Movie Walrus: LeVar Goes To The Pictures Part II - Electric Boogaloo... THE REVEAL

Sawduck

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

3rd place with 29 pts is

Necro

Crawl (2019)

Sub-Category: It's The End of the World As We Know It and I Feel Fine

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8364368/





Have I Seen It Before: No

LeVar's Approval Rating: 98%

Review:
As you may have guessed from my love of The Shallows in the previous round, I'm a big fan of these types of films and this one was just brilliant in terms of building tension ; I was on the edge of my seat from the moment the first Alligator appeared until the second the credits rolled, and I love a film that can get to my nerves like that. I've always really liked Kaya Scodelario since back when she was just Tony's little sister in Skins, and have enjoyed Barry Pepper in everything I've ever seen him in, so loved the cast and it was easy to root for their characters. Always great when someone takes a really simple premise and churns out an effective and enjoyable hour and a half ; what more can I ask for from a film than that. 'Nuff said, great choice.

Very underrated and enjoyable movie, great choice

Also Starring LeVar Burton

29th place with 2 pts is

aaronjennings

2012 (2009)

Sub-Category: It's The End of the World As We Know It and I Feel Fine

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/

IMDB wrote:

A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind.

Have I Seen It Before: Yes

LeVar's Approval Rating: 7%

Review:
Too long, too many dull drawn out boring moments, and far far too stupid… but not the fun and good kind of stupid you get from movies that are so bad they're actually good, just ridiculous levels of stupid for a blockbuster that takes itself too seriously and cost far too much to make. Some great actors in here that are far better than this crap. Have no problem with CGI if the story is good or at the very least enjoyable, but this isn't and the CGI looks awful. Honestly, what more can I say about 2012 that Dara O'Briain hasn't already said, so I'll leave it up to him to sum this one up for me…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXdBzpRDR5I

"The Latinos have mutated… and are heating up the planet" ; now there's a f**king movie!

aaronjennings

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Cyrus Grissom aka Cyrus the Virus is a great masterful villain

I am glad you liked Con Air

aaronjennings

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

29th place with 2 pts is

aaronjennings

2012 (2009)

LeVar's Approval Rating: 7%

There it is :pac:

Also Starring LeVar Burton

2nd place with 30 pts is

Kolido

Conflict (1945)

Sub-Category: The Early Bird Special

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037611/

IMDB wrote:

An engineer trapped in an unhappy marriage murders his wife in the hope of marrying her younger sister.

Have I Seen It Before: No

LeVar's Approval Rating: 99%

Review:
The films that have surprised and impressed me the most throughout this Walrus are the ones that I had fully expected to end up somewhere in the middle of the pack before hitting play, films where I thought I knew what I was getting myself in for, only for the story to end up going in quite a different direction than anticipated. Have only seen Humphrey Bogart in a handful of films, but this is by far my favourite performance of his from those that I have seen, as Conflict is by and large a character piece, so a lot hinges on the lead actor knocking it out of the park, and Bogart is truly captivating in this. This is exactly the sort of film I wanted to see The Early Bird Special sub-category, because it's just a great example that the best films are all story driven and you don't need state of the art CGI, or lots of explosions, or any of the bells and whistles modern cinema has conditioned us to equate with the greatest films. Some arthouse and indie films have tried to re-capture the magic of this era of cinema with varying degrees of success, and I applaud them for the attempt, but it would amazing to see films of this calibre becoming the norm again. Fantastic choice, was expecting to declare it the winner of this round, but there was one film that just pipped it to the top spot.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Which means 2 people have gone for the same film which achieved my 3rd 100% approval rating in this Walrus...

...and one person submitted my least favourite film of the entire Walrus (nothing personal against the submitter of course)

Talk about polar opposites...

It's Alfred Borden, Electric Nitwit, and mustang shelly clenching in anticipation right now (if they're even reading along LIVE - but if not and ye are catching up later on, take a moments pause now before scrolling down further )

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Last place with 1 pts is

mustang shelly

Anthropoid (2016)

Sub-Category: To B or Not To B

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4190530/

IMDB wrote:

Based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the WWII mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution and the Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler.

Have I Seen It Before: No

LeVar's Approval Rating: 4%

Review:
Personally I wouldn't consider this to be a B-Movie, it's more of an Arthouse picture, but B-Movie is a fairly broad and somewhat ambiguous term, not to mention Walrus categories are fairly open to interpretation, so that doesn't really matter as long as I enjoy the film. Unfortunately, I just didn't care for this. It's an incredibly dense film and just plods along for two hours, and I was relieved when it was finally over. Even scenes that were full of action still felt very weighed down and heavy, and it was all very blah. From a historical perspective, this is probably a quite interesting World War II story, and if I had seen a documentary about it or something it may have grabbed my attention, but as a film based on actual events it bored me. Couple of actors I'm usually a fan of in supporting roles here, such as Toby Jones and Harry Lloyd, but it really comes down to how I feel about the two leads on this occasion. Jamie Dornan is someone that can be hit or miss for me, really liked him in The Fall for example, but in this he's about as compelling as watching paint dry. Cillian Murphy I've never really warmed to at all, he's been in some films that I've enjoyed, but he himself is very bland to me, and I don't get the appeal (lasted about 20 minutes into the first episode of Peaky Blinders before concluding that I couldn't endure a Cillian Murphy led TV Series), so his lack of charisma did this film no favours. A lot of people will enjoy this, but simply a case of it not being my cup of tea.

quickbeam

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Last place with 1 pts is

mustang shelly

Anthropoid (2016)

Sub-Category: To B or Not To B

Harsh! I thought that was a very good adaptation of a very interesting true story. Agree it's not a B-Movie though.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Joined in 1st place and with 32 pts each are

Alfred Borden

and

Electric Nitwit

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Sub-Category: Caged In

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113627/

IMDB wrote:

Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

Have I Seen It Before: No

LeVar's Approval Rating: 100%

Review:
Leaving Las Vegas was the Cage film I had the highest expectations for as I had heard only great things about it, not to mention two people chose to submit it which only puts more expectations on it to be good, so it had a big reputation to live up to and it easily exceeded it, a flawless and perfect film from beginning to end. I've been harping on about solid character driven stories all Walrus long, and that's all this film is, its just about these two characters, the entire story comes from them, and it's a truly magnificent piece of cinema. If I still had any doubt whether Nicolas Cage was a genius or a lunatic, this finally put them to bed, because the man is an artist pure and simple, even when he does a sh*t movie, he puts his heart and soul into every performance and just embodies whatever role is thrust upon him especially the silly ones ; its films like this though that are well written and clever that he can really shine. This is what they mean by the performance of a career, just superb work from the legend that is Nic Cage. And all of that extends to Elisabeth Shue too, a brilliant and stunning performance from her as well (and to be fair, she's been great in everything I've seen her in).

Necro

Tbh I don't mind 2012 that much as long as you suspend all forms of reality for the period required to watch the movie :pac:

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Which means...





The Winner of LeVar Goes To The Pictures Part II - Electric Boogaloo is...






Arghus





A well deserved victory, came out of the gates strong in the early rounds, stumbled down the table in Round 3, but then volleyed back up again and there was just no catching him at the end.

cee_jay was consistently strong throughout and bags the silver medal, while Kolido has a strong final round and sneaks onto the podium nabbing the bronze.

Irish Aris walks away with the wooden spoon, but it was a tough battle throughout, and everyone who took part deserves a round of applause, as its not easy having your favourite films ranked and rated by some rando on the interwebs.

Contender Sequels Kids/Animals Sports Ladies Double #1 Double #2 Total
Arghus 16 15 2 9 26 27 95
cee_jay 15 13 10 10 16 19 83
Kolido 6 10 8 11 17 30 82
Alfred Borden 4 3 15 15 12 32 81
Necro 5 11 8 13 14 29 80
ShaneU 11 5 14 16 10 20 76
Rikand 12 14 12 8 14 15 75
Electric Nitwit 11 2 5 2 23 32 75
JP Liz V1 2 1 11 7 22 28 71
osh 9 16 6 5 9 25 70
aaronjennings 7 9 16 14 2 18 66
Sawduck 14 8 2 12 5 21 62
Reberetta 8 6 3 3 8 24 52
the purple tin 13 7 10 5 4 7 46
mustang shelly 3 12 13 1 1 11 41
Irish Aris 1 4 4 6 3 6 24


Thanks everyone for playing along, I hoped you enjoyed this one, and didn't mind the reveal being fired out over one weekend rather than dragged out with more breathing room between reveals.

Taking a break from hosting Walruses of any kind for the foreseeable, but hope someone else gives the auld Movie Walrus a go, as it really is a great way to discover some new favourites.

Necro

Thanks for running that LeVar, glad to have redeemed my previous poor showing and getting into the top 5


Delighted you liked Crawl and The Shallows in particular.


Congrats to Arghus as well, definitely going to give some of your selections a whirl in the near future.

cee_jay

Thanks LeVar, that was some undertaking. A lot of movies I haven't seen (or even heard of), so like your TV Walrus, I can see using this as a recommendation list when we don't know what to watch.

Irish Aris

That was a great game, some good films!!

Thank you LeVar, and apologies that you had to go through some mediocre films

aaronjennings

Brilliant reveal LeVar, I can't get over how committed you have to be to host one of these games, truly astounding

Well done on taking first place, Arghus

Necro

cee_jay wrote: »

Thanks LeVar, that was some undertaking. A lot of movies I haven't seen (or even heard of), so like your TV Walrus, I can see using this as a recommendation list when we don't know what to watch.

Oh a ranking list like the TV Walrus would be exceptionally awesome alright

Also Starring LeVar Burton

A full list of all the Movies featured in the game and my own Rating for each of them, all in one post, so you can come back at a later date and pick something to watch for Movie Night...

And Remember...



Movie Rating
Paper Moon 100%
The Handmaiden 100%
Leaving Las Vegas 100%
Black Swan 99%
Conflict 99%
The Four Times 98%
Fighting With My Family 98%
Crawl 98%
Home Alone 97%
Con Air 97%
The Shallows 96%
Kind Hearts and Coronets 96%
Pusher II 95%
Hillsborough 95%
Muriel's Wedding 95%
Red Rock West 95%
Pitch Perfect 2 94%
Rush 94%
The Descent 94%
Braindead 94%
10 Cloverfield Lane 93%
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 93%
Terror Train 93%
Moneyball 92%
Little Miss Sunshine 91%
Cool Runnings 91%
Raising Arizona 91%
Tin Cup 90%
The Mighty Ducks 90%
Megan Leavey (alt title: Rex) 89%
Warrior 89%
The Edge of Seventeen 89%
White Heat 89%
Ripley's Game 88%
Marley and Me 88%
The Family Man 88%
Cujo 87%
Hot Shots! Part Deux 86%
Invictus 86%
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 86%
The Raid 2 85%
10 Things I Hate About You 85%
Clerks II 84%
[Rec] 3: Genesis 83%
Molly's Game 83%
Final Destination 3 83%
Baby's Day Out 82%
Million Dollar Baby 82%
Maniac Cop 82%
A Perfect World 81%
La Cérémonie 81%
Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. 80%
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 78%
For a Few Dollars More 77%
Loaded Weapon 1 77%
Shaolin Soccer 76%
The Rock 76%
Mad Max: Fury Road 75%
Shaun of the Dead 75%
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part 74%
Greenland 74%
Hue and Cry 73%
The Cup 72%
The Wife 72%
The Flight of the Phoenix 72%
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 70%
A Monster Calls 66%
Morgan 65%
The Stranger 64%
Odd Man Out 63%
Mid90s 62%
A League of Their Own 61%
Miss Congeniality 59%
Angels and Demons 58%
This Sporting Life 57%
Gorillas In The Mist 54%
The Expendable 2 51%
Babe 51%
Paddington 2 50%
Whale Rider 43%
Young Guns II 41%
Surf Nazis Must Die 39%
Slap Shot 31%
Quatermass and the Pit 26%
August Rush 22%
Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse 17%
Wild At Heart 13%
2012 7%
Anthropoid 4%


...and what I might have picked if I were submitting for this particular game...

Movie
Psycho II
Into The West
Eddie The Eagle
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
WolfCop
These Three
The Public
Anna And The Apocalypse
Blood Fest
The Wave
Mom And Dad

JP Liz V1

A great movie Walrus

Well done LeVar and Arghus the winner, some great picks, I have movies I need to watch and rewatch, thanks all

Electric Nitwit

Just race read that to try to catch up, whoo-hoo!

I genuinely think Cage is a really underrated and interesting actor and has made some great films, so I'm delighted to see you liked Raising Arizona and that Leaving Las Vegas went down so well! It really is a cracking film.

I don't know if it would have fared as well but I nearly went for 8mm. It's not perfect, and it's grim as hell, but Cage is great in it, you follow his character arc down and down, a la Michael Douglas in Falling Down

Good work everyone, Arghus in particular. Definitely a few added to my watchlist. If only I had time to watch films

And thanks, of course, ASLB. I'm in awe of the effort. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Great work

Sawduck

Great reveal Lavar and some brilliant choices in every category. Congratulations Arghus on winning a very strong walrus game

the purple tin

Well done there on your victory Arghus. Nice spooning Aris, you had some good films in there imo.
Thanks a million LB that was another great reveal.

Alfred Borden

Always top notch reveals. Thanks a million ASLB.

Arghus

Ah, heyor.

Great stuff.

Excellent reveal LeVar.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Arghus wrote: »

Ah, heyor.

Great stuff.

Excellent reveal LeVar.

Was this your first game win Arghus?

Well deserved, some excellent choices across the board.

Arghus

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Was this your first game win Arghus?

Well deserved, some excellent choices across the board.

I think so. Delighted.

Some great choices by everyone tbf.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Arghus wrote: »

Some great choices by everyone tbf.

Yep, I was delighted with the standard from everyone, makes it easier (and somewhat harder) to judge when I am spoiled for high quality films.

osh

Great reveal Le Var, fair play on all the work put into running it. And congrats Arghus, some great picks. Lots of new movies to check out for me here.

Another of Peter Jacksons movies to check out would be Bad Taste, his first feature film. Cast made up of Jackson and his friends.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092610/

The population of a small town disappears and is replaced by aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain.