Recently watched movies

[Detective]

The Fate of the Furious - 6/10

[Fantasy Lover]

-Oz the great and powerful

I liked the love note to the black and white movies

 

-And Nanny McPhee,

who remains better than the second.

[Detective]

Split - 8/10

[Pseudonym]

Just saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Was okay, some cringeworthy cheesy lines, but then I wasn't as taken with the first one as everyone else seemed to be. Baby Groot was adorable of course.

 

 

[Fantasy Lover]

How do you feel about

Quill having a planet as a father? Because every time I try to make sense of it I need brain bleach

OT I've finally watched The Matrix and Ghostbusters for the first time (I know, shocking) and I should have watched them sooner because it was impossible to take either seriously, the latter because of the bad CGI and the former because of the use of clip phones, pay phones and just the use of old phones in general.

[Pseudonym]

 

I get the impression he was a god rather than a planet. He made the planet around himself, but could only do so as a god. Now the idea of him having a god as a father was cheesy. It was the sort of thing that could be have been pulled off well, maybe even been profound in other hands, but don't think it worked all that well here. Guardians is too much a romp to pull that off. I guess if that's what he was in the comics though it's what they had to stick to. I also had issues with Quill suddenly accepting the blue bloke as being his dad - so this guy slapped him around his whole life, he hated him, and now Quill's suddenly all warm and fuzzy towards him because he died for him?

 

 

I loved the Matrix, but that's probably because I saw it when it came out and it really was different to anything else back then - everything does bullet time now. It does say the world had been kept at the period of the late '90s, so I think as long as it's not expected to be set now it works. 

 

Ghostbusters... for me the cheesy terrible CGI is part of the fun :D

[Detective]

The Matrix is one of the best SciFi movies imo, and that every movie nowadays does bullettime and copies off of Matrix isn't the fault of the movie, but rather shows its huge influence and creativity, doesn't it?

 

Also the age doesn't effect the movie negatively for me, the ideas are still super original and even the effects can hold up to movies these days.

[T.o.b.y]

I loved the Matrix. And when I first saw it, I didn't know anything about the plot so the reveal with the two pills etc really made an impression on me.

 

The sequels on the other hand... In my humble opinion, they are best forgotten.

[Arcadia]

I'd read so much science fiction when I was younger that I'm afraid the Matrix didn't seem all that fresh to me. Also dystopian fiction isn't my favorite. Visually it was very cool, though.

 

Re: the sequels, I feel the same way about them as I do the Dune novels ... I thought the first one was brilliant, but each sequel took a little more away from it, and almost ruined the whole franchise. I didn't even bother to read the last one.

[J.P.]

^ THIS (about Dune)

To me it ends with Children of Dune. The next books feel like written by a ghost writer.

The film adaptations… well the first one has some charm, but it's more a Lynch movie than a Dune movie :D

[Pseudonym]

It's not out for a few more weeks here yet, but is anyone planning to watch American Gods? The book is brilliant, but not sure how it'll work as a series. Plus the casting pics I've seen are a bit iffy.

[J.P.]

It looks like a bloody… butchery. Don't like butchery for the sake of butchery.

[Pseudonym]

The book isn't like that, it's brutal but it's inkeeping with the story. I know how they like to ham up sex and violence in tv adaptations though.

[Arcadia]

^ THIS (about Dune)

To me it ends with Children of Dune. The next books feel like written by a ghost writer.

The film adaptations… well the first one has some charm, but it's more a Lynch movie than a Dune movie :D

Oh, the movie ... urgh, don't even get me started on that. It looked good, period.

 

It looks like a bloody… butchery. Don't like butchery for the sake of butchery.

Okay, then, thanks for the warning. I've only read one Neil Gaiman book (no, I don't remember which one) and it was okay but didn't turn me into a fan. But I've been curious about American Gods; I'll tread more warily.

 

I can read about all kinds of mayhem in a book and not really mind. But I have no desire to see it.

[Pseudonym]

It's the only Gaiman book I've ever been interested in enough to finish, but I'm hugely interested in mythology so that helped.

[Detective]

The man from UNCLE - 6/10

[Carol the Dabbler]

U.S. fans of Love Actually may have been wishing that they could see the recent British Red Nose Day special that reunites many of the characters and brings us up to date on them.  Well, as it happens, NBC will be rerunning the special on May 25th.  Here's the info plus a trailer.

 

P.S.:  The special is fairly brief (maybe ten minutes), so not everyone is in it.  Unfortunately, Martin Freeman's character is one of the absentees.

 

[Arcadia]

:( Well, pooh, as far as I'm concerned that would be the whole point of watching it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

True. But it does still have Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, and lots of other lovely people.

[Pseudonym]

I never 'got' Love Actually. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

The basic idea is, there are all different kinds of love.

[Pseudonym]

I get it, I just don't 'get' it - like why everyone seems to like it so much. Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of romance or rom coms but I just know what's so special about it. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, for one thing, it's got a lot of really good actors in it. I suspect that's a good part of its popularity -- somebody for everyone.

[Pseudonym]

Alas, not for me. :(

 

Another one I'm a bit mystified by the popularity of is The Holiday. Kate Winslet running about Cameron Diaz's house screeching irritates the hell out of me every time I see it. 

[Detective]

Get Out - 8/10