I grew up on watching Rocky films and my kids have seen re-runs of them all too . They are an important part of my movie watching history but Creed feels like an end of an era. This is right up there with the best of them. It reminded me a lot of the first two films. Gritty yet still with the over the top boxing action. This is Stallone's best acting performance of the lot though. He really gets back to grass roots with this display. Michael B. Jordan is excellent too but what was really surprising was the acting from the real life boxers Andre Ward and Tony Bellew. The one strange thing is the Everton connection to the film. Fans at the fight wearing Everton scarfs and singing Everton songs. Strange. I wonder what the American audience thought of it. All in all I enjoyed this as I have done with most of the films.
Watched Concussion last night with Will Smith based on a true story I believe. Very enjoyable, but I've always been a Will Smith fan.
Where did you see that? I didn't think that was released for another month.
Kodi
Yeah I watched it too. Thought it was a bit meh overall, Will Smith was good (even if his accent has been criticised I thought it was generally ok). I think the problem was that it's the sort of topic that doesn't translate well onto film. The Big Short got round this with some great directing,editing and an excellent script. Concussion just felt like it dragged too much but a good insight into how sports bodies conduct themselves.
The Big Short is about the banking crisis in 2008 and how a few individuals predicted what was going to happen and acted accordingly. Back in 1993 there was a series of chess matched live on TV between Brit , Nigel Short and Russian , Garry Kasparov . Despite not knowing the rules or having ever played a game of chess I was mesmerised by these matches. This film was the same for me. I definitely enjoyed this film but despite them trying their best to explain what was going on it wasn't sinking in . It doesn't matter what you do to jazz it up , banking is and never will be sexy , even if you do involve Brad Pitt and Selena Gomez ! Despite that , this is a fairly entertaining film. I thought it might go down the Wolf of Wall Street route and focus on the excesses of the bankers but it concentrates more on their stupidity and then their absolute gall in getting away with what they did. I like the quirky way the story was told even if I still didn't understand all of it but that probably says more about me than the film.
The Big Short is about the banking crisis in 2008 and how a few individuals predicted what was going to happen and acted accordingly. Back in 1993 there was a series of chess matched live on TV between Brit , Nigel Short and Russian , Garry Kasparov . Despite not knowing the rules or having ever played a game of chess I was mesmerised by these matches. This film was the same for me. I definitely enjoyed this film but despite them trying their best to explain what was going on it wasn't sinking in . It doesn't matter what you do to jazz it up , banking is and never will be sexy , even if you do involve Brad Pitt and Selena Gomez ! Despite that , this is a fairly entertaining film. I thought it might go down the Wolf of Wall Street route and focus on the excesses of the bankers but it concentrates more on their stupidity and then their absolute gall in getting away with what they did. I like the quirky way the story was told even if I still didn't understand all of it but that probably says more about me than the film.
7 out of 10
I noticed that many people are saying that they didn't understand the film or couldn't follow what the characters were saying/doing. I have to admit even I had to pause a couple of times during the film (I did my graduation thesis on this particular issue, ie the subprime mortgage crisis but that was seven years ago and I've forgotten much about it). I recommend anyone who's yet to see the film doing a bit of research beforehand on security trading and get a general idea of what CDO's and CDS's are. A friend of mine said the film was bad and she clearly didn't understand anything about CDO's and CDS's and had no interest in trying. I guess that's why she didn't like the film.
Room is one of those film that is hard to talk about without disclosing what happens but basically it's the story of a mother and child who have been held captive in a room and when they get the chance to escape the boy finds the word outside that he was always told wasn't real. It's a wonderfully acted drama that has you thinking throughout . You think the worst has happened but perhaps the worst is yet to come , especially for the young boy ? Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are superb as the two leads and understandably this has got a lot of accolades since it's release. I think it's one of those films that I will like even more the more I think about it .
As they state early on in The Big Short, the bankers want the general population to find what they do too confusing to question. That's at the heart of the story. So they do what they can to simplify it, and that worked for me. I now have a half-decent understanding.
I think it's a fantastic film. Engaging, informative, at times exciting, and brilliantly performed. The editing gives it an energy that other finance movies didn't look for. And they don't lose sight of the people who suffered most, which could have undone the good work.
I wouldn't compare it to Creed or any other recent release, it's apples and oranges. I loved both movies, for entirely different reasons. A score like the one Beds does is effectively for how close the movie came to achieving its goal.
I'm in Sundance for work. Excellent films / documentaries coming our way include: Under The Shadows, Author: The JT Le Roy story, Christine, Tickled and Swiss Army Man.
I'm in Sundance for work. Excellent films / documentaries coming our way include: Under The Shadows, Author: The JT Le Roy story, Christine, Tickled and Swiss Army Man.
This is a really interested film about an elderly couple who have been happily married for 45 years and then the husband gets some news from his past that rocks their relationship to the core. This is a wonderfully gentle film that doesn't rely on any of the bangs and whistles of modern film making but just a great script and some brilliant acting from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay . In a way this is quite a sad movie. It's about learning that saying less is sometimes better than confrontation especially when a lifetimes relationship is at stake. This won't be to everyone's liking but this made a welcome change to some of the films I have seen lately.
I've now seen all the films nominated for this years best picture Oscar bar one ( Spotlight ) and without a doubt , in my mind , The Revenant is the best of the lot . True , it's not a vintage year but this does have the feel of a film that will stand the test of time. Leonardo DiCaprio play Glass , a frontiersman who fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team , one of whom is particularly nasty , played by Tom Hardy. This is a classic survival/ revenge movie that looks fantastic ( especially the bear fight ) and despite being over two and a half hours , never flounders and that's mainly thanks to a career defining performance from DiCaprio. This looked like a really tough film to make because of the conditions and the physical transformation needed but Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu did a fantastic job.
I was aware of many of the events as I worked in the financial industry at the time, although not on the investment side where all of this happened. Some great performances, not least by Steve Carell and Christian Bale. It explains the issues in a down-to-earth coherent way and manages to make a complex subject very watchable.
It clearly highlights that many senior people in investment banking and on the regulatory side should have paid a high price for their actions yet got away scott-free. They did what they did because they knew there was no down-side ... the tax-payer would always bail them out. Some companies did disappear but most ... and the main protagonists ... survived.
Spotlight is an interesting film about how the Boston Globe uncovered the cover up by the Catholic church of dozens and dozens of priest who systematically molested children . This subject makes me really angry when I think of what these perverts are getting got away with all in the name of religion and I expected Spotlight to heighten my anger but it didn't really. I found this to be a little sterile despite the fact that his had people like Mark Ruffalo , Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams in the cast. Perhaps they were just a little bit too " Hollywood" to be playing the parts of these reporters because I never really bought into their performances. John Slattery was the best thing in this because I actually believed he was Ben Bradlee Jr. This is another film that surprises me that it got nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards because there are better films than this that missed out.
This is one of those films that had a very limited release in the UK last year and could be classed a hidden gem. Lily Tomlin plays a grandmother who tries to help her granddaughter raise the money for an abortion after she gets unexpectedly pregnant. They visit various people asking for the cash, all of which she has a very different relationship with. Lily Tomlin is brilliant in this , you first you get the impression that Grandma might not be a very nice person at all. She's blunt , she doesn't mince her words and she has fallen out with loved ones but as the film goes on you begin to realise that she actually has a heart of gold. At only 80 minutes long it's refreshingly short so Grandma at no stage outstays her welcome.
To say that Youth is a little odd would be a bit of an understatement. But not odd in a bad way , odd in a very , very good way. I absolutely loved this film. This is the story of a retired orchestra conductor ( Michael Caine) on holiday in a lavish retreat with his daughter and his film director best friend ( Harvey Keitel) in the Alps when he receives an invitation from the Queen to perform for Prince Philip's birthday. In all honesty this isn't really about the invitation , it's about getting old and how you reflect on life so differently than when you are younger. This looks fantastic . Sure it can be classed as a bit arty but director Paolo Sorrentino hasn't gone over the top with it instead he has got Michael Caine , to produce one of the best screen performance I have ever seen him perform. There are a few surreal moments that don't quite fit , like the cameo from Paloma Faith which seems to have been shoehorned into the film just to get her on screen but on the other hand I loved the scene with a fat Diego Maradona doing keepy uppies with a tennis ball. This won't be everyone's bag but it got me big time.
Room - a very good and, at times, moving film. It focuses on the child's perceptions and sense of wonderment, rather than the darker elements of the story - 8/10.
I tried , believe me. I tried to like this film but deep down i knew it was never going to happen. I don't know why I bother watching films like this anymore. They hardly ever make me laugh. I think I sniggered three times in the whole two hours of Sisters. It's not completely terrible . There is no doubting that there is a chemistry between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and they are watchable but are they funny? not in my opinion. The whole , party in the parents house , format has been done to death. Just because these are middle aged women and not teenagers doesn't make that any better. In fact it makes it more cringeworthy ( and not in a funny way) . What I think what they tried to do was go for shock value but it wasn't shocking at all and there are only so many jokes about cocks and arses that someone can take in one film. I have no doubt some people will enjoy this kind of movie but it's not for me I'm afraid.
Comments
I grew up on watching Rocky films and my kids have seen re-runs of them all too . They are an important part of my movie watching history but Creed feels like an end of an era.
This is right up there with the best of them. It reminded me a lot of the first two films. Gritty yet still with the over the top boxing action. This is Stallone's best acting performance of the lot though. He really gets back to grass roots with this display. Michael B. Jordan is excellent too but what was really surprising was the acting from the real life boxers Andre Ward and Tony Bellew.
The one strange thing is the Everton connection to the film. Fans at the fight wearing Everton scarfs and singing Everton songs. Strange. I wonder what the American audience thought of it.
All in all I enjoyed this as I have done with most of the films.
8 out of 10
The Big Short
The Big Short is about the banking crisis in 2008 and how a few individuals predicted what was going to happen and acted accordingly.
Back in 1993 there was a series of chess matched live on TV between Brit , Nigel Short and Russian , Garry Kasparov . Despite not knowing the rules or having ever played a game of chess I was mesmerised by these matches.
This film was the same for me. I definitely enjoyed this film but despite them trying their best to explain what was going on it wasn't sinking in .
It doesn't matter what you do to jazz it up , banking is and never will be sexy , even if you do involve Brad Pitt and Selena Gomez !
Despite that , this is a fairly entertaining film. I thought it might go down the Wolf of Wall Street route and focus on the excesses of the bankers but it concentrates more on their stupidity and then their absolute gall in getting away with what they did.
I like the quirky way the story was told even if I still didn't understand all of it but that probably says more about me than the film.
7 out of 10
Room is one of those film that is hard to talk about without disclosing what happens but basically it's the story of a mother and child who have been held captive in a room and when they get the chance to escape the boy finds the word outside that he was always told wasn't real.
It's a wonderfully acted drama that has you thinking throughout . You think the worst has happened but perhaps the worst is yet to come , especially for the young boy ?
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are superb as the two leads and understandably this has got a lot of accolades since it's release. I think it's one of those films that I will like even more the more I think about it .
8 out of 10
I think it's a fantastic film. Engaging, informative, at times exciting, and brilliantly performed. The editing gives it an energy that other finance movies didn't look for. And they don't lose sight of the people who suffered most, which could have undone the good work.
I wouldn't compare it to Creed or any other recent release, it's apples and oranges. I loved both movies, for entirely different reasons. A score like the one Beds does is effectively for how close the movie came to achieving its goal.
45 Years
This is a really interested film about an elderly couple who have been happily married for 45 years and then the husband gets some news from his past that rocks their relationship to the core.
This is a wonderfully gentle film that doesn't rely on any of the bangs and whistles of modern film making but just a great script and some brilliant acting from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay .
In a way this is quite a sad movie. It's about learning that saying less is sometimes better than confrontation especially when a lifetimes relationship is at stake.
This won't be to everyone's liking but this made a welcome change to some of the films I have seen lately.
7 out of 10
The Revenant
I've now seen all the films nominated for this years best picture Oscar bar one ( Spotlight ) and without a doubt , in my mind , The Revenant is the best of the lot . True , it's not a vintage year but this does have the feel of a film that will stand the test of time.
Leonardo DiCaprio play Glass , a frontiersman who fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team , one of whom is particularly nasty , played by Tom Hardy.
This is a classic survival/ revenge movie that looks fantastic ( especially the bear fight ) and despite being over two and a half hours , never flounders and that's mainly thanks to a career defining performance from DiCaprio.
This looked like a really tough film to make because of the conditions and the physical transformation needed but Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu did a fantastic job.
9 out of 10
I was aware of many of the events as I worked in the financial industry at the time, although not on the investment side where all of this happened. Some great performances, not least by Steve Carell and Christian Bale. It explains the issues in a down-to-earth coherent way and manages to make a complex subject very watchable.
It clearly highlights that many senior people in investment banking and on the regulatory side should have paid a high price for their actions yet got away scott-free. They did what they did because they knew there was no down-side ... the tax-payer would always bail them out. Some companies did disappear but most ... and the main protagonists ... survived.
Highly recommended.
9/10
Enjoyable 90-odd minutes.
7/10
Spotlight is an interesting film about how the Boston Globe uncovered the cover up by the Catholic church of dozens and dozens of priest who systematically molested children .
This subject makes me really angry when I think of what these perverts
are getting
got away with all in the name of religion and I expected Spotlight to heighten my anger but it didn't really.I found this to be a little sterile despite the fact that his had people like Mark Ruffalo , Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams in the cast. Perhaps they were just a little bit too " Hollywood" to be playing the parts of these reporters because I never really bought into their performances. John Slattery was the best thing in this because I actually believed he was Ben Bradlee Jr.
This is another film that surprises me that it got nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards because there are better films than this that missed out.
7 out of 10
Thought The Martian was good though. Kids loved it too.
Both through my phone on Showbox and onto the TV via HDMI.
This is one of those films that had a very limited release in the UK last year and could be classed a hidden gem.
Lily Tomlin plays a grandmother who tries to help her granddaughter raise the money for an abortion after she gets unexpectedly pregnant. They visit various people asking for the cash, all of which she has a very different relationship with.
Lily Tomlin is brilliant in this , you first you get the impression that Grandma might not be a very nice person at all. She's blunt , she doesn't mince her words and she has fallen out with loved ones but as the film goes on you begin to realise that she actually has a heart of gold.
At only 80 minutes long it's refreshingly short so Grandma at no stage outstays her welcome.
7 out of 10
Youth
To say that Youth is a little odd would be a bit of an understatement. But not odd in a bad way , odd in a very , very good way.
I absolutely loved this film.
This is the story of a retired orchestra conductor ( Michael Caine) on holiday in a lavish retreat with his daughter and his film director best friend ( Harvey Keitel) in the Alps when he receives an invitation from the Queen to perform for Prince Philip's birthday.
In all honesty this isn't really about the invitation , it's about getting old and how you reflect on life so differently than when you are younger.
This looks fantastic . Sure it can be classed as a bit arty but director Paolo Sorrentino hasn't gone over the top with it instead he has got Michael Caine , to produce one of the best screen performance I have ever seen him perform.
There are a few surreal moments that don't quite fit , like the cameo from Paloma Faith which seems to have been shoehorned into the film just to get her on screen but on the other hand I loved the scene with a fat Diego Maradona doing keepy uppies with a tennis ball.
This won't be everyone's bag but it got me big time.
9 out of 10
I tried , believe me. I tried to like this film but deep down i knew it was never going to happen.
I don't know why I bother watching films like this anymore. They hardly ever make me laugh. I think I sniggered three times in the whole two hours of Sisters.
It's not completely terrible . There is no doubting that there is a chemistry between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and they are watchable but are they funny? not in my opinion.
The whole , party in the parents house , format has been done to death. Just because these are middle aged women and not teenagers doesn't make that any better. In fact it makes it more cringeworthy ( and not in a funny way) . What I think what they tried to do was go for shock value but it wasn't shocking at all and there are only so many jokes about cocks and arses that someone can take in one film.
I have no doubt some people will enjoy this kind of movie but it's not for me I'm afraid.
4 out of 10