Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

Film 2016



Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
I suppose the title of this, written by me, should really be something like Meade's Balls' Disliked Films of 2016. But, maybe i will begin with the thorough enjoyment of what might be a popular movie. No, afraid not. Although, one of the two thus far seen this year, weren't bad. I'll go in chronological order.

Yesterday, was a film that the girlfriend, who doesn't want to be a man, as far as i am aware, saw in a preview last month, with her sister, who also doesn't want to be a fellow. It was The Danish Girl. Now, perhaps i very much oughtn't, but i sometimes see chat shows like Graham Norton. He has the big names on there and, typical to all to the regular way of prodding and sizzling my i don't like them genes, i tend not to like them. Twice, now, i have seen Eddie Redmayne chatted to, and his way of being, although thoroughly nice and pleasant, irks me. Maybe it shouldn't but it does. That doesn't, though, massively interfere with how i see him as an actor, as he was a worthy winner last year with The Theory of Everything. In The Danish Girl, he is rather good, but he wasn't the only one, and i think Alicia Vikander had a greater chance to shine as the film went on.

Redmayne plays, initially, Einar Wegener, a Danish landscape artist held in high regard in the 1920s. Vikander plays his wife, Gerda, a fellow artist. Their love seems deep and true, and that is fortunate, in ways, for Einar, who, a little after sampling playfully with transvestism, comes to the realisation that he is and was in fact a woman. For all that happens with Einar's transformation into Lili, from the torture of feeling so alien to oneself to the medical world at that time classing it as schizophrenia, the effects of his trauma seem to spill out and over to Gerda more and in doing so has the story scattered into too many directions and issues that it is ready to handle. It was a shame it went that way, as the design of 1920s Copenhagen and Paris was immaculate and crisp, and the performances carried through the moments of the over-obvious.
Still, was quite good, and i hope Vikander gets the acting awards for it.


So, today, i went for something i knew i would wholeheartedly dislike. The new film by David O. Russell, whose films just incense me. Here he is again, with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley "the ham" Cooper and Robert De Niro, creating a mildly comic drama with shouty-mouthed caricatures that i tend to loathe and wish for them to be silenced. In this one, it's a fairy-tale type piece, called Joybased on a true story, of a poor, pretty girl finally getting through the world's difficulties to make her name and become a princess of shopping channels. The real problem she has, though, is her family and what they continuously take from her, this inventor, to start with, of an amazing mop, without apology. Their cruel and brainless witterings are never particularly real, though, in Russell's usual manner of blending wrongful amounts of the mirthful with drama and style - half-stolen from Scorsese - with the traumatic to make the film emotionally empty. I also disliked the idea of success being sold here too, it being financial rather than moral or about a newfound personal freedom. And some of it was vomitously cheesy. I really didn't like it.

I saw the film as the sole guy on his own, the rest of the cinema filled with little collections of women, perhaps there with it being advertised as the tale of a strong-willed woman, but there was virtually no laughter anywhere and the film ended without that exhalation of excitement you sense when a good and absorbing film has closed. People, not just me, hurried away from their seats, without sharing a word of what they thought of it. If i wasn't there on my own, i would have sworn to not see Russell's next one, claiming i have learnt my lesson, and even ranted for a while over how i am slightly turning against Jennifer Lawrence, mostly for the films she chooses to make rather than becoming a bad actor.

Anyway, that's that. I plan to not like The Hateful Eight soon, but have hopes for The Revenant. *unfascinate*
 


StonehamPark

#Brighton-Nil
Oct 30, 2010
9,764
BC, Canada
I watched The Revenant today.
I'm a big Di Caprio fan, have been looking forward to this for a long time whilst hoping this would lead to his overdue Oscar.

The film itself, was pretty good.
Leo's performance was very good, as was Hardy's.

Hoping he gets his Oscar, but he's done better films (with better performances), so I'm unsure.

7/10
 


Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
If it is arthouse it will be superb if it is Hollywood it will be utter shite. I am fairly sure of this. Different year no difference
 


Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
You have already told us you plan to dislike the hateful eight so why even bother seeing it ? This very pompous film reviewing of you is getting very tedious now tbh. Everyone knows that some film that has a box office of £ 5.25 in total will probably be your film of the year in 2016
 






Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
You have already told us you plan to dislike the hateful eight so why even bother seeing it ? This very pompous film reviewing of you is getting very tedious now tbh. Everyone knows that some film that has a box office of £ 5.25 in total will probably be your film of the year in 2016

:)
My apologies if it's getting on your nerves.
I quite liked Star Wars, if that makes me even briefly in with the popular.
 


Acker79

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Nov 15, 2008
31,770
Brighton
And if it's by Spielberg you'll declare it the best film ever. We all have our own biases/preferences/quirky delights.


A change of jobs a little over a year ago reduced the frequency with which I took advantage of my Cineworld pass. In 2015 I used it 33 times. The lowest, by far, since I got one back in 2006. I intend to make up for that this year. I don't expect I will beat my best, which was 132, but I intend to go at least once every weekend.

With that in mind, I went for a triple bill today.

The Danish Girl
I, too, can't really take to Eddie Redmayne when he promotes his movies, but can enjoy his good performances. I didn't really know much about the story before hand. My knowledge was limited to him being a guy who wore women's clothes, I didn't realise it was more than just that, and as such I didn't really think about how I thought the film would progress. I enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like a cinematic movie.

In The Heart of the Sea
I wasn't really interested in this one. The trailer made it seem like the sort of film that I wouldn't enjoy, but being determined to up my cinema game this year, I was set on a triple bill, and the other options to fill the second spot were Daddy's Home or Joy. I can't remember the last Will Ferrell movie I enjoyed, and while my feelings aren't as strong as Meade's Ball, I am not a fan of David O Russell's work generally. So I went with the whale movie. I have previously not felt particularly inspired by Ron Howard movie trailers only to really enjoy the movie, so I was hopeful.

Unfortunately, my initial thoughts on the trailer were correct. I just didn't feel particular connected to anyone or anything in it. I didn't feel all that comfortable seeing whales slaughtered.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Loved it. It was my third viewing, but still very much a firm favourite.
 


Nibble

New member
Jan 3, 2007
19,238
I saw The Revenant and thought it was a good picture. Stunningly shot and well acted by all. I particularly enjoyed Domnhall Gleeson's turn. I've followed his career with interest as his father ,Brendan Gleeson, is possibly my favourite actor. Domnhall is fantastic in Frank, a bit over the top in Star Wars but back to top form I. The Revenant. Decaprio had a brief low period in his career of about 25 years but he now has matured into something resembling a grown man and so the Alpha male roles be used to be too baby faced to pull off seem to now suit him. He still looks like he's permanently about to burst into years but he's good here. I'd have cried if that had happened to me.

Star Wars is quite good. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it now but the whizz bang cosmic saga, while entertaining enough, have never captured my interest as much as they seem to the average cinema goer. They're good, special even but I'll only see it the once.

I'm planning on seeing The Heart Of The Sea tonight and I'm looking forward to a quietish cinema. It looks a bit hollow but also appears to be visually captivating enough to hold my interest. Hemsworth is a bit vanilla, although I liked him in Rush so it should be okay.
 




Bigtomfu

New member
Jul 25, 2003
4,416
Harrow
Every year I miss the start
Of this thread and then can't be bothered to wade through it to find a review of what I want to see so will make use of doing it properly this year!

Star Wars was excellent albeit that the second act could have given a few more things context -
I need to see the flashback sequence again to determine if she was/is Luke's daughter.

Want to see The Heart of the sea even if others have said its a little hammy at
Times. Love that type of escapism hugely.
 




Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,677
Location Location
The Hateful Eight

I am a massive Tarantino fan and have been eagerly anticipating this for months. The first hour of its 3 hours+ running time set things up beautifully, but from there on, for me, it fell rather flat. Samuel L Jackson dominates of course, and is given plenty of long scenes of exposition and dialogue to chew through, which he delivers with his usual aplomb. Kurt Russell is superb as a brutal (and often mysoginistic) bounty hunter jealously guarding his female captive, the excellent Jennifer Jason Leigh, to collect his reward. And there are fine turns by old favourites Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. So the cast is there, the setup is in place, and I wanted to love this film, but it frankly became a bit of a grind. The dialogue didn't quite have the usual snap of a Tarantino flick, and whilst it had its moments, as a whole I was left underwhelmed and actually a bit bored. It in no way justifies its 3 hours + running time, at least an hour of that could comfortably have been cut without losing anything from the plot - making it that long just strikes of self-indulgence on QT's part.

I may revisit it at some point, as QT's films are usually well worth an extra viewing. Maybe with my expectations duly lowered I might appreciate other aspects of it a bit more (I can remember feeling similarly disappointed after my first viewing of Reservoir Dogs, a film which is now one of my all time faves). For now though, I will have to give The Hateful Eight a bang average 6.2.
 




Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
NSC Patreon
May 8, 2007
12,751
Toronto
The Big Short

I saw this a few days ago, don't think it's out in the UK for a few weeks. I wasn't relly sure what to expect, given the number of films about the 2008 financial crisis I thought it would just be the same sort of thing. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by this film, it really was great viewing. It's done from the points-of-view of the guys who actually bet against the housing market, they could see what was coming and couldn't understand why everyone else was burying their heads in the sand. Christian Bale was excellent playing the very odd, socially awkward, but brilliantly intelligent fund manager in California. Steve Carell is also very good, as another fund manager, this time very outspoken, with his small team in New York. What makes it particularly good is the humour, the characters themselves are funny because of their oddities and they get into some amusing arguments with people. They also have these cutaway scenes where celebrities try to explain the concepts in layman's terms, for example Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explaining the US housing market, it's hard not to like that! It doesn't take away from the harsh truth of the financial crisis though, people losing their houses and jobs.

Overall, a very enjoyabe 8/10
 




Barham's tash

Well-known member
Jun 8, 2013
3,612
Rayners Lane
The Big Short

I saw this a few days ago, don't think it's out in the UK for a few weeks. I wasn't relly sure what to expect, given the number of films about the 2008 financial crisis I thought it would just be the same sort of thing. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by this film, it really was great viewing. It's done from the points-of-view of the guys who actually bet against the housing market, they could see what was coming and couldn't understand why everyone else was burying their heads in the sand. Christian Bale was excellent playing the very odd, socially awkward, but brilliantly intelligent fund manager in California. Steve Carell is also very good, as another fund manager, this time very outspoken, with his small team in New York. What makes it particularly good is the humour, the characters themselves are funny because of their oddities and they get into some amusing arguments with people. They also have these cutaway scenes where celebrities try to explain the concepts in layman's terms, for example Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explaining the US housing market, it's hard not to like that! It doesn't take away from the harsh truth of the financial crisis though, people losing their houses and jobs.

Overall, a very enjoyabe 8/10

Saw this yesterday and having read the book I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out but they played it rather well. Some very sobering scenes too involving the NY fund managers visiting the actual properties registered as collateral for some of the CDOs to find them empty and abandoned due to non payment indicating the size and scale of the disconnect between the pricing of the bonds and therefore in theory the implied value of their CDS contracts.
 




Barham's tash

Well-known member
Jun 8, 2013
3,612
Rayners Lane
The Hateful Eight

I am a massive Tarantino fan and have been eagerly anticipating this for months. The first hour of its 3 hours+ running time set things up beautifully, but from there on, for me, it fell rather flat. Samuel L Jackson dominates of course, and is given plenty of long scenes of exposition and dialogue to chew through, which he delivers with his usual aplomb. Kurt Russell is superb as a brutal (and often mysoginistic) bounty hunter jealously guarding his female captive, the excellent Jennifer Jason Leigh, to collect his reward. And there are fine turns by old favourites Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. So the cast is there, the setup is in place, and I wanted to love this film, but it frankly became a bit of a grind. The dialogue didn't quite have the usual snap of a Tarantino flick, and whilst it had its moments, as a whole I was left underwhelmed and actually a bit bored. It in no way justifies its 3 hours + running time, at least an hour of that could comfortably have been cut without losing anything from the plot - making it that long just strikes of self-indulgence on QT's part.

I may revisit it at some point, as QT's films are usually well worth an extra viewing. Maybe with my expectations duly lowered I might appreciate other aspects of it a bit more (I can remember feeling similarly disappointed after my first viewing of Reservoir Dogs, a film which is now one of my all time faves). For now though, I will have to give The Hateful Eight a bang average 6.2.

Um, how and where did you see this already?
 


Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
Streamable already. I began watching Joy on Kodi before telling myself to not just stay in all day and waddle to the local theatre. Wish I hadn't, but will wait for the big screen H8, and Revenant, only using Kodi for films I've missed, I think.
 


Stumpy Tim

Well-known member
I saw Joy this afternoon. Surprised by the average views on Flixster. I thought it was a most enjoyable film, with good performances from Lawrence, De Niro and Bradley Cooper, who is rapidly turning into one of my favourite actors.

Won't win an Oscar, but a solid 7/10
 


vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
27,869
The Hateful Eight

I am a massive Tarantino fan and have been eagerly anticipating this for months. The first hour of its 3 hours+ running time set things up beautifully, but from there on, for me, it fell rather flat. Samuel L Jackson dominates of course, and is given plenty of long scenes of exposition and dialogue to chew through, which he delivers with his usual aplomb. Kurt Russell is superb as a brutal (and often mysoginistic) bounty hunter jealously guarding his female captive, the excellent Jennifer Jason Leigh, to collect his reward. And there are fine turns by old favourites Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. So the cast is there, the setup is in place, and I wanted to love this film, but it frankly became a bit of a grind. The dialogue didn't quite have the usual snap of a Tarantino flick, and whilst it had its moments, as a whole I was left underwhelmed and actually a bit bored. It in no way justifies its 3 hours + running time, at least an hour of that could comfortably have been cut without losing anything from the plot - making it that long just strikes of self-indulgence on QT's part.

I may revisit it at some point, as QT's films are usually well worth an extra viewing. Maybe with my expectations duly lowered I might appreciate other aspects of it a bit more (I can remember feeling similarly disappointed after my first viewing of Reservoir Dogs, a film which is now one of my all time faves). For now though, I will have to give The Hateful Eight a bang average 6.2.

Thanks for the warning on the running time, I can't face much over 2 hours these days.
 




Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,677
Location Location
Um, how and where did you see this already?

Firestick / Kodi. In my living room. Not HD quality, but no worse than standard def. And 5.1 surround. Jobs a goodun.

My mate has the slight hump as we had this pegged a long time back for a cinema visit this month, but once I saw it was a very decent stream, I couldn't resist. Wouldn't have fancied 3 hours in the cinema for that anyway.
 


Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,677
Location Location
Thanks for the warning on the running time, I can't face much over 2 hours these days.

It does rule out a pub visit beforehand doesn't it.
I absolutely HATE going for a slash in the middle of a film. And no matter how good the film is, I do find 3 hours in a cinema a real slog.
 



Paying the bills

Latest Discussions

Paying the bills

Paying the bills

Paying the bills

Albion and Premier League latest from Sky Sports


Top
Link Here