Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

It was good for what it was. It's based on the book of the same name, written by the author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Since it's PG-13, it isn't as bloody or gory as the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie, and only one real instance where you'll jump in your seat.

 

A Bridge Too Far, 1977. Hadn't seen it in years, and I just finished the book for the first time yesterday. Makes my short list of greatest war movies every time. As usual, the airborne scenes blew me away; those warm the heart of this old airlifter. The pathos of the Dutch civilians caught in the middle always gets me too. And then there's the cast, look up all-star-cast in the dictionary and it ought to say A Bridge Too Far. It's a pity that they didn't clean up the film when they made the DVD, though.

 

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond on Sky Movies. Started out kinda slow but I'm enjoying it now. Glad I didn't pay cinema prices though.

 

Time After Time. A wonderful time travel film about H.G. Wells travelling to 1970's San Francisco to pursue Jack the Ripper. It features two of my favourite actors, Malcolm McDowell and David Warner, as Wells and the Ripper respectively. Sadly it didn't do so well at the box office and isn't very well known. In fact, it's not even available on DVD here in the UK.​

 

Amazon UK has some in the Marketplace.

 

I know, but they're imports from other countries. I was saying that there hasn't been a UK DVD release.

 

I loved how they had "cameos" of the previous two villains: Lord Shen in the flashback and the toy Tai Laung (sp?).

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

 

The Revenant (2015) – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu



I ain’t afraid to die anymore. I done it already.

The Revenant is another full-on masterpiece from Inarritu. Following up Birdman with a film that couldn’t be any more different, Inarritu crafts a terrifying, gripping, visceral story of survival, tragedy, madness and revenge. As the fur trapper struggling to survive after being left to die in the wilderness, Leonardo DiCaprio gives a performance of full and total commitment; he’s wordless for long, long stretches of the movie, but he’s unbearably compelling at times. Tom Hardy is every bit his equal, if not even a bit better, as the villain of the piece, the psychopathic trapper that betrays DiCaprio’s character. He’s as scary as he’s ever been and he absolutely disappears behind the makeup and wig and mush-mouth accent. Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson are also both far better in their roles than you might expect them to be. The supporting players could easily coast in this movie, leaving the heavy acting lifting to Hardy and DiCaprio, but Poulter and Gleeson refuse to do it and their scenes are excellent. Inarritu’s direction is nothing short of astounding. Along with Lubezki on cinematography duties, Inarritu’s eye creates a world that couldn’t be more vivid or visceral or strange. The visuals here harsh and beautiful. The word “atmospheric” gets thrown around way too often, but if ever a movie deserved the word, this one does. The score is by the always brilliant Ryuchi Sakamoto and it’s another masterpiece, dread-soaked, minimal, strange, utterly gripping. The story is gripping and emotionally evocative; it’s a movie filled with some of the purest emotion of the year and the climax of the story is brutal, grim and beautiful. It’s a film so packed with gorgeous visuals and scenes and performance moments that it would be absurd to even attempt to discuss them: virtually every scene is a mini-movie, a tiny cinematic masterpiece buried inside this larger one. It’s harrowing, beautiful, gripping, unstoppable, powerful, intense, heart-breaking, a movie you can’t look away from for its entire, quite substantial, running time. Wow. Just wow. 4 stars.

tl;dr – visceral, brutal, beautiful movie boasts astounding visuals, a compelling story, genuinely great performances; as atmospheric and transporting as movies get. 4 stars.

More Movie Reviews!

 

Batman, 1989... a year that just seems so long ago now.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

 

The Good Dinosaur

Went with my two and half year old daughter (her first trip to the cinema)

I'd call it the OK Dinosaur

 

The Good Dinosaur

Went with my two and half year old daughter (her first trip to the cinema)

I'd call it the OK Dinosaur

 

Written and directed by Nicholas Meyer, best known for Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. Definitely a fun little thriller. It's a shame that it's sort of fallen through the cracks.

Other movies since have made gobs more money--even adjusted for inflation--but no movie since has taken hold of popular culture quite the way Tim Burton's Batman did in the Summer of 1989. The Bat logo was everywhere, and the soundtrack was all over radio and MTV. Such was the demand for all things Batman that stations even began re-running the old 60s TV series again. I saw it three times that Summer, and even read the novelization twice.

Today it's more of a nostalgic touchstone for me than a great movie, but I do still enjoy it despite its flaws. I think, whatever else it may or may not be, it's a fantastic piece of pop art.

I really get a kick out of Keanu Reeves' longevity. Other more celebrated actors of his generation have continued to fall by the wayside, and there's Keanu, still working, still delivering and still relevant. I enjoyed John Wick too and I'll definitely see the sequel at the theater.


Goosebumps (2015) - Dusts off a couple of 90s relics (No, not Hootie & The Blowfish and Bill Clinton, I'm talking about Jumanji and the titular book series) and sorta mashes them together into a frenzied and frantic movie that isn't quite as much fun as it's trying very, very hard to be. The cast is likeable and game, and the Jumanji-style premise is a good match for material, but the humor often lands with a thud and all of the monster mayhem is ultimately more exhausting than it is exhilarating. - 6/10

 

The Man in the White Suit, one of the best comedies of all time.

 

Need to watch this again, absolutely brilliant film. Can't wait for the sequel.

 

Deadpool: Very, very entertaining. Pretty much loved the whole thing, and I'm not even a Deadpool fan. Reynolds totally makes up for his previous comic-book outings, the humour is funny, the action is really good, and I loved Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

My only criticsm is that the main bad-guy's powerset is said to be

Spoiler

superhuman reflexes, feels no pain

, but what we see looks more like

Spoiler

superhuman strength, feels no pain... not to mention lack of pain should not enable you to not be hampered by a sword through the shoulder - torn ligaments and blood-loss should really slow you down in a fight

. But that's a minor niggle.

 

Hail, Caesar!

 

I haven't seen Deadpool yet, but I'm hearing nothing but good things.

Glad to you a non-Deadpool fan as yourself enjoy the film, as I'm hoping my wife will as well. With all the high quality comic book films released over the years, my wife has become a big fan of the genre. Not enough to be a comic book reader, but enough to look forward and want to see the next one.

 

It's both violent and has some pretty crude humour, but I'm guessing you already know that.

 

The Thing (1982), one of the few remakes that's actually better than the original (although the 50's one is still good).