Seen any good films lately? [3]

David H wrote:Edit: I just popped in to say "DONE WITH HARVEST!!!!!

But the Forumshire site seems to be punishing me for my absence. Eating an earlier post, now double posting. I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! OK???

  great stuff, just heading off to buy some juice.

I watched Rogue One last night on telly. It was quite entertaining although everyone died. The only person I actually cared about was the black droid, which means either he was a really great character or the humans were not as convincing as a CGI robot. I thought the Black guy was ludicrous and the girl was boring.
The CGI faces of Leia and Peter Cushing were amazing.

{{{Finally your finished the harvest Dave- thank Eru for that- do you know how hard it is to find a safe ditch to relieve yourself in? No sooner have I my got my kilt hitched than some ruddy big cranberry picker hoves into view, puts a Scotshobbit right off their aim   }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{{ puts a Scotshobbit right off their aim   }}}

{{{ Scotshobbits can aim???? }}}

Somewhat, obviously. With the help of gravity they even hit the ground sometimes!

With the help of gravity they even hit the ground sometimes!- Forest

{{ Usually after enough buckie with my face!! }}}

http://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/film-and-tv-simon-pegg-admits-to-writing-shaun-of-the-dead-sequel-treatment-20171025

Mrs Figg wrote:I watched Rogue One last night on telly. It was quite entertaining although everyone died. The only person I actually cared about was the black droid, which means either he was a really great character or the humans were not as convincing as a CGI robot. I thought the Black guy was ludicrous and the girl was boring.
The CGI faces of Leia and Peter Cushing were amazing.

I liked Rogue One more than Force Awakens, yes it was clunky and had terrible character development for the most part (though I'm relatively forgiving of that given the genre it was riffing on-few 'Men on a mission' war movies like Where Eagles Dare or The Dirty Dozen etc have much character development, and this very much felt like one of those in the Star Wars universe) but I really admired the scope of the film (great cinematography and production design too) especially the third act, awesome stuff. Although it was arguably perhaps even more beholden to the continuity and nostalgia of the original films than Force Awakens was, it just seemed like a more visceral, expansive and cinematic take on the star wars universe.

Certainly flawed (and I'd agree the robot was the only really interesting character) but I think I'd slot it after ESB and ANH as my third favourite Star Wars film.

saw Bladerunner 2049.
boy was it underwhelming. so slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow and very trite plot. read that it was visually beautiful but I didn't find it anything out of the ordinary or special, actually the original is probably more visually beautiful even 30 years later. I was expecting a massive jump in quality, the only technical advance I noticed was the hologram effects which were cool but hardly important for the plot. The CGI Rachel had the same effect as CGI Leia, it took me out of the moment because I knew what I was looking at was impossible so I spent the moments scrutinizing the CGI faces for any obvious flaws instead of being interested in what was happening. anyway it was ok.

Watched 'Arrival' sci-fi movie, this was much more entertaining and my kind of film. I enjoyed it, it was very timey wimey. Amy Adams was great.

Yeah Arrival is great.

I saw The Neverending Story for, I believe, the first time the other day. I had read the book recently (most of the book) and I think the movie is a great adaptation! I almost wish I'd seen this movie when I was a kid so I could feel nostalgia for it, but oh well.

My sister and I had some good fun lampooning portions that were silly or that felt a little off from our hyper-cynical viewpoints. Falkor felt a little rapey when we first see him laughing about how Atreyu was sleeping, for example.

Watched "Wind River" tonight. I liked it. A story of a Native American girl found half naked dead in the snow. Of the game hunter that found her & the FBI agent trying to solve the case who's more used to town life & has to get up to speed with frozen country life. I didn't find it patronising as some stories surrounding Native Americans can be. I did get engrossed by it & I wanted that son of a bitch caught for what he did to that girl. You see the parents & how they come to grips with the horror of losing a daughter & how it haunts the character that Jeremy Renner plays, "Cory Lambert" the game hunter who starts off tracking a Big Cat that's been on a killing spree. Its not a fast paced shoot 'em up, it meanders along as slow as the snow at times but, it didn't grate on my nerves the opposite in fact. It kept me enthralled till the end, which, was a good one in my book. Worth a watch I feel.

Yeah I saw it in theaters a few months back. I really liked it, as I really liked the other film that was written by the director: Hell or High Water. Watching both movies, you can see a shared theme in the discussion by characters of where Native Americans are now, culturally and otherwise.

IL take a look at that one Forest.

Never Ending Story. 

Slight Spoilers Below!

Blade Runner 2049 was very thought-provoking. Perhaps it was mostly just my mood, but I had some hard thinks on the drive home just now. It's one of those movies that works excellently for most of its duration, and then peters off at the end. Or at least that was my experience. I clearly remember wanting to be caught up in the moment, but not quite feeling it during some of the more climactic scenes. Still very good though. It borrows some of its best parts from other movies (the original, as well as the exquisitely good Her, a tad of Children of Men, and film noir in general I'm sure), but plenty felt fresh and interesting. One visually powerful scene actually encapsulated the arc of the entire movie, during which a replicant is "born" in the presence of her creator. It starts off strong, develops interestingly, and then ends with rather uninspired violence.

I don't know. Not as good as it could have been, but still strong through most of its run-time. Don't go into it expecting Ryan Gosling to out-do Rutger Hauer's performance in the original though. We feel for Gosling's character, and I think he can be a comparably good actor, but he just doesn't express the same breadth of emotions. I think there's actually something in the plot of the movie that suggests that he should be less emotive, although I'm not sure if that is responsible. Basically, the "Tears in the Rain"-comparable scenes happen earlier in the movie, and not towards the end where we really need them.

I wonder if the screenplay for this movie went through many revisions? The third act was not as strong as the first two.

Of special note for me was Robin Wright's nuanced role as an LAPD lieutenant, Tomas Lemarquis in an entertaining small role as a clerk, and Sylvia Hoeks as a replicant was interestingly flawed, even if her motivation was over-shadowed by the needs of the plot. Oh yeah and Ana de Armas as a digital fantasy projection (basically Scarlett Johansen from Her, but she and Gosling had some nice moments). Lennie James had a nice little role as an abusive orphanage-owner. The character stepped the line perfectly between cowardly submission and spiteful resilience.

I almost forgot! Carla Juri was lovely too as a memory-creator. Basically the movie included a good cast of characters, just like the original. With some exceptions...

Jared Leto was kind of meh. He lacked emotion. Apart from being blind and suffering from a God complex he didn't have much going for him. Harrison Ford (that's not a spoiler, right?) I just didn't really feel like I knew. In the original he's kind of one-dimensional, isn't he? He's the viewer, and just experiences the things happening around him with us. Or perhaps that's unfair. Anyway, in this I didn't really care about him, so it was hard to feel motivated about the third act. Ford was much more likeable in the recent Star Wars.

Yeah the third act really kind of sucked in comparison to the rest. I mean it was still good film-making, but the movie lost its way for sure.

I like the observation that in the original Harrison Ford just represented the viewer.

Basically the first movie blew my socks off for 30 years and the second one I forgot one hour later. maybe you needed to be there.

You mean Blade Runner: 2049, FIggs? I don't understand why the movie made such a small impression on you: it's a masterful film.

I forgot to mention that the score was really good. They played around with the original music in a satisfying way. They also added this sound in some scenes that was like an engine revving through different RPMs. It was dissonant and unsettling, but in a good way!

Wait how does

Yeah the third act really kind of sucked in comparison to the rest. I mean it was still good film-making, but the movie lost its way for sure.

translate into 'masterful'?

Well you know, that's all relative. The third act only disappointed in comparison to the first two, which were sublime!

My only problem with 2049 was that it was a tad overlong-some of the shots and scenes were stretched out needlessly, it was a stunning film, but a long one, some have accused the original of being boring or languorous in its pacing but it positively rattles along in comparison to the first act of the sequel.

Watching A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott as Scrooge. Best dramatic performance of Scrooge IMO.

Muppet's Christmas Carol is probably my second favorite version of the story, but you can't even get the full version of that anymore. I'm pretty sure they only sell the edited version that completely removes Scrooges relationship with Belle. A complete travesty.