Last film watched

[Son of Mathonwy]

Renfield is extremely silly but bloody (very bloody) good fun. Cage and Hoult are perfect for it.

[Puja]

Renfield is extremely silly but bloody (very bloody) good fun. Cage and Hoult are perfect for it.

The trailers did look fun - thought the idea of telling Nicholas Cage to go as extra as he possibly could looked like a good directorial choice, but I was worried that I'd seen all the best bits in the trailers.

Puja

[Numbers]

Barring Raising Ariizona I don't think I'd bother with any Cage films, he is a wooden as they come, perfecting the look of gormlessness. I haven't seen Leaving Las Vegas as thet just looks depressing, is ther any substance to this effort or is it more straight to VHS standard stuff?

[Mikey Brown]

Leaving Las Vegas, Mandy and Pig are all absolutely incredible. He’s done a whole lot of terrible stuff though.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Renfield is extremely silly but bloody (very bloody) good fun. Cage and Hoult are perfect for it.

The trailers did look fun - thought the idea of telling Nicholas Cage to go as extra as he possibly could looked like a good directorial choice, but I was worried that I'd seen all the best bits in the trailers.

Puja

That's pretty much any trailer really .

I avoid them.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Leaving Las Vegas, Mandy and Pig are all absolutely incredible. He’s done a whole lot of terrible stuff though.

He's done a ridiculous number of films:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Cage_filmography

and there's a lot of shite in there, but the occasional nice piece of work. He's more reliable in comedy.

The Colour out of Space is pretty good. Face/Off is so bad that it's good. Con Air is so bad that it's . . . just really, really bad.

[Mikey Brown]

Finally saw Triangle of Sadness and it was excellent. My expectations weren’t that high despite loving Osterlund’s other work, but I feel like a lot of the criticism I’d heard before had rather missed the point.

The ending was oddly abrupt but I thought this was fucking great overall. It does a good job of recognising how ridiculous and shallow many of these multi-million dollar ‘eat the rich’ movies are, whilst still getting a good few jabs in.

I also watched the Menu. Great director, super slick production, amazing star-studded cast, some great lines and some great performances. Awful, awful film. Absolutely fucking hated it. I had suspected this would be the case based on the trailer, but the pleasant surprise of triangle of sadness made me reconsider. The paper-thin “satire” in this is painful.

I appreciate many could watch those two films and probably reverse the viewpoints, or dismiss both completely, but the Menu felt so shallow in comparison. Even the way it posited you can just view it as a cheeseburger, not be taken too seriously, actually seemed pretty wanky.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Finally saw Triangle of Sadness and it was excellent. My expectations weren’t that high despite loving Osterlund’s other work, but I feel like a lot of the criticism I’d heard before had rather missed the point.

The ending was oddly abrupt but I thought this was fucking great overall. It does a good job of recognising how ridiculous and shallow many of these multi-million dollar ‘eat the rich’ movies are, whilst still getting a good few jabs in.

I also watched the Menu. Great director, super slick production, amazing star-studded cast, some great lines and some great performances. Awful, awful film. Absolutely fucking hated it. I had suspected this would be the case based on the trailer, but the pleasant surprise of triangle of sadness made me reconsider. The paper-thin “satire” in this is painful.

I appreciate many could watch those two films and probably reverse the viewpoints, or dismiss both completely, but the Menu felt so shallow in comparison. Even the way it posited you can just view it as a cheeseburger, not be taken too seriously, actually seemed pretty wanky.

I enjoyed them both but preferred The Menu.

Perhaps the difference for me is that while Triangle of Sadness is obviously a satire (but a flawed one) I see The Menu as a comedy-horror and so am not concerned that its satirical elements are unremarkable. For me Triangle of Sadness fell short of its potential but The Menu (aiming for different targets) nailed it.

► Show Spoiler

IMO perhaps the only real failing in The Menu was the judgement on Hoult's character. Shallow and obsessive as he is, he was never claiming to be a chef himself so it seems unfair to be angry at him for being a bad one. Better to have exposed (say) his inability to distinguish between good and bad food, or to reveal that all of his servings were made with putrid/poisonous ingredients.

The praise for the 'honest' cheeseburger was sightly irritating but that's just me being a vegetarian .

[Mikey Brown]

Finally saw Triangle of Sadness and it was excellent. My expectations weren’t that high despite loving Osterlund’s other work, but I feel like a lot of the criticism I’d heard before had rather missed the point.

The ending was oddly abrupt but I thought this was fucking great overall. It does a good job of recognising how ridiculous and shallow many of these multi-million dollar ‘eat the rich’ movies are, whilst still getting a good few jabs in.

I also watched the Menu. Great director, super slick production, amazing star-studded cast, some great lines and some great performances. Awful, awful film. Absolutely fucking hated it. I had suspected this would be the case based on the trailer, but the pleasant surprise of triangle of sadness made me reconsider. The paper-thin “satire” in this is painful.

I appreciate many could watch those two films and probably reverse the viewpoints, or dismiss both completely, but the Menu felt so shallow in comparison. Even the way it posited you can just view it as a cheeseburger, not be taken too seriously, actually seemed pretty wanky.

I enjoyed them both but preferred The Menu.

Perhaps the difference for me is that while Triangle of Sadness is obviously a satire (but a flawed one) I see The Menu as a comedy-horror and so am not concerned that its satirical elements are unremarkable. For me Triangle of Sadness fell short of its potential but The Menu (aiming for different targets) nailed it.

► Show Spoiler

IMO perhaps the only real failing in The Menu was the judgement on Hoult's character. Shallow and obsessive as he is, he was never claiming to be a chef himself so it seems unfair to be angry at him for being a bad one. Better to have exposed (say) his inability to distinguish between good and bad food, or to reveal that all of his servings were made with putrid/poisonous ingredients.

The praise for the 'honest' cheeseburger was sightly irritating but that's just me being a vegetarian .

Fair enough. I appreciate your explanation. I don't want to bang on any further about the things I disliked (agreed on Hoult's character) in it, but I accept that expectations (and over-analysing intent and subtext) of a film probably makes a huge difference. I probably ruin a lot of films for myself in that way.

I found TOS to be far, far funnier. Meta/self-aware humour is generally pretty fucking cringe but I thought it got the balance right between that, the absurd and the poignant.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Finally saw Triangle of Sadness and it was excellent. My expectations weren’t that high despite loving Osterlund’s other work, but I feel like a lot of the criticism I’d heard before had rather missed the point.

The ending was oddly abrupt but I thought this was fucking great overall. It does a good job of recognising how ridiculous and shallow many of these multi-million dollar ‘eat the rich’ movies are, whilst still getting a good few jabs in.

I also watched the Menu. Great director, super slick production, amazing star-studded cast, some great lines and some great performances. Awful, awful film. Absolutely fucking hated it. I had suspected this would be the case based on the trailer, but the pleasant surprise of triangle of sadness made me reconsider. The paper-thin “satire” in this is painful.

I appreciate many could watch those two films and probably reverse the viewpoints, or dismiss both completely, but the Menu felt so shallow in comparison. Even the way it posited you can just view it as a cheeseburger, not be taken too seriously, actually seemed pretty wanky.

I enjoyed them both but preferred The Menu.

Perhaps the difference for me is that while Triangle of Sadness is obviously a satire (but a flawed one) I see The Menu as a comedy-horror and so am not concerned that its satirical elements are unremarkable. For me Triangle of Sadness fell short of its potential but The Menu (aiming for different targets) nailed it.

► Show Spoiler

IMO perhaps the only real failing in The Menu was the judgement on Hoult's character. Shallow and obsessive as he is, he was never claiming to be a chef himself so it seems unfair to be angry at him for being a bad one. Better to have exposed (say) his inability to distinguish between good and bad food, or to reveal that all of his servings were made with putrid/poisonous ingredients.

The praise for the 'honest' cheeseburger was sightly irritating but that's just me being a vegetarian .

Fair enough. I appreciate your explanation. I don't want to bang on any further about the things I disliked (agreed on Hoult's character) in it, but I accept that expectations (and over-analysing intent and subtext) of a film probably makes a huge difference. I probably ruin a lot of films for myself in that way.

I found TOS to be far, far funnier. Meta/self-aware humour is generally pretty fucking cringe but I thought it got the balance right between that, the absurd and the poignant.

Yeah, I try to watch films knowing as little about them as possible (although you have to know something!). Expectations can make a big difference, for better of for worse.

[morepork]

Harrelson and the fat Russian getting wankered and jousting with cliched quotes was great.

[paddy no 11]

I listened to the rest is history podcast on oppenheimer probably spoiled the film a bit

But either way I didn't think it was up to much, nolan should stick to Sci fi as it suits his gimmicky jump around style, an unremarkable film. 5/10

[Stom]

Harrelson and the fat Russian getting wankered and jousting with cliched quotes was great.

That whole 20 minute section with the turdnado was epic wtf. Absolutely glorious.

I also liked the open-ended ending.


I saw Cage mentioned earlier, and we also recently watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent...and absolutely loved it.

Just a pure no thought required action romp. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Donny osmond]

The Taylor Swift concert movie. Actually really good, even one doesn't like the songs or the artist, the production is fantastic.

[Numbers]

John Wick 4, 2&3/4 hours, I felt fatigued jus watching it.

[paddy no 11]

Finchers latest film is a pathetic series of product placements. Terrible don't waste your time with it

[Which Tyler]

[Puja]

The first Dune film.was okay, but it felt like it was dedicated to giving the fans of the book a beautiful rendition of the images evoked by the text, rather than necessarily being a good film in it's own right. Felt like a glorious companion piece, like a set of moving illustrations. I can't help but wonder whether it told the story coherently to a newcomer..

That trailer does look rather good, and suggests it will at least do what the first one did in bringing the pages to life for the fans.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

To me, the first film just felt like part 1
A load of set-up and no pay-off.
A lot like the book at that point.

I suspect it'll look a lot better when the 2 are watched in conjunction.

[Puja]

I finally got around to watching the fourth Matrix film and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was solidly okay. Everything I'd heard had led me to believe that it was appalling, but it was a solidly fun movie - not as good as the first one, but probably better than the other two and vicious in its self-awareness. It did suffer a bit from not being able to get Hugo Weaving back though - would've been a lot stronger with the original Smith rather than a recast.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

I thought Anatomy of a fall was fantastic. It's kind of amazing to me that you can still make a murder mystery/court room drama format interesting and original.

"Vicious in its self awareness" is certainly one way to describe the new Matrix film. There were some good moments, but most of the entertainment came from "see - I told you this film would be absolutely awful if you made us make another sequel" style jokes. I don't know that I'd say that's a good thing. I'd say good on them for the middle finger, but it still turned out being the paint-by-numbers movie the studios were pushing for, for the most part.

[cashead]

The latest offering from the Toho line of Godzilla films, Godzilla Minus One.




A bit cheese at the end, and there's something you'll see coming from a mile away, but who gives a shit? If you're watching these movies for realism, you're watching the wrong fucking movie.

Anyway, it was fantastic. Makes me want to drag the people in charge of Warner's Monster-verse films to a screening and go "do some of that, yeah?" at them. It's about a failed Kamikaze pilot, Shikishima, a failed kamikaze pilot who encounters a juvenile form of Godzilla during the dying days of World War II, as at tears up an Japanese Air Force repair station out on one of the outlying islands. During the attack, he's tasked with shooting the creature with the 20mm guns on the plane, but freezes up, causing most of the engineers that work at the station to be killed. He is then able to return back home in shame. Once he settles back in, he falls into having a surrogate family when he takes in a young woman with a baby, Noriko and Akiko - a child that isn't hers but was thrust upon her by the child's parents as they also burned to death. He manages to land a job as part of a crew destroying naval mines in and around the coastline, which he uses to help raise the kid, when Godzilla returns, bigger, meanier and angrier.

What makes this film work so well is that the characters are compelling. You care about the relationship between Shikishima and Noriko, because the film takes the time to flesh it out. The camaraderie between the crew as they destroy the sea mines is fun to watch. So when Godzilla turns up to wreck shit, it makes everything that much more tense, and it makes you give a shit about the characters you've gotten to know, caught in the middle of the destruction.

So yeah, if it's going to be on at the cinemas where you live (apparently it releases in the UK on the 15th), go out of your way to see this one.

[Numbers]

As someone who hadn't read the books the first film was truly one of the most bland, boring things I've ever seen. Seems like it served the true fans well though.

I thought Anatomy of a fall was fantastic. It's kind of amazing to me that you can still make a murder mystery/court room drama format interesting and original.

"Vicious in its self awareness" is certainly one way to describe the new Matrix film. There were some good moments, but most of the entertainment came from "see - I told you this film would be absolutely awful if you made us make another sequel" style jokes. I don't know that I'd say that's a good thing. I'd say good on them for the middle finger, but it still turned out being the paint-by-numbers movie the studios were pushing for, for the most part.

Where did you watch that Mikey? I can't seem to find it.

[Mikey Brown]

An Everyman. I’m not sure if you mean a specific cinema or streaming? I don’t think it’s on streaming yet in any legitimate way, but I imagine it’s in a decent number of cinemas at the moment.

Might end up streaming on something more like Mubi than Netflix, as it’s still an artsy French film, but I’d recommend it in a cinema if you can find it and don’t mind 2:40 runtime.

[Numbers]

An Everyman. I’m not sure if you mean a specific cinema or streaming? I don’t think it’s on streaming yet in any legitimate way, but I imagine it’s in a decent number of cinemas at the moment.

Might end up streaming on something more like Mubi than Netflix, as it’s still an artsy French film, but I’d recommend it in a cinema if you can find it and don’t mind 2:40 runtime.

Thanks mate