Last Film You Watched


BNJ1878 said:
Such a shame, read that and it sounds ace.
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That’s the problem, Michael Winner got the idea, but failed in executing it or didn’t think it through properly.

It’s no surprise that was the last film he directed, only to become the face of eSure telling someone “it’s a commercial” and a food critic.
 
TaffyToffee85 said:
That’s the problem, Michael Winner got the idea, but failed in executing it or didn’t think it through properly.

It’s no surprise that was the last film he directed, only to become the face of eSure telling someone “it’s a commercial” and a food critic.
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Amazon review of this abomination. Much better summary than what I said.

I totally agree with him on the Ben Kingsley appearance. It was just thrown in there with no relevance to the rest of the plot, just so Michael Winner could get one over a chef who threw him out of his restaurant for writing a bad review. The chef is apparently a parody and deadpan lookalike of the one he had a run-in with. Utterly bitter and I’m surprised it didn’t ruin the careers of the cast, let alone harming Chris Rea’s chances of continuing his annual routine of making millions off “Driving Home For Christmas” every year……

When he shoots someone, they take ages to die and do all this stupid twitching, which is supposed to be funny. The only review I’ve read where it’s pointed out.

I watched this with a friend because I couldn't believe it was as bad as he said given the impressive cast. Well, it's even worse than he said it was. Where do I start? How about the script? Which is dreadful. It's all flatfooted exposition and no jokes. At least not any jokes that are funny. The characters talk about the protagonist and his situation rather than the film showing it to you. What you see has so little character that you wonder how anyone could care enough about this guy to even bother pissing him off. To say the plot is idiotic is to give it too much credit. I don't have a problem with the idea of someone bumping off everyone who wronged him. I'm OK with nihilism and the violence isn't even graphic enough to be upsetting. What I'm not OK with is stupidity. A doctor telling someone he has 6 weeks to live based on one errant x ray is a plot too idiotic for a children's cartoon. So is a professional hit man deciding to take the blame for multiple murders he didn't commit ... why? It's not really explained. I wrote better fiction in high school. I've read better fan fiction. Everything else is just as inept. The upbeat music is supposed to be an ironic counterpart to the dark mayhem on screen, but it just comes off as painfully stupid. There are some interesting camera angles, indicating that the movie was made by someone who has seen a camera before, but there are moments of astonishing clumsiness, like the opening music cutting off in mid-note, and the way the numerous death scenes are shot, with arms fluttering, eyes bugging out. It's as if this were intended to be a parody, intended to be "bad," but you know, horrifyingly so, that it isn't meant to be bad at all. Casting an actor with zero experience as your protagonist is a crapshoot at best and it sure did not pay off here. Anyone who thinks Chris Rea can act should be barred from ever having an opinion about any theatrical presentation for the rest of his life, much less being involved in creating one. Calling this performance wooden is an insult to wood. As for the supporting cast...wow, those poor people. I know Oliver Reed has been in a lot of Michael Winner's movies and I guess he felt obligated, but how did the rest of these actors get roped into this disaster? How do you manage to get a cliched, overwrought, cringeworthy performance out of BEN KINGSLEY? I wouldn't have imagined such a thing was even possible, but Winner managed it. I wouldn't have thought you could write a script so ridiculous that John Cleese is embarrassed to say the lines, but there it is, immortalized on film. Fortunately for Bob Hoskins, he just has to be nasty for a few minutes and then die, so he ends up looking a lot less foolish. Joanna Lumley as a shady bartender delivers every line in deadpan, which isn't interesting but at least doesn't make her look moronic. Reed as the hitman took the same approach. Peter Davison is basically the straight man as Rea's best friend and lawyer, and not being expected to be funny or evil probably explains how he coughed up the most credible performance of the lot. How he managed to react like a real human being might react when playing all his scenes opposite a two-by-four with vocal cords is almost impressive. It must be the three years he spent pretending to be scared by pathetic rubber monsters on Doctor Who. I felt truly sorry for Diana Rigg, who plays Rea's bitchy ex wife, and Felicity Kendal, who plays his current love interest. Both are way too old for their roles, and it came off as more than a little grotesque. Rigg's character had one speed -- oblivious bitch -- and Kendal had no character at all. So she sleepwalked through the movie with a dopey smile on her face, essentially showing no emotion at all, probably cursing her agent with every breath. I'm sorry, but this wasn't even bad in a funny way. It's just plain BAD. Wowee, super-strength bad. I'm checking my DVD player for corrosion now.
 


Prevenger17 said:
Watched Fatherhood with Kevin Hart last night. Enjoyed it surprisingly, I like Kevin Hart so it was nice to see him do a bit of acting. Some very schmaltzy moments which was to be expected given the subject matter, but I thought it was funny and affecting at times
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Is it a remake of the Steve Martin film of the same name?
 

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