The Film Review Corner

[Chun the Unavoidable]

I quite enjoyed Centurion: fast-paced, brutal, and for all its Roman Britain setting, quite the modern Western. Gorgeous scenery, too (that may or may not have actually been British). Just don't go expecting much depth.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

There's little I can say without generating spoilers, but if you have any love for the Star Wars universe, The Force Awakens is more than worth your time and money. It's not perfect, because its roots aren't perfect, but you can't help but go with it. Breathing new life, and all that - I look forward to seeing what's going to follow.

[Major Rawne]

There's little I can say without generating spoilers, but if you have any love for the Star Wars universe, The Force Awakens is more than worth your time and money. It's not perfect, because its roots aren't perfect, but you can't help but go with it. Breathing new life, and all that - I look forward to seeing what's going to follow.

I think that sums it up pretty perfectly.

[Athelassan]

I'm behind on box office films. Not seen Star Wars, not seen The Revenant. Largely lack of organisation on my part. Whoops.

Some films I have seen.

Kick-Ass 2. I heard negative reviews at the time so gave it a miss, but eventually got round to it. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as the first. And the first didn't hold up as well on a rewatch as I thought it had when I first watched it.

Ant-Man. Rather better! Not being a comics guy particularly, the idea of Ant-Man always seemed pretty ridiculous to me whenever it was mentioned, but the film sold it surprisingly well. It helps that Paul Rudd is rather engaging and endearing as an actor, which in that role played very well.

Spiderman 3. Another one I'd given a miss through crappy reviews. And, yeah, it was a mess. But, again, it wasn't appalling. It suffered badly from a lack of narrative throughline and trying to cram too much into too small a space. Apparently it was originally meant to be two films, and that could have worked much better.

Terminator Genisys. Blugh. I don't know where to start with this. The plot was stupid, like, really stupid, and the ending is awful, overly sentimental, gloopy mush. There was a massive unanswered question throughout that, without resolution, left me feeling rather unfulfilled. There's no explanation for the apparent retcon of the second and third films, which considering how good the second one was - and how ok the third one was - is unforgiveable. The acting is generally pretty subpar, although I will say Emilia Clarke makes a better Sarah Connor than she does Daenerys Targaryen. But it's almost all worth it just for Arnie. The trailers had spoiled the Big Early Twist for me, but all the same his performance was still really cool to watch.

Thanks largely to this video, I've been inspired to watch some (gasp) musicals.

First up, On the Town. A fun plot, no "backstage musical" nonsense. Gene Kelly is great. A rather strange medley/recap about three-quarters of the way through that could have been ditched. Rushed ending. Frank Sinatra's a better singer than dancer. The women can all dance. The songs are mediocre, though, and so it makes it a bit more arduous than it should be, difficult really to get into the spirit of it.

Next, Easter Parade. Elements of a backstage musical, but feels organic, used to good effect. Doesn't stop them from putting good song-and-dance numbers in non-staged settings. A compelling, if rather well-trodden and not quite heartwarming plot. Judy Garland on good form. Fred Astaire and Ann Miller faultless as dancers. Shades of Blue Skies, both in routine and music, creeping in (perhaps unsurprising, given the Berlin/Astaire combination), but that doesn't hurt it. Very enjoyable.

Plenty more musicals on the list - what have I become?!

Incidentally, since it is now 2016, I have de-stickied the Film Challenge 2015 thread. If there is sufficient demand I will sticky one for the coming year.

Ath

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Deadpool: certainly funny, certainly violent, and certainly earns it's 15 cert, but it's also knowing, touching, and strangely honest. The companion from Firefly definitely hasn't done a Nathan Fillion over the years -in fact, she seems to have got younger- and is a happily atypical love interest; and Uhura was charmingly batty. The end credit homage to Ferris was an absolute joy (if pure target audience). Highly recommended.

[Rob P]

Watched Mad Max for the first time in over 20 years the other day.

Really enjoyed it.

Pacing a little weird, but only in the sense that the blurb stuff takes 1hr 15 min to develop then the actual Mad Max stuff only occurs in last 15 min.

Would of potentially benefited from being longer.

People could take a swipe at it because the plot is some what typical and male centric (i.e. Woman dies, man gets angry), but I thought his wife in it was a strong individual character.

I also liked the fact that Max was prepared to just let what happened to his buddy go rather than put his family in danger and that he was going to go off and enjoy time with his family before danger came to him.

Going to move on to Mad Max 2 soonish.

[Athelassan]

Top Hat

Yeah, so this was excellent. I think I'm losing my long-held and much-cherished distaste for musicals. Alas!

Ath

[Vivia]

Moving my focus from bad Stallone films to Travolta bad films, but for the opposite reason, I don't like Travolta at all. He is so annoying.

Saturday Night Fever: I changed my thoughts about the film after a recent re-watch. It still remains somewhat bizarre, I don't care for any of the characters. The story made more sense this time, maybe because I read about the history of disco and I love the Bee Gees so much. It's gritty, grimy in my eyes, though it does have some interesting camera work during the night scenes and I guess other things going on for it.

Staying Alive: This is the sequel to SNF and it's directed by Stallone! He didn't want to star in the film because he wrote Tony Manero as himself, however, he did insert himself in cameos and dialogue. The man cannot be stopped!
It's such a shame he didn't continue to direct during this time. It's also a shame the story is so weird. This is Xanadu and Showgirls weird. Something terrible happened to musicals during the early 80s, Staying Alive immortalised the awfulness of this dreaded era. Travolta looks as plastic as his fake smile.
Watch the Satan's Alley number for the entertainment value, the music is great and composed by Frank Stallone. No plot!

In an ideal world Stallone would write every single script in Hollywood, that way we could have back the magic of the over the top crazy.

The Cinema Snob's review is some of his snarky best, Staying Alive review.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Batman vs Superman: much more po-faced than its Marvel rivals, heavy-handedly raising some -admittedly interesting- points then forgetting about them halfway through, boring dialogue, overlong, heartless, and comes complete with a Lex Luthor that thinks he's the Joker. However, it is spectacular (especially at the showdown), and does point toward better things. Refreshingly, Wonder Woman steals the whole shebang. Worth a watch, certainly.

[Rob P]

Been in bed with a cold for 3 days so caught some movies.

Terminator: Genisys - absolute nonsense. Time travel element made no sense. Plot crap. John Connor turn crap. Characters crap.

Pitch Perfect 2 - Not as good as first but OK.

The Captive - almost good. Interesting / creepy / flawed characters. Flashbacks / weird order almost works. Let down by last 15 min which needed another 15 min

Chappie - like Short Circuit meets Romper Stomper meets RoboCop (ish) - I like Dev Patel and Hugh Jackman so was a good start. Well paced. Didn't like deus ex machina plot device but does allow for a sequel. Suitably rough in places and not too much time spent in universe on pondering or lecturing viewer on ai / consciousness. Fun action film.

[Xisor]

Batman vs Superman: much more po-faced than its Marvel rivals, heavy-handedly raising some -admittedly interesting- points then forgetting about them halfway through, boring dialogue, overlong, heartless, and comes complete with a Lex Luthor that thinks he's the Joker. However, it is spectacular (especially at the showdown), and does point toward better things. Refreshingly, Wonder Woman steals the whole shebang. Worth a watch, certainly.

I saw it today. The spectacle was spectacular enough, but it had me thinking 'deary me this apocalyptic destruction is quite tedious'. Pretty, but there's only so many giant explosions of zero consequence I can stomach.

Very rubbish in many places and in many dimensions.

That said, I did like Batfleck (especially the Bruce-heavy bits) and was very taken with Lex. Fishbourne was damned enjoyable too. I sort of wish we'd just had a big legal/news story concerning them with Soups & the other megagods just CGI'd in as incidental (apocalyptic) explosions in the background.

As I noted on twitter, my main observation of any note about the film's climax was "it's nice to see the guy who played the cave troll in The Fellowship of the Ring is still getting work..."

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Captain America Civil War: a bit more talky than I was expecting, but it was good talk that gave depth and reasoning to the characters and their actions. The fight scenes, when they came, were of course quite the spectacle. The MCU still very definitely has the edge over DCCU (is that a thing?).

[Xisor]

Captain America Civil War: a bit more talky than I was expecting, but it was good talk that gave depth and reasoning to the characters and their actions. The fight scenes, when they came, were of course quite the spectacle. The MCU still very definitely has the edge over DCCU (is that a thing?).

Agreed. Compared to BvS, it felt a good bit more coherent. And suitably glib, too. Not just dour.

I'm sure it has plenty of flaws, perhaps even the same ones that BvS had in places, but I just didn't mind them. Nothing unexpectedly strangled my enjoyment, so that was very nice.

[Rob P]

Captain America Civil War: a bit more talky than I was expecting, but it was good talk that gave depth and reasoning to the characters and their actions. The fight scenes, when they came, were of course quite the spectacle. The MCU still very definitely has the edge over DCCU (is that a thing?).

Was chatting to a friend the other day about how Marvel seem to have nailed the films but the DC shows (the ones I've watched anyway) are more enjoyable that the Marvel shows. Don't know if there is any consensus on that, but that's my view.

Watched Antman the other night and re-watched Captain America 2. Antman was funny and visually fun. Also who doesn't like Paul Rudd. Imo, Captain America 2 is easily my favourite Marvel movie.

[David Earle]

Was chatting to a friend the other day about how Marvel seem to have nailed the films but the DC shows (the ones I've watched anyway) are more enjoyable that the Marvel shows. Don't know if there is any consensus on that, but that's my view.

That's probably accurate if you only count broadcast television shows. If you count Netflix shows Marvel might dominate there too, or at least you could get a good argument going over it.

Going to have to wait to see Civil War until I can get babysitting set up, also it's not out over here yet.

[Vivia]

Repeating myself from the Shoutbox:

Holy ****, I just watched the Warcraft trailer!! It actually did happen! I never cared to pay any attention to the rumours because Hollywood is nothing but a slow moving turtle living in the year of the snail.
It does not look bad at all, not at all Dragonball: Evolution.

I still, still remember when they announced the X-Men film. That was 1991-1992. Richard Grieco was going to star as Wolverine, what a disaster that was going to be.

[Vivia]

From Pinterest I came across the behind the scenes from the Hobbit trilogy. Now I want to buy the DVDs, curse it.

I have nothing but praise for the actors of of the LotR movies, they did a truly amazing job with the casting, I think this is in part to the production not being from Hollywood. If I buy it it's only for the actors, Ian McKullen and Hugo Weaving, come on. McKellen is a real Tolkien nerd, same with and he brought out his Hobbit copy to put things straight. Bring it on, McKellen!
Christopher Lee was a Tolkien scholar, this makes me love him even more. The majority of the actors involved were big Tolkien fans, they read the book etc. I'm really pleased with that, it wasn't just the usual "I needed the money".
As I was watching the appendices for the The Battle of the Five Armies, I had a moment when I went *Martin Freeman isn't a hobbit, he is actually a human". The make-believe was so powerful it's ridiculous, and I have watched him in other stuff.

I enjoyed the Thranduil and Tauriel making of. I think they did excellent work for Thranduil's character, I was surprised they went to the Silmarillion to get the facts about the murder of Thingol. There is still misunderstandings as to why Thranduil is hostile towards the dwarfs, sigh. Go to the Tolkien Gateway if it's so hard to read Silmarillion, it isn't like it's been out for 40 years or anything.

They went for research for reals on the differences between the Silvans and the Noldor to bring out Tauriels character. The romance is still awful despite the research they made, they said they brought inspiration from Gimli and Galadriel, but in my opinion it's just bad fan fiction. I guess Gimli and Legola's friendship made it easier, but that was the first in several thousand years, that's why it's significant for a fellowship. Their reasoning isn't more than movie magic.

For Smaug and Cumberbatch's defence, he acts more in his voice acting as Smaug than I have ever seen him on screen. I wish he could take roles that showed that instead of a CGI dragon.

Despite this I don't really like the trilogy, there is too much wrong to them, the CGI is the main offender. The orcs and the trolls are too awful. Without Freeman at the centre of the story it would be unbearable. Well, at least it did make me read more Tolkien in 8 months than I have in two decades.
Lastly, I'm so relieved they can't mention the Silmarillion in any shape or form.

[Major Rawne]

Trundled myself off to see The Girl With All The Gifts this afternoon. Bloody hell that was a good post apocalyptic zombie film. British too which added a nice little charm to it if you will. There is a lot of similarities with the phenomenal game The Last of Us. Guess i'm going to have to find the book now.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Finally watched one of the Ealing comedies, as Gold is having a season of them at the moment (presented by the entirely applicable Richard E. Grant) - namely Kind Hearts and Coronets. Utterly charming, and fairly startlingly black for its age. The quality and impeccability of the acting across the cast -though Alec Guinness made up most of said cast - never let up throughout. I will be watching more.

[Athelassan]

Finally watched one of the Ealing comedies, as Gold is having a season of them at the moment (presented by the entirely applicable Richard E. Grant) - namely Kind Hearts and Coronets. Utterly charming, and fairly startlingly black for its age. The quality and impeccability of the acting across the cast -though Alec Guinness made up most of said cast - never let up throughout. I will be watching more.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is indeed great. The line where he justifies the collateral murder of his victim's girlfriend because he "surmised she had already suffered a fate worse than death" has a particularly twisted brilliance to it, I think. I wonder though if it's also the best of the Ealing comedies? I found this to an extent with my foray into musical films: while I have been somewhat converted to the cause, having been converted by Singin' in the Rain every other musical is probably doomed to disappoint by comparison, even if I've gained more appreciation for the genre.

Ath