what was the last movie you saw?

[Adje]

Murder By Death (1976)

Peter Sellers, Peter Falk, David Niven, Alec Guiness

I can go on but let's just say it my favorite murder mystery.

9/10

[PanicLord]

Originally Posted by Adje

Murder By Death (1976)

Peter Sellers, Peter Falk, David Niven, Alec Guiness

I can go on but let's just say it my favorite murder mystery.

9/10

Love that film. Got it mainly for Peter Falk but it is hilarious. Also like Clue.

[Adje]

Originally Posted by PanicLord

Love that film. Got it mainly for Peter Falk but it is hilarious. Also like Clue.

Clue did have a few great moments. But I found that an okay movie at best.

Some nice deleted MbD scenes on youtube. Including Sherlock Holmes

[PanicLord]

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Much to my surprise, I loved this film. Action packed, humorous, fresh, and original. Yes, there is considerable darkness, but unlike the last few Harry Potter films, it does not overwhelm the film and rob it of its entertainment value.

The vast majority of lead actors are also much better from day 1 than with Harry Potter. By which I mean no inexperienced child actors. The adult actors have been uniformly excellent throughout.

Just to note I "liked" the Harry Potter films, particularly Azkaban and Deathly Hallows Part 2, and thought Goblet Of Fire was a terrific film and the best of the franchise.

This film for me was up there with Goblet Of Fire.

I know a few Harry Potter fans who hated this film, so to be clear this is NOT Harry Potter The Even Earlier Years... it is its own thing, but with intriguing links and hints to things that may happen in future instalments, some of which were talked about in hushed tones in the Harry Potter films.

As with many Jk Rowling films, the Fantastic Beasts are not really the main event... more a smoke screen for a smoke screen... but they are beautifully realised and some of the captures are very entertaining.

The only VERY slight minus for me is Eddie Redmayne. It's probably just personal preference but I can't help thinking how much more panache and charisma other contender for the role Matt Smith would have brought. It's not that Ed is bad at all and he does develop the character well by the end of the film. Just could have done with a bit more welly.

But overall extremely entertaining and I'm looking forward to seeing the next part more than I ever thought I would.

4.5/5

[PanicLord]

Freddy vs Jason - I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would or probably should. Freddy is mostly used for creeps and scares, although does get a few slightly awkward one liners. The set up is quite interesting and well handled. Actors are much better across the board than almost anyone in horror films in the 80s. Jason is Jason. It does get a little confusing trying to keep track of what's happening near the end. Overall though not a bad entry in either series.

2.5/5.

[PanicLord]

Final Destination 3 - I loved the first 2 but had heard bad things about the 3rd. Actually I loved it too! Fiesty with smartish modern characters who try to save themselves but are brung low by fate. The deaths are mostly pretty inventive although there aren't any that throw you off too much unlike in the earlier films. Great fun, good jumps, and very entertaining.

3.5/5

[PanicLord]

Die Hard

Still a superb film. The bench Mark for action movies back when they understood that less is more when you root for the hero and secretly also root for the villain just a tiny bit.

Bruce Willis is truly superb in the role... this was long before he started demanding huge paychecks to phone in sleepy performances.

Alan Rickman is magnificent, playing an intelligent man with a plan. It is actually a bit of a shame when he dies but it had to be really.

Downsides? Only the Deputy Chief of Police who is an absolute moron.

Other than that fairly minor blip, absolutely superb.

4.5/5

[AndrewG]

Sully

Superb well executed retelling of the Hudson plane landing.
Clint Eastwood seems to be perhaps one of the only directors who in his old age actually makes better movies than he ever did before.

[Adje]

Masterminds (2016)

A friend of mine loved it. He sai it reminded hm of "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" so I decided to watch. It had a few funny moments but I was mostly disappointed by it.

Very 'meh'

5/10

(Talladega Nights on the other hand made me laugh a lot. That one get's a 7,5/10)

[PanicLord]

Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Now that's how to make a sequel. Ok, so the title sounds like a spoof, and in a way, it is a much more popcorn action flick than the previous movie. However, while they have undoubtedly ramped up the bullet and explosions count, this film manages to avoid my dreaded VERY LOUD NOISE syndrome, where sequels just become marketing exercises ticking off boxes (see also A Good Day To Die Hard. Actually, don't, but you know what I mean).


Bruce Willis is still a one man tour de force. He OWNS the screen and is again superb. You root for him and want him to succeed. He is put through real jeopardy. OK so you know he's not gonna die. But the jeopardy is real. He is not Superman and does not survive ludicrously impossible assaults - everything is just about plausible, from an action movie point of view.

The explosions are bigger, but they are actually used fairly sparingly, and are part of the story, not just tacked on because there hasn't been something enormous exploding for x minutes.

The chief policeman is initially an arrogant fool, but reports into an intelligent and honourable man in charge of the airport, who is in turn assisted by some good and intelligent people. The good guys tackle the situation intelligently rather than making things worse. Even the chief comes round in the end.

The bad guys motives are political this time round, and were probably quite a hot topic at the time. Believable, if just a little less interesting than chasing gold.

Minuses? Well the bad guys are played by less interesting actors this time round (they are not bad at all - just not Alan Rickman, RIP), and you never really secretly want them to succeed. You want them taken down. There are also quite a few logic problems (e.g. if a succession of planes are going try an emergency landing using fire to guide them in, wouldn't they leave really big gaps between them, and more importantly, move the first one down out of the way so they don't all pile up)... but that is really nit picking. It is not an essential part of the plot that throws you off, just a slightly amusing hole to pick if you are in the mood.

All in all though, thoroughly entertaining, slickly produced sequel that is different enough to largely avoid repetition, but with enough that's familiar to make you comfortable that you are in safe hands.

A well deserved 4/5.

[PanicLord]

Die Hard: With A Vengeance

More great stuff. The film has a much tenser, focused feel to it, similar to the first one. Jeremy Irons is nearly as good as Alan Rickman but Alan remains the king.

Sam Jackson is superb and the on screen relationship with Bruce Willis is superb.

The police are caring and smart (okay if just a little gullible) and the bad guys motives are much more credible and interesting. Who doesn't want trucks full of gold?

The riddles are entertaining and the cross city action is very well handled.

Downsides? Well Bruce Willis remains very good, but he doesn't seem to own the screen quite as much. It may just be because Samuel J shines so bright and it's only a very minor thing.

Not another downside but it's more vicious and gory than I remember but maybe I saw an extended version or something.

Anyway more great stuff.

4/5

[Adje]

Originally Posted by PanicLord

Die Hard: With A Vengeance

More great stuff.

Fun fact: It was originally the script for the 4th Lethal Weapon movie (explaining the team up with Samuel L Jackson) but Warner didn't like it.

[AndrewG]

What I really missed with Die Hard 3 and subsequent ones was they weren't set at Christmas. 4 was watchable for 1 time only. Didn't bother with 5, it looked terrible.

Think the Christmas setting really added something special to 1 & 2. Christmas in NYC would have made 3 better I reckon and funnier in places.

When a formula works they should stick to it.: Back to future 1,2,3. Star Wars etc. The prequels are terrible and new one which is just same formula as originals is exceptionally good.

They messed around with Die Hard too much. Now Bruce Willis/John McClane is a political correct hack who needs help from computer nerds. Lame. His wife wasn't even in 3 or 4 either whilst she was in hostage situations in both 1 and 2. Again a missed trick in my opinion. Instead both 3 & 4 focuses on the man/woman relationship of bad guys and the bad women, who gives a toss about this.

[Adje]

The Pink Panther (1963)

Not the Steve Martin crap movies which were not just awful but a disgrace to the genius that was Peter Sellers' Jaqcues Cloueau. If Martin's comedy skills were half as big as his ego his movies might not have been the disaster they turned out to be.

Anyway the original movie with Peter Sellers and David Niven (Niven was the main bill but Sellers stole the show, resulting in 4 more Clouseau movies -5 if you count Trail of the Pink Panther)

Superb crime comedy.

7,5/8

[Adje]

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

This sequel to the Pink Panther is perhaps the best of the series. Major fun!

8,5/10

[Adje]

Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

When Peter Sellers refused to pick up his role of the stumbling detective (Sellers and director Blake Edwards didn't want to work on a Clouseau together anymore after Shot in the Dark and both declined for the 1968 follow up) , Alan Arkin was brought in to play Inspector Clouseau in 1968. A movie I haven't seen in a whle and I will review after the Sellers movies.

Luckily Sellers (in search of succes) agreed to work with Edwards again and make another sequel which resulted in this movie. Return was my favorite of the Pink Panther films for a long time. And I still think it's one of the best, maybe just edging the original for the 2nd spot (and just behing Shot in the Dark).

I own the HD versions of the first three movies (Pink Panther and Return on BluRay - Shot in the Dark had a 1080p web release). Unfortunately, from the three, this has the worst picture quality although still a great improvement over the DVD's. The other sequels don't have a HD release.

Anyway, I love this movie.

8/10

[PanicLord]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

What I really missed with Die Hard 3 and subsequent ones was they weren't set at Christmas. 4 was watchable for 1 time only. Didn't bother with 5, it looked terrible.

Think the Christmas setting really added something special to 1 & 2. Christmas in NYC would have made 3 better I reckon and funnier in places.

When a formula works they should stick to it.: Back to future 1,2,3. Star Wars etc. The prequels are terrible and new one which is just same formula as originals is exceptionally good.

They messed around with Die Hard too much. Now Bruce Willis/John McClane is a political correct hack who needs help from computer nerds. Lame. His wife wasn't even in 3 or 4 either whilst she was in hostage situations in both 1 and 2. Again a missed trick in my opinion. Instead both 3 & 4 focuses on the man/woman relationship of bad guys and the bad women, who gives a toss about this.

Yeah I know what you mean. For me though, 3 still has the "feel" of a Die Hard movie and just about keeps the John McClane character from the first film alive. I can't remember much about 4 but I hated 5 the first time around because it was a generic action shoot em up where the characters could be anyone and the situations pushed credibility way past breaking point. It also suffers very badly from VERY LOUD NOISE syndrome... I. E. Lots of bangs and flashes but you don't care because of the problems with characters and credibility. The film makers had stopped caring about trying to make quality films about one hell of a cop and just slapped the Die Hard label on it to milk the franchise.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by PanicLord

Yeah I know what you mean. For me though, 3 still has the "feel" of a Die Hard movie and just about keeps the John McClane character from the first film alive. I can't remember much about 4 but I hated 5 the first time around because it was a generic action shoot em up where the characters could be anyone and the situations pushed credibility way past breaking point. It also suffers very badly from VERY LOUD NOISE syndrome... I. E. Lots of bangs and flashes but you don't care because of the problems with characters and credibility. The film makers had stopped caring about trying to make quality films about one hell of a cop and just slapped the Die Hard label on it to milk the franchise.

You will be looking forward to Die Hard Year One set in Japan and released in 2018.

To be fair it sounds like it might be interesting, tying it to the first movie. Could be crap if it's just like the last then.

http://diehard.wikia.com/wiki/Die_Hard:_Year_One_(film)

[Adje]

Pink Panther strikes again (1976)

Some of the funniest moments of the entire series can be found in this movie (that's a priceless Steinway! -Not anymore)

7,5/10

[Adje]

Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978 )

I think this the weakest from the 5. Still highly entertaining

7/10

[Adje]

Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)

This one concludes my Sellers/Clouseau series. Peter Sellers, of course, died in 1980. So Blake Edwards used unused archived footage from previous Panther movies. Also a voice double and a stand in were used for some scenes.

This wasn't really good and although the Sellers scenes show his comic genius, it wasn't enough to save the movie. After this one even worse sequels followed (Curse of the Pink Panther and Son of the Pink Panther) but they didn't include Inspector Clo... sorry Chief Inspector Clouseau.

5/10

[PanicLord]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

You will be looking forward to Die Hard Year One set in Japan and released in 2018.

To be fair it sounds like it might be interesting, tying it to the first movie. Could be crap if it's just like the last then.

http://diehard.wikia.com/wiki/Die_Hard:_Year_One_(film)

Actually the Japan plot does sound quite interesting, but as always, it will all be in the execution!

[Adje]

Inspector Clouseau (1968 )

Alan Arkin did a decent job. The movie was okay.
5,5/10

[Adje]

Inferno (2016)

It was okay but I was very disapointed by the ending. They changed the very clever book ending into a Hollywood ending. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

6/10

[Sebastian.]

David Brent - Life on the road. Pretty good raised a couple of decent laughs.