Suicide Squad

We saw the 3rd DC Comics movie last night - Suicide Squad.
It was pretty decent.

The trailers were very misrepresentative.
Will Smith was clearly the lead actor with Margot Robbie as lead actress.
The trailers marginalised Will Smith in favour of the Joker - who was essentually a cameo (like Batman).

The baddies were very scary and weird.
Like something out of Dr Strange?

Bad superhero movies...

With the excellent track record of the modern Marvel movies, people tend to forget how many bad superhero/comic adaptation movies and TV series have been produced e.g.:

1. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Iron Man 2 & 3 
3. Fantastic Four (all 3 films)
4. Batman & Robin
5. Green Lantern
6. Ghost Rider 1 & 2
7. Kick-Ass 2
8. Blade: Trinity
9. Catwoman
10. Supergirl (1984)
11. Spawn
12. Judge Dredd
13. The Crow: City of Angels
14. Avengers: Age of Ultron
15. The Incredible Hulk (2008) 
16. Batman (Tim Burton) 
17. Batman Returns (Tim Burton) 
18. Spider-man (Tobey Maguire)
19. Batman Forever
20. The Wolverine (2013)
21.  X-Men The Last Stand
22.  X-Men Apocalypse
23. Darkman
24. The Phantom
25. Mystery Men
26. Hellboy
27. V for Vendetta
28. Hancock
29. The Green Hornet

An example of bad film making is this:

In the first Wolverine movie Logan is shot in the head  with an adamantium bullet - effectively erasing his memory...
In all of the X-Men movies Wolverine's past is a mystery to him.
True?

Yet in the movie The Wolverine, Logan survives proximity to an atom bomb explosion in World War 2 and in contemporary times remembers a Japanese soldier he saved in World War 2.
How?
He had his memory wiped in the previous movie...

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!

Riddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYDtVwyekZY

Superman kills

It is hard to imagine Christopher Reeves's Superman causing as much destruction to property and life as the Man of Steel did.

Krypton

The Man of Steel depicted Krypton in a manner that borrowed heavily from The Chronicles of Riddick, The Matrix, Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Masterpiece Society episode).

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?

A pleasant surprise