Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

Idaho Transfer - possibly the world's first Youtube movie, such is its quality and storytelling coherence.  Scientist men accidentally invent time travel and use it to do fuck all, apart from sending teenagers into the future to look at stuff because older people can't handle the stresses of "The Transfer".  Then they get stuck in the future, wander around a bit, one of them what was dead suddenly isn't and has killed some others possibly, then one of them gets turned into petrol.  A stupid film, not very well made or acted, but has the germ of some decent ideas in there - it's just a pity it never develops any of them in any interesting ways.

[Mattofthespurs]

The Meg.

Enjoyable shite.

That it was...Eventually. The first 40 minutes or so is painfully slow, the acting is poor, Jason Statham's accent is weird and the script is pretty awful.

But my, those shark set pieces, of which there are about four of them, are just a joy to behold.

A B movie in all regards (not to mention being a practical remake of Deep Blue Sea) and if viewed as such there is fun to be had.

Just don't expect too much.

[abelardsnazz]

The Festival. Inbetweeners creators mine a similar vein with Joe Thomas playing a version of Simon with elements of Will amid much embarrassment and gross-out. It's not too long so I wasn't bored and laughed several times. Nothing I didn't expect apart from a couple of surprise cameos, but it was good fun.

[Smith]

King Arthur Legend of the sword.There are shitty movies and there are thing that feel like you blended together 5 shitty movies.
I dont know where to even start.Im not the greatest expert on the Arthurian mythos,but Im pretty sure there are no similarities to the legend here.

[Mardroid]

10 Cloverfield Lane

Very interesting. The sequel, that isn't really a sequel at all*. More of a claustrophobic psychological horror... and I like the idea that [spoiler]while the main antagonist really is a paranoid conspiracy theory toting nut job... that doesn't mean he isn't kinda right in this case. I sort of saw the twist outside  coming, but it was pretty much signposted, and it's not entirely about that.[/spoiler]

I enjoyed that a lot, probably more than Cloverfield. Then again, while I did enjoy Cloverfield I did find it a little overrated, much like many found movie films. It's still a good film, though.

Looking forward to The Cloverfield Paradox, although the reviews I've read have not been good.

*[spoiler]There are big monsters out there, but they're not the same big monsters. This is more of an alien invasion thing, than the Godzilla stuff from the first film. I like the fact the monster/invasion is pretty much besides the point. Okay, it's the reason they're all in the bunker to start with, but it's more about the issues between the main characters stuck there.[/spoiler]

[wedgeski]

I really loved _10 Cloverfield Lane_.

I did not love the _Cloverfield Paradox_.

[Keef Monkey]

I love 10 Cloverfield Lane, and my only gripe with it at all is that they slapped that title on it! Drawing a superficial connection to the original film sends you in with certain expectations and I found that a little distracting on a first watch, when it's a strong enough film to more than stand on its own. It's a fantastic tense thriller, and the performances are excellent.

Paradox I didn't particularly like. I didn't hate it, it was just really forgettable and could have been way better. Another case of them retrofitting the brand onto an existing film apparently, and it really shows.

[Mardroid]

Yes, I understand that 10 Cloverfield Lane wasn't meant to be attached at all, originally. Then when checking themes, they figured it was a 'spiritual successor'.

Thing is, they could have had it set in the same world as the original with the original beasts, and changed very little as far as the main plot is concerned. Even the 'bad air' could have been explained as [spoiler] nuclear fallout from bombing New York,[/spoiler] or just the guy's paranoia. [Spoiler] (I.e.he was half right about the bad air. It wasn't everywhere as he imagined, but the aliens do use gas as a weapon in a more specific surgical way.)[/spoiler]

On the other hand, we'd not have had the [spoiler]strange interesting biomechanical ship/creature designs if they'd gone that route.[/spoiler]

[Mardroid]

Antman and The Wasp

Yes, that was very entertaining. And I loved the mid and post credit scenes. Including the very silly thing at the end. It tickles my sense of humor our that people sat through the credits for that. [Spoiler]Boom, tish![/spoiler]

[Hawkmumbler]

Time After Time (1977)

All the talk of Ready Player One reminded me of a movie that was also chock full of references, unlike RPO however, the subject matter and execution meant to cultiral nods enhanced the story, not detracted from it. A lovely send up to the works of H.G. Wells and Conan Doyle. Good solid time travel fun.

[Colin YNWA]

Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Well sometimes its best not to return to those golden moments of your youth!

Well okay there were some great moments and some of the latter task (Building of Insanity and Face the Beast) are actually pretty good but overall a bit of a dud and the animation was pretty poor.

Shame I remember it so fondly!

[dweezil2]

Black Klansman

A real return to form from Spike Lee.

Uneven for sure, with the Tarantino-esque visual cues just the right side of pastiche, but feeling a little old hat and while the point of racism being bad is rather hammered home at times (never a bad point to hammer home to be fair), it's an entertaining watch with some great performances and a coda that left the audience I was watching it with in stunned silence.

[Trooper McFad]

Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Well sometimes its best not to return to those golden moments of your youth!

Well okay there were some great moments and some of the latter task (Building of Insanity and Face the Beast) are actually pretty good but overall a bit of a dud and the animation was pretty poor.

Shame I remember it so fondly!

This was the first film for me that the saying "wasn't as good as the book" rang true. And I was only a wee bam at the time but still thought the animation didn't live up to my idea of how Asterix & Obelix sounded 😩
Still enjoy the books to this day and the twelve task is one of my fav.

[I, Cosh]

I'm quite disappointed that Arnie's second movie career seems to have run out of steam. He puts in a decent effort in the nastily violent thriller Sabotage, but the film itself is too much of a mess to love. All the right elements seem to be in place but nobody was able to put them together in the right order. The initial mystery runs out of steam too quickly, the strand which replaces it doesn't make a huge amount of sense and the denouement is just unmitigatedly nasty. Everyone who dies deserves it but that doesn't leave us with anyone to latch onto.

Good reviews of the latest installment reminded me that I didn't see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation at the time. I vaguely remember being annoyed by the increased prominence of Simon Pegg's character. He still grates but does become a more important member of the crew here. Few other surprises: the series continues to be the very highest calibre of big money entertainment.

Euro-summer outdoor cinema round-up.

A Hellboy spin-off in all but name, The Shape of Water has a great look and not much else. Del Toro is never going to make another film even half as good as Pan's Labyrinth or Blade 2, is he?

I enjoyed Lady Bird quite a bit but was surprised how conventional and schmaltzy a lot of the story beats were, having read the opposite about it. Ultimately, the spiky, real relationship between Saoirse Ronan and her mum gave the film a heart which overcame that.

The larger than life subject of Tally Brown, New York is a gift to any documentary maker. Cabaret singer, Warhol luminary and fixture of the New York gay scene, she has enough stories, strangeness and laughter for a ten-part serial. It's also an incredible flashback to a New York and an underground culture that no longer exists.

The prosaically titled documentary Punk in London was a fascinating time capsule. Made for German TV, its slightly earnest makers track down an assortment of leading and lesser lights of the 70s punk scene. Alternately candid and hilariously blank interviews in artists' mums' sitting rooms and squats coupled with concert footage and live recordings made for the film. Really worth a watch if you're remotely interested in the music, or if you want an idea of the kind of dereliction and desperation which the country will be returning to post-Brexit.

[Magnetica]

Jurassic World. Just watched it with my son who is mad keen on dinosaurs and had been asking to see it recently. By happy coincidence it was on ITV last night.

It felt like a remake of the original Jurassic Park to me, with many elements feeling familiar:

Helicopter journeys. Check.
Park owner completely complacent over the dangers of the park. Check.
Kids get into trouble in the park. Check.
People hiding from Dino under / in a car. Check.
Dino pushes car aside like it was a toy. Check.
Velociraptors. Check.
Dilophosaurus. Check.
Baddies attempting to steal dinosaur embryos. Check.


But despite all that I thought it was great and the time just flew by. Would definitely watch it again.