What was the last Movie you saw... Part III

[Typhon]

One of Hammer Studio's last and most eerie films, with some big stars in the cast.  You can even get a glimpse of Black Sabbath's Born Again cover in this one.   An American occult novelist (Richard Widmark) battles to save the soul of a young girl (Nastassja Kinski) from a group of Satanists, led by an excommunicated priest (Christopher Lee), who plan on using her as the representative of the Devil on Earth.  7.5/10

[Zzzptm]

Watched "The Climb (L'Ascension)" last night. Based on the true story of a man that climbed Everest on his very first attempt... to ever climb a mountain! The film is sweetened up with a love story, very enjoyable, feel good happy ending sort of film.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

We watched Saving Grace on rental yesterday. A crime comedy starring Brenda Blethyn and Craig Ferguson that's set in a quiet coastal town in the South West of Britain.

Grace is suddenly widowed and it turns out that her husband had many secrets which means she owes a small fortune to various businesses. As it becomes clear that she will have to sell the family estate she and her gardener/odd job man come up with a plan to make lots of money... by illegally growing canabis.

It's a quaint comedy in the vein of many British low budget drama/comdies such as Little Voice, Local Hero or Gregory's Girl. The plot is vaguely ludicrus and quite flimsy, but the performances are good. 6/10

[Typhon]

In May 1940, the fate of Western Europe hangs on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean a humiliating defeat for Britain and its empire.  Superb performance by Gary Oldman as Churchill. 9/10

[Typhon]

A French film about a porter and a top-model who have to pretend to be a couple in order to salvage a philandering CEO's marriage.  Some good laughs. 7/10

[Typhon]

A young woman, fleeing from an abusive husband, lands in Southport, North Carolina where she bonds with a widower until her husband tracks her down. 7/10

[Zzzptm]

Watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse last night at my kids' insistence. Hobo Spider-Man was my favorite. Of course there was a lot of predictability - it's a superhero movie - but there was the warm family/dad angle that I enjoyed. Did I have fun? Yes. Will I watch another superhero movie? Probably not. I'm just not a fan of the genre, particularly Marvel/DC films in which that origin story has to get rehashed over and over and over again. Just *be* the heroes and do your things, all right? That's why I love Mystery Men so much more: no real origin stories.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I saw Spies in Disguise the other day, the animated film starring the voices of Will Smith (Lance) who plays suave James Bond style super agent and Tom Holland (Walter) a nerdy young inventor trying to get recognised by his bosses.

The plot centres around a top secret military drone being sold to the bad guys and Lance must infiltrate and recover the device. Walter has developed devices which might help but has also developed a gene editing device which can transform one creature into another. Lance mistakenly drinks the experiment and is turned into a pigeon. In pigeon form he must try and rescue the drone whilst Walter helps and tries to turn him back to his normal form.

There are some funny moments in the film, but also a whole bunch of cliches, the animation is acceptable if nothing special. 6.5/10

[AnnoMundi]

One of Hammer Studio's last and most eerie films, with some big stars in the cast.  You can even get a glimpse of Black Sabbath's Born Again cover in this one.   An American occult novelist (Richard Widmark) battles to save the soul of a young girl (Nastassja Kinski) from a group of Satanists, led by an excommunicated priest (Christopher Lee), who plan on using her as the representative of the Devil on Earth.  7.5/10

I think I've seen this one, can't remember, but the title sounds familiar.

[AnnoMundi]

I watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker yesterday, and it was a good film. The final film in the trilogy of trilogies sort of wraps most things up... but that's not to suggest it will be the last we hear from the Star Wars universe! All the main characters return (although for Carrie Fisher it is with spare scenes she shot for the 2 earlier films). We also see the return of Emperor Palpatine and Lando Calrissian, and new characters played by Richard E Grant and Dominic Monaghan.

The plot evolves around finding a "key" which will unlock a secret part of the universe where the Sith have a huge battle fleet. As always the good guys go planet hopping visiting a variety of interesting places. The effects are up to the usual standard you would expect from this franchise.

It has its flaws and some of the story is plainly nonsense, but it does feel more like a Star Wars story than The Last Jedi (which I liked a lot also), but the characters work well together and the imagery is great. 8/10

I saw this too, but was confused by Rey being Palpatine's daughter, it was never mentioned the Emperor had a granddaughter or a family for that matter, I thought that Sith were loners and didn't marry, also disappointed that they didn't bring back Darth Vader as a force ghost, he was what the Star Wars movies were all about.

It was better than the last Star Wars movie.

[Zzzptm]

Yesterday the missus and I watched two films.

First was Strictly Ballroom. We've loved that film ever since we first saw it and it was great to go back and revisit an old friend. It's a predictable love story, but enough clever twists in the evil plot surrounding Our Hero to remain entertaining, even almost 30 years later. The characters are great, there's some wonderful dialogue for the kids and the villain that we quote often, especially when watching ballroom dancing competitions, and the ending is just so satisifyingly fun that this film is one of our evergreens. If you've seen it before and liked it, go see it again, it hasn't aged at all.

Next was Netflix' Marriage Story with Scarlett Johansen and Adam Driver. It's the story of two people moving in different directions and what happens to their relationship after they hire lawyers. It is gut-wrenching, emotionally charged, and nauseating, but we stayed through it all because we really felt attached to both the leads. We alternated between wanting them to be together and to just be done with it, we booed pretty much all of the lawyers and determined that even if we grew to hate each other, we hated divorce lawyers more and would never get a divorce just to spite the whole of the family law industry.

Driver's acting in this film and Black Klansman has won me over to where I can forgive anything that Star Wars throws at him. There were times when I could see in his face his character's contemplation of whether or not it would be cheaper to buy a gun and bullets than to keep going with the lawyers. Johansen gave us another strong performance, with the close-up scenes being her best, where the nuance in her face tells us a bigger story than the dialogue. Both do musical numbers at the end, and Driver's interpretation of Sondheim's "Being Alive", well, here it is to judge for yourself:

It's not his musicality, but his emotion that makes this performance.

[Typhon]

A film dedicated to the Navy SEALs, based on actual covert missions.  Some parts in the film were played by SEALs, rather than actors.  It was amazing to see the high level weapons and technology now in use.  As one SEAL said in the commentary, "There are many acts of heroism that the general public will never know about."  Great respect for these men and women. 8/10

[Typhon]

Set in the 1980s, a teenager from Vermont moves to New York City to live with his father in East Village.  Relationships are strained after one of his friends dies. 6.5/10

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I went to see 1917 yesterday, the WWI drama by director Sam Mendes inspired by stories his grandfather told him of the great war. The story tells of a mission assigned to Lance Corporal's Blake and Schofield to take a message across no mans land to a nearby division in order to call off the following mornings push on the German lines, otherwise 1600 men will die.

The two leads are George Mackay and Dean Charles Chapman - neither particularly well known although Chapman is probably best known for playing Tommen Barratheon in Game of Thrones. There are cameos from a number of better known actors including Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch. The film appears to have been made as one long shot with no cuts or edits - obviously there are but they are concealed by entering a dark room or going behind a tree or wall etc.

The close quarter actions and reactions are great and it is really immersive. The performances are tremendous and I can see why this is getting all the awards nominations this year. 9.5/10

[AnnoMundi]

Hey Kilo, did you see my quote to your post on Star Wars?

Did you think the same thing?