Last movie watched...

[Keef Monkey]

Darkman.

I hadn't seen this since renting it on VHS in the early 90s.
A really enjoyable, fun, comic book style film. It's much better than I remembered. It's a pretty simple tale of revenge with some horror elements and humour. Liam Neason in full on crazy mode is great fun - he should do more stuff like this.

Recently re-watched it, and couldn't;'t agree more.

Sam Raimi gets so much out of everyone in the movie, the crew and what could have been an utter car wreck of a movie is made into something with a lot of heart, and some lovely set-pieces and moments of almost surreal humour.

Will be intriguing to see what he does with a Marvel property, especially in a movie system that doesn't seem to gel very well with maverick film makers with unique voices and styles.

He did pretty much start the big superhero boom I guess with Spiderman 1-3, but as happy as I was to see one of my favourite directors get massive like that I was a little sad that there wasn't more of the Raimi style that made me love the Evil Dead movies. There were glimpses of Evil Dead Raimi here and there in Spiderman 2 but by 3 it seemed like the system had knocked a lot of the character out of him.

Was really glad when Drag Me To Hell came out and showed the old Raimi was still in there and still had it! Hopefully he'll bring some of that gusto to this, if the word about it being a more horror-tinged Marvel film then it could be absolutely perfect for him.

[Rately]

Darkman.

I hadn't seen this since renting it on VHS in the early 90s.
A really enjoyable, fun, comic book style film. It's much better than I remembered. It's a pretty simple tale of revenge with some horror elements and humour. Liam Neason in full on crazy mode is great fun - he should do more stuff like this.

Recently re-watched it, and couldn't;'t agree more.

Sam Raimi gets so much out of everyone in the movie, the crew and what could have been an utter car wreck of a movie is made into something with a lot of heart, and some lovely set-pieces and moments of almost surreal humour.

Will be intriguing to see what he does with a Marvel property, especially in a movie system that doesn't seem to gel very well with maverick film makers with unique voices and styles.

He did pretty much start the big superhero boom I guess with Spiderman 1-3, but as happy as I was to see one of my favourite directors get massive like that I was a little sad that there wasn't more of the Raimi style that made me love the Evil Dead movies. There were glimpses of Evil Dead Raimi here and there in Spiderman 2 but by 3 it seemed like the system had knocked a lot of the character out of him.

Was really glad when Drag Me To Hell came out and showed the old Raimi was still in there and still had it! Hopefully he'll bring some of that gusto to this, if the word about it being a more horror-tinged Marvel film then it could be absolutely perfect for him.

A shame we will probably never get to see Raimi finish up the Evil Dead series on the big screen. I've watched the majority of the TV show, and while it certainly has its moments, it just doesn't have that Raimi magic.

Spider-Man 3 really was a mess, and a massive disappointment, from what he has said, it was Studio interference and a rush to get it made, which he partly takes blame for, that left us with such an underwhelming movie. He thought he would have got to put things right with a fourth movie, which was supposedly going to have The Vulture as villain, but that didn't pan out.

Dr Strange, with his sense of humour, and schlocky effects, could be a real treat.

Recently re-watched Drag Me To Hell, and it is just a superb movie. It just never pays to be the hero in a Raimi movie, and here is hoping that at some stage we get to see a new, original Raimi horror movie.

[JamesC]

It was a shame about Spider-Man 3. Apparently the studio were dead set on including Venom, which Raimi was against.
They should have allowed Raimi to finish his trilogy his way and then brought in a new director for a Venom focused trilogy, giving the whole black costume thing a bit of room to breathe.

[Smith]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

[Colin YNWA]

It was a shame about Spider-Man 3. Apparently the studio were dead set on including Venom, which Raimi was against.
They should have allowed Raimi to finish his trilogy his way and then brought in a new director for a Venom focused trilogy, giving the whole black costume thing a bit of room to breathe.

After the sccess of Spidey 2, 3 was a real fumble and such a shame for it. It did make that classic error of trying to top what had gone before by throwing more at it. MORE BIGGER VILLIANS. MORE DRAMA. BIGGER SET PIECES etc etc. This forgetting the very thing that worked about 2 was a more focused examination of character (admittedly one with cool cybernetic arms) that made you care about whatever action / set pieces they put in.

[Rately]

Alfred Molina is probably the best villain in the history of comic book movies, certainly the best performance.

Such a performance. From amiable, caring and considerate husband, to vicious, cruel villain who, thankfully, redeems himself. Just a fantastic performance from an amazing actor.

Colin, you are spot on, Spider-Man 3 just did not have the heart of the first two, and the character development.

JamesC, Totally agree. A second trilogy with Venom as the Big Bad would have been the way to go.

[wedgeski]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

Eh? Brilliant film, wonderful performances.

[Smith]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

Eh? Brilliant film, wonderful performances.

Daniel Craig is doing a Kentucky accent,that alone is ridicolous enough.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

Eh? Brilliant film, wonderful performances.

Daniel Craig is doing a Kentucky accent,that alone is ridicolous enough.

I believe this was originally conceived as a Columbo reboot with Mark Ruffalo as the lead. You can see the DNA there, but it's nowhere near as classy or smart as its progenator (yes, I'm including the 80s revival, but not Columbo likes the Nightlife)

[wedgeski]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

Eh? Brilliant film, wonderful performances.

Daniel Craig is doing a Kentucky accent,that alone is ridicolous enough.

I believe this was originally conceived as a Columbo reboot with Mark Ruffalo as the lead. You can see the DNA there, but it's nowhere near as classy or smart as its progenator (yes, I'm including the 80s revival, but not Columbo likes the Nightlife)

I don't think that's true, which is not to say you can't see Columbo all over it. Rian Johnson has cited it as inspiration.

[Keef Monkey]

Knives Out. Great setup,but the rest is just a mess.

Eh? Brilliant film, wonderful performances.

Daniel Craig is doing a Kentucky accent,that alone is ridicolous enough.

Loved the accent! Thought it was clearly supposed to be ridiculous, to heighten the farce of the whole thing.  Thought it was a really funny, very smart film which was duking it out with Midsommar once I started trying to think what my film of the year pick would be (I still haven't decided which of them I liked more).

Watched The Babysitter on Netflix, was a bit clunky in places but it got a lot of laughs out of me so job done. Has some great splattery gore gags and is actually very sweet in places.

Also watched Playing Hard (the Netflix doc about the development of For Honor) which I didn't think worked very well, in that it seems to skip all the conflict and go straight from setup to aftermath. Vandenberghe is clearly an intense guy who begins to resent being sidelined during the development of his baby, and the doc seems to infer that he then acts out or overplays his hand to the point that he's deemed impossible to work with and removed, but I'm having to assume a lot because none of that is shown. All you get is the setup and then the bitterness after the fact, so knowing whether that bitterness is justified or if he dug his own grave is impossible to say because while you do see him being sullen and difficult at the cert celebrations by that point he's already talked about how he's hurt or butted heads with people (not shown) and allegedly been sat down and told he has no future with any potential franchise (also not shown).

It's like somewhere on the cutting room floor there's either a great movie about a guy with an idea having it torn from him by an evil corporation, or a great movie about a guy with an idea who lets things go to his head, behaves terribly and crashes and burns (like the brilliant Overnight). This is neither of those movies unfortunately, and by glossing over so much it doesn't even really serve to illustrate how intense the final months of game development can be.

Plus, if you're watching the film in English there are no Netflix subtitles for the French speakers so the only option I could find was to watch with closed captions on and subtitles for both languages (suspenseful music plays).

[shaolin_monkey]

I watched Phase IV tonight, a rather creepy 70s film about ants battling against scientists. It was rather good, despite really showing its age.

[Robin Low]

I watched Phase IV tonight, a rather creepy 70s film about ants battling against scientists. It was rather good, despite really showing its age.

I went looking on YouTube to see if this was an ant film that scared me as a kid (I don't think it was, but it looks interesting), but I spotted something else - someone using molten aluminium to cast a fire ant colony. It's off topic, but thought I'd share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI

Regards,

Robin

[sheridan]

The Death and Resurrection Show - a documentary about the band Killing Joke.  Should be brilliant.  Just show their music and tell their story.  Unfortunately it descends into a load of bollocks about magic and everyone in it comes across as pretentious.

If you see them live, be prepared for Jaz Coleman to go off on one about his latest conspiracy theories between songs...

[repoman]

The Death and Resurrection Show - a documentary about the band Killing Joke.  Should be brilliant.  Just show their music and tell their story.  Unfortunately it descends into a load of bollocks about magic and everyone in it comes across as pretentious.

If you see them live, be prepared for Jaz Coleman to go off on one about his latest conspiracy theories between songs...

have done quite a few times and yeah this was definitely the case.  Unless he was out of his mind drunk.