Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Yeah, don't worry, you're definitely not the only person who didn't enjoy it. I went with a group of my family and we were all bored out of our minds. It's not that I didn't get the film, it's that I didn't care about what the film was trying to achieve. This film reminded me of Mad Max: Fury Road, as both looked stunning from start to finish, and both lacked in the story department big time and pretty much ended where they started with little being achieved, but at least Mad Max was exciting as hell to watch. I also loved Villanueve's last film, Arrival, mostly because of how interesting it was, and had me hooked from start to finish. 2049 needed to lose about 40 minutes and add some more depth to the story. A bit of action wouldn't hurt either.

 

It would be difficult for me to mount any kind of defense or case for the movie to someone who hasn't liked any of Villeneuve's movies. I just got back from Blade Runner 2049 and this makes the fifth of his films that I've seen (Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival & now this one) and I've given all five of those four stars. I have loved just about every second of all five of his movies; if you're not connecting with any of them, I think our tastes in movies are so radically different that I don't even know how to start crafting an argument. Um, Sylvia Hoeks, maybe?

 

It would be difficult for me to mount any kind of defense or case for the movie to someone who hasn't liked any of Villeneuve's movies. I just got back from Blade Runner 2049 and this makes the fifth of his films that I've seen (Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival & now this one) and I've given all five of those four stars. I have loved just about every second of all five of his movies; if you're not connecting with any of them, I think our tastes in movies are so radically different that I don't even know how to start crafting an argument. Um, Sylvia Hoeks, maybe?

 

Oh, that's right, he did Enemy and Sicario as well. I also didn't like those. I'm surprised I liked Arrival so much then. Despite him being one of least favourite directors, I'm still interested in seeing Prisoners.

 

My Favorite Spy (1951)
This is a Bob Hope vehicle. I used to like the Road to... movies when I was younger, so I thought I'd watch this as the closest I could get on Netflix. It's not as good... Hope could do with Crosby as a foil to balance him out here; however I found it just amusing enough to stick with it to the end. Hedy Lamarr is his co-star here and adds a little class (when she can wrestle the screen away from Hope - I understand he had many of her scenes cut out of the picture so he could dominate).

 

Arabesque. Stanley Donen's attempt to recapture the success of Charade, with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren taking the place of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The plot is a little incoherent but the film is so much fun that it doesn't really matter.

 

I'm not looking for a defense. Just trying to get across the point that a movie can be good but not for everyone, which is something a lot of tightly wound Blade Runner fans can't seem to comprehend. "Blade Runner bombed = moviegoers are stupid" is an argument I've seen way too much of.

Just because I didn't connect with the movies emotionally doesn't necessarily mean I disliked them. Arrival is the one I did walk out of thinking it was great. Sicario I thought was good, same with Prisoners. I guess I just find them... emotionally shallow? Like I have no connection to the characters. I don't know. Hard to explain. But I didn't mean to infer that I outright dislike the director, the guy's obviously got a hell of an eye.

Now hold on a minute, Fury Road is a masterpiece and one of my all time favorite movies, so I cannot follow you on that Blade Runner comparison.

 

You're right, it is amazing! I'm just talking about the lack of story and how Fury Road handled it much better than Blade Runner.

 

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – Jon Watts

I’m nothing without the suit.

If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.

I really enjoyed the Spider-Man material in Captain America: Civil War, so I was kind of surprised to feel myself getting less and less interested in Homecoming as it approached. I saw it pretty late (last Marvel movie I went to on opening weekend was Doctor Strange and we all know how THAT turned out; Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain indeed) and despite some serious flaws, I’m mostly positive on the film. Holland is good as was to be expected after Civil War; his exuberance never really flags and it’s kind of amazing that he keeps it up for two hours with it only occasionally getting a little wearying. Downey Jr. brings a lot of charm to his role, but also a serious responsibility; I’ve heard people say he’s coasting here – I don’t think I’d agree. I’m comfortable calling Jacob Batalon’s performance as Peter’s friend, Ned, absolutely star-making, though I rather doubt Hollywood will see it that way. Michael Keaton is really, really good in his role; he brings a working class edge to his blunt character but also a conman’s smarts about how to play that part most to his benefit. He’s a guy who makes speeches about being working class and screwed over by the wealthy while living in a house about thirty times the size of Peter’s apartment and we’re never quite sure whether he actually believes his own BS or if he’s just slinging it to keep other people off balance. Jennifer Connelly deserves a mention for managing to build real rapport and chemistry with Holland as the voice of the new spider-suit, Karen. The Peter-Karen relationship is really witty and charming. The rest of the cast is really good all the way down: Zendaya, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Glover, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Logan Marshall Green, Angourie Rice . . . these are all perfectly pitched performances. And kudos to Chris Evans for giving his hokiest performance as Captain America in a series of genuinely laugh-out-loud funny PSA type videos and to the movie for giving us the best post-credits scene in ages. It’s really canny of the movie to bring both Tony Stark & Captain America back in pretty endearing roles. The Team Cap-Team Iron Man stuff got surprisingly heavy when Civil War came out, mostly because I think most audience members were shocked at just how emotionally dark Civil War got. Using them both here in a likable way is a nice way to get audiences feeling friendly toward both of them again; it’ll be interesting to see the two meet on screen again, but at the moment, I think it’s actually kind of important to make sure audience members don’t carry any hard feelings and I think this movie really nails that.

As for the less stellar things, I think probably the biggest problem in the film is that Watts, mostly an indie director, doesn’t know how to stage complicated action sequences or at least fight sequences. None of the fights work and they build to a really unpleasant battle on and around an airplane that is chaotic, incomprehensible and every bit as ugly as the Doomsday fight in BvS. The character stuff is always great in these movies, but the action sequences are still important and this movie whiffs on all of them. The only exception is an action sequence that isn’t a fight and that’s the sequence at the Washington Monument. It’s a nice way of exploring Peter’s weaknesses (just because you can climb walls doesn’t mean you can climb walls THAT high) and it’s genuinely vertigo-inducing. It’s really the only time in the film that I felt any actual danger; it really worked the fear of heights angle and had my heart pumping. It’s worth noting again that this sequence is really simple, so Watts can handle it. The film is absolutely too long at well over two hours, but all things considered, it’s a fun romp that re-establishes the reasons why the Spider-Man character is so enduring and there are definitely a lot of nice character touches and scenes. It’s neither, as many people have been saying, the best Spider-Man movie or the best MCU movie; it’s a solid, if mostly unremarkable, entry in the MCU. I guess they can’t all be great, not at the pace the studio’s churning them out, but one would hope they would be really good and this one doesn’t quite crack that even, but it’s a fun diversion while waiting for the next great one. 3 stars.

tl;dr – Spider-Man is back and plenty of fun with a load of great performances; direction is pretty sloppy however and, good as it is, it could have been a lot better. 3 stars.

 

mother! 2017. It's a movie that is very over the top, almost completely crazy, yet also a very straightforward allegory. Not perfect by any means but I was impressed by it.

 

Amityville II: The Possession. Much better than the first in my opinion.

 

I didn't really like it either. The story was just not interesting to me at all. It's a shame because I really liked the first Blade Runner and Villanueve's previous film Arrival.

 

Double post, please delete

 

ESB:SE Still the best of the SE's. I don't care to see more of the wampa; the unseen monster is scarier, like the early scenes in Jaws. I miss "You're lucky you don't taste good" and "Bring my shuttle." Fett's original voice was much more threatening. But I do love the way Cloud City is opened up. It really looks like a city in the clouds, not just closed sets painted white.

 

Wonder Woman I'm not a massive fan of the super hero films by any stretch, the majority are average at best, but this one I really enjoyed. Easily my favourite since Iron Man or Dark Knight. I liked the WWI setting, the characters had chemistry together, the action was good, the age old 'fish out of water' aspect of the story was well done, the humour worked and both the leads were excellent in their roles, in particular Gal Gadot who dominates her scenes not just in how she looks but she really convinces as WW, and she carries on from where she left off in the terrible Batman v Superman as arguably the best thing in that. The end CGI fest is a given for any comic book movie and I can take it or leave it, but this one wasn't so bad. It was certainly helped by the emotional aspect of the ending too. Overall very enjoyabel and I'd definitely look forward to a sequel.

 

Cripes...what do you mean I have to rent this to see more of Evan's Cap?!? (Not a Spider-Man fan, but I'll probably rent now that there's Cap stuff in this and I'm curious about Keaton's role.)

 

Master_Lok No, it's a tiny cameo (like

Spoiler

a public service announcement

)

 

Thanks for the info.

 

The Lego Batman Movie.

 

It's more like 3 or 4 cameos IIRC, and they're pure gold IMO. Don't turn it off until the last end credits come to a full and complete stop.

 

Cap's cameos were gold! So funny.

 

I would have preferred that the exact nature of his role in the film not be spoiled, but, yeah, they're great. Best post-credits scene in a very, very long time.