Last movie watched...

[wedgeski]

"Still better than it has any right to be"

I see this term an awful lot these days. It seems like a very back-handed compliment.

[Keef Monkey]

Joker, which I mostly enjoyed in the moment but the things I didn't like have eaten away at my enthusiasm a bit the more I've thought about it. It's definitely an interesting film with an amazing performance, I'm just not sure if the surrounding film is everything it's cracked up to be.

Definitely didn't think it was bad though (I've tried to articulate a bit more of how I feel about it in the Joker thread).

[Tiplodocus]

"Still better than it has any right to be"

I see this term an awful lot these days. It seems like a very back-handed compliment.

I didn't mean it as such. Perhaps "better than the film I expected it to be" is what I should have said.

It was a film for me that a) came out of nowhere as I had missed any marketing hype b) when I did see a trailer it didn't look anything like classic Kong story I was familiar with c) had scope to be Transformers all flash effects and no substance

It certainly tops all of those. But there is always a bit of surprise when a monster movie has a theme over and above wondering for what the monster is a metaphor.

[TordelBack]

Skull Island is great fun, a genuinely engaging monster movie, and even if Hiddleston and Larson are a bit flat the rest of the human cast more than makes up for it. Kong himself is a joy.

While not wanting to derail the thread again, we're trudging on with daughter-mandated SW rewatch.  Against my better judgement we watched Revenge of the Sith over three nights last week. Watching in little chunks allowed me to enjoy it a lot more than I have recently - there's so much good stuff in there that (for me) is overshadowed by the awful, awful last 10 minutes, that it was nice to be able to reflect on the good bits without the foul aftertaste that comes with sitting through the whole thing. While I've given out at length about the terribly fumbled turn to the Dark Side, it's set within such a powerful sequence that I may have to forgive it. I also really enjoyed the visual feasts of Coruscant, Utapau and Mustafar as backdrops. The latter in particular is a work of art that I may not really have appreciated before - it's hard to believe that it's all (mostly) one vast shooting miniature with rivers of orange goo flowing through it, composited with realworld eruption footage. Anyway, not as hopeless as I remembered: next time I'll just switch it off as soon as Yoda wakes up from his meditation on Polis Massa and all may be well.   

This was followed by Solo, which went down in one barely noticeable bite yesterday evening.  Now there's a film that's 'better than it has any right to be'. Shorn of any expectations after many viewings, I really loved it. Yes, it's very silly (the Imperial March being the Imperial March in particular!), yes there are many inexplicable turns (why does Beckett suddenly think he can get away from Crimson Dawn at the end, when before it was unthinkable? How is a trainload of Coaxium equal in value to two Wookiee-portable cannisters? How (never mind why) did that Star Destroyer get there so quickly when the whole point of the Kessel Run in this film is how long it takes? How is everyone in these Disney films a genius mechanic?), but it's so relentlessly good-humoured and commendably brisk that I don't really care. I'd pay good money to see more of this kind of thing.

I have a bit of a theory that in earlier versions Qi'ra may have secretly been in league with Enfys Nest (which might explain how Enfys knows about the train heist, and why Qi'ra suggests Savareen in particular for processing the coaxium): it certainly feels there was meant to be a good bit more to the reveal of Enfys than we got.  In fact, one of this film's combined strengths and weaknesses is that it keeps introducing cool new characters and then moving on or disposing of them almost immediately (Moloch, Lady Proxima, Rio, Val, L3) - only Beckett really gets a decent crack at the whip (in this film we have a Beckett, a 'Ciara' and an  Eamonn - did Lucasfilm spend too long in Ireland?). 

Anyway, despite having all the makings of an unasked-for cash grab, this was a genuinely enjoyable watch, and the biggest question I had at the end is when did Emilia Clarke become such a solid actor?

[Keef Monkey]

I also really enjoyed the visual feasts of Coruscant, Utapau and Mustafar as backdrops. The latter in particular is a work of art that I may not really have appreciated before - it's hard to believe that it's all (mostly) one vast shooting miniature with rivers of orange goo flowing through it, composited with realworld eruption footage.

I had no idea! Just watched a video about that scene. Pretty amazing, those prequels get a bad rap for being CG-fests but there's some amazing model and miniature work going on amongst it all.

[Tiplodocus]

Persevere with Cloud Atlas - I really liked it.

It isn't really convoluted. If you haven't already clicked already, the tales are nested. e.g. The South Sea voyage is
a book being read in the tale of the musicians/gay lovers which is the letters being read in 70s San Francisco by Halle Berry which is a pulp novel being published by... etc.

They behaviours in one tale often relfect into the other tales - Tom Hanks has the most obvious (and lovely) character journey

Necroquoting myself... this was the other movie I watched while Mrs. Tips was away. Still great stuff with a simple and beautiful philosophy at the heart.

[Keef Monkey]

Saw Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo on the big screen last night and it was quite the experience. One of those movies you can't quite believe exists, you constantly have to remind yourself it's not a weird cheese-induced fever dream or something.

Hard to pick a highlight, but the gang fight is pretty special - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsaA903oxvc

I haven't seen Breakin' 1 but managed to follow the plot anyway because I'm dead smart.

[shaolin_monkey]

the biggest question I had at the end is when did Emilia Clarke become such a solid actor?

Yes!  I thought that at the end of Solo also! 

Because up until that point she had always seemed entirely wooden to me. In Solo she was emoting all over the place! More of that kind of thing please.

[Hawkmumbler]

Joker

It was fine. Solid 6/10. Not gonna redefine the genre. Still just a silly corporate comic book movie. Mildly self indulgent. Probably won't see again.

Can we stop talking about it now? I'm so very tired of the discourse.

[TordelBack]

Saw Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo on the big screen last night...

And I thought "in my great and unmatched wisdom" was the most unlikely phrase i'd read this week!

[MacabreMagpie]

Roger Waters US + THEM. Very good, though you know what you're getting if you're a fan of the music and live show.

Weirdest thing about seeing my first concert film at a movie theatre was me wanting to applaud and go "wooooooo!" after every song and then realising everyone else was sat quietly.

That and eating popcorn whilst watching a gig.

[Hawkmumbler]

Had a Terou Ishii and Rampo Edogawa double bill this week, two of Ishii's 1969 outings into the weird, stunning and harrowing. Both where some of the most amazing yet baffling genre deep dives i've taken in a long while and i'll be more than ready to check out both more Ishii movies (his Yakuza Law films look bonkers!) and Edogawa novels, thankfully most appear to have been translated into English.

Horrors of Malformed Men

Ishii's adaptation of a pair of Edogawa's novellas focusing on detective Kogoro Akechi, as an amnesiac man estranged from his family follows a trail of cover ups, murder, hypersexual fetishes and an island of deformed and angry men.



Orgies of Edo

Ishii's anthology following the misfortunes of working class women in Edo period Japan, as power mad lords and bandits terrorize the working classes in increasingly strange and violently esoteric ways.
Not many movies feature a matador race where the bulls are on fire, i'll give it that!

[TordelBack]

Terminator Genisyhte. By far the stupidest film produced for this brand, despite being a reasonable idea.

Many of its failings are down to the worst casting decisions I have ever seen. Michael Biehn is nobody's idea of a top thesp, he has a bit of screen charisma and can out-gravel many, and that's about it - but replacement Jai Courtney makes him look so damn good. This Kyle Reese apparently comes from a future where his gym buddy and nutrition coach John Connor helps him wax those hard-to-reach areas during one of their regular spa days. Gone is the haunted, desperate, half-starved guerilla betrayed by the commander he worships into chasing a dream of beauty into the past, replaced here instead by an easy-going bro with a good dental plan.

It's equally hard to believe that Jason Clarke's (deeply unlikeable) John Connor's rubbery scars belong to a franchise that pioneered believable facial prosthetics.

Even the usually reliable J K Simmons is hopelessly out of place, doing a sort of impression of Randy Quaid's character in Independance Day. And don't get me started on Matt Smith as Skynet: come back HBC, all is forgiven.

Arnie and Emilia Clarke (she's no Linda Hamilton, but she's not awful awful) are about the only people who come out of this with any credit; them and whoever did the work on modding the '84 Arnie footage: that was the only pleasure I got out of the whole thing.

Ghastly.

[von Boom]

Terminator Genisyhte. By far the stupidest film produced for this brand, despite being a reasonable idea.

Many of its failings are down to the worst casting decisions I have ever seen. Michael Biehn is nobody's idea of a top thesp, he has a bit of screen charisma and can out-gravel many, and that's about it - but replacement Jai Courtney makes him look so damn good. This Kyle Reese apparently comes from a future where his gym buddy and nutrition coach John Connor helps him wax those hard-to-reach areas during one of their regular spa days. Gone is the haunted, desperate, half-starved guerilla betrayed by the commander he worships into chasing a dream of beauty into the past, replaced here instead by an easy-going bro with a good dental plan.

It's equally hard to believe that Jason Clarke's (deeply unlikeable) John Connor's rubbery scars belong to a franchise that pioneered believable facial prosthetics.

Even the usually reliable J K Simmons is hopelessly out of place, doing a sort of impression of Randy Quaid's character in Independance Day. And don't get me started on Matt Smith as Skynet: come back HBC, all is forgiven.

Arnie and Emilia Clarke (she's no Linda Hamilton, but she's not awful awful) are about the only people who come out of this with any credit; them and whoever did the work on modding the '84 Arnie footage: that was the only pleasure I got out of the whole thing.

Ghastly.

This should be used as a disclaimer before the film plays anywhere from now on.

[Tiplodocus]

Every couple of years they try to give us a new leading man... Sam Worthington, Taylor Kitsch... but Jai Courtney is real barrell scraping.