I grew up on watching Rocky films and my kids have seen re-runs of them all too . They are an important part of my movie watching history but Creed feels like an end of an era. This is right up there with the best of them. It reminded me a lot of the first two films. Gritty yet still with the over the top boxing action. This is Stallone's best acting performance of the lot though. He really gets back to grass roots with this display. Michael B. Jordan is excellent too but what was really surprising was the acting from the real life boxers Andre Ward and Tony Bellew. The one strange thing is the Everton connection to the film. Fans at the fight wearing Everton scarfs and singing Everton songs. Strange. I wonder what the American audience thought of it. All in all I enjoyed this as I have done with most of the films.
Watched Concussion last night with Will Smith based on a true story I believe. Very enjoyable, but I've always been a Will Smith fan.
Where did you see that? I didn't think that was released for another month.
Kodi
Yeah I watched it too. Thought it was a bit meh overall, Will Smith was good (even if his accent has been criticised I thought it was generally ok). I think the problem was that it's the sort of topic that doesn't translate well onto film. The Big Short got round this with some great directing,editing and an excellent script. Concussion just felt like it dragged too much but a good insight into how sports bodies conduct themselves.
The Big Short is about the banking crisis in 2008 and how a few individuals predicted what was going to happen and acted accordingly. Back in 1993 there was a series of chess matched live on TV between Brit , Nigel Short and Russian , Garry Kasparov . Despite not knowing the rules or having ever played a game of chess I was mesmerised by these matches. This film was the same for me. I definitely enjoyed this film but despite them trying their best to explain what was going on it wasn't sinking in . It doesn't matter what you do to jazz it up , banking is and never will be sexy , even if you do involve Brad Pitt and Selena Gomez ! Despite that , this is a fairly entertaining film. I thought it might go down the Wolf of Wall Street route and focus on the excesses of the bankers but it concentrates more on their stupidity and then their absolute gall in getting away with what they did. I like the quirky way the story was told even if I still didn't understand all of it but that probably says more about me than the film.
Room is one of those film that is hard to talk about without disclosing what happens but basically it's the story of a mother and child who have been held captive in a room and when they get the chance to escape the boy finds the word outside that he was always told wasn't real. It's a wonderfully acted drama that has you thinking throughout . You think the worst has happened but perhaps the worst is yet to come , especially for the young boy ? Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are superb as the two leads and understandably this has got a lot of accolades since it's release. I think it's one of those films that I will like even more the more I think about it .
As they state early on in The Big Short, the bankers want the general population to find what they do too confusing to question. That's at the heart of the story. So they do what they can to simplify it, and that worked for me. I now have a half-decent understanding.
I think it's a fantastic film. Engaging, informative, at times exciting, and brilliantly performed. The editing gives it an energy that other finance movies didn't look for. And they don't lose sight of the people who suffered most, which could have undone the good work.
I wouldn't compare it to Creed or any other recent release, it's apples and oranges. I loved both movies, for entirely different reasons. A score like the one Beds does is effectively for how close the movie came to achieving its goal.
I'm in Sundance for work. Excellent films / documentaries coming our way include: Under The Shadows, Author: The JT Le Roy story, Christine, Tickled and Swiss Army Man.
I'm in Sundance for work. Excellent films / documentaries coming our way include: Under The Shadows, Author: The JT Le Roy story, Christine, Tickled and Swiss Army Man.
This is a really interested film about an elderly couple who have been happily married for 45 years and then the husband gets some news from his past that rocks their relationship to the core. This is a wonderfully gentle film that doesn't rely on any of the bangs and whistles of modern film making but just a great script and some brilliant acting from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay . In a way this is quite a sad movie. It's about learning that saying less is sometimes better than confrontation especially when a lifetimes relationship is at stake. This won't be to everyone's liking but this made a welcome change to some of the films I have seen lately.
I've now seen all the films nominated for this years best picture Oscar bar one ( Spotlight ) and without a doubt , in my mind , The Revenant is the best of the lot . True , it's not a vintage year but this does have the feel of a film that will stand the test of time. Leonardo DiCaprio play Glass , a frontiersman who fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team , one of whom is particularly nasty , played by Tom Hardy. This is a classic survival/ revenge movie that looks fantastic ( especially the bear fight ) and despite being over two and a half hours , never flounders and that's mainly thanks to a career defining performance from DiCaprio. This looked like a really tough film to make because of the conditions and the physical transformation needed but Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu did a fantastic job.
I was aware of many of the events as I worked in the financial industry at the time, although not on the investment side where all of this happened. Some great performances, not least by Steve Carell and Christian Bale. It explains the issues in a down-to-earth coherent way and manages to make a complex subject very watchable.
It clearly highlights that many senior people in investment banking and on the regulatory side should have paid a high price for their actions yet got away scott-free. They did what they did because they knew there was no down-side ... the tax-payer would always bail them out. Some companies did disappear but most ... and the main protagonists ... survived.
Spotlight is an interesting film about how the Boston Globe uncovered the cover up by the Catholic church of dozens and dozens of priest who systematically molested children . This subject makes me really angry when I think of what these perverts are getting got away with all in the name of religion and I expected Spotlight to heighten my anger but it didn't really. I found this to be a little sterile despite the fact that his had people like Mark Ruffalo , Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams in the cast. Perhaps they were just a little bit too " Hollywood" to be playing the parts of these reporters because I never really bought into their performances. John Slattery was the best thing in this because I actually believed he was Ben Bradlee Jr. This is another film that surprises me that it got nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards because there are better films than this that missed out.
Comments
9/10
Decent film, very intense.
Was worried Owen Wilson wouldn't work in a serious role, surprised me.
7 out of 10
I grew up on watching Rocky films and my kids have seen re-runs of them all too . They are an important part of my movie watching history but Creed feels like an end of an era.
This is right up there with the best of them. It reminded me a lot of the first two films. Gritty yet still with the over the top boxing action. This is Stallone's best acting performance of the lot though. He really gets back to grass roots with this display. Michael B. Jordan is excellent too but what was really surprising was the acting from the real life boxers Andre Ward and Tony Bellew.
The one strange thing is the Everton connection to the film. Fans at the fight wearing Everton scarfs and singing Everton songs. Strange. I wonder what the American audience thought of it.
All in all I enjoyed this as I have done with most of the films.
8 out of 10
The Big Short
The Big Short is about the banking crisis in 2008 and how a few individuals predicted what was going to happen and acted accordingly.
Back in 1993 there was a series of chess matched live on TV between Brit , Nigel Short and Russian , Garry Kasparov . Despite not knowing the rules or having ever played a game of chess I was mesmerised by these matches.
This film was the same for me. I definitely enjoyed this film but despite them trying their best to explain what was going on it wasn't sinking in .
It doesn't matter what you do to jazz it up , banking is and never will be sexy , even if you do involve Brad Pitt and Selena Gomez !
Despite that , this is a fairly entertaining film. I thought it might go down the Wolf of Wall Street route and focus on the excesses of the bankers but it concentrates more on their stupidity and then their absolute gall in getting away with what they did.
I like the quirky way the story was told even if I still didn't understand all of it but that probably says more about me than the film.
7 out of 10
Room is one of those film that is hard to talk about without disclosing what happens but basically it's the story of a mother and child who have been held captive in a room and when they get the chance to escape the boy finds the word outside that he was always told wasn't real.
It's a wonderfully acted drama that has you thinking throughout . You think the worst has happened but perhaps the worst is yet to come , especially for the young boy ?
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are superb as the two leads and understandably this has got a lot of accolades since it's release. I think it's one of those films that I will like even more the more I think about it .
8 out of 10
I think it's a fantastic film. Engaging, informative, at times exciting, and brilliantly performed. The editing gives it an energy that other finance movies didn't look for. And they don't lose sight of the people who suffered most, which could have undone the good work.
I wouldn't compare it to Creed or any other recent release, it's apples and oranges. I loved both movies, for entirely different reasons. A score like the one Beds does is effectively for how close the movie came to achieving its goal.
45 Years
This is a really interested film about an elderly couple who have been happily married for 45 years and then the husband gets some news from his past that rocks their relationship to the core.
This is a wonderfully gentle film that doesn't rely on any of the bangs and whistles of modern film making but just a great script and some brilliant acting from Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay .
In a way this is quite a sad movie. It's about learning that saying less is sometimes better than confrontation especially when a lifetimes relationship is at stake.
This won't be to everyone's liking but this made a welcome change to some of the films I have seen lately.
7 out of 10
The Revenant
I've now seen all the films nominated for this years best picture Oscar bar one ( Spotlight ) and without a doubt , in my mind , The Revenant is the best of the lot . True , it's not a vintage year but this does have the feel of a film that will stand the test of time.
Leonardo DiCaprio play Glass , a frontiersman who fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team , one of whom is particularly nasty , played by Tom Hardy.
This is a classic survival/ revenge movie that looks fantastic ( especially the bear fight ) and despite being over two and a half hours , never flounders and that's mainly thanks to a career defining performance from DiCaprio.
This looked like a really tough film to make because of the conditions and the physical transformation needed but Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu did a fantastic job.
9 out of 10
I was aware of many of the events as I worked in the financial industry at the time, although not on the investment side where all of this happened. Some great performances, not least by Steve Carell and Christian Bale. It explains the issues in a down-to-earth coherent way and manages to make a complex subject very watchable.
It clearly highlights that many senior people in investment banking and on the regulatory side should have paid a high price for their actions yet got away scott-free. They did what they did because they knew there was no down-side ... the tax-payer would always bail them out. Some companies did disappear but most ... and the main protagonists ... survived.
Highly recommended.
9/10
Enjoyable 90-odd minutes.
7/10
Spotlight is an interesting film about how the Boston Globe uncovered the cover up by the Catholic church of dozens and dozens of priest who systematically molested children .
This subject makes me really angry when I think of what these perverts
are getting
got away with all in the name of religion and I expected Spotlight to heighten my anger but it didn't really.I found this to be a little sterile despite the fact that his had people like Mark Ruffalo , Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams in the cast. Perhaps they were just a little bit too " Hollywood" to be playing the parts of these reporters because I never really bought into their performances. John Slattery was the best thing in this because I actually believed he was Ben Bradlee Jr.
This is another film that surprises me that it got nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards because there are better films than this that missed out.
7 out of 10
Thought The Martian was good though. Kids loved it too.
Both through my phone on Showbox and onto the TV via HDMI.