian!") was quite a thing at the time. Rather like Heath Ledger, in fact.

Still glaring at the box with the Batman & Robin Bluray in. *sigh* It might happen...

 

[Windshadow]

We've mentioned this before, but I really rate Keeton, especially in the first Batman. Over time he has become a little underrated, but watching the first one again recently, it still surprises me how good he is.

Don't know if you remember it, but the fuss about him getting the part ("a mere stand-up comedian!") was quite a thing at the time. Rather like Heath Ledger, in fact.

Still glaring at the box with the Batman & Robin Bluray in. *sigh* It might happen...

Keaton can give amazing performances and he seems to have a very working class approach to selecting which jobs to agree to take.... he has made some real stinkers as well as some great films.
His 2014 turn as Birdman was in my personal top ten list that year
His work as Adrian Tombs in Spider-Man homecoming is a hoot as a Marvel villain.

 

[Trollheart]

You should see him as the repairman in TV's 30 Rock!
Oh, here: you can.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

Last night, after reading a positive review over on Ars Technica:

It was ... not terrible. Some good martial arts sequences. Predictable story. 3 stars.

 

[Trollheart]

What's the general verdict on The Force Awakens? Now that Star Wars has been Disneyfied, am I better remembering the movies the way they were? Will watching the final 3 make me regret doing so?

 

[Hobbit]

What's the general verdict on The Force Awakens?

It is one that I really liked when it came out, though the plot was hardly original. (After that, they get worse though.) Rogue One is the one to watch, in my opinion.

Last night, after reading a positive review over on Ars Technica:

They are charging £20/$30 here for a showing. I can see more of this happening in the future, but that seems steep...

I forgot to say that I did watch Batman and Robin. Yup - more of the same, but with Arnie..... Arnie seems to be having a good time, but I won't want to see that one again for a while, if ever...

 

[Westy]

It is one that I really liked when it came out, though the plot was hardly original. (After that, they get worse though.) Rogue One is the one to watch, in my opinion.

Agree, I even got goosebumps in the cinema watching a Star Wars movie's opening credits after such a long wait, and the movie was decent (the next two in the series fairly average), but yeah Rogue One was good too.

 

[Windshadow]

I recall liking the animated Mulan back when it came out....

the $30 thing is a good deal for families with a nice big screen tv with a decent sound system as it would be less than the cost that a family of three would drop to see a film with the added expense of popcorn and soda in the local multiplex cinema....
But for someone who lives alone it is a lot more expensive than that night out... it will be included in the base Disney + subscription within 6 months I expect or available to buy with all the extras for les than $20 in 3 or 4

 

[Trollheart]

It is one that I really liked when it came out, though the plot was hardly original. (After that, they get worse though.) Rogue One is the one to watch, in my opinion.

Okay, good to know. It's just that I have it on my Sky box and was wondering whether to bother or just delete it.

They are charging £20/$30 here for a showing. I can see more of this happening in the future, but that seems steep...

I can get it for you if you want it (sounds like a drug deal going down, huh?)

I forgot to say that I did watch Batman and Robin. Yup - more of the same, but with Arnie..... Arnie seems to be having a good time, but I won't want to see that one again for a while, if ever...

I don't even know who you are anymore...

 

[Hobbit]

the $30 thing is a good deal for families with a nice big screen tv with a decent sound system as it would be less than the cost that a family of three would drop to see a film with the added expense of popcorn and soda in the local multiplex cinema....

That's what I was thinking, Windy: and I guess Disney being mainly 'for families', it would be a cheaper night out.

But that was my point: for one person, it seems quite steep. (Thank you for the offer, TH: but it wasn't that I wanted to particularly watch Mulan, more the point that I can see this business model happening more and more...

And I guess that this is for just one watch. If you want to keep watching it, the Bluray (out usually less than a couple of months later) is about the same price.

 

[Trollheart]

Ah, the proposed new Disney logo, waiting for approval from them as I write...

 

[Trollheart]

The problem with this model getting more prevalent, as you say, is that it only encourages/dares/forces people to find ways around it. Remember Apple's ridiculous effort of DRM? Yeah. See where that got them. Take it from Scotty...

 

[Hobbit]

The problem with this model getting more prevalent, as you say, is that it only encourages/dares/forces people to find ways around it.

Yup. I guess that will always be the case, but for what it's worth, I agree.

 

[Windshadow]

the Disney films showing up in the plain Disney+ app are including most if not all the Extras that were once the exclusive perk of the DVD and Blue-Ray distributions... how much of that is just experimentation and how it will play out or if Disney returns to the historic resting of its classic films will remain to be seen

 

[ArtNJ]

The Force Awakens is like Terminator 2 in that it has almost no originality whatsoever, but manages to be well done anyway. T2 was maybe an improvement on T1, which definitely cannot be said of The Force Awakens, but it was pretty good and hit the nostalgia itch hard. I couldn't sit through the others, partly because my nostalgia was sated and partly because I don't think they were good (Rogue One excepted, that was pretty decent). If you've managed to resist this long, your nostalgia itch is likely small, and I don't see much reason to bother.

 

[Trollheart]

On T2: I think the two things that made it work (I wouldn't necessarily say superior to Terminator but a step beyond it) were the humour, the effects (of course) and the turnaround, with the villain from the first movie turning out to be the hero of the second. There was also, if I remember (long time since I watched either) more interpersonal interaction in the second one, which helped move the story along. If I had to compare them it would be like Alien to Aliens.

As for TFA, yeah my curiosity would definitely not put any moggies in immediate danger. I'll probably leave it for now. Maybe some time, but right now I've got better things to watch. Thanks.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I saw a couple of the ' Disney Star Wars films in the cinema when they came out with (and because of) my kids and to tell you truth I can't tell you which ones they were or what happened in them because, quite frankly, they bored the pants off me. Long, bombastic, neo-fascist, militaristic toy commercials with very little sence to them. I remember spending half of one trying to work out how someone could explode a star (I think) Kabooom! and have it seen minutes later from another planet in another solar system. The only way I could rationalise it was to assume that the Star Wars Universe is not only a long long time ago but very very small. ("No Ted, I still don't get it!")

There was one tense moment I remember when some sort of 'Pain Chair' thingie was wheeled out and I was so distracted by the fact the props guys hadn't sanded the edges of the MDF it was constructed from very well that I've totally forgotten who went in it and why.

I think I totally gave up when Princess Leia turned out not to be dead because... because... erm... something.

Having said that Kelly Marie Tran (the actress playing Rose Tico) was cute but what she was doing in the middle of a 1940s bombing raid was baffling.

 

[Trollheart]

This is what I was afraid of. I kind of got the idea Disney had dumbed the whole franchise down, making it very much more about selling merchandise than good story-telling, never mind canon. For a visionary, Lucas certainly didn't see this coming when he sold out to Uncle Valt, sorry Walt, did he? I think it's a little like seeing (no offence to anyone who may have had to go through such an ordeal) a person you love after a long illness or after a bad accident dead in their coffin; they often say "remember him/her as they were, not like this". I feel this may be how I'll treat the "last" three SW movies. I don't think I need them in my life. There are enough disappointments to deal with, without ruining this large component of my childhood and early adulthood too.

 

[ArtNJ]

Saw the Harley Quinn movie (Birds of Prey) recently and it was better than expected. Margot Robbie was excellent. A decent amount of humor helps a lot. Most of the side characters are insufficiently portrayed to a large degree. One weird thing that I hated was that except for Margot Robbie, the fight choreography was generally aweful. Like actresses that didnt have the flexibility or learn how to kick. It was just very noticeable, especially since some of the Harley Quinn choreography was so slick and fun. If they wanted her to be in a league of her own, thats one thing, but the others were fighting a lot and somehow succeeding, despite not having any actual skills.

 

[Trollheart]

I'd agree that RotJ is basically the same plot as the first movie, almost exactly, with a slightly different ending, sort of. Also, one thing that was pointed out by, of all things, Family Guy, is that in the first three movies, there are only two women in the entire Star Wars universe, and one of them dies at the beginning on Luke's homeworld!