What film did you watch last night?

[Drago]

It was ok. Very good performance from Bradley Cooper. Ray Liotta plated the usual highly dodgy geezer. The ending was a bit wet though.

 

[AndyRM]

It is like 2 films joined together ,after 3 attempts I still have not seen the end .

You probably don't need to bother with it, the best bits are easily in the first 100 or so minutes, then it just sort of meanders along for a bit before dying.

 

[swee'pea99]

We had a horrorfest a couple of years ago and watched Deliverance. I think the problem is that mid eighties the pacing of films suddenly increased dramatically and it hasn't really slowed down. Going back to films prior to that they are prone to appearing to be stuffed with lots of filler. Although Deerhunter was always a slog.

I think this was just one of the main consequences of the internet, and one clear illustration of the way it's changed people's minds for ever.

In the space of a generation, we've gone from a culture dominated for most people, most of the time, by almost limitless tedium, to one accustomed (addicted?) to constant, rapid-fire stimulation. If you grew up in a small market town in the '50s, your brain was so thrilled to encounter anything more interesting than your mum moaning at you to clear up your room that biding your time for the payoff was absolutely fine. But the upcoming generation has been raised to expect a tasty treat every eight seconds or so - enduring 15 minutes in which not a great deal happens (other than boring, non-visual things like character development, mood, tone) is, almost literally, intolerable.

My eldest persuaded me to sit through Guardians of the Galaxy the other night, and I later discovered it has an IMDB rating of approaching 9, but it's really nothing but a succession of boom-bang-a-bang scenes with fantastic production values. She loves it. I find it barren.

I hope story survives. But the omens are not good.

(PS Deerhunter is a good film; Apocalypse now a great one. Deliverance is terrific too.)

 

[Leaway2]

The imitation game. It just didn't do it for me. The tension as they waited for the Bombe to stop could have been better as the realising the solution (the crib). I also thought that the Turing quirkiness varied during the film, but maybe that was how he was.
The "Tunny" gained from the Lorenz though Colossus wasn't mentioned, but maybe that was a time restriction.

 

[Profpointy]

The imitation game. It just didn't do it for me. The tension as they waited for the Bombe to stop could have been better as the realising the solution (the crib). I also thought that the Turing quirkiness varied during the film, but maybe that was how he was.
The "Tunny" gained from the Lorenz though Colossus wasn't mentioned, but maybe that was a time restriction.

Read a rather good biography of Turing, called "the enigma". Very much stresses his great importance as a mathematician apart from the contribution to Enigma which would have been minor puzzle solving to a brainbox like Turing. Amongst quite a lot else, Turing "invented" the whole notion of a programmable computer, or at least put in on a solid mathematical footing. Not yet seen the film, but it's clear (from the book) that he was certainly an odd chap. It also clear from the book, that his sexuality was not really a big deal amongst the Cambridge bohemian crowd he was part of, despite the poor treatment by the authorities after he was busted - which was in a sense a result of falling foul of the "don't ask, don't tell" regime of the time after a boyfriend had nicked some of his stuff . It also appears he was living fairly happily for some time afterwards before his death so the "hounded to suicide" thing didn't really figure much in the book. Given the author of said biography was himself something of a gay campaigner I understand, he'd doubtless have stressed this if it was there.

Not in the book, but I read another article suggesting the suicide could have been an accident. A cyanide laced apple might have seemed a bizarre suicide, but he did chemistry experiments and was rather slapdash apparently so an accident might seem more likely. We'll never know now.

 

[RWright]

American Sniper. Based on a true story of a Navy Seal Sniper in Iraq. I thought Bradley Cooper did a great job in the lead role. Plenty of action. Lots of drama. Directed by Clint Eastwood. I saw an interview with the real life sniper's wife. The girl playing her character looked very much like her. Some sad parts but war usually is. I thought it was a good movie.

 

[Leaway2]

Not in the book, but I read another article suggesting the suicide could have been an accident. A cyanide laced apple might have seemed a bizarre suicide, but he did chemistry experiments and was rather slapdash apparently so an accident might seem more likely. We'll never know now.

I have also seen the theory <tinfoil hat on>that the authorities killed him because of his knowledge <tinfoil hat off>

 

[Alex H]

25 minutes of The Grand Budapest Hotel - - I had to check on the web that it was a comedy.

9 Oscar Nominations

 

[AndyRM]

25 minutes of The Grand Budapest Hotel - - I had to check on the web that it was a comedy.

9 Oscar Nominations

Other than Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's films are properly marmite. I love Life Aquatic and Darjeeling Limited, but dislike everything else - particularly Royal Tenenbaums.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Been a slow day today... Sat and watched

• Paul VerHoeven's Black Book - really enjoyed it. 8/10
• source code - not too bad, not as good as first film and totally different to the first film only 7/10 though
• Ballad of a soldier - not too sure. Good in parts but maybe I have just watched too much today 7/0.

 

[davdandy]

Frenzy,a classic Hitchcock thriller set in London about a neck tie killer.Cant beat a bit of old Hitch.

 

[John the Monkey]

I think this was just one of the main consequences of the internet, and one clear illustration of the way it's changed people's minds for ever.

The apotheosis, I think, is Transformers 2, which for all the world appears to be a film made for people to watch while glancing up occasionally from their 'phones.

Still made $800 million at the box office though.

Anyway, I'm part way through "Machete", which I'm finding to be objectionable claptrap, given a veneer of irony to distance the viewer and filmmakers from it *just* enough. Dull, one dimensional stereotype characters, the dawning realisation that, unlike the fondly remembered exploitation films "Machete" is aping, this has been made to be this mannered and crashingly awful. Also features a cast of very good actors (as well as some cult names) hamming it up who should have known better.

I'm on the point of flipping a coin to see whether to carry on watching, if I'm honest.

 

[John the Monkey]

Well, the coin came down "Keep Watching", so I ploughed on to the end.

There was a bit of "immigration isn't that bad, and racism is bad" dialogue at one point, but mostly, the film continued in the leery, one dimensional way it had previously. I found the treatment of the women in the film particularly objectionable - it seems they can only fight while being objectified.

If you long for the gender politics of the 1970s, like a cynically gross out death scene (or 40), and one dimensional caricatures rather than characters, you'll bloody love this.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So far only the 1 film today...

Unknown: probably just 6.5 - 7/10 bit predictable tbh, not to mention loads of errors in it

 

[Sandra6]

25 minutes of The Grand Budapest Hotel - - I had to check on the web that it was a comedy.

9 Oscar Nominations

I just didn't get it. Mr6 and son loved it.