It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
So, some updating. I've watched a few movies...
11 of them in theatre:
High-Rise
Somewhat interesting in its ideas and visually, but messy, and escalating too fast.
Arrival
Nocturnal Animals
Very different from each other, but both good. Both directors' previous work would have been enough to convince me to see these. Both had great scores, too, and looked beautiful.
Jackie
Beautifully shot, and I liked it. Portman was good.
American Pastoral
Based on Philip Roth novel. Ewan McGregor's directorial debut. There's some interesting stuff here, but it felt sort aimless in the end. At least this viewer was just left wondering why this stuff happened. Especially perplexing was that one of the main characters didn't seem to have any comprehensible motivations (at any point) that one could have even tried to understand. (I don't know if those were explored in the book or not.)
La La Land
Colourful and shiny, in the end not all that happy. Beautiful to watch (apart from the opening scene which made me wish it would just stop already, and they'd get on with the story).
Lion
Incredibly this was based on a real story. The kid, Sunny Pawar, completely stole the show, and his section of the movie was the more interesting one.
Moonlight
This was great. Beautifully directed and shot, very well acted by everyone inviolved, and Nicholas Britell's score was beautiful. It's heartwarming that movies like this even get made, even more heartwarming when they get deserved attention. The smallest budgeted Best Pic winner ever (considering inflation).
Hidden Figures
Kinda charming, but also slightly irritating in some ways, but I quite enjoyed it. Based on a remarkable true story.
Logan
I was always going to see this at some point since it's by James Mangold, who has made several movies I've enjoyed a lot (the not good ones matter far less), but I wasn't going to see it in theatre since I don't find the X-men stuff interesting in general. But then I was listening to him talk about the movie he was supposed to have done between the two Wolverine ones. I can't imagine what it was like to have a movie collapse 13 days before shooting, but even I'm still absolutely gaaaaah about that one, I was looking forward to it, sigh. (I bet the insurance company that footed the bill wasn't happy, either, but I don't feel sorry for them, just everyone else involved.) And he was talking about how that movie kinda influenced this (indirectly, of course), and about other stuff, and I was thinking, well damn, smart guy, I like you, I think I'll go see this movie in theatre instead of waiting to see it on tv. And so I did. And liked it. Another great kid here; Dafne Keen was awesome. One of Hugh Jackman's better performances as well, and I'm curious to see what type of projects he'll be picking up going forward. Beltrami's score worked fine with the movie, but I wouldn't listen to it on its own. I tried, but, just, nope. (I mean, I listen to his 3:10 To Yuma a lot.)
Manchester By The Sea
I really like Casey Affleck as an actor and this is one of his best performances. Michelle Williams was also excellent. The characters felt like real people. A painful story, but told in a way that wasn't sentimental. Nothing here was larger than life, everything was kept at a very human level. An excellent movie.
The last two movies there lead to some other movie watching both before and after, I'll get back to that.
Watched this brilliant film last night without even realizing that today is 'Alien Day,' so it's pretty fitting and I'll likely follow it up with 'Aliens' this evening. I constantly flip-flop these days on whether or not this or Carpenter's 'Halloween' is my favorite horror film, but in this moment, I may have to go with 'Alien.' It nails everything I love in a horror movie: a broad cast with plausible personalities that you actually care for, a chilling atmosphere with incredible set designs, a nightmarish creature made solely from practical effects, and something I've picked up on more and more lately that I really appreciate is the subversion of expectations; I suppose horror movie tropes are easier to expect and call out these days, but given the first few victims in this fall under the "go off on your own and you die" expectation, it's nice to see it flipped once Ripley finally splits off from Parker and Lambert to find Jones.
Some other nice twists include Kane awakening first, which immediately pinpoints him as the possible lead in the film (with Ripley taking a backseat), just to bite the bullet first. Also, Dallas' final moments in the air shaft and the ambiguity regarding what happens to Lambert gives me chills even thinking about it. I just recently found out Lambert's death (particularly the way the tail wraps around her legs) was originally meant for Brett, but it revealed too much of the Xenomorph at the time so they went with what we got in the finished film.
End ramble. I love this movie.
If it wasn't for the puppetry work in 'Alien 3,' I'd rewatch it a hell of a lot more than I do now, which is typically only during marathons of the entire series. I usually get through a double bill of the first two, feels like a perfect place to leave off (same with the 'Terminator' series).
What a total blast! Jam-packed with hugely thrilling action, filled to the brink with hilarious humour (and some more emotional scenes), and a killer soundtrack. Drax and Yondu were a total riot, Rocket was hilarious, Baby Groot stole the show right during the opening credits, Kurt Russell was a proper badass, and I really loved the small appearances from
This film was absolute madness, I had so much fun watching it. Can't wait for Part 3 of this trilogy now!
Wow, @FoxRox. I think I need to move to your neck of the woods.
No, you do not want to. Besides that perk I can tell you where I am is a cultural wasteland...
I'd probably say the same for my area, but we don't even have a cool theater showing classic films. The closest thing we have to a cultural epicenter are two bars just blocks away from one another (one of them known for shootings and fights breaking out), but a drinker I am not.
This has to be one of the best movies about showbiz ever! Well directed, written and acted. Also very fun and engaging. And Jacqueline Bisset, man is she fine in this.
Zulu (1964)
Good film featuring Michael Caine's breakout role.
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Decent film, if a bit strange.
Masculin féminin (1966)
Good film about the lifes of young adults in 1960's France.
My favorite from Truffaut. Superb tribute to filmmaking.
Still need to see this.
My thoughts as well. Belmondo and Karina are far better than the film that's spun together around them. My favorite parts are the Vietnam War reenactment (in an American accent: "Yeah! Yeah!") and Karina singing about her fate line. The parts are better than the sum.
My second favorite of Godard's after Contempt and just ahead of My Life to Live. A film anyone interested in the French New Wave (or great cinema in general) should put on their "to watch" list.
Very moving story and one of my favorite Jack Nicholson performances. The scene when he gets into his car and has that fit never fails to crack me up though.
That part was funny; it had some comic relief. Overall it was extremely sad though.
I'm a north easterner, have been all my life. I prefer rural to city, but sometimes it's taxing.
The Fourth Protocol
I saw this years ago on VHS at a friends house- as a little kid (maybe 1995) I had only seen Michael Caine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a videotape my parents had. So this was quite an introduction to the badass Michael Caine!!
Last week I took a chance and bought the DVD on amazon-- there was a chance it wouldn't play because it was a Korean import (unfortunately one of the few ways to get this movie without a VHS player), but luckily it plays fine!
This is an easy to watch little thriller that has a surprisingly good pace, as well as many familiar faces:
Michael Caine and a pre-James Bond Pierce Brosnan of course, as well as Michael Gough, Ned Beatty, Julian Glover, Joanna Cassidy & Matt Frewer.
If you haven't seen it, give it a whirl- Caine plays sort of a realistic 'James Bond' who must track down Russian sleeper cell Pierce Brosnan (ok that sounds funny when you say it out loud) before he detonates an atom bomb.
This came out in 1987, a time when ol' Pierce could have been Bond, and here he shows just how ruthless he could be. This isn't like his cheesy attempts like 'Taffin'-- he's quite a bad guy here, and while I'm a Dalton fan to the end, this movie makes me envision a world where he got the role in The Living Daylights..... and it's actually not that bad!
I also have to mention that Pierce looks here, in 1987, virtually identical to his appearance in GoldenEye. The man aged well!
Long story short: The Fourth Protocol, good movie.
I prefer rural as well. City life isn't for me. I just miss the area I'm from; I live in two northeastern states and dearly miss them. I don't belong where I am now.
I know that feeling. I've got a bad bit of social anxiety too, so growing up in a familiar and small place doesn't really prepare you for the realities of life and facing those kinds of fears that a city would. In that way I've had to do a lot of growing/catching up, though I'm still not there yet. The reality of my life and what I degreed in means I'll likely have to go to a city, and that doesn't excite me in the least.
Very good film.
Seconded! Couldn't agree with you more.
The main problem with the film is none of it is particularly believable or convincing with characters who look far too clean cut and a contrived script with cheesy lines and forced camaraderie.
Dalton is obviously enjoying himself as the antagonist but otherwise a poor film.
What a terrific movie this one was. I saw a trailer a good while back but couldn't remember much from it, so I went in pretty blind. A nice spin on the zombie genre, with an excellent child actress in the leading role, surrounded by a good supporting cast, a phenomenal score, and some pretty intense, brutal moments, including a scene with a baby that rivals the bit from the 'Dawn of the Dead' remake. If you like zombie thrillers, I recommend this one.
Rogue One
X-Men Apocalypse
Weird Science
Pixels
You're a better man than I for sitting through that one.
Weird Science was the first Bill Paxton movie I saw after his death :(
It also was hoop to see the young Robert Downey Jr.