What have you watched recently? 3D!

barrymanilow

splashthecash wrote: »

My wife and I started watching "Defending Jacob" on Apple + recently - joined with a free 7 day trial so should be able to finish the first season (I believe there is only one so far anyway)

Chris Evans stars in this as an assistant DA whose son is arrested in connection with the murder of a fellow school mate - legal\thriller\drama...very good so far

this was great , good shout

IAMAMORON

Tenet

Still confused to be honest. Seemingly I have to watch it twice?

If I watch it in reverse will it make any difference?:)

Action packed and exciting however, I just don't really know what happened, that could be the point however? It reminds of Declan Carruth's Primer - he since said the whole point is to give it a few watches.

I won't be watching it twice either, my second watch will be in the summer of 2022 when I am hungover on the couch one night - I just don't really care. Elizabeth Debicki is a bit of a babe, very pleasing on the eye.

Captain Red Beard

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Tenet

Still confused to be honest. Seemingly I have to watch it twice?

If I watch it in reverse will it make any difference?:)

Action packed and exciting however, I just don't really know what happened, that could be the point however? It reminds of Declan Carruth's Primer - he since said the whole point is to give it a few watches.

I won't be watching it twice either, my second watch will be in the summer of 2022 when I am hungover on the couch one night - I just don't really care. Elizabeth Debicki is a bit of a babe, very pleasing on the eye.

Really? I thought she looked like Stephen Merchant in a bikini.

Lucas Hood

Watched A Time to Kill the other night.

Seen it before but its still good.
What a great cast.

It was one of Matthew McConaugheys first leading roles.

IAMAMORON

Captain Red Beard wrote: »

Really? I thought she looked like Stephen Merchant in a bikini.

That is harsh, but I feel your pain. Ouch.

Dades

Gangs of New York

Watched this again last night after listening to a podcast about the making of it.
Really enjoyed revisiting it. My memories of it were vague but it holds up really well. New York looks amazing - the real star alongside Daniel Day Lewis. Even Leo was showing what he could do early on. Epic.

8/10

* I actually went to the world premiere of this in Dublin with the full cast attending. Something I'd completely forgot about until halfway through rewatching!

Fuascailteoir

Captain Red Beard wrote: »

Really? I thought she looked like Stephen Merchant in a bikini.

Harsh but brilliant

Tallest bird to make it in Hollywood?

Pumpkin head wasn't going to stand beside her

dubstepper

Dades wrote: »

Gangs of New York
Really enjoyed revisiting it. My memories of it were vague but it holds up really well. New York looks amazing - the real star alongside Daniel Day Lewis. Even Leo was showing what he could do early on. Epic.

DDL is terrifying in it.

pixelburp

King of Comedy (1982)

Was probably one of Scorsese's "forgotten" films, before Todd Phillips' "Joker" splashed its inspirations so overtly on-screen; and being honest, that was a big reason I finally got around to watching the older feature. It was a strange watch, constantly jostling against my preconceptions of what "a film by Martin Scorcese" conjured in my head. Bar the occasional esoteric turn like Silence or Kundun, his output has often been full-throated, aggressive & melodramatic vehicles - not least because of his repeated use of organised crime as a backdrop. Against those swaggering tales then, "The King of Comedy" was a gentle creature in comparison, and I kept waiting for some moment of Grand Guignol to occur (like that cataclysmic finale in Taxi Driver). It never came and if I'm being further honest, overall the film felt a little disjointed in structure, while lacking a smidge of extra pathos or tragedy useful in a story of obsession (on the other hand, "Joker" skewed completely in the opposite direction, wallowing in its own title character's misery).

The Departed (2006)

It's significant ammunition on the inherent irrelevance of the Oscars as a barometer for cinema, when THIS was the film that finally won Scorsese the "Best Director" gong. For sure, it was arguably a retrospective award for past films, because I'd speculate even hardcore fanboys would call "The Departed" the director's best work. Certainly, on the face of it, it was a full-blooded, boilerplate tale of broken cops & criminals, stuffed with vulgar bravado spoken through that iconic Boston accent (sorry, ...Bahsten); but too often it felt like a medley of Scorcese tics and tropes - all executed better in other, superior films. To give the film some praise though: while I suspect Jack Nicholson simply wandered on-set and played himself, DeCaprio & Damon carried the film with their respective performances.

Tony EH

pixelburp wrote: »

The Departed (2006)

It's significant ammunition on the inherent irrelevance of the Oscars as a barometer for cinema, when THIS was the film that finally won Scorsese the "Best Director" gong. For sure, it was arguably a retrospective award for past films, because I'd speculate even hardcore fanboys would call "The Departed" the director's best work. Certainly, on the face of it, it was a full-blooded, boilerplate tale of broken cops & criminals, stuffed with vulgar bravado spoken through that iconic Boston accent (sorry, ...Bahsten); but too often it felt like a medley of Scorcese tics and tropes - all executed better in other, superior films. To give the film some praise though: while I suspect Jack Nicholson simply wandered on-set and played himself, DeCaprio & Damon carried the film with their respective performances.

I very much like the film, I have to say. But yeh, the Oscar was more of a "Sorry Marty, here" and almost a recognition that his best films were, indeed, behind him.

Still though, there's a lot to like in 'The Departed'.

As for Jack, sure he's been walking onto sets and playing himself since the 70's.

budgemook

The Departed seems to get a lot of stick simply because it won Scorcese his Oscar. It's not the films fault like :pac:

All about context really.

"The Departed" won best picture and MS got best director in 2007

Not the most mind-blowing film ever but don't have a big problem with either award really given the other options / nominations

Although I do personally like Babel, it's not as if either award was a robbery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Academy_Awards#Awards

Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel
Clint Eastwood – Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears – The Queen
Paul Greengrass – United 93

The Departed – Graham King, producer
Babel – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, producers
Letters from Iwo Jima – Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, producers
Little Miss Sunshine – David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub, producers
The Queen – Andy Harries, Christine Langan and Tracey Seaward, producers

pixelburp

budgemook wrote: »

The Departed seems to get a lot of stick simply because it won Scorcese his Oscar. It's not the films fault like :pac:

I think it's an entertaining film, just plain the Academy were making up for prior snubs. That's fine like, just funny how when he finally won the award it wasn't with what you might call Upper Tier Scorcese either. And TBH I might even be persuaded to rank it higher were it not for that final shot of the rat. He's no master of subtly but that was just too much.

budgemook

pixelburp wrote: »

I think it's an entertaining film, just plain the Academy were making up for prior snubs. That's fine like, just funny how when he finally won the award it wasn't with what you might call Upper Tier Scorcese either. And TBH I might even be persuaded to rank it higher were it not for that final shot of the rat. He's no master of subtly but that was just too much.

Yeah, no need for that. The cross appearing before someone getting killed was pretty cool though, not that I noticed it at the time.

Dades

pixelburp wrote: »

I think it's an entertaining film, just plain the Academy were making up for prior snubs. That's fine like, just funny how when he finally won the award it wasn't with what you might call Upper Tier Scorcese either. And TBH I might even be persuaded to rank it higher were it not for that final shot of the rat. He's no master of subtly but that was just too much.

Nothing to say you have to win the Oscar in any year for a director's personal best picture to be fair. Award ceremonies work on a year to year basis. MS may have been robbed before, but that doesn't automatically mean a sympathy oscar when you do win. I don't see a standout movie from that year that suggests otherwise.

El Gato De Negocios

Whitney

Documentary about the late, great, Whitney Houston. Id only had cursory knowledge about her and her life and would have firmly being in the Bobby Brown is a cnut camp but this shows she was on a bad road long before he came on the scene, aided and abetted by her brothers who were charged with being her protectors(BB is still in the cnut camp BTW, he just has more neighbours). Her father was a scumbag too and bled her for everything he could, culminating in him taking a $100m lawsuit against her. A stark warning about the trappings of fame and how wealth and money can turn even those closest to a person into absolute bastards.

A sad watch, it includes footage of her comeback tour after she ran out of money, seeing her bloated, unable to keep a note and being booed by large sections of the audience is something utterly heartbreaking. Its quite telling that the one person who did seem to have the singers best interests at heart did not appear in the documentary. Her daughter never stood a chance.

8/10

barrymanilow

Tony EH wrote: »

I very much like the film, I have to say. But yeh, the Oscar was more of a "Sorry Marty, here" and almost a recognition that his best films were, indeed, behind him.

Still though, there's a lot to like in 'The Departed'.

As for Jack, sure he's been walking onto sets and playing himself since the 70's.

A lot of people (not necessarily the folk here) don't know that the departed is a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong film called Internal affairs, might have something to do with it not getting an oscar I sense that they hold them back for remakes

budgemook

barrymanilow wrote: »

A lot of people (not necessarily the folk here) don't know that the departed is a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong film called Internal affairs, might have something to do with it not getting an oscar I sense that they hold them back for remakes

A lot of people, including me for years, don't know that the film that The Departed is based on is actually called Infernal Affairs

Dades

Just watched Color out of Space.

Meaning to watch this for a while although went in somewhat blind.
So, that was nuttier than I thought.

Enjoyed it as a crazy Nic Cage SF horror. We need movies like this to counter the predicable dross that gets greenlit so often now.

Tony EH

'Blood on Her Name'

Well scripted, low budget, thriller that borrows some elements from Hitchcock and pieces them together extremely well that opens with a battered woman, a man's body on the ground and bloody wrench and then proceeds to weave the yarn. 'Blood on Her Name' is an example of a well written film that shows that a good script can overcome limits of money and scope and come away with a thoroughly satisfying bit of entertainment. It's also helped by a great central performance by Bethany Anne Lind who carries the audience with her on a series of disastrous events that become more and more desperate as the story plays out. It's conclusion is a bit laboured, I have to admit, but it didn't really impact on the whole thing if I'm honest. 'Blood on her Name' is a taut, well pitched, thriller that keeps the viewer's attention throughout and ends up being a genuine hidden gem. The type of film you might stumble on one night channel surfing and then never forget.

9/10


'Unhinged'

A kind of ludicrous, but still gripping story, that uses what its got fairly well to end up with a perfectly ok movie, while not being anything remarkable and, to its credit, it never tries to be. Russel Crowe, bulked up and in a fat suit, plays a psycho called Tom Cooper who decides to treat mother of one and recent divorcee, Rachel Flynn (Caren Pistorius) to an extreme torment to show her what "a really bad day" means.

'Unhinged' is stupid in the way that these kind of over-the-top thrillers usually are. But that doesn't mean that's not entertaining in its own right, which it is, and it's fairly rewarding if you go into it without too much expectation. Crowe exhibits a certain delight as the nutter, in which he channels a former incarnation, Hando, sans the skinhead and Nazi fetish and his target de jour, Pistorius, represents a heroine that's possible to get behind, while still being something of a disaster zone herself.

There area a couple of hiccups here and there with the story, to put it mildly, but if you throw them out the window and just enjoy the ride, you'll be better for it and there's certainly fun to be had. As a genre and B movie fan I can't be too hard on the film, without applying that same hardness to other movies of a similar type that I enjoy as as well. So I suppose if I were to have a list of "mildly enjoyable B movies that I may return to at a later stage", the 'Unhinged' will probably be on it.

6/10


'Tales From the Darkside - The Movie'

Often cited as an unofficial follow up to George Romero's Creepshow movies, 'Tales From the Darkside - The Movie' is a feature length anthology effort based on the (awfully mediocre) TV show of the 80's, in which Romero sought to continue the success of 'Creepshow' under a different moniker, due to the fact that he couldn't secure the rights to the name from Warner Bros. But whereas 1982's 'Creepshow' had a certain charm, both the series and the movie of 'Tales From the Darkside' lack that something that made 'Creepshow' work (at least in part). This is particularly evident in the the movie, because of its limited stretch of stories as opposed to the TV series, which spanned over 80 episodes. But it's not all bad, I have to say. Excluding the awfully acted "wraparound" story, the three efforts in 'Tales From the Darkside - The Movie' aren't bad. The problem is that they just aren't that good either and the movies' comedy element lets it down too. Although not half as bad as the terrible Stephen King effort in 'Creepshow' I'll freely admit.

The horror element of the movie always remains quite tepid, too, and some of the effects (by KNB) remain disappointingly weak. If I'm honest, I got more joy out of seeing early performances from the likes of Julianne Moore and Steve Buscemi than I did from any of the stories and they appear in the film's most pleasing yarn, 'Lot 249'. The picture's two other efforts 'Cat From Hell' and 'Lover's Vow' have their interesting parts, but they feel somewhat jaded too and the last entry feels insufferably long due to the fact that you can see the payoff from a long way away.

'Tales From the Darkside - The Movie' ends up just being alright and your enjoyment of it will hinge upon how forgiving you are of this type of material, which stays very much in the light horror camp.

5/10

Mad_maxx

Irresistible with Steve Carell directed by Jon Stewart

a political satire about a washington political campaign strategist who goes to a small mid west rural town to try and help a retired army guy win a democratic nomination in traditionally republican district

type of think id usually like but this was a letdown

Del.Monte

"Below Zero" 2021


A crime/revenge movie follows a prison transfer of a number of hardened criminals in an unspecified South American country. The convoy sets out in the dead of night through a bleak wintry landscape to a far away destination but will they get there?
A cast of unknown foreign actors adds to the plot as you have no idea who the good guy(s) might be. An unexpected twist at the end was very satisfying to this viewer. 9/10.

Spanish dubbed in English.

"Red Corner" (1997)

Richard Gere finds himself at the mercy of the Chinese legal system after he wakes up in his hotel room with the body of his "one night stand" partner stabbed to death on the floor. With the Chinese legal system currently under the Irish spotlight in the case of Richard O'Halloran https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/family-of-irish-man-held-in-china-nobody-is-helping-us-we-are-just-begging-for-help-1.4427530 this movie from almost a quarter of a century ago is still relevant. There's also an unconsummated love interest with the very sweet Chinese actress Bai Ling who is Gere's state appointed defence attorney. Well worth a watch. 9/10.

HalloweenJack

Suspiria

A 2018 remake of an Italian horror from the 70s.

Visually, it is incredible. It has the look of a film made in the 70s, from the look from the camera to the types of zooms used. The story was interesting enough but it felt a bit rushed and they tried to squeeze a lot more into it than really fitted and some parts felt a bit underexplained.

al87987

One night in Miami- 7.5/10

Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke gather in a hotel room and shoot the sh*t. Really well acted and certain to be knocking about the oscars.

IAMAMORON

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Suspiria

A 2018 remake of an Italian horror from the 70s.

Visually, it is incredible. It has the look of a film made in the 70s, from the look from the camera to the types of zooms used. The story was interesting enough but it felt a bit rushed and they tried to squeeze a lot more into it than really fitted and some parts felt a bit underexplained.

Tried to watch before and didn't finish. It was well creepy from memory.

mikhail

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Tried to watch before and didn't finish. It was well creepy from memory.

The original is a classic. Creepy plot, visual treat, distinctive score.

Del.Monte

"Dick Dickman P.I." (2008) on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97C9akypOjg

A few months ago I managed to track down a copy of this scarce DVD for research purposes but knowing how bad it was likely to be kept putting off viewing day. I decided to bite the bullet this evening and I wasn't disappointed . Utter tripe featuring a cast of Irish nobodies including Barry O’Neill, Brendan O’Carroll, Patrick Bergin, Joe Rooney, Jon Kenny, Frank Carson, and June Rodgers. Supposedly a comedy, its only redeeming feature was that it showed County Wexford in a good light. 0/10


My copy of the almost mint DVD is available on Adverts here: https://www.adverts.ie/dvd/dick-dickman-p-i-dvd/22787887 but you've been warned!

ButtersSuki

Del.Monte wrote: »

"Dick Dickman P.I." (2008) on DVD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97C9akypOjg

A few months ago I managed to track down a copy of this scarce DVD for research purposes but knowing how bad it was likely to be kept putting off viewing day. I decided to bite the bullet this evening and I wasn't disappointed . Utter tripe featuring a cast of Irish nobodies including Barry O’Neill, Brendan O’Carroll, Patrick Bergin, Joe Rooney, Jon Kenny, Frank Carson, and June Rodgers. Supposedly a comedy, its only redeeming feature was that it showed County Wexford in a good light. 0/10

My copy of the almost mint DVD is available on Adverts here: https://www.adverts.ie/dvd/dick-dickman-p-i-dvd/22787887 but you've been warned!

Part of me is tempted......

Question: is it better or worse than Ivan Yates’ autobiography? :pac:;)

buried

All dese recently watched. Everything here definitely lockdooooon nights watchable except for that 'Soul' film, terrible stuff, looks great but what it says on the tin, it doesn't actually have.

Paths of Glory (1957) 10/10

Robocop (1987) 9/10

Escape from New York (1981) 9/10

High Plains Drifter (1973) 9/10

The King (2019) 6/10

Soul (2020) 2/10

Wreck it Ralph (2012) 8/10

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) 9/10

The Ladykillers (2004) 7/10

Straw Dogs (1971) 10/10

Down by Law (1986) 9/10

Godfather Part III/Coda (1990) 7/10

Deep Red (1975) 8/10