Really bad films!

[Demetrius]

Beowulf

The new one that I didn't bother to watch or the old (80s I always thought, turns out to be from 1999) one with Announcements through Loudspeakers, the Knight with a helmet without any spyholes/eyelets whatsoever who unsurprisingly fails to defeat Grendel, the black accountant making bad jokes and a Beowulf who would be more at home as fighting shaolin monk?

For a new bad one in this vein, I recommend Snow White and the Huntsman - It's hilarious, especially when it comes to Snow White's various clothing items.

[Pabmusic]

The new one that I didn't bother to watch or the old (80s I always thought, turns out to be from 1999) one with Announcements through Loudspeakers, the Knight with a helmet without any spyholes/eyelets whatsoever who unsurprisingly fails to defeat Grendel, the black accountant making bad jokes and a Beowulf who would be more at home as fighting shaolin monk?...

The new one, but the old one sounds a contender!

[Ferretfancy]

Can we add The Piano to the list? It really was like watching paint dry, plus of course the ghastly Michael Nyman music. This is my candidate for the most overrated film of all time.
There is always the category of films that are so bad that they're good, such as the Blob, Steve McQueen's first movie.

[Nick Armstrong]

Can we add The Piano to the list? It really was like watching paint dry, plus of course the ghastly Michael Nyman music. This is my candidate for the most overrated film of all time.

Yes - among films with pretensions to quality, it's waaaay down among the worst. And most annoying and depressing score ever.

Thropples, we must have watched Skyfall in a very different way! Do things like

18th Century duelling pistols having impossible accuracy

really ruin it for you?

I loved it !

Except... except...

That WRETCHED song (Oscar?! ).... worse than Nyman's music for "The Piano"

[MrGongGong]

Of course it's not how real spying is done, and neither are the Bourne films.
:

Maybe our Derbyshire friend could enlighten us ?

This is what we want

[Bryn]

That was not a bad film though!

The reference is too good to miss:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

"The address wasn't understood"

[Jonathan]

I wouldn't put it in the category as a really bad film but we saw "Silver Linings Playbook" (or whatever) some weeks ago and it certainly isn't worth all the hype it's been getting since the oscars. Just found it rather trite and not very involving. But that's probably just me.

[Mr Pee]

"The Spy Who Loved Me"- The best film ever made?:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czWLEbNwjCI

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Popeye
Notting Hill
What Women Want
Pretty Woman
Ocean 12
Mission Impossible
Fifth Element

...and just to set the cat among the pigeons - "2001 - A Space Odyssey" (though the book is excellent)

[MrGongGong]

"2001 - A Space Odyssey" (though the book is excellent)

the only context for J Strauss IMV
and wonderful use of Ligeti's music .......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The music's great...

[Thropplenoggin]

Thropples, we must have watched Skyfall in a very different way! Do things like

4) 18th Century duelling pistols having impossible accuracy



really ruin it for you?

I loved it !

Yes, they do. I suppose I thought it might actually credit the viewer with a smidgeon of intelligence, as opposed to being yet another escapist fantasy far removed from any sense of the universe as most people actually experience it. It wasn't even true to the universe it purported to represent i.e. it's internal logic wasn't consistent.

The whole thing felt like a pastiche, a Bond pantomime, if you will. A tick box of past Bonds (Komodo dragons for sharks, etc.), the same old "exotic" locations, etc., etc. The formula feels so tired, so banal in 2013...

I found it idiotic. I didn't care what happened to M or Bond or even the Scottish gamekeeper in the end.

I'm not opposed to this type of blockbuster. I find The Bourne films utterly convincing. Daybreakers, for example, is a superb modern vampire flick, where I can happily suspend my disbelief because it never insults my intelligence. Its internal logic makes sense. Everything has been thought through. It doesn't feel slapdash or banal.

I watch a lot of cinema from all eras and locales, with the 60s and 70s being the most impressive (in general) for American cinema, though there are exceptions e.g. Kubrick, perhaps being my 'benchmark' director. World cinema consistently throws up gems (Still Walking, a superb Japanese family drama, for instance). My ideal of a good cinematic experience might involve escapism into a consistent fantastic world (Sunshine by Danny Boyle was a good recent sci-fi) or something set in the quotidian world, cerebral, where the viewer isn't spoon fed plot points in transparent dialogue (Bardem's first long expositional speech(brilliantly delivered, mind), where the viewer is actually credited with the intelligence to follow what's often merely hinted at e.g. Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love.

The problem is: most people think blockbuster = brainless. Many films prove it doesn't have to be this way. (See the Bourne trilogy). I suppose the average blockbuster-goer doesn't want to use their brain in the cinema, though. Or doesn't expect to have to.

[Mr Pee]

I suppose I thought it might actually credit the viewer with a smidgeon of intelligence, as opposed to being yet another escapist fantasy far removed from any sense of the universe as most people actually experience it.

Right....but you enjoyed a vampire movie.....

[Thropplenoggin]

Right....but you enjoyed a vampire movie.....

I also explained why I enjoyed it

[Mr Pee]

I also explained why I enjoyed it

Yes, you did, but your reasons did not convince me. Skyfall was not thrown together, neither was it slapdash or banal. It also had its own internal logic, which drove the entire narrative. And yes, it was a homage to other Bonds, in celebration of the 50th anniversary, that was part of the appeal- hence the return of the Aston Martin. And far from feeling tired and banal, the formula still works, and indeed had been given a new lease of life in the hands of Daniel Craig.

You're clearly a fan of the Bourne movies, and they're perfectly good. But they are no more believable than Skyfall.