What was the last film you watched?

[hillbilly]

Moonlight Kingdom

The last of the films in my Wes Anderson watch through.  Follows the template, but the setting is one of the more interesting ones in his canon - basically a light, quirky comedy following the adventures of two 12 year old misfits and the reaction of their small community to them absconding.  Charming and worth 90 minutes of anyone's life.

[hillbilly]

Trash

Didn't live up to the name.  Not a bad wee film, even if it tries to take on a significance it doesn't merit.  despite being written by Richard Curtis, it doesn't have too many implausible and sickeningly sweet scenarios.  (You might tell I went into this expecting not to like it and ended feeling slightly charmed).  Anyway, Brazilian kids get mixed up in corruption and try to resolve the situation.  Decent premise, largely delivered upon.

[Pancho]

45 Years

Only a slight exaggeration to say that's almost how long it's been since Mrs P and I went to the flicks together.

Shame the cinema's projector technology died before the film started - and after 30 mins waiting it was declared "off" and we all trooped out and queued for a refund.

So it wasn't the last film I watched, more accurately, it was the last film I tried to watch.

Bit of a bummer, really.

[Jakob]

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

Wanted to see if it was as bad as I remembered and it was...partly because Uma Thurman is utterly and completely unconvincing as a martial artist.
Easily Tarantinos worst film(s), although it/they does have it's moments.

[citoyen]

About Time

Richard Curtis. I lasted about 25 minutes before I had to turn it off.

[red marley]

That's at least 25 minutes more than I managed. I gave up when I found out it was a Richard Curtis film. Which was several weeks before I didn't watch it.

[ian]

I'd like to go back in time and unwatch the few Richard Curtis films I may have accidentally watched.

[hillbilly]

Wolfpack

Interesting and engaging documentary about the Angelo family, who were largely locked away from the world as they grew up, maintaining a vague link to it through films.  A strangely upbeat film about finding identity and burgeoning adulthood if it is given a chink through which to blossom.  Or something.

[Ruthie]

About Time

Richard Curtis. I lasted about 25 minutes before I had to turn it off.

Yebbut, Bill Nighy.

[hillbilly]

LA Story

Inspired by seeing a picture of Steve Martin somewhere, I splashed a couple of £ on this early 90s satire/romcom that I remembered as being "not bad" and "not as annoying as Steve Martin's earlier work". 

It's a bit confused in places, and the satire a bit blunt and sprawling (like LA) but it has an easy charm and a gentle flow of light comedy that provides relief to the thin plot about fate and the like.  I think its biggest issue is that Curb Your Enthusiasm had a similar situation and it's difficult to watch LA Story without contrasting it with Larry David's comedy, and for LA Story to fall short.  But the memory of it being "not bad" was justified.

That said, LA Story does have bonus Rick Moranis. With one of the worst English accents committed to celluloid. Bless.

[hillbilly]

L'Eclisse

At BFI Southbank.  B&W.  Subtitled from Italian.  Artier than one half of Simon and Garfunkel.  Off the pretention scale; the natural domain of those who stroke beards and feel slightly too warm in their polyester polo necks.

It was. Okay.  Vaguely interesting, some of the time.  Unnerving and vaguely threatening in parts.  But long languid periods where not much happens, so there is an overall sense of there only being the most fleeting of stories.  The ending is a real "WTF" experience.

[citoyen]

Gone Girl

Had low expectations due to a) having read the book, and b) Ben Affleck, but it was actually rather good. Better than the book, in fact - the ending seemed a lot less silly than the book, and a lot more sinister. I have mixed feelings about David Fincher but he was exactly the right director for this.

(click to show/hide)

I still have problems with the story though - mainly the fact that Nick gets let off the hook far too easily. At the start, you think it's some kind of feminist revenge story where the useless cheating shit of a man gets what he deserves, but then it turns out that Amy's behaviour is driven purely by the fact that she's a psychopath.

I had the same problem with Falling Down, where it turns out that Michael Douglas isn't driven to his behaviour by the injustices of the world but because he's mentally ill. It's a massive cop out.

[Legs]

Am reading Gone Girl ATM, so thanks for putting whatever you've put under the spoiler under the spoiler!

[citoyen]

Am reading Gone Girl ATM, so thanks for putting whatever you've put under the spoiler under the spoiler!

It's only a spoiler if you're less than halfway through the book, but I thought it best to err on the safe side!

[hillbilly]

Leon  Gary Oldman was great as a bad guy.  Pity he grew a Ned Flanders moustache and turned into a good guy since the turn of the century.

Annie Hall Woody Allen's best film?  Possibly.  Certainly one of the better ones.  Diane Keaton holds the film together, whilst Woody does a stand up routine around it, being too clever by half.  Has some great moments and lines.  What d'you think? D'you like it? (if you've seen it, that should make sense...)

[Steph]

Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Some superbly acid lines for Maggie Smith. On being asked how she had found America:

I went with low expectations and came back disappointed.

[hillbilly]

Like Father Like Son Japanese film about paternity. Premise is two families find out their sons were swapped at birth and they have to decide whether to swap 6 year old boys or keep them. Quite a subdued film but interesting.

[hillbilly]

imitation game
Was not that great a script, but Sherlock wasn't bad.

I'm also rattling through the films of the Coen Brothers.  Blood Simple, Fargo and Raising Arizona so far.  All good.  There's at least one Classic in that list, and I'm looking forward to watching the other half dozen or so Coen films I've got lined up this month.

[Steph]

Like Father Like Son Japanese film about paternity. Premise is two families find out their sons were swapped at birth and they have to decide whether to swap 6 year old boys or keep them. Quite a subdued film but interesting.

So it is rather different to the similar plot (stretching things) in "Leon the Pig Farmer"...

[Chris S]

PK

Not entirely the full Monty, Bollywoodwise; there were no comas, no emergency childbirths, and only occasionally random song and dance.

Kind of a cross between Mr Bean and ET.

Entertaining, but very long.

[citoyen]

Pride

I was expecting it to be more like Billy Elliot. I hated Billy Elliot. I loved Pride. A bit cheesy and I suspect some liberties have been taken with the truth, but it works really well.

[ian]

Fight Club, because I read the book* while bored in Basingstoke the other week, and I'd not seen the movie for years, and the ever erudite Citoyen mentioned David Fincher. Takes mostly from book which is no bad thing, and is still brilliant with the everyman Norton, the brash Pitt, and the scatty catty Bonham-Carter. Good god, was that 1999.

*the author's afterword in the current edition is priceless, especially if you didn't like Margaret Thatcher. And that's obviously a thing of which I do not approve.

[TimO]

I just watched Wyrmwood, and it was impressively good for a Zombie film that cost $160000 to make.

It's worth watching if you get the chance, and enjoy the Zombie genre, but I wouldn't spend too much money on it.  I watched it as part of my free Amazon Prime usage, before I cancel it.  It's one of the few films I've seen on there, which was worth more than I paid for it (ie nothing!)

Initially it seemed like a fairly straightforward end-of-the-world Zombpocalypse film, but it does have a few amusing and relatively original elements.

[Katie]

Guardians of the Galaxy, because my boss and I are working our way through the entire cinematic universe in canon order, and we needed some lighthearded relief following the finale of Agents of SHIELD S01… rather liked it. May have fallen in love with Groot. Though the phrase "pelvic sorcery" still has me in stitches nearly 18 hours later…

[Mr Larrington]

Fight Club, because I read the book* while bored in Basingstoke the other week, and I'd not seen the movie for years, and the ever erudite Citoyen mentioned David Fincher. Takes mostly from book which is no bad thing, and is still brilliant with the everyman Norton, the brash Pitt, and the scatty catty Bonham-Carter. Good god, was that 1999.

Ssshhhh!  You're not supposed to mention that.