What was the last film you watched?

[T42]

Je n'aime pas les parkings!

T'aimes pas grand'chose, toi!

[mattc]

I'm used to the fact that American teens all look like they're in their mid-twenties.

It's not so much suspension of disbelief as something you come to expect through prolonged exposure.  Like the ridiculous portrayals of mundane computer things in anything made before about 2005 or so.

If you're having a pop at Back to the Future or War Games, there will be trouble 

[citoyen]

Beauty and the Beast

The latest film version.   I'll say up front its not my kind of film , but dear God it was awful.

I have no interest in the current spate of live-action/CGI remakes of Disney classics but I watched the Jungle Book remake against my better judgment. It was pretty dreadful.

However, as for Beauty & The Beast, I'm a big fan of the original* so I thought I'd have a little look at it, and to be honest, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. The songs are still great, even with Emma Watson's voice autotuned to within an inch of its life, and they seem to have done a decent enough job of the big set pieces. I quite like the chap playing Gaston too.

Didn't watch it all the way through, just skimmed through about the first hour of it, but I might actually go back and watch it properly some time.



*The Jean Cocteau version, obviously.

[hillbilly]

En man som heter Ove

A feel good film with suicide attempts. A Swedish comedy in other words.

As per title the story of "A Man Called Ove", which gently introduces him as an elderly curmudgeon and then unwraps his more kindhearted nature.  You can pretty much guess where the film is going after 20 minutes, but that didn't stop it being a jolly good watch. 

I missed it at the cinema, but it's worth catching if you have Virgin (its on pay-per-view at the moment).

[spindrift]

Main reason why Spectre is pants:

https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=spectre

in five minutes
the head of
the Joint Security Service
is going to walk
through that door,
and I've got to explain to him
how one of our agents decided to
potter off to Mexico, all on his own,
and cause
an international incident.


With all due respect, sir,
it could've been worse.


Worse? You blew up
half a bloody block.


Well, better half a block than
a whole stadium full of people.


You had no authority.
None.


Then M says:

"you are officially grounded."

Cos senior civil servants speak like American teenagers. "Grounded". Pfffffftt.

[spindrift]

That exchange could be dear old Gordon Jackson in an old The Professionals episode.

[T42]

"Gated" would suit better.

[Jaded]

Rusticated

[TimO]

En man som heter Ove

A feel good film with suicide attempts. A Swedish comedy in other words.

As per title the story of "A Man Called Ove", which gently introduces him as an elderly curmudgeon and then unwraps his more kindhearted nature.  You can pretty much guess where the film is going after 20 minutes, but that didn't stop it being a jolly good watch. 

I missed it at the cinema, but it's worth catching if you have Virgin (its on pay-per-view at the moment).

It's "free" on Amazon Prime Video, too.

[TimO]

Independence Day: Resurgence

After all the clamour from the critics, about how bad it was, I think that was a little unfair.  It's pretty much what you'd expect from a sequel to Independence Day, lots of aliens, spacecraft dog-fighting, massive spaceships, some cheesie lines, and a fair amount of silliness.  It's very much on a par with the original.

Yes, the last scene was clearly an attempt to lead into Independence Day 3, but there's nothing particularly bad about that.  If you wanted a work of great cinematographic significance, then it's not going to be for you, but I doubt anyone expected that!  As far as shot-em-up space movies go, it does exactly what it says on the bottle.

I also bought a copy on eBay, for far less than the current "normal" cost, so I think I got value for money.

[Jakob]

I have no interest in the current spate of live-action/CGI remakes of Disney classics but I watched the Jungle Book remake against my better judgment. It was pretty dreadful.

Granted, I had very low expectations and the original Jungle Book is one of my favourite Disney movies, but despite wanting to hate it, I thought the remake was amazing.

[citoyen]

I have no interest in the current spate of live-action/CGI remakes of Disney classics but I watched the Jungle Book remake against my better judgment. It was pretty dreadful.

Granted, I had very low expectations and the original Jungle Book is one of my favourite Disney movies, but despite wanting to hate it, I thought the remake was amazing.

The original is massively overrated - it manages two bona fide classic songs and there's some great voice acting, but the story is a garbled, incoherent mess, and the animation is nowhere near the best of Disney. I know I'm in a minority with this view.

The remake is too earnest, lacking in humour, and doesn't even have the songs (well, it has bits of them but doesn't do them justice). It amounts to little more than an exercise in showing off what is possible with modern CGI technology. Again, I know I'm in a minority with this view.

[Kim]

I agree with that synopsis of the original.  It's notable that extracts of the two good songs were a wet bank holiday staple when I was a kid, yet you rarely saw the whole thing.

I haven't seen the remake.  I've heard that stupendous amounts of work went into the animation, and it shows, but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to watch it.

[andrewc]

Diva. Still good after 36 years. Reminds me a bit of the workie who read Shakespeare for the first time at night school - "full of clichés, innit?" - for a lot of its devices were copied later. It also has one of those "toddle round the Tuiléries to mood music" interludes, an earlier cliché that has since died out. Bloody good film, though.

One nice wee thing: that bit in The Matrix where the wee spoon-bender says "there is no spoon..." mirrors the spiel of the Rasta in Diva when he makes a sandwich.

    Zen in the art of buttering bread.....

[ian]

The Jungle Book was the first ever movie I saw at the cinema.

Or half of it, no one had told us about intermissions (a thing back then) so we all went home, mildly puzzled yet euphoric through the amount of Kia-Ora we'd drunk.

[T42]

Haven't seen it, but without Satchmo I don't really want to.

[Robh]

Haven't seen it, but without Satchmo I don't really want to.

? If you're thinking of 'I Wanna Be Like You', that was Louis Prima.

[T42]

Another dream-bubble burst.

[Robh]

Another dream-bubble burst.

Look at it this way: you are now a fan of Louis Prima, and you have his entirely wonderful back catalogue to discover

[Mr Larrington]

Professor Larrington made the highly dubious claim the other day that The Jungle Book was the first film I ever saw at the cinema too.  I have no recollection of this and maintained that it was Arthur Penn's Bonnie And Clyde, even though this is 24-carat military-spec Lie.

[mrcharly-YHT]

The first film that I ever saw at the Drive In (no cinemas) was The AristoCats.

[Kim]

Basil The Great Mouse Detective for me.  No regrets.

[Torslanda]

Talking of drive-in movies, my concept of them has always been warm Californian nights under  the stars, siting in a '55 BelAir convertible with tray table on the window, burgers, popcorn, soda etc. a girl on your arm/lap/whatever (other stereotypes are available)...

We had occasion to take #1 son to a Xmas 'do'. Somewhere called 'Inflatable World' or similar in Trafford Park. Imagine my surprise to drive past one of the Man Utd (a sportsball team m'lud) overflow car parks and discover it was a 'drive-in'. Illusion totally shattered. Going to the cinema is something I have long considered THTD, noisy people on phones, rustling sweetie bags, slurping fizzy drinks - the whole bit. So imagine having to sit there in your car, with a duvet jacket on, with the engine running, on a rainy December night, on an industrial estate in Manchester. All the atmosphere of a visit to Belsen without the entertainment value...

[Kim]

Talking of drive-in movies, my concept of them has always been warm Californian nights under  the stars, siting in a '55 BelAir convertible with tray table on the window, burgers, popcorn, soda etc. a girl on your arm/lap/whatever (other stereotypes are available)...

Mine comes straight from The Flintstones.

Either way, Manchester in December doesn't qualify.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Talking of drive-in movies, my concept of them has always been warm Californian nights under  the stars, siting in a '55 BelAir convertible with tray table on the window, burgers, popcorn, soda etc. a girl on your arm/lap/whatever (other stereotypes are available)...

We had occasion to take #1 son to a Xmas 'do'. Somewhere called 'Inflatable World' or similar in Trafford Park. Imagine my surprise to drive past one of the Man Utd (a sportsball team m'lud) overflow car parks and discover it was a 'drive-in'. Illusion totally shattered. Going to the cinema is something I have long considered THTD, noisy people on phones, rustling sweetie bags, slurping fizzy drinks - the whole bit. So imagine having to sit there in your car, with a duvet jacket on, with the engine running, on a rainy December night, on an industrial estate in Manchester. All the atmosphere of a visit to Belsen without the entertainment value...

Reality

Entering the Drive in, there is a long queue of cars. If it is a popular film, they search the cars with torches. Maybe make you open the boot, in case you are smuggling some people in the boot.

Then you enter something that is a supermarket car park made of asphalt moguls. There follows 5-6min of reverse 6" forward 4", back 6", until everyone claims they can't see the screen.
You wind your driver-side window down and get a speaker the size of a toaster. This hooks over your window, hanging on the inside. It is mono with a volume control. People in the back can barely hear, the driver has it 6" from their ear.
Someone gets greasy snaks from the concession stand in the middle of the drive in. Teenagers too young to drive go to a room above the concession stand, lie down on mattresses to watch the film (through a window that has long since had the glass smashed out) and molest each other.