What Film have you just watched? 2016+

[Tappy]

Watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on the weekend. As good as the first imo. Some very, very funny parts. Also, very much a stand alone movie - few references to the MCU.

[EviL Ras]

saw that the other day too. I understand why people gave the first one an A and this a B+.

Its good, but not quite as good as the first one. The comedy is more slapstick. The storyline very contained.

[Johnmcl7]

I saw GOTG v2 as well and thought it was a good watch but not much beyond that, I was disappointed after the opening it's a pretty straightforward storyline.

[robbo]

Black Mass. Johnny Depp and loads of others famouses in a real-life crime drama from a couple of years ago. Enjoyed it although had to pause every now and then to go over what was happening/had happened.

[Johnmcl7]

I've been assembling a Lego Tydirium which even though it's the smaller one was still 154 pages long so had a few films on the mean time.

First up was Kubo and the two strings which comes from the same studio that did Coraline and similarly is a stop motion animated film. This time it's a story about a young Japanese boy living in a rural area living a very sheltered life with his increasingly distant Mum set a good while in the past. It all goes wrong and Kubo ends up on a quest to find mythical armour set and weapon armed with his magical two string instrument. The story isn't bad although I was a bit disappointed by the ending and the stop motion is a bit odd, I've always thought Coraline looked great, almost magical with the way it was animated but Kubo seems more like a pseudo CGI. I checked and found it was properly stop motion animated but just doesn't seem it.

As I was assembling the Tydirium I felt I needed to watch Return of the Jedi which was mostly good aside from Robot Chicken having spoiled it a little as there's so many characters at the side or similar that remind me of some silly sketch particularly the Emperor. Still a great film of course even knowing exactly what's coming, Luke's savage attack on Vader as he loses control, the Emperor's taunting and the Assault Frigate broadsiding the ISD as they exchange turbolaser fire are all still great. I had forgotten about some of the truly stupid new additions such as the 'noooooo' when Vader decides to save Luke, I still can't believe they did that.

I had a flick through Amazon's film selection and came cross Imitation Game which features Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing during WW2 when he made his first electromechanical code breaking machine to break the German Enigma system. It's well rated but I didn't think much of it as it's a long film at two hours but I didn't really feel it did much of interest as it doesn't go into much detail of the machine or how it came together and it's filled with flashbacks and flashforwards which I found irritating. I thought it also suffered badly from having well known actors/actresses in all the main roles which immediately spoiled the feel of the film particularly as many of them are playing similar roles - Tywin Lannister is back as a commanding asshole who takes no crap, the sort of secretive Q guy from Kingmans is a secretive Mi5 guy and Watchmen's genius Ozymandias is a genius helping working on the machine.

Onto Netflix I found a documentary called Betting on Zero which is about an American Pyramid company called Herbalife which I hadn't heard of but it's a big company who have somewhat questionable business practices. They offer healthy nutritional drinks and similar but their money appears to be made from getting more people to sell the product rather than actually sell the product itself. It's mostly about the company going through how they work and speaking to people who have been caught out by Herbalife, there isn't really much in the way of what actually happens but as someone not at all familiar with it I still found it watchable.

Finally also on Netflix I watched Silicon Cowboys which I'd highly recommend for people on the forum here as it's a documentary about Compaq from the very beginning and mostly features on their early years as they went from a tiny player to a market dominated by IBM to eventually becoming one of the biggest parts of a market which had been rapidly changing and evolving. I came to the whole PC thing relatively late on in comparison with a early Pentium era Cyrix 686 system as the first family PC and even then, without internet I wasn't really aware of what was going on until later so it was great to have a more detailed view of the history of the PC's and what the introduction of the IBM PS/2 and Warp really meant for the market at the time.

[Johnmcl7]

After a long, long wait I finally got to watch Lego Batman which I was expecting to be a little disappointed by as I'd got the impression it wasn't as good as the Lego Movie however it was brilliant from start to finish. They judged the tone perfectly and knew how far to push a joke without going too far which often seems a rare skill these days, there's lots of funny little digs at Batman, his colourful past, the live action Batman films (despite the overuse of Bane jokes in general, he still made me laugh every time in the film) and even Tom Cruise. Some of the licensing they managed was quite surprising given how much they went ahead to mock those franchises but given the fun tone of the film and Warner Brothers busy poking fun at their own franchises it doesn't feel out of place and it was great the license holders allowed it given these days, it's all taken so seriously (*cough*Spiderman*cough*). It's an incredible technical achievement as well as there's a massive variety of lego figures, vehicles and there's so much going on in many of the scenes plus it still looks like it's stop motion animated Lego. Despite the fixed plastic faces they still managed to put so much expression into them and there's so much attention to detail such as reflections of the characters when looking through glass.

When flicking through Netflix I decided to stick the original Stargate on which holds up surprisingly well in general even the CG on the masks which is some of the earliest CG I remember. I still love the remote feeling as they come through the Stargate and the feeling of isolation when they realise they're stuck there. I had heard rumours that now the TV series had faded away that they were planning on continuing with the original film trilogy (which would ignore SG-1 entirely) and they had Kurt Russell and James Spader on board however apparently talks have stalled and it's not currently going anywhere. Which is a real shame as I'd really like to see what they were going to do with it, the information known is that not unlike SG-1 it was going to link other mythologies and gods into the Stargate. I hadn't realised there is a book series, anyone read them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... literature

Also when flicking through Netflix I watched Blade II which looks a bit silly in parts but still generally very good, there's been some talk about bringing Blade back into the current superhero universe although would only want that if they could bring Snipes back as well.

[Replicant]

I went to watch Baby Driver on Saturday, despite my issues with the cringiness of the name it was fairly ok.

It boils down to being a heist/car chase/love story type of film with a twist. The twist being that there is a bit of music involved, which is always good for the online sales no doubt. The storyline as ever for these types of film is rather thin but did at least make sense.

It must have been OK as the two hours passed pretty quickly and I didn't get bored and start looking for my phone or fidget about waiting for something to happen.

Overall I would give it about a 7/10.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post I went to watch Baby Driver on Saturday, despite my issues with the cringiness of the name it was fairly ok.

It boils down to being a heist/car chase/love story type of film with a twist. The twist being that there is a bit of music involved, which is always good for the online sales no doubt. The storyline as ever for these types of film is rather thin but did at least make sense.

It must have been OK as the two hours passed pretty quickly and I didn't get bored and start looking for my phone or fidget about waiting for something to happen.

Overall I would give it about a 7/10.

How would you rate it compared to other Edgar Wright films? I've seen some fairly rave reviews for it from film critics but I'm increasingly finding their views of little worth.

[Tappy]

Watched Wonder Woman. Probably the best DC film from their shared universe. Storyline was rather predictable, but it worked. Sometimes you want to see what you expect to see.

[Johnmcl7]

I think Wonder Woman is finished here and missed it as my usual friend for superhero films is away at the moment although I don't know if it was just a bad trailer but Wonder Woman wasn't really appealing to me particularly the reviews that said it was a long wait until the film got good.

After a long wait I've managed to watch John Wick 2 and all the more frustrated I couldn't see it and the first film at the cinema which were shown back to back as it definitely benefits from decent audio. The second film kind of feels as you'd expect as a follow up to a film which didn't feel like it was originally intended to have a sequel. It's not as bad as I was expecting (thinking along the lines of 300/Sin City sequels) but I didn't think it was as good as the first film and gets a lot wrong. One of the best parts of the first film is the initial part of the film which builds up the near mythical status of John Wick with the big Russian boss doing a great job setting the scene for John Wick and then John Wick himself shows his reputation is very accurate. For the second film though that's pretty much all entirely gone and no-one seems to really worry about tussling with John Wick.

I also liked that the first film dips into the shadowy world of assassins but never explains most of it and never needs to however the second film is much more heavy handed and very much labours some of the jokes from the first film.

That said there's still some great action sequences and it does give more of a glimpse into John Wick's life before he retired.

Spoiler:

Well the big one is the dog doesn't die and doesn't really play much of a part in the film which was a relief as I think it would be have been over the top if something had happened to the dog and also the start of John Wick is so hard to watch.

I thought the story was not great and a bit messy as it doesn't really make much sense to hire Wick then immediately turn on him, I realise he was smart enough to know that Wick would come for home after he'd do the job but he seems to seriously underestimate Wick. I thought the stuff near the end with all the assassins after Wick was badly done as a big contract was put out for Wick in the first film but only Perkins went for him, all the sloppy attacks spoiled the reptuation of Wick and seemed daft themselves. It was good to see more Winston and the Rome version of the Continental but I disliked the fact that it had to keep reminding us about the no business on continental grounds, it seemed stupid that everyone knew John Wick well and many kept making the joke about him working again.

Lawrence Fishburne seemed totally out of place and seems to be only there to give some Matrix references leaving him oddly wasted.

On the plus though I liked the hit on the sister from seeing Wick setting up for the mission to the build up as the sister walks through the crowd with Wick watching ominously on then catching her in the private chamber. At first I was expecting that she would work with Wick to take down the brother or stall Wick but I was completely wrong and instead she knows and accepts she is dead the moment she sees Wick, it was one of the few parts of the film that made Wick appear to match his legendary reputation particularly the one as the boogey man. I also liked the fight with Cassian and would have preferred they built that up more rather than another long fight with disposable enemies that felt like it was overdone.

I thought the idea of the marker was good and tied in with the first film when Winston warned Wick that if he dipped a toe into this world, he wouldn't be able to leave it. When Wick is in the hotel at the moment I was thinking Wick was going to back down but with the volume turned right up I did get quite a shock when Wick pulled the trigger almost straight away.

I'm curious to see how they get on with the third and final film although I'm a bit concerned well this one was reviewed.

[Johnmcl7]

I gave Okja a go which is on Netflix which I didn't really know much about and looked like a cute story about a girl with a supernatural animal but it's not quite that at all. I don't want to spoil any of it but wasn't quite sure what to make of it in the end, some of it is well done but the ending is a bit unsatisfying.

Also gave Logan a go which I'd ignored at the cinema because yet another Wolverine film sounded a terrible idea and the last X-men was terrible in every way which seemed to signal this was a dismal end to the X-men. However I was watching Patrick Stewart talking about the film and he was quite convincing so it's been a long wait for the blu-ray it feels but it's been worth it. It's set a bit into the future with an ageing Wolverine looking after an ageing Charles Xavier both who are suffering from the deterioration in their bodies and their mutant abilities, they end up having to help a young girl who appears to have abilities similar to Wolverine. The scale of the film is very small mostly just focused on the three of them and all three do a great job, so much so that the film is quite upsetting in parts and the young female actress who could have ruined the film is superb. The move up to a 15 rating works well and being frustrated with another Spiderman reboot it's good to see a different take on the Superheroes by going to the end of their lives. It's a pretty simple story and there's little in the way of special effects but I think the film is better for it.

[robbo]

Saw Dunkirk. It was alright. Pretty good but maybe all the hype had exploded it into something bigger than it could have matched when viewing it.

Source of the post Lego Batman ... was brilliant from start to finish.

I might buy that with my free movie redemption on the Sky Store. Not seen it yet and no idea what to buy - free HD download up to £13.99 and a dvd in the post. Although if it's on Sky cinema it won't be worth it.

Re Stargate literature: don't think I've heard or seen that before.

[Replicant]

Watched Bladreunner 2049 last night. The sound was great and matched the original very well. The visuals were good too but the ground level city scenes lacked the feel that the original film had. In fact I preferred this aspect in the original.

Overall I enjoyed it but it felt empty and seemed to lack something and felt it was too long by about 20 mins. My son, having first watched Bladerunner the final cut only 3 days before, said that he loved it and thought that it was brilliant.

[Johnmcl7]

I assume that's where your username comes from? I'm just watching the original film at the moment on HD DVD which took some convincing from my Xbox HD DVD drive but seems to be going fine now, hoping to see the sequel some time this week. I thought it was a terrible idea and hadn't paid any attention to it but I've been surprised by the reviews for it.

My Xbox 360 HD-DVD player seemed to have a bit of a stutter so I dug out my Toshiba EP30 HD-DVD player which aside from having noticeable fan noise worked perfectly. Although some aspects of the film haven't aged well it's incredible how good a lot of it still looks and it almost seems Harrison Ford is too young as the film can''t be that old.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Watched Bladreunner 2049 last night. The sound was great and matched the original very well. The visuals were good too but the ground level city scenes lacked the feel that the original film had. In fact I preferred this aspect in the original.

Overall I enjoyed it but it felt empty and seemed to lack something and felt it was too long by about 20 mins. My son, having first watched Bladerunner the final cut only 3 days before, said that he loved it and thought that it was brilliant.

I went to see Bladerunner 2049 tonight and my feelings are much the same as yours, it was definitely a great film to see at the cinema but I feel a bit unsure about it now.

Spoiler:

I definitely agree about the length being too long and it feeling empty, at the end of it I didn't feel there was much of a pay off to that either and felt like there is going to be another film. I though the core of the film didn't really make sense from Wallace's perspective, I'd have thought he would have wanted to hide any evidence of the child being born as it could mean the control of the replicants slipping out of their control. I can't see what benefit replicants being able to reproduce bring to Wallace as it would take significant time and resources for the child to grow into a work capable adult whereas Wallace could immediately manufacture a fully capable and trained adult. It didn't appear to be difficult for them to manufacture replicants since there were several cases where they were almost immediately murdered after creation. The replicant children could cause all manner of issues as they likely wouldn't have the identifiers their fully synthetic parents do and possibly would lack the control Wallace had with their replicants although that appeared not to work anyway.

I was also a bit unsure about K's past as well and in particular how he had Ana's memories, I wasn't sure if that was meant to imply he was meant to find the child? Also at the end, surely it wouldn't have been hard for Wallace to track Deckard and K to the Stelline facility and realise she was the child? There seemed to be a slight theme of whether it was wrong to treat the replicants as slaves or not particularly near the end but it never feels like it's all developed.

I wasn't that keen on the super weird Wallace either as he just seemed too over the top even allowing for such a ridiculously powerful business man who would be likely to have some odd indulgences.