Gentleman's Compendium Of The Visual Arts (AKA Television and Films)

BopNiblets

Generation Kill should be in here, miniseries about Iraq war, adapted from a book by the guys who made The Wire.

Liam McPoyle

Myself and herself are currently working our way through Sons of Anarchy.

1/3 through season 3.

Very enjoyable albeit utterly preposterous.

We also watched Whiplash at the weekend and cannot recommend it highly enough, one of the few recent films that completely gripped me from the get go and didnt let go til the end, JK (Vern Schillinger) Simmons is immense in it.

D'Agger

Business Cat wrote: »

We also watched Whiplash at the weekend and cannot recommend it highly enough, one of the few recent films that completely gripped me from the get go and didnt let go til the end, JK (Vern Schillinger) Simmons is immense in it.

Been imploring people to check this out since I saw it a few weeks back - absolutely brilliant film

Barna77

Finished Six Feet Under last night. Just amazing stuff. I knew how it finished already. But the end was nicely wrapped up.

Aidric

Watched Boyhood at the weekend. A wonderful film that deserves all the praise and awards that comes its way. A simple but involving family drama and the realisation of a great vision from a brave director.

Playboy

Whiplash and Birdman for me are the two best films this year. I havent watched Boyhood yet but would be surprised if its in the same league.

Mesrine65

Highly recommend Prisoners of War aka Hatufim.

Basic synopsis...

After 17 years in captivity, Israeli soldiers Nimrode Klein, Uri Zach & Amiel Ben Horin return home to the country that made them national icons.

They work to overcome the trauma of torture and captivity while settling back into their interrupted family lives.

Meanwhile, the military psychiatrist assigned to them finds discrepancies in the soldiers' testimonies & launches an investigation to discover what they are hiding.

Barna77

Barna77 wrote: »

Finished Six Feet Under last night.

Numb Arm. NUMB ARM. Numarmm. Narm! *SPLAT*

That series had a way of making you belly laugh at the most awful things. Black comedy at its finest. Really highlights just how funny the human condition actually is.

The Black Oil

Business Cat, a question since you're a horror aficionado. What makes a good horror - not so much blood and guts, but how it sneaks up on you, or what?

boobar

If you want some light hearted comedy...Catastrophe is pretty good

buried

I've been watching a lot of French gangster/crime films the last few weeks and from the batch I've seen I recommend 'Le Samourai' (1967) 'La Cercle Rouge' (1970) and 'A Prophet' (2009). All emersed with a few bottles and a good few bags of crisps of your own choice

Liam McPoyle

The Black Oil wrote: »

Business Cat, a question since you're a horror aficionado. What makes a good horror - not so much blood and guts, but how it sneaks up on you, or what?

When I watch horror movies I want to be either scared or I want to see some quality gore, rarely do both things combine in one movie.

Im an old school horror fan, I adore 70s & 80s slashers, the original Halloween been my favourite movie of all time. I remember watching that for the first time ago many, many years ago and been terrified, it is the perfect stalk and slash movie and set the template for the entire genre. There is little or no gore in it and on screen violence is exceptionally minute, especially compared to alot of modern slashers. The score by John Carpenter also helps elevate the movie, I still get chills when the below music starts near the movies climax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjBwln3AKc

Sadly, movies that are of the calibre of Halloween are few and far between. The Thing, also by Carpenter is a fantastic, claustrophobic horror movie with some frankly staggering special effects that still hold up today.

Ringu is a movie that came out of nowhere and blew me away. I rented it back in the days of VHS because I liked the look of the cover when I saw it in Chartbusters, brilliantly paced movie with a terrifying ending, it opened the door to J-Horror for me.

Cannibal Holocaust is one of my favourites too. Yes its exploitative, yes there are scenes of live animals been killed on screen (the scene with the giant turtle stayed with me for ages) but its such an accurate portrayal of how the Western world exploited indigenous peoples during the whole "Mondo" movie phase of the late 60s/early 70s.

Some movies do nothing new in terms of story or ideas but the onscreen carnage is such that it makes me sit up in my chair and say whoah, that was awesome. A recent one that did that was Daddys Little Girl, a bog standard revenge story, hammy acting etc but the last third of the movie has such a high level of brutality it genuinely left me reeling, it was fantastic and a complete roller coaster.

For the most part modern horror has no appeal to me, Annabelle, Occulous, The Conjuring et al are crap and Ive no interest in supporting them. The whole supernatural horror craze started by Paranormal Activity is on the down turn so it will take a new movie to come out, do well and then get ripped off ad nauseum, its the horror movie way.

As you can see from my sig, independent horror is where I generally get my fix for new stuff. Its mostly low budget but there have been some absolute crackers over the last 10 to 15 years including August Underground, Pieces of Talent or Fetus.

One movie that deserves special mention and manages to have a massive pervading sense of dread throughout as well as some extremely brutal gore and violence is the 2008 French movie "Martyrs". I watched it with out knowing anything about it and it genuinely left me dumb struck. Nothing that Ive seen since has come close to matching it for combined terror and disgust and I would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in horror, it really rejuvenated my love of the genre and instilled the faith that there are people out there not afraid to push boundaries and that are making horror vital and important again. Go and watch it without reading anything about it, you wont regret it.

Barna77

Anyone watching new season of Archer?
It kind of lost its spark

JaseBelleVie

Just started watching Gotham last night. Got the whole first series ready to go.

I'm very, very impressed so far. It's dark, it's gritty, it's grimy and it's bordering on superb. I've only seen the first episode so far, but it is gripping. Plenty of good action scenes, plenty of intelligent dialogue and of course good acting from all concerned.

Of course, it opens how every single iteration of "Batman" has ever opened: a young Bruce Wayne sees his parents slain by a sinister assailant in a back alley. But what marks this one out as different is that Bruce (brilliantly played by David Mazouz) actually shows true, horrifying, gut-wrenching emotion here. In every other Batman film/tv-show, young Bruce doesn't cry or show real emotion, in my opinion. Here? He screams in anguish and shows real and raw emotion. That makes the impact of the murder scene so much more than it has ever been.

Moving on, we are slowly introduced to the rogues' gallery that we know and love from Batman, but they are not yet the villains we know. A young thug in the employ of the Mafia called Oswald (who carries an umbrella). A young coroner called Nygma who speaks only in riddles. And many more waiting in the wings, ready to show us who they will become.

This has potential to be amazing. I've avoided reviews and so on as much as I can. But going by the first episode. I'm hooked. Cannot wait to binge through the rest!

JaseBelleVie

Just finished watching a HBO film, Too Big To Fail. Set at the heart of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers and the economic turmoil that resulted, it is a startling piece. The frightening part is not so much what did happen (and the sickening results of the bankers keeping most of their booty and so on), but what could have happened had the whole banking system actually collapsed. Life as we know it could easily have ended. But who knows. All we have are the facts and figures, and they are displayed here in all their heinous glory.

The cast is superb: James Woods, William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Ed Asner, Billy Crudup, Topher Grace, Matthew Modine, Bill Pullman, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shalhoub, Evan Handler, Dan Hedaya and others all play their roles (some larger or smaller than others), but there is not a weak actor visible onscreen at all.

Frightening, fascinating, sickening, enthralling and all of the above. Makes the Irish version (The Guarantee; which was, in its defence, quite good) pale in comparison.

FunLover18

JaseBelleVie wrote:

Just finished watching a HBO film, Too Big To Fail. Set at the heart of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers and the economic turmoil that resulted, it is a startling piece. The frightening part is not so much what did happen (and the sickening results of the bankers keeping most of their booty and so on), but what could have happened had the whole banking system actually collapsed. Life as we know it could easily have ended. But who knows. All we have are the facts and figures, and they are displayed here in all their heinous glory.

That does sound good. Another film about the 'collapse' is Margin Call which is very good, Jeremy Irons and. Kevin Spacey.

JaseBelleVie

FunLover18 wrote: »

That does sound good. Another film about the 'collapse' is Margin Call which is very good, Jeremy Irons and. Kevin Spacey.

I actually have that in my Blu-Rays and ready to go. Might watch it tonight!

Also, a BBC version called The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers is also quite good! More condensed and only focusing on Lehman's, it is a good film too.

Inside Job is a documentary about the crisis. The only problem I have with it is that they got Matt Damon to narrate it. I mean, come on! Could they not have gotten someone else to do it. Nothing against Damon personally, I think he's a fine actor, but getting a multi-millionaire and world famous actor to narrate a film that shows people losing their money and their houses might not be the best move.

I'm fascinated with this ignominious period of financial history and the fallout of it. Maybe "fascinated" is a very wrong term to use considering how many people's lives got destroyed by the fallout of the crisis, but it's the best descriptive I can find.

ancapailldorcha

Generally can't go wrong with HBO IME. That logo is as close to a legitimate seal of quality as you're going to get.

JaseBelleVie

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Generally can't go wrong with HBO IME. That logo is as close to a legitimate seal of quality as you're going to get.

Totally agree. I don't think I've ever watched anything of theirs and came away disappointed. The list of their programming is staggering in terms of quality. Even their "made-for-TV" movies are generally brilliant. And usually a made-for-TV movie is dire in the extreme.

Aidric

JaseBelleVie wrote: »

Just finished watching a HBO film, Too Big To Fail. Set at the heart of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers and the economic turmoil that resulted, it is a startling piece. The frightening part is not so much what did happen (and the sickening results of the bankers keeping most of their booty and so on), but what could have happened had the whole banking system actually collapsed. Life as we know it could easily have ended. But who knows. All we have are the facts and figures, and they are displayed here in all their heinous glory.

The cast is superb: James Woods, William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Ed Asner, Billy Crudup, Topher Grace, Matthew Modine, Bill Pullman, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shalhoub, Evan Handler, Dan Hedaya and others all play their roles (some larger or smaller than others), but there is not a weak actor visible onscreen at all.

Frightening, fascinating, sickening, enthralling and all of the above. Makes the Irish version (The Guarantee; which was, in its defence, quite good) pale in comparison.

It's a good watch for sure but imo 'Enron, the smartest guys in the room' is still the benchmark for financial documentaries. Have a watch if you haven't already.

D'Agger

JaseBelleVie wrote: »

Totally agree. I don't think I've ever watched anything of theirs and came away disappointed. The list of their programming is staggering in terms of quality. Even their "made-for-TV" movies are generally brilliant. And usually a made-for-TV movie is dire in the extreme.

Aidric wrote: »

It's a good watch for sure but imo 'Enron, the smartest guys in the room' is still the benchmark for financial documentaries. Have a watch if you haven't already.

Another +1 for The Smartest Guys in the Room - fantastic watch and utterly worrying that a business can get away with what they did, for as long as they did.

Two documentaries I watched lately were Terms & Conditions may apply & Downloaded - two fantastic watches. T&C may apply shines a light on the user information, private information or lack thereof and what organisations, companies etc. are looking for in their T&Cs

Downloaded was a well put together documentary that shed light on how napster created a shítstorm & changed the internet, music industry and digital age - well worth a look.



On the HBO seal of greatness - I'm rewatching The Wire slowly, onto S1, ep.3

I'm onto the last season of Oz which I've flown through and highly recommend, when I finish that I think I'll finally check out Treme - it looks amazing and I've been putting it off for ages.

KomradeBishop

If you're rewatching The Wire, take note that they started putting out a widescreen reissue of the first seasons (they used to be 4:3) - not sure how far along that is now. Will probably rewatch that myself as well sometime this year, to check the widescreen reissue.

mass_debater

KomradeBishop wrote: »

If you're rewatching The Wire, take note that they started putting out a widescreen reissue of the first seasons (they used to be 4:3) - not sure how far along that is now. Will probably rewatch that myself as well sometime this year, to check the widescreen reissue.

The complete series has been remastered and released in widescreen HD

The Black Oil

D'Agger wrote: »

I'm onto the last season of Oz which I've flown through and highly recommend, when I finish that I think I'll finally check out Treme - it looks amazing and I've been putting it off for ages.

Way behind with Oz myself, unfortunately. Have watched 2 episodes. Re Treme, that show is a hard sell. It's your typical David Simon affair, i.e. probably not the most accessible thing around and won't have any mass appeal. Of course, if you like his other work you'll probably give it more of a chance. See how you get on with it. Season 2 is better than 1, imo, if you struggle there.

I'm almost finished Generation War, which is on Netflix and well worth checking out. It's a WWII story from the German perspective.

D'Agger

The Black Oil wrote: »

Way behind with Oz myself, unfortunately. Have watched 2 episodes. Re Treme, that show is a hard sell. It's your typical David Simon affair, i.e. probably not the most accessible thing around and won't have any mass appeal. Of course, if you like his other work you'll probably give it more of a chance. See how you get on with it. Season 2 is better than 1, imo, if you struggle there.

I'm almost finished Generation War, which is on Netflix and well worth checking out. It's a WWII story from the German perspective.

Where's generation war available from or did you use a boxset TBO? Would love that, would check it out before Treme definitely

The Black Oil

Generation War is on Netflix. Three episodes, 90 minutes each.

JaseBelleVie

The Black Oil wrote: »

Generation War is on Netflix. Three episodes, 90 minutes each.

A brilliant series. I watched it not too long ago. It really is the German version of Band Of Brothers and is almost as good.

Harrowing in spots, but well worth watching.

JaseBelleVie

Just finished watching Event Horizon. I loved it. A good piece of space-based survival horror with an excellent cast.

Not as f*cked up as I had been led to believe, but still plenty of gore and stuff to keep me happy.

Heavily draws from films like Alien and so on, but nowhere near as good. But still excellent nonetheless. Could have been so much more, but a jolly little piece of horror nonetheless.

Liam McPoyle

I thought EH was pretty lame.

Must give it another spin soon.

I've been watching the Saw series over to the last couple of weeks. Id only ever seen as far as part 5 having given up because of the preposterous arc of them but I was bored and just downloaded them all.

Just have part 7 to watch and they are as ridiculous as I thought but there is some savage gore in them.

chewed

[QUOTE=

I'm almost finished Generation War, which is on Netflix and well worth checking out. It's a WWII story from the German perspective.[/QUOTE]

Generation War was really good. The story overall was a bit corny, but the acting was superb....and it's great to see a German perspective of WW2!