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Post by The Doctor on Oct 5, 2016 19:00:36 GMT
'The Magnificent Seven' (2016): Denzel is back! And this time he must have...REVENGE! A Noble Western Town Lady must have...REVENGE! An Evil Bad Man must have...GOLD!
Cue two hours of REVENGE! GOLD! REVENGE! as every possible Western/Cowboy movie cliche you can possibly think of walks up on screen, winks at you, steals a fiver from your pocket and runs away. Folk get pissed in salons where fights can break out at any time. Evil Bad Men shoot Noble Local Folk Who Live From The Land. There is a Bad Indian Man who must face off against a Good Indian Man. Ladies of Interesting Virtue hang about in the background. Dead folk are carted off to 'Boot Hill'. Everyone has infinite bullets, and so on.
Truth be told, though, it has as much tension and suspense as poo sliding off a cow's bum.
REVENGE!
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 14, 2016 13:19:43 GMT
1. Bridge of Spies
2. The Magnificent Seven
3. Alice Through the Looking Glass (IMAX 3D)
4. Captain America: Civil War
5. Star Trek: Beyond
6. Gods of Egypt (IMAX 3D)
7. Bastille Day
8. The Assassin
9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
10. X-Men: Apocalypse
11. Suicide Squad
12. Our Kind of Traitor
13. The 5th Wave
14. Deadpool
15. London Has Fallen
16. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
17. L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (this film broke my brain)
Martin
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Post by The Doctor on Oct 14, 2016 21:03:43 GMT
I have never heard of that!
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 15, 2016 9:47:19 GMT
I have never heard of that! -Ralph In this case, ignorance is bliss. It's a Chinese film. I came out of it behind a Chinese gentleman who turned around and told me that it made absolutely no sense to him. At that moment in time he evidently felt embarrassed on behalf of his nation. Martin |
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Post by The Doctor on Oct 25, 2016 21:03:27 GMT
I have now seen the 2016 film version of Doctor Strange. I await Martin's verdict.
*makes circle with hand*
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Oct 25, 2016 22:25:49 GMT
Ditto.
*drinks tea with hand*
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 26, 2016 6:12:42 GMT
I'm looking at seeing it some time next week when I'm kicking back in London again, probably in IMAX 3D at Cineworld Leicester Square. That and Jack Reacher.
Martin
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Oct 26, 2016 6:37:26 GMT
Hurry! *mystic gesturing*
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Post by The Doctor on Oct 26, 2016 8:04:21 GMT
*runs while waving fingers*
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Oct 26, 2016 8:37:15 GMT
Hehe! *spoiler spoiler*
Yes, that bit.
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Post by legios on Nov 1, 2016 19:14:26 GMT
1. Eye in the Sky
2. 13 Hours:The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
3. Bastille Day
4. Doctor Strange - best superhero movie of the year by a country mile.
5. Star Trek Beyond
6. Captain America: Civil War
7. Now you see me 2
8. Nerve
9. Jason Bourne:
10. X-Men: Apocalypse
11. Jem and the Holograms
12. London has Fallen
13. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Nov 4, 2016 15:16:26 GMT
1. Bridge of Spies
2. Doctor Strange (IMAX 3D)
3. The Magnificent Seven
4. Alice Through the Looking Glass (IMAX 3D)
5. Captain America: Civil War
6. Star Trek: Beyond
7. Gods of Egypt (IMAX 3D)
8. Bastille Day
9. The Assassin
10. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
11. X-Men: Apocalypse
12. Suicide Squad
13. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
14. Our Kind of Traitor
15. The 5th Wave
16. Deadpool
17. London Has Fallen
18. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
19. L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties
I read the first half of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (my first foray into this series) before seeing the film, and thought it really good. Then I saw the film, the first half of which is a very rushed version of the first half of the book. The rest of it was nothing special. Then I read the second half of the book, and it's a completely different story from the second half of the film. And much better. Did the film-makers only read the first half of the book and make up the rest rather than read the second half, or what???
Martin
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Post by legios on Nov 4, 2016 23:42:39 GMT
As someone who has not yet seen the film... I shall consider myself warned that it takes a major diversion then!
I've read a few of the Reacher novels when I was housebound for long periods a couple of years back - the wonders of having a big bag to take with me, and a library card with a 30 book borrowing allowance, on the days when I was mobile - of which Never Go Back was one of them. It struck me as an odd choice to film - in that it retreads some of the same ground of being heavily linked to Reacher's military experience, which isn't usually a major thing, if it is relevant at all ("One Shot", which they based the first film on is one of the few others I've read where it is a major factor).
It also has a "woman of the book" with whom Reacher's relationship is the pay-off to something like four or five books of set-up. (He spends a few books crossing the US to meet her after speaking to her on the 'phone in one story, and has phone conversations with her about once a book as he goes.). Both of which made me wonder why they picked that particular one in the first place.
(I quite liked "Never go back" as it happens, it was one of the books where Reacher felt like an actual character rather than the archetypal "plains drifter" figure that he is in a lot of the books. That and the first book, where there is an actual intrinsic logic to why Reacher gets involved in events and why he is in "nowheresville USA" in the first place are probably the ones I enjoyed most of the series.)
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 18, 2016 19:48:47 GMT
Saw the trailer for the King Kong movie. It looks awful beyond words. I can skip it now!
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Nov 18, 2016 21:42:28 GMT
Wait... that was 10 years ago!
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 19, 2016 9:00:25 GMT
No, there's a new one. Looks like lowest common denominator trash.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Nov 19, 2016 22:51:26 GMT
*beats chest in rage*
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Post by legios on Nov 20, 2016 13:47:05 GMT
Saw the trailer for the King Kong movie. It looks awful beyond words. I can skip it now! -Ralph I have seen it as well. It was...not good. It appeared to be assembled from some sort of "Make your own Giant Monster Movie!" kit, only not put together very well. I suspect that the "comedy relief" character is not actually fitted properly into the sockets, and the "generic baddie monster" do make one want to check the copyright stamping on the box to check it isn't a cheap KO of the real kit. (To continue the metaphor it also kind of looks like all the stickers that are supposed to give it visual interest have been left off by whoever assembled it). If the rumours about doing this version of Kong versus US-Zilla are serious then they need to up their game because I think they will be giving away a bit of a handicap come the title bout. Fortunately six other films featuring King Kong are also available... Karl |
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Post by legios on Nov 20, 2016 18:26:24 GMT
1. Eye in the Sky
2. Arrival - A cleverly constructed, and very emotionally engaging film. Anchored by some fantastic performances from the cast. Superbly put together, visually striking and stays with you afterwards.
3. 13 Hours:The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
4. Bastille Day
5. Doctor Strange
6. Star Trek Beyond
7. Captain America: Civil War
8. Now you see me 2
9. Nerve
10. Jason Bourne:
11. X-Men: Apocalypse
12. Jem and the Holograms
13. London has Fallen
14. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 20, 2016 20:08:20 GMT
Yes, I did think Arrival was quite good.
The Accountant was crap, Girl on the Train was not in any way 'shocking' and Inferno was surprisingly fun tosh. Not sure how I feel about Nocturnal Animals!
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Nov 20, 2016 21:55:22 GMT
I originally planned to go and see The Accountant this afternoon - it became too cold for me to contemplate going out of the house a second time however - even for the man who Cineworld says has actually become the new Batman! (I knew that Affleck had played him on screen... I didn't realise that he had actually taken up crime-fighting as a proper second job though...)
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 30, 2016 21:52:18 GMT
Nice to see Arrival pulling in a respectable box office relative to budget. Not all big screen Sci-fi has to about things blowing up.
-Ralph
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Dec 18, 2016 15:57:43 GMT
Final tally for the year:
1. Bridge of Spies
2. Doctor Strange (IMAX 3D)
3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
4. The Magnificent Seven
5. Alice Through the Looking Glass (IMAX 3D)
6. Captain America: Civil War
7. Star Trek: Beyond
8. Gods of Egypt (IMAX 3D)
9. Bastille Day
10. The Assassin
11. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
12. X-Men: Apocalypse
13. Suicide Squad
14. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
15. Our Kind of Traitor
16. The 5th Wave
17. Deadpool
18. London Has Fallen
19. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
20. L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties
Martin
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 1, 2017 20:45:19 GMT
Well on the last day of 2016 I saw what was far and away the best cinematic experience of 2016...and it was a silent film made in 1927! Abel Gance's 'Naploeon'. An astonishing experience. If you had told me the best thing I would see this year would be a 5hrs 32 mins (with 3 intermissions) obscure film from 89 years ago I would have said 'jog on'. How is this film so little known? It's amazing! There are sequences with cutting so rapid (how was that physically possible at that time?) it's about 70-75 years ahead of it's time (there are styles of cutting at certain points you would not associate with films before the early 2000's). You thought the cameras stayed still in a 'point and shoot' manner in the silent era? You would be wrong! The camera swoops about all over the place. There are even handheld camera sequences shot in a way that you wouldn't expect to see before TV programmes of the 1990's.
A lengthy battle sequence set at Toulon is so utterly gripping, frenzied and demented in its depiction of war I don't understand why this hasn't been celebrated as one of the greatest war sequences ever put on film. You really feel you're in there in the mud and the rain, fighting through a brutal storm with everyone around you being savagely cut down!
Even more mad, this is a silent film with large sequences built around music. Yes, music. In a silent film.
Fantastic acting. The chap playing Napoleon just radiates a feeling that everyone around him is an utter moron and he has an IQ vastly above everyone else. He is like a silent era Batman. After a few hours you start to feel that you ARE Napoleon!
Great moments of humour. At one point, Napoleon and his family are pissing about in a boat (as we know from historical accounts). We cut to some British officers on a ship having a heated discussion. The intertitle comes up: "Can we shoot at that suspicious looking ship?" Cuts back to the officers arguing. Then the intertitle of: "No, Nelson!" pops up. The audience in the cinema burst into complete hysterics.
Whole sequences are tinted and toned so well there were times my brain was convinced I was seeing sequences in full colour. It's difficult to describe.
The most mindblowing sequence was at the end. For about 5 hours we have been watching the action on the standard screen ratio of the time (4:3 or something close to it) and the cinema screen has sized itself to fit it. An intertitle pops up. Suddenly, the writing shrinks, the cinema screen went 'clank' as the shutters opened and an additional two screens of action appeared either side of the original picture. This is when you know you're watching pure cinema. It's quite breathtaking in context. Sometimes the three screens are used for panoramic shots (about 20 years before cinemascope!!!) or three completely different shots or some repeated left and right with a different image in the centre. Amazing stuff and then it gets really crazy when we have three colours on screen AT THE SAME TIME. IN A 1927 FILM.
*brain explodes*
If this pops up near you at a a cinema I cannot recommend it highly enough, to get the full experience. This was the 2016 BFI version, which is also out on DVD and Blu Ray. It's brilliant.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on Jan 1, 2017 21:56:46 GMT
Goody theres a few more showing of it in January and February, I think Manchester is the closest though. Still may be worth the trip.
And Ive just seen there are encores of No Mans Land in January to which I'll have to try and get to.
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 4, 2017 21:36:18 GMT
I'm currently watching Gods of Egypt, from which I'm surprised to learn that all women in ancient Egypt wore cleavage revealing push-up bras. This is a law I wasn't familiar with from the books I've read.
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Post by blueshift on Mar 4, 2017 21:38:26 GMT
I'm currently watching Gods of Egypt, from which I'm surprised to learn that all women in ancient Egypt wore cleavage revealing push-up bras. This is a law I wasn't familiar with from the books I've read. Is that the only historical inaccuracy you've picked up on? |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 4, 2017 21:44:04 GMT
It's certainly the most distracting.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 4, 2017 22:44:26 GMT
I'm currently watching Gods of Egypt My deepest sympathies. -Ralph |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 4, 2017 22:58:51 GMT
I think in that particular genre of film I've seen far worse recently. So bad I can't even remember what they were called.
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