Last movie watched...

[Mattofthespurs]

It's often been the case where I have had a negative reaction to a movie only to change my mind on subsequent viewings.

I shall purchase on blu ray when it comes out and see if I change my mind.

[pictsy]

Last night I watched Batman v Superman for the first and only time.  The best I can say about it is that it was boring.  I'm also really glad I have little to no personal investment in Batman or Superman.

The next film I'm likely to watch will be Superman from 1978.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

The Florida Project

An American has finally figured out how to Loach and results are tremendously affecting. Deftly edited, stunningly shot, flawless performances. Incredibly absorbing. Only very slightly let down by rare drifts into film-studies-symbolism. Worth watching.

[Professor Bear]

Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Just Make A Barbossa Movie Already arguably nails its colours to the mast with that bold and entirely accurate subtitle, with wife-beating Johnny Depp now officially ruining everything he's in for reasons other than his acting and the newb characters arguably not being too gifted in the charisma department based on this outing.
As usual, a succession of should-be-amazing setpieces are utterly wasted through an overabundance of too-obvious CGI, poor action direction and lazy editing, while the series continues to have problems with balancing tone and inconsistent characters, this time compounded by glaringly expository dialogue that tells rather than shows, and you will note that what it tells rather than shows is anything resembling a backstory or motivation for female characters: Sparrow gets entirely superfluous flashbacks to a time long before the movies began, new boy Turner gets lengthy scenes explaining his motivations in unnecessary detail, but the female lead gets to breathlessly list her backstory and motivations to a script NPC as an afterthought in a scene about Jack Sparrow, despite her backstory being something the film's finale hinges upon, as well as being revealed as significant to the arc of one of the series' primary characters.
More like Shites of the Shite: Shite Men Shite No Shite.

[TordelBack]

Yep, PotC 5 is really poor. When the only reason that Depp isn't the worst thing in it is because Orlando Bloom has a lengthy cameo, you know something has gone terribly wrong. Geoffrey Rush tries very hard to save the sinkng ship but he's only one man and no one else seems to care that he's the main character on this one, and Javier Bardem *might* have been good but I was too mesmerised by his hair animation to notice.

[radiator]

The Disaster Artist.

Among the best cinematic experiences I've had in years, and easily the best and most accomplished thing James Franco or Seth Rogen have been involved with since Freaks and Geeks back in the day. I honestly think Franco deserves some serious awards recognition, and I also think that far from being one big insufferable inside joke (as I had feared), I even think people who have never heard of the film that inspired it will get a lot out of it - it's just so damn entertaining.

I honestly don't think I can remember hearing so much laughter during a film screening before - maybe the South Park movie? I think it helped a lot that it was a sold out screening at a cinema that shows The Room regularly, so I think there were a lot of fans there (though I can imagine the film perhaps going down less well in different circumstances).

It's also one of the only films where I would consider reading the full cast list a spoiler. Seriously, I can't believe who they got to be in this movie. I mean, there aren't any mega A list stars or anything like that, but seeing who they got for certain roles is such a delight.

So yeah, a high recommend.

5/5

[Professor Bear]

Rogue One - prompted by post-flu insomnia, another airing for the done-in-one SW outing, and this time I notice the mythical elements, particularly the ascent from darkness in the final climb up the data storage/communications tower only made possible by the rebirth of hope among those without it.  Base motivations keep characters dwelling in self-imposed purgatorial limbos until this point, best symbolised by Cassian's cold-bloodied killing of an informer so that he can climb to safety alone, later sacrificing himself for another so that they can do the same - he gets better from this sacrifice, but I wonder if this was in the original cut of the film?  Either way, it still works.
I originally viewed the film as episodic in structure - in fact, this was one of the main selling points for me, as it evoked the era of Star Wars (the Star Wars cash-in especially) if not the actual movies themselves - but I can appreciate now that it exists as a binary narrative across two hours, the first hour being hopelessness, the stories of murderers, terrorists, criminals, seditionists, people without a plan until the second hour, when they decide to make one and be pushed forward by it rather than be dragged down by inertia - no coincidence that this second hour is what most people liked about it, and rightly so, capturing as it does the Star Wars ethos of heroes that pay dearly for victory in pursuit of doing the right thing.  The rudderless Rebellion's spies and assassins gather as one and die so that the Rebellion can be reborn through hope and go forward without them or more importantly, the need for them, and avoid their inevitable decline into becoming a loose and warring web of factions akin to Guerrera's extremists.
I'm not sure if there's a meta component to the transition of the grimdark tropes of the modern blockbuster to the retro heroic fantasy narrative that propelled Luke & co so much as a basic incompatibility between the demands of both that arguably came through in the studio shitting bricks at the thought of releasing the film in its original form, but if you want to make a purely surface reading of the two movies, I think R1 works as a clearing of the decks of the Rebellion's terrorist baggage to become the purely heroic and admirable force it was in the original trilogy.

[Tiplodocus]

Nicely put. Reminded me of the two leaps made by the hero in Conrad's LORD JIM.

[The Legendary Shark]

Locke. Tom Hardy, a BMW and a telephone. That's it. What a fantastic little film - the man is such a phenomenal actor. He even makes concrete fascinating.

Recommended.

[SIP]

Wow.... that's a lot to write about Rogue One.

It's complete crap though eh? Beautifully filmed, lovely looking, expensive.....but rubbish nonetheless.

Every time I've had to sit through it I've disliked it more and more. I had to sit through it again last Sunday when my dad was watching it......and I'm hoping it's the last time I'll ever have to sit through it again in this lifetime.

Roll on episode 8......

[Professor Bear]

It's not as bad as The Force Awakens, and we can ask no more of it than that.

[von Boom]

It's not as bad as The Force Awakens, and we can ask no more of it than that.

Faint praise indeed.

[Professor Bear]

It's actually a much better film than its critical reputation suggests, it's just that a lot of its problems are "Cinema Sins problems", IE: not.
This is not to say there isn't still plenty wrong both objectively and - more importantly - relative to everyone knowing the film was extensively re-shot.  I don't actually think that bit with Jyn walking along that platform and not encountering a TIE Fighter will ever be seen objectively, for instance, and a lot will be dismissed as either action sequences (the climb, Vader's massacre of Rebel troops), while a lot of the visual themes - particularly Edwards' use of light and shadow as narrative foreshadowing - will probably get no more of a nod than the bit where the Death Star eclipses the sun being a bit like that bit in TFA.

[Jim_Campbell]

Wow.... that's a lot to write about Rogue One.

Nice to see you engage with a reasoned critique in such a sensible way. "I didn't like it, so everyone else is wrong."

Well, I did like it, so clearly you're wrong. Glad we sorted that out.

[SIP]

I've done my reasoned critique earlier in thread (or in a star wars thread). I thought that this thread was for people to say whether they liked a film or not? To offer their opinion?

Plenty of one line reviews here doing exactly that.

And so, in my opinion,  it was rubbish.

And for the record, nowhere do I recall telling anyone else what they should like or that they are wrong to like this.