Rate the Last Film You Watched

Dune: Part One
Villeneuve does it again. This is a stunning (start to an) adaptation of the classic novel. Great cast, gorgeous design and cinematography, and the main thing that Lynch's memorable version was missing: breathing room. The story-telling feels more organic in this new version. I'm just a little surprised that we get even less insight into some characters than in Lynch's movie. Villeneuve is all about the atmosphere rather than the nitty-gritty.

Dune is a very detail-oriented novel, told in omniscient viewpoint, where we're constantly given insight into the mind-games, political manoeuvring, and planned betrayals as events unfold. Lynch's Dune used inner monologue to convey some of this, but for the most part gave us the events of the story without much of the character motivation. Villeneuve's adaptation is even more minimalist, and yet oddly feels like a cleaner telling of the story. Or maybe it just feels that way because it's been a decade since I read the novel.

The only downside to the new version is that the novel lacks a good spot to split the story in the middle, and so part one feels like it just peters out in an anticlimactic way at the end.
 
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
This was okay, but fell into exactly the trap I feared by being an overly reverential nostalgia-fest. It especially suffers in a final act that steals verbatim from the original movie, and yet manages to feel small and underwhelming in comparison to what was achieved with a $30m budget in 1984. I'll admit I enjoyed the pornographic attention paid to the ghostbusting equipment, at least.

The new characters are a mixed bag. The kids Phoebe and Podcast thankfully get the bulk of screentime, since they're the most entertaining to watch. Too much time was spent on the older brother, who only seemed to be there to drive the car, and his lack of personality is probably why I can't remember his name. The boy's would-be girlfriend just seemed to be there to pad out the numbers.

The biggest disappointment was the almost total lack of comedy. I'm not usually a fan of comedy crowbarred into action movies, but it's always been an integral part of Ghostbusters, and its absence feels weird. The 2016 movie's sense of humour was crass and obnoxious, but at least it tried. Afterlife's plot takes forever to get going, and it feels even longer due to how dry the tone is.

It's worth a rental for series fans, but this is easily my least favourite Ghostbusters movie.
 
I watched Matrix Ressurections. I do really try hard to see the positives in the films that I watch. Sadly, this film was trying equally as hard to be rubbish. 0/10 Gets a 0.4 for the Space Dolphin and the enjoyment that it brought me. However this still rounds down to 0.

I also watched The Hurt Locker. This was quite a good film. As all war films should be, it's anti-war. It goes quite deep into the characters themselves and their own unique experience as a bomb disposal unit. I love character films, so that ticked the boxes for me. At some points in the film it does veer off into some randomness that makes little sense. But for 75% of the time, it is tense and engaging, so those missteps can be forgiven.
 
Death Wish IV: The Crackdown (1987)

The fourth outing for Charles Bronson's aging white-collar vigilante is a surprisingly sanitised affair, seeing him blackmailed into taking on a pair of rival Los Angeles drug syndicates by playing them off against each other in classic Yojimbo fashion. It's slicker to look at and less aggressively nasty than the previous two instalments, but the assembly-line script is bland and basic, failing to make anything of some serviceable story ideas, while rendering the baddies as ridiculous cartoon villains in a saturday-morning 'say no to drugs' kids' special. Watchable enough, but without the bonkers finale of the previous film to redeem it, there's little here to recommend.
 
Uncharted movie

Ok this was an "ok film"
Not enough action for me
Again for me mark wahlburg as sully was just abit of a put off and should of cast someone older like the games... He just didnt fit the part at all
Chloe was spot on... Good part and literally looked like the character and played it well

6/10
 
Seems Uncharted turned out as i expected once the casting was announced and trailers came out, it's a shame they missed the boat on Nathan Fillion being able to do it as the fan film he was in with Stephen Lang as Sully was spot on.
 
Return To Nuke em High 1 & 2
As usual with Troma films there’s the sex, violence and comedy - I’ve got some great Troma films and these although not as good as Terror Firmer, Citizen Toxie 4 or Poultrygeist - RTNEM 1&2 are very entertaining- I found an Easter Egg on disc 2 on the sequel and on it shows how the Cannes Film Festival has become no longer a place for independent film making. The crew were there and their fans wearing the Toxic Avenger & other character clothes but were treated like terrorists by the police unlike other film characters/fans of Disney. Walt Disney was a well known anti Jewish cartoonist yet the director of Troma films Lloyd Kaufman who of course is has said the festival has become only for the elitist in film making
Professor Irony said:
Death Wish IV: The Crackdown (1987)

The fourth outing for Charles Bronson's aging white-collar vigilante is a surprisingly sanitised affair, seeing him blackmailed into taking on a pair of rival Los Angeles drug syndicates by playing them off against each other in classic Yojimbo fashion. It's slicker to look at and less aggressively nasty than the previous two instalments, but the assembly-line script is bland and basic, failing to make anything of some serviceable story ideas, while rendering the baddies as ridiculous cartoon villains in a saturday-morning 'say no to drugs' kids' special. Watchable enough, but without the bonkers finale of the previous film to redeem it, there's little here to recommend.
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in my opinion the first 3 Death Wish films are the best - Death Wish 2 my fave - but parts 4 & 5 are watchable on tv and wouldn’t buy them
 
jake scully said:
I found an Easter Egg on disc 2 on the sequel and on it shows how the Cannes Film Festival has become no longer a place for independent film making. The crew were there and their fans wearing the Toxic Avenger & other character clothes but were treated like terrorists by the police unlike other film characters/fans of Disney. Walt Disney was a well known anti Jewish cartoonist yet the director of Troma films Lloyd Kaufman who of course is has said the festival has become only for the elitist in film making
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I'm not really sure what your point is here? Are you suggesting that Cannes is anti-semitic?

And the reigning Palme d'Or winner is a film that has someone impregnated by a Cadillac and then, er, oozes motor oil from her vagina. It probably the closest to Troma they've ever got!
 
Ghostbusters-Afterlife-went to see it on a fluke a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised. It turned to be quite entertaining. 7.75 out of 10 points.
 
Yami said:
I'm not really sure what your point is here? Are you suggesting that Cannes is anti-semitic?

And the reigning Palme d'Or winner is a film that has someone impregnated by a Cadillac and then, er, oozes motor oil from her vagina. It probably the closest to Troma they've ever got!
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I’m implying it can be especially from a Jewish director Lloyd Kaufman who has accused them of being anti semitic because the authorities would rather Disney who ironically was anti semitic than independent film makers - and Troma have made damn good films - plenty of good crude sex and violence in a Troma film unlike the majority of mainstream Disney crap
 
A Legend of Turmoil (1992)

A predictable, but well acted and intriguing Yakuza potboiler that sees Akira Kobayashi’s emotionally numb mid-level mobster pulled into an all destructive gang war, following an assassination attempt on his family’s patriarch. While it offers few surprises, the story is meticulously framed and shot to resemble a Japanese crime film of the early 70s golden age, with various cast members (including Kobayashi himself) having been genre stars at the time. The immediate impression is of a film that laments the passing of this era, and its hyper masculine ideals of honour and loyalty above all else, but it proves far more measured and reflective in its drama. We’re never under the impression that these men are heroes; their lives are brutal and empty, all their noble sacrifice leads only to violence and misery.

I think it would make for an interesting double bill with Takeshi Kitano’s Sonatine, which similarly disassembles the Yakuza mythos, albeit to far more absurdist effect.
 
The Karate Kid Part III

Mr Miyagi just can't be bothered for most of the movie. Terry Silver acts like a Power Rangers bad guy. It wasn't really very original or especially good, but I still liked it anyway.
 
Kung Fu Yoga

The name of Jackie Chan's character is Jack. I like it when they can't be bothered to think of a name for him so he's just Jackie Condor or Professor Chan or something. There are a few funny parts and it's always nice to see Jackie fighting. He assembles an incredibly good looking entourage, but it's hard to care about any of them. There's a scene where JC is in a car chase with a big lion in his car (not a spoiler, it's on the front of the box). The movie opens with a very strange CGI battle and finishes with another bizarre scene. Some parts are very boring, but other parts are absolutely incredible. This movie is an experience.
 
Agitator (2001)

One of prolific provocateur Takashi Miike's more restrained offerings, Agitator is a mostly down to earth gangster drama that sees a hotheaded young captain stirring up trouble for his superiors, after taking matters into his own hands following a nasty incident on the family's turf. It's well acted and fitfully amusing, with Miike's characteristic excess largely constrained to one or two isolated scenes, but at two and a half hours, it feels needlessly long winded. The film often gathers comparisons to the likes of The Godfather for its expansive scope, but really the material isn't on that level - it's a perfectly fine potboiler, but there's little here we haven't seen better done elsewhere.
 
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