Moot_Geeza wrote:

While I'm on the subject of underappreciated second films, why does Temple of Doom get the scofflol treatment so often? It was absolutely amazing when we were young enough to call ourselves the target audience.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

While I'm on the subject of underappreciated second films, why does Temple of Doom get the scofflol treatment so often? It was absolutely amazing when we were young enough to call ourselves the target audience.

If I was guessing (because I love it personally), it’s because it’s a prequel, not a sequel. It doesn’t move the character along at all, or build on the previous film, as a consequence of being set earlier.

I preferred all the stuff Boris mentioned but whatever floats your boat.

Minkymu wrote:

2nd films that deserve more love... Die Hard 2

It's not the best but it's a perfectly cromulant movie

Predator 2 is decent shut up.

Return to Oz is terrifying.
Wizard of Oz was only terrifying if you worked on it.

LivDiv wrote:

Return to Oz is terrifying. Wizard of Oz was only terrifying if you worked on it.

Fuck the wheelers and whatever twisted mind dreamt them up.

Wookienopants wrote:

Glass Onion was a whole lot of fun. Wife and I had lots of theories and found ourselves second guessing motives lots. Love a good whodunnit and this was was a lot of fun.
Plus Benoit Blanc is just such a fun character.

Here's to more of his cases!

It's such a great fun film.

Yeah there wasn't much actual mystery in it.

I enjoyed it.
Releasing close to Christmas for most audience was a wise move. Easy going lightweight movies go well with Xmas even when not themed.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum I watched All Quiet on the Western Front and thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Sorry meant the new one.

OG is a classic though.

Right then, movies watched over Christmas...

Disenchanted

The title is kind of a review in itself. My kids loved the original Enchanted when they were small, and can still be relied on to occasionally sing snippets of the songs just to annoy me. Where the original had a gently subversive spirit, suitably catchy songs and fantastically choreographed dance scenes, this sequel is just a flat mess.

In many ways it reminded me of "Spirited" - it shares the same lack of understanding of what makes a musical work, with every other song sounding nigh on identical, and every dance sequence similarly rote. Where the original evoked cliches to playfully mock or undermine them, this just em,braces them wholeheartedly. Several characters are in the story purely because someone felt they should be, leaving good actors hamming it up in the background for no discernible reason. Amy Adams does at least have a little more to work with, playing essentially two characters in one body, but even then that ultimately squanders much of the original character's charm.

Fundamentally though it comes back to that title.  The first film's conceit was to enchant you despite your cynicism. This one seems designed to specifically undo all that.

Strange World

This film comes with the baggage of knowing that it's one of the biggest box-office bombs in Disney's history. There seem to be lots of conflicting theories as to why it flopped so badly, from the weird lack of promotion, to the fact it's not established IP to a small army of right wing arseholes who maintain that it's because the public won't tolerate a film with an openly gay character. 

Let's start with that latter point. This is, unquestionably, one of the wokest films I've ever seen.  Even the dog is disabled. Whether that's a problem or not is a different matter altogether. My teenage kids loved it almost entirely because it was a queer friendly, ethnically diverse, ecologically aware utopian vision. Your mileage may vary.

So, other than "woke" what is it?  It's the story of a family setting out on an adventure to understand why the plant that has been their town's source of energy is suddenly dying out - and discovering the titular "Strange World" in the process. It's pretty standard Disney/Pixar fare in many respects - lots of on the nose discussions about family bonding, interspersed with action sequences and cute animal/alien sidekicks.  Visually it's got some really interesting stuff going on - not quite as dizzying as Soul a couple of years ago, but that "Strange World" is certainly pleasingly weird.  The character design for some of those alien creatures is particularly good - if perhaps a little too indicative of the movie's big, but not terribly surprising, twist. 

It may have flopped hard, but we actually really enjoyed it for what it is. B-tier Disney for sure, but a fun little romp, which in my mind deserves some plaudits for daring to expand the scope of Disney's "family values".  Recommended if you're looking for something to amuse the kids, or you're a fan of animation in general.

Glass Onion

Watched this after Christmas Dinner with the whole family, and it was the perfect movie for the circumstances. Admittedly it's a fairly loose "whodunnit" - you will probably identify the killer before you even know who's been murdered - and for a fair chunk of the film it's more a "what'sgoingon".  But it's good fun, and it's great to see Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc again. 

It feels like a very different film to Knives Out structurally, which is, again, to its credit. Ryan Johnson's talked before about his love of Agatha Christie, and in particular her skill for making detective stories that in reality embrace a whole range of styles and genres, and he's clearly running with that here. Still, there are some bits of connective tissue in common to both beyond the lead detective. Both films contain a fair dollop of decidedly unsubtle social criticism, and both have a wonderfully generous performance from Daniel Craig in which he is both able to ensure his character stands out, whilst making room for someone else to be the film's "star".  (Ana de Armas for Knives out, and Janelle Monae here).

I look forward to the next one.

Barbarian

This is, obviously, a big left turn away from fluffy family fun. It's another horror movie that's About Something - which I'm usually a fan of, but feel like I'd like things to maybe go back to being subtext rather than explicitly spelt out.

It also suffers from the traditional final act silliness in that...
Still, it's a pretty efficient horror movie despite that. It also has a relatively sensible heroine - by horror movie standards - which serves to slightly exacerbate the "no! why are you doing that?" moments when they come. 

Tense, sometimes thrilling, but ultimately silly.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Disenchanted was cack, from what I saw (the first 45mins, or thereabouts).  I felt sorry for Adams.  First film was decent.

It gets worse.

I'll treat myself to Knives Out at some point.

tin_robot wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Disenchanted was cack, from what I saw (the first 45mins, or thereabouts).  I felt sorry for Adams.  First film was decent.

It gets worse.

Shame. Like Adams a lot and thought the first one was a proper good time.