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  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Agreed, the fight in the underground ( car-park I think ) is fantastic. {[]
    "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
    Chriscoop wrote:
    Wow, you call back in after a short absence and McBarbel is still swinging his Claymore!
    Anyway, I watched The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies yesterday. I've read the book... :)) . A lot as I have all of Tolkiens works, but as much as I enjoyed it, it wasn't a patch on the LOTR trilogy and that wasn't a patch on the Books. It was over long and somewhat procrastinated to the point that it felt bloated. Billy Connolly was a nice touch as the bad tempered dwarf, but a touch underused in such a long film. My boy enjoyed it and it kept him quiet for 3 hours which makes it 10/10. :))

    Nice to see you back, Chriscoop. I agree with your thoughts on the 3rd Hobbit movie- maybe 30 minutes material stretched to 3 hours.
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    Barbel wrote:
    Chriscoop wrote:
    Wow, you call back in after a short absence and McBarbel is still swinging his Claymore!
    Anyway, I watched The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies yesterday. I've read the book... :)) . A lot as I have all of Tolkiens works, but as much as I enjoyed it, it wasn't a patch on the LOTR trilogy and that wasn't a patch on the Books. It was over long and somewhat procrastinated to the point that it felt bloated. Billy Connolly was a nice touch as the bad tempered dwarf, but a touch underused in such a long film. My boy enjoyed it and it kept him quiet for 3 hours which makes it 10/10. :))

    Nice to see you back, Chriscoop. I agree with your thoughts on the 3rd Hobbit movie- maybe 30 minutes material stretched to 3 hours.
    Thank you Barbel -{ it's good to be back and see things haven't changed much.
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    Hi Chriscoop. I too wasn't impressed by the Hobbit movies. Three movies was an bridge too far, two would have worked better. The Hobbit movies lacked the magic of LotR. There was too much CGI and not enough character and plot.
  • Westward_DriftWestward_Drift Posts: 3,085MI6 Agent
    Solo : A Star Wars Story.

    Not as bad as I was expecting, given all the negative reviews I had read.
    Sure Alden Ehrenreich is NO Harrison Ford, but .... I thought it was fun.
    I'm working my way through the Star Wars movies, next up will be
    Rogue One and then the original three Films.

    And then you can stop right there. Good thing Disney never made a sequel trilogy...and that Doctor Who ended when Moffat and Capaldi left...and that they never let Alex Kurtzman make a Star Trek series or two.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent
    thanks for the link Gymkata

    I've seen discussion of other edits that supposedly get it down to closer to two hours.
    All those action sequences that show off the 3d could be edited out too, they really padded out the movie. Just getting it down to only what Tolkien wrote should reduce it to one single normal length movie. Even if there are resultant plot-holes, they should't be worse than most normal movies.

    Lord of the Rings was approx 1000pgs, not counting the appendices, and the three films add up to approx 10hrs.
    Therefor the Hobbit, which is only about 200pgs, should not be more than 2hrs.

    Stoopidest thing about the third film: in the book, Bilbo is knocked unconscious just before the battle begins, at the end of one chapter, then wakes up at the beginning of the next chapter and it's all over. Tolkien does not describe the Battle! That's a good two hours of movie right there that is not needed.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    A Streetcar Named Desire

    1950s classic starring Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando and Karl Malden, direct by Elia Kazan. I read the play ages ago when I was a student and remember enjoying it. Then while listening to a compilation of Alex North film music the other day I heard a couple of pieces from the film's score and that reminded me that I've been meaning to watch it for years. So I did that, and I also re-read the play beforehand to refresh my memory. I really enjoyed the film - the cinematography and set design was excellent, as were the performances. And Alex North's music was terrific too, not surprising since it was hearing the music which nudged me to watch the film.
  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,279MI6 Agent
    edited March 2020
    Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

    The Force Awakens was a disappointment to me as it felt like an inferior remake of A New Hope. The Last Jedi is by far my least favorite Star Wars movie as I did not care for the way many characters were used and Rian Johnson's insistence on dismantling everything from the prior films. So as you can imagine I was in no hurry to see TROS and went in with zero expectations.

    All that said, I ended up being entertained. Make no mistake, the plot of this movie has holes you could fly a Death Star thru and, as is typical for a JJ ABrams movie, whole swaths of it are copied from events in prior films. However, visually it looks great and the pace never really gives you time to stop and think about how implausible most of the movie is.

    Also, I have to admit taking a dark (side) pleasure in seeing Rian Johnson's ideas fall by the wayside one by one. Johnson tried to make Ben the big villain, Abrams redeems him. Johnson destroyed Luke's lightsaber, Abrams shows it freshly rebuilt. Johnson had Luke throw that lightsaber away, Abrams has Luke save it from a fire and quip "this deserves more respect", Johnson sank Luke's X-Wing, Abrams has him pull it from the water Yoda style. I could go on and on but you get the idea; the movie could have been just as easily titled Star Wars Episode 9: "F" Rian Johnson.

    The amount of fan service, from objects, characters and obscure references went, like everything else, just too far. But at the same time I didn't mind seeing things like the Tantive IV, the holographic chess table and so on.

    In terms of acting, the leads were all serviceable and actually behaved in ways you expected them to and were not the air-headed buffoons and "I know everything but won't tell you for no good reason" commanders from the prior film. Ian McDirmid's return as Palpatine stretched the laws of credibility to extreme lengths but he was always one of my favorite characters and hearing his cackling laugh and distinct intonation was enjoyable, although you'd think he would have learned by now that force lightning isn't mabye the best strategy to use against Jedi.

    So overall, despite it's derivative nature, flimsy plot and over the top fan service, I was entertained. It tried too hard to placate fans and comes across as more of an apology for Last Jedi, but at the end of the day I'd rather watch a movie that panders to the fans (who made this franchise what it is) and embraces its history than one that panders to the filmmaker's ego and critics (who never embraced these movies), subverts fan expectations so negatively and tries to dismantle 40 years of tradition in one fell swoop.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Just working my way through all the Star Was movies, and just want to ask
    Why does the Empire keep building " Death Stars " ... they've never worked,
    the Rebels keep blowing them up. The same can be said for Jurassic Park
    films. Given how many people have died in their resorts. How do they keep
    getting licences to open new ones ! ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    Hi Number 24, totally agree, I was really impressed with LOTR trilogy, especially the extended editions.
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent
    Quatermass and the Pit
    Hammer Films, 1967
    with Andrew Keir as Professor Bernard Quatermass
    also features Julian Glover (he's one of ours) as the closedminded military officer Quatermass is forced to work with

    I am aware this is a remake of a teevee serial from the 50s, the third in a series that is often claimed to be the predecessor of Doctor Who.
    I've never seen any Quatermass adventures before, but this one sure contains a whole bunch of the elements we would shortly see specifically in the Third Doctor's first season.
    As well as a character who looks and behaves exactly like Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, there is an efficient redheaded lady scientist who is our heroes most loyal ally, and a plot where London dwellers have dug too deep and unearthed an alien menace. Which was the plot to just about every Third Doctor story prior to the introduction of the Master.
    The Brigadier would first appear in a Second Doctor storyline in 1968, a year after this film was released.

    Hobb's Lane subway station is being expanded, when diggers unearth some odd shaped human skulls that are older than any known human fossil, then what at first appears to be an unexploded V2 rocket, except it is made of a metal does not exist on earth and contains the remains of giant three legged insects.
    There then follows a lot of cool research through the historic records of London back to the Middle Ages, showing that Hobb's Lane has always been a cursed place, with recurring rumours of demons dwelling beneath the earth.
    Quatermass hypothesises the giant insects are Martians who five million years ago selectively bred our apelike ancestors to create modern humans. Then when the military try to destroy the troublesome evidence before there is a panic, everything spontaneously starts to blow up real good, leading to an extended post-apocalyptic type final shot.
    Good stuff all round!

    Hey you know another film that was released a year later that hypothesised ancient alien visitors selectively bred our apelike ancestors to create us?
    2001!!
    You think Kubrick was also inspired by these Quatermass stories?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

    Standard 70's B-movie Monster flick. I watched it on YouTube and part of the way through
    I realised I'd seen this in the local cinema as a kid ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    I just fininshed a fan cut version of "Waterloo" (1970) at 2 h 10 minites. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSaGPIpb830
    It stars Christopher Plummer as Wellington and Rod Steiger as Napoleon. This is a very good film, and remarkably historical correct. It's also worth noteing that the magnificent battle scnenes are accomplished without a pixel of CGI, instead they used 20 000 Soviet soldiers. This is an epic if there ever was one. Just look at the French cavalry charge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=2k0K-yvQbeo&feature=emb_logo
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Plummer is good, as he usually is, but Steiger to my mind goes OTT (though less than he did in, say, "The Specialist"). He could be spot on ("In The Heat Of The Night", for which he won an Oscar) but that became a rarity as time went on.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Cpt Marvel :
    Perhaps all the other Marvel superhero movies have spoiled me, but I found this a very average superhero movie. It had
    The usual big action sequences and special effects ........ but just average in my opinion.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    Did you notice Lashana Lynch was in it?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    :)) Yes I did notice her.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Everything or Nothing: The untold story of 007.
    Still a fascinating look at the history of the Bond films.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. I'm trying to remember the last time Kevin Smith made a worthwhile--or even good--film. This one continues the streak. . .
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • PPK 7.65mmPPK 7.65mm Saratoga Springs NY USAPosts: 1,227MI6 Agent
    I watched the Jet Li film My Father is A Hero (1995) aka Jet Li's The Enforcer as its known in America. It is quite a departure from the films Li is known for being set in the present day and having gunplay and explosions in addition to martial arts. Li plays a undercover policeman from Mainland China who wanting to protect his family lets them believe he is a criminal. He ends up going to Hong Kong to try and catch a dangerous criminal with a hair trigger temper. The action scenes are well done and the scenes of Li interacting his son are really great to watch as well. It is a shame that Dragon Dynasty (An American company that specialized in releasing Chinese action/ martial arts movies) was not able to provide the original Chinese language track for the film, so I had to watch it with the English dubbing.
  • PostiebearPostiebear Kent, UKPosts: 255MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    Everything or Nothing: The untold story of 007.
    Still a fascinating look at the history of the Bond films.

    We just watched that again as well! Indeed, it's a really great documentary.

    Is this online or do you have the dvd
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I bought mine on Amazon Prime as a digital copy.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,906MI6 Agent
    edited April 2020
    Everything or Nothing: The untold story of 007.
    Postiebear wrote:
    Is this online or do you have the dvd
    same question, basically: is there a dvd?
    I downloaded the documentary in two parts off youtube, Postie you might try looking for it there if you haven't seen it.

    _____________________________________________________________
    EDIT: here's part 1
    I cant seem to find Part 2
  • PostiebearPostiebear Kent, UKPosts: 255MI6 Agent
    Thanks I saw the dvd for sale ages ago at the bond in motion museum in London and didn’t buy seen it for sale since at more money

    Will try YouTube

    Regards

    James
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I don't know if it's an age thing but on watching Everything or Nothing, I get quite emotional when it
    Gets to the parts of the passing of some of the pioneers of the series, and you think of all those from
    The "Bond" family we've lost over the years.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    EON exists on DVD. I know because I own a copy.
  • welshboy78welshboy78 Posts: 10,292MI6 Agent
    Think I bought mine digitally from iTunes

    Some great moments - Lazenby / Babs / Connery / Brozzer stories

    Doesn't have much of Daniel Craig in it but see he has his own documentary out soon I believe
    Instagram - bondclothes007
  • PostiebearPostiebear Kent, UKPosts: 255MI6 Agent
    Have just brought the dvd on amazon cheap as chips
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Die hard 4 -{ I love the die hards almost as much as Batman and Bond :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent
    Cockneys vs Zombies. I was looking for a Honor Blackman movie and watched this. It is so much fun and Honor must have had a ball filming this, blasting zombies to bits in a retirement home. There is an absolutely hilarious scene with Richard Briers and a Zimmer frame! Highly recommended :)
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
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