Last movie watched...

[milstar]

The Italian Job (1969)

I catch this once in a while and always glue my eyes to the telly. I just bloody love this film, unlike washed up American remake. Funny, cool cars, stunts (Minis driving up the building is never less than amusing), Benny Hill as pervert professor (too bad he ain't got much space and time) and utmost British feel. Take that, Mark Wahlberg.

[pictsy]

The Score

It's a heist movie.  It's fine.  I would have expected a better story or characterisations considering the cast, but it's pretty boiler plate.  The selling point of it is probably that Edward Norton plays a crook who pretends to be neurodivergent - twenty years on it's not so much a selling point.  At best it's odd and at worst it's offensive.  I personally found it tolerable as it didn't go too far over the line, but I recognise it's bad taste.  So it's just ends up being run-of-the-mill with nothing but a cast of actors who have done better in better films.

Meh.

[Funt Solo]

Black Widow - it's not completely awful. I'm not sure what I'd expect from a Marvel movie at this stage. Scorsese's right: it's not really cinema (even though it is perhaps what some aspect of cinema has become).

The plot seems to be that a whole bunch of Nikita-types have been mind-controlled by a rather portly and wheezing "Ah'm the Daddy now!", and they can only be freed by spraying some magic potion on them.

Also: what is family? Is it beating each other up and hating? Maybe.

[pictsy]

Black Widow
Also: what is family? Is it beating each other up and hating? Maybe.

So it's the antithesis to Shazam?

[broodblik]

Finch - A sad but still a fun story about a man's journey to ensure his dogs survival. This is a Tom Hanks movie which takes place in an apocalyptic future world where earth has been devastate by a solar flair and almost all life has been wiped out. Sound strange but this is a great family movie with some touching and sad scenes with some laugh-out moments in-between. I am not sure who steals the show but the robot, the dog and the man makes this movie.

[von Boom]

Dune (2021). After an excruciating opening 45 minutes it settled down into a somewhat passible adaptation that, while the effects were great, had none of the striking visual flair of Lynch's version.

Surprisingly, Momoa wasn't as scenery chewingly awful as I expected. Fortunately, his dialogue was kept to a minimum. Also surprisingly, Brolin was awful as Gurney Halleck. Many of the characters were so thin as to be invisible really. RM Mohiam, Leto, Thufir, Halleck, Piter, Shadout Mapes, Yueh. Even the Baron was comically menacing. No plans, within plan, within plans here.

My hopes were raised at the end when Villeneuve included the fight with Jamis, but then killed it by not ending this film with Jamis' funeral and Paul giving water to the dead.

I'll see part two but I can't say I'm excited about it.

[pictsy]

Dave Made a Maze

A fun little adventure set in cardboard with an amusing tone.  It had an underlying theme, I think, that wasn't well developed.  The kindest reading I have is it is about personal achievement.  But the film isn't deep and the theme ends up being kind of vague.  That's fine as it is humorous and I think the funny situation with it's somewhat dark edge is what the film is about.  Overall I had a good time and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Tiplodocus]

THE MATRIX: RELOADED.

A lot more fun than I remembered.

[Link Prime]

I finally caught Doctor Sleep on Amazon Prime there, went for the special edition, which was pushing the irony a bit at 2.5 hours.

Not terrible, but lets just say I'm glad I didn't splurge for the Blu-ray after all.

[Colin YNWA]

Daniel Johnston is one of the great mysteries of my life. I've always been vaguely aware of them, which given he has been referenced by half the bands I love is no surprise but for whatever reason I've never really listened to his stuff until about a year ago (maybe) and not with any conviction until I got a Spotify Sub and from there I've delved in.

Anyway why am I talking about this musical genius here, well I've just watched 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' a genuinely brilliant biogrpahical documentry. Its utterly inspiring and heartbreaking in equal measure and regardless of what you think about the man and his music, if you have even heard of him, this film about his struggle with mental illnes and his creative genius is a film everyone should watch.

Its on Amazon Prime so if you have that just watch this its incredible.

[pictsy]

The Dark Half

George A. Romero does a Stephen King adaptation.  It's certainly a Stephen King adaptation.  It's about a writer.  There's the suggestion of alcohol abuse.  It's a fine story.  Pretty cheesy.  A fun romp.  Nevertheless, nothing really stood out as being especially good or bad.

I also rewatched The Illusionist because I forgot what the film was about. 

[wedgeski]

Dune. Riveted by every shot and every performance, deflated by the cut-off. At least they had the knackers to put "Part One" under the opening title. Reassured that Part 2 has been greenlit.

[Funt Solo]

The Hunter - as part of my Free With Ads kick, I was lured in by Willem Defoe's superlative fizzog -  and Sam Neill's in it as a shady local. But then it turns the fridging up to eleventy-stupid and I immediately lost interest because the main character needs redemption and whatever happens now he's incapable of getting it.

So, not last movie watched, but last movie I stopped watching somewhere in the second act when it derailed.

[Woolly]

Spider-Man No Way Home.
Well that's gone straight into my top ten of all time.
Magnificent!

[milstar]

American Gangster

Sir Ridley's epic crime drama was unexpectedly long (almost 3 hours). Not how I remember it from my past viewing (which was basically at the time of the release, in 2007,  but it could be my shaky memory). I have to say, it's a stellar-crafted piece, camerawork and the editing are top-notch, and performances of the Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are on the mark; however, the biggest flaw is its total lack of originality. Take The Godfather, French Connection, and Scarface, and I guarantee the Frankenstein monster produced out of these three films would be American Gangster. In addition, the film takes damn long to set up, and I found Russell's arc better appealing and colourful than Denzel's. And in a way, the film paints Denzel's bloke in sympathetic virtues when the real one was a total piece of shit. But that's only me.