Whatcha Watching?

[polishgenius]

34 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

I understand what you’re saying though and I agree to an extent. For instance, I don’t think any of Tony’s films are anywhere near as good as the brilliance of Blade Runner or Alien.

 

Obviously Blade Runner and Alien are the best two films in either's filmography, but True Romance isn't that far off. And Top Gun, despite being a very, very silly film, is an all-time classic too so... you know. 

 

Also Unstoppable fucking rocks and Ridley wishes he could have made it. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, Buckwheat said:

I actually liked the 2010 Robin Hood. I am surprised by the dislike for it.

Quite a few commentators, especially British ones, got seriously hung up on Russell Crowe's ever mutating accent. It's like he was from every part of England. 

That didn't bother me at all. I thought the movie was pretty good. 

And don't forget American Gangster. Great film.

4 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Kingdom of Heaven (extended cut) and The Martian are great. The Martian isnine of my favourite films to rewatch

I don't think I've ever seen the not-extended cut of that film. Great movie. The Martian too. 

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's those two things that cause most people Imo to not like it. It's not an Alien film. It's a movie about faith that also explains the origins of the xenomorphs and engineers. That's not what fans of the franchise really wanted, but if you can set that aside it's an interesting film that doesn't deserve the hate it gets. There's no argument on the second bolded part though, the characters do some incredibly dumb shit and that's used to move the plot multiple times. 

All that said, since Alien and Predator are now shared universes, Prometheus might be the fourth best film in the collective franchise. 

I think the Alien franchise has been played out. They mystery of the early films is gone.

Alien and Blade Runner (Final Cut) are two of my favorite films. Those two alone are enough to punch Scott's ticket into movie maker Valhalla.

That said, his later work has been a bit hit and miss for me. But that's OK. With a filmography as huge as his, I wouldn't expect them all to be bangers

Has anyone mentioned Gladiator? That film might not get quite the same respect as some of his other big works (it's been played to death), but it was kind of a revelation when it came out. It also marked a resurgence of Sword and Sandals films. It's also safe to say that without Gladiator, there's no Rome. And without Rome, there might not have been a Game of Thrones. 

One of these days, very soon I think, I'm going to get around to seeing The Duellists. 

[williamjm]

8 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

But before that, I have to go all the way back to Matchstick Men

That's one I haven't seen yet, perhaps I should since Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell sound like they should be an interesting combination.

[kissdbyfire]

26 minutes ago, williamjm said:

That's one I haven't seen yet, perhaps I should since Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell sound like they should be an interesting combination.

Talking about it now made me want to watch it again! It’s been ages since I saw it and I don’t remember much other than really liking it. 

[Zorral]

Ha!  It turns out The Slavs is a Ukrainian series, or at least a big part of the production consortium, the opening credits states.

O the art, the entertainment, the history, the scholarship we can get in the few moments when jerkwaddies don't do war and conquest.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Zorral

[dbunting]

Saw Napoleon over the weekend. Enjoyed it but wasn't awed by it. I wish that they had gone more into his military strategy and less into the politics, and that is just a personal preference and I don't care about historical accuracies. A couple I know saw it opening weekend and walked out because "it was too dark, spousal abuse etc".  Kind of worried me going into it but I didn't think that was over done at all.  I'll watch this again at home but mostly for the battle scenes.

Finished Bodies on Netflix this weekend. It was a mostly decent time travel movie. One problem I have is one of the lead males, I always see him as Capone from Boardwalk Empire!

Watched Greater, a story about a walk on football player who unlike Rudy, becomes a player. It's a movie about faith and your path in life more than anything else. This feels and looks like a Lifetime movie of the week. Not a bad movie but also not very good.  Big brother spotted. After watching this movie on my tv, and using my phone to look up actors in it on IMDB, tiktok "randomly" showed me a clip of one of the leads, Neal McDonough. It's a clip of him speaking at some conference. He mentions how he is asked repeatedly about playing villains and killing people etc.  He says, I have no problem doing that on screen because it's acting and the people aren't dead or injured in any way, but because of my faith and love for my wife I won't due a love scene or even kiss a woman on screen because I don't want them to see that, it's not pretend, you are really kissing, touching, that person.  I thought that was a strange way of thinking but hey, if it works for him then ok.   

 

[Buckwheat]

8 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Quite a few commentators, especially British ones, got seriously hung up on Russell Crowe's ever mutating accent. It's like he was from every part of England. 

That didn't bother me at all. I thought the movie was pretty good. 

I am not a native English speaker, so I don't even notice such things. That explains it.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

6 minutes ago, Buckwheat said:

I am not a native English speaker, so I don't even notice such things. That explains it.

"Branded on the tongue" as they say. The differences are subtle to my ears but they are definitely there.

 

[Heartofice]

Seen a few things recently, things I probably wouldn't have expected to watch.

Good boys is a coming of age comedy, it's basically Superbad with younger kids. I actually thought a lot of the comedy was really funny, and liked the dialogue a lot. There are some fantastic scenes and set pieces and I laughed out loud at times. However, none of the 3 leads unfortunately were especially memorable. This would have been a much better movie if you had a 12 year old Michael Cera and Jonah Hill in it, and it's no coincidence none of these kids seems to have gone anywhere since.

Also saw The Good Nurse (I think The Good ... is up with with 'American' as a prefix for almost all lazy movie titling) starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain, the story of a real life nurse who killed many of his patients. Redmayne is incredible in the role actually, I found his performance more chilling than maybe anything I've seen in years. He doesn't go for 'evil', just awkward, and it works incredibly well

Also am waiting for the next episode of A Murder at the end of the world, which I find enjoyable but it isn't blowing me away in the way that the OA did. So far it all seems pretty straightforward murder mystery kind of thing, and I'm hoping the story elevates itself as more episodes are released.
 

[IlyaP]

10 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Good boys is a coming of age comedy, it's basically Superbad with younger kids. I actually thought a lot of the comedy was really funny, and liked the dialogue a lot. There are some fantastic scenes and set pieces and I laughed out loud at times. However, none of the 3 leads unfortunately were especially memorable. This would have been a much better movie if you had a 12 year old Michael Cera and Jonah Hill in it, and it's no coincidence none of these kids seems to have gone anywhere since.

Watched the trailer for this and now I'm totally sold on watching this movie. It has the appearance of the anxieties we all faced as teens but with perhaps a bit more insanity than might be expected in real life. 

[Slurktan]

37 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Good boys is a coming of age comedy, it's basically Superbad with younger kids. I actually thought a lot of the comedy was really funny, and liked the dialogue a lot. There are some fantastic scenes and set pieces and I laughed out loud at times. However, none of the 3 leads unfortunately were especially memorable. This would have been a much better movie if you had a 12 year old Michael Cera and Jonah Hill in it, and it's no coincidence none of these kids seems to have gone anywhere since.
 

Funny movie but Jacob Tremblay is in it.  Fantastic young actor.

[Heartofice]

17 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Funny movie but Jacob Tremblay is in it.  Fantastic young actor.

Weirdly enough I just watched The Wonder, and he was good in that. 

[kissdbyfire]

John Malkovich as... Hercule Poirot? Colour me intrigued enough to check it out. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

John Malkovich as... Hercule Poirot? Colour me intrigued enough to check it out. 

What witchcraft do you speak of? 

[kissdbyfire]

4 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

What witchcraft do you speak of? 

The ABC Murders https://g.co/kgs/75EHih

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

58 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

The ABC Murders https://g.co/kgs/75EHih

Thanks, I'm going to have to check out at least one episode. This is kind of hard to picture. I do like that they got rid of the terrible mustache. 

[kissdbyfire]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

Thanks, I'm going to have to check out at least one episode. This is kind of hard to picture. I do like that they got rid of the terrible mustache. 

It's ok-ish? I mean, not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination but watchable. 

But it gets super weird at the end...

(so don't read if you hate spoilers)

Spoiler

because they decided to make Poirot a former priest???? From when he was still living in Belgium? Why? I haven't read an Agatha Christie novel in aaaaaages but even then I still remembered pretty clearly that the official backstory is, he was a copper.

 

[Zorral]

5 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

John Malkovich as... Hercule Poirot? Colour me intrigued enough to check it out. 

It's awful.  Like all these recent Poirots.  The ABC Murders is particularly so.

[Zorral]

19 hours ago, dbunting said:

I don't care about historical accuracies. A couple I know saw it opening weekend and walked out because "it was too dark, spousal abuse etc". 

Except Napoleon didn't do spousal abuse -- presumably they were referring to scene where he hits her because she doesn't want to consent to divorce.  That sort of thing matters if one is assessing an historical figure doesn't it?

[kissdbyfire]

5 minutes ago, Zorral said:

It's awful.  Like all these recent Poirots.  The ABC Murders is particularly so.

I didn't think it was that bad? I mean, as I said, not great but watchable, even if mostly to wonder what the hell is Malcovich trying to do w/ whatever that accentt is. 

But since I seem to be on a roll, I found a more interesting one, with Bill Nighy <3 Anna Chancellor and many more! 

https://g.co/kgs/Re2JCx