Wall*E. One of Pixar's finest moments. It's very good once he takes off into space, but before that point it's an almost wordless masterpiece of design, animation and heart-tugging romance. Pixar aren't the company they were, and sadly, do not make them like this anymore. (An added bonus watching it these days is that somewhere, deep, deep down in the depths of social media, there are users seething over the indefensible fat-shaming of the final hour.)

On the same day I also watched:

The Hill, a searing WW2 prison drama with a grand ensemble cast headed by Sean Connery doing his finest screen work (after 3 Bonds it was only his involvement that got it the green light). As good as he is, he's not the best in it, with British war film stalwart Harry Andrews absolutely blisteringly good as the NCO in charge, Michael Redgrave as the ineffectual medical officer, and Ian Hendry blood-curdling as the sadistic little c*nt whose treatment of the prisoners drives the plot along.

and

The Ox-Bow Incident, a powerful indictment of lynch-mob mentality, and one of the darkest westerns you'll ever see.

We watched The Menu on Saturday night, and I made sure not to read anything about in advance as you suggested. Mrs and me thoroughly enjoyed it.

We watched Black Adam the week before. The less said about it the better. Straight into action and it barely let up to try to give the plot room. Tiresome.

Posted by: @wowbagger

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The Hill, a searing WW2 prison drama

I can still remember watching this, one weekend afternoon at least 30 years ago! Really enjoyed it.

Bank of Dave on Netflix. One of those 'based on a true story' stories that are probably about 5% true, with the fictional additions (usually a romance for the lead) obvious a mile away. This one's about a no-nonsense Burnley businessman who wants to open a new bank for local businesses. It's a typical 'little guy against the establishment', with establishment in this case the fat-cat London bankers standing in little guy's way, because nobody's founded a new bank in 150 years and he wasn't educated at Eton. The central character is actually Joel Fry playing a lawyer assigned the case. It could do with better characterisation (every one in London apart from the lawyer is rich and devious, everyone in Burnley is salt of the earth) and Rory Kinnear talking like the Tetley tea folk took a few minutes to get used to, but it was a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting. It's unlikely to get on any award shortlists, but it's a pleasant and undemanding feelgood tale and there are far worse ways to spend 100 or so minutes.

RRR on Netflix. Short version: watch this now.

Long version. The tale of two Indians who, though they existed, never met. This is what might have happened if they had teamed up in the 1920s and taken on the English. One is a villager out to retrieve the girl taken by the English, the other is the supercop pitted against him - though when they meet during an ear-to-ear-grin action set piece and subsequent bromance montage, neither knows the other's identity. That comes later! And though these heroes are mere humans, if they got into a fight with Captain America I would not rate the Avenger's chances.

It's an absolute blast. It's big, loud, colourful, violent, romantic, a bit singy and dancy (of course), and featuring action sequences that frequently had me larfing out loud at their audacity. Everything is turned up to 11. It's not all good, but in a way that doesn't detract from its charm. All animals are cgi, and even bigger budget Hollywood hasn't perfected those yet, and a sequence featuring rampaging beasts used as weapons leaves much to be desired on the technical front (but nothing on the entertainment front). In time-honoured tradition, the English actors in foreign films are almost all dreadful - in this case Ray Stevenson as the biggest baddy, and Alison Doody as his wife. She was Indy's love interest in The Last Crusade, but sadly now looking like an advert for cheap cosmetic surgery.

It's the most expensive Indian film ever made and it's been wowing audiences worldwide, and after watching the trailer I was quite chuffed to find it on Netflix - albeit not in its original language of Telugu. I changed the default English dub to Hindi, the only Indian language available. When I say long version, it is - 3 hours. But it doesn't feel like it. Go on. Have a blast. I'll be watching it again.

Trailer

I can't get it to embed.

Last night re-watched Belleville Rende-vous. Excellent and somewhat surreal. 

Watched AVATAR on a huge Laser IMAX screen in Bangkok. Cost the best part of 15 quid each! Although it's in 3D and 3hrs long, still more expensive than I expected, and a small fortune for this part of the world.

Sound and picture quality were amazing, it's beautiful and expertly-paced, and the film only seemed like 2 hours tops. We both really enjoyed it, but the dialogue is often cheesy and simplistic. The action scenes were very well done though, impactful and up close, but easy to follow. And after the novelty of the 3D wears off, I actually forgot it for the most part. 

Weirdly, I thought some of the score seemed misplaced at times, at odds with the mood, and a couple of the edits felt overly abrupt. Both things I would not usually notice. (Apparently, Cameron has said there won't be a DC, which is surprising, and a shame). 

Thirteen Lives: A film depicting the Tham Luang cave rescue.

Quite nail-biting even though the outcome is known.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever. Nope - I honestly can't see why anyone would think this is worthy of consideration as best film of the year. I'd like to hear one of them justify its inclusion. As a Marvel film it's mediocre, and the Academy doesn't even like superhero movies; there have been far better, but they've all been full of whitey. It's 2 and a half hours before end credits, has a long back story sequence that doesn't need to be there, a fairly prominent new character that doesn't need to be there, and a title character that seems to be thrown in as an afterthought. It's not even as good as the first Black Panther, which itself wasn't one of the better Marvels.

Anyone else here watched Tenet on Prime (or anywhere else) yet?

I would give it a review but I didn’t understand half of it! GQ says you need 4 or 5 viewings to make some sense of it all and vaguely understand the physics involved. As it took me 2 nights to watch I don’t think I’ll go down that route!