Topic: Movie thread.

Did you actually think for even a second that it would be anything else but that?

Saw two films recently.

Wish Upon: I wasn't expecting too much, what with this being one of those lazy horror movies where characters make wishes and things go horribly wrong, but it somehow ended up being even worse than I could have imagined. None of the deaths are fun or scary, the main character is so loathsome that I felt no sorrow in watching her life unravel, the acting borders on amateurish, and nothing interesting is done with the concept. A terrible experience from beginning to end.

Dunkirk: Now... this. THIS! I don't even know what to say about it. This is definitely one of the most involving and anxiety-producing films I've ever seen. Many people describe cinema as a way for the viewer to transport themselves to another time and place, but never has this been so true as it is here, a movie that immerses us completely in the viewpoints of the people it follows, where the action rises and swells like the tide, where the sound design makes us feel like bullets are ripping at the ground around us, where the music pulses in a terrifying, almost tribal fashion along with the events unfolding on-screen. Practically a re-invention of the war movie genre!

A few design choices work really well. There's very little actual dialogue here: events often unfold wordlessly, which creates a kind of organic narrative you rarely see in films these days. You never actually see the "enemy" (German soldiers)... instead, they're a looming, constantly menacing force that manifests itself in the terrifying shriek of German planes, the hail of gunfire piercing through metal at helpless soldiers, etc. Movie monsters often work best when they're left off-screen, and I think the same is true here. Finally, the film is so immediately immersed in the historical events that we don't get backstories or much development for any of the people involved. While this might lead to us not having a protagonist to identify with or root for, it adds to the authenticity of the experience, and, as a result, kind of broadly humanizes everyone involved, because, in reality, nobody is really special or privileged, and all of the people involved are experiencing this horror together in a sense. The film reflects this on a structural level, and I thought that was really cool.

Historical and war films usually bore me to tears, but this is still the best film I've seen this year.

BTW @Peek-a-boo , you're right. If ever there was a movie that needed to be seen in a theater, this is it.

@Ralizah I was wondering when you were going to get around to seeing Dunkirk!

I wholeheartedly echo - and agree with - all your words. I have been saying all along that it feels like a live-action theatre experience as opposed to being a film, if that makes any sense. A part of me wants to go and see it again, but would a repeated viewing lack the anxiety and intensity of the first time? Probably, yes.

Do you have a favourite scene or a specific moment in Dunkirk? This is what I wrote on the previous page:

My number one favourite thing about the film is not seeing/showing the Germans. I think it was a deliberate design choice to emphasize the terror of an unseen enemy. Even when you finally see them at the very end, they are out of focus and in the background.

Also, the entire scene when Tom Hardy was frantically pushing and pulling the lever to open the wheel bays whilst attempting to land his gliding plane on the beach, along with the upswell in music and a fading sun illuminating the screen, was just absolutely terrific.

Another noticeable thing to mention is that apart from George (the chap on the boat), nobody had any names, which Nolan did on purpose. In wars, we don’t remember names.

I like how you describe the film, that it feels organic and that the action rises and swells like the tide. I forgot to mention that the score Hans Zimmer composed for Dunkirk makes it even more tense than it already is. The sound of a ‘ticking clock’ along with the deep and pulsating instrumental music was extraordinary!

It is an amazing experience.

@Peek-a-boo A scene that sticks out to me is the one where the soldiers hide in that abandoned fishing trawler. It's a beautifully tense sequence, between the soldiers realizing in terror that they're being shot at and, if they try to escape, they'll surely be slaughtered and the sense of distrust and paranoia that ultimately arises between them. Things become even deadlier when the tide comes in and the boat starts to flood. That entire scene is basically a more concise version of Night of the Living Dead: a bunch of people trapped together in a dangerous situation become increasingly wary of one another, to the point where they pose more of a danger to themselves than the looming threat outside.

It seems like Nolan has achieved full artistic maturity: it's definitely his directorial style, but it has evolved to the point where its fully integrated with the content of the film itself.

And yeah, the music was amazing. The score had an almost tribal sound to it, like a throbbing beat of war, but more modern. It was interesting.

the Founder (Netflix) - Film about how Ray Krock franchised out the McDonald's restaurant, and grew it into the empire we have today. I thought it was a good watch, though I think he was an absolute "butt" to the original McDonald brothers, based on how things were presented in the film.

I was kindly gifted an iTunes voucher worth £25 by one of my pupils before the summer holiday, and given that nothing has caught my eye at the cinema since Dunkirk, I decided to rent a couple of films on my Apple TV.

I’m keeping it short but sweet:

Free Fire - 8/10
Both my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The third-act shootout is a staple of a certain kind of film, but in Free Fire it's essentially the entire movie. Against all odds, it works. Features a great ensemble too; Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy and Sharlto Copley, all of whom bounce off each other really well, even if they end up shooting at each other!

Ghost in the Shell - 4/10
My least favourite film of all my rentals. The characters in this film just repeat themes and explain plot points to each other, all in the same flat, droning monotone. I liked the futuristic visuals, and Scarlett Johansson was okay as Major however, as soon as the credits rolled, I had virtually forgotten about it all.

Kong: Skull Island - 7/10
Ah, now that’s more like it! This film is adept at goosing you; it deploys action-movie feints and horror-film frights capably amid its clichés and deaths. Every so often it also pauses and allows Kong and Mason (Brie Larson) to move you. Seeing John C. Reilly as Hank - the comic relief - was rather good fun too.

Life - 6/10
I have mentioned that Alien is one of my all-time favourite films, and it is clear that Life takes a hefty amount of inspiration from that. In a year when an actual Alien film came out, I surprised myself by realising that I enjoyed watching Life more than Alien: Covenant! It is a mostly thrilling and well-acted film that slowly begins to suffer as the film goes on, due to not moving the ‘trapped in space’ genre forward.

Power Rangers - 5/10
Maybe it was because I was in the mood for something ‘easy’ to watch, but I can honestly say that while the film doesn’t quite capture the original Power Rangers television programme, as it isn’t campy enough and decides to take itself a little bit too seriously for its own good, I actually had a pretty good time watching this, however messy and uneven things unfolds.

It’s a perfectly watchable film, but not one I would personally recommend to others.

Makes a welcome change, choosing a new film to watch every night in the comfort of my very own home.

Saw atomic blonde with the wife.... Wow disappointing! It just wasn't a good movie

Son of Batman (2014)

DC animated movie where Batman find out he has a son (Damian Wayne). Damian fights really well for a kid his age. He even beats down adults. Mad katana skillz.

Event Horizon
way more terrifying than i remembered. shouldn't have watched this alone before going to sleep :/

Ghostbusters 2016: 4/10 Stop Dancing! Remember Jaws. Remember Scarface! Stop Dancing. Not a good movie. I just had to go see for myself how the movie is after watching that review.

Dunkirk: 9/10 a true form of return after the decent, but somewhat disappointing Interstellar for Christopher Nolan.

WHAT? interstellar has to be one of the best movies of the last decade. it was incredible.

dunkirk is great, too, but nowhere near as good or mindblowing.

Logan: One of those films I intended to see in the cinema earlier this year; but it fell through the cracks. Thankfully, home video releases are a thing now, so I was able to watch this film in the comfort of my home earlier today. My first take on this was that it was a sort of bleak deconstructionist version of the X-Men; Marvel's answer to The Watchmen, if you will. I do think it has aspects of that, as all the silliness of comic book violence is absent here, replaced with violence that is often brutal and almost always realistically approached. It also takes pains to contrast the romanticized vision of the X-Men found in the comics with the "reality" of life for Logan and Xavier in this more realistic setting. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized this was closer to The Dark Knight Returns... that is, a modern Western. And, make no mistake: for all of the gore, psychic powers, and knives erupting from people's hands, this is most definitely a classic Western at heart, with the grizzled sheriff figure (Logan) being tasked with rescuing the innocent (artificially-engineered child soldiers) from a group of bad guys, in turn redeeming himself as well. As with most Westerns, Logan takes place across a vast and dusty mid-western setting where the myth of American masculinity has yet to entirely die out due to the loneliness of the setting and the prevalence of organized crime. The film plays its material straight, which helps keep the apparent social commentary on illegal immigration and human trafficking grounded and out of the realm of obnoxious preachiness. The action sequences are brutal and visceral, with Logan's superpowers reminding one less of the classic comic book character Wolverine and more of the horror movie monster Freddy Krueger. It wasn't a knock-out, but at the same time, I can't think of any obvious flaws I could point to either: it's an extremely competently produced, superhero-themed Western with good pacing and grounded social commentary. I liked it.

The Dark Tower: I should preface this by saying that I'm not a fan of the books. Stephen King is a talented storyteller, but his amazing success has apparently allowed him to transcend the the desire or need of a good editor, and, as such, he has a talent for turning a good 400 page novel into a rambling 700 page one. Either way, I can only approach this from the perspective of someone new to the Dark Tower universe. And overall... it was OK. It's certainly not as bad as most professional movie critics are making it out to be: at bottom, this is a perfectly competent fantasy Western with disappointingly The Matrix-esque action sequences and good acting from everyone involved. The plot is pretty standard for this sort of premise, and it feels like a hundred other fantasy stories I've watched and read over the years. As usual, there is a dispiriting tendency to portray mental health workers as evil people out to rip families apart and torture children. I knew this is an easy go-to plot device, but I've seen it way too often, and I do think it does a disservice to the real men and women who work in the field and attempt to make life for those living with crippling mental illnesses as tolerable as possible. Anyway, there's a tower at the center of the universe, for some reason, and some jerk who is evil for no apparent reason wants to destroy it, and some other disillusioned guy wants to kill him, blablabla. I'm getting bored even trying to summarize the plot, since it's all so bog-standard. Idris Elba is his usual intense self as The Gunslinger and, as always, his quiet masculinity makes him a perfect fit for the role. Matthew McConaughey is the bad guy, naturally, and he also does a good job, as he has a talent for playing almost theatrically evil or nihilistic people. It makes an otherwise boring character fun and arresting (really: we don't know why he's evil or wants to destroy everything, and his arsenal of powers seem to be limited to jedi mind tricks and ridiculous bullet-time manuevering during fight scenes). The main character is a kid having visions about this nonsense with the dark tower, and he escapes into an alternate world after dodging some mental health workers who are, as I said, evil monsters that want to torture children. He joins up with the gunslinger and, of course, he has some super-powerful psychic abilities and helps to redeem the despairing Gunslinger with his innocence... actually, the more I talk about this movie, the more I realize it's just a worse version of Logan. Anyway, he's a perfectly okay child actor. The movie does all the things you would expect it to do. I was moderately entertained over the duration of the film, but I won't remember it in a month.

Power Rangers: So, I watched this with a friend. It... wasn't good. The film never knew what it wanted to be: a high school drama? A modern blockbuster take on campy super sentai tropes? A commercial for Krispy Kreme? It tries to strike an uneven balance between these various approaches and fails at all of them. The characters are written by people who I assume never experienced the pains of being a teenager themselves and only learned about what these creatures are like through some weird mix of facebook posts and old 80's movies. The plot is somehow worse than in your average season of Power Rangers. The writing is universally horrible. The characters are also weirdly worse than they would be in your average power rangers season: Zordon, for example, has gone from a creepy white face that feels like a wise and ancient intelligence in the show to... just a holographic image of Walter White yelling plot exposition at the main characters. The movie tries to make it seem like he makes a noble sacrifice at one point, but... it just doesn't work for me. Rita Repulsa was a theatrically over-the-top sorceress in the original series, but here she's just... some gross witch and kills people and takes their gold so that she can make a golem that will wipe out human civilization. I feel like this character type must have been a fixture in the sorts of bedtime stories Nazis read to their children. The movie kind of drags along until the final act, where the characters finally jump into action and... it's not thrilling. It's just loud, poorly-choreagraphed action.

Not the worse movie I've seen this year, but then, maybe it helps that my hopes weren't high to begin with.

Interstellar was a fantastic cinematic spectacle, but I do think its bloated run-time and borderline incoherent themes detracted from it somewhat. I did like it a lot, but Dunkirk feels like Christopher Nolan at the height of his form.

@6ch6ris6 I didn’t mind Interstellar, personally speaking, but given the numerous issues I had with the film, I would honesty rank it as my least favourite Christopher Nolan film. My biggest issue is the contrived set up.

The whole sequence of events to get Cooper (McConaughey) in the sky just seems so enormously convoluted. He and young Murph find a dust trail spelling out binary code in their home, which leads them to a secret NASA HQ, where Professor Brand (Caine) asks Cooper, who just so happens to be the best pilot for the job, to fly the ship.

On another note, I have absolutely no qualms with long films however, at three hours long, Interstellar made me feel every single minute of those three hours, and certainly not in a good way. I never, ever glance at my watch in the cinema, and yet Interstellar was the first film since The Tree of Life that I kept looking it.

The pacing is wildly inconsistent.

My eyes also nearly rolled out of their sockets when we find out that Matt Damon is the bad guy. I saw it coming a mile away, for better or worse.

Saying that, it is a visually impressive film, especially the black hole stuff. And whilst the sound mixing was rather uneven, either too loud or too quiet, I did like the Hans Zimmer score. Quite like the way it ended too, and was actually somewhat pleased I had seen the film all the way through to the end by then!

It’s not something that I would choose to watch again, but I am glad I went to see it at the cinema, even if my fidgety bottom wasn’t in the best of moods...

not sure if it was due to the cinema i went too or the movie itself, but dunkirk almost made my ears bleed. it was so freaking loud. just way too loud. it really distracted me from the movie some times. my girlfriend said the same.

@6ch6ris6 Part of the experience. The audio in Dunkirk was amazing: I could hear the bullets tearing up the ground around me. And the squeals of those German airplanes... shudders

@Ralizah
I think you didn't give Power Rangers a good review (I may be biased as I'm a huge fan of the series so take that as you may). It certainly was a departure from the campy elements of the original show and made it much darker in tone (exception being the green with evil storyline). And I thought Cranston did a great job as the Rangers mentor Zordon, also a great throwback to the series as he voiced twin man and Snizzard from the original season as well as being honored then as Billy's surname (Billy Cranston)! Rita was played really well, though I hate the design choice for Goldar (should have stuck with the golden armored blue monkey).

War is loud.

The startlingly realistic audio is one of the best aspects of the film, even if it left my ears ringing afterwards!

I used to watch the very first Power Rangers series when I was a kid (the one where we find out that Jason is the white/green Power Ranger) and while I was in the right mood to leave my brain at the door when I pressed ‘play’, I had virtually forgotten all about it when the film came to an end. I wish the campy nature of the original series was endeared, rather than progressively steering towards a dark(er) tone.

I thought Cranston as Zordon was an inspired choice, actually!

It’s a remarkably average film, and that is coming from someone (and my younger brother) who used to rush downstairs to watch the next episode of Power Rangers in the mornings. Should a sequel happen, there’s a chance they can make it more of a lighthearted high school adventure in tone... hopefully.

@Peek-a-boo @GameOtaku I disagree. Cranston was terrible as Zordon. It didn't even feel like Zordon. Partially due to the acting, and partially due to the fact that he isn't given any good material.

I also think the Rita character in the movie was poorly done. Witch-like, but not to the degree that she was scary at all. Just enough that she was kind of gross in her early appearances.

I also didn't see this "darker tone." It didn't have a dark tone. As i said, one of my problems is that it didn't have any sort of tone. I can't think of even one descriptor that would pinpoint how the movie feels to me.

@Ralizah Like I said in two separate posts, I just left my brain at the door and enjoyed it for what it was!

The Power Rangers television programme back in the day was campy, fun and lighthearted whereas the film kind of avoid those aspects and goes into a slightly different - and a little bit darker (not the serious kind) - direction compared to what I used to watch when my brother and I were kids.

As for Zordon, I just kind of like Cranston as an actor, and thought he did his job well, even if the material wasn’t overly memorable as you say so yourself. All in all, as I have already said, I enjoyed parts of it, but it’s a mostly forgettable film overall. I wouldn’t say no to an improved sequel in all honesty.

the Wraith (Netflix) - A vengeful spirit uses a supernaturally enhanced car to chase down and kill the members of the street racing gang who murdered him, in what is possibly the most 80's movie I've ever seen. It's stupid, but so much so that it's fun, and it was interesting seeing how much nudity was allowed in a PG-13 film back in the day (I totally wasn't expecting it, lol). Also, Randy Quade was the sheriff, so there's that, lol.