Movies

Movies I watched on the plane:

The Roofman. Harmless, moderately entertaining, mildly interesting as it's actually a real story, but not a remarkable movie.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. Much more entertaining than I expected, had me legitimately laughing out loud. Has a very good heart. If you like romcoms, and I do, it's well worth a watch.

Lady Bird. Been meaning to watch it for ages. Terrific.

The Break Up. Not very funny. Quite annoying. Utterly unbelievable, there's no way prime Jennifer Aniston is fawning and pining over Vince Vaughn like that IRL. GTFO with this stupidity.

Currently watching Tron: Arse. A friend of mine will not stop raving about how good it is. I have no idea why, it is atrocious on every level imaginable.

I couldn’t get through the last one (legacy). Just didn’t grab me at all. The trailer for this one hit all the right notes (looked a bit more complex, NIN soundtrack, etc) and then the reveal that Jared Leto was the lead and I was immediately off that bandwagon.

I thought Ares was absolutely fine. Leto is not good, but barely impacted the film beyond some deeply unnecessary extrapolation.
Easily the best Tron movie, although the competition isn't at all fierce. Clunky dialogue, fantastic music, empty characters, and great visuals.

The original Tron is magnificent. I even went to our fancy arthouse cinema a few years ago to see a 70mm print of it.

The NIN score for Arse is fabulous but the story is such hokum. I don't even hate Leto, it's just an awful film.

Watched Bugonia as part of my annual catch up of as many Oscar noms as possible before the event. I like Lanthimos and I know a lot of people don't, I thought it was typically bonkers and fun and the performances are terrific but the ending was predictable and I don't quite understand what he was going for with - and really don't click this spoiler if there's a chance you'll ever watch it because it will ruin the movie completely -

So I have now seen:

Bugonia
F1
One Battle After Another
Frankenstein
Sinners

I have lined up over the next couple of days (because they're on streaming):

The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Train Dreams

Which leaves me with Marty Supreme and Hamnet, both of which are still in theatres. I don't like the cinema, so if they don't come out on streaming before the awards then I won't see them in time. While I liked all the movies I've seen so far I hope the eventual winner is among the ones I haven't, because nothing so far has made me think it's quite worthy of the Best Picture award.

Of the movies nominated for other awards I'm keen to see Blue Moon (Linklater and Hawke is a proven combination) and Song Sung Blue (I'll watch pretty much anything with Hugh Jackman in).

Just wanted to pop by and say how much I hate Sinners once again. Also that I liked Bone Temple very much. Especially the Number of the Beast bit.

Air - the film about Nike securing Michael Jordan's signature against all the odds in 1984 by pitching a basketball trainer bearing his name.

Quite enjoyed it, but then I've been drawn a bit to Damon/Affleck films since Good Will Hunting. Passed a decent couple of hours on the plane this week.

Best Damon/Affleck movie is Dogma.

I mean. It isn’t. But it is fun

I'm watching Bone Temple. If Eli Roth had made this everyone would have said it was his usual pile of torture porn shite. They'd have been right as well. Complete toss.

Update: finished it now. By a massive distance the worst thing Alex Garland has ever written. Jack O'Connell's finally line made me literally say "OH COME ON" out loud.

Good performances and cinematography couldn't rescue a flimsy plot and terribly overworked script.

Naahh. I loved it.

On the other hand I finally got round to watching Predator Badlands. Such great material to work with and they go all Ja Jar Binks. WTAF? How do they keep fucking this stuff up?

I wanted to like Badlands and for a while it was pretty cool even though it was just an action movie with no real horror element.

But again with the band of misfits at the end. Disney trying to make it a young adult Firefly trip again.

Cool angle, poor execution.

As for Oscar nominated films. Loved One Battle after Another. Really enjoyed F1 even though it is total nonsense. Bugonia was fun. not mind blowing but enjoyed it. Sentimental Value is a sllllooooooooooooowww Scandinavian film that is all about feelings and is sloooooooooooooowwww. It was a giant piece of nothing. Russ will probably love it. Wasn't a massive fan of Sinners. Think stylistically it's impressive but it's really just a glorified version of From Dusk 'Till Dawn.

I will wait to watch the Bone Temple on demand. I thought the first one was interesting (28 years later) but less of a horror film than a coming of age film.

We watched the matthew mcconaughey film the Lost bus. For what it was it was very well done. Enjoyed it. (not sure people burning up is enjoyable but you know what i mean). Still not sure how they managed to film it as it looked very genuine. I know they used real footage but mixing it in with effects made it seamless. Computers are scary nowadays.

Chicago: Middle name Oscar.

Who turned the record off? Number Of The Beast is the first track on side 2, followed by Run To The Hills. Who turned it off?

Doubt I'll bother with the Predator movie, Prey was rubbish. The ending annoyed me intensely.

I liked Prey. Thought it was decent for what it was.

If you want to watch a fun Predator film. The n “Killer Of All Killers”, is the one to watch. Animated and bloody qnd totally ridiculous. Found it an enjoyable watch.

It’s on Hulu. Might be Disney + where you lot are.

Chicago: Stealthy.

A complete ripoff of the original, with the element of fun removed?

Watched Marty Supreme. It does many things for me, like make me realise that I didn't have such a bad time watching Bone Temple after all, and that Timothee Chalamet is never going to play a role in which I don't spend the entire movie wanting him to die in incredibly painful ways.

By some distance my most hated movie of this or many other Oscar years. Everything about it makes me want reach into the screen and throttle that sniveling apology for a human being.