What was the last film you watched?

[T42]

The Dirty Dozen was on telly this afternoon. Either this is another sign the world gets desensitized as the years go by, or the scheduler has never seen this film. Its not a companion piece to The Magnificent Seven - its more like a Tarantino movie.

As a 12yo boy I loved it, but its quite a nasty movie. For an Easter Monday afternoon slot, anyways ...

Haven't seen that since the 60s, must have a look for it.  I remember our student-digs landlord recommending it as a good laugh.

[citoyen]

The Dirty Dozen was on telly this afternoon. Either this is another sign the world gets desensitized as the years go by, or the scheduler has never seen this film. Its not a companion piece to The Magnificent Seven - its more like a Tarantino movie.

Maybe they should have put a film about nice fluffy bunnies on instead. Oh, wait a minute...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/watership-down-parents-left-horrified-as-1978-animated-film-traumatises-children-on-easter-sunday-a6956061.html

[ian]

Batman vs. Superman. Or Two Blokes in Tight Clothes Try to Outbrood One Another. Man, there are some furrowed brows. They should have an oscar for brow furrowing and staring into the distance. It's either meaningfulness or constipation.

It was stodgily watchable, lumbering from one laboured set piece to another, all in a mire of mild confusion. And really, we all know why Batman is Batman, we don't need another explanation. I can't be the only person in the world who wants to tell Batman to lighten up. Jeez, it would have been a lot better if he'd gone squirrel rather than bat. Squirrelman. Is that a comic? It should be. Lex Luther is more than a bit slappable (and hey, considering there's a big broody bloke in a giant suit and a another big broody bloke with superstrength, you'd think between them that one of them could issue that slap, but alas both our superheroes were a bit dim). Affleck is a very good batman, all said. I could watch (you're making those moon eyes! says my wife) Amy Adams approximately forever.

Which was handy because the movie did appear to last approximately forever.

[mrcharly-YHT]

[T42]

The Dirty Dozen was on telly this afternoon. Either this is another sign the world gets desensitized as the years go by, or the scheduler has never seen this film. Its not a companion piece to The Magnificent Seven - its more like a Tarantino movie.

Maybe they should have put a film about nice fluffy bunnies on instead. Oh, wait a minute...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/watership-down-parents-left-horrified-as-1978-animated-film-traumatises-children-on-easter-sunday-a6956061.html

Son used to call it "Watered-down Shit".

[Kim]

The Dirty Dozen was on telly this afternoon. Either this is another sign the world gets desensitized as the years go by, or the scheduler has never seen this film. Its not a companion piece to The Magnificent Seven - its more like a Tarantino movie.

Maybe they should have put a film about nice fluffy bunnies on instead. Oh, wait a minute...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/watership-down-parents-left-horrified-as-1978-animated-film-traumatises-children-on-easter-sunday-a6956061.html

TBH, I don't think it's the rabbits particularly, other than the fact they put it on at Easter.  It's the usual assumption that "animation" => "for children" that was almost forgiveable back in the day when you had to go to an effort to get hold of Japanese tentacle porn, but should really have been knocked on the head within about 5 minutes of South Park going mainstream across the western world.

[T42]

It's the usual assumption that "animation" => "for children" that was almost forgiveable back in the day when you had to go to an effort to get hold of Japanese tentacle porn, but should really have been knocked on the head within about 5 minutes of South Park going mainstream across the western world.

Heh. Fritz the Cat, not to mention.  It used to be shocking even to know of its existence.

Saw it once, but dubbed into French with a Framerican accent it was a bit strange.

Just looked for it on Netflix and came up with the Joseph Fritzl Story. Surprised it's not a musical.

[caerau]

We watched the Disney Animation 'Inside Out' at the weekend.


Saccharine, schmaltzy yuck?  Well maybe, actually it was delightful, what a big softy I am - there was definitely something in my eye towards the end. 

[Riggers]

^ was that the one dealing with 'emotions' inside a child's head? If it was, we saw that too. Quite a good subject we all thought.

Prior to that it was the film with Mark Rylands in (Tom Hanks as well): Bridge of something. Really enjoyed that.

[Woofage]

Still Alice

(click to show/hide)

A clever woman's brain goes to mush, she receives varying levels of support from her family and her pre-arranged get out plan fails. To cap it all, her condition is hereditary.

A very sad story. I expect most people here have experienced different forms of dementia in others but I can't imagine what it's like when you have so much more life left to live.

[caerau]

^ was that the one dealing with 'emotions' inside a child's head? If it was, we saw that too. Quite a good subject we all thought.

Yes it was 

[Mr Larrington]

Janis Joplin - Little Girl Blue

I seem to have something in my eye.

[Ruthie]

Captain Phillips (again).

Very, very good.

[Pickled Onion]

Brooklyn

Another Nick Hornby story, this one was pretty good as a film.

A Thousand Times Goodnight

A Norwegian film, in English, shot mostly in Ireland, with a French actress as the lead. Excellent, moving drama on many levels, and refreshingly non-formulaic.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Batman vs. Superman. Or Two Blokes in Tight Clothes Try to Outbrood One Another. Man, there are some furrowed brows. They should have an oscar for brow furrowing and staring into the distance. It's either meaningfulness or constipation.

It was stodgily watchable, lumbering from one laboured set piece to another, all in a mire of mild confusion. And really, we all know why Batman is Batman, we don't need another explanation. I can't be the only person in the world who wants to tell Batman to lighten up. Jeez, it would have been a lot better if he'd gone squirrel rather than bat. Squirrelman. Is that a comic? It should be. Lex Luther is more than a bit slappable (and hey, considering there's a big broody bloke in a giant suit and a another big broody bloke with superstrength, you'd think between them that one of them could issue that slap, but alas both our superheroes were a bit dim). Affleck is a very good batman, all said. I could watch (you're making those moon eyes! says my wife) Amy Adams approximately forever.

Which was handy because the movie did appear to last approximately forever.

Yes, it went on long after it finished.

Worse still, the biblical nature of Superman's demise suggests he'll be back..

[Mr Larrington]

Amy

I'm not surprised Mitchell Winehouse doesn't like this film.  Horrible and compelling in equal measure.

[geraldc]

I really enjoyed batman vs superman, it was pretty much a mash up of the Dark Knight returns and Watchmen graphic novels of my youth. The imagery of Batman in a duster wearing goggles was lifted straight from the pages of the Dark Knight returns. As much as I enjoyed it, a sizeable number of the audience were bored and just started chatting amongst themselves. If you're that bored just leave, why try ruin other people's enjoyment.

[T42]

1994 US TV film called Without Warning on YouTube.  Presented as emergency news broadcast using real-life anchors & reporters - a touch of the Orson Welles.  Good.

[LEE]

Star Wars - The Force Awakens

It's alright, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.

Agreed.

I imagine the cinema was full of fans jumping up and down with excitement when they saw Hans Solo's old ship, another Space Bar full of creatures (including Anne Robinson as the Bar owner as far as I could tell), Princess Leia coming out of rehab long enough to do her Pension-Fund part...etc.  Harrison Ford managed to run in exactly the same way that OAPs run across the road, without actually increasing speed.

Despite being an almost perfect age to become emotionally involved with the series (I was 15 in 1977) I never did.

This one seems to be a "return to form" because it's basically a remake of the first one.

[ian]

I griped that the new Star Wars was a fairly pointless remake of the original. I loved the original and it's mostly dated well. I have no idea what the new version added, tbh, other than it wasn't the majestic thrice fuck-up of the Lucas revisits. Entertaining, modestly so, but a shame they didn't do something with it rather than lever in a few new characters so they could replace the old ones (who perhaps, other than Chewy, should have been left to enjoy their retirement). It worked a lot better for Star Trek, mostly because the sparky cast captured and embellished the spirit of the original.

I really enjoyed batman vs superman, it was pretty much a mash up of the Dark Knight returns and Watchmen graphic novels of my youth. The imagery of Batman in a duster wearing goggles was lifted straight from the pages of the Dark Knight returns. As much as I enjoyed it, a sizeable number of the audience were bored and just started chatting amongst themselves. If you're that bored just leave, why try ruin other people's enjoyment.

The benefit of the Imax is that the sound drowns out the chatterers and nacho crunchers (seriously, who though a tray of crunchy tortilla chips smothered with gooey sauce was a good idea in a darkened room intended for showing movies?). It was all very gods and monsters, a mishmash of half-baked biblical metaphor and classical allegory. It's not that I didn't entirely enjoy it, but Lex Luther wasn't very scary and seriously, while those superheroes might be blessed with strength and fortitude, someone skipped the brains part. And does like everyone know who Superman is? I don't know how, not with that disguise. The 'and another thing' ending did stretch and stretch though. Me and Amy could have gone got more popcorn.

[citoyen]

Despite being an almost perfect age to become emotionally involved with the series (I was 15 in 1977) I never did.

Surely 15 was too old for Star Wars?

[caerau]

That's what I thought - I was almost the perfect age at 7 yo methinks. I was still 12 when Return of the Jedi came out and Empire Strikes Back was just about my perfect film for ages.  I had all the books (ooh pictures), we had plastic lightsabers and the model toys.  Bet you didn't do that at 15 :-/


Force Awakens was definitely just a remake really - I feel near compelled to watch all Star Wars outings at the cinema (though episode 2 brought this to a halt (can't remember if I saw Sith at the cinema or not) despite Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks etc.  This one was a delight in comparison to the 'prequels'  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing 8 yo boys dressed as Darth Vader and Stormtroopers in the cinema.  Say what you like but I could have been that kid 40 years ago if my mother had been more generous with toys back then - it's an impressive feat to keep that sort of thing going since then if nothing else.


I rather enjoyed the petulant behaviour of mini-Solo bad guy (forget his name Kylo Ren?) even if the new guy Finn should have been chopped into spam when he tried taking on this expertly trained Sith Lord wielding Luke Skywalker's lightsaber like it was a cucumber. 

It was fun and a star wars movie -  Star Wars was a big part of my childhood.

[Kim]

I griped that the new Star Wars was a fairly pointless remake of the original. I loved the original and it's mostly dated well. I have no idea what the new version added, tbh, other than it wasn't the majestic thrice fuck-up of the Lucas revisits.

Agreed.  I actually giggled at the new Death Star.  This one goes to 11.

But hey, Rey's unsurprising to everyone but the martketroids popularity is pissing off the marketroids, and General Leia is now officially a Disney Princess, which is surely justification enough.

And I find it hard not to like a film with Harrison Ford in it.  I cringed my way through Firewall, and managed to sit through the entirety of Indiana Jones And The Film With The Excessively Long Name, so this wasn't particularly challenging in that respect.  LEE's right about the running, though.

[caerau]

I must watch out for the running next time I see it (if there is one).


My last post got me thinking - hard as the Star Wars yolk is to throw off, I'm glad I've rid myself of other compulsions from that age, such as a penchant for the Bay City Rollers or wanting to appear on stage with Shawaddywaddy on Jim'll Fix It. 

[T42]

Looks best on a tie.