Movie Record 2021 Edition - The Bear and Badger

ShabbyMcCrabby

Seen some but not all of those, thanks fellas

ShabbyMcCrabby

12. Iron Man 2
Wasn't as bad as I remembered. Carried by the performances though as it's still fairly pedestrian from a storytelling perspective. Avengers really did change it all.
[6]

13. To All The Boys: Always and Forever
I have an unashamed love of the first two of these with the 2nd somehow being better than the first and now they top it off with an equally excellent 3rd. Just wonderful modern and emotionally mature rom-com writing.
[8]

14. Thor
Saved by some top acting by Hopkins and Hiddleston, it was a good step forward taking Marvel off Earth but it's still largely meh viewing.
[4]

Gremill

14. Reign of Fire
I remember this being better than it is when I first saw it years ago. Some choice overacting from Bale and some truly incredible feats of fast travelling, but it's all a bit crap really. 5

15. Us
A great premise and performances, but in the end struggles to keep the momentum of an incredible first two thirds and has a

Spoiler:

. Still, I really enjoyed it. 8

g.man

b0r1s wrote:

Thomas Crown Affair and Trance are two that spring to mind.

Yup, Trance is great fun.

poprock

Hotel Artemis
Jodie Foster runs a secret hospital for criminals. An all-star cast turn up for her attention and Events Get Out Of Hand, as they say. Top-grade bunkum with everybody involved merrily chewing the scenery.

b0r1s

I bought this based on the trailer. Think I wasted my money.

b0r1s

19. The Banker - Apple knocked it out of the park with this film based on a true story about two black men in the 60’s trying to own a bank. Sam Jackson walks his role and Hoult is solid as the supporting cast, but Mackie shows he can act when away from the action man. It touches on the obvious racism but not just that, it’s more about the systems in place to keep the status quo of which race happens to be one factor. Great stuff.

The Daddy

10. Rocky. I think my memories of this all stem from later entries in the series and famous clips, I remembered very little of it. It was much more ponderous than I expected, kind of a proper character study, especially compared to the later films. [8]

11. The Croods: A New Age. Solid enough Dreamworks fare, the kids seemed to enjoy it. [7]

12. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Actually quite watchable teen drama take on the

Spoiler:

formula. [6.5]

Webbins

22. Shirley Valentine
Poignant drama about a bored, Scouse housewife who finds a new lease of life on an impulsive holiday to Greece. First watch for me, I really felt the hopelessness of Shirley's plight in the first half of the film, very effective, emotional performance from Pauline Collins. 8

23. Cape Fear (1962)
Dominant performance from Robert Mitchum as the sinister, predatory Max Cady, as he stalks and eyeballs lawyer Gregory Peck and his family. Instantly makes me want to watch Night of the Hunter for another creepy Mitchum showing. 8

g.man

OG Cape Fear is a stone wall classic.

Gremill

16. Iron Man 3
RDJ does his mumbley sarcastic schtick without a suit of armour for most of the film and it's the better for it. You can tell it's a Shane Black film and the action set pieces are suitably spectacular. 7

ShabbyMcCrabby

15. Extra Ordinary
A pleasant and lightly funny Irish supernatural comedy. Nothing ground breaking but got some chuckles out of me.
[6]

Minkymu

Gremill wrote:

16. Iron Man 3
RDJ does his mumbley sarcastic schtick without a suit of armour for most of the film and it's the better for it. You can tell it's a Shane Black film and the action set pieces are suitably spectacular. 7

Ben Kingsley though. Open mouthed shock at that bit lol

The Daddy

Edgar Wright should be all up in this thread (or at least last year's):

https://letterboxd.com/gregmnewman/list/lockdown-with-edgar-wright/

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/edgar-wright-lockdown-viewing-list/

davyK

g.man wrote:

OG Cape Fear is a stone wall classic.

Correct. Mitchum was genuinely menacing in that. The remake was like a Laurel & Hardy skit in comparison.

He was more than a bad guy actor though - He did a good turn as a cuckold schoolteacher in Ryan's Daughter.

Webbins

I don't mind De Niro's Cady or the remake in general, but nobody does dead behind the eyes menace like Mitchum.

hylian_elf

6. Princess Mononoke - 16 Feb
Not seen this in something like 20 years, but yikes! A bit violent for the kids and scary/freaks for my 7yo in a couple of places. But it didn’t disappoint. As good as I remember it to be with that wonderful music.
[9]

7. Saint Maud - 18 Feb
A brilliantly directed, shot and edited British psychological horror about a nurse who recently found God. Some genuinely outstanding shots. Highly recommended.
[9]

hylian_elf

8. Rocky II - 19 Feb
Never seen any but the first. All on Amazon Prime, so why not? Enjoyable, fight was still shit.
[7]

JonB

9. Magic Mike
Solid Soderbergh about a male stripper who might just be getting too old for this shit. ***

10. I Care a Lot
Rosamund Pike has old people kicked out of their homes and sent into care, legally. Then she targets an old lady with shady connections. It's far-fetched, but it's really about the sheer unstoppable drive of American individualism, and does a good job at getting that across. ****

Gremill

17. Stan & Ollie
John C Reilly and Steve Coogan are superb in this touching film about the duo at the end of their careers. 8

hylian_elf

9. Arrival - 20 Feb
Vileneuve does beautiful alien contact film. Wish I had seen it in the cinema.
[8]

b0r1s

I love it. I love all of it. It’s a ten for me. And yep it was an experience at the cinema.

JonB

11. News of the World
Tom Hanks does a Western, getting into scrapes on a journey across dusty plains. Decent enough. ***

Kow

'Freddy Starr ate my poncho'

LivDiv

News of the World is indeed the most 3 star film out there I think.
Its fine, it goes along at a nice pace, the plot remains interesting throughout. Acting, sets, costume everything is perfectly fine, better than minimum viable product.
Just none of it is anything worth thinking about for a moment after the credits roll.

Unless you are my mum who bought the book the day after watching. Then again a middle class white woman in her 60s buying the book off the back of the movie probably is a decent summary of what to expect.

b0r1s

20. The Matrix - been a while since I’ve watched this. The 4K rendition had a lot of film grain, but the Atmos sound mix was excellent. The club scene with Prodigy in the background did not drown out the dialogue with Neo and Trinity. I was expecting it to have aged, but apart from a couple of dodgy comps and the Nokia product placement it’s a very much a timeless film. I think this is thankfully due to limited CGI. The sequels definitely felt that CGI was realistic enough to use. It wasn’t. Despite being parodied a lot the film still holds up as a modern classic action film.

poprock

I Care A Lot
Rosamund Pike knocks it out of the park in a pitch black comedy about exploiting the wrong old lady.

I’m baffled by the number of vitriolic one-star reviews this has online. It’s a decent bit of popcorn thriller fluff, with a great central performance from Pike. Can’t get my head around why it would inspire such hatred.

Kow

Watched it tonight, thought it was garbage.

JonB

poprock wrote:

I Care A Lot Rosamund Pike knocks it out of the park in a pitch black comedy about exploiting the wrong old lady. I’m baffled by the number of vitriolic one-star reviews this has online. It’s a decent bit of popcorn thriller fluff, with a great central performance from Pike. Can’t get my head around why it would inspire such hatred.

I noticed that. Mostly seems to be people angry that it's 'woke'. Because it involves a woman standing up to men, as far as I can tell. They think that the film wants us to sympathise with her, which of course it doesn't. And that she shouldn't succeed, which of course is the point.

davyK

Gremill wrote:

17. Stan & Ollie John C Reilly and Steve Coogan are superb in this touching film about the duo at the end of their careers. 8

A splendid, loving tribute this. I don't think their tour started off low key though - it was a success from the start. The only other thing about it that wasn't true was the row - they never fell out over anything. They had a minor tiff once about how much Ollie's hair was to be disheveled in a scene but that was it.

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