Off Topic TV, Entertainment and Arts thread

Darlings, Luvvies, it's the BAFTAS

But what's this! Barbie won't be allowed to win Best Movie over Oppenheimer
Despite Berbie being the biggest Box Office success.
No nomination for Barbie's female director either.

Instead the Atom Bomb movie is up against Saltburn and Poor Things - both spiced up with graphic sex scenes.
Something the makers of Barbie forgot to include in their movie Doh!

 

Could it be that movie audiences will finally tire of utterly crap 'Superhero' films?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68292731

I hope so. I tuned out of them about 15 years ago.

 

Charlton Live on at 7 o'clock. Louis Mendez &co do a great show, well worth an hour of anyone's time, proper fans discussion. I watch it on Youtube.

 

I love the Toby Maguire Spiderman flicks. Not so much the third instalment, but it's still class. Why they felt the need to reboot the franchise, I'll never know. As for the rest, they all seem a little formulaic. Mind you, Wonder Woman was pretty decent.

The last time I went to the cinema I saw the latest Indiana Jones. I quite enjoyed it. What was the last film you guys saw at the pictures?

 

Blimey, I haven't been to the cinema for a few years.

Last movie I went to see might have been Indiana Jones, but the fourth one - the Crystal skull one.
Before that I think it was Star Trek: Into Darkness. (the remake of Wrath of Khan, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan)

The two movies that impressed me most at the cinema were
Star Wars (I was only a nipper but it was thrilling - we'd never seen anything like it)
The Matrix (first one. So slick and classy, I was totally impressed)

The worst movie I ever paid money to see was Highlander II - The Quickening
What a load of crap!
And after the first Highlander film had been really good (in my opinion). Sadly I never saw that first one on the big screen.
But the sequel was so bad I walked out of the cinema before the end.
The only time I've ever done that.
Saw all of the Back to the Future flicks on the big screen. Enjoyable daftness.

As for Superhero movies?
I liked the Batman ones with Michael Caine as the butler.
And I liked Joker - though I'm not sure that one counts as it didn't actually have a superhero in it.
That's about it though.
I'm old enough to admit I enjoyed the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve...

 

I didn't bother with the Marvel movies for years - I never read the comics and I mentally thought it would be a sort of sub star wars medley. The family dragged me along to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 which was an odd point to start, but I was transfixed. It was light heartedly funny and then sad by turns, well acted, well produced and a delight to watch, and I was striken. Of the early phase of Marvel movies, the only one I didn't like was the first Captain America. But they just got better and better. They had the writer of the comics Stan Lee making cameo appearences in each film, usually with a rather funny line, and they escalated up to Avengers Endgame which is one of the best films I've ever seen. No spoilers but a couple of longstanding characters were killed off and it was really sad. I even enjoyed Ironman - I mean FFS never thought I'd want to see a film with that central character, but Robert Downey Jr played him perfeectly with a sort of playboy arrogance but with touches of deeper character. These were films where you genuinely enjoyed the repartee among the characters and loved them. I agree that the new Spiderman films seemed a bit unnecessary but again, they wrk just fine - it's just there are now way too many Spiderman films in existance, but they even played with that by dragging some of the previos Spidermen throug a wormhole to help the current one, so you had Tobey Maguire, the new one and another one I missed, played by the original characters and it worked again.
10 out of 10 for me, although since Endgame they have struggled to keep up the standards. The latest Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy films were very good, but they missed the high standards of the older ones. But I'd recommend all of them (nbar Captain America 1). heck, I never tjought I'd sit through a movie about a character named Captain America, but he was excellent as were all the films he was in.

 

By the way, I think Star Wars is the most repetetive and boring franchise going. I'm out for good now, but I dipped in every now and then, and it seeemed as if they were just trying to find ways to make the same film over and over again. The last one I saw, <i woke up after a half hour sleep and found they'd killed oof Luke Skywalker, and my first thought was 'who cares'? Won't go and see another one.

 

The first Highlander is pure class. It should have stood alone. The sequel is largely unwatchable, as are the others in the series. Christopher Lambert is also great in Greystoke.

The original Star Wars trio are works of genius. It should have ended there, though The Mandalorian is rather entertaining.

My greatest memory of the cinema is seeing Ghostbusters. It still thrills me to this day and I class it as my favourite ever movie. Seeing The Goonies, Labyrinth and Krull also stir a warm feeling of nostalgia.

 

When I referred to Star Wars I meant of course the first movie (1977 if memory serves), not the following franchise.

2001: a Space Odyssey was the first movie to show realistic looking space technology but it was before my time when first released - 1969.

Star Wars (1977) was the first movie to show realistic looking space battles etc.
It was the first sci-fi adventure movie to show those effects.
Though some earlier movies such as Silent Running and Dark Star looked very spectacular as well.
And Gerry Anderson's TV series Space: 1999 had very good model based space tech effects and was on TV two years before Star Wars and did not use 'green screen' effects.

But when I walked out of the cinema after first seeing Star Wars my young head was spinning with the visual magic of it.

I did think the spin-off Rogue One was a decent movie

 

I saw a bit of Dark Star recently - one of my favourite Sci-Fi movies back in the day. It hasn't aged well though, and I switched off after half an hour.

 

Some early to mid 1970's (pre-Star Wars) sci-fi movies were unique, and I still enjoy watching them even if they are creaky now.
Westworld and Logan's Run are two good ones.

Just after Star Wars there was a fashion for future movies,
Alien of course an absolute classic, but I also liked Outland too, with Sean Connery.
Then a couple of years later came Blade Runner.
Visually stunning and a fantastic score, by Vangelis I think.

A couple of strange post-Star Wars sci-fi movies were Battle Beyond the Stars
and Disney's The Black Hole.
The latter has not aged well but it had some interesting ideas and I like the final sequence.
It starred a real mixed bag of a cast too, including Anthony Perkins.
The only thing I can recall seeing him in apart from Psycho.

An absolute stinker was Saturn 3
Released at the same time as Star Wars I believe, and supposed to be a direct competitor.
It had about 100 times as much money spent on it as George Lucas' low budget movie.
And it was utter rubbish.

The episode of Blake's 7 titled Headhunter (1981) which was a loose rip-off of Saturn 3 and made for a budget of about £50 was a much better piece of entertainment. And it had the sexy Lynda Bellingham guest-starring in it.

That's more than enough sci-fi anorak from me

 

Vangelis was a master of his craft. While he will be mostly remembered for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, my personal favourite is his score for 1492: Conquest of Paradise. Eternity and Monastery of La Rabida are sublime pieces.

 

Saw The Great Escaper starring Michael Caine (90) and One Life starring Anthony Hopkins (86) recently. TRuly great performances by truly great actors.

 

So according to Rishi we're living under mob rule? There's a documentary on C4 now which shows mob rule, and human nature at its worst.

 

Private Eye has been predicting that the Murdoch Papers would back Starmer in the GE, and it is looking like it, with the Sun concocting a story about Sir Keir blasting the Woke FA over the flag. Murdoch likes to back a winner, and if Labour wins the GE he will claim the credit.

 

We’re not yet. But unless we change our direction, within 50 years, possibly less, we will be.

 

If The Sun is abandoning Rishi Sunak and throwing its weight behind Labour that is a severe blow for the Tories.
I'm a bit surprised, as Keir Starmer can be linked far more easily to the Corbyn Era than Blair ever could have been to the Labour Left in his day.
But as you say, they must be well aware at the Currant Bun which way the wind is blowing.
Such a pity John Smith never got a chance to be PM.

Rishi by the way is beginning to look as if he is on the happy pills.
When he's been saying the economy is turning a corner, I almost expected him to break into song.
Bizarre.

 

Absolutely. We wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

 

Nor Afghanistan

 

Charlton Live starts at 7 this evening. It's on YouTube and is good if you have Charlton withdrawal symptoms