What have you watched recently? 3D!

Dades

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Re. your comments in bold....you obviously missed Jennifer Gannon reviewing Toy Story 4 on The Last Word recently talking about the racist elements of the movie? I'm not making that up......

I am fighting with not looking that up as it will make me mad.

* The Now Playing podcast series have just done a great retrospective on all the Toy Story movies.

tunguska

Dades wrote: »

I am fighting with not looking that up as it will make me mad.

* The Now Playing podcast series have just done a great retrospective on all the Toy Story movies.

You have more restraint than me..........I went looking for it straight away. You're right though, best to not even engage with that kind of nonsense in the first place.

joombo

Re-watched The Town with Affleck, Renner, Hamm, Hall and Blake Lively. Not a bad heist movie although I much prefer Heat.

ButtersSuki

joombo wrote: »

Re-watched The Town with Affleck, Renner, Hamm, Hall and Blake Lively. Not a bad heist movie although I much prefer Heat.

The Director's Cut is better IMO (if you have the Blu Ray it's on that).

It was covered last week on The Rewatchables on The Ringer:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-town-with-bill-simmons-ryen-russillo-and-chris-ryan/id1268527882?i=1000445934502

Heat is some pretty stiff competition to be fair! Also, don't forget Pete Postlethwaite!

branie2

Blinded by the Light at the cinema yesterday. I thought it was very good.

p to the e

I remember reading a review of St. Vincent a few years back and thinking it sounded half decent but then completely forgot about it. It was on the box a few days back and thought it would be a nice Sunday evening view. It's not very original (basically an American "About a Boy") nor the funniest movie you'll see but you'll come away feeling satisfied afterwards.

Bill Murray is perfect as a curmudgeonly neighbour and the young kid is probably the star of it. However Melissa McCarthy certainly feels under used but she does her best with what she's given and someone made a terrible mistake by making Naomi Watts do a Benny Hill type of Russian accent. The film would have worked just as well without it.

Overall a heart warming watch with a great soundtrack.

Fysh

Caught a preview of Almodóvar's Pain And Glory last night and really enjoyed it. It's in a similar vein to Julieta, a wonderful piece of character drama with great performances and a lovely evocation of rural Spain in days gone by at times as well. It's not overtly comedic, but as normal with Almodóvar there are a few very funny lines and moments. Great, great stuff and has given me a hankering to rewatch everything he's done.

Dades

p to the e wrote: »

Bill Murray is perfect as a curmudgeonly neighbour and the young kid is probably the star of it. However Melissa McCarthy certainly feels under used but she does her best with what she's given and someone made a terrible mistake by making Naomi Watts do a Benny Hill type of Russian accent. The film would have worked just as well without it.

I enjoyed that movie at the time and thought Naomi Watts was the best thing about it. Go figure!

pixelburp

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

A film told almost entirely via the medium of voluminous exposition, its script so nervously desperate to expound on every facet of this fantastical world - through the cliché of the amnesiac protagonist - it drowned out whatever fun and adventure could have been mined from the concept. When even in the final act, characters were stopping to explain important background info (and it was explaining, the dialogue about as organic as all those cybernetic limbs), something went catastrophically wrong with the writing. Perhaps it was that optimistic desperation to prepare for a sequel, when an over-eager first film forgets to actually tell its own enjoyable story. As otherwise, it was ostensibly a world worth exploring, not least for this new normal of humanity augmented with technology as a default; but every scene was bogged down by either the aforementioned exposition, or the stunningly uninteresting characters and love story within. Lots of potential almost ruined by a thunderingly clumsy script.

If nothing else there were a lot of impressive visuals to look at: the cybernetic FX themselves looked great in most instances, even if they had that over designed, over-detailed manner you see now in the HD/4K era (all those many, tiny joints must surely be a pain to clean & keep rust free?), and even the titular Alita's intentionally exaggerated, doll-like features worked better than feared.

The War 1994 Interesting drama set in Mississippi after the Vietnam war. Costner has returned from the war with some demons, and Elijiah Wood is his young son trying to make sense of it all while the family struggle in the poverty of the deep south. Much of story centres around two groups of rival kids and how they are influenced by their parents. Quite powerful in some parts, over-written dialogue which is all to prophetic and philosophical for 10 year olds to deliver. But an entertaining tale, and interesting to see Wood at such an early age.

3000 miles to Graceland Pretty strange one with Costner and Kurt Russell who go to an Elvis convention in Vegas but with the intention robbing one of the casino's, and going on the run afterwards. Neither Costner or Russell look comfortable at all during the film. Theres a lot of other famous faces in it too, but the film just doesn't work. Very odd mix of styles, trying to be something clever and modern for its time, but just came out as muddled.

American Flyers 1985 Further into Costner season is probably the best cycling movie out there, at least the best I've seen. Costner and his younger brother live through their father's sudden death from an aneurysm, and approach a race together with the prospect that the younger brother has the same condition. They go to a race called Hell in the West, and there is some fantastic racing action, with the perfect bad guy, and a token Russian team in the race too!

johnny_ultimate

The Chambermaid - strong debut from Mexican director Lila Avilés. Set pretty much entirely in a luxury hotel, much of the film relies on the fantastically natural, impactful central performance from Gabriela Cartol. Following a chambermaid's day-to-day work and dealings with customers through long, relaxed shots, what emerges is a smart, thoughtful study of modern class structures and social dynamics. But it's calm and collected too: while there's frustration and sadness, there's also joy, humour and compassion.

Oldboy - Bit of a treat getting to see this in a luscious big screen remaster, as I'd only ever seen it on DVD before back in the day. The last act of the film is something bordering on a miracle: Park Chan-wook's gloriously novel sense for staging a scene makes the climactic, devastating encounter all the more bleakly thrilling. The way the camera toys with perspective, or deep, fractured framing that amplifies the unfolding nastiness with grim clarity... A master at work.

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro - Another much needed revisit. While obviously not quite Miyazaki at his most distinctive and mature, it is nonetheless a hell of a debut. There's a freeform, anything-goes approach to the animated action that's a pleasure to behold. There's also an edge to proceedings that you wouldn't necessarily get in an American production - despite a very casual relationship with the laws of physics the bullets still hit and the characters bleed. So even when someone comically falls down a trapdoor or runs down the spire of a castle, there's still a sense of risk and actual danger. But mostly a damn good time.

Transit - Between this and Phoenix, I'm starting to think there are few better directors for endings than Christian Petzold. Funny seeing this shortly after Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, which messes up the final act. This, in contrast, builds and builds to what feels like a natural, sensible and emotionally intense conclusion. It took me a while to adjust to the film's modest, unshowy tone and delivery. But the film keeps evolving and complicating itself until the various relationships become properly tricky and engrossing. Updating a WW2-era story of refugees in France desperately trying to flee German fascism to the modern day is an ingenious concept - throws us into a strange but familiar new world... one that has striking similarities to the way people are constantly, desperately moving across much of the world today.

Only You - A confident, well-made relationship drama that left me cold. There's nothing wrong with it per se. Laia Costa and Josh O'Connor are both excellent as a couple who meet, fall in love, move in together, and then find their relationship tested as they run into major difficulty while trying to have a child together. Harry Wootliff's direction is intimate but respectful of the actors. I guess there's just an ordinariness to it that failed to impress. That's by design, and lord knows many films I absolutely adore are obsessively focused on the everyday. This one though lacked a spark: an obviously 'good' film that simply failed to make much of an impact on me.

johnny_ultimate

Holiday - striking, provocative directorial debut from Isabella Eklöf, who co-wrote the recent Border. The setup is basically a young woman (Victoria Carmen Sonne) arrives in Bodrum in Turkey to enjoy a sun holiday with her partner and his friends / family. The partner just happens to be a piece of **** drug dealer. What's interesting - and hard to discuss without going into depth about the whole thing - is how it denies the audience any gratification. What we have is this bleak study of misogyny and abuse, but one that is uncompromising and refuses the sort of easy or audience-pleasing outcomes you'd typically expect. Despite being in IIRC every scene, the main character is a curious enigma - her own thoughts on proceedings remain rather elusive.

It's an uncomfortable film to watch, including (fair warning) one sequence of graphic sexual violence which is among the most disturbing I've come across. It feels like a Greek New Wave film in the sense of a reliance on static, sleek anamorphic shots that look good but also lend the film a decidedly chilly, removed tone. That chilliness contrasts sharply with the smiling (not always convincingly) characters and sunny settings. I think complaints that it's a touch one-note are fair: it's a film that makes it point, and then repeatedly emphasises it. But it's a memorable, bold debut film that's horrifyingly compelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCHJy42KVrM

Bait - not sure if this is getting a release in any Irish cinemas, but worth a look if it is. The story - complete with lovely exaggerated performances - follows escalating tensions in a seaside village between the local, struggling fishermen and the tourists who waltz in and out of town every summer. But Mark Jenkins' film is most noteworthy for being a stunning exercise in old school filmmaking. The super lo-fi visuals mean the film has a raw edge, the scratchy film and physical editing process as much a source of tension as anything that unfolds in the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVlPl0SXFiE

igCorcaigh

Really enjoyed this.
Great acting and interesting character study.

War Book (2014)

Eight UK government officials act out their potential response and decisions in a simulated war game scenario in which escalation of nuclear threat between India and Pakistan leads to nuclear war and quite likely the end of the world.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2936978/plotsummary?item=po2085638

https://vimeo.com/142498549

otnomart

Maine by Matthew Brown with Laia Costa and Thomas Mann
About two hikers on a trail.
There is hardly any dialog in it, quite Beckett in a way
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7316358/

joombo

Bad Times at El Royale - 8.5/10 - Brilliant! A quirky crime mystery/drama where four strangers check in to a motel and the twists and turns of the story slowly unfold. The style of the film is right up my street!

NIMAN

joombo wrote: »

Bad Times at El Royale - 8.5/10 - Brilliant! A quirky crime mystery/drama where four strangers check in to a motel and the twists and turns of the story slowly unfold. The style of the film is right up my street!

Enjoyable yes, but I think you were a bit generous, but we're all different I suppose.

Had a bit of a Tarantino vibe off it?

tunguska

Den of thieves

Saw this on netflix last night and thought it was really good. Has a low RT rating and the reviews are very poor but I thought it was a crackin' film. Its basically Heat, but thats a good thing. Gerard Butler, who I wouldnt have rated, plays an absolute stormer.

pixelburp

The Matrix (1999)

Still absolutely holds up, bar perhaps some of the technology (those sliding Nokia phones) and the distinctly late 90s soundtrack. It's still a visceral shot to the head, and while it relied on exaggerate superhuman fight scenes, it never lost sense of crunch and impact that has become a lost art in mainstream action cinema. Arguably Hollywood learned all the wrong lessons from The Matrix, but that's common enough with runaway successes.

The 'romance' still kills the emotion though; you'd be hard pressed to find a less charismatic couple than Trinity & Neo, and I had forgotten how deadpan all their supposed romance came off.

El Duda

pixelburp wrote: »

The Matrix (1999)

Still absolutely holds up, bar perhaps some of the technology (those sliding Nokia phones) and the distinctly late 90s soundtrack.

+ The fashion. Those long black coats look ridiculous when you see them these days.

Dades

El Duda wrote: »

+ The fashion. Those long black coats look ridiculous when you see them these days.

The sunglasses. They always show a movies age.



Watched Men in Black: International this week.

Mildly entertaining. Something was missing though and I still can't put my finger on it. I like Chris Hemsworth but found his character annoying. Maybe it was them trying to recreate the first one. New recruit. Grumpy cute aliens. Fighting a big space bug at the end.

Better than The Rose of Tralee but not by much.

tunguska

tunguska wrote: »

Den of thieves

Saw this on netflix last night and thought it was really good. Has a low RT rating and the reviews are very poor but I thought it was a crackin' film. Its basically Heat, but thats a good thing. Gerard Butler, who I wouldnt have rated, plays an absolute stormer.

reasonable if contrived brain-off robbery caper imo.

6.3 / 10

Ipso

The Hustle. Oh, the humanity

TheIrishGrover

So, a few weeks ago I rewatched Infernal Affairs 1. The original version of Scorsese's inferior "The Departed". Just to see if it held up after 16 years. And it had. And I then intended on rewatching Infernal Affairs 3 to see if that held up.

Pleased to say it has. While some of the impact was lost because I knew the twists and turns it was still a fine Hong Kong movie.

Once again you had the main cast: The action taking place 6 months before the end of the first movie and 6 months after. The main quartet of Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang were as fantastic as ever: Leung and Lau Perfect as the two moles. Anthony Wong giving a powerful but restrained performance and, as I stated previously, Eric Tsang's "Sam" being much more menacing than Jack Nicholson's "Jack Nicholson".

In addition you have Leon Lai (Who I had not seen much of before but is very good) as a cop investigating the outcome of the first film....... and, as if the casting couldn't get better: Daoming Chen (The Emperor in "Hero") who is simply magnetic in the few scenes he's on screen.

It ties up the trilogy nicely. Certainly better than then ending of The Departed and the scene where both moles "Confess" is one of my favourite scenes in Asian cinema (Trying to keep it as spoiler-free as possible).

You do need to have watched the first one. It would help to have watched the second. You do need to accept traditional Asian cinema tropes such as flashbacks-to-five-mins-ago, underwritten female parts (Although the therapist is stronger here than typical), repetitive musical motifs etc.

SO happy it still held up. Fans of Hong Kong cinema will be well aware of the trilogy as it was VERY popular at the time but if anyone is curious about Hong Kong cinema outside of John Woo, this trilogy is a great place to start.

8.5/10

Tony EH

'The Dead Don't Die'

Jim Jarmusch's attempt to do an American 'Shaun of the Dead' fails miserably to achieve the knowing wit that the British film possessed in spades. It's far too busy being "meta" and concerned with "ironic" dialogue delivery that it misses what made 'Shawn of the Dead' so humorous. It's a shame, because 'The Dead Don't Die' (not to be confused with a 1975 film of the same name) boasts an excellent cast and is stuffed with actors that will be familiar to almost everyone, or anyone that's seen a film in the last 20 years anyway. But the film does nothing with them - especially in the case of Tilda Swinton - and ultimately goes absolutely nowhere. Now, the same can be said for the final destination of 'Shaun of the Dead' too, which was sort of the point of that film. But the journey was also entertaining, which cannot be said for Jarmusch's film.

Set in Centreville, USA, we're told that a series of global events, such as fracking in the Polar regions, has (naturally) brought the dead back to life and (also naturally) they are concerned with ripping the flesh off of the living and scoffing it down and...well, that's it really. There's nothing new here, not that there has to be of course. It's just a zomcom after all. But, its staleness makes the runtime of 1 hour 44 minutes seem very long indeed. Plus, when that's coupled with the endless laconic delivery of the script's lines, it all makes it seem like it's just treading water, until the end credits roll. Few, if any, of the jokes really make a splash and especially eye rolling is the fourth-wall-breaking discussion of the script in the film's last act, where both Bill Murray and Adam Driver just seem so, so, desperate for a laugh. But none of it lands.

Those familiar with zombies will find little satisfaction here, except for the odd nod to the master (Romero) and some decent zombie makeup. There's some head lopping scattered around that's mostly confined to the last reel, but most of the gore is obscured or happens off screen and there's a curious decision made to reduce the splatter to CGI mist, which is just "off" in an R rated film (or 16's this side of the pond). There's also an annoying - perhaps deliberately so - title theme song by some country music singer that gets regular play throughout the film and a message that basically says that humanity deserves its apocalypse, because we're all dicks.

'The Dead Don't Die', like most horror comedies (a wretched subgenre, if ever there was one), just ends up falling between two stools and flatly onto its face. It's not funny enough to be a comedy and not horrific enough to be a horror movie. So, we're left with a load of nothing in the end and wondering what Jim Jarmusch was aiming to achieve here, other than, as said earlier, trying to do an American 'Shaun of the Dead'.

3/10

barrymanilow

The Beachbum

I really liked this , scene for scene its just pure Harmony Korine mentalness , colour and humor .

Definitely the funnier and least disturbing of his films that I know of.

Its kind of meaningless though , a bit 2d and you have to just go with that. I think a bit more storytelling and less complete pantomine would have made me invest in the character of moondog more. But I dont think Korine cares about any of that. These films are just frames for him to hang his dialogues and imagery on.

Fysh

I watched Apocalypse Now last night - the Theatrical Cut. I have a Blu ray copy of this and the Redux cut, but I've never made it through the Redux cut in one go, it's just too long and sedate for me.

The Theatrical cut fares better, but something about the last half hour is still a challenge for me. I know it's supposed to be a build-up of tension like the prelude to a storm, but it doesn't quite land that way for me. (Oh, and the decision to include footage of that water buffalo being ritually slaughtered can also do one, IMO).

There are some great scenes and visuals in it, and Sheen's performance is great. But overall it doesn't so much come together as just run out of steam.

I'll be watching the recent documentary about it on Mubi in the next couple of days, so perhaps that will change my mind.

Tony EH

"Redux" was a terrible idea. There was nothing wrong with the theatrical cut in the first place. The extra scenes only add to the run time and provide little else. Even the "French Plantation" scene does little for the over all story and, frankly the people in it are irritating as fuck. Willard's sex scene is completely unnecessary too. It's just all so pointless.

Kilgore is reduced too, with his chasing down of Willard and Co. looking for his surfboard. It's just not needed. He's a grotesque cartoon figure, for sure. But, in the original cut, he's kind of scary. In the "Redux" and "Final" cuts, he's more of a comic addition. Kilgore's segment ends best when he states, with some melancholy, that "some day, this war's gonna end". Sheen's incredulous expression is standing in for everything that the audience should be thinking at that point.

The worst sin of "Redux", though, was adding back in the "Fuel for bunny time". That whole segment is just dumb and it is very easy to see why it was cut in the first place. Interestingly enough, in the so called "final cut", that bunnies segment has seen the editor's room once again.

The only scene that I'd let stay would be an extended meeting between Willard and Kurtz, where he's reading some Time Magazine articles that are commenting on the war. Ironically, that was cut too from the latest version.

I get the impression that, while I think 'Apocalypse Now' is probably Coppola's masterpiece, he was never totally satisfied with it in any form. In that respect, he reminds me of his 1970's contemporary, George Lucas, who buggered up his own magnum opus with unnecessary additions.

If you get the chance to watch the 'Hearts of Darkness' documentary by his missus (shot while he was making the film), you should.

pixelburp

I really must get around to re-watching Apocalypse Now, because I've only seen it the once, back at college in the early 2000s, and I'm not 100% sure what version I've watched. Obviously since, with YouTube et al, I've seen sundry famous scenes and moment. Either way, it persists in my memory as a film I didn't particularly care for & consider a tad overrated. Feels like a film that gets more obsession & attention by dint of its famously near-disastrous production than the end-product, especially Brando's example of late career unprofessionalism via those 9 minutes of blithering inanity, some folk seem to think of as great acting.

Dunno, just never 'got' the film as some masterpiece, more a rambling shaggy-dog story made by a bunch of nihilistic Generation X'ers that nearly broke Coppola's mind (the nihilism likely persisting it as a popular one for college students)

Tony EH

pixelburp wrote: »

I really must get around to re-watching Apocalypse Now, because I've only seen it the once, back at college in the early 2000s, and I'm not 100% sure what version I've watched. Obviously since, with YouTube et al, I've seen sundry famous scenes and moment. Either way, it persists in my memory as a film I didn't particularly care for & consider a tad overrated. Feels like a film that gets more obsession & attention by dint of its famously near-disastrous production than the end-product, especially Brando's example of late career unprofessionalism via those 9 minutes of blithering inanity, some folk seem to think of as great acting.

Dunno, just never 'got' the film as some masterpiece, more a rambling shaggy-dog story made by a bunch of nihilistic Generation X'ers that nearly broke Coppola's mind (the nihilism likely persisting it as a popular one for college students)

I suppose the background to the film plays into a lot of the love some people have for it. In that respect, it reminds me of 'Aguirre, Wrath of God', who's own production is part and parcel of why a lot of people like it. But, I've recommended Herzog's film to many people and have nearly had my eyes poked out by folk who thought I was playing a nasty trick on them, because they thought it was a tedious bore to get through.

In any case, if you are going to rewatch it, do yourself a favour and just pick the original cut.

joombo

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) 7.5/10

Been a while since i last watched this, still enjoyable.