Last movie watched...

[darnmarr]

If it makes you feel any better... it's implied that Jason Statham's character raped the film's lead, and the final line is "stop screaming - you loved it."

Thank you: that does make me feel better (about switching Spy 2015 off... I'm just as bewildered as ever ).

[radiator]

Spy 2015
Cast : Melissa Mcarthy, Jude law, Alison Janney, Jason Stratham, Miranda Hart, Peter Serafinowicz...
score 7 IMDB     94% critics score on Rotten Toms.
I liked the beginning, - thought it was a good premise, just the sort of light nonsense that I was in the humour for...  but as soon the story started it just seemed to become incrementally less funny on a gag- by- gag basis until about 20 mins into it- I had to turn it off in bewildering frustration.

A comedy so shite that it put me in a bad mood.

Agree completely - I had heard people rave about this back when it came out ('comedy of the year' etc) and it has some great people involved in it, but I couldn't make it through more than about half an hour. I think of myself as a comedy fan with a pretty broad taste, but I just found Spy desperately unfunny. Feels like the actors are literally just making everything up on the fly, and so it has about as good a gag hit rate as that implies. I'm all for improvisation, but off the cuff ad libs should be a cool bonus, not the entire basis for all comedy in the film. It's so lazy. Like, write a script ffs.

As far I can tell Paul Feig's other films are of a similar standard (I can't even make it through the trailer for his Ghostbusters remake). Such a shame, as his TV series Freaks & Geeks is absolutely wonderful - heartfelt, gentle, warm and hilarious, everything his films apparently are not.

As for Jason Statham.... I just cannot fathom his appeal at all. He always seems to me like a Eastenders actor who took a wrong turn on set and ended up in a Hollywood blockbuster. Do people genuinely think he's a credible movie star? Only I always get the sense that even those who claim to be his fans are doing so in a semi-ironic way.

[TordelBack]

See, I didn't like Redmayne's baddie and Channing Tatum is just overpowered, I thought. I can't even remember anybof the action set pieces. It did look pretty though.

I found Redmayne's constant mincing tiresome and it was far too generic to keep my interest- with the 'spot the homage' being the only engaging aspect to it.

Needed more Blessed!

Also Mila Kunis must be a contender for most insipid and dull heroine in film history.

Yeah,  she's a weak point alright,  but plank-like passive heroes are a Wachowski thing, so it may not be all down to Kunis.

Anyway,  I thought Redmayne had a wonderfully contained menace. His Balen (sp?) will stay with me for a good while.

[Tiplodocus]

The shape of water

Wow! Really good stuff. Guillermo Del Toro remakes ET but [spoiler]ET is a fish and Elliott fucks him.[/spoiler]

It's gentle and violent and full of nudity but not overtly sexualised all at the same time. There are no surprises as to where you will end up (excepting maybe [spoiler]is the end Richard Jenkins fantasy [/spoiler] but the performances, humour and gorgeous look all make it a very pleasant journey. And it also takes time out to give each of the supporting characters a moment or two of their own.

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

Guillermo Del Toro remakes ET but [spoiler]ET is a fish and Elliott fucks him.[/spoiler]

Sold! 

He's a bit good that Guillermo eh

[von Boom]

Blackhat. A masterclass of film making on how to use a potentially relevant, exciting, and interesting topic and turn it into a dull, turgid, and pointless affair.

[TordelBack]

Earth to Echo.  ET as a You-Tube channel, no more, no less.  It's okay, but it keeps wanting you to like things you've been given no reason to like (Echo himself, all the characters...), preferring to verbally assert the unbreakable closeness of eternal relationships many of which are less than a single day old, rather than actually showing any of it. Also, the title is insanely bad.

But my kids liked it a lot (which is the point), it doesn't cop-out with a totally happy ending, and I suppose it does a fair bit with what I suspect was a miniscule budget. 

[radiator]

Die Hard With a Vengeance.

To my mind a very underrated movie, and the only canonical Die Hard sequel as far as I'm concerned (2 being ok but a little preposterous and entirely disposable). Vengeance takes the suspense of the original movie (and parallels the plot in a pleasing way) but mostly does its own thing rather than attempting to just directly copy the formula of the original. Not bad for a script that was famously at various points a Lethal Weapon sequel and an entirely unrelated thriller called 'Simon Says'. McClane is recognisably McClane (not the superhuman secret agent of the regrettable later films) and Willis has great on screen chemistry and banter with Samuel L Jackson.

The first hour - everything up to the water jug puzzle/bomb defusal - just zips by, and is on a par with the first movie. It is pretty much as perfect an action movie as you'll find. It sadly goes off the boil a little in the second half and shambles on towards an underwhelming (but still fairly entertaining) finale.

The fact that so much of the movie was clearly shot on location in New York City is to me a far more impressive technical achievement than any amount of modern cgi wizardry.

What really sank in watching it this time round is that this film simply wouldn't be made today. For a start, it would be PG-13 so wouldn't have the same visceral feel to the violence, it would most likely be shot in Vancouver (unconvincingly dressed up to look like NYC) and it would be full of cgi nonsense in the place of real stunts.

[radiator]

ANNIHILATION.

Wow. Garland knocks it out of the park again. Awesome, awesome film - intense sci-fi action/horror and packed with just enough interesting themes and concepts that it really stays with you afterwards and demands dissection and discussion and yet never threatens to disappear up it's own arse. And to those who say Garland is weak on third acts, this is the one to break that curse. The last twenty minutes of the film really brings it all together and has some of the most intense combinations of imagery and music I've seen in a long time. Absolutely captivating. It's such a shame that it's not getting a theatrical release outside the US as it really deserves to be seen on the big screen - I can imagine it losing a lot of its impact on TV.

[JamesC]

Thor: Ragnarok.

Very entertaining - I liked it but think it was possibly a little too comedic. The comedy worked well for this particular film but I don't know if they'll ever be able to get back to the terrifying Hulk we saw in Avengers.
Speaking of Hulk, Ruffalo seemed to be playing an entirely different Bruce Banner to the one we've seen in previous films. He didn't seem the same at all to me.
I was a bit disappointed by both Hela and Valkyrie. Hela was just another scenery chewing big mouth and Vakyrie was a bit forgettable. From what I'd heard online I thought Valkyrie was going to have some really memorable arse-kicking fights but hey never materialised.
I think the first Thor film is still the best.

[Professor Bear]

As for Jason Statham.... I just cannot fathom his appeal at all. He always seems to me like a Eastenders actor who took a wrong turn on set and ended up in a Hollywood blockbuster. Do people genuinely think he's a credible movie star?

Seth Rogan is a movie star, so yes, I can buy Statham.  At some point over the last couple of decades all bets were off and I've made my peace with it.

[JamesC]

As for Jason Statham.... I just cannot fathom his appeal at all. He always seems to me like a Eastenders actor who took a wrong turn on set and ended up in a Hollywood blockbuster. Do people genuinely think he's a credible movie star?

Seth Rogan is a movie star, so yes, I can buy Statham.  At some point over the last couple of decades all bets were off and I've made my peace with it.

I think Statham is quite charismatic and has a certain amount of presence. He's also pretty good at stunt work. He's no actor though and I wish they'd just forget the idea of him doing different accents.
He's basically okay in action fodder and should stick to the likes of Expendables and Crank.

[Professor Bear]

Statham is great in B-movie fodder like Death Race and Transporter, but like Seagal, Van Damme, Dacascos, etc, that's his level and he should stick to it.  His "stardom" depends largely on being in low to mid budget films that don't have to make back too much cash to turn a profit.

[TordelBack]

Look, his shirtless antics have got me laid on many a Saturday night, so long may his career endure.

[Tiplodocus]

Look, his shirtless antics have got me laid on many a Saturday night, so long may his career endure.

Yeah, keep it up, Seth.