The Favourite Thought this was extremely entertaining - bawdy, witty, full of arch humour. It made me laugh out loud numerous times. The three leads were superb, with a great supporting cast. The sets were sumptuous, and though the plot was pretty straightforward, it was two hours very well spent. Highly recommended. 8/10.
The dance scene was quite bizarre though.
You could argue that the whole thing was a bit bizarre - that director's not exactly known for mainstream films, though this one will have much wider appeal than his last couple (both of which I enjoyed, but nowhere near as much as this).
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The dance scene does stand out as being very much not of its time but that was, I heard, the director's intention.
The three central performances are great but Olivia's isn't as stand out "That's the Oscar right there" as Cate Blanchett's was in Blue Jasmine.
The duck racing was originally going to be cock fighting but they were told they couldn't even simulate the latter so swapped it for the former. This resulted in a great line being cut: "Gentlemen, shall we get our cocks out?".
Just seen this - very entertaining and funny. I liked the way it was shot and lit - the main leads were good especially Olivia Colman.
Really enjoyed Stan and Ollie - Coogan and Reilly are perfectly cast, successfully conveying the warmth Stan and Ollie clearly felt for each other despite their falling out and nailing their routines. And their wives are given decent roles too, getting a good number of laughs and adding a new dimension to their relationship. It's quite gently paced, but then I prefer that sort of film.
'Stan and Ollie' I wish my dad was still alive to see this film. One of my happiest memories from my childhood was watching Laurel and Hardy films on the television with my dad, I laughing just as much as he had when he had watched them at the cinema as a boy. I remember when he came home from hospital after a hernia operation with instructions from the doctor not to laugh so when he sat down in front of the television, I put on a Laurel and Hardy video and within seconds, he was clutching his stitches and squirming in his seat.
Coincidentally 'Stan and Ollie' came out in the week which was the twelfth anniversary of my dad's death. He had had Alzheimer's and there were times when I would boost our moods by putting Laurel and Hardy back on the tv. It was thus doubly poignant for me watching the new film on Friday, as I watched the physical decline of Ollie and the loving bond between the two men that comedy forged. It was also sad that in my local, down-at-heel, traditional cinema there were only six people in the audience, which (like in the film) made me fear that Laurel and Hardy are slipping away in popularity. I don't know what people who are not fans of the duo will think of the film but, for me, I'm relieved that the film is so respectful, so authentic and made with such great warmth.
Saw Shoplifters last week and very impressed. Poses questions about family life, but at no time felt heavy, and so well acted, especially the 2 child actors. Curzon and Prince Charles only now i think, in London.
Mary Poppins Returns I caught the Simpsons versión of Mary poppins while working in a hotel one christmas - it had me and the receptionist in stitches. It's way way better than the new Disney film. End to end forgettable songs (song 2 - My wife is dead, and song 12 - Why is my cousin a twat?, are two that stand out). For me Disney are on a real slide lately. Ralph wrecks the Internet and the new Mary Poppins both got good reviews generally, and are hugely overrated in my opinión. Essentially, the film is overlong, and tries to make up for it's lack of plot by including every song the director considered using, regardless of quality. I checked with my daughters on the way out, and they bothcited boredom as a reason they didn't like it. We have a new Dumbo to look forward to this year, but I'll be giving that a swerve, and later on it'll be interesting to see what Frozen 2 comes out like, but at the minute, I'll be avoiding anything new Disney provide. This really wasn't very good at all. 4/10
Watched Birdbox on Friday, as others have said, pretty average really. Good ideas, not completely fleshed out, had some promise, not very tense either. Think I will have to watch A Quiet Place now as my flatmate was raving about how good it was, especially in comparison with Birdbox.
Yes, Stan and Ollie - I got the wrong title. I have seen good reviews and it sounds like the film does justice to two comic geniuses. IMO the greatest. Maybe I will persuade my wife to go with me tomorrow.
The best double act ever. Abbott and Costello have their moments, particularly the Limburger cheese and Who's on first base sketches, but their body of work is filled with a lot of dross. Morecambe and Wise were peerless on the telly but their films are poor or even worse. The only one who came close to them when they were in the comic heyday was Buster Keaton.
This is the satire from Boots Riley, the rapper, avowed communist and activist, about a young black guy who deploys his ‘white voice’ to succeed in telesales. An interesting premise and there were some amusing scenes in the film. For me, however, its second half became just a little too preposterous - 6/10
This is the satire from Boots Riley, the rapper, avowed communist and activist, about a young black guy who deploys his ‘white voice’ to succeed in telesales. An interesting premise and there were some amusing scenes in the film. For me, however, its second half became just a little too preposterous - 6/10
6 is generous . I like Lakieth Stanfield but this did nothing for me .
This is the satire from Boots Riley, the rapper, avowed communist and activist, about a young black guy who deploys his ‘white voice’ to succeed in telesales. An interesting premise and there were some amusing scenes in the film. For me, however, its second half became just a little too preposterous - 6/10
6 is generous . I like Lakieth Stanfield but this did nothing for me .
The Front Runner Film documenting the downfall of Senator Gary Hart who tried to stand as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1988. His campaign was derailed when allegations of an affair surfaced in the press - Hugh Jackman plays the evasive Hart and its an interesting insight into the background of a campaign 7/10
Just in from The Favourite. Not sure what I expected and not sure it was at all what I expected!
Plot very thin. Strong use of music. All a bit of a luvvie film by luvvies for luvvies. Not sure the warning of "Strong sex" was quite necessary - when all it amounted to was a leg rub! Excellent acting - quite a performance by Olivia channelling her inner Timothy Spall.
Now just catching up with the fact that it seems to be reasonably accurate historically.
Just in from The Favourite. Not sure what I expected and not sure it was at all what I expected!
Plot very thin. Strong use of music. All a bit of a luvvie film by luvvies for luvvies. Not sure the warning of "Strong sex" was quite necessary - when all it amounted to was a leg rub! Excellent acting - quite a performance by Olivia channelling her inner Timothy Spall.
Now just catching up with the fact that it seems to be reasonably accurate historically.
We're a funny old bunch, aren't we?
I forgot about the 'strong sex' warning, definitely seems prudish in hindsight.
I quite liked it, but thought it was actually his least funny film, despite being marketed, essentially, as a comedy.
I had three hours to kill. This made it feel like I’d wasted four or five hours of my life, so I was pretty disappointed to come out and find I still had an hour to spare.
It’s not Batman & Robin bad. Or even the worst of the DC crop. It’s just a nonsensical CGI eye-fuck with a plot that didn’t engage me on any level. That the lead character is the comic relief doesn’t help. I hated it, but understand why people like it - it’s not incompetently bad, and teenagers will get a good bit of popcorn fun out of it. I just don’t want to watch another second of it.
I had three hours to kill. This made it feel like I’d wasted four or five hours of my life, so I was pretty disappointed to come out and find I still had an hour to spare.
It’s not Batman & Robin bad. Or even the worst of the DC crop. It’s just a nonsensical CGI eye-fuck with a plot that didn’t engage me on any level. That the lead character is the comic relief doesn’t help. I hated it, but understand why people like it - it’s not incompetently bad, and teenagers will get a good bit of popcorn fun out of it. I just don’t want to watch another second of it.
Just as I suspected. Jimmy suffers so others don’t have to !
Saw The Front Runner yesterday. Interesting account of the downfall of prospective Democratic candidate Gary Hart with a fine performance by Hugh Jackman in the lead role.
Saw The Front Runner yesterday. Interesting account of the downfall of prospective Democratic candidate Gary Hart with a fine performance by Hugh Jackman in the lead role.
Thought Jackman gave a good performance of a very private character.
Stan and Ollie was wonderful. Great performances by John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan. Their wives, Lucille (Henderson) and Ida (Arianda) are, as the review says, ‘formidable double act in their own right’. I shed a tear towards the end (although it doesn’t take much these days).
Colette I also enjoyed. West was excellent, Knightly decent, but she came alive during the dance troupe sequences. I do enjoy a biopic
Aquaman was a bit of a laugh. Due to an inadequacy in my wife’s online ticket purchasing skills we saw the film in ‘Screen X’ at Cineworld. They use three projectors, two of which project on the side walls, but only for about twenty percent of the movie. The effect is immersive and quite effective during action or flying sequences.
Watched a British horror movie this week. Don't think I can name it for a while, but will comment now while it's still fresh in the mind.
It's about a single mother and her son. She starts to think it's not her son. Might have something to do with the giant ______ that opened up behind their house.
The film looks great (especially for something so low-budget) and the lead actress is very good. I am not a horror fan, so it's hard to impress me with horror fare. This one relies on the dreaded violins to make fairly innocuous stuff seem scary. The storytelling isn't great either (I had no idea what the main plot point was until a character openly said it an hour into the movie).
It is stuffed with cliches, but it's one of those movies where I feel bad for being negative, cos I am sure the people behind it worked extremely hard to make a good movie (it's the writer/ director's first). I reckon he can go on to make some good stuff, especially if he's not writing the script. He certainly made a small budget go a long way. He just didn't nail the story on this one.
Bunch of strangers invited to a mysterious escape room adventure. Turns out it’s a lot more dangerous than they imagined.
Really good fun. Like Saw but without the gore. Or Cube but with better actors and a bigger budget. It loses its balls at the end, but the journey is fun and it’s really slickly executed. The last few minutes really do fuck it over, I wish it had ended before the epilogue. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were so desperate for a franchise they forced that ending into the movie. Still, it didn’t undermine the ride up to that point.
Just in from Stan & Ollie. Lovely, gentle film. Excellent performances as @jamesseed says above. To think I once saw young Steve Coogan doing a stand-up routine in front of about 50 people at a works' do in the canteen.
Bunch of strangers invited to a mysterious escape room adventure. Turns out it’s a lot more dangerous than they imagined.
Really good fun. Like Saw but without the gore. Or Cube but with better actors and a bigger budget. It loses its balls at the end, but the journey is fun and it’s really slickly executed. The last few minutes really do fuck it over, I wish it had ended before the epilogue. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were so desperate for a franchise they forced that ending into the movie. Still, it didn’t undermine the ride up to that point.
3.5/5
I saw something very similar to this, hopefully its done better than that one. Assuming its not this is a new movie?
Bunch of strangers invited to a mysterious escape room adventure. Turns out it’s a lot more dangerous than they imagined.
Really good fun. Like Saw but without the gore. Or Cube but with better actors and a bigger budget. It loses its balls at the end, but the journey is fun and it’s really slickly executed. The last few minutes really do fuck it over, I wish it had ended before the epilogue. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were so desperate for a franchise they forced that ending into the movie. Still, it didn’t undermine the ride up to that point.
3.5/5
Both myself and the gf thought it was poor. Made Saw look like an absolute masterpiece.
Comments
8/10
I wish my dad was still alive to see this film. One of my happiest memories from my childhood was watching Laurel and Hardy films on the television with my dad, I laughing just as much as he had when he had watched them at the cinema as a boy. I remember when he came home from hospital after a hernia operation with instructions from the doctor not to laugh so when he sat down in front of the television, I put on a Laurel and Hardy video and within seconds, he was clutching his stitches and squirming in his seat.
Coincidentally 'Stan and Ollie' came out in the week which was the twelfth anniversary of my dad's death. He had had Alzheimer's and there were times when I would boost our moods by putting Laurel and Hardy back on the tv. It was thus doubly poignant for me watching the new film on Friday, as I watched the physical decline of Ollie and the loving bond between the two men that comedy forged. It was also sad that in my local, down-at-heel, traditional cinema there were only six people in the audience, which (like in the film) made me fear that Laurel and Hardy are slipping away in popularity. I don't know what people who are not fans of the duo will think of the film but, for me, I'm relieved that the film is so respectful, so authentic and made with such great warmth.
Good fun
I caught the Simpsons versión of Mary poppins while working in a hotel one christmas - it had me and the receptionist in stitches. It's way way better than the new Disney film. End to end forgettable songs (song 2 - My wife is dead, and song 12 - Why is my cousin a twat?, are two that stand out). For me Disney are on a real slide lately. Ralph wrecks the Internet and the new Mary Poppins both got good reviews generally, and are hugely overrated in my opinión. Essentially, the film is overlong, and tries to make up for it's lack of plot by including every song the director considered using, regardless of quality. I checked with my daughters on the way out, and they bothcited boredom as a reason they didn't like it. We have a new Dumbo to look forward to this year, but I'll be giving that a swerve, and later on it'll be interesting to see what Frozen 2 comes out like, but at the minute, I'll be avoiding anything new Disney provide. This really wasn't very good at all.
4/10
This is the satire from Boots Riley, the rapper, avowed communist and activist, about a young black guy who deploys his ‘white voice’ to succeed in telesales. An interesting premise and there were some amusing scenes in the film. For me, however, its second half became just a little too preposterous - 6/10
Film documenting the downfall of Senator Gary Hart who tried to stand as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1988. His campaign was derailed when allegations of an affair surfaced in the press - Hugh Jackman plays the evasive Hart and its an interesting insight into the background of a campaign 7/10
Plot very thin. Strong use of music. All a bit of a luvvie film by luvvies for luvvies. Not sure the warning of "Strong sex" was quite necessary - when all it amounted to was a leg rub! Excellent acting - quite a performance by Olivia channelling her inner Timothy Spall.
Now just catching up with the fact that it seems to be reasonably accurate historically.
We're a funny old bunch, aren't we?
I quite liked it, but thought it was actually his least funny film, despite being marketed, essentially, as a comedy.
I had three hours to kill. This made it feel like I’d wasted four or five hours of my life, so I was pretty disappointed to come out and find I still had an hour to spare.
It’s not Batman & Robin bad. Or even the worst of the DC crop. It’s just a nonsensical CGI eye-fuck with a plot that didn’t engage me on any level. That the lead character is the comic relief doesn’t help. I hated it, but understand why people like it - it’s not incompetently bad, and teenagers will get a good bit of popcorn fun out of it. I just don’t want to watch another second of it.
I shed a tear towards the end (although it doesn’t take much these days).
Colette I also enjoyed. West was excellent, Knightly decent, but she came alive during the dance troupe sequences. I do enjoy a biopic
Aquaman was a bit of a laugh. Due to an inadequacy in my wife’s online ticket purchasing skills we saw the film in ‘Screen X’ at Cineworld.
They use three projectors, two of which project on the side walls, but only for about twenty percent of the movie. The effect is immersive and quite effective during action or flying sequences.
It's about a single mother and her son. She starts to think it's not her son. Might have something to do with the giant ______ that opened up behind their house.
The film looks great (especially for something so low-budget) and the lead actress is very good. I am not a horror fan, so it's hard to impress me with horror fare. This one relies on the dreaded violins to make fairly innocuous stuff seem scary. The storytelling isn't great either (I had no idea what the main plot point was until a character openly said it an hour into the movie).
It is stuffed with cliches, but it's one of those movies where I feel bad for being negative, cos I am sure the people behind it worked extremely hard to make a good movie (it's the writer/ director's first). I reckon he can go on to make some good stuff, especially if he's not writing the script. He certainly made a small budget go a long way. He just didn't nail the story on this one.
3/7
Enjoyed Green Book and can see why it won some awards at the Golden Globes. It was all relatively predictable, but still entertaining.
Beautiful Boy was good, but maybe not as much as I expected.
Bunch of strangers invited to a mysterious escape room adventure. Turns out it’s a lot more dangerous than they imagined.
Really good fun. Like Saw but without the gore. Or Cube but with better actors and a bigger budget. It loses its balls at the end, but the journey is fun and it’s really slickly executed. The last few minutes really do fuck it over, I wish it had ended before the epilogue. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were so desperate for a franchise they forced that ending into the movie. Still, it didn’t undermine the ride up to that point.
3.5/5