Posted by: @wowbagger

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I'll be watching Kill Boksoon

Decent fights but far too long; I'd lop 30 mins. I don't understand your comment about the V (though I was amused after duckducking to find this had its own acronym). It's a film about a female assassin doing her thing; the male recipients of the V far, far outnumber the W and G.

Indiana Jones... Crystal Skull. Given another viewing because it was in the same box set as the others and I wanted to extract my money's worth. While the least of the series (so far) I think now I was somewhat unkind to it on release. Yes, it's heavy on obvious cgi, but it's true to Indy's spirit, and I realise belatedly that the far-fetched story involving hive-mind interdimensional beings is actually the least fantastical of all the plots. At least hive-mind interdimensional beings are something that may feasibly exist, unlike the fictional divinities behind the shenanigans of the first 3 films. Also, Cate Blanchett is a perfectly good baddie, and I like her a lot more now than I did in 2008.

Avatar 2. More of the same, plus an hour. Spectacular visuals, dumb script, and another band of Cameron's favourite sub-species: the moron space marine (not as bone-headed as the Aliens breed, but still...) Jake has been on Pandora now long enough to raise teenage children, one of whom is voiced by an old woman, and all of whom have been raised to know words like dumbass, pussy and bitch. Really, Jake?

There's barely enough plot to cover half the film's length, and two hours in I was really looking for something else to do, but there was still over an hour to go.

Jason and the Argonauts. Still looking good, even if the blu-ray does often look ropey due to the optical nature of the effects. And you can't beat a good old bit of stop-motion jerkiness. It's remembered mainly (and rightly) for the skellingtons, but my favourite was always the humongous Talos, who throws a wobbler (as far as an expressionless bronze giant can) when Hercules half-inches one of his knitting needles. And who wouldn't.

Peter Pan and Wendy. The new version currently streaming on Disney. Not great, but not bad at all. As someone who has had to endure the outdatedly dodgy 50s version countless times (with a niece) I have no problems with another remake. The cast is, of course, diverse, and aside from a couple of minor grumbles (Americans going English with varying degrees of success, and a Peter that I thought could have had a bit more pep to him) they do just fine. Jude Law thankfully doesn't go over the top as Hook, and Ever Anderson as Wendy will probably go far. It's mostly non-musical, and not utterly swamped by cgi - there's plenty of it, it's just not constantly thrust in your face. I'd like to have seen a bit more of the crocodile.

The Rise (aka Wastelands) - popped up in top 1o trending on Netflix.

A 10 year old British heist / revenge with a clever twisty plot - set in the outskirts of Leeds and it looks like outer Leeds (unlike Better (BBC) which is worth a watch could be in any city). Has an impressive cast Luke Treadaway, Iwan Rheon, Timothy Spall, Matthew Lewis, Vanessa Kirby. Timothy Spall would have made a great "TV" detective. Shows how a bunch of driven mates could do a job and maybe get away with it?

Tár (2022) - I had very high expectations due to all the accolades (75% IMDb / 91% RT / 92% Metacritic) ... so was inevitably left disappointed!

It's a critics and film-students film for sure, and is unusually crafted (in addition to several long tracking shots) -

- firstly, it's incredibly slow to start, with a full 4 mins of the entire film credits, followed by a lengthy 1-on-1 interview on stage, that really tests your patience (and isn't actually all that believable).

- secondly, several pivotal scenes that you'd expect to see are not actually shown, but rather talked about or skipped over entirely. This actually works quite well.

When the film finally gets going, it's excellent, and despite being 30 mins too long overall, it could actually do with more time in the rushed final third. Knowing nothing of the plot going in, and given such an unusual and captivating lead character (and actor), I was actually disappointed with the way the story went, as there could have been so many unique and refreshing turns to take.

Plough through the first 30 minutes to enjoy a well-crafted cinematic experience. Scrapes an 8/10.

Been having a bit of a Mel Brooks retrospective. He’s still going but I think his notable output didn’t last long, in fact like John Carpenter a bit later he pretty much fizzled out creatively after the first ten years.

The Producers. He started on a high he never bettered with this glorious comedy an indication that he was never going to let taste stand in his way – a first-time Jewish director making Hitler jokes in 60s America almost didn’t get off the ground and the stunned reaction of the theatre audience in the film was mirrored by many in real life. I love it, and it was the best material Gene Wilder ever had.

Silent Movie. Huge stars of the day (Burt Reynolds was then king of the box office) play themselves in a silent film about the making of a silent film. Even after two back-to-back monster hits in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, making a silent movie in the 70s could have been a box-office bomb and career suicide, but it was neither. It didn’t get me laughing out loud much, but it was an on-the-nose critique of the industry with added slapstick that kept me smiling throughout, and that can be enough. Also features another excellent score by John Morris, whose music in Brooks films isn’t mentioned anywhere near as much as it should be.

High Anxiety. Sadly, at this point the rot sets in for me. This was quite a successful Hitchcock parody that for the most part I just didn’t get. I found it only occasionally amusing, but mostly not.

History of the World, Part 1. This collection of sketches from short to very long was very hit and miss, but the hits made it worth it. I still get a huge kick out of the 15 commandments joke and Jews in Space (taking up a combined 2 minutes of screen time), and it’s worth it for the Spanish Inquisition musical number alone.

By a cor-blimey coincidence I learned after watching this that there was a History of the World Part 2 – that had literally just been released onto Disney streaming in half-hour tv format! I gave up after 2 completely laugh-free episodes.

So there you go. Of course I don’t have to remind you both how brilliant Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are, or how underrated The Twelve Chairs is (the one between The Producers and Blazing Saddles that most people don’t know about), but I haven’t watched them recently. And there’s a chance you might completely disagree with me and think that Men in Tights and Spaceballs are funny.

I see that John Wick: Chapter 4 has landed ! Getting amazing reviews, and almost 3 hours of mayhem!

I remember watching 1 & 2 back-to-back ... #1 left me underwhelmed, whereas #2 really delivered. But for #3, while there were some incredible set pieces, I found the whole thing too detached and even boring in parts (maybe I wasn't in the mood).

Hoping for a bit more emotional connection in #4 ...

I found 3 really dull too, but thought the first was the better of the previous ones. 3 was just constant action with no plot to speak of and it just became tiresome. I wasn't going to bother with 4 as everything I'd read pointed it just being more of the same.

hehe ... my mate just messaged me ... he needed a break from the mayhem after just 1 hour!

I enjoyed it at the cinema when it first came out. But possibly my least favourite of the series.