What was the last film you watched?

[TimO]

...
In other news I finally remembered to watch Spectral (I slept through the first attempt, but was a more due to the fact I'd had a few glasses of magic sleeping potion in the pub earlier). Now that I liked. Ninja-engineer saved the day with some splendidly made-up science, all rendered with some quite reasonable CGI.

Rather annoyingly, this only appears to be available on Netflix.  I'm rather loathe to sign up to Netflix, for a single film.

The trailer does make it appear interesting.

[ian]

It's a Netflix production – they're turning out TV series and movies of their own and they're often rather good (Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, The OA etc.). Watching something called Travelers at the moment which is keeping me entertained (time travellers from the future zap into the bodies of people about to die and then have to try and save the future by averting asteroid strikes etc. while at the same time trying to assume their new contemporary identities without friends and family noticing).

[caerau]

Sounds like Quantum Leap only less bad

[TimO]

It's a Netflix production – ...

Actually, I don't think it is.  It appears to have been made by Legendary Entertainment and Universal Studios, and it was expected to be released by Universal, but Netflix acquired the distribution rights, and so currently that's the only way to see it.

[ian]

Netflix do have producer credits during the roll in, but indeed it seems just because they have the distribution rights.

You are missing out

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Bose-Einstein condensate! Significantly better than mutating neutrinos.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

'Jackie'

About Jacqueline Kennedy/Onassis.  It was based around an interview she gave only a week later with flashbacks to the principal moments.  I felt it captured the horror and desolation of the event whilst giving an honest portrayal of a tough character still very much in control of herself and those she dealt with.

Worth watching if you are going that way.

[andyoxon]

Actually, his last film appears to have been "Alice Through the Looking Glass", that was released after "Eye in the Sky".

ah yes, missed that.

[mattc]

'Jackie'

About Jacqueline Kennedy/Onassis.  It was based around an interview she gave only a week later with flashbacks to the principal moments.  I felt it captured the horror and desolation of the event whilst giving an honest portrayal of a tough character still very much in control of herself and those she dealt with.

Worth watching if you are going that way.

Pathetically trivial comment on a serious film:

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Is Portman's accent as annoying as it seems in the trailer?

(I imagine it is a near-perfect impression of La Kennedy - otherwise the media would be full of snidey comments about her accent!)

[Kim]

Operation Avalanche

Given the premise, this annoyed me at least two orders of magnitude less than I expected it to.  It's clearly a satirical work of fiction^[1], wrapped up in a beautifully executed homage to 16mm, and more layers of meta than you can shake a cine camera at.  Some of the acting's a bit iffy, but you're never sure how much of it is actually acting...


_[1]

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Their cunning plan for faking the moon landing hinges on the Apollo 11 crew uplinking film-artefact-free telecine and fake telemetry data *from lunar orbit*.  It would be easier to land on the moon.

[spindrift]

Passengers

Bit silly. The premise is great, like a Twilight Zone episode, then it goes a bit generic. No bras is space apparently. You also have to just decide BECAUSE SCIENCE at some strange plot anomalies, like why are there vast recreational facilities that will only be used for 4 months of a 200 year flight?

[Riggers]

La La Land last night, and we La La Loved it, actually. It wasn't as song-and-dancey as I imagined, and was very impressed with Ryan Gosling's piano playing. Hadn't expected the ending, er … ending like it did.

[mattc]

Operation Avalanche

Given the premise, this annoyed me at least two orders of magnitude less than I expected it to.  It's clearly a satirical work of fiction^[1], wrapped up in a beautifully executed homage to 16mm, and more layers of meta than you can shake a cine camera at.  Some of the acting's a bit iffy, but you're never sure how much of it is actually acting...


_[1]

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Their cunning plan for faking the moon landing hinges on the Apollo 11 crew uplinking film-artefact-free telecine and fake telemetry data *from lunar orbit*.  It would be easier to land on the moon.

I read your link - and another random review on the web - and I still can't work out what the film is trying to say. Hopefully it's just a bit of clever/arty fun - the director sounds quite cool. If they really think the moon landings were faked I might find the film unbearable.
Incidentally:

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Their cunning plan for faking the moon landing hinges on the Apollo 11 crew uplinking film-artefact-free telecine and fake telemetry data *from lunar orbit*.  It would be easier to land on the moon.

I strongly advise you: DO NOT try to analyse moon landing theories. Next you'll be watching films with time travel plots and trying to find holes in the "logic" ...

[L CC]

'Jackie'

About Jacqueline Kennedy/Onassis.  It was based around an interview she gave only a week later with flashbacks to the principal moments.  I felt it captured the horror and desolation of the event whilst giving an honest portrayal of a tough character still very much in control of herself and those she dealt with.

Worth watching if you are going that way.

My review: meh. I found Natalie Portman's voice incredibly irritating and none of the characters were likable. I almost walked out but it was really cold and I wasn't getting a lift till it finished.

[Kim]

Operation Avalanche

Given the premise, this annoyed me at least two orders of magnitude less than I expected it to.  It's clearly a satirical work of fiction^[1], wrapped up in a beautifully executed homage to 16mm, and more layers of meta than you can shake a cine camera at.  Some of the acting's a bit iffy, but you're never sure how much of it is actually acting...


_[1]

(click to show/hide)

Their cunning plan for faking the moon landing hinges on the Apollo 11 crew uplinking film-artefact-free telecine and fake telemetry data *from lunar orbit*.  It would be easier to land on the moon.

I read your link - and another random review on the web - and I still can't work out what the film is trying to say. Hopefully it's just a bit of clever/arty fun - the director sounds quite cool. If they really think the moon landings were faked I might find the film unbearable.
Incidentally:

(click to show/hide)

Their cunning plan for faking the moon landing hinges on the Apollo 11 crew uplinking film-artefact-free telecine and fake telemetry data *from lunar orbit*.  It would be easier to land on the moon.

I strongly advise you: DO NOT try to analyse moon landing theories. Next you'll be watching films with time travel plots and trying to find holes in the "logic" ...

That wasn't my point.  They method they proposed (well, handwaved over) for faking the landing was so ridiculous, and they hung a lampshade on one of the fundamental problems,  that it took the whole film out of the realm of "moon landing conspiracy theory" to "silly fun".  I think they made it to see if they could.

[Ashaman42]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Finally.

I knew the gist of the story and definitely knew the ending, just by general osmosis. But it was fun watching it all unfold. Glad I wasn't disappointed as with The Breakfast Club earlier this year.

[citoyen]

Eddie The Eagle

Route one stuff but none the less enjoyable for that. I came out of it with a newfound respect for Eddie, and a better understanding of just what an achievement it is to go from complete novice to Olympian in an extremely dangerous event in the space of a year. That bit was never really the focus of news reports at the time - looking back on it, the British press treatment of him was pretty shameful.

(Of course, I understand that a lot of the film is invented - the Hugh Jackman character, for example - but the fundamental fact remains that he chucked himself off a 90m ice ramp strapped to a pair of planks, which is a fucking insane thing to do.)

[Ashaman42]

We liked Eddie The Eagle too.

Utterly bonkers sport though I agree.

[Hot Flatus]

Trainspotting 2

[Ashaman42]

I'm interesting in seeing that despite only actually seeing the first one once.

What did ya reckon?

[Hot Flatus]

Its a good film, very good. But dont go expecting another kaleidoscopic epic like T1.

Its a film about middle-age. Some of the characters  have aged well, some not so well. Problem is, I'm just 2 years older than Renton so it felt like the film was about me, not least because the original film music was the soundtrack of my mid 20s, and the score on this film has downtempo remixes of some of the Underworld tunes that featured. Its quite haunting. . Certainly had the intended impact on me. The characters are aware of their mortality, and unlike T1 it doesnt capture the 'mood of the moment', because of course it isnt their moment. They had that 20 years ago. The nightclub scene reinforces this neatly.

Its definitely worth seeing.

[Torslanda]

The Hundred Foot Journey

Delightful, if a bit silly.

[Pickled Onion]

The Hundred Foot Journey

Delightful, if a bit silly.

Surely as it's set in France and at the end of the 20th Century it should be The Thirty Metre Journey (India metricated in the 1950s) /pedant

[Pickled Onion]

Bit of a film fest here:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Wet-behind-the-ears foreign correspondent in Afghanistan morphs into a young Kate Adie. Enjoyable and interesting, despite the obligatory US slant on the world.

Night Train to Lisbon
After a chance meeting, a boring Bern University lecturer sets off on a quest to find out about the Portuguese revolution. Intensely moving stuff. Not sure why I'd not heard of the film before.

London Road
Documentary about the Ipswich serial killer. Somehow I missed the bit that said it is retold through the medium of song and dance. WTF? Switched it off after ten minutes.

Fast & Furious 7
Obviously not expecting much, but thought it might be a fun bit of escapist nonsense. Switched it off after ten minutes when I found out it was over two hours long - srsly?

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
I can see why this was groundbreaking stuff when it was released, but it has not stood the test of time. Vaguely enjoyable, but mostly consists of a few witty one-liners over a standard story with a non-standard set of characters. Good but unnecessarily long.

I Promise You Anarchy (Te prometo anarquía)
Low-budget Mexican film about two skateboarders who fall in love but get in over their heads when they try to make a few pesos selling (other people's) blood on the black market.

[Hot Flatus]

Do you know what, I might go and see T2 again.

[Peter]

Blazing Saddles, courtesy of Torslanda.  I could go on about it but my work here is done.