Last movie watched...

[Theblazeuk]

Caught Captain Marvel last night, and I enjoyed it. Liked seeing the Skrulls not being the bad guys, even if they do get killed off like them. I didn't really find any flaws in Captain Marvel the character, other than the awkwardness of the whole amnesiac thing, which inherently obstructs character arcs when you've got two hours and plot to deal with (see: Bucky in the MCU vs The Winter Soldier in the comics). I've seen people whine about the music, which I don't see the problem; Guardians of the Galaxy isn't the only movie allowed to use contemporary music, you big nerds.

Anyway. I probably won't watch it again, but then that's true of most of the Marvel movies, and I didn't have any major complaints about it. It was fun, it was visually spectacular, and I think it did some nice worldbuilding in its own way.

I want to see Monica Rambeau as Photon though immediately.

[wedgeski]

I f*****g LOVED Captain Marvel. I expected it to be good, but wasn't prepared for the super-confident characterizations and pervasive humour. Not being an expert on Marvel lore, I didn't see the [spoiler]act 2 switcheroo[/spoiler] coming, either. And Sam Jackson's rejuv job was amazing (Coulson's, not so much).

[Theblazeuk]

Well, the skrulls are totally the bad guys in 99% of Marvel Comics. But then the Kree are too, most of the time, but less of the time than the Skrulls.

[Keef Monkey]

I've seen people whine about the music, which I don't see the problem; Guardians of the Galaxy isn't the only movie allowed to use contemporary music, you big nerds.

I enjoyed a lot of the music choices, with a couple of very minor quibbles. Having her wear the NIN logo for a chunk of if the movie but not using any Nine Inch Nails felt like a strange choice for a start! That and [spoiler]slapping No Doubt's 'Just A Girl' over that fight scene felt really cringey to me for some reason. It's really awesome to see a female-led superhero movie and to watch her kicking so much ass throughout it, but that moment felt a bit like having a (probably male) producer grab you and go 'bet you didn't think a girl could be awesome right?!!', which I thought undermined how cool it was, because I was never in any doubt that women can be awesome.

I do actually like the song though, so even think that if they'd really made a feature of it by choreographing the action or cuts to the tempo it might have been a cool sequence, but it was clearly just sort of plonked on there over the top after the fact. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more on a rewatch (even typing this now it seems like a dumb quibble to have) but in the moment it gave me the big groany eye-rolls.[/spoiler]

[Rara Avis]

Agreed re: music choice. It was just too obvious. I'm sure there's plenty of decent fem rock songs that would have gone much better with that scene. I think the difference between the soundtrack for GOTG and CM was that with GOTG you know most of the songs but might not hear them that often. Whereas with CM you hear those songs on the radio (if you're not still listening to them) all the time. It's hard to get nostalgic about a song you heard last week. It would have been more effective if the soundtrack was songs you don't hear ALL the time.

I've seen people whine about the music, which I don't see the problem; Guardians of the Galaxy isn't the only movie allowed to use contemporary music, you big nerds.

I enjoyed a lot of the music choices, with a couple of very minor quibbles. Having her wear the NIN logo for a chunk of if the movie but not using any Nine Inch Nails felt like a strange choice for a start! That and [spoiler]slapping No Doubt's 'Just A Girl' over that fight scene felt really cringey to me for some reason. It's really awesome to see a female-led superhero movie and to watch her kicking so much ass throughout it, but that moment felt a bit like having a (probably male) producer grab you and go 'bet you didn't think a girl could be awesome right?!!', which I thought undermined how cool it was, because I was never in any doubt that women can be awesome.

I do actually like the song though, so even think that if they'd really made a feature of it by choreographing the action or cuts to the tempo it might have been a cool sequence, but it was clearly just sort of plonked on there over the top after the fact. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more on a rewatch (even typing this now it seems like a dumb quibble to have) but in the moment it gave me the big groany eye-rolls.[/spoiler]

[Rara Avis]

[spoiler]I thought that Evil Adelaide had hidden him in that locker and that's how he ended up down there. I did wonder how she knew exactly where to go though. I think Jason learned to control his double when they were playing that game in the cupboard upstairs. He witnessed and heard the final exchange between the two Adalaide's and heard his mothers animalistic grunting so I think the scene at the end is where Adalaide confirms she is the evil one and he realises it. [/spoiler]

Great movie, really enjoyed it.

[spoiler]Not sure if I see the thing with the son, his speech would be more messed up if he'd been raised with the tethered surely. To me the meaningful looks at the end were more down to him seeing his mother go pretty feral during the final confrontation and it dawning on him that there really isn't much separating them from the tethered. It's an interesting theory mind you, so will definitely keep it in mind on a rewatch. Mrs Monkey brought up the fact that the boy could control his doppelganger when nobody else seemed able to, that was interesting. I figured it was down to his double being younger and not having learned to break from the control yet, but there might be more going on there.[/spoiler]

[Apestrife]

The dark tower Idris Elba is as always awesome, as is the OST by Junkie XL. Other than that, okay I guess. Quite weird and shallow. Was apperantly made in hopes of making a tv show, and it shows. The ending felt like that of an tv episode. But it made me interested in reading the first book, so I guess that's something at least.

Valerian Beautiful to look at, some neat ideas, but overall it wasn't for me. Can't recommend it, but I don't mind having watched it.

Three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri Wish I went in more blind watching this one, not having watched the trailer. Basically about angry people adding to a situation spiraling out of control. Very tragic, very funny. Same guy who made In Brouges. Frances McDormand is fantastic in it. Watch it.

[Tiplodocus]

PEPPERMINT Jennifer Garner does Jane Wick meets Death Wish. (On Amazon)

It has Jennifer Garner in it so not much point saying anything else about it.

Jennifer Garner.










Jennifer.


Garner.

[von Boom]

The Highwaymen. A Netflix film about the hunt and killing of Bonnie and Clyde. This is the first film from Netflix I can honestly say I loved. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson play the ageing Texas Rangers brought back to track them down with the understanding that Bonnie and Clyde were to be brought in, dead.

There are numerous wonderful moments between Costner and Harrelson and also how they interact with the younger, more technologically savvy police forces.

A top film.

[Mardroid]

Us

Kinda different. I liked that. I think some of the stuff meant to be scary turned out unintentionally comical (although they need not be mutually exclusive) and I think they should have made it[spoiler]just about the family, rather than this being a widespread event. That would have been more eerie I think. I liked the twist, altbough, it wasn't entirely unexpected. I wonder how much was remembered and forgotten by the two women however. She said little about it, suggesting she was born to that world.  It then again she had gone insane, and it does explain the extent of her  actions somewhat [/spoiler]

[Theblazeuk]

Us

I absolutely loved it. We both guessed 'the twist' at the start but it didn't affect our enjoyment of the movie at all. The actor who played the father is I think, the weakest point of the movie, but the lead is absolutely brilliant as both parts. The kids are great too, as are the friends.

I didn't find the comedy robbed any of the horror of its impact and I thought the tension was sublime right up until day break, when the shift goes from survival to the dramatic confrontation. But even then, beautiful choreography, imagery and acting brings

I'm not sure if I prefer it [spoiler]being a widespread event rather than just one family,[/spoiler] or if the other would be more effective. Certainly I think you could make a brilliant movie [spoiler]with just that one family and with no explanation of where they came from, but the widespread nature works well for me in honesty. One thing I didn't like was a nod towards logistics of any kind, or the trip beneath]; I would have preferred that to be an impossible space, glimpsed only in the flashback of the twist. My wife kept obsessing over "Who fed the rabbits" "Who gave them clothes" and so forth, whilst I just took Adelaide Prime's explanation of the tethered as an experiment abandoned as the invention of a child suddenly thrust into the inverse of her life, and not the truth. Like Shadow Adelaide, she took on her opposite role, but unlike Shadow Adelaide - or any of the tethered before her - she had some idea of the world above, words to describe them, the ability to make things all of her own.

To me, it's fantastical horror, so I gave up thinking about that. It's truly impossible. So the best explanation is to be something like Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, where instead of a London Below there's an America Below. And it requires no explanation other than the reasoning given in that broken, stilted voice right at the beginning[/spoiler]

I keep thinking of that shot in the classroom, where one Adelaide is right up next to the camera. Some utterly fantastic scenes and I will never ever go to Santa Cruz.

[Mattofthespurs]

Pet Sematary (2019)

Just got back from the first showing today. First half is standard fare if you have either read the book or seen the original version of the movie and it's fairly dull if I'm honest.

However, the 2nd half ramps things up in style and veers quite a bit from the source material and if you thought King's original ending was downbeat then you ain't seen nothing yet.

I'll leave it at that.

[Theblazeuk]

Ah good, I was a bit disappointed at the trailer. Not because it clearly is changing things up, but because the trailer seemed to show far too much.

Other movies I watched recently include Black Dynamite, currently on Amazon Prime. It's incredible. Everything I hoped for and so much more, I thought it might disappoint like so many parody movies do, but Black Dynamite delivers on every single level.

[Mattofthespurs]

Ah good, I was a bit disappointed at the trailer. Not because it clearly is changing things up, but because the trailer seemed to show far too much.

I thought exactly the same thing but the trailer shows nothing from the final 20 minutes where the plot veers most significantly.

[Tiplodocus]

Also enjoyed THE HIGHWAYMEN. It seems to me that the popularity of Bonnie and Clyde may have been a rejection of banks, government and authority figures like we are experiencing now.