I Just Watched (Films)

[Rusty]

Of course!

[Alan]

Pearl
What if Saint Maud was presented in technicolor. It’s really good and Mia Goth has some great acting moments where the camera just dwells on her for ages. I recommend.

Man, two good films in one Halloween season. What’s going on?

So I didnt know this but Pearl was a prequel to X which came out earlier in the year so...

X
That was pretty good, not as good as Pearl though. Bunch of twenty somethings making a porno in the 70's hire a cabin on a farm to do their shenanigans. The couple who own the farm are a little strange. Bloody hijinks ensue.



Ghostbusters Afterlife
I had to watch it eventually. Sadly. It was actually worse than I had assumed it would be from the first trailer. Remember that film you loved that was awesome? How about we just try retelling that with no magic or jokes, you'd like that wouldnt you? Remember why Mr Staypuft existed in the first place? Nah forget that, lookit the baby staypufts doing "funny" stuff!!! At least the "reboot" one was shite in its own right, this ones shite off the back of the original and that might make it worse. At least Harold Ramis died before seeing either.

The one good part,,,

Spoiler

When they turned up at the end and had some classic banter, that was kind of great and if that had been the core of the whole movie it would have been much much better

[Wrathbone]

I thought Afterlife was pretty good and captured the spirit of 80s adventure comedies. I didn't think the callbacks were that intrusive either.

At any rate, it's night and day better than Paul Feig's abominable attempt, probably because it had an actual script rather than Feig's fetid style of improv dialogue.

[Sly Boots]

Going to side with WB on this one. It was fine... but my kids really enjoyed it, which was probably more the target audience anyway.

[Achtung Englander]

Ghostbusters Afterlife - also how do ghosts work in this universe? Why are some ghosts plain monsters and others human?

[Wrathbone]

I’ve always thought the implications of ghosts being imprisoned indefinitely in their storage facility are a bit horrifying, but part of the first film’s comedy was the total lack of consideration on those terms (from everyone but Egon, at least). They needed money and knew how to catch ghosts, so they took the classic path of the American Dream and monetised the afterlife. I think the mechanics of ghosts are intentionally vague simply because the film is funnier for it: Peter, Ray and Winston don’t care and neither should we.

[Alan]

Going to side with WB on this one. It was fine... but my kids really enjoyed it, which was probably more the target audience anyway.

That’s probably where it falls apart. The first was an adult movie that kids could enjoy. This was a stranger things retread of the first movie where half the plot really didn’t make much sense. And yes I know they squirted slime on the Statue of Liberty to make it walk in 2 -_-


Anyway….
Men
What the fuck?
I do love pretentious wankery but I’m not sure if this went way too far up its own cervix. There’sa lot of great visuals but I feel a lot of it was teetering on the edge of becoming a league of gentlemen sketch which kills a lot of the threat. It’s very try hard.

Actually the more I think about it the less I like it. Ex Machina is still his only decent film.

[Lenny Solidus]

Actually the more I think about it the less I like it. Ex Machina is still his only decent film.

You clearly forgot to mention Dredd when pressing keys right there.

?

[Alan]

Actually the more I think about it the less I like it. Ex Machina is still his only decent film.

You clearly forgot to mention Dredd when pressing keys right there.

?

I did forget he was attached to that yes, it was ok Sunshine was ok too I guess but it’s been a long time since I watched that.

[arqueturus]

Actually the more I think about it the less I like it. Ex Machina is still his only decent film.

You clearly forgot to mention Dredd when pressing keys right there.

?

I did forget he was attached to that yes, it was ok Sunshine was ok too I guess but it’s been a long time since I watched that.

Annihilation was really good too.

[Animalmother]

28 Days Later

[Alan]

Nah quite dislike both :p Annihilation did have great visuals though. As a director he’s a bit of a Nolan, shite films that look amazing.

[Achtung Englander]

Village of the Damned (1960)

Based on John Wyndam's Midwich Cuckoos. The film is a little dated at times but its really great story, well acted and tightly directed.

7/10

I followed this with the John Carpenter's version made in 1995. I watched about 15 minutes of it and had to switch it off as it was awful. I then tried Sky's Midwich Cuckoos, again I made it into about 20 minutes of the first episode when it just dragged and it lost believability when the entire village consistent of mixed race families....like every family.

[Solitaire]

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) via Netflix

This is a brutal movie to watch, putting this out there immediately. It doesn't pull any punches with regards to the realities of WWI trench warfare, hand to hand combat, blood & guts, and so on. The camera shots linger in such a way that it is frequently uncomfortable to see, but pulls one into the scene with that much more force.

I'll admit to never having read the book (yes yes, I know, shame on me; I skipped a lot of novels back in my school days - I was picky! I loved James Joyce, e.g.) so I can't say how well it fares against the written narrative, but all signs from other reviews thus far seem to think it's properly faithful, with a few switches in order to tell a different part of the history of the campaign.

Our excitable German protagonist, along with his youthful companions, joins the fight against the French, and it all goes south immediately upon first contact with the trenches. It is relentless pretty much from that point on. No spoilers here - we could create separate thread to discuss, if there's interest at some point. This is a movie that I'm glad I watched, but will almost certainly never watch again.

[Snowy]

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) via Netflix

This is a brutal movie to watch, putting this out there immediately. It doesn't pull any punches with regards to the realities of WWI trench warfare, hand to hand combat, blood & guts, and so on. The camera shots linger in such a way that it is frequently uncomfortable to see, but pulls one into the scene with that much more force.

I'll admit to never having read the book (yes yes, I know, shame on me; I skipped a lot of novels back in my school days - I was picky! I loved James Joyce, e.g.) so I can't say how well it fares against the written narrative, but all signs from other reviews thus far seem to think it's properly faithful, with a few switches in order to tell a different part of the history of the campaign.

Our excitable German protagonist, along with his youthful companions, joins the fight against the French, and it all goes south immediately upon first contact with the trenches. It is relentless pretty much from that point on. No spoilers here - we could create separate thread to discuss, if there's interest at some point. This is a movie that I'm glad I watched, but will almost certainly never watch again.

I intend to watch this Todd. My grandfather fought at the Somme, something I only learned of relatively recently, which has made the likes of 1917, They Will Not Grow Old etc much more personal. Will type up thoughts after watching.