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Beckham 9 out of 10
So he played for “Mannscum” as Bill would say. It looked like, in this documentary, that he didn’t want to leave MU..
Er...thats "Mankscum" joanie
Otherwise known in football circles as the Evil empire.
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Cat Person (2023) 8-9/10
In a nutshell a razor- sharpe explotation in the horrors of dating! Margot, a college sophomore student goes on a date with the older Robert, she finds that IRL Robert doesn't live up to the Robert she has been flirting with over texts. Things eventually take a turn when after the initial date; bad choices etc envelope and then it begins, you know stalking, bad-mouthing etc. Police are called nothing to be done until...Well find out for yourself! A good example of a black comedy which was based upon a short story featured in The New Yorker. Had me gripped, competently directed which left me feeling does anybody want to endure this hassle of dating.
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Posted: |
Oct 25, 2023 - 12:57 PM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Along Came a Spider (2001) ... 4/10 (with reservation)
My third, or fourth, viewing but the first time I managed to watch it through ... which is a shame because lead Morgan Freeman is excellent, constantly watchable; a great support cast, too, and the story which revolves around a kidnapped young girl is the stuff that keeps you watching.
Only it didn't on prior viewings. The trick, this time, was to watch in two parts, pre-dinner/drink ...i.e. it's a good film but has problems. Primarily the story is poor, asking us not only to suspend disbelief but also to accept that the bad guys would live a double life for 2 or more years awaiting an opportunity to carry out a crime which could have been done on day 2 ... or 3, not day 732 ...
And the young boy who can overcome the security systems at the Russian embassy ... using guidance provided by someone who has never been there ...
Add an awful opening CGI scene (we know where JB007's ice-flow paragliding scene originated ... yes, it's that poor) and the film faces major hurdles.
One of Jerry Goldsmith's last scores ... it does its job but is instantly forgettable. As is the film.
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Watch out for the mildly amusing Two Mules music clip in 2nd film.
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Posted: |
Oct 25, 2023 - 3:58 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR (2023) - 9/10
Every review of this concert film has to begin with the reviewer describing how big a fan they are (or are not) of Taylor Swift, so here goes. I own four of her ten albums, purchased primarily because of songs I first liked from radio exposure. On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, as of July 2023, Swift is the female singer with the most charted songs (212), most top-40 songs (119), most top-20 songs (73), most top-10 songs (42), and most number-one debuts (5). About 35 songs appear in the film, and I’d guess that all of the songs I liked were among those top-10s.
Like another concert film I saw recently, the Talking Heads’ STOP MAKING SENSE, THE ERAS TOUR is all concert, no nonsense (i.e., no interviews, backstage views, critics’ assessments, etc.). We jump from an aerial view of SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles right into the first number, and the show proceeds without a pause for the next 2 hours and 49 minutes (a half hour shorter than the actual concert itself).
Designed as a tribute to Swift's discography across her 17-year career, the Eras Tour covers all styles of music from her 10 studio albums, ranging from country and pop to folk and alternative rock genres. The set list places a somewhat greater focus on albums Swift had not previously toured, which means her more recent material, with which I was less familiar. Fortunately, the 10 albums or “eras” (each identified on-screen for the audience) are not in chronological order. So, if you are mainly a fan of one phase of Swift’s career or another, you won’t be put off for long stretches of the film. There is generally a song you like better coming up soon.
The most amazing thing about the concert (and the film) is the sheer scale of the physical production. It's like a dozen Super Bowl half-time shows strung together. The concert ensemble includes 14 backup dancers and a live band of six instrumentalists, plus four female backing vocalists. Designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Zuhair Murad and Oscar de la Renta custom-made Swift's outfits for the tour to complement each album's aesthetic. The dances were choreographed by Mandy Moore (not the singer). This Mandy Moore is known for her Emmy-winning work on the television series “So You Think You Can Dance,” having appeared on the show every year since the third season, and “Dancing with the Stars.” She also choreographed the 2016 film LA LA LAND.
All of this takes place on three separate stages connected by a broad ramp projecting out into the audience: a main stage with a giant, curved widescreen behind it, a rhombic middle stage; and a rectangular stage that along with the ramp forms a T-shape at the middle of the stadium floor. The staging is equipped with "hyperactive" hydraulic platforms, with the main and middle stages having mobile blocks that rise from the center to form platforms of different shapes.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the tour is one of the most expensive and "technically ambitious" productions of the 21st century., featuring pyrotechnics, laser lights, smoke machines, fire cannons, indoor fireworks, PixMob LED bracelets, and image projection technology, such as projection mapping that creates stadium-size holograms.
Director Sam Wrench used all sorts of floating, flying, and stationary cameras to capture the show over three nights in L.A. The result is that while a person in the stadium with a fairly good seat (not in the third deck) is likely to have a view of the show that consistently looks like this:
The film-goer will see things from a myriad of angles.
The last photo shows how most people in the stadium will be viewing the show--by watching the large screen behind Swift (often at some oblique angle). Film-goers get to see the screen too, particularly when it is enhancing the show with videos setting the mood or otherwise doing something other than just enlarging what is on stage:
Unlike the first photo above, the audience in the film is mostly unseen, with just thousands of points of light (as shown in the last photo) from their LED bracelets.
Swift had the idea for a concert movie in 2022 but none of the major film distributors (Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, Universal, Paramount, etc.) showed any interest. However, feedback from her worldwide fan base on social media indicated a lot of interest from fans who had never seen her live. In a calculated gamble, Swift decided to distribute the film through her own company at her own expense directly to theaters. The gamble paid off quite quickly, as the film has proved to be a massive box office success around the world, grossing $179 million in just two 4-day weekends. (Swift only wants the film shown on Thursday-Sunday, so as to avoid sparsely attended weekday shows). The concert tour itself, after the foreign leg is concluded, is expected to gross $1 billion.
Reports from the heavily attended weekend shows have told of fans dancing in the aisles, singing at the top of their voices so as to drown out the film’s soundtrack, and, twirling flashlights all around. None of this took place at the 4 PM Thursday show that I caught, so if you want to avoid all that, I’d recommend a matinee on Thursday or Friday before the kids are out of school. My main complaint about the show is that it was hard to understand the lyrics of some of the songs I was unfamiliar with. This is not so much because of crowd noise, although there is plenty of that coming from the surround speakers of the theater, but because Swift consistently uses a hand-held or stand-held microphone, which often obscures her lip movements. Many singer-dancers now use headset mics, which offer a less obstructed view of the singer’s face.
Even if you are just a casual fan of some of Swift’s music—as I am—this film is worth seeing for the innovative, constantly stimulating production. When you compare this show to a 1980s concert film like STOP MAKING SENSE, it’s literally like something from a different era.
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Attack from Space(1965)1/10
Starman is sent to Earth to protect against the evil sapphirians and their universal domination.
Absolutely piss poor. Not quite the worst I've seen but close. It's certainly the cheapest made, that I've seen in a long time. There's more string on display than there is on Compo's trousers. The effects have been nowhere near the word 'special', ever. Ed Wood would have been thinking he was David Lean. Starman was a bit of a prick, flapping his arms about and wafting his little bit of webbed( ness) under his arms. Lots of dummies thrown about and some pulled along on string. 1/2 point coz I watched it all and 1/2 for several pretty women. Tit bit for you star wars nuggets - the main space ship , of the villains was known as the death star! Eh, eh.
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Five Nights at Freddys (2023) - 8/10
Who dares stay late? Come on it'll be a blast, fun and disturbing....!
You'll have the time of your life - not!
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Posted: |
Oct 30, 2023 - 7:04 AM
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By: |
DavidCorkum
(Member)
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Flightplan (2005) ... 3/10
Does the story ~ logic ~ matter to you? I have a good friend who, when I question how he likes a film replies: it entertained me, that's what matters.
The movie was very well directed and produced, and I found it compelling up until the truth started to be revealed. SPOILER - but when you realize that the "plan" executed by the bad guys was not physically possible, it's stupidity becomes offensive. They're trying to make Foster look crazy by discrediting her claim that she got on the plane with her daughter. How could they possibly expect to have a kid come on the plane, sit down, get drugged and pulled from her chair and moved, all in a cabin full of people, and no one ever sees her? If only one passenger stood up and said "Hey, I saw a kid sitting there!", the plan falls apart.
Their reason to do it was that they wanted to steal a McGuffin, then parachute out of the plane and blow it up, and Foster would be blamed because she had gone crazy in public. You'd think it would be easier to just break into her house and forge a note saying "I'm going to blow up the plane, yes I am", and it's all taken care of.
Jodie Foster was a producer, and she's a member of Mensa.
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