What movies have you seen lately? Now with reviews!Movies

[UKMikey]

...Dude!! Spoilers!!

Oh, wait a sec, I also forgot to put mine in a spoiler tag. Oh well.

To paraphrase the old song, it's a long long while from April to September and the spoiler has been out for some time. Luckily Disneyland Experience were able to reunite the two titans of popular entertainment in this short interview which features abysmallly compressed audio.



[EDIT] Sly's pronounced lack of stature makes me wonder how come he was chosen to be the goalie in the greatest World War II prison camp escape football movie ever made, Escape To Victory. He can't stand on a box in goal.

 

[TB]

I had the bright idea to watch all of the highest grossing films by year with the kids. Obviously, at only 11 and 13, some movies will have to wait (I'm looking at you, The Exorcist) and others we've already seen. Some repeatedly.

After throwing the list into Excel, tweaking the formatting and adding a column to track watched movies, we began this journey at 28.97% completed. Not a terrible start.

What was a terrible start was having the 1915 flick The Birth of a Nation be our first movie. If the 3 hour and 15 minute run time wasn't bad enough, the movie depicts black men as stupid and the KKK as the good guys. Fingers crossed that 1916s Intolerance is better but as it's the same director, I'm not holding out much hope. And it's another three and a half hours long.

 

[TenEightyOne]

If the 3 hour and 15 minute run time wasn't bad enough, the movie depicts black men as stupid and the KKK as the good guys.

We watched this the other night, it's insane. The Klan arriving on horseback are genuinely terrifying. Not a lot of black people in it though... but lots of boot polish and evil pouts.

 

[Carbon_6]

This is one of those films that has been neatly tucked away in what I like to call the "Films You Should Probably Watch But For Some Reason Haven't Yet" section of my life. But recently, it finally made its way out of the aforementioned section, gave itself a good dust down and showed what it was made of.

I'll do my best to keep the following spoiler-free.

Apparently there are 7 different versions of this film, created either to gauge audience reaction or made as theatrical releases. The Final Cut is the only version where director Ridley Scott had complete artistic and editorial control without any studio or audience interference, so arguably is the closest to his original vision.

The first thing that ran through my mind after, and at some points during, watching this film was another film that seemed to resonate - 2001: A Space Odyssey. Open interpretation, deep thought processes and philosophical questions are the main three underpinnings that the two have in common. They're not films that you kill a couple of hours with: both require your attention to get the most out of them.

Having seen Blade Runner in its entirety has helped to put its cultural influence into more context. I'd known of the film before seeing it, and understood what traits had made their way into other mediums, but now that understanding has a platform to work from. It's very much a contemporary version of film noir, not just in the themes it explores (humanity and mortality serving as the films core), but also in the techniques used to stage those themes, whether it be lighting, framing, or actions/words of the characters.

Said techniques are clearly of the early 80's, but the end product presents an experience that transcends the period in which it was created. It's not a high polished, all action, leave your brain at the door type of sci-fi. The pacing is slow (if a little uneven in places), the surroundings are dark, gritty, foreboding, the dystopian air thick with ambiguity and uncertainty. There were one or two moments where I tilted my head in a sort of "OK?" manner that perhaps took the sheen off a little, but overall, having had time to process and go over what I'd seen, it all added up to a film that will stick in the memory for some time for the right reasons.

If you give it time, learn its language so to speak, and what you get in return from Blade Runner is something worthwhile.


Score: 4/5

 

[ExigeEvan]

Only The Brave.

Great movie, found it genuinely moving. As a Brit it kind of puts forward how sheltered we are from extremes of weather. In contrast, I also find it amazing that a rich, developed country is still so vulnerable to natural disasters and subsequent loss of life. I often see the news stories on fires in California and the such but never truly comprehended the size and devastation of them.

 

[Brett]

This is one of those films that has been neatly tucked away in what I like to call the "Films You Should Probably Watch But For Some Reason Haven't Yet" section of my life. But recently, it finally made its way out of the aforementioned section, gave itself a good dust down and showed what it was made of.

That could not better why I have not watched this movie. With 2049 recently released, I have been thinking I need to watch the original, but still have not done it.

 

[Carbon_6]

That could not better why I have not watched this movie. With 2049 recently released, I have been thinking I need to watch the original, but still have not done it.

Opinion is split on whether or not watching Blade Runner before 2049 makes a difference.

That said, I don't know enough about 2049 (self-enforced spoiler embargo and all that) to know whether it can be watched on its own.

I would think to be safe, watch Blade Runner first.

 

[TB]

That could not better why I have not watched this movie. With 2049 recently released, I have been thinking I need to watch the original, but still have not done it.

I bought it months ago and still haven't watched it (haven't even put it on my PLEX server). I last saw it around 1995 but remember nothing about it.

 

[Brett]

Opinion is split on whether or not watching Blade Runner before 2049 makes a difference.

That said, I don't know enough about 2049 (self-enforced spoiler embargo and all that) to know whether it can be watched on its own.

I would think to be safe, watch Blade Runner first.

My thought is that it would not hurt to watch it first.

I bought it months ago and still haven't watched it (haven't even put it on my PLEX server). I last saw it around 1995 but remember nothing about it.

I am pretty certain I still have a copy of the movie too, but have yet to watch. In the most first world of problems, when I do finally get around to watching the movie, I will probably rent it off of Amazon or Google so I do not have to dig the disc out.

 

[TB]

so I do not have to dig the disc out.

That's why I have all (ok, almost all...) my stuff ripped. No previews, no menus, no settings, just straight to the movie!

 

[05XR8]

Watched Split. M. Knightshamalamadingdong, is back to his fairy-tale trick endings. Did not expect that.

 

[DesertPenguin]

I want to see it but I don't want to sit through it. Does that make sense?

I saw Justice League today. 8/10. 1 point off for two much humor in places that shouldn't have it and another point for not enough villain backstory/build-up for a villain of that scale.

 

[Sprite]

Spider-Man Homecoming: 7/10

Being a fan of the Toby Maguire movies and hating the 2012 reboot shambles, I was a little dubious of Spider-Man getting a new actor to portray him. However when The Avengers came along and his showed up for the first time , I liked the actor and I was willing to give him a shot.

Fast forward to the new movie and I quite enjoyed it. While not a total reboot, keeping Peter in school and seeing how our new Spider-Man comes with his double life really helps get a little background on the newly adjusted supporting cast.

I even liked the getting to grips with his new suit rather than his new Spider abilities like the other films. The movies weakest part was the “with great power comes great responsibility” arc, given by Tony rather than Uncle Ben on his deathbed. I also didn’t like the clash of funny vs dark and brooding. It all seemed a little clunky in parts.

Micheal Keaton stole the show for me, he’s brill in everything. The CGI seemed a little lacking (see bad CGI birds) but they did well on the suits etc.

Overall an enjoyable movie and certainly worth a watch.

 

[PletdeKoe]

I saw Wonderstruck in a sneak preview.

The absolute most useless pointless movie of 2017. I understand what the filmmakers wanted to do. But they failed miserably. When you can make Juliane Moore look so dull...... The fact the story and point of the whole movie is explained by simply having an character explain it really felt stupid.

2/10

 

[Carbon_6]

Spider-Man Homecoming: 7/10

Being a fan of the Toby Maguire movies and hating the 2012 reboot shambles, I was a little dubious of Spider-Man getting a new actor to portray him. However when The Avengers came along and his showed up for the first time , I liked the actor and I was willing to give him a shot.

Fast forward to the new movie and I quite enjoyed it. While not a total reboot, keeping Peter in school and seeing how our new Spider-Man comes with his double life really helps get a little background on the newly adjusted supporting cast.

I even liked the getting to grips with his new suit rather than his new Spider abilities like the other films. The movies weakest part was the “with great power comes great responsibility” arc, given by Tony rather than Uncle Ben on his deathbed. I also didn’t like the clash of funny vs dark and brooding. It all seemed a little clunky in parts.

Micheal Keaton stole the show for me, he’s brill in everything. The CGI seemed a little lacking (see bad CGI birds) but they did well on the suits etc.

Overall an enjoyable movie and certainly worth a watch.

Spoiler

I like to think that in the time before we "discovered" Peter Parker in Avengers: Civil War, Uncle Ben had already delivered the "great power..." speech, and that's what helped carry him through those six months prior to Stark dropping by Aunt May's apartment. Whether it was before or after Parker got his powers is something we'll perhaps never know.

Having covered that particular point in Spider-Man folklore twice before through the Sony films, hearing it again for a third time would have been pointless and mundane, perhaps even to those who've not seen those films but know about Spider-Man.

Then again, the whole scenario could have been so much different had Marvel not gone through its "Garage Sale" period of selling its licences out to film studios back in the mid-90s. But that's another story.

 

[mcpon14]

Deadpool -- 10/10 I liked his raunchy humor, lol.

 

[Com Fox]

So... I just picked out one random movie I never heard about and watched it all the way through, this was the 2015 film Left Behind.

I heard nothing about it, the only thing that I could recognize was Nicholas Cage being in the movie and even then it is only because of the memes as I never saw any of his other movies. Went into this completely blind.

First of all, didn't expect this to have Christian messages in it, now it isn't a bad thing at all, there are movies based on other cultures so a Christian based movie is just as fine, was just surprised. It wasn't to the extreme as there was a little mini-plot point about how Muslims were automatically seen as terrorists. Almost every character but Cam (as he was more of the guy who got over his struggles and was more of a tutor) was dealing with their own struggles which collide with the plot, it's a characters vs. plot film which are usually my favourites along with buddy cup movies or any media where the plot is emphasis on the characters and how they relate to each other.

However one big criticism I have is how the Christian message is actually portrayed and makes no sense. This movie is based on the idea that God will come and save his believers from disaster, which is a cool idea even if I don't like the whole saving only believers part, it can make for an interesting plot but the only disaster in the film was caused because of the people disappearing by God. Made me think that God is a pety 🤬 who just wanted torture his non-believers. Even at the end of the movie, Chloe says it is only the beginning, that was the start? God just hijacked people busy with their lives causing who knows how many deaths, fear and panic that the main characters had to resolve on their own.

Overall 6/10, it was able to keep me watching until the end but I doubt I'd be watching it again.

 

[mcpon14]

Creep Show -- 10 / 10 It is corny, predictable and cheesy, lol, but it is my type of movie.

 

[05XR8]

Life(not the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence version): Pretty much to the point "Alien" movie with a messed up ending. 8/10

 

[TB]

Guardians

No, not that one. The other one. No, not that one, either.

This gem is the 2017 offering from Mother Russia. A Russian super hero movie? I'll give it a try. I've watched worse, haven't I? Their superpowers were created through experiments giving them the power to, respectively, control earth (chuck rocks), super speed and strength, turn into a transparent liquid (not sure if water?) and turn into a bear. Because Russia. The big baddie can control all electronic devices and is set to control everything on Earth. Unless the Guardians can stop him!!!

I was cautiously optimistic going into it but, unfortunately, less than 15 minutes in there are already holes.

Spoiler: Not sure why I bothered to spoiler this

"We need to find these people but our records don't indicate where they might be."
"Oh, wait, we all of a sudden have a ton of reports and videos of them and know exactly where they are! How fortuitous!"

The ending came... rather abruptly. So abruptly that all of a sudden when I looked up from my phone (which I guess should tell you something), the credits were rolling and I had to rewind the last 2 minutes to see the baddy defeated.

The overdubbed voices sound like they were recorded in a tin box, echos and all, which was rather annoying to listen to.

The budget was, apparently, 380,000,000 Rubles (about 6.5M USD) so I wasn't expecting stellar CGI, but it wasn't terrible. Akin to older X-Men caliber. Looks like it only made about 5M USD at the box office and the production company went bankrupt and yet somehow they are planning on making a Guardians 2. Chinese, this time.

All in, a 6/10

 

[MeanElf]

...Free Fire - 8/10: This was an unexpected little gem. Featuring a great cast (the ever-lovely Brie Larson here too), the whole plot takes place in a single confined area. I loved this, since this kind of technique is usually only used for horror movies and it feels tiresome in that genre. If you get the chance to watch this, it's definitely worth a viewing...

Was aware of this from early trailers, being a Ben Wheatley film (A Feild in England, Sightseers, High Rise and Kill List amongst others) Finally got to see it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I mean, Sharlto Copley, Killian Murphy, Michael Smiley and Sam Riley, Noah Talyor too. Probably the best post-Scorsese or Tarantino shoot-fest I've seen for a long while (oddly enough Scorsese was a producer.)

 

[Brend]

Was aware of this from early trailers, being a Ben Wheatley film (A Feild in England, Sightseers, High Rise and Kill List amongst others) Finally got to see it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I mean, Sharlto Copley, Killian Murphy, Michael Smiley and Sam Riley, Noah Talyor too. Probably the best post-Scorsese or Tarantino shoot-fest I've seen for a long while (oddly enough Scorsese was a producer.)

Its such an exciting watch, a lot of nice twists too!

 

[Latetzki]

Jackie Chan did pretty good performance here. I've never seen him doing dramatic role like this. Plus there's just enough Jackie Chan moves to make it fun to watch as well. Brosnan had too much screen time though. Worth watching!

 

[05XR8]

Sicario 10/10

An old school film in today's time. Amazing when I look back at Benecio del Toro in Licence To Kill and now. Same about "Brand"(Josh Brolin). Good acting all around.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Saw Star Wars on the holidays. Thought it was awful.

 

[Sprite]

Mother!

I’m not sure why people have had a hard time understanding this film. I purposefully held off reading reviews and watching all the trailers and teasers. As soon as I knew the project was going ahead I’ve been following closely but avoiding anything which may spoil the film.

I’m a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky and especially Requiem For A Dream and Fountain. Both films have amaizing writing and beautiful visuals along with outstanding Scores both of which I rank in my all time favourites and own multiple copies.

You could say I was going into this film with a lot of expectations. Then anticipation as I started to see review scores and hear negative vibes. The biggest was someone at work just couldn’t get what the film was about and was echoing what the press at large was ranting about. “What the heck is this about!!!”

The ! At the end of the title also caused controversy. I was nervous if this film was going to excite or dassapoint.

Well tonight I’ve sat down and watched it. I won’t spoil it as it’s certainly worth watching.

The acting is some of the best you’ll see, especially from the Jenifer Lawrence. However the supporting cast really turn good showings and are great to watch.

Visually it’s a strangely beautiful sight. Everything on screen is just so... beautiful. The photographers on GTPlanet will know what I mean.

Now the story, this is a biggie. It’s a hard film to talk about without ruining for others. Its disturbing, it’s horrific, it’s heartbreaking, it’s eye opening, it’s infuriating and for what it seems confusion too, for quite a lot of people.

I know what I believe the movie is about and it twigged about the halfway mark and the closer to the end just confirmed what I though. I could be wrong but I feel I’m on the correct track.

So was my apprehension founded? Nope, Darren has hit another home run for me. Weirdly I wasn’t aware of the soundtrack throughout my first watch so I’ll be sure to pay attention next viewing.

9/10

 

[PletdeKoe]

Collosal.
What a fantastic movie! This has to be the most original take on addiction for a movie.
9/10

 

[JKgo]

...A quick review of the two films I managed to watch - 2017's The Power Rangers reboot and The Hitman's Bodyguard.

The Power Rangers was a pleasant surprise. I thought it had a potential to be a stinker of the stinkiest order but it turns out, it wasn't. Yes, it's not "good", but entirely serviceable. So, it's a pass. 6/10

As for The Hitman's Bodyguard... I expected a bit more from it. Sure, it's got moments of brilliance, but they are just too few and too far in-between. I just couldn't see Reynolds as an uptight, safety-at-all-cost type. He does play off nicely against Sam Jackson, but at the end of the day, a pretty forgettable film, through and through. 5/10

 

[JKgo]

...Hi, it's me again. Another quick review, this time "Free Fire". A British production and produced by Martin Scorsese.

And it's a bit rubbish. Instead of calling it "Free Fire", the filmmakers should've called it "Crawling Simulator: Watch uninteresting people crawl about for 88+ minutes".

Critical buzz was pretty good, so I expected more. No story, characters are a bunch of unlikeable jackasses, shootouts lack any sense of urgency whatsoever, and while the performance from all the actors are fine, they are working off a rather sparse, thin script and it's a bit yawn-inducing as a result.

Avoid. 4/10.

 

[Pagey279]

Kong: Skull Island

I had pretty much exhausted all the films on Now TV so against my better judgement I found myself watching this. Lo and behold it was everything I expected, corny, predictable, riddled with clichés and plot holes, tinpot acting, the list goes on. But it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a sit back, turn your mind off and gorge on popcorn type of film so I guess it never really goes wrong but it's not my cup of tea.
4/10

I must confess it was completely ruined by Peter Jacksons remake, no King Kong film will ever come close to that for me so I didn't exactly go in with an open mind, that's probably where I went wrong.