Films You Have Watched

[Baseley09]

Elemental - very average different races can get along yarn animation.

The beanie bubble. Fairly charming if limited Beanie Baby biopic. Decent cast does well, not enough meat on the bones.

[charlesr]

Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
What a lovely film. I cried for a moment at the joyful ending.

[prinnysquad]

Cars 1, 2 and 3.

Many times over the last 2 months. They’re great, and the bairn loves them. No idea why so many reviews are so scathing.

[Atticus]

Yeah, we had a good time with the Cars movies (the sheer amount of diecasts we amassed confirms that) … in fact most of the Pixars hit the mark.

[fuse]

Had to spread it across two evenings as some real life stuff came up when I was halfway in, but tried to not let that detract from finally watching Moonlight. It's a great but quite understated film, and I don't think I can think of anything as having captured isolation in such a significant way before. Taxi Driver comes to mind, but they take very different directions; Moonlight being achingly sad but shot with a real tenderness. The characters are great but casting them across three generations is of particular celebration, and bloody hell, Mahershala Ali is just perfect in it.

[charlesr]

The Whale. Pretty good, but don't think I'd watch it again.
The Meg 2 in the cinema. Excellent fun. Exactly what I was looking for in a sequel.

[fallenangle]

More teeth? The precocious little girl gets eaten?

[charlesr]

Attrition rate was certainly acceptable

[Neon Ignition]

Say Anything
One of those films where the cast and spotting people you recognise elevates what is ultimately a film with only the very faintest whiff of a plot to it.

Deep Blue Sea
Our eldest is keen on shark movies so this was the next in line, it's got its rough edges but to be honest it's really not that bad

[fuse]

Bloody loved Infinity Pool. Caught me very quickly with the style, then descends into a nightmare that I got totally wrapped up in, and leaves you with a nice array of things to think on. Becoming clear that Brendon Cronenberg will be a director that I follow very closely.

[charlesr]

Avatar the way of water.
Technically amazing. But still looks like cgi. Plot was OK.
I reckon I know how the films end.

->Open Spoiler<-

The girl gets Aiwa to rise up and wipe everyone out during some massive invasion

[Atticus]

Christened the Bruce Lee box set with The Big Boss. Simple enough story of Lee's character moving to Thailand to live and work with his uncle and cousins. But when peeps at the ice factory start going missing, Bruce begins to wonder what's going on. only thing is, he wears a pendant that represents a promice of non-violence made to his mother. But that pendant breaks. Enjoyable flick ... and what I liked most about it is Lee's character has flaws ... he's not mr perfect ... but he steps up when it matters. It's surprisingly bloody and violent too (the saw wheel at the ice factory ... ouch!). Excellent start to the set.

[Dogg Thang]

Last weekend, I did a Rocky 3 and 4 double bill, one after another. It got me looking for more Lundgren and, of course, you guys know I love my JCVD so, this weekend, I watched two little talked about sequels to Universal Soldier. That film was from the ‘90s and starred JCVD and Lundgren as super soldiers brought back from the dead. JCVD starts regaining his humanity and ends up opposing Lundgren, who is a crazy person. I think the film did well in its day but, for me, it didn’t quite live up to the promise of its two leads.

Anyway, that film was followed by some straight to TV sequels which I never saw and then one other sequel with JCVD, which I also haven’t seen but apparently isn’t great.

And then it was rebooted with one called Universal Soldier Regeneration, directed by the son of Timecop, 2010 and other movies. It’s very cheap and, to me, let down by its score and some casting choices but it’s an interesting watch, if not exactly great. Weirdly, there is no main character. JCVD is ultimately the hero but he’s only really in the last quarter and he’s so grizzled and inhuman that you don’t really relate to him - he is that older programmed soldier who could never integrate into society. And the years were not kind to JCVD so he looks terrible, which kind of works for the movie but he’s not giving hero vibes. Lundgren is brought back as a clone and they fight, all wrapped up in a story about terrorists stealing the super soldier technology. It’s grimy and dark and cheap but it’s not a bad watch. I kind of enjoyed it.

And then it was followed by Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning and, wow, I was not prepared for this movie. The opening sequence is shot in first person and shows JCVD, the hero of the previous movies, brutally murdering the family of the person watching. And I mean it’s brutal. It is shot like a horror movie. What follows is a story of Scott Adkins (martial arts star guy) trying to hunt down JCVD, who is now running a dark cult of super soldiers and is very much the villain. And he is terrifying. The film is nightmarish. JCVD, Lundgren and Scott Adkins together should make for a kickass action film. Instead, we get a Lynchian nonsensical-by-design bad trip. Characters who died are alive again without a mention, Adkins meets himself at one point and do not watch this movie if you have epilepsy because it goes crazy with the strobe and weird visual effects. It’s a crazy horror action film that really impressed me, mostly because I had no idea what was coming next. Someone just went for it with this movie and I admire that bravery. It impressed me. Not what I was expecting at all.

[fuse]

There was some kind of international cinema day promotion on yesterday, so we went to see Oppenheimer on the cheap in the local "iSense" cinema; reclining seats and all that nonsense. Didn't hate the film but also didn't think it was that great either - towards the start I felt like we jumped about like a montage and that the score held it together more than anything, and towards the end I feel like the focus wavers away from the actual subject a bit too much. It's got an incredible cast, everyone puts in great performances, and it's such a ripe topic for a biopic, but I just feel like it tries to be a few too many things and ends up losing much more in that effort. Thought it was just the cinema's fault that it was so irritatingly loud too, but no, a quick skim of user reviews seems to confirm that it was just made that loud and everyone had the same experience.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, seems it was crazy loud by design. I felt the same thing you did about it.