What's the Latest Thing You've Seen at the Cinema II

Lucy

This might get a bit heavy. To my mind this is a philosophical film dressed as action popcorn, I suppose the question for me is whether it is philosophical popcorn - and I suspect the answer is yes on both counts.

It was an entertaining piece. For those of you who missed the trailers the setup is a young woman, Lucy, who is forced to become a drugs mule and has a new narcotic surgically implanted in her abdomen, when the bag bursts she starts to expand the amount of her brain that is available to her to use. This is based on the fallacy that we only use 10% of our brain.

As an action film it quickly looses any tension as the only character we can empathise with is Lucy and she moves towards omniscience and, bravely I felt, equally quickly starts to do things that are unsympathetic - for which I give Besson points.

One of the things I have frequently discussed with the teenagers that I work with at Church is 'how can God be all knowing?', one approach to which is that 'he' exists outside of time. This is played with in this film as they use some of the final views of Anthony Flew. Flew was akin to the Richard Dawkins of his day and debated with C. S. Lewis. He amended his atheistic views towards the end of his life and adopted an Aristotelian view, that is he decided that he believed in God, but one that is disinterested in us; it was in his final book that he propounded the view that God existed outside of time. The idea of time and omniscience, and its implications, was played with in this film, and for that I salute it.

I felt the film's ending was suitably cryptic.

Overall? Yes popcorn, but it kept me engaged for the running time.

M

Friday afternoon went to the BFI on the South Bank to see the recently-restored (in 4K digital no less), full Armenian version of Sergei Paradjanov's The Colour of Pomegranates, a remarkable 1968 film about the great poet/troubador Sayat Nova, and one of my favourite flicks from one of my favourite directors. 

In many ways, despite being extraordinarily strange, it is probably the best film made anywhere in the past 50 years, and one of the very best movies of all time. It is certainly ravishingly beautiful and poetic, and the soundtrack is almost as remarkable as the moving images.

Yesterday [Thursday evening] 

Imitation Games,

At the Worcester Odeon. About Alan Turing, and Bletchley Park, it's rather a wonderful British style film. One I shall get on DVD in time.

Superb.

ATB from George

+1 "Paddington" next.

Dave

Paddington

Saw it yesterday - Delightful.

Had what felt like a tough week, this was the ideal tonic. Put me in a good mood for the rest of the weekend.

M

'Please look after this slayer'

G

Last week I was in Palm Springs and went to the Mary Pickford Theater, deluxe interior and deluxe price total of 8 in the theater.  Happened to be in time for FURY, Brad Pitt's WW2 tank commander movie.  Great movie of growing up fast for one young man, violent and loud with a few calm scenes.  It was hollywood in it's intense drama, but all I could think of was my dad being there from Normandy on thru till the end, what he experienced I can't comprehend. Yet he rarely talked about it until retirement and historians were seeking him out. He recently passed at the ripe old age of 90 years and 10 months, a good life.

Hi Mudwolf,

I saw Fury when it was released, and agree it is a powerful film.

Friends and relatives served in WWII and none really discussed it. I suspect that this is a far truer representation of the horrors of that war.

I still have mixed feelings about the movie. Powerful no doubt, but I wish the ending had been more down to earth and in keeping with the rest of the film.

Definitely one to see, and on the big screen if possible.

M

Decent film and a nice job by Bill Murray. The plot may have been a tad predictable, but the cast kept it fresh and enjoyable.

We saw Interstellar in IMAX most enjoyable, if a trifle long.

Considering no CGI was used it has excellent special effects. A little 2001 and a bit of Prometheus.

Good cast, good story fine effort.

Why does it have to be so bloody loud though, "I've got a 100 speakers and multi thousands of watts of amplification and I'm going to blast you with it".

Practically every surround sound set up I've heard seems  to think that the way sound effects work is to make them LOUD. Result is some of the dialogue is lost because the back ground music isn't any more.

Hi BigH,

I have to give Nolan points for vision and ambition. My personal issue with the film is causality. He went to that universe because later in that timeline he gave himself the map reference - I always feel that if you allow that sort of reasoning then ANYTHING is possible.

I would definitely recommend seeing it, and on the biggest screen possible.

M

Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. In 2D, fortunately. Disappointing end to the Hobbit trilogy.

Minor spoilers below

I was expecting the padding, the large scale but goofy battle sequences (endlessly...), the emotional goodbyes (overall quite well done I must say) and departures from / additions to the book (not too many...) but I also expected great visuals. What we got was endless armies of exactly the same orcs fighting legions of exactly the same elves and thousands of exactly the same dwarves. Same helmets, same armour, same shields, same movement, drab environments - like a cheap video game rather than a big budget film. And Smaug surely deserved a more dramatic end.

EJ

Having watched the first two 'Hobbit' films nothing (including an Orc army) could possibly convince me to watch the third. Insofar as Orcs were made in mockery of Elves and Trolls in mockery of Ents I can only suppose that Jackson's evisceration of Tolkien's work is also a mockery. Dire beyond words and Tolkien would turn in his grave. 

The Hobbit

Deeply disappointing. Where was the heart? It was all at too large a scale and I felt it simply missed the emotional beats. Like watching a computer game. Yet again 'people' doing things that are impossible.

<Spoiler> Even Thorin's death was botched </Spolier>.

I have to say that Martin Freeman's actory ticks are starting to irritate.

Overall, this series has been, for me, an enormous wasted opportunity.

Shame.

M

this was a great movie - with multiple layers...

Loved the Hobbit.

Also watched Interstellar: fab.

Interstellar was a brilliant surprise. Thought TARS and CASE to be an absolute riot, a very refreshing take on the HAL idea.

Coop: Humour: 75%

TARS: 75%. Initiating self destruct in T minus...

Coop: Make that 65%

TARS: 65%.  Knock, knock..

Coop: Careful - want to go to 55%?

EJ

The Amazing Spiderman

I didn't love it, but not as bad as I was expecting. I bit darker than the first two installments which I liked. There was at least some tragedy. I don't find it to be too long, either.

John Wick. After years and years, Keanu Reeves finally shows decent range as he's out to get revenge. There is a heartbreaking moment early in the film, which adds urgency to what follows, but it stayed with me for days. What follows reminds a bit of Payback and Taken, but is sharper, funnier and better than either.

EJ

In two days i have moved from a 3d critic in a 3d addict. Saw yesterday the Hobbit in 3D and loved it, gives so much additional enjoyment in 3d.

And today I saw exodus which was even more impressive from a 3d perspective, while loosing on storyline as compared to the Hobbit.

Into The Woods

Bloody Good.

Excellent performances all round, but Chris Pine was a stand-out.

M

Bert

Is Exodus worth seeing?

M

+1  Other than being a cash cow for studio, taking a skinny book and turning it into 3 bloated films without the dialogue and emotion of the 3 LOTR's was a waste...