Films You Have Watched

[Neon Ignition]

I think you're looking at it with modern eyes, Neon. I think it still stands and builds so brilliantly to that motorcade finale, but I think you have to take into consideration when it was made and the budget was $4.5m dollars.
.

That's three The Thing's!

[Neon Ignition]

Abigail
Fairly fun but not as fun as I'd expected it to be

[QualityChimp]

We really enjoyed Abigail, but it's disposable fun. I think we need a bit of that on the screens sometimes.

I saw Love Lies Bleeding (via the cinema) last night and it was fairly decent.
It felt like a very small town to make the story work, but it remained entertaining.

My main issues were that a lot of the film was in the trailer and you were just kind of waiting to see how those bits slotted into the story and you could guess where the story was leading you.

Also, there's a lot of lesbian sex at the start. It's not that I'm a prude, but you just wanted it to get on with the "thriller" part of "erotic thriller" after a while.

Aside from those gripes, we all found it to be a suitably gripping thriller with some really good performances and moments of black humour.

[Atticus]

Lone Star (1996). Wanted to watch this one for ages. Set in a small Texas town with themes of the past dictating the future, sins of the fathers, etc. It's actually pretty dull. Just plays out with few revelations, nothing to fully engage imo. Pretty average stuff. But then not every film can be as good as ...

The Holdovers. This is one of those films I expected to be great and it was even better than that. I love how it can give you a hug but never for too long. Paul Giamatti is outstanding and leaves you thinking about him long after the film ends. He's so believable. And relatable. The film is set in the 70s and has the look and feel of a film from that era. And it's pretty special

[Neon Ignition]

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
The film continues the arc toward Miller building his vision toward Fury Road, you can see more DNA and it was better than I recalled it being... then Max met the kids. Jesus wept the film craters from that point onward.

[QualityChimp]

Booked tickets to see the new Planet of the Apes movie, thinking I'd seen the latest one as I have the 3D Blu-Ray.
Looked on the shelf and it's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), which is the second of the reboot after the initial Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), so I crammed in the last one, which I really hadn't seen, War of the Planet of the Apes (2017 Via Disney+ - they're all on there).

The credits rolled and I jumped in my car to pickup my mates and see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024 via the cinema)!

It's such a strange series that seems to keep rolling on, despite nobody really raving about them. Even this is supposed to be another trilogy!
Each one has been perfectly watchable and this is no different. You probably don't need to have seen any of the others as although this is a continuation, it continues "generations later".

I think it falls down if you overanalyse the passage of time or how the first film fits in, but if you just go along with the story as it unfolds, you'll have fun.

[fuse]

Coen brothers season has carried on at Picturehouse, so I got to see one of my favourite films in a cinema for the first time: The Big Lebowski. There's always the possibility that a particularly rabid fanbase can dull your enjoyment of a thing, and while my local on a Sunday was hardly a full representation of that on any kind of scale, I actually enjoyed that everyone else there was also laughing along with (and sometimes a little in anticipation of) the same bits that I was. Having just seen Raising Arizona just a couple of weeks ago, there were a few similarities between those that I got to newly appreciate, and aside from that it's just crammed to the gills with great shots, characters, and lines. Still love it.

[Neon Ignition]

That's where I fall and why I haven't been to see War or Kingdom at the cinema. Each entry has been very well made and perfectly good viewing but they feel more like watching installments of a TV series. I enjoy them but I don't actively care enough about the characters to go out of my way for them either. They feel a bit like watching a TV series so I'll definitely watch them as they come out but as and when they cross my path

[Dogg Thang]

I finally watched Godzilla x Kong and I enjoyed it. More than I thought I would after the last one. This one wasn’t as bloated. I have a whole bunch of things I could criticise, not least of which is that the sense of scale of these monsters was totally lost and that, really, it was a Kong ape film with a few Godzilla cameos. But I enjoyed and it even made me laugh at one point.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, if Godzilla Minus One is the "Here's your Oscar" entry into the franchise then Godzilla x Kong is the "Here's your free toy from a box of cereal" entry. I was fine with it but I have a sneaking suspicion that the next one might end up being where the films lose me as the scale is tipping too much toward latter Transformers movies. I half expect the next film to feature the arrival of super Titans led by Rita Repulsa






This weekend our journey through the MM franchise reached its end with Mad Max: Fury Road














Still glorious and so far and beyond the other entries. Ready for Furiosa.

[QualityChimp]

I finally watched Godzilla x Kong and I enjoyed it. More than I thought I would after the last one. This one wasn’t as bloated. I have a whole bunch of things I could criticise, not least of which is that the sense of scale of these monsters was totally lost and that, really, it was a Kong ape film with a few Godzilla cameos. But I enjoyed and it even made me laugh at one point.

I saw Godzilla x Kong last night and agree with you. After Godzilla Vs. Kong, my enthusiasm had waned as I thought it was boring and took massive steps of logic with the whole underground network. On the Ghostbusters commentary, they talk about how they build from the library ghost and take steps to Stay Puft, whereas in GvK the monster bit is fine, but we're also supposed to accept that Monarch are also this massive organization with a whole underground subway system and robots and stuff, without loads of background.

With this one, GxK, it's more wishy-washy explanations, but Monarch now seem to answer to the Government, but they're still building bases, portals to middle-Earth, cloaking jet dropships, mech hands and air dentist Thunderbirds.

I think the thing that made me laugh was how much exposition there is in this. It feels like every line is someone explaining what is happening.
I started laughing to myself by the end at how ridiculous it was!

However, it was lots of fun, and I laughed with it (as well as at it) and it all flew by for the big punchup.

Now, something that struck me on that final mashup was they made it look like it was a cardboard city - it was weird. Like how "tiltshift" makes things look like toys, they somehow made it feel like a tokusatsu series. AND I LOVED IT!

I'd probably rank the Monsterverse:
1. King of the Monsters
2. Kong: Skull Island
3. Godzilla
4. GxK
5. GvK

I think the Godzilla original pips GxK, but I'd probably see the latter again as Godzilla has some moments, but is a bit dour and sluggish and all set at night!

[QualityChimp]

Went to the cinema to see Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learn to Love The Bomb.

I'd seen it before and it hadn't wowed me, but it's been yeeeears since I saw it, it's on my bucketlist poster and my local cinema has a Kubrick season on, so the stars aligned.

So, I enjoyed it so much more this time. I think on first viewing, the ending had been ruined for me and I remember Peter Sellers being over the top, but in retrospect it's only his Strangelove that's OTT. Group Captain Lionel Mandrake is plummy and avoids conflict, but it was really interesting to see him comprehend what is going on and try to coerce people to help him by being awfully nice - and getting increasingly frustrated. President Muffley was initially comic (with a constant cold as a sign of weakness), but ended up being played straight and that works because he's incredulous to the events taking shape around him and how others react to it.
It's only Strangelove that I don't enjoy with the uncontrollable hand and pretty overt Nazism. However, the guy playing the Russian Ambassador was struggling to keep a straight face!



Darth Vader is on the B-52 and the pilot is Slim Pickens, who just has a great drawl - which is why I loved him as the voice of B.O.B. in The Black Hole.
Wiki: "Slim Pickens as Major T. J. "King" Kong

Sellers was originally going to play this role too, but he was worried about the workload and doing a convincing Texan accent. He sprained his ankle and was unable to work in the cramped B-52 set, so Slim Pickens, an established character actor and veteran of many Western films, was eventually chosen to replace Sellers.

John Wayne was offered the role after Sellers was injured, but he never responded to Kubrick's offer.
Dan Blocker of the Bonanza western television series was also approached to play the part, but according to Southern, Blocker's agent rejected the script as being "too pinko".
Kubrick then recruited Pickens, whom he knew from his brief involvement in a Marlon Brando western film project that was eventually filmed as One-Eyed Jacks.

His fellow actor James Earl Jones recalls, "He was Major Kong on and off the set—he didn't change a thing—his temperament, his language, his behavior." Pickens was not told that the movie was a black comedy, and he was only given the script for scenes he was in to get him to play it "straight".

Kubrick's biographer John Baxter explained, in the documentary Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove:

As it turns out, Slim Pickens had never left the United States. He had to hurry and get his first passport. He arrived on the set, and somebody said, "Gosh, he's arrived in costume!", not realizing that that's how he always dressed ... with the cowboy hat and the fringed jacket and the cowboy boots—and that he wasn't putting on the character—that's the way he talked.

Pickens, who had previously played only supporting and character roles, said that his appearance as Maj. Kong greatly improved his career. He later commented, "After Dr. Strangelove, my salary jumped five times, and assistant directors started saying 'Hey, Slim' instead of 'Hey, you'."

I wish I could say we're further away from mutually assured destruction, but it feels like we're closer than ever, so I think the film will remain timeless.

Ken Adams designed the set, his other work includes Bond Films like You Only Live Twice, and The War Room is really memorable with its circular light ring and map projections.

https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/designing-dreams-nightmares-ken-adam-his-finest

[wakka]

It's a great film. I really need to rewatch it. Kubrick was such a genius, to create this perfect black comedy of mutually assured destruction just two years after the Cuban missile crisis. There is something inherently blackly comic about it as a concept; its total irrationality. If you don't laugh you'll cry.

Hey, is anyone else looking forward to Megalopolis?

[CMcK]

Hey, is anyone else looking forward to Megalopolis?

I don't know what to make of Megalopolis. It's the passion project of an aged storied filmmaker that couldn't get finance from the usual channels. Loads of stories about the production sound like its all been a bit off the cuff. And it's apparently had about 400 re-writes! 400!!

[QualityChimp]

Sick of tired of games being made into movies and having nothing to do with the IP.

Don't get me wrong, Fallout was pretty faithful, but last night I saw The Fall Guy at the cinema and at NO POINT was there a squidgy marshmallow flump trying to complete an assault course before their brightly costumed competitors.

Don't even get me started on Twister...

Joking aside, I had an absolute blast watching this.
It's a mixture of comedy, action, mystery and romance and I loved how all those elements smashed together.
I particularly enjoyed the romantic element! I really wanted the leads to get back together.

I was a fan of the original series and remember wanting to be a stuntman as a kid.
I've said elsewhere that I think it's criminal that there's no Oscar for stunts, but ones for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.
It was a love letter to the men and women that make Eastwood look so fine.
There were nods to the original, but wasn't reliant on it to work.
I laughed aloud throughout at the clever jokes and script.

Recommended and I'm planning on watching it again with the missus when it starts streaming in about 5 minutes time.