What was the last film you watched?

[Mel O'Drama]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

This has been on my viewing bucket list for ages, and means that I've now watched every Spider-Man film from Sam Raimi's original to Far From Home (I've still to watch No Way Home).

I finally watched the first Andrew Garfield film a little over eight months ago, however in that time I've watched the entire MCU, including most Spider-Man appearances. This gave me doubts that I'd enjoy the second film due to switching from one reality to another. It didn't help that I knew ASM2 was poorly received. Or perhaps it did, since I went in with reasonably low expectations.

I was dreading Jamie Foxx's version of Electro since he's so far removed from the character I grew up reading, but found him tolerable enough. The character as portrayed here felt very DC. He initially reminded me of Richard Pryor in Superman III, and his origin - starting out as a slightly goofy underdog-type character and ending up as the Big Bad - strongly evoked Selena Kyle/Edward Nigma/Pamela Isley in the three Nineties Batman sequels. It's far from terrible, but feels dated and poorly thought out. The electrocution and aftermath was nicely dark, but once he began glowing it just looked like a video game. The character's aesthetic was too effects-heavy, and the effects weren't top-notch a lot of the time, though mercifully he looked less like Arnie's Mr Freeze than I'd feared he might.

Andrew Garfield is great once again. Having had a comprehensive overview of all three Spider-Men, I maintain that he's the best actor of the three. Not that this necessarily makes him the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but there's certainly a strong case for that here. Emma Stone is very engaging indeed as Gwen. Gwen's an interesting choice, I think, since for me she's very much a character frozen in the Silver Age of comics (which many say actually ended with her death).

Sally Field is very much Sally Field. Mileage may vary on how good a thing this is. She gets one of her typically overwrought shrill monologues (contractual, I shouldn't wonder) when May is distressed and dumps all her burdens on Peter. It's a very May Parker thing to do, but I never really see May in her. I could easily be watching Steel Magnolias.

The backstory with Peter's parents plays completely against the very premise of Peter's character as an ordinary kid from an ordinary background developing extraordinary powers. I appreciate that the films needed to go in a different direction, following so soon from the Raimi trilogy, and I suppose this is simply an outcome of this. The actors certainly help sell it, and perhaps it was worth all the daft revelations for that wonderfully atmospheric scene where Peter discovers the abandoned subway station.

In fact all the new stuff with the secret espionage is, for my money, preferable to the film doing its own spin on scenarios that are familiar not just from the comics but from earlier films. In these areas, the film is more obliged to go in a different direction, so Harry becoming the Green Goblin is given a new spin and it's diluted many times over, not just because it's been so recently filmed, but also because we don't see Norman as the Goblin. As Harry, Dane DeHaan is fine. The arc with him trying to get hold of Spider-Man's radioactive blood in a bid to cure him is at least somewhat engaging. As the Goblin, it's a mess. Harry was the Goblin for about five minutes in the comics and the screentime given the character in the various film series is very disproportionate. I wouldn't mind if it were done well, and can only hope the MCU's inevitable spin on it will be more authentic an engaging.

The tragedy at the film's climax is again hampered by it position as a reboot. All the pieces are in different places and so the cinematic telling of one of the most important stories in comics history ends up being done in a way that doesn't ring true.

Seeing the trademarks of various Spider-Man villains in the secret Oscorp lab - the Vulture's wings, Doctor Octopus's tentacles, the Rhino suit - is mildly tantalising. Clearly this was planned to be a world where each villain could be pretty much made to order by Oscorp, which has a sense to it (even if the concept is a bit of a cheat in the same way as mutants - past their initial concept - are an easy, lazy way of having a ready-made origin without having to get truly creative). This is a world where the Sinister Six could come together quickly which could have been interesting. All in all, though, it's the villains that let this film down.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone make up for this, though, and while it's not Spidey's finest cinematic moment, it's not really a bad film.

 

[Angela Channing]

Andrew Garfield is great once again. Having had a comprehensive overview of all three Spider-Men, I maintain that he's the best actor of the three.

I think he's an extremely talented actor. I've seen him in quite a few things recently (Tick Tick... Boom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and I've started watching Under The Banner of Heaven) and he gives a great performance every time in a wide range of roles.

It's hard to say who is the best Spiderman because opinions are influenced by how highly you rate the individual Spiderman films but I completely agree he is the best actor in the role.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I think he's an extremely talented actor. I've seen him in quite a few things recently (Tick Tick... Boom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and I've started watching Under The Banner of Heaven) and he gives a great performance every time in a wide range of roles.

Coincidentally, I very nearly started watching The Red Riding Trilogy this week, but I copped out because of how grim and violent the films sounded. There are times when I can cope with that kind of material, and times I can't, and this wasn't the right time for me. I will catch up with it at some point.

It's hard to say who is the best Spiderman because opinions are influenced by how highly you rate the individual Spiderman films

Strangely, while Raimi's are probably my preferred films overall, Tobey Maguire is also the actor who I struggle to fully accept as Peter Parker.

Even more confusingly, I really like Maguire's Spider-Man, despite my feelings about him as Peter, and so I'd say the duality of the character makes it difficult to get the balance right.

There are also the aesthetics. Tom Holland looks pretty perfect as both Peter and Spidey, but I find the babbling over-enthusiasm and the whiny head voice he uses supremely annoying.

Garfield seems to strike a balance somewhere in the middle that works for me, despite the generally poorer material.

As I said in the Who Played Spidey The Best? thread, I feel we have yet to see the definitive portrayal, but I'm sure it will come.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Sapphires (2012)

This has been on my viewing radar for quite some years: probably since 2016 when I stumbled upon the soundtrack which is a favourite of mine.

Inspired by a true story, with the original play written by Tony Briggs, whose mother and aunt were two of the girl group in question. It's not entirely biographical, with some fictionalised characters and events.

The poster - and to a large extent the soundtrack - strongly suggest Dreamgirls Down Under (even down to the lead actresses in the respective film adaptions being alumnae of their country's version of Pop Idol). It does satisfy on that level, but there's so much more to the film than I'd expected.

With the white Irish guy managing the band and introducing them to soul music there's more than a hint of The Commitments. Then there's the tour of Vietnam which could conjure up any number of films with that backdrop (the entertainment angle reminded me of that bit in For The Boys where the older Dixie sang for the troops in Vietnam).

And of course there's the unmistakably gritty Australian tone. With The Sapphires being an Australian Aboriginal group, most interesting of all is the focus on civil rights. The film touches not just on the sometimes hostile reception they got due to their race, but also the wider concerns facing First Australians at the time and their horrific treatment from the Government. The film opens with some text giving us background:

Until 1967, Australia's native Aboriginal population, amongst the oldest peoples on earth, were denied full citizenship by the Australian government. Segregated to church missions and Aboriginal reserves, they were not classified as human beings, but rather as "Flora and Fauna."

As late as the 1970s, fair-skinned Aboriginal children were routinely taken from their families to be raised in institutions, or with white families, and taught "white ways."

These children are known as the "Stolen Generation."

It's important to note that the film is set in 1968, the year after the citizenship law changed, and a key year for civil rights, not least with the assassination of Martin Luther King - an event referenced in the film.

Some of the complexities of the racial politics are touched upon in the film, with one of the main characters being one of these fair-skinned children, struggling to reconnect with the family she's been raised to believe are the enemy. And the film shows that racial politics can run any way, from the black girls being called "monkeys" by white bar patrons as they perform, to the fair-skinned relative being called a "coconut" by her own cousin, lashing out in frustration and powerlessness. The law might be "fixed", but the consequences live on. It's a painful and charged topic, but rather than dwell on it, the film simply acknowledges it's there and continues on its way. There is a journey, but it's not anywhere near as heavy as one might expect given the opening text.

Indeed, if the film has a failing, it's that perhaps it does pull its punches a little when it comes to the heavier stuff. The Vietnam war background - while not without its moments - is perhaps not as horrific as it could have been. But then, perhaps that's simply because that's what I've come to expect from war films. This is a small part of that war seen mostly from the relatively safe (mostly) vantage point of people who have gone there to entertain rather than to fight. It could be argued that they saw plenty and the consequences - while not extreme - were enough. This is a fun musical after all, and it's impressive that the film includes these topics, honouring them without dwelling on or being defined by them.

There's a balance to be struck, and despite some of its themes, the film captures a sense of fun and magic and spirit. There are some hilarious lines, enjoyable dynamics and the songs range from beautiful and haunting to foot-tappingly energetic. The emphasis is mostly on the latter, giving this a real feel-good vibe. And it works. I'd happily watch it again, and I'm already revisiting the soundtrack.

 

[Willie Oleson]

80 minutes of stupid nasty fun.
SPEED 0.5, as it were.

 

[Biggie]

Top Gun Maverick.

I gotta say... it's pretty good. Not Tom's best cinematic offering, but still a good romp.

Some comedy, some nicely shot action, some romance for our man here, and unlike last time, female fighter pilots get recognition. Yu Xu and Kara Hultergreen anyone?

Beginning to end, just a jolly good lark of a movie, with a hat tip to the late Goose!

 

[DallasFanForever]

Top Gun Maverick.

This movie has far exceeded the box office expectations it received. It now ranks #7 all time (domestically here in the USA) having passed Titanic.

I still think the original was better, and there’s no shame there, but I found it very enjoyable and highly entertaining.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Buster (1988)

It's only taken me around three-and-a-half decades to get around to watching it.

It was more or less what I expected it to be. Slightly quirky, very British and with a sense of fun (an odd thing to write about a film based on a real-life violent crime).

Phil Collins is really good. You wouldn't credit that this is his first proper acting gig. The chemistry between him and Julie Walters is really good, and of course it goes without saying that JW herself is extremely watchable, as always.

A number of familiar EastEnders faces, including Kenny Beale. Wikipedia tells me Phil Mitchell plays a small role, but as I didn't know ahead of time I didn't spot him.

Sheila Hancock - best known to me for being a semi-regular on Just A Minute - is one of the best things in this as JW's mother. It's not the biggest or most showy of roles, but she does great things with it.

The soundtrack is running through my head the morning after, so it's done its job. Anne Dudley's score, too, was nice and there were a couple of standout moments where it included beautiful orchestral versions of the Collins tracks, most notably in the scene where Buster and June part and the score incorporates Groovy Kind Of Love.

 

[Angela Channing]

Top Gun Maverick.

I gotta say... it's pretty good. Not Tom's best cinematic offering, but still a good romp.

Some comedy, some nicely shot action, some romance for our man here, and unlike last time, female fighter pilots get recognition. Yu Xu and Kara Hultergreen anyone?

Beginning to end, just a jolly good lark of a movie, with a hat tip to the late Goose!

I need to see this. So many people have told me how good it is, even those who like me haven't seen the original seemed to enjoy it.

 

[Crimson]

PREY (2022)

Better than expected. For years, the Predator (and Aliens) films have been overly complicated and bogged down with excessive lore. When, really, all that's needed is to drop the title monster into a unique environment with some reasonably well developed characters to be killed off.

 

[Biggie]

I need to see this. So many people have told me how good it is, even those who like me haven't seen the original seemed to enjoy it.

Get yourself into the cinema, Maverick has a nods to the original Top Gun but if one didn't pick up the references it will go unnoticed.

Yeah...Maverick is a good fun movie.

 

[Toni]

It must a great movie but they didn´t want to call "fat, old actresses" like Kelly McGillis herself said. Shame on that Scientolotologist!!

 

[Angela Channing]

Elvis (2022)

Some film directors, such as Terrance Malik, Wes Anderson and Tim Burton, have such a distinctive style that you only need to watch a few minutes of one of their films to know it's their work. The same is true of Baz Luhrmann and this film is a prime example of the flashy, loud, colourful and fast camera cuts that are so typical of his films. However, I'm not entirely convinced that this style works for this film because it has a modern feel which is a bit incongruous with the 1940/1950s setting of a large part of this film. There still is a lot to like about this film though. Firstly, Austin Butler was an inspired piece of casting. It couldn't have been easy to find an actor who could sing a bit like Elvis, talk a bit like Elvis, dance a bit like Elvis and look a bit like Elvis but Mr Butler pulls this off superbly. Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker in a rare villain type role for him. In the film Elvis describes himself as being a bit of a superhero and singing is his superpower, well with all the prosthetic make up, Tom Hanks looked a bit like a villain from a Batman comic.

I liked that the film acknowledged that much of Elvis's early music and dance moves were taken from black artists of the time who were denied record deals because of their race and how much of this output and style overall was influenced by black music. I also particularly likee the scenes of him in the build up and during the concert at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in 1969. During this sequence the film style changes to mimic Elvis on Tour, the excellent 1972 documentary of the concert which I'm sure Elvis fans appreciated.

This film is well worth watching just for the performance of Austin Butler and Tom Hank but also for how the story was nicely balanced between Elvis performance and the telling of his life story. Overall, I thought it was pretty good and not just for Elvis fans.

 

[Angela Channing]

Thirteen Lives (2022)

I can't remember watching a film that I found as scary, emotional and exhilarating as this one. I remember the news story well but this film really brings the horrors and jeopardy of the rescue to life. Twelve boys and their coach were trapped in an underwater cave prompting an international effort to rescue them.

I'm quite claustrophobic and the scenes of the rescue divers moving through the narrow underwater tunnels were very uncomfortable for me to watch so full credit to Ron Howard (director) for conveying this aspect of the rescue to convincingly. Even though I knew how this story ended it was still edge to the seat stuff. I got goosebumps when they found the boys and had tears of joy when they were rescued. A truly brilliant film.

 

[ClassyCo]

We're on vacation and my wife and I started flipping through her Amazon Prime account and stumbled on a movie called TROOP ZERO.

The movie tells the story of a young Georgian girl, who in 1977, wants to be apart of her own Birdie Scouts so she can go to an annual jamboree that will take her and her troop into outer space.

First, I want to compliment this movie for its stellar cast. Viola Davis and Allison Janney are specific standouts. Davis plays Miss Rayleen, a legal assistant who gets wrangled into being the newly-invented Birdie Scouts, and Janney plays Miss Massey, the school principal and old friend of Rayleen's. Comedian Jim Gaffigan is also quite good as Rayleen's boss, a local attorney named
Ramsey Flint. Mike Epps provides some humor as Dwayne, a local con-man and buddy of Ramsey's.

The child cast is also quite exceptional. McKenna Grace is Christmas Flint, the young girl whose mother has died and has developed a strong interest in science; Charlie Shotwell is Joseph, Christmas' flamboyant and questionably gay next-door neighbor and close friend; and Milan Ray is Hell-No, a local bully who has a change heart.

As stated, I must condone TROOP ZERO for its cast. I honestly don't think I could've imagined anyone else in the primary roles. They were equally well-suited.

I'll also applaud the movie for providing a twists in the plot along the way. I had already decided in my head what the movie would do in the final act, but I was wrong -- and I'm alright with that. Despite being a movie buff and avid movie watcher, I like watching movies that turn the tables on me and make me a little mind-blown with the outcome.

I'd recommend TROOP ZERO to those of you that haven't seen it yet. If you're fans of Viola Davis and Allison Janney it is definitely worth the watch. I like those two ladies in everything think I've seen them in thus far.

Has anyone else watched this movie yet?

 

[ClassyCo]

We went from TROOP ZERO to the original SHARKNADO from 2013.

Two words about SHARKNADO:

Horrifically bad.

 

[Seaviewer]

Horrifically bad.

So bad it's good or just bad? Haven't seen any myself but it was popular enough to spawn several sequels/

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
for the Elderly And Beautiful (2011)

While I knew almost nothing of the premise, this cast made it a must-watch. There's such a sense of event about so many acting heavyweights gathering in one place that it felt a little like a British, senior citizens version of Marvel's Avengers films. That first shot of them all lined up at the airport, eyeing one another with reserved suspicion felt particularly impressive. I counted at least three Dames.

Old and unpleasant is funny, and two of the Dames got to be just that.

Penelope Wilton was wonderful as Jean, the snarky, bitter wife, chipping away at hubby Douglas (Bill Nighy) and clearly hating every minute of her life. She had me in her very first scene where they were shown round their retirement bungalow by a patronising young man who pointed out the panic button on the wall. "What happens if I don't happen to conveniently collapse over there right beside the button?" she drily asks. And when shown the rails around the walls to enable movement, she questions why there can't be one down the middle of the room so she doesn't have to walk all the way round. Naturally, she complains about the heat and smells and food, berating a waiter for claiming their milk is "very pasteurised" and gives her husband hell for accepting a chapati from a stranger on a bus. It was never going to end well, but Jean is one of my favourite things about this film.

We meet Maggie Smith's Muriel in hospital, complaining about the dark-skinned staff and demanding to be seen by an English doctor. She's there to discuss a hip operation and on being told the wait will be at least six months she complains:

At my age I can't plan that far ahead. I don't even buy green bananas.

Naturally, on travelling to India for her operation she smuggles in numerous packets of Hob Nobs and PG Tips and is later forced to uncover the mystery of the interweb when supplies begin to run dangerously low.

Meanwhile, Celia Imrie gets to vamp it up a little as the woman on the search for a rich husband, yet fearing that her nymphette days are over. Tom Wilkinson gives a nice subtle performance as the retired judge returning to India to find the man he'd fallen in love with four decades earlier (the characters' varying responses on discovering his sexuality make it fun. There's no out and out judgement, but there are a few open jaws and surprised little sounds). And Judi Dench gives a typically Judi Dench performance (no bad thing) as recently widowed Evelyn, on a journey of discovery.

In fact, the film is made up of numerous little journeys of discovery. With its large-ish ensemble cast and lots of different histories and current predicaments to explore, this feels rather like a condensed version of an ongoing series. The diverse characters come together nicely, there's a great deal of heart and warmth and some touching moments to balance out the laughs (the death of one of the characters is absolutely beautiful in execution, with some memorably symbolic imagery accompanying it). The Indian scenery is beautiful, one can feel the heat and almost taste the various scents thick in the air.

There's a lot going on here and despite the fact that some avenues are only touched in passing it still feels satisfying and complete while leaving me wanting more. These two hours went by very quickly, and I hope to watch the sequel in due course.

 

[ClassyCo]

So bad it's good or just bad? Haven't seen any myself but it was popular enough to spawn several sequels/

Well, that depends. For my wife, she enjoyed the movie on the "so bad, it's good" level. She found great humor in critiquing and laughing at the bad acting and poor effects. For me, however, I was a little less forgiving. I found the bad CGI/animation/whatever too blurry and pitiful to find amusingly bad. The acting wasn't terrible, but I just kept wondering: "Who in the world okayed this mess?" My wife insists that we will watch the other movies (and we probably will someday), but I don't think I'll ever like them -- not even to laugh at them.

 

[Crimson]

I've not seen SHARNADO, but the very concept of "so bad it's good" is utterly foreign to me. Is there any other kind of enjoyment that people apply this standard to?

"That meal was awful! It was burned and cold inside and it was tasteless! What a knee-slapping hoot!"