Author Topic: What was the last film you watched?  (Read 952986 times)

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5225 on: 13 June, 2015, 11:35:13 pm »
The Connection.  Fabulous film about the Marseilles drug gangs and the magistrate trying to bring them to justice in the 70s. Great cars, fabulous clothes and the soundtrack was brilliant. Especially the final track Dinah Washington - Bitter Earth. 
There was so much smoking in the film I almost fancied one and the south of France looked wonderful.
Life is good even in a cockle shell.

ian

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5226 on: 15 June, 2015, 03:18:34 pm »
Aeroplane time, starting out with Gone Girl. OK, though the twists were pretty extensively telegraphed, but it was an enjoyable thriller. I tried and failed to rewatch Jupiter Ascending. Robbed of big screen spectacle it was just dull and I felt the hand of sleep reach up to pull me under. Swapped for Still Alice (see, I am cultured and it has nothing to do with it featuring Julianne Moore, no matter what my wife alleges). It didn't tumble head-first into the pit of sticky sentimentality but it lacked a gritty edge – everyone was rich and white, college professors, doctors, and lawyers, with perfect healthcare plans and very white teeth. That's not an American reality. Other than the teeth.

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5227 on: 17 June, 2015, 08:41:13 pm »
"Spy".  Brilliant, especially the action scenes.  The kitchen killer...  I will never be able watch any of the Bourne trilogy again.
Move Faster and Bake Things

hillbilly

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5228 on: 22 June, 2015, 09:10:02 am »
The Look of Silence

Subdued, powerful documentary about the legacy of the community led Indonesian communist purge.  Well worth watching, as it gives an insight into how easily humans conform and use this "norm" to justify acts of inhumanity.  Not a date film though (DAMHIKT).

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
After the surprisingly good first film, I had some hopes for this one.  But it was a CGI heavy disappointment.  A large part of the problem was that the CGI wasn't up to scratch (maybe they were good, but lived in the uncanny valley?) and the focus on the apes, with their sign language forming the dialogue, whilst understandable was ultimately distancing.  The human characters were also a bit lightweight and the plot, whilst there, was generic and overly linear.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5229 on: 22 June, 2015, 01:38:55 pm »
Lucy - Woman accidentally gets full of a drug which makes her super brainy.

Absolutely awful film that uses Morgan Freeman as a scientist to try and make the science seem plausible. "We only use a small percentage of our brain..imagine if we could use 20% or more".

Yes Morgan but I doubt using 20% would make us stick to the ceiling.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - I quite liked it actually, or should I say "FILM..HUMAN...APE....GOOD"?

Nebraska - Bruce Dern on a wrinkly road trip where nothing much happens.  I thought it was wonderful.
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5230 on: 22 June, 2015, 03:14:43 pm »
Lucy - Woman accidentally gets full of a drug which makes her super brainy.

Absolutely awful film that uses Morgan Freeman as a scientist to try and make the science seem plausible. "We only use a small percentage of our brain..imagine if we could use 20% or more".

Yes Morgan but I doubt using 20% would make us stick to the ceiling.
I listened to some discussion about this on R4. A summary of the program was "Back when we knew sod all about the brain, someone who was not a scientist said we only used 1/5th of our brain. The truth was that back then we didn't know what most of the brain was for. Now we know that the whole thing is very busy and what we think of as our consciousness only uses a small part of the brain."
<i>Marmite slave</i>

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5231 on: 23 June, 2015, 06:34:56 pm »
American Hustle

A beer-bellied Christian Bale putting on a hair-piece is something I won't forget in a hurry.  Very funny film about a small time crook getting in out of his depth.
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

hillbilly

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5232 on: 28 June, 2015, 10:17:56 pm »
Haze

Japanese horror. Ostensibly about consciousness, but mainly a grimy squalid little film where the best thing about it was that it was only 49 minutes long keeps you thinking about what the hell it was about for some time after the (dark - in all senses) images have burned into your brain.  Made no real sense, with a lot of room for interpretation.  I think it was a representation of what it feels like to be tortured, but might be wrong.

Still better than Saw.

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5233 on: 29 June, 2015, 07:52:25 am »
Live in De@th - It's shit. That is all.
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5234 on: 30 June, 2015, 09:17:35 am »
Variously, Lucy, Snowpiercer and Ex Machina.

I was willing to suspend disbelief with Lucy, since I always like super powers being used to utterly demolish villains. ;D  The "you only use X% of your brain" myth was mildly annoying, since it is evidently such utter nonsense, and repeated often by people who either deliberately ignore reality, or who should probably attempt to use more than that percentage of their brains!

Snowpiercer was quite unusual, and Tilda Swinton looks the least like Tilda Swinton that I've ever seen her.  It's a very novel approach to a post-apocalyptic world, although I would have preferred a slightly more complete ending.  It seemed to be a little bit too open ended to suggest where things may go.

Ex Machina, as others have said, was thought provoking, even if most of the concepts weren't original.  A movie which only had four characters of any significance was also novel, albeit that Kyoko is a relatively minor part.  I was looking for hints about the British origins of the film, and the only obvious one was the ISO keyboard in the early shots, where you'd often see a US ANSI keyboard.  Even though it was filmed in Norway, the helicopter had a USA registration, implying that they were trying to loosely imply an overall USA connection, especially with Corey Johnson being an actual US actor (cf Irish, Swedish, Japanese or Guatemalan!).  Bluebook smacked of essentially being Google, which I guess was deliberate.

Oh, and even though it was quite a while back, Immortel (ad vitam) / Immortal was an interesting film, albeit very strange at times.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Ruthie

  • Her Majester
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5235 on: 03 July, 2015, 12:41:19 am »
Mrs A. can't forgive Colin Firth for not having aged better since P&P!  Hence we might not get to see Kingsman.. ::-)

We did watch Kingsman.  Very entertaining.  The violence was unrelenting although extremely hygenic. It's undoubtedly a p1ss take of the earnest, child-like spy/crime film efforts (Liam Neeson springs to mind!).  I would call it a satirical film in a lot of ways, but don't take it too seriously!

It ends on a bum note though.  I thought the ending was totally unnecessary.

It was clumsy. I presume it was an attempt on the old Bond-style endings, but fell flat. Judging by the reaction in the cinema I'm not sure why it didn't get edited out.

It spoiled it a bit.  Apart from that it was quite entertaining.
Milk please, no sugar.

hillbilly

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5236 on: 05 July, 2015, 11:54:14 pm »
Beyond
Billed as a British sci fi, but really a love story with a sci fi backdrop. It has an interesting flashback / flashforward structure, which feels disjointed at first but makes sense in the last 10 minutes.

A decent premise but let down by some below par acting.  At 90 minutes it was perhaps 30 minutes too long, as some of the jumping around wasn't necessary.  Inoffensive on the whole.

Withnail and I
I was going to watch Big Lebowski but, lacking the Kahlua to make my traditional White Russian when I watch it, my fingers plucked out this British Gem. 

If there is a funnier British script in existence I want to know about it.  The wordplay Withnail and I is effervescent and oh-so quotable.  Yes it is as filthy as their kitchen sink, but it all just rattles along without really going anywhere. 

Putting my brain in, rather than gurgling like a drain at the banter, it is not really a story about anything in particular, other than perhaps a moment in time (is "& I" a cipher for growing up from the 60s, whilst "Withnail" represents the generation who failed to let it go?)

I always find the ending strangely affecting, as you get the sense they will probably never meet again because Withnail is destined to become the bum he rants about at the start.  The irony being that he is ranting at the end using his actor training, having now become a bum.

Highly recommended for all but the easily offended (on YACF?  surely not?)

ian

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5237 on: 06 July, 2015, 10:31:48 am »
Terminator Genisys...

Not as bad as billed with the mixed reviews. It doesn't bring anything new the table, it's mostly an homage to the first two movies, but entertaining enough. The downside is the plot is so obvious that (yes, giant magnet, we get it) you can pretty much write the ending (trust me, you don't need spoilers). Arnie seems to enjoy himself, Emilia Clarke – despite looking about twelve – plays a good Sarah Connor, and that guy who always plays bad guys was, obviously, going to be bad. Jai Courtney was a bit shit though, he lunked around looking confused, to be honest they could have cast a fridge in the role, none of the haunted intensity of Michael Biehn. Entertaining, if undemanding.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5238 on: 06 July, 2015, 01:21:41 pm »
Eyes Wide Shut

Amazingly it gets some fairly good reviews from critics I respect, Roger Ebert for one.

I think I must have missed something.  This is a shit film (Eyes Wide Shit?) of the highest magnitude.  It's "omni-shit".

It's like an extremely high budget Emmanuelle film but with even worse acting.  I'm surprised Tom Cruise didn't get splinters off Nicole Kidman she's so wooden.

Maybe Kubrick just wanted to look at boobs for a few months.

What am I missing here?  Stanley Kubrick made this film.  What was he thinking?

It's terrible and awful and shit isn't it?
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5239 on: 06 July, 2015, 01:23:23 pm »
Untouchable

French film based on a true story about a kid from the projects who gets a job as a carer for a quadriplegic rich dude.

I loved it. It's wet-your-pants funny and has great performances by the two leads.

Can't help wondering how much the story has been Hollywoodised though - there are a lot of cracks that have been heavily and glossily papered over...

Edit: Kermode has it spot on, as usual:
http://youtu.be/b7Sw51qFjhg

We saw this last night. Brilliant. Thanks for the recommendation.

Watched this at the weekend - very good indeed.  One of those rare films that stays in the mind afterwards.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5240 on: 06 July, 2015, 01:23:58 pm »
Eyes Wide Shut

[...]

It's terrible and awful and shit isn't it?

Yes.

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5241 on: 06 July, 2015, 11:50:50 pm »
Eyes Wide Shut

[...]

It's terrible and awful and shit isn't it?

Yes.

Saw it at the pictures when it first came out. I remember little except being underwhelmed.

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5242 on: 11 July, 2015, 10:59:24 pm »
Just seen Mr Holmes, Ian McKellan is fabulous
Life is good even in a cockle shell.

spindrift

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5243 on: 12 July, 2015, 12:03:05 pm »
Francois Cluzet was also in Tell No One, an awesome film, he is a doctor whose wife goes missing, then he gets a strange email..

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5244 on: 13 July, 2015, 08:42:47 am »
… and the nasty-piece-of-work German woman in Tell No One. She gets her comeuppance. Hurrah!
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

BrianI

  • Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Lepidopterist Man!
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5245 on: 13 July, 2015, 08:47:23 am »
Terminator Genisys at the pictures last night. (Went on a masterdate1 with myself seeing as I'm now on 2 weeks annual leave!)

Great film! 
(click to show/hide)
  Lots of jokes dating back to the first Terminator film.

Arnie does look rather old now though.   :-\

1  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Masterdate+&defid=5717623

Quote
Masterdate
When you take yourself out on dates; dating yourself. You already know what you're into, likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc... Dating yourself also allows you the freedom to have a great time, all the time, and never have to hear "you're not paying attention to me" or other forms of bitching and nagging. You are free to mingle with whom you please and are able to spend time enjoying life and being happy.
Could come off as self-centered, egotistic, or conceited to those who don't understand how hard it is to find someone as awesome as you are.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5246 on: 13 July, 2015, 09:26:54 am »
Lucy

Omg, it's soooooo bad. I didn't realise until afterwards that it's un film de Luc Besson but it figures.

It would be greatly improved by just cutting out all the Morgan Freeman/wildlife documentary bits.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Jakob

Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5247 on: 14 July, 2015, 12:24:33 am »
"Pantani. The accidental Death of a Cyclist".
 Some of the editing was too fancy for my liking, but it was interesting nonetheless...except for the end, when they pretty much excuse him for doping. "Everybody else did it", "He was under a lot of pressure", etc.
Was interesting to see some of the 'old' footage again.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5248 on: 14 July, 2015, 10:15:18 am »
Lucy

Omg, it's soooooo bad. I didn't realise until afterwards that it's un film de Luc Besson but it figures.

It would be greatly improved by just cutting out all the Morgan Freeman/wildlife documentary bits.

See my review just above.

It's tosh isn't it?

I can't help thinking that Besson thought "Christ, this is tosh, we'd better parachute Morgan Freeman in to make it sound a bit less tosh".
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: What was the last film you watched?
« Reply #5249 on: 14 July, 2015, 10:19:25 am »
Locke

Tom Hardy driving in his car, on the phone, trying to deal with some life/work problems.

I kid you not, that's the film.  1 actor, in a car, with a phone, making sure some concrete gets poured correctly.

And yet, apart from a bit of a flat ending, I found it rather gripping.

I bloody well hope the concrete pour went OK.
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.