Last Good Movie You Saw

[Hot Heart]

There are so many great little lines. It's majestical.

[deanb]

I don't think that's a word.

 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Day 2.

 

Yeah it's very good film. I think a thing that works really good with it is it isn't entirely a comedic film as I'd sort of expected, with some quite darker parts. I guess in retrospect one of them kind of had to happen. I quite liked Taika Waititis cameo in it. I'd say that and Bellas mocking of how fat Ricky is at the opening helped set the tone for the film (assuming you've not seen What We Do In the Shadows).

 

I quite liked the bit when Ricky gets back the hut being raided by police and is:
*sees swat police* "Ninjas!" 
*sees k9 unit* "Direwolves"
*sees child welfare woman* "Child Welfare!"

 

Totally something I'll be gushing about and recommending for a while.

 

(that means you guys should go watch it too).

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, I loved that. Also...

 

"Pretend you're dead! ... Come on, it only works if we all do it!"

[Mal]

The Wind Rises

 

I'm actually unsure how I feel about this one. It's good but there's some oddities I need to think about.

 

1) How some of the characters talk at times is a bit weird. I think it's due to having multiple languages at times.

2) Sometimes the entire background like with grass fields will move. There's a lot of detail and a lot of moving assets. In ways I feel like it is distracting yet beautiful.

Edit: okay, all this detail makes the world come alive. Also the weird sound work I pin it to getting an emotional response from the audience.

 

Anyhow... deleted some spoilers. But, I'll say this. This is an odd, good and surprisingly sad moving. Hopeful as well but god damn. Such a cute couple.

 

Lastly, an amazing earthquake scene.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Mal

[deanb]

Midnight Special

 

Seemed up my street, something I'd missed out at cinema. It's a pretty simple, and sort of old-fashioned sci-fi. Michael Shannon and Joel Edgertone trek the formers son across America to a sort of pre-ordained meeting place while a cult that used the kid as a kind of prophet and the FBI try and hunt them down.

 

It's pretty neat how it unfolds the story, there's some exposition of sorts, but for the most part the story starts sort of in the action and you pick things up, mainly about the kid, as you go along. e.g the opening they're in a motel room and they've boarded up the window n duct taped the peep hole, you think "hey maybe that's to keep FBI from snooping" or what not. Nope, find out later why they do that. The kid is pretty decent, the action and flow of the film is pretty great. Ending is sort of..cliched of sorts. Like you can kind of work out the eventuality fairly early in. The kid is pretty great in it too, as far as kid actors go. Does well with the whole "8 year old who is wise beyond his years" type.

 

Nothing super special, but decent solid flick.

[deanb]

Due Date

 

Pretty fun film, with some not so subtle "RDJ dealing with daddy issues" kinda thrown in. I feel there's a bit in the middle where RDJ warms up fully to Zach that I feel is a bit unearned but otherwise it's pretty fine film and since it's a comedy I can allow it that minor lapse.

 

Oh yeah this happens

[deanb]

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

 

Figured I'd wait until I'd seen both before posting. I have seen fragments of this before (I guess it's hard not to have) so not a totally new film for me. It's pretty much a Tarantino film, so if you're into those then it has that going for it. 

Not sure what to say that hasn't likely already been said.

[CorgiShinobi]

I meant to say this earlier, but I went to see La La Land. It's definitely worthy of Golden Globes, whatever ones it won anyway. It's a very good musical and romance

[deanb]

Birdman
^{The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance}

This has been on my list for an age. It's quite what it seems from the outside, a film that critiques the career of a post-comic book film star brilliantly casted as Micheal Keaton. The cinematography is amazing, and watching the "one shot" of it is magical and entrancing. I get the feeling if I was more into the material adapted for the play-within-a-film I'd get a lot more depth from it though the play dialogue gives you hints of its ties with the main characters inner struggles and demons. Can see why it did so well at the Oscars.

 

Edward Norton also pretty good casting too given the Hulk stuff and the out-of-film meta on that. (Emma Stone also an ex-comic film acress too, and heck probably a few others there if I was to look).

[deanb]

Arrival

 

So yeah this is pretty damn good. I'd mentioned to my step-mum about maybe watching it with them when I'm next door but figured might go over heads, and watching the film I would agree with my assessment. 

 

Great opening, and I feel it would be super effective if you went in knowing nothing about the film. Kinda reminded me of the 7/7 bombings, when everyone ends up glued to TV. I was helping out in the ...err "creative week" (I don't know what other schools call it), doing technical stuff for a play worked on so the hall was next to the reception which streamed 24/7 BBC News (it's like the "safe" channel, every business with a TV in has BBC News). I should note I was too young for 9/11 (also not at school then, or in any public space). Those rare events when you're all glued to the TV.

 

So yeah, really great opening and sort of setting the tone. It was quite well done with the sparse coverage of the "how the world is reacting", kinda going quite cliche but it was very much subplot.

 

I though the aliens were well done (I like the recent trend of more creative aliens than "people in latex suits", hooray for CGI). And loved their language. Would make for some cool desktop wallpapers. Very different kind of hard sci-fi with the focus on communication. Oh I liked the Kangaroo story cos I knew as she was telling it that it's a falsehood, and figured it'd go into Lucy territory of "10% of your brain", but she right away clarifies to hawkeye that it's a fake story. Kinda weird they never went into the Fibonacci and mathematics side of things since that's what we're usually taught to use. But I guess for the most part that's clarifying the whole "we're not total dumb dumbs and can add 1+2, and hey we even know 0 is a thing now*".

 

Some gorgeous shots too. Though I'd be noping out right away at the inverted gravity stuff. My fear of heights doesn't mix well with looking down the corridor and there's the floor at the end of it. Certainly adds to the "strangeness" of it all, including their departure.

 

But yeah, good watch. Give it a shot.

 

 

*for those not in the know, 0 is a relatively recent invention in human history. In Roman Numerals V - V = ?

[deanb]

Snow Piercer

 

This creeped higher to on my watch list due to the unfortunate recent demise of John Hurt, who continues to be stellar in this. In fact pretty much everyone was pretty great in this, and it was quite an unusual film so a good cast picking (Tilda Swinton always good choice to cast in an "unusual film"). Some great moments, stuff like the fight with the axes, the school room section, etc. All quite surreal in how it pans out.

 

I've got High Rise to watch, and I think that's almost the same premise of sorts except from the view of a rich member and in a building instead, and Jeremy Irons instead of Robocop. Oh on the front, I'd actually guessed that Wilford was going to be John Hurt

(until he got shot, but that's always possible to be dummy/faked etc).

 

 

Also, super big budget and length Coca Cola advert.

 

I will say I have some issue with the logic of things given it does sort of try to go out of its way with the "how the train works". For example:

 

 

- Why is the anniversary over a bridge and not, presumably, at some city it left from.

- Why are their manta rays, afaik they're not edible.

- Why does it have ports for sticking peoples arms out? (also I'm curious on that point given it's implied it's a common torture with all the limbless people except later it's revealed they're limbless due to cannibalism).

- Given it's obviously meant to be a luxury train, how come it has the facilities for making the protein blocks? (surely not for feeding the on-board animals given likes of chickens and such are herbivores).

- How come it only has two phones?

- Why is there only one door, and in the engine room. Like presumably it was designed to have people arriving and departing somewhat frequently, rather than living on it forever.

 

Also

- How come so few people seem perturbed by the rebels working their way up through the train. They only seem to take issue when Nam steals the Krolene. Which....

- Nam was in prison for being a Krolene user, but most of the nightclub members are users too..

- Also on the Nam front, surely he had to be involved in the other attempts in order to open doors required to go forwards, especially for the "seven".

- Is his daughter clairvoyant or not. It seems kind of out of place. Not like it's a "in the far flung future people are a bit telepathic, e.g Dredd"

- Is the ending meant to be hopeful at all, cos like the final few minutes sees the unnecessary death* of like the remaining 99% of humanity, and all that's left is essentially two kids who will have to survive without any food (that went down with the train) against a nearby polar bear, and then somehow procreate down the line. So in other words the film really shows the final few days of humanity.

 

*As in from the view of Nam who seemingly was all "It's safe to go outside now" but in the process like kills everyone anyway so what was the point.

 

 

 

Like, good film but a lot of things that are largely unexplained. But you can go with most of it.

 

 

Oh I tried posting this last night, but after 3 power cuts I was like "fuck it".

 

edit: You guys should watch some films.

[deanb]

Clue(do)

 

Very much a Tim Curry film, but fun to see a bunch of familiar faces.

 

I knew going in that there had been multiple endings (pretty cool to have that, amazed no one has taken a shot at it in recent times), and was a bit worried I'd only have the one but it actually has all three endings. Reminded me a lot of Jonathan Creek (I don't think America has it, but if it's on your Netflix check it out). I think it does well in how over the top it is, and as the bodies pile up the guests are more and more "oh, another dead person".

 

It's also a very short film, a smidge over 90 minutes with the three endings in it. So if you want to watch something quick one day, then no need to look far.

 

Oh I also liked the end credits as the playing cards showing the characters. 

 

[deanb]

Justice League Dark

 

Gone gone the form of man, arise the demon Etrigan.

 

So the DCAU continues to shit all over the movie side of things. This time introducing a chunk of the magical side of things, mainly with Constantine, Zatana, Deadman and Etrigan/Blood with a cameo of sorts from Swamp Thing. Joined by Batman, cos "magic doesn't solve everything". They combat a magical malady that's troubling the world that the main justice league can't deal with (in fact help make it worse of sorts). It's all kinds of snazzy and magically zap zap (would be an issue of sorts with it is that it's pretty much just occult versions of like supermans heat vison in many cases really).

 

Just a shame it's one off and not a series, be kinda cool. Though a lot of them do show up (I think minus Constantine and Swamp Thing, given they're sorta new to the mainline DC) in the Batman series and the Justice League show (this is not a continuation of that, Crisis on Two Earths is the only one that's semi-linked to the TV show of yore).

 

Flashpoint Paradox is still my fave mind. Also waiting for them to do a few "What ifs". They've already done Dark Knight Returns, Year One, and Killing Joke. I think this form lends itself to the What Ifs....totally not just angling for Red Son. 

[TCP]

THE HUNT FOR WILDERPEOPLE

I thought it was charming as fuck. Also, does Sam Neill just play roles where he's a grump who hates kids?

[deanb]

It's pretty damn good.

 

Anywho I went to two films today instead of all those silly people paying for two people to see one movie.

 

John Wick: Chapter 2

It's more John Wick but not quite. Bit more plot to it than the last one (and it kinda felt like wrapping up the first, but hey Peter Stormare. Who has also co-starred with Keanu), which I'm kinda unsure of. It didn't need to be complicated by it, but I guess they couldn't kill his dog again. And hey it let them explore the world of the assassins a bit more with the whole gold coins n fancy hotel stuff.

They vastly improved the blood too, but from the first they could only go up from there.

The ending was a bit anti-climatic though. Doing that thing where they set up a sequel.

 

Lego Batman

So..hmmm. Like...it's a bit safe I feel. Kinda missing something from the first a bit. But on the other hand it's chock full of Batman references (want those film posters as wallpapers). So it's good for those. Slightly falls into the Deadpool trap of "parodies other films, does much the same" in that here it makes a point of having pretty much his whole rogues gallery, but still has Joker as the main bad guy. But hey it's Lego which means that Sauron and Voldermort are also bad guys in this.

It's better than BvS.

[Hot Heart]

Nightcrawler

Jake Gyllenhaal is very good and it's got some nice night-time imagery. The sort of film that you'd like but also be disgusted or creeped out by. Feels a bit like There Will Be Blood.

[Hot Heart]

Did the same Dean Double-Bill...

 

LEGO Batman

I liked it. It's mostly pretty funny but bogs itself down with obvious/tedious story stuff at some points (kids film, I know) which isn't bad as such, it just kinda ruins the pacing.

 

Felt dumb to take a potshot at Suicide Squad and then offer some weak reasoning for villains helping out at the end despite also featuring the Justice League early on

 

Sometimes the action feels too busy and frenetic too. Overall, good but not great.

 

I also found it funny that Ralph Fiennes voiced Alfred but Eddie Izzard voiced Voldemort. And that Voldemort's is one of the few faces where they show he actually has a sort of nose.

 

Good not great also being my opinion of John Wick 2.

I was never quite on board with the hype surrounding the first one and, again, I'm not feeling it here either. It's a perfectly functional action film with cool imagery and some tense moments but something always feels off about it. The "lore" of these assassins is actually very shallow and it doesn't feel like much was built on since the first. Also it seems weird that he's "the ghost" or "the boogeyman" when everyone in that world knows who he is, always seem to eager to mess with him, and he's constantly having the shit beat out of him. Maybe it's just because it sounds more appropriate for Batman, who is presented as "untouchable".

Having said all that... the third film should be interesting.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

I like it's the "Dean Double-Bill". Seen a few folks do these films back to back. Not a common sight.

[TCP]

Arrival

-At first I was like huh? but then I was like waaahhh?. Over all, a great film 9/10.

[deanb]

Yeah been recommending Arrival to geek club as a pretty decent "hard" sci-fi film.

 

Anywho it's 1:40AM and I just got in from a late night preview showing of Logan. (edit: And then got kinda tired and so used bullet points to expand later then went to bed)

 

So it's good. Not I think, great, but it's good and solid and it's certainly a Wolverine film. Also it's a 15 rating over here, not an 18 so there's that.

 

Pretty much all my thoughts I guess I should wrap up in spoilers. But for none spoilerness:

- There's no stinger so don't hang around after the "Logan" title appears.

- I think an adaption that included more of the not-fox-licenses characters from the comic it would have been significantly worse (world is not ready for incestuous Mark Ruffalo)

- the inclusion of an in-universe x-men comic is pretty great.

- Patrick Stewart is fucking amazing in this. He's the doddery old grandad that's succumbing to alzhiemers that's both endearing and sad.

 

So onwards to spoilerville (and there's some that aren't so obvious from the trailers so don't peak)

 

 

So I love the opening scene for setting it up. This is a Logan that's kinda down on his luck, and who is just slashing wildly at the thieves, and I love how his claws don't properly pop out also highlighting more that he's falling apart (we later see him having to manually pull one of his claws out which is kinda ick). Oh and the bit he's trying to defend his car then goes feral once one of them finally shoots it. It's the entire film compressed down to the first few minutes.

 

As mention Stewart is pretty great. Love his "seizures" kinda harking back to his semi-often used power of freezing everyone, first seen in X2. But now with the bonus of him being old and not fully in control, thus just totally fucking up everyone. I'd say atm it's a bit up in the air if he killed attackers from Rices team at the x-mansion, or if he fucked up and killed students. I've a feeling it might be the latter since to him that'd be something Logan would want him to forget doing. A shame he kind of brings it up to not-Logan.

 

Which is an element of the film I understand adding in but not overally keen on X-24. I guess given they couldn't stick in the Hulk then Wolverine is the only other guy that'd reasonably go up against wolverine. The first scene with him in is pretty good, the first shot of him you feel something isn't right since he's notably more youthful, and at first you think it's one of the nightmares he's having. I think it's when he kills the lad you pick up that it's not a nightmare induced by Xaviers "take in this moment of being in a family". Man when Logan is apologising to Xavier being all "it wasn't me", and after burying him he starts thrashing up the car (which is I guess also a great moment for X-23 to see that for all he's kinda controller he can get pretty ragey).

 

X-23 was great, especially for a child actress. The bit where she first speaks and he's like "you can talk?!?! 2000 miles of silence and now you speak?" and she then goes into a spanish tirade and he is all "shut up". I liked how earlier Xavier is noting the differences in her being a female Wolverine, and how in a lion pride the female is both hunter and protector, and you see that a lot in the film. Especially when the New Mutants show up. (they're totally planting seeds for a New Mutants movie there). Such as at the camp she's the one staying up doing guard duty and such. Also foot claws (which I do feel they brought in a bit too soon imo, but cool they're there). The double teaming with wolverine at the end is pretty dang cool. And being small and all the ferociousness and lethality of adult wolverine makes her terrifying when the mexican shack home is invaded. He can't scurry through rafters and get under small machinery to slash out and remove a foot.

 

I wonder if the vast majority of the soldiers with robo limbs is down to her?

 

The in-world comics are pretty cool, they're also original comics. People nerdier than eye spotted the issue number and have confirmed that the stories shown inside aren't ones that appeared in our reality. I guess having the Eden stuff with coordinates kinda nails it though. Amazed that's still left in limbo if it's real or not. I could see someone putting it in as a calling card for mutants. Also in the Old Man Logan comic there is like a secret underground mutant/hero facility ran by Emma Frost (she teleports Wolverine and Hawkeye in from impending t-rex attack iirc) so could allude to that.

 

The adamantium bullet, especially once x-24 shows up is a bit of a chekovs bullet. You know it's gonna be used on him, it was just so painfully obviously drawn attention to.

 

Also had a thought earlier this morning: Laura is kinda screwed given we know that:

- Wolverines healing starts giving up after 300 years

- his adamantium is heavily poisioning him after 50 years.

- she had adamantium put in her at a young age

 

So at the very least it's gonna fuck her up as she's gonna hit puberty and start growing, with the downside of having the strongest metal in the marvel universe wrapped around her bones*. Also assuming that the adamantium isn't the cause of wolverines reduced healing capacity, if she does get into adulthood the adamantium is gonna spend like 200+ years poisoning her before she fatally succumbs to it. (though I think Logan would have gotten in a fair few years if he hadn't had his chest turned into a tic-tac-toe board then 

Those definitely fucked him over to his final end more than the adamantium poisoning.

 

*reminds me: liked the bit where she uses her body to shield Xavier in the car, reminded me a bit of John Wick 2 using his suit to protect face. 

 

 

 

Anyway, it's pretty damn solid and far superior to Apocalypse. Not quite worthy of beating X-2 but it's up there. Heck I'd say it's worth going to see some of Patrick Stewart.

 

 

And obligatory (if you've been under a rock the last week)

 

Longest interview ever (love that Mcavoy and Stewart sit the same way too)

[Mister Jack]

Just saw Logan and it was indeed great. I know this is weird to say about a movie that's full of mutants, but the story was very human. It occurred to me while I was watching it that Fox has successfully managed to do what Warner Brothers has struggled with since Man of Steel: make a dark and gritty comic book movie and do it right.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Edited March 8, 2017 by Mister Jack

[Hot Heart]

Logan

 

It really is rather good. It's not a superhero film, of course, but a western; being that it so strongly evokes Shane.

 

 

Also, I can see why Dean was drawn to Children of Men again, hehe.

 

 

I've been disappointed in most of the X-Men films, since they never really fulfilled their potential and while this isn't "an X-Men film" it pretty much nails its tone and story. It's got some touching moments mixed in with gratuitous violence (more on that in spoilers in a sec) and a strong ending. Which brings me to a side point...

 

Funnily enough, I'd always felt like Fox to Marvel Studios was like Guitar Hero to Rock Band. The latter was busy trying to build a cohesive whole that connects and builds on the previous while the former seems more content with churning out "greatest hits" before saturation point. Rock Band wants to give you a continuous, vast library of songs; Guitar Hero wants to give you GH: Aerosmith. Of course, the MCU stuff has paid off in spades whereas Fox's haphazard approach to X-Men films has created some fucked up, almost unsalvagable continuity... but, hey, at least they got a Days of Future Past film and an Apocalypse one!

 

Anyway, for once I'm actually glad, because this is exactly the sort of thing you wouldn't get to see in the MCU (not for decades at least?). It's a very strong almost singular character focus and it lays the theme on real thick

"She's very much like you, Logan"

He literally has to fight his younger, feral self.

He is Shane.

 

 

On the performances, the young girl is really, surprisingly good, Stewart is superb as always and Jackman really gives it his all. Merchant is, well, he's alright, I suppose. I expected the character to be far creeper or nervous or skittish and Merchant is almost bland.

 

The only other real downsides, I could see...

 

The kids at the end, killing Pierce, was presented like some sort of horror film. They virtually torture him to death but we're supposed to take pleasure in this. It sits at odds with the idea of being branded as a killer and what Logan was trying to "save" them from.

 

Also, I felt X-23's eulogy was too on-the-nose. Maybe they think audiences are too stupid to recognise it unless she says the whole thing, but I felt having her just say, "There are no more guns in the valley" would've been more powerful

 

[Mr. GOH!]

Logan. Took them nine tries, but they finally made a great X men movie.

[Thursday Next]

I was wondering the same thing re: adamantium.

 

 

X-23 has a lot of growing up to do. What happens to her bones and shit? Was the adamantium applied in plates so that it can shift as she grows, in which case she'll become increasingly vulnerable as the plates separate, or is there some other maguffin that can allow normal bone growth despite adamantium?

I think it was pretty clear that adamantium was poisoning Wolverine. Not sure if this is something they "fixed" with X-23?

I also liked the subtle story telling re: the lack of mutants. The corn field where they fixed the water pipe was owned by the big bad corp, which made corn syrup for junk food. Later we are told that the mutant gene is being suppressed by gene therapy administered in secret via junk food. A nice way of explaining the extinction of mutants without expositioning at people.

 

[Mr. GOH!]

My read is that

the adamantium poisoning was something Logan believed but was not true. The poisoning was via the corporate anti mutant drugs put into food and water and other products, as revealed by the evil doctor at the end. I also got the impression x23 and x24 only had adamantium claws. But I may be wrong on all accounts. It seems to me that there might be truth to the adamantium poisoning since only an adamantium bullet could kill x24.

 

 

Edit: After doing some reading up,

apparently adamantium poisoning is a thing from the comics, and Logan's healing factor is constantly combatting it. I guess the added assault of teh anti-mutant toxin is enough to push Logan past the limits of the healing factor, which is why he's so sick in Logan.

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Mr. GOH!