Be Excellent To Each Other

myp: making women cry since 1999

You were born in 1999?!?

My mother doesn't count.

Sister?

No, she doesn't count either.

None of your family counts? What the hell kind of schools do they have in Nottingham?

The only maths they teach is how to differentiate the rich from the poor.

Not sure mate, moved here when I was 19.

You imbecile.

Are you sure you were 19? You should probably show your working.

Looks like he's working pretty hard.

Bravo

The second Thor film isn't as good as the first by a long way. Disappointing.

I watched the new Mad Max this weekend.

It was brilliant.

Yeah I missed the fish out of water stuff. Also it was just dull, and the Asgard stuff felt more like the set was hollow cgi fluff (no idea of the reality of actual set to cgi in the two films, I'm just talking about how it felt).

The best bit was the bit on the underground.

Apart from it was factually wrong. That was annoying to me.

By far.

I'm watching The Gambler. I don't feel like I'm particularly interested/engrossed, but I don't want to turn it off either. Weird.

Just so long as you spot when to walk away. And when to run.

The alternative is turning 90 degrees and looking at Joans's gurning face.

Joke's on you. I'm not there.

I watched the original Hunger Games last night (because the shitty wifi is so slow in this hotel that I had to watch TV).

It was OK. Just, OK. Are the later ones any better, or is it all just hype?

I am.

Don't know about the last two, but the second is worse than the first IMO

Great, there's a dining table to put up, pipes that want boxing in (the wood still needs cutting down, but you've probably already found it strewn all over the place), and last two plinths for the kitchen need scribing and cutting.
Oh, and how are you at painting?

Good Old Grim...

Watched a film called "Knock, Knock" tonight.

It was rubbish. The whole notion that you're DEFINITELY going to cheat on your wife and family just because a couple of girls get their tits out was right out of order if you ask me.

Most films have points where you're urging the main character not to do something or to act differently, but this felt like this the entire way through. Stupid decisions throughout. Shame on you Keanu... Did I mention Keanu Reeves was in it? Well, he was.

Avoid.

Who's there?

Girls with their tits out, apparently. Best cold call ever.

I tried, oh lord I tried, to watch The Transporter Reloaded but the new Jason Statham replacement is terrible. I never thought I'd ever be saying this ever but, hnnngh, Jason Statham was a better fit and a better, oh jesus, actor. *throws up*

Oh god I feel dirty.

Brooklyn! Beautiful film - about a girl leaving Ireland in the 50s for Malays...the US, obviously. Very funny, particularly the first half, and Julie Walters' character though they fade her out so she doesn't steal it. Not a film of big events, just lovely.

edit: oh, and the biggest laugh of the night was from the hard of hearing subtitles; there's a love scene, with the subtitle 'orgasmic grunt'. Excellent work.

I've watched Robert De Niro in HEIST! That sounds exciting, right? Like it's trying to capture some of the cool from HEAT! And it has RDN in it! It must be good.

Turns out that it is absolute garbage, so, y'know, don't bother watching that shit.

OH FUCK ME PEOPLE, THE INTERNET HAS THE SEQUEL TO THE BEST FILM OF 2015 ON THE DOWNLOADATRON: ATTACK ON TITAN: PART 2!

Squeeeeeeeeee! I'm going to watch the shit out of that.

Isn't the first one about big naked people?

Sicario - very tense. I suppose you have to call it an action film, though there's as much tension as action really. I ended up rooting for one character and then realised afterwards that I felt dirty for so doing, which hasn't happened before. Great, tense stuff. Did I mention the tension?

Yeah, pretty much every second I was just waiting for something bad to happen. It was awesome.

99 HOMES is a very good & somewhat depressing "based on true events" drama / thriller with excellent acting from Andrew Garfield & Michael Shannon (Shannon is always great to be fair...).

Probably won't blow you away in terms of "thrills" (it's not a popcorn movie) but it's consistently entertaining & interesting.

7.5/10

Michael Shannon really is the best actor

SOLD - That's tonight's film then, Michael Shannon is amazing so anything with him in it is worth a watch.

Last night's watch for me was:

NO ESCAPE - Sort of like a survival horror film but replace the zombies with third world revolutionaries. The surprise for me here was Owen Wilson carrying off a dramatic role with aplomb, and Pierce Brosnan is in it too. In essence it's an American family move to a third world country for the father to work (never explicitly named but Cambodia seems like a good bet), just as a revolution kicks off, and the targets of the revolution are the corrupt government and the Americans who are in bed with them. Refreshingly it isn't the usual PG-13/12A nonsense that this sort of film tends to come in at (R/15 are its ratings), and the level of tension is almost unbearably high at times. The entire family, including two young girls, is almost constantly under imminent threat of getting shot/hacked/beaten/raped to death, I was quite glad of the intermission of refreshing my glass of wine and going for a piss halfway through it all.

Directed by the guy who did the awesome 'QUARANTINE', this is a brutally efficient thriller with solid performances on every level, with not an ounce of fat on it.

8/10 - Surprising Owen Wilson!

Looks a little more developed than Cambodia imo, based on the trailer. Maybe one of the smaller cities in Thailand.

Watched 'LOOPER' instead so I'll do 99 Homes tomorrow. I should have seen Looper already but it's one of those films that I inexplicably manage to miss for a bit.

Great film, always nice to see Bruce doing some proper acting (which he's clearly capable of but often seems not to be bothered enough to try), moreover though it's a fantastic science fiction flick in the way that the genre is really capable of soaring - exploring stories and ideas and emotions made possible in the genre, rather than getting too hung up on a load of silly special effects.

I'll go 8.5/10. Emily Blunt's thighs!

Mmmmm, Emily Blunt.

Speaking of Michael Shannon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVgxxdu-gJc


I've enjoyed the Director's previous work. Not sure about this based on the trailer alone, but when have trailers meant anything?

I've stopped watching them, since the general procedure these days is 'condense the entire film, including any significant plot points, character development, or twists, into a three minute window'.

I remember when trailers were exciting little teasers for a film, now they're almost 'THE FILM' for the YouTube generation.

Totally agree.

These days, my general rule of thumb for trailers is that I watch the first half of one.
This is where the basic premise, mood & tone is generally provided, without giving too much away.

If I like the look & feel of the film, and the acting etc. I stop at the half-way mark, because the 2nd-half of the trailer is usually spoiler-tastic.

Seems to be a reasonably solid way of going about things (especially for mainstream thrillers, horror movies etc.).

I thought your were of the opinion that films worked better spoilered?

I believe I presented some research that suggested our enjoyment of films is not necessarily lessened by knowing how it plays out, and I've personally argued that some films/games/books work out better on a repeat experience because you can enjoy the tale without having to try and work out what's going on.

What I don't think I've ever done is suggest that going into a film like LOOPER for example, is made better by knowing exactly everything about it (or even an approximation of such), but I would certainly advocate that watching a film like LOOPER for a second time could be a very rewarding experience. (UNDER THE SKIN for example, which works on two entirely different levels on a first and second viewing.)

But yes there is horseshit like Bioshock Infinite whereby I said if it weren't the fact I'd spoliered the story for myself first, I wouldn't have bothered playing it through to the end. (Crap game, good story, worth playing through just to see the story play out.)

I watched "No Escape" very shortly around the time of the Paris attacks and it made for extremely uncomfortable viewing. I don't think I enjoyed it, but that's not to say it was a bad film per se, it just wasn't...um...I don't know. The closest film I can compare it to is Hostel. Just horrific things happening with little purpose.

Oh and BEST FILM 2015 (Attack on Titan, fact fans) PART 2 that has leaked is real good looking but has a terrible Chinese dub so I sharn't be watching it until the original Japanese comes out.

I actually felt Looper's trailer misrepresented the film. Made it look much more action heavy.

Bioshock Infinite also had trailers showing stuff that got cut from the game, including entire systems and scenes. But then that's a game where you could feel the troubled development when playing it.