The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[QualityChimp]

Having watched M:I 2 last November, this is still pretty fresh in my mind and I want to like it more, but it's just a bit messy.
It's too reliant on the masks McGuffin and is an unsatisfactory story, IMHO.
I love Hard Boiled, but I've never really clicked with Woo's stuff.
It's so painfully 90s too. Watching the extras, there's a music video for Metallica's "I Disappear" where the band are running from something. Remember music videos and MTV?

Silent Running is one I saw last year. I think the fact we're talking about it nearly 50 years later shows it still is relevant, with mankind relentlessly trashing the environment in pursuit of profit.
When the UK couldn't get hold of the right chemicals to treat sewage water because of Brexit, the government just voted to let the sewage just get dumped into rivers anyway.
So, I still think the environmental themes are sadly still pertinent.

I didn't click with Dern's characterisation of Lowell, who is pretty unlikeable.
He doesn't fit in with the rest of the crew, but you feel that's his fault, rather than theirs.
When he ends up alone, he hasn't garnered enough sympathy for you to really empathise with him and I think other films where isolated men go slightly loopy are better (Omega Man, The Quiet Earth).

Director Trumbull did the effects on 2001, re-using an abandoned Saturn effect here, but some of it is really ropey, like the shots of the ship really do look like models.
They did most of the interior scenes in an abandoned aircraft carrier before it was scrapped!

So, I think it's 100% worth watching, but with the knowledge it's a fallible classic.

[wakka]

Yeah, it's a good point NI regarding the context of the year it was released. It's very much in the OTT vein of Die Another Day.

Fully agree with you QC that the story is unsatisfactory. The script is just terrible and really it's only Woo's directorial flair in some of the action scenes that brings the film to life.

[QualityChimp]

Massively behind in my film watching as Elden Ring is sapping all my free time or I'm watching shorter shows with my family.

I keep looking at these films on Sky that I've never heard of, but have people like Gerard Butler or Adrien Brody and I wonder if it's worth taking a punt...

[Neon Ignition]

Brody - Likely not
Butler - 50/50, there's a surprising number of decent efforts he's made in the last few years

[fuse]

Watched Don't Worry Darling. Really did not rate it; felt like the setting and giving Harry Styles a chance to act were at the forefront of priorities, and the actual storytelling was a total afterthought. One of those that thinks it's so much smarter than it actually is, when in reality you've got a pretty reasonable idea of what's going on from about five minutes in and as a result it drags along quite tediously.

[wakka]

I don't know if you know The Flophouse podcast, where they review bad movies, but they just did an episode on Don't Worry Darling and it had me cracking up. Worth a listen.

[fallenangle]

Tried Infinite earlier this evening - total piece of **** I was bored of within 15 minutes. Car stunts and CGI strung together with an off the shelf story which made me think of several other films including the less than great Assassins Creed one.

Next tried The Shanghai Job featuring a badly miscast Orlando Bloom trying to be Jason Statham and failing embarrassingly. Another half-hour of my life wasted.

Finally tried Film4 Spell with Jamie Foxx and, again, wish I had not bothered too. Not awful as far as I watched but not good enough when you're in a bad mood from having started two other films and been disappointed by them both.

[QualityChimp]

Three non-starters, Angle? Oof, I hate that.
I normally slog it through to the end!

I was about 75% into Jojo Rabbit but I took too long to finish it and it got pulled from All4.
Started The Long Good Friday, but life got in the way. Then Elden Ring later.

[Lebowski]

Three non-starters, Angle? Oof, I hate that.
I normally slog it through to the end!

I was about 75% into Jojo Rabbit but I took too long to finish it and it got pulled from All4.

That's a shame i love that film, so many classic scenes who couldn't love a film about a small boy who has Hitler as an imaginary friend, steven merchant is brilliant in it i love the absurdity of the heil hiltler scene

[QualityChimp]

That's a shame i love that film, so many classic scenes who couldn't love a film about a small boy who has Hitler as an imaginary friend, steven merchant is brilliant in it i love the absurdity of the heil hiltler scene

It's on D+, so I'll finish it this week.
That was probably the best scene - so silly!

[randombs]

Avatar

I watched this again to prep for Avatar 2. I was expecting it to just ride 3D’s coattails and otherwise be a slog but it’s really good in its own right. It still looks astonishing at times and I was hooked from the beginning. It’s hyped me up for the sequel which I will try to see within the next few days.

[wakka]

I watched a couple of 2022 movies recently - Emily the Criminal sees Aubrey Plaza play it straight in a character study about an alienated thirtysomething drowning in student loans who gets sucked into a life of crime. A taut ninety minutes with an interesting sting in the tale. It's a debut and it'll be interesting to see what this director does next.

Then Bodies Bodies Bodies. Gen-Z lampooning black comedy whodunnit with a gang of rich twentysomethings holed up in a remote mansion for a party during a hurricane. A game of what amounts to 'wink murder' goes awry when people start turning up actually dead. Funny, tense, and contemporary. Recommended.

I forgot one other - The Menu. This had personal resonance after a recent weekend trip where I inadvertently subjected myself to a Michelin star tasting menu that was more like an assault course. The amuse bouche was almost the same one that the hapless diners receive in this film. This is a terrific black comedy that continually wrongfoots you.

[Atticus]

Hankering for some daft Arnie I rewatched The Running Man. Daft - check. Arnie - check. Not a lot more to say. It's pretty ropey but still entertaining in all the right and wrong ways.

Now, if ever you feel your day has too much joy in it, reach for Possum ... a film debut from Matthew Holness ... and about as far from Garth Marenghi as you can get. It's almost like a silent movie in the way its crafted. And the world is bleak and colourless and pretty much empty (very few people in it, which adds to the bleakness). And it doesn't give much away. The main character was a children's entertainer but isn't any longer ... and returns to his childhood home to work through some stuff. And he has a puppet in a bag that's really freaky. There are a number of ways to read the film and all are very dark, with themes of trauma and abuse everywhere. In some ways it's probably very good (its effective in what it sets out to do) but I didn't enjoy it on any level. I kinda just wanted it to end (getting soft).

Then I finally got round to double-billing It Chapters 1 & 2. I love Stephen King and It has to be in most fans top 3 of his books. The recent films weren't perfect but I think they're as great as we could hope for. Going back they really stand up. I'm used to the look of Pennywise now so his ott presence isn't distracting anymore. The casting is pretty much perfection, kids and adults. Not just nailing the characters but believable in resemblance between their young and old selves. And you can tell the whole thing is made with a passion for the source. One thing I'd love to see is Andy Muschietti's longer cut(s) serialised ... the films clock in at around 5 hours in total but still feel like they're rushing along at times. But unlike all the digs at King in the film about not being good at endings this all wraps up really well. I still feel ps 2 is my fave ... the actors really do nail it. The Chinese restaurant scene is almost exactly as I pictured it in the book and I'm a sucker for

->Open Spoiler<-

King's cameo

too In fact, pt2 was so close to my book experience I was expecting to see certain scenes at the end (which I thought I'd seen in my prev viewing) which weren't there, it was all starting to mix up in my head. Anyway, brilliant stuff.

[wakka]

I'd like to watch It Part 2 but I think I'm actually going to read the book instead first. Never read it before. Might save it for when I next have a long journey somewhere as King is perfect for whiling away the hours on a train or plane. Then I'll watch Part 2 somewhere down the line.

Possum sounds like a rough watch.

[QualityChimp]

The Running Man has really fallen into the "not as good as you remember" category, sadly.
Yeah, it's got the kills and the payoff lines, but it's so shallow. There are lots of cool, memorable moments, but I was left a bit shocked at how fleeting it is.

It's possibly because I've listened to the original King audiobook and it's amazing.
I hope Edgar Wright's plan to make it comes into fruition.

Need to watch the 2nd IT, but it's been so long since I saw the original, I could probably do the double-bill too.