Miserable movies...

After a long day at work I might commit 45-60 minutes to watching something we've rented or bought on DVD. Occasionally a movie. It is supposed to be relaxing; a way to unwind from dealing with the trials and tribulations of my day job... Yet, so many modern films are really quite miserable. Last night we tried to watch Collateral Beauty. Big mistake. It was a bunch of actors talking about bereavement and cancer. Hey, I encounter the real thing at work. And worse. Why do I want to watch an actor pretend that they care? DVDs should have more detailed classification on the back of them. If you rent/buy Moana, it's going to be pretty safe. But even a so-called 'rom-com' nowadays involves trauma/upset/death/misery... Why? If I wanted to be miserable I'd watch the news.

Re-makes, sequels, etc that didn't quite cut it...

1. Matrix 2 & 3 (don't know their names)
2. True Grit
3. We're No Angels
4. Naked Gun sequels
5. Airplane 2
6. Blade 3
7. Dark Knight Rises
8. Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, 3, 7
9. Return of Jedi
10. Ewoks: Caravan of Courage
11. Ocean's 11
12. Karate Kid 3 onwards
13. The new Karate Kid (2010)
14. Riddick
15. Superman 2 onwards
16. Back to the Future 2 & 3
17. Blade Runner re-versions 2-7
18. Kick-Ass 2
19. Ghostbusters 2
20. Mission Impossible movies
21. X-Files movies
22. Supergirl (spinoff movie)
23. Battlestar Galactica TV series 2004
24. The A-team
25. Man of Steel
26. The Hobbit movies
27. A room with a view
28. Charlie and the chocolate factory
29. Herbie
30. Every Clouseau film that came after A Shot in the Dark
31. The wicker man
32. Oz
33. Around the world in 80 days
34. The Italian Job
35. The Thing
36. Rollerball
37. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr)
38. Bewitched
39. Star Trek the motion picture
40. Star Trek 5 onwards
41. Most of the Harry Potter movies
42. Robocop
43. Total Recall
44. Terminator 3 onwards
45. Alien 3 onwards
46. First Blood 2 onwards
47. Prometheus
48. Star Trek: The Original series - season 3
49. Indiana Jones 4
50. Smallville
51. Catwoman (Halle Berry)
52. Night at the Museum 3
53. Star Trek: Enterprise
54. The Truth About Charlie (Charade re-make)
55. Jurassic Park (and its sequels)
56. Rear Window
57. Tim Burton Batman movies (and sequels)
58. Hulk
59. Iron Man 2 & 3
60. Stargate Atlantis
61. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
62. Spider-man (both sets of movies)
63. Leon Redux
64. Apocalypse Now Redux
65. Get Carter
66. Arthur
67. Alfie
68. Conan the Destroyer
69. Predator 2
70. Fame
71. Footloose
72. The Hitcher
73. The Lethal Weapon series
74. Conan the Barbarian re-make
75. Planet of the Apes
76. Godzilla
77. Flubber
78. Psycho
79. Mr Deeds
80. Ladykillers
81. The Haunting
82. Firefly movie Serenity
83. Dirty Dancing sequel
84. Superman Returns (why?)
85. Jaws 2 onwards
86. Wall Street sequel
87. Blues Brothers 2000
88. Son of the mask
89. Quantum of Solace
90. Woody Allen's Casino Royale
91. Grease 2
92. Mel Gibson's Hamlet
93. Pride & Prejudice 
94. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
95. Noah and the Rock Monsters (Russell Crowe)
96. The Bible
97. Star Trek movies (Abrams re-boot) 

Feel free to create your own list. 

If you liked any of the above movies, good for you.
Somebody did I guess...

Too fast, too tedious...

After seeing the trailer for the new Batman film, new Star Trek film and having watched the new Star Wars film I must confess that our tastes aren't really in step with the modern audience.

We could happily watch To Catch a Thief, Harvey, El Cid, a John Hughes film, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Star Trek: the original series (seasons 1 & 2), Guardians of the Galaxy, Elizabethtown, Austenland, Kingsman, Maleficent, Amelie, Solaris (almost anything featuring Clooney)... and hundreds more.

The Too Fast, Too Furious style of film numbs us out. Too many stunts, special effects and lousy dialogue. We love a film like The Illusionist... where you have to pay attention and nothing grisly happens. We also love musicals... Into the Woods was great!

Haywire

This film served to showcase the mixed martial arts primitive fighting skills of the lead actress. It's a mindless martial arts movie sporting some nice supporting talent (McGregor, Douglas) but ultimately revolving around fight scenes and stunts.

I couldn't figure out whether this was meant to be a superhero movie or not. The main girl had her head struck against so many walls, chairs and fists without suffering concussion that I began to suspect that she was some kind of superhero-spy character. Even James Bond is not quite this unrealistic.

Halfway through the film there was a token attempt to feminize the lead actress but this failed; with the result looking like a man in drag.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/mademoisellec/ 

Blockbuster dying

With our local Blockbuster video store seemingly dying we tried Lovefilm.

So far I'm impressed.

Oz

The pace of Oz The Great and Powerful was quite pleasant but the movie was so-so.

The Big Sleep is great

The sublimely cool Bogart with the extremely naughty Martha Vickers.

 

I just love the witty dialogue.



Every woman in The Big Sleep is well turned out

I love the scene in the bookshop where Bogart calls the saleswoman "Pal".

I wonder if all women dressed their best in 1946 or is this just Hollywood?