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

Harry Potter 1
Actually not totally terrible, as I recalled, just mostly terrible. The sfx are bad, the child acting is appalling, the pacing and direction and most other bits are a bit wonky. But it has legitimately nice moments here and there that I'd forgotten about.

Harry Potter 2
Significantly better, but still mostly quite poor. The visuals improved, the adult cast improved, the humour improved. The child acting is still quite bad and the whole thing doesn't work that well as a standalone film, feels more like a direct to TV cash-in on the book.

Harry Potter 3
Gangbusters. Brilliant. I loved it on release and love it now, it's based on the best-paced and most tightly written book and it shows. Out of nowhere the visuals, sfx, design, sets, camerawork, and overall style are just gorgeous. The pacing is perfect. The kids can suddenly act, and rather well, too. The supporting cast bring it home and Alan Rickman starts to become the secret favourite of the franchise.

Harry Potter 4
The most visually impressive and the least memorable, for me. Robert Pattinson is excellent. The new director's handling of Dumbledore emerges as the series' biggest problem with the arrival of angry, sullen, unlikeable codger Dumbledore. Why was it done? Nobody knows. Voldemort as he will be for the remainder of the series (Ralph Fiennes) appears, and he's pretty good I guess? Not how I'd choose to do the villain, I think the director of all the later films just misunderstood Dumbledore and Voldemort. They feel flanderized. A pity because the supporting characters (Crouch, Mad-Eye, Skeeter, Fleur, Maxime, Diggory) are all cast and handled really well. Rupert Grint is good now.

Harry Potter 5
Solid and entertaining with proper pathos. Imelda Staunton's depiction of psychotic authoritarian control is so good I'd happily rewatch the film just for her. Easily the best performance of the whole series. Luna Lovegood is also perfect. Daniel Radcliffe is starting to really get the hang of acting. Gary Oldman is sublime. Dumbledore is still goddamn weird and badly handled but by now we're resigned to it. Really, Gambon's alternate Dumbledore works in itself once you put the books out of your mind, it's just very different and much less fun.

Harry Potter 6
Probably the best film in the franchise, I'd forgotten how good it is. Very gloomy bordering on maudlin, though, and from memory that's nothing compared to the final two. Alan Rickman and Tom Felton are great. The Gambon Dumbledore mellows out a bit and works better, but the supposed close bond between him and Harry feels unprecedented and nonsensical given the changes in actor and character and the very limited screen time of the character. Book Dumbledore was central, lovable and fatherly, film Dumbledore has been remote, inconsistent and unlikeable, so this is a real gear shift to have a film all about Dumbledore's special friendship with Harry. But taken in isolation, this is still a rock solid film and if not for the mandatory layers of prior reading to understand what's going on, I'd recommend it as the one to watch if you only watched one. It just works.

 

If this is the one where they used a rope deliberately "aimed for and got" trapped in a wheel to slingshot a car over a cliff jump (releasing said rope in unexplained fashion exactly when required), then I turned it off at that point and haven't been back to it since.

After The Lights Went Out - first bit 7/10...last part and finale 0/10
Was looking like a sleeper decent-timesink-if-not-quite-cult-classic right up until it started wrapping things up. Then it's as if a whole different writing, effects and directing crew took over. Don't bother, you'll just be disappointed.

Ant-Man 3 In Another Realm Of Nonsense - same old same old with a worse lead haircut/10
It's still a film about BIG THINGS - which is kind of to be expected given the title of the film - and a goody what turns out to be a baddy (surprise! Or not), but that new Lilly 'do was difficult to watch from the start. Some nice surprises (like the refugee buildings, not giving spoilers) and some fairly decent one-liners and wisecracks, plus the effects were actually for the most part better than have been wheeled out of late

Spoiler

(with the exception of Darren's ridiculously edited-in head),

but for all that, it still ended up a modern Godzilla film. Whether you're still lapping these up or are bored of the format by now, this will be the same for you.

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 - 8/10
Fyre: Party That Never Was (or whatever it was called) - 6.5/10
Fatboy Slim Big Beach Boutique doc - I was there/10
These three were all entertaining in their own right, some of it jaw-droppingly painful to watch in a "Seriously?!" kind of way, but one thing is clear - they can't throw a party over there like we can over here (or even spell "Vender Parking" correctly, so I suppose that kind of gives a clue...). For context, both Woodstock and Big Beach had ~250k attendees; look at the different results - and the attitude of the promoters especially - and revisit the definition of "first-world civilised society".

Operation Mincemeat - 8/10
Very light touch but incredibly watchable with some well-written dialogue. One or two unanswered plot points and the ending was a bit weaker, but then it wasn't about the result so much as the process. Kids managed to take it all in as well (albeit with some pauses for historical questions).

 

@ModSquid yep, that was the one.

Where did you watch the Fatboy documentary?

 

It was on Sky, bud. I'll find out what channel, but might have been Ch4 (there were definitely ads and I'm almost certain it was one of the terrestrials) so worth checking the catch-up. Was brilliant to watch for many reasons, not least of which is going to be showing the kids we used to 'ave it laaaarge!! have fun once.

 

Spoiler

Come on, man . You used spoiler tags literally in the same sentence yet didn't think to hide this.

Not liking something isn't an excuse for giving away plot points in a very recent film from a high-profile franchise.

 

I still prefer the original version - "The Man Who Never Was" (1956), which was based on the real Ewan Monatgu's own book about the scheme.

 

Ah, I'll have a look at this. Do you know if it's around on any of the platforms at the moment?

@Cookie Monster - I checked and my mistake; it was called Fatboy Slim: Right Here, Right Now and is currently on Sky Documentaries .

 

Odyssey VS Sunday - a Vault-Tec approved movie...

 

A quick google says no, sorry.

 

Pants. Cheers though. I did have a site bookmarked called Just Watch but it's been markedly inconsistent of late, so I don't put any stock in it any more. Other than going into each one to check, I haven't yet come up with an alternative.

Nice. Didn't think much of the first part but they definitely got better - that Aaron Ross fella has some wicked control. Board background (likes of Mack Dawg etc.), so I'm always watching the technical bits with these films - it's impressive the way they manage to find the pedals after each spin...

 

THIS one is WAY better! The man is a BEAST! Make sure you watch it all the way through! Oh and I started riding mine again this morning loving it.


Oh and this is pretty decent too!

 

I use the same site; but found that the it kept effing up my location, and so the results. So i created an account and it hasnt got anything wrong since - well, it hasnt said something is available somewhere that it aint that i have access to....

 

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant - 9/10 ritchie knocked it out the park with this army flick, i thought man of wrath was the only cheesy/serious film he could do but this has none of his traits good performances by jake gynelhall and dar salim. if anyone's going to watch it dont watch the trailer first, the movies on amazon prime

 

It does pop up on the Talking Pictures channel fairly regularly. Maybe keep an eye there?

 

The Whale

Brendan Fraser knocks it for six with this one. No action, no adventure, no robots, no lasers, no rotting old Egyptians, not even a jungle - just every actor working together making a wonderful story work on film.

 

Frailty, The Jacket.

 

Where The Crawdads Sing - 5/10
Decent acting, same old storyline that's been seen in all films of this nature since whenever. Three possible endings, so pick one in your head and watch something else. You're not missing anything.

Babylon - 6/10
See above. Same as all the other ones that have been done like this. Well acted, decent (if unbelievable) set pieces and backdrops, but ultimately just more of the same. Not only that, but it's three hours long and took three sittings to get through. No idea how it got as much hype as it did - must have had Crawdads to compete with that month.

 

Interceptor I should have got paid to watch that/10

Not sure the last time I saw such bad acting. Just awful.

 

Pain & Gain - Big dumb muscle fun/10

One of those films I like to have on in the background when I'm doing odd jobs. Not a classic, but it is entertaining, and it's great to see several big name actors having fun. Worth watching just to see a coked up Rock.

 

Extraction 1 & 2 - COD MW the movie(s)/10

Excellent 'bloke' films full of over the top violence and savage CQC bordering on gun kata, made even better by Chris Hemsworth's gravely voice. The bad guys are proper manly too.

Watch them.