Movie record 2020 edition - The Bear and Badger

poprock

Joker
An ugly story, told beautifully. No fun, no redemption, just an understandable descent into madness.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Wookienopants wrote:

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

35. Sonic
Unlike Pikachu this was more of a straight up average kids film instead of a good film made mostly for kids. Not terrible but not worth paying money for.
[4]

I’ve heard it’s a great return to form with a classic 90’s level comedic performance from Jim Carrey, is that true?

Not really. He's pretty zany and he has the energy of those older films but I can't say I laughed at any of the things he did because I'm not sure they were done to be comedic.

hylian_elf

5. Jurassic World - 15th Feb
Somewhat enjoyable silly crap. Always nice seeing dinosaurs / big CG monsters.
[5]

6. Dunkirk - 16th Feb
I found this mostly dull and forgettable dotted with some decent scenes. That music and sound though - very good although I’m never a fan of continuous background music.
[6]

Kazuo

First Love
Suitably bonkers Yakuza thriller from Takashi Miike about a hapless young boxer caught in an unraveling scam between warring gangs. Not quite relentlessly entertaining but it's a good time, and very funny to boot. How this is Miike's 103rd film when the man isn't yet over sixty is beyond me.

Moot_Geeza

Toy Story 4

Weakest entry in the world's greatest quadrilogy. [7]

retroking1981

28. No Strings Attached - 5
Predictable and formulaic romcom. Leads are likeable enough to make it watchable.

29. Birds of Prey - 6
Like most I enjoyed seeing Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but the rest of the film falls short of her performance. It's ok.

30. Ready or Not - 8
Really enjoyed this. Never heard of Samara Weaving before seeing this, she was great as the lead but for me Henry Czerny was the scene stealer. Funny stuff.

My list

retroking1981

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Toy Story 4

Weakest entry in the world's greatest quadrilogy. [7]

I was disappointed too. 3 was such a perfect ending.

Moot_Geeza

I enjoyed it, was a fine sequel as a standalone effort, but damn those first three were something else.

Wookienopants

I thought Ready Or Not was such a great surprise. Really enjoyable and genuinely funny in parts.

Wookienopants

Plus felt like it had no fat, the pacing was perfect. 90 minutes that raced along at a rollicking pace. More films need to take this approach. Straight into the set up, no time wasted and then establish the characters whilst it’s all playing out with no time wasted.

jdanielp

20. Poltergeist

A friend badgered me to watch this so I did. It was ok.

[6]

Spoiler:

Tempy

If that’s the OG Poltegiest it’s easily an 8 if not a 9, one of my favourite films.

hylian_elf

The one with baby Drew iirc!

Tempy

Drew Barrymore? Not in Poltergeist. It was some poor kid who died age 12. The elder daughter died young too, 22 or something. There was a whole thing about the "poltergeist curse" for a while

Moot_Geeza

Some of here scenes were filmed with a different child for Poltergeist 3 iirc.

I haven't seen that one since the mid 90s, and it was quite shit even back then, but there's something I quite like about horror films + mirrors, so I might give it another go for old time's sake.

jdanielp

Tempy wrote:

If that’s the OG Poltegiest it’s easily an 8 if not a 9, one of my favourite films.

Indeed it was. I found the pacing to be all over the place. Some effects stood up ok, others not so much.

(This was my first time watching it.)

Tempy

I will destroy you

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Some of here scenes were filmed with a different child for Poltergeist 3 iirc. I haven't seen that one since the mid 90s, and it was quite shit even back then, but there's something I quite like about horror films + mirrors, so I might give it another go for old time's sake.

I watched it last year, it has some fucking brilliant special effects in it - genuinely excellent practical stuff that makes your head spin. I remember writing a post about it in the film thread, the pics are still on my imgur account

F4jzXWs.png?1

Pretty sure it's mostly in camera. Magic.

hylian_elf

Tempy wrote:

Drew Barrymore? Not in Poltergeist. It was some poor kid who died age 12. The elder daughter died young too, 22 or something. There was a whole thing about the "poltergeist curse" for a while

Oh shit. Didn’t know that.

Moot_Geeza

Quality pics Temps.

Different franchise obviously, but that sort of thing always reminds me of this shot, which I was fascinated by as a kid:

Tempy

Barrymore was in ET and Altered States.

jdanielp wrote:

Tempy wrote:

If that’s the OG Poltegiest it’s easily an 8 if not a 9, one of my favourite films.

Indeed it was. I found the pacing to be all over the place. Some effects stood up ok, others not so much. (This was my first time watching it.)

In all seriousness, as a proper response: I like the pacing. It has probably my favorite sigh of relief in terms of pacing - the turn from everything being fine to the final act is an all time belter IMO. I love the special effects - I am a sucker for practical stuff anyway, but I think pretty much of all of them are brilliant. I know some are certainly wonky (the guy peeling his face off for example) but I am happy for them to be wonky knowing the work that must have gone into them - it's also a hilarious sequence and so over the top. Also the shot at the end of the house getting sucked into the vortex - pure fucking genius. Love it.

Mainly, and I've said this many times in the past, the reason I like it so much is because it is a horror film that is written as though it gives a shit about the supernatural. The idea of the spirits being benevolent but misguided and tricked has always felt sort of special to me, especially given the over reliance of demons and pure evil spirits in modern horror. I dunno, always found it a really special film, but I know it's probably not for everyone.

Tempy

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Quality pics Temps. Different franchise obviously, but that sort of thing always reminds me of this shot, which I was fascinated by as a kid:

They're even better in motion, the mirror sequence in the bedroom is superb, and there is a sequence towards the end with a corpse and another with a puddle which are very simply done but still a joy to watch.

The Gate is a pretty average film which has one of the best practical SFX shots in it of all time, mindblowing to get your head around how they did it

ShabbyMcCrabby

Gotta love all that practical effect magic

Moot_Geeza

I've got a massive soft spot for The Gate, nicking that gif.

Slight tangent: I've been meaning to track down People Under the Stairs recently, as it's one of those films I loved at the time but haven't got the foggiest whether or not it's any good. A good example of a horror I used to rent from Ritz standing up incredibly well is Dolls (1987).

nick_md

Tool me a while to spot what the deal was in the middle poltergeist pic, nice. Haven't seen any of them since early teens, may look in 50p section of cex.

Tempy

nick_md wrote:

Tool me a while to spot what the deal was in the middle poltergeist pic, nice. Haven't seen any of them since early teens, may look in 50p section of cex.

The one where Carol-Anne is looking out of the window? Yeah it's really subtle, and from what I remember reading they basically built a mirror of the set behind her and the one looking out the window at the Kane is a double.

g.man

It kind of becomes overkill after a while, but they certainly did some great stuff with fake mirrors in that film...

nick_md

Yeah that one, quality.

bad_hair_day

Birds of Prey

Birds shite more like. Nasty mess, with not one likeable character.

[3]

Tempy

@G aye, what a compilation! It's clear when you look at them that they're not perfect but heck, the effort is worth it in my opinion.

g.man

It's brilliantly done, but in a film like that you only really get away with it once, twice at a stretch. After that you just start expecting it every time you see a mirror.

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