Two most recent watchings would be Interstellar which I had very high hopes for but was a complete dog's dinner. Not that I need to say cos I know it rather divides opinion. Fuck knows what anybody saw in that though. Was just a mess. Only reason I kept watching for all three painful hours was cos I'd heard that the end makes it all worthwhile... and then it isn't.
Aside from the blatant cribbing, I seriously cannot see the connection people keep making to 2001. The difference is night and day. 2001 is a great film on many levels whilst Interstellar is a barely coherent pile of wank that seems virtually thrown together with no idea of plot or character or anything beyond ego-stroking. Fucking dire.
To be fair, he's the most overrated director I know of. He's not made a properly good film in years - if at all - that I can think of. Lotta hype but zero actual content beyond rather vacuous schoolboy pyschology and the like. There's not even any really impressive visuals or owt in this recent one which at least excuse some of his other output. Probably his worst yet and that really is saying something
T'other fillum I've watched recently was Terry Gilliam's latest
The Zero Theorem. Like so many Gilliam films it's both brilliant and also deeply frustrating cos that brilliance comes in fits and starts and doesn't quite hang together and hold out the whole way. It starts off well (overtones of Brazil, dystopian futures, weird shit and so forth) and unfolds into an intriguing enough premise... but quite a thin one that isn't really backed up enough by anything to be as good as you want it to be. Has some great moments - and is genuinely funny in places which is not always the case in his more recent films - but I was ultimately left feeling like it fizzled at the end.
However, I would happily watch it again cos I feel there is probably more to be taken from it than I got initially. I really don't get that impression from Interstellar. Both are films about somewhat abstract concepts but one has soul and t'other feels utterly devoid of it to me.
Talking about films that were never made,
Jodorowsky's Dune is an excellent documentary about the most amazing film that never got made, but still influenced cinema massively (or they didn't make his film, but kept all his ideas)
Whilst he remains alive I still hope that somehow he gets to make that film.
Barry Norman signing off.
... and why not
