Last film you watched and your rating: The Directors Cut

Lotus wrote:All Good Things - 5/10

Mainly watched this to try and get over my aversion to Ryan Gosling in time for the new Blade Runner film. It was okay, Gosling was okay, everyone else was okay...all felt a bit flat and slightly pointless though. I know the story it's based on is unsolved/incomplete, but it felt like it was lacking something. Gonna take me a while to get the image of Gosling dressed in drag out of my head. Reading about the guy the film's based on is pretty crazy though.

Yeah, it was a little bit too MOTW for my tastes as I recall.

You should give the documentary The Jinx a go if you haven't seen it. I thought it was utterly gripping, even after having seen All Good Things.

Fences 6/10 It's got decent acting, but it feels a little too close to a play in execution, which is what it's based on. You can clearly see the stage directions which is a little odd for a film.

Garden of Words 5/10 Pretty, but not sure about the story. Did it really glorify a student/teacher relationship?

Fruits Punch Samurai wrote:Fences 6/10 It's got decent acting, but it feels a little too close to a play in execution, which is what it's based on. You can clearly see the stage directions which is a little odd for a film.

Agreed. It does feel very much like a theatre production. Although that has its own charm.

I'd push for a 7/10.

Dr Strange: Ehhh/10. I think I possibly have Marvel fatigue right now. The whole making buildings and streets fold around on themselves thing was just... ehhh. It's not a bad film, probably a 7.5 in real terms, and I genuinely laughed at:



By complete coincidence, I watched Interstellar on the same day, which dealt with similar themes in a different way.

It started nicely, and I think the threat to humanity was handled beautifully. Really grim, and believable. But became a bit too bewildering for my tiny brain, before disappearing up its own arse. 6/10.

I saw doctor strange the other day too, and I agree while it wasn't a bad film it didn't grab me. Something about those special effects seemed off to me as well. Not as well thought out in some instances, reminding me more of the mirror room in Interstellar rather than the buildings in inception, and I feel it suffered as a result. I left less like "that's and interesting way they're playing with geometry" and more "those funky patterns don't really add anything to this anymore".

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I felt. While the effects were good, I was very, very aware that they were effects, just because they were so OTT in their execution.

Left me a little cold. Also: this guy now has inter-dimensional control of time and space. I'm struggling to see where any potential peril is going to come from in the inevitable sequel.

Lego Batman. - 10/10

My second viewing and it was even better. Opening and closing songs are brilliant and the moment batman jumps from the batwing and the music kicks in towards the end is a brilliant batman moment. Just a perfect batman movie.

The Great Wall - 7/10 - I enjoyed it as did the person I saw it with. It is very well filmed, interesting and moves at a good pace. The creature cgi is well done and the overall cgi is very good for the most part. It doesn't have a very strong ending compared to the other action scenes but it's still a good watch.

Some huge wasted opportunities with the creature design as they had huge potential to really add more designs and make it more of a war of attrition. Maybe I just wanted some Godzilla size creatures to kick it up a notch.

Matt Damon's accent bothered me as it went from old English to light Irish to just plain accent free for the foreign market.

If the film had the balls to really steps up the danger it would have been a better film. But while the wall has some cool gimmicks and defenses, it's not enough to challenge helm's deep or return of the king for a good old seige movie.

Godzilla wrote:Lego Batman. - 10/10

My second viewing and it was even better. Opening and closing songs are brilliant and the moment batman jumps from the batwing and the music kicks in towards the end is a brilliant batman moment. Just a perfect batman movie.

Saw this today, so so damn good I adore the subversive and frenetic style of comedy these Lego movies go for, so to have it applied to a loving parody of Bats is joy.

Definitely a pause and rewind sort of film as well, so many references @_@

The Girl on the Train - slow to get off the ground, again another film that ebbed and flowed, and at times it felt like Bridget Jones writes a crime novel. I liked the ending though and Emily Blunt was great I thought. 6.5(possibly a 7)/10

I liked the book, but it was maddening. All women are victims: all men are skilled, manipulative liars.

X-men: Apocalypse - 7/10

I enjoyed this more than the previous one but yet again the fact it is set in the past makes certain characters appearances in the film seem a little out of place, obviously certain characters like Mystique and Wolverine don't age at normal rates but Cyclops, Jean and Storm surely would still be young kids when Xavier and Magneto were in their late 30's/early 40's.

It seems like the only reason they set it in the 80's was so they could cast Evan Peters as Quicksilver again.

The highlight of the film is this

Patriots Day - 7/10

It's a very well made movie, respectful and moving. Once the bombing is over the movie really gets interesting with the manhunt for two of the world's most useless criminals. Some very well filmed action and moments of violence. A lot of tears were falling as the end credits began.

Excellent cast too, really captures the scale of the manhunt. It's a little by the numbers as it tries to get everyone to be seen as connected to someone to make the moments of violence more shocking. But it works and I was kept interested throughout the movie. Well worth a look.

Hidden Figures 7/10 Kinda by-the-numbers overcoming the odds sort of story but with a racial theme which elevates it. It was a lot of fun to watch. There was one scene though which is very jarring to the tone of the rest of it, and you'll know it if you've seen it, where one of them acts THE gooseberry fool out of a particular scene. It felt like a scene cut from a far more serious film. The wrong actress from this was nominated for an Oscar, btw. I also came very close to shedding a tear of joy during the end credits where they showed pictures of the real life women and one of them is with Obama. Amazing achievement at how far they came.

Moonlight 9/10 This was outstanding. The performances from all three actors playing the lead character.........god damn. It was a little weird watching this the following night after Hidden Figures because both movies share two actors in prominent roles playing WILDLY different characters.

Lion 8/10 Brilliant first half, above average second half and a great ending. Those final few minutes hit me right in the feels. More than anything though, it made me never want to go to India.

Fences 7/10 This was ok. Incredible performances, particularly from Viola Davis, but it's essentially a play that was filmed and shown on screen. There wasn't much of a 'movie' there if you know what I mean. Just a bunch of really long scenes in a single location of people talking to one another.

Poser wrote:I liked the book, but it was maddening. All women are victims: all men are skilled, manipulative liars.

I don't think that is true at all.



On another note, I haven't seen the film yet but Emily Blunt is way too hot to be cast as Rachel to stay faithful to the book...

A Cure For Wellness - 4/10

Not sure what bit was better, the marathon man bit of dentistry that is done to Dane DeHaan, or Jason Isaacs sniffing his daughter's snatch.

Weird, and not really good enough to get around the vulgarity of some of the scenes. A lot of the film just seems like an excuse to torture Dane DeHaan(not the worst thing) and shout that capitalism is bad.

Would not recommend.

Batman vs Superman : Dawn of justice. A bit too long and the story did feel like it was all over the place to support a very basic plot, but it was enjoyable and better than I expected. Didn't have a problem with any of the characters and less disappointing than Captain America : Civil War.

6

Death's Head wrote:Batman vs Superman : Dawn of justice. A bit too long and the story did feel like it was all over the place to support a very basic plot, but it was enjoyable and better than I expected. Didn't have a problem with any of the characters and less disappointing than Captain America : Civil War.

6

Never before* has a blockbuster film turned on its head for such a terrible, terrible reason. Unforgivable!

*Almost certainly untrue

Captain Fantastic 8.5/10 It was erm... fantastic. Viggo Mortensen thoroughly deserving of that Oscar nom. A little bit like a mix of Little Miss Sunshine & a Wes Anderson movie. The last 5 minutes put such a huge smile on my face and the final lingering silent shot was perfect.

Watched some kids films over the weekend with the sprog:

Finding Dory - 8/10 - better than I was expecting, a rare decent animated sequel. The octopus was the star of the show.

Ponyo - 7/10 - what the strawberry float was that Very strange Studio Ghibli film (aren't they all), but quite charming. About half an hour too long though.

Ratatoullie - 9/10 - very good, daughter loved it.

The Guest - 6/10
Another fim with quite an odd tone (after my viewing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), in that it seems to struggle with a bit of an identity crisis. I thought Dan Stevens was pretty good, but the actual mystery behind him was a bit of a joke once it was revealed, and it was that point that the slightly sinister/mysterious side of the film seemed to change into a bit of a farce. It was okay and kept me entertained, but was pretty forgettable otherwise.

It Follows - 8/10
I enjoyed this. I was slightly unsure going into because I'd heard good things about it, but finding a good horror film is frustratingly difficult to do, so I was worried that people were over-egging it with the enthusiasm for it. I tempered my expectations though and as such it didn't disappoint. It started off well, and I thought the scene in the cinema was great, when the guy sees the girl in the yellow dress. The various manifestations of 'it' following were then a bit mixed. The bit in the house was good (where the male kid's staying over), but then the old woman at the school was laughable. It was fun looking out for people 'following' in other scenes, and the bit with the kid with the long hair (yes, I've forgotten all their names) getting killed was good too. I thought it lost its way slightly towards the end, but I guess the change of pace - from 'oh my god wtf this thing is following me' to 'okay I've just accepted that this thing is following me' was always going to do that. Very good overall though, and the soundtrack was brilliant.