Last movie watched...

[wedgeski]

Fantastic Beasts II: I agree entirely agree about all of this. There was an assumption that I'd remember a metric fucktonne of stuff from the first movie that rendered at least the first thirty minutes incomprehensible to me. Yes, it kind of settles down into something watchable in the last hour and I didn't hate it, but I thought it was very much the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest of this series.

This was a big disappointment for us. It should've been much better.

[TordelBack]

Definitely should (and could) have been better,  but not a total disaster either.

Anyone have any theory on how Grindelwald has obvious mastery of the Elder Wand,  despite being defeated by Tina in the first one (as per Draco's defeat of Dumbledore, then Harry's defeat of Draco)? Given that this 'master of the Elder Wand' business is much of the plot of Deathly Hallows, and largely the cause of [spoiler]Snape's death and Voldemort's defeat[/spoiler],and the whole FB2 movie campaign is draped in the Deathly Hallows symbol despite the wand being the only one that appears, it seems far from a minor problem.

[Hawkmumbler]

Fans: We love Harry Potter but a tad more diversity would be nice-

Warner Bros: [spoiler]Voldemorts snake was a Korean lass all along![/spoiler]

Fans: No not like that-

[Professor Bear]

If you've been watching JK Rowling's bitter descent towards conservatism over the last few years of social media, you would know it was far more likely a case of OH YOU WANT DIVERSITY DO YOU WELL I'LL FUCKING GIVE YOU DIVERSITY YOU BUNCH OF UNGRATEFUL CUN

[TordelBack]

Have to assume that particular piece of cackwomblery was Jo's idea, and it's a truly terrible one. It also detracts from Harry being an [spoiler]accidental human horcrux [/spoiler] if Voldemort had already made one out of a person.

It's noticeable that all the non-white characters, other than Leta who was sort-of introduced last time, are totally superfluous, with all the hallmarks of last-minute shoehorning.

[Professor Bear]

Venom - menIMM ummmmumm umm-mm - is easily the worst superhero movie I've seen in a long while.
I've got lots of time for Tom Hardy but I have absolutely no idea what he's doing here, as far as I can tell doing an impression of those tv actors that seem to thrive on doing a Tom Hardy impression, like that guy who played Norman Bates' brother in Bates Motel, or Kenny Johnson from The Shield and SWAT.  The script clearly has the Eddie Brock from the comics in mind - an intense but charismatic presence who could easily slip into some kind of delusional psychosis in which he believes himself to be doing heroic, admirable work that justifies his violent acts and even puts a sheen on his selfish quest for vengeance, but Hardy plays the character as a flake and a stumblebum who's never impacted in any meaningful way by what happens around him.  There's a bit where the story skips forward in time by six months and Eddie's life is supposed to be in ruins at the hands of a petulant Elon Musk-style billionaire, but Eddie is still exactly the same character, still living in a huge apartment, still riding an expensive motorbike, still drinking in bars and giving away his seemingly endless supply of money to homeless people/  He pays lip service to being sad about his fiance ditching him, but never actually shows it.  The rest of the cast don;t make much of an impact, though a brief glimpse of [spoiler]Woody Harrelson as Kletus Cassidy[/spoiler] was nice.
I'd be lying if I sad the film wasn't entertaining in places - they make an effort to differentiate Venom from Spider-Man in how he moves, fights, swings around, etc, and it really pays off in places like when he's running from the cops, but these moments are too brief, and the transition between them and Eddie Brock stumbling about in a sweaty hoodie are so clumsy they actually draw attention to where the CGI stops and starts, and maybe it was because I didn't realise it was coming, but the timing of Stan The Man's cameo was pretty much perfect, but by and large, the bad and the indifferent material outweighs the good.  In the words of Bernard Black, it's dreadful, but it's quite short.

[Radbacker]

Mortal Engines, quite entertaining and some nice miniature work I do believe not all CGI (though there was plenty of that too).  A tad predictable in spots and even though it was very Steam Punkish it definitely cribbed quite bit from Starwars I think [spoiler]i saw the Hester I'm your father bit coming from along away off[/spoiler].  Unfortunately it'll probably flop as it isn't a remake, sequel or super hero movie.
I recommend though if you get a chafe definatly worth a watch.

CU Radbacker

[Tiplodocus]

Bohemian Rhapsody.

So sue me, I liked it a lot. Queen was the soundtrack of my youth so the recreations here were beltingly done.

Shamelessly emotionally manipulative and possibly more historically inaccurate than Braveheart. But top performances (Timmy form Jurassic Park is great), top songs and Mike Myers in terrible terrible self aware gag.

[Colin YNWA]

Finally got around to watching Slow West which I recorded an age ago. You know there's a type of modern western that is a little laconic, yet often says much. Almost whimsical but laced with violence and grit (true or otherwise) and I love them.

This is one of those. A Western dreamscape, a wonderful story of the power of unrequited love. Superb.

[radiator]

Krampus.

Been hearing more and more the last few years about how this is a modern Christmas cult classic, so gave it a watch the other night. It's a Christmas-themed horror/comedy very much in the vein of Gremlins and probably intended for the same young-ish audience.

I liked certain aspects of it lot. The cast is great and it has some really terrific creature designs and visuals, but overall as a film it didn't really click for me. It has amusing moments, but isn't imo funny enough to stand alone as a comedy. I also didn't feel like I got to really know the characters enough to feel emotionally involved when it starts to unravel. It also doesn't really have the same sense of rules that Gremlins has regarding the supernatural threat and there isn't much buildup - it just takes a sudden jarring swerve into monster movie chaos after the first 30 minutes of dark family dramedy.

[Professor Bear]

Halloween (2018) - more like uhhh HalloWANK.
This is the film that cemented in my mind that Hollywood is officially cancelled.  Nothing new in the tank, just recycling brands with soft reboots that ignore producer or fanboy head canon ala The Force Awakens.  I should actually have thought this with The Predator, which is a good 1980s-style b-movie romp, it just has fuck all to do with the Predator franchise, but that was actually entertaining, while Halloween is just a sub-par slasher movie cruising on the reputation of the original and the premise of being the only "true" sequel to a genre classic rather than just the third reboot of it.

[Hawkmumbler]

Finally got around to watching Slow West which I recorded an age ago. You know there's a type of modern western that is a little laconic, yet often says much. Almost whimsical but laced with violence and grit (true or otherwise) and I love them.

This is one of those. A Western dreamscape, a wonderful story of the power of unrequited love. Superb.

Adding to my ever growing list of To Watch Westerns.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Hereditary.

Very good film. Slow burn in the first hour, but necessary and then loses it's shit (in a good way) in the second hour.

As a seasoned horror fan, for at least forty years, there were four sequences that sent genuine chills up my spine. Compare this to The Sixth Sense where this happened twice.

Has a good 'Rosemary's Baby' vibe to it.

Recommended if you like creepy horror.

7.5/10

I mostly agree, although it seemed a bit muddled at times, but maybe some processing will iron that out. A brilliant performance from Toni Collette plus an unsettling atmosphere from the start make this an overall hit.

Watched this recently too; some of it is horrifying in a way that has seeped into my brain and made me uneasy for days.

These bits were the [spoiler] family's reaction to the awful decapitation though, and the fact that the poor mam had to find Charlie's body in the car[/spoiler].

Things get a little bit silly when [spoiler] people start flying and chalks write on boards though,[/spoiler] and I can't help thinking it would have been better without the supernatural elements at all (in a Kill List kind of way, perhaps).

[Rara Avis]

I didn't like The Predator. The whole premise regarding the autistic son .. there's nothing wrong with having autism so [spoiler]what the heck was that people with autism are the next step in human evolution plotline all about?[/spoiler]

Halloween (2018) - more like uhhh HalloWANK.
This is the film that cemented in my mind that Hollywood is officially cancelled.  Nothing new in the tank, just recycling brands with soft reboots that ignore producer or fanboy head canon ala The Force Awakens.  I should actually have thought this with The Predator, which is a good 1980s-style b-movie romp, it just has fuck all to do with the Predator franchise, but that was actually entertaining, while Halloween is just a sub-par slasher movie cruising on the reputation of the original and the premise of being the only "true" sequel to a genre classic rather than just the third reboot of it.

[Rara Avis]

I don't normally watch horror movies but I gave this a go and regretted it as scenes from the movie kept coming back to me usually when I was just about to fall asleep.

For me it was [spoiler]the mother on the roof and sawing her own head off, the decapitated body floating into the tree house and the naked people just appearing in the house[/spoiler].

Genuinely creepy.

Watched this recently too; some of it is horrifying in a way that has seeped into my brain and made me uneasy for days.

These bits were the [spoiler] family's reaction to the awful decapitation though, and the fact that the poor mam had to find Charlie's body in the car[/spoiler].

Things get a little bit silly when [spoiler] people start flying and chalks write on boards though,[/spoiler] and I can't help thinking it would have been better without the supernatural elements at all (in a Kill List kind of way, perhaps).