Paid Members WeeAl Posted October 15, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) 5 hours ago, Loki said: The fight scenes in Wick 4 were great, but as a film it was too long and too much plotty po-faced talking.  Cut 40 minutes and it would have been better.  My sentiments exactly when my brother and I were coming out of it. This was what we differed on as we chatted about it afterwards. It fell into this modern trap of just going on and on and on. There's no need for a straight up action film to approach anything near that duration. It's a stunt show - keep it snappy. Edited October 15, 2023 by WeeAl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted October 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 17, 2023 (edited) Hocus Pocus 2 Absolute dogshit. Every kids' show Halloween cliché imaginable - a character loses his head, and immediately starts insulting his own headless body as it tries to follow him - paired with sub-Disney Channel teen show acting, a completely unearned third act redemption, a paper-thin plot and terrible jokes. I also have a pet hate of any horror movie, or movie about witches, that relies on the Salem Witch Trials as its backstory. Partly because it's lazy hack stuff, but also because by introducing the Salem Witch Trials into a narrative where witches are real tacitly suggests that the people of Salem were right to murder a load of women. Terrible way to start out my Halloween viewing, not helped by Mrs. BomberPat following it up with a particularly terrible episode of Buffy.  Thankfully I'm going to a screening of Haxan this week and the 1925 Lon Chaney Phantom Of The Opera later in the month, both far more to my Halloween-y tastes. Edited October 17, 2023 by BomberPat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 I actually only watched the first Hocus Pocus for the first time this week. It just wasn't something that ever appealed to me before. Then I watched the 2nd and that really wasn't needed. I have no idea what they're going to do in the 3rd one. Well, probably exactly the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted October 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 17, 2023 The first Hocus Pocus is great, we go to see it at the cinema every year. 47 minutes ago, BomberPat said: a particularly terrible episode of Buffy. They're all like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted October 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 17, 2023 33 minutes ago, BomberPat said: Thankfully I'm going to a screening of Haxan this week and the 1925 Lon Chaney Phantom Of The Opera later in the month, both far more to my Halloween-y tastes. A friend of mine does live scores to classic silent films, and he did the Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera last year. I'd never fully seen it before, and the colour sequences are astonishing.  The Exorcist: Believer In a TV-movie kind of way, the first half is pretty good. Leslie Odom Jr and Leslie Jewett are both strong, and the missing kids element works pretty well. Looking at that, and the basic 'choice' bit that's tied in, this really feels like a totally different story, which someone decided to spray paint 'The Exorcist' over. And it's all the bits where they try to force the franchise in that fall apart. As a stand-alone film, it's not great, but it's okay. As a franchise relaunch? Utter disaster. It works against the movie and the franchise. While I get the idea of the multi-denominational exorcism, it felt a bit weak. I'd have rather they just used two different religions and made the contrast against them more of a thing. Instead, it just felt a bit wishy-washy and not so much about the forces of goodness and faith as much as about 'Live, Laugh, Love' spirituality vs Evil.  Frankenstein / Bride of Frankenstein double bill (Cinema) These are just fantastic. I'd seen them before but not for ages. But considering how stagey Dracula felt, this really felt like it was made by a movie maker. And as good as Frankenstein is, Bride is even better. Karloff's performance is just as good as you remember. Watching them back to back, I was surprised how different his face looked in Bride, but it's because he had a dialogue, which prevented him from removing his dental plate as he did in the first one. That said, Elsa Lanchester, in barely two minutes of screen-time, manages to give a totally unexpected, iconic performance as well. And the supporting cast generally is great - Dwight Frye seems to have been poorly under-served for his career, considering how great he is in both this and Dracula. It's a bizarre choice to have Una O'Connor in basically every scene in Bride, but I enjoyed her this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Chris B said: While I get the idea of the multi-denominational exorcism, it felt a bit weak. I'd have rather they just used two different religions and made the contrast against them more of a thing. Instead, it just felt a bit wishy-washy and not so much about the forces of goodness and faith as much as about 'Live, Laugh, Love' spirituality vs Evil. That part made utterly no sense at all. It is the dumbest thing they could have done -Â that and that line about patriarchy which is so ridiculous and stupid it was when I nearly walked out. Good on Ellen Burstyn for just getting a fat cheque apparently for this. Quite why all reboot films must make the people in the original miserable and bitter all the time is a trope that needs to fuck off. It's a film by people who have heard of The Exorcist but actually know fuck all about it. They should have just tried to re-imagine Exorcist 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TibBo Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 The only Exorcist sequel worth watching is that episode of Dinosaurs where the baby gets possessed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted October 18, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 18, 2023 To be fair, Exorcist III is really actually quite good, and has one of the greatest jump scares in cinema. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 3 hours ago, Chris B said: To be fair, Exorcist III is really actually quite good, and has one of the greatest jump scares in cinema. Three has some great moments and it's tone is relentless. A really good idea that was slightly ruined by the studio. I maintain David Fincher stole his tone off of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted October 20, 2023 Share Posted October 20, 2023 (edited) On 10/6/2023 at 11:04 AM, John Matrix said: Whilst the franchise has never been great for it, the CGI in this is fucking ATROCIOUS. In one of the earlier scenes, Stallone pays a visit to Christmas at home - who's suddenly married to someone other than Charisma Carpenter that we've never met, and just happens to be a fellow high ranking expendable (but don't worry about that, because they don't). As they stand in the doorway, there's a green screen background of the street behind them which is less convincing than when the put up a roller banner of some bushes outside the front door of people's houses in Neighbours. I'm no snob when it comes to stuff like this, having watched and enjoyed the shittest of the shit in my time, but when it becomes a distraction, you've got it all wrong.  Just giving this a watch, and the car chase CGI at the beginning is some of the worst Ive ever seen. I cant believe they had the nerve to put this out in the cinema. A very strange choice to have the stars do all the action in front of a green screen, and then clearly have stunt doubles doing the live action part. Its straight to DVD from 20 years ago quality. This is without mentioning the plane CGI, which is PS2 cut scene quality. Hopefully theres a youtube comp out there with all the bad stuff, and if so, I highly recommend watching it. Edited October 20, 2023 by Dai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted October 20, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 20, 2023 Spoiler Barney (Stallone) murdering someone to cover his absence from the majority of the film. Is a very strange way of being a hero. It was very strangely filmed and full of incredibly hammy acting. Yes. I know I was watching The Expendables. The film seemed to have been made very cheaply. Not quite sure where the budget went. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted October 20, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 20, 2023 Ghosts of Mars Definitely nowhere near John Carpenter's best but it's weird and entertaining without much ever happening. Jason Statham repeatedly hits on Natasha Henstridge and who can blame the lad, lads?!! Also, Ice Cube's character is called Desolation Williams so 5 stars obviously. Vampire's Kiss I've never favoured it when Nic Cage goes Full Cage but this is the best use of him in that mode that I've seen, just ahead of Bad Lieutenant. I just laughed at everything he did from about the halfway mark onwards, even though underneath it is quite a sharp story of toxic masculinity. Brilliant film, nothing quite like it. The Boogeyman (2023) Hey guys we made a horror film about trauma, bet you haven't seen many of those the last few years! Just fucking go away. The Purge: Anarchy Seventeen times better than the first one and still not very good. I don't like Frank Grillo. I'm not watching any more of these, they're stupid and shit. Deranged (1974) (YouTube) Marley from Home Alone starts carving women up after his mum dies. Kevin's early fears were well founded! Loosely based on Ed Gein, it's probably a bit funnier than it should be but also a really nasty and effective serial killer horror film. Graveyard Shift (YouTube) Stephen King thought it was shit so obviously it's not bad. Impressively sweaty and dirty, and Brad Dourif's in it. Better than I remembered. Skinamarink (Shudder) Has had its back blown out by horror nerds the last few months but it's not very good at all. Even I found it boring and patience-testing. Might make for a really good short film but at feature length it doesn't work at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted October 21, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 21, 2023 I have a bit of a soft spot for The Purge series @Devon Malcolm. Though I’d say the last one is probably the best (The First Purge, 3,2,1) because it was basically a message about the at the time current Trump presidency and political bollocks. Or I’ve misremembered and they are shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Murtz Posted October 21, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted October 21, 2023 I spent half a day watching Killers of the Flower Moon yesterday. I love most of Scorsese's films, but this was a real chore to get through. It's not even the 3hr 26m runtime, I just found it boring, and it didn't really kick on from a decent opening 30 mins. Really disappointed as I had high hopes. Clearly I'm in the minority considering the widespread acclaim it's getting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted October 21, 2023 Share Posted October 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Murtz said: I spent half a day watching Killers of the Flower Moon yesterday. I love most of Scorsese's films, but this was a real chore to get through. It's not even the 3hr 26m runtime, I just found it boring, and it didn't really kick on from a decent opening 30 mins. Really disappointed as I had high hopes. Clearly I'm in the minority considering the widespread acclaim it's getting. The book was fantastic, I read it last month. Â That run time is definitely off putting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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