Movies 2: Electric Boogaloo

Watched Soul last night and darn it's good.

Was planning to see WW84 today but Tier 3 now which I think the Cinema is now closed again but seen a few people tweet that most of seen still or HBO Max that it's not great

As I did think about paying the rental of about £15 in mid Jan to see it but might not now

I don't really care about WW84 but I might watch it just to see a film in the pictures.

I watched The Lighthouse about a week ago and as bizarre as it is I really enjoyed it, not many films can truly draw me in like it did (Parasite recently did but for different reasons) this lets you fully appreciate what's great about the artistry of films. Both Dafoe & Pattinson's performances were unreal as well.

I watched a ton of movies over the last fortnight or so, mostly because Christmas television this year has been terrible. ITV3 literally had Carry On films on for a week solid, presumably because Barbara Windsor died, but who is still watching that shite in 2020? Some of the material is bordering on the illegal, particularly the In the Buses films they keep showing as well. And don't get me started on BBC, with their 70s Christmas specials from Morecambe and Wise, The Good Life and Dad's fucking Army. At least mix it up and throw in The Fast Show or something that's not fifty years old.

Anyway, I spent Christmas at my parents with my daughters (thankfully before Kent moved into Tier 4) and spent it primarily sat on my arse, consuming Netflix and films that caught our interest.

There were some family favourites like Uncle Buck, Home Alone 1 and 2, Beethoven, Matilda and Jumanji that get watched every time they are on, and they are as great as ever. Although Uncle Buck is really starting to show its age and the kids in Beethoven now annoy me. Also caught some lesser films like Jack Frost (Keaton's snowman is kinda creepy looking), Knives Out (Daniel Craig's accent is so bad it just ruins an otherwise fun premise) and The Italian Job (iconic scenes, but it's so stupid and dated).

I watched a bunch of old films like It's a Wonderful Life (the perfect Christmas film), High Society (lavish, self-indulgent 50s Hollywood), Singin' in the Rain (probably the best musical I've seen), Doctor Zhivago (boring slog of a film) and Around the World in 80 Days (ridiculous film full of stereotypes and seemingly only exists for its list of famous cameos).

Also caught some fun action movies like Falling Down (Michael Douglas has a breakdown and goes Grand Theft Auto), Jack Reacher (decent if bit predictable Tom Cruise vehicle) and 2 Guns (Walhberg and Denzel in a ridiculous buddy cop story that's saved by their immense charisma).

@gjones wrote:

I watched a ton of movies over the last fortnight or so, mostly because Christmas television this year has been terrible. ITV3 literally had Carry On films on for a week solid, presumably because Barbara Windsor died, but who is still watching that shite in 2020? Some of the material is bordering on the illegal, particularly the In the Buses films they keep showing as well. And don't get me started on BBC, with their 70s Christmas specials from Morecambe and Wise, The Good Life and Dad's fucking Army. At least mix it up and throw in The Fast Show or something that's not fifty years old.

This year's Christmas TV was utter toilet. That Worzel Gummidge update looked boring as fuck. 

I agree up to a point about the old Christmas specials, though to be honest I'll watch the Still Game, Porridge, Bottom and Father Ted Christmas specials every year without fail. I watched the Only Fools Christmas Trilogy and early 2000s specials as well - that's six more Christmas programmes I've probably seen twenty times each. Then there's The Snowman, The Snowman & Snowdog and Father Christmas too.

For Christmassy films, I only watched Home Alone (fantastic), Home Alone 2 (equally fantastic), the 2000 version of The Grinch (not as good as I'd remembered) and Die Hard 2 (which I sort of lost interest in to be honest). I've watched a handful of Pixar films too, namely Toy Story 4, Finding Dory, Coco, Cars 3, Inside Out, Brave and Monsters University. All but Toy Story 4 are on iPlayer if anybody's arsed.

Good shout on the iPlayer, I didn't realise they put the Pixar ones on there too. They had the Godfather on there, and I think there are all-time classics like North by Northwest and Casablanca on there too, plus all them old bangers I mentioned above. It might have the best selection of films on any streaming service (if we're going off of IMDB scores anyway).

I did watch the Bottom Christmas special this year, and every time I watch it, it gets a bit less funny. But the finger scene and them eating their dinner will always get a laugh out of me. The Men Behaving Badly one is actual pish. I just watched the one Christmas special of Only Fools this year (where Del and Rodney go to a bar after eating Grandad's awful turkey) and it was alright. The Office two-parter is still excellent, but the Royle Family one where they go to Dave and Denise's is so bad, I forgot how stupid it was.

Yeah, the Bottom Christmas special isn't my favourite episode and it doesn't really make me laugh anymore, but those three series (and first three live shows) are so easy to watch that it doesn't really matter how fresh they aren't. I'd forgotten to watch The Office two-parter - thanks for the reminder!

I can't imagine what a Men Behaving Badly Christmas special would be like in 2020, so I won't!