What film are you watching tonight/watched last night???

Few quick one:

The Old Guard (Netflix) - So it seems Netflix like taking a B movie script and then attaching a AAA budget and stars to it and hoping it will be some amazing action film....seems like a massive waste of money.
Both this and Extraction (and probably several others I haven't watched) use this formula but come out of being watchable if not great films. Back in the 80's this would be a DTV $5-10m movie with some B movie action star but nowadays you just attach a big star and spend $70,100,150m and release on streaming.

The Old Guard is perfectly watchable. It's plot is non-existent, action scenes on the whole not too bad but it suffers from anything interesting happening between those scenes. I feel that this could have been a decent TV show through the ages similar to Highlander crossed with Quantum Leap. Luckily it's not too long and doesn't quite outstay its welcome but again it just seems like a waste of money and talent. The idea is solid but and with a better script and ideas it could have been fantastic.
6/10 - Extraction is way, way better in every way.


Frozen 2 (Disney+) - So school holidays and the boy wanted to watch this again as I missed the cinema trip.
I really liked the first one, which was a surprise, so expected something similar although wasn't sure how they were going to match the first. Luckily they had an ok story that weaves itself into the characters backstory quite well. The songs aren't as good apart from "Into the Unknown" which does luckily have the stunning Panic at the Disco version at the end, but they are fine for the most part, maybe half are decent and rest forgettable.
Good humour and some good action in it as well but does lack the magic of the first I think. Basically if you likes the first you'll like this as well.
Oh and it looks amazing, the animation, especially the environments is mind blowing. These animated movies are going to look better than live action ones soon!
7.5/10
 
Strange there wasn't an influx of boys being called Marion, after Cobra.
 
Wasn't that John Wayne's name?
 
The Truman Show

Not my first watch of this but the trailer on Netflix drew me in for probably my 3rd viewing.
I really like the idea of the film but the execution felt a little rushed. I'd like to see a TV Mini series of this, where we can really start to explore the other characters in depth and perhaps see some of the actors lives outside of Trumans world.

It's still a good film though

7.5/10



Hot Fuzz


I really enjoyed Shaun of The Dead and only fairly recently watched The Worlds End, which is nuts but also enjoyable but i'd never felt in the mood to watch this before, until last night.

Like The Worlds End, it starts off normal enough but does end up bat shit crazy.
There's excellent support, as there always is with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost films, with Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Bill Baily, Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman and even Edward Woodward.
Oh, and GoT fans, look out for The Hound "Yarp"

Overall it was enjoyable but not laugh out loud

6.5/10
 
The Truman Show is Jim Carey's best acting.
 
Safe (2012, US iTunes, also streaming on UK Netflix/Amazon Prime)

Another Statham actioner, another retread of similar genre tropes (this time, Stath does Yojimbo, playing the Russians, the Chinese and the bent cops of NYC all off against each other) and another small child in peril (this time due to her ability to memorise a code for something reeeeeeeeally important). And yet again, is solid fare.

Disappointingly, there's no usual Stath wig to cause much hilarity. But that's made up for by his accent from start to finish which I can't tell you now if it was American or English - its literally all over the shop. The main plot is standard stuff - ex-special forces, bent politicians with links to organized crime, avenging a murdered wife, its all here. But interestingly, director Boaz Yakin does a sterling job with setting all of this landscape up in the opening twenty or so minutes, brilliantly using quick cut montages to give us a huge amount of information in a very short space of time. It could have got very confusing very quickly but it didn't, and Yakin even managed to keep a sometimes very po-faced tone just the right side of entertaining all the way through.

Its pretty brutal, with not just Statham's action beats coming across as a touch on the hardcore side - some brilliantly effective, if totally implausible, kills take place, notably in a homeless shelter early on, to anchor the film as deadly serious. And yet it never comes across as taking itself too seriously.

The Stath is as good value as he always is, James Hong plays Asian crime lords the same way he has for the last fifty or so years and even having a dodgily bearded Chris Sarandon crop up for a cameo is nice to see. The young girl, little more than a walking supercomputer, doesn't come across as horrifically annoying and it all ends in a very pleasing riff on Indy's classic marketplace duel.

Its a recent Stath actioner, as solidly entertaining as Homefront, as Parker and as Wild Card.
 
I really like The Truman Show, it's a fantastic commentary on the whole Big Brother concept. Brilliantly uplifting ending as well.

I think it probably is just pinnacle Carrey for me, although Sunshine and Man on the Moon push it very close.
 
Matrix 4.5/5

Great film but a bit overrated. Heck I'm probably overrating it with the score I've given it now. Its a fun film, with an epic plot. It really feels like an epic introduction to a phenomenal franchise which as far as I'm aware, never came to pass.

Technically, the visuals are good. The HDR is very well done. The soundtrack for the first 2/3 of the film ignores the rear channels but when it kicks in, it kicks in nicely.

Anyway, it was fun. Good film.
 
The Silencing (2020)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in a run of the mill thriller. His daughter's been missing for years in the woodland sanctuary he now watches over. He drinks too much and does little patrols but stumbles upon the possible killer hunting more lost lambs.
The female sheriff is hot but a numpty and there;s little to recommend it beyond a brief history into ancient spear chucking.
Perhaps if he'd had a sister that was a looker, it may've been a bit more titillating. But, no.
 
'Shadow of the Vampire' (2000)

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A film about the making of the 1922 film 'Nosferatu', with John Malkovich as director FW Murnau and Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck, with one tiny twist...

Schreck turns out to be a real vampire whom Murnau has found in Slovakia and persuades him to do the film with the promise that he can feast on the leading lady once production has completed. Unfortunately Shreck's hunger gets the better of him and crew members begin mysteriously disappearing.

Shreck's appearance is explained away to the crew as some early form of method acting, where he insists on remaining in character and makeup both on and off the set.

Dafoe's portrayal of Schreck/Count Orlock is quite superb and uncannily close to the real thing, for which he rightly received an Oscar nomination (he lost out to Benicio del Toro for 'Traffic').

The blackly comic film is simultaneously a horror film and a dark satire on the ethical boundaries of art, as Murnau is prepared to literally sacrifice anyone in order to realise his vision.

While you don't have to have seen 'Nosferatu' to enjoy this film, it goes without saying that it definitely enhances the enjoyment no end.
 
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Being There - 6/10 - I'd heard lots about this Peter Sellers film (his last before his untimely death) and it was mostly positive, Sellers is excellent as the simple minded gardener Chance, a man who is cast out onto the street after the death of the mansion owner who garden he lovingly tends, he somehow ends up mixing in high society where his simple words are taken as profound philosophy and becomes a minor celebrity, I didn't quite buy into this so the film loses something for me, its a tour-de-force by the man better known as Inspector Clouseau and is worth a watch for that alone, not a film I'd go back to but I did enjoy it to a degree.
 
I really like The Truman Show, it's a fantastic commentary on the whole Big Brother concept. Brilliantly uplifting ending as well.

I think it probably is just pinnacle Carrey for me, although Sunshine and Man on the Moon push it very close.

The Majestic is not bad.
 
The Majestic is not bad.

Thinking performance wise though, still feel it's defo one of the 3 I mentioned.

Having thought about it some more, that Andy Kaufman turn in Man on the Moon is pretty damn special as well. Plus what he did in preparation for the part too.
 
Thinking performance wise though, still feel it's defo one of the 3 I mentioned.

Having thought about it some more, that Andy Kaufman turn in Man on the Moon is pretty damn special as well. Plus what he did in preparation for the part too.

Have you seen I Love You Philip Morris?

Back when Blockbuster was still open, I overheard the store assistant tell a customer that the movie begins with Carrey having sexual intercourse with another guy, and he won’t watch it as he’s not into that. :D
 
Since Jim Carrey is on the agenda.......

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Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) - Steve Oedekerk

US BD Region ABC

Has it really been 25 years plus since Jim Carrey announced his presence as a Hollywood A lister with the Ace Ventura movies? It really doesn’t feel so long ago I was watching this in the cinema. The sequel to Carrey’s breakout hit sees the pet detective relocate to Africa on a quest for a white bat or something or other. Really it’s just an excuse for a 90 minute series of comic sketches involving lots of sexual innuendo, puerile humour and predictable African tribal stereotypes. The latter in particular is so politically incorrect that it probably would not make the final cut these days. The nostalgic side of me recalls almost wetting my pants with laughter; I haven’t watched this for nigh on twenty years and unfortunately the laughs are a bit more sporadic this time around. The best moments that still work really well are the opening prologue that is an hilarious parody of Cliffhanger, and Ace going undercover inside an animatronic Rhino. The star is in “full on Carrey mode” - a live action cartoon character, gurning and contorting as if his life depended on it.

2.5/5


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Dumb and Dumber (1994) - The Farrelly Brothers

Recently out/available on Amazon Prime Instant video - I watched on R2 DVD

The Farrelly brothers debut breakout hit - bolstered by Carrey’s burgeoning popularity and a very game Jeff Daniels - is still unsurpassed in terms of their comedic output for my money. Out of all their comedies, Dumb and Dumber also stands out as their most accessible before they started to push the boundaries more and more, as evidenced in their later hits Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary. To demonstrate, I would not feel comfortable to show my boys the latter two just yet but Dumb and Dumber remains just on the right side of the threshold (the theatrical cut at least - not the awful extended cut that removes any subtleties the film had left by laying it all on the table).

The theatrical cut hits all the right notes - an almost perfect buddy/road movie with our lovable losers hilariously stumbling from one crazy scenario to the next. Carrey could do no wrong at this point but it is Jeff Daniels who was the revelation - matching his co-star pound for pound with his versatility at slipping into this kind of role. Special mention for the lovely Lauren Holly - who I had quite a crush on back in the day with this film and Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story. The directing/writing siblings really had the Midas touch here as I could write an essay on the amount of memorable moments this film has - the traffic cop ‘drinking’ sequence is my favourite but I could list so, so many others. It’s a shame the belated, official sequel got it so wrong by turning our duo into a couple of very creepy, mean spirited A-holes (something that also pervades the extended cut). Basically, if you want to watch this again, make sure it’s the theatrical cut!




Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011) - Mark Waters

Carrey’s family friendly comedy about a man who inherits penguins from his estranged father begins promisingly but I started becoming bored halfway through the movie. My kids enjoyed it in lockdown so every cloud and all that. It automatically gets an extra mark just because the lovely Carla Gugino is in it as Carrey’s estranged wife (do you sense a theme?).

 
Basquiat - Julian Schnabel - 1996

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Jeffrey Wright (Westworld, Boardwalk Empire, Bond), Gary Oldman, David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Benicio del Toro, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Michael Wincott and more... you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a film in the 90s with a cast as distinguished as the one in this film. Unfortunately, most of the talent is squandered here. Oldman's character (a fellow artist in with the big galleries and exhibitions) is perhaps the biggest waste on display here. I don't think you'd be removing anything important from the story if he wasn't in it.

Bowie is great as Andy Warhol and plays him like an airy-fairy elite artist who's both a little bit touched in the head and on a great cocktail of barbiturates and tranquillizers. His head-in-the-clouds demeanour is mirrored in Basquiat himself, but there's also a wave of anger on display in him that isn't seen in Warhol. Wright's performance keeps the film engaging and you want to see what he'll get up to next as he doesn't really follow the conventions prescribed to artists by the agents and gallery owners and nor does he follow society's rules and regulations.

Michael Wincott is always entertaining to watch and has a great husky voice that makes every line memorable. Benicio del Toro is good value too as Basquiat's only real pal, and Walken has a cameo playing a reporter who infamously compared the artist to an ape.

Some of the sets are good, especially the studio scenes, and it's in those that you can tell that the director (Schnabel) is an artist himself.

The best part of the film was the way they captured Basquiat's madness in the form of a giant wave and surfer towering over NYC that he'd see from time to time and which reminded him of his obsession with Hawaii. The surfer music and the visuals of a wave engulfing NYC were really neat.

Decent film, maybe not worth seeking out unless you're a fan of that sort of art or of the artist himself. Wouldn't say I'm either of those things so I only got so much out of it.
 
Basquiat - Julian Schnabel - 1996

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Jeffrey Wright (Westworld, Boardwalk Empire, Bond), Gary Oldman, David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Benicio del Toro, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Michael Wincott and more... you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a film in the 90s with a cast as distinguished as the one in this film. Unfortunately, most of the talent is squandered here. Oldman's character (a fellow artist in with the big galleries and exhibitions) is perhaps the biggest waste on display here. I don't think you'd be removing anything important from the story if he wasn't in it.

Bowie is great as Andy Warhol and plays him like an airy-fairy elite artist who's both a little bit touched in the head and on a great cocktail of barbiturates and tranquillizers. His head-in-the-clouds demeanour is mirrored in Basquiat himself, but there's also a wave of anger on display in him that isn't seen in Warhol. Wright's performance keeps the film engaging and you want to see what he'll get up to next as he doesn't really follow the conventions prescribed to artists by the agents and gallery owners and nor does he follow society's rules and regulations.

Michael Wincott is always entertaining to watch and has a great husky voice that makes every line memorable. Benicio del Toro is good value too as Basquiat's only real pal, and Walken has a cameo playing a reporter who infamously compared the artist to an ape.

Some of the sets are good, especially the studio scenes, and it's in those that you can tell that the director (Schnabel) is an artist himself.

The best part of the film was the way they captured Basquiat's madness in the form of a giant wave and surfer towering over NYC that he'd see from time to time and which reminded him of his obsession with Hawaii. The surfer music and the visuals of a wave engulfing NYC were really neat.

Decent film, maybe not worth seeking out unless you're a fan of that sort of art or of the artist himself. Wouldn't say I'm either of those things so I only got so much out of it.
I seem to recall Bowie saying Warhol snubbed him back in the day, which appeared to amuse him, and led to much speculation over whether Warhol was threatened by Bowie's supersonic rising.
The BBC4 documentary on Warhol is pretty entertaining and much more so than I imagined it could be with such a 'character'. His shooting and demise were as an oddity as him.
This will be added to my, 'When you're feeling effete' list..
 
Faster (2010)
A relatively early entry in the 'I'll beat up everyone' era for Dwayne Johnson. Was a reasonable film. Weak story. Average cast. Decent action. The "English" guy was abysmal.
6/10
 
I seem to recall Bowie saying Warhol snubbed him back in the day, which appeared to amuse him, and led to much speculation over whether Warhol was threatened by Bowie's supersonic rising.
The BBC4 documentary on Warhol is pretty entertaining and much more so than I imagined it could be with such a 'character'. His shooting and demise were as an oddity as him.
This will be added to my, 'When you're feeling effete' list..

Did he? He was definitely a queer one. Not a fan of his art either. I hadn't realised he was assassinated (or is it murder if you're not the president or royalty?) so that is interesting. Will check out the documentary you mentioned.

Actually wouldn't mind seeing Factory Girl with Guy Pearce as Warhol and Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgewick.
 

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