Last movie watched...

[Tiplodocus]

Add me to the list of Captain Marvel fans.

A worrying opening where it felt like we might be in an X-Box squad based shooter game soon gave way to lots of fun.

Really enjoyed it and knowing nothing about the comics and Skrull-Kree war it all played out well and pulled various rugs from under me [spoiler]I had assumed, just from the casting that Jude Law might be a bad guy but to have the whole war exposed so was refreshing even though the use of Accusers did sort of tip the hand[/spoiler]. The sequence of her [spoiler]escaping the Skrull ship was the best action scene I felt[/spoiler]

Some minor niggles; she never really showed that losing control of her power was a problem; sometimes she takes multiple Skrull down with relative ease then struggles in a one on one fight; by the climax she is way over-powered and a bit too flippant about the death she is causing.

[Apestrife]

Everything from how it ends (who's riding the bike).

Going by the number, and overall shape, of segments on the back-armour of the rider (4 segments for male Judges, 3 for female), it's Joe Dredd himself.

Perhaps 4 segments is the movie's "full eagle"

[Keef Monkey]

Watched a few films at the weekend -

Us - Had quite an odd cinema experience with this one, at the morning showing in the Glasgow Cineworld. There's a scene where the characters are talking about weird coincidences, and then the power cuts out and it's all very tense...and then the power cut out in the cinema. Spooky. The power came back up and they told us they'd get the film back up and running shortly, but after a 40 minute wait announced that nobody in the building knew how to dim the lights again so we'd have to watch the rest of it with all the lights on. That didn't appeal, so we took a refund instead and went about our day, planning to go back at a later date. We were talking about that first chunk so much on the walk home though and the intrigue had set in pretty hard so we ended up going to another cinema later that day to get some closure!

Glad we did, loved it! It's interesting (and great) to see it being so huge at the box office because I think it actually feels like a much less commercial movie than Get Out. That film seemed really accessible as a psychological thriller to people who ordinarily might not watch a straight-up horror, but Us feels way more overtly horror, and also a bit more abstract with its ideas and themes. It'll definitely trigger some interesting discussions and takes, there are some layers to unpeel! It looks incredible and the performances are fantastic, I really hope it being more of a horror doesn't earn it a Hereditary-style snubbing when awards season comes along, because it should definitely be up for a few. Lupita Nyong'o is incredible in it, and it has one of the best movie scores I've heard in years (annoyingly it doesn't seem to be available anywhere yet, no doubt Mondo/Death Waltz will do a great vinyl at some point)! We both commented that going by how absorbing the first half was on the second watch, that the whole movie will probably hold up great to repeat viewings and keep on giving.

On the other end of the horror quality spectrum I finally got to Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood, and oh boy is it not good. It doesn't have the smidgen of self-awareness that made VI surprisingly fun, and like every single other movie in the series so far it's 80 minutes of annoying teenagers and tension-free stabbings, climaxing in 10 minutes of actually quite enjoyable confrontation. The one thing it does to shake that formula up a bit is to include a girl with super powers, but that's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. Total trash, but I'm certain that at some point soon I'll be giving the exact same review of Part VIII.

More interesting was The Endless, which is on Netflix. One of those solid low budget high concept slightly horror slightly sci-fi sort of deal that had some really interesting things going on between the lines I felt. Liked it a lot.

Also got round to John Wick Chapter Two finally, which was fun as expected. The action does get quite numbing after a while in a way that something like The Raid movies don't for me, not sure why. There are 'oooooft' moments peppered throughout the film but there's maybe just a bit too much repetition to the moves and the fights for it to keep the excitement going. I did find it a more visually striking film than the first though. Some of the settings for the shootings were imaginative and cool to watch, and the car combat reminded me of the climax to John Woo's Bullet In The Head which was nice. I liked seeing more of the actual hitman community and how they operate, and it pans out very well for what'll be a pretty intense third movie so looking forward to that.

[Mattofthespurs]

Agree about the score. Top class [spoiler]Especially during the confrontation between both of Lupita's characters in the classroom towards the end[/spoiler]

Also, took me a while but realised that [spoiler]her Son is also one of the underground lot too. Nice double twist.[/spoiler]

[Link Prime]

Also, took me a while but realised that [spoiler]her Son is also one of the underground lot too. Nice double twist.[/spoiler]

I totally missed that- where is it mentioned?

[Mattofthespurs]

Erm...In the film?

[spoiler]Basically the look she gives him at the end. The fact that he bought a magic trick the year before at Santa Cruz and can't remember how to work it (because he was taken then). How he has a good knowledge of the tunnels where the Tethered live (because he's been living there for a year). The whole thing with the mask (especially the last show when he pulls it down after his Mother smiles at him. Him being attracted to the man on the beach with his hands out. Basically he wants to join in.[/spoiler]

There is quite a bit of foreshadowing in regards to this throughout the film but to be honest it did not hit me until a day or so later.

[radiator]

I saw Us too. Didn't really do much for me tbh.

Well made, great cast and performances and some cool visuals, but to me it just felt like a lot of decent but half-formed ideas shoved together, and the more the story was explained the less sense it all made. I also thought the weird tonal shifts between horror and light comedy quips didn't really work. The comedic lines often felt like they came from a different movie.

And regarding [spoiler]the twist, isn't 'I WAS THE EVIL TWIN ALL ALONG!' the twist in literally every single story about doppelgangers/clones/evil twins, to the point where it's kind of beyond a cliche at this point?[/spoiler]

But then, I didn't really see what all the fuss was about Get Out either.

[Link Prime]

[spoiler]Basically the look she gives him at the end. The fact that he bought a magic trick the year before at Santa Cruz and can't remember how to work it (because he was taken then). How he has a good knowledge of the tunnels where the Tethered live (because he's been living there for a year). The whole thing with the mask (especially the last show when he pulls it down after his Mother smiles at him. Him being attracted to the man on the beach with his hands out. Basically he wants to join in.[/spoiler]

The main twist was so obvious I was hoping there'd be another one, but I dunno about this Matt - seems too far fetched even in the context of the amount of disbelief you have to suspend with this film.
For 'Jason' to adapt like that in a year? I don't buy into it.

The comedic lines often felt like they came from a different movie.

I enjoyed it more than you Rad, but yeah, some of the comedy was ill judged.

[radiator]

The bit that really jumped out was when [spoiler]the family start jokingly comparing 'kill counts'[/spoiler]. It felt really unrealistic and off tonally, and spoiled the tension that had been built up to that point.

I also didn't really understand why the [spoiler]doppelgnagers kept fannying about so much if their goal was simply to kill their counterparts? all the monologuing seemed really contrived and Bond villainish[/spoiler].

[Mattofthespurs]

I stick by initial assumption. And I thought the comedy in the film was borderline sublime to be honest.

[spoiler]In my opinion it was the Tethered's aim to show the 'above ground' people what the cost is. Hence the Hands across America. It's a story about how the rich trample upon the poor, regardless of colour which is shown in the film. Hands across America was never, and did not, achieve anything. Just another Reagan bullshit policy[/spoiler]

[Keef Monkey]

[spoiler]Not sure if I see the thing with the son, his speech would be more messed up if he'd been raised with the tethered surely. To me the meaningful looks at the end were more down to him seeing his mother go pretty feral during the final confrontation and it dawning on him that there really isn't much separating them from the tethered. It's an interesting theory mind you, so will definitely keep it in mind on a rewatch. Mrs Monkey brought up the fact that the boy could control his doppelganger when nobody else seemed able to, that was interesting. I figured it was down to his double being younger and not having learned to break from the control yet, but there might be more going on there.[/spoiler]

Watched Firestarter last night (the old Stephen King adaptation) for the first time in a long time! I was really into the book and movie when I was very young, and watching it now it's interesting how much went over my head back then. I was definitely too young to register just how creepy Rainbird's interest in Charlie is, that all seems pretty dark now.

Doesn't actually hold up too badly though. It's a bit dull in places and can feel a bit silly in others, but when she goes full Carrie you get some really fun fireball action and flying flaming bodies, from a pre-CG time when seeing that stuff in movies had a bit more of a thrill to it because you knew stuntmen were doing some real crazy shit. It also reminded me that Drew Barrymore The Child Actor was actually really good as far as kid actors back then go, I forget that because I find Drew Barrymore The Grown Up Actor to be really awful in everything she's in!

[Keef Monkey]

Oh also regarding Firestarter - I only just found out looking into the film now that it was developed as a John Carpenter film, but he got replaced after The Thing flopped. Now I'm wondering what John Carpenter's Firestarter would have been like!

[wedgeski]

Oh also regarding Firestarter - I only just found out looking into the film now that it was developed as a John Carpenter film, but he got replaced after The Thing flopped. Now I'm wondering what John Carpenter's Firestarter would have been like!

Food for thought! For Carpenter on King see: Christine. Also very good.

[Mattofthespurs]

Oh also regarding Firestarter - I only just found out looking into the film now that it was developed as a John Carpenter film, but he got replaced after The Thing flopped. Now I'm wondering what John Carpenter's Firestarter would have been like!

Fangoria #2 Volume 2 (the last issue out, which came out in February) has a rather large article, including pages of script, detailing just what Carpenter's 'Firestarter' would have been like.

[Keef Monkey]

Oh also regarding Firestarter - I only just found out looking into the film now that it was developed as a John Carpenter film, but he got replaced after The Thing flopped. Now I'm wondering what John Carpenter's Firestarter would have been like!

Fangoria #2 Volume 2 (the last issue out, which came out in February) has a rather large article, including pages of script, detailing just what Carpenter's 'Firestarter' would have been like.

Nice! Thanks for letting me know, I'll be popping into Smiths on the way home tonight then.

I do really like Christine too Wedgeski, find myself humming the theme quite often!