Film you recently watched: part 3

Away Bus (2019) - Ghanaian action comedy.

A lot of good, well interesting at least, world films are available on a YouTube channel called World Movie Central. Today I enjoyed this one from Ghana. It is mainly in English, but with some bits (especially the shouting rants) in Twi and the subtitles lagged about 10 seconds behind which was really distracting. The subtleties of some parts of it were lost on me I'm sure.

Anyway, these 2 sisters find out their mother is dying (from 'cracked ribs' apparently after falling over). However, fortunately an operation to repair said ribs will save her life. But it *must* be carried out within 12 hours, they can stabilise the ribs until then, but after that it's curtains.

The mother rolls about groaning in bed with a drip in and a big plaster on her head. 10,000 Ghanaian Cedis are needed (about £1200 according to Google) for urgent rib repairs. What will the girls do? They're desperate.

Their mate is a pickpocket and he tells them it would be a good idea to rob a bus. He provides 3 pistols. I remain unsure of whether all or some of these were fake. Fakeness of the guns was certainly raised several times as an issue, but I'm not sure if it was confirmed.

So the girls and their mate rob the bus, get all the passengers belongings and phones etc into a bin bag, including a quite funny and very well acted little preacher boy in braces and bow tie who did a good satire several times about the Ghana preachers I suppose. Always chasing money. "This isn't enough to build a church! It's not even enough for an information centre or a radio show!".

Then a bigger badder gang with real machine guns etc show up and rob the robbers! This is where I lost track a little bit as there was lots of angry shouting and instructions, people hiding and the guns changing hands several times between robbers group 1, robbers group 2 and bus passengers. Police show up and idiotically tell them this isn't a good place to stop because there are loads of armed robbers and then leave again. Memorable lines:

Tough bus passenger lady: "Have you come to waste out time also?! I come from Accra. We eat bullets and sh*it them out the next morning! Kill me, go on. I want to die. Hurry up!".

To be fair, she did get shot later in the film. And she was the only one too.

Upset bus passenger: "God will curse them in his own time! When they try to spend the money it will make them shįt and when they try to charge the phones, their house will catch fire!"

Thief bus passenger: "let me join you! I'll help you. I'm the chief of the robbers at the bus station in Bofogo. If I haven't robbed you at least once, then you're new in Botofogo".


Well at the end of the round and round of the guns, it was robbers group number 1, the daughters and the pickpocket fella, who ended up with the guns and robbers group number 2 all tied up and gagged. The bus passengers are all thankful to group number 1, especially after they explain that it is just for their sick mother. Cops come and catch the tied and gagged robbers group 2.

Strangely, this big fat fella on crutches and with a vest, sunglasses and the most mahusive thick gold chain you've ever seen shows up and starts giving orders to the cops. "Take em away boys!" That sort of thing. I had thought he was the head of robbers group number 2 - the kingpin criminal. But as I say, there was a LOT of excited shouting in Twi and this was one of the twists and turns I didn't really understand.

In the end the girls get back to the hospital with the cash, but too late. Mum has gorn orf upstairs already. The ribs have seen her off.

Moving final scene as the daughters roll about in the dust crying and screaming and beating their chests.

The End.


Clive's Verdict: A medium enjoyable rob com. Gave a good feeling of what life must be like in Ghana. There were some funny lines in it, but it wasn't really a comedy. More of a shouty intrigue drama. I don't think I'll be catching a bus in Ghana any time soon.

6/10

 

I finally got round to watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny last night.
I loved the first three, hated Crystal Skull.

I was enjoying DoD until the ending, which I won't spoil. But what were they thinking?!

 

I have just watched Saltburn, on the recommendation of my daughter. What a pile of old s**t.

 

She may not be perfect but that sounds like an unwarranted attack on a family member.

What was the film like?

 

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut

How the Yanks unfairly lost the war. All very gritty and with some nonsensical dialogue that makes it hard to follow. They all appear a bit loopy.

I was glad that 'Clean' got his just deserts and got shot on the boat. That's what you get in karma for shooting up that boat of innocents over a puppy. No sympathy.

Awww how sad that a tape is playing from 'mom' hoping he gets his 'hiney' home in one piece. Oh those heartstrings.

Of course the slopes, ginks, Charlies, gooks etc don't have any moms. Or at least we don't get to hear about their heartbreak in any of these Yankee Vietnam films. I suppose it was always the same in any country's movie output.

As with most of such films, this one concentrates on the brave valour and heroism of the bold, bare chested, machine gun blasting Yankee doodles. I'd suppose that many international audiences, knowing the outcome of that war and the morality of the US invasion, would be like me and firmly on the side of Charlie, which makes it a strange viewing experience. Oh no! Says the film. 2 Yankees have got blown up and done the high dive off their watchtower thing. Woohoo! Thinks the viewer.

OK as an action film I suppose with some good special effects, but pretty brainless war bang bang bang stuff in general.

 

I haven’t seen it in years, but I remember I felt the message was that the US behaviour in Vietnam was insane and cruel. We are taken to the heart of darkness and at the centre is an American.

 

I saw Kes at the cinema last week. First time I've seen it on the big screen. An absolute masterpiece. The school footy practice scenes with Brian Glover are wonderful

 

Just seen Late Night with the Devil….very original twist on a horror movie

 

If anyone has not seen Lion, it’s on Film 4 on Thursday. Well worth a watch, it’s a true story about a young Indian boy who gets lost and his quest to try and find his way home. I remember being fascinated by the story when I read about it on the BBC website long before it was made into a film.

 

watched this again on Film4 last night. Wonderful film and beautifully set

 

Watch Mortal Engines on Netflix, because it was free. I remember seeing a trailer for it before it came out and thinking it looked crap.

Turns out I was absolutely right.

It's is quite literally a bad Star Wars ripoff in a post-apocalyptic setting.

When I say "Star Wars ripoff" I really do mean that in the most literal sense, all the way down to the final battle scene. It's jaw dropping how blatant it is.

Avoid.

 

Clear and Present Danger

Evil enemies of Uncle Sam get their just desserts off a load of shaven-headed YESSAH! yankee doodle super soldiers led by Indiana Jones. Ratatatatat! KABOOM! Take that, evil moustachioed darkies!

I often wondered what they're shouting at each other in those battle scenes, excitedly bawling into their radios or at each other. You can barely make the occasional word out. I put the subtitles on and it seems even they had no idea and just put up [Yelling].

I didn't get to the end and switched it off after about 40 minutes when the baddie mastermind was revealed to be..........Castro. Of course that's quite a common Latino surname, but I strongly suspect it was poor old Fidel (RIP) who was supposedly to blame for all the shooting and killing and blowing up acres of jungle.

What an utter load of Hollywood tripe.

1/10

 

Hounded (BBC)

A pro-fox hunting class war propaganda piece. Excessively silly in places, but British at least.

3 London wide boys (2 black brothers and a polish lad) and 1 wide girl are asked to rob a big country mansion on behalf of some antique dealer type. The owners will be away.

The thing is they're there lying in wait for them. They beat them about a bit and capture them, but then release them in the middle of a field. They're pleased to be free, but then over the hill come galloping 4 upper class types in hunting gear with a big pack of hounds.

Isn't fox hunting illegal? Asks one of the thieves and another replies "Yes" and they realise THEY are the foxes this time.

The poshos catch up with one thief (the young black brother) and the dogs chew him up and Karen, the posh lady head girl hunter, slits his throat for him. One down.

Run, run, jump, jump, the remaining thieves run into some bear traps and polish lad gets snapped by one. Now his leg is done in. Toot! Toot! Woof! Woof! Look out, here come the poshos.

They run away to a farm and when one of the poshos comes in, they blow up the microwave by cooking some tin foil. Young posho gets blown up and is brown bread. He has tooted his last. It is 1 all now.

His dad, who is a floppy haired fop crouches over the body and goes "Nooooooo!" and swears vengeance. He goes after bad leg polish lad and after a decent exchange along the lines of "go back to where you come from", "what Peckham?", they kill each other. 2-2 and the match is still deadlocked.

Remaining thief older brother and sassy girl thief jump in on the poshos camp and blast Posho No.3 in the chest with a shotgun and run away again. Memorable line from sassy girl thief "there's more guns on my estate than yours". For the first time the thieves are 3-2 in the lead.

They jump in a land rover and older brother drives like Juan Timbales through the woods, even though girls thief keeps telling him to slow down. However he gets distracted by a fox and crashes and girl thief gets a tree branch through the chest, vampire style. Own goal. 3 all.

After that they decide on a truce and an honourable draw.

Survivors are Chief Karen of the poshos and older black brother. He goes back to London and waits outside the antique shop in order to give the owner who sent him on the job a jolly good ticking off I should imagine. Remonstrated with him I shouldn't wonder. But we didn't get to see.

Parp - FIN.

4/10 - one or two good lines, but a dire wooden script, lots of stereotyping and unintentionally comical characters. Poor acting from some too.

Obviously the take away from the film is 'let us hunt foxes or we'll start hunting you'.

 

Went to see Alien: Romulus today.

The best movie in the IP since Aliens. Well worth seeing on the big screen, and some absolutely horrifying moments in it.

 

Thanks for the review, I'm looking forward to seeing this once the cinemas quieten down a bit.

 

Cool. I must tell my son.

When he was about 11, on a night Mrs Moose was out, we were looking for a film to watch. ‘This is great, we should watch it’ I said about Alien. ‘Is it like ET?’ He asked, ‘Not exactly’ I replied.

Despite since becoming a fan of violent shows like Breaking Bad or Top Boy he’s never even watched Aliens subsequently such was the level of trauma he suffered. He’s 22 now. I reckon he must be ready for a sequel.

 

I started watching Alien with my son when he was about 8, we didn't get very far. It's not particularly gory but it's just tense.

Watched the Good the bad and the ugly with him around the same time and hadn't realised the version I watched as a child was probably the TV edit that you don't get anymore.. As was the "Santa isn't real" version of Gremlins. Doh.

 

Saw it today, in fact just back. As a big fan of the franchise I can sum up the movie in one word...

F*CK!

 

Don't do it, it's by far and away the worst of all of the films for inducing trauma. I think I just scarred my 22 year old for life, (it was her first Alien).

 

Alien Romulus was awful. (Spoilers obviously).

The constant callbacks to the previous and in a different dimension of quality instalments, it was almost like a fan film created by ChatGPT. I’m shocked that Ridley Scott was involved. Even more shocked that Fede Alvarez signed off on it all.

The AI/CGI recreation of a dead actor was both disturbing, completely unneeded and awfully done and set the tone for the rest of the movie. A lazy mess of rehashes.

There was one tiny bit of originality in the zero gravity/acid blood/lift scene but that was ruined by one of characters pointlessly, needlessly and embarrassingly quoting one of the great cinema moments of all time.

It’s a shame too as for the first 30 minutes, it was great. I was really hoping to see what happens when the xenomorphs land in a populated area rather than yet another ‘creepy stuff on a ship’ thing.

David Jonsson as Andy was fantastic though. Amazing performance. Shame it was in such a terrible movie. Definitely the one shining light in a narratively exhausted universe. I’m just shocked they didn’t roll Sigourney Weaver out for a 5 minute CGI cameo.

 

Was saying exactly the same thing on the way home, he was incredible.

 

A good F*** or a bad F***?

 

Came here to say pretty much this. I enjoyed it for what it was.

Looking forward to Joker: Folie * Deux too.

 

A holy F*** as in it was crazy.
I didn't hate it anywhere near as much as @GoingDown did, in fact I thought some of the effects, soundtrack and overall doomed in space background were amazing.

For me the big disappointment, as always, is the characters. For Alien and Aliens I can still remember all of the characters, everything about them, yet despite seeing the new film yesterday I wouldn't recognise one of the actors if they walked past me now, let alone in 30 years.

 

I enjoyed the original 4 films, I don't think I ever watched Alien Vs Predator. I also thought Prometheus was awful.

 

Whereas I really enjoyed it!

 

I saw it last night. That was very good and a lot of action.

 

Not a film, but I watched Tomfoolery with Tommy Tiernan on Amazon.

For those who don't know Tommy Tiernan, his routine is a bit like Billy Connelly, only funny.

Thoroughly recommend.

 

Took some of the grandchildren to see Venom 3 for Halloween. Absolutely loved it tbh, well i must of because I managed to stay awake on a recliner.

 

The Life and death of Colonel Blimp.

On BBC yesterday. Deborah Kerr. War and love.
Iconic, made in 1943 in Techncolor and re-released after restoration sponsored in part by Martin Scorsese.
Message is when the enemy changes, you need to change strategy and tactics to meet new threats.
And you only realise what you had after you lost it.

Excellent acting all round and described in 1995 as 'Maybe the greatest English film ever made'.
Stephen Fry praised the film as addressing "What it means to be English" and for taking a longer-term view of history.

 

Just got back from watching Gladiator 2 with my wife. Her first words…..‘it’s not as good as the first one!’

She is most definitely correct. There is nothing really bad about this sequel, but it’s good moments happen too infrequently. Its pacing feels off, and the main character is just a little bit off. My wife described him as gormless, and it’s hard to argue.

The set piece fight scenes are excellent as you would expect, but the story feels overly convoluted whilst not being remotely complicated. What you end up with is a movie that feels long, with characters that feel a little bit half baked.

It’s a real shame as they had the chance to do something spectacular. Top Gun Maverick showed what can be done with modern technology and good story telling, delivering an excellent sequel to the Tom Cruise classic. They failed to do the same here, it’s all just a bit lacklustre.

6/10 - worth a watch, but not a patch of the original.