• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

    Read BEFORE posting Trades & Request

The Last Movie(s) You Watched... (quick one or two sentence reviews)

LOL, agree, but Twins is pretty hilariously bad too
 
Freedom Writers (2007) -
Based on the real life experiences of Erin Gruwell and her students. Similar in tone to movies like To Sir with Love, Blackboard Jungle, and Up the Down Staircase. A solid 9/10
 
Sean Bean's fearless and heroic turn in 'Sharpe' made it one of my all-time favourite TV shows. The first thing he did after it ended was 1998's 'Ronin', so I was pretty excited when I rented it from the video store and remember being really disappointed to discover that he plays a cowardly ass-hat, who is only in the film for about 10-minutes. 20-years later and the Arrow 4K restored blu-ray in hand, it's time to put my Sean Bean fanboy mentality aside and give 'Ronin' another go... :D

Ronin (1998)
The convoluted infinity-cross MacGuffin plot exists just to hold up the 3 or 4 lengthy car chases, which are rightly considered some of the best ever shot. No CGI was needed back in a bygone film-making era when you had stunt-drivers as skilled as this, hundreds of cars to crash and stunt-people who look like they were ready to break a few bones. Unfortunately the irrelevant stakes do inevitably make things drag when the runtime is over 2-hours. Only Robert De Niro and Jean Reno's bromance has any real heart.

 
Journeyman

Paddy Considine's second directorial effort co starring new Dr Who Jodie Whittaker. The first ten minutes I did think this was gonna be a pretty clichéd run of the mill boxing drama but things take a sharp turn for the unexpected early on. Paddy can be a bit wooden in certain roles (especially his bit parts in big studio releases) but gives one of his best performances here. By the end I was fully invested and pretty impressed.  

On a side note I had a pint with Paddy in a Nottingham pub about ten years ago after seeing his band Riding the Low, very down to earth guy happy to talk about what he'd been up to and had in the pipeline.
 
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) -
Wow. How have I never seen this movie before? As a parent, teacher, and human being, this was profound. A perfect movie. 10/10
 
Mission Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Spoiler Free

I thought it could not possibly be as good as Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation but it is.
In many ways it's even better, even if the story itself is not as original as some previous entries of the series. (I think I still prefer the visual originality of Ghost Protocol and the story from Rogue Nation).
Let's say that I understand some people saying that they already saw all that before, but I would answer them "Maybe, but directed as good? With the entertaining factor raised so high from beginning to end?". On those basis I think this movie is the best, for consistancy.
This movie maybe miss the "one big iconic and original scene" that most MI movies have but I think it's because the overall level of amazement is spread all along Fallout.
Mission Impossible Fallout tries to push the limits of the clichés of the genre, and it succeeds.
 
DigModiFicaTion said:
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) -
Wow. How have I never seen this movie before? As a parent, teacher, and human being, this was profound. A perfect movie. 10/10
Click to expand...

I'll have to check that out I really enjoyed Pawn Sacrifice with Tobey Maguire and Liev Schrieber
 
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
I'd put this in a triple-bill with 'Ed Wood' and 'The Disaster Artist', because it's that good and because it's another story of a person with an endearing passion for their art, that wins out over their total lack of any actual ability :D . Meryl Streep plays the title role of a (real life) wealthy New York Opera patron and amateur who was spectacularly bad at singing. Hugh Grant is the real star though, playing her husband and manager, who cheats on and lies to her but is also kind, noble and faithful to her at the same time (quite the feat of acting).

 
Cesar Chavez (2014)
I wanted to like this movie, but it just came off as flat. I'll admit that I don't like many movies that have John Malcovich in them, but he was a minor character at best. Michael Peña's performance was just flat, imho, as well as most of the actors. Unfortunately this feels like watching a reluctant or insecure group of actors, which detracts from the importance of the message and events it portrays. Definitely not on par with Ben Kingsley's performance in Ghandi. 5/10.
 
Mission Impossible 3

Gets things back on track a bit  afte the lame MI2.  It's plagued with the Bourne quick cut shaky cam  every noughties action movie adopted and it lacks any standout moments but does make Ethan a more three dimensional character and Hoffman makes a memorable foe.  At this point Mission Impossible was a pretty mediocre franchise that wouldnt be troubling the Bond producers to reinvent themselves.  Another three movies later though it certainly seems like they need to.
 
Doctor Strange (2016)
I think this is my favorite Marvel film. I love the visuals that occur in the mirror dimension when they go all inception like and the story line is good too. A little slow after the initial Ancient One showdown, but once he begins his quest the pace is just right. Not a big fan of visuals in the dark dimension or Darmmamu, but everything else is pretty fantastic. 8/10
 
'The Lawnmower Man' [1992]

I recently bought Shout! Factory's blu-ray of this film, one I remember enjoying when it was first released but probably hadn't seen since. I watched the extended Director's Cut, and the set-up did seem a little slower but not annoyingly so. I thought the visuals held up well (by early 90s standards) though I remember there being more VR scenes overall. Jeff Fahey is great in this. A fun wallow in nostalgia for me, but I would argue that there's still something worthwhile here if you've never seen it.

Edit: I have 'Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace' lined up for tonight. It has abysmal reviews. We shall see.
 
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Well, I can see where TLJ got its humor from. This was basically GotG, which isn't bad. A bit too much cgi fodder and Hela was a pretty poor villain, imho. Still, Thor & Loki's progressions and transformations continue to be satisfying. 7/10
 
The official BFI 67th Best British film ever made...

Mona Lisa (1986)
Insanely good film from 'The Crying Game's Neil Jordan. Bob Hoskins plays a low-level gangster, just out of prison who gets a job driving a high-class prostitute (Cathy Tyson). Their complex relationship is beautifully written, shot and acted (Hoskins rightly got an Oscar nom) and Michael Caine plays a menacing kingpin. The romantic music of Nat King Cole gives the grimy London Soho locations an air of neon fantasy. An often tender counterpoint to Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver', that is going straight onto my all-time favourite list.


(^ Some NSFW language)
 
^ I haven't seen Mona Lisa since it first came out and was probably a little young to appreciate it back then. I saw Crying Game a few years later and loved it! They have a lot of parallels thinking back now.. time for a rewatch methinks :D
 
The Meg

Wasn't expecting anything great or to be disappointed by this and it pretty much does what it says on the tin.  It has a few nods to Jaws of course, but reminded me as much of Warlords of Atlantis with a bit of Deep Blue Sea thrown in for good measure. The PG-13/UK 12 cert and lack of gore held the movie back from being an above average B flick though for me. Far too bloodless and neutered for a shark flick.
 
Technically not a movie, but the Netflix Comedy Special "Nanette" is absolutely amazing. It got some belly laughs out of me, elicited anger and brought me into a full-on crying fit. This is something I'd recommend to anyone, but specifically those with some sort of social priveledge they are taking for granted.

It's only a hour, give it a watch.
 
Thor (2011)
I remembered being pleasantly surprised when I first watched this movie. After editing Ragnarok, I decided to go back and rewatch it. Yikes. The Asgard stuff was ok, but the earth stuff with Foster was pretty poor. These characters have come a long way. 6/10

Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Kind of the same reaction. I remember thinking that Marvel movies had gotten a little better when I watched this movie the first time. Again, the Asgard parts were decent, but the Foster storyline was just meh. The bad guy(s) were kind of pointless and just there to be wacked and smashed. The real draw is the ever evolving dynamic of Loki and Thor. 6.5/10

Take away: Less is more in the marvel universe. The shift of focusing on a core attribute of a character or theme has really improved the MCU. Thor and T:TDW both were marred down by history and world building through excessive expositions. This new model of "show me, don't tell me" is much more enjoyable and allows the viewer to involve themselves in the world building which makes it more likeable.
 
Ready Player One (2018)

Entertaining but it belongs to those kind of movies that makes me think of great things until the halfway point then just stretch the story to an ending that is less good than what I thought it could be.
Not saying it's a bad movie at all, Spielberg having fun is always a good moment to witness, but not sure if I want to see it again.
7/10
 
‘Lawnmower Man: Beyond Cyberspace’ [1996]

I watched this over 2 nights with a couple of days in between, which didn’t help me figure out this confusing mess of a film. Matt Frewer takes over from Jeff Fahey, doing his best Jim Carey impression, and Patrick Bergin replaces Pierce Brosnan (a different character, but not really) who is mentally cashing his paycheck throughout. The director must have seen ‘Highlander 2: The Quickening’ and thought it was great, thus did his best to recreate that film’s visual look. All that kept me interested was wondering what a fan-edit mash-up with those two would look like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom