ARRIVAL.

Wow, this was very underwhelming for me. Momentously disappointing. What the hell are great reviews harping on about?

The movie to me is the definition of half baked ideas. To its credit the movie keeps you interested for most of it's running time, but it does so by keeping everything a mystery ("why are the aliens here?"). This sense of craving for enlightenment will vanish on repeat viewings I'm sure.



Some people have compared this to Interstellar. I don't fully like that movie, but it handles it's theme a lot better than this bewilderingly misguided movie. A sci-fi that sounds smart on paper, but is actually fucking dumb.

I haven't seen the slew of well-received end of year films. I don't watch movies as often as I used to. I think that best movie I've watched in 2016 is The Witch. Now there's a superbly crafted horror tale with a refreshing sense of period.

I don't think there was much to spoon feed. The movie is a skeletal remains of ideas, with no flesh around those ideas. Every idea is either poorly developed, or not brought to an adequately fleshed out conclusion. The non-linear time perception feels tacked on to the ending, and then retrospectively sprinkled throughout the film to make it artificially appear that it was foretold and developed.

The climax to the most conventional part of the story -- the government's reaction to the aliens -- is laughable. Are we really to believe that the entire decision for China not to attack the alien hinges on a random call from the US repeating the words of a dying wife from a deathbed? Would the first reaction really be "hey, this US woman knows the words of my dying wife, so we definitely should not attack the aliens", or would be more likely be "I can't believe the US dared to spy even on our deathbeds!". The whole global politics presented was terribly shallow.

For the first 2/3 of the movie I was wondering about the purpose of Renner's character, because he was so utterly useless. There was some sprinkling of hints that he fancied Adams, and through that I knew that he would be something important by the end. But it doesn't excuse the fact that his presence was so underwhelming for most of the film.

A basic narrative is not a bad thing. In this case it was perfect. No need for theatrics in terms of the plotting. There was more than enough terrifying theatrics going on on screen. But I must admit to having watched very few movies from 2016, so while I'm sure this is not the best movie of the year, it is the one movie that stood out for me from what little I've seen.

Haven't heard of the Wailing. A korean genre film eh? They're usually good at that. Will check that out.

Most 4-course meals are better than 8-course meals

I think The Witch was perfect for what it set out to do. I didn't expect anymore than that. I'll watch the Wailing soon... Korean genre films usually take a lot of risks and even if they don't come off at least they are worth watching. A little reading tells me The Wailing is a horror-comedy for the first hour or so before slowly tightening its grip into full blown creepy horror. Can't remember a horror movie with such a long running time too.

Yeah Verbinski is ok in my book. Has a real eye for action setpieces and stringing them together. Most of the Lone Ranger was wandering but it had two of the best action sequences in the last few years.

Manchester by the Sea - this was really, really good. Everything clicked - direction, acting, editing, photography, in a way that is subtly mesmerising and never showy. I'm not sure how memorable it will be down the years because of how unshowy it is, but for now I'm just happy it's basking in glory. 4.5/5

The LEGO Batman movie - about as fun as the first LEGO movie, which is to say not very much. Just alright. 2.5/5

Ghostbusters (2016) - pointless remake with little.chemistry between the leads (apart from McCarthy and Wiig). Dull. 2/5

Blair Witch (2016) - the original is very scary. This is a remake masquerading as a sequel. 1.5/5

The Wailing - someone was comparing this to The Witch. I think the Witch said almost as much and more succinctly, but this is grander in a more operatic way (and messy at times too). It wasn't exactly scary but the cave scene gave me goosebumps. 4/5

The Chaser

After enjoying The Wailing I decided to check out director Na Hong Jin's debut feature. Unfortunately this was a study of the most typical flaw I see in Korean movies - incredulous plot turns and twists at every corner, stacked up high and almost robbing the story of resonance, what with the viewer having to put up with constant suspension of disbelief. Good scenes abound but the sum is less than its parts.

Madeo (Mother)

Followed up with Joon-ho Bong's third feature. Now this is great cinema. The incredible plot turns are present but masterfully manoeuvred around, and featuring some stellar writing and acting for the lead role that is at once shocking, tender, and heartbreaking. I think Bong is the one director who truly mastered the Korean style and pulls it off with aplomb. I loved The Host and Memories of Murder too.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 27 2017, 08:53 PM

The Yellow Sea.

Convoluted, boring mess of a movie.

When did you become a moderator.

Slow West. Wow, didn't know Wes Anderson made a western! Loved this one.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 23 2017, 10:24 PM

Admit it, you got chosen for moderator because you like all movies, even bad ones.

LIFE
An imitation of Alien up to a point, but while Alien was a B-movie glossed up in absolute class, this is a B-movie glossed up to a schlocky sheen. And that's fine. It's a perfectly decent movie and entertaining through to the predictably kitsch ending (no, there won't be a sequel). The scene where the alien escapes is nerve wrecking and intense, rarely felt in mainstream cinema these days.

When was the last time Ridley Scott made a great movie? Please don't say The Martian.

Gladiator perhaps?

Just saw Wonder Woman. What's all the fuss about? A pedestrian superhero movie if there ever was one. It plays it so safe, and is basically a less good version of the first Captain America. The other DCEU movies are bad, but most of them have some parts that are at least intriguing. This is almost completely boring from start to end. I wouldn't rate it higher than BvS to be honest.

I have no experience with the comics so I'm merely making an observation on the movies. This feels like an attempt to emulate Marvel's success by... emulating their movies. And clearly it worked for DC.

Not for me though. I mention Captain America because it felt closest to that in style and tone. But Captain America had a much cooler retro-futuristic vibe, better villain, better action, shorter duration (I think), all while maintaining an emotional core not dissimilar to WW. CA isn't exactly great but I prefer it over this.

Were most of the positive reviews swayed by the hero simply being a woman?


Anyway, I can't wait for Aronofsky's mother! Hopefully no cuts when it opens here next week.

mother!

Umm, I'm not sure what to think of this. This thing is so steeped in the allegorical that by the end it appears that is its only goal. For an allegory to really work it needs to have some semblance of reality that we can still relate to. The beginning of mother! certainly has this, but minute-by-minute Aronofsky strips this thin veneer of relatability bit by bit, where characters do things that make absolutely no sense, and he throws everything crazy into the mix for the last half hour. By that point there is only CRAZY on screen. And crazy without a point of reference to NORMAL somewhere in picture... doesn't fully work.

It still feels like an impressive picture, and it's utterly unthinkable that a major studio funded this for mainstream release. I'll have to watch it again when it's out on home media.

Spiderman: Homecoming

Boring. Glad I didn't spend money watching this.

Oh yeah. Even Raimi's first Spiderman movie, which isn't great by most means, is still a heck a lot better than this. This is mass-produced canned shit.


Baby Driver. Eh, it was pretty good. Started off really strong but burned out by the end. I'm not the biggest Edgar Wright fan though, I really like Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim are good, but he's not the Messiah to me. He's most got by using his quirky, gimmicky visuals and English humour but translate that into a big blockbuster and his range feels a little limited. I also didn't think the soundtrack was THAT good, I mean yeah it's very good but the number of times I've read about someone banging on about how immaculate the soundtrack is... nah. The movie really needed more Jamie Foxx... now he was amazing in this. Still, a pretty 2 hours.

The Last Jedi.

First impression... is that this is miles better than TFA. At least miles more entertaining. It could be shorter, but overall I think there was a clear propulsive core to the story, and the side story with Rey and Luke works very well for the most part. Could have trimmed a bit in the middle, and the climax went on longer than needed. But whereas TFA was a jumbled mess during the climax with no excitement whatsoever, here Rian Johnson is competent enough to build up to a a series of climatic showdowns that string together quite wonderfully. And it was actually EXCITING.

I'm not sure it's great, but I'll certainly call it good and entertaining. That said I thought TFA was half decent in the first viewing, and dreadfully boring on the second. Time will tell if this holds up for me.

Oh and a shout out to a gleefully shouty Domhnall Gleeson, who ramps it up even more here.

Pity about Adam Driver, destined to be cited as one of the most miscast roles ever. It could have been a great character if played by someone who could look and act the part, not a younger Snape. I watched Logan Lucky recently too, and he was frankly rubbish in that as well.

Fantastic Beasts 2. This was a total slog and borefest. The first I thought was decent, this one is legitimately awful. You could say the action sequence at the start set the tone - as an action setpiece it was messy and confusing to look at. The rest of the movie followed suit in terms of its vapid, overwrought, perlexing plotting. By the end I wasn't sure what the point of the story was, but I knew enough that it was all bad.

Overlord. Now this was quite a treat...to an extent. B-movie polised to A-class sheen. Simple characters that are simply told, but effective nonetheless. Great action. Always entertaining. My biggest gripe is that it didn't get icky enough in the third act.