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Post by randomtask on Dec 12, 2022 9:58:53 GMT
Continuing my holiday-goes-wrong theme, i just had 2 weeks off work for no reason other than i needed to use up my leave before the end of the year and i went and caught COVID  There was no point in even cancelling the leave because i had no other time i could be off before the end of the year. Oh well, i was probably just going to do nothing and watch football anyway so i guess it didn't affect me too much  See How They Run - I guess it's an homage to old detective film noirs, although it also seemed to be trying to be comical too. Set in the 50's in the West End, a director is murdered and a detective and plucky sidekick try to solve the crime. Mixed feelings on it really, it was OK. Nothing particularly bad about it, but nothing particularly great either - probably quite good for a hungover Sunday afternoon movie. The theatre show in the movie is The Mousetrap and, having never seen it, i wasn't sure if there was supposed to be plot parallels. It seemed to be hinting that there were which is possibly why i was so Meh about it. I kept having the feeling i was missing in-jokes and the like. 6/10 Black Adam - DC Comic Book film. Black Adam is a super "hero" but is a little loose on the not killing people thing - it's a plot point that seems to have been done a lot recently. But it is The Rock and it's quite fun in general. Again I wasn't sure if i was missing something, i felt like i probably should have watched the movie Shazam first - not sure if that is true or not though. 7/10 |
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Post by randomtask on Dec 30, 2022 9:30:20 GMT
Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I again managed to avoid watching any Christmas films, although my brother told me he watched one called Last Christmas with Emelia Clarke in it and it was "fucking rubbish". Sorry he didn't give me a mark out of ten to report.
The Amazing Maurice - I'm a massive Terry Pratchett fan, have read all his adult Discworld books multiple times. I've always been very disappointed with the TV and film adaptations of them though, they just don't ever seem to capture the uniqueness, wit, humour etc... of Pratchett's world. There was an animated series of Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music which were rubbish, Sky did a live action adaptation of Hogfather, Colour of Magic and Going Postal which i also was no fan of, and recently BBC America did a live action TV series supposedly on The Watch characters - although they very cleverly put "inspired by" rather than based on because, except for character names, it was bugger all like them. Anyway, this is an animated film based on one of his kids Discworld books that i haven't actually read. I really enjoyed it, seems to be the first adaptation that really seems to capture Pratchett's humour. So a cat has become intelligent and goes into hick towns and promises to rid them of their rat infestations in exchange for money. However it turns out the rats are also intelligent and in on the scam. 7/10
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - I really enjoyed Knives Out and this sequel is great too. It's a whole new cast and story (with the exception of Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc) but remains both a great mystery and a lot of fun. Benoit Blanc is invited to a multi-billionaire's murder mystery party on a Greek Island. 9/10
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Post by randomtask on Jan 14, 2023 9:42:49 GMT
The Banshees of Inisherin - Set in the 1920's (i was going to put just "20's" there but suddenly realised that we are currently living in a different version of the 20's  ) on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, a man decides to suddenly stop talking to his long time friend and things escalate from there. It's by the same people that did In Bruges, same 2 leads as well. It's won a bunch of awards, but it was a bit meh for me. I mean it's beautifully shot and acted, it just didn't really make sense to me. I get the motivations, just not the escalations. Still, as i say it's worth a watch for sure and it is funny as well as the rest. 6/10 Shazam! - I was intrigued by it after watching Black Adam. It turns out you didn't really need to watch it to get Black Adam, but it probably helps a little to understand the "universe". It was actually quite fun this one, it's basically a cross between a basic superhero origin story and Big. A young lad is given the power of "Shazam!" (which is to become an adult man with superpowers) and does battle with a man possessed by the 7 deadly sins. I think it was probably a bit too long (even though it's only a couple of hours in length), could have shaven half hour of fluff from it easily. Good fun though, Zachery Levi (from Chuck) plays the adult boy really well. 6/10 |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Jan 20, 2023 8:04:32 GMT
Happy late Christmas and New Year. How late into the year is it acceptable to wish someone a 'Happy New Year', assuming you haven't spoken to them since last year obviously. I heard someone say 'end of March', surely beyond mid January is a bit odd. I don't think I watched any Christmas films either. I always intend to watch Elf, which everyone always tells me is good but, once again, didn't. I still haven't really recovered from watching Love Actually last year. It really is a bad film, and in its own slightly pathetic way quite offensive. I'm not much of a reader but I have read one Terry Pratchett book years ago before, he was really well known. I can't remember what it was called, it was something short like' Last Rites' or something but not that, it had Death as a character and the four horsemen, and I think it was apocalypse based. It was funny, I liked it. I watched that Jimmy Saville documentary that all the Americans were talking about on Twitter last year (I think it was a Netflix thing). Was probably more entertaining/shocking for them. For British viewers it was largely a load of stuff we know already, although still kind of amazing what he got away with. Not so much hiding in plain sight as not even bothering to hide at all. I didn't know he was such a big friend of Sir Prince Charles though, that's not something that gets talked about much  Very odd. Even if you ignore the sexual abuse stuff, it's still a ridiculous/creepy person to go to for advice. Like finding out Tony Blair got most of his policy ideas from Noel Edmonds or Alan Sugar wouldn't make a decision until he'd run it past Keith Chegwin. Peculiar. |
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Post by randomtask on Jan 30, 2023 10:13:36 GMT
I think the New Year still has to be "new" for it to be acceptable to keep saying Happy New Year, otherwise it's just "Happy Year". I'm going for 2 weeks into January! I've never watched Elf either, again despite being told it's the best film ever etc... The problem is that the people who tell me it's the best film ever are also the people that post stuff like "364 sleeps til Xmas" on Boxing Day so i don't trust their opinions on much to be honest I have seen Love Actually though and agree it is appalling. I get particular annoyed with people who say that Hugh Grant should be Prime Minister coz he was great in that film at it... i mean was he great in it? If i recall correctly, he got an inappropriate crush on his much much younger secretary, got her fired when we she kissed someone else and then completely fucked over relations with our biggest political ally over her. Then, like a complete stalker, spent hours knocking on every house on a massive road looking for her instead of, you know, running the country or trying to fix the big mess he's just made  I think Death is in pretty much every Terry Pratchett Discworld book, although only 4 or 5 have him as a major character. There is one called Equal Rites, but i don't remember Death or the 4 horsemen taking a prominent role in it. Could it have been Sorcery? I recommend them all anyway, i love them and have read them all multiple times - except for the last one which i think the Alzheimer's was starting to kick in too much for and was basically just "A Guide to History of the railway if it was on the Discworld" and not very good for his high standards. I went travelling in my early 20's and he released Night Watch while i was in Australia. I couldn't afford the book at the time (a new hardback in Australia was about $50), but also couldn't wait until i got home so i bought it brand new on a Friday, read it extremely carefully over the weekend, and then returned it on the Monday for a full refund claiming it was present and i'd already got it I've been watching old Mock The Week's now that it's been cancelled and in the early episodes Hugh Dennis regularly does impressions of Jimmy Saville (especially during the Scene's We'd Like to See section), at some point he suddenly stops doing them. It's quite noticeable Avatar: The Way of the Water - i wasn't sure i was going to bother with this, what with it being years since the original and it being over 3 hours long but i had an argument with myself and lost. My thought process was that if i was going to watch it, it had to be in IMAX 3D at the cinema otherwise what's the point? I don't know if you've watched the original but at the cinema in IMAX 3D it was spectacular, if you watch it on TV it's just like a really long cartoon. Anyway, i had a spare afternoon before meeting some friends in town so went. I am glad i made the effort because it is an incredible watch... in IMAX 3D. Again i think it'd lose a lot on a regular TV. The battle in the final act is jaw-dropping and I didn't really notice the lengthy runtime. It had some story problems (eg. the reason the humans are there and why they are chasing Sully), but i guess it wasn't really about that, more about world building and James Cameron showing off what can be done with CGI these days. Plotwise it's not that much different to the first, but instead of learning to fly they are learning to swim. 8/10 |
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There was no point in even cancelling the leave because i had no other time i could be off before the end of the year. Oh well, i was probably just going to do nothing and watch football anyway so i guess it didn't affect me too much 
) on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, a man decides to suddenly stop talking to his long time friend and things escalate from there. It's by the same people that did In Bruges, same 2 leads as well. It's won a bunch of awards, but it was a bit meh for me. I mean it's beautifully shot and acted, it just didn't really make sense to me. I get the motivations, just not the escalations. Still, as i say it's worth a watch for sure and it is funny as well as the rest. 6/10
