Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

Dunkirk - 9/10
Absolutely excellent visual and aural spectacle. Loved the tension.

King Arthur - 7/10
I liked it. Guy Ritchies touches with camera work and fast cuts in dialogue and scenes were fun. Medieval lock stock basically.

Baby Driver - 9/10
Had no expectations going in to this, was pleasantly surprised. Excellent story, well paced and fantastic action.

Despicable Me 3 - 6/10
Kids and me enjoyed it but the format and the jokes on offer are wearing thin. I expect it to be the last outing (but probably won't be.)

Ghost in the Shell - 6.5/10
Well done and with all the right elements but somehow not all the way there. The fact they used the iconic music only on the end credits properly pissed me off.

 

Shin Godzilla - Hideki Anno/10

Nice to see this in a cinema after watching the BD at home, Anno really knows how to destroy Tokyo with style. If you like your disaster movie with a hefty side of political farce and a sprinling of logistics-beats-giant-monsters, Shin Godzilla is highly recommended.

 

I'd agree with this - the film finished too quickly for my tastes. They seem to jump very quickly from looking for Kuze to suddenly finding him, then moving very quickly on to the finale. The last third of the film was missing far too much exposition.

 

Watch Williams this evening, though not a film as such - totally brilliant and unbiased view of the Frank etc.

 

T2 Trainspotting - 3/10

What a nice Idea...and what a boring movie.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - 6.5/10
I found this more entertaining than the first one, which I fell asleep in.
It's noisy, but the humour sits well. Also, Karen Gillan points. (yes, I know she was in the first one as well).

Baywatch - 7/10
I realise that a tonne of people will disagree about this rating. The film got me out of a properly foul mood, and gets bonus points for that. It's self aware and brainless fun. the jokes are immature, but amusing enough.

 

Army of One - Nick Cage with swords/10

It's awful, but better for it? If it tried to be smart, it would only have suffered from falling flat on it's face. I don't know why, but I just can't bring myself to not like Mr Cage's work, even the bad movies. He does awkward madness superbly well, but he can do it with a very subtle touch of sincerity and innocence, so I just find myself rooting for him. Russel Brand ruins it somewhat, but that's to be expected.

Annabelle: Creation - No dolls in my house/10

Fairy generic ghosty horror, the genre really seems to have reached the limits of what it can do now, unfortunately. Scores points for being very well executed though - no obvious weeks links in the cast (even the kids!), and shot well with good use of music and sound (which is a good 70% of horror). Goes a little OTT at the end in a bid to build tension, but still better than the usual "shout at the evil till it goes away" ending these films go for.

 

Ghost in the Shell - 1080p remaster of the original - Incredible/10
Deeply political, futuristically insightful, character development and scenes are excellent.

Ghost in the Shell - 2016/7? Shitshow/10. I couldn't watch this blingbling tripe beyond the first scene. It was vacant. It's not just the whitewash issue, it's the fact she's clearly not a cyborg! The precision of movement and absolute focus is lost. It's what MAKES the Major.

 

Suicide Squad - Like Avengers, but with none of the fun/10

Wow, I mean... I went into it knowing it was divisive, but the last film that had this kind of spread of opinion was Sucker Punch, and I personally love that film. This is just a mess, though. It's like they made a proper film, then on the way to the finishing room some intern dropped the master reel into a stupidly placed blender, only to try and hide his clumsiness by taping together the bits he could find that looked like they fit together.

Considering the rumours of what Joss Whedon is having to piece together (and re-shoot) of Justice League, and how much negativity BvS and MoS received from critics and fans, I think they would be better off just abandoning the connected universe and making decent standalone films.

 

The Ringer 9/10

Cracks me up every time.

 

Jonny English Reborn Rowan Atkinson's balls/10 The original is very funny, the sequel not so much, although there are a couple of moments.

Tangled WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!/10 One of the better films from Disney's last decade, a surprising amount of actual physical violence, which pleased me greatly.

Ghost In The Shell Then I guess I'll die/10 This film thinks it's both very clever and very stylish, it's not. Takes some of the most iconic sequences from the film and SAC then smushes them together with a plot vaguely split between The Puppet Master and the Laughing Man. It even takes the horrifying, limb snapping, ligament popping, skull crushing tank battle and turns it into a tame Hollywood action sequence.

Also, the little tiny bit of fan service at the end (the Grave) somehow makes the white washing even more egregious. So glad I didn't pay to see this at the cinema.

If I had my way the next five DC movies would be based on some of the multi-episode stories from the old DC Cartoons, start with a Batman one, then do a Superman one, then do a couple from The Justice LEague and the last one from Batman Beyond. It's a bit depressing that a set of Sunday morning cartoons that stopped being made over a decade ago are better written than $100million plus movies, but hey ho.

 

" It even takes the horrifying, limb snapping, ligament popping, skull crushing tank battle and turns it into a tame Hollywood action sequence."

That broke my heart to be honest. The Spider Tank is up there with Blains minigun from Predator in terms of awesomeness for me.

 

Exactly. It's not only a wonderfully (quintessentially Japanese) sci-fi thing, but the scene was patient and tactical as well as brutal. She orders the glass roof to crash down, then teases it to use up all its ammo, then desperately tries to rip it apart before time runs out.
It echoed her character throughout the movie perfectly. The opposite of over-the-top-in-your-face Hollywood style.

 

Netflix movie - Death Note - 6/10

I love the franchise. I own two different editions of the manga, I own all of the japanese movies and I've seen the japanese live action drama and i've seen the anime several times. It's one of the most original manga that deals with a good question - what is justice, really? Is it right to be judge, jury and executioner?

So to my surprise, there is an adaptation from the US that just came out and really? It's not the most terrible piece of crap ever. It certainly goes a different way, but it makes some creative choices that you can applaud it for. It's gruesome as hell; decapitations, guts, gore, the whole shebang. The character light is now a whiny teenager. Ryuk is now less of a sarcastic watcher figure and more of a commanding presence. He's in charge instead of light, I don't like that one bit. Light is supposed to be a dark, brooding guy who wants to make the world into one of his own creation, and this adaptation changes that idea and makes him a keeper of the note that basically has to do what Ryuk says. Light also has no idea how the note works without Ryuk telling him, Light got imaginative and figured out things that Ryuk didn't even know before in the original source material. L is now black and looks like a character from Watchdogs; it's not a problem because he's actually pretty good, probably one the better parts of the film. It's very R-rated, there's scenes of nudity, gore, plenty of swearing and I think it's just too overboard, although the CG that powers Ryuk is pretty well done, he looks like he does in the japanese movies, but more imposing and demonic looking ,rather than just goofy. It's pretty entertaining but as a fan of the franchise, so many changes made me grit my teeth a few times. It reminds me a little of the final destination movies, light writes a name and it skips to a sequence of events that leads to their death.

Is it a bad film? Not really.

Is it a bad adaptation of one of the biggest franchises in Japanese history, one that has spawned manga, anime, movies, tv shows and has influenced psychological manga for years? It is.

 

Power Rangers - 5/10

Well, it was entertaining - I'll give it that. I wasn't much of a Power Ranger fan back in the day, but this ticked enough of the sci-fi boxes to make me watch it one late night this weekend. So yeah, it's not a good movie per se, but it's guiltless and mindless fun.

 

Yesterday evening I watched Fallen (1998, Denzel Washington) and Spotlight. They were both completely awesome. Gutted that the very strong hints at the end of Fallen that there would be a sequel didn't pan out though.

 

Ghost in the Shell - 7/10

Just finished watching this. I was pleasantly surprised! It was nice to see some of the more famous scenes recreated in live action, as well as little moments here and there that will be familiar to those who've read/watched GitS. Also, massive bonus points for using the original intro track for the credits. Personally, I thought the depressing vibe of the film was very well done - it was certainly more cohesive than other films I've watched recently. Hiwever, I'd say that those who aren't familiar with the backstory won't appreciate it.

Overall, I'd say it's definitely worth a watch for GitS fans.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - 9/10

I watched this on the plane on the way out to my holidays. For some reason, it really clicked with me and I 'watched' it a few more times while I read up on using my new camera and sorting out other stuff. Highly recommended.

 

I also watch Mitty on a plane recently and second your recommendation, it's a really heartwarming film.

 

Saban's Power Rangers [2017] - Sorry, Bumblebee!/10

Felt more like a TV Pilot than a film. It wasn't terrible, even if it did unfold rather predictably [not that the original stuff didn't]. Felt it was missing something, but can't place what.

Still... sat through worse, speaking of which...

Whisky Galore [2017] - Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooope/10

Not sure which is worse; that they remade it or that I made the mistake of trying to watch it thinking it was the original. Eddie Izzard in particular I found especially grating.

Watch the original.

 

Wonder Woman - 8/10

Well ok, so I like these kinds of movies. They're fun, and this was no exception. Also; Gal Gadot ... nuff said.