Topic: Movie thread.

I've watched Page Eight from The Worricker Trilogy, it's a bloody good dialogue driven thriller from David Hare. It kinda reminds me of Bond as in Bill Nighy is a womanizing witty British toff with sophisticated tastes who works for MI5 but only he doesn't bother with jumping around chasing after bad guys or name dropping fancy brands as he owns everyone without going to that much effort.

I really looking forward to the rest of The Worricker Trilogy now.

@Rambler Yeah the cast is proper star studded for a mere BBC telly film. Ralph Fiennes, Judy Davis, Rachel Weisz, Felicity Jones, Michael Gambon, Spud from Trainspotting (he has a real name but he will always be Spud to me) and probably another good actor or two I'm forgetting, which thankfully elevates the film as it makes sure Bill Nighy (the step-Dad from Shuan Of The Dead or the mad scientist from the Pikachu movie for those who don't know him) has someone good to work off in every scene. The sequels (which I haven’t seen yet) are the same with adding more talent like Olivia Williams, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder etc to them too.

Yep, Rachel Weitz is married to Danny boy Craig. In hindsight she would have made a pretty good Bond girl but I suppose she made her name with The Mummy movies so she didn't need a franchise to move up the ladder anymore and instead could focus on films with acting in them or maybe they just thought she was too old once she hit 25.

@jump or for us true Bill Nighy fans, The Speaker in Destiny 1 & 2.

@Rambler I forgot he did Julien Donkey-Boy, that is a great bizarre flick. Spud seems to be constantly working, at one point he kept being the funny loser in actions movies like Alien Vs Predator or Wonder Woman where he has PTSD but it's okay he can't fight anymore since he can sing for everyone instead, YAY. Spud is now in Our Flag Means Death, a comedy show from Taika Waititi, very loosely based on the real life Gentleman Pirate wth Spud as the first mate. It takes a turn after a few episodes from this posh pirate story into something else which feels like a spoiler as it wasn't advertised as that but is now the thing everyone talks about as it works really well.

I can spell Rachel Weisz's name fine, I just can't pronounce it as it normally starts off with me sounding whizz but then change it half through to vice and hope no one notices. The last film I saw her in was Runaway Jury a month or two ago. It wasn't bad, I quite enjoyed it but I was expecting a tight courtroom thriller only to see it's basically caper film with the typical series of self satisfied plot twists. She was bloody good in Disobedience and The Fountain is on my never ending list of movies to see.

@Kermit1 I hope in Destiny he's a grumpy old sod as he blast those robo-aliens in their faces!

Over the Weekend watched Bullet Train

Well, I thought it was great. Brad Pitt goes on a train to steal a briefcase, and mayhem ensues, quite a few assassins are on this train that are all connected somehow to said briefcase, which is shown with flashbacks.
Loved it all, it was a mixture of Quentin Tarantino (the violence), Guy Richie (the english characters) and Edgar Wright (the swapping between stories)
Even the wife, after reading the quick blurb on Sky and saying "oh not sure about this", really liked it

@Bunkerneath Yeah it's alright, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would as everyone was raving about how good it is but it is good.

I do find it weird that A list movie star, America's sweetheart, both Razzie and Oscar winner Sandra Bullock would have that be her last film now that's retired from acting though, she's barely in it.

@jump

@Eagly is it the Puss In Boots 2 of the MCU

@Eagly the dude who directed antman directed the remake of the computer wore tennis shoes

The new Antman is a few moments of better character writing away from being a rare, genuinely underrated Marvel movie. It's very dumb in a way I kinda respect. With some of the way Phase 4 went combined with the reviews I was scared of a miserable slog of either bad comedy or just boredom, this was not that at all.

I saw Ant Man & The Wasp 2 awhile ago at an advance screening with the writer and director there as I know someone who worked on the film. I had forgotten about it until I saw the argy bargy online. The Marvel movie fan bubble is so weird to me, they have been complaining ad nauseam about how bad the films only for one of them to get a bad Rotten Tomatoes score so they have worked themselves up into a frenzy to defend the franchise. lol

I thought it was pleasing fun but far from the pinnacle of movie magic as usual from Marvel ever since the first lot of films. It kinda reminds me a Rick & Morty episode (minus the sweary fart jokes and the nihilistic ramblings) with it's wacky world with spot the pop-science references. I had expected the film to be stolen by Jonathan Majors as Kang (who was so good in Lovecraft Country, I fancy giving that another watch thinking about it) but Michelle Pfeiffer's OG Wasp was the highlight for me. MODOK was a bad misfire though, I get the irreverent offbeat take they were going for (so it's not he's a hero now, he's too pathetic to care about) but just in terms of art design and showcasing it was such a waste for someone who could have been a show stealer and elevated the movie.

That's why he's great. I had to stop myself laughing multiple times because of him.

...it's really easy for me to be all in on appreciating unintentional comedy after that last Thor movie tried to make me hate the entire concept of jokes in superhero films. And honestly, based on his last scene, I'm not even sure it was unintentional.

This may have minor spoilers lol

Ant-Man 3, or Ant-Man and the Wasp 2 if you're evil, is actually pretty good. My favorite part was the villain, Namor the Conqueror, as he was very entertaining. MODOK was fine too, but I found him more funny than threatening, which is fine. I feel like reviewers of the movie are overblowing the downsides of the movie too much, because overall, it's better than most Phase 4 movies. I will admit, some of the writing is pretty bad, and many of the characters were underutilized. Also the secret civilization was pretty mixed. I liked some of those characters, but I wasn't really sad when one of the main ones died. I don't even know any of their names. The goo one was great though. And the last thirty or so minutes of the movie were exciting and funny. Especially the after credits scenes

7.5/10, Not bad, needs more Hello Kitty PEZ dispensers.

I kinda see why critics don't like it because...the characters are often lacking and its a comedy where much of the comedy may or may not be intentional (most of the comedy that works is not because they actually wrote funny dialogue for the characters(though some of them are good enough to make some of it funny anyway)). But tbh, I could say a lot of that for the last movie, right down to only actually being that invested in two characters (this is also true of Spiderman Homecoming).

And it was just more fun than maybe the entire bottom half of the MCU, and there's MCU movies that deserved way more negative reviews.

@HotGoomba Namor was in Black Panther, this guy is Kang.

@Eagly A character dying for the ultimate sacrifice is kinda cheap and easy imo, it's the rollercoaster ride writing you come to expect from soaps to get a pop rather than writing to achieve a resolution of development. Like think of the first Avengers where Iron Man is sacrificing himself as he went on an arc from being a selfish prick to being a selfless hero so it is achieving something more than simply it's the ultimate sacrifice whilst if you put Captain American Man in there sacrificing himself is not really surprising because he did it before already.

Then again maybe the Marvel audience likes that comfort of predictability, with the towering amount of bad reviews attached to it lots of folk even the ones sworn off the Disney hype machine saw this.

@kkslider5552000 well yeah it's intentional, as I said it's the irreverent offbeat and pathetic take on him but that doesn't cover having such a boringly bad design though. For what should have been a grotesque oddity it looks like the actor had shoved his face onto a photocopier and then taped the printout onto a balloon, they should have got David Cronenberg to direct it for some proper body horror stuff. Then there's the bait and switch of a fearsome monster to sad sack would have worked better if they had actually showed him as a fearsome monster, he just kinda pops up in a quick blurry CGI mess for his introduction. I wouldn't be surprised if the storyboard had a longer or more intricate scene but the CGI was too ugly so they just cut it out.

I forgot to mention in my original post about Ant Man & His Marginalized Partner Wasp 2 my usual comment of go watch Legion, it’s Marvel superhero silliness but for thinky adults.

Movies I watched over the weekend.

Basic Instinct (Blu-Ray)

For the "Unrated" Director's Cut version.

Despite being aware of a certain infamous scene I've actually never seen this until now. Actually a pretty decent murder mystery film with a couple decent twists all things considered (and yeah... I enjoyed all the trashy sex bits, sue me, lol).

City Hunter: Magnum of Love & Fate (Blu-Ray)

Movie in the City Hunter franchise that sees the cast finding themselves protecting a concert pianist who gets caught up in an espionage struggle between West & East Germany (well, it calls them Gariela... but they're Germany) when she begins looking for her father.

It pretty much feels like a longer, somewhat better animated episode, of the City Hunter/City Hunter 2 era. It does make some good use of the higher budget when they assault the bad guys' HQ during the climax though, and is still a fun time if you're a fan of the series.

Also commonly subtitled as .357 Magnum, but I think we can all agree that Magnum of Love & Fate stomps.

City Hunter: Bay City Wars (Blu-Ray)

Movie in the City Hunter franchise where terrorists take over a newly built hotel in order to take command over the supercomputer which controls the facility, because it can give them control over US military systems for some reason (okay, maybe it doesn't make complete sense, but this is just an excuse to have Ryo do a "Die Hard", so let's forgive it, lol).

Maybe a bit short than what you'd typically expect from a movie, but I think that works in it's favor in this case. It takes no time at all to get into the thick of it & is pretty much wall to wall action from beginning to end (though of course it takes just enough time out to get in some of the series' trademark gags). This is elevated by a level of animation that's becoming of the format & noticeably a couple steps above any of the TV series at their best, which really makes the action shine.

It may not be as transformative as some of the Lupin films are for that franchise, as it's still ultimately something best appreciated for existing fans, but it's about as good as it can be for that type of project. Just really super fun.

City Hunter: Million Dollar Conspiracy (Blu-Ray)

Yet another City Hunter movie. This time Ryo gets hired by an American woman who claims she's being hunted by the Mafia, & promised him $1 million for the job. Of course things aren't as simple as they seem, and he finds himself embroiled in a mystery involving the CIA.

Quality wise it's a lot like "Bay City Wars" which I also recently watched. A bit short, but it really knows how to use it's budget & animation to be an entertaining watch. Preference will probably depend on whether you want more wall to wall action (Bay City Wars) or a bit more mystery with a little more time dedicated to Ryo's antics (Million Dollar Conspiracy).

Unfortunately I couldn't find a good trailer for any of the City Hunter stuff.

watching the classic movie Them! right now this morning.

then later today, tomorrow and this weekend im watching

Missing Link
Blake Edwards' A Fine Mess
Planet of Dinosaurs
Robot Carnival

Saw John Wick at a friend's house today. Pretty good action movie, heard of John Wick before, but haven't seen the movie. It was a good movie to watch, then again, I've enjoyed most of Keanu Reeve's movies including this one.

Just saw that Stephen Amell is shooting a project for WB. I doubt this happens, but I really hope it is something to do with Green Arrow.

The new Evil Dead looks groovy even if it's without Bruce Campbell!