What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Can you please post some details? I'm highly interested in Red Sparrow after I've heard it's extremely violent and not Bondlike when it comes to style. The word is it's an unique depiction of spy game(s) with disturbing parts, true or not?

Originally Posted by you
Yea as I said earlier I didn't care for Shape of Water. Personally I thought Lady Bird was by far the best picture of the year. Fantastic movie.

Saw Red Sparrow the other day. So so.Not a great role for JL

Haven't seen it yet, but her Russian accent sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

There are a few violent scene but they are not gracious violence rather they move the plot forward. He accent didn't kill the movie but i just felt she didn't carry the role that well (I felt she was too young for silver lining but she still won an oscar so take my opinion for grain of salt - when i say to young i mean an older lady would have fit the part better - i.e, she did not look like someone that matched the part she was playing).

In red sparrow the story seems straight forward but is gritty (i do wonder about accuracy though current action by russian makes it seem very plausible). The most interesting part of the movie (for me) was sparrow school and it could have used a lot more details. The male lead role was heart less and the weakest part of the movie. Her uncle and mother were great and the ending very fitting. Nothing really unpredictable happens so it was kind of a bore-fest. I would like to know more about the accuracy of the portral of russian characters.

Originally Posted by joxer
Can you please post some details? I'm highly interested in Red Sparrow after I've heard it's extremely violent and not Bondlike when it comes to style. The word is it's an unique depiction of spy game(s) with disturbing parts, true or not?

I've recently seen Shape of Water and Phantom Thread.
Shape of Water is pretty good, but not very original in my opinion. And has some parts which really don't need to be in there (yes, I'm talking about the fishman dick jokes. wtf were they doing there?). But pretty good overall. One thing is clear, it should not have one best picture at the Oscars. Guess this just reaffirms the worthlessness of the Oscars.

Phantom Thread on the other hand was great. Just a perfect film. I did not find anything that I did not like. It moves quite slow, but I had no issue with that. Loved it. And man, loved the mature themes it tackled.

But, considering I don't think Shape of Water should have won Best Picture, the one I do think should have one was Blade Runner 2049. I have no idea how that movies wasn't nominated for the category. No bloody idea.

The sci fi movie Annihilation is released on Netflix tonight. It's had some great reviews, but has been booted to Netflix after flopping at the US box office. Quite an unfortunate situation.

http://junkee.com/annihilation-netflix-review/149410

I saw it a couple of weeks ago when it was released. Not that great; can't put my finger on it but it is jsut off. Sort of reminded me of an overly sophisticated invasion of the body snatcher. The problem is the added 'sophisitction' add nothing to the movie other than dillution.

Originally Posted by Ripper
The sci fi movie Annihilation is released on Netflix tonight. It's had some great reviews, but has been booted to Netflix after flopping at the US box office. Quite an unfortunate situation.

http://junkee.com/annihilation-netflix-review/149410

That's a pity. I hope I find something to appreciate.

Even if it's not that great, it's a shame if serious sci fi is in jeopardy, with all the attention going to the damn superhero movies.

I watched the Death of Stalin last night. It was a weird one. The blackest of black comedies. Very well acted, quite funny in parts with a fantastic turn by the actor playing Zhukov, occasionally pretty brutal.

Tonight I watched Dunkirk. Man, that is not a cheerful Sunday night film. I should have seen that coming! It was brilliantly acted, horribly tense and very immersive. But war films are all starting to feel very similar to each other these days, at least to me, and I can't say I was blown away by it.

Originally Posted by Pongo
I watched the Death of Stalin last night.

I'll probably watch that one as soon as possible just because it's banned in Russia.
When something is banned somewhere, well… Gimme gimme.
Sometimes the banned stuff turns out to be just garbage, but in plenty of cases I've discovered a gem that just needs to be seen. Sadly, not all forbidded fruit is tasty.

But that also reminds me I have to watch Viy already, a movie that skipped most of worldwide cinemas apparently because of "distribution hell" but that's de facto another method to ban something. Luckily, it's available on optical media.

Watched Deadpool tonight. My expectations were probably too high after all the hype, but I didn't think it was particularly great. Just another CGI heavy superhero film really, except this one had a sweary bloke in the lead, broke the fourth wall, and included lots of blood and some sex. Other than that it felt very familiar. I find it difficult to get sucked into these films when the characters' powers and vulnerabilities are so badly explained - the villains/heroes spend hours slamming each other through buildings and shooting each other in the chest, but who cares? They just dust themselves off and wisecrack, there's no real tension in it. The two villains were particularly bland.

It still passed a couple of hours ok - I laughed a fair bit, and Morena Baccarin and Ryan Reynolds were very watchable. I just expected something a bit more… different. Ah well.

Watched Annihilation, and loved it. Best scifi I've seen for ages, and one for my collection.

Another good one tonight, a movie called Tower. It's a documentary reconstruction of the 1966 Texas tower shooting, but it's done with animation. Brilliant film.

Watched Book Thief a great story of a little girl in the war period, so touching

Originally Posted by Ripper
Watched Annihilation, and loved it. Best scifi I've seen for ages, and one for my collection.

Liked it, too. Reminded me of The Fountain.

Some others I watched recently:

Blade Runner 2049: Fantastic sequel. It's to the original Blade Runner what the new Mad Max is to the originals. I wish Ghost in the Shell would have been more like it.

Three Billboards…: my favorite of the Oscar movies I watched so far.

Shape of Water: Nice, but I can't stand orange/teal in movies anymore and this one indulges in its cinematography and even gives it meaning. Better than black/white as originally planned I guess, but still…

Saw Love Simon yesterday. Actually not a bad movie. Not as good as lady bird but still quite good.

Originally Posted by Arhu
Shape of Water: Nice, but I can't stand orange/teal in movies anymore and this one indulges in its cinematography and even gives it meaning. Better than black/white as originally planned I guess, but still…

Yeah, I find his very stylized magical realism cinematography (with mandatory orange/teal abuse) just serves to remind me I'm watching something artificial, and kind of disengages me from the experience.

I watched Alien: Covenant last night, and I demand two hours of my life back. It officially gets a /high salute for making both Alien three and four look like genius projects by comparison.

Stop if you ever plan to see this drek.


Last…..

warning.




So, they divert to a planet they know absolutely nothing about and decide to go there rather than the world they've scoped out for YEARS and basically know everything about?? Scientists are not impatient people, astronauts even less so, and these mental defects put themselves and two thousand colonist in absolute jeopardy for reasons that make no sense whatsoever.

Read my warning and save two hours of your life. You'll thank me later, I only diverted you for one minute and saved you lots!

Originally Posted by Ripper
Watched Annihilation, and loved it. Best scifi I've seen for ages, and one for my collection.

I was pleasantly surprised by it. Was a little slow to start but from the bear onwards I was having fun and when it was over I felt somehow moved. Maybe annihilated? Hard to tell.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I watched Alien: Covenant last night, and I demand two hours of my life back. It officially gets a /high salute for making both Alien three and four look like genius projects by comparison.

Yeah, such a bad movie. I always liked Alien 4, though! I'd rank them

Alien > Alien Resurrection > Aliens > Prometheus > Covenant > Alien 3

Interesting. I hated Covenant yet Alien 3 with it's claustrophobic execution is my #1.

Watched Annihilation - I wasn't that impressed to be honest. Quite stylish, but I thought the characters and dialogue were bland and the story was a bit weak.

In terms of the Alien films, for me its Alien by a mile; then Aliens, which is a great deal of fun. Parts 3, 4, Covenant and Promethius were just bad imo. Resurrection wasn't too bad until the end, but boy did they blow it…!