What have you watched recently? 3D!

The Sweet Hereafter 1997 Put this on my list after the passing of Ian Holm recently as it was said to be his best work, and its hard to argue with that.
He is a lawyer that we must decide if he is chasing an ambulance or chasing penance from his own tragic relationship with his daughter, who arrives to small town to put together a class action suit when a school bus full of children is involved in a tragic accident.
The power in this film is the moments it makes you think what actually happened and why, with an intricate web of possibilities and potential blame to go around the town.
An interesting piece of work that is quite engaging.

Fysh

I ended up watching Ice Station Zebra last night as it was on the BBC iplayer and I hadn't seen it before. Entertaining and with some tense moments, and very enjoyable with some strong performances. The script is a bit dated in aspects of its Cold War depiction, but not badly so considering it's a 50+ year old film.

Becky Revenge flick that is a bit too cliche-ridden, particularly on the backstory aspect, that took away from rooting for the protagonist, which is key to these sort of movies. Ok for a 90 minute vege. "Revenge" from 2017 is a better recent effort in same genre.

5.4/ 10

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

First Cow


Strange Days - One of those rare box office bombs which is legitimately really good, actually. Kathryn Bigelow's film revels in the grime and seediness of a then near future Los Angeles. Despite it being made in 1995 and set on NYE 1999, the film is startling in how fresh it feels today. Sure, the music and mini-discs are pure mid-90s, but a story built entirely around video footage of racially-tinged police violence sadly is as relevant today as it was two and a half decades ago.

The film mostly earns its 140 minute running time, but it's pretty messy at times and I’ve a few issues with how it all wraps up (love its confetti riddled, extras heavy fake Y2K party though). Not enough to weaken the potent, sci-fi adjacent brew though. And Angela Bassett is just absolutely outstanding alongside an impressively against-type Ralph Fiennes. A twitchy, sprawling opus that's well worth digging out despite Hollywood's continued efforts to bury the damn thing (seriously - criminally unavailable on digital platforms).

Cyberpunk done well. Always had a grà for this movie.

Sugarlumps

IT Chapter Two - Wasn't expecting anything from this as part one passed me by, expectation were low for this.

More than made up for Part 1, enthralled from beginning to end. Usually find CGI hit and miss, nailed it here. Great cast, really brought the book to life for me. Nice cameo by the Master.

McGrath5

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

This was on Channel 4 on Saturday evening. I haven't seen it since it's run in the cinema, it was just as good second time round. The sharp one liners and come backs are brilliant. I thought the quality did drop a little

when Woody Harrelson departed

, but overall it's just a brilliant filn.

barrymanilow

Gallipoli (1981)

Pleasantly surprised by this one. Follows a group of idealistic young men trying to escape rural life in western Australia by joining the Australian Army during world war 1.



Has a great balance of light humor , drama and depictions of the horrors and waste of life during the war.


Stars a very young Mel Gibson


8.5/10

Mad_maxx

barrymanilow wrote: »

Gallipoli (1981)

Pleasantly surprised by this one. Follows a group of idealistic young men trying to escape rural life in western Australia by joining the Australian Army during world war 1.



Has a great balance of light humor , drama and depictions of the horrors and waste of life during the war.


Stars a very young Mel Gibson


8.5/10

great film

mikhail

If you liked Gallipoli, I highly recommend exploring the films of the director, Peter Weir. You'll have heard of some of them, but the quality overall is superb.

The Black Oil

The Old Guard

A rather flat and dull effort, I found. Showed little imagination and I barely remembered anyone's name by the time it was over.

pixelburp

On the Basis of Sex (2019)

A thoroughly fascinating and remarkable woman, reduced to a cookie cutter, utterly pedestrian biopic. People crib about how interchangeable the Hollywood blockbuster is now but you know? I think biopics might be worse. At least blockbusters have flair or a bit of panache at times. Features like this this one are just so rote you can predict each plot best and soundtrack swell down to the running time minute. And they're all so damned earnest all the time.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World earlier and really did not like it. There's some clever visuals but other than that it's pretty awful.

NIMAN

Watched Tom Hanks latest, Greyhound.

Really enjoyed it.

Ipso

pixelburp wrote: »

On the Basis of Sex (2019)

A thoroughly fascinating and remarkable woman, reduced to a cookie cutter, utterly pedestrian biopic. People crib about how interchangeable the Hollywood blockbuster is now but you know? I think biopics might be worse. At least blockbusters have flair or a bit of panache at times. Features like this this one are just so rote you can predict each plot best and soundtrack swell down to the running time minute. And they're all so damned earnest all the time.

Apart from Walk Hard.

al87987

Palm springs 7.5/10

Decent groundhog day style comedy.

Sugarlumps

Terminator Dark Fate - That was really, really bad.

NIMAN

The Way Back

With Ben Affleck as an alcoholic basketball coach.

One of his better performances.
Solid 7.5/10

flasher0030

I'd definately recommend this. I enjoyed it very much anyway.

ButtersSuki

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Strange Days - One of those rare box office bombs which is legitimately really good, actually. Kathryn Bigelow's film revels in the grime and seediness of a then near future Los Angeles. Despite it being made in 1995 and set on NYE 1999, the film is startling in how fresh it feels today. Sure, the music and mini-discs are pure mid-90s, but a story built entirely around video footage of racially-tinged police violence sadly is as relevant today as it was two and a half decades ago.

The film mostly earns its 140 minute running time, but it's pretty messy at times and I’ve a few issues with how it all wraps up (love its confetti riddled, extras heavy fake Y2K party though). Not enough to weaken the potent, sci-fi adjacent brew though. And Angela Bassett is just absolutely outstanding alongside an impressively against-type Ralph Fiennes. A twitchy, sprawling opus that's well worth digging out despite Hollywood's continued efforts to bury the damn thing (seriously - criminally unavailable on digital platforms).

One of my all-time favourite films. It, along with Pulp Fiction, were the two movies from the 90s that had the biggest impact on me on first viewings (in cinemas of course!).

Bought a German issued 2 disc Blu Ray for an obscene amount of money a couple of years ago.

Also features one of the best trailers you'll ever see for a movie, they certainly don't make them like this anymore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RoOs-S_JVI

Here's what I wrote on here when I watched it last (over 2years ago):
Strange Days (on 20th Anniversary German Release 2 Disc Blu Ray) last night for the first time since I saw it in the cinema. The 2 films of the 90s that blew me away on a 1st viewing more than any others were Pulp Fiction, and Strange Days. What made it so great on a first viewing was there'd never really been anything shot like it before*, parts of it shot as they are like a first-person shooter game (apologies if the terminology is incorrect, I'm not a gamer). Other elements that added to this were the story, the plot, the noir nods, the music, and lots more that combine with some great performances to deliver a film that's interesting now, but at the time was way ahead of its time.

I've probably watched Pulp Fiction 10 times since then in its entirety, and dipped in and out of it countless times when it's on TV etc. since. I've never watched 1 second of Strange Days since, partly because the unedited and uncensored version wasn't available until recently, partly because I had so much other stuff to watch, and partly because I had feared it would age badly (amongst other things). Stuck it on last night after it sat wrapped in celophane since the day it was bought and I wasn't disappointed.

Directed by Katherine Bigelow, written and produced by James Cameron, and with great performances from Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore and a host of others if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and look for it. I would have some very minor quibbles but considering it was made in 1995, I can understand why it blew me away so much at the time. Lots of extras on the bonus disc, will try and watch that in the next few weeks.
8.5/10.

*the cameras used were custom built for this movie and delayed the making of the script that Cameron had written years previously until the technology was ready to shoot them as he intended.And a couple of nerdy/fun facts I double-checked on google before :
Angela Bassett's voice is the sample used in Fatboy Slim's "Right Here! Right Now". She says it twice in the movie.
The song that features the female chanting sample for the Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" can be heard early in the movie too, in the 1st club scene

ButtersSuki

I've watched a tonne of stuff since I last posted a review here, got pout of the habit. Will try and get back into same, but for any of you that haven't seen Strange Days (above) look for it!

flasher0030

I’ve watched good few decent films in the past couple of weeks (sorry for the self-indulgent long message):-

American History X – Saw it yonks ago. Couldn’t remember it except for one grueling scene (path scene). So watched it again. Very good film.

3 Bilboards outside Ebbing – Loved it. Great dialogue.

Django Unchained – brilliant western. Long Tarantino effort but worth every minute of it.

The Selfish Giant – Low-key Northern England working class story. Not up to much. Would give that a miss again.

A Quiet Place. Awful slow for first half hour. But the last hour is gripping. Very well done film. Could write the story in couple of lines. But still great tension – just don’t go in looking for plotholes.

Extraction/6 Underground/Triple Frontier. Netflix promotions. Wouldn’t watch any of them again. Triple Frontier the pick of the bunch.

Bad Education – With Hugh Jackman. School Scandal. Watchable, but not up to much. Could have condensesd it into a half hour, and you wouldn’t notice the difference.

Michael Clayton – Watchable. But then forgettable. Bit like Bourne, Jack Reacher etc. But not as good IMO.

A couple of horrors:-
Sinister. Very good. Frightened the life out of me.
Conjuring. Very good as well, if exorcisms are your thing.
Session9 & Hereditary - didn’t do it for me. I’m not really into films with open endings. I like closure!!!

Saw a film with Jennifer Lawerence – Mother. I would highly recommend never setting eyes on it.

Some films on my bucket list for this week:-
BlacKKKlansman
Take Shelter
Hidden Figures
The Equalizer films (Denzel Washington)
Dunkirk
The Road
25th Hour
Brazil
City of God
Once Upon a Time in America – watched about half it before. Need to finish it. It’s over 4 hours.
Mulholland Drive

Or if anyone wants to advise to avoid any or all of there, feel free to.

8mv

Loved BlacKKKlansman and Hidden Figures.
The Equaliser films are silly but fun and Denzel gets away with it 'cause he's Denzel

al87987

Coma - 7/10

Russian sci fi flick very much in the mould of Inception. Some fantastic visuals and a pretty good story, decent popcorn film.

crushproof

flasher0030 wrote: »

Some films on my bucket list for this week:-
BlacKKKlansman
Take Shelter
Hidden Figures
The Equalizer films (Denzel Washington)
Dunkirk
The Road
25th Hour
Brazil
City of God
Once Upon a Time in America – watched about half it before. Need to finish it. It’s over 4 hours.
Mulholland Drive

Or if anyone wants to advise to avoid any or all of there, feel free to.

Some great picks there, 25th Hour is an underrated gem that I first saw years and years on RTE late at night. Has always been my go to recommendation to anyone who's stuck looking for something to watch.


Take Shelter is easily Michael Shannons finest performance.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched The Last Black Man in San Francisco tonight. It was pretty good and I liked it but at times it felt like the director didn't have the clearest idea of what visually worked best for his material. Some of the shots were great and worked really well but other times they would take me out of the scene on an emotional level. I had read a bit about it before seeing it and had some idea of what the wider themes were but I'm not sure I would have picked up on all of it if I'd just watched it blind. But it's definitely worth watching and Jonathan Majors, who plays the main character's best friend, is really very good in it.

Tony EH

flasher0030 wrote: »

Or if anyone wants to advise to avoid any or all of there, feel free to.

I'd replace the Equaliser films, with 'Winters Bone' and get another dose of Jenny.

Del.Monte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7XjeHylJwc

Haven't watched much recently but was drawn back to "The Big Sleep"(1978) on YouTube last night. At this stage I've lost count of the number of times that I've watched it.

Whether it's for the Raymond Chandler story or the screen presence of Robert Mitchum at his very best, it's a movie to see before you die. The cast is a "who's who" of actors - Sarah Miles, John Mills, Oliver Reed, James Stewart, Harry Andrews, Joan Collins, Edward Fox...a little dated at this stage but still worth a 9/10

flasher0030

crushproof wrote: »

Some great picks there, 25th Hour is an underrated gem that I first saw years and years on RTE late at night. Has always been my go to recommendation to anyone who's stuck looking for something to watch.


Take Shelter is easily Michael Shannons finest performance.

Will check out those 2.
Watched Blackkklansman last night. Very good. Definite recommendation.
Also watched a low-key Saw-type film - Would You Rather. Entertaining enough. One of those where you don't know what is going to happen - you expect something dramatic will, but then it just kind fizzled away in a bit of an anti-climax. That's in my opinion anyway.

Nerdlingr

Yeah love Take Shelter.

branie2

West Side Story on Blu-ray, my favourite musical.