The Films You Watched Thread V: Dead Men Watch No Movies

[wakka]

Two films I recently watched are Kenny and Booksmart.

Kenny is a gently humorous mockumentary about an ordinary Aussie bloke who works for a company that supplies portaloos for events. It follows his day to day as he manages his team delivering and maintaining toilets at festivals and street parties, picks up his kids from his estranged wife for weekend visits to his cantankerous Dad, and generally lives his relatively uneventful life.

It's low stakes stuff, delivered in a very low key way. A really nice way to pass 90 minutes - Kenny is such a likeable, genuine character. Despite the realistic nature of it, it does have an arc and it's a very heartwarming one, without indulging in slush or mawkishness.

Recommended. I watched it via NowTV Movies, and it'll also be on Sky Movies.

Booksmart is a film about two high school girls in their final year, who realise that they've spent so much time studying, they never had a genuine teenage rebellion or high school partying experience. Applying their exam-cramming sensibilities to the problem, they decide to compress a whole high school career's worth of partying into a single night.

I wanted to like this but I couldn't get on with it. I find the two protagonists a little unlikeable, and the situations overly contrived. It treads a very well worn path in terms of story, which would be entirely forgivable for me if it was genuinely funny, but it sadly didn't raise much of laugh.

One thing that's quite interesting about it is that it purports on the surface to be a teen film, but actually feels more like it's designed primarily for people aged 30-plus. There's nothing wrong with that of course - Dazed and Confused pulled the exact same trick- but the problem is that this isn't Dazed and Confused. It's not even on the same planet quality-wise.

So, yeah, a little disappointed with that one. It can be found streaming for free on Prime Video.

[fuse]

I remember feeling pretty similarly about Booksmart - it honestly felt like the next step after The Hangover and Bridesmaids was that hey! Let's do something that this time debases teens! Big nope from me.

Recent watch for me: You Were Never Really Here. Really dug it - loved how sparing it was with dialogue, how well it was shot (that scene at the lake!), and how a lot of the violence was just as unpleasant when implied rather than laid bare in detail. Great score too, particularly when things got frantic and desperate - actually forgot that I knew it was by Jonny Greenwood throughout the duration, but seeing his name in the credits got a bit "ohhhh yeah" out of me.

[wakka]

You Were Never Really Here is a brilliant film!

[QualityChimp]

Agree with everything you said about YWNRT, [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]. Good watch.

We watched Knives Out, which we really enjoyed. I didn't think it was obvious other than there's obviously going to be a twist.
Don't see why there can't be a sequel?
Plenty of Poirot and Marple stories.

I watched 28 Days Later as it's been on my mind since before the Pandemic.
Interesting shift in tone at the end when they had to rewrite the ending, which wasn't working (return to the lab that started it and do a blood transfusion that infects Cillian Murphy's characters to save Brendan Gleeson's).
That whole section when "In the House/In a Heartbeat" starts and builds to its crescendo is amazing.

Cracking commentary on the DVD from Garland and Boyle.

[Atticus]

Dredd - Lean and mean is probably the best way to sum up this day-in-the-life story. Very light on plot but massive on the action. Great looking film too ... looks pure comic book with its acid colours and decaying concrete. Urban is class as Dredd but Lena Headey grabs your attention ever more with a truly rotten and hatable villain.

Really enjoyed watching this again. I’ve read a bunch of Dredd stories since last time I watched it and the greater affinity really counted.

The UHD 4K disc is lovely, as is the booming sound, and the extras on both discs are worth a look too.

[wakka]

Dredd is probably my favourite comic book film. Either that or Enter The Spiderverse.

I'm not a massive fan of 3D like some on here, but it is a cool one in the format actually. The SloMo effects are pretty great.

[prinnysquad]

I watched Lord of the Rings The Two Towers yesterday. That's another long film and, for me, it just wasn't as interesting as the previous film. My main issue was a lack of progress through such a long movie. The two abducted hobbits spent most of the movie on a tree. Frodo and Sam barely made any progress at all and felt like secondary characters when they probably should have been driving the plot. Which then left the Aragorn and band story as the main story, first abandoning the mission the movie started with (find the hobbits) and becoming about protecting a bunch of people we just met.

Yer doing it again! I’ll knack yer!

The battle sequence was superb though and really shows up a lot of other movies. Where many modern battle sequences just involve throwing as many things onto the screen at once without us knowing or caring who anyone is, the defense of Helm's Deep was a sequence of building strategies and defending parts play by play, each one with a purpose and each one very clear. And the heroes always managed to counter with the right strategies, they just happened to be outmatched. So it felt like there was much more to it than many movie battles and, for me, was much more engaging as a result.

That’s better.

But overall, I don't think the movie moved much along.

Right, outside.

[randombs]

I watched 28 Days Later as it's been on my mind since before the Pandemic.

I tried watching this a few weeks back but it was too blurry so I gave up.

[Neon Ignition]

Trolls: World Tour
The first film isn't anything great or rememberable but it's a simple and light enough way to entertain the kids. All this needed to do was deliver the same as Jr1 had been mithering to see it so as soon as it went up we lined it up for. Sweet jesus. It's like Secret Life of Pets 2, utterly soulless and void of plot or effort. There must be something like 40 licensed songs in this as the villain Troll comes to steal some string that suddenly exists for some reason and it emerges that six themed Troll tribes also exist. Evil Troll turns up, there's a licensed medley of songs that goes on too long then she takes the string. Rinse repeat until they stop her by... song medley. Kill it, kill it with fire.

[Dogg Thang]

That’s a shame. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed the first.

[Neon Ignition]

It's such a difficult market thanks to Disney's domination of it that there's no room for phoning it in and Dreamworks heart just doesn't seem to be in it anymore.

[QualityChimp]

Up to the first 3D Marvel film, Thor, which my son really enjoyed and so did my wife although she particularly enjoyed the scenes with his shirt off.

3D was better than I remembered with some impressive effects.

Then I started watching Project A to celebrate Jackie Chan's 66th birthday, but bailed near the end to provide EDF backup to Fuse.

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[beecee]

Birds of Prey the emanciyadda ya of harley Quinn. actually ok if you remember to switch off before the film, don't think we will ever see sequel though.

The Gentlemen typical Guy Ritchie gangster film, which i really liked, brilliant soundtrack.

Bad Boys for Life another generic film, predictable to the end, some funny(ish) moments but nowt new.

[Neon Ignition]

Bad Boys For Life
For some reason I just can't build a love for this franchise even though when they're on they're fine enough. This was much the same, I think I prefer it to the first two surprisingly but generally it's a solid repeat of other better action films.

[Atticus]

On The Waterfront - Watched it for the first time early this morning. Proper gritty for an American film of the 50s. Loved the New Jersey docks as a backdrop and Brando was incredible in it, amazingly believable performance, what an actor.