In the cinema for godzilla X Kong

Blissfully empty thus far

Pizza, wedges and Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix.

Lovely

Banana + tailpipe = gold

You take those Bananas

Apple love the moon.

b0r1s wrote:

Apple love the moon.

Post war USA was the golden era despite the fears of communism. More to do with that than anything else - Apollo was a crowning achievement (even though it was very much an international effort - loads of Brit and German expertise moved to NASA then).  US has to take credit for having a go and building the infrastructure for doing it.

Scarlett is consistently gorgeous and talented, ain't she? Sigh.  This does look fun.

Have you seen Seize Them! yet, ERE? Heard mixed things - ranging from "very funny" to "absolutely bloody awful" and have now anointed you The Movie Judger.

Nyad (2023) - I started watching this out of a grim sense of obligation to finish the Oscar nominations but ended up absolutely loving it. Annette Bening plays swimmer Diana Nyad as she attempts to complete the 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida in her 60s, thirty years after she had attempted and failed the swim. Jodie Foster plays her coach Bonnie, with their relationship forming the heart of the story. Both Bening and Foster were Oscar nominated for their roles, assisted by just how meaty those roles are. It was directed by the directing duo behind Free Solo, turning their hands to narrative filmmaking.

The story itself is just a great real-life story, well-executed for the screen. I got really swept up in the emotional roller-coaster. I thought this was really good stuff, should have been in the Best Films noms for my money. ★★★★★

Aye, it is a true story. Definitely not fiction. Foster and Benning spent time with the actual women they’re playing.

Although…

Nimona (2023) - This was OK, I guess. The first commoner knight in the history of the kingdom, Ballister Boldheart, is framed for a dastardly crime at his knighting ceremony. He teams up with a shapeshifter, considered a dangerous monster within the kingdom, to try to clear his name.

I didn’t really get on with the visual look of the film. The aspect that works the best are the characters but there are main characters that are so bland they look like generic background characters (in one scene a main character briefly appears for a joke and I didn’t realise it was them until I pieced it together after they reappeared later in the film). There is also one particular angle that makes character models look incredibly awkward and unaesthetic. Instead of making sure this angle never appears in the film, it is used prominently on two occasions. The backgrounds make a stab at minimalism but look cheap, dull and bland, like a badly art-directed 3D indie game.

The story is a bit better but is heavily humour oriented (often a modern awkwardy style of comedy I don’t find particularly funny) and sometimes feels like it’s falling into the common comedy-drama trap of being neither truly funny nor genuinely emotionally engaging. I think this might have the most prominent LGBT themes I’ve seen in a major animated movie and there are some other interesting social commentary themes and metaphors, but obviously that’s only so much use when you’re not fully taken in by the general sweep of the story.

A random specific point (this is only a spoiler for a very early plot point):

It’s not bad by any means and there’s stuff in there I enjoyed but I really wasn’t wowed by it. I can see some people maybe getting on better with it though. ★★★☆☆

Coincidentally, I saw this last night. Looks interesting.

b0r1s wrote:

I also think it may be the best sequel ever made. I know a lot of people have love for Empire Strikes Back, which is great, but I think this film does a much better job of moving the story of the original on, while not trying to recreate the tense horror. Instead Cameron goes in a different direction by turning it into an action film. It’s just brilliant.

That's quite a claim but it is in the same company as Godfsther pt2, ESB and T2.

Would be good if that included IMAX. I’ve seen some in it but missed others.

Couple of things I spotted looking for that Nolan thing in my local Vue listings:
* The Despicable Me/Minion films are all being re-shown there.
* The Transformers 40th Anniversary Event, which I thought might be America exclusive is actually coming to the UK. I think it’s like the first four episodes of the TV series and some extra stuff Episode 1 is splitscreened with a ‘live’ table recording of the cast and the rest of the episodes play out as normal.