What was the last film you watched?

[jsabine]

All Of Us Strangers


V good but crushingly sad.

Beautifully shot and acted - I found it just a bit too supernatural though, particularly towards the end

[BrianI]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

[ian]

Finally, I found the six hours and the necessary mental fortitude required to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I did more out of a sense of duty, because I loved the original Indiana Jones as a kid, and the others, while they weren't great, usually managed to be watchable.


The reviews don't do it justice. It's a lot worse. The start might have been OK, but the fight on a train thing has been done so many times now and often better, so why bother? It's also too long and clearly all shot against a green screen and CGI. Not very good CGI and SFX. The de-aging of Harrison Ford might have been passable back when that kind of thing was new, but not satisfactory these days, not even on a living room TV. You do have to ponder how everything is so poor given the $300 million budget (see also Marvel). Hell, if you're going to do the bloody train scene, do it in five minutes, it would be punchier and better and wouldn't expose your shitty effects. If you can't sing, don't do an entire bloody opera, do three minutes with a vocoder.


Oh for the actual stunts and model work on the original (which in adjusted terms cost less than a quarter of the later installment). It looked good then and still looks good today.


The writing and script were terrible and the humour was pretty much ha ha, look at old man, he so stupid. Harrison Ford is, for that matter, too old for this kind of movie. The female protagonist was offputting and unengaging. I'm not sure who they think the audience is for these movies, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't consist of people who want to go laugh at Indiana Jones because he's now old. See also Luke Skywalker. Who writes this shit? I mean, I'm sure actual writers still exist, I've even met them.


The plot is all over the place and will make you scratch your head so hard that you're likely to get brain tissue under your fingernails. I mean, I'm OK to suspend my disbelief, but not so high that it suffocates from the lack of oxygen. It does the usual modern thing of events happening solely to allow for other events to happen, there's nothing organic, no character has an arc, and the finale is just ludicrous and not even funny ludicrous. I suppose the saving grace was bringing back Marian for the coda, who at least seemed to have good sense to know she was too old for this kind of nonsense.

[Jaded]

Ah, thanks for that ian. It sounds quite like, with an extended train scene, that I will not be able to watch it.

[sam]

Re: Hoosier Jones, nicely dissected here, too.

[Kim]

Finally, I found the six hours and the necessary mental fortitude required to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I did more out of a sense of duty, because I loved the original Indiana Jones as a kid, and the others, while they weren't great, usually managed to be watchable.


The reviews don't do it justice. It's a lot worse. The start might have been OK, but the fight on a train thing has been done so many times now and often better, so why bother? It's also too long and clearly all shot against a green screen and CGI. Not very good CGI and SFX. The de-aging of Harrison Ford might have been passable back when that kind of thing was new, but not satisfactory these days, not even on a living room TV. You do have to ponder how everything is so poor given the $300 million budget (see also Marvel). Hell, if you're going to do the bloody train scene, do it in five minutes, it would be punchier and better and wouldn't expose your shitty effects. If you can't sing, don't do an entire bloody opera, do three minutes with a vocoder.


Oh for the actual stunts and model work on the original (which in adjusted terms cost less than a quarter of the later installment). It looked good then and still looks good today.


The writing and script were terrible and the humour was pretty much ha ha, look at old man, he so stupid. Harrison Ford is, for that matter, too old for this kind of movie. The female protagonist was offputting and unengaging. I'm not sure who they think the audience is for these movies, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't consist of people who want to go laugh at Indiana Jones because he's now old. See also Luke Skywalker. Who writes this shit? I mean, I'm sure actual writers still exist, I've even met them.


The plot is all over the place and will make you scratch your head so hard that you're likely to get brain tissue under your fingernails. I mean, I'm OK to suspend my disbelief, but not so high that it suffocates from the lack of oxygen. It does the usual modern thing of events happening solely to allow for other events to happen, there's nothing organic, no character has an arc, and the finale is just ludicrous and not even funny ludicrous. I suppose the saving grace was bringing back Marian for the coda, who at least seemed to have good sense to know she was too old for this kind of nonsense.

And yet still less bad than the previous one.

Also, it has Harrison Ford in it.

[Jaded]

Re: Hoosier Jones, nicely dissected here, too.

Started watching that, but my Gen Z attention span got in the way.

As well as the 'reversed footage? WTF'.

[T42]

Started watching that, but my Gen Z attention span got in the way.

You know you're middle-aged when you can never remember what all these arbitrary generation names mean. Except boomer, of course, pronounced with an automatic lip curl.

[citoyen]

I'm not sure who they think the audience is for these movies

Hollywood accountants?

I mean, it’s obviously a purely commercial exercise, no pretence of art and from the sound of it not even much of an attempt at entertainment.

Six hours. Sheesh.

[ian]

I'm not sure who they think the audience is for these movies

Hollywood accountants?

I mean, it’s obviously a purely commercial exercise, no pretence of art and from the sound of it not even much of an attempt at entertainment.

Six hours. Sheesh.

It felt like six hours, but apparently, it's only 2.5 hours. I can sort of forgive a weighty movie like Oppenheimer its run-time, but a movie with a plot you could write on a postcard, anything north of one and half hours seems extravagant. You already need a dumper truck full of popcorn and an adamantium bladder for the average modern movie.


The accountants should be aware at the moment that they're not making their money back on these quarter-billion dollar-plus movies and TV shows. Disney are $100 million in the tank on this movie alone. A $300 million movie needs to make about $750 million to break even. Yet they keep making them. The Marvels is looking at a $200-300 million loss.


They seem chronically unable to judge their audiences – I mean, these are the people who buy the tickets (and for posh seats in my local cinema, it's £23) – people don't want to pay to see some ill-judged new lead pour shade on the character that actually bought them to the movie. They want something exciting with characters they can warm to. You know, like Indiana Jones, who you wanted to see save the day and punch a few Nazis in the process. They want to see James Bond kill the bad guys and have martinis and sex, not have a mid-life crisis and be told by everyone he's a fossil. It's only a matter of time before they remake Aliens and have Ripley acknowledge the land rights of the Aliens to LV-426 after being educated on her sins by a shouty millennial Newt.


It's the writing that pisses me off the most, it's surely a small component of the overall budget, yet it's uniformly terrible. People have been telling and writing stories well, since humans were a thing. Yet, modern Hollywood, bless them, seem to have lost this ability.

[citoyen]

They want to see James Bond kill the bad guys and have martinis and sex, not have a mid-life crisis and be told by everyone he's a fossil.

Well, quite. I blame Batman. Or rather, Frank Miller. He started it. Dark Knight Schmark Knight. I want to see an uncomplicated chap dressed as a bat beating up an equally uncomplicated chap dressed as a penguin. And you can stick your back story up your arse. I really don’t need to know why he is dressed as a bat.

They will realise eventually that no one actually wants this shit. If they lose enough money on it. After all, they did stop making 3D films eventually. They would have saved themselves a lot of grief and/or money if they’d listened to me and stopped making them sooner.

[mattc]

It's only a matter of time before they remake Aliens and have Ripley acknowledge the land rights of the Aliens to LV-426 after being educated on her sins by a shouty millennial Newt.

<snort>

It's the writing that pisses me off the most, it's surely a small component of the overall budget, yet it's uniformly terrible.

Now, I'm with you there brother! Plenty of TV has better writing, so where does it go wrong when there's bottomless budget??
My only guess is that they don't really let the writers do their thing - there's probably some guy in charge who steers them towards his "vision", and keeps demanding daft re-writes. And because the writers have no power, they do what they're told.
<sigh>

p.s. Ian why do you keep watching this garbage?? It actually hurts ME to see YOU self-harming like this ...

[spesh]

p.s. Ian why do you keep watching this garbage?? It actually hurts ME to see YOU self-harming like this ...

Try looking at it as Ian taking one for the team.

He's making a big sacrifice of his time and spirit by watching these films so that we don't have to.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's only a matter of time before they remake Aliens and have Ripley acknowledge the land rights of the Aliens to LV-426 after being educated on her sins by a shouty millennial Newt.

Isn't that Alien Resurrection?

[ian]

p.s. Ian why do you keep watching this garbage?? It actually hurts ME to see YOU self-harming like this ...

Try looking at it as Ian taking one for the team.

He's making a big sacrifice of his time and spirit by watching these films so that we don't have to.

What can I say, I have an abiding love of low culture. I grew up with Indy (ironically I didn't see the movie as we didn't have a cinema, so it mostly comics and the book-of-the-movie which was a thing back then). Admittedly none of the sequels lived up the first, which was pure popcorn-fueled fun, but they were watchable if progressively sillier (aliens, Indy, aliens). The last instalment, well, see above. If it were a pound shop version made for Syfy by such cinematic luminaries like The Asylum, I'd be on board. But they spaffed $300 million and they keep doing it, even though no one is sure who the movies are for, it's an Indy movie that doesn't like Indy. It's like doing a Stars Wars movie that doesn't like Luke Skywalker. Oh wait, they actually fucking made that movie.


I do think I actually punished myself with the last bunch of Marvel movies, admittedly, and hitting myself in the bollocks with a hammer would have been a less painful and cheaper form of masochism. I will give a brief reprieve to GoTG 3, which was OK. The others, can anyone remember them? The absolute tailpipe of Marvel though wasn't a movie, it was Secret Invasion. Arguably She-Hulk was worse, but it's saving grace was that it wasn't actually watchable so I think had an audience of 0. If Secret Invasion has one thing going for it, it's that it's an object lesson in how not to make a TV show. Anyone thinking of making a TV show should be forced to watch it first, and only once (and if) they stop screaming should they commence. If they've gouged out their eyeballs in the first episode, they should consider themselves lucky.


Despite all this, I'm feeling the ominously seductive pull of The Marvels, like some kind of black hole. I should stay away, it's probably less of a black hole and more of an anus. I mean, even the trailer is terrible, and if that's the best 90 seconds, what the hell must the other two hours plus be like? It's almost implausible.


At this point, I don't think I can actually stop myself from watching it.

[Kim]

Despite all this, I'm feeling the ominously seductive pull of The Marvels, like some kind of black hole. I should stay away, it's probably less of a black hole and more of an anus. I mean, even the trailer is terrible, and if that's the best 90 seconds, what the hell must the other two hours plus be like? It's almost implausible.

I actually quite liked that one, because it didn't take itself too seriously and they did a good job of getting to the end of the fight scenes in a timely manner.  Better than whatever the previous Marvel nonsense was, anyway.  Ant-man, was it?  Yawn.

(click to show/hide)

Planet Bollywood and Cats, what's not to giggle at?

[citoyen]

they did a good job of getting to the end of the fight scenes in a timely manner.

I’m instantly feeling drawn to this. Those overblown, overextended fight scenes are my biggest problem with the Marvel films as a rule.

[sam]

What can I say, I have an abiding love of low culture.

The dude abides.

[mattc]

p.s. Ian why do you keep watching this garbage?? It actually hurts ME to see YOU self-harming like this ...

Try looking at it as Ian taking one for the team.

He's making a big sacrifice of his time and spirit by watching these films so that we don't have to.

That makes me feel even worse!

[road-runner]

I have just finished watching Navalny. The BBC has licensed the film from CNN and it is available on iPlayer for a few more days, here.

[fd3]

Dune on the Flix. 
The apparently 10 oscar nominated, it's so brilliant remake. 
I thought it was really shit.

[ian]

It wasn't awful, but it was very slow. I mean, OK, the book is long too, but really you could write the plot on a side of A4 and use big letters and add some doodles.


In the spirit of completeness, I did book Dune part deux at the cinema, which didn't delight my wife, so she's counter-booked me to see a music about, wait for it, conjoined twins.


It's 2:46, which is mental. Bring back the intermission, I say. Or Ian Says Just Make Shorter Movies.

[Nuncio]

Just back from seeing Twin Town, the first showing as part of a 25th anniversary mini tour of South Wales. Q&A with writer/directer Kevin Allen afterwards. It was sold out and it felt as if most of the audience had seen it several times and could join in with the dialogue.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Just back from seeing Twin Town, the first showing as part of a 25th anniversary mini tour of South Wales. Q&A with writer/directer Kevin Allen afterwards. It was sold out and it felt as if most of the audience had seen it several times and could join in with the dialogue.

Only seen it once.

A friend was working in Swansea as student support. I asked him if he'd seen it "Yes, it is a documentary."

[jwo]

Tangentially related (via Port Talbot): Have you seen The Way, currently on the BBC / iPlayer? Best seen in my view without reading any reviews or context - not that they contain spoilers, but just that its fun just to let it unfold without expectations.