Movie Record 2024 Edition - The Bear and Badger

g.man

He’s The Artful Soapdodger…

Olimite

The Holdovers. Exactly the sort of emotional bonding experience I needed after a tough day. Sobbing like a baby.

Great soundtrack too.

Wookienopants

Barbie

Somehow it's even better second time round.
Im just Ken gets me everytime

ShabbyMcCrabby

hylian_elf wrote:

Platoon is quality. Love it.

Platoon and Sorceror. Two older films I plan on watching this year

Gremill

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

hylian_elf wrote:

Platoon is quality. Love it.

Platoon and Sorceror. Two older films I plan on watching this year

I've fancied watching Sorcerer since I came across a vinyl copy of the OST in a charity shop a few years back. Just the cover was enough to get me interested. Can't find it anywhere to watch though.

Wookienopants

Gremill wrote:

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

hylian_elf wrote:

Platoon is quality. Love it.

Platoon and Sorceror. Two older films I plan on watching this year

I've fancied watching Sorcerer since I came across a vinyl copy of the OST in a charity shop a few years back. Just the cover was enough to get me interested. Can't find it anywhere to watch though.

Sorcerer is great, so so tense

LarryDavid

Yeah, Sorcerer’s awesome.

I didn’t watch it for years because it had the reputation of ‘1970’s New Hollywood folly & disaster’ (that reputation has changed more recently) but when I did it was amazing. I guess being released at cinema’s the very same day as Star Wars probably didn’t help.

There was a Friedkin approved blu-ray that came out a few years ago, if you still do physical media.

davyK

I watched Wages of Fear last year (Sorcerer is a remake/adaptation of the same story). Splendid film. Have my eye out for Sorcerer too.

davyK

Sorcerer is £6 on BluRay from Amazon at the minute. 40th anniversary edition.

poprock

Oppenheimer
The first half hour had me worried - confusing timelines, jump-cuts and hallucinatory stuff - but it settles quickly into a straightforward story afterwards. Very much a heavy-handed tale of MEN DOING IMPORTANT THINGS, but beautifully told with total conviction from all involved. Strong stuff.

It does leave me wanting to investigate what really happened vs what was Nolan’s dramatic take. I always just figured Oppenheimer’s vilification was down to general US political drift into reds-under-the-beds territory, but this movie paints it as a one-man attack job using the general political shift as his lever of choice.

I’ve got a good friend who is actually related to Oppenheimer (bizarre connection, but there’s a branch of the Oppenheimer family on the west coast of Scotland) and next time we get together I’m going to grill her on it.

ShabbyMcCrabby

1. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
What an absolute classic! I wish they still made movies like this. A thriller not in any rush but also not slowly paced and just chock full of fantastic performances. Rebecca De Mornay was so much fun to watch.
[9]

2. Only The Animals
French multistory thriller where it all slowly comes together. I quite enjoyed this but, for once, I actually think it could have been a bit longer to let some sections breathe more. Plus some of the acting felt like the characters knew they were in a thriller.
[6]

3. Renfield
Quite fun action horror comedy. Made me laugh a few times and the action is mostly well done. Just a shame the filmmaking lacks anything you could call style. It's the modern basic filmmaking style but it just means absolutely nothing sticks in your memory. Plus the weird ADR at times showed it was retooled at some point.
[5]

Moot_Geeza

Used to love The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Must rewatch.

Spoiler:

Gremill

1. Sisu
It's the tail end of WW2 and the Nazis are retreating across Finland, leaving scorched earth in their wake. In the bleak landscape of Lapland, a gold miner and ex-soldier nicknamed 'The Immortal' by the Russians who faced him in the winter war and lost an estimated 300 troops to this one man, strikes the motherlode. The miner meets the Nazis, all drunk on war and defeat, and they try to take his gold. Mayhem ensues. Like a cross between Tarantino and Looney Tunes, Nazis are dispatched with gleeful ultraviolence as bodies explode, heads roll and the remnants of a company of Nazis find that The Immortal is well named and very, very good at killing. Pure unadulterated nonsense in a tight 91 minutes, it's the kind of manic action movie that is very rarely made these days. 8

LivDiv

Avatar Way of the Water
Some excellent VFX techniques can't hide what an appalling attempt a movie this is.
The plot and script appear to be written by a thick 14 year old.
3 hours and 12 minutes is an absolute joke.
Fuck off Cameron.

tin_robot

Godzilla Minus One
Took my daughter to see this as we found ourselves with nothing to do for a couple of hours waiting for the rest of the family. She needed some convincing to go (the decision being swung by the fact there was nothing else she wanted to see barring Poor Things, and "I'm not watching that with my Dad.")

As such I reckon I'll open with her review: "I thought it would be just a damn action movie, but it's a Proper Film."

Which is about right. There are some notable nods to the original movie, which I enjoyed - but the most salient is that this is a return to the monster's roots. He's an utterly uncontrollable force of terror, and clear metaphor for war and nuclear destruction. Most important of all though is the realisation that to make a good monster movie you have to first concentrate on making characters that the audience might care about - and Minus One does this with aplomb - from our disgraced and tortured lead, to the assortment of love interests and side kicks he gathers along the way. (Some of the scenes at sea reminded me, in a good way, of Jaws). Come for the explosions, stay for the exploration of survivor's guilt. The end was maybe a little too neat for me, but that's about it. Absolutely how you should be doing giant monster movies (I suspect the upcoming Godzilla x Kong will be a demonstration of the opposite...)

nick_md

Gremill wrote:

1. Sisu
It's the tail end of WW2 and the Nazis are retreating across Finland, leaving scorched earth in their wake. In the bleak landscape of Lapland, a gold miner and ex-soldier nicknamed 'The Immortal' by the Russians who faced him in the winter war and lost an estimated 300 troops to this one man, strikes the motherlode. The miner meets the Nazis, all drunk on war and defeat, and they try to take his gold. Mayhem ensues. Like a cross between Tarantino and Looney Tunes, Nazis are dispatched with gleeful ultraviolence as bodies explode, heads roll and the remnants of a company of Nazis find that The Immortal is well named and very, very good at killing. Pure unadulterated nonsense in a tight 91 minutes, it's the kind of manic action movie that is very rarely made these days. 8

Sounds awesome, added to the watchlist.

djchump

Yeah Sisu is a cracking flick.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Definitely a good idea to not see Poor Things with your dad. I felt awkward seeing it with strangers.

acemuzzy

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

Definitely a good idea to not see Poor Things with your dad. I felt awkward seeing it with strangers.

I was at the same screening as Elf, imagine how I felt

poprock

It’s a shame Alasdair Gray didn’t live to see it finished.

ShabbyMcCrabby

LivDiv wrote:

Avatar Way of the Water
Some excellent VFX techniques can't hide what an appalling attempt a movie this is.
The plot and script appear to be written by a thick 14 year old.
3 hours and 12 minutes is an absolute joke.
Fuck off Cameron.

I think the spectacle of seeing it at the fancy IMAX carried me through but it really is a shame he doesn't have the confidence to tell a better story in a big film like he used to. I'm guessing the pressure of money means any edges get sanded away. Even though a film like Dune shows that audiences aren't stupid.
I also think he gets into iffy water by pulling some cultural stuff almost directly from real world minority and indigenous groups without respecting their cultural significance in the real world.

ShabbyMcCrabby

acemuzzy wrote:

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

Definitely a good idea to not see Poor Things with your dad. I felt awkward seeing it with strangers.

I was at the same screening as Elf, imagine how I felt

I'm guessing you slowly got further and further away from each other in your seats as it went along.

LivDiv

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

LivDiv wrote:

Avatar Way of the Water
Some excellent VFX techniques can't hide what an appalling attempt a movie this is.
The plot and script appear to be written by a thick 14 year old.
3 hours and 12 minutes is an absolute joke.
Fuck off Cameron.

I think the spectacle of seeing it at the fancy IMAX carried me through but it really is a shame he doesn't have the confidence to tell a better story in a big film like he used to. I'm guessing the pressure of money means any edges get sanded away. Even though a film like Dune shows that audiences aren't stupid.
I also think he gets into iffy water by pulling some cultural stuff almost directly from real world minority and indigenous groups without respecting their cultural significance in the real world.

Everything to do with race, culture, invading forces is handled so hamfisted I'm left wondering who it's for. Exact same deal as the first movie.
If you can't follow the floor level nuance of Pocahontas this is the film series for you.
The cultural appropriation seems to come from dumbing everything down to sub primary school levels to the point everyone is a stereotype.

As a side whinge.
Why cast Jemaine Clement and give him about 6 lines, all of which are dry exposition?

Olimite

6. A Haunting in Venice.

Definitely a case of Hercule Poorot.

acemuzzy

Shiva Baby

Awkward Jewish comedy, which I enjoyed. Only 72 mins long, basically one scene, but yeah pretty fun.

ShabbyMcCrabby

LivDiv wrote:

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

LivDiv wrote:

Avatar Way of the Water
Some excellent VFX techniques can't hide what an appalling attempt a movie this is.
The plot and script appear to be written by a thick 14 year old.
3 hours and 12 minutes is an absolute joke.
Fuck off Cameron.

I think the spectacle of seeing it at the fancy IMAX carried me through but it really is a shame he doesn't have the confidence to tell a better story in a big film like he used to. I'm guessing the pressure of money means any edges get sanded away. Even though a film like Dune shows that audiences aren't stupid.
I also think he gets into iffy water by pulling some cultural stuff almost directly from real world minority and indigenous groups without respecting their cultural significance in the real world.

Everything to do with race, culture, invading forces is handled so hamfisted I'm left wondering who it's for. Exact same deal as the first movie.
If you can't follow the floor level nuance of Pocahontas this is the film series for you.
The cultural appropriation seems to come from dumbing everything down to sub primary school levels to the point everyone is a stereotype.

As a side whinge.
Why cast Jemaine Clement and give him about 6 lines, all of which are dry exposition?

I think he'll be in 3,4,5,6,etc more. Or at least the next one

LivDiv

I assumed he died in the final battle but its hard to say as everyone just seemed to piss off at the end except the family and the main villain.

ShabbyMcCrabby

One thing I would like to know is how the heck they did the visual effects around that small boat the baddies were on. Their movement on the boat seemed so real and so well blended with the VFX that I couldn't tell if they had a super fancy boat rig it if the boat was actually in the water and they were just that good at blending in the digital stuff. Some genuine mind blowing stuff technical stuff throughout. Just a shame and the story.

LivDiv

Star Wars Episodes IV to VI
Everything to be said has been said.

Jungle
Harry Potter gets lost in the jungle in this jungley version of 127 hours. Decent but takes too long to get to the being lost part.
Reminded me I should watch Swiss Army Man again.

davyK

The Long Road to War Splendid documentary on Netflix covering the 50 years before WW1. Seems Europe was a powder keg - old empires bumping against each other and Germany wanting to expand its empire. Looking at this its hard to see how it couldn't have happened. The Slavic nations were the point of pressure but really it's inherent in the tragic nature of us.

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