Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

The Journey, the story of the final leg of the 2006 Northern Irish peace talks, starts out telling you it's not based on real events, almost apologetic for what follows - as well it should be.  Great performances from Tim Spall as Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney as Martin McGuinness, as well as a less memorable performance from Norman Bates as their driver, but the script is pretty rotten.  I actually met Martin McGuinness once: some mates dragged me out of bed saying "we're going to a U2 concert" so the day was already off to a bad start, but as we were getting into the car, my local councillor appeared ninja-like and introduced me to McGuinness, who was doing the rounds on our street because of some politics stuff going on, and the only thing I could think to say as he shook my hand was "Deep Space Nine is my favorite show."

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

I'd love a story where we see how that random declaration to him set in motion a chain of events and changed history forever

[JamesC]

Logan

I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a really entertaining action film and struck a perfect balance between having its own stand-alone identity and still keeping in continuity with what went before. Some of the action scenes were ace (I really loved the bit where the car was dragging the fence around) and I thought the performances by Jackman and Stewart were fantastic. It benefited greatly by not having a 'save the world' plot and by keeping things relatively small scale. The best X film by a mile in my opinion.

[TordelBack]

Kong: Skull Island.  Hiddleston is a bit of a plank in this one, and too many of the cannon fodder are devoid of any real personality, but the chunky trifecta of John C Reilly, Dan Goodman and Kong himself make up for this in spades, and I'll be damned if this isn't even more fun than I remember from the cinema. 

The super-sized Kong performed by Terry Notary is a truly accomplished and strangely believable creation, and I've even warmed to the design of the Skullcrawlers, which in fairness to Legendary really don't look like anything else, despite their multitude of influences.  There's a restless enthusiasm to the camerawork, and no opportunity to frame a colourful image or compose a cheesy sequence is passed up, but all done so briskly that it's just amusing rather than irritating.

It all makes very little sense at all (even if the most improbable thing in it is Brie Larson's magic camera), but it's definitely the best Kong movie since 1933.  My daughter (8) watched much of it through her fingers, fearing that Kong (rather than Our Heroes) would be badly hurt or killed, and that is how it should be. 

[I, Cosh]

Bright - as with others, pleasantly surprised that this wasn't terrible but instead fairly trashy fun. As mentioned elsewhere I enjoyed that this wasn't Shadowrun (Magic has appeared in the mundane) but instead a world where all of the fantasy and fantasy racism has always been part of the world.

Saw the first four minutes of this at the weekend before it was declared "too stupid" and we watched 2012 instead...

[Buttonman]

The Statement - Geriatric Nazi Michael Caine gets chased around France by Tilda Swinton.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The Journey, the story of the final leg of the 2006 Northern Irish peace talks, starts out telling you it's not based on real events, almost apologetic for what follows - as well it should be.  Great performances from Tim Spall as Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney as Martin McGuinness, as well as a less memorable performance from Norman Bates as their driver, but the script is pretty rotten.  I actually met Martin McGuinness once: some mates dragged me out of bed saying "we're going to a U2 concert" so the day was already off to a bad start, but as we were getting into the car, my local councillor appeared ninja-like and introduced me to McGuinness, who was doing the rounds on our street because of some politics stuff going on, and the only thing I could think to say as he shook my hand was "Deep Space Nine is my favorite show."

Colm Meaney acts in Deep Space Nine. That's the triggering episode here. Martin McGuiness knew all about triggers.

[pictsy]

Logan

I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a really entertaining action film and struck a perfect balance between having its own stand-alone identity and still keeping in continuity with what went before. Some of the action scenes were ace (I really loved the bit where the car was dragging the fence around) and I thought the performances by Jackman and Stewart were fantastic. It benefited greatly by not having a 'save the world' plot and by keeping things relatively small scale. The best X film by a mile in my opinion.

I enjoy all the X-Men movies (Wolverine Origins excluded), even The Last Stand - which isn't that good, but I find it entertaining none-the-less.  Nevertheless, I will agree that Logan is the best.  Your right that its focus is what really elevates this film.  I was really impressed with it.

[Theblazeuk]

Saw the first four minutes of this at the weekend before it was declared "too stupid" and we watched 2012 instead...
[/quote

Oh it is so, so stupid. But I would say maybe 5% smarter than 2012.

[manwithnoname]

Finally watched "IT"

That was very enjoyable and suitably scary. The book has long been a favourite, although I must confess that it's status as an "all-time personal horror classic" is entirely based on having read it once, when I was 14.

But it seemed to be faithful enough, and Pennywise was great.

Still think it might have been better served as a big budget mini-series, as there's enough content in the 1100 pages for a season or two, but perhaps the feeling is that we've been there and done that already, with the Tim Curry version.

I wonder if the very similar Dan Simmons book, Summer of Night, will get the TV/ film treatment, after the success of this and also the Stranger Things phenom.

[Satanist]

It Stains the Sand Red - I had high hopes for this as from the trailer it looked like they were bringing the scares back to zombies. Lone woman stuck in the desert being pursued by a single zombie. The tone of it is all over the place though ranging from comedy to one particularly nasty scene.

so more like It Shits its own Bed!

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Sluggish, linear, cheap and wholly unnecessary. An odd damp squib of a finale for the 70s sci-fi franchise that manages to fritter away any interesting social commentary or any engaging continuity fun (really? The apes wore the same type of clothes for nearly 2000 years?!). McDowell is great as always and (as many have commented) watching a beweaponed school bus rollicking about the fields blowing up apes is something but... nah. It's not a surprise we didn't hear a peep from the apesaga until (bizarrely) the year this film is set.

[JOE SOAP]

It's not a surprise we didn't hear a peep from the apesaga until (bizarrely) the year this film is set.

Battle... was followed-up by the live-action and cartoon TV series.

[sheridan]

It's not a surprise we didn't hear a peep from the apesaga until (bizarrely) the year this film is set.

Battle... was followed-up by the live-action and cartoon TV series.

Plus a (Marvel?) comic series around the same time, and I think a Dark Horse one in the 1990s.

[Mardroid]

Noah

A curious take on the Biblical story complete with rock giants* and Methuselah with a magic sword. I expected a film to pad things out a bit, but they didn’t half take liberties. And Russell Crow’s Noah came across as a bit of a nob.

A curious watch, but a bit rubbish, I thought.

Before that I saw Grandpa’s Great Escape: a delightful story based on a children’s book by David Walliams, who also stars in a supporting role as the main protagonists amusingly boring father. It was a bit silly, in a good way, a bit sad, also in a good way. It did get a bit sentimental, but this did not ruin the film at all for me. Despite the sad part of the story (it deals with an old man suffering from altzeimers after all) it finds a lot of humour in the situation, without denigrating or mocking it, and ultimately is an uplifting tale. And spitfires are cool.

* The fallen angels are mentioned briefly in Genesis just before the Noah story, and they are named and described in more detail (this time described as ‘watchers’, where they obviously got the name for the creatures in this film) in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. They were not rock giants however, but they are mentioned as teaching humanity and are the fathers (by human women) of the nephilim who were giants, although probably not rocky.