Recently Watched

There's closeups of the elephant's cock hitting Nobby in the face. It's an incredible scene.

Finally got around to seeing Rogue One. I'd like to get another viewing to confirm my thoughts, but I thought the opening was pretty slow paced, and the closing battle was terrifically entertaining,

Spoiler:

Moose, can you do a side by side analysis of Rogue One and Grimsby please? I found Rogue One made itself for me in a few especially good scenes, and Grimsby sounds the same from your description.

Grimsby definitely has it's big setpieces. The elephant one being the most notable. But there's the disabled kid with aids scene, the sucking poison out of a testicle scene, and the rocket up the anus finale.

They both focus on a person with a long lost relative. Nobby loses his brother as a child, and Jyn loses her parents. Grimsby's method of comedy is rapidfire. It's about 80 minutes long and every scene is joke after joke after joke, and even if only 1 out 10 make you chuckle it's still a good amount of laughter. You can ignore that the characters are paper thin caricatures because it races along, and it only cares about getting a laugh.

Basically Grimsby uses jokes the way Rogue One uses Stormtroopers and X Wings. Even if it's a boring movie with bland characters, it's okay because the Star Destroyers look cool, and Darth Vader is in it. Sometimes there's a little cameo from Johnny Vegas and Ricky Tomlinson, or in Rogue One's case C3PO and buttface alien.

Also been catching up on my Pixar. Watched The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out. The Good Dinosaur was very, very and predictable. Not bad, just typical. Two kids become unlikely friends, have to journey through the wilderness to get home, have to conquer their fears, have to go their separate ways, done. One thing I will say is that the landscapes looked incredible, and they simulated cloud cover as well, which I've never seen in an animated film before. But the characters were cartoony, which was an odd contrast with the super realistic environments.

Inside Out I really enjoyed. Very Toy Story-ish, personifying something (emotions rather than toys), establishing that it cares for you, then it gets separated from you, and it desperately tries to get back for your benefit. I keep saying "you", obviously there's a character in the film, be it Andy from Toy Story or Riley from Inside Out, but these movies hit home because you can your own toys or emotions going through this stuff. For me anyway. And boy did Inside Out hit home. I think was crying for most of the last 30 minutes.

I feel that's where Wreck It Ralph missed the mark. It seemed like it was going for that Toy Story vibe, but Wreck It Ralph was all about the inter-personal drama between the videogame characters. Toy Story had that, but the driving force was them trying to back to Andy, because these toys have a deep sense of duty to be there for their kid. The magic of it wasn't just that your toys came alive, it was that they loved you as much as you loved them. In Wreck It Ralph, it's just about the videogame characters coming to life. There's almost no connection to the player, or motivation among the characters that they have to fix the game to make it better for the players.

Finally got around to watching The Huntsman: Winter's War yesterday, which functions as both a sequel and prequel to the Snow White & The Huntsman flick where Kristen Stewart got caught shagging the married-with-kids director. In what is surely a shock to no one at all, especially given the title of this film, Snow White is mentioned in passing perhaps three or four times and the focus is back on Chris Hemsworth's Huntsman.

It had some neat ideas, including a couple of twists I didn't see coming (which is a rarity in itself these days) but was pretty much more of the same, even if the climactic battle felt much smaller in scale than in the first film. It was pretty good fun, all told, with a couple of very well choreographed fight scenes and some amusing casting, chiefly Rob Brydon and Sheridan Smith as bickering male and female dwarves, though Charlise Theron absolutely steals every single scene she's in.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
My first time watching it, it's a great movie.


ARRIVAL
It's a beautiful movie, but not without moments that make me shake my head.

Spoiler:

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Grimsby definitely has it's big setpieces. The elephant one being the most notable. But there's the disabled kid with aids scene, the sucking poison out of a testicle scene, and the rocket up the anus finale.

They both focus on a person with a long lost relative. Nobby loses his brother as a child, and Jyn loses her parents. Grimsby's method of comedy is rapidfire. It's about 80 minutes long and every scene is joke after joke after joke, and even if only 1 out 10 make you chuckle it's still a good amount of laughter. You can ignore that the characters are paper thin caricatures because it races along, and it only cares about getting a laugh.

Basically Grimsby uses jokes the way Rogue One uses Stormtroopers and X Wings. Even if it's a boring movie with bland characters, it's okay because the Star Destroyers look cool, and Darth Vader is in it. Sometimes there's a little cameo from Johnny Vegas and Ricky Tomlinson, or in Rogue One's case C3PO and buttface alien.

Well done, I'm impressed that you managed that. You've made me genuinely want to watch it a bit.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Also been catching up on my Pixar. Watched The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out. The Good Dinosaur was very, very and predictable. Not bad, just typical. Two kids become unlikely friends, have to journey through the wilderness to get home, have to conquer their fears, have to go their separate ways, done. One thing I will say is that the landscapes looked incredible, and they simulated cloud cover as well, which I've never seen in an animated film before. But the characters were cartoony, which was an odd contrast with the super realistic environments.

So it's a shit Land Before Time?

I also generally agree with what you said about Wreck-It Ralph feeling a bit shallow. It's not a patch on Toy Story.

Zootropolis is Pixar's/Disney's best work to date with the possible exception of Toy Story 3. I ust have to say that anytime pixar is mentioned.

Anyway I watched:

Scream 4 - its as funny as the others, I find this films hard to take seriously although there are certainly tense moments was a bit too obvious who was going to die this time, even if they were trying to be meta.

Stir of Echoes - I meant to watch this for years and I have to say it was an enjoyable film. Its nothing amazing its a supernatural thriller/mystery. The story is presented in an intersting fashion despite some hilariously bad effects and a predictable story (well slightly predictable I guessed a lot of the story though)

Fright Night remake - The original was amazing this lived up to it being a comedy horror. David Tennant, Anton Yelchiin and Colin Farrell are enough reason to watch this everyone great in their own parts (first time i seen David Tennant in a film i think)

Oblivion - This is the kind of film that makes you realise why Tom Cruise is who he is, the film was relatively predictable, but him being in it makes it entertaining as well as Morgan Freeman. Not sure why all the sci fi films hes doing lately not as good as Edge of tomorrow this film is just alright.

Van Wilder: Party Liason - randomly watched it gross out comedy not very funny, but ryan reynolds is just likable what more can you say.

This is the End - A end of the world comedy with bunch of celebrities. Its pretty funny if not just for the Emma Watson scene.

Goon - Watched this again, I would say this is a must see. Sean Williams Scott is amazing in this and glad to see him finally acting. Sequel out this year and i cant wait to see it.

Superman Returns

I've been watching a fair bit of The CW superhero shows recently, and during the recent all-show crossover, there was a brilliant throwaway line from Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer that Supergirl / Kara Danvers reminded him a lot of his cousin.

I never understood the reaction this film got. Yes, there are parts where Superman seems a little pissy about the fact that the love of his life moved on without him, but Routh makes for a far more charming Superman than Henry Cavill (don't get me wrong, Cavill has shown he can be utterly charming as well - see The Man from UNCLE - so the fault here clearly lies with the director, not the actor), and the sequence with the plane/space shuttle is still a delight to watch.

Kevin Spacey is always good value for money, and even though Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane is less intense than Amy Adams interpretation, at least there's a cohesive narrative throughout and everything the characters do is for a clearly laid-out purpose.

I haven't seen it for a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it didn't feel like a near two and a half hour film either.

ALIEN: RESURRECTION
I think Alien 3 is an underrated movie, I saw the extended cut near the end of last year and still stand by it, though it has notable moments that make anyone shake his/her head. This on the other hand... what the fuck? From start to finish.
I wish I could call it the entertaining kind of bad, it's stupid from start to end, some entertaining bits, and I really like Christie, everything else is just ugh.


I, ROBOT
At least there is an entertaining I, Something movie (I, Frankenstein came out a decade after this one, and it's a terrible movie, one of the worst I sat through). Is it bad? More than half of it is ridiculously nonsensically bad, plenty of unnecessary slow motion shots, weird camera rotations that look cool for a few shots and others none.
It's like one of the live action Resident Evil movies attempting to be Blade Runner, but failing miserably cause it's a badly told story.
Did it entertain? Yes, plenty. I guess Will Smith has that effect on movies for me.

SimianWonder wrote:

Superman Returns

I've been watching a fair bit of The CW superhero shows recently, and during the recent all-show crossover, there was a brilliant throwaway line from Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer that Supergirl / Kara Danvers reminded him a lot of his cousin.  

I never understood the reaction this film got.  Yes, there are parts where Superman seems a little pissy about the fact that the love of his life moved on without him, but Routh makes for a far more charming Superman than Henry Cavill (don't get me wrong, Cavill has shown he can be utterly charming as well - see The Man from UNCLE - so the fault here clearly lies with the director, not the actor), and the sequence with the plane/space shuttle is still a delight to watch.  

Kevin Spacey is always good value for money, and even though Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane is less intense than Amy Adams interpretation, at least there's a cohesive narrative throughout and everything the characters do is for a clearly laid-out purpose.

I haven't seen it for a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it didn't feel like a near two and a half hour film either.

Its basically Superman the movie again. Most criticism was for Spacey and rightly so, he wasn't cool, calm and collected like Lex should be and this is also why famous actors should not play major characters as they normally can't help but change them. I genuinely thought Routh was great in the part at the time, the plot is just boring, but I think this is much better than the two recent Superman films. Bosworth was girl of the minute when this came out (i think thats her name), but she wasn't memorable although I don't think she was particularly bad. IIRC at the time people loved her.

The film at the time of release everyone I know loved it, I thought it was alright. Later everyone's opinion changed to it was awful, and mine was still it was average.

You've been around long enough to see how fans say films are amazing at one point then act like it was utter shit after the honeymoon phase. This happened with each of the Prequel star wars movies, which was why i was suckered into watching each one and being horribly disappointed. Also calling it now if Star wars 8 and 9 disappoint people will suddenly hate on Force Awakens and if Justice League ends up being decent suddenly Batman vs Superman will be considered a masterpiece. Its essentially why opinions are useless, because most people don't remember their own and then dont invest the time again to check if they liked the thing they're on about.

The kid situation was also really weird I would've liked some resolution on that one.

Also I think James Marsden is actually type cast as the decent guy who doesn't get the girl, thats a weirdly specifc niche to be stuck in.

People already hate Force Awakens.

People hating Force Awakens was inevitability.

Same shit happen with Phantom Menace.

Godsend on release, but after a second glance without the hype, bias, and all that aside, you realize its not really that good

Though not at Phantom Menace's levels of just straight up hate, it show signs of not being the best thing ever.

Kaio wrote:

People already hate Force Awakens.

Empirewild wrote:

People hating Force Awakens was inevitability.

Same shit happen with Phantom Menace.

Godsend on release, but after a second glance without the hype, bias, and all that aside, you realize its not really that good

Though not at Phantom Menace's levels of just straight up hate, it show signs of not being the best thing ever.

Apparently people catch on a bit quicker.

I seriously will not be surprised if Force Awakens being shit ends up as general consensus given a few years.

I'm curious who's gonna be Jar Jar this time.

It probably won't be looked back as complete shit, but it won't be fondly remembered as a classic. It'll just be remembered as that really safe movie that copied too much of the original.

Basically what SOK said.

It won't get Phantom Menace level of shit, but it will just be remember as "meh"

Especially considering we still got to wait on how Last Jedi and Episode 9 turns out

Though to be fair, I don't think any of the 7 Star Wars movies are bad (Yes, I like the prequels)

saw Episode VII again a few weeks ago, still really liked it. it's not very special, but I don't think any of the other ones are all that special either.

don't get me wrong, they're good movies and I enjoy watching all of them again (even the first three) but I don't think any one is particularly special or amazing.

Didn't care much for Rogue One though.

VII is incredibly derivative, sure, but I think it's actually a better film than the rest of Star Wars. All of them have flaws.

Empire is and always has been the best.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. Empire certainly used to be my favourite. But really there are things about it that I've noticed over the many times I've watched it that reveal kinda sloppy writing that I at least haven't noticed (yet) for VII.

Neo wrote:

Empire is and always has been the best.

Skip wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I love it. Empire certainly used to be my favourite. But really there are things about it that I've noticed over the many times I've watched it that reveal kinda sloppy writing that I at least haven't noticed (yet) for VII.

Looks like you'll have to settle this with light sabers.

All films have flaws, even stone-cold classics like Empire, that much should be obvious.  Force Awakens was a good film - maybe even a very good one - but I doubt it will ever be treated with quite such reverence as Empire.

Anyway, went to see...

Split

... over the weekend, having seen some very positive reviews. By the end, I had very mixed opinions. James McAvoy was terrific, he completely sold every having multiple personas fighting for control of one body. Thing is, bits of the story didn't always make a lot of sense, and despite having a small number of main cast members, only two of them only get any real development, so you don't really care what may happen to the others, they're only there to help move the main pair along.

Plus, the final fifteen minutes moved from tense pyschological drama to monster/horror, and it all feels more than a bit silly. The final fifteen seconds of the film - which I won't spoil, but do yourself a favour and DON'T LOOK IT UP - does shed some light on just what the hell you just watched, but it still can't quite shake the feeling that the writer /director had a great idea for a film and wasn't quite certain how to end it in a satisfactory manor.

Worth a watch? Probably, just for McAvoy's performance, just don't go in expecting The Sixth Sense.

PETE'S DRAGON (1977)
This movie sucks, I don't know why Disney greenlit the remake of a movie as boring as this.

Well, wouldn't it be better to try and remake a weak movie into something watchable instead of needlessly recreating something that's already a classic?