Topic: The Movie Thread

Horrible news about Annie Wersching, 45 is no age at all. Probably most known here as Tess in The Last of Us but she was in a hell of a lot over the years.

@nessisonett That's really sad. She was the only watchable thing in the entirety of the second season of "Star Trek:Picard" - her performance was actually pretty great, thinking about it.

@nessisonett ...wait, what?! No! That's awful news! She was superb in 24 and Star Trek: Picard, amongst other things (because you're right, she popped up everywhere).

Way too young. May she rest in peace.

Playing "GoldenEye" at the weekend put me in the mood to watch "GoldenEye" so I watched "GoldenEye". I think it's a very entertaining movie (certainly the best of the Brosnan era) but it's never more than the sum of its parts - excellent casting, brilliantly directed stunts and action set pieces and all the bells and whistles but for me it plays more like a "Bond Greatest Hits" compilation (not really a bad thing) than a cohesive film. There's still no way I can get on board with the synth heavy Eric Serra score and for whatever reason the blu-ray transfer (from the last anniversary boxset) just isn't very good at all but those are minor gripes - it was a massive hit and saved the franchise. Just a shame that poor old Pierce never had it as good again.

@LN78 Have you still not seen No Time to Die yet?

@JohnnyShoulder Still can't do it, mate.😔.

@LN78 I don't blame ya. My joint least favourite Craig bond movie with Quantam of Solace. I'll watch it again whenever they release a complete Daniel Craig 4K collection. But at almost 3 hours long I'm not particularly looking forward to it.

@JohnnyShoulder It's actually mental how divided opinions are on the movie in the Bond fan community. Some people think it's the second best of the Craig era ("Casino Royale" is almost universally the top pick) and others that it's worse than "QoS". It's sitting on my shelf so I'll get around to it one day. Probably.

Watched three films this weekend.

All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix).

Film that follows the lives of a group of German soldiers during WWI from time of recruitment to the end of the war.

It does a stellar job throwing you into the muck of the war, with powerful scenes & moments that'll make you squirm. It may not be entirely original in showing how gruesome this war was (1917 also comes to mind), but that makes it no less effective, and the viewpoint from the "other" side is an inspired take that shows that war is hell for everyone involved. Not a fun film, but one that's well worth watching.

Ghost in the Shell (4K UHD Blu-Ray)

I'll admit I can be a bit overwhelmed by the narratives/themes the GitS franchise tends to have (for example the Arise line, which I've heard is a bit more narratively "streamlined" compared to the franchise at large, still starts to elude me by the 3rd OVA), however I've always loved the original film, and that holds true with the 4K Blu-Ray release.

With absolutely stunning animation & design that still holds up (& looks fantastic in 4K) and a narrative that explores exactly what it means to be alive/human, there's nothing not to love about it.

Operation Mincemeat (Netflix)

Film based on a true story of how British intelligence attempted to convince the Nazis that the allied Invasion of Europe was going to go through Greece (instead of Sicily) by planting fake invasion plans on the corpse of a vagrant they dressed up like an officer (with a complete made up history to boot) and floated ashore to Spain (being neutral, it had a lot of spies on both sides, so they hoped the Nazis would pick up & fall for it).

It's perhaps a bit too padded out (with the romance drama), but it's produced well enough & is an interesting story that goes to show that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

@LN78 My sisters boyfriend, who is a massive Bond fan, was apparently visibly upset when he watched it. And he is not the sort of person to get upset over such things.

@RR529 Just for clarification’s sake, All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel from 1928, with a Best Picture winning adaptation from 1930. I guess you can argue that it’s not very original as it’s based on real life but it’s much more likely to have influenced 1917 than the other way round!

watching The Keep and Young Sherlock Holmes on Plutotv

then just a few minutes ago tonight i noticed Monkey Shines is back on Tubi so Ill be watching that movie finally

@nessisonett There was another remake (I think in the early Eighties) with Ian Holm and Ernest Borgnine. It wasn't very good, though.

@nessisonett, oh yeah, I knew it was a remake. I meant it more in terms of how visually gruesome it depicted the war, rather than the story/narrative itself.

I got "The Banshees of Inisherin" on blu-ray. It's the second time I've seen it and I'm fairly confident that it's a masterpiece.

@LN78
I thought it was excellent also and really darkly funny in places. I've struggled to recommend it to people I know though as I'm not sure how wide it's appeal is to others. Glad you liked it.

@sorteddan I'm struggling to think of anything bad to say about it. A few dodgy makeup effects, maybe? I'd recommend it to anybody just on the strength of the acting - every single performance is immaculate.

@LN78
Oh yeah I mean it's the type of humour. I find things funny that some may think is a bit too bleak or grim sometimes. I worry that they may judge me too harshly for it.

@sorteddan It's certainly melancholic but then humour is so completely subjective that anybody judging you on that basis is probably somebody whose opinion is not worth worrying about.

Watched "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" with Nic Cage (ripping into himself with considerable aplomb) and man of the moment Pedro Pascal. It's essentially a very meta parody of low budget action movies and so the script is more than a little creaky in spots but the two stars are absolutely crackerjack - I particularly enjoyed the scenes of Cage acting (and snogging) with a digitally de-aged (and performatively regresssd) version of his younger self. Sporadically very funny indeed.