My Dad, brother, and I watched 12 Strong this past weekend, it was good. But I read the book...a statement that readers everywhere understand. I was a little underwhelmed by the movie, there were a couple of scenes I was expecting to be more impressive and/or more detailed than they were. It was interesting to see Chris Hemsworth in a role other than Thor.

Parents and siblings are currently watching Arizona (1940) starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. And just listening to it from another room makes me want to watch it.

SnowAngel

What movies are you looking forward to this summer? To be honest, I don't have anything in mind, and I haven't been to the movies in awhile. I find I'm tired of all the reboots/prequels/sequels and all. I'd love to know if there is anything exciting coming up .

All the films I'm looking forward to are sequels. There are lots of films that I don't know much about, so surely there's some good stuff out there. But I am especially looking forward to The Incredibles 2. The first film is one of my favourite films, and I'm hoping it will be better than the average sequel. I'm also excited for Ant-Man and the Wasp, not only because I like the Marvel films but because the first Ant-Man was brilliant.

I really liked the last M:I film so I may see Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The other sequel/prequel/tie-ins I may see are Solo: A Star Wars Story and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but I'm not sure because neither trailer has particularly grabbed me.

The Breadwinner is releasing in UK cinemas this summer, but I believe it's already been and gone in the US. It's a powerful film.

Ha, ok AJ Aiken. Maybe I should give some sequels a chance

So, watching 12 Strong had me think about action/war films I want to watch or rewatch and I did something I almost never do and watched two films by myself in two days. I rewatched Olympus Has Fallen and London Had Fallen and I had lot of fun even watching by myself. I am planning to watch Black Hawk Down after I finish reading the book. And I am thinking about watching 13 Hours since I found it on my brother's shelves.

The only upcoming movies I am interested in right now are Death On The Nile and Angel Has Fallen, both of those movies are suppose to be out next year.

SnowAngel

I've watched three movies lately that are based on true events: Hidden Figures, Dunkirk, and The Darkest Hour.
My favorite of the three was The Darkest Hour, hands down. I don't know how accurate it was to real life events, but it felt the least fake. Both Dunkirk and Hidden Figures suffered from trying to cram all the bad things that happened at that point in history into a limited number of characters and as a result, they both felt incredibly fake to me. I think it does a disservice to people who actually went through those things to have their stories "embellished" for the sake of making a good movie.

I haven't seen The Darkest Hour yet, but I've heard good things about it. Dunkirk doesn't bother me in that way, at least not as much as Hidden Figures did. What I don't like is the timeline and structure of the film; it felt like it was repeating bits of the story.

Have you seen Their Finest? It's a story about the people making British propaganda films during WW2, and it addresses some issues around embellishing the truth. Ironically, it's an 'inspired by' movie (though based on a novel).

Last night I caved and saw Solo after reading some positive reviews. It was fun! I think I like it better than any of the other recent Star Wars movies, though Rogue One has more depth. I loved

I haven't seen any movies in theaters lately other than Avengers: Infinity War, but I'm currently interested in seeing The Incredibles 2 and Won't You Be My Neighbor? Has anyone seen either of these movies? What did you think of them?

I also recently saw a trailer for a movie called The House with a Clock in Its Walls. I understand it's based on a book, but I've never read it. I'm debating reading the book before the movie comes out, but a) I'm still in the middle of trying to read through all the Jane Austen novels, and b) I have a sneaking suspicion that if I want to enjoy the movie, I should probably watch it first, then read the book and find out what they did wrong after the fact.

Wow, this year is going by fast. I suddenly started seeing people reacting to Ant Man and the Wasp and realized that the movie must be out already. It feels like just a couple of weeks ago that I was eagerly anticipating and dreading A:IW!

Well, I haven't seen any new releases. I've been dreading The Last Jedi, because even though I don't know what happens, I have strong suspicions. Star Wars I'm burned out.

Still keeping up with, and loosely enjoying Avengers, but I think after the primary storyline is done, I'll be done with that too.

I'm interested in Incredibles 2. I'll see that as soon as it's available on DVD.

@Rya, so, The House with a Clock in its Walls is a good book. I just read it last year for the first time and enjoyed it. It's properly creepy, but at the same time, it's a very simple read. The trailer... eh. I really want to like it because Cate Blanchett + Jack Black. In case you're interested, here are some very MINOR spoilers.

I've seen The Incredibles 2 and it's very good. The sequel has a lot to live up to, but it delivers! The short film before it, Bao, is also excellent. I didn't like all of the new characters (like Infinity War it felt a bit busy in parts, and lacked development for these characters) but the film did do really well developing the main characters. I like how it built on the themes from the first film and added to them. Violet, in particular, was wonderful. One of the things that was great about the first film was how high the stakes were. Sometimes animation can feel a bit 'un-tense', that everything will work out because it's animated; this film has real tension and 'Noooo!' moments. It's been a while since I went to see a film twice in the cinema, but I think I may be seeing this again.

Because of the World Cup (Football/Soccer), Ant-Man and the Wasp isn't coming out here until next month! I'll have to be careful to avoid spoilers. Somehow Disney must have foreseen that England were going to get to the semi finals, something they haven't managed for 28 years ...

I've heard of Won't You Be My Neighbour? but I don't think it'll be coming to the UK. I've never seen any Mr Rogers programmes - I don't think they ever screened over here. I only heard of him through the good ol' internet.

So I ran away today and watched a movie on opening day. Something I rarely, if ever do. This will be relatively spoiler free and this is based on the movie as itself...

What to do .. what to do...

Honey, woods, kids, bouncing, London, and a grown-up who forgot a certain bear... Well the bear comes and finds him.

I went to see Christopher Robin. This has to be, with the exception of the brief war scene (all explosions and him calling for reinforcements no blood), the most family friendly movie I have seen in YEARS. And I mean family friendly in the style it was when I was a kid. I was the only single adult (that I was aware of) in a theater full of kids and their parents or kids and their grandparents. Even the under 8 sitting next to me only got restless once. All of the kids were as enthralled as the adults.

"Sometimes doing nothing can lead to the very best of something."... Something Cristopher and others say through the movie.

I want to go see it again! Silly old bear.

PM me if you have any spoiler related questions.

As a person who for artistic/personal reasons has never seen any Disney versions of Winnie the Pooh (stories, music, movies - can't avoid seeing the vast amount of merchandising), I can only hope that it will cause some people to go back to the actual books by A.A.Milne, and read them to themselves, and then aloud to themselves and their children.

I don't see a lot of movies, but I do notice some of the trends - for instance there was a rash of body-exchange movies (Freaky Friday, 18 Again), a rash of baby movies. etc

Recently the animation world has got hold of children's classics, including more modern classics, featuring furry creatures.
Some of these are well done (Paddington), others have changed their characters and nationalities, or given them a totally 21st century agenda and attitude (Peter Rabbit? Oh, Miss Potter, try not to weep! - I refused to see this movie, whose trailer indicated that it was more like Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox).

There are so many great children's novels that have been adapted, and most of them very well, for screen. Does anyone have experiences of seeing something not only adapted but converted, i.e. turned into a modern politically correct tale without the innocence and fun?

I've watched three movies lately that are based on true events: Hidden Figures, Dunkirk, and The Darkest Hour.
My favorite of the three was The Darkest Hour, hands down. I don't know how accurate it was to real life events, but it felt the least fake. Both Dunkirk and Hidden Figures suffered from trying to cram all the bad things that happened at that point in history into a limited number of characters and as a result, they both felt incredibly fake to me. I think it does a disservice to people who actually went through those things to have their stories "embellished" for the sake of making a good movie.

I saw Dunkirk earlier this year and was disappointed in it...way too dramatic especially the soundtrack.

This past weekend I watched The Hunt For Red October (1990) with my younger brothers. We had so much fun. I have seen Red October more than a few times over the years and I always have a blast watching it, but I especially enjoyed watching it with my brothers.

SnowAngel

Well, I haven't seen any new releases. I've been dreading The Last Jedi, because even though I don't know what happens, I have strong suspicions. Star Wars I'm burned out.

I understand the Star Wars burnout (I think that releasing a new movie every year was a horrible mistake on their part), but something I will say about TLJ: my sister and brother-in-law, who both liked TFA without reservation, liked TLJ without reservation. I have another friend who liked TFA but felt it was wanting in a few areas, and was disappointed with TLJ. My brother and I disliked (but didn't hate) TFA and we disliked (but didn't hate) TLJ. It's hard to call it "more of the same", but I do think that whatever your opinion of TFA, your opinion of TLJ will likely be similar.

I'm going to be keeping up with the Marvel movies that I find interesting (for example, I want to see Captain Marvel because she's a character that I've enjoyed in other mediums), but I'm not all that interested in Ant-Man, GotG 3, Spider-Man 2, etc. I'll probably try to watch them on DVD if I can when they come out, but I'm not likely to buy my own DVDs. They just don't capture my interest like they used to.

@Rya, so, The House with a Clock in its Walls is a good book. I just read it last year for the first time and enjoyed it. It's properly creepy, but at the same time, it's a very simple read. The trailer... eh. I really want to like it because Cate Blanchett + Jack Black. … I think I'm still interested in seeing it, just because I want to watch something that's not a sequel or franchise.

Admittedly, the reasons you mentioned are part of the reason I'm interested, too. I also thought the world looked interesting. Concerning what you said in the spoilers, I'll just say that I'm not as surprised as I should be.

Spoiler

Movies seem to always insist on "spicing up" magic, often without understanding what made the magic mysterious and interesting in the first place.

I've seen The Incredibles 2 and it's very good. The sequel has a lot to live up to, but it delivers! The short film before it, Bao, is also excellent. ... I like how it built on the themes from the first film and added to them. Violet, in particular, was wonderful. One of the things that was great about the first film was how high the stakes were. ... It's been a while since I went to see a film twice in the cinema, but I think I may be seeing this again.

Man, I really need to get around to seeing this! (Packing and moving this past month has basically put a hard stop on thinking about anything else. ) I keep hearing good things, and it makes me happy. I was so worried that they wouldn't be able to live up to the original. I'm also glad to hear that Violet gets some development - I felt like she was a bit neglected in the last movie.

Kat, Christopher Robin was a movie I was also interested in seeing - though admittedly, part of that was almost just to reward Hollywood for actually using Jim Cummings for Pooh and Tigger instead of hiring a A-List celebrity (apparently they almost did for Tigger... and they definitely did for the other characters ). (I'm a huuuuge proponent of hiring professional voice actors for voice acting work when appropriate, because for every Tom Hanks as Woody you get, you also get Angelina Jolie in Kung Fu Panda. It helps that I can probably name more voice actors than on-camera ones so I have a vested interest.) But hearing your praise of it makes me want to see it because it just sounds like the kind of movie that I've been yearning for for a while now. I really need to get to the theater in the near future.

I really need to see The Hunt for the Red October all the way through sometime. I've seen quite a bit of the movie in bits in pieces since it's one of my mom's favorites, and it does seem like a good one, I just never had the patience for it as a kid and I don't have the time as an adult.

Speaking of my mom, the two of us watched The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society together last night on Netflix. It's based on a book that both of us like (my mom has read it several times), but we both found it... disappointing. The premise of the book is that it takes place entirely as written correspondence or journal entries between the main character and other characters, primarily a group of people from the island of Guernsey, right after WWII ended (and with it, the German occupation of Guernsey). The book's style gave it a very natural way of introducing you to the characters naturally and getting you attached to them, while also letting the story unfold in a natural way, and giving ample reason to give a lot of interesting and sombering details about the occupation without feeling like reading a textbook.

Unfortunately, when the movie lost that means of developing the story, they didn't adapt well. They took a book that actually reminds me a lot of NarniaWeb in that sense of developing a friendship over correspondence, and basically made the main character an invader in the lives of the people of Guernsey instead of a long-awaited friend. Even if you ignore the source material, the movie tries to sell deep friendships (and a romance) that was developed over letters in the book, but is never earned in the movie. Highly recommend the book, but give the movie a pass.

I've watched three movies lately that are based on true events: Hidden Figures, Dunkirk, and The Darkest Hour.

Yay!
I enjoyed each one of these films, but after reading the book, Hidden Figures, realized how different the movie was. Same premise, but, boy, they changed things up. Still, the overall story in film was well done, and covered that part of recent history not many of us know about.

We liked the second half of Darkest Hour so much better than the first, which just seemed silly and needlessly trying to entertain at times. Now, don't get me wrong, I love good humour, but this was just ... doltish. And I am not at all fond of how Clemmie (Clementine Churchill) was portrayed. After seeing a couple of films on the Churchills lately (The Gathering Storm, Into the Storm), there is no comparison of Kristin Scott Thomas to the actresses who played in these older films and were superb (Vanessa Redgrave and Janet McTeer).

Dunkirk I found very moving, even with the few inconsistencies with history. For one, from the film, it looks like the civilian ships were the saving grace of the evacuation. This was not the case, although without them, certainly fewer men would have been saved. (But without other larger navy ships, fewer men would have been saved, as well.)

Something that appealed to me in the soundtrack was the almost constantly ticking clock motif, lending urgency to every scene. I found the cinematography spectacular in every way.

This past weekend I watched The Hunt For Red October

Well done war submarine movies are favourites of ours: we just watched Red October, as well. Even though it was not an historical event, it sure is realistic. Ryadian, I hope you can take time to watch this at some point. It is so worth it!

We saw U-571 awhile back, which is based on the true stories of disguised American submariners attempting to capture the Enigma cipher machine by boarding a German sub. Terribly intense, with hardly a let-up. This particular film was inspired by historical events, 'though the historical U-571 was never captured and was later sunk by a torpedo.

K-19 is another favourite—the tale of the malfunction of Russia's first nuclear submarine on its maiden voyage.

We hardly ever go to the theatre, but we recently took in the new Christopher Robin. I will not hesitate to say that a few tears were shed between the four of us (daughter and friends). It was really lovely. In terms of the big picture and lesson of the story,I found it nicely paralleled Disney's beloved Mary Poppins.

Other movies we have seen (on DVD) over the past year or so are below. I recommend each one.
*The Case for Christ
*AD: The Bible continues (TV series, 2015)
*Eye in the Sky
*a couple of movies on Martin Luther (older and newer), plus one excellent documentary released on the 500th anniversary (2017) of Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg church.
*The Last Samurai
*Sophie Scholl: the final days (an especially strong favourite, as are the books)
*The Pianist
*Paul, the apostle of Christ
*The Man Who Never Was
*Valkyrie (although casting totally should have been Thomas Kretschmann as Claus von Stauffenberg)
*Denial
*Bridge of Spies
*Selma

Posting again after 24 hours, because this covers a film that is releasing today, Operation Finale. The movie tells the historical event of Adolf Eichmann's capture, arrest, and conviction ... by the Jews, themselves! I believe this is the only Nazi war criminal who was prosecuted by the Jewish people. Eichmann was the brilliant mind and evil heart behind the Final Solution in WW II/the Holocaust. I really want to see this, but am not sure if I can handle seeing the horrific atrocities on the big screen, so may have to wait until the DVD releases. The film looks strongly character-driven, which should be very compelling.