OV9

mik wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:29 am mr Grant was excellent in this

"Paddington 2 is fucking incredible"

mik wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:29 am
2. I don’t rate Mr Grant as an actor

I should probably clarify : he plays an excellent bumbling posh English bloke. For which he gained appropriate plaudits. Possibly my issue rather than his, but I do struggle when he attempts to move away from that type of role - I found him entirely unconvincing in The Gentlemen for example.

But he was believably sinister in Heretic.

Mito Man wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:00 am Gladiator 2 - if I take it in isolation it’s ok, a 6/10 but as a sequel it’s shit in every way. It’s no where near as good as the original. Much of the CGI was really rather poor (looked like a PS4 cutscene for many of the big battles) and the soundtrack meh.

The first Gladiator film is one of my all-time favourites, and I'd not dared to watch Gladiator 2. It popped up on Paramount yesterday so gave it a watch, and Maximus would be turning in his grave, it was utterly terrible. I began to cringe near the start and got very easily distracted so didn't finish watching it. Really terrible in comparison to the first film.

mik wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:29 am

Ascender wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2025 12:46 pm Heretic is well worth a watch, Hugh Grant is fantastic in it. Creepy, dramatic, tense thriller is all you can really say without giving it away - the trailer sets it up pretty well though without giving too much away.

Mrs mik is out tonight so I followed your suggestion. Thoroughly enjoyed it

Two salient points:

1. I am deeply suspicious of all religions, hence this resonated powerfully.
2. I don’t rate Mr Grant as an actor

Element 1 just made it more relevant to me. Element 2 was turned upside down - mr Grant was excellent in this

8.5 thoroughly uncomfortable moments out of 10

Great film

Glad to hear you enjoyed Heretic @mik. My wife still hasn't watched it as she found the trailer too claustrophobic and controlling.

I've also not had any interest in watching Gladiator 2 despite it sitting there on streaming for months now.

Guess bmw driver didn’t look in his mirrors, looked to me like he’d moved over for the Porsche to come through, and looks like they thought the same

Jurassic Park - oh so tired not as terrible as the previous one but that's a very low bar.

Some fun bits where they really leaned into the silliness and then mood whiplash with the dinochomps. The monsterfied Dinos were meh->dumb but what really stood out to me were some very cheap looking SFX that were quite obvious.

RobYob wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:00 pm Jurassic Park - oh so tired not as terrible as the previous one but that's a very low bar.

Some fun bits where they really leaned into the silliness and then mood whiplash with the dinochomps. The monsterfied Dinos were meh->dumb but what really stood out to me were some very cheap looking SFX that were quite obvious.

Funnily enough we watched the original again last week on holiday with my in-laws

My niece and nephew were obsessed with it when they were kids and used to sing the theme song to themselves all the time

It's still such a great film with some great sequences and really quotable lines

Sure the effects look a bit crap now, but it's a cracking film still IMO

Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:30 pm

RobYob wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:00 pm Jurassic Park - oh so tired not as terrible as the previous one but that's a very low bar.

Some fun bits where they really leaned into the silliness and then mood whiplash with the dinochomps. The monsterfied Dinos were meh->dumb but what really stood out to me were some very cheap looking SFX that were quite obvious.

Funnily enough we watched the original again last week on holiday with my in-laws

My niece and nephew were obsessed with it when they were kids and used to sing the theme song to themselves all the time

It's still such a great film with some great sequences and really quotable lines

Sure the effects look a bit crap now, but it's a cracking film still IMO

Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

I don’t know, I think the effects are still pretty good considering it’s 32 years old!

Zonda_ wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 11:26 am

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:30 pm

RobYob wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:00 pm Jurassic Park - oh so tired not as terrible as the previous one but that's a very low bar.

Some fun bits where they really leaned into the silliness and then mood whiplash with the dinochomps. The monsterfied Dinos were meh->dumb but what really stood out to me were some very cheap looking SFX that were quite obvious.

Funnily enough we watched the original again last week on holiday with my in-laws

My niece and nephew were obsessed with it when they were kids and used to sing the theme song to themselves all the time

It's still such a great film with some great sequences and really quotable lines

Sure the effects look a bit crap now, but it's a cracking film still IMO

Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

I don’t know, I think the effects are still pretty good considering it’s 32 years old!

Yes we went to see the new Jurassic Park film as well last weekend. It was pretty poor - not sure where the media hype was coming from. With one or two exceptions I was hoping all the cast ended up dead - that's how unlikeable they all were.

It had the typical 2025 reworking to make it more politically correct plus lazily copying loads of bits from the original whilst we watched on as they clambered up a cliff face in front of some silent waterfalls. All very poor stuff. The added horror type bits were the only thing would push it above a 4/10 rating.

I followed that by watching Ronin for the first time last night - some good car chases - overall not a bad film. Not quite sure what was meant to be in the box but I think that's the classic "McGuffin".

It was pathetic.

A few highlights…… super sniper lady couldn’t hit a barn door. Then when hitting a glorified moving building 50 feet away she repeatedly adjusted her sights.
Using bolt croppers to cut through a wire fence you could walk through carrying a wardrobe. Later on in the film they casually step over the wire.

The boat being attacked, yeah, don’t start your engines you group of super soldiers, just stand and panic.

The guy with tranquilliser darts when he goes mad trying to shoot all the Spinosaurus. He was tanking the gun back making it look like there was lots of recoil. Only thing missing was him making pew pew noises.

Lad jumps in the water to save girl, comes up and seconds later his hair is dry.

Guy breaks ankle/ leg and is hours later running at a crouch.

Everyone jumping off the boat instead of just beaching it.

Loads more and my 9 and 11 year old gave it 3/10 purely because of the Moso scene in the beginning.

Considering some of the acting the main characters have done in other films, this was a real screw up.

Dave!

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:30 pm Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

Whoa, this can’t pass without comment! I can’t agree, Back to the Future is a timeless classic.

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:37 am

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:30 pm Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

Whoa, this can’t pass without comment! I can’t agree, Back to the Future is a timeless classic.

JIC

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:37 am

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 10:30 pm Holds up much better than the original Back To The Future which we also watched...

Whoa, this can’t pass without comment! I can’t agree, Back to the Future is a timeless classic.

It's a great film, it just felt really old

An interesting observation on seeing it again though, in all 'modern' films, enemy states and countries are either unnamed or some imaginary-stan kind of thing

Not so with Back To The Future - it's the Libyans who try and steal the nuclear fuel

To be honest, the trailer for the new Jurassic Park movie put me off it as the plot just seemed to be utterly devoid of any invention whatsoever.

It's just a trailer for now, and I'm very excited about this it opens on 12th September

Izzy’s death makes the timing particularly appropriate. Looking forward to it. Not sure if I can make my wife a fan of the original film by September though So I’ll probably be going on my own.

Trailer does look good and I have faith in all those involved. Plus, the music industry has changed so much since the original that there must be so much material they can work from.

Mito Man wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:00 am Gladiator 2 - if I take it in isolation it’s ok, a 6/10 but as a sequel it’s shit in every way. It’s no where near as good as the original. Much of the CGI was really rather poor (looked like a PS4 cutscene for many of the big battles) and the soundtrack meh.

I watched half of this on the flight back from Asia at the weekend. Agree that it was awful. The first 20 minutes or so were unwatchable frankly - it improved with the addition of Denzel Washington (no surprise there) but not enough for me to carry on watching it instead of sleeping at 2am local time.

Perhaps it would be better on a big TV at home and maybe I'll watch the rest of it at some point but it simply can't touch the original.

GG. wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 11:24 am

Mito Man wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 12:00 am Gladiator 2 - if I take it in isolation it’s ok, a 6/10 but as a sequel it’s shit in every way. It’s no where near as good as the original. Much of the CGI was really rather poor (looked like a PS4 cutscene for many of the big battles) and the soundtrack meh.

I watched half of this on the flight back from Asia at the weekend. Agree that it was awful. The first 20 minutes or so were unwatchable frankly - it improved with the addition of Denzel Washington (no surprise there) but not enough for me to carry on watching it instead of sleeping at 2am local time.

Perhaps it would be better on a big TV at home and maybe I'll watch the rest of it at some point but it simply can't touch the original.

Even on TV at home it's still shit