The Films You Watched Thread V: Dead Men Watch No Movies

[teddymeow]

Finished 'The Spy Who Dumped Me' earlier. It got a lot better after the first half hour or so.

Finished up a trinity if Mila Kunis films with 'Bad Moms' which was ridiculously good. Hilarious in fact. I laughed so loud at one point I woke my eldest up!!

[Brad]

Bad moms is brilliant!

[Neon Ignition]

The Curse of La Llorona
The link to the Conjuring films here is tenuous, I mean incredibly tenuous, to the point where it definitely feels like it's in there just to raise the profile of a film that wasn't intended to be part of the CCU. The film is a running showcase of every tired trope going, there's absolutely zero originality on show here. It's main strength is that it's broad tone keeps it just about tense enough to entertain but there's little reason to make this one you'd rewatch or need to go out your way for.

Rocky V
Took a while to motivate ourselves up to this but Rocky's dullest hour is done. Given it was once plainly intended to end the series, it really is an underwhelming finale taken on that basis. In context of there being three films after it though it's an interesting entry and there's some nice stuff in there.

[Atticus]

The Big Heat - Cracking noir thriller that feels super original. Above and beyond what I was expecting (and my expectations were high enough). It just feels different, harder than other films of the time, with less obvious characters and plotting. But it's still very much rooted in a noir world of cocktail lounges, breakers yards, cheap hotel rooms and luxury apartments. Has one of the best lines I've ever heard in a film too, which only really makes sense for those who've seen it

->Open Spoiler<-

I can always go through life sideways

[JazzFunk]

Is that doing the rounds on TV at the mo? Never seen it, lots of old films I've never seen, I'm digging them majorly now, prefer them to new movies, more mood, more style, pizazz, better music, more insanity, more interest. Just less swearing, nudity and gore. But not always. I love a noir, I appreciate them much more these days as well.

[Atticus]

I feel a similar way @JazzFunk ... and there's always something new/old to discover. Not sure if it's on tv ... I picked up the Powerhouse/Indicator blu last week.

[JazzFunk]

No worries man, I'm gonna keep a look out for it, wanna check out the old Jimmy Cagney movies as well, cannot beat gritty black n white n crime n jazz n the big moody city. And Tommy guns.

[JazzFunk]

Just checked out The Straight Story.

It was pretty much what I'd expected. Old man drives a verrrrry slooooow lawnmower for weeks through pleasant American countryside to visit his stroke-afflicted bro.

But David Lynch directing...based on a true story...with a U certificate.

It's...good. It is what it is. An old guy driving across the countryside slowly in a lawnmower with nothing much happening. Biggest drama is a scene involving a grabber.

Did I like it? Definitely. Was it a classic? Not sure. It's got a few Lynchian trademarks, esp. sonically, but nothing really happens at all in it.

But that's the point. So in essence it is perfect at what it is attempting.

There is a 'twist' at the end, verrry trademark Lynch. I didn't know it was gonna be...

[Neon Ignition]

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
The Ted Bundy film starring Zac Efron. There's a good scene towards the end when Bundy's girlfriend confronts Bundy to get the truth from him and it's acted out well but it's also a glimmer or what might have been. This is enjoyable but it utterly breezes through events with a focus mostly being on how depressed she was during his court hearings, never getting into the acts he committed. It's almost as if there should be a second film that shows the crimes and methods that surround the arrests. Efron does a good job portraying Bundy, the films just too shallow a look at the killer.

[randombs]

Watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just now.

We enjoyed it. I’ve warmed to this Peter but it’s over so there’s nothing I can do.

I wonder how it would’ve tied into the MCU had it done better

[Neon Ignition]

If Amazing Spider-Man 2 had done well they were going to lead into a third and a ton of spin-offs but there wouldn't have been an MCU crossover. The MCU crossover only happened because Sony screwed the pooch on the character so badly that they needed the assist to get back on track.

[QualityChimp]

Watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just now.

We enjoyed it. I’ve warmed to this Peter but it’s over so there’s nothing I can do.

I wonder how it would’ve tied into the MCU had it done better

I quite like TASM2, there's a lot of character building in there and you feel pretty bad for them all at the inevitability that being a superhero brings.

I've mentioned it before, but it handled 3D a lot more inventively before Marvel did.
Watching some of the earlier Marvel films, the 3D is fairly basic. By Doctor Strange, it was amazing.

In TASM2, they spent a lot of time constructing shots that look great because of the various layers and translucent effects.

[randombs]

I wish I'd seen it in 3D now!

I seem to remember you talking about the 3D. The monitors and whatnot.

[QualityChimp]

I wish I'd seen it in 3D now!

I seem to remember you talking about the 3D. The monitors and whatnot.

Yeah, that's it.

It wasn't all about the fighting, just nice shots like Harry Osborn is looking up something on his futuristic desk PC and there's a nice shot looking up through the table, where we get to see what he's reading and his reaction through the table.



Another shot that stood out was when Peter is breaking up with Gwen. They've gone for a meal in Chinatown and there are some nice shots of the lanterns for depth, but as he's talking to her, the camera is inside a shop and the viewer is like a voyeur. As she goes back to the restaurant, he walks off into the distance, isolated.

[Zen Monkey]

Captain Fantastic

A movie about a father who, having rejected society, raises his family in the wild mountains of northwest America where he teaches them, amongst other things, philosophy, quantum physics, socialism, critical thinking, socialism, yoga, meditation, martial arts, music, rock climbing and hunting, but due to personal tragedy must take his family out into society.

It's a fantastic movie with great performances of nuanced, believable characters. This isn't a good guys against bad guys movie, nor is it a movie about enlightened people coming into contact with brainwashed people . It's a bit more mature and sensitive than that. On one hand, it does portray how nourished and flourishing and intelligent children raised outside society could be, but it also portrays the downsides of such a choice - the lack of social and cultural skills and how crazy such people would seem to the rest of society. Best movie I've seen in a while.

Any movie that has a Noam Chomsky day has to be good :





The first time the kids see fat people :