I Just Watched (Films)

[Animalmother]

Tigers Are Not Afraid
Mexican drama/ghost story about a group of kids orphaned by the drug war. One of the kids nicks a drunk gang members phone and they're very intent on getting it back. The performance of the child actors is great, especially as it's definitely not a kids film. There's a definite hint of Pan's Labrinth about it all with fantastical elements, it's also pretty grim in places.

Surprised it wasn't more popular, I only heard about it when it was mentioned in a podcast. The director is doing the new True Detective series so there's that.

[Animalmother]

Couple of fun horrors I watched..
Feast
A small group of people trapped in a remote diner fight off a pack of flesh eating creatures that emerged out of the desert. As each new character enters the diner they get a freeze frame with name, occupation and chances of survival. It has Henry Rollins and Jason Mewes so you can already gauge the silliness. People get pulled apart and slashed to ribbons in creative fashion. Reminded me of Tremors meets early Peter Jackson films. Very silly fun.
Found it on the Internet Archive
It Follows
Really enjoyed this low budget horror about an entity that stalks young people that have recently had sex. Pretty slow burn as the tension builds up and the characters get more and more terrified. The creature can appear as any random person and only the ones being stalked can see it. The only way to escape is to have sex again and pass the curse on. Ridiculous as it sounds but still very good. Reminiscent of a John Carpenter film including the synth soundtrack.

Spoiler

The 7ft guy that just steps from a dark corridor is genuinely creepy and unexpected

[Solitaire]

Rebel Moon, Part I

I've watched this twice so far, once with my daughter and she also very much enjoyed it. The movie is getting slagged by online reviewers - I'm noticing a lot of copy/paste type stuff happening. I'm also seeing some reviewers who have no clue how movies tell stories...

Anyway, without spoilers at all, I'm going to say I have thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to Part II. Yes, it is a space opera, so it will inevitably be compared to Star Wars, because that's just what happens. There's a lot of Seven Samurai in this, as well. I think the formula still works, and this movie has loads going for it: stellar cast, including the lead actress who nails her role, stunning visuals of loads of various planets and star systems, cool technology, lots of space ships, weapons that have been created from scratch for the show (I'm pointing at you, Andor, much as I love you - AK-47s in a galaxy far, far away? That shoot laser bolts, so why do they have magazines? Ugh!)...

Anyway, I think it's well worth a night with a cold beer and some chips.

[arqueturus]

Rebel Moon, Part I

As a counterpoint to Todd's review, I thought it was terrible. It's shamelessly stolen from a tonne of sources (Star Wars and the Seven Samurai along with a massive dose of Warhammer 40K) and nothing makes any kind of sense at all, I spent so much of the film watching loose scenes that made no difference to anything, I appreciate that it's space popcorn movie but this was like a scrap book rather than a novella. Also we all know that Zack Snyder likes slow motion but this time there's' slow slow motion!

It's a shame as it's full of interesting actors but the script and dialogue are terrible. It does look really pretty at times and it absolutely has the spectacle but that's about it. That said, maybe your experience may differ to mine and closer to Todd's above so give it a go.

Uncharted

I enjoyed this even less than Rebel Moon. It should have been an enjoyable romp somewhere on a par with the National Treasure films but it's just less in every way. I've never played the games so I can't comment on accuracy but I was so disappointed by the end. Avoid.

[Snowy]

We watched The Commuter the other night. Thought it might be OK, Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Sam Neil - decent cast so lets have a look...

Utter bilge and complete dogshit rolled up into a bilgey dogshitty mess of a film. Do yourselves a big favour and avoid it. Or headbutt a 6 inch nail into a 4x2, it will be slightly more enjoyable.

[Wrathbone]

Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part One: So: Many: Colons

The best and worst thing I can say about it is that it’s yet another Mission: Impossible film. I’ve a soft spot for them - the only great one is the first film, and each sequel is more forgettable than the last, but they’re all entertaining in the moment. Dead Reckoning is a series of good set pieces held together by a macguffin-hunt plot and a wider (incomplete) story about a rogue AI, which involves some amusing levels of panic-mongering such as people hurling laptops at the floor, lest AI kill us all. The whole thing is littered with endless references to the first film, which serves only to remind you how much better that film was. And of course it has a Big Stunt, which didn’t used to be a thing but now is very much a thing, where Tom Cruise tests the limits of his liability insurance.

It’s M:I through and through, for better and worse. It’s a lot of M:I too, coming in at 2hrs 43m for no good reason (the intro credits with music happens a whopping 28m into the film, after some exposition that could have been trivially handled in 10m). It’s a ham sandwich of a franchise - inoffensive, decent enough and entirely lacking anything unexpected.

6/10

[Raid]

I think M:I films have always had at least one big set-piece, which in the more recent ones has been the Big Stunt. The first film had a helicopter flying through the Channel Tunnel, which was of course CGI, but nowadays they'd probably work out a way of doing it for real. Gimmicky or not, they're usually incredibly impressive stunts, and I do enjoy good practical effects. It's one of the reasons I love the series, and jump at the chance of a new one.

[Wrathbone]

Eddie the Eagle

No surprises here, but there doesn’t need to be - it delivers thoroughly on being a feel-good, properly funny sports underdog film in a similar vein to Cool Runnings (incidentally, the Jamaican bobsled team competed at the same Winter Olympics as Eddie, in 1988). Great performances and comic timing all around and it hits some nice emotional beats too. Absolutely loved it.

9/10

[Wrathbone]

John Wick 2
I'm very late to the party with John Wick, having only watched the first film last year. I'm not sure what I expected from the second film, but it was essentially the first film again. Keanu goes shopping; kills everyone. The end. Looking forward to the third.

6/10

Tucker and Dale vs Evil
I'm not into horror, but I am into comedy, and I was pleased that this landed firmly enough in the latter camp for me to enjoy it. Alan Tudyk's comic acting is as great here as it's ever been.

7/10

A Simple Favour
Dull mystery, horrible dialogue, hateful characters, miserable presentation. I don't understand how this is supposed to be a comedy. Even taking it as a mystery drama, though, it's a steaming turd that completely wastes Anna Kendrick.

3/10

The Men Who Stare at Goats
Not bad. Loses its way a bit in the final third, but is otherwise an entertaining fictionalised take on some bewilderingly true CIA history.

7/10

The Death of Stalin
My second viewing of this has raised it in my estimations from good to near-masterpiece. One of Armando Iannucci's finest (and subtly hilarious) works.

9/10

A Haunting in Venice
Nope. After two decent (if imperfect) Poirot films with Kenneth Brannagh, this one is a substantial plunge into total shite. Every facet of it feels wrong in some way - none of it fits together. Not at all enjoyable and clumsily made.

4/10

[Raid]

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

I'm not sure why this is only the second Wes Anderson film I've seen - I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel a few years ago and loved it. But anyway, I'm only 20 years late to the party. This is one of the most wonderful pieces of cinema I've seen in a long time, and much like TGBH, I struggle to put into words why it works so well. There's a look to Wes Anderson films that blends so well with the pitch-perfect light-heartedness and surreal story. There are shots with no dialogue that follow characters around the whimsically designed sets that are filmed and acted in such a way that they had me giggling to myself. And then there's the soundtrack of David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese to a single acoustic guitar and the (I think) stop-motion animations... I know I tend to use hyperbole a lot, but honestly I'm struggling to think of a word other than "magical".

It's magnificent. It made me happy in a way I can't really explain properly.

[Mantis]

All of his movies have the same kind of whimsical charm and humour to them on top of having very unique cinematography. He's a great director.

[Sly Boots]

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

I'm not sure why this is only the second Wes Anderson film I've seen - I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel a few years ago and loved it. But anyway, I'm only 20 years late to the party. This is one of the most wonderful pieces of cinema I've seen in a long time, and much like TGBH, I struggle to put into words why it works so well. There's a look to Wes Anderson films that blends so well with the pitch-perfect light-heartedness and surreal story. There are shots with no dialogue that follow characters around the whimsically designed sets that are filmed and acted in such a way that they had me giggling to myself. And then there's the soundtrack of David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese to a single acoustic guitar and the (I think) stop-motion animations... I know I tend to use hyperbole a lot, but honestly I'm struggling to think of a word other than "magical".

It's magnificent. It made me happy in a way I can't really explain properly.

Great film... if you liked those two, I think you would enjoy The Royal Tenembaums as well.

[Raid]

I've added pretty much all of his films to my watchlist (they're all on Disney+), but I'll probably watch them sparingly rather than one after another. I don't want any sort of familiarity with his style so that they land properly.

[Sly Boots]

I've added pretty much all of his films to my watchlist (they're all on Disney+), but I'll probably watch them sparingly rather than one after another. I don't want any sort of familiarity with his style so that they land properly.

The only one I didn't like, loathed in fact, was his Fantastic Mr Fox adaptation...

[Alan]

Love Isle Of Dogs! It’s just wonderful and the stop motion is top class.