Seen any good films lately? [3]

{{ Yup that sounds like it has all the hallmarks of an exploitation film Forest- thanks for the heads up, one to avoid by sounds of it. }}

The description of modern day trolls sounds so appealing I'm glad you warned us off - otherwise I'd definitely be tempted.

Watched Mortal Engines. Fell asleep and missed the ending.

Watched Jaws III tonight (because night shift, and it was the only movie on TV) - my god, it was horrible.

I love the 1st Jaws film. You cant beat it for tension or witty dialogue. But, these films came out in a time when people wanted more & it was taken for granted films 1,2,3 or 100 would come out. Everything was multiplied to utter diarrhoea. "Tremors" springs to mind

The first one is OK, but this one seemed to me like the worst possible result of "we want more"

Is that the one where the shark gets inside a sectioned-off lagoon or something?

Yeah, water park I think it was.

One of the highlights

I take it as a low budget money grab.

{{Part of the appalling look of it, lots of horrible green screen (actually blue screen back then) and early low quality overlaid imagery was because it was not just JAWS 3 but JAWS 3 3-D!
So to judge it entirely fairly you have to really see the original 3-D version with the old red and blue headache specs on.

I have actually done this so can state that it improves this film by bugger all whatsoever! Its still terrible in every way and the effects are till terrible, only now they look like badly coloured effects coming at you in every shot in the cheapest manner.

Seems this was a bit of a trend, as Friday 13th Part 3 also went for the 3rd part = 3D route, and also believed 3D meant shove things towards the lens really close. }}

What a relief that 3D movies didn't take off. For a while there in 2009 it was looking dicey.

3D is a tricky one I think. It comes & goes. People want it & when they get it they find a reason not to want it My mum had paper 3D glasses from the 50's when she saw 3D at the cinema. I wish Id asked what film she saw ?

Black Panther finally bubbled up my netflix queue. It of course has may of the tropes of the Marvel universe keeping it from being as original as I hoped, though I enjoyed the little sister Q.

Anyone who has lived in Africa finds the accents to be particularly beautiful and soothing. The film-makers created an amalgam accent of the most musical parts of pan-africa that works quite well, and it was obvious the actors enjoyed milking it to its full potential. It was also fun watching Martin Freeman do an American accent.

It looked like Andy Serkis got to play a villain with plenty of gritty swagger. I haven't seen it yet though.

Yeah, he had fun, and it showed his acting chops.

Still replaying the accents in my head. It's sort of like hearing a modern dixieland band is more fun than listening to original recordings: the players take the most idiomatic riffs and go to town with it. It was the comic book exaggeration of Xhosa, and it really sticks in the head.

Just saw the Greatest Showman.  It looks great, though have to agree with the critic who described it as "You've rarely seen a more straight-laced musical about the joys of letting your freak flag fly".

However - Hugh Jackman can really move.  I mean he's really got it at the level of anyone who's ever come before him.  Poor Zac Ephron is often matched up against him in the show and tries hard but he just doesn't zing the way Jackman does.

This isn't the best, but shows some of it:


Gotta blow it up to full screen to capture the nuances, they both look about the same in small screen.

The repeated feel-good-about-being-the-bearded-lady thing they had going in the trailers put me right off that one. Too mushy-peas for me.

Yeah, it was feel-good with no depth whatsoever. The only recommendation I can really make for it is Hugh Jackman's dancing and some of the visuals.

I bet its a happy feel-good movie, but I prefer a soupçon of darkness like in Cabaret (1972), that was dark.

Cabaret was a masterpiece and revelation. I sort of wonder if the rise of Nazism was due in part to the perception of decadence in the culture.

Watched Ready Player One, it was a fun ride. At first I was put off because I have never played a computer game, but it soon got a lot better, the music was great and had a thousand pop culture references. I liked it.

there was discussion here a while back about the Dark Tower. Saw it. No doubt the book was good, but where was the dialogue for this film? You can get away with a Hemingway lack of natural banter if what is said has some meaning and resonance. But this script was like an outline scribbled out on a pad waiting for some real writers to be hired and turn it into something worth giving to actors. They ended up with nothing to work with. They should have hired nothing but two-bit actors for this thing.

{{ Saw the Wolf Man remake from 2010. Um, odd sort of film. It very nicely directed and edited, the story is ok, I honestly dont know if the 'he was one too' twist is actually supposed to be a twist or if its supposed to be obvious from the start, but either way I didnt think it mattered too much. The dialogue its a bit pretentious at times, but they got Antony Hopkins to deliver most of it so they get away with it.
Del Toro plays the lead but I felt he lacked something of the humanity and warmth of the original and I never had much sympathy or care for his character.
The actual makeup and effects for the wolfman are excellent, they are very similar to the original 1940's version whilst adding a few modern touches such as a cgi transformation and the Wolf Man now has a penchant for going on all four at times and running that way. And I know why they did this.
You see that 1940's Wolf Man created an image, of the hairy wolf man, not as in modern werewolves films a huge wolf, but a man figure who gets hairy and big teeth and claws, still in ripped suit, bowed arms lopping through the foggy night was such a striking image that for the next 70 years it was lampooned and used in everything from Bugs Bunny to Abbot And Costello. Its an image you will have seen somewhere usually used in some comedic or parodying fashion.
And that's really hard to shake when you see it on screen here. Its a harsh thing to hold against it as its not this films fault the original film was so iconic in its imagery and makeup that it became a thing on its own afterwards, but it is there and can pull you right out the moment when your reminded more of Bugs Bunny cartoon than a horror film.
But if you can get over that hurdle its a decent enough way to kill a couple hours on a rainy day. I wouldn't go out my way t see it unless you are a big fan of the original, but its not one to avoid either.

In comparison to the Mummy remake from the same golden age of Hollywood Horror it is however miles and miles the better of the two. I found the Mummy a barely watchable slog this is an honestly decent remake of a horror classic. }}

I don't consider the modern The Mummy to be a remake - it's mainly a comic action film, a whole different genre. I thought it worked very well if you don't preconceive it as a horror film.

Lon Chaney Jnr was my favourite, He had a way of making me feel so sorry for him & hoping he'd find a cure. I never associated the modern Mummy films to be anything other than comedic action films. There wasn't anything to remind me of the old Greats, Karloff, Cushing, Lee & even dear old Peter Lorre.