The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[teddymeow]

Ticket to Paradise

George Clooney and Julia Roberts play a divorced couple who utterly despise each other and who's daughter, having graduated college, goes to Bali and falls in love with a local chap.

She contacts her parents to tell them that she is getting married. They go into "rescue mode" and travel to Bali.

"Events" and "hilarity" ensue.

It's Clooney being Clooney and Roberts being Roberts.

A couple of laughs and some lovely scenery meant it was enjoyable enough with a nice glass of wine on a Sunday evening.

3 dolphins / 5.

[Neon Ignition]

Dead Silence
A spirit that possesses puppets comes to kill a member of a family that wronged them. It's the follow up film Wan made after Saw but before Conjuring and you get elements from both that come together to make something quite heavily worse than either.

[QualityChimp]

I knew it would be poor straight after you said "a spirit possesses puppets..."

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, Wan's horror has definitely strongly developed over time but also definitely only really works when its grounded

[fuse]

A Single Man - really, really dug this. Gorgeous, touching, stylish. Characters that got under my skin, performed brilliantly, and with smart manipulation of visuals and sound that really ratchets everything up.

[QualityChimp]

Yep, Wan's horror has definitely strongly developed over time but also definitely only really works when its grounded

I look at the likes of Annabelle or Chucky 1 through 27, Puppetmaster, Dolly Dearest, Dolls, Demonic Toys and Magic and think "you know, the horror genre really needs another spirit-possesed puppet movie..."
[MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION], what's that showing on? Sounds interesting.

[fuse]

@fuse, what's that showing on? Sounds interesting.

Prime!

[QualityChimp]

Rumble in the Bronx (see Fu thread)

[QualityChimp]

I watched Dungeons & Dragons with my Dungeons & Dragons gang!
We've switched to playing virtually since the pandemic, so it was nice to meet in person.

As for the film, it's a brilliant romp that absolutely flew by!
All the characters are really likeable in their own way, although Hugh Grant was playing Hugh Grant, which worked perfectly in this case.

I heard they planned to end the film with it revealing that the story was actually people playing a D&D campaign, which would have worked - it really felt like every decision was being made as they went (like D&D), but I prefer that the characters are "real".

Some top-notch CGI, but also some lovely location choices for the practical filming sets.

Definitely worth watching, especially with some mates.

As I said in its own thread, there are loooads of references for D&D nerds to spot like references to locations and spells, but you really don't have to know any of them to enjoy the film.

Some fun camera shots too, reminding me a little of Raimi's Army of Darkness.

[Baseley09]

Infinity Pool - Son of Cronenburg continues to impress in daddies footsteps, rad psychedelic sci-fi/Horror, slightly mared by minimal pay off ending. 4 skulls.

Adam Driver vs the Dinosaurs. Basic movie, actually a little bit better in places than expected, turd in others. OK. 3 skulls.

[QualityChimp]

For Jackie Chan's 69th birthday (dude), I watched Twin Dragons (1992 via DVD).
It's okaaay, but I was slightly underwhelmed, tbh. Silly sections with the twins getting mistaken as each other or making the other one move at inopportune moments.
Disc was letterboxed in the middle of the screen, but was reasonably crisp for DVD.
No extras. Only £1 though!

Some nice action sequences, especially the end in the Mitsubishi test centre, but the twin effects are unconvincing and JC expected more from co-director, Tsui Hark (Zsu Warriors of the Mystic Mountain), so only did SFX in Western films after.

Co-directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam (City on Fire)!

Also watched Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984 via ITVX).
Mooching through ITVX, for The Deer Hunter, but it's Premium-only and I'm not paying for another service!
There's loads free on there if you can stomach the adverts, including 1984, which I've only seen bits of previously.

The whole film has a washed-out look.
Apparently they wanted to film on b&w, but instead used this process on each of the film reels distributed!

Doesn't quite capture the book's feel but still effective.

Funny how many films have followed in its path, because I couldn't help but be reminded of Equilibrium, V For Vendetta, Brazil, Children of Men, Snowpiercer, Gattaca, etc.

I could talk for ages about how it's funny how much we've embraced and diminished some of the terrifying ideas of the book (Room 101, Big Brother, Doublespeak) and how some modern political plays seem to use it as a how-to book, not a warning!

[Neon Ignition]

The Bad Guys
It was okay, nothing that special

[fuse]

Portrait of a Lady on Fire was pretty great. It's about a painter and their reluctant subject, and the relationship that develops out of that situation. You can read around it to soak up some wider cultural context and the director's intent, or you can not, and still enjoy it plenty. It's a small cast but they are all doing incredible things with the most minute gestures; it also has one of the most striking final scenes I've seen in a movie for years. Very good.

I honestly can't remember if I've watched Good Will Hunting from beginning to end before, but I've definitely seen most of it and certainly didn't mind giving it a proper watch. While I don't think it's particularly remarkable in some regards, it does have a great script, some really brilliant moments, and a couple of great performances that really lift it up. Robin ****in' Williams, man.

Also re-watched Pokémon: Detective Pikachu on a hotel TV with mandatory motion smoothing. I think my first watch was on a plane, so I probably owe the director of photography a six-pack of beers at this point. I remember somewhat liking it on my first watch, or at least being surprised that it wasn't immediately awful, and unfortunately without that pleasant surprise I came away just finding it a bit mediocre. Not bad, but not great either.

[Atticus]

Finally watched Psycho on 4k UHD a couple of days ago. Can't believe how amazing it looks. What HDR adds to the greyscale is somehow even greater than the job it does on colour films. The contrast and detail is something else and made watching one of my faves really special. I finally got round to it as my son heard about it at college and asked if we had it. It was great to see him second guessing it ... the twist totally got him

Then that night we watched Blow Out. It had been a while but I loved watching this again ... as great as Psycho was as a matinee this is very much a late night treat. So many neat touches.

Also watched Inglourious and Banshees again.

I honestly can't remember if I've watched Good Will Hunting from beginning to end before, but I've definitely seen most of it and certainly didn't mind giving it a proper watch. While I don't think it's particularly remarkable in some regards, it does have a great script, some really brilliant moments, and a couple of great performances that really lift it up. Robin ****in' Williams, man.

Yeah, Robin Williams is great in GWH. I did chuckle at Louis CK's bit on the film recently ... I remember thinking the same about the 'apples' line ...
(from 2 mins - prob NSFW)

[QualityChimp]

12 Angry Men (1957 via Prime)

Another film I've always meant to watch, but I've never been in the right place at the right time to catch it, but it's just dropped on Prime and it's another one to scratch off my movie bucket list poster.

It's phenomenal.

If you've not seen it, watch it.