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  #51441  
Old 31st January 2020, 12:27 PM
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I was sick of the film by that point.

When you compare it to Hawks' own Bringing Up Baby.. well it simply doesn't compare as that's a film that pitches quick fire dialogue, physical and slapstick to perfection.

Perhaps that's what His Girl Friday needed. A leopard on the loose.
I love both films, though Bringing Up Baby is the one which I find more endearing of the two.

Have you seen The Philadelphia Story?
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  #51442  
Old 31st January 2020, 12:32 PM
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Overlord 2018 ★★

Aside from the title giving me the idea that it was set sometime around June 6, 1944, I had no idea what to expect from this. The poster artwork doesn't look like a typical war film and so I had a completely open mind.

As a film set in advance of the D-Day landings following a small group of US soldiers setting the groundwork for the Allied invasion of northern France, it has a really interesting premise and one that could become a 'regular' war film. This plays with the concept in the same way that Frankenstein's Army did, only that was a much more obvious horror film.

This includes either the US Army's least covert soldiers or the members of the Wehrmacht with the poorest hearing, or both. (How else could you explain the amount of machine gun fire that attracts him no attention?) I wish the film had got to the secret laboratory and the human experimentation sooner, and made it much more of a obvious on-screen focus than it did. As such, the 'zombie army' feels like a subplot when the film would have been more intense, entertaining, and interesting if the laboratory was the focus of the mission.

Despite some unconvincing vernacular, Overlord is a very watchable film with some excellent visual effects, but I felt it could (and should) have been so much better.

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  #51443  
Old 31st January 2020, 12:37 PM
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Happy Death Day 2U 2019 ★★★½

Happy Death Day was a film which really surprised me as I was sceptical when I saw the trailer but it shows you can never quite judge a film by the way it is marketed. I hadn't seen anything about this sequel prior to watching it and had actively avoided watching any trailers or reading reviews so I could watch the film with an open mind.

Happy Death Day was fun and interesting because it took a fresh look at the basic premise of a Groundhog Day situation and incorporated a murder investigation, with the protagonist as both the victim and investigator. This sequel expands on the first by not only playing with time, but with dimensions and exploring the science behind the temporal loops that saw Tree trapped in the same day so she is not only confronted with the science behind time, but also the multiverse theory.

It's almost impossible to look at this without comparing it to the first film and I didn't find this as funny or light-hearted simply because the subject material is different and it's a film which is more intellectually challenging, becoming more of a mystery/sci-fi movie than a horror/comedy. That's not to say it isn't enjoyable because I found it to be extremely watchable and will definitely watch it many more times, only that it's a different type of film to Happy Death Day, and that's a change to be welcomed.

The new characters introduced in this film are interesting and likeable, it recaps the events from the first film very succinctly and with minimal exposition, then introduces Tree's past – particularly bringing in her family – to become slightly more heartfelt because of her mother. It's nearly impossible for sequels to be as fresh or innovative as their precursor, so the fact this introduces a new genre and is tonally different should be celebrated. Like the first film, this is a fun ride and writing this review makes me feel like watching the two films back-to-back.

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  #51444  
Old 31st January 2020, 12:38 PM
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I love both films, though Bringing Up Baby is the one which I find more endearing of the two.

Have you seen The Philadelphia Story?
Yes i have that (and High Society) far superior to His Girl Friday. I suppose that's plain to see as Jimmy Stewart is in it.
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  #51445  
Old 31st January 2020, 12:43 PM
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Yes i have that (and High Society) far superior to His Girl Friday. I suppose that's plain to see as Jimmy Stewart is in it.
Maybe the casting is one reason why our opinions of these films are so different: as much as I like Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant would probably be in my top five favourite actors, a few places higher than Stewart.
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  #51446  
Old 31st January 2020, 01:00 PM
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Revenge 2017 ★★★★½

The rape-revenge subgenre of films is a tricky one because the filmmaker has to walk a tightrope whereby the initial violation is neither exploitative nor titillating, must be sufficiently awful enough for the revenge to feel justified, yet not so horrendous that the perpetrators have enough humanity to be fully rounded characters and for the audience to be invested in the plight.

Similar criteria apply to the revenge element: proportionate to the character and the initial attack, not so egregious that the victim becomes dehumanised when meting out her vengeance, but sufficient for the audience to feel that the guilty have been punished and ultimately, there are no winners.

I won't regurgitate the plot in any detail; suffice to say that a young woman, Jen (Matilda Lutz), is raped and left for dead by her wealthy boyfriend and his two friends, but she remarkably survives and decides to take revenge.

As with so many films like this, the film relies heavily on the protagonist's performance, and fortunately Lutz is superb. Because the backdrop of the friends' get-together is a hunting trip, the plot device wherein the hunted becomes the hunter, and it's a 'kill or be killed' situation is not the cliché it would be without characters having high-powered rifles, shotguns and hunting knives.

I think this is an excellent movie, a taut and appropriately gory thriller, and one I highly recommend, though it's not a film for the squeamish!

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  #51447  
Old 31st January 2020, 01:14 PM
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Revenge 2017 ★★★★½
This is currently winging it's way to me via an Amazon Christmas gift voucher
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  #51448  
Old 31st January 2020, 01:15 PM
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Maybe the casting is one reason why our opinions of these films are so different: as much as I like Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant would probably be in my top five favourite actors, a few places higher than Stewart.
One of the problems is that Grant isn't actually in His Girl Friday that much. There are interminably long stretches where Russell simply gabbles along with a group of reporters playing cards.
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  #51449  
Old 31st January 2020, 01:35 PM
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This is currently winging it's way to me via an Amazon Christmas gift voucher
I hope you like it as much as I do!
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  #51450  
Old 31st January 2020, 01:38 PM
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I hope you like it as much as I do!
Well, it does sound very promising.
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