What was the last film you watched?

[caerau]

I might have gotten through the book back in my teens. I have a limited tolerance for multi-volume sci-fi tomes. The movie though, I always drift off (to sleep, to the kitchen, the pub).

Ah, just read the first, far and away the best - one of the best Sci-Fi books ever written imho

[Redlight]

Toni Erdmann, on Friday, and it was great.

Tenderly funny and laugh-out-loud on several occasions. Sub-titled, so you have to concentrate, specially at my age and in a nice warm cozy cinema.

Saw that on Saturday and enjoyed it a great deal. As you say, some laugh-out-loud scenes and also some that were almost excruciatingly close to home (my wife kept muttering: 'he's just like my dad').  The staff party was hysterical - heaven knows how Sandra Huller played that in such a matter-of-fact way - and her attempt to get out of the dress was a wonderful bit of physical humour.  I was a little less enamoured of the scene with the cakes - what was that all about?- but overall a lot of boxes ticked.

I've read that there is a planned US version with jack Nicholson taking the lead role.  That's a fairly dreadful prospect 

[Mr Larrington]

Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story[/b found on iPlayer.

I distinctly heard the name 'Larrington' mentioned in relation to one of the chase cares!

Now watched the TV version and can confirm that the part of Long-Haired Oik Bending Over Table Filling In Form about 2 minutes in is played by meeeeeeee!

[Torslanda]

Saw the TV version but no stream available on Kodi for the cinema edit chiz.

[Riggers]

Toni Erdmann, on Friday, and it was great.

Tenderly funny and laugh-out-loud on several occasions. Sub-titled, so you have to concentrate, specially at my age and in a nice warm cozy cinema.

Saw that on Saturday and enjoyed it a great deal. As you say, some laugh-out-loud scenes and also some that were almost excruciatingly close to home (my wife kept muttering: 'he's just like my dad').  The staff party was hysterical - heaven knows how Sandra Huller played that in such a matter-of-fact way - and her attempt to get out of the dress was a wonderful bit of physical humour.  I was a little less enamoured of the scene with the cakes - what was that all about?- but overall a lot of boxes ticked.

Yes, the 'cake' episode was very uncomfortable but, I say: if you imagine (naturally as a sweeping statement) that's just how Germans are, then perhaps it's understandable. Actually, it's just weird.

I too heard Jack Nicholson's name mentioned, about an American version, which will be all about him, as an actor, rather than being able to lose oneself in the 'character'. I hadn't heard of Peter Simonischek before (been in 60 films) so had no preconceived acting opinions to label him with, and welcome that. It's a pity the Americans can't distribute the film over there. Not sure the reasons it can't be shown as is.

I've read that there is a planned US version with jack Nicholson taking the lead role.  That's a fairly dreadful prospect 

[ElyDave]

Story-wise, Dune is essentially about a small planet rebelling against the schemings of a pan-galactic trade empire under the leadership of a young cult hero with powers he never knew he had, which is pretty much the same story as The Phantom Menace. And I know which of those two films I'd rather watch again.

A young cult hero is a member of one of those great families but also the premature culmination of a breeding programme that's being going on for centuries by a secretive group of super-nuns who have perfected a 'weirding way' of mind craft along with other forms of mind-technology elsewhere which is all needed because computers were banned many years ago by a 'Butlerian jihad' - hence they have trained 'computer guys' (mentats) and other weird organisations that do shit loads of weird stuff.  Including interstellar space pilots who are mutated beyond normal form because they need that 'Old spice melange' that is needed to trip out on to get the mind to do those incredible calculations needed for space travel.
Don't forget that the 'old spice' is only found on the desert plate Dune and it's mixed up with those sandwort thingies and that the natives are hard as nails because they live in that harsh environment which trumps the special fighting abilities of the Emperor's Sardaukar - whose harsh planet of origin is like paradise compared to the Desert of Dune.  Then there's the other major power-elites who've come along to fight for the only source of spice, plus CHOAM, Tleilaxu, Bene-Gesserit... my head is beginning to hurt now.

Yeah simples


You can boil any story down to Boy-meets-girl or whatever if you try hard enough - I struggle to think of a more complex series of books then Dune - though (as I've said elsewhere on here) - it does disappear somewhere up the copious backside of a giant half-human half Sandworm around book four and this person here, although he did struggle through the final ones - thought they got so complex they were almost incomprehensible by the end.


Anyway, sorry I'll STFU about Dune now 

Having flogged my way through the entire series that's a pretty decent summary.

The first book was written about the impending ecological crises and in parallel with other more factual accounts like Silent Spring and had a pretty earnest message in there essentially "don't fuck with your eco system as you don't know what might happen", but after that it just got weird, and the final few books almost stood on their own and could have been read with no knowledge of the first.

I also had the first book as an audio book which was very good.

[fuzzy]

Well the comics are very earnest if you have a look.

I liked Watchmen and Dark Knight. They were good stories. At least, I thought so when I read them, back when I was about 15.

My favourite superhero comic story ever was Zenith from 2000AD, which was both exciting and funny. Shame they never made a film of that. (Or maybe it's not such a shame, given the likely mess they would have made of it.)

If anyone out there in comic/ graphic novel land (recent or cough old) deserves a film then it is Harry Harrison's 2000AD utilised anti hero 'Slippery' Jim DeGriz AKA The Stainless Steel Rat.

[caerau]

I thought they were actually doing that....

[mrcharly-YHT]

Well the comics are very earnest if you have a look.

I liked Watchmen and Dark Knight. They were good stories. At least, I thought so when I read them, back when I was about 15.

My favourite superhero comic story ever was Zenith from 2000AD, which was both exciting and funny. Shame they never made a film of that. (Or maybe it's not such a shame, given the likely mess they would have made of it.)

If anyone out there in comic/ graphic novel land (recent or cough old) deserves a film then it is Harry Harrison's 2000AD utilised anti hero 'Slippery' Jim DeGriz AKA The Stainless Steel Rat.

He's already getting a little old for it, but Colin Farrell would have been good for that. Looks shifty and sly without even trying.

[spesh]

Well the comics are very earnest if you have a look.

I liked Watchmen and Dark Knight. They were good stories. At least, I thought so when I read them, back when I was about 15.

My favourite superhero comic story ever was Zenith from 2000AD, which was both exciting and funny. Shame they never made a film of that. (Or maybe it's not such a shame, given the likely mess they would have made of it.)

If anyone out there in comic/ graphic novel land (recent or cough old) deserves a film then it is Harry Harrison's 2000AD utilised anti hero 'Slippery' Jim DeGriz AKA The Stainless Steel Rat.

The 2000AD adaptations were a bit odd, as Carlos Ezquerra had obviously based his depiction of Slippery Jim on James Coburn. I've always preferred the Jim Burns paintings for the UK paperback editions of the books. For example:

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge

A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born

He's already getting a little old for it, but Colin Farrell would have been good for that. Looks shifty and sly without even trying.

I can see where you're coming from - he'd be fine for adaptations of "The Stainless Steel Rat For President", or "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You", where his twins sons join in the mayhem. Otherwise, Ryan Reynolds or Chris Pratt might work.

EDITED TO ADD

It's just struck me - Andrew Garfield would be perfect to play Slippery Jim in the earlier stories.

[T42]

Well the comics are very earnest if you have a look.

I liked Watchmen and Dark Knight. They were good stories. At least, I thought so when I read them, back when I was about 15.

My favourite superhero comic story ever was Zenith from 2000AD, which was both exciting and funny. Shame they never made a film of that. (Or maybe it's not such a shame, given the likely mess they would have made of it.)

If anyone out there in comic/ graphic novel land (recent or cough old) deserves a film then it is Harry Harrison's 2000AD utilised anti hero 'Slippery' Jim DeGriz AKA The Stainless Steel Rat.

He's already getting a little old for it, but Colin Farrell would have been good for that. Looks shifty and sly without even trying.

I always think he just looks worried.

[LEE]

The Beatles - Eight Days a Week

Fabulous watch (and listen, via the Hi-Fi).  There are no surprises here, we've seen and heard the documentaries and the music, but it has great sound and some unseen footage.

It's a great reminder of how special they were.  It's worth remembering that they were kids when they first shook the World. 
Will anyone produce a volume of work like that again I wonder?  Will anyone evolve musically like that again?

All done and dusted in just 10 years, from teenagers to twenty-somethings, from Please Please Me to Let it Be.

To put it in perspective, One-Direction have been going 7 years.

[fuzzy]

Well the comics are very earnest if you have a look.

I liked Watchmen and Dark Knight. They were good stories. At least, I thought so when I read them, back when I was about 15.

My favourite superhero comic story ever was Zenith from 2000AD, which was both exciting and funny. Shame they never made a film of that. (Or maybe it's not such a shame, given the likely mess they would have made of it.)

If anyone out there in comic/ graphic novel land (recent or cough old) deserves a film then it is Harry Harrison's 2000AD utilised anti hero 'Slippery' Jim DeGriz AKA The Stainless Steel Rat.

The 2000AD adaptations were a bit odd, as Carlos Ezquerra had obviously based his depiction of Slippery Jim on James Coburn. I've always preferred the Jim Burns paintings for the UK paperback editions of the books. For example:

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge

A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born

He's already getting a little old for it, but Colin Farrell would have been good for that. Looks shifty and sly without even trying.

I can see where you're coming from - he'd be fine for adaptations of "The Stainless Steel Rat For President", or "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You", where his twins sons join in the mayhem. Otherwise, Ryan Reynolds or Chris Pratt might work.

EDITED TO ADD

It's just struck me - Andrew Garfield would be perfect to play Slippery Jim in the earlier stories.

I had that very cover on my copy of 'drafted'.

[ElyDave]

The Beatles - Eight Days a Week

Fabulous watch (and listen, via the Hi-Fi).  There are no surprises here, we've seen and heard the documentaries and the music, but it has great sound and some unseen footage.

It's a great reminder of how special they were.  It's worth remembering that they were kids when they first shook the World. 
Will anyone produce a volume of work like that again I wonder?  Will anyone evolve musically like that again?

All done and dusted in just 10 years, from teenagers to twenty-somethings, from Please Please Me to Let it Be.

To put it in perspective, One-Direction have been going 7 years.

I really detest the Beatles, a few decent songs written by those who never got the credit they deserved, fronted by that mediocrity Lennon.  McCartney did his best stuff post Beatles in my opinion.

I would say there are many bodies of work both better and longer lasting

[citoyen]

I really detest the Beatles, a few decent songs written by those who never got the credit they deserved, fronted by that mediocrity Lennon.  McCartney did his best stuff post Beatles in my opinion.

"Wings? They're only the band the Beatles could have been."

[ElyDave]

in particular I wish I could scrub my mind clean of the schoolboy pap that is "Imagine" and then the rest of everything written by Lennon, unfortunately short of opening my head and using a scrubbing brush plus bleach I think I'll have to live with it.

Live and Let Die was a classic

[Torslanda]

That's a piss take, right . . . ?

[Basil]

Have I entered some strange parallel universe?   

[ElyDave]

I detest John Lennon

As the son of someone from Wallasey, that might be an unorthodox view, but I will defend it to the end.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I detest John Lennon

As the son of someone from Wallasey, that might be an unorthodox view, but I will defend it to the end.

So you don't actually like 'The Beatles' is what you are saying?

[mattc]

He's probably a Ruttles guy.

[citoyen]

It's an interesting point of view. Could be taken for posturing.

However, I partly agree with ElyDave. I have said before that Imagine is an incredibly overrated song - trite sixth-form idealism set to a dreary tune. For that matter, Come Together is pretty much a load of old rubbish, and I Am The Walrus is one of those songs that probably sounds better if you've taken whatever he was on when he wrote it.

On the other hand: Norwegian Wood, Help, Strawberry Fields...

[caerau]

Not liking a band is not the same as them being crap.


Calling them crap is a bit ummm .... well ... given their rampant and very much standing the test of time - success, and their influence on others,  I think it's a bit of a stretch to say they're crap even if you do hate them.


Though as soon as I type that I think of Cliff Richard 




Weren't we supposed to be talking about fillums?  I have no tolerance for topic drift 

[caerau]

To be fair, you do just say you detest them, so that's fine

[citoyen]

Not liking a band is not the same as them being crap.

Crapness in anything artistic is largely subjective, so ultimately it amounts to pretty much the same thing.

To get back on topic, the same applies to films.