Wasn’t a pop at Dunkirk, as I haven’t seen it. Just a brief yearning for dialogue rather than effects driven movies. I suppose I should read up what I am about to watch a bit more. Did the bloke who put your telly up forget his spirit level? Or is your house on a slant, which is my permanent excuse for every picture and mirror on our walls. (Note absence of drink related comment)
Spiritu Livello, a Sardinian liqueur similar to Fernet Branca. I don’t drink spirits anymore (other than a very infrequent scotch, and only one) but have always struggled with after dinner drinks other than port (still permitted thankfully). Most Italian ones reminded me of an unpleasant mouthwash. 20 years ago I had an almond based Sicilian drink which was rather nice, when imbided in Sicily after a meal and a lot of local wine. But much less tasty drunk anywhere else, I found. Any favourite after dinner tipples to review?
I'm the bloke who put my telly up and the bracket is dead straight. It's on one of those extending and movable ones, one of my daughters has probably misaligned it. I think the poor photo might have distorted the perspective. I rarely ever sit in that room but the family had all retired early this evening so I thought I'd treat myself to the comfy sofa. A bottle of sparkling water and a few cups of tea along with the popcorn tonight to enhance my movie experience. Shame about the film though, I really didn't like it but I'll add no more to avoid spoilers or detract from your expectations of it. We can compare notes and see if I've glaringly missed something.
I thought you were reminding me of what I said in post 529! Don't think you'll be giving away the plot Ninesy - let us know what you thought.
That's the main reason that I tend to watch older movies these days rather than the newer blockbusters. The only modern (as in, released in the past year) that I can recall seeing are Valerian (the effects saved it from being terrible), The Last Jedi (it's Star Wars with a number greater than 3.5, so 'nuff said), and Murder On The Orient Express, which is visually stunning but also dialogue-rich. The last movie I actually watched was the classic 'so-bad-its-brilliant' Plan 9 From Outer Space - most famous for the star, Bela Lugosi, dying just as it started filming, and so they re-cut footage from a couple of previous, unreleased films, and hired a complete nonentity (actually the director's wife's chiropodist) to fill in the on-screen gaps despite being a full foot taller than Lugosi and looking nothing like him! If you've not seen it, I recommend the experience, because these days it's far more an experience than a movie...
If you enjoyed that WLW you may be interested in Tim Burtons biopic 'Ed Wood' Martin Landau is cracking as Bela Lugosi https://www.empireonline.com/movies/ed-wood/review/
Probably because there is no plot mate. Where to begin? From what I understood Dunkirk was a massive operation involving the huge evacuation of over 300,000 soldiers. They even mention this in the film but you only see a few hand fulls of troops on the near empty beach. I thought there was a huge flotilla of personal boats and naval vessels that went to rescue the troops, but this film depicts a dozen at best. Then there's the squadrons of spitfires, well just the three aircraft to take on the Luftwaffe according to this film. What the director Nolan has done is turned it into a sixth form student's attempt at a minimalist arthouse movie. It's devoid of plot, dialogue or character and after twenty minutes your left yawning and couldn't care less for the people in the film. It's a big waste to have this budget to spend on a film with a whole raft of British talented actors who don't get to show off their skills. What's the point of getting Kenneth Branagh in to just stroll up and down the pier? The cinematography is good though. The attempt at three focus points, the cowardly soldier, the spitfire pilot and the tug boat is both confusing and unnatural. The timeline of these doesn't move along in a linear fashion. One minute it's calm and sunny, the next it's night time followed by day light and choppy seas and jumping around the three perspectives. It doesn't work and is a shocking mess. The behaviour of all three when reacting to the circumstances around them them doesn't display normal behaviour. I get what the director is trying to do but he's treating us like fools if he thinks that we don't realise that war is not nice and can be dehumanising. To reduce every person involved in this debacle to what is effectively an automaton does everyone a disservice. Trying to do something different doesn't always equate it to being good or great. A few other niggly bits are ... although we're told that the troops are suffering heavy bombardment the town is picture postcard perfect. No damage whatsoever. When you see the Tommies on the beach none of them are talking to each other, they're just staring out to sea. Every single one of them. When the young lad dies on the tug boat there's no reaction at all from the old boy. Despite having to enter my pin number you don't see anyone maimed or seriously injured despite a bomb falling on them. The spitfire pilot, despite being obsessed with his fuel gauge reading every few moments he still manages to ( surprise surprise ) run out of fuel. He then defies the laws of physics and gravity by gliding around for another half hour flying up and down the beach a few times and even managing to save the day by shooting a Stukka out of the sky. He could've returned to blighty in that time. No mention of the enemy. It's only at the end where you see a silhouette of a few Germans, otherwise it's as if they don't exist. ( Don't mention the German's! ) The film score - I usually like Hans Zimmer ( Ironically German ) and was surprised when I looked up who did it that it was him. There are points in the film that when the little dialogue that does take place is spoken, it's drowned out by this horrendous cacophony of noise. A cat being ironed alive would make for a more pleasant listen. What he'd done here is stumbled upon this effect called the shephard tone. This is where you layer the soundtrack on a loop between two octaves to give an audio illusion that the pitch is always increasing to ratchet up the tension. Which is fine, but not at every given opportunity throughout the film! As you can probably tell, I wasn't impressed and was left completely unsatisfied.
Nines, I watched it on the plane at Christmas. Felt the same, tedious and it seems to be all sombre and desolate like an 80's arthouse flick I swapped to watch Stephen King's IT which at least didn't pretend to be what it wasn't. BTW I can recommend A Quiet Place. Nice little edgy film
I've just quickly looked it up and sounds a bit like another horror film called 'Don't Breathe.' I'll look out for it mate.
You really didn't like it, did you? I loved it, but I saw it in the cinema on a massive screen, which I think makes a vital difference. None of the quibbles that you had bothered me at all, and I thought that the three different timelines (an hour in the air, a day on the sea, a week on the beach) worked really well. In the cinema, the magnificent cinematography and the tension-building score were completely immersive and suspension of disbelief was easy.
Now that’s a proper review, more like this (can be positive too!) please. On thinking about Nolan I suspect he is on a downward curve. I loved Memento, really liked Insomnia and the one about the magicians, but these were a long time ago now. With the exception of Tom Hardy’s hilarious performance in one of the Batman films and Heath Ledger’s swan song in another one the others have left me pretty cold.
I’ll give it a miss on the plane tomorrow I think then, perhaps I have missed the chance to see it as intended.
I really did want to like it but felt like you would if you went to see one of your favourite artists, let's say Bruce Springsteen. He then informs you that he's not doing any of the back catalogue tonight, It's gonna be all my new stuff. I guess when it comes to war films I'm more of a Platoon and Saving Private Ryan kinda guy.
I liked those films, but Apocalypse Now takes the prize for me, though it could be argued that it’s not really a war film. Almost as good the remake set in Trinidad, Apocalypso Now.
There are many good war films and Apocalypse Now is up right up there, as is The Deer Hunter and the old classics such as a Bridge On The River Kwai and Mrs Nines all time favourite movie The Guns Of Navarone. All have good characters, story line and plot which is why I felt cheated by Dunkirk. Another good recent one was The Fury.
I loved Inception. Actually really liked Intersteller as well. Enjoyed Dunkirk too, but probably his weakest film for me personally. I think this is more to do with it being a war movie though. Nolan for me is one of the best working directors around. Considering he writes a great deal of his material as well, he seems to be holding his own and appears to be doing things how he wants.
I'd recommend The Thin Red Line - came out about same time as Saving Private Ryan, but based on the battle for Guadacanal, and based on the autobiography of one of the combatants. Delves much deeper into the pyschology of war, and the needless loss of life. All time favourite has to be A Bridge Too Far though - having spent several years working alongside the Parachute Regiment it was a regular watch. It's another film that glories in our spectacular failures during WW2, but which we look back on with admiration at the bravery displayed in the face of over-whelming odds - it was on recently and I still loved it. Another favourite, although not truly a war film, is The Hill with Sean Connery as a military prisoner in North Africa during WW2, and his battle of minds with the despot who is the warden of the prison camp - old, in B&W, but still brilliant and brutal. I saw Dunkirk in the cinema, and really enjoyed it, although I doubt it would have anywhere near the same impact in your wonky TV! Worst thing that happened during the film was my 15yo son asking me if it was WW1 or WW2 - FFS, what do they teach kids these days
