Films

Thor Ragnarok tonight, Happy Death Day tomorrow.
Will report back with a 3 word review once I've viewed.

BR2049 - so much potential but ended up being a bland boring generic sci fi with slow slow pacing and an ending that seemed to be a "now how can we end it" because it left quite a few threads unresolved.
I feel it should have had a more ambitious director / played it less safe.
visually it had nothing we've not already seen before .....

Maybe it was just Ryan gosling.

Ryan Goslings performance was largely emotionless, robotic at the start. Then he got it

having Ryan/"Joe" as the lead though to carry the film and his holographic g/f didnt really work IMHO - it held very little interest, both from a character POV and also from a scifi POV too - yet compare that to Deckard in the original.....no contest really.

official anime pre/se quel to blade runners
https://youtu.be/rrZk9sSgRyQ

better than the latest one ;0)

and this...
https://youtu.be/UgsS3nhRRzQ

and finally...
https://youtu.be/aZ9Os8cP_gg

what a boring arse movie.

Thanks to those of you that recommended that I showed mespilus jr. the original Blade Runner first. We watched the 'Final Cut' from the 5-disc tin boxset, then the 'Making of ...' documentary,
and took the chance to see BR2049 during his half term.
We even got in the right mode by eating cheap noodles from a 'hole-in-the-wall' Chinese place in Uxbridge.
The initial 'farm yard' scene rewarded us for viewing the 'Making of ...' documentary,
and made us feel we were on the right wavelength for BR2049.

Greatly appreciated the juxtaposition between Agent K & Deckard,
with initially, it being clear that K was a Nexus.
Convincing plot to lead K/Joe to start to ponder his true nature
and to show concern for others when he could have just walked away.

Not too generically sci-fi, apart from the one missile-y scene, it was almost like the solitary good guy hero in a Classic western, doing what needed doing.

Seemed to me that the people driving this film had the required reverence for the original BR to do their best not to trash any of the legacy and to drop enough echoes of the original into BR2049 to show they cared. Quite how this group included Ridley Scott after the fiasco of Prometheus is beyond me,
but,
I'm looking forward to the next Blade Runner film.
(I haven't bothered seeing Alien : Covenant).

'Loving Vincent' at regents street cinema,
a masterpiece of a movie, incredible concept bringing his world to life after 7 years in production and over 65,000 individually painted frames..

https://youtu.be/CGzKnyhYDQI

Rewatching Gangs of New York. A proper Hollywood film, and maybe the last great one.

The death of Stalin: Thought it was a little uneven in the dark VS humour in at the start, but it got better near the end with some hilarious snarks and farce.

Based on a graphic novel BTW that's being translated into English now.

For an excellent example of going from lighthearted to Really Super Mega Dark: Man bites dog, the Belgian cult film. Really not for under 16s that one. The Swedish Four Shades of Brown has some really dark humour in it too (the scene where the dad takes his son to work...wow)

Murder on the Orient express was good enough, but seemed a little longer than necessary.
Would have been nice as a 2 parter on the box over Christmas.

Brawl in cell 99, slow to get going, ends up being extremely, graphically violent, unwatchable in parts.
Not recommended.

Off to see the new Thor tonight. Getting plenty of great reviews.

I enjoyed Death of Stalin.

Some great performances, and it captures the absolute absurdity of the whole situation well.

It seemed strange juxtaposing the humour next to some very dark elements which weren't really played for laughs (Beria's abuse of women, the Terror), but I think they worked really well as reminders that there was plenty about Stalinism that was no laughing matter.

Iannucci is a genius.

I also really liked the way Stalin was basically portrayed as Alan Sugar, from the look, stature and accent to the shit jokes that his team feel inclined to sycophantically laugh at.

That's a bit harsh on Stalin.

Thor was excellent. Really entertaining and more laughs than the guardians of the galaxy efforts too.

"Brawl in cell 99" I watched that yesterday. I thought it was awful, but I had to finish watching, just in case.

it wasn't any less awful and got worse as it went on.

^ thinking about Thor again - I think it might be the best Marvel film yet; maybe tied with Deadpool.

I saw it last week. Generally great entertainment but the humour felt a little forced in places. Am a sucker for marvel movies at the IMAX.

Just got a reminder that I am going to see Predator on the big screen tonight!

Just watched half of that Guy Ritchie King Arthur film, worse than I imagined it would be.

Oh yeah, fuck all redeeming features in that dross.