Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow bought on DvD when it was new, and lurking around the house somewhere with others of its ilk… Jude Law as a “Biggles” clone ; Gwyneth Paltrow ditto “Lois Lane” ; Angelina Jolie as a 30s female British “Nick Fury” even including flying aircraft carriers - all good fun. Reviews were mixed. Who cares ?
But it turned up on Foxtel Movies the other night, and I find SO little of the glittering world of entertainment they offer, daily, enticing….
Anyway, I love this little retro-style movie, with little nods toward Flash Gordon, The kinds of movies the Indian Jones ones were based on, matinee serials…and perhaps the 1935 H.G.Wells “Things To Come” W.W.II predictive movie, etc.
The little “Easter egg” of King Kong on the Empire State in the background is fun.
I'd forgotten Michael Gambon (in some leftover wardrobe number from his “Singing Detective” days) and Omid Djalili (Iranian-born British comedian and actor, who was also in The Mummy) are both in this. I'm a fan of both, so why did I forget ?
Its barely coloured, washed-out, sepia-reminiscent look I find oddly attractive, along with the obvious “in front of screen” 1930s acting scenes
There's also a comics feel to it too.
Anyway, it's a fun film and gets 3 Goldilocks from me.

The Mummy - Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson.
Could have been much better without all those long, dull, boring scenes with hardly anything happening, ahem. Final credits took over 10 minutes. A 1 on the Moizmeter.

THE WOLFMAN - Benecio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins. Whoa, not much family resemblence from father to son I must say. Thought maybe Benecio took after mommy but we see portrait of her and forget that. Too much time in the USA maybe? Oh well, got to see Emily. A 1 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

THE REAPING - Hilary Swank…never mind, it's too stupid for words. A 0 on the Moizmeter altho Ms. Swank was gorgeous.

Found myself watching BLADE RUNNER again last nite, haven't seen it for awhile and must say it's even better than I remember, very close to the best movie ever and a monster 5 on the Moizmeter!

The Loft Karl Urban, James Marsden…and a bunch of people I don't know. 5 guys have a key each to a loft appt. in a new high-rise, for extramarital fun and games…until a dead girl is discovered in (and handcuffed to) the bed. Not a bad story, in a largely plot-deprived era, with nice little turns in it. I'll give it 3 Goldilocks…

moizmad wrote:
Found myself watching BLADE RUNNER again last nite, haven't seen it for awhile and must say it's even better than I remember, very close to the best movie ever and a monster 5 on the Moizmeter!

Yes, it's always been in my Top Ten (if there is such a thing - it probably has twelve in it anyway). I loved the blend of S.F., detective and love story genres. Largely centres on what it actually means to be human - a central theme of a lot of Philip K. Dick's stuff - the S.F. writer who has had more of his tales turned into film than any other **

** Total Recall, Minority Report (which I watched a few days ago), A Scanner Darkly, Impostor….and more, including 1962's Man In The High Castle, which they finally got around to doing on Netflix, recently

Yes,definitely 5 Goldilocks for Blade Runner.

…and Mortal Engines. Total escapism , with 2 “relative unknowns” (Robert Sheehan and Hera Helmasdottir) as lead characters and Aussie Hugo Weaving as the ‘baddy’, with ‘evergreen’ British actor Patrick Malahide and the dashing Colin Salmon leading the backup gang. Howl's Moving Castle meets Mad Max. Good fun. Try to avoid picking holes in the story ( I can't) and just down the pringles and beer/coke .

Ah, go on, I'll give it 3 Goldies - It was going to be 2+, but I'm in a good mood !

BearinOz wrote:
…and Mortal Engines. Total escapism , with 2 “relative unknowns” (Robert Sheehan and Hera Helmasdottir) as lead characters and Aussie Hugo Weaving as the ‘baddy’, with ‘evergreen’ British actor Patrick Malahide and the dashing Colin Salmon leading the backup gang. Howl's Moving Castle meets Mad Max. Good fun. Try to avoid picking holes in the story ( I can't) and just down the pringles and beer/coke .

Ah, go on, I'll give it 3 Goldies - It was going to be 2+, but I'm in a good mood !

It's a silly enjoyable bit of escapism, I managed to ignore the plot holes enough to enjoy it.

WELCOME THE STRANGER - Caleb Landry Jones, Riley Keough, Abbey Long? - 10 minutes in I was totally lost and think I nodded off a few times, couldn't make head nor tail of it. A 0 on the Moizmeter.

I finally have high speed internet (7+ years without it, and no cable), so the first thing I did was catch up on the animated series that concluded in the interim. I watched all of The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. Probably old news to most people, but I've been Rip Van Winkle to the world of television for a few years.

The Amazing World of Gumball ended abruptly, which was funny, and the series never intended to have an overarching plot.

Adventure Time scrambles to tie things up last season, as the series is mostly funny and episodic but has a few serial plot threads. It was obvious that it never meant to be serial, as they introduced final antagonists/conflicts in the last season.

Steven Universe moves at the same pace throughout the series as far as plot progression. The most important thing is that the main characters (especially Steven) stay true to character and never “break” despite overwhelming circumstances. It's such a feel-good, uplifting series, and I'm glad it managed to keep its mood, bouncing back from the intense parts, and that it wrapped everything up in the conclusion. (I haven't seen the movie. Might be a while before I can, since I always live a couple years in the past. It's cheaper that way.)

BLACK ‘47 - Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Barry Keoghan, Freddie Fox, Jim Broadbent. The Irish famine seen in 1847, with Hugo as an Englishman trying to capture Irish murderer Frecheville (2 Australians) under air tight orders under Fox. Rea is the interpreter as most Irish speak Celtic and don’t understand English. Much violence and not a nice time to be in the Emerald Isle. Quite a good watch getting 3 1/2 on the Moizmeter.

“Unearthed” …I have “DUST”on my faceache feed, and got to this indirectly from there : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVY1sAKSIzk&fbclid=IwAR1bsuV3LFwLvhjQnBBneMlG23TuliB76o0hcccT8Jyd6QGVHC6yBGbdA2I
a short S.F. piece with a good ending. 3 Goldilocks

BearinOz wrote:
“Unearthed” …I have “DUST”on my faceache feed, and got to this indirectly from there : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVY1sAKSIzk&fbclid=IwAR1bsuV3LFwLvhjQnBBneMlG23TuliB76o0hcccT8Jyd6QGVHC6yBGbdA2I
a short S.F. piece with a good ending. 3 Goldilocks

Very good approach to an old sci-fi short story plot. Even I wrote a treatment of this one once upon a time. Very good effects, though the shuttle models bounce a bit upon landing.

Very good approach to an old sci-fi short story plot. Even I wrote a treatment of this one once upon a time. Very good effects, though the shuttle models bounce a bit upon landing.

yeah, that alien technology was just not up to scratch, eh? B-)
….several ahorts later, I got side-tracked into watching a thing about reality, quantum gravity, quasicrystals and ‘E8’ . Now my brain needs a cold shower or something .

“The Dark Crystal” re-make on Netflix. Maybe it's a 5 episode mini-series, or will there be another season? My personal take-away was the same as when I saw the 1982 original: The designs are gorgeous, the writing is crap.

The Sherlock Holmes movie with Will Farrell. It wasn't bad, it had some good bits, it didn't really blow me away though. It did everything right pretty much but it wasn't really that fun.

I think it put too much stake in making fun of the current versions of Sherlock Holmes rather than paying homage to the century of pop-culture development that surrounds it… The new stuff with Benedict Cumberpatch, Martin Freeman, Robert Downey Jnr and whoever else re-invent the icon by going back to the source material, which is ok but it's not interesting enough to bother parodying.

It's like making a comedy vampire film and basing your vampires on Twilight- unless it's a direct spoof ON Twilight it would be a really crappy idea.

THE BOOK OF HENRY - Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Dean Norris, Jaeden Martell, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler. Jaeden is the 11 yr old genius son of single mom Naomi and Jacob is 8 yr old brother. Neighbour Maddie is abused by step-dad Dean and Jaeden devises plan to save her. But he suddenly dies of brain tumour but leaves behind a book of instructions for his mom. Will she carry them out? Thot solution to Dean was weak and the end corny but a 3 on the Moizmeter.

The new animated Spiderman movie.
From what people were saying I this by it must be pretty giooooood…

Not really :(
It was ok. Pretty average really. I liked the bit after the end credits, that was funny :)

Overall the movie was forgettable storywise, there weren't even any nice memorable scenes. But it looked pretty good. Loved the look of it!

MOBILE HOMES - Imogen Poots, Frank Oulton, Callum Turner, Callum Keith Rennie. Imogen is a young mother with her son Frank and a crazy boyfriend Turner, always on the move and going nowhere. Supposed to be in States but filmed around Niagra Falls, Ontario. Miss Poots is gorgeous and gets it a 3 on the Moizmeter.

ozoneocean wrote:
The Sherlock Holmes movie with Will Farrell. It wasn't bad, it had some good bits, it didn't really blow me away though. It did everything right pretty much but it wasn't really that fun.

I think it put too much stake in making fun of the current versions of Sherlock Holmes rather than paying homage to the century of pop-culture development that surrounds it… The new stuff with Benedict Cumberpatch, Martin Freeman, Robert Downey Jnr and whoever else re-invent the icon by going back to the source material, which is ok but it's not interesting enough to bother parodying.

It's like making a comedy vampire film and basing your vampires on Twilight- unless it's a direct spoof ON Twilight it would be a really crappy idea.

.

I saw that a while back and it's not as bad as critics suggest, it's silly and moderately funny. Although a lot of the jokes do fall flat.

THE WIDOWS - Viola Davis, Liam Neeson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Robert Duvall, Brian Tyree Henry, Carrie Coon, Lukas Haas, Garret Dillahunt. Had to watch it twice as many things happen fast and very important to making sense of all connections to who, what, and why. Poor Viola, her husband was a crook who stole millions from bad guys but she knew nothing of his business. After he is killed, the bad guys come looking to her for their money and she hasn't a clue. The husbands of 3 other women, Elizabeth, Michelle and Carrie, also were killed and they are in same boat as Viola. Slowly Viola pieces together her husband's activities via a notebook she discovers and the widows set forth their own plan to get the money and maybe not get killed doing it. Very good despite some very confusing scenes, and a 3 3/4 on the Moizmeter.

“Jupiter Ascending” (2015) The production design is gorgeous. The writing and direction are beyond all conception of execrable.

ozoneocean wrote:
The new animated Spiderman movie.
From what people were saying I this by it must be pretty giooooood…

Not really :(
It was ok. Pretty average really. I liked the bit after the end credits, that was funny :)

Overall the movie was forgettable storywise, there weren't even any nice memorable scenes. But it looked pretty good. Loved the look of it!

Yeah, I have no idea what the hype is all about. I thought it was good-ish.

fallopiancrusader wrote:
“The Dark Crystal” re-make on Netflix. Maybe it's a 5 episode mini-series, or will there be another season? My personal take-away was the same as when I saw the 1982 original: The designs are gorgeous, the writing is crap.

Hmmm, not sure I'd call the writing crap, but it does have a very distinct flavour and I think they did a good job of capturing the feel of the original in writing as well as look.

Abt_Nihil wrote:
Yeah, I have no idea what the hype is all about. I thought it was good-ish.

Exactly! From what people were saying I thought it would be something special and amazing. :/

——————-

I saw McMafia, Crazy Rich Asians, and Suicide Squad among other things.

McMafia
Realistic thriller drama series about Russian Mafia and its global reach. A wealthy British Banker looks to his family for money to support his failing brokerage firm and gets embroiled deeper and deeper into the world of international organised crime as he takes on the legacy of his family's Russian Mafia history.
It's very well written, well acted, the locations and filming are excellent. It's compelling and scary. You could say that it's a high class version of Breaking bad.

Crazy Rich Asians
Interesting comedy movie about super rich Chinese Singaporeans. The cast is almost entirely English speaking Chinese. The story is typical: man takes his girlfriend home to go to his friend's wedding, she discovers that he's the scion of a wealthy family. She's a fish out of water in the wealthy world and his family disapproves of her… only to approve of her in the end.
The story was nothing special but the view of the super rich in Singapore, the quirks of Chinese families, and the all Chinese cast was novel.

Suicide Squad
A movie version of the comic series of the same name: Imprisoned comic villains get formed into a “dirty dozen” expendable supergroup to go after possible super threats, only to find themselves going after one of their own turned renegade. It wasn't bad as a slightly comical superhero action film but there were flaws. It was fun, it looked good and there were some great effects!
It was flawed by not giving proper representation to established comic characters or really explaining or expanding them very much and only one of them turned out to be expendable.

I just saw IT CHAPTER 2! I mean you probably could have guessed since it has a clown in it.



I liked it. It was pretty campy compared to the first one.

Ad Astra, Brad Pitt as an emotionally distant astronaut in an beautifully sedate sci fi meditation on daddy issues. It's visually stunning, and not in a cg extraganza way.
I really enjoyed it, but I know many would find it dull.

In the shadow of the moon. A Netflix exclusive movie, and I'd say slightly better than most of their exclusives. It's a sci fi type thing tied in with a serial killer and doesn't play out like you might initially expect, but the twist is a little obvious but that doesn't detract from it. Worth a look.

The mockumentary The Great Martian War 1913-1917

Remember a few years back there was a great YouTube preview of World War One footage mixed with Martian machines? There was an entire 90 minute History Channel International “mockumentary” to go with it that puts forth a great alternate history of 1913-17 with an alien attack on Earth.

Very well done mixing of CGI with old footage and interviews of “witnesses” and a good science fiction story and premise with an twist ending?

Well worth a watch.

I sought it out to whet my appetite upon discovering that BBC is producing a War of the Worlds miniseries based in the Edwardian setting of the original novel. About damn time.

And you realize that the low budget War of the Worlds movie from 2005 with C. Thomas Howell actually had a sequel? In many ways it was better than the big budget Tom Cruise one. And the 1953 film had a whole TV series sequel that ran 1988-1990.