mjmooney Posted December 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2018 And now I'm trying to enjoy The Big Short, and failing miserably. Twenty minutes in, and I haven't understood a word, and I'm bored stupid. People actually enjoyed this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted December 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2018 The Big Short is excellent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 59 minutes ago, mjmooney said: And now I'm trying to enjoy The Big Short, and failing miserably. Twenty minutes in, and I haven't understood a word, and I'm bored stupid. People actually enjoyed this? Yes, excellent film. Not that complicated to follow surely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer1 Posted December 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2018 I'm having my annual viewing of Glengarry Glen Ross tomorrow. If you love fantastic performances from an excellent ensemble cast, and are a fan of superbly written dialogue BUT for some reason haven't watched it. Then do so...immediately 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2018 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Risso said: Yes, excellent film. Not that complicated to follow surely? You underestimate how much of an ignoramus I am about all things finance related. And how boring I find it. Even the supposedly simplified "idiots' guides" they threw in with that bint in the bath totally lost me. I gave up on it. Edited December 15, 2018 by mjmooney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 17 minutes ago, mjmooney said: You underestimate how much of an ignoramus I am about all things finance related. And how boring I find it. Even the supposedly simplified "idiots' guides" they threw in with that bint in the bath totally lost me. I gave up on it. There's not a lot more to it than the causes for the financial crisis in the US. The sub-prime mortgage problem, where banks lent money to people who very obviously couldn't afford them. The film essentially tells the story of this, and how Bale's character essentially bets against the financial institutions packaging these debts up and selling them on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 15, 2018 54 minutes ago, Risso said: There's not a lot more to it than the causes for the financial crisis in the US. The sub-prime mortgage problem, where banks lent money to people who very obviously couldn't afford them. The film essentially tells the story of this, and how Bale's character essentially bets against the financial institutions packaging these debts up and selling them on. That's great, thanks. I sort of half understand what you've written, and it has the great advantage of only taking a minute to read, rather than sitting through two hours of it on the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, mjmooney said: And now I'm trying to enjoy The Big Short, and failing miserably. Twenty minutes in, and I haven't understood a word, and I'm bored stupid. People actually enjoyed this? Caveat - I haven’t seen the big short. I hear good things about it. For what it’s worth, regarding the market crash, I like “margin call”. They do speak in shop talk, a fair bit of financial speak, but you get the thrust of what’s going on-it’s all gone to hell. The human element is present, it’s not all dollars and cents. It’s got Kevin spacey in (boooooo), but Jeremy Irons steals every scene he’s in. It’s worth a watch if you want to see a film that covers that subject. Edited December 16, 2018 by Shropshire Lad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 11 hours ago, mjmooney said: That's great, thanks. I sort of half understand what you've written, and it has the great advantage of only taking a minute to read, rather than sitting through two hours of it on the screen. I do seem to recall the first half an hour was quite heavy going, mainly because of how Bale plays his character. After that it opens up a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 Aquaman. The most derided of DC's heroes, a near joke character for many people, makes his solo bow in the much maligned DCEU. Having made his debut in a laugh out loud bad clip in Batman v Superman, in that films completely bizarre mid movie universe building scene, and then redeemed a little by a decent enough appearance in Justice League, there's some intrigue for his movie. Can such a daft character hold his own? Arthur Curry is the Aquaman, a half human, half Atlantan super human, born of the love between the queen of Atlantis and a lighthouse keeper. Blessed with the ability to breathe underwater, swim at extreme speed, with vastly increased resilience and strength, Arthur has become known to the world thanks to his exploits with the Justice League, spending his days doing heroic deeds at sea and his nights partying on land. Unbeknownst to him, however, below the waves a conflict is brewing. His half brother, Orm, is on the throne of Atlantis, and is seeking to unite the 7 kingdoms of the seas in a campaign to wage war on the surface world, tired of damage humanity is doing to the oceans... Aquaman is a really stupid movie. It's to the films credit almost that it is committed to how daft Aquaman is. It very much feels like the script was written with instructions from the very outset that said 'do not shy away from the character'. So we get warriors riding into battle on the back of sharks with frickin' lasers, and whales pulling cargo, and fish people, and yes, guys riding seahorses. It gets dumber than this, but that would go into spoilers. This extends to everything. The design of everything is committed to the comic origin. Armoured enemies wear suits that echo crabs and lobsters. Ceremonial armour on major characters is all scales and fins. Vehicles the Atlanteans use (for some reason, given they can swim at absurd speed) are all manta and fish inspired. They even commit to the look of a particularly silly looking character, an iconic villain with an absurd helmet with with massive last eyes, which many filmmakers would have ditched at the planning stage. The plot is completely perfunctory, and can be summed up like this - the writers noticed that the story of Aquaman is actually about a man who would be king called Arthur... There are literally no surprises in it, and the entire script is underdeveloped with some absurdly bad dialogue. There's also a moment midway through the film where I was convinced I had missed something, as our heroes realise they need to go somewhere, and then appear to go somewhere completely different for some reason. The cast is ok. Jason Momoa is likable and although he looks nothing like a traditional Arthur Curry, he's very good in the role and I quite like his take. He has charisma and gravitas that manages to carry the film and even successfully sells some absolute clunkers on lines. Patrick Wilson has nothing to work with but does well enough with a dull villain role. Amber Heard can wear a skin tight bodysuit. Yayha Abdul Mateen is the films other success as Black Manta, managing to sell a dumb villain with little screen time well enough. Everyone else is ok. Except Nicole Kidman, who is diabolical and appears to have been hewn from wax. The action is generally good. The entire thing is green screened to an inch of is life, obviously, and James Wan uses this to his advantage, adding flair to shots with extreme camera moves he couldn't otherwise do, and utilising the underwater theme to pump up the dynamic movement of characters. This isn't perfect mind, there's a chase scene which looks terrible and adds in a faux natural camera move which sticks out like a sore thumb, in a bad way. The movie technically looks great. It never knowingly under uses dayglow colour and neon. Atlantis looks like Vegas crossed with Coruscant with a side of Blade Runner. The CGI, of which there's a helluva lot, is really good across the board, nearly. The cinematography is good. Unfortunately, I hated the way nearly everything was designed. This is summed up with the Atlantean soldiers. Their armour looks awful to my eye. The design itself is horrible, looking like it had been transported from the set of Power Rangers in 1993. The design is bad, but it's also under designed, with super clean look that exaggerates the crapness of it all. They look almost unfinished. This is true of nearly everything in the film, the exceptions being Aquaman and Black Manta. There's also a really... awkward look to hair underwater. To their credit they've tried to have everyone's hair flowing (well, nearly everyone. A few key characters have their hair done up, although weirdky in some scenes even these have their hair moving) in the water, but it really doesn't work with some of them, particularly Dolph Lundgren. Dolph at times looks like his face has been pasted onto a CGI construct, and at others he looks like his head has a completely flat top to his skull with hair weirdly waving on top. Aquaman is silly movie. It's bad in many ways. But it's also fun. It shouldn't be taken at all seriously, and there's definitely things wrong with it. The plot is shite, I personally hate the way a lot of the thing is designed, the dialogue is really bad. But accepting that, it's not awful. It's better than BvS, it's better Justice League, it's more consistent than Wonder Woman (though not as good overall). It's fun. It isn't as bad as it should have been. I kinda enjoyed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 The Big Short is a brilliant film. I thought it actually did really well in explaining incredibly complicated stuff to a layman audience. In fact it made light of the fact it was doing that. Margot Robbie in a bath for example. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 There is no review in the world that would make me watch Aquaman. Looks utterly, utterly appalling. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Just now, Stevo985 said: There is no review in the world that would make me watch Aquaman. Looks utterly, utterly appalling. This is the reason I would watch it like I recently watched Baywatch (which had some surprisingly amusing moments!) sometimes appalling films need to be viewed (however saying that, I only lasted around 30 minutes of Justice League!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooligan Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Sudden Impact (1983) I loved the Dirty Harry films and Sudden Impact was probably my favourite one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 15 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: There is no review in the world that would make me watch Aquaman. Looks utterly, utterly appalling. What about a review I’ve just made up - “This latest instalment of the DC universe benefits from an over reliance of a naked Amber Heard......5 stars.” Would that work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 I watched a film called The Last Witness last night which was about a Russian atrocity against the Poles in the war and the cover up by the Allies. Anyway it's a fascinating and horrid subject but **** me it's one of the worst films I've ever seen. The acting was so wooden it could have been an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 (edited) - Edited December 16, 2018 by Shropshire Lad Duplicate post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 23 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said: What about a review I’ve just made up - “This latest instalment of the DC universe benefits from an over reliance of a naked Amber Heard......5 stars.” Would that work? Still wouldn’t be worth it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2018 Gave the latest Ghostbusters film a watch today. Just very “meh”. Not completely shit like I imagine a lot of overgrown man-children were hoping it would be, but certainly not good either. A few bits where I thought “yes I can see why that should be funny”, but didn’t laugh. Like a lot of modern comedies, too long and not that funny. A missed opportunity. Kate McKinnon easily the standout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Mortal Engines - actually pretty good - ok the grand finale has ben done to death - but easy to follow plot, great graphics, good acting - hope they do the other two books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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