“It’s a Bug’s life’, the weekly post when I tell you what films we’ve watched both on our film Sundays and other parts of the week (I will talk about TV shows elsewhere). Please if you haven’t read the introduction page to this series go take a look that’s where you’ll learn the history of our sorely missed Bug.”
There are no spoilers for the films listed
I wasn’t expecting to watch many films this week but somehow the reverse happened. I have a lot of TV series I wish to catch up on so I do need to watch a few less films. We started our viewing week with Only The Brave (2017) which is the true story of a group of firefighters who died fighting a huge forest fire. We have seen this film before (though don’t own it) as true stories go it is pretty close to the real story. Josh Brolin as always puts in a great performance, Joseph Kosinki the director who has previously directed Oblivion and Tron Legacy brings a great visual style and manages to mix the practical with the CGI effects very well. If you like these sort of stories it’s well worth a watch.
On Wednesday it was time for some Dragons. I have been meaning to watch Dragonslayer (1981) for quite a while, last time I saw it was on release. It was a strange film as it was a Paramount/Disney co production. A great cast and some well done practical effects, it is a bit on the dour side and the plot could do with some more levels of complexity in my opinion still an enjoyable film though.
Thursday was a re-watch of A Quiet Place (2018) the first time we have watched it since we got the blu-ray. I don’t think its as good as some people seem to think, personally I think the internal logic of the film fails at a couple of points, however I cannot deny the film manages to bring huge amounts of tension into the situation. I enjoyed it more on this second viewing, the reason we had decided to watch it was that I wasn’t too bothered about a sequel so much so I actually watched a trailer (as you may know I don’t watch many trailers) which made me really want to see the sequel.
Friday we went for the second of the Daniel Craig Bond films Quantum of Solace (2008). This is not my favourite era of Bond (I think it takes itself too seriously), going well against the Grain surprisingly this is my favourite of the Craig’s Bonds. It may be because it’s not like a Bond film, it’s the film we would have loved to have seen after On Her Majesty’s Secret Service an unhinged James Bond. Not a perfect James Bond film but I find it fun because it doesn’t feel like a James Bond film. Also it’s not overlong as the others in this era are.
Saturday morning I had some free time so had a watch of David Lynch’s flawed version of Dune (1984). I have a soft spot for this film even though it has a lot of issues. I must though see if I can get hold of the 3 hour cut that’s available (but out of print) on DVD maybe it comes together a bit better. I still always thoroughly enjoy this film and the production design is stunning.
If you’ve dipped into it’s a Bug’s Life before you’ll know that the weekend is normally our big film viewing time especially what we call film Sunday’s. So the weekend we took in The Lion King II: Simbas Pride (1998) which was a pretty mediocre straight to video Disney effort. We then went to the visual Lunacy that is Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (1997) a film that in my opinion that if you don’t enjoy it you must be tired of life. Have you ever seen a man take his Duck to the centre of the earth? If the answer is no you need to watch Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959) a classic film.
The weekend was finished off with our Premier of The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019) I love a good Dog movie and this is one of them and well worth a watch. If you know me you know that I cry at all films so this one I was blubbing from the opening scene whist hugging my old Golden Retriever.
Last night (Monday) we had another double header the criminally underrated Tomorrowland (2015) which is the Juxtaposition to all the dystopic movies we see. The final movie was Night at the Museum (2006) which is a bit of fun and it’s always great to see Robin Williams on screen. That wraps my week up I’m expecting a lot less in the coming week but whatever your doing stay warm and have a great week.
