What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[Zzzptm]

Ahem... well... err... actually, I never finished watching it, it was just not my sort of film at all!

I'll see myself out!

 

[Charger]

THE TRAIN

An art loving Nazi officer wants to "secure" a whole bunch of French artwork from a museum in Paris and transport them to Germany near the end of the WW2. A resistance railroad worker Labiche is reluctantly thrown in to prevent that train from ever reaching Germany and keeping the artwork safe.

Master director John Frankenheimer delivers a powerful yet quite different war movie starring the ever charismatic Burt Lancaster and his near equal Paul Scofield.

There is a fair ammount of action and a good ammount of real trains smashed which makes it feel more real and Frankenheimer's camera runs are nothing short of brilliant. Lancaster did all of his own stunts which is something you don't see big action stars doing anymore (granted the stunts nowadays are bit more flashy but still), Burt was jumping off fast moving trains rolling down hills and such, quite impressive.

The movies wasn't all about the action though. There is a much deeper meaning to it as well...is art really worth dying for, or killing for? If it is then why...and just how many lives is one famous painting worth?

There was something special about movies made in these days, sure they aren't as flashy and fast paced and can be bit gringy but that special something is the ingredient that modern movies too often are missing.

*  *  *  ½

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Lightyear

The spinoff from the Toy Story franchise with the backstory for the inspiration of Buzz Lightyear. The voice cast has Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi and Bill Hader.

The crew of a space mission gets stranded on a planet when their hyperspace ship malfunctions. Buzz an intrepid space ranger attempts to find a way home as they test new components. Every attempt means he ages slower than the crew he leaves behind, such that the main part of film takes place he is accompanied by the grand children of the crew.

It's an ok film, probably unnecessary but better than Toy Story 4 by a stretch. 6/10

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Just to catch up a little, recently I've seen 3 films.. 2 about King Richard and 1 which is a slightly implausible heist film.


The Lost King
Revolves around the discovery of Richard IIIs remains beneath a Leicester car park. Starring Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan, Harry Lloyd and Mark Addy.

Hawkins plays an amateur historian in a dead end job who sees the Shakespeare play Richard III and becomes obsessed with him. She wants to work out from what details are known as to where he was hastily buried after dying in battle. Her obsession infuriates her former husband (Coogan) who has to step in to look after the kids, and a very experienced archaeologist (Addy) who wants to do things by the book.

It's a nice little film, but the story seems to have been twisted to make it more cinematic. For instance Leicester University are suing the film makers because it portrays them in a bad way (they come across as hostile and uncooperative)! It maybe would have been a better TV movie though. 6/10


King Richard
Not a real king in this film, but the story of how Richard Williams took his girls Venus and Serena to Tennis stardom. Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton.

It takes the Williams' from virtual poverty to the edge of world domination, showing the tactics and tricks that Richard Williams deployed to get the best training for his girls.

I didn't much like the film, it shows Richard as pretty much a thoroughly unpleasant character (which is maybe what was needed to achieve his goals). It doesn't help that I'm not a tennis fan, but I wanted to see what the fuss was about as Smith won his Oscar for this film. 4/10


Ambulance
A heist film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González and Jackson White.

A bank robbery goes wrong and brothers Danny and Will Sharp (Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen) have to make a hasty getaway. They are confronted by and shoot a cop (White), a few minutes later after being unable to find an escape route they come across the ambulance which has the wounded cop they shot in the back. They hijack the Ambulance along with medic Cam (Gonzalez) and make their escape. Danny realizes that as they shot the cop it is important that he stays alive as cop killers are not going to get an easy life, so the rest of the film is them escaping from the pursuing police and Cam does all she can to keep the wounded cop alive.

Look it's a fun film but completely absurd, is it really that difficult to stop an ambulance with all these cop cars? That aside there is much to like about it. 7/10

[Zzzptm]

When a director decides there's gonna be a big cop car chase scene, there's a big cop car chase scene, damn all logic against it!

[Charger]

JURASSIC PARK

An eccentric millionaire wants to create a theme park like no other with live cloned dinosaurs and invites a group of scientists to explore it first and say that it's safe...needless to say things don't quite go as planned thanks to this guy

and all hell breaks loose in the form of T-Rex and Raptors.

Steven Spielberg's classic is a bench mark of disaster movies and a movie that single handedly made dinosaurs cool for everyone not just us nerdy kids.

It is hard to believe that this movie is almost 30 years old already. The effects for the most part have stood the test of time really well and the animatronics look as cool as ever.

*  *  *  *  ½

[Zzzptm]

We saw The Bad Guys last night. Pretty predictable, but it's a family movie, so predictableness is predictable. Some cute moments, but it ain't no Miyazaki. Best viewed for free in the home, like I did.

[Thelemech]

I have finally watched the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and I must say that I am very impressed. I give them all a 9/10.

[Zzzptm]

Planning to watch the Bollywood version of Avatar, it looks totally awesome.

[Charger]

What the hell?? So are they singing and dancing all the action scenes?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

@Thel

Couldn't agree more. The last one is my favourite film of all time!

@Zzzptm

That's just wrong!

[Jack the Stripper]

So does anyone have a movie they’re most anticipating that’s coming out next year?

Mine would be “Killers of the Flower Moon” An American Western crime drama directed by Scorsese starring DiCaprio and De Niro.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

It's been a quiet year this year, if a film wasn't a huge box office juggernaut it was a minor film, very little in between. This is rather shockingly proven by the fact that the only BIG film in the whole month of December is Avatar 2 (ok maybe Puss in Boots 2 too but I'm not expecting much from that). There will be the usually round of Oscar contenders but they rarely do that much business and most don't get released in the UK until the new year.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is I hope that 2023 is a much better year. The films I'm looking forward to are:

Killers of the Flower Moon does look good as Jack says, it hasn't got a release date in the UK yet.
Ant Man 3
Dungeons and Dragons
John Wick 4
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Indiana Jones 5 if it happens
Mission Impossible 7 part 1
Oppenheimer the next Christopher Nolan project
The Meg 2 maybe
The Equalizer 3
Expendables 4
Dune Part 2

That's more than I thought, and others will probably appear in due course.

If I had to pick just the one it would be John Wick or Guardians of the Galaxy

[Jack the Stripper]

Killers of the Flower Moon does look good as Jack says, it hasn't got a release date in the UK yet.

Its scheduled to premiere at the Cannes film festival in May. Probably a summer release will follow.

Was hoping Deadpool 3 would come out next year but it’s looking like a 2024 release. Hugh Jackman will be reprising his role as Wolverine in it.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
It's pencilled in for Nov 2024, I guess it has to fit in with the other MCU films schedules.