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

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I really should get back into posting some reviews, I'm a few behind such as The Hunger Games and Wonka. I'm still not going to the flicks as often as I used to.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Ok just to catch up with a few films I've seen recently...

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - A prequel to the earlier films and set when the games were still quite new. The games themselves are basically a rehash of those seen in the earlier films. Surprisingly that element ends with 60 minutes of the film still to go. The first hour and half is nothing new and the last hour is slow and tedious. 5/10

Wonka - Another prequel, this time of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It shows the early Willy Wonka as he struggles to establish his chocolate business. Timothee Chamalet is the titular Wonka with a pretty good supporting cast including Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Patterson Joseph, Tom Davis, Jim Carter and Hugh Grant. It's a musical re-using some of the songs from the Gene Wilder film plus some new ones. It's better than the Depp film but not as good as the Wilder film. 7/10

One Life - Recants the story of Nicholas Winton a stocks and shares man before the war who helps rescue hundreds of children from Czechoslovakia in the months leading up to the German invasion. The film has two time lines, portraying the events during 1939 and also in 1987 when he tries to sort his things out and gives a scrape book which details everything to the Jewish Society, this brought his actions to the attention of the world. The two time lines star Anthony Hopkins as the older Winton and Johnny Flynn as the younger one with support from Helena Bonham Carter and Jonathan Pryce. It tugs at the heart strings in all the right places, but I did feel it was a bit "by-the-numbers". Not a bad film though 6/10

The film I saw today...

Poor Things Rated R /18, 141 minutes
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, it stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef

We first see Bella Baxter (Stone) as an adult with a child-like mentality. We quickly discover that she has killed herself and been brought back to life by Dr Godwin Baxter (Dafoe) who is not unknown to meddle with nature and indeed has placed a child's brain into her head. He brings in Max (Youssef) to help monitor and study her development. Duncan (Ruffalo) comes to the house on business and falls for Bella who at this point has discovered the joys of "playing" with herself. Max falls in love with her too but the story arc follows Bella and Duncan as they head off to Europe where they have copious amounts of sex and Bella discovers that Duncan is a bit of a cad.

So the story is strange yet fascinating, set in an alternate London, Lisbon, a liner and Paris the gothic/steampunk/Frankenstein-like imagery is stunning. The story is great and very well told. I knew it was an 18 when I went in but wasn't aware at quite how much graphic sex there was in it (you see ALL of Stone!). Having said that the language and injury details might have gotten it an 18 anyway! It's one of the best films I've seen in a while! 9/10

[Charger]

I haven't posted a lot here in a loooong time since most of the movies I have watched in the past few months have been golden oldies...but some new ones too that I just didn't bother posting...but I think I'll get more active as well...starting with this one I watched yesterday.

UNCHARTED

A seasoned treasure hunter Victor Sullivan joins forces with a savy young thief Nate Drake to go after one of the biggest treasures in known history. But they're not alone in the hunt for Magellan's riches but there's a spanish nobleman and a hired gun right on their heels.

Based on a game of the same name there is a lot of over the top action and lots of "hey that feels like a game" sequences which is kind of stupid and kind of great at the same time.
The effects for the most part are good and the action is fast paced and video game like.

Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland both do great jobs and their chemistry is good and their banter quite well flowing.
Antonio Banderas doesn't get enough space to fully commit but Tati Gabrielle as his merc does a great job.

The ending promises a sequal and it is well deserved.

Movies based on games is a tough genre...you can get it right by changing a whole lot (original Resident Evil movies are a great example of that) or terribly wrong. This one is somewhere in the middle...it doesn't try to hide it's game roots in fact it embraces them.
Although I have never played the game so I have no idea how loyal the story is...but honestly it doesn't matter.

Good entertaining movie.

* * * ½

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I have seen Uncharted but I really can't remember anything about it, so it didn't leave much of a impression I suppose.

[Thelemech]

I watched Uncharted about 5 or so months ago and I enjoyed it for what it was
Some impressive special effects and like you charger I thought there was some good chemistry between the two leads
One of those big popcorn movies that successfully entertained

[Charger]

Agreed Thel!



ROLE PLAY

Emma and her husband Dave decide to stirr things up a bit with some role play in a hotel lobby but things take a strange turn when a stranger comes talking to Emma in a very friendly way. Turns out Emma is actually Anna a highly trained assassin who has now a bounty on her head placed by her old boss and mentor. Dave totally oblivious to his wife's secret life.

Kaley Cuoco is again brilliant in the role of Emma and David Oyelovo (who I've never even heard of) does a good job as Dave as well.

Sadly the movie eventhough is supposed to be an action comedy is lacking in action and....well comedy. There are few action parts but they aren't very well done and frankly Kaley doesn't really do action all that well. The only really funny bits of humor are in the first part of the movie and provided by the stranger in the bar portrayed brilliantly by the legend Bill Nighy. After that it's hard to even find a chuckle.

Too bad that Kaley Cuoco got involved in this instead of doing another season of Flight Attendant which now officially got canceled. That role fit her much better and she absolutely shined in that.

*  * ½

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Thinking about it I might have got Uncharted confused with The Lost City, that came out in 2022 also.!

[Charger]

Wasn't Lost City the one with Sandra Bullock? Haven't seen that one either yet but it is on my list...I think it was on Prime or SkyShowtime atleast at some point.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Yes, Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe with a brief cameo from Brad Pitt.

Although I don't remember it I gave it a 5 on IMDb!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Anyone But You

The girlfiend jumped at the the chance of seeing a Rom-Com as they're quite rare these days. It stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell as Bea and Ben, two actors I couldn't place but apparently they are established actors (Sweeney has 2 Emmy nominations! And Powell has been in some films I've seen).

Typical tropes of any Rom-Com are in evidence here. The two Americans meet unexpectedly go on a magical date, something goes wrong and they then hate each other. It turns out they have mutual friends who are getting married and they both get invited to the wedding in Australia. Once there their open hostility starts to overshadow proceedings so they agree to pretend to be a couple for the few days they are there.

AAAAHHHH!!!! My eyes!!

As stated all the tropes are there and we both predicted how the plot would unfold way before the events happened. The girlfiend actually quite enjoyed the film and laughed quite frequently... I less so.

I felt the leads looked the part, the acting was nothing special. Sweeney's acting is so wooden I almost got splinters... but she has a pretty face and nice boobs and that's all that matters these days!   3/10

[Charger]

Sweeney was in that god awful White Lotus show I watched from HBO a while back...And yes she wasn't too bad to look at...but her acting skills were rather non existent....although that show sucked in every goddamn way that maybe with something better she might be better...but I doubt it honestly. Great acting skills isn't the first thing that comes to mind with her!


Oh yes Lost City also had Channing Tatum...has that guy done anything good? I can't remember...oh well might give it ago anyways at some point just cause I like Sandra.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Just had a quick look and there's not much that Tatum's done which is "good". I would go with Dog, Logan Lucky, White House Down and 21/22 Jump Street films as being perfectly watchable out of a fairly extensive filmography.

[Thelemech]

Watching On Her Majesty Secret Service
George Lazenby has no charisma and is laughable as an actor. He is the worst Bond period and makes Daniel Craig look like gold in comparison.
The movie itself is full of garbage dialog and the plot is very boring 😴
The only redeeming quality was some solid fight scenes are peppered throughout the film
2.5/10

[Thelemech]

Oh and the way he's sleeping with all these different women but at the same time he is supposedly in love with his soon to be wife

I hate this one, I mean I really hate it 😒

[Zzzptm]

On the plane back home I watched The Getaway King, a nice Polish-language action comedy loosely based on the life of a thief who holds the world record for number of times he's escaped police/prison custody. It cleans up his actual life for the big screen and as a result we have a loveable rogue who steals from the rich and... yeah, he steals from the rich. Nice twist at the end to make his movie life come out nicely.

Great camera work in the film and I enjoyed the use of color stock to make things work out well for the cinematic storytelling. Good car chases, plenty of action and fun.