Jimboxy Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 5 hours ago, Maryokutai said: For me this is right in the middle, far better than 4 and 2, but obviously not up there with the original or Last Crusade. That's interesting, a few people I know have had a pretty similar take on this. I hated it, it is one of the few films that I not only didn't enjoy but it made me cross. Not only did it feel completely unnecessary, and a terrible bookend to such an iconic character, but it didn't even feel like an Indy film, just someone doing a poor impression of one. I know Crystal Skull gets a lot of (well deserved and justified) hate, but to give it some credit, it does have the feeling of a legitimate Indy film. There is a pretty decent doc on D+ that is a little bit the making of the most recent film, little bit of a history of all the films and a bit of a biography of Harrison Ford, that's well worth 90 minutes of your time The one part I did like about the most recent film (end spoilers) Spoiler Much like Raiders of the Lost Ark and to a lesser extent Last Crusade, I like that all of Indy's actions to stop the bad guys are essentially for nothing and he has no effect on the conclusion of the film. If he'd done nothing the outcome would have been the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Sounds interesting, I'll see if I can access it somehow. I hate Crystal Skull with a passion for a lot of reasons, some of them subjective, some of them not, so I can't really look at that movie and extract its good sides (which might be there). This one makes fewer mistakes that I take issue with, though one I didn't mention yesterday was the little kid. That guy was a completely unbelievable accidental maniac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Watched Holy Motors (2012), this was pretty interesting I thought. French surrealist film about a guy chauffeured around Paris to act out different roles in real life. Emphasis on 'real life', as although they are performances their outcomes can be very real. So it's a sort of series of these vignettes built into a larger story. I enjoy films which are a bit of a narrative puzzle, but went and watched a Kermode review after the fact which imo kinda spelled it out a bit too much, more than I would like (although the overall thematic allegory of it being about Spoiler film making was a pretty obvious one). More interesting though was how it's also about fragmentation and isolation in modern society, people withdrawing into their own little worlds viewing it from inside out via a screen, simulacrums of reality. eg, the modern internet. Probably video games as well to a point, or digital media at least, and how they are coming to displace 'real' cinema and art-making A film I'll probably rewatch at some point. There's a really really weird scene in this film with Eva Mendez, very uncomfortable 😱 Also Beau Travail (1999) - The same actor is in both these films, Denis Lavant, who I've never seen before but he's an insanely expressive dude with how he moves his body in both these movies*. This one is about a guy in the French foreign legion who ends up harbouring a grudge against a new, younger recruit. Lots of macho stuff, and male insecurity. Whole thing is sort of delivered in a slow moving stream of consciousness with regular long take scenes, yet it all fits in 90 minutes. This wasn't as baffling as Holy Motors, quite a lot more easy to relate to. Very striking visually, made me check if my 1080p blu ray was actually a 4k, no the film actually just looks that good. Why I'm dumping streaming. * Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny: You know what, i liked this. Sure, it’s never going to be anyone’s favourite Indy film. But for what it was, I thought it was alright. It immediately scores higher than Crystal Skull, because it doesn’t have Shia “I’m a massive bellend” Labeouf in it. Spoiler And scored bonus points for killing his character off completely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 So they Poochie-ed him, wonder what planet he returned to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, one-armed dwarf said: So they Poochie-ed him, wonder what planet he returned to Wherever it was, they clearly needed him. Thank god, we bloody didn’t. I absolutely cringed at the end of Crystal Skull, where they were hinting at Mutt taking over. No. Just no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimboxy Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I spoilered your reply Andy, because that is a pretty big spoiler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Sorry, fair point. Hadn’t thought of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 It is, but it also doesn't really matter I think, and I say that as the most spoiler-allergic person on this board. I'm actually convinced that the moment in which Indy reveals the spoiler contents would be significantly more impactful if Crystal Skull had never happened. It's like Obi-Wan praising Anaking as this respectable and wise Jedi in the old trilogy and then you go ahead and watch Episode 2... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts last night and it was fucking awful. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 The new Aquaman is diabolical. I know it had a troubled production, but it's really hard to find anything nice to say about it. I also think I prefer the CGI in the Flash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 I'd been quite a fan of the previous Conjuring & Insidious films (albeit the Nun one was pretty poor) and I can now say that it's well worth giving Insidious The Red Door a miss. Barely starring Patrick Wilson & Rose Byrne - it primarily focuses instead on one of their kids going off to college, and it's just not really all that scary or even that engaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Turtles Mutant Mayhem That was brilliant. First 15-20 minutes were very slow and a bit dull but once it gets going it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Great soundtrack too & one of the most visually impressive films I’ve ever seen. Loved it. Im not even a big TMNT fan either. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Barbie Pretty enjoyable. Some of its social commentary is a bit heavy-handed, but it fits into the whole over-the-top aesthetic. I found it also rather hilarious at times and I was impressed by how much fun (and even critique) they were allowed to poke/throw at Mattel, considering it is, ultimately, a big advert for their products. Shoutouts also to the set designs in Barbieland. I realise it doesn't have the immediate cool-factor of something from Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, but it's great to see them run around in a real space and not in front of a Greenscreen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), was sick yesterday so couldn't do much else so seemed a good time to watch this. It's about how scores of members of the Osage nation were deposesed of their land because it had oil on it. Firstly through (highly racist) legal apparatus like installing white men as guardians to give the owners of the land a weekly stipend. Then also through white men intermarrying to obtain the titles of the property when their wives passed on, which they contrived to do by killing them. It's about how dehumanisation works and how it escalates. These are real events and the film's mission statement is to shine a spotlight on something a lot of people don't know about, cause it is such a white-washed event in the country's history, so it's a confrontation with shame People give Scorcese stick for directing only gangster films, but all told he's done about 30 films or thereabouts and maybe 6 of those are gangster films. He's done psychological thrillers, films about faith, neo noir, bio-pics, a musical, a kid's film, a comedy. But funnily enough you could still justifiably call this a gangster film, which is both a strength and weakness I feel. Because the instigators of everything in this were absolutely gangsters. Goodfellas is the film I thought about most while watching this and there's a number of scenes which feel like more or less direct allusions to it. It's also structurally similar in how the plot moves through time, though lacks its zippy pacing that makes Goodfellas so easy to watch. But the flipside of it while it seems a genuine representation of Osage culture it's still more interested in the evil performed by these white men than the perspective of the Osage. Then again, maybe Marty does not feel he's the one to share this perspective, I dunno. I'm not the biggest fan of Leo but I think this is his best performance. It's a hard watch though, not purely cause of its 3.5 hr runtime but cause its protagonist is also its villain. This is a fairly complicated role he's playing here, an examination of cognitive dissonance On 21/01/2024 at 17:42, OCH said: Poor Things Imagine a Bride of Frankenstein film? But instead of a weird Mandela effect attributed to the last five minutes of the film. If the character in fact existed from start to end credits? That is this. Which is also very much a simplification of the general plot. Wow this film is so strange and surreal. From shot composition to set design. The weirdness of this movie cannot be understated. Emma Stone as the lead is fantastic in this. The whole cast is strong in fact. Note this is 18 certificate film for valid reasons. It's a fascinating character study in a very bizarre world. 8/10 The next 2023 film I want to watch along with Zone of Interest but I no longer have a cinema nearby to go to.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimboxy Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Just watched Le Man's 66, really enjoyed it. Christian Bale does a very good Brummie accent, at one point he says about going for a cheese and 'am cob, which made me laugh more than it should have. Good film I also watched Sicario for the first time ever this week, only 10 years late. I thought it was excellent, not sure why it took me so long to get around to watching it. Not sure if I should bother with the sequel or not, the reviews for it are ok, but it seems unnecessary 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Me and the missus love Le Man's 66... watched it few times now. We were gutted when we first watched it at the ending as we had no idea that had actually happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves last night... loads better than i was expecting it to be, even with the score IMDB gives it. I was suprised by how many of the location names I'd heard of before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Blood Simple (1984) - This is the Coen Brother's first film. It's got hallmarks of the style they would develop later on. It's a very pulpy, kinda boilerplate noir story about infidelity and murder built on a narrative conceit around misunderstandings on multiple levels. But it still has its sense of style, ironic twists in its narrative and even some weird Raimi projectile camera angles (only learned after this that they actually worked with Raimi before, so I guess that could explain that). I wouldn't rank it over most of their later work when their style was more matured, but it's good (better than the ladykillers anyway). Like a more dark, less humorous Burn after Reading, which is still a pretty overlooked film by theirs I think. Eyes without a Face (1960) - I did not know going in that it was a kinda horror film, 1960 seems to have been a watershed for edgy, gruesome films. It's about a surgeon who's daughter has her face disfigured by an accident, and he then kidnaps girls to carve their faces off and perform grafting experiments with them. Goes pretty far for a 60s film, but Europe was a bit more edgy than US at this time (the film is French) Not to be confused with Face/Off starring Travolta and Cage. Or a Billy Idol song, apparently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) a while back, got it on 4k UHD from arrow in a very nice looking package. I'd never seen it, but I'm a sucker still for the gruesome practical effects of this era of horror, which are very effective in the pod 'birthing' scene. It's a film which does what it says on the tin I guess, them bodies are getting snatched by invading vegetables. See Jeff Goldblum in a very early stage of his career, and a gaslighting creepazoid turn by Leonard Nimoy. I want to get more into this era of 70s Don Sutherland and his epic moustache, already watched Don't Look Now a while back but that had maybe a bit too much of him for my liking 😨 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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