Last film you watched and your rating: The Directors Cut

Tomous wrote:

Death's Head wrote:Baby Driver. Ok, but not really sure why this is getting as much praise as it is.

7

Because it’s Edgar Wright and also very stylish. I think it lacks substance though and agree it’s overrated.

I loved it in spite of that fact.

Strange Days.

I was obsessed by Juliette Lewis for ages after watching that film. Yeah, I don't really know why either.

The Nice Guys (2016) - ****
Much better than I expected. It's the kind of film you've seen done countless times before, but it has an actual personality that sets it apart. Gosling

Victoria (2015) - ****
Definitely not a film for everyone but I liked it. There's a strong sense of foreboding for the first half and the second makes good on it with a level of suspense that had me hooked. I can appreciate the technical achievement of the single, continuous shot for the whole 140 minutes (or at least appearing to be one) but the commitment to it does mean that some of the first 40 minutes or so drag on a bit. Don't watch the trailer if you plan on seeing it.

Tafdolphin wrote:

deathofcows wrote:Annihilation - 7/10.

Enjoyed this. Liked the lack of excess exposition and the efficiency of most of the plotting/dialogue, though as with many group films the supplementary characters never quite act in a believable, naturalistic way (especially paramedic whose 'trick of the light' assertion was dumb and absurd, and her 'going crazy' scene was a bit over-wrought too). The whole journey in the Shimmer in general felt a little quick and didn't quite feel like a long enough ordeal for the character actions and payoff.

Also thought overall it looked a little mannered: Zoomed-out with few close-ups, and felt a little detached for it - though I think that may have been part of the point. And though it's filmed in HDR it made the foreground too murky for my liking compared with the scorched-sky backdrops so I had to turn it off.

Natalie Portman was genuinely excellent, and combined with whatever clean-eating Keto diet she's on gives her a suitably taut, strained screen presence that is completely and consistently compelling.

Didn't really get weird or bizarre enough (though the screaming bear was great) - I'm not sure there's much here more visually novel then skimming through a few chemical brothers music videos or something. And even when it did it was still within normal cinematic form - without any exploitation of film's ability to bend and stretch time and space (though of course a conscious decision).

But despite all that, I can't help but give it a 7/10 on my gut reaction to the film, which was that I found it intriguing and engrossing throughout.

That's a really nice breakdown of the film which is definitely not perfect. However, about the bolded bit...

(you'd be wrong)

http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/annihila ... ssion.html

https://filmschoolrejects.com/cancer-annihilation/

EDIT: Whoops, missed that you were just talking about the visuals there. Still, both articles are still worth a look.

They were! Both interesting and illuminating. Thanks

Yeah I was specifically focusing on the film's visual elements, but the articles were interesting regardless. In terms of visual representations of uncontrolled, cancerous growth I'm still very partial to the Tetsuo transformations in Akira. It is still horrifying and (literally) visceral, and is has a visual dynamism that is something else.

EDIT: I suppose I've just been spoiled a little by Arrival, where the form of the film was so in sync with its core concept. After all the talk of the ending I thought Annihilation would also somehow subvert it's literal representation of the story to somehow embody its themes. But it was more orthodox than that - though I guess that's fair!

I also watched Nocturnal Animals - 9/10

I really enjoyed this. It was a handsome film and had an assured pace that felt like a slow-tighten of tension. All 4 main leads (Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhall, Micheal Shannon and a near-unrecognisable Aaron Johnson) were fantastic in it.

It didn't go full bizarre like I thought it might with the linking between the fictional and factual plots (the film is basically Amy Adams reading a dark story written by an ex-husband, which is dramatised on-screen). And the ending doesn't give you the closure you're expecting (though is probably better for it, and is part of the point).

But if you're interested in an engrossing, well-observed and acted thriller - this gets my full thumbs up

Thief (1981) - ****
That ending tune

Sing Street (2016) - ***

Gattaca (1997) - *****
Thoroughly enjoyed this, I was expecting to like it but it surpassed that.

I don’t know if anybody has seen the Silent Child as it was on BBC One earlier on. If anybody miss it, it’s on iPlayer or repeated on Easter Sunday at 11:25am.

Paddington 2.

Brilliantly heartwarming, feelgood movie with some fantastic laugh out loud moments.

10/10

Dead Man's Shoes.

Second time I've watched it. Such a powerful movie. Paddy Considine is one scary bloke in this.

An easy 10/10

Tomb Raider

Another chillingly generic film with a powerful female lead and an evil white male. Not seen that before. Yawn.

The Fast & Furious 8

Corny dialogue (slightly better than The Expendables), very basic plot, car porn + preposterous action scenes but fun overall.

For the benefit of the US audience, English characters have either a strong cockney accent or are slightly posh.

6.5

Ready Player One - 7/10

Well that was surprisingly fun. Lots of enjoyable moments with one epic bit in a hotel which had my inner Fanboy going crazy. Some good action but no real threat or depth. It's fun but forgettable. Would have liked more musical moments and a few references to actually stick around more than half a second. Final Battelle was very good though.

Black Panther: 8/10

Quite unlike anything I've seen before from a AAA blockbuster. The complete lack of white-Western cultural touchpoints was something completely unique. 2 points deducted for the Marvel-ness that crept in towards the end, as well as some of the worst CGI I've seen in ages. Seriously, the whole final battle between Kilmonger and T'Challa was God. Awful. Looked like it was entirely CGI at some points. Also, it went on too long. Like I say...Marvel-ness.

Still great though, probably ahead of Avengers but behind Captain America in my overall personal rankings

Tom Raider 6/10 - Paint by numbers actin film. Would be good if you had never seen a film before but just retreads ground and offers nothing interesting.

Isle of Dogs 7/10 - Quite weird, but at least it tried something different , and has a nice story.

Ready Player One 8/10- Generic plot, but the setting/world adds a point or so. Reasonably paced so I never felt bored despite being 2hr 20.

The Wedding Singer. Seen this a few times but still a feel good film.

8

The Shape of Water - 8/10

Very good and I like it.

I saw Ready Player One today in IMAX 3D. It was pretty good.

The Good Stuff
Protagonists are generally likable - Artemis is hella cute.
Ben Mendelsohn plays a cracking villain.
"The Oasis" is absolutely spectacular, a real feast for the eyes.
The 3D didn't make my eyes hurt or give me a headache, but the unyielding glasses did dig into my head and produce quite a pain back behind my ears.
While the story's main points are somewhat bland and predictable, everything unfolds in such a way as to effectively maintain an overall sense of tension and drama.

The Bad Stuff
The over-saturation of 80s references, to the point that it often felt like the 90s, naughties and teens don't really exist in Spielberg's mind, with the primary exceptions of Overwatch and Halo.
I guarantee that no teenager in the middle of this century will know, or give any gooseberry fools about, Buckaroo strawberry floating Banzai (or much of the rest of the 20th century, for that matter).
A good bit of the humor fell flat with me, but it was funny in places.
I don't see Columbus changing that radically in 20 years, no matter what tech developments take place there. Watching the film in Beavercreek, an hour's drive west of the city, made it feel like it would were it set in a dystopian future Milton Keynes, or Bradford.

A pretty good film, all told, but one obviously aimed at people with an irritating hard-on for the 80s - mostly today's midlife crisis-ers. Irritations aside, I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

7/10

Lethal Weapon.

Still a pretty good film, but hasn't too well.

7/10

Tafdolphin wrote:Black Panther: 8/10

Quite unlike anything I've seen before from a AAA blockbuster. The complete lack of white-Western cultural touchpoints was something completely unique. 2 points deducted for the Marvel-ness that crept in towards the end, as well as some of the worst CGI I've seen in ages. Seriously, the whole final battle between Kilmonger and T'Challa was God. Awful. Looked like it was entirely CGI at some points. Also, it went on too long. Like I say...Marvel-ness.

Still great though, probably ahead of Avengers but behind Captain America in my overall personal rankings

1 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
3 Black Panther (2018)
4 Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
5 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
6 Iron Man (2008)
7 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
8 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
9 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
10 Doctor Strange (2016)
11 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
12 Ant-Man (2015)
13 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
14 Iron Man 3 (2013)
15 Thor (2011)
16 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
17 Thor: The Dark World (2013)
18 Iron Man 2 (2010)

Mostly agree with your thoughts on Black Panther(I'd probably give it an 8 or 8.5/10), but I enjoyed the T'Challa vs. Killmonger finale and I did think there were a couple of what you might call white western touchpoints that weren't needed. The main one being that they concocted a reason for Killmonger to be American(Look! He was living in Oakland! His dad was a gangbanger!). I do agree that it's wildly different from the normal AAA blockbuster movie though, and that can only be a good thing. More of this please.

Ooooh, rankings! I don't hugely disagree with your list but probably have a lot more time for Captain America than most(and I LOVE Spider-Man and Thor: Ragnarok despite them probably not being deserving of their high placements):



I've said this loads but I do think that when the series eventually runs aground, or when we look back at this era of films, the consistency of Marvel's output will be how they're remembered. There's no film in that 18 strong list that represents a genuinely bad movie - Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and the first two Thor films aren't amazing, but they're watchable, 6/10 movies. Moving up through that to the films at the top I'd say you're at 8/10 and 9/10 for the very best ones - I can't think of another series of films with such a consistent level of good quality.

As an aside, I think Marvel's villain game has come on hugely since they were heavily criticised for the throwaway bad guys that were popping up - Vulture, Evil Kurt Russell* and now Killmonger(and to an extent Klaue, who I thought was great) are all great bad guys of the last year or two who I'd like to see return in some fashion.

*For that shall now be his name.

Isle of Dogs - 8/10

Wonderfully film, incredible style that draws you in from the very first frame

Black Panther - 6/10

Found the pacing was off the middle and your standard cg marvel bollocks towards the end. I was more drawn to the artwork, would love to find out who the artists were. Visually so different and refreshing.

Ready Player One
Wow was not expecting a film like this
9/10
I need to buy a PS VR now!

Blade Runner 2049 - 8/10

Visually impressive and a nice continuation of the original film but there's a few flaws here and there that detract from the overall experience - mainly the quite frankly deafening audio design, had to continuously adjust the volume to hear what people were saying then turn it down when the BBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR noises kicked in every few minutes.

Ana De Armas though good God.