Movie review thread...
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Coen Brothers 'Lite' and a very enjoyable watch.
3 brothers out of 5 Coens
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I watched "The Beautiful Game", a sweet little redemption story starring Bill Nighy, based on true stories concerning the homeless world football cup. Set against the backdrop of Rome, it's all about the power of football to do good in the world. 3.5 Cruyff turns out of 5 world cup final ring-ins
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Movie review thread...:
Caught up on a couple of films on my (long) film bucket list this week.
Sunset Blvd from 1950. Blew me away. Simply brilliant film which has to be one of the best about Hollywood ever made. Acting, writing, design, photography and music all outstanding from one of the great directors, Billy Wilder. Don't be put off by the fact it's over 70 years old - its as fresh as ever.
In the Realm of the Senses (1976). Been recommended to me by lots of people but I thoroughly disliked it. Well made and directed (Nagisha Oshima) but just provocative for the sake of it. Over-blown and underwhelming
Will check that out with Mrs. Pakman.
I recently watched Twelve Angry Men for the second time ever, and her first, and still found it excellent.
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@Tim said in Movie review thread...:
Late night with the devil
Pretty good. Production values and acting not the greatest, but a good idea and only 90 minutes.
Really enjoyed it.
You can't take your eyes off David Dastmalchian.
Not sure about the ending. It was good but trying to piece together the meaning.
Your thoughts would be most welcome.
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My guess was that he had sacrificed something (wife) at Bohemian Grove to get the top ratings. As with many tales of deals with the devil he got what he wished for but not how he wanted it.
It was an alternative reality in which everyone forgot what they saw on TV, or did they?
ps. Nixon called Bohemian Grove "the god damnded faggiest thing I'd ever seen". Oh yeah.
Really enjoyed the James Randi character. Actor was very good. James Adomian is maybe the only person who could have done as well.
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@Tim said in Movie review thread...:
My guess was that he had sacrificed something (wife) at Bohemian Grove to get the top ratings. As with many tales of deals with the devil he got what he wished for but not how he wanted it.It was an alternative reality in which everyone forgot what they saw on TV, or did they?
ps. Nixon called Bohemian Grove "the god damnded faggiest thing I'd ever seen". Oh yeah.
Really enjoyed the James Randi character. Actor was very good. James Adomian is maybe the only person who could have done as well.
Yep that’s how I saw it
Interesting about Dickie
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@Nepia said in Movie review thread...:
Completed my watch of the Best Picture nominees, so here's my ranking of them from worst to best.
10 . Maestro: I tried to continue watching this after discussing it with @Victor-Meldrew but I couldn't get more than 10 minutes into my rewatch. It's just not very good.
9 . American Fiction: Aside from Maestro I enjoyed every other movie in the list but some more than others. This was one of the less than others, it started off really well but kind of faltered a bit in the end. I think it needed to lean more into it's central conceit (mild spoiler coming) of an author pretending to be "street".
8 . The Holdovers: This was an amiable movie by a good director, and thankfully Paul Giamatti didn't do his whisper voice very often. A crotchety old teacher is left in charge of the few kids left over Xmas at a fancy pants boarding. Bonding happens.
7 . Killers of the Flower Moon: Again a good movie, by a great director, but there's no way he deserved a best director nomination for this. It was serviceable by his standards but unlike most of his movies I think other directors could have directed it just as well. Led me to the book which I enjoyed more than the movie.
6 . Zone of Interest: The best holocaust movie since Schindler's List (that's a weird thing to write). Oddly enough it kind of doesn't have an overarching narrative, something I'd normally find annoying. Tells a bit of the story of the outside life of the Hoess the Auschwitz commander and his family.
5 . Poor Things: Fairly bonkers movie with lots of Emma Stone nudity ... but she shouldn't have won best actress. It's a play the autistic/mentally handicapped person style role that Oscar likes, but Lily Gladstone in Killers was superb in an understated and "real role". Anyway, still a good fun film, very black comedy in an alternate steampunk style world.
4 . Anatomy of a Fall: A French film, a German actress (who was also the lead female in Zone of Interest), and filmed in a mix of French and English. Interesting look at the French style of court (judges directly questioning the accused and witnesses etc) and I'm not sure it is better then ours.
3 . Past Lives: Two old Korean friends who haven't seen each other in year catch up in New York (she lives there with her husband and he is visiting) and drama happens, but not really.
2 . Barbie: The Barbieheimer one-two punch. Good to see a weird comedy-drama based on a doll get nominated. Greta Gerwig should have had Scorcese's best director nod though.
1 . Oppenheimer: The Oscars and I agree, yay. I'm not sure if this is Nolan's best movie (I'm still partial to Memento) but it's definitely Oscar worthy and the best film I saw last year. I'd quite like to see him make some more grounded stuff. Tenet tends to pale in comparison to this movie.
About halfway through this list
9 American Fiction. Enjoyed it.
8 The Holdovers. Couldn't get on with it. Bailed after 30 mins.
5 Poor Things. Rubbish. Could only stomach 20 mins.
2 Barbie. Decent. Should be nowhere near the Oscars.4 Anatomy of a Fall. Excellent. Snoop the dog is a better actor than most in the above.
This film then daylight to the others. The 24-hr above the Arctic Circle Summer daylight.
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Challengers: Critics love this film, I don't, but I think there's a decent sports film hidden under the average sports film/love triangle drama/dance music score.
@MiketheSnow Disagree that Barbie should be nowhere near oscars but think I already gave my reasoning why above so wont repeat it. But good to hear your thoughts on the Oscar nominees.
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@MiketheSnow said in Movie review thread...:
8 The Holdovers. Couldn't get on with it. Bailed after 30 mins.
Watched it through last night. Pleasing enough but couldn't get over the feeling that I was watching Dead Poets Society set in the 70s. Didn't feel like I'd ever watch it again.
Giamatti demonstrates he can act.
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@MiketheSnow said in Movie review thread...:
8 The Holdovers. Couldn't get on with it. Bailed after 30 mins.
It was okay. I'm a big fan of the director, but it was a dumbed down and softened version of his usual black comedies. (Election and Sideways were all time classics.) The saintly black character was pretty pathetic. Write people as real people.
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@Tim said in Movie review thread...:
@MiketheSnow said in Movie review thread...:
8 The Holdovers. Couldn't get on with it. Bailed after 30 mins.
It was okay. I'm a big fan of the director, but it was a dumbed down and softened version of his usual black comedies. (Election and Sideways were all time classics.) The saintly black character was pretty pathetic. Write people as real people.
Oscar bait I guess.
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@Nepia said in Movie review thread...:
Completed my watch of the Best Picture nominees, so here's my ranking of them from worst to best.
6 . Zone of Interest: The best holocaust movie since Schindler's List (that's a weird thing to write). Oddly enough it kind of doesn't have an overarching narrative, something I'd normally find annoying. Tells a bit of the story of the outside life of the Hoess the Auschwitz commander and his family.
Beautifully shot.
Great sets and scenes.
Really well acted.
But agree about the narrative.
Once you're presented with the juxtaposition of the blissfully happy, sunny and for the most part care free lives of the Germans versus the unseen (except for the smoke) and terrible lives & deaths of the prisoners there's not much else to say about the film.
It would have been interesting to know more about his dalliance with what I assume was a female prisoner.It appeared that he saw the prisoners as numbers to eliminate with not real hatred or repugnance expressed.
What was the reason behind his vomiting?
That's just for starters.
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Flight of the Phoenix
Formulaic, overacted crap.
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@antipodean I'm assuming the 2004 version?
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@Catogrande Yes. The one with Dennis Quaid trying to do Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones, Giovanni Ribisi doing some drag send up of a Nazi villain from an Indiana Jones movie.
Just dreadful.
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One Life. About Nicholas Winton who evacuated Jewish kids from Prague in WWII.
Really disappointing - found it formulaic and dull. Anthony Hopkins was on autopilot and very 2 dimensional. Script was poor and cliche-ridden.
2.5 Oscars out of 5 Schindlers
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Rebel Moon 2: So I guess it's obvious I was never going to like this movie, but by god it's even more awful than I thought it could be. Derivative of so many movies, but just done worse. The action scenes are stupid (especially the tactics), the corn at the start is stupid, the sit around the tables telling stories is extra stupid. And seriously what idiots like endless slow mos?
I bet George and JJ are gutted that Disney turned this down for Star Wars, as the prequels and Rise of Skywalker would no longer be the worst in the galaxy far far away.
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@Nepia surely the biggest reason not to used it for star wars is its just another Seven Samurai / magnificent seven remake....like not even subtlety so....like right on the nose....turn and wink to camera
we watched it (mrs womble asleep after about 20mins) over the weekend, i enjoyed in a stupid action movie sense, I do love the light saber cgi...could have made for some awesome scenes if they'd done something similar in starwars
LaRoy, Texas (2023) ⭐ 6.5 | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
