AAjr took me to the flicks yesterday for my birthday, and bought me lunch in a Sri Lankan restaurant, Ceylon Copper, which was the best meal I've ever had in Bromley. Not that that's a very high bar to get across.
Anyway, the films.
65 - meh. Nothing wrong with the two leads, there's just not enough really happening.
The planet killer asteroid doesn't make the Gulf of Mexico so that's a bit of an error.
Cocaine Bear - does exactly what it says on the tin - or should that be the brown paper packet? Perfect B movie.
Just watched Luther: The Fallen Sun. Elba was solid Luther, Andy Serkis was believably evil in an unbelievable set-up, he's a great actor.
The bit at then end where he goes to a big black limousine to be offered a job by 'the boss' inside, who we don't see, looks like a set up for Bond or something similar.
Jeez, I was about to reply to this and realised it was my own post.
No but I read today (in The Guardian) that it's been ranked as Spielberg's best ever film and the 3rd best film of this century overall by French film critics.
Which says more about the French than anything else if they think it’s better than Jaws , Close Encounters, Schindlers List , ET , Saving Private Ryan , Minority Report , Jurassic Park etc…
The Fablemans is a good film but it’s way , way down on the list of his best films .
Duel!
Indeed. For a first feature, it's very, very impressive. A real indicator of greatness to come.
Enjoyable film starring Woody Harrelson about him coaching a special needs basketball team. Very diverse cast and some good acting from the inexperienced cast. 7/10
Wasn’t sure if there was an Oscars thread so popped in here to say Ke Huy Quans award and speech has to be my favourite ever Oscars moment.
Guy could barely get a gig after his famous child roles in Temple of Doom and The Goonies. Seeing his speech and then his emotional hug with Harrison Ford choked me right up.
Jeez, I was about to reply to this and realised it was my own post.
No but I read today (in The Guardian) that it's been ranked as Spielberg's best ever film and the 3rd best film of this century overall by French film critics.
Which says more about the French than anything else if they think it’s better than Jaws , Close Encounters, Schindlers List , ET , Saving Private Ryan , Minority Report , Jurassic Park etc…
The Fablemans is a good film but it’s way , way down on the list of his best films .
Duel!
Indeed. For a first feature, it's very, very impressive. A real indicator of greatness to come.
I love Duel.
That and The Hitcher are great tense films to chuck on late at night.
I loved the BBC series, but this Netflix production was utter shite.
The plot was absolutely ludicrous, full of holes and timeline discrepancies. Andy Sarkis as the over the top criminal reminded me of the Roger Moore 70's Bond villains. It's full of action but not sure how the excellent Idris Elber out his name to this rubbish.
Wasn’t sure if there was an Oscars thread so popped in here to say Ke Huy Quans award and speech has to be my favourite ever Oscars moment.
Guy could barely get a gig after his famous child roles in Temple of Doom and The Goonies. Seeing his speech and then his emotional hug with Harrison Ford choked me right up.
Crikey, that’s who it is? I had no idea. I shall try & get a look at his speech then.
Wasn’t sure if there was an Oscars thread so popped in here to say Ke Huy Quans award and speech has to be my favourite ever Oscars moment.
Guy could barely get a gig after his famous child roles in Temple of Doom and The Goonies. Seeing his speech and then his emotional hug with Harrison Ford choked me right up.
Mad he'd had 20 years away from acting, came back and won an Oscar within a year. Brilliant.
I've not seen Everything... yet, but saw it had James Hong in, who is that bloke from everything in more ways than one. His list of credits is crazy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong
Has anybody seen the Everything film? Like to know if its as good as everyone is raving about.
I watched a few months ago, I rly liked aspects and the premise of it but it overall missed for me. I think that was mostly a personal thing though, some people adore it and really connect with it but it didn't hit the same for me. It's worth a watch definitely, especially if you're into that kind of genre, and the acting is generally top-notch so I can see why they won awards for that.
I would say that I can't understand why it has become the most awarded film ever - it's good but it's not THAT good.
I didn't entirely get it and might give it another go. It's certainly very smart. Performances are great and the editing is astonishing. Rick & Morty has had a lot more fun with multiverse ideas but how they affect the lead character is where this one is smarter.
In other news I watched "Finding Michael" on Disney (against my better judgement) - its main narrative is driven by Spencer Matthews (Made In Chelsea) trying to find his brothers body who died on Everest after he became the youngest Britain to ascend Everest. The bits about the mountain and shots of the mountain were great and it came to a good resolution, but I found Spencer as irritating as I expected to so it kind of ruined it for me.
Feels kinda stupid to write that out really as I could've predicted that that would be exactly my review as I hate the reality star types but wanted to watch it for the mountain focus! Oh well haha
Thanks lifers I'll give the Everything film a watch but as you say I'm always wary of the pre hype.
All films should be judged against what they set out to achieve! It's harder to figure out what that is when a film is drenched in awards, so my advice is always to try and view a film as if it's something you stumbled across on TV.
Luther: The Fallen Sun - Bang average. That said, if you thought this one was bad then check out the one below. Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist - Horseshit. Pure, unadulterated manure. Triangle of Sadness - Dark comedy. Funny in places and not so in others. Worth a watch if only to be able to make a judgement. Missing - Mother goes missing and daughter uses social media and online tooling to track her down.
In other news I watched "Finding Michael" on Disney (against my better judgement) - its main narrative is driven by Spencer Matthews (Made In Chelsea) trying to find his brothers body who died on Everest after he became the youngest Britain to ascend Everest. The bits about the mountain and shots of the mountain were great and it came to a good resolution, but I found Spencer as irritating as I expected to so it kind of ruined it for me.
Feels kinda stupid to write that out really as I could've predicted that that would be exactly my review as I hate the reality star types but wanted to watch it for the mountain focus! Oh well haha
I was intrigued by that one and put off for completely the same reasons.
So (and feel free to spoiler/nest your reply), can you Cliff Notes it for me - presume he didn't end up finding him?
In other news I watched "Finding Michael" on Disney (against my better judgement) - its main narrative is driven by Spencer Matthews (Made In Chelsea) trying to find his brothers body who died on Everest after he became the youngest Britain to ascend Everest. The bits about the mountain and shots of the mountain were great and it came to a good resolution, but I found Spencer as irritating as I expected to so it kind of ruined it for me.
Feels kinda stupid to write that out really as I could've predicted that that would be exactly my review as I hate the reality star types but wanted to watch it for the mountain focus! Oh well haha
I was intrigued by that one and put off for completely the same reasons.
So (and feel free to spoiler/nest your reply), can you Cliff Notes it for me - presume he didn't end up finding him?
Ok will spoiler tag it in case anyone's interested. Turned into a bit of a rant sorry haha
Basically no he doesn't find Michael. They started on the expedition off the back of a picture of a body of what could have been Michael but once they get to base camp the Sherpas say straight away that the picture is of a body of an Indian man, so they go up the mountain and check numerous bodies that they find using drones but none of them are Michael. The area they are searching is all above 8000m by the way, so literally the Death Zone.
They had a Plan B of taking one of the other many, many bodies left up the mountain. They decide on a Sherpa who died at around 8000m. They go to see his family (mother, brother, and children) in the show and talk to them about their son, his children are orphans after he died as their mother was also dead so they take the sherpas body back to the family at the end. I was so glad they did that, and that they picked a sherpa as well, there are obviously a lot of corpses of foreign hikers up there as well. It redeemed the film a bit for me, however if they hadn't taken a different body down in his place I would've been furious!
My main problem is just with Spencer, they sell the show and story as if he was actually going up the mountain but all he does is hike to base camp and sit in a warm bubble tent thing and look annoyed that he can't get an answers on the walkie talkie from Nims Purja (Look him up if you don't know who he is) who is literally in the Death Zone trying to find his brother. Maybe it was unreasonable to expect that he would do the actual climb himself giving the physical requirements of it, but they make a big deal about him going up and the danger etc, but I don't think there's that much danger in hiking to base camp, if he even did that?! Even the way they shot it I found so irritating, loads of product placement (hello north face) etc.
Just watched All Quiet on the Western Front and enjoyed it. Good storyline, good battle scenes and excellent filming. Found it a bit too long if honest, they could have condensed some of the touchy, feely, talking scenes without compromising the outcome but overall a good watch and a harrowing story
Saw Creed 3, or as someone said Rocky 9, thought it was ok, you know what you’re getting, and you can guess most of the plot, if you hate boxing, probably not your cup of tea.
Thanks lifers I'll give the Everything film a watch but as you say I'm always wary of the pre hype.
I haven't seen Eevrything but The Shape of Water is a great recent example of an award laden film being massively overrated, overhyped shite.
I sort of enjoyed The Shape of Water, but 'best film' of that year? I don'tr remember what it beat, but that wouldn't have even made a shortlist for me.
PS I just checked, and it beat 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' which I loved, though it was a hard watch at times, as well as two good WW2 films, 'Darkest Hour' and ?Dunkirk' which were also better in my opinion. However it also saw off 'Invisible Thread' which I thought was one of the most pointless films I've ever seen, and apart from better acting, wasn't in any way better that thos stupid 'Seven Shades of Gray' films that were clogging cinema's at the time.
Comments
Anyway, the films.
65 - meh. Nothing wrong with the two leads, there's just not enough really happening.
Cocaine Bear - does exactly what it says on the tin - or should that be the brown paper packet? Perfect B movie.
Enjoyable film starring Woody Harrelson about him coaching a special needs basketball team. Very diverse cast and some good acting from the inexperienced cast.
7/10
That and The Hitcher are great tense films to chuck on late at night.
I shall try & get a look at his speech then.
I've not seen Everything... yet, but saw it had James Hong in, who is that bloke from everything in more ways than one. His list of credits is crazy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong
Plus the general problem that with all the hype about it and praise, it just can't actually be THAT good if/when you do watch it.
I would say that I can't understand why it has become the most awarded film ever - it's good but it's not THAT good.
Feels kinda stupid to write that out really as I could've predicted that that would be exactly my review as I hate the reality star types but wanted to watch it for the mountain focus! Oh well haha
Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist - Horseshit. Pure, unadulterated manure.
Triangle of Sadness - Dark comedy. Funny in places and not so in others. Worth a watch if only to be able to make a judgement.
Missing - Mother goes missing and daughter uses social media and online tooling to track her down.
So (and feel free to spoiler/nest your reply), can you Cliff Notes it for me - presume he didn't end up finding him?
Basically no he doesn't find Michael. They started on the expedition off the back of a picture of a body of what could have been Michael but once they get to base camp the Sherpas say straight away that the picture is of a body of an Indian man, so they go up the mountain and check numerous bodies that they find using drones but none of them are Michael. The area they are searching is all above 8000m by the way, so literally the Death Zone.
They had a Plan B of taking one of the other many, many bodies left up the mountain. They decide on a Sherpa who died at around 8000m. They go to see his family (mother, brother, and children) in the show and talk to them about their son, his children are orphans after he died as their mother was also dead so they take the sherpas body back to the family at the end. I was so glad they did that, and that they picked a sherpa as well, there are obviously a lot of corpses of foreign hikers up there as well. It redeemed the film a bit for me, however if they hadn't taken a different body down in his place I would've been furious!
My main problem is just with Spencer, they sell the show and story as if he was actually going up the mountain but all he does is hike to base camp and sit in a warm bubble tent thing and look annoyed that he can't get an answers on the walkie talkie from Nims Purja (Look him up if you don't know who he is) who is literally in the Death Zone trying to find his brother. Maybe it was unreasonable to expect that he would do the actual climb himself giving the physical requirements of it, but they make a big deal about him going up and the danger etc, but I don't think there's that much danger in hiking to base camp, if he even did that?! Even the way they shot it I found so irritating, loads of product placement (hello north face) etc.
I sort of enjoyed The Shape of Water, but 'best film' of that year? I don'tr remember what it beat, but that wouldn't have even made a shortlist for me.
PS I just checked, and it beat 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' which I loved, though it was a hard watch at times, as well as two good WW2 films, 'Darkest Hour' and ?Dunkirk' which were also better in my opinion. However it also saw off 'Invisible Thread' which I thought was one of the most pointless films I've ever seen, and apart from better acting, wasn't in any way better that thos stupid 'Seven Shades of Gray' films that were clogging cinema's at the time.
Can't wait!
Wow. Such a simple, honest wee film. It had me laughing and crying in equal measure.
Worth twenty five minutes of anyone’s time ☘️