Be Excellent To Each Other

Is clapping in cinemas a thing?? I get it at a live show, but not a a cinema.

I've never seen it happen, thank fuck. It's terrible.

It seems to be a 'bit' of a thing, but thankfully not all that widespread. I hope it does not become more common place as I don't really like it.



What about clapping when a plane lands? I think I've seen it once when it was a rough landing (or maybe it's a 'borrowed memory' from something I actually saw in a film, I forget). It does seem nice to show appreciation to the crew but also clapping seems a bit naff.

Don't get clapping a rough landing, that's like clapping a chef for an especially horrible meal.

sure, a rough landing in good conditions isn't something to be proud of; I think I more meant a safe landing in difficult/rough conditions like a big old storm.

The first time I flew to LA-X the flight had significant turbulence. Quite a few of the passengers got quite upset during this and they all applauded, whooped and hollered on touchdown

It makes a bit more sense at a premier or a festival, I guess, as the film makers might actually be in the same room as you then. Clapping in your local MoviePlex seems silly, unless you think it's been projected really well, or that the ushers were fantastic.

Yes, the Cannes Film Festival has a tradition of standing ovations.

Fuck doing it in a regular cinema though.

Yes, that is my thought.

The first time I flew to LA-X the flight had significant turbulence. Quite a few of the passengers got quite upset during this and they all applauded, whooped and hollered on touchdown

Surely this is the second time?

There was much hootin' and hollarin' (and clapping) at the midnight showing of Endgame in my local cinema (and, by all reports, lots of the others). It was probably the best cinema experience of my life.

If you don't like other people existing, watch it at home.

I find myself cheering, especially with the 'on the left' in endgame. Just not clapping at the end:)

The best cinema experience I had was when I went with an ex girlfriend called Hannah.

However, I can't remember what film it was.

Back row, was it?

No. I've never even heard of that film let alone seen it.

No, I think she was a hooker actually.

Perfect.

Unlike Pete's thread, The Batman is not a particularly nice film. But it is a very good one.

I agree 100%. It was excellent. Just got back, I was gripped for the 3 hours.

Yeah, I think Battinson might overtake Keaton in my “Best Batman” list.

Not an awful lot of Bruce in this movie though so tough to compare there, but my instinct is that Kilmer is still the best one there.

Fucking loved this movie, though. Nice to see some actual detective work going on, and Gotham finally has character again instead of being an identikit American city.

Loved the asymmetry of the movie starting with and ending with .

Brilliant car chase, with a Batmobile that just sounds and looks terrifying.

All the actors bring their A-game here, particularly Pattinson, Dano and Kravitz - Serkis was underused but did great with what he had. Farrell clearly loved chewing the scenery, I’d love to see more of his Penguin.

The score was thumping, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Batman theme that sounds terrifying before. Just gets into your head. Quality stuff.

And then there’s the look of the damn thing. I said it on Twitter, and it’s a bit of a cliche, but every frame of this movie could be a painting. It’s hauntingly beautiful from start to finish.

Can’t think of anything that I didn’t like about it. Even the main title card is so imposing that it made me pause.

I agree, though my favourite (after I looked up the name) was Turturro. Saw Farrell in the credits and wondered who he'd played! And they went in with the accents, to really tie it to New Yoik, I thought, which worked really well.

And my axe.

I agree. It was one of the best Batman of not comic films made.

For me it is on par with The Dark Knight.

The batmobile starting up made me do a little cheer. It sounded like a monster and the car chase was brilliant. I liked that most of the chase was looking over the Penguins shoulder (it is in the trailer, so not a spoiler)

The score was great which added to the far broodiness of the Bat.

I want to see it again. It is good to see A Batman film dialed up to 11 in a good way.

3 hours

Just watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the fourth or fifth time(Netflix). I absolutely love it. It's got to be Jim Carey's best film.

If you've not seen it, try your best not to read the description on Netflix as it imo spoils the start of the film. Just go into as cold as possible. I don't think it's aged badly at all (fashions and a very young Mark Ruffalo aside).

Thoroughly recommended.

Yeah, that was great! I can see why you've watched it several times - I think I had all the "ooh, because..!" moments I am going to, but maybe not. Definitely not aged, except for the three very young people in it. And maybe if I saw a recent Jim Carrey picture I'd make that four.

Oh, and I've just checked the Netflix description. Yup, very glad I didn't read that and knew nothing at all about it when I watched.

This is another film I’ve never watched because something told me I’d get too emotionally invested in it.

Bjork apparently refused the role as she thought she would. I think it certainly has the potential to be taken that way, putting the next bit in spoiler tags, maybe they don't need to be, but just in case...

I agree with that, Malc. And

Film Review!

"Hypnotic" (Netflix)

It's 90 minutes long and does everything a by the numbers competent thriller should.

If you are looking for a competent by the numbers thriller to fit into that hour and half you have spare you could do worse. Or better.

486 out of 972

Double Dynamite (currently on Iplayer)

Groucho Marx helps Frank Sinatra hide a life-changing sum of money so he can marry Jane Russell.

This was discussed on the most recent Marx Brothers Council podcast so I watched it after listening to their discussions but I think I would have come to the same thoughts about the film had I watched it first.

It's a strange film that doesn't really know whether it wants to be a raucous comedy of misunderstandings or a drama with gags. It isn't particularly good at either role, although there are some good one-liners and the stand-out scene is when Groucho tries to open an account at the bank. The surprise twist ending just falls flat, although it did have echoes to me of a present-day scandal.

Both Sinatra and Groucho are miscast: would Frank really be afraid of the mob? Why is Groucho playing a sidekick? Who the hell thought they should not only have a duet, but also pair it with some of the worst back-projection I've ever seen? And if you're going to that, make sure the sequence actually gives an opportunity for the duo to show off their talents. The song isn't particularly funny or well-sung.

There are also a couple of scenes with Jane Russell and the villain that make for uncomfortable viewing through modern eyes, and, seriously Frank, unscrewing a connecting door when your neighbour's in the shower is just not on (and nowhere near as funny in execution as it must have looked on the page). Let's not spend too long thinking about the film's title either.

It's just over an hour long so doesn't outstay its welcome. I enjoyed it despite its many faults, especially as it shows how the post-Marx Brothers, pre-You Bet Your Life Groucho was trying to establish a new role for himself.

Oh, and it's officially a Christmas film because it's set in the run-up to the big day and Santa helps move the plot along (he's in with the mob, apparently, which explains a lot).

Super-quick roundup of the films I've watched recently:

Studio 666: The Foo Fighters record an album in a haunted house. It's not very good.
Last Night in Soho: Fashion Design student goes to London for university, move into a Bedsit and starts having visions of a girls life in the 1960s. It's good!
No Exit: Some people are stranded in a rest stop during a blizzard, and there's a kidnapped girl in a van outside. Whodidit? Not bad.
The Rocky Horror Show: Brad and Janet's car breaks down and they seek shelter in a nearby house ("It's a castle!"). Weird shit is going on. There is singing. It's still great.
Little Shop of Horrors: Seymour finds a weird plant that wants to eat blood. There is singing. It's still great.
Boiling Point: One-shot movie of life in a busy kitchen, and a chef's inability to deal with pressure. Really tense, and really good.
Scream (2022). It's another Scream film (a sequel, not a remake), 25 years on. Handles the meta universe-in-film stuff in a way The Matrix 4 wished it could. It's fairly good.
Constantine: Ted "Theodore" Logan fights demons. It's fairly good.
Underworld: Blood wars: Selene fights vampires, werewolves and, well, everyone else. It's fairly mediocre, but some of the deaths are nice and brutal.

Oh, I watched a movie the other day.

Pacific Rim: Very silly movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite it being obviously stupid in many ways.

I watched the Hitmans's Wife's Bodyguard, as I recalled the first one being quite entertaining and I like Jackson and Reynolds.

I thought, huh, this is lazily retreading bits from the first film. Then I thought, why aren't the two main characters more familiar after their previous escapades. Slowly a nagging thought crept into my mind but I persevered with the film. Only during the denouement, when the truck appeared, did that little nagging thought pipe up and confidently and say yeah you idiot, this is the first film.

I was a bit embarrassed (this has never happened to me before, honest!) but Lady T didn't seem to twig either.





What was all that stuff about two people needing to be joined and 'in the drift' or whatever it was called, all about, eh? But the smashy stuff was cool.

The Bubble - Does what one might expect and is carried by who is in it. Gillan hits her peak equalling her Dr Who performances.

There’s a new Michael Bay movie called Ambulance or maybe it’s called ambuLAnce.

Either way it’s the worst film I’ve watched all year. It stands a very good chance of being the worst film of the entire year and it’s only April (or March, when I watched it).

March when it started, April when it finally ended? I fancied it - as a way to kill a few brain cells - till I saw the runtime.

If you love, or even just happen to quite like Ryan Reynolds, why not watch the new Ryan Reynolds film 'The Adam Project' on Netflix.

It has Ryan Reynolds doing his Ryan Reynolds thing, but also a young actor as the 'young Ryan Reynolds character', cos this is a time travel movie, see. A young actor playing Ryan Reyonlds does come across as a real sassy little jerk but there are a few laughs along the way and it's wrapped up fairly quickly and neatly.

Solid 63%, you won't have a bad time but it's not a classic film by any means. Some of the CGI was a bit wonky but a couple of the themes were endearingly sweet, and it seems to wrap up nicely and certainly doesn't drag along. Mark Ruffalo seems to have a bit of a funny accent or speech pattern in it.

I watched some movies this week!

Pitch Black
I wanted something familiar and that I could watch whilst occasionally messing around on my phone, and this hit the spot. But then I got sucked in and just watched it properly. It's great as a b-movie, with Vin Diesel being Vin Diesel, and the supporting cast being fun. Though it plays fast and loose with its own rules, I still really enjoyed it, and it mstly holds up surprisingly well.

Also contains the epic line, "It did not know with whom it was fucking."

So of course I also had to watch...

The Chronicles of Riddick
An absolute mess of a movie. So much potential in it, and so much bollocks as well. Good villains, but a lot of messing around with mercs and prisons and all sorts of things. It sort of doesn't know whether it wants to try to be epic, or focus on the small stuff that made Pitch Black a success. As a result it falls between two stools and doesn't quite work. Still good at times, overall it's easily the weakest of the three movies.

Which means I also watched...

Riddick
I actually hadn't seen this before, somehow. Writer/director David Twohy smartly brings it back to a small scale, after a quick recap and exposition of why Riddick is now stranded on a remote planet. The first half is okay, as Riddick gets back to his roots and is all about survival... then the second half is basically Pitch Black Revisited, with different aliens, more mercs, and some interesting characters (though Dave Bautista's character needed a better arc). It also features one of the best ridiculous action deaths I have seen outside of Bollywood.

The character is still really fun though, and it made me look up to see if he would make another... and it looks like he will! There's a script and stuff, and Riddick 4: Furya is gonna happen (possibly).

It feels like Vin Diesel makes the F&F franchise movies so he can do his passion project of dodgy SF on the side. Bravo, Mister Diesel.



I also watched...

Pacific Rim 2
Well, I watched the first one I like watching things through once I've started. It was fun. John Boyega is always good value, as are Charlie Day and Burn Gorman. Also big fighty mechs fighting big smashy kaiju! Fun!

Not a great film, but did what i expected.

...which reminded me of kaiju movies and sequels, so I watched...

10 Cloverfield Lane
Not a kaiju movie itself, but the sequel to one. A totally different movie style from Cloverfield, and actually really entertaining, with the fabulous Mary Elizabeth Winstead being fabulous, and John Goodman being an excellent person who might be mad and evil but might only be mad, or only evil, or neither!

Excellent and tense movie, let down only by the ending (initial ending good, then the following bits silly). Either way, enjoyed it.


That was my movies for the week. This is what happens when the wife and child go away. I could do something interesting, or go out, or watch good things... but instead I watched these.

I liked chronicles of Riddick, the baddies were interesting, and I think Karl Urban is cool. The Judi Dench spirit thing seemed a bit out of place though. A solid film.

We watched The King's Man. it was a perfectly serviceable fillm, and I like Djimon Hounsou but I was a bit bored during it. There was nothing wrong with it as such, but also it was a bit... Bland.

The Adam Project - You'll watch it, you'll enjoy watching it, then you'll forget about it straight away.

yes that sums up, what I thought.


Also went to see Sonic 2. Jim Carey chews the furniture and it is a good game adaption romp. Not the best film in the world, but did not expect it to be. about a 5/10... the little kids in the cinema seemed to love it.

I watched Dune last night, it felt too long and not long enough at the same time, it also felt more like a TV programme than a film.

I enjoyed it on the whole, but it could have been better, (in both the execution and the delivery) the shields seemed pointless and inconsistent, as did the rules about surviving in the desert.

That being said, it was beautiful to watch. Visually and aurally stunning. And I can't wait for the next one.

I watched a film!

The Adam Project. So fucking tiresome that it was turned off after 20 minutes of ‘that Ryan Reynolds schtick’.

Fuck right off/10

So I didn’t actually watch a film then.

But I did! Syke!

I actually watched Pixar’s latest “Turning Red” and it was absolutely marvellous. Seriously good fun and I don’t know when I last enjoyed an American animation so much. The only problem I had with it was the force fed drama inserted into, like, the last 20 minutes because someone somewhere thought it needed a *yawn* high stakes boss fight at the end. Should’ve stuck to their guns and gone with the family drama throughout. Tch. One point deducted. 9/10

Actually I remember when I enjoyed an animation like this before: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Should be up there with the greatest of American CG animation says I.

Choose or Die: choose anything but watch this.

We watched two films this weekend...

Once upon a time in Hollywood:
I like DiCaprio, and I like Pitt, and they had good chemistry in this. it was well made and well acted but it was loooong, and didn't seem to go anywhere particularly fast. At one point, I paused it and asked Lady T when she thought we'd be getting to the plot, and I noticed we were already 1hr 20 into it. Overall she didn't like it, and described it as 'boring'; I can see why she thought that, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Brad's 'Champion' T Shirt was really cool.

Gold:
Hey, you know how some films use a really talented actor to carry an entire movie by giving them almost all of the screen time in isolation, like Tom Hanks in Castaway? Well, Zac Efron is not able to do that. he gave it a shot, but didn't pull it off, his 'stoic and quiet' came across as 'disinterested and bored'. This was a cheaply made Aussie flick, and it was OK to pass the time. Lady T preferred this out of the two. I thought it was OK but a bit shoddy. Also quite slow. The make up was quite good though.

Agreed. I particularly liked the "wait, this is supposed to be the USA?" halfway through.