What was the last film you watched?

[ian]

Life. If you've seen Alien you've seen it done better, but quiet entertaining as a formulaic space horror alien schlocker where the crew are the menu. Top tip, humans, when encountering an alien life-form, it's probably best not to try and motivate it with big sparks of electricity. What next, waterboarding? Main downside, as ever, no real character engagement, so it was a case of ticking them off the menu.

Dunkirk. I generally don't like war films, factual or otherwise. That said, I enjoyed this. We saw a big (actual!) print at the Imax and it looked stunning and the sound was awesome, normally you have to insert a lot of quarters in a cheap motel bed to be vibrated for so long. I'd agree with the previous criticisms about the lack of actual people and materiel on the beaches, it did in some scenes look like off-season Cleethorpes, and yes, the Spitfire with the endless ammo power-ups, but what it lost in accuracy it made up for it with overall drama. Very much enjoyed it.

[T42]

We've started rewatching the Montalbano canon for the nth time.  The stories don't really matter; the episodes are delightfully sunny and just watching the characters develop is engaging.

Livia needs a suppository, though.

[mattc]

Confetti(2006) - Olivia Coleman*, Mark Heap, Stephen Mangan, Julia Davis, Jason Watkins, Martin Freeman etc etc ...

How did I miss this first time around?? I think the answer is lots of very luke-warm reviews.

But it was excellent. Despite Jimmy Carr (who wasn't too bad, TBF). And I found Rob Webb very funny for once too 


*nekkid 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Detroit

Violent depiction of real life violence.  Characterisation a bit overwhelmed by it all but generally a good attempt to show what it might have been like.  Sadly things might not have changed as much as they should have in 50 years.  Step forward Sheriff Joe and potus#45.

[Jakob]

Home with a cold/flu thing, so:
Alien Covenant; Unmitigated trash. I did nod off in the middle, but I doubt it made any difference.
Kong: Skull Island Much better than I expected!. Very good VFX. Great design and a not totally terrible story for a monster movie.  Not saying that it's good, but it isn't terrible

[TimO]

I was massively disappointed with it the first time around, saw it again about a year later and was still disappointed.  Pity, I really wanted to like it - enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, loved Hot Fuzz but that one didn't work for me.

Preferred Paul to TWE (even though it was weak in places and not part of the Cornetto Trilogy). ...

Out of all the Pegg films, Hot Fuzz definitely seems to have been the best, for me.

After that, in decreasing order, Paul, Shaun of the Dead and The World's End.

I haven't seen Run Fatboy Run, what's the juries opinion on that?

[Ruthie]

I was massively disappointed with it the first time around, saw it again about a year later and was still disappointed.  Pity, I really wanted to like it - enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, loved Hot Fuzz but that one didn't work for me.

Preferred Paul to TWE (even though it was weak in places and not part of the Cornetto Trilogy). ...

Out of all the Pegg films, Hot Fuzz definitely seems to have been the best, for me.

After that, in decreasing order, Paul, Shaun of the Dead and The World's End.

I haven't seen Run Fatboy Run, what's the juries opinion on that?

Enjoyable. Not a classic.

[Robh]

Detroit

Violent depiction of real life violence.  Characterisation a bit overwhelmed by it all but generally a good attempt to show what it might have been like.  Sadly things might not have changed as much as they should have in 50 years.  Step forward Sheriff Joe and potus#45.

I found it a very difficult film to watch, but in a good way. The only criticism we had was that it was a little long in a couple of places.

It pisses me off that it is considered a box office flop because it failed to make enough money in its first week, or whatever, and that this will reduce its visibility: it deserves to be judged by standards other than the reductionist measure of bums on seats.

[T42]

Tokyo Trial on Netflix. Missus didn't want to "see all those atrocities" so I watched it on my own and was quite engrossed: it's about the trial judges, the legal issues and the political pressures.  A largely Dutch production crew with actors from the Allied countries, but it's actually a Japanese TV production, which explains a lot of the content. Interesting anyway.

[Ruthie]

Seven Years in Tibet.

It's such a good film. Does anyone make such gently paced films any more?

[Riggers]

Detroit

Violent depiction of real life violence.  Characterisation a bit overwhelmed by it all but generally a good attempt to show what it might have been like.  Sadly things might not have changed as much as they should have in 50 years.  Step forward Sheriff Joe and potus#45.

I found it a very difficult film to watch, but in a good way. The only criticism we had was that it was a little long in a couple of places.

It pisses me off that it is considered a box office flop because it failed to make enough money in its first week, or whatever, and that this will reduce its visibility: it deserves to be judged by standards other than the reductionist measure of bums on seats.

I concur. Watched it last Friday. Depiction of the time was accurately filmed, and it is uncomfortable to watch, not only because it's a film dealing with racism and the police, but our thoughts afterwards led us to ponder what it's like now. Racism still exists I'd say, within police forces, and evidence is clear isn't it, with Trump recently pardoning Sheriff Arpaio, with an Executive Order.

I enjoyed the film, and glad that it has been made, but seeing the all-white jury, you're already concluding "Hmm, this is not going to go well for the prosecution."

[Jaded]

What a porpoise for a dog

A heartening love story about a dog that falls in love with a porpoise.

Or something like that.

[T42]

Arrival. Liked it.

[Ruthie]

The Lady in the Van.

It was nice, and quirky, and so very Alan Bennett.

[Wowbagger]

Belleville Rendezvous. It was also the last-but-one film I watched. Last night's was from a DCD that I bought a few years ago.

I didn't notice until last night that grandma plays the Bach C minor prelude on the spokes of a bicycle wheel. I must try that...

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

There are a lot of little details in Belleville Rendezvous.  I need another viewing.

[sg37409]

Fences:  Dull. About an hour too long IMHO. I don't think it made the transition from play to film at all well.

[ian]

I watched another Nicolas Cage film. This boy doesn't learn. Fire hot. Ouch. Fire hot. Ouch. Fire hot. Ouch.

Hell Driver (which seems to be confused as it's called Drive Angry on the credits). It could have actually been worse, which isn't always something you can say about the Cage oeuvre. Had a certain cheesy joie de vivre, if it's going to be awful you may as well roll in it. Is it just me, but does Nicolas Cage always have a look on his face that suggests he'd been interrupted mid-poo by the postman ringing the doorbell. And having staggered downstairs to open the door found out it's a parcel for the neighbour. Who he doesn't even like. And now he knows that's not nutella sandwiched between his cheeks. That look. It's his signature. Or possibly he just realises he's in a lot of shit movies.

Other than Con Air, of course, which is fucking awesome.

[Blodwyn Pig]

Seven Years in Tibet.

It's such a good film. Does anyone make such gently paced films any more?

Then you MUST read the book, it is MUCH  MUCH MUCH better than the film.

[Kim]

Alien: Covenant

In space nobody can hear you make bad decisions.

I found this much more watchable than Prometheus, for no apparent reason.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Manchester by the Sea

Best film I've watched in ages.

Cinematography was freaking awesome. There were several shots in that film that I'd very happily have framed on my wall.

[TimO]

Alien: Covenant

In space nobody can hear you make bad decisions.

I found this much more watchable than Prometheus, for no apparent reason.

I watched that last night too (probably because it was released on optical media, yesterday).

Not unlike Prometheus, the cinematography is impressive, as is the CGI.

The colonists seemed to suffer somewhat, with the same "happy go lucky" attitude to extremely dangerous monsters, as the crew of the Prometheus had.

They also have the same half-assed technology, that can decode alien signals, track monsters, but apparently can't do enough error correction (or even a fall back to an ultra-low bandwidth messaging mode) to deal with interference from a storm.

"Awooga awooga, we're being attacked by alien monsters, please save us".

"I'm sorry, did you say 'Send three and fourpence' ... ?"



It did help link between Prometheus and Alien, but I can't help thinking that they could have come up with something a little less obvious, and more original.  There did seem to be an attempt to replicate elements from the original films.

As you say, it was imminently watchable, and suffers the same issue as almost every horror film, ie don't walk through the dark, scary, mysterious cemetery, it's probably not going to turn out well.

[ian]

Alien: Covenant

In space nobody can hear you make bad decisions.

I found this much more watchable than Prometheus, for no apparent reason.

Prometheus was special bad. Like they took bad and distilled it into its purest form. Unalloyed, max strength, 24 carat baddidium.

Alien: Covenant was just mediocre in comparison. Everything is relative, of course.

Given the source material, it took a special talent to make them so awful.

[TimO]

... Given the source material, it took a special talent to make them so awful.

They are very pretty films though (if you can consider bleak alien landscapes, and Giger beasties, to be pretty!)

[Kim]

The colonists seemed to suffer somewhat, with the same "happy go lucky" attitude to extremely dangerous monsters, as the crew of the Prometheus had.

That was to be expected.  It's their complete disregard for infectious agents that irked me.

They also have the same half-assed technology, that can decode alien signals, track monsters, but apparently can't do enough error correction (or even a fall back to an ultra-low bandwidth messaging mode) to deal with interference from a storm.

Also, they were on a mission to colonise another planet, and yet only had one spacecraft capable of landing?  (Presumably the Covenant itself was designed to land at the end of the journey.)  That seems like poor preparation.

It did help link between Prometheus and Alien, but I can't help thinking that they could have come up with something a little less obvious, and more original.  There did seem to be an attempt to replicate elements from the original films.

It did feel like a completely unnecessary reboot of Alien at times.