- Awards
- 17
I’ll be quite honest the acting was so bad that I began rooting for the gator
What was the last film you watched?
- Thread starter Mel O'Drama
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- Awards
- 6
Have you ever seen "Lake Placid?"
Betty White is hilarious as an old lady who is feeding the giant alligator who keeps eating everyone.
- Awards
- 17
- Awards
- 6
I mean, it's amusing. Betty White is a hoot and Oliver Platt is pretty funny. If you can accept it's kinda tongue in cheek making fun of itself, it's a pretty entertaining movie I guess. It's one of my daughter's favorites of all time.
- Awards
- 44
I loved Lake Placid when it first came out. Still have it on DVD somewhere. It's well made, but if I tried to watch it today I think I'd find to the late Nineties/early Noughties dramedy tone offputting (it's made by the writer/producer of Ally McBeal and Bridget Fonda essentially plays Ally).
I have Rogue lined up to watch, but my expectations are low.
Black Water remains the best killer croc film I've seen. It's made by the people who later did the brilliantly scary shark film The Reef:
It's really tense. Australians seem much better at making this type of film really simply and efficiently, without convoluted plots, offbeat humour or pretty teens.
I have Rogue lined up to watch, but my expectations are low.
Black Water remains the best killer croc film I've seen. It's made by the people who later did the brilliantly scary shark film The Reef:
It's really tense. Australians seem much better at making this type of film really simply and efficiently, without convoluted plots, offbeat humour or pretty teens.
- Awards
- 52
Sextette (1978)
This is a total cringe-fest which I watched in a state of almost total disbelief. The plot, if you can call it that, is Timothy Dalton's character is recently married to Mae West's character and they try to get some private time together, presumably to shag but things keep preventing it from happening. Dalton was about 30 and Mae West was in her mid 80s so even this pairing stretches credibility. Maybe she was a great actor when she was young but here Mae West was totally one note, every line she has she delivers in the same say while doing a curious rocking on her hip motion.
The film is kind of a musical but the songs are forgettable and kind of a comedy but isn't at all funny. It's just a mess and not so bad that it's good, more so bad that it's embarrassing.
This is a total cringe-fest which I watched in a state of almost total disbelief. The plot, if you can call it that, is Timothy Dalton's character is recently married to Mae West's character and they try to get some private time together, presumably to shag but things keep preventing it from happening. Dalton was about 30 and Mae West was in her mid 80s so even this pairing stretches credibility. Maybe she was a great actor when she was young but here Mae West was totally one note, every line she has she delivers in the same say while doing a curious rocking on her hip motion.
The film is kind of a musical but the songs are forgettable and kind of a comedy but isn't at all funny. It's just a mess and not so bad that it's good, more so bad that it's embarrassing.
- Awards
- 15
Lake Placid is fab!!! And I really enjoyed Rogue.
Speaking of giant animals, has anyone seen The Meg? It’s about a giant shark @Mel O'Drama!!!!
I had to turn off Itsy Bitsy last weekend because in hindsight I really should have referred to the nursery rhyme of same name - no way in hell would I have got through it once I realised what it was about!!!!
However if you’re looking for a realllll treat, you should be watching Boar!
I mean. My God!
Speaking of giant animals, has anyone seen The Meg? It’s about a giant shark @Mel O'Drama!!!!
I had to turn off Itsy Bitsy last weekend because in hindsight I really should have referred to the nursery rhyme of same name - no way in hell would I have got through it once I realised what it was about!!!!
However if you’re looking for a realllll treat, you should be watching Boar!
I mean. My God!
- Awards
- 44
Yes indeed.
This was my verdict at the time.
I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I willingly watched The Meg last night. Well - it was free on Prime.
Disappointingly, it wasn't as terrible as I'd hoped it would be. Not that I'd be in a rush to watch it again, you understand.
Hmmmm. Well that certainly makes giant sharks and naff CGI alligators seem like time well spent.
Speaking of awful films, I've noticed a lot of "RiffTrax" have appeared on Amazon Prime. They're basically terrible old films with tongue-in-cheek audio commentaries done by the same guys that did MST3K. I've saved a few to watch, including The House On Sorority Row and The Last Shark.
After Angela's review, I'm quite surprised there's not yet one for Sextette.
- Awards
- 17
I liked The Meg. I actually thought it was much better than it gets credit for. I’m not sure why it gets bashed so much cause I’ve seen a lot worse.
- Awards
- 44
The Boat (2018)
Simple and effective. Really nicely done.
Simple and effective. Really nicely done.
- Awards
- 7
We have just watched Greenland on Amazon Prime. Was ok- disaster/Armageddon movie with Gerard Butler- nothing special though
- Awards
- 44
Well... I watched it last night...
Rogue (2007)
In which A Place To Call Home's Prudence Swanson is married to the bloke that lived next door to Elena, Duchess Of Branagh in Bed Of Roses.
As I said, I did wade into this one with low expectations. And it turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable. Far more than it has a right to be. I'm so glad I watched this after the dire Freshwater.
Despite the poster and the action-heavy trailer, I was pleasantly surprised that the film really took its time and racked up the tension and the stakes. The first act in particular was great with the stunning Northern Territory scenery beautifully shot. The flare as the first real sign of danger seemed to break all the rules. Not only was it barely discernible in the bright daylight, it's very unusual in film to see the flare this way. Normally in film we see them being fired in the height of drama, so it was unsettling to see it through the prism of calm, luring the unsuspecting characters in.
Some characters may serve traditional roles of the genre, but most of them are played by really good actors and feel very grounded and real, which serves the film well as the more OTT moments come from a place of reality. Timid Allen's moment of Hulking-out could have been ridiculous if not performed by seasoned actor Geoff Morrell. Likewise, his wife Elizabeth's frailty due to being newly recovered from a life-threatening illness (cancer, it's heavily implied) could have been viewed as unnecessary and even tasteless if she wasn't played by an actress of Heather Mitchell's ilk. Having only been aware of Heather as glamorous snobs in period dramas (APTCH and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries), she was a revelation here, in a contemporary setting, sans makeup and with cropped hair. Dare I say it's up there with the best of her scenes on APTCH?
While Jaws is the benchmark for such creature features, I couldn't expect any such film to live up to that and I've long since stopped actively looking for similarities. All the same, it was impossible not to notice that the creators of Rogue know their source material. A lot of what worked about Jaws is present here: the focus is on suspense over graphic horror (any SFX are used to work with the realism and deepen the atmosphere, rather than showboating to show what they can do); the creature in question stays mostly concealed until the final reel (in the first eighty minutes, the croc has around thirty seconds of screen-time, the first of which are just glimpses of scales disappearing underwater) its threat being represented at times by floating devices; characters become more isolated as the film progresses until it comes down to one man trapped in the creature's habitat and forced to go mano a mano with it under impossible conditions (where Jaws had under five minutes of Brody alone, Rogue has closer to twenty minutes. The intensity and claustrophobic entrapment are a delight).
Where Rogue perhaps fell down was in making its "final man" too obvious from the beginning. Much of Jaws was seen through the eyes of Brody, but Spielberg and Scheider were careful to make him as ineffectual as possible to surprise the audience. Rogue had a token scene in which its man of the hour and a half wore spectacles and someone called him "four eyes". But he had alpha male written all over him. While the hand to teeth combat in the face of the creature's big reveal were terrific, the outcome of the battle felt predictable to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the genre. The inevitability made it feel equal parts satisfying and disappointing.
It's also a cliché that the hero in question was American, and conjures up images of ego massaging contract negotiations in which the Hollywood actor agrees to do the film as long as he gets to save the Aussies. Nonetheless, it worked well and the culture clash was referenced several times with Americans referred to with some disdain. That theme is established in McKell's introductory scene in which he is in a rugged outback bar loudly complaining to someone at the end of a phone about the terrible service. He's actually referring to the mobile phone reception, but the barman doesn't stop to ask questions. He simply plucks a fat dead fly from the bar and pops it into a cappuccino, which he then serves along with a warm avuncular smile to the unsuspecting McKell.
As for the creature itself, I was very impressed indeed. I imagine it's a combination of animatronic and CG, but I couldn't tell you where one ended and the other began (even though I've just watched a featurette on the creation of the animatronic croc).
It's a great film and will definitely stand up to repeated views. I can see myself watching this one every few years from now on. For me, I think Black Water probably remains the best of the crocodilia attack films, but with Rogue - even though it's a little more glossy and sanitised - comes another film that has an atmosphere of tension and an eye for detail that most films of this genre lack. Perhaps in the longer term it will even end up my favourite.
In which A Place To Call Home's Prudence Swanson is married to the bloke that lived next door to Elena, Duchess Of Branagh in Bed Of Roses.
As I said, I did wade into this one with low expectations. And it turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable. Far more than it has a right to be. I'm so glad I watched this after the dire Freshwater.
Despite the poster and the action-heavy trailer, I was pleasantly surprised that the film really took its time and racked up the tension and the stakes. The first act in particular was great with the stunning Northern Territory scenery beautifully shot. The flare as the first real sign of danger seemed to break all the rules. Not only was it barely discernible in the bright daylight, it's very unusual in film to see the flare this way. Normally in film we see them being fired in the height of drama, so it was unsettling to see it through the prism of calm, luring the unsuspecting characters in.
Some characters may serve traditional roles of the genre, but most of them are played by really good actors and feel very grounded and real, which serves the film well as the more OTT moments come from a place of reality. Timid Allen's moment of Hulking-out could have been ridiculous if not performed by seasoned actor Geoff Morrell. Likewise, his wife Elizabeth's frailty due to being newly recovered from a life-threatening illness (cancer, it's heavily implied) could have been viewed as unnecessary and even tasteless if she wasn't played by an actress of Heather Mitchell's ilk. Having only been aware of Heather as glamorous snobs in period dramas (APTCH and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries), she was a revelation here, in a contemporary setting, sans makeup and with cropped hair. Dare I say it's up there with the best of her scenes on APTCH?
While Jaws is the benchmark for such creature features, I couldn't expect any such film to live up to that and I've long since stopped actively looking for similarities. All the same, it was impossible not to notice that the creators of Rogue know their source material. A lot of what worked about Jaws is present here: the focus is on suspense over graphic horror (any SFX are used to work with the realism and deepen the atmosphere, rather than showboating to show what they can do); the creature in question stays mostly concealed until the final reel (in the first eighty minutes, the croc has around thirty seconds of screen-time, the first of which are just glimpses of scales disappearing underwater) its threat being represented at times by floating devices; characters become more isolated as the film progresses until it comes down to one man trapped in the creature's habitat and forced to go mano a mano with it under impossible conditions (where Jaws had under five minutes of Brody alone, Rogue has closer to twenty minutes. The intensity and claustrophobic entrapment are a delight).
Where Rogue perhaps fell down was in making its "final man" too obvious from the beginning. Much of Jaws was seen through the eyes of Brody, but Spielberg and Scheider were careful to make him as ineffectual as possible to surprise the audience. Rogue had a token scene in which its man of the hour and a half wore spectacles and someone called him "four eyes". But he had alpha male written all over him. While the hand to teeth combat in the face of the creature's big reveal were terrific, the outcome of the battle felt predictable to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the genre. The inevitability made it feel equal parts satisfying and disappointing.
It's also a cliché that the hero in question was American, and conjures up images of ego massaging contract negotiations in which the Hollywood actor agrees to do the film as long as he gets to save the Aussies. Nonetheless, it worked well and the culture clash was referenced several times with Americans referred to with some disdain. That theme is established in McKell's introductory scene in which he is in a rugged outback bar loudly complaining to someone at the end of a phone about the terrible service. He's actually referring to the mobile phone reception, but the barman doesn't stop to ask questions. He simply plucks a fat dead fly from the bar and pops it into a cappuccino, which he then serves along with a warm avuncular smile to the unsuspecting McKell.
As for the creature itself, I was very impressed indeed. I imagine it's a combination of animatronic and CG, but I couldn't tell you where one ended and the other began (even though I've just watched a featurette on the creation of the animatronic croc).
It's a great film and will definitely stand up to repeated views. I can see myself watching this one every few years from now on. For me, I think Black Water probably remains the best of the crocodilia attack films, but with Rogue - even though it's a little more glossy and sanitised - comes another film that has an atmosphere of tension and an eye for detail that most films of this genre lack. Perhaps in the longer term it will even end up my favourite.
- Awards
- 27
I still need to see this.
- Awards
- 27
Rogue and Black Water have been added to the to-watch-list. But I also like Very Bad Movies so maybe I should watch Freshwater too.
- Awards
- 44
Yay.
(But now I'm a bit worried I've oversold them)
Ha ha. It might be worth a look. I don't know if it's quite terrible enough to be enjoyably bad. But on the other hand I had to suffer through it, so the more the merrier.
- Awards
- 20
Justice League (2017)
The inevitable continuation of Batman v Superman, and the conclusion of the trilogy that began with Man of Steel.
My objection to the shared universe stands. As primarily a Superman fan, I was sorry to seem him used basically as a plot device while screen time was given to potted origin stories of characters I don't care about, and the heroes seemingly more concerned with exchanging quips than fighting the supposed threat to civilisation as we know it.
The inevitable continuation of Batman v Superman, and the conclusion of the trilogy that began with Man of Steel.
My objection to the shared universe stands. As primarily a Superman fan, I was sorry to seem him used basically as a plot device while screen time was given to potted origin stories of characters I don't care about, and the heroes seemingly more concerned with exchanging quips than fighting the supposed threat to civilisation as we know it.
- Awards
- 14
Warbirds.
WWII airmen get magically transported to a land that time forgot where flying dinosaurs live. The hero thwarts his Imperial Japanese Airforce airman foe and flying dinosaurs, while winning the affections of the lady and completes his mission. Although top secret tell the everyone about the A=bomb.
Ghastly nonsense. Flying dinosaurs delivered a better performance than the whole cast.
WWII airmen get magically transported to a land that time forgot where flying dinosaurs live. The hero thwarts his Imperial Japanese Airforce airman foe and flying dinosaurs, while winning the affections of the lady and completes his mission. Although top secret tell the everyone about the A=bomb.
Ghastly nonsense. Flying dinosaurs delivered a better performance than the whole cast.
- Awards
- 6
I recently watched "The Dig" with Ralph Fiennes and Lily James.
I thought that with the story behind and the actors oi would be entertaining, I was a complete fool.
It's sloooow, cliché and really boring, I felt like loosing my time. I'm a huge fan of unsaid emotions, silent deep moments, but here, even if they tried, the pauses, the looks, the silences didn't bring those waited shivering.
I thought that with the story behind and the actors oi would be entertaining, I was a complete fool.
It's sloooow, cliché and really boring, I felt like loosing my time. I'm a huge fan of unsaid emotions, silent deep moments, but here, even if they tried, the pauses, the looks, the silences didn't bring those waited shivering.
- Awards
- 44
Wonder Woman (2017)
Its flaws were the ones I expected - mostly down to speech patterns that were far too contemporary for World War II (Chris Pine being the biggest offender). But these were easily overlooked with a decent-ish take on the classic story; lush photography and some nice period clothes and dressings. A very enjoyable film.
Its flaws were the ones I expected - mostly down to speech patterns that were far too contemporary for World War II (Chris Pine being the biggest offender). But these were easily overlooked with a decent-ish take on the classic story; lush photography and some nice period clothes and dressings. A very enjoyable film.