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  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    Lady Rose wrote:
    I saw Centurion with Michael Fassbender over the weekend.

    A very watchable film about what happened to the Roman 9th Legion who seemed to disappear after marching into Scotland.

    A good cast and alongside Fassbender is Dominic West, David Morrisey and Olga Kurylenko.

    Lots of graphic violence but I found it enjoyable.

    I really liked this movie. It's much, much better than you think it's going to be.

    Definitely better than I thought it was going to be.

    I was looking for something to watch with my elderly father who loves all that stuff and we both really enjoyed it.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Us (2019)


    I normally don't bother watching horror movies, but this one is so good I'm going to mention it in the Best Movies of 2019 thread. It works a treat if you're simply after a good horror movie, but if you look closer it has several more layers to it. Lupita Nyong'o delivers an awards worthy performance in the lead role. There were rumours she was in the running for a part in NTTD. I don't know if that's true, I don't know if the role as Nomi and I absolutely can't say if she would have been better than Lashana Lynch. What I can say is that Nyong'o is a very beautiful woman and a very good actress.
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    I put that one in the same league as THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, a film that exceeded expectations and was much better than it had any right to be. BLACK SEA is another one that comes to mind.


    The Count of Monte Cristo ... is that the Jim Caviezel version?
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    Lady Rose wrote:
    Gymkata wrote:
    I put that one in the same league as THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, a film that exceeded expectations and was much better than it had any right to be. BLACK SEA is another one that comes to mind.


    The Count of Monte Cristo ... is that the Jim Caviezel version?

    Yep, that one. Love that movie to death. I know it takes a lot of liberties with the source material but that's fine...it's an adaptation and it absolutely delivers an entertaining and engaging adventure. It's amazing how many people that I talk to who go 'yeah, that one was pretty great, wasn't it?'

    I'll check that out. I love that story. Always had a soft spot for the Richard Chamberlain version.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    1917.

    Certainly one to see on the big screen if you're going to see it at all. I took my 91-year-old Dad and he was gripped by it. I had to pop out for the trailers to avoid the new Bond trailer! They showed it right before hitting 'play' for 1917 so I nipped back in too early.... :#

    1917 has the Skyfall team - Mendes, Thomas Newman on soundtrack and Roger Deakins lensing it. The melancholy that suffused Skyfall works well here. You will pick up on one action moment straight from the Bond movie, and Newman's score echoes it just the once. One critic has pointed out that in the latter part of the movie there are virtually no extras, a comment levelled at the last half of Spectre. This may be to emphasise the inner journey and isolation of the key figures.

    What the film gains in impressiveness it loses in authenticity and at times it appears to be a tick-box of Great War visuals. The idea of going through all those events in a single trek seems unlikely. The single-track of the camera seems a distracting gimmick at first but once the mission is under way it works well as it builds tension.
    This is a brilliant, big movie - thinking back on it reduces it a bit however. It does have a bit of the old 'let's make this a really big film because let's face it, war movies have been done before'. But there is so much stuff in this that sheds a new light on the war and that hasn't been done before, that it's a big plus.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Oh, but among the star cameos, I do think War Horse should get himself a new agent... :D
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • James SuzukiJames Suzuki New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
    So, I hadn't seen Spectre in about two years, and I showed it to a friend of mine today. And I was blown away by it. I loved it. More than I remembered that I did. It was a shock actually, I always liked the film, and I remember having a great time watching it in the cinema, but I think I placed SF and CR above it But in this viewing, I think it's aged very well. It feels very 2015, with some almost pre-Brexit themes in there about democracy and Britain. The soundtrack was gorgeous, and Craig came across as the most Bondian he had ever been.
    Has anyone else realised how good this film is?
    Its currently sitting as my favourite Craig Bond film, better than QOS and SF, with maybe only CR as its rival.
    “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
    -Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
  • JTMJTM Posts: 3,027MI6 Agent
    So, I hadn't seen Spectre in about two years, and I showed it to a friend of mine today. And I was blown away by it. I loved it. More than I remembered that I did. It was a shock actually, I always liked the film, and I remember having a great time watching it in the cinema, but I think I placed SF and CR above it But in this viewing, I think it's aged very well. It feels very 2015, with some almost pre-Brexit themes in there about democracy and Britain. The soundtrack was gorgeous, and Craig came across as the most Bondian he had ever been.
    Has anyone else realised how good this film is?
    Its currently sitting as my favourite Craig Bond film, better than QOS and SF, with maybe only CR as its rival.

    Seeing as it’s a Bond movie, the post might be better in the “Last Bond movie you watched.” thread in “The James Bond Films” forum.

    https://ajb007.co.uk/topic/49302/last-bond-movie-you-watched/

    But I definitely agree; I also watched it recently and really enjoyed it! ...and didn’t get my underwear in a twist about the plot like it seems many others do. Looking past the yellow tint, I love the cinematography as well. Going off memory, the PTS and the desert train station were stand outs.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    The Mortal Engines

    This 2018 film isn't directed by Peter Jackson, but the script is written by his writers from LotR and he produced it. While this is a steampunk story we can see his style in it. The story takes place far into the future after a apocalytic war that destroyed our civiliztion and most urban areas have turned mobile, driving around on tracks swallowing and canabalizing smaller towns. Barmy story, but it's something we haven't seen before and high budget steampunk fims is something we rarely get. The unusual setting and plot is a big plus and the film is afeast for the eyes.
    There are negatives. Most of the leads are unknowns who aften have a generic young adult film to them. I can easily imagine them in the Maze Runner films or the "100" TV series, Hugo Weaving being a welcome exeption. I aslo feel the music could have been more imaginative in such an imaginative environment, but what we get is a typical big action/adventure soundtrack.
    Last but not least I find the dialogue is often very action movie generic, to the point where I started pausing the movie after some lines to guess the next line. For example "Stay out of sight until I give you the signal" "What signal? How will I know?"
    I guessed the reply, of cource it's_"Trust me, you'll know". This happened again and again. I don't remember if they used "We've got company!", but it's often that kind of dialogue. There are thankfully exceptions. At it's best the lines hint at a history and a world with words and references we only half understand.
    It's not a bad movie, it's an inventive action/adventure film.
    I think the plot and setting has a lot of potential that better dialogue, casting and music.
  • James SuzukiJames Suzuki New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
    Mortal Engines was filmed in NZ, where I'm from, and a lot of my uni friends ended up being extras in the film. I think Jackson wanted it to be his next big film series, yet it flopped hard. I saw it in my bday, and had a good time, even though it was quite rubbish. Had two Brosnan era Bond actors in it though, Patrick Malahide and Colin Salmon.
    “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
    -Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    Yes, I think the Mortal Engines should be better than it is.


    The Edge of Seventeen" (2016)

    Last night I saw a wonderful little film titled "Edge of Seventeen". It stars Hailee Steinsfeld and Woody Harleson. It's about a teenage girl with a brother who's far more attractive and popular than she is. She dislikes him and doesn't fit in with most people her age. After her father died the only people she really connects with are her history teacher and a girl whos'been her only fiend for years. Both the humor and the drama is top notch. This is the kind of movie that gets largely ignored in a world where cinemas are dominated by superhero blockbusters. Steinfeld and Harleson are hillarious when they spar off each other!

    Just watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=EB6Gecy6IP8&feature=emb_logo
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). DC has found its sweet spot: violent movies set in Gotham City centered around a psychotic clown. But while Joker channels the tortured Scorsese of Taxi Driver, Birds is more like the Tarantino of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill--a kinetic funhouse ride. This is a blast, made more so by Ewan McGregor's nutso Black Mask and especially by Margot Robbie's Harley. And I'll finally say it: Margot Robbie could be the best film performer working today. She's got Marilyn Monroe looks and Meryl Streep acting chops. . . She does comedy, drama, action, you name it--and while she may have done a couple of bad films I don't think I've ever seen her in a bad performance. Birds was apparently her idea and she serves as the producer as well. . .which shows she's a real force. You go, girrrrl!
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • CheverianCheverian Posts: 1,446MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    MIDWAY (2019). The latest from Roland Emmerich.

    This was actually pretty awesome, much better than it should have been. It crushes the 1970s version with Charlton Heston. It's not high art but it's a really rousing, well paced, very well executed film that by all accounts is actually very historically accurate.

    Thanks for the recommendation. My great uncle was on the USS Yorktown. He survived but never fully got over the experience.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Ed Skrein is in the cast, isn't he? Do you think he could be Bond one day?
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    Gymkata wrote:
    MIDWAY (2019). The latest from Roland Emmerich.

    This was actually pretty awesome, much better than it should have been. It crushes the 1970s version with Charlton Heston. It's not high art but it's a really rousing, well paced, very well executed film that by all accounts is actually very historically accurate.

    I was impressed by the film's adherance to historical fact. When I first learned that this film was coming, historical accuracy wasn't something that I was expecting. What I did expect was plenty of CGI aviation action, and this is what it definitely delivered. As a huge fan of the classic WWII aviation epics like Battle of Britain, Tora! Tora! Tora! and even more recent films featuring real aircraft like Dark Blue World and Dunkirk, I always find the CGI version lacking in realism and although Midway was not the worst offender in this regard, I did still have complaints with it. I found the scenes of dive bombers pulling out of their dives with their wings skimming waves tops was a bit much for me. But all things considered, Midway at least exceeded my expectations and deserves credit for the things that it gets right.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Joker

    Yeah, that's a five-star film, quite Oscar worthy. Odd, v little or nothing in the way of superhero action or hints of what's to come (supposedly) and almost nothing to do with the DC universe. And somewhat the better for it. Helps that there's little celebrity prescence or cameos - Robert De Niro works because he is playing a 'famous' character so it puts him on the other side.
    Some niggles - Phoenix is surely too old to be playing young Master Bruce's future nemesis. And the sense of Gotham as a location, and when this is meant to be set - it sort of dovetails with late 60s according to the movies shown on a cinema screen, but does that mean it is a precursor to Burton's Batman, set in the 80s? Of course, the whole Joker origins is wholly different.
    Still, this was a class film reminiscent of the mainstream movies that went out in the 70s, ironically to do that now you have to hang it on a comic book hook.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Spellbound
    Hitchcock, 1945
    written by Ben Hecht (he was almost one of ours)
    starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck

    As with James Whale's Frankenstein, Mel Brooks has ruined this movie for me. Much of High Anxiety is specifically from this film, including Professor Little Old Man and the bellboy delivering the paper to the room.

    The film is set in a lunatic asylum where something weirder than usual is going on. The staff of psychiatrists all psychoanalyse each other for laughs, because that's how they think, very mind-gamey work environment.

    Bergman does lots of that slack jawed big brown eyes twitching convulsively in panic thing she does so well (see also: GasLight). I know Hitchcock was obsessed by Grace Kelly, but I think Bergman was the best actress he worked with.

    Soundtrack features much use of theremin to make it all the more mind-gamey.

    Towards the end, there is a two minute sequence by Salvador Dali to illustrate one of Peck's dreams. There was originally 20 minutes of Dali content filmed, but producer David Selznick didn't like it, and the other 18 minutes is now lost.
  • James SuzukiJames Suzuki New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
    I'm about to watch The Man from Hong Kong for the first time. Anyone seen it?
    “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
    -Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Split (2016)

    I really thought M. Night Shyamalan no longer made good movies, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. Split is about three teenage girls who gets kidnapped by man with more than twenty very different personalities. All those personalities are played by James MacAvoy. This part(s) is a gift to any actor, but also a huge challenge. Thankfully MacAvoy is able to handle an acting job few actors would be able to. The film is very tense and well plotted, a reminder that movies don't have to have huge budgets to be entertaining. I also want to mention Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays one of the girls. I first noticed her in "Witch" from the year before. She's very talented, has striking looks and I think she's going to be one of the big stars of the next decade.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    The Thing (2011)
    A prequel to the 1982 version. I did see it long ago and hated it, but this time, I enjoyed it a
    little more. Although it's amazing that the practical special effects from 1982 look better than
    the CGI effects in this 2011 movie.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Solo - a Star Wars story

    I know this was a troubled production and some were dispointed by it. Personally Star Wars was never more than another film franchise for me and I was entertained by Solo. Alden Ehrenreich does an okey job, but he's got a nasal voice, but sadly not the star power of Harrison Ford. I'd love to have seen Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds in the role. Still, a fun ride.
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    'Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark'

    Very watchable film though maybe more of a teen horror than a super scary horror.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    The Hound of the Baskervilles ( 1939 )
    Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson -{ everyone must know the story
    by now. I did notice the last line in the film " Watson the needle " must be one of the few
    references to Holmes's drug habit and amazing for a 1939 movie.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    The Hound of the Baskervilles ( 1939 )
    Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson -{ everyone must know the story
    by now. I did notice the last line in the film " Watson the needle " must be one of the few
    references to Holmes's drug habit and amazing for a 1939 movie.

    I love a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film. Interestingly 'Hound of the Baskervilles' was apparently the first Sherlock Holmes film adaptation to actually set its story in the original Victorian time period. Once Universal got hold of the series the timeline shifted to the 1940s and saw Holmes up against Nazis (which is, for me, an irresistible premise) and other contemporary villains. My favourite Rathbone Holmes films come from the Universal series - notably The Scarlet Claw, The Spider Woman and The Voice of Terror. Sherlock Holmes in Washington is also really good, despite its boring sounding title.

    As for 'Watson, the needle!' it certainly is a curious and surprising reference to be made in a film of that era (at least so it would seem from a modern viewpoint). But not only did the line appear in the film, even more curiously it is even printed in publicity material for the film! (Screenshot from a BBC Timeshift episode: How to be Sherlock Holmes)

    The-Needle.jpg
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Rathbone was brilliant as Sherlock Holmes
    and ( unless this is an urban myth ) he was
    One of the best swordsmen in Hollywood.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    True, as far as I know- just watch him in action in, say, "The Adventures Of Robin Hood". He's great in horror movies, too: "Son Of Frankenstein" (though you have to deliberately forget about Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder to enjoy it :)) ) for one.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Everything or Nothing, the superb James Bond film documentary, now a few years old.

    The pacing, the editing is great, esp with excerpts from the moodiest, most beautiful John Barry cues, making this for those of a certain age a new Bond movie really. I'd happily snap up a soundtrack to accompany it.
    Sometimes the editing is a bit too on the nose, as the use clips from the film to accompany every narrative event. When Pierce Brosnan complains about being dumped, you half expect it to be accompanied by a shot of Bond on the bog - from his drop in at the Willard Whyte House, perhaps! :D
    McClory is made out to be the villain - he was a bit, but they make it sound like he corralled Fleming into a drinking session where they thought up a Bond plot, rather than spending weeks and months trying to devise the first Bond film.
    Clips from Skyfall that made their way into the cinema release are not on the DVD.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    I like the Richard Chamberlain version as well. This one with Jim Caveizal and Guy Pearce is really, really entertaining, though. The action has been increased from the written story but it doesn't overwhelm the movie at all. I think you're in for a treat.

    Well, I have to thank you for the recommendation.

    I watched it this evening and really enjoyed it. Guy Pierce does make an excellent villain as does Michael Wincott.

    And you never mentioned a very young Henry Cavill was in it!!
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Delicatessen (1991)

    This is a French comedy with inovative musical numbers, many unsuccessful suicides, colourful characters, canibalism, odd camera angels, fantastic set design and orange colour filters that puts Sam Mendes to shame. This is great film and highly reccomended for anyone who wants to be entertained by a movei that dares to be different. Wonderful film! :D
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Was the Delicatessen ... en acier inoxydable ?
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
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