Movie Record 2023 Edition - The Bear and Badger

Diluted Dante

poprock wrote:

Good post DS. Can’t fault a single word.

I can, young.

Sandra Bullock I would kill a man for.

b0r1s

Belluci and Weisz are S tier

Ana a solid A

Bullock probably a C at best.

poprock

Diluted Dante wrote:

Sandra Bullock I would kill a man for.

Nah, I watched that Lost City film she did recently. She wasn’t good in it. Dropped in my estimation a bit.

davyK

Dark Soldier wrote:

Anything is worth a watch if Ana is in. This also applies to Sandra Bullock (young), Rachel Weisz and Monica Bellucci.

Was it Sandra who appeared right at the end of Bullet Train? I thought she looked splendid if somewhat different.

She was very young/cute in Demolition Man.

poprock

Yeah, she was in Bullet Train. Good part, too.

Diluted Dante

poprock wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

Sandra Bullock I would kill a man for.

Nah, I watched that Lost City film she did recently. She wasn’t good in it. Dropped in my estimation a bit.

I have found the man.

Moot_Geeza

I watched Speed 2 yesterday and can confirm she was nice in that.

RedDave2

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Third and final NATM movies. Its probably about on a par with the second one, maybe even ever so slightly better but lacks the lovely Amy Adams who got that film a bonus point. The only outright awful bit in this is Rebel Wilson, otherwise its total meh. There is a bit more of Williams in this which helps and the movie does make a semi decent send off for all the characters. But its still low tier family movie stuff here [4]

Murder Mystery 2

Oh boy. Tempted to give this a 1 as its a slightly worse sequel to the first piece of garbage but its not completely unwatchable - Mark Strong makes a semi decent bad guy and I have to admit the scenery is lovely. But otherwise its just crap. The only thing stopping this being a 1 really is that I've seen worse movies. And yes, they featured Adam Sandler [2]

I really have to stop letting my wife and daughter pick the movies. Le Man 66 has my interest so I think I'll have to give that a go.

Dark Soldier

Bullock was in A Time to Kill which I watched recently and that's peak Bullock. Just absolutely melted my heart.

Minkymu

in demolition man and speed she was super cute. still would tbh

Wookienopants

Shes still got it!

MattyJ

Guys. Ms Congeniality. It's the best

Wookienopants

MattyJ wrote:

Guys. Ms Congeniality. It's the best

Shes very yummy in that.
Plus its a good film and she plays her character perfectly

davyK

Hannah and her Sisters Continuing my Allen trawl through the back catalogue. Another beautifully made and acted film about relationships with a stellar ensemble cast. Something Allen excels at.

Diluted Dante

He's so good at them he can turn daughters into wives.

davyK

Heh.

tin_robot

Polite Society
At this point there's a pretty well established template for "British Asian films", with even those that aim to subvert it invariably clinging to it. (Looks knowingly at "What's Love Got to Do With It?"). So probably the first thing to commend Polite Society for is pretty much ignoring that template entirely.

Out goes gritty realism, or pontification on acceptance into wider British culture. Instead we have something frequently absurdist, surprisingly ambitious, and not a little silly. Somewhere in there, yes, there are Things To Say, but it knows you can work that out for yourself.

It's also a hard film to talk about without spoiling it. The posters alone spoil much of the surprise, so I recommend going in knowing as little as possible. That said, the basic premise is that a teenage wannabe stunt woman, is upset when her older sister and confidante gets engaged to a rich handsome man - so she decides he must, despite all the evidence to the contrary, be a bastard.

In many respects the film is arguably a bit of a mess. Tonally it's all over the place - I have no idea who it's "for" and whilst I might usually intend that as a criticism, in these days of hideously focus grouped product, something as monumentally scrappy as this comes across as inherently endearing. The direction is similarly unpolished in places, but lands when it needs to. (It's written and directed by Nida Manor, who created "We Are Lady Parts", and it has a similar energy.)

I hope this finds its audience, because I'm pretty sure there are people out there who are going to absolutely love it. (I wish I'd taken my daughters as I suspect they may well be those very people.) There will of course be others who scratch their heads in disappointed confusion, as the film progressively moves further and further away from what you might expect from the opening 10 minutes. Watch it and find out which you are, Disney don't need your money anyway.

Renfield

Another knowingly absurd movie, albeit with a bigger budget and considerably more blood. Nicholas Hoult delivers an almost perfect Hugh Grant impression in the lead role, and Nic Cage chews all the available scenery as Dracula. I'm not sure I had quite as much fun as Cage appears to be having, but it's still a fun little romp. (The opening tour of Dracula's history is particularly fun.)

The film's only real problem is that the final act somehow fails to carry across the gleeful energy that preceded it, feeling a little rushed and anticlimactic.

Still, it largely delivers on "Nic Cage as Dracula", and fans of cartoon violence should be pretty happy with the vast buckets of blood on flow...

RedDave2

Jurassic Park

Family movies took a noticeable upswing when I suggested this. Its still a fantastic bit of movie magic. Some effects have aged a little but because they were always in service of the film it doesn't really matter. Probably my second favourite Spielberg "blockbuster" movie (Jaws is still my fav) the only flaw is the end bit - and even that is still great.

[9]

lastant

Jurassic Park’s lack of CGI (c.5mins in the whole film I think) is why it still holds its own today…absolutely love it, close to perfect for all the reasons!

davyK

It's a classic rip roarer of a film. Wish I had seen it in the cinema.

djchump

AKA. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27197387/
Really well made french undercover cop thriller from the Lost Bullet crew - Directed by the Lost Bullet 1&2 DP and starring the same lead Alban Lenoir - but a lot grittier. Also featuring Eric Cantona who is turning into a fairly good character actor these days.
Nice to see the French action/thriller heritage still alive and kicking.

davyK

Total Recall Not the remake - the original. Watched it on BluRay with the 2001 Arnie and Verhoeven commentary. Arnie has a clear love of story telling - there's a lot of what he says is just telling the story as you see it but his joy in being in films is abundantly clear, but he also covers the wire work and fight scenes he had to grind for days. Verhoeven fills in with production details but also pushed the dual story that Quade/Howser could actually be lobotomised right at the end as it's a white out and not a black out..... It's fun hearing the dual outcomes being pushed along the way.

I don't think Sharon Stone has ever looked more beautiful and Rachel Ticotin as Mileena is smoking - more so than I remember. Verhoeven credits Stone's performance - switching between psycho and sweetheart at the drop of a hat - with his selection for her in Basic Instinct.

Still a rip roaring marvellous film - Michael Ironside and Ronnie Cox are peak - and technically it still stands up - the mattes in this are superb.

This, Robocop and Starship Troopers form a superb scifi Verhoeven Trilogy that is hard to top.

RedDave2

Thats a super solid trilogy davyk. Robocop is all time classic for me.

davyK

RedDave2 wrote:

Robocop is all time classic for me.

Rewatched it recently - loved it all over again.

b0r1s

Total Recall is top notch fun.

“Get your ass to Mars”

“I got five kids to feed”

“Two weeks!”

Raiziel

I rewatched Starship Troopers a few weeks ago and it turns out I still hate it.

davyK

Raiziel wrote:

I rewatched Starship Troopers a few weeks ago and it turns out I still hate it.

It's perhaps overly stylised and less subtle than Robocop and Total Recall - Verhoeven really lets loose with it. But that might be the point.

I still really enjoyed it.

hylian_elf

b0r1s wrote:

Total Recall is top notch fun. “Get your ass to Mars” “I got five kids to feed” “Two weeks!”

“Get ready for a surpriiiiiiise!”

Gremill

Haven't seen RoboCop in ages but those other 2 are all time classics. I watched Starship Troopers last year and could not believe how much I loved it - it's actually gotten better with age. Glorious.

jdanielp

hylian_elf wrote:

b0r1s wrote:

Total Recall is top notch fun. “Get your ass to Mars” “I got five kids to feed” “Two weeks!”

“Get ready for a surpriiiiiiise!”

"Consider that a divorce!"

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