What was the last film you watched?

[rafletcher]

Attack the block. Good fun

[citoyen]

If....

Such a great film, one of my all-time favourites and I don't think I will ever tire of it. It was listed on Netflix so I told my son he should watch it, so he did, and I watched it with him. He was a bit nonplussed by it, which is interesting. He clearly has some gaps in his cinematic vocabulary that need to be filled in. I shall have to force feed him some Truffaut and Godard, for starters...

[Redlight]

Took my (almost) 9 yo to see the Jungle Book yesterday.  Having never liked the cartoon much, even as a child, I went prepared to be unimpressed but I have to say it is very well done. Visually, it's a treat and the human/computer-generated animal interaction is generally excellent. The panther doesn't work too well - it's a little stiff - but most of the others are good enough to allow you to suspend disbelief and be absorbed into the story. 

There's also a neat nod to "Apocalypse Now", which I won't spoil for you.

Our enjoyment was spoiled only by the couple in the row in front of us who thought it was sensible to bring a baby (about 9 months) and a three year-old to a PG film and let them shout. cry, scream and generally make a racket all the way through.  I fail to understand how anyone can be so oblivious to their impact on others.  Or maybe they simply don't give a ****.

[T42]

If....

Such a great film, one of my all-time favourites and I don't think I will ever tire of it. It was listed on Netflix so I told my son he should watch it, so he did, and I watched it with him. He was a bit nonplussed by it, which is interesting. He clearly has some gaps in his cinematic vocabulary that need to be filled in. I shall have to force feed him some Truffaut and Godard, for starters...

Damn and bloody blast, pissfarting Netflix shovels us their "international" selection in France, i.e. 90% UScrap with a token selection of French stuff. Lots of gutter sludge about US Marines and retired FBI jocks leveraging each other's bollocks to save the world and heal their father/son relationships on the side, but none of the great old classics of British cinema.  I hope their Vaseline dries up.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

If....

Such a great film, one of my all-time favourites and I don't think I will ever tire of it. It was listed on Netflix so I told my son he should watch it, so he did, and I watched it with him. He was a bit nonplussed by it, which is interesting. He clearly has some gaps in his cinematic vocabulary that need to be filled in. I shall have to force feed him some Truffaut and Godard, for starters...

Yes, I enjoy 'If... '   The theme tune (Missa Luba by Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin) is good too.

Maybe you could force feed him with 'O Lucky Man' a sort of sequel.  It makes me think things haven't changed much!

[citoyen]

The theme tune (Missa Luba by Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin) is good too.

My parents had the LP of that and played it a lot when I was growing up. I always get the Sanctus as an earworm for several days every time I watch the film. The rest of the LP is pretty good too, actually - I rather like the Gloria.

[Cudzoziemiec]

If....

Such a great film, one of my all-time favourites and I don't think I will ever tire of it. It was listed on Netflix so I told my son he should watch it, so he did, and I watched it with him. He was a bit nonplussed by it, which is interesting. He clearly has some gaps in his cinematic vocabulary that need to be filled in. I shall have to force feed him some Truffaut and Godard, for starters...

Yes, I enjoy 'If... '   The theme tune (Missa Luba by Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin) is good too.

Maybe you could force feed him with 'O Lucky Man' a sort of sequel.  It makes me think things haven't changed much!

That jogs my memory. I reckon my parents must have had it too – but it was probably one of the pile of LPs that rarely got played except when I was exploring.

[T42]

Stop at Nothing: the Lance Armstrong Story

Pure documentary, haven't noticed it mentioned in here before.
Even at a couple of years' remove from the scandal, still riveting.

[T42]

Incidentally, in the evenings we've been watching this:

Pablo Escobar, El Patrón del Mal

which is a jolly romp.  He would have made a good running-mate for Donald Trump.

[rogerzilla]

Dr Terror's House Of Horrors.  Very good (and unusual) cast.

[Ashaman42]

District 9 - not what I expected at all but I rather enjoyed it.

Not sure if it was meant to have subtitles or not though. Our version didn't.

[Wascally Weasel]

District 9 - not what I expected at all but I rather enjoyed it.

Not sure if it was meant to have subtitles or not though. Our version didn't.

Yes, there are points in the film where there are subtitles – from memory these were on screen rather than being an option to turn on and off so I’m surprised there weren’t any.

[Andrew]

Resident Evil - beginning to end tosh, but what the hell, you can't always do hi-brow.

It did have zombies though so that was definitely a redeeming feature. I do like zombies. They are such a very low tech, basic baddie. I love the way they get around (not literally but also) in so many movies too.  They add something, a guaranteed factor, despite any directorial intention, just by being there. A known quantity; you feel safe with zombies.

[T42]

Started watching R.E. a while back. It was intriguing enough at first, but then it was "oh, fucking zombies again" and I bailed out.

District 9 I'm very fond of. I thought Neill Blomkamp might be an interesting director to follow, but Elysium was Hollywoody crap and I haven't bothered to seek out Chappie.

[Ashaman42]

Possibly a 'dodgy' copy so maybe that's why no subtitles. It worked without so would be interesting to watch again and see how it changes it.

[Andrew]

The Danish Girl
I cried buckets at the last set-piece, which was both allegorical and beautiful, as well as following a leitmotif for the whole film. Redmayne is good, though he simpers a bit as Lili, but Anna Vikander is wonderful as Gerda.

I finally got around to watching this. It's a quite superb example of film making, thoroughly recommended.

It's tempting to view Redmayne as the star, and it is an excellent performance particularly sensitive and nuanced at times, but I agree - Vikander is consistently brilliant. Hers is THE performance and, I suspect, Gerda is 'the Danish Girl' of the title.

Actually, reading back, I don't make this seem as good a film as it is. Just watch it.

[Ruthie]

Special Correspondents

One of Ricky Gervais's projects.  Surprisingly enjoyable in spite of that, the humour is very sharp and British. 

Two horrible, horrible journalists fake being in a war because they lose their passports.  Of course there's more to it than that, but that's the gist.

6/10 - worth watching once for an undemanding evening of entertainment with pizza and a mate.

[fuzzy]

The Place Beyond The Pines.

Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eve Mendes, Bruce Greenwood and Ray Liota.

(click to show/hide)

Gosling is a motorcycle stunt rider for a travelling fair. he has a fling with Mendes and then says goodbye. The fair returns a year later and Gosling looks up last years squeeze to discover he is a dad and his son is being raised by Mendes and her new fella, a black guy. He tries to get involved with Mendes and his son and turns to crime to pay for stuff. He and Mendes fall out after Gosling uses a hefty adjustable wrench to adjust the black guys attitude. The crime spree continues and enter Bradley Cooper, local cop, son of a retired judge and father to a boy the same age as Goslings son. Gosling does a blagging and Cooper ends up in pursuit. The outcome of the pursuit is gun play resulting in a dead Gosling and a wounded Cooper. During recovery, the hero cop Cooper is visited by a number of colleagues including Liota who, quell surprise, is a bad 'un. They visit Mendes and her fella and do an illegal search, finding and sharing out the spoils of Goslings crime spree. Coopers guilty conscience eventually see's him doing the right thing and lots of cops go to jail.

15 years later....
Cooper is running for Attorney General. His ex wife arrives and tells him their son wants/ needs to live with Dad. Dad takes him in and sends him to school where he makes a friend and they smoke pot. They get nicked and Cooper attends. he recognises that his sons buddy is Goslings son and warns his son off without saying why.

other stuff happens including fights and kidnaps and shit but the end of the film see's Goslings son finding out about his dad and running away to buy a motorbike and live happily ever after/ just like his dad

Not exactly crap but I have seen better.

[Andrew]

The Place Beyond The Pines.

Coincidentally, I saw this last night (you're not in France are you?).

Coincidentally, I agree with your conclusion.

A long film that seemed longer. Not at all bad and, in fairness, well acted but there is an element of 'so what?' to it.

That said, it held me. Imho a film has to be pretty darned good to sustain me over 100 minutes and this film did that even if I wondered why when the credits rolled.

[caerau]

Captain America Civil War.


As I have probably said upthread, last year the wife and I kind of noticed that we hadn't seen anything at the cinema in recent years that wasn't either a superhero film or Sci-Fi/Fantasy film of some kind.  We decided we'd stop that and get some proper highbrow culture in next time.


Unfortunately we then immediately saw trailers for the aforementioned film and X-men Apocalypse and we looked at each other and said 'Oh just those two more then'     I think we need methadone to get off these really.




Well it was great fun and - well - an Avengers film with great action and some self-mithering about the morality of dropping buildings on people when 'doing good'


It is what it is - a Marvel superhero film and one of the better ones I think although they all start to merge into one.  It did inspire us to watch Avengers Assemble and Iron Man the first after on Sunday evening. 
Faustus or A La Recherche du Temps Perdu it is not...

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Our Kind of Traitor.

A bit clunky and simpler than usual but some quite suspenseful moments.  The ending was a bit of wishful thinking IMO.  Worth a viewing.

[citoyen]

True Story

Wish I'd read the Guardian review first. It sums up the whole film perfectly in two words: dramatically inert.

[caerau]

My wife watched that on Sunday - I pretended to but really I was fettling my bike - she enjoyed it.

[ian]

X-Men Apocalypse. I discovered I'd somehow missed one of the series, but who keeps track. One the better lines (and there's quite a few) in Deadpool (which I heartily enjoyed) was about the fiendish difficulty of keeping track of the X-Men timelines. We get another Wolverine origin (seriously, Hollywood, we know, c.f. Batman, Spiderman, etc.). Things go bang. There's a very naughty mutant. There always is. Magneto is conflicted. He always is. McAvoy loses his hair (another origin story, we wondered how he got to Patrick Stewart, all is answered). Actors protest about being blue for an entire movie and get their wish. Quite enjoyed it.

As Jeff Goldblum says in the trailer for the new Independence Day as the aliens partake in their sundry destruction (and yes, I have my tickets and high expectations), "they always go for the landmarks". So true, Jeff, so true. I'm scared to step on Brooklyn Bridge theses day. Temerarious nefarity seems to like stomping Tower Bridge a lot too.

[Kim]

As Jeff Goldblum says in the trailer for the new Independence Day as the aliens partake in their sundry destruction (and yes, I have my tickets and high expectations)...

If he doesn't save the day with an iPad Pro, I'll want my money back.