Let's have a films thread.

[MC Prussian]

Came for Nicholas Winding Refn, stayed for Sophie Thatcher:

 

[urban.spaceman]

Moana (2026 live action)

 

This film has no reason to exist and The Rock agrees. I’ve never seen an actor ‘phone in’ a role with such profound contempt for the film he’s in before. 
 

People who enjoyed the original might enjoy this, but “live action” seems to mean in this case “actors in costume on a soundstage against a green screen fighting CGI for the entire film”.
 

You could layer it over the original and it would be exactly the same shot for shot. Like the ‘creatives’ and crew were just going through the motions with no interest for it. There’s no real craft in this film.

 

I’m so glad this bombed, it deserved to. Enough of this shite. 

[Guest]

The Odyssey is great. Won't forget those pigs in a hurry.

[leicsmac]

40 minutes ago, Guest said:

The Odyssey is great. Won't forget those pigs in a hurry.

Seconded, watched it today, impressive retelling of that portion of the Iliad.

[Blarmy]

Bugonia - excellent in all aspects. Cast, acting, story, cinematography, soundtrack all top notch. Good message too.

[MC Prussian]

This looks fun:

Kenneth Branagh in great shape, fights like he's 30.

[TheGoldenGod]

An underwhelming trailer this! Didn't even realise that was RDJ's voice in the beginning though so that's intriguing at least.

[MC Prussian]

Has potential.

 

[MC Prussian]

Body Double (1984) is hilarious. An absurdist thriller with comedy elements. Plus Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

 

Rear Window, but with a claustrophobic Peeping Tom as the protagonist.

 

And a young, scantily clad Melanie Griffith... in leather.

Definitely some rewatch value in there.

Edited 17 hours ago by MC Prussian

[urban.spaceman]

Thoughts on The Odyssey. A bit spoilery but I'll put the main stuff behind a spoiler thingy. I mean the story's 3000 years old for ****s sake. 

 

Saw it on the XPlus in town the other day so probably a diminished experience but there's no chance I'm waiting till mid September to see it at the BFI. 

 

I did enjoy it, though I did agree with a couple of mates while walking out that it was very Nolan-y. Probably half an hour too long, inconsistent pacing and a bit too non-linear where it needn't be (or feels like so during the film). 

 

The cyclops scene was incredible. The sound design was brilliant. The Circe scene with Samantha Morton was unbelievable - she's easily up for an Oscar for that and so should production design. Pattinson was expertly ****y as Antinius and fully earned his downfall at the end. The Athena reveal was handled really well too. The Laestrygonians felt a bit like something out of a 70s Terry Gilliam film which I loved. 

 

Other standout performers in their brief screen time were John Leguizamo (excellent), Lupiita Nyong'o, Elliot Page and Himesh Patel. Jon Bernthall, Tom Holland and Zendaya were good. 

 

I did think it suffered a bit from pacing and felt a bit disappointed that we were already moving on from some scenes and set pieces while watching them - the Sirens, Charybdis and Scylla sequences were over and done with very quickly and I don't think the SFX worked that well with the latter when it came to showing the monster IMO. The Calypso scenes seemed to meander a bit too much too. 

 

One bit that made me laugh is near the beginning, knowing already how much Nolan

likes to achieve as much in camera as possible; they had to set up Argos the dog for the pay off at the end of the story but they introduce it by showing Odysseus and Eumaeus lobbing puppies off a cliff. I thought to myself "****ing hell how many puppies did Nolan sacrifice for this film?!?!"

 

I didn't expect some of the themes explored by Nolan but enjoyed them and thought they worked really well. 

 

Nolan - and film - purists will likely love it - regular cinema goes should find a lot to enjoy but I have to say the practical, old-fashioned filmmaking is what really elevates this beyond other films. The cinematography is gorgeous and if had been made by any other filmmaker, most of the stand out scenes like Cyclops, Laestrygonians, Circe, the fight scene at the end, probably wouldn't land as well as they do here. 

 

Seeing it again tonight.