Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

Stopharage

I watched Event Horizonin the most cavernous cinema in Leicester Square one lunchtime with my wife.We were the only people in this massive space so the emptiness of the Event Horizon was writ large in our surroundings. Terrifying.

I love science-fiction in cinema and will watch pretty much anything, but Alien Covenant was appalling. I can enjoy the whole design of the film but the story was utterly abysmal as was the script. Whilst Life was a bit budget in places it was a serviceable attempt but so predictable.

Saw that there Thor over the weekend which was cracking family fun. Not s huge superhero fan but it was enjoyable and amusing throughout.

JonB

b0r1s wrote:

Haven’t seen Chappie, but Elysium was a huge let down after District 9. But then again when I think of District 9 I think it was only good because of its different setting.

D9 was a decent premise that quickly went downhill. Elysium was just bad.

Doesn't help that I find that Copley bloke borderline intolerable.

Kazuo

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is suitably bleak and eerie then. A fine follow-up to The Lobster. Haven’t seen a film that ratchets up so much tension from the mundane in a long long time.

Bob

JonB wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

Geostorm is apparently gash, but Thor is apparently great. From what I can tell, they took the silly vignettes Chris Hemsworth did and ran with them.

Geostorm is clearly garbage. Possible potential for amusing badness. Thor will be the usual. Reasonably entertaining but not worth going out for. Doesn't help that I've seen the trailer every time I've been to the cinema this year and I'm already kind of sick of it.

Yeah they clearly over estimate how 'funny' Thor meeting hulk is.

Bob

Oh watched Dead Calm last night. A classic.

Gremill

Thor Ragnarok was brilliant fun, the most I’ve laughed and enjoyed a film at the cinema in years. It totally benefits from the complete change in tone from the other 2 and is a constant barrage of gags both physical and verbal and there’s nothing about it I didn’t love. Blum is at absolutely peak Blum too - had me in stitches with a simple movement of his eyes.

monkey

Yeah Thor was a good 'un. I was surprised how far they took the commitment to gags, not even the tense showdown bits were safe from a bit of quality slapstick. I hope they don't try and make everything they do like Guardians of the Galaxy as it might get stale but the Thor series needed something to change.

Aaroncupboard

monkey wrote:

Yeah Thor was a good 'un. I was surprised how far they took the commitment to gags, not even the tense showdown bits were safe from a bit of quality slapstick. I hope they don't try and make everything they do like Guardians of the Galaxy as it might get stale but the Thor series needed something to change.

It was the directors (not gonna try and spell his name here) character that really showed how much they were going for the laughs and jokes. I found him hilarious.

dynamiteReady

The Death of Stalin is very, very good.

I hope this keeps Armando Iannucci on the big screen, because his kind of comedy works really well there..

Gremill

I can’t remember the last time I felt so utterly entertained by a film. So much fun.

Diluted Dante

monkey wrote:

Yeah Thor was a good 'un. I was surprised how far they took the commitment to gags, not even the tense showdown bits were safe from a bit of quality slapstick. I hope they don't try and make everything they do like Guardians of the Galaxy as it might get stale but the Thor series needed something to change.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that it too so long. Thor is choc full of that stuff, especially with Loki and the Warriors Three.

tin_robot

Diluted Dante wrote:

monkey wrote:

Yeah Thor was a good 'un. I was surprised how far they took the commitment to gags, not even the tense showdown bits were safe from a bit of quality slapstick. I hope they don't try and make everything they do like Guardians of the Galaxy as it might get stale but the Thor series needed something to change.

The only thing I'm surprised about is that it too so long. Thor is choc full of that stuff, especially with Loki and the Warriors Three.

Big spoiler.

Spoiler:

tin_robot

dynamiteReady wrote:

The Death of Stalin is very, very good. I hope this keeps Armando Iannucci on the big screen, because his kind of comedy works really well there..

It really is. I had a great week for movies last week, saw Stalin on the Wednesday, and Killing of a Sacred Deer the following night. I was so enamoured of the latter that I never got round to mentioning how much I enjoyed The Death of Stalin as well. Two films in a row that I found both hilarious and utterly harrowing at the same time. (Stalin leans more overtly into the comedy than Deer does.)

One thing that really stood out from Death of Stalin for me, was Simon Russell-Beale's performance. I've been a fan of the actor since seeing him in Richard III as a kid - when I struck by how his performance was so solid that everyone else on stage was exposed as the actors they were. He's consistently brilliant in theatre, but this was the first time I've seen him bring that level of performance to film - to portray a...

Spoiler:

...and still make sure that there's enough humanity in him to make him somehow sympathetic is incredible.

Beyond that though, the film's bristling with brilliant performances, and treads the fine line between comedy and atrocity with extraordinary skill. (Though I can imagine for some the juxtaposition may be a bit too much.)

davyK

I have a strange urge to go see Murder on the Orient Express. Anyone watched it yet?

Blocks100

I refuse to watch it due to the sheer ridiculousness of Kenneth Branagh's mustache.

monkey

That’s the main draw for me.

I’ve never watched it before or read it or anything, and the gf has indicated she’d like to see it so I’ll probably go next weekend.

Bob

Plus surely everyone knows who dunnit by now

bad_hair_day

Just back from Thor: Ragnarok. So much fun, blows them autumnal blues away.

jdanielp

davyK wrote:

I have a strange urge to go see Murder on the Orient Express. Anyone watched it yet?

I might as well have done. They have been showing the trailer before nearly every film for the last 2-3 months.

dynamiteReady

tin_robot wrote:

One thing that really stood out from Death of Stalin for me, was Simon Russell-Beale's performance. I've been a fan of the actor since seeing him in Richard III as a kid - when I struck by how his performance was so solid that everyone else on stage was exposed as the actors they were. He's consistently brilliant in theatre, but this was the first time I've seen him bring that level of performance to film - to portray a...

Spoiler:

...scheming, murderous, rapist, paedophile...
...and still make sure that there's enough humanity in him to make him somehow sympathetic is incredible. Beyond that though, the film's bristling with brilliant performances, and treads the fine line between comedy and atrocity with extraordinary skill. (Though I can imagine for some the juxtaposition may be a bit too much.)

Yeah... I wanted to write the same thing...

I mean, comedy has very different requirements to the average drama, but here, the acting felt even more refined than any serious drama I can recall (though I'm not a film buff at all, so take that as you will).

Beale, Buscemi and Tambor were fucking brilliant... Without the writing, they'd have been fucked, certainly, but the commitment of those three drove the whole story.

And that's to take nothing away from the supporting roles, like that of Stalin's kids, the general... Heck... even Paul Whitehouse's character.

Might track down Iannucci's other movie.

afgavinstan

In The Loop? Legendary comedy.

poprock

Bob wrote:

Oh watched Dead Calm last night. A classic.

I know this might just be a personal thing, but Dead Calm remains the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. Genuinely, stomach-churningly, terrifying. And not a monster, alien or serial killer in sight.

Dark Soldier

Amour and Dancer in the Dark are the most terrifying movies I've seen.

Dark Soldier

The Villainess:

The opening, and ending, are untouched spectacles in cinema this year. Astonishing pieces of cinematography, but sadly, bar one phenomenal set piece, inbetween is a stock Asian thriller which led me to check my phone a few times.

If you have any passing interest in film at all though, the opening, and ending fifteen needs to be seen. We all thought The Raid donned it, this fucks it into submission in those sequences.

Gremill

Oooft, high praise.

Dark Soldier

A small warning, the ending sequence does possess a quite jarring cut which if you spot it, will never be unseen.

Its a [7] all round, a 5 or 6 without those three sequences. The ending I may be going overboard with a tad due to *reasons* but it worked for me. That opening though God damn.

djchump

Awesome

jdanielp

The Killing of a Sacred Deer was good, but as with all of the director's films, it felt a bit *too* weird for its own good. This was less of an issue for The Lobster, which had a bonkers storyline, but TKoaSD was far more conventional so the stilted characters and their actions grated at times.

Matt_82

Thought The Death of Stalin was absolutely superb. Up there with the best comedies, IMO.

mistercrayon

Thor: pleasant and some good jokes but the action was crap.

Also how many times: zoom out slow motion one guy flying in?!

I think they should get patty Jenkins crew to do the fight scenes in marvel films. They are to a one absolute dogshit and it’s absolutely unforgivable given the money and the point of the films and the source material.

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