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

[Atticus]

Breakdown is an absolute cracker. Loved it at the cinema ... a proper don't make 'em/actually do make like that moment. The late J. T. Walsh was a class turn as baddie Red Barr too.

[prinnysquad]

I saw that at the Robins in Durham. Everyone was transfixed. I dragged my eyes away from the screen at one point. Not a soul breathed around me.

[randombs]

Bumblebee

Fan-bloody-tastic. So sad that it apparently didn’t do as well financially as it did critically but we have the other TF films to blame for that.

[charlesr]

I want to watch Dark Angel again. I expect it will be really bad though.

[CMcK]

I want to watch Dark Angel again. I expect it will be really bad though.

The Dolph Lundgren vehicle? Pure cheese. Can’t beat action movies of that ilk.

[charlesr]

The Dolph Lundgren vehicle? Pure cheese. Can’t beat action movies of that ilk.

Yeah. Watched it so much when I was in my 20s. The gun was amazing.

[QualityChimp]

Is that:
"I come in peace."
"You'll go in pieces."

[Neon Ignition]

Velvet Buzzsaw
Put Jake Gyllhenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Colette and John Malkovich together in a film about the high society art world and what do you get? A bad horror movie. All of them work around an art gallery in some capacity that becomes embroiled in the art works of a recently deceased old man who wanted his lifes works destroyed. Instead they falsify ownership of the works and begin selling them, one by one each one is then despatched by the spirit of the old man. Malkovich's story arch is, I can't underline how much so, utterly redundant to the film. Gyllenhaal tries to maximise what he can get from his character who is a pretentious art reviewer, Russo runs the gallery and Colette is effectively in a bit role beneath her. The art parts are actually the best bits, the film does a good job of reflecting the bubble world the characters exist in which -as in real life- as nothing to do with what's good, merely what's profitable. The title of the film is incredibly tenuously tied in, existing only because the writer thought it sounded cool rather than having any relevance to anything happening. It's a bad film in a nut shell, enjoyable just about enough but a few casting decisions away from being just bad.

[Neon Ignition]

Stan & Ollie
I enjoyed this and Coogan does a great job of really nailing Stan's mannerisms during the routines. They perform several routines that don't make much impact because they're so dated but the surrounding cast actually provide a few giggles especially Ollie's Russian other half. The film is more breezy than I expected, given the period it focuses on I expected it to have more of an emotional punch than it does but it was still nice enough.

[Neon Ignition]

The Cloverfield Paradox
I expected the worst after the poor reactions it had drawn and it's a very flawed film but overall I found it to be a pretty easy watch.

[QualityChimp]

It's like eating a supermarket bag of crisps.

There are better flavours, bigger bags and tastier varieties, but it's not offensive and does a job.

\jazzfunkmodeoff

[_SD_]

The new Total Recall. Disappointed by the lack of giant red glowing bogey extraction, but the car chase segment was impressive and lots of things exploded. I suppose it was entertaining but definitely not as enjoyable as the original.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, it didn't really work did it? It didn't make me wish I had three hands.

I saw Hereditary last night with a couple of mates.
My mate's projector is well noisy but didn't quite ruin the atmosphere.
I thought it was really good and, based on the trailer, it was nothing like how I thought it would be, so absolute credit to the trailer editor!

It's pretty creepy, with some clever jump scares and unexpected twists, but the ending is a bit of a stretch for some.
Same goes for The Babadook, Apostle, The Ritual and Scooby Doo. It all depends if you're involved enough to go with it.

I liked it, though and was impressed how it had horror tropes, but didn't feel clichéd.

[JazzFunk]

Her. Really weird and quite depressing. I could see it happening. Quite amusing when he comes out as dating an OS. Odd movie, Phoenix is super-creepy, did I like it? Yes. It was pretty much the same as what I was expecting, if rather different at the same time.

[Neon Ignition]

Star Trek: Beyond
On rewatch I find myself in the same place as at the cinema. There's nothing wrong with this one but despite how much of a bashing Into Darkness receives I find that film to be the better watch. Beyond is fine but it feels very 'going through the motions' and nothing lands. Darkness might frustrate but it at least elicits a response.

Mary Poppins Returns
Such an awkward watch in many ways. You have to really checklist this one:

-The kids: Fairly bad casting as is often the way with kids in films of this nature
-Jane and Michael: Fine enough for both of these
-Mary Poppins: Not the slam dunk I thought it would be for Blunt, she's actually one of the weakest elements in the film as she veers towards prim and proper posh and so lacks any of the natural warmth Andrews has who's real persona is much closer to the character she played.
-The plot: The basis is fine even if it seems a little darker than the original. In the first film it's about getting a father to pay attention to his children, in this one it's the same but with a dose of death, villainy and despair added.

The film is a sequel but it's a remake at the same time, you can kind of explain it away given the nature of the plot... just about. The songs are fine for the most part and full props to Dick Van Dyke's brief turn. Two sequences are very, very weak. A cabaret style sequence that is just poorly worked out where Poppins massively breaks from character to justify the films weakest song's inclusion all whilst carrying out a horrifying dereliction of duty on the children and the second is a later sequence where you watch lantern lighters attempt to help her save the day all whilst she could do it in 2 seconds herself... only for her to then do that, getting celebrated after, all for really just being a bit of a dick.

Short summary would ultimately be, of Disney's recent glut of revivals and remakes it's one of the better ones. Still fails to meet the bar of the original especially as the story beats are so like for like but in inferior ways. When it works it really works and is so nice to see a modern film manage to recreate this type of filmmaking. When it doesn't it's rough and introduces poor moments to a character who previously was frozen in carbonite. They pull it off for once overall, a feat only meritable as long as they can resist spoiling things with a third film.