Looking forward to Nightmare Alley at the cinema next week, love del Toro's earlier films, chief amongst them The Devil's Backbone (better than Pan's Labyrinth imo)
Power of the Dog was odd but came together by the time it was over. It’s not the movie I expected it to be. Really liked it. 6/8
Tragedy of Macbeth is shot as though it was made in the 40s. Looks amazing. Denzel was brilliant. I have to read explanations of what’s going while watching Shakespeare stuff but I managed to enjoy this nonetheless. 5/5
Nobody is brilliant at times. It’s like a comedic John Wick. It gets progressively sillier but it doesn’t take itself too seriously so can’t really complain about that. It’s bloody well written even if it is derivative. 8/10
Just watched Belfast . It’s a genuine masterpiece . What a film . If it doesn’t clear up at the Oscars then I’ll be amazed .
Saw this yesterday and it is a truly remarkable film. It’s portrayal of living at the heart of the Northern Ireland troubles through the eyes of a normal family and had a surprising amount of humour against a backdrop of ever present threat to life. The acting by a nine year old playing the son was incredible.
I saw Belfast tonight - a film about childhood memories and family, set against the backcloth of a sharp escalation in The Troubles in August 69. I thought it was a shade implausible in one or two places and the film has a veneer of sentimentality, although that is absolutely fine in the context of the story.
Really strong performances throughout - it goes without saying that Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are actors out of the very top drawer, but Jamie Dornan (‘The Tourist’) was very good as the dad and I was particularly impressed with Caitriona Balfe, an actress I had never seen before. I thought that she carried a lot of the emotional weight of the film. Overall, an extremely good and entertaining film, replete with a fine sound track from Van Morrison and others.
Power of the Dog was odd but came together by the time it was over. It’s not the movie I expected it to be. Really liked it. 6/8
Tragedy of Macbeth is shot as though it was made in the 40s. Looks amazing. Denzel was brilliant. I have to read explanations of what’s going while watching Shakespeare stuff but I managed to enjoy this nonetheless. 5/5
Nobody is brilliant at times. It’s like a comedic John Wick. It gets progressively sillier but it doesn’t take itself too seriously so can’t really complain about that. It’s bloody well written even if it is derivative. 8/10
Nobody was my second favourite film of last year. Absolutely loved it
The NI troubles was a bit before my time, will I still find Belfast interesting?
If we ruled out films that were set before our time there wouldn’t be much out there to watch ! To be fair this isn’t a film about The Troubles. It’s about a nine year old boy and how he sees life , love and his family and it’s the best film I’ve seen in a couple of years . You’ll love it
The NI troubles was a bit before my time, will I still find Belfast interesting?
If we ruled out films that were set before our time there wouldn’t be much out there to watch ! To be fair this isn’t a film about The Troubles. It’s about a nine year old boy and how he sees life , love and his family and it’s the best film I’ve seen in a couple of years . You’ll love it
I should have phrased my question better! I only asked as I have no idea about the troubles. Obviously stuff like Titanic and WW2 is famous history and taught in schools.
The NI troubles was a bit before my time, will I still find Belfast interesting?
If we ruled out films that were set before our time there wouldn’t be much out there to watch ! To be fair this isn’t a film about The Troubles. It’s about a nine year old boy and how he sees life , love and his family and it’s the best film I’ve seen in a couple of years . You’ll love it
I should have phrased my question better! I only asked as I have no idea about the troubles. Obviously stuff like Titanic and WW2 is famous history and taught in schools.
You don’t have to know anything about what happened to enjoy the film . It’s only going on in the background really.
The Kid Detective looks awful. Looks like a kids’ film at best. But it’s not like that at all. It’s genuinely very, very good. It riffs on film noir detectives tropes in a bloody funny way, while also having the balls to be really dark. So glad I gave it a chance.
The Power of the Dog i went into this on the back of the rave reviews by people who review films for a living, and only caught the Charlton fans version on here afterwards. So yeah, it is a good film. The cinematography, the sweeping landscapes and general camera work are majestic, the acting is great and the claustrophobia building is well done. It's not, however, much fun to watch. I caught a wretched film called Invisible Thread a few years ago, which ha d rave reviews and virtually no plot worthy of the name. About half way through POTD, I was fearing the same. But this is a better film, and does rise to a conclusion. I read several times that to truely appreciate this film, you need to see it again. Thanks for that but maybe another time. Once was enough.
The Eternals Here, I didn't understand how many people seemed to dislike this film. I found it fairly steady Marvel fare. I caught the last two Avengers films prior to the Eternals, and Eternals is nowhere near them, but those two were the summit of a well worked storyline, and Endgame was for me in my top five best films ever. Marvel lost a bunch of characters in Endgame and seems to be building a new set up, with the intention of another rollercoaster 'Avengers style' finale. Whether they do that is an open question, but while Eternals was a little on the patchy side, it was an enjoyable enough film. And why did that character who arrived during the end titles annoy people? Never heard of him, but will his presence damage the plotlines?
Old Henry Saw this last night and it's very much the best of the three. This one was a typical western in the new, rather dirty/rain soaked genre which provided Unforgiven, as opposed to the old gunslinger Hollywood films of old. I found it vastly entertaining, not too long or too short, with a great story and nicely paced. I reccomend this one to anyone, except people who don't like westerns. And a much more enjoyable film than Power of the Dog. 9/10
Two single mothers, one middle-aged, the other a teenager, meet in a maternity ward and their lives subsequently become intertwined. The story is told against the background of a campaign to exhume bodies from a mass village grave, following civilian executions by Franco’s men at the time of the civil war (According to Amnesty International, Spain is second only to Cambodia, with over 100,000 murdered as part of Franco’s ‘social cleansing’ campaign). A beautifully crafted film from Pedro Almodovar, with a magnificent performance from Penelope Cruz. Highly recommended.
House of Gucci... at best, saved only by the acting of a few key roles.
What an awful movie in terms of pacing, story building and character building.
To start Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa) plays her role of Patrizia Reggiani well enough, but we never really get to see why her character suddenly becomes controlling and bossy to Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). I do not rate Driver highly as an actor, but I felt he was just awkward enough to begin with, he improved enough as the film went on.
Jared Leto's camp designer character Paolo was awful. He was built well enough compared to many of the cast, but Leto got carried away with the camp and it was insincere and his Italian accent was poor.
Then you have the best built character Rodolfo Gucci, Irons delivers an easily understood, dislikeable and yet somehow likeable character that sadly is bumped off early doors to enable the pacing of the movie.
Finally we have Big Al Pacino. His Character is Aldo Gucci, we get nothing other than he's the kind uncle and wants Rodolfo and Maurizio to be close again... No other background on him. He was quite well acted, but his character had random flaws that were not explained and seemed to be poorly written.
Special mentions to every other cast member being absolutely forgettable (Salma Hayek aside - purely for the Milf factor, her acting was wooden)
The NI troubles was a bit before my time, will I still find Belfast interesting?
If we ruled out films that were set before our time there wouldn’t be much out there to watch ! To be fair this isn’t a film about The Troubles. It’s about a nine year old boy and how he sees life , love and his family and it’s the best film I’ve seen in a couple of years . You’ll love it
I should have phrased my question better! I only asked as I have no idea about the troubles. Obviously stuff like Titanic and WW2 is famous history and taught in schools.
You don’t need knowledge of the troubles to enjoy and I thought it was a great film, came out slightly tearful if honest, but I do think the film will be particularly well received by those of us who were children in that era as there were lots of moments of recognition of our own childhoods. Definitely worth seeing though Gary.
I saw Belfast tonight - a film about childhood memories and family, set against the backcloth of a sharp escalation in The Troubles in August 69. I thought it was a shade implausible in one or two places and the film has a veneer of sentimentality, although that is absolutely fine in the context of the story.
Really strong performances throughout - it goes without saying that Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are actors out of the very top drawer, but Jamie Dornan (‘The Tourist’) was very good as the dad and I was particularly impressed with Caitriona Balfe, an actress I had never seen before. I thought that she carried a lot of the emotional weight of the film. Overall, an extremely good and entertaining film, replete with a fine sound track from Van Morrison and others.
Catriona Balfe, the lead lady in Outlander since 2014. Passable upper class English accent too.
The Eternals Here, I didn't understand how many people seemed to dislike this film. I found it fairly steady Marvel fare. I caught the last two Avengers films prior to the Eternals, and Eternals is nowhere near them, but those two were the summit of a well worked storyline, and Endgame was for me in my top five best films ever. Marvel lost a bunch of characters in Endgame and seems to be building a new set up, with the intention of another rollercoaster 'Avengers style' finale. Whether they do that is an open question, but while Eternals was a little on the patchy side, it was an enjoyable enough film. And why did that character who arrived during the end titles annoy people? Never heard of him, but will his presence damage the plotlines?
I think part of the annoyance is him being played by Harry Styles (of One Direction fame) - who has taken several steps into "proper" acting but draws some ire for his background from snobs (I presume.)
The other part is that his "powers" in the comics are essentially to be superhumanly charismatic and charming to the point he basically roofies/date rapes partners with psychic powers instead of drugs, which in current times is obviously quite a big no-no. I presume this will be appropriately changed for Disney tastes but it is a bit of an odd choice of character.
No idea how to begin describing this or if I enjoyed it or not tbh. Almost certainly the weirdest movie I'll see this year though.
Looking forward to this. Really liked This Magnificent Cake, the mid-length animation they did about Belgian colonialism in the Congo. Very grim, dark comedy.
I saw Belfast tonight - a film about childhood memories and family, set against the backcloth of a sharp escalation in The Troubles in August 69. I thought it was a shade implausible in one or two places and the film has a veneer of sentimentality, although that is absolutely fine in the context of the story.
Really strong performances throughout - it goes without saying that Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are actors out of the very top drawer, but Jamie Dornan (‘The Tourist’) was very good as the dad and I was particularly impressed with Caitriona Balfe, an actress I had never seen before. I thought that she carried a lot of the emotional weight of the film. Overall, an extremely good and entertaining film, replete with a fine sound track from Van Morrison and others.
Saw Belfast last week. Not going to make any comments as Blucher has nailed it.
Watched House of Gucci last night . Too many actors trying too hard to impress and that’s without mentioning the ridiculous accents. Lady Gaga is way over the top to the point where it’s annoying to watch .
It’s a story that could have been told so much better which is surprising considering it’s directed by Ridley Scott .
Watched House of Gucci last night . Too many actors trying too hard to impress and that’s without mentioning the ridiculous accents. Lady Gaga is way over the top to the point where it’s annoying to watch .
It’s a story that could have been told so much better which is surprising considering it’s directed by Ridley Scott .
6 out of 10
I enjoyed it - I thought Lady Gaga was really good. Not the best film but certainly enjoyable.
Liquorice Pizza Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off. What is this fucking obsession with making films with no fucking plot? Why do critics foam about how great it is? Do not wate money on this fucking film. Imagine excerpts of Charlton losing to Cheltenham, in 30 second bursts, interjected with idle scenes with a bunch of random people doing dull stuff. Over two hours. -1/10
Comments
Took my mum to see it today. Thought it was very good.
Tragedy of Macbeth is shot as though it was made in the 40s. Looks amazing. Denzel was brilliant. I have to read explanations of what’s going while watching Shakespeare stuff but I managed to enjoy this nonetheless. 5/5
Nobody is brilliant at times. It’s like a comedic John Wick. It gets progressively sillier but it doesn’t take itself too seriously so can’t really complain about that. It’s bloody well written even if it is derivative. 8/10
I saw Belfast tonight - a film about childhood memories and family, set against the backcloth of a sharp escalation in The Troubles in August 69. I thought it was a shade implausible in one or two places and the film has a veneer of sentimentality, although that is absolutely fine in the context of the story.
Really strong performances throughout - it goes without saying that Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are actors out of the very top drawer, but Jamie Dornan (‘The Tourist’) was very good as the dad and I was particularly impressed with Caitriona Balfe, an actress I had never seen before. I thought that she carried a lot of the emotional weight of the film. Overall, an extremely good and entertaining film, replete with a fine sound track from Van Morrison and others.
How did you find Schindler's list,Titanic and the Ten commandments?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60138866
The Power of the Dog
i went into this on the back of the rave reviews by people who review films for a living, and only caught the Charlton fans version on here afterwards. So yeah, it is a good film. The cinematography, the sweeping landscapes and general camera work are majestic, the acting is great and the claustrophobia building is well done. It's not, however, much fun to watch. I caught a wretched film called Invisible Thread a few years ago, which ha d rave reviews and virtually no plot worthy of the name. About half way through POTD, I was fearing the same. But this is a better film, and does rise to a conclusion. I read several times that to truely appreciate this film, you need to see it again. Thanks for that but maybe another time. Once was enough.
The Eternals
Here, I didn't understand how many people seemed to dislike this film. I found it fairly steady Marvel fare. I caught the last two Avengers films prior to the Eternals, and Eternals is nowhere near them, but those two were the summit of a well worked storyline, and Endgame was for me in my top five best films ever. Marvel lost a bunch of characters in Endgame and seems to be building a new set up, with the intention of another rollercoaster 'Avengers style' finale. Whether they do that is an open question, but while Eternals was a little on the patchy side, it was an enjoyable enough film. And why did that character who arrived during the end titles annoy people? Never heard of him, but will his presence damage the plotlines?
Old Henry
Saw this last night and it's very much the best of the three. This one was a typical western in the new, rather dirty/rain soaked genre which provided Unforgiven, as opposed to the old gunslinger Hollywood films of old. I found it vastly entertaining, not too long or too short, with a great story and nicely paced. I reccomend this one to anyone, except people who don't like westerns. And a much more enjoyable film than Power of the Dog.
9/10
Two single mothers, one middle-aged, the other a teenager, meet in a maternity ward and their lives subsequently become intertwined. The story is told against the background of a campaign to exhume bodies from a mass village grave, following civilian executions by Franco’s men at the time of the civil war (According to Amnesty International, Spain is second only to Cambodia, with over 100,000 murdered as part of Franco’s ‘social cleansing’ campaign).
A beautifully crafted film from Pedro Almodovar, with a magnificent performance from Penelope Cruz. Highly recommended.
What an awful movie in terms of pacing, story building and character building.
To start Stefani Germanotta (Lady GaGa) plays her role of Patrizia Reggiani well enough, but we never really get to see why her character suddenly becomes controlling and bossy to Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). I do not rate Driver highly as an actor, but I felt he was just awkward enough to begin with, he improved enough as the film went on.
Jared Leto's camp designer character Paolo was awful. He was built well enough compared to many of the cast, but Leto got carried away with the camp and it was insincere and his Italian accent was poor.
Then you have the best built character Rodolfo Gucci, Irons delivers an easily understood, dislikeable and yet somehow likeable character that sadly is bumped off early doors to enable the pacing of the movie.
Finally we have Big Al Pacino. His Character is Aldo Gucci, we get nothing other than he's the kind uncle and wants Rodolfo and Maurizio to be close again... No other background on him. He was quite well acted, but his character had random flaws that were not explained and seemed to be poorly written.
Special mentions to every other cast member being absolutely forgettable (Salma Hayek aside - purely for the Milf factor, her acting was wooden)
A real shame as had heard good things.
😉
The other part is that his "powers" in the comics are essentially to be superhumanly charismatic and charming to the point he basically roofies/date rapes partners with psychic powers instead of drugs, which in current times is obviously quite a big no-no. I presume this will be appropriately changed for Disney tastes but it is a bit of an odd choice of character.
No idea how to begin describing this or if I enjoyed it or not tbh. Almost certainly the weirdest movie I'll see this year though.
Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off.
What is this fucking obsession with making films with no fucking plot? Why do critics foam about how great it is?
Do not wate money on this fucking film. Imagine excerpts of Charlton losing to Cheltenham, in 30 second bursts, interjected with idle scenes with a bunch of random people doing dull stuff. Over two hours.
-1/10
And breathe.......