Be Excellent To Each Other

I watched a Fast and the Furious film once. It was alright. It was the one set in Japan.

That's one of the better ones, the prequel before it was a prequel with the old man teenager

And it wasn't meant to be a Fast and Furious film, iirc.

Extraction 2:

Well it’s more of the same, and I’m entirely happy about that. The whole film consists of two massive set pieces and they don’t disappoint (much. Just some poor or rather obvious CG in places) (and some CG fire. Fuck me I hate CG fire and smoke. They even blow some shit up for real near the end and the visual difference is massive. Real explosions are so much more impressive).

The ending action scene is, unfortunately, really, really underwhelming.

Frankly, I loved it. Still isn’t John Wick but it’s good.

John Wick 3/10

Haha we watched this tonight and "it's gloriously done in most places , but shit at the same time".

Last weekend we watched Back to the Future with the kids and they really enjoyed it. There was more swearing than I remembered, but they were relatively low-level swears that the kids have heard before (but, I'd rather they didn't repeat just yet). BTTF is such a neat, nicely done adventure film. The kids loved it and I'd forgotten how good it is. The theme-park ride, though, is a little bit shit now that I think about it.

So this weekend it made sense to watch a sequel, yes, we watched Extraction 2 - but that was after the kids went to bed. While the kids were up we watched Back to the Future part 2 and, again, I'd forgotten how good a film it is. Possibly some of the riffing on the first film landed better because a- I'm not a stoopid kid anymore and b- we'd only very recently seen the first film so it was fresh in our minds. We all really enjoyed this.

OK, so Extraction 2 - it had plenty of shooty bang bang and some of the violent injuries in the violent punchy fighty bits were wince-inducingly uncomfortable. It had a few funny moments. Chris Hemsworth is a very handsome man, something both Lady T and I can agree on. It is good but a bit by-the-numbers... just with greater numbers each time.

We also watched Violent Night (I almost typed silent night there). It was good, fun, and I like David Harbour. Perhaps I'd over-inflated the concept of the film and set high expectations, as it wasn't quite as good as good as I'd built it up to be in my head. Still, a good film. Nice to see Beverly D'Angelo featuring, although perhaps the hollywood life has come at a high price.

Did they really send cars into space in a FnF film or is that just from a meme that's overly-exaggerated the silliness of these films?

(not that silliness is inherently a bad thing, but sometimes.... too much)

I hear it was ludicrous

Only watching F&F9 will give you the answer...

I think I've only seen two F&F films - the first one (which I quite enjoyed) and the one where they steal a bank safe by dragging it around with chains attached to cars, I can't remember the number of that one (perhaps that's F5?).

I also saw Hobbs and Shaw, that was mostly fun.

I'm assuming there are some things in F9 that I wouldn't 'know', but probably is not all that important.

Actually, I think you might be surprised.

Yes, you could probably enjoy each movie as a standalone entry, but the continuation of characters throughout the series is very much observed.

Time for a binge-watch, IMO.

I never really cared much for the Men in Black films (they're ok but they do seem really quite lazily written to me) but Lady T was a fan.

The kids enjoyed them and I was very surprised by MiB3 - I think it was the pick of the bunch. Maybe it was because I'd seen 1 and 2 before, and it was the first time I'd ever seen 3, but the time travel bit was quite well done and it just seemed more interesting as a film.

As far as MiB goes, it's very much 1 > 3 > 2 > International.

The time travel story in 3 *is* well done, and has a pretty solid emotional core to it IMO. 1 is a true classic. 2 and International are both utter shash and should never have seen the light of day.

Shash? The silk thing you wear to denote your rank?

Red Rover - a lovely whimsical film (I found out about by accident) about a man wanting to go on a one way trip to Mars and being encouraged along by a musician.

Oh dear, International is next up on our movie viewing list

I did recently watch most of the F&F movies and the Mission: Impossible movies.

The Mission: Impossible ones are waaaaaay better.

There's an episode of Red Dwarf where Kryten calls someone (Lister I think) on some bullshit by describing it as "complete and utter shash" and it's just a phrase that's stuck with me.

Went to see Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One, or M:I-DRp1 if you will.

It's alright, but it's not as good as the last movie was, which I put down to it being one of a two-parter so it's not neatly wrapped up at the end.

Decent action, good performances from the main cast, quality stunts (as per)

The first couple of minutes of the movie are *eerily* reminiscent of the intro sequence to Metal Gear Solid, though.

I done watched The Flash.

Y’know, I don’t really understand the hate it’s been getting cause I had a fun time with it. I thought the comedic moments had way more hits than misses and the story was your standard superhero stuff albeit with some time travel.

Yeah, yeah Ezra Miler is a cunt by all accounts but he puts in a good performance.

Yeah, I thought it was alright.

But, by god, the CG is ropey as fuck. Oh my days, it looks like it was made 10 years ago or earlier. Some of it is alright but an awful lot doesn’t look right at all. The multiverse/time travelling spheres reproduce scenes entirely in 3D models and people and faces look dreadful. Sometimes the flash’s suit and body are all CG and he just looks rubbery with noodle limbs. Sometimes his face looks weird. Batman’s cape looks shit. Cars looks shit. It’s astonishingly bad at times and just about passable most others.

Nick Cage gets another pay cheque again too. This guy must have some more debts to pay again. Jesus.

The weird looking CGI was intentional apparently, and in a way I can believe it -- without that explanation, those sequences are so noticeably poor quality that it can't have been anything other than intentional.

Indiana Jones
It’s Indy. The breathtaking de-aging isn’t all that, just yet.
But it’s a romp and enjoyable. I’m amazed the Ford pulled it off considering his age

Mission Impossible.
A blast. Rips along and the stunts are excellent. Haley Atwell is hot, too. There’s a stunt sequence in it lifted from Uncharted 2 (I think).

How does it compare to the previous Indy film (Crystal Skull)? Cos I really wanted to love that but I can't remember much other than a real sense of disappointment.

We saw the new Spiderverse film at the cinema with the kids. It was a really good film and I enjoyed it, although I note wot Gaz sez above about the feeling two-parters, as I felt that a bit in this case too.

And the stupid bit with the car/boat chase and the really fucking stupid bit with swinging from the vines that I absolutely hated
And the stupid bit with the aliens at the end
And the bit with the fridge which everyone said was really stupid but I thought was only a little bit stupid
And the cool bit with Indy's hat, which was cool.

To be fair, there was little that was truly stupid here. But. It’s an Indiana Jones film, it’s meant to resemble the Saturday morning serials from the 40s and 50s
And all of them have had silliness in to a greater or lesser degree. KotCS was very silly though. This is better

Bit weird of you to invent films that were never made

Took me a few moments to work out what you meant, but I think I got there

Yes, several times. Visually a bit more Steam Punk than the latest one, which I only got around to seeing last night. I've also read the book several times, plus all the sequels by Frank Herbert, and half a dozen of the prequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. It all got a bit much for me by then. And it seems that they're still churning them out ( see the Dune Franchise page on Wikipedia ).

I quite liked the new Part 1, but couldn't help noticing where it deviates a bit from the book, but then the Lynch version did that quite a lot as well.

Duvet is on Amazon prime just in time for Helen going to the States for a week, so I get to turn the sound up decently loud!

I wanted to wait until they make as many as they make before the studios get bored of making money, but figure if I bump the prime number while I have the early chance it might help any part 3 that might be needed.

I read Dune last year (I think it was last year) and was hooked initially, but I found it was quite saggy in the middle and then rushed at the end. I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to read the sequels. Are they much cop? Is there a point where it's best to stop before it all gets a bit naff?

As you can see, there's a shed load of novels and there are also some short stories that I didn't know about. By the time I'd got to 'Chapterhouse' I was, quite literally, losing the plot. I think I read Messiah more than once and it was very much a 'what happened next' after the original one. It was interesting because it took a turn that I definitely wasn't expecting. I can't really remember much about the other ones, but I did suspect that Frank might be milking the series for all it was worth. But I don't think I ever thought they weren't actually worth reading.

It was a few years later, when my family were asking what I wanted for Christmas and I had no idea. I found the 'Prelude' series and bought the lot, then handed them out to the family to return to me at Christmas, just for convenience. I did find them interesting, particularly to see where the Fremen had originated and how they became the people they were by the time of the original novel. The Butlerian Jihad was also interesting, and maybe even more so now, as it deals with the human fight back against the 'thinking machines' which is where we might be in the future if some of the predictions about AI are accurate. Hope that's not too much of a spoiler.

NB I haven't read any of the 'sequels.'

Novel(s)
Frank Herbert:
Dune (1965)
Dune Messiah (1969)
Children of Dune (1976)
God Emperor of Dune (1981)
Heretics of Dune (1984)
Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)

Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson:
Prelude to Dune series:
House Atreides (1999)
House Harkonnen (2000)
House Corrino (2001)
Legends of Dune series:
The Butlerian Jihad (2002)
The Machine Crusade (2003)
The Battle of Corrin (2004)

Dune sequels:
Hunters of Dune (2006)
Sandworms of Dune (2007)
Heroes of Dune series:
Paul of Dune (2008)
The Winds of Dune (2009)
Great Schools of Dune series:
Sisterhood of Dune (2012)
Mentats of Dune (2014)
Navigators of Dune (2016)
The Caladan Trilogy series:
The Duke of Caladan (2020)
The Lady of Caladan (2021)
The Heir of Caladan (2022)

Loves me some Dune. I read Paul of Dune not long ago and it appalling.

Watched it. Loved it. Villeneuve has built in the amazing work he did with blade runner 2049 and especially Arrival.

The only problem is now I have to wait for the rest of it.

I still think the directors cut of the Lynch film is great, but the new one is great.

I have the original series of books waiting to be read, I just don't get round to it.

Films wot I wotched:

1. Cop Land

Sly Stallone is brilliant in this criminal mobster thriller from way back. Like, utterly brilliant. Like, you’d have thought this guy was a proper actor. Oh he was? Yeah, what happened to him. You seen his face recently, man alive. Honestly, I was reminded of Rambo 1 and Rocky. Great film too, although the end is a bit underwhelming where they skip over the mobs tie. Anyway, solid film, solid performances and loads of your fave actors in it.

2. Smokin’ Aces

A forerunner to the John Wicks of the world in style over substance. But it’s a great film with, again, loads of recognisable actors and some fun action. Chris Pine is here playing a nazi nut case and he does a terrific job. Oh and randomly Matthew Fox had a small bit and it’s a memorable sequence. Yeah, well worth a rewatch.

I don't know how many times the kids have watched Matilda. This weekend I sat down with them and watched it all properly from start to finish for the first time in a while (rather than just milling around in the background seeing bits and pieces).

It's a really good film, well made, fun. I enjoyed sitting down to watch it again.

Oh I agree, they are silly, for the most part in a good way, as are many action flicks. It'd be boring if it was too realistic.

I find it's funny/interesting how suspension of disbelief can be stretched (quite some way) but then all of a sudden 'snaps' and is broken for me:

Indy managing to win any fight each time, either with brawn, wits, or guile? Yeah man
Indy always getting away from a scrape, surviving even though it was really improbable, through a feat of derring-do (and some crazy luck)? Sure, he is the hero after all
A magic box that melts faces when it's opened? Yep all good
A beardy zombie knight guarding the grail? I mean it kinda fits with the themes and other things we've seen in the series, so why not
A creepy baddy that can pull out beating hearts? That was cool
Car boat falling off a waterfall and they are all fine? hmmm, ok maybe

Swinging from vine to vine and catching up with a spending car chase? NO, fuck this, gone too far. This isn't a superhero flick.

I appreciate that others may draw their lines differently. It might also be that when I was younger I was less of a cranky jerk.

Erk that's far too many books for me.

I did find the Dune universe/setting really interesting too, and found myself wanting to know a bit more about it, especially the 'technology but without computers aspect' and would like to read about the Butlerian Jihad, and possibly the bit about how the Fremen came to be.

I'm considering 'picking and choosing' just a few rather than try to take it all in, as the whole lot seems a bit daunting to my little feeble mind. Is that a silly idea though?

Oppenheimer is a film wot I watched.

I’ve since seen people say this is Nolan’s JFK and I think that’s about right but the subject matter was slightly less interesting to me as a story. I mean, look, did Amiga Power ever do a special on the atomic bomb? Exactly. It reminded me a lot of Sully when Tom Hanks does this amazing feat and then the powers that he want to fuck him over. But with atoms or something. If you like the sciences I expect you’ll have lots of titters of excitement seeing your favourite scientist guys interacting. I could care less.

Anyway, it’s not exactly slow but 3 hours was a long time for me to really concentrate on the machinations of what was happening. Probably cause the voice audio was, once again, too fucking low at times. And that was in an imax theatre. But if you struggle keeping up with people taking quickly I expect you’ll have a rough time here. But much less than, say, Tenet. And there’s not much in the way of baffling science talk, mind, which was good.

The performances were great though. This could be a character study in what it’s like to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people when you’ve got a giant ego and a wayward moral compass. Old Murphy does the dead eyes look like no other.

But I can’t see myself watching it ever again. Visually there’s not a lot going on throughout (although it is quite beautiful) but I can’t imagine myself watching it without the intense sound and vibration of IMAX theatre. It added a lot to the experience. It was well worth the experience though. Very enjoyable.

No, I don't think it's silly. When you look at the scope of all the series, they span tens of thousands of years, becoming entirely different stories in their own right. I think the problem I had was that I was expecting to be able to link all the stories together into a single long-running theme, when they are really split into distinct periods of the history of the authors' universe. When I read the prequels I realised that it would have made no difference to my understanding or enjoyment of them if I hadn't already read Dune.

I watched the new Mission: Impossible. Couldn’t tell you what the subtitle for this one was even though I watched it only a couple of days ago.

Anyway, I saw it with the moving seats! 4 DEE EXXX BAY BEEE!

It was loads of fun in 4DX. Like one of those theme park rides with wind and proper rollercoaster seats! I’m surprised they haven’t got seat belts cause they weren’t afraid to toss you about. Like your mum. And the occasional burst of water just when you forget it’s a thing. Yeah, the experience was really fun.

The film? Yeah, usual stuff, with crazy Tom Cruise doing a lot of his trademark running and some astonishing set pieces. Stunts that looked great mainly cause the screen wasn’t filled with a ton of CG fire. There’s bound to have been some CG in here but it’s done well and enhances the screen rather than filling it with bitmaps and gouraud shading and erm pixels and erm them bloody vectors.

The story however was a load of old bollocks, with Tom excommunicardo and him having to fight everyone and some really slow talky bits that makes you want to scream at the screen “NO ONE CARES. MAKE MY CHAIR JUMP UP AND DOWN.”

10/10 would 4DX again.

The film? No idea out of 10. THE FUCKING CHAIR SPRAYED WATER IN MY FACE!

Sounds like it was 5D as time passed while you were watching it.

I watched this.



It was as good as the trailer.

I especially liked



Pimpslapped/10

Meg 2 getting rave reviews.

I loved the first one. It was a perfect bit of ridiculous.

Would love all movies to have unfathomably large sea creatures in. Think how much better Titanic would have been if an unfathomably large squid had plucked Kate Winslet right off that door.

Kraken as Juror No. 7 in 12 Angry Men

My Dinner with Andre, only Andre is a sealion.

Free Willy but Willy is Jason Statham.

All the Jurassic World and Jurassic Park films but every single dinosaur is the mosasaurus.

Looks interesting and has a 'WTF' moment in there unrelated to the actual film

I watched a couple of films:

Wrath of Man by Guy Richie. He’s completely lost it hasn’t he? It’s written like a ‘Lock, Stock’ but it’s completely devoid of any personality. Bland direction throughout and with some very forgettable American actors doing a piss poor job of trying to be a characters. If it wasn’t for Jason Statham hamming it up as some sort of superhero baddie, I doubt I’d have made it through the entirety of this.

Kandahar was next with Gerard Butler. The trailer says “From the Director of Angel Has Fallen”. The ultra shit one of the “…Has Fallen” trilogy. I’d have left that out, personally. The less that gets mentioned the better. Anyway, it’s shit. Really shit. The dialogue is cringe, the characters are copy paste from better films and the story is garbage. Mind you, the direction is remarkably oooook except the screen has a brown filter to represent the desert or something. BUT its one redeeming feature is how fucking good the explosions look at the end of the film. They’re probably in the trailer so just enjoy them there I suppose, save you some time.