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

Arrival: Genuinely Don't Know... possibly 6/10

I'm struggling to score this movie. Based on reviews and general reception I expected something earth-shattering, novel, and gripping, and that's not quite what I got. It's not a bad movie by any means, but it's... okay, I guess. I am disappoint.

Alien: 10/10 obviously

Amazing movie, all the more so considering it was made in the late seventies...that's more than forty years ago for those of you who are mathematically challenged. Despite its age, it has greater visual impact than most sci-fi trash being churned out in recent years.

 

I watch more series than movies at the moment.

Anime - Youjo Senki/Saga of Tanya the Evil - 8.9/10

The series is about a sociopathic office worker who is cursed by god and reincarnated into a WWI era world, similar to earth. In this world, magic exists and the Reincarnated Tanya has capabilities with it. She enlists into the army as a Mage, and strives to get one up on God, whom she calls Entity X as she doesn't believe in it. The Entity curses her further and ensures she must pray to him every time she uses her powers.

It's unique because the character isn't a save the world type. She holds a grudge and does whatever is necessary to further her goals. She has the potential to become one of the most frightening Sorcerers in the Imperial Army. She appears to be the perfect soldier, but manipulates others to get what she wants.

It's R rated, and for good reason. It's bloody, violent, with a lot of profanity, and holds no punches when it comes to showing it. The Battle sequences are some of the most action packed and riveting i've seen in some time. It uses some CGI effects in the really fast paced scenes, but it's really well done.

I deduct a few points because the supporting characters are nothing interesting, the show is about Tanya and the Entity X and anyone else is pretty much tacked on.

Stranger things 9/10

It's definitely a love it or hate it show, but I personally love it. It has amazing characters, a fantastic script, subtle but powerful effects and the homages to 1980s sci-fi and horror are just great. Netflix has a lot of things, but this is one of the Aces it's got compared to other services.

 

Arrival is very much a movie nerds movie, more designed to be appreciated in cerebral retrospective than as an immediate, visceral experience. The reason critics rave about it is because they all went to film school see every lesson of film school brought to bear in it - A rarer occasion than you might imagine. Anyway, here's someone who can speak more eloquently than what I can do having a talk over the thing:

 

Central Intelligence - 6/10

Remember when we used to have action-comedies, buddy movies that didn't take themselves too serious.
This is one of those.
Could have been written by Jacky Chan screenwriters, with just a bit too much sillyness and Dwayne Dibbley Dwayne Johnson generally overdoing it.
It's just a bit too much in places, but it felt good to be watching an actioncomedy without the need to think a lot and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

I didn't know the second film was out yet.

You went into a Keanu movie hoping for decent acting and writing?

 

It's not just Keanu. All of them.

And, actually, The Matrix is one of my fav all time movies

 

Moana - 6/10
The songs here are catchy as anything, and immediately got stuck in my head.
The rest of the film just smacked of rehashes of older Disney movies... It's not that it's bad. It's just that it didn't blow me away...

 

I disagree (mostly), but one line sticks out like a baboons arse for 'how.. how does tha... what?' for me.

When he's tied to a chair, and he says "Your son took that from me, killed that from me"

Wat. I've tried rationalising that sentence, but that's the worst part of the film for me.

 

Strangerland AKA The Nicole Kidman Nipple Show - 6/10

Comically over-angsty kids go missing in Australian wilderness, parents start process of self destruction, Hugo Weaving is a terrible cop, never actually find out what happened between kids disappearing and the end. But nipples.

 

I have a new man-crush, and it's been right under my nose for the past 25-30 years.

In the 80s-90s it was Harrison Ford in Star Wars, Indy and The Fugitive

In the 90s and 00s it was Will Smith in Fresh Prince, Bad Boys, Men In Black, Enemy of the State, Ali, I, Robot, Hitch

But now I realise, accompanying them along the way, was my boy Kevin Costner - whatever he's in I've liked watching him, and so I'm now working my way through his filmography to see if there's a single film he's in I can't like.

But in Robin Hood - PoT, The Bodyguard, JFK, 13 Days, Tin Cup, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Swing Vote, The Untouchables I do just love him. And now I have two more films to add to that list:

Open Range - 8.1/10
So I've only seen this once, about a week ago, having never having previously heard of it. KC and Robert Duvall in a kind of buddy movie western, but not 'buddy' in the sense of gags. It's no surprise to see KC directed it, because in it the camera adores the beautiful open environments in which it's set. I didn't find anything to not like about it, but it maybe just lacked it in the 'heavy-hitting drama' stakes to secure a higher score. Nice little bonus to see 'Cassian' from Rogue One was in it too.

Hidden Figures - 8.2/10
KC is great in this, and so's the rest of the cast. There's some good humour, some pathos, good soundtrack. The only thing that hurts it, and I guess you can only blame history for this to a large extent, is that in a climactic scene at the end I did just feel like I was watching

Spoiler

a remake of the Apollo 13 climax

.

Now I've got to track down a copy of and make some time for the near-4-hours of Dances With Wolves, as I've never seen it.

 

Spoiler

From what I've read, KC's character is the ONLY one who didn't really exist, being a mashup of a couple of other people

 

You should watch The Dressmaker, Hugo Weaving is a fabulous cop in that...

 

Got the new Now TV box which came with a 4 month Sky Cinema pass.

The wife and I were cycling through the list and saw Deep Blue Sea - only about 90 minutes long so we thought, meh, why not? I know it was never a masterpiece but, jeez, it has not aged well at all.

 

Magnificent 7 (2016) 7/10

i thought they might balls this one up so was not on my short list. Ended up watching it for some reason not brilliant but not bad either.
Seen enough cowboy flicks to think the gattling gun thing is getting old and boring

 

I was enjoying it right up until the Gatling Gun.

Seriously, a magazine fed, hand cranked Gatling firing at 200 rpm can empty it's 40 round magazine in ~ 13 seconds and would spray rounds all over the place at that range - they were designed to inflict damage to massed troops marching towards you in attack columns, but it's effective range wasn't much more than that of a musket. This one tears up the town like a WWII belt fed Browning M1919 .30 Cal.

I really lose interest in a film when it treats you like a moron.

 

Moulin Rouge - 7/10
I finally saw this for the first time. It's . . . interesting. What I can say is that it does the modern Hollywood musical right. Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, RENT and others all fail to adapt themselves from the stage to the big screen, despite having better stories (or at least stage pedigree) and original music.

The music is drawn from many pop songs over the recent decades. It's corny most of the time, but sometimes hits that right bit of nostalgia to evoke the intended emotion.

The cinematography is weird, but at least it's original (again, most musicals are pretty crap at this). The story communicates the bohemian ideals way better than RENT ever has (either as a stage play or movie), so it succeeds there. In the end you identify with many of the characters, even if the story could be written by anyone who's seen any movie ever.

It's quirky and I almost turned it off in the first 15 minutes, but I'm glad I got through that and made it to the end.

Banksy Does NY - 4/10

I really enjoyed Exit Through the Gift Shop. The story of that "documentary" transcended its constituent parts and made you think about the commercialization and commoditization of art, in this case graffiti, and how easily people are manipulated into wanting stupid, low-effort garbage.

Banksy Does NY focuses more on the ownership, theft, and acquisition of work for which the artist isn't being compensated, but also on the fandom and allure around the mysterious character Banksy himself. Sadly, the only question it really raises is how in the hell so many people can afford to spend every day for a month playing scavenger hunt to find Banksy's hidden work in one of the most expensive cities on Earth. Don't these people have jobs? How do they have money? They're questions that will leave you confused for days.

 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - 7/10

Overall, this was more enjoyable to me than the last few HP films.
I enjoyed spotting easter eggs, I enjoyed seeing old creatures again.
I thought the crossover between CGI and Live action was well managed (though not perfect - see the Thunderbird closeups)

 

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back - 4/10
I do read the books so it's hard to see Cruise as Reacher no matter how many low camera angles they use. Saying that I quite enjoyed the first film once I got passed the little guy. This one though just didn't do anything for me.

Moana - 8.5/10
It's predictable Disney in its storytelling but the catchy tunes, stunning visuals and Heihei the chicken won me over. I normally despair when the kids ask to watch <InsertAnimatedFilmHere> again but I've been happy to stick Moana on again. That's got to be the best endorsement for a kids film, right?

 

Logan: The first good X-Men movie since whenever, go see it!

This one was a pleasant surprise: A grown-up superheroes-movie for an adult audience. Gratious violence, vulnerable characters and actual drama. Yes, drama in a superheroes movie. And it works: The movie is not about

Spoiler

the end of the world, millions dead etc

but characters you actually care about for once. Really similar to the better Netflix series such as Jessica Jones.

 

Passengers - 7/10

I'm a sucker for this type of sci-fi and the visuals were fantastic. Plot pretty light but it still works.

Doctor Strange - 7/10

Great visuals and a good setting the scene for future tie-ins.

Moana - 9/10

I watched this with the kids and their reaction combined with mine is why it's deserving of such a high-score. Thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining for me and them both.