Last movie watched...

[Tiplodocus]

Is she called Eve by any chance?

[Keef Monkey]

Is she called Eve by any chance?

I don't want to give away too much of the plot.

[Tiplodocus]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetic_Justice_(film)

Janet Jackson stars as a poet called Justice.

It might be the best film ever but... well... you'd just feel stupid watching it, wouldn't you?

[The Legendary Shark]

Beasts of No Nation. The harrowing story of a child soldier in an unnamed African country. Well worth watching, especially for Idris Elba's chilling portrayal of the charismatic and ruthless Commandant.

[TordelBack]

Colossal. Don't personally care for Ann Hathaway or Jason Sudekis, but that actually works to the advantage of this film where they play some pretty awful people, surrounded by other awful people. Hits some of the same notes as Russian Doll, which is a good thing. Would have liked some closure on Tim Blake Nelson's character, although it's saying something when the most likeable person in a film is a [spoiler]cokehead[/spoiler]. I was really pleased that at least one of them experienced some kind of redemption by the end, and one got their comeuppance. It's a very enjoyable oddity, and pleasingly tight. Yeah, good stuff.

[Apestrife]

Terminator: Dark Fate  By no means up there with T2 (not sure if it was a mistake watching it the day before watching Dark fate) but I had a really good time watching it.

Linda's return as Sara Connor is a real stand out. Her pain looks real through out the film. Arnie does a really good job as well, I was surprised how genuinly funny he could be on film (without being the butt of the joke). The new cast is also solid. I was especially pleased with Grace, who looked like she'd be a bit annoying in the trailers but I think the film she was really good. Same goes for the Rev 9 Terminator. Not very exciting in the trailers but he sure is in the movie.

It plays it quite safe. Nothing mindblowing. A bit like the recent Halloween, borrows a bit here and there from the sequels it's said to ignore. Not a movie I'll watch every time after rewatching T1 and T2, but all and all a really solid action film with a suprising amount of humour and heart.

[Keef Monkey]

Yeah I saw Terminator: Dark Fate too and really, really enjoyed it. I thought they did a great job of making the Terminator menacing and creepy again (which surprised me because he looked really bland in the trailer), it was awesome seeing Linda Hamilton back and her character was treated great, and I thought Mackenzie Davis was fantastic in the protector role, she nailed a really great mix of being tough as nails while also being scared as hell.

Is it as good as T1 or T2? No, but it's closer than I expected, and definitely way closer than any of the other sequels managed to get to that particular breathless chase movie intensity. I was surprised by how much I was gripped by the action because that's rare for me these days, properly on the edge of my seat at times. Particularly for the last chunk, which made me realize how invested it had got me in the lead characters, so they did very well on that front. Looking forward to seeing it again sometime, I'd say in a triple bill but I actually find T2 quite long on rewatches these days so that thought is a bit daunting.

Also saw Cloud Atlas for the first time, which was definitely interesting and visually sumptuous. I get the impression it gets a bad rap for being an overly ambitious mess, and while I won't argue that it isn't I was still completely absorbed for the whole thing, which at 3hrs is no mean feat.

Oh and 3 From Hell, which I didn't actually dislike, I just found it a bit of a pointless retread (verging on remake) of The Devil's Rejects. It literally has the exact same structure and plot points from start to finish, it's just the same things happening in slightly different places to slightly different people. It has a couple of great moments (as much as people write off Rob Zombie's films as trashy garbage - and I won't defend all his films - I do think he has a real visual flair that comes out sometimes in some really great shots, similarly he can often match the right music to a scene really well to make it memorable) but after The Devil's Rejects being so different to House of 1000 Corpses it's pretty disappointing that he hasn't done something different with the third film. Hell, if he was going to hark back to one of those two films I would have been way more into a callback to the wackier Dr Satan carnival vibe of 1000 Corpses, because there's a lot less of that kind of thing around.

It's also a real shame that the most memorable character from those films, Captain Spaulding, isn't really a presence in this one. I know Sid Haig was very unwell at the time so was swapped out for Richard Brake as a new character, and while I think Brake is brilliant and scene-stealing in everything he's in (his performance in the otherwise dull 31 is genuinely one of the best horror villain performances ever) in terms of the story it feels a random and cheap to just swap that character out for a proxy. Maybe they were too deep into production to call things off, but it does feel like if they couldn't have the 3 in 3 From Hell, then maybe it would have been better to just leave it be.

Nobody could argue the ending of The Devil's Rejects didn't feel final, so making another always seemed an odd choice anyway unless he had something new that he really needed to do with it, so I expected a lot more from it than a fairly pointless rehash I guess. Watching it again with a friend soon so maybe I'll like it more on a 2nd watch without any expectations.

[JamesC]

Halloween (2018)

This was far better than I was expecting. I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Jamie Lee Curtis was really cool in her Sarah Conner-esque prepper guise.
I guess you could say it went off a bit towards the end, becoming more of a predictable slash-fest. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of the journalists but generally speaking it was great fun.
The opening scene in the asylum and the bit with the bus were really excelllent.

[Hawkmumbler]

HALLOWEEN 2(.3)018 is a great wee movie I really rate up in the chronology at the series, easily on par with Part 2 (but inferior to Season of the Witch, because what isn't). Surprisingly being freed of Loomis enabled this sequel to do something different, unrestrained by the duality of the good doctors antithesis to Michael, instead allowing JLC to really go full Rambo on Myers this time around.

[von Boom]

The Freighteners. (1996) Holds up very well with a great story and some excellent acting. I think this is one of the early films to use CGI extensively and it was done very well. They used it where needed and not just to pass the time.

[wedgeski]

Terminator: Dark Fate  By no means up there with T2 (not sure if it was a mistake watching it the day before watching Dark fate) but I had a really good time watching it.

Linda's return as Sara Connor is a real stand out. Her pain looks real through out the film. Arnie does a really good job as well, I was surprised how genuinly funny he could be on film (without being the butt of the joke). The new cast is also solid. I was especially pleased with Grace, who looked like she'd be a bit annoying in the trailers but I think the film she was really good. Same goes for the Rev 9 Terminator. Not very exciting in the trailers but he sure is in the movie.

It plays it quite safe. Nothing mindblowing. A bit like the recent Halloween, borrows a bit here and there from the sequels it's said to ignore. Not a movie I'll watch every time after rewatching T1 and T2, but all and all a really solid action film with a suprising amount of humour and heart.

I was a bit let down by this. The main problem is that I thought the terminator *did* become the butt of the joke. Second to that, I didn't feel at all sympathetic to the girl targeted for termination. Her arc, such as it was, was fumbled. There was lots to like though. The final fight sequence was particularly good, Grace was a sympathetic character very well played, and it was awesome to see Sarah Connor back on-screen kicking the shit out of some bad metal. Also Sarah's flashback sequence was extremely cool -- I just wish they'd played it straight, rather than as some pseudo dream sequence. Maybe the budget was getting thin!

Overall not the return to form I'd been led to believe, just more of the same, really, with some fan-pleasing twists. Honestly I think Salvation did a better job of regenerating the idea than this one.

[Dark Jimbo]

The Freighteners. (1996)

Is that the one about the haunted haulage company?

[radiator]

Colossal. Don't personally care for Ann Hathaway or Jason Sudekis, but that actually works to the advantage of this film where they play some pretty awful people, surrounded by other awful people. Hits some of the same notes as Russian Doll, which is a good thing. Would have liked some closure on Tim Blake Nelson's character, although it's saying something when the most likeable person in a film is a [spoiler]cokehead[/spoiler]. I was really pleased that at least one of them experienced some kind of redemption by the end, and one got their comeuppance. It's a very enjoyable oddity, and pleasingly tight. Yeah, good stuff.

Really liked that movie back when I saw it in the cinema - it didn't play out at all how I was expecting. The trailers made it seem like it was going to be a twee indie romance with a sci-fi/kaiju twist, which its anything but.


Good to hear the positive(ish) buzz around Dark Fate - I'll be going to see it when it releases over here next week. It'll be the first new Terminator film I've bothered with since T3.

[MacabreMagpie]

Colossal. Don't personally care for Ann Hathaway or Jason Sudekis, but that actually works to the advantage of this film where they play some pretty awful people, surrounded by other awful people. Hits some of the same notes as Russian Doll, which is a good thing. Would have liked some closure on Tim Blake Nelson's character, although it's saying something when the most likeable person in a film is a [spoiler]cokehead[/spoiler]. I was really pleased that at least one of them experienced some kind of redemption by the end, and one got their comeuppance. It's a very enjoyable oddity, and pleasingly tight. Yeah, good stuff.

I found Terminator Salvation quite watchable if not great, whereas Genisys I only managed 30 minutes of before having to turn it off. God awful. I'll be seeing this at some point.

Really liked that movie back when I saw it in the cinema - it didn't play out at all how I was expecting. The trailers made it seem like it was going to be a twee indie romance with a sci-fi/kaiju twist, which its anything but.


Good to hear the positive(ish) buzz around Dark Fate - I'll be going to see it when it releases over here next week. It'll be the first new Terminator film I've bothered with since T3.

[Tiplodocus]

I watched Sicarrio 2 and London has fallen back to back and it was interesting to see the differences in their approach to action and tension.

Leaving aside the stereotypical depiction of world leaders at the start of London, it's pretty much of the "might is right " school of action and character ethics.

The director and stunt and effects teams throw ludicrous amounts of kinetic energy and pyrotechnics into every scene which ultimately renders a lot of it unbelievable.


This extends to the script where there is only one single line where our complicity in this shit show is questioned.

The bad guy arms dealer says "I'm just doing what you do; sell weapons for profit regardless of whose hands they end up in" but this is quickly sidelined for another patriotic speech and stoic act of sacrifice followed by somebody getting punched in the head.

More like "London has SHAT itself."

Siccario 2, like it's protagonists, is much more comfortable working in the shadows and grey areas.

Nearly everything they do is wrong and they know it and are quite comfortable to let the audience know it too.

The action is probably still unrealistic but toned down enough to make it seem believable. Plans don't get foiled because of a patriotic last stand but because of a random encounter. People don't survive because they are action movie tough but because someone can't aim right. I'm up for part 3.