What was the last film you watched?

[caerau]

John Wick 2 - not seen John Wick 1 - go figure.

OK, so what struck me about this was a throwback in time to the late 80s when there was such a fuss about violence in films.  I.e. body counts in films featuring the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone.  To the point that when Terminator 2 was made - it was all - 'casualties = 0' - maiming only.  

Anyway.  So what happened to all that? John Wick 2 has about as many head shots per minute as the entire death count of your highly-violent Arnie film.  I'm pretty sure he could redecorate his entire house with human brains.   Ultraviolence it very much is....I did wonder by the end, just how the world had managed to train so many homicidal martial arts experts for him to kill.  In the upcoming John Wick 3 presumably he'll have a to fight them all off as resurrected zombies or something as presumably it takes years to get that skilful at assassination...how many left can there be after all that?

Strangely it was quite fun though.  He was very concerned about the safety of his dog - I'm told that's because in the first one they killed his dog.

[ian]

I believe John Wick to be something of an ironic nod to 80s action B movies and the Hong Kong school of gun-fu. I think even most Americans these days have quietly admitted that it's not watching a movie that leads to gun massacres, more the ready availability of high power weapons to people with a parlous mental state.

And yes, they killed his dog and there's stuff you do not do. Not seen the third one, but the first two were very enjoyable. I'm also not sure who he has to kill in the third sequel, there pretty much can't be any Russian mob left.

[caerau]

Well I suppose they could set it in a virtual reality internet type thing.  That way they could shoehorn in Trinity as well as Morpheus in it this time


This is perhaps coming across more negative that I intended - it was actually great fun, just.... boy.... I've never seen a death count anything like that before.

[ian]

It's cartoony though – he just works through cardboard bad guys. I find realistic violence off-putting.

There was a moral panic about violent movies turning people into killers, then it was video games. I think the latest is porn turning people into rapists. There's never any actual causal evidence of these things and well, I think most sane people can accurately judge the difference between fantasy and reality.

[T42]

Contagion. Again. Morbid fascination.

[Manotea]

Apollo 11 (2019)

A thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Having seen that but I love the earlier film...

Let's work the problem, people.

On the contrary, I believe this will be our finest hour, and

If they could make a washing machine fly, my Jimmy could land it.

[Torslanda]

'Let's look at this from the standpoint of status. What have we got on the spacecraft that's good?'

Substitute 'bike' for 'spacecraft' and that's pretty much my day...

[Kim]

I think you're getting your Apollo missions mixed up.  Possibly with Halfords' Apollo missions 


Apollo 11 was molished entirely from archive footage, which gives it a certain authenticity, and makes it a rare opportunity to see the first moon landing in glorious film, rather than just recycling the n-th generation archive news footage of the mono SSTV transmission that everyone goes to because it was part of the zeitgeist.  (They do use some footage from the TV cameras, but the NASA archive recordings are somewhat better quality than the TV networks'.)

[sib]

Not film but related to the Apollo 11 theme there was an interesting piece on R4 this morning about a podcast featuring the radio communications during the descent of the lunar lander and the problems they encountered (too fast and not enough fuel I think) and the significance of that vital 13mins. Sorry I don't have the link but hopefully enough info to google for the science geeks.

[Kim]

Yeah, they overshot the intended landing site, and had to keep flying over a boulder field in the hope of finding somewhere suitable to land, running perilously low on fuel.  Meanwhile the computer was generating spurious errors because somebody left the rendezvous radar in the wrong mode.

It's all there in the audio, but delivered sufficiently calmly that the urgency isn't obvious unless you fully understand what they're saying.

[caerau]

Yeah, they overshot the intended landing site, and had to keep flying over a boulder field in the hope of finding somewhere suitable to land, running perilously low on fuel.  Meanwhile the computer was generating spurious errors because somebody left the rendezvous radar in the wrong mode.

It's all there in the audio, but delivered sufficiently calmly that the urgency isn't obvious unless you fully understand what they're saying.

Houston, we appear to have a little extra thrust from the brown trouser moment I've just had...

[redshift]

Apollo 11 (2019)

A thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Was this an offsite backup?  I've been waiting for this to appear in our local Imax or cinema and it's apparently not here til June at the earliest...

[Kim]

Apollo 11 (2019)

A thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Was this an offsite backup?  I've been waiting for this to appear in our local Imax or cinema and it's apparently not here til June at the earliest...

Indeed.  This one's worthy of the imax treatment.

[fuzzy]

It's cartoony though – he just works through cardboard bad guys. I find realistic violence off-putting.

There was a moral panic about violent movies turning people into killers, then it was video games. I think the latest is porn turning people into rapists. There's never any actual causal evidence of these things and well, I think most sane people can accurately judge the difference between fantasy and reality.

I thought porn just turned people into wankers?

[ian]

I think there's an entire organization in the US (of course) dedicated to self-restraint in the matters of self-pleasure. Mastering one's domain, if I may borrow the phrase. There are some very odd people in the world.

[citoyen]

I think there's an entire organization in the US (of course) dedicated to self-restraint in the matters of self-pleasure. Mastering one's domain, if I may borrow the phrase. There are some very odd people in the world.

As that episode of Seinfeld demonstrated, mastering one’s domain plays havoc with one’s mental equilibrium.

[ian]

That episode is still one of the best 22 minutes of TV.

[redshift]

John Wick 3.

High body count; a sequence which will.make those sensitive about knife crime have a conniption fit; ultra violence; Keanu self references which made me hoot with laughter; utterly stupid and totally bonkers.

There is some nice cinematography, you can do a lot with the Sahara, or a room full of shiny surfaces.

Very enjoyable. Don't go expecting a message. 

[citoyen]

Keanu self references which made me hoot with laughter

I saw the trailer. In which he uses the line: “I need guns. Lots of guns.” That made me smile.

Must try to get to the cinema to see JW3. No way I could persuade my wife to join me though.

[caerau]

Blackkklansman - ‘true’* story of a black cop who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

Very [/size][size=78%]good as you’d expect of a Spike Lee film. Some hilarity some heartbreak too plus an ending that hits far harder than the rest of the film together - and that’s the only bit that’s definitely real. [/size]


Worth a watch for sure. Look out for the Harry Belafonte cameo









* embellished I presume - or as these things usually are - almost entirely made up.

[spesh]

Blackkklansman - ‘true’* story of a black cop who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

Very [/size][size=78%]good as you’d expect of a Spike Lee film. Some hilarity some heartbreak too plus an ending that hits far harder than the rest of the film together - and that’s the only bit that’s definitely real. [/size]


Worth a watch for sure. Look out for the Harry Belafonte cameo









* embellished I presume - or as these things usually are - almost entirely made up.

It's based on a true story, but the film does indulge in a spot of dramatic licence and changes the time period.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-07/blackkklansman-ron-stallworth-black-cop-who-infiltrated-the-kkk/9971370

[mattc]

The true story [of Blackkklansman ] is a thing of wonder - I heard it a couple of years ago on some podcast. I wonder if they knew about Spike's film at the time?

And if I keep typing, we can hopefully knock all the Avengers posts off the front page. I wondered if this would ever happen ...

John Wick 3.

High body count; a sequence which will.make those sensitive about knife crime have a conniption fit; ultra violence; Keanu self references which made me hoot with laughter; utterly stupid and totally bonkers.

There is some nice cinematography, you can do a lot with the Sahara, or a room full of shiny surfaces.

Very enjoyable. Don't go expecting a message. 

This sounds a lot like JW1 (haven't seen 2). I stuck with it, partly out of admiration at its purity of purpose, and partly cos I had to know if anything else would actually happen before the end! (a joke, some back-story, a romance ... nope, nothing. Just highly cinematic violence.)

[fuzzy]

Pirates of Somalia.

Based on the true story of Jay Bahadur who spends 6 months in Somalia asking the pirates why they do it.

Started off a bit wierd and appearing to try to hard to be comedic. Very glad I stuck with it.

One of the stars is everyones favourite Somali, Barkhad Abdi

[essexian]

To bring the tone down a little, CBH and I watched Sacha Baron Cohen recent effort: Grimsby.

Now I would love to explain in glowing and indeed flowing terms the grittiness of the film and the excellent way it portrayed the interaction between the brothers but no, crap to that!

This was one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time and what's more, CBH who has (apart from in husbands) much better taste than me also laughed out loud frequently.

Okay, not highbrow or anything but who cares when you can laugh at someone hiding inside an elephant, someone with a rocket up their arse and someone trying out a new mattress in a shop.


And yes, I know this marks me as someone with base tastes but hey ho, I don't care! 

[fd3]

Cinema: Lego Movie II.  Oscar worthy.