Last movie watched...

[Keef Monkey]

Went to the new Halloween after revisiting the original the night before. Always forget how breathless the last 15mins of the Carpenter film are, so much time spent building tension and earning that finale.

Enjoyed the new one much, much more than I thought possible because I definitely had a bit of cynicism about the idea of making a new Halloween and how it might turn out. I'm also usually dead against the idea of retconning out a load of sequels (did I endure Busta Rhymes karate kicking Myers in Resurrection for nothing?) but in this case the only sequel I'm really fond of is Season of The Witch so it wasn't a problem at all. For me it feels like we've wound up with the best case scenario, something that can sit alongside the original and hold its own, and that really feels like justice for the franchise. Being able to push all those poor follow-ups out the way and have these two be canon gives me a weird sense of closure on Halloween, so I'm really hoping that the huge success it's seeing doesn't then spawn a load of increasingly inferior sequels, because then we're back where we were before.

Loved it, smart, witty, tense and the score was absolutely fantastic. The way Carpenter and his band have updated the themes and fleshed things out and added new life to it is really something special, so glad to have another classic Carpenter soundtrack to add to the collection.

As for that moment Mattofthespurs mentioned, I thought that was genius and very deftly handled. He didn't have to kill the baby for the moment to be scary, just the fact that he walked through the room had the whole cinema tense up with 'no way' energy. I'm sure they could have made more of it or had him ponder or pause then move on, but it was much smarter than that I thought, and those smarts and good choices ran through the film.

We also went to see Carpenter live at the weekend and then played the Big Trouble In Little China game, so it was a very JC few days really!

[Keef Monkey]

Oh just to add, I went to Glasgow Cineworld and watched it on their 'Superscreen' and while the screen was nice, they barely dimmed the lights at all when the film came on. Really impacted the atmosphere so I doubt I'd go to a horror movie there again.

[TordelBack]

Apollo 13. Watched as a sequel to the superb First Man, this holds up really well. Very different in visual style,  and eschewing any sense of the internal lives of the characters, it nonetheless engages you fully in their plight, and the Earthbound hubbub surrounding it.  The zero-G scenes remain spectacular, and the on-board scenes in general are fantastic - unfortunately they sometimes feel like they're not really in the same movie as the external and earthside shots.

I've been a big fan of Paxton since Weird Science, and he was seldom better than his understated Freddo Haise. The Mission Control scenes feel a bit stagey and gung-ho, with lots of swelling music and carved-from-Apple-Pie Ed Harris intensity, but their incredible achievements carry you through that, and at least the determination of Gary Sinise's lucky/unlucky Mattingly is solidly believable.  Hanks and Bacon are Hanks and Bacon,  no more no less,  but that's fine,  and Kathleen Quinlan gives a far more balanced performance than I remembered.

Surprise hit in our house was Ma Howard (Jean Speegle) as Ma Lovell - her brilliant interactions with Armstrong and Aldrin,  and her killer throat-lumpening line "If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it" just about steal the show. Talented family,  those Howards.

[radiator]

Free Solo
Documentary about climber Alex Honnold and his attempt to be the first person to summit El Capitan in Yosemite National Park free solo - ie no ropes or safety measures. Really well made doc that just breezes by, and Honnold makes for a pretty interesting subject - he's clearly somewhere on the spectrum and has trouble operating in the everyday world and relationships - he often comes across as slightly aloof and callous, but also displays a level of self-awareness and humour that makes him quite a likable guy. Very good stuff, well worth tracking down, especially if you can see it on a big screen.

American Animals
A curious hybrid of heist movie, college drama and documentary by the director of the equally genre-bending The Impostor from a few years ago. Tells the story of four college students who conspire to raid their school's vault of priceless books. The film mostly plays as a straight dramatisation of the events, but it's also interspersed with talking head interviews of the real people involved (including the wannabe thieves themselves),  and as the film progresses the documentary and fictionalised strands cross over in surprising and inventive ways. Evan Peters (who folks here will probably recognise mostly from his role as Quicksilver in the X Men movies) is fantastic as the co lead role, playing a really charismatic shithead. Absolutely gripping movie - funny, shocking, at times almost unbearably tense, with a surprisingly moving and impactful ending. High recommend.

[von Boom]

Apollo 13. Watched as a sequel to the superb First Man, this holds up really well. Very different in visual style,  and eschewing any sense of the internal lives of the characters, it nonetheless engages you fully in their plight, and the Earthbound hubbub surrounding it.  The zero-G scenes remain spectacular, and the on-board scenes in general are fantastic - unfortunately they sometimes feel like they're not really in the same movie as the external and earthside shots.

I've been a big fan of Paxton since Weird Science, and he was seldom better than his understated Freddo Haise. The Mission Control scenes feel a bit stagey and gung-ho, with lots of swelling music and carved-from-Apple-Pie Ed Harris intensity, but their incredible achievements carry you through that, and at least the determination of Gary Sinise's lucky/unlucky Mattingly is solidly believable.  Hanks and Bacon are Hanks and Bacon,  no more no less,  but that's fine,  and Kathleen Quinlan gives a far more balanced performance than I remembered.

Surprise hit in our house was Ma Howard (Jean Speegle) as Ma Lovell - her brilliant interactions with Armstrong and Aldrin,  and her killer throat-lumpening line "If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it" just about steal the show. Talented family,  those Howards.

This is one of my favourite films. I've seen it umpteen times and I still hold my breath during the radio blackout. The cast is outstanding. I can't think of one wrong choice. I remember tears welling up in my eyes when the Apollo rocket lifted off when I saw it in the cinema.

[TordelBack]

I remember tears welling up in my eyes when the Apollo rocket lifted off when I saw it in the cinema.

Same here,  but then any indirect contact with the relics of Vostok,  Mercury,  Gemini, Voskhod and Apollo leave me in a state. I was only half kidding last week when I compared First Man to Passion of the Christ: if there's a scrap of religious sentiment left in me, it is fully focused on the seraphim and cherubim of the first astronauts.  And their modern prophet Chris Hadfield,  'natch.

[Tiplodocus]

You'll get me started on THE RIGHT STUFF next...

[TordelBack]

You'll get me started on THE RIGHT STUFF next...

We've been cursing ourselves that we didn't preface the visit to First Man with a re-watch of The Right Stuff, if only to keep the emergent trilogy in order.  If I'm remembering rightly, TRS ends with Cooper on the last Mercury launch, so it should dovetail perfectly with Armstrong signing up for Gemini, just as Apollo 13 kicks off with the Tranquility landing.  Gus Grissom plays a distant second fiddle to Ed White (as Armstrong's neighbour and friend) in Last Man, so it would have been nice to see him in the spotlight beforehand.

That's next weekend's family movie night sorted anyway!

[Theblazeuk]

Then Whedon had the utter gall to kill Wash the way he did. My wife was in tears at the suddenness of it all. I wasn't far from it to be honest.

I think we've watched Serenity once since that day, although we'll happily watch Firefly.

Ah -for the best reasons then!

[I, Cosh]

I remember tears welling up in my eyes when the Apollo rocket lifted off when I saw it in the cinema.

Same here,  but then any indirect contact with the relics of Vostok,  Mercury,  Gemini, Voskhod and Apollo leave me in a state.

Think you guys could be the right audience for this, if you're not already aware of it: See You on the Other Side.

[von Boom]

I remember tears welling up in my eyes when the Apollo rocket lifted off when I saw it in the cinema.

Same here,  but then any indirect contact with the relics of Vostok,  Mercury,  Gemini, Voskhod and Apollo leave me in a state.

Think you guys could be the right audience for this, if you're not already aware of it: See You on the Other Side.

If you haven't seen it already you can experience the Apollo 17 mission in real time.

http://apollo17.org/

[TordelBack]

In regular rotation on the old MP3, love it. Always spend the LoS bit imagining what it must have been like to be the first to ever see the far side, and to suddenly have the bulk of the Moon between you and every person that ever lived. And then the kick of Jim Lovell's voice.  Pure magic.

That mission is probably the third greatest of all time (After Vostok 1 and Apollo 11) - to leave Earth's orbit for the first time, and for almost a week!  .

EDIT: Oooh,  hadn't seen the Apollo 17 thing, cheers VB!

[von Boom]

You're welcome TB.

I forgot to say thanks for that link Cosh. I'm downloading it to my phone right now!

[Colin YNWA]

I've watched Bone Tomahawk over the last few nights. Man I wish I'd had time to watch it in one go as I'd love to have let its different elements and tones wash over me in one go allowing the contrasts to run riot and I assume the brutal ending to hit all the harder.

Its a glorious western, comedy, odd couple (well quartet), horror movie. And somehow it all hangs together. Really enjoyed that... well when I was squirming behind the sofa!

[Hawkmumbler]

I've watched Bone Tomahawk over the last few nights. Man I wish I'd had time to watch it in one go as I'd love to have let its different elements and tones wash over me in one go allowing the contrasts to run riot and I assume the brutal ending to hit all the harder.

Its a glorious western, comedy, odd couple (well quartet), horror movie. And somehow it all hangs together. Really enjoyed that... well when I was squirming behind the sofa!

One if my favourites of recent years. Kurt Russell can carry a western like few modern actors can.