The one with Blade Runner 2049, Mindhunter, The Snowman and Geostorm

The stunning Blade Runner 2049Denis Villeneuve’s much anticipated follow up to 1982’s Ridley Scott classic, gets the Admit One treatment and, needless to say, both the boys love it.

Also on their good side is another Netflix show, Mindhunter. Directed by David Fincher, with episodes from interesting directors such as Asif Kapadia, and Charlize Theron among the producers, the series has a stunning pedigree.

Also with a cast to die for, including pod faves Michael FassbenderRebecca FergusonJ.K. SimmondsChloe Sevigny and Val Kilmer, comes The Snowman. Simon disliked the book, so Mat went to see it as he quite likes those crime things.

Simon loves a bad film, and many bad films seem to star Gerard Butler. Simon went to see Geostorm, the futuristic political environmental disaster action thriller you didn’t know you wanted, in spaaaaace!

We also look at the crimes of Harvey Weinstein, and not just the movie Chocolat and if ever you wanted proof that we do record live in a pub, we get some fun interruptions from the regulars!

All this and a whopping fifteen minutes of hilarious outtakes – what more could you want? Well, except for some professionalism, obvs.

avatar Simon Oxlade
avatar Mat Purvis

The one with Manhunter, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Alien: Covenant

Descend into myth and legend as Simon and Mat review Guy Ritchie’s  King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Ridley Scott’s Alien:Covenant.

There’s the usual news, comment and will Michael Mann’s Manhunter make it onto the DVD Shelf of truth and justice? Download and find out.

avatar Simon Oxlade
avatar Mat Purvis

Trailer roundup

Ahhh, ’tis the season to be  …. inundated with movie trailers apparently.

So here we go again with another look through what’s coming up, either good … or bad.

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan, off the back of stupendous success with the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Interstellar has chosen to give us Dunkirk, a film of the saving of a large chunk of the British army during the incredibly successful German offensive of 1940. Ultimately the retreat from France was a defeat, but the ‘miracle’ of Dunkirk was a victory as the astonishing rescue operation saved the bulk of Britain’s fighting force at the time and gave the country hope that they could possibly fight back against the Nazis.

I like the look of this, it’s not skimping on scale or visuals, the effects, sets and costumes look real. What you don’t get from the trailer is any sense of the characters we’re going to meet (with the exception of Kenneth Branagh) and in a film of this size, it is our relationship with the characters that will make or break it.

Still a great cast, and Harry Styles, Dunkirk opens in June.

John Wick: Chapter 2

 We’ve seen this before, but here’s a second trailer. It looks like more of the same, but that’s not a bad thing as the original John Wick was a blast of fresh air, wrapping a so-so revenge plot in  bombastic action sequences and an interestingly detailed world of archaic rules, honour codes and fifties tech.

Looking forward to this – also compare and contrast with the XXX3 trailer… aaand discuss.

Baywatch

Okay this looks terrifically muddled, but it does have the Rock (who is worth a watch in anything he does) and it does have Ephron (who is maturing into a very good comic actor) and the two of them together appear to have a lot of chemistry.

File this under cautiously looking forward to it.

Snatched

Warning: Red Band trailer!

So I guess your feelings about this film will depend on your feelings about Amy Schumer. Personally, and I don’t know how she does it,  I find she successfully treads a very fine line between comedy and vulgarity and this trailer is definitely right up Amy’s street with desperately embarrassing situations and explicit dialogue wrapped up in a slightly desperate “I try to be good” attitude.

Anyway the real highlight is Goldie Hawn, in her first film since 2002. She looks amazing and still has all the comedy chops that made her famous.

This looks filthy, but possibly hilarious. However am I the only one who thinks the kidnap plot is a bit un-necessary? Surely there’s enough material with an awkward mother/daughter holiday situation?

Blade Runner 2049

Okay, so where to begin this this?

It looks like the original, in fact this is the most classic-Ridley-Scott-looking film I’ve seen since, probably, Black Rain (look it up).

The world looks meticulously re-created, that distinctive visual style is in every pixel, and the mood, that queasy mix of threat and wonder, seems to be perfectly re-created.

Then there’s the music, which is SO important to Blade Runner.

Oh, just wow. What a great trailer and I am so hopeful that the impressive talent involved with this film are , finally, going to pull off a worthy sequel.

 

As ever, what do you think?