What was the last film you watched?

[Hot Flatus]

How about the last 8 films I've watched:

Star Wars
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars
Return of the Jedi

[Mr Larrington]

But have you ever watched Breaking Bad?

[Andrew]

Eric Cantona's not the worst actor I've ever seen.

The exception that proves the rule perhaps.

Cantona excepted, I can't think of a single acting performance by a footballer where they don't look like a child in their first nativity play.

[Torslanda]

Escape to Victory. 

Is that the one that proves actors can't play football and footballers can't act?

Since disproved by Vinnie. Surely?!?

Er, no.

We are in for a treat tonight, as we have obtained via a Namazoon voucher, the two Thunderbirds films from the 1960s. Thunderbirds are Go! and Thunderbird 6.

Chips'n'dip, popcorn, fizzy drinks and just about anything else we can think of that's bad for you, will be consumed . . .

[Hot Flatus]

But have you ever watched Breaking Bad?

I watched it on my phone whilst driving.

Thought it was overrated.

[Andrew]

But have you ever watched Breaking Bad?

I watched it on my phone whilst driving.

Thought it was overrated.

Try it on a different route.

[Jakob]

"The Man from U.N.C.L.E.".  Didn't like it at all. Fake '70's colours, over-stylized and an unlikable protagonist.

[Feanor]

We took an afternoon off skiing yesterday to go see the new Star Wars at the Speakeasy, the local single-screen cinema here in Breck.

I'v only seen a few of the Star Wars movies, and I'm a bit vague on the chronology.
But I thought the new one seemed an awful lot like the original one, re-heated.

But it was the jolly space romp you expect.

The single-screen cinema was a nice change from the usual muliplex affairs, too.

[Riggers]

We'll be seeing it on Saturday! But that's not the reason for m'post, nor the fact I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (again), which was fab. But . . . on Boxing Day, I watched for the very first time, on a friend's HUUUUUUGGGGE TV . . . .

Gravity

Wow. Stunning. One of the best films I've ever seen. Brother-in-law has now seen it 7 times. Brilliant!!!

[fuzzy]

That there new Star Wars film this morning.

It gets my vote as a winner.

Didn't see THAT coming though..........

[ian]

Star Wars...

(click to show/hide)

Bit disappointed to be honest. On the one level it was light-weight romp through the galaxy in the spirit of the original, all well and good. But they did nothing with it, it was pretty much a remake of the original. Boy Girl on desert planet dreams of getting away, gets caught up with vagabond space privateers, gets on wrong side of galactic bad-uns who, wait for it, have an even bigger Death Star that also just happens to have another of those fatal design flaws. Finn, I quite liked, though it didn't take him long to get rid of his traumatic upbringing into the ranks of storm troopers. Rey was fine, acting a bit wooden, accent out of central BBC period drama casting though. Bad guy was awful, should have kept the mask on and not revealed the force of evil was embodied in a sulky bouffant-haired teen answering to something that seemed to have escaped one of the LoTR movies, and oh yeah, the ol' family thing, didn't they erm already do that with Luke and Pa Darth.

It would have been nice if they'd taken the ideas and run with them, rather than settling back and essentially remaking the original. I didn't not enjoy it but it seemed a big opportunity missed.

[Mr Larrington]

The problem with the Imperial Empire

[Mr Larrington]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Visually meritorious but really.  Three hours?  Radagast and His Wah-Wah Rabbits?  Benedict Cucumberpatch playing a silhouette?  Apparently Peter Jackson's forthcoming adaptation of "One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich" is to be released in eight four-hour instalments¹.

1: Lie

[LEE]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Visually meritorious but really.  Three hours?  Radagast and His Wah-Wah Rabbits?  Benedict Cucumberpatch playing a silhouette?  Apparently Peter Jackson's forthcoming adaptation of "One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich" is to be released in eight four-hour instalments¹.

1: Lie

The Hobbit fails the test of a film being longer than it takes to read the book.

I mean, since the best pictures are in your head, what's the point of a 6 hour film of a 300 page book ?

[mattc]

The new Star Wars

we did both enjoy it (both saw the original when we were the target age, and it left a lasting impression!).
But I cant help feeling that all the reviews and discussion are over-complicating things; this really is just a standard modern "reboot"*. He took all the good bits of the first film (plus a few from ESB and RotJ), tweaked the plot slightly to reference the old films, and made the most of modern technology. It was actually pretty close to a "remake".

Job done!

7/10 money well spent, but nothing special.

*bugbear - total misuse of the word, but we all share the new non-IT meaning, so, whatever ...

[LEE]

It Follows

A horror film about being followed by spooky dead person(s).

Not as scary as the reviews make out.  Tense in places.

6/10

[LEE]

Shaun the Sheep: The Movie

Even better the second time.  So many visual gags per minute it's difficult to spot them all.

10/10

[Hot Flatus]

Star Wars...

(click to show/hide)

Bit disappointed to be honest. On the one level it was light-weight romp through the galaxy in the spirit of the original, all well and good. But they did nothing with it, it was pretty much a remake of the original. Boy Girl on desert planet dreams of getting away, gets caught up with vagabond space privateers, gets on wrong side of galactic bad-uns who, wait for it, have an even bigger Death Star that also just happens to have another of those fatal design flaws. Finn, I quite liked, though it didn't take him long to get rid of his traumatic upbringing into the ranks of storm troopers. Rey was fine, acting a bit wooden, accent out of central BBC period drama casting though. Bad guy was awful, should have kept the mask on and not revealed the force of evil was embodied in a sulky bouffant-haired teen answering to something that seemed to have escaped one of the LoTR movies, and oh yeah, the ol' family thing, didn't they erm already do that with Luke and Pa Darth.

It would have been nice if they'd taken the ideas and run with them, rather than settling back and essentially remaking the original. I didn't not enjoy it but it seemed a big opportunity missed.

(click to show/hide)

Yeah, I know what you are saying, all very good points. But it is as well to remember that it could have been so much worse. ie. like any of the previous three.  I have to say that I wasn't bored, and the two hours passed very quickly. There were some really good scenes, but like you I wish they hadn't unmasked the new Darth Vader character.

[ian]

Star Wars...

(click to show/hide)

Bit disappointed to be honest. On the one level it was light-weight romp through the galaxy in the spirit of the original, all well and good. But they did nothing with it, it was pretty much a remake of the original. Boy Girl on desert planet dreams of getting away, gets caught up with vagabond space privateers, gets on wrong side of galactic bad-uns who, wait for it, have an even bigger Death Star that also just happens to have another of those fatal design flaws. Finn, I quite liked, though it didn't take him long to get rid of his traumatic upbringing into the ranks of storm troopers. Rey was fine, acting a bit wooden, accent out of central BBC period drama casting though. Bad guy was awful, should have kept the mask on and not revealed the force of evil was embodied in a sulky bouffant-haired teen answering to something that seemed to have escaped one of the LoTR movies, and oh yeah, the ol' family thing, didn't they erm already do that with Luke and Pa Darth.

It would have been nice if they'd taken the ideas and run with them, rather than settling back and essentially remaking the original. I didn't not enjoy it but it seemed a big opportunity missed.

(click to show/hide)

Yeah, I know what you are saying, all very good points. But it is as well to remember that it could have been so much worse. ie. like any of the previous three.  I have to say that I wasn't bored, and the two hours passed very quickly. There were some really good scenes, but like you I wish they hadn't unmasked the new Darth Vader character.

(click to show/hide)

Yeah, I'm not sure what went through their minds with the unmasking to reveal a petulant teen with awful hair (I suppose the challenge was getting all that hair into the helmet at all). It could indeed have been a lot worse, despite my better judgement we did, for the sake of completeness, watch the Other Three. Or try, we gave up on the Phantom Menace, it's was excruciatingly awful, even worse than I remembered, there so much additional awful that hides behind Jar-Jar, and oh my god, the accents, it's like every alien is voiced by Jim Davidson. We did an hour before giving up, possibly one of the worse movies ever made, I don't think I've ever cringed so much. Attack of the Clones was dull, awful script, stilted dialogue and acting from the school of wooden blocks – I mean seriously, a CGI Yoda outacts them all, he does. Lines delivered more fluidly they were. If you can remember anything about the movie or plot five minutes after the final credits have rolled, you've done better than me. Revenge of the Sith wasn't quite as bad, it might have been average if again it hadn't suffered the curse of poor dialogue and weird delivery, the sheer awfulness of the script made it seem like that the actors were reading their lines for the first time off a board pinned to the wall at the far side of the set.

So, yes, it was a lot better than those, but still, I think an opportunity to do something with the franchise was miss, but I guess no one wanted to take a risk.

[matthew]

I took my niece ( 8 ) to see the Snoopy and Charlie Brown film this morning,  , plenty of bits for the adults to enjoy based on knowledge of the cartoons and enough plot to keep the littlies enthralled.

[Mr Larrington]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Visually meritorious but really.  Three hours?  Radagast and His Wah-Wah Rabbits?  Benedict Cucumberpatch playing a silhouette?  Apparently Peter Jackson's forthcoming adaptation of "One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich" is to be released in eight four-hour instalments¹.

1: Lie

The Hobbit fails the test of a film being longer than it takes to read the book.

I mean, since the best pictures are in your head, what's the point of a 6 hour film of a 300 page book ?

Just for shits'n' giggles I then binge-watched The Lord Of The Rings.  Yes, all of it.  The DVD extended remix versions.  That's my quota of Hobbity Nonse comfortably exceeded for the next twelvemonth.

Now, where did I put that Harry Potter box set?

[Jaded]

Local Hero

Giggled all the way through it and when I wasn't giggling tried to work out who all the young people were. Jenny Seagrove had particularly interesting feet.

[Mr Larrington]

Peter Capaldi!

(Sniggers)

[fuzzy]

A couple of recent TV watches-

Behind the Candleabra- Michale Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his aide. A film I enjoyed. I can't quite work out if Douglas and Damon were overcamping it or whether that was the actual affectation of the subjects though.

Daleks Invavsion earth 2150 A.D.. proper Olde Skool sci fi complete with warbly electronic voices, men in black PVC overalls and aliens on rollers

[Mr Larrington]

Wilko does have a degree in English from Newcastle Uni.