The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Dogg Thang]

The mystery is in WHY riddler is doing it.

I watched it very recently and I don’t remember the answer to this. But to the characters, who is doing it is very much the core mystery… at least in my poor memory of events. But as a general point, NI is right. Although some people have mentioned some comic stories where he very much is a detective and apparently there are some good ones. I just haven’t encountered them in my own Batman experience. He’s no Poirot.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, the why behind his plan just isn't an interesting element and doesn't really deliver anything beyond the usual, especially coming after the similar Nolan trilogy. For me, the films strengths very much lie in it taking a firmer and more cohesive dive into the Batman imagery and world than the trilogy before it did.

[Cassius_Smoke]

The dark detective side of batman has unfortunately been neglected in main stream presentations of Batman. There are hints of it in all the films, but not much. Which is probably why a film of Batman entering crime scenes and sloothing is a bit odd.
The thing I personally like about Batman in comics is his ability to see things others don't and also the lengths he's willing to go to catch the bad guy. He'll break himself if it means stopping them. Again it's a side of Batman that's not really shown.

[wakka]

I'm not a big comics guy but I read The Long Halloween a while back and thought it was excellent. That's more of a detective story, but Batman has never really been a Sam Spade type in my view, despite the 'World's Greatest Detective' tagline.

[Neon Ignition]

The only way I can think of pulling it off is to have a threat or series of crimes that could broadly fit the profile of multiple members of the rogue's gallery so you knew a classic villain was behind it but there was a genuine level of deduction as to which one

[QualityChimp]

Flight out:
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Last Night in Soho
All The President's Men

Flight Back:
Spider-Man: Long Way From Home

[Anpanman]

All The President's Men

Loved this, infact I enjoyed it so much I got the book.

[Brad]

No Time To Die:

Probably the worst film I’ve seen in many years. No redeeming qualities at all.

The Outfit:

Absolutely fantastic from start to finish. A film about a Suit Maker and Gangsters. Mark Rylance is outstanding.

[QualityChimp]

JFK (via Prime)
I watched this because I really should have by now.
Couldn't believe how many known faces are in it.
I did enjoy it, but the overwhelming feeling of never knowing the truth was a bit frustrating.
The Red Dwarf episode where JFK shoots himself has just as much credence until some hard evidence comes out.
Also depressing that this kind of subversive nonsense is still going on and worse still people just shrug and move on.
It also made me want to reread 11/22/63 by King.

Jaws 2 (via Prime)
Saw this was on Prime and after watching the original again last month, I thought it was worth investigating.
It's massively overshadowed by the original, but it definitely has its own merits and I remember it really well, so it obviously stuck with me from when I saw it as a kid.
Watching with older eyes, I appreciated Brodie's role a lot more. His wife is more successful and his boys want to be grown up and out the house. He has a small department and is still dealing with silly small town issues.
The interesting aspect is when he begins to suspect there's another shark and because he's mentally scarred from the events of the first film, he acts immediately, rather than listen to the whims of the Mayor and Council, which ends up pushing people away and even costing him his job.
For a PG, it's fairly intense with a load of chompage. More than the first, deffo.
The shark effects are slightly better, but still unconvincing! However, I like how it gets a scar early on and that gives it some character.
The end section is tense too, with the ending the same as what was used in the old Jaws ride.

[Neon Ignition]

Top Gun
Preppring for the upcoming sequel, this was - as ever - fine. The core of the film with the romance between Cruise and McGuinness is never that convincing but it's more a fling anyway so there's the rest of the film then. To be honest, the action never struck me as amazing in this either and it wasn't different this time, Top Gun has always been a bit of a style over substance film and there's a lot of twisty cam in very obviously close up on set fake cockpits. Appreciating that it's a film from the mid-80's it's fine but it's also very easy to see how modern day Cruise could look back and think to himself there's a clear route to a second attempt that truly delivers on concept.

Goldfinger
As part of the current Bond at the Cinema run I've geared myself to try and see one Connery through Dalton film, zoning in on the most prominent entry so I opted for this for Connery. It's a slightly different experience watching it on the big screen and it's been around seven or eight years since I last saw it and I'd forgotten the extent of dodgy stuff involving women it contains. The slow bits weren't anywhere near as slow as I remembered either so overall it was a nice one to see.

The Dark Knight
It's good, it is, but man alive does it continue to be one of the most overrated comic book related films ever put to screen. As the years go by its flaws become harder and harder to ignore and it's a testament to the overall enjoyability of the film that it remains as watchable as it is. Joker remains highly watchable but as a character doesn't hold up to scrutiny at all, the plot contains huge clangers, Bale's Bruce is done well but his Batman regresses hard on the portrayal in Begins and splutters out toward the end. A fine middle entry but Begins is the better film with ease.

[Dogg Thang]

The Dark Knight
It's good, it is, but man alive does it continue to be one of the most overrated comic book related films ever put to screen.

Why do you keep watching it?! WHY?!

[Neon Ignition]

My missus wants to watch through all the modern era Batman and Star Wars films
It's still taking us a long time to get into Episode II after Phantom Menace mind

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Kickboxer Retaliation - a sequel to the reboot movie of Kickboxer that you probably didn't know existed until I mentioned it here. This sequel stars the new guy played by a guy you have also never heard of along with VanDamme, Christopher Lambert and Mike Tyson as he ends up in prison and is forced to take part in a big fight with some huge giant guy played by Hafthor Bjornsson. The story is utter nonsense. Christopher Lambert is so weird in it. He looks a bit like Barry Manilow. He has had way too much work done and it is a total distraction when he is one screen. Let's face it - this movie was always going to be direct to video or digital or whatever.

And yet they really go for it and it's actually better than it has any right to be. The fights are often superb, and there are some very inventive tricks in how they are shot. The last fight outstayed its welcome a little but, overall, the fights are excellent in this movie. Lambert aside (who just does his Mortal Kombat laugh in every scene), everyone commits. Even Tyson - he's a small role but doesn't end up being the character I expected him to be. And aside from one brief dodgy green screen moment, the movie looks great.

It's never going to be hailed as a classic and, if anything, is likely to be forgotten completely by all except for a small handful of people but Kickboxer Retaliation isn't a bad movie at all.

[Atticus]

Scream (2022) - On one hand I might say this film was one big shrug and you might ask what did I expect from it? But I don't think my expectations were overly lofty. The ingredients were good but the longer it went on the more it lost me. Of the original cast, one stands out a mile but is sadly underused

->Open Spoiler<-

Dewey

... and one constantly distracts you with her awful cosmetic surgery. Why do they do it? She is a pretty woman ... now, instead of looking the same but a little bit older than she did she looks like Glenn Close with a brunette wig on. It's an okay film ... if it's on the telly ... and there's nothing on the other side.

The Ladykillers (1955) - My second viewing of this was even more enjoyable than the first. Knowing the plot I found myself following the amazing Mrs Wilberforce and laughing at how she constantly irritates the crims. A proper British gem.

[fallenangle]

I made the mistake of rewatching Bullet To Beijing the third 'Harry Palmer'/Len Deighton book series films. This one apparently only made for TV.

Worse than I remembered it; thin plot that veers from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous with even Michael Caine giving an embarrassingly ropey performance.