What have you watched recently? 3D!

Plode

Just watched Mandy, starring Nick Cage.

I used to know some bikers back in the day, and I'm pretty sure this was like an average bank holiday weekend for them.

cdgalwegian

Tony EH wrote: »

Oh I've been aware of it's reputation for years. But it was one that I was meaning to check out anyway and make up my own mind + I have a bit of a goo for Italian giallo/horror from the 70's and 80's. I was kinda hoping that their might be a bit of charm to it, like 'The Last Shark' - another Italian 'Jaws' rip off - but, alas, no.

I will sometimes watch what I know will not be a great film, or has been roundly rejected at least, just to see an actor or a director that I'm interested in, but not to that extent. Now that's suffering for your art. That's speaking from someone at the lazier end of being a cinephile; of the persuasion 'No pain, no pain'.

Sad Professor

True Lies

I have been meaning to revisit this for years but Cameron has done his best to bury it. He shouldn't be ashamed. It's as good as I remember it. The action is fantastic. The halfway chase sequence which concludes with Arnold on a horse chasing the big bad on a motorcycle through a swanky hotel is brilliantly designed and constructed. (Rian Johnson lifted it almost shot for shot for TLJ's casino chase.) This was Arnold and Cameron on top form, balancing action and spy movie thrills with moments of silliness and slapstick.

It's all very early '90s of course and the film's (mostly subtextual) politics has aged about as well as I suspect Captain Marvel's will. Aside from the sadistic trial Arnold puts JLC through, her character was progressive for the time and is Arnold's equal by the end of the film. A Mr and Mrs Smith esque sequel with the two of them would have been fun.

Hamsterchops

"Get Out" (2017)

Wow, that one took me by surprise!
Great film, saw it the other night on film4.

Tony EH

cdgalwegian wrote: »

I will sometimes watch what I know will not be a great film, or has been roundly rejected at least, just to see an actor or a director that I'm interested in, but not to that extent. Now that's suffering for your art. That's speaking from someone at the lazier end of being a cinephile; of the persuasion 'No pain, no pain'.

Well, I don't know about "suffering" . But there's a certain charm to bad movies that can yield a particular entertainment value if you're in the right mood, I'm sure you know. Watching something like 'The Room', 'Troll 2', or 'Birdemic' can be an entertaining time, because of the sheer incompetence that's on display.

But there are levels of "bad". For instance, 'Zombie Flesh Easters' isn't a good movie, but it's not bad in the way that 'The Room' is bad. Both films have their entertainment value, but for different reasons. 'Zombie Flesh Eaters' is a rough and tumble, gory, video nasty that's enjoyable for that reason. 'The Room' is a train wreck in which you watch Tommy Wiseau clumsily lumber from one badly delivered line to the next.

The problem with 'Tentacles', though, is that it's just not bad enough. All the potential is there for it to be a classic good/bad movie. But in the end it was just mainly boring.

And that's one of the issues with a lot of good/bad movies. They are often much better to talk about than to actually watch. But when you find a sweet one, it can be better than most tailor made comedy movies.

gmisk

Peninsula.
It's meant to be a sequel of sorts to train to busan. Bigger louder and with a lot more CGI.
There is very little by the way of character development.
It isn't great tbh but still some fun if your into zombie films 6/10

Aisling(",)

Shazam(2019)

A newly fostered young boy in search of his mother instead finds unexpected super powers and soon gains a powerful enemy.

Bought this on google the other night looking for something light to watch and it didn't fault. It was predictable to an extent but was funny and easy to watch.I though Zachary Levi was great at playing a teen in an adults body and Mark Strong is always solid. Worth putting on as popcorn flick.

johnny_ultimate

A few non Tenet cinema releases...

Away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSI85iGoH_s

You know the way critics sometimes say 'it's like a video game' and it's meant as a pejorative? Well Away is like a video game in a good way.

This wordless animated adventure was made entirely by Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis ON HIS OWN - the credits are maybe the shortest I've ever seen in a movie! The setup is simple: a boy awakes, hanging from a tree after parachuting from the sky. He gets to the ground where he's immediately pursued by a massive, ethereal colossus. After finding shelter and an abandoned motorbike, he decides to make his way to a distant city along a mysterious road - encountering surreal locations while being pursued by the silent giant.

There's a lot of interesting video game influence here - there are hints of Ghibli too, but really this reminded me most of games like Journey or the Team Ico games. It's a simple but mesmerizing voyage, with some breathtaking sites and a captivating mood throughout. The metaphors are broad enough that you can really read whatever you want into them, but just as a visual treat this is a triumph. An absolutely remarkable accomplishment given it was made by one guy, and a welcome change of pace from much modern animation that gets released on the big screen. Also: absolutely adorable animal friends encountered throughout.

Babyteeth

An Australian wonder here that really, really worked for me. What's impressive is that Shannon Murphy has crafted a film that simultaneously offers an idiosyncratic, witty subversion of the typical 'girl with terminal cancer' weepie, while ultimately proving to be far more emotionally affecting than any of the more unashamedly sentimental films that typically exist in the genre. Super work from all four leads - including Eliza Scanlen (recently seen in Little Women) and the ever-reliable Ben Mendelsohn. One or two subplots that kind of disappear into nothing is the only major issue I had with this otherwise bold and accomplished debut feature that elegantly jumps back and forth between unusual and familiar.

And carrying on a Wachowskis deep dive...

Speed Racer

There are some vocal Matrix sequel apologists out there, but they've got nothing on the Speed Racer fans - there's a not insubstantial group of people out there who'll proudly proclaim this as an underrated / misunderstood masterpiece. They have a point (although the film is far from perfect).

Speed Racer is nothing if not vibrant - this is an explosion of colour and CGI, creating a hyper-reality that's a giddy sugar-rush and as close to a live action cartoon as there has ever been. It's one of the few Hollywood blockbusters to have so brazenly embraced the artifice of CGI (I'd compare its aesthetic philosophy as closer to arthouse stylists like Nobuhiko Obayashi and Guy Maddin than the MCU) and y'know what that's pretty admirable. Every frame is striking here. And much of the film is impeccably crafted - in particular an extended opening that dizzyingly cuts between multiple perspectives and timelines, and a triumphant climactic race that has one of the most dazzling cinematic representations of overcoming adversity and the sheer ecstasy of victory. There's a purity to the main story, too: a blisteringly anti-corporate tale of the little guy vs the system.

Not without its problem though. The middle hour is pretty rough, honestly, and the assault of imagery is exhausting at over two hours. Some of the 'this is for the kids' stuff is loud and obnoxious, including a fourth-wall breaking 'cootie warning' at one point. But this is definitely a worthwhile oddity. It was released at the same time as Iron Man, and both films offer very different visions of the modern blockbuster. IM was the clear financial and critical victor, and set the tone for the next decade of big budget filmmaking. But, outside the odd outlier, Speed Racer feels like the path not taken... and gotta be honest I'd go to see a whole lot more blockbusters if they were as thrillingly mad as the Wachowskis wild-eyed slice of artful nonsense.

Jupiter Ascending

OK, this one doesn't really hold up, frankly. I mean it has its moments - a spectacular aerial chase sequence and some endearingly OTT set design - but doesn't really come together at all. Still an admirably distinctive effort, but this one has a lot less to like than some of their other box office bombs.

God bless Eddie Redmayne though, with an outrageously camp, ridiculous performance. It's awful and great at the same time, and honestly I think the film itself might have benefited from everyone being so ****ing unhinged.

Irish Aris

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A few non Tenet cinema releases...

Away

You know the way critics sometimes say 'it's like a video game' and it's meant as a pejorative? Well Away is like a video game in a good way.

This wordless animated adventure was made entirely by Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis ON HIS OWN - the credits are maybe the shortest I've ever seen in a movie! The setup is simple: a boy awakes, hanging from a tree after parachuting from the sky. He gets to the ground where he's immediately pursued by a massive, ethereal colossus. After finding shelter and an abandoned motorbike, he decides to make his way to a distant city along a mysterious road - encountering surreal locations while being pursued by the silent giant.

There's a lot of interesting video game influence here - there are hints of Ghibli too, but really this reminded me most of games like Journey or the Team Ico games. It's a simple but mesmerizing voyage, with some breathtaking sites and a captivating mood throughout. The metaphors are broad enough that you can really read whatever you want into them, but just as a visual treat this is a triumph. An absolutely remarkable accomplishment given it was made by one guy, and a welcome change of pace from much modern animation that gets released on the big screen. Also: absolutely adorable animal friends encountered throughout.

+1 on Away, I saw it last Saturday in the cinema and was really impressed, very minimal yet very effective.
A special note on the music too, who Zilbalodis wrote himself, it accompanies the story and sets the mood nicely.

The Counselor 2013 (Extended Cut version)

I always felt that this movie got a bit of a raw deal. It's stylish, sexy, has some good dialogue and is a great morality play. Cameron Diaz is great as the cold uber-count. The rest of the cast are good too. Enjoyed the extended cut version particularly.

https://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/the-counselors-extended-cut-is-inspired-madness-126864/

8/10

cdgalwegian

glasso wrote: »

The Counselor 2013 (Extended Cut version)

I always felt that this movie got a bit of a raw deal. It's stylish, sexy, has some good dialogue and is a great morality play. Cameron Diaz is great as the cold uber-count. The rest of the cast are good too. Enjoyed the extended cut version particularly.

https://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/the-counselors-extended-cut-is-inspired-madness-126864/

8/10

I 'd agree. Very underrated film.

santana75

After we collided

Bit a public service post this just to spare amy other poor souls the torture of sitting through this unawares........sometimes I'll find myself in conversations about movies and inevitably the question comes up: What's the worst film you've ever seen?
This has stumped me in the past because honestly I haven't seen anything truly terrible. But now all that has changed because last night, for reasons I wont get into, I found myself in a theatre "packed" to the rafters with a load of teenage girls to see After we collided. I'm pleased to announce that we have a winner so that in future when the question of the worst movie arises I'll be able to come back in an instant, with this. Its truly awful. Like physically painfully bad. The male lead is a shoe in for the razzie I reckon, at times his delivery was so bad I actually thought he was playing it for laughs. And i did actually laugh out loud on several occasions. But the real culprit is the story and dialogue. You wouldn't believe how bad the screenplay is, the dialogue makes the average porn film seem like citizen kane. So for the love of all thats holy, stay away from this. Dont let your girlfriend convince you to go, break up with her, it's not worth it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

santana75 wrote: »

After we collided

Bit a public service post this just to spare amy other poor souls the torture of sitting through this unawares........sometimes I'll find myself in conversations about movies and inevitably the question comes up: What's the worst film you've ever seen?
This has stumped me in the past because honestly I haven't seen anything truly terrible. But now all that has changed because last night, for reasons I wont get into, I found myself in a theatre "packed" to the rafters with a load of teenage girls to see After we collided. I'm pleased to announce that we have a winner so that in future when the question of the worst movie arises I'll be able to come back in an instant, with this. Its truly awful. Like physically painfully bad. The male lead is a shoe in for the razzie I reckon, at times his delivery was so bad I actually thought he was playing it for laughs. And i did actually laugh out loud on several occasions. But the real culprit is the story and dialogue. You wouldn't believe how bad the screenplay is, the dialogue makes the average porn film seem like citizen kane. So for the love of all thats holy, stay away from this. Dont let your girlfriend convince you to go, break up with her, it's not worth it.

Of course you didn't like it, you clearly haven't seen the first film to set the second one up properly!

In all seriousness though, I'm pretty sure this is the film based on a book based on a One Direction fan fic that was on WatPad, which to the best of my knowledge isn't even the good FanFic site. So.... your review sounds about right.

Plode

I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie

and

Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence

Two great perfomances in two great films, with very similar stories.

My take from both films (the former in particular) is: if you have talent, avoid hanging around with idiots.

Homelander

Sea Fever. Pretty cool body-horror/thriller type film set on a fishing boat off the west coast of Ireland.

Won't blow you away but well made and compelling throughout.

There's one climatic scene in particular is unbelievably nasty, but the film never really follows it up effectively which really surprised and disappointed me, as it seems a missed chance to go down as a true horror classic.

Worth a watch though.

branie2

The New Mutants at the cinema yesterday, which was very good

Plode

Hounds of Love (2016)

Australian film about two white trash sex maniacs (think Fred and Rose West) who abduct a teenage girl.

God almighty, this was disturbing!

But superb film-making, with an unbearable tension of which Hitchcock would be proud.

Aussies really know how to make some creepy movies.

4Ad

The Nightingale...
Irish girl in Australia circa 1825, seeks revenge on her English masters.
Only ok, fair violent at times.5/10...

pixelburp

Contact (1997)

Given how the pop-culture needle - and science fiction especially - has drifted towards the broadly nihilistic or even fatalistic, it was quite jarring to watch something so brazenly humane and sentimental - to the point of mawkish. And that's meant as a compliment. Coming from the mind of the late Carl Sagan, its fundamental decency and hopefulness shined through despite the array of bureaucratic antagonists set against Jodie Foster's purist sense of scientific wonder. Maybe within a more cynical zeitgeist, "Contact" would remain too schmaltzy for some, but for me this held up: a shamelessly earnest, hopeful epic that tried to argue science and faith as fundamentally codependent - or at least important contrasts to each other. Often incredibly clumsy in this thematic marriage, but executed with a stubborn honesty that never betrayed any cynicism towards its hero scientists.

It was also a reminder of what Hollywood cinema is missing after Robert Zemeckis got completely lost up the digital path. This was pre "The Polar Express" so his desire for empty spectacle over humanity hadn't taken hold yet; he still remembered to put characters - however cliché they might have been in the case of "Contact" - at the forefront of the story. It's a shame to look at his more recent CV because in watching his older work like "Contact", it reminds that he was once an able, consummate storyteller.

Watching a film like this, I had the brief reminder of a feeling too often suppressed by contemporary, misanthropic wallowing: that we just might make it, and be worth saving.

Dades

pixelburp wrote: »

Contact (1997)

Watched this during lockdown. I love this movie, even though it drops a lot of what's great about the book (one of the my favourite SF novels ever). The cast are just perfect.

pixelburp

Get Duked! (2020)

A farce comedy that merrily owned its own goofball, idiotic charm; its cast completely up for the madness and adding the right amount of loveable charisma to its main cast of delinquents. It had the pulse of an Edgar Wright film too, using some neat audio-visual tricks and FX to add flourish in what would have otherwise been a soggy trip across the Highlands. Completely throwaway stuff but energetic and fun all the same.

Dades wrote: »

Watched this during lockdown. I love this movie, even though it drops a lot of what's great about the book (one of the my favourite SF novels ever). The cast are just perfect.

I keep forgetting it was based on a novel in the first place; how does the film deviate against the text then?

Watching it in 2020 was also amusing because had Contact been released this year, it would be declared "woke" by many as the script kept brazenly undermining Jodie Foster's character via a male senior figure. And it was brazen, Zemeckis not exactly known for understatement in the first place. Plus ca change...

splashthecash

Ready or Not

An enjoyable black comedy/horror romp, standard gory comedy - was an enjoyable 1.5 hours spent but it’ll win no oscars

Mulan

Found this enjoyable - don’t think I have ever seen the original but it was a solid family flick that everyone enjoyed

The Fall (season 1)

Myself and my wife watched all these episodes in two nights - very good dark thriller and we are on season 2 now. Great performances by Dornan and Anderson

Harry Palmr

The Silent Partner 1978. Dir
Darryl Duke.

Bank teller and bank robber match wits.

Pretty good, an early script by Curtis Hanson who went on to great success as writer/ director in the 90s. Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer as the protagonists both good value.

Plode

Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer)

It's sci-fi, but it ain't no Star Wars.

Like many great films, you can interpret this one in several ways.

The opening scene alone is worth the price.

10/10

Mad_maxx

dating amber

poor

Del.Monte

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1979) on YouTube


I never get tired of the original 7-part BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley - hunting a mole at the heart of the British Intelligence Community.


Bourne it is not but despite that it holds you to the end. I have it on DVD somewhere but still felt inclined to watch it again when I came across it on YouTube. I'm sure that I've seen the 2011 film version with Gary Oldman as George Smiley but it mustn't have made much of an impression on me as I can't remember it. Either that or the onset of senility.

Fysh

Monster Party - an entertaining watch but unfortunately, the film never quite lives up to the fun of the premise. It's very similar to Don't Breathe, but the hapless thieves in this film unwittingly find themselves trying to rob a mansion full of recovering serial killers - "recovering" in the same sense as the expression "recovering alcoholic". It has moments of simmering tension, it has moments of unexpected violence, and some moments of humour - but it never feels quite as confident in its execution as Don't Breathe (a film whose third act goes very silly, but is executed with enough panache and sense of danger to the protagonists throughout that it just about gets away with it). There's not much depth to any of the characters, nor are any of the performances quite good enough to make up for this. It's entertaining, but nothing you'd be pushed about re-watching.

Mon Mon Mon Monsters - this Taiwanese horror-comedy is pretty good, balancing comedy and some overt horror. It's in no way subtle or understated, which means that the bullying theme underpinning it gets played up a lot, though it largely gets away with the tonal shifts.

Us - this was a rewatch after seeing the film originally at the cinema, and I was pleased to find that it's still an enjoyable watch the second time around. It's not "Get Out, Part 2", which to my mind is a positive. I'll be on the look-out for Peele's next feature.

Ganja & Hess - the Horror Noire documentary on Shudder clued me into this, as I'd never heard of it before. It was easily one of the most interesting and engaging films about vampires/vampirism that I've seen - it's definitely worth watching, as much for its fairly experimental approach as its distinctive perspective.

Tony EH

Del.Monte wrote: »

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1979) on YouTube

I never get tired of the original 7-part BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley - hunting a mole at the heart of the British Intelligence Community.

One of the best things the BBC ever did AFAIC. Check out 'Smiley's People' Del, if you can get hold of it.

mikhail

Del.Monte wrote: »

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1979) on YouTube


I never get tired of the original 7-part BBC TV series starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley - hunting a mole at the heart of the British Intelligence Community.


Bourne it is not but despite that it holds you to the end. I have it on DVD somewhere but still felt inclined to watch it again when I came across it on YouTube. I'm sure that I've seen the 2011 film version with Gary Oldman as George Smiley but it mustn't have made much of an impression on me as I can't remember it. Either that or the onset of senility.

The movie is a challenge on first watch - just a bit too much packed in, so it's tricky to follow. Having read the book and watched the miniseries (and loved both), I have returned to the movie a couple of times and enjoyed it immensely.

auspicious

My Life As A Turkey.
( Find it on Amazon Prime or PBS)

Joe Hutto is a naturist living in the wilds of Florida's Flatlands and has a broad knowledge of the nature sciences. He incubates a bowl of eggs given to him by a neighbouring farmer. The eggs are wild turkeys.
He imprints the sixteen hatchlings on himself and so takes on the role of their mother and raises them for two years, immersing himself in their world from dawn to dusk. He actually experiences the forest in a deeper way as the other creatures calling it home accept him more readily, like one of them, as he explores it with the completely wild turkeys.
The birds display endearing charm, inquisitiveness and intelligence.

This film is magic. It's engaging, poignant, thought provoking and highly illuminating.

“Had I known what was in store—the difficult nature of the study and the time I was about to invest—I would have been hard pressed to justify such an intense involvement. But, fortunately, I naively allowed myself to blunder into a two-year commitment that was at once exhausting, often overwhelming, enlightening, and one of the most inspiring and satisfying experiences of my life.”

–Joe Hutto, Illumination in the Flatwoods