Latest Films

Grovenuts

Just seen obsession, what a load of shite just a modern remake of the monkeys paw, hideously slow to get going and the male lead was so wooden he had woodworm !!! can't see why it was an 18 as I've seen more gore in 15 films, thankfully not too long.. 3/10

Nadou

The AI generated animals (but really aliens) that looked as if they had wandered in from a cheap Christmas card weren't even the worst thing about Disclosure Day. Two and a half hours of clichés. The man who made ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind has really lost it.

Miserableoldgit

Very, very late on here, just watched Project Hail Mary. Haven't cried so much watching a movie in years. Beautiful film.

Mendonca In Asdas

I loved Toy Story 5, especially when there was a whole platoon of buzz lightyears, went back to watch it for a second time.

Much better than the minions movie imo.

stonemuse

Miserableoldgit said:

Very, very late on here, just watched Project Hail Mary. Haven't cried so much watching a movie in years. Beautiful film.

Just watched it, absolutely brilliant, favourite film this year 

Dazzler21

Project Hail Mary is easily my favourite film this year. Gosling does well, but Rocky is out of this world.

Chunes

Dazzler21 said:

Project Hail Mary is easily my favourite film this year. Gosling does well, but Rocky is out of this world.

Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as Rocky is going very under the radar. 

Covered End

Just saw Obsession billed as a supernatural/horror, which I suppose it is, but not like the usual type.
Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed it & would give it an 8/10.

Dazzler21

Chunes said:

Dazzler21 said:

Project Hail Mary is easily my favourite film this year. Gosling does well, but Rocky is out of this world.

Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as Rocky is going very under the radar. 

James Ortiz will be disappointed. 

ValleyGary

Just watched Project Hail Mary, what a beautiful film. 

Off to see The Odyssey tomorrow.

se9addick

The Odyssey is incredible. Worth doing a quick brush up on the story before you go. 

JiMMy 85

Just back from The Odyssey. As you’d expect, a thoroughly riveting spectacle. 

I thought the editing was the real hero. It has that lean approach nearly all Nolan movies have, and in spite of it being packed with exposition, myriad locations and interweaving time periods, it flows beautifully.

It’s not perfect. The villain is woefully under-developed. He was a bit rude at the dinner table over and over again. 

And a fight sequence late on has shades of other Nolan movies in which he does a kind of wavy-hands thing and hopes broad strokes cover up some character actions that don’t make a lick of sense. “Get the shield!” / “Get the spear!” / “Get the sword!”

And there’s one beat that repeats three times, and I can see it becoming a bit of a meme. “To the boats!” 

Still, minor quibbles. It’s well worth seeing on the biggest screen possible. A couple of the set pieces are absolutely stupendous. 

se9addick

JiMMy 85 said:

Just back from The Odyssey. As you’d expect, a thoroughly riveting spectacle. 

I thought the editing was the real hero. It has that lean approach nearly all Nolan movies have, and in spite of it being packed with exposition, myriad locations and interweaving time periods, it flows beautifully.

It’s not perfect. The villain is woefully under-developed. He was a bit rude at the dinner table over and over again. 

And a fight sequence late on has shades of other Nolan movies in which he does a kind of wavy-hands thing and hopes broad strokes cover up some character actions that don’t make a lick of sense. “Get the shield!” / “Get the spear!” / “Get the sword!”

And there’s one beat that repeats three times, and I can see it becoming a bit of a meme. “To the boats!” 

Still, minor quibbles. It’s well worth seeing on the biggest screen possible. A couple of the set pieces are absolutely stupendous. 

I thought the “leaness” was central to the film. They cut a lot from the story. That’s not unusual, except Nolan is dealing with the most famous/greatest/original story of all time. Yet the cuts don’t massively detract from the plot. 

It’s still amazing and the story stands up to the test of time.

ValleyGary

Just got back from The Odyssey. Pretty epic.

Loved how Nolan let the story do the talking without getting too clever. 

Loved it.

2121

Not gonna read anyones comments on the odyssey as been looking forward to it for a few years! 

Baldybonce

2121 said:

Not gonna read anyones comments on the odyssey as been looking forward to it for a few years! 

Fair enough. My favourite bit was the huge burger and fries in Delicios afterwards.

Making_all_the_noise

Odyssey has some excellent scenes, particularly cyclops, Trojan horse and sacking of Troy. Nolan does a good job putting it together. My gripe is just that depressing tone with subtle background horns blowing. That gruff depressing voice reminded me of Train Dreams. Seems to be a stylistic thing Directors think is in vogue. It’s a good film but it’s a long way from great. Lacks a bit of heart and soul somehow. As a set piece epic history film, it’s miles from being as good as Gladiator for example. Worth a (long) visit to the cinema. 

shine166

Watched Obsession at the week end, really enjoyed it as i like that genre. Told my Mrs that the lead reminds me of her 1 week of every month, which didnt go down too well. 

se9addick

shine166 said:

Watched Obsession at the week end, really enjoyed it as i like that genre. Told my Mrs that the lead reminds me of her 1 week of every month, which didnt go down too well. 

It’s a brilliant film. Given how successful it’s been I assume there will be (multiple) sequels.

thenewbie

ValleyGary said:

Just got back from The Odyssey. Pretty epic.

Loved how Nolan let the story do the talking without getting too clever. 

Loved it.

Also will add its definitely worth watching in IMAX as it was shot specifically for that format and it does show.

Chunes

Enjoyed The Odyssey. It's not a classic by any means, but it's very entertaining and the set pieces were great.

Also watched Obsession the other night... That film is WILD. I'm not a horror fan usually but I loved it. It was scary, shocking, funny and had depth. I found it particularly scary because she reminded me of an ex-girlfriend. 

ken_shabby

Spiderman - Brand New Day
That was a roller coaster. If I was going to be critical, it was a tad too long, but it was great story, some surprises, some human moments and overall magical time, which got a round of applause.
I was amazed to find the showing was sold out as I watched it in a Spanish cinema with the original language. Spiderman clearly has a huge following.

9.5/10

Steven81

ken_shabby said:

Spiderman - Brand New Day
That was a roller coaster. If I was going to be critical, it was a tad too long, but it was great story, some surprises, some human moments and overall magical time, which got a round of applause.
I was amazed to find the showing was sold out as I wstched it in a Spanish cinema with the original language. Spiderman clearly has a huge following.

9.5/10

Just got back from the cinema and agree with everything you said rating also.
Best mcu movie I've seen in ages,was really well done.

ken_shabby

Steven81 said:

ken_shabby said:

Spiderman - Brand New Day
That was a roller coaster. If I was going to be critical, it was a tad too long, but it was great story, some surprises, some human moments and overall magical time, which got a round of applause.
I was amazed to find the showing was sold out as I wstched it in a Spanish cinema with the original language. Spiderman clearly has a huge following.

9.5/10

Just got back from the cinema and agree with everything you said rating also.
Best mcu movie I've seen in ages,was really well done.

Also agree re the MCU comment. I really enjoyed Thunderbokrs, but for me Endgame was a massive high, and they haven't come near it since. Today's Spidey film was a really welcome return.

BTW we were told they'll be showing Endgame again in cinemas. No idea if this is worldwide, but Im definitely there for that.

Talal

Grovenuts said:

Just seen obsession, what a load of shite just a modern remake of the monkeys paw, hideously slow to get going and the male lead was so wooden he had woodworm !!! can't see why it was an 18 as I've seen more gore in 15 films, thankfully not too long.. 3/10

Just watched it and thought the opposite. Best of that genre I've seen in a while. Female lead's acting was superb.

Making_all_the_noise

Finally watched Obsession. Thought it was exceptionally good and I usually despise how dull and predictable horror films are. This was anything but. 

Pavoren007

Was in a packed IMAX seeing Odyssey tonight and thought it was great. Has inspired me to read more on Greek Mythology. The witch scene was creepy as you could get and incredibly well acted. 

Saw Spidey on Saturday and agree with what others have said. A cracking mcu film and a return to form which I hope continues with Doomsday later this year. 

stonemuse

Pavoren007 said:

Was in a packed IMAX seeing Odyssey tonight and thought it was great. Has inspired me to read more on Greek Mythology. The witch scene was creepy as you could get and incredibly well acted. 

Saw Spidey on Saturday and agree with what others have said. A cracking mcu film and a return to form which I hope continues with Doomsday later this year. 

Samatha Morton is superb as Circe

Pavoren007

stonemuse said:

Pavoren007 said:

Was in a packed IMAX seeing Odyssey tonight and thought it was great. Has inspired me to read more on Greek Mythology. The witch scene was creepy as you could get and incredibly well acted. 

Saw Spidey on Saturday and agree with what others have said. A cracking mcu film and a return to form which I hope continues with Doomsday later this year. 

Samatha Morton is superb as Circe

I did not recognise her. She was amazing in that scene.

Dazzler21

ValleyGary said:

Just got back from The Odyssey. Pretty epic.

Loved how Nolan let the story do the talking without getting too clever. 

Loved it.

Yeah I really enjoyed the Odyssey - So glad that a certain role was not assigned to a certain actor as suggested by many people in the build up - in fact I thought the actor fit their role just fine. 

I love that minimal CGI was used for a large number of scenes that truly twist your mind as to how the fudge they did it!

Thanks Gemini AI as I couldn't find a direct article: 

While director Christopher Nolan famously avoided relying on digital effects for The Odyssey, Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) was used as a digital utility tool to clean up practical footage, scale up environmental details, and blend physical props with digital monsters.

Instead of creating scenes from scratch on a computer, the visual effects team used CGI to augment real, on-camera elements in several key areas:

1. Digital Augmentation of the Sea Monsters

• Charybdis: While stunt drivers on jet skis physically swirled the ocean water to create a real vortex for the actors to react to, CGI was used to massively scale up the size, depth, and violent rotation of the whirlpool.
• Scylla: Digital effects were layered over practical physical elements on set to create the terrifying scale and movement of the multi-headed sea monster.

2. Puppet Cleanup and Face Refinement

• The Cyclops: The 60-foot mechanical puppet built for Polyphemus required a complex rig and multiple human operators to move inside the real Greek cave location. CGI was used in post-production to digitally erase the physical wires, control rigs, and operators, as well as to fine-tune the facial expressions and lip-syncing of actor Bill Irwin.

3. Environmental and Crowd Scaling

• The Scale of Troy: The production physically built a massive 110,000-square-foot tiered city set in Morocco and hired over 2,000 live extras. CGI was used to extend the background horizons, clean up modern environmental blemishes, and add subtle layout details to the sprawling ancient landscape.
• The Lestrigonian Soldiers: Digital visual effects were used to alter the height and crowd depth of the giant Lestrigonian army during their encounter with Odysseus's men.

4. Rig Erasure and Safety Enhancements

• Stunt Wire Removal: In heavy action sequences—such as actors scrambling around rough terrains, shipwrecks, or the Trojan Horse—safety harnesses and camera rigging wireframes were digitally painted out of the final 70mm IMAX frames.

And for the scenes that looked CGI but weren't AT ALL:

1. The Forced Perspective Giants (The Laestrygonians)

Audiences assumed the towering, man-eating Laestrygonian giants were entirely digital creations or scaled-up CGI models. Instead, Nolan used a classic in-camera illusion called forced perspective.

• He cast 7-foot-tall stunt performers to play the giants and placed them closer to the lens.
• He cast 5-foot-tall stunt doubles to play Odysseus's crew and placed them further back in the frame.
• Precise low-angle framing made the giants appear four times the size of the Greek soldiers naturally.

2. The Circe Pig Transformation

Audiences assumed the grotesque, organic melting of human flesh into animal snouts was a complex digital simulation. Instead, Nolan used a combination of practical makeup and editing:

• Overlapping Prosthetics: Makeup artists applied layers of overlapping, flexible latex prosthetics to the actors' faces that could be physically pulled and manipulated by hidden wires.
• In-Camera Dissolves: Nolan used classic, precise matching camera cuts, filming the actors in progressive stages of heavy makeup, then swapping them with trained, live pigs on the exact same set layout.
• Mechanical Snouts: For the mid-transformation close-ups, animatronic pig snouts with realistic twitching mechanisms were built and blended manually with the actors' real eyes.

3. The Army of Hades Emerging

The surreal, uniform visual of the underworld army seamlessly rising up from the barren dirt looked like a layered digital asset loop.
- To achieve this, real background actors were buried alive in the ground on location.
- Between takes, the actors remained hidden underground, breathing through concealed, practical snorkels until Nolan called action and they emerged simultaneously.

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