What was the last film you watched?

[LEE]

I have watched recently:
Dad's Army: a mixed bag.
I think the film suffers in the way any such work would, by being held up in comparison to institutions such as Dunn and Pertwee.

.....and Lowe....and Laurie.... and Le Mesurier...and Lavender... and Ridley... and Beck.

[Steph]

I have watched recently:
Dad's Army: a mixed bag.
I think the film suffers in the way any such work would, by being held up in comparison to institutions such as Dunn and Pertwee.

.....and Lowe....and Laurie.... and Le Mesurier...and Lavender... and Ridley... and Beck.

Absolutely. It was a superb ensemble, and the film never seemed to gel in that way.

[Steph]

The second best marigold hotel

Very enjoyable, harmless fun.

My favourite line from it:
"How did you find America, Muriel?"
"Well, I went with low expectations and came back disappointed"

[Mr Larrington]

"Hello, an hiw did you find yourself this morning?"

"I just rolled back the sheets and there I was!"

[Steph]

Well, there is no present like the time.

[T42]

A shot in the dark

The second pink panther film.  Whilst mildly amusing i think I prefer the 70s Clouseau, which was more puerile and tongue in cheek.  Put aside the slapstick, and Peter Sellers performance in the first two films was a little too subtle and didn't give all out belly laughs.

My favourite of his is Being There.

[Riggers]

Yesterday, The Program. Ben Foster brilliantly plays Lance Armstrong. And yes, it does show what happens to someone who is so driven to 'win', you inevitably lose yourself. What a thorough rotter. And I was one of those who, at the time, refuted the likelihood of him cheating because, as he so often repeated: "I have never tested positive for drugs." It only proved how devious he (and the rest of the team) manipulative were.

Still, enjoyed the film.

[Pickled Onion]

The Lost Weekend

Excellent, pretty intense for a Sunday-afternoon-black-and-white film. Thanks to Ruthie for the recommendation.

Slow West

Another cracking film, this one a modern film made to look all technicolor. Very good indeed.

[T42]

Yesterday, The Program. Ben Foster brilliantly plays Lance Armstrong. And yes, it does show what happens to someone who is so driven to 'win', you inevitably lose yourself. What a thorough rotter. And I was one of those who, at the time, refuted the likelihood of him cheating because, as he so often repeated: "I have never tested positive for drugs." It only proved how devious he (and the rest of the team) manipulative were.

Yeah, me too.  In France he was mostly referred to as "l'américan", usually in a disdainful tone, and that made my hackles rise - particularly as the French riders at the time were not exactly choir-boys.  The way he did it was vile, but back then I didn't know and he did provide me with a lot of pleasure.

[mrcharly-YHT]

A Little Chaos

Rickman and Winslet, what could be better? Light period ROM/drama, with some delicious scenes. Something like the lighter Shakespeare comedies. Costumes to die for.

[hillbilly]

Orphee

1950s, black and white, subtitled, iconic, French. Like a live action Aha Take on Me Video.  With added angst. What's not to like?

[Jaded]

The Martian

I enjoyed it. Saw it at home on the very big screen with surround sound. Who cares about the plot holes and Hollywood science, it was a film 

[TimO]

The Martian

I enjoyed it. Saw it at home on the very big screen with surround sound. Who cares about the plot holes and Hollywood science, it was a film 

Actually, most of the plot holes are small and/or technical, it appears to be a fairly realistic representation of such a sequence of events.

The only really big plot hole, is the storm blowing things around at the start.  The atmospheric pressure on Mars is so low, that even the huge planet covering storms that sometimes occur, would have little effect on you or any large man made structure.  The author admits this, but it was a necessary bending of reality to make the remainder of the story necessary.

[TimO]

Wolf Children

Not a bad film, and the animation was very well done.  It's a slightly novel take on the werewolf mythology, and set in modern day Japan, so culturally somewhat less familiar to those of us from the UK (and similar cultural backgrounds).

It does seem a little bit too "everyday", with nothing terribly dramatic happening for a lot of the film, although that's clearly deliberate, this obviously isn't an action film.

I do wonder what the script is like in the original Japanese, I have seen criticism of the English soundtrack as being "overly sweet and simplistic".

[Kim]

The Martian

I enjoyed it. Saw it at home on the very big screen with surround sound. Who cares about the plot holes and Hollywood science, it was a film 

Actually, most of the plot holes are small and/or technical, it appears to be a fairly realistic representation of such a sequence of events.

Much of the book's delightful attention to detail got the Hollywood treatment in the film, but not to the point of making it less enjoyable.  Perhaps the most blatant was that they kept the line about "forgot about the oxygen I was breathing out" while showing him breathing room air before the explosion, which made no sense (in the book he reduced the hydrazine in a nitrogen/hydrogen/CO2 atmosphere, while wearing a medical oxygen mask).  The plastic flapping in the wind when many of the scenes show pressure gauges was a bit blatant too.  But I'll accept things like the silliness with the Pathfinder model as an attempt to present visually what would have been some very non-visual engineering hard work.

[Pickled Onion]

Dot The I

Low budget film with a star cast - from before they were famous, at least in English language films. Love triangle with a few twists, and quite clever because you keep thinking you've worked it out and you haven't. A bit ragged in places but the top notch acting holds it together.

Recommended, but maybe not to everyone's taste.

[T42]

The Martian

I enjoyed it. Saw it at home on the very big screen with surround sound. Who cares about the plot holes and Hollywood science, it was a film 

Actually, most of the plot holes are small and/or technical, it appears to be a fairly realistic representation of such a sequence of events.

The only really big plot hole, is the storm blowing things around at the start.  The atmospheric pressure on Mars is so low, that even the huge planet covering storms that sometimes occur, would have little effect on you or any large man made structure.  The author admits this, but it was a necessary bending of reality to make the remainder of the story necessary.

Yeah.  In The Outward Urge, John Wyndham had his Mars lander put a leg through crust over a hole and topple over.  Something along those lines, e.g. a gradual breakthrough beginning with Wotisiface too far from the ship to get back or trapped in a crevice or summat might have been better.

Although landers have five legs nowadays to avoid this.  Pass the drawing-board.

[caerau]

Mad Max Fury Road Beyond Terrible


My god, how in the living land of FUCK did this pile of steaming shit get 10 Oscar nominations? 


Just about the worst film I've ever seen. No plot, no script, terrible unbelievable characters and the film just repeats the first half in the second half.  A bloody insult to its earlier incarnations (it makes Beyond Thunderdome look like The Godfather) which I very much enjoyed.


I am utterly gobsmacked as to what most others seem to see in it.  Particularly the critics who seem to really love it unanimously 
It was the 8.7/10 on imdb and Oscar nominations (including best picture FFS) and my old fandom of MM 1 & 2 that led me towards one of the most disappointments in a film I've ever had.

[Kim]

It's a two-hour dieselpunk post-apocalyptic car chase.  What were you expecting?


ETA: Correction.  A dieselpunk car chase would be the one in Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

[caerau]

Mad Max Fury Road

2 hours watching a truck being driven across sand.

Ah I'm not alone, thank god for that.

[caerau]

It's a two-hour dieselpunk car chase.  What were you expecting?

Well with all the praise it's got, a lot more than I got.

[Kim]

I thought it did what it said on the tin, ie. take the battle scene from the second film and stretch it out to an entire movie.  It was well-choreographed, with proper old-fashioned stunt work.  And yes, none of the characters are developed and very little actually happens, but I don't think it was supposed to be that sort of movie.

Not really my thing (I've ranted previously about how the first film is boring), but competent enough.

[Jaded]

Never watched any of the Mad Max films because I don't like them...

[caerau]

Part of the issue for me is that with all its great reviews the levels of anticipation I had were not lived up to. 


I've read down the reviews on imdb today and it does seem to be a marmite production.  They are either 10/10 or 1/10.  Guess which camp I'm in 

[caerau]

I'm still thinking I'm in an alternate universe though - the real one has a good film that actually is worthy of a single Oscar nomination - let alone 10!