The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[wakka]

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Mean Girls last night. I had never seen it and I loved it. Way funnier than The Lighthouse and lots more outfits too. I really enjoyed the humour in it - it was spiky, with a bite and yet ultimately kind of warm too and that can't have been an easy balance to get. I thought it was great and I see why it became a classic over the years.

[Neon Ignition]

Tremors 7: Shrieker Island
I doubt it's a major spoiler as - who's still invested in this franchise? However, it's interesting that they decided to set this on an island. It's not a good film but the filming location, given it's filmed on one and not faked on a cheap set, makes it look better than I suspect its budget would normally allow. The franchise has lost its charming simplicity but the late move to bring back Burt again but kill him off marks it out as potentially an ending of sorts for the franchise. Without any original cast connection I'm doubtful enough intrigue remains to warrant continuing.

The Fog
Much like all John Carpenter films, this is an interesting watch but not at all one with any scares of suspense. It falls more under 'dumb fun' as picking at it all makes it fall apart pretty quickly.

Alligator
Taking a full on trip down bad horror avenue, this 1980 flick is about an alligator flushed down the toilet where it grows to be supersized in the sewers and attacks people. It's not a good film at all but there's some fun from seeing how the effects team handle showing the gator in the late stages which often comes from a mixture of large scale models, using a real alligator on miniature sets and even more brilliantly a costume.

The Shining
It's another instance for me where I find myself snagged a little on being unsure where any issues I have lie with the film or with the source material. I do enjoy this film, probably more each time I watch it, but I have three issues with it that I feel fall on three factors lovers of the film would passionately disagree with:

01 - Shelley: She's just utterly awful in this, just kills every scene she's in with bad acting
02 - Isolation: I don't know if it's the same in the book or if it's the way the film is directed but there's not enough of a sense of the isolation the characters find themselves in being stuck in the hotel for months with hardly any contact with the outside world
03 - King: This is definitely on him, essentially the supernatural aspect the film gets its title from.

I feel like making the film in a very similar fashion but where there's a greater sense of isolation and more of a question exists about whether something odd is going on or if it's just in the characters minds and their growing paranoia would make for a much more interesting film that it all being on ghosts and superpowers. Nicholson is left to do too much heavy lifting.

[wakka]

It's amazing how many films a man can watch and yet have nothing good to say about any of them except that in 1980's Alligator a bloke wears an alligator costume

Seriously though, I actually agree about Carpenter. A lot of his films are well over-rated. I watched The Fog not long ago and found it simply boring I'm afraid!

[teddymeow]

Just finished Guns Akimbo on Prime Video.

An absolute riot!! Radcliffe was actually superb and, well, I'll watch anything that Samara Weaving is in.

It was funny. It was violent. It was stoopid. I really enjoyed it.

[randombs]

I wanted to do some Japanese immersion yesterday while doing DIY so I decided to watch the Japanese dubs of some films that I know almost all the lines for...

Coming To America

Coming To America's Japanese dub is rather special. The two voice actors for Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall also do the voices for all their other characters(barbershop dudes, Reverend Brown, Randy Watson, etc).

Jurassic Park

I'll never get tired of Jurassic Park, and neither should you. Unlike Coming To America, this dub is by-the-numbers, so everyone just sounds like an anime.

Boooo.

[fuse]

After enjoying the first so much, we'd saved Paddington 2 for a time when we needed a quick pick that we were both up for. Sunday was the night!

Hit the same high notes as the first - funny, charming, heartfelt. The slapstick is well balanced, the action's tense, and the CG is subtle and great. Not once do you question a CG bear's presence, and some of the more fanciful sequences (that one introducing the book at the start!) are just lovely. We joked about all of the high profile additions to the cast in the intro being on strength of the first, but it's not even a joke, really, is it? Hugh Grant absolutely delivering on all fronts too; career-best form.

[Atticus]

I love the Paddington films, they’re great for so many reasons. And yeah, Hugh Grant is a brilliant bad guy in the second film.

[gordon]

Watched Groundhog Day for the first time last night. Resisting the obvious jokes, I’d just like to say it was a really good movie. Some great one-liners, but the thing that impressed me most was the structure: for a film that’s about repetition there’s very little genuine repetition. Anyway, enjoyed it, would recommend to anyone else who’s waited two decades to watch it.

[wakka]

I love Groundhog Day. Ironically it never gets old!

It has a wonderful script and Murray is just perfect for it.

[Atticus]

If I had to choose a desert island film it would be Groundhog Day.

[wakka]

Not Castaway?

[Atticus]

Haha, very good

[Neon Ignition]

The Entity
Straying into the horrors of 1981 given the time of year. This is kind of alright but it grates somewhat the reliance on the haunting being dependent on the sexual assault of the woman, there's no real context ever given as to why she's attacked in this way or at this time so it leaves you with the probable feeling that it's just for 80's T&A reasons. That being said around 90% of the nudity in the film is animatronics work.

[charlesr]

Watched Groundhog Day for the first time last night. Resisting the obvious jokes, I’d just like to say it was a really good movie. Some great one-liners, but the thing that impressed me most was the structure: for a film that’s about repetition there’s very little genuine repetition. Anyway, enjoyed it, would recommend to anyone else who’s waited two decades to watch it.

Hi gordon. Please update your email address. I'm getting bounced messages when the site tries to send you notifications.