Last movie watched...

[TordelBack]

I hope thats not bordering on Mayor level creepiness...

Not at all...

... but bare with me

But that is! 

I haven't read the book or seen the film and don't plan to, so I shouldn't really comment, but I did have a hilarous conversation about the book with two older better-read ladies while sharing a cup of tea in the Father Ted Parochial House* over the weekend, and the reviews from folk whose opinion I regard suggest that by contrast the film goes to catatonia-inducing lengths to establish that everything is indeed consensual. Is this not the case?  I can certainly accept that the plot outline itself reads like Bridget Jones' Gor.


*Valentine's treat from the missus.  Just drop everything and go, it's a sublime experience. They have the actual Bishop Brennan's hat!

[Hawkmumbler]

I'll have you know I like to BARE ALL when getting my self a lashing.

[Tiplodocus]

MACGRUBER
I don't know why I picked this to watch but I wish I hadn't.  I wasn't surprised to find it started out life as a Saturday Night Live Sketch (from about twenty years ago judging by the target of it's satire) but was suprised that it was so laugh free. 

Taking the piss out of MCGYVER and Eighties action movies should give you more material but the writer's here muster just enough content to make a funny two minute sketch. Shame it was a 90 minute movie.

And the main character's idiocy doesn't support the logic of the set-up. And as often the case, confuses "shock" and gross with funny.

The lead bloke is good though.

Avoid.

More like MACTURDER.

[Colin Zeal]

I loved MacGyver as a kid, but I watched ten minutes of an episode on the TV last week and turned it off with a sigh at how dated it was.

At attempt number four I finally made it through X-Men Days of Future Past and saw the whole film. It wasn't the quality of the film that stopped me but the daft idea of trying to watch it when I got in from the pub when drunk. I made this mistake again last night so although I made it to the end it was a bit of a struggle and I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what happened. I did enjoy the bits I can remember though.

[Professor Bear]

I think McGruber is much funnier if you like homophobia and think pro wrestling is real - coincidentally, there is a great deal of overlap in these two things.

[Famous Mortimer]

MACGRUBER
I don't know why I picked this to watch but I wish I hadn't.  I wasn't surprised to find it started out life as a Saturday Night Live Sketch (from about twenty years ago judging by the target of it's satire) but was suprised that it was so laugh free. 

Taking the piss out of MCGYVER and Eighties action movies should give you more material but the writer's here muster just enough content to make a funny two minute sketch. Shame it was a 90 minute movie.

And the main character's idiocy doesn't support the logic of the set-up. And as often the case, confuses "shock" and gross with funny.

The lead bloke is good though.

Avoid.

More like MACTURDER.

It was one of those films that had every comedian on earth praising it when it came out, because the SNL people called all their friends and they called all their friends...and then the film came out and it was pretty boring. It had the odd good bit but much like just about every film based on an SNL sketch, it really had nothing past its premise.

My Bloody Valentine
The 3-D one. If you're the sort of person who doesn't like it when films lie to you, presenting you with information that looks like it's happening but is actually just a figment of one character's imagination, meaning you can't possibly figure out what's going on, then you might want to avoid this one.

[Tiplodocus]

I think McGruber is much funnier if you like homophobia and think pro wrestling is real - coincidentally, there is a great deal of overlap in these two things.

There is a particularly bad example early on when recruiting his team; he scrubs one character off his list when he sees he has a male partner.  A kind reading might be that he didn't want any team members who were in a relationship.  But it just screams homophobia to the extent that I don't know how they got away with it.

[Famous Mortimer]

I guess the justification is, he's an idiot, therefore his view on homosexuality is idiotic too? Doesn't make the film any better, mind.

[Link Prime]

I guess the justification is, he's an idiot, therefore his view on homosexuality is idiotic too?

My take on it too.
Wasn't great, but I found it no more offensive or unfunny than a below average episode of Family Guy.

[JamesC]

I'd never heard of MacGruber but enjoyed it as a bit of silly fun when I watched it.
The homophobia is clearly a joke about the hyper-macho masculinity found in American action TV of the 80s. In those old shows homosexuality doesn't exist - not even in the A Team episode with Boy George.

[Link Prime]

Father Ted Parochial House*

*Valentine's treat from the missus.  Just drop everything and go, it's a sublime experience. They have the actual Bishop Brennan's hat!

Brilliant- I have to make the trip.

[Famous Mortimer]

There's a famous MacGruber sketch on SNL where, in between getting blown up repeatedly, he has to visit an awareness class because he gets a black assistant (NBA star Charles Barkley) and can't handle it - so he has form in being an idiot.

[TordelBack]

Father Ted Parochial House*

*Valentine's treat from the missus.  Just drop everything and go, it's a sublime experience. They have the actual Bishop Brennan's hat!

Brilliant- I have to make the trip.

Do, it's great. But be sure to book in advance on the website  to let them know you're coming, otherwise you'll just be another person peering in the window when they open the curtains. It's a family home, albeit one where the family have played burglars and zombie grannies. While there we were served tea by the baby on the doorstep, which was... odd

As an added bonus, while the exterior of the house and views outside the windows are Craggy Island, the interiors and views into the windows are Rugged Island. Two parochial houses for the price of one! . Just don't mention the Inishmore Tedfest, it's a  prickly subject. Vaughan's in nearby Kilfenora is also worth a look, as the focal point of Craggy Island's Chinese community, with a certain roundabout just around the corner.

[Professor Bear]

X-Men Days of Future Past.  Well that wasn't very good.  Well-made, certainly, but for two hundred million dollars, you would hope they'd be employing people who knew how to do their jobs on a technical level.
Otherwise, it's just cherry-picking from the many "everyone dies and then time resets" storylines you've seen in everything from Star Trek to Power Rangers to The OC.  There aren't any swerves, any clever inversions of tropes or fake-outs, it's just by-the-numbers regurgitation typical of modern storytelling trapped in a stage of zero self-awareness that allows writers to pretend they're doing something that's never been been run into the ground for even non-genre fans.  Like First Class before it, the final race against time stuff felt like it was a bit too long, and the supposedly pivotal emotional component of it was unconvincing.  Pete Dinklage needn't have bothered showing up as his Bolivar Trask doesn't have any depth of character and just delivers his lines dutifully, no more of a menace or antagonist than the equally-dull Sentinels.
Two hours I can't get back.

[Dandontdare]

for two hundred million dollars, you would hope they'd be employing people who knew how to do their jobs on a technical level.

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