What's the Latest Thing You've Seen at the Cinema II
Posted by: Mr Underhill on 25 August 2014
As the other thread has been closed - let's start a new one!
Thor: Ragnarok.
My son and I ambled along to a half term showing this afternoon and quite frankly it was a hoot from start to finish. We both thoroughly enjoyed the humorous (very mischievous) tone created by Taika Waititi. In some ways this is an out and out comedy first, superhero movie second! When the credits finally rolled my son said "that was awesome and the best ever Marvel movie!". Made me smile - and was certainly worth the price of admission even if it was awful (it wasn't!). A lot better than the other two Thor movies.
Superbly camp, visually extravagant with affectionate nods to 1980’s design (and music), excitingly paced and well acted throughout - a true pleasure to see Jeff Goldblum having such fun with his role. Also, the most effective use of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant song I’ve yet seen used in a movie.
Highly recommended and I probably agree with the The Boy Yeti, one of the best Marvel movies to date.
Went last night to see...
As a big Christie fan and a a big fan of David Suchet’s performace was a little trepidatious about this version, but enjoyable throughout for the most part. There are a few derivations from the source, but not really to its detriment (except perhaps the couple of unnecessary “action” scenes added).
A second to the David Suchet performance (unlike some people Branagh’s moustaches didn’t bother me though a couple of times his accent slipped) but at least equal to Albert Finney.
Went to see ...
... last night / this morning (midnight showing starting with Star Wars: Force Awakens at 9pm).
Will try to avoid spoilers as I know many people will be going to see it.
Certainly a more original story than Force Awakens was. Anyone worried that it will be a remake of Empire Strikes Back can rest assured there is a lot more originality and unexpected twists than there was in Force Awakens. There's some big "leaps" in galactic governance since Episode VII; but you have to not worry too much about that and just go with the flow I think (or perhaps the leap was within Force Awakens).
Technically was a very good movie with good acting, good effects and real and CGI seamlessly stitched together. I saw it in 2D so can't comment on 3D.
I'm not entirely sure if it lives up to its hyped up billing (in some reviews) as the "Best Star Wars Ever" ... for me its going to take a second viewing to make any kind of definitive judgement call. There is certainly more humour and I'm unsure if thats a good thing or not - it might be I'm not used to watching movies with such a big crowd. A solid 4* movie (using my own star rating criteria that essentially means a movie I enjoyed, want to watch again but not in my top movies ever list) which might rise on rewatching.
Stuff Star Wars, the real movie event of the moment is a 71 year old picture made by the peerless Michael Powell and his partner Emeric Pressberger.
Here is A Matter Of Life And Death, presented in a fabulous 4K restoration which HAS to be seen on the big screen.
Since I first saw it on TV back in the 1970s as a kid, I've loved this film; as an adult, every time I see it - and I must have watched it a dozen times - I become more and more convinced that it may well be the greatest movie ever to have been made in these islands.
Seeing it again at the BFI last night finally persuaded me that it is: From that brilliant (and devastatingly moving) opening five or six minutes, this is a picture that has everything - narrative and compositional daring; breathtaking visual beauty thanks to Jack Cardiff's vivid technicolour and pearlescent black and white photography; jaw-dropping sets from Alfred Jünge; a splendid score by Allan Gray; a brilliantly witty, subversive script by Pressberger; Powell's feeling for place (even imaginary ones) and landscape; top-notch performances by David Niven, Kim Hunter, Raymond Massey, Marius Goring and, most of all, the peerless Roger Livesey. To top it all, it is a work of staggering invention and visual imagination - what other picture has a courtroom the size of a galaxy in it? - that seems as fresh today as it must have done back in 1946.
It's a dazzling, daring romantic fantasy but also a very humane picture, a plea for the rights of the individual against the system, and of the rights of all men and women. If you've never seen it before, or if you have previously dismissed it, AMOLAD deserves your attention or reappraisal.
Between 1940 and 1949, Powell (usually with Pressberger) had a run of pictures, all of them in their different ways masterpieces, that goes like this: The Thief of Baghdad; The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp; I Know Where I'm Going; A Canterbury Tale; AMOLAD; Black Narcissus; The Red Shoes; and The Small Back Room. Can anyone, apart from Jean Renoir in the 1930s, beat or even match that?
