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

His next film, he's...The Plumber.
I do enjoy his no brainer action flicks

 

Nope. The next one is The Florist, where he stabs folk in the eye with sharpened daffodil* stems.



*but only for two weeks of the year.

 

I thought his next film was "The EvriMan" where he sticks the badly transported corpses of baddies behind the recylcing bin, chucks them over fences or onto the flat roof of a garage next to the gang hideout and then is away in tiresmoke before the ring doorbell notification comes through.

 

Someone should put together a CV for Jase.

So far (without IMDBing it) I think he's worked as a mechanic, a beekeeper, a delivery driver, a security guard and is applying for a position as a florist under David.

Should be limited to films where the clue is in the title.

 

I wonder if he turned down "The Cleaner"* because he was worried about getting typecast?

* Window washer goes Die Hard - Daisy Ridley stars

 

Ha!
I also watched this recently and it's a definite steaming pile of repetition.
Daisy is good in it though, based on the fact I've only ever previously seen her gurn like Knightley whilst pretending to be a Jedi.

 

My local movie theater has Mystery Movie Monday. You get to see a movie for $5 that isn't out yet. The only catch is that you don't know what you're about to see until the movie starts. It's pretty fun.

The most recent one I saw what Fight or Flight. I know it's in theaters now. I'm late to reporting.

It was fun. The story wasn't smart and the message/moral plus the villains all feel trite, like I'm being condescended to. But the action is good enough. It's self-aware of its stupidity. The premise is dumb in a way that communicates "we know and we don't care," which helps you sit back and enjoy it. 6/10? 7 feels too generous, but 6 feels a little too harsh.

They set it up for a sequel and I hope it gets one. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see it in theaters, but I'd like to see where it goes and would definitely stream it.

 

Watched the final Mission Impossible.

It's dead good. The script is pretty weak but the plot is solid and, as always, the action set-pieces, visual effects, pacing and tension are off the charts. For such a long film it really only has two big action setpieces, but they're enough by themselves to make the ticket feel cheap.

I do miss the more intellectual aspirations of the first film, though. And to a lesser extent the second. By film 3 onwards, we were in the shadow of 24 and its imitators, and later in direct competition with the newer Bond films, and everything had to be very loud and intense and pressurized and not that cerebral. The espionage element went onto the back burner, and as a diehard le Carré fan, I miss it. The first film managed to be part Fleming, part le Carré, and do both really well, and for that it will always be my favourite.

 

The Phonecian Scheme: A vestigal organ I think, I'm trying to push it back in but it's harder than it looks / 10

Another Wes Anderson film, another film that's one thing (a spy thriller) whilst also being another thing (critique of the super powers gleeful use of the third world to sow chaos and war for fun and profit). I don't think it's Anderson's best film, but it's 90 minutes and gets where its going in a timely manner. Took my mum to see it and she loved it. It is surprisingly quotable.

I think Benedict Cumberbatch is having the most fun he's ever had as an actor too, at one point he gets to literally chew the scenery.

 

Harsh score dude.
OK so it was the usual Statham fayre, but it was at least 63% better than the Bee Keeper

Captain America: Brave New World
Brave indeed, the fella who put his name to this has stones the size of grapefruits, this is why folk are reluctant to go to the cinema nowadays / 10

 

If you'd said "633% better" you'd have won a cuddly toy.

 

Beanie baby or Jelly Cat?

 

Disney free trial coming to an end and I watched Captain America BNW.

It wasn't even worth free.

Skip it, it's lame.

 

Aren't they just all the same now? Seems there are some goodies, some baddies and the baddies try to merc everything (no short selling on their part) and the goodies then win anyway.

We need some more Empire (but even then and after a thousand viewings, I'm still not sure they actually won much).

Warfare was good. Not the actual act of it, just the film. 8/10.

 

Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning

It's not as good as the movie that immediately preceded it. I think the need to have some form of exposition to get audiences (back) up to speed, hinting at passing the baton to a new cast but not committing to it, a few twists to retcon previous movies into this plot, and the actions of some characters not aligning with their motivations really hurt the movie.

Mission Impossible is amazing when the writing is good, but without good writing it's still an great action movie.

There's one big plot point that honestly makes no sense to me and I'm not sure if I'm missing something big and obvious or if the writers are. Again, I'm going to let it slide because that's not what Mission Impossible movies are about, and I'm not about to watch it again just to try and answer that question, but it's still bugging me.

 

If it's about how the Big Threat is finally resolved, then you're perfectly right, it makes no sense at all.

This generally happens when non-techy writers try to create a technological peril. Weirdly, Die Hard 4 managed to do the tech-doomsday thing in a much more savvy and realistic way than Mission Impossible 8, and Die Hard 4 wasn't exactly the big brain in the lineup when it came out.

Mr Robot set the gold standard, though, jeez. Imagine a Mission Impossible with the Mr Robot writing staff contributing.

Oh I forgot to say, maybe? I saw that Steve Cougan penguin thing when it was out at cinemas, that was quite good. I was expecting kitsch family friendly guff, actually got some quite cutting social commentary on class, culture shock and imperialism and a brief, harrowing history lesson on the 1970s Argentinian military coup.

Steve played himself, as he always has and always will, but in this context it worked much better than in most others, because rather than being "Steve Cougan is inappropriate in British social situations" it's "Steve Cougan has his entire worldview and comfort zone destroyed by a military coup, an unwanted pet penguin and a group of troubled school kids who serve up a microcosm of the political disaster unfolding outside the school windows". His usual selfish, unlikeable stock character is the heel to a more interesting and troubling story about Argentina, about changing educational attitudes, about British migrants abroad, and about the complex ethics of when to interfere, and when not to interfere, in somebody else's culture and politics. A surprisingly solid 8/10 for me.

 

The Ballad of Wallis Island - well worth a watch
Saw a couple of things about this and as have enjoyed (almost?) everything I've seen both Tom Basden and Tim Key do/be involved in decided to make a rare trip to the cinema, and I'm very glad I did.
Thoroughly enjoyed it and will encourage anyone I know to go watch it, a touching comedy.

 

Godzilla (2014): 7/10
Watched this with my son, and I have to say it's a solid action flick with some incredible visuals. It's a little unusual pacing-wise, but it eventually gets where it needs to be and the final battle is spectacular. Pure entertainment and great cinema. My son absolutely loved it.

 

Ooh I forgot about that Ken Watanabe one. I've seen it but forgotten it all, so I could probably enjoy it all over again.

I vaguely recall it had unshakeable overtones of the Fukushima nuclear accident, a very modern and uncomfortably relevant spice to add to a franchise that otherwise risks feeling stuck out of time.

If you haven't seen Godzilla Minus One Minus Colour, you gotta watch that next. A totally different but equally brilliant experience.

 

Captain America: Brave New World - 6/10
A solid, middle of the road MCU offering. Coulda/shoulda done more with the Red Hulk. But definitely an improvement over Quantumania & "dr strange I wish i was spider-man no way home"!

The Marvels - 7/10
Again, a solid, middle of the road MCU offering. +1 points for the "fun with portals" swapping. And the Flerkins. definitely points for Flerkins.

n.b. scores probably helped by going in with seriously lowe expectations and watching in the background to other activities (lego building/mini painting/work)