Movies

Saw Gladiator 2 last night. It was OK, nothing more. Pretty much a direct copy of the original, but inferior in every way.

Saw Wicked today. I love a musical, so I really enjoyed it.

I almost was seeing that tonight, but we couldn't get tickets at short notice. So instead I'm watching Moulin Rouge.

I generally do not like musicals, although this is actually kinda fun.

Moulin Rouge is dizzying for the first 40 minutes but then settles down into something quite marvellous. Not a massive fan of musicals but did like that one.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of the Apes is a very good film if you have the patience for it. It is long and slow but kicks in about half way through and oh those sneaky humans! I can see where this is going but oh the humanity do I like it. The Special Effects are out of this world. Mega Tricerators on a delay.

Woman Of The Hour is an interesting film and based on real events. I guess Serial Killers can be both Charming and Funny. Whatever happened to Dave M?

Rebel Ridge is what Jack Reacher should be. A really good thriller with an excellent character who is always looking to deescalate but finds that people don't play by the same rules. One of the better Netflix actioners. Highly recommended. Lots of flying winged serpents with bullets on top.

Chicago: Action Jackson.

I wasn't a fan of Rebel Ridge, I'm a fan of Saulnier's work but I thought he tried to walk the line between action movie and intelligent thriller and ended up missing both marks.

I've started a rewatch of the Alien series. Haven't seen any of them in years, the original hasn't held up very well but the sequel remains an outstanding movie with some truly iconic moments.

Mrs BW saw it on the day of release and we surprised her with West End tickets yesterday for her birthday. One of the best things I've ever seen.

Twisters, a sort of updated version of the classic 90's movie, it was a bit shit, but passed some time.

I did the same after watching Romulus a wee while back.

Off them all the one movie my opinion had changed the most on was Alien 3. At the time I thought it was bobbins and even watching a few yrs after release I didn’t like it.

I much preferred after about 30 yrs to stop being mardy about the off screen deaths. Set design is great, some ace performances and apart from some shonky early CGI it’s aged really well IMO.

I haven’t see the Fincher cut yet, apparently it ties it all together a bit better.

I actually watched the Director's Cut of 3 last night, I enjoyed it a lot. But I think I enjoyed it the original cut when I saw it years ago as well.

Resurrection tonight. I don't know if I've ever seen it.

I like Resurrection on the whole - it has a great B movie cast. But the ending, especially the critter, didn't quite work for me and the dialogue is very typical Whedon, for better or worse.
1, 2 and 3 all have plenty to enjoy. Prometheus is a beautiful mess and Covenant is horrible in ways i simply won't express.

I really enjoyed Prometheus when I saw it some years ago. I've definitely never seen Covenant.

Resurrection was (IMO) shite then and it’s shite now.

It’s hammy. A Whedon Firefly movie that just happens to have an Alien or two in it. Underwater scene is OK and hybrid Ripley is a cool concept. But it’s just poorly executed.

Alien covenant is horrible. This is probably why I haven’t seen the new one.

Chicago: Mardy.

I think I've only seen the first one and the most recent one. Should probably fill in the gap.

FWIW, I still enjoy Alien but it is slow by modern standards.
Aliens is one of the best sequels of all time (not the highest bar, but still).
3 (cubed?) is a decent-ish film ahead of it’s time in some areas with a bit too much of a shock to the system at the beginning to truly recover (do wish they’d set it on Earth as some originally planned).
Haven’t bothered since other than Prometheus, which I remember looking gorgeous but being angry at by the end. Mostly at the characters. Which is saying something for horror.
Heard good things about the latest as it apparently tries to copy the first one for the most part. Will get around to it at some point.

There was also a plan from Vincent Ward to set it on a monk-only planet made entirely of wood.

Resurrection was OK but clearly the weakest of the 4 Weaver movies. I would rank them as:

1. Aliens, and by a clear distance
2. Alien 3
3. Alien
4. Resurrection

Always wondered how they were going to explain that or whether they’d just Hollywood hand-wave it away.
There was a comic a few years before with an older Newt on her way to Earth. I didn’t complete reading it but iirc, Weyland are breeding Aliens for military purposes, they get loose on Earth and Ripley shows up to kick some alien ass at some point. It’s also how some later comics managed to weave the Predators into the timeline as they help the humans.
As I said, I never read much but it seemed a bit more satisfying than the way Hollywood ended up going with either franchise (Predators and Prey aside).

Some people cite the wooden planet as a missed opportunity. I read the leaked script of it once. It wasn’t very good.

I saw it described as simultaneously the best and worst idea ever. I think that sounds right.