What Did You Watch Today?

[stokeriño]

Deadpool veered dramatically between being Super-Silly and Super-Serious, and yes there's not a huge amount to the plot, but the fun bits were so fun that it's definitely one I'll be rewatching in the future.

[Lint]

Has @TLHobo ever done an episode on Robin Hood Prince of Thieves?  Watching it now...and as much as I know its inaccurate as hell, its one of my favorite movies.  I've found that movies I really like are the ones I also like torn to shred by people like Cinemasins, Half In The Bag etc...

[SlicedBread]

Went to see Zoolander 2 and it's the same formula as Anchorman 2, a weird story filled with a bunch of cameos. I liked it though.

Also went to see Deadpool right after, for a 2 hour movie it flew by fast. Really funny.

[GA!]

Deadpool

I feel sorry for The Losers and Super and the other irreverent superhero films that arrived too early to take advantage of memeable marketing. The heightened awareness for Deadpool has taken what’s an also-ran, C-List concept and made it a genuine event film (in February, no less).

Deadpool’s pop culture-laden, meta humour - executed swaggeringly by Ryan Reynolds, in arguably his first believable film role - means you’re always entertained. But for all the threats of a subversive, deconstructionist piece about the superhero genre (“Produced by Asshats”), it revels in cliches without any trace of irony. Cue the damsel in distress. Cue the one-dimensional British villain. Cue the anti-hero whose imperfections are only skin-deep, no pun intended. Cue the origin story which, in relative terms, is as inspired as a backstory about an estate agent.

The hype has us believe Deadpool reinvents the wheel when it's just a tyre in a long production line. The zippy, 18-rated humour makes it a worthwhile watch, but is Deadpool really the material of a franchise, no matter how many times Reynolds turns to the camera to point out how ridiculous that sounds?

————

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Everything is a remix, so why not mash-up the stuffy classics for today’s (alleged) ADHD audiences?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies makes some astute observations on the portrayal of women in film and literature. There are several hilarious sequences in which the Bennett sisters transform suddenly from kick-arse warriors into typical tittering girlishness. Director Burr Steers also packs a cinematic punch as he visualises a costume-drama by way of Horrible Histories. Longbourn House, in particular, contrasts sharply between its beautiful architecture and the spiky, militaristic defence system surrounding it.

Yet Pride…, assuming most of the fault lies in Seth Grahame-Smith’s source material, never properly integrates the zombies into the world of Jane Austen. The undead always appear as an aside, never interfering in important matters of marriage proposals and tea at Lady Catherine’s house. They are a mere distraction for another straightforward telling of Pride and Prejudice; an ‘aspirational’ tale for those women who yearn to become nothing but the trophy wife of a weaselly but extremely rich man.

Now, Pride and Prejudice and Third-Wave Feminism; that’s a book/film I want to see.

[Kyle]

I finally saw Legend the other day and I absolutely loved it as I can't get enough of 60's London gangster bollocks. And I use the term bollocks very accurately as I can imagine that film is very very inaccurate, still a good film though. 

[Benjamin]

Oh man, 45 Years offers a bit to think about, doesn't it? It's very... well, it tells us a lot when it should simply be showing it, but when it shows instead of telling us what is happening, it's pretty damn magnificent. The whole scene at the party was outstanding. I didn't like a lot of aspects about Geoff's character, though, he didn't have to bloody explain everything that could easily be shown a different way. I think that's why I'm iffy about it.

[Jimmy]

I found it a wonderful reflection of real life. I'm all for show and don't tell, but in real life people talk about things, sometimes they over explain, they ramble on. I really thought they created two human characters. Yeah, the party scene is devastating, and even more so becuase it constraints with all the talking. 

[MDK]

23 hours ago, Troy Saint said:

I finally saw Legend the other day and I absolutely loved it as I can't get enough of 60's London gangster bollocks. And I use the term bollocks very accurately as I can imagine that film is very very inaccurate, still a good film though. 

Hackney represent, yo.

[GhostMachine]

Watched The Martian a few days ago. Pretty good film, and while it does contain some comedic moments, its Golden Globe nomination, let alone win, was total bullshit. 

Coming in next from Netflix is Straight Outta Compton, which should be here Friday. Probably won't get to it until the weekend, though.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Easy Rider (1969), had an amazing soundtrack and a great Jack Nicholson for 10 minutes. Other than that, I expected more from this classic.

[GoGo Yubari]

Watched all the Oscar nominated shorts on Saturday because my theater was showing all of them. The animated field is stronger than the live-action field; there are three really great ones, a Pixar one that is good and clearly has a great backstory but feels sort of basic, and then one thing that's basically a glorified animated music video without the music. I think I'm ultimately going with the Chilean one about a bear, though the Russian cosmonaut love story and the stick-figure one that's basically about death and striving for immortality and shit both have strong points.

3 out of 5 of the live action shorts are super-harrowing and depressing, and naturally they also happen to be the longer ones. The Kosovo war short seems like the weightiest, but my favorite was probably the German child abduction one which is phenomenally acted and uses its time really well, even if its ending is of the "and then it just ends" variety.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I expected way too much from Hail, Caesar! (2016), the latest Coen Brothers film but it still fun and it has fucking Dolph Lundgren in it for 10 seconds!

[GA!]

I made the mistake, when deciding to start a marathon of films, to start with The Look of Silence. Utterly harrowing film that highlights humanity at its worst. So after finishing it, I've been goofing off and listening to podcasts instead because I feel gloomy now.

[MDK]

10 minutes ago, GA! said:

I made the mistake, when deciding to start a marathon of films, to start with The Look of Silence. Utterly harrowing film that highlights humanity at its worst. So after finishing it, I've been goofing off and listening to podcasts instead because I feel gloomy now.

Watch The Naked Gun. That'll cheer you up.

[GA!]

2 minutes ago, MDK said:

Watch The Naked Gun. That'll cheer you up.

I can never not just watch one Naked Gun film. I'd have to watch all three in a row, followed by Airplane, and I'm at work in the morning.

[MDK]

Just now, GA! said:

I can never not just watch one Naked Gun film. I'd have to watch all three in a row, followed by Airplane, and I'm at work in the morning.

Bloody casual

[GA!]

Zoolander No. 2: it sure is.

[MDK]

ZING!

[Monkey D. Lars]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny (2016) just fucking sucks. Yuen Woo-Ping, Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen, you three let me down big time!

[GA!]

23 hours ago, Lars Mulder said:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny (2016) just fucking sucks. Yuen Woo-Ping, Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen, you three let me down big time!

Co-signed.

 

EDIT, my somewhat longer review:

 

Another sequel that fails to understand why the original was so successful.

From a westerner’s perspective, which Sword of Destiny caters to by having its actors (strangely) speak English, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was exported over after The Matrix’s martial arts stylings found a bigger audience than some stoners in the darkest corner of Blockbuster.

The floaty fight scenes and operatic storyline may have been silly, but Wuxia back then felt cultured - a gateway into otherwise impenetrable or shambolic Eastern cinema.

Sword of Destiny has the Chinese actors and scenery, but everything else has been ground into a generic, American-friendly mush. It slots in nicely with the dozens of other films about generational prophecies and hard-to-follow fight scenes you can find on Netflix.

Related note: Netflix should stick to TV shows.