What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Trollheart]

That's true. Well, adding Christopher Lee to any movie immediately raises its pedigree of course. However, clever and insightful as the origin story was, I see there's also another movie out called just Wonka, which explores his rise to fame, so I hope they keep that story constant or it's going to have been a waste.

Definitely did not like Depp in this though; he looked really as if he didn't want to do it, and was there under protest. A manic, and at the same time sort of boring/restrained performance that made me feel like his heart was not in it at all. As you say, and as I did, they did nothing better than the original. Even the "punishments" for the kids were the same, and while of course you can't exactly change the novel, everything from rolling Violet away as a giant blueberry to Augustus going up the pipe were all the same, with tiny little variances that made me wonder why I bothered.

"Fry and the Slurm Factory" was much better than this.

[Guybrush]

We saw Infested yesterday.



It's a bit like Rec, only with Spiders. There isn't too much plot besides a group of friends trying to escape a quarantined building filling up with very dangerous and aggressive spiders.

These simple premise creature features are usually poorly made, but I saw this get some good reviews and decided to check it out. For what it is, it actually is well made. The characters feel mostly believable. The dilapidated building is a good setting. The buildup through the movie is effective. I can see how the spiders would creep some peeps out.

For myself, a reason I don't love creature features is I don't think creatures are particularly scary. I don't have the right level of arachnophobia for this either. Also I prefer movies that are more layered and less predictable/formulaic overall.

Still a decent watch and I expect some will really like this. Recommended to arachnophobes!

[Trollheart]

This was on last night so gave it another go. I can't say I hated it, but being a big fan of Holmes I dislike the way he's being portrayed here as some sort of suave, wisecracking action hero. I know these days cinema audiences can't be expected to sit through a movie that doesn't whizz, bang, flash and explode all over the place, but I feel Holmes' legacy is being cheapened by this sort of treatment. I guess the days of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett are long gone, but it irks me to see Holmes "Hollywoodised" this way. As I noted of Johnny Depp in my last post, RDJ kind of has that manic, dangerous attitude to Holmes that is, to me anyway, totally opposite to how Doyle wrote the character. Holmes was a quiet, severe, coldly logical man utterly devoted to his art, that of tackling crime. He seldom used humour, and if he did it was tight, acerbic humour. He could defend himself, but was no superman (here, RDJ takes out four assassins with the practiced ease of Jacky Chan or Van Damme!) and in fact a number of times gets quite badly beaten up.

The flashy "Matrix"-style direction of Ritchie - fast, changing angles, zooms, complete freezes, 180 or 360 camera angles, go again - annoyed me and made this seem more like an example of style over substance, giving the folks what they want and pandering to the exigencies of the Hollywood blockbuster. To be fair, the story did loosely follow mostly the plot of "The Final Problem" (though the Reichenbach Falls were moved to right beside the hotel, which I found odd) and tied in with the coming horror of the Great War, but while I would have to say I enjoyed it, it did seem almost like it could have starred any detective character, or any private eye. Didn't seem like Holmes to me, and I certainly did not like Jude Law's Watson: far too sarcastic and self-assured.

It can't be denied it's a rollercoaster of a movie, but for something more approaching the kind of Holmes you may be more used to seeing if you're a fan, try Sir Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes, which features a far more sedate Holmes in retirement, and is, for my money, a more realistic and faithful portrayal of the great detective, and a better movie.

[degrassi.knoll]

I've watched a couple films in the past week that I adored - dying to talk about them.

Spaceman (2024)

Six months into a solo mission, a lonely astronaut confronts the cracks in his marriage with help from a mysterious creature he discovers on his ship.

Dream Scenario (2023)
A family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.
However, when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, he's forced to navigate the consequences of his newfound stardom.

[Trollheart]

We tried Dream Scenario, which looked good, but my sister and her husband both started looking at me about a half-hour in, when nothing seemed to be happening, and as they often do (and it's their house after all) they shrugged and we gave it up, trying something else. I must say, for one of my recs, though I hadn't seen it, just the trailer, I was quite disappointed. Then again, we didn't finish it, so maybe it got better? Wouldn't be inclined to go back and try it again though.

[Trollheart]

Has anyone seen Moonfall? It's on the telly on Monday, and I've never heard of it, but it looks pretty strange. Aliens built the moon? Is it meant to be a comedy, dark comedy, or to be taken seriously? Worth a watch?

[Saulaac]

"The Moon is in synchronous rotation, meaning that it keeps the same face toward Earth at all times."
"The Moon keeps one hemisphere of itself facing the Earth, due to tidal locking."
Both these quotes are from Wiki, and I find everything about the moon's orbit fascinating.

I'll try to lock into Moonfall, in the meantime, Brian Bennett's "Air Quake" seemed to set the tone for this one

[Trollheart]

Can I assume you've checked out Trollheart's Guide to the Galaxy (and Beyond) then, where I do a very in-depth article on the Moon, including all the probes sent and the Apollo missions? If not, why are you still here? It's thatway! ------>

[Saulaac]

^TH, I'm on that thread now (https://scd.community/index.php?topic=225.0) and it's a good one  . Had no idea of the number of probes which went there prior to the first manned landing of Apollo 11.

I always wondered why Neil Armstrong looked quite glum in that TV interview after coming back to earth. This could have been the first recorded instance of spaceface (as opposed to bassface which I would have made).

[Trollheart]

^TH, I'm on that thread now (https://scd.community/index.php?topic=225.0) and it's a good one  . Had no idea of the number of probes which went there prior to the first manned landing of Apollo 11.

I always wondered why Neil Armstrong looked quite glum in that TV interview after coming back to earth. This could have been the first recorded instance of spaceface (as opposed to bassface which I would have made).

Oh yeah. The Russians (Soviets) were all over that shit till Apollo 11. You could almost say they won every battle but America came in with the big guns and won the war. The amount of firsts the Soviets achieved is incredible, almost as incredible as how inept the larger part of the American space programme was prior to Apollo. And I found it immensely interesting how Aldrin couldn't keep his mouth shut and keep God out of it, after he had been specifically told to ixnay the odgay stuff. Bloody Christians. Glad you enjoyed it though. Mars coming up next! Mind you, the entries on the Sun, Mercury and Venus are worth checking out too.

[DJChameleon]

There are a couple of movies that I have seen lately just didn't post yet.

Arcadia

A monster flick with Nicolas Cage where he is a single dad of two sons living in a world where people live far apart from each other and have a system to be inside before the sunsets because monsters come to each property to terrorize them. Great movie I stumbled upon. I wish they explained more lore behind what led the world to be this way but I enjoyed it.



Boy Kills World

The voice of Archer and Bob from Bob's burger voices a mute kid that uses his voice to express himself while going on a revenge journey. I love all the recent revenge tales coming out lately. We just had Monkey Man which I also saw and now this one. John Wick-esque fight scenes and highly stylized gore. The marketing team did this movie a disservice. Most people haven't heard about it and even if they have, they had no clue when the release date was myself included. Hidden Gem



Tarot

Horror with some light comedy thrown in and a bunch of typical tropes slapped together with jump scares. Overall it was okay but it's a movie that I don't ever need to watch again.
It's based off of Tarot card readings/characters coming to life to mess with a group of college kids. They claim to be in the Catskills area which is close to where I live irl but I doubt they filmed it here. I didn't hear much about them filming in my area. The sequel to Smile was filmed in my area back in January and last week I saw a section of the street I live on closed down for filming.

[Trollheart]

There are a couple of movies that I have seen lately just didn't post yet.

Arcadia

A monster flick with Nicolas Cage where he is a single dad of two sons living in a world where people live far apart from each other and have a system to be inside before the sunsets because monsters come to each property to terrorize them. Great movie I stumbled upon. I wish they explained more lore behind what led the world to be this way but I enjoyed it.

Missed out an "n". Seems Arcadian was filmed in MY home town!

from Wiki:

Principal photography began in Dublin, Ireland, in November 2022.[3] In February 2023, it was announced that filming had wrapped and that the film was in post-production.[5]

[Guybrush]

Boy Kills World looks like a fun movie.

Smile was flawed, but quite fun. Cool that they're making a sequel.

[DJChameleon]

Boy Kills World was like a roller coaster ride. It was so fun. I loved the camera work too.

[Janiya]

This is the latest movie I've seen one of my favorites.