[Film] Film 2021

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Seems to be a new Nordic Redneck genre emerging, a recognition that not everything in the Northern European garden is IKEA. Plot invariably revolves around Big City Folks venturing into remote backwaters. Where, guess what, bad thincs start to happen PDQ. Last two Netflix movies I've watched have been Red Dot and Terribly Happy. Neither is going to be winning any awards anytime soon, but both have their minor merits

6/10 for each (incl. bonus point included for being of European origin and relatively free of Amerikana)

 

[Bombadier Botty]

So many average, derivative, unengaging films churned out over the last six or so years, Netflix, Prime et al awash with an overkill of ‘meh’ material in both films and series, big name ‘guns for hire’ sleepwalking through the experience for the paycheque and/or ego massage. The output of actors like Washington, Cruise, Emma Stone, Gosling et al is quite something, but the quality just isn't there.

 

[SeagullDubai]

Revisited Falling Down on Netflix today. Had quite forgotten what a very good film it is, by turns desperately sad and seriously funny

That film title always reminds me of Grealish and mr. Tumble


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Easy 10]

Coming 2 America

What a letdown of a sequel. Reprises almost all of the previous cast from the brilliant original from 1988, but puts them into a tedious "opposite", whereby the fish out of water (Akeem's son) is plucked from NYC and has to learn to be a Prince in Zamunda. So aside from about 20 minutes, its not in America at all, but set in the a fictional palace in the fictional nation of Zamunda instead, and ALL the fun is left behind. Eddie Murphy in effect plays a supporting role instead of the comedy lead, so for the most part, we just get his boring son.

It has its moments, particularly the barbershop revivals, but the rest of it just feels like its trying too hard, and is very short on laughs. Massively disappointing. I'd give it no more than 2/10.

 

[BadFish]

Just seen a trailer for Creation Stories

A biopic about Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records. Written by Irvine Welsh and Directed by Danny Boyle.

This brings together many things for me, expectations are high though so I await disappointment.

 

[Gabbafella]

Coming 2 America

What a letdown of a sequel. Reprises almost all of the previous cast from the brilliant original from 1988, but puts them into a tedious "opposite", whereby the fish out of water (Akeem's son) is plucked from NYC and has to learn to be a Prince in Zamunda. So aside from about 20 minutes, its not in America at all, but set in the a fictional palace in the fictional nation of Zamunda instead, and ALL the fun is left behind. Eddie Murphy in effect plays a supporting role instead of the comedy lead, so for the most part, we just get his boring son.

It has its moments, particularly the barbershop revivals, but the rest of it just feels like its trying too hard, and is very short on laughs. Massively disappointing. I'd give it no more than 2/10.

Quote of the film for me, "I like my women so black, you need a flashlight!"
Other than that, pretty shit film. Agreed about the barbershop scenes being the best bit.

 

[Acker79]

I didn't dislike Coming 2 America as much as the couple of responses in here seem to. I found enough to merit watching it the once, I liked seeing the call backs (the rapping twins!). But there are parts of it where you're wondering why they bothered.

 

[Gabbafella]

Watched two films this weekend.

The Mauratanian.
Excellent from start to finish. The true story of a man, wrongly held at Guantanamo bay, abused and tortured for more than 7 years before finally winning his case against the US government. It took a further 8 years to release him! Alarming stats at the end of the film.
Very much recommend this to all.

Boss Level.
Went in to this thinking it would just be another over the top action film, and it is, but a really good one.
It's basically Groundhog Day meets Kill Bill. A man set to repeat the same day over and over while a group of assassin's attempt (and mostly succeed) to kill him and he has no idea why. Very tongue in cheek but an entertaining watch.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Nomadland is terrific.

An Oscar winner for sure, and how lucky we are to enjoy the work of the magnificent Frances McDormand.

Whether it be Fargo, Three Billboards or this. She's great.

Lovely film, in a time where retrospection is prevalent after a difficult period.

It's all relative you know.....

 

[Acker79]

I try to watch the oscar nominees each year across a range of categories that my friends and I have always had main interest in. To that end over the weekend I watched on Netflix

The Life Ahead (nominated for best song).
Italian film about a kid who tries to rob an old lady (Sophia Loren) and is eventually placed in her care. Eh, it was fine, hadn't really heard of it before the oscar nomination. The song wasn't my thing.

The White Tiger (nominated for adapted screenplay)
American/Indian film about a man's rise from low level servant to a local indian family to businessman himself. Seen lots of strong reviews for it, but it was just fine for me.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (yes, this is an oscar nominee, for best song)
Fictionalised story of an Icelandic act trying to win the eurovision song contest. Eh. It had it's moments, but generally not one of Ferrell's better films. I did like the song, though.

 

[Acker79]

[tweet]1374429041877389320[/tweet]

 

[Easy 10]

Not a new one by any means, but I watched A Time to Kill for the first time the other night on the BBC, being as it was John Grisham's first book and had an all-star cast with good ratings.

Wow. One of the most ridiculous, ludicrous, forehead-slapping ILLOGICAL courtroom dramas I have ever seen. Jaw-dropping buffoonery all round as a man (Samuel L Jackson) is on trial in Mississippi for murdering two rednecks, while they were in the process of turning up at court charged with raping his daughter.

This is one of the dumbest films I have ever seen. Quite unbelievable doesn't come close to covering it. It is an assault on your intelligence from start to (and in particular) the finish.

Avoid.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

[tweet]1374429041877389320[/tweet]

Thanks for the heads up.

This was going to be the next film I was going to watch at the pictures so if I can get to see this then it will feel like some normality returning and hopefully get a feeling of new films flowing into the cinemas.
What could be good is if they have been filming to schedule then we may have loads of marvel movies all stacked up and released in quick succession so no need to wait ages for the next one.

 

[Acker79]

Cineworld looking to open in May. So should be open in time for Black Widow in cinemas.

They have agreed a deal with Warner Bros for cinema exclusivity for titles before they become available to stream. The news article mentions the US cineworld, so I don't know if that is just with regards to HBO max, or if WB had been planning on releasing titles for premium VOD at the same time as cinema releases outside the US.

 

[Acker79]

I watched Zack Snyder's Justice League last week. For those unfamiliar, Zack Snyder started making Justice League as a follow up to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. Two films that did not receive a lot of love from the critics and at best divided the fans. Warner Bros were nervous, and by some accounts starting to interfere. Then Zack's daughter died and he stepped away (later noting he didn't have the energy to fight the studio for his vision any more). WB brought in Joss Whedon to complete the film, moulding it more in their vision than Zack's, however a significant chunk had already been filmed and WB didn't want to take a step back and restart (recent reports suggest Whedon was already onboard offering script notes and upping the quip quotient). This resulted in a movie that was roundly dumped on by both fans and critics. A mess of a film that lacked coherency. For me, it was dull for the first hour, had a fun finale that left you with a slightly better opinion of it than it really deserved.

The fans, recognising that the mess wasn't really Snyder's vision, campaigned with #releasethesnydercut. For a long time WB refused to even acknowledge one existed. Over time it became clear Snyder had most of the footage for his version, and eventually AT&T (the company that owns WB) insisted they release it, and WB relented and gave Snyder a chunk of change to finish his cut, the actors came back for minor reshoots, and last Thursday the four hour Snyder cut was made available on HBO max in the US and on Sky cinema here in the UK.

It is essentially the same story (batman and wonder woman trying to put together a team, eventually decided to bring superman back to life following his sacrificial death in BvS to stop Steppenwolf from repurposing the earth).

Pretty much every critic agrees that this is a better film than the Joss Whedon version. How much better is where there is disagreement. Mark Kermode thinks it's gone from an messy bore to a tidy bore. The telegraph gave it 5 stars. It's currently 73% on rotten tomatoes, with an audience score of 96%.

I liked it. I think it's a big improvement, but it's not so great a film it will trouble any of the currently accepted top superhero movies (Richard Donner's Superman, Tim Burton's Batman, Wonder Woman, Avengers Infinity War/Endgame, The Dark Knight etc). I didn't find myself bored at any point in the four hours (though that was on first watch where I was fully interested, I don't know what will hold up on second viewing). A lot has been made of the four hours, but since Endgame came out I never watch just infinity war or just endgame, I always watch them as a double bill with a 5.5 hour runtime, so it doesn't bother me. I thought it used the four hours well to expand on the characters and relationships. We really get to know Cyborg much more than in the JW cut, exploring his origin, his relationship with his parents. We get more of the big bad's story, which some people view as a negative, Steppenwolf has gone from the bad guy, to a bad guy. He is now someone who is trying to prove himself and earn back his place in Darkseid's good graes by bringing him the world Darkseid failed to take years before. There were also a lot of small moments that just added to it - one that sticks out is a moment in the JW version where wonder woman uses her lasso to swing up onto a platform then just lets go of it, as if she doesn't care about it. It would be like Captain America dropping his shield and running away from it (then somehow having it in a later scene). In the ZS version there's a brief clip after she lands on the platform where she retrieves it.

It is interesting to see what made it in both cuts, to get an idea of what was Zack's and what was Joss's, and interesting to see how different things can be while being the same.

I liked it, but can totally see why others wouldn't.

 

[Acker79]

[tweet]1375477644444139523[/tweet]

Roll of 6th August.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

Zack Snyder's Justice League - 8/10, Very enjoyable watch with numerous epic set-piece battle scenes, length of the film not really a problem if you watch it at home as it's broken up into chapters so you can stop and watch some of it the following day if necessary.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

[tweet]1375477644444139523[/tweet]

Roll of 6th August.

That looks much better than the first effort.
It seems to follow the look and feel of the comics a hell of a lot more than the first one did.
Hopefully lots of very dark,gory,bizarre comedy in with the action.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

I watched Zack Snyder's Justice League last week. For those unfamiliar, Zack Snyder started making Justice League as a follow up to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. Two films that did not receive a lot of love from the critics and at best divided the fans. Warner Bros were nervous, and by some accounts starting to interfere. Then Zack's daughter died and he stepped away (later noting he didn't have the energy to fight the studio for his vision any more). WB brought in Joss Whedon to complete the film, moulding it more in their vision than Zack's, however a significant chunk had already been filmed and WB didn't want to take a step back and restart (recent reports suggest Whedon was already onboard offering script notes and upping the quip quotient). This resulted in a movie that was roundly dumped on by both fans and critics. A mess of a film that lacked coherency. For me, it was dull for the first hour, had a fun finale that left you with a slightly better opinion of it than it really deserved.

The fans, recognising that the mess wasn't really Snyder's vision, campaigned with #releasethesnydercut. For a long time WB refused to even acknowledge one existed. Over time it became clear Snyder had most of the footage for his version, and eventually AT&T (the company that owns WB) insisted they release it, and WB relented and gave Snyder a chunk of change to finish his cut, the actors came back for minor reshoots, and last Thursday the four hour Snyder cut was made available on HBO max in the US and on Sky cinema here in the UK.

It is essentially the same story (batman and wonder woman trying to put together a team, eventually decided to bring superman back to life following his sacrificial death in BvS to stop Steppenwolf from repurposing the earth).

Pretty much every critic agrees that this is a better film than the Joss Whedon version. How much better is where there is disagreement. Mark Kermode thinks it's gone from an messy bore to a tidy bore. The telegraph gave it 5 stars. It's currently 73% on rotten tomatoes, with an audience score of 96%.

I liked it. I think it's a big improvement, but it's not so great a film it will trouble any of the currently accepted top superhero movies (Richard Donner's Superman, Tim Burton's Batman, Wonder Woman, Avengers Infinity War/Endgame, The Dark Knight etc). I didn't find myself bored at any point in the four hours (though that was on first watch where I was fully interested, I don't know what will hold up on second viewing). A lot has been made of the four hours, but since Endgame came out I never watch just infinity war or just endgame, I always watch them as a double bill with a 5.5 hour runtime, so it doesn't bother me. I thought it used the four hours well to expand on the characters and relationships. We really get to know Cyborg much more than in the JW cut, exploring his origin, his relationship with his parents. We get more of the big bad's story, which some people view as a negative, Steppenwolf has gone from the bad guy, to a bad guy. He is now someone who is trying to prove himself and earn back his place in Darkseid's good graes by bringing him the world Darkseid failed to take years before. There were also a lot of small moments that just added to it - one that sticks out is a moment in the JW version where wonder woman uses her lasso to swing up onto a platform then just lets go of it, as if she doesn't care about it. It would be like Captain America dropping his shield and running away from it (then somehow having it in a later scene). In the ZS version there's a brief clip after she lands on the platform where she retrieves it.

It is interesting to see what made it in both cuts, to get an idea of what was Zack's and what was Joss's, and interesting to see how different things can be while being the same.

I liked it, but can totally see why others wouldn't.

Great post and also great review without giving anything away.
I am thinking of watching this but so far quite mixed reviews but slowly more and more positive ones are appearing like yours so I am definitely going to give it a watch I think.
Thanks.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Zack Snyder's Justice League - 8/10, Very enjoyable watch with numerous epic set-piece battle scenes, length of the film not really a problem if you watch it at home as it's broken up into chapters so you can stop and watch some of it the following day if necessary.

Thanks it seems more and more people are liking this film so I think I will try now TV trial to give it a watch.
Cheers.