What was the last film you watched?

[Kim]

Make sure you keep a tally of Daniel's deaths...   

[Ashaman42]

Yeah he's good at that isn't he?

[Mr Larrington]

Butbutbut, it's got Kurt Russell in it!

[ian]

Ah Stargate. Didn't Daniel 'Daniel' Jackson just zip around the universe having sex with the people he found? All of them. My wife has a thing for Jack, so I've hid the box sets. He's old enough to be her father.

Re Logan's Run, ironically, if we topped people at age 30, no one would remember Logan's Run. Didn't they remake it as an utterly forgettable movie a few years back?

Saw Logan yesterday on the big box. As mentioned, it's not cheery, but it's an interestingly adult take on the theme. Even superheroes get old and the violence is very much. My only gripe was that dragged a bit, the conclusion was already written in the first fifteen minutes so it was just a case of getting there. Oddly prescient view of the US's decline too.

[Kim]

Moonlight

With the disclaimer that it's one of those somebody-wants-an-Oscar films, it's not bad.  Something about the audio made it non-specifically hard work.


A Street Cat Named Bob

I had fairly low expectations for this one, and was pleasantly surprised.  The fundamental flaw is that cats have no acting skills whatsoever, and Bob's body language breaks the fourth wall in most of the 'action' scenes.  Since it seems the only way to get on-screen cats right is for them to be animated by Studio Ghibli, we'll let them off.

[citoyen]

Watched Sing Street again last night. It stands up well to repeat viewings - it's just a charming and very well made film. And the songs are great too.

[Paul]

Unstoppable

Unspeakable.

[caerau]

Re Logan's Run, ironically, if we topped people at age 30, no one would remember Logan's Run. Didn't they remake it as an utterly forgettable movie a few years back?

I'd heard there was a remake in the offing - didn't realise they'd actually done it.


Logan's Run is a weird one in that it's one where I actually preferred the TV Series over the movie.  It was a bit like Star Trek for me as a kid, a must watch.  What I think I won't do is subject myself to trying to track it down and rewatch it.  A bit like Blake's Seven, it should maybe live in the memory rather get ruined by trying to watch it again. 
Yeah I did that with Blake's 7.  Noooooo!  I remember it being GOOD 

[T42]

Re Logan's Run, ironically, if we topped people at age 30, no one would remember Logan's Run. Didn't they remake it as an utterly forgettable movie a few years back?

I'd heard there was a remake in the offing - didn't realise they'd actually done it.


Logan's Run is a weird one in that it's one where I actually preferred the TV Series over the movie.  It was a bit like Star Trek for me as a kid, a must watch.  What I think I won't do is subject myself to trying to track it down and rewatch it.  A bit like Blake's Seven, it should maybe live in the memory rather get ruined by trying to watch it again. 
Yeah I did that with Blake's 7.  Noooooo!  I remember it being GOOD 

IMDB has it as in development.  Seems a bit closer to the original:

"A young man at odds with his society's mandatory death sentence for all those turning 21 plots a daring escape on the eve of his fateful birthday."

Quite a few other films have milked the same sort of theme - utopian existence maintained by sudden death - in the interim, though. I doubt if it'll fly.

[T42]

Stargate the fillim. Which I've not seen in donkeys years but have watched loads of the tv series in the interim. I thought it held up rather well on the whole.

Watched that years ago and thought it was crap.  Just had another look at it and confirmed first opinion.

[Kim]

Stargate the fillim. Which I've not seen in donkeys years but have watched loads of the tv series in the interim. I thought it held up rather well on the whole.

Watched that years ago and thought it was crap.  Just had another look at it and confirmed first opinion.

It suffers from a lack of Richard Dean Anderson.

[Steph]

A streetcat named Bob.

Weepiness is me.

[Legs]

Stargate the fillim.

Went to see this at the flicks (not my choice of movie).  Absolutely god-awful.  Fell asleep halfway through and got better value for the second half - at least the seats were comfy IIRC.

[T42]

Stargate the fillim. Which I've not seen in donkeys years but have watched loads of the tv series in the interim. I thought it held up rather well on the whole.

Watched that years ago and thought it was crap.  Just had another look at it and confirmed first opinion.

It suffers from a lack of Richard Dean Anderson.

And the presence of Kurt Russel. But generally it's the basic assumptions that piss me off:

(click to show/hide)

a. that any sufficiently interesting artefact unearthed in the 3rd world will automatically end up in the USofA
b. that the first team sent through an alien interstellar transport device will consist of ignorant jocks armed to the teeth and led by a blockhead who despises the only scientist (of sorts) they drag along.

That's where I pulled the plug yesterday.

In other words, it's crap.

[caerau]

Given that I saw Stargate at the magic moving picture house back in the 1990s.  I'm not sure we *really* need spoiler hides when discussing it.


So sorry...

But generally it's the basic assumptions that piss me off:

a. that any sufficiently interesting artefact unearthed in the 3rd world will automatically end up in the USofA

Well indeed.  Any artefact of note will of course be in the hands of rogue archeologists closely pursued by deranged Nazis.


It's the LAW

[ian]

Stargate, the movie, was pretty tiresome. It was set up as a great idea (well, for a boy who read all the Eric von Daniken in the local library it was) but then it was a case of really, another hour and half to fill? Which they did with Kurt Russell gurning. But the series was a lot better. Because it had Jack, mosty. But the others were OK, other than Daniel who was professionally useless. And the baddies who were consistently the poorest shots in the entire universe. And every planet looking a exactly like British Columbia. There was Chevron Guy too, we like him in our house. I wouldn't trust anyone else to open a stargate for me. That man could lock a chevron.

Other values of Stargate were not as good, of course, though I watched them all out of religious obligation.

[T42]

Yet another shoot-em-up by the sound of it, all terse military jabber, people being "tasked", and interstellar Injuns rolling over dead in the nick.

I would like to see a faithfully-made film of Perdido Street Station.

[Kim]

a. that any sufficiently interesting artefact unearthed in the 3rd world will automatically end up in the USofA

Fixed in the series.  The Stargate ended up in the USofA.  The device for controlling it didn't.  Which is why they had to spend so much time MacGyvering their own.

b. that the first team sent through an alien interstellar transport device will consist of ignorant jocks armed to the teeth and led by a blockhead who despises the only scientist (of sorts) they drag along.

Also fixed in the series, where routine stargate operations are portrayed as scientific as much as military.  The opening scene of half the episodes must involve a couple of our favourite jocks standing around boredly while the boffins catalogue some ancient artifact (before, inevitably, either  a) aliens attack  b) someone presses the wrong button, with hilarious consequences  or c) they bring some object back to earth inna Trojan horse style).


Anyway, Von Daniken's writing is as good a basis for a popcorn scifi series as any.  I thought SG-1 (for which the film is best  regarded as a pilot) did it rather well, not least because it never took itself too seriously.

[Kim]

Passengers

A poorly-written story in which our hero selflessly chooses to devote her existence to fulfilling her stalker's whim in order to ensure the safety of a spaceship with over 5000 hibernating people on board.  As a metaphor for abusive relationships it falls short.  As a sci-fi romance it's just creepy.

Pretty graphics, dodgy physics, enough design flaws to keep the RISKS Digest going for weeks and a conspicuous absence of a plot twist.

I inspected an off-site backup of this one so you don't have to.

[caerau]

Hmm, that's a shame, I thought the trailers for that made it look intriguing.  Never mind.

[T42]

Anyway, Von Daniken's writing is as good a basis for a popcorn scifi series as any.  I thought SG-1 (for which the film is best  regarded as a pilot) did it rather well, not least because it never took itself too seriously.

Was Stargate really based on that charlatan's maunderings? Jesus wept.  Give me Edgar Rice Bourroughs any day: my string-theory-PhD nephew alternately screamed and wept when I described how the Martians stored the Ninth Ray in on-board tanks.

[Chris S]

Passengers

A poorly-written story in which our hero selflessly chooses to devote her existence to fulfilling her stalker's whim in order to ensure the safety of a spaceship with over 5000 hibernating people on board.  As a metaphor for abusive relationships it falls short.  As a sci-fi romance it's just creepy.

Pretty graphics, dodgy physics, enough design flaws to keep the RISKS Digest going for weeks and a conspicuous absence of a plot twist.

I inspected an off-site backup of this one so you don't have to.

I too have tested an off-site backup, and my views haven't changed from when we saw it at the cinema: (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6884.msg2117238#msg2117238).

On the small-screen, not even the CGI can save it. I think I may delete it.

[mattc]

I would like to see a faithfully-made film of Perdido Street Station.

ha!

Hahaha

Hahahahahahaha-hahahaha.

Ha!

Sorry. Good luck with that ...

[citoyen]

I would like to see a faithfully-made film of Perdido Street Station.

ha!

Hahaha

Hahahahahahaha-hahahaha.

Ha!

Sorry. Good luck with that ...

The BBC announced in August 2015 that it had commissioned an adaptation of The City & The City. The fact that it hasn't yet made it to our screens speaks volumes.

I'm looking forward to it though. Eventually.

[ian]

Anyway, Von Daniken's writing is as good a basis for a popcorn scifi series as any.  I thought SG-1 (for which the film is best  regarded as a pilot) did it rather well, not least because it never took itself too seriously.

Was Stargate really based on that charlatan's maunderings? Jesus wept.  Give me Edgar Rice Bourroughs any day: my string-theory-PhD nephew alternately screamed and wept when I described how the Martians stored the Ninth Ray in on-board tanks.

Yes, but there's bad and there's Prometheus. I'm banned from talking about that on here. But hey, Alien: Covenant is coming.