Recently Watched

The Incredible Hulk
No matter when I watch it, or after how many movies I watch it, this movie never fails to give me the joy I like to feel out of a Hulk movie.

I liked Incredible Hulk as well. It has flaws, sure, but Bruce Hulks out with satisfying frequency and smashes with equal gusto.

Saw Cinderella last week, the live action version. It was pretty good in most senses, but was basically just a retelling of a story we all know. Maleficent was excellent because it turned what-we-think-we-know on its head. This couldn't manage the same feat, but was perfectly watchable nonetheless.

Maleficent was excellent....?

Turning Disney's most iconic villain into an anti-hero victim is Disney at its worst.

I thought Maleficent was excellent, yes, in part because it managed to genuinely surprise me. Not many films do that.

Creed

Spoiler:

Mortal Kombat
I love to pop this in every once in a while, it stands out as a fun nostalgic movie, fighting choreography and soundtrack help a lot in making this a joy ride.

Mortal Kombat Annihilation
I find myself compelled to watch this mess for the sake of watching the conclusion to the MK film story. It's really bad as a movie, but man is it fun to make fun of.

I agree with Simian on Maleficent, I didn't think much of it going into it, but it was a nice surprise and I really loved it.

Dawn of Justice was dreadful for so many reasons.

The Jungle Book.


Gonna be honest, I've never seen the original animated movie, so I didn't know a lot about it other than the songs. But I really enjoyed this. Great movie.

Southpaw

Well acted but utterly predictable, another film guilty of giving most of the plot away in the trailer. It has no surprises to offer whatsoever, and after hearing good things about it I was flat out bored for most of it's 130 minute run time.

Spectre

Some great action sequences, but the premise felt forced, like being told "all the bad stuff from the other films was all me!" rather than it feeling like a natural progression. Did like the ending though...

Spoiler:

Regardless, it engaged me more than Skyfall, even if it all still feels a little overly familiar by now.

Coherence

A group of middle-aged friends get together for a dinner party on the night a comet passes close to Earth, and weird thigns start happening. It's nominally a scifi film, but the scifi element is threadbare. It's more focused on how the characters react to and deal with the problem, and how it all spirals out of control.

Good little film.

I revisited a couple of old-favourites, in the shape of Sam Raimi's...

Spider-Man

Yes, we've all seen it a hundred times, but it actually does feel quite dated now. Some of the dialogue is incredibly hammy, the CGI is unconvincing in places and whilst I've got - and will probably always have - a huge soft spot for it, it isn't as good as the rose-tinted glasses would lead me to remember.

Spider-Man 2

This however, still is. Yes, the CGI is occasionally poor, especially on Doc Ock as he traipses around the city scape or in combat, but it seems more consistent that the first film. It's still a hugely enjoyable romp and knocks the Marc Webb films into a cocked hat.

And no, I didn't bother to watch Spider-Man 3.

Captain American 2: Civil War

!!! Team American no matter what superbuu says to make me feel bad about my choice.

SimianWonder wrote:

I thought Maleficent was excellent, yes, in part because it managed to genuinely surprise me.  Not many films do that.

I guess it would be suprising if we watch Dawn of Justice 2 and the actual heroes are lex luthor and Joker because they were just misunderstood and had girlfriends who made them sad.

Got a few to add to the list.

X-Men Apocalypse

I'll post further thoughts in the relevant topic, but did enjoy it despite myriad flaws.

Jungle Book

Really enjoyed this.  There have been a few changes to some of the characters from the older animated version, but the end result is both a technical tour de force (you completely forget that basically everything except Mowgli himself is CGI) and evocative in all the right places.  Plus, Idris Elba nails Shere Khan.  Not sure why the tiger still has Elba's thick east end accent, but he comes across as being utterly menacing.  Like any number of classic villains, even when he's playing nice you know that underneath it all he'd rip your throat out as soon as look at you.  Great film.

The Revenant

To be honest, I thought this was really dull.  I was expecting a tense revenge thriller but aside from the sheer savagery of the bear attack at no point did it grip me, and the revenge aspect only really comes into play in the final half hour of it's three hour running time.  I didn't care about any of the characters, their motivations or worry about whether or not they'd survive through to the end credits either, and by the time they rolled around I was thoroughly bored.

Creed

Were I looking at it from a critical point of view, I'd argue that the basic plot is just the original 1976 Rocky, rebooted for a new audience.  However, that does the film a massive disservice.  Stallone is excellent as a world-weary Balboa, and Michael B Jordan as the titular Creed is his equal in terms of sheer screen presence.  The characters are all strongly written as well; no one is a two-dimensional piece, everyone serves a purpose and they're all written as believable human beings.  Plus, the end fight was tremendous.  Honestly, it should have won at least one Oscar.  Best picture, director, actor or supporting actor, take your pick.  Tremendous bit of film making.

Kung Fu Panda 3

I adore the first film, but the second was a bit "meh".  Thankfully, this was closer in spirit to the original, paying homage to any number of super-cheesy 70s Kung Fu flicks.  It wasn't without flaws; the Furious 5 are once again largely underused - their role is basically to job to the new big bad to sell how powerful he is - and the vast majority of the new cast are instantly forgettable, said big bad included.  The ending feels like exactly that; an ending.  It wraps up Po's story very nicely, so I doubt we'll see a fourth film.  Good fun, and much better than the second film, but still not quite as good as the original.

SimianWonder wrote:

It wraps up Po's story very nicely, so I doubt we'll see a fourth film.

I think that six movie plan is still a thing. It was confirmed that the 4th one was a go.

I finally watched Zootopia and it was so, so, so good.

It better have not awakened anything in you.

Watched "Captain America: Civil War" a little while back.
And last night, "The Force Awakens" and "A New Hope" back to back.

Why'd you watch the same movie twice?

SOK wrote:

Why'd you watch the same movie twice?

Because it kills time; redundancy is a great thing.

Read a fucking book.

I recommend Verily, a New Hope.

Everyone needs a New Hope somewhere; good choice.

Suicide Squad


eh, it wasn't bad I guess but it had problems.

1. Jared Leto is not a good Joker

2. the fun and excitement that you got from the trailers was very much absent throughout the entire movie. It wasn't funny, it wasn't exciting. All the good bits were already in the trailers.

3. literally nothing The Joker did made any sense. I'm startng to think if they're playing the "but it's the joker, he's crazy, it's doesn't have to make sense"card in some obtuse way, or if they're just stupid. at one point in the movie he goes to break into whatever the hell kind of facility it was, steals what I assume is some kind of weapon and then nothing ever happens with it or it doesnt get mentioned anywhere. it literally added nothing to the plot.

4. there's absolutely no chemistry between the characters, none of them have any character, the only saving grace is Margot Robbie who plays a great Harley Quinn, the rest of them are rather bland.

5. there's a Flash cameo just for the sake of it being there I guess.

I'm a bit confused. You say it wasn't bad, but then you make a pretty compelling argument for it being bad.