Stickied The Last Film You Saw Thread (& Discussion)

[Craig]

The Maus (2017)
Bosniak Selma and her German boyfriend Alex break down in the middle of a Bosnian forest while on their way to Sarajevo airport after burying Selma's family whose remains were found in a mass grave after being missing since the Bosnian war. After deciding to walk to the nearest village for assistance they come across two Serbs and things take a turn for the worse. This started off really well and held up for most of the film. It's part supernatural horror, part nutcases in the woods, part psychological thriller. I like how it keeps you guessing as to whether Selma is being paranoid as a result of her past experiences or whether the Serbs they come across really are hellbent on killing her. My only gripe is the ending which was left way too ambiguous.

Magic Mike (2012)
Mike "Magic Mike" Lane is the star of a male stripper troupe in Tampa, Florida as well as doing other jobs while he saves to start his own custom furniture business. He takes young Adam aka "The Kid" under his wing and introduces him to the business. Some good performances can't make up for the mostly dull story and the characters aren't very likeable.

The Nice Guys (2016)
Russell Crowe is the muscle for hire and Ryan Gosling the private eye who team up to try and solve the murder of a famous porn actress in 1970's Los Angeles. Thought it was a quite enjoyable action comedy with some laugh out loud moments.

 

[silkyman]

First They Killed My Father (2017)
Based on the experiences of Loung Ung who was caught up in the Cambodian genocide. It's quite a difficult watch at times but ultimately a very good portrayal of the rule of the Khmer Rouge from the point of view of a child.

How It Ends (2018)
When a mysterious disaster on the west coast of the US causes a countrywide blackout and strands Will in Chicago while his pregnant wife is in Seattle he teams up with his father in law to cross the country which has descended into chaos to find her. More often than not it comes across as amateurish and overall wastes what could have been a decent story made more of a shame by the fact they obviously had a decent budget to play with. The ending is quite annoying and I don't know whether the title of the film is supposed to be a joke or not with regards to it.

I watched How It Ends the other night. Wasn’t really paying full attention, but it was pretty poorly implemented. The ending wanted to be vague, but wasn’t really.

Why would an earthquake on the west coast lead to fighter jets scrambling within minutes in New York? Why have the girl join them halfway through just to fuck off into the wilderness? It was just very odd.

And it’s got the same thing that gets to me in pretty much every apocalyptic disaster movie. Why does everyone instantly turn into a bunch of armed bastards?

Overall, meh out of 10.

 

[claret50]

Gerald's game. (2017)

9/10

 

[silkyman]

Finally saw Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom.

Decent enough film to waste a couple of hours but certainly not one you want to spend much time thinking about.

Retreads many of the old tropes of the other ones, there’s as at least one moment where they are in a seemingly impossible situation and you can predict the ‘ex machina’ to within a couple of seconds.

They throw in a huge twist that has almost zero impact on the plot and is barely mentioned again apart from supposedly being the motivation for a character to do something monumentally stupid to set up the finale.

And the ending is just weird tonally. It’s played as ‘look at the majesty of nature’ but the reality of the situation is ‘hundreds of motherfuckers are gonna die’.

Did the main cast even tell anyone what they’d done? Alert some form of authorities to tell people to stay inside or something?

 

[claret50]

The mountain between us.

Entertaining film about two people (Kate Winslet & Idris Elba) who survive a plane crash.

 

[SALTIRE]

Soylent Green [1973]

Chuck Heston plays a copper in this year funnily enough, where the greenhouse effect has buggered up the Earth and killed the oceans, so people are struggling to get by. With working technology scarce and food on shortage, the population has to scavenge and rely on 'high-energy' food squares produced by the Solyent Corporation, with the 'green' variant being supposedly made by plankton (or is it?).

Love these dystopian naff 70's films and Chuck is playing someone who is fast and loose in all that he does, scavenging a rich guys house when he snuffs it and has a quick temper. He is joined by Edward G. Robinson, in his last role who died 10 days or so after filming completed , and has a memorable beautiful death scene made all the more poignant due to that.

The big reveal would probably have been a huge shock at the time, but I've seen similar storylines since and knew it anyway so it didn't have the impact it might've done, but it was well done and the sense of impending doom of the human race was prevalent throughout.

7/10


The Asphalt Jungle [1950]

Quality heist film directed by the great John Huston in which a heist is planned, executed to perfection, but betrayal and the cops are quickly on the thieves tail.

Well paced, taking its time to get to know the characters and their traits, strengths and vices; then quite dramatic in the way the action and the betrayals unfold. Well acted too, and had a brief role for a young Marilyn Monroe.

8/10

 

[Darlo On Tour]

A Quiet Place (2018) 9/10

A marvelous movie that is genuinely frightening, where you'll want to scream. But don't!
The film is without a doubt one of the best releases of the year, superb performances and expertly directed from Krasinski. Starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and Millicent Simmonds.

Red Sparrow (2018) 6/10

This film was all about Lawrence using her appeal to sell something, but still a decent entertaining spy espionage thriller with a few twists along the way. Red Sparrow ended like that its set up to become a possible franchise. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Matthias Schoenaerts.

American Pastoral (2016) 4/10

This movie lacks inspiration, it gears up to go important places but never arrives. Ewan McGregor's directorial debut is dull and boring. Starring Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning.

 

[mowgli]

The Purge (2013)
A decent film with plenty of violence when any crime is legal for a few hours including murder. 7.5/10.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

The Purge (2013)
A decent film with plenty of violence when any crime is legal for a few hours including murder. 7.5/10.

I like The Purge the film reminds me a little bit of another movie called Assault on Precinct 13, and also stars Lena Headey who i think is a decent actress. The Purge: Anarchy (2014) isn't too bad either.

Not had chance to see the latest movies of The Purge franchise. The Purge: Election Year (2016) & The First Purge (2018).

 

[Stevencc]

, what a shot!

Is this Stuart Whitman?



Never seen this one but when it has Franco Nero in it, it's worth a look. Trying to find out if there's a german dubbed version because my Italian is non-existent



Damn, this reminds me to resume my "re-watch" of the Original X-files series. I started it 2 years ago but was stucked somewhere in series 2 and forgot it later somehow


Steven, have you stopped your Western movies matinee?

It certainly is Stuart Whitman!

Yeah, I'm on to poliziotteschi films now - a fair few of the actors that appeared in the spaghetti westerns I was watching also show up here and a lot of directors dabbled in both genres.

 

[Stevencc]

Quelli della calibro 38 (Colt 38 Special Squad) (1976)

This one wasn't great.

Crime is getting out of control in Turin. A detective's wife is killed by a gang-affiliated criminal which acts as catalyst for the creation of a special police squad that is able to act outside of the law (read: drive motorbikes like mentalists and kill bastards).

6/10

L'istruttoria è chiusa: dimentichi (The Case is Closed: Forget it) (1971)

Franco Nero plays an incorrectly jailed architect struggling to adapt to the violence, corruption and injustice that are inherent in prison life.

Big Nero delivers again in an excellent film - I recognised a few actors from my western dabblings, too.

9/10

 

[mowgli]

The Purge: Anarchy (2014) isn't too bad either.

That's next on my to watch list.

 

[SALTIRE]

Champion [1949]

Kirk Douglas stars as a no-mark fed-up of being stood on by the man, and finds he's a good fighter. A boxing coach picks him up and works him up through the ranks to eventually becoming world champion. However, as he gets a taste for the good life, he begins to become a nasty piece of work and alienates all friends and family around him.

Kirk at his overacting best here; always one for showing off his body and physical exploits, he's at it non-stop here! Always liked him though and he doesn't hold back in showing the nasty side of his character.

Very enjoyable, the fight scenes were fine for their day (though a slow motion segment was pretty laughable as you see the two boxers choreograph blatantly) and its a well executed tale about what you can lose if you don't look out for what's most important in life, over your own personal success.

8/10


The Way Ahead [1944]

David Niven stars as a Lieutenant who, with the help of Sgt. William Hartnell (the first Dr. Who) trains up a rag-bag motley crew of men from all works and classes of men, into first rate infantrymen, in this propaganda war film.

Excellent cameo's from the likes of Peter Ustinov (who helped write it) and Trevor Howard; this is a by-the-numbers take on the British fighting spirit in the face of The Bosch, to show them we'll determine who wins this war! Niven actually underplays here (and was actually a serving Major at the time), and I'm unsure why he did that; but it works, as his men first hate him and the Sergeant, but come to appreciate them as time goes on, and they turn into fighters capable of doing their famous company justice.

7/10

 

[Stevencc]

Roma a mano armata (Rome Armed to the Teeth) (1976)

Maurizio Merli (a poor man's Nero) chases a hunchbacked killer around Rome.

Good fun, if a little generic - pepped up by a ridiculous amount of casual violence towards women and cheesy one-liners. The police also make the hunchback eat a bullet which he excretes and attempts to shoot Merli with.

7/10

 

[Dirk]

Champion [1949]

Kirk Douglas
Kirk at his overacting best here; always one for showing off his body and physical exploits, he's at it non-stop here! Always liked him though and he doesn't hold back in showing the nasty side of his character.

I was never a big fan of him. Maybe because his "adopted name" was Kirk instead of Dirk ( his original name is something Russian (?). Ah yes and his "chin mole" always irritated me .

But you have to give him that, this guy refuses to die. He must be over 100 now .

this is a by-the-numbers take on the British fighting spirit in the face of The Bosch

I can always rely on good old Salty to teach me some namings of us Germans .
I know that the French call(ed) us (derogatory) "Boche" (same spelling), dates back to the Franco-Prussian War times) so maybe it's the same origin, combined with the original german name (Robert) Bosch?

Can't remember to have seen this movie. I think the last movie about the Germans in Africa in WW2 that I've watched was some (grotty) Italian movie from the late 60's that I watched some 20 years ago. I know only the German name of it: "Königs-Tiger vor El Alamein" (better forget that I watched this shite)

edit: Found it on imdb.com: The original Italian title is "La Battaglia di El-Alamein" .
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062714/?ref_=nv_sr_1

 

[SALTIRE]

Ah yes and his "chin mole" always irritated me

I've got one of those! Was always told it was the sign of a handsome man. I mean Kirk and Cary Grant have/had them so I'm in good company!

But you have to give him that, this guy refuses to die. He must be over 100 now .

Yep he's 101, goes around on a zimmer, has a full time nurse (he'll like that!) and his wife is still going strong at 99! Heard a story about him once where he slept with 23 women in 18 days. On the last one he couldn't get 'in the mood' - got worried about it, saw a doc, who told him no wonder, it needed a rest!

Great guy though, served in the war unlike his buddy and coward John Wayne; spoke up for people during the McCarthy witch hunts unlike the latter who told them who to go after, and got the real writer - who was blacklisted due to said witch hunts - to get his name on the credits for Spartacus which won him an Oscar as well.

Long live Kirk Douglas, and Olivia De Havilland who is still going strong at 102, and who was in her Twenties in Gone With The Wind ffs!

 

[mowgli]

Robocop (2014)
a totally crap remake of a classic film. 3/10.

 

[SALTIRE]

Robocop (2014)
a totally crap remake of a classic film. 3/10.

Indeed it was woeful. The only cool bit in it was when you saw his body consisting of a head and lungs!

 

[Darlo On Tour]

The Lost City of Z (2017) 5/10

A movie based on the book about an obsessive British explorer called Percy Fawcett who's determined to find an ancient city in the Brazilian jungle. I thought the film wasn't too bad without getting too excited, but it does have a slow and stately pace and the scenes were unconvincing. And especially when a horse suddenly appears in the middle of the jungle to send Murray away. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller and Tom Holland also a special appearance from Franco Nero.

Hush (2016) 8/10

This film is a tense breathless horror thriller film full of things we've seen before, but brilliant when their well executed, including a kickass heroine, and a creepy stalker in a white mask. It also shows how modern technology actually works, and a deaf lady defending herself with kitchen knives. A decent cat & mouse thriller. Starring Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr.

The Endless (2018) 3/10

The movie itself actually casts its writer-director duo in the two lead roles, as Moorhead and Benson. They play brothers raised by a cult, It's slightly baffling at times and probably will leave you scratching your head. Just wasn't for me i couldn't get into it. Starring Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson and Callie Hernandez.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Robocop (2014)
a totally crap remake of a classic film. 3/10.

The trouble with this Robocop film is that it's dumb, and it's trashy, and it tries to cover its dumb trashiness with a veneer of exciting visuals and production value. A terrible movie.

 

[SALTIRE]

Hell Or High Water [2016]

Decent bank robbery drama, with Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster.

Two brothers go on a robbing spree for family reasons, and Bridges is the dogged old sheriff hunting them down.

Well shot and directed, and a look at the death of the American dream for ordinary small-town people; where factories are closed, small businesses can't compete with the big bulk-buying companies; farmers struggle to get by; and a sense of foreboding doom and helplessness is overwhelming.

A film that you can interpret in multiple ways, and lets you decide on the rights and wrongs of the robbers actions.

7/10


The Taking of Pelham One Two Three [1974]

Excellent heist film with the ever brilliant Robert Shaw and Walter Matthau. Shaw holds an underground train hostage demanding $1mill within an hour or he shoots one hostage every minute there is a delay.

Very comic at times, tense, great pacing and fairly clever for its day. Also you knew it was going to be good when you hear the very seventies opening score.

8/10


Kill List [2011]

Ben Wheatley usually does interesting, baffling films that you'll either love or loathe. Here the story is around two hitmen who are given a list of three targets, and who find themselves becoming more and more unsettled in what they are doing, as something about the setup leaves them feeling very uneasy.

The first two targets get dispatched in various ways (with the second getting a very brutal torture and death - though he definitely deserved it); however things go way out there when the third target is identified and there is a distinctive nod to the Wicker Man about it.

It veers from family mundanity, going fairly deep into the characters traits; to a thriller with the first two targets; then culminates in horror, tragedy and surrealism in the final act.

Decent stuff, not one of Wheatley's best imo (A Field In England is just extraordinary); and Neil Maskell whenever he plays heavies, hooligans or toughies, never really convinces - but he was decent here as he descends into an ever deeper pit of rage, madness and trauma.

6/10

Eddie The Eagle [2016]

Very funny and life-affirming film loosely based on Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards, whom I do remember, trying to qualify for the winter Olympics in Calgary '88 despite being hopeless, but with a very determined heart.

Taron Egerton (sounds like a GoT name that!) plays Eddie convincingly, giving him warmth and heart; whilst Hugh Jackman plays his annoyed alcoholic coach. The two leads bounce off each other well, and you find yourself rooting for these two losers as they try (reluctantly at first in the case of Jackman) to get Eddie's dream fulfilled.

8/10

 

[Darlo On Tour]

I also liked Neil Maskell in (Utopia TV series).

 

[mowgli]

3 Headed Shark (2015)
Nowhere near as funny as 2 Headed Shark but still had some laugh out loud moments 5.8/10.

 

[Gilly?]

Unsane
Blatant republican has a stalker who follows her to a mental health facility when she decided against reading the terms and conditions of some paperwork.

Really enjoyed it, would watch again. 7/10.

The Lost Boys
It's aged badly but it's still bloody good. 8/10.

A Quiet Place
A family live in complete silence in case massive stick insects hear them and eat them.

Brilliant, incredibly tense and eerie. One of the best horrors to come out for a long time. 8.5/10.

 

[silkyman]

I also liked Neil Maskell in (Utopia TV series).

Utopia was brilliant.

 

[silkyman]

Teen Titans Go: To The Movies.

Good fun. The kid loved it, and as long as you’re reasonably up on your superhero backstories, there’s enough in jokes for the adults too. Some of them pretty dark.

The final line got the biggest, most uncomfortable spluttering laugh from the audience, well, the adult members at least, that I’ve ever heard in a cinema.

 

[Indian Dan]

I’m off to watch Mission Impossible in a bit.

 

[SALTIRE]

The Raid 2 [2014]

Excellent sequel to the first Raid, where this time the cop goes undercover to infiltrate a powerful gang, but to do this he has to go to jail to get friendly with the son of the gang leader. Once released he seeks to bring them down (though they do a lot of that themselves as the son makes a power shift on his father).

Superbly choreographed fight scenes, brutal and inventive (though you do wonder why the countless low-ranked baddies run at the near invulnerable protagonists and don't shoot them!); decent story, great set-pieces and its never dull despite being 2.5 hours long so you get your money's worth and then some.

10/10

 

[Gilly?]

Deadpool 2
So good, laughed my head off at numerous parts. I reckon I enjoyed it more than the first one. 8.5/10.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Sully (2016) 8/10

Another really good Tom Hanks movie with a polished performance as the heroic pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger, Hanks yet again shows that when it comes to depicting ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. Sully is a beautifully captured tale of bravery, from the impressive Clint Eastwood. Starring Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart.

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) 5/10

Not a great movie for my liking, car chase scenes were pretty decent, but probably far too many. I think the chemistry between Jackson and Reynolds is just enough to keep the action comedy on life support. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman.

Eden Lake (2008) 8/10

A pretty solid horror thriller well worthy of a watch, well acted, smartly directed and quite disturbing, a terrifying sordid little nightmare of contemporary Britain. I'd have to say in my book it's one of the best British thriller movies I've seen over the years. Starring Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis and Jack O'Connell.