Signs
I recalled thinking this was OK back when I first saw it but on rewatching the whole plot is silly shenanigans. The acting is great. I thought one of the kids looked familiar and after a quick IMDB found it's Macaulay Culkin's brother.
Signs is great fun - I've watched it a fair few times. The scene where Joaquin Phoenix is watching the news is done so well. But yes, the plot is daft. Swing away, Merrill!
I loved Signs back in 2002. Absolutely loved it. Now, I don't think I could bring myself to watch it again. Ever. The cringe level is extreme.
I just watched Rosaline with the wife. It's a sort of comedic alternative take on Romeo & Juliet, where Romeo's former love interest — Rosaline — briefly mentioned in Shakespeare's play, is (funnily enough) the protagonist. It's not as good as 2018's Ophelia, starring Daisy Ridley, which is an excellent "alternative Shakespeare" adaptation of Hamlet, but it was amusing enough. Not something I'd watch by myself, but something I could enjoy with the wife. I laughed out loud quite frequently.
"Animalmother" wrote:Violence is often the best solution.
I watched Signs for the first time the other night and enjoyed it I must say. It's silly, knows it's silly and just goes with it. The child actors are both surprisingly good and Phoenix watching the TV is hilarious.
Wicked (Part 1 )
The black lass has a fantastic voice its just a shame the songs are so lackluster and uninspired. I think they are the same as the songs from the stage show which I have never seen but I know is greatly beloved but man they are basic. The white lass (Ariana Grande apparently?) clearly has range but I find her highs earsplittingly annoying and man shes too skinny to the point that she looks unhealthy. What is more sad is that the black lass seems to have gotten horrifically skinny since filming like its a competition. Oh and Grande got 15 million where the other lass got 1mil which is a travesty because Grande is not the star.
It Happened On 5th Avenue 1947
Loved it. Hobo moves into a New York mansion when he knows the owners go away over christmas. More hobos move in as he poses as the mansions owner to hilarious and heartfelt consequences.
The Invisible Woman 1940
A woman agrees to be a guinea pig for a machine that makes her invisible so she can get revenge on her boss. Really enjoyed this too!
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.
Intriguing time-travel sci-fi drama, only 90 minutes (I always appreciate a film that doesn't arbitrarily pad out the length), worth a watch. Best to go in blind as it's hard to discuss it without spoiling anything. I'm not entirely convinced by the ending, but it left me pondering the implications for a while.
Spoiler
The mechanics of how it all happened are fine (if deeply unsettling). What I'm not convinced by is how Jane/John inevitably becomes the bomber. It could have done with at least one more scene that gives some proper rationale beyond the psychosis angle due to too much time travel, because as it stands the ending is just "I hate the bomber!" / "Tough, you're going to become him!"
Get Away
Dog shit. Actually its like when you pick up your dogs shit and accidentally pick up another dogs shit and instead of a warm, welcoming, familiar glow its freezing cold and much less solid than you were expecting.
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.
Nick Frost hasn't been in anything good for a long time.
Cocaine Bear
The premise is great, a bear finds and eats a fuck ton of cocaine and goes on a rampage, should be hilarious. It's just plods along with the occasional person getting ripped apart, could have been so much better. It picks up the pace near the end but its all just a little bit dull. Notable for being one of Ray Liotta's last films.
Of personal interest, it was film just a couple of miles from where I live. I recognize some of the roads that are supposed to be rural Georgia.
I do enjoy it when that happens, at the end of The Batman he leaves the old graveyard in Glasgow and drives the Batmobile towards the Barras market where I used to get my pirate Atari ST games.
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.
We had a similar thing with Band of Brothers. The Major Horton imitation scene started near a copse at the end of a secluded valley, then jumped to a hamlet, which was three miles from the village where everything was based, all in a few minutes. Lots of farm buildings and spots were mashed together. Even eaves from a 1960s concrete farm-grant building (where we used to store hay and chopped firewood) appeared in the canteen shot when they were on r+r from their first operation.
I remember moving the cows used at the manor house for this scene.
Would you care to elaborate on that? I thought it was probably the best live-action superhero film. Dripping with atmosphere and with great performances from everyone involved.
I watched Alien: Romulus last night. It was decent, probably the best in the franchise since Alien 3 even if that's not a particularly high bar to clear. They built some absolutely fantastic and very expensive-looking sets and lit them beautifully; there's some real craft in this and they've nailed the look that the original Alien set up. I quite liked the story premise too, but as the film progressed I did find myself wishing they'd cast an older looking main actress, because it became increasingly unbelievable that this character that every part of her appearance and dialogue tells me is in her mid-teens (Cailee Spaeny is actually 26) is coping so well. There are some great set pieces, but there are a few bits that stretch credulity a little. And Disney did what they are apparently so keen to do and brought back a character from a previous film which sorta works, but that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
Even though I enjoyed this, I do think this franchise needed to die about 30 years ago. The Xenomorph is one of the best pieces of sci-fi design ever committed to celluloid, but you just can't put the genie back in the bottle. It's not menacing anymore because it's just not all that complex; it's an incredibly sophisticated piece of visual design, but the creature itself just wants to kill and breed, and there's only so much you can do with that. They do at least use the whole psychosexual element of the design which is much of the reason for the horror in the original film, but it's way too overt in this. Nothing new that they've tried to add to the series has worked, and even though the visual design of the setting is extremely compelling (I love Cassette Futurism as an aesthetic) and I think there are more stories to be told about Weyland-Yutani, nothing is ever going to eclipse Alien. If they want to keep going with this setting, they need to just ignore any and all parts of the Alien saga and do something original.
I'm still thinking about this film the morning after.. I think that's a good sign.
It starts of very tense and Hugh Grant is his weird and overly cheerful self that nails the character.
The latter half goes a bit weird but not as weird as I thought it was going to go. The ending is one of those open to interpretation so would love to read some thoughts from clever people.
Quiet Place Day One
Meh. Theres some good scenes but its heavy on the "fuck off that wouldn't happen".
The Flame of New Orleans
Its decent enough and Marlene Dietrich just smoulders her way through. Shes a great eye actress, she conveys so much through her glances and most of them are just "watch me smoulder". Also smoulder is one of those words the more you say it the worse it sounds.
Shame that film was absolutely terrible. Unbelievably so.
(assuming you're referring to the the 2022 film)
It was better than the Nolan ones but I wasnt a big fan either. That said my opinions on the subject are..... unpopular. ¬_¬ There's not been a Batman I'd rewatch since 1992 and even the 1992 is a maybe :p
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.
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