The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[fallenangle]

Watched Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, on C4 think, yesterday.

Not a fan of the franchise but I did enjoy Rogue One more than any other film set in the Star Wars universe.

I found The Force Awakens much more derivative and really just back to Star Wars old school (kids level sci-fi) with the reappearance of some popular characters and supposedly cute/funny robots as a bone to the fans.

Just OK - worth seeing but nothing more.

[randombs]

I’m on night shift with the baby these days so I’m taking advantage by watching horror films (while he’s asleep in his bedroom, of course!):

Return of the Living Dead III

I first saw this when I was around 12. Surprisingly, it’s not that bad! A lot of the special effects hold up quite well and the zombie romance at the heart of it is hammy but also a bit poignant.

Hellraiser

Good fun, with sublime special effects. The daughter, Kirsty, is a badass.

Hellraiser II

Absolute nonsense.

Scream

Still great. Knowing what happens meant I could watch out for clues but it’s pretty heavily signposted. Bonus points for Hulu JP hosting the uncut version.

I wanted to see something a bit recent, so…

Midsommar

Hereditary is much, much better. I just didn’t care about any of the characters other than Dani so there was little emotional investment. Maybe that doesn’t matter, though?

[Neon Ignition]

I watched Tenet and it frustrated me. I felt like it spent so long on trying to make me understand the time inversion that it forgot to let me know the basic plot, which I think was essentially a James Bond story. But who knows. I came away feeling like it was an insanely complex way to tell a stupidly and poorly-motivated simplistic story but really I have no idea if I’m right about that because I definitely missed stuff. Maybe it’s a very smart film and I’m an idiot. Maybe I’ll watch it again at some point.

I did get distracted by the time stuff, which is maybe why they spent so long on that topic. Again, it’s entirely possible that this all made sense but sometimes things happened that baffled me. For example -

->Open Spoiler<-

A while after the main character is inverted, it cuts to a conversation he is having with the Priya character but that conversation is clearly happened in forward time. Then after that scene he is seemingly back to being inverted. I’m not sure what I missed there in terms of how that worked.

Similarly smaller moments threw me out of the movie because I thought they might be important plot things but felt like inconsistencies. Like there is a part where they are in the plane section and forward Neil is chasing the inverted protagonist but Neil is running after him forwards in spite of the fact that we should be seeing this play out backwards and, again, I wasn’t sure why this was.

Then I got caught up on the cause and effect. For example, pre-existing bullet holes. How does that work in the normal flow of time? Were those bullet holes always in that glass or did they pop into existence somewhere? Was the glass manufactured with the bullet holes in place and installed that way? How else would it work? If it didn’t work that way, that means the bullet holes come into being twice. Anyone know what I’m missing there?

Anyway, it was an interesting film but I didn’t quite get the main plot. Or didn’t think I did. And yet I have this feeling that it was really basic - insane bad guy wants mcGuffin weapon. Not sure I’m right though.

Tenet is a very dumb movie that tries to convince audiences its clever by muddying up its story to confuse the audience, likely also thinking fans will hand wave it away because 'Nolan' which is technically true as it happens a lot with his films.

[Neon Ignition]

The Babadook
Not seen this since it came out years ago and to be honest it was okay but doesn't hold up as strong on repeat viewing.

Orphan: First Kill
This is a prequel which casts the now 25 year old Isabelle Fuhrman to return as Esther, a role she played in the original film 13 years ago when she was 12. Fuhrman is noticeably older here despite their best efforts but hats off to them that not only is that baked into the plot but they broadly do a decent job of passing it off and if she doesn't physically change too much in the coming decade she could feasibly return again to the franchise. The film is partially a beat for beat retread of the original which hampers it but once it notably breaks off from that it improves a lot and is a surprisingly decent belated sequel.

The Princess and the Frog
Seen it a lot but took the kids for a matinee at the cinema. It's been a grower of a film that despite not being Disney's best is solid

Hocus Pocus 2
It just about gets across the line okay but it's very much a cheap tribute act to the original that misses a few tricks and contexts whilst completely lacking any charm in its new teen cast. Disney really needs to back off its digital stage useage as well, it's way too obvious and kills the effect too often thanks to lazy use of it.

[randombs]

Do you like scary movies?

I do! That’s why I’ve seen:

Scream 2

Featuring a veritable smorgasbord of 90s stars:

Pacey from Dawson Creek! Sarah Michelle Gellar!!! The main guy from Scanners!!!

The opening Jade Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps murders are still terrifying.

Scream 3

I didn’t remember much from this so it was almost like watching for the first time. Great fun. Hasn’t lost any steam so far…

Scream 4

Wowzers. I’m finding these are consistently good films. The only issue is the motives of the killers get sillier each time and goddamnit this has the silliest premise of them all(especially after the darker themes in Scream 3). One thing I do enjoy is that the killers are never professionals or specially trained so they often get their arses kicked around a bit. Also, the soundtracks are brilliant. Not just the licensed stuff but the score itself. Really gets the blood pumping.

Not horror, but I managed to catch The Fellowship of the Ring IMAX this evening before it leaves the cinema in a few days. It was wonderful. Some scenes were super jerky - I even had to look away from the screen in the Mines of Moria bit where the Orcs are flooding in through the door. It settled down once the cave troll appeared. I watched the BRs at home recently and they were fine so I dunno if it’s caused by the remastering or something. Whatever the reason, it was all worth it to feel the sound. Not just obvious stuff like the rumble of the Balrog, but there were occasions such as Boromir being taken over by the ring where I’d feel some ominous bass. I’m so glad I caught this in the cinema again. It’s been twenty years!

[QualityChimp]

I saw A Cure For Wellness, but found it a bit poor.

A young, rising executive cheats his way to the top and the board blackmail him to getting the other board member so they can complete a merger. Problem is, he's in some exclusive convalescence retreat and doesn't want to come home, so the exec ends up staying longer than he planned and starts to realise that there's something sinister going on...

Some good performances and some squirmy moments, but it never quite hit the mark for me as it seemed overlong and every time we got some more information about what was going on, the guy would be caught and we'd be back to square one.

[wakka]

I've also seen that and had similar impressions. It never fully takes flight, and I felt it retrod a lot of material about spooky asylums that we've seen elsewhere.

[QualityChimp]

YES! Thank you!

I just kept thinking I've seen this before in loads of other films, Frankenstein, Wicker Man, The Prisoner, The Shining and Shutter Island.

It did look great, though!

[wakka]

Yeah spot on. It's all well worn stuff - spookily gormless types drifting about in white smocks, eerily clipped and efficient administrators who act as if there's nothing funny going on, the ol' creeping sense that maybe the protagonist REALLY IS crazy, the nearby village with a silent pub where they won't talk about what's going on up at the hospital, and so on and so forth - and this film added little to the oeuvre.

Does look quite nice though, yeah.

[prinnysquad]

Caught Romancing the Stone again last weekend.

One of the most 1980s films ever. Not just in wardrobe, but in terms of pacing, music and script. There’s a slight edge to the writing that places it firmly inside the self-awareness of 80s action adventure films. For its rating, there’s some sailing close to the boundary, with the minge-diving lolz, references to a bloke being diced, and the whole wrist-chomping shenanigans.

The whole concept is glorious, and it deserves more praise in discussions about top 1980s romps. You’ve got the Indy/Goonies-esque trail of hidden treasure, the exquisite chemistry between the leads (and the baddies), the otherworldly contrast of the locations, and the snappiness of the dialogue. The stuff between Zack Norman and Danny DeVito is brilliantly quotable. Douglas and Turner are dynamite, and cast perfectly. MD’s best role after Falling Down, and in many ways it’s superior, because he is a likeable hero.

As a young un, in the days before I saw Basic Instinct, and only had access to VHS recordings of things my parents had taped off terrestrial,
the scene with the cowboy lass at the beginning was possibly the hottest thing ever. It was like a sanctioned eyeful. The ideal start to a quality action Boy’s Own adventure. The film hasn’t lost any of that magic! It’s still a superb film, and that scene is still class!

[fallenangle]

They had a habit of censoring Romancing the Stone when shown on broadcast TV. It was a lottery which version you'd see but typically they'd crudely edit out some of that dialogue but principally they'd remove anything involving knives and blood.

You see the same thing, absurdly, with some of the Lord Of The Rings films. The Hobbit ones too where somebody somewhere has decided that they need to censor at least two beheadings with jump cuts but have to leave in Legolas stabbing the Orc mini-boss in the head as it is a key part of the film series.

[Finsbury Girl]

I loved Romancing the Stone as a teen, haven't seen it in yonks, I must try and find it streaming somewhere now!

[prinnysquad]

They had a habit of censoring Romancing the Stone when shown on broadcast TV. It was a lottery which version you'd see but typically they'd crudely edit out some of that dialogue but principally they'd remove anything involving knives and blood.

You see the same thing, absurdly, with some of the Lord Of The Rings films. The Hobbit ones too where somebody somewhere has decided that they need to censor at least two beheadings with jump cuts but have to leave in Legolas stabbing the Orc mini-boss in the head as it is a key part of the film series.

Yep! And that’s another reason it feels so 80s. When I watched it the other day, I fully expected Michael Douglas’ swear word a split second before flying down the water slide to be edited out, like it was on my VHS recording. I haven’t seen that copy for 25 years at least, and there it was, lodged in my brain. I recalled that they didn’t even overdub it with ‘shoot’ or anything. They just killed the sound.
@Finsbury Girl I watched it on Disney Plus.

[Atticus]

I watched that Adrian Lyne film on Amazon, Deep Water ... the dynamic of the couple is an interesting enough set-up: hubby seemingly tolerates the open infidelities of his missus, or does he? But the film itself lacks any kind of structure that might keep it remotely interesting. Not great.

[Dogg Thang]

I watched that Adrian Lyne film on Amazon, Deep Water ... the dynamic of the couple is an interesting enough set-up: hubby seemingly tolerates the open infidelities of his missus, or does he? But the film itself lacks any kind of structure that might keep it remotely interesting. Not great.

Yeah, I was very disappointed by that movie because I'm a fan of his older work. Deep Water didn't land for me at all.